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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 5, 2015 21:06:58 GMT -5
The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Burroughs plays Frankenstein meets The Island of Doctor Moreau in the south seas. This is one of the weakest of his early works. In fact it's one of the weakest overall on par with a lot of the late Tarzan novels when he was really phoning it in. Of course the reveal at the end allows Victorian values to triumph and is utterly nonsensical.
The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny.
Finishing up a re-read of the first Chronicles of Amber. I still think these hold up as one of the better fantasy series' ever. I doubt I'll get to the Merlin books any time soon though. The first one just never resonated with me.
High Midnight by Stuart Kaminsky.
Someone wants Gary Cooper to make a movie he doesn't want to make. And they're willing to kill if he doesn't. Toby Peters needs to keep Coop alive and find out what's going on. And Ernest Hemingway shows up for part of the fun. A decent if unspectacular Toby Peters romp.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 9, 2015 18:52:47 GMT -5
Black Mountains Fred Saberhagen
So this is the sequel to 'the Broken Lands', which I liked very much. Sadly, instead of furthering the interesting world building and building the characters from the first book. This one focuses on the defeated evil Satrap, Chup, and him sort of, but not really, rebelling against 'the east' . The main action for the rebels was them discovering a 'djinn' and trying to get him to make them hot air balloons... you know, instead of fixing the nuclear tank.
Then there's a new bad guy who brings troops back from the dead, which they spend alot of time on, but then doesn't really effect the action at all. Definitely should have quit while he was ahead.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2015 10:53:49 GMT -5
Superman VS. Hollywood How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors and Warring Writers Grounded An American Icon Jake Rossen 2007
An entertaining and informative narrative of the behind-the-scenes activities of Superman's exploits on radio, movie serials, TV, animation and feature length films. Just like Mark Millar mentions in his forward, I thought I knew just about all there was to know about Supes and his various multi-media variations. To my delight, this book was quite informative and revealed many interesting items I never knew regarding how Superman wound up on the air throughout the decades. You're not going to learn about the various shades of Kryptonite in this book nor what issue # Streaky the Super-Cat first appeared. You will learn about the people in charge of the various Superman shows, what were their original intentions and casting decisions, who were the egotistical maniacs and who were the guardians of Superman's faithful interpretation. I highly recommend this book to every Superman fan or others interested in the machinations of Hollywood Oops. "Mark Millar foreword." Unless it includes his promise to quit writing comics, & for that matter anything else for public consumption, somebody made a really bad choice here.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 10, 2015 10:55:34 GMT -5
Heh... Millar does seem to be considered an 'expert' by people outside the field, doesn't he? God only knows why.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2015 11:21:42 GMT -5
Probably because, shamelessly shelf-shilling shlemiel that he is, he mendaciously represents himself as one.
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Post by Jesse on Feb 11, 2015 5:04:39 GMT -5
Myron Cope: Double Yoi!by Myron Cope Possibly the first memoir mentioned in this thread. The author is a local legend, a sports journalist, radio personality and creator of the Terrible Towel. I found his accounts of meeting famous people like Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra and Howard Cosell all very interesting as well as his unique takes on events, sports broadcasting and journalism. A must read for Pittsburgh sports fans.
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Post by berkley on Feb 11, 2015 21:41:08 GMT -5
The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs plays Frankenstein meets The Island of Doctor Moreau in the south seas. This is one of the weakest of his early works. In fact it's one of the weakest overall on par with a lot of the late Tarzan novels when he was really phoning it in. Of course the reveal at the end allows Victorian values to triumph and is utterly nonsensical. The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny. Finishing up a re-read of the first Chronicles of Amber. I still think these hold up as one of the better fantasy series' ever. I doubt I'll get to the Merlin books any time soon though. The first one just never resonated with me. High Midnight by Stuart Kaminsky. Someone wants Gary Cooper to make a movie he doesn't want to make. And they're willing to kill if he doesn't. Toby Peters needs to keep Coop alive and find out what's going on. And Ernest Hemingway shows up for part of the fun. A decent if unspectacular Toby Peters romp. I thought I'd read The Monster Men but if I have, I can't remember a single detail about it. I'll have to try it (again?) one of these days. Totally agree about the Amber books: first series, one of the very best ever written; second series, readable at best, and became less and less so the longer it went on.
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Post by berkley on Feb 11, 2015 21:48:11 GMT -5
Superman VS. Hollywood How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors and Warring Writers Grounded An American Icon Oops. "Mark Millar foreword." Unless it includes his promise to quit writing comics, & for that matter anything else for public consumption, somebody made a really bad choice here. I've reached the point where I have so many books on my "to be read" list that the least little irritation is enough to keep me from buying something, no matter how superficial: wrong size (prefer pocketbooks now), an ugly cover, or, as in this case, an endorsement or forward or intro by someone I dislike. Neil Gaiman's another annoyance whose name I see plastered over a lot of things I might otherwise buy. If it's something I really do want to read I'll go to the trouble of finding a different edition rather than get the one he wrote the intro for.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 12, 2015 7:05:22 GMT -5
The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny. Finishing up a re-read of the first Chronicles of Amber. I still think these hold up as one of the better fantasy series' ever. I doubt I'll get to the Merlin books any time soon though. The first one just never resonated with me. I wouldn't even bother, Slam... I had high hopes for the Merlin books because I was still high on the Amber novels, but the first part of the sequel series is actually the best of the lot; the second Amber cycle steadily goes down in interest and quality until its thoroughly anticlimactic and disappointing end. "I read the whole thing just for that?"
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Feb 17, 2015 17:27:14 GMT -5
Voodoo Histories The Role OF The Conspiracy Theory In Shaping Modern History By David Aaronovitch (2010)
British author David Aaronvitch has written a fascinating summary of the lasst 100 years of conspiracy theories that have captured the world's attention. I found the book hard to put down even when dealing with subjects that I had no prior knowledge of. He focuses on the origins of the conspiracy theory, who was its primary instigator and their background, how the theory evolved when additional evidence was found and why or if the theory has disappaited through the years. His primary conspriacies that he spotlights includes:
The Protoculs Of The Elders Of Zion The Trotskyite Trials in Russia during the late 1930s America First and FDR's prior knowledge of Pearl Harbor HUAC and the Joe McCarthy Hearings The Deaths of JFK, Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana The Death Of Hilda Murrell-England's version of Karen Silkwood The Knights Templar, The DaVinci Code and the Bloodline Of Christ The Secrets Behind 9/11 The Death Of David Kelly-the man who convinced England about Iraq's WMDs Where was Obama Born? Bill Clinton's Trail of Murders
These conspricacy theories lead to discussions of other theories including the deaths of RFK and MLK, the sinking of the USS Liberty, the intentional destruction of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and more. I had no idea that President Chester Arthur was also accused of hiding the fact he was actually born in Canada and was thought of as an illegitamate President. The only therories I can think of not covered in this book would be Paul McCartney's death and UFO sightings.
Aaronovitch plays the role of sceptic against these theories. He's a firm believer of Occam's Razor. And as the years pass and the conspiracy theory needs to evolve, twisting and turning to accomondate additional evidence, I tend to agree with him. Especially when you take into fact the amount of people at all different levels of government and civilian roles that need to stay quiet throughout their lives. The Moon Landing A Fake? AIDS created to kill gays and minorities? As the decades fly by these become entertaining fairy tales
Aaronovitch explains the fascination behind conspriracy theories and why people are willing to believe them. And its believers come from both the left and right politically speaking. Its also not a question of education levels because there's been plenty of scientists and professors who have been very active in spreading these tales.
I highly recommend this 350 page book. Its well documented and authoratative
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 18, 2015 22:52:11 GMT -5
The Hand of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
Reading Shax's Shang-Chi reviews made me want to check this out. I'm not sure this was the best one to read though... it's actually the 3rd of the series, but was the first one in the Sax Rohmer reader the library had. I have to say, it really didn't enjoy it. It read very much like a pale copy of Sherlock Holmes to me. Nayland Smith has far less personality and, in fact, doesn't really have any defining characteristics throughout the novel. Dr. Petrie, the Narrator/sidekick, was pretty much completely incompetent... getting kidnapped TWICE by the bad guys, falling asleep on the job, and spending the rest of the time pining over the girl he was hoping to rescue.
Worst of all, Fu Manchu himself is really more of an idea than a character. We're constantly TOLD how he's an evil mastermind, but we're not SHOWN it. He spends the entire book tried to kill Smith, narrowly failing, then running away... that happened, I think, 4 times, then the novel ended. Very disappointing.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 25, 2015 22:34:39 GMT -5
After the bad taste in my mouth from Sax Rohmer, I shifter to a more modern book... not much better results, sadly
Society of Steam Book 1: The Fallen Machine by Andrew Meyer
Plot: Sarah Stanton is the daughter of the Industrialist... perhaps the most famous of the Paragons. When the leader and techological innovator of the group, Sir Dennis Darby, is killed by the mysterious cult of Eschaton. As the Paragons seem to unravel, Sarah tries to overcome the gender bias of the 1880s to help Sir Darby's greatest creation, The Automation, in solving the mystery before it's too late.
This book SHOULD be good... Steampunk, Victorian Era superheroes? It's a cool concept, and the technology of the world is pretty cool...the basis of many of the inventions is 'fortified steam'... which seems to be uranium... but instead of it's current world applications, they're using it to create steam and power steam stuff. Sadly, the good guys are throughly unlikable, and really pretty stupid. Sarah, who is supposed to be the main character, comes off as a spoiled brat rich kid as often as the spunky would-be hero she's supposed to be. The only truly interesting and complex character is 'Tom'... the clockwork robot of Sir Darby, but he's just a little TOO amazing. The liner notes indicate that the author is a first time writer who was a video game designer... perhaps he'll figure it out in the future.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 26, 2015 10:57:42 GMT -5
Thuglit issue 14. This is more of an e-mag...but that's fine. It's 158 pages of hard-boiled short stories. And it's well worth the effort. At $1.99 for the Kindle edition it's a good bargain. There's a lot of really good neo-noir out there right now.
The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs. One of only two historical novels that Burroughs did, this one is set in Medieval England. Beyond that it's solid second tier Burroughs with all the standard trappings of his work.
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 26, 2015 11:54:38 GMT -5
The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs. One of only two historical novels that Burroughs did, this one is set in Medieval England. Beyond that it's solid second tier Burroughs with all the standard trappings of his work. One of my favorites as a kid. Reminded me of The Black Arrow and Robin Hood. Still have the paperback I read in 1968 or so, complete with great Roy Krenkel illustrations, IIRC.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 26, 2015 12:06:00 GMT -5
The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs. One of only two historical novels that Burroughs did, this one is set in Medieval England. Beyond that it's solid second tier Burroughs with all the standard trappings of his work. One of my favorites as a kid. Reminded me of The Black Arrow and Robin Hood. Still have the paperback I read in 1968 or so, complete with great Roy Krenkel illustrations, IIRC. I have the later Frazetta cover. I know the copy you're talking about though. The 75 cent Ace edition. I love Krenkel and his illos. But I think that the cover for that one is one of the weakest he did in that time period. I like the book a lot and have read it more than probably only a half dozen other Burroughs novels. I just don't think it's particularly special which is why I call it second tier...which maybe isn't completely fair. But it's way up at the top of that tier.
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