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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 17, 2015 14:32:26 GMT -5
The Martian by Andy Weir
This is probably the best new SF that I've read in decades. And it's not that it's really high concept. It's essentially Robinson Crusoe on Mars. But Weir did his research and there's enough technical stuff here to be interesting without being overwhelming. I've seen some complaints that the main narrator isn't realistic (the book is told largely through mission logs by the astronaut left on Mars). But I'm not sure that's the case. He's not necessarily a reliable narrator. We are seeing what he chooses to tell us. If he leaves out a lot of the horror of being left alone on an alien world...that doesn't mean he didn't feel that.
Really a very very good book with my highest recommendation.
Yellow Medicine by Anthony Neil Smith
Smith is a leading light in neo-noir. This is the first of his novels about Deputy Billy Lafitte. Lafitte left the New Orleans police force in scandal following Katrina and ended up working in a small county in rural Minnesota for his ex-brother-in-law sheriff. Billy skirts the edges of the law...stepping over now and then. Not quite in the Jim Thompson psycho-cop territory, but not super far removed. Then the past starts to creep up on Billy in a strange way and it sets his new little world on fire.
This is a good book. But the action seems just a bit too big for the setting. Still well worth a read.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 18, 2015 12:18:39 GMT -5
That Andy Weir book sounds really good, Slam... I'll have to check it out.
Almost finishing up my sci-fi break,going as far from sci-fi as one can...
Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion
Good story, and a well written, seemingly decently impartial biography, but really had very, very little to do with the World Series of Poker (less than a chapter out of the 300 pages), which is what I was most interested in. Still a worthwhile read, though.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 18, 2015 12:49:48 GMT -5
That Andy Weir book sounds really good, Slam... I'll have to check it out. Almost finishing up my sci-fi break,going as far from sci-fi as one can... Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion Good story, and a well written, seemingly decently impartial biography, but really had very, very little to do with the World Series of Poker (less than a chapter out of the 300 pages), which is what I was most interested in. Still a worthwhile read, though. That's a book that's on my incredibly long list of books to read. I haven't read it, but my understanding is that the focus wasn't on the WSoP, but on his criminal enterprises and his role in growing Las Vegas. At the time of his death the Series was definitely an event, about 2,100 total entrants across the various tournaments in 1987, but it wasn't the phenomenon it would become, especially with the Moneymaker effect.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 18, 2015 17:51:17 GMT -5
Your understanding is correct... it definitely focuses on his early life as a racketeer in Dallas, his FBI dealings, starting up the Horseshoe, etc. It is a pretty amazing story though, for a guy to be that rich and famous with a 2nd grade education is kinda crazy.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2015 23:34:43 GMT -5
Killing Patton By Bill O'Reilly
Over sixty some odd years ago, on a cold December 9th in 1945 Germany, legendary American general George S. Patton was injured in a strange auto "accident" on a road outside Mannheim, near the Rhine River. The opinionated anticommunist died twelve days later. Today, the evidence that he was potentially murdered by assassination. Very interesting reading material and I'm halfway through this 337 pages book.
Highly Recommended for all World War Two History Bluff.
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Post by berkley on Mar 18, 2015 23:46:15 GMT -5
Killing Patton By Bill O'ReillyOver sixty some odd years ago, on a cold December 9th in 1945 Germany, legendary American general George S. Patton was injured in a strange auto "accident" on a road outside Mannheim, near the Rhine River. The opinionated anticommunist died twelve days later. Today, the evidence that he was potentially murdered by assassination. Very interesting reading material and I'm halfway through this 337 pages book. Highly Recommended for all World War Two History Bluff. After looking at the brief wikipedia entry, perhaps we should say, "for all WWII buffs who are also fans of Bill O'Reilly".
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 19, 2015 11:52:14 GMT -5
Napalm & Silly Putty-George Carlin (2001)
George's 3rd book. Of all the stand-up comedians I grew up with starting with the early 60s Woody Allen and up-Carlin was my favorite. Others abandoned the stage for movies or more serious work. Others imploded with "personnel" issues and I could no longer think of them as funny. Others burned brightly for awhile and quickly burned out. And still others never developed their craft and became a parody of themselves. Unlike them, George just got better and better. I really miss this guy
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 20, 2015 10:59:52 GMT -5
Gotta love Boris! Red Sonja #3: When Hell Laughs By David Smith and Richard Tierney I was pleasantly surprised that this was a much more well thought out book that I would have expected from a patstiche type story. No mention of Conan (I was surprised the authors were able to resist), though the main bad guys were 'defeated by a barbarian', which definitely evoked the image Sonja is on a boat that crashes into a prison island, and the prisoners attack. Meanwhile, a Shemite named Athu makes a deal with an ancient god to try to become powerful enough to get revenge on the world. There's some nice sub plots, a judge travelling with Sonja who can't fight because he's been an aristocrat too long, and whose brother is a prisoner on the island... the female prisoner trying to back the right horse, etc. The bad guys are pretty much tropes, but they fit the story just fine. There was a bit of, well, cheesecake, I guess.. during one fight Sonja ends up naked, and she's tied up for a while, but it made sense in the story, and was almost there to make fun of that sorta thing, rather than exploit it. Quite an enjoyable light read...looking forward to reading the other one I have (thanks, again, MRP!)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2015 12:43:46 GMT -5
Gotta love Boris! Red Sonja #3: When Hell Laughs By David Smith and Richard Tierney I was pleasantly surprised that this was a much more well thought out book that I would have expected from a patstiche type story. No mention of Conan (I was surprised the authors were able to resist), though the main bad guys was 'defeated by a barbarian', which definitely evoked the image Sonja is on a boat that crashes into a prison island, and the prisoners attack. Meanwhile, a Shemita named Athu makes a deal with an ancient god to try to become powerful enough to get revenge on the world. There's some nice sub plots, a judge travelling with Sonja who can't fight because he's been an aristocrat too long, and whose brother is a prisoner on the island... the female prisoner trying to back the right horse, etc. The bad guys are pretty much tropes, but they fit the story just fine. There was a bit of, well, cheesecake, I guess.. during one fight Sonja ends up naked, and she's tied up for a while, but it made sense in the story, and was almost there to make fun of that sorta thing, rather than exploit it. Quite an enjoyable light read...looking forward to reading the other one I have (thanks, again, MRP!) Glad you like it - I like too for all the great sub plots and all. It's one of my favorite Red Sonja stories.
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Post by berkley on Mar 20, 2015 13:59:38 GMT -5
Too bad the Red Sonja cover is later-period Boris Vallejo. I liked his early style much better.
I seem to remember hearing or reading somewhere that Richard Tierney is a pretty good writer. There was a horror book or something of his I was looking for at one point - The Seventh Scroll, something like that? - never did find it, though.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 22, 2015 17:57:06 GMT -5
yeah, I feel like I've come across him before, too, but I don't know from where.
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Post by gothos on Mar 25, 2015 17:36:55 GMT -5
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 27, 2015 8:33:20 GMT -5
Quite a few PKD fans regard Eye as his first "mature" book, at least as far as his trademark preoccupation with the nature of reality goes. I accord that distinction to Time Out of Joint myself, but admittedly I'm biased. I think this was the second PKD book I read and there was a gap of at least a couple years between my first ( A Maze of Death) and this one. I'd go along with the idea that it might be his first important book that deals with what became the recurrent theme you refer to - wiki says it came out in 1955 while Time Out of Joint was 1958. I believe that PKD included both in what he retroactively thought of as his "10-volume meta-novel". I had never read anything like PKD before and it took quite a while before my young brain could adjust itself to the disturbing worldview often presented in is stories - I found A Maze of Death so depressing that I thought I'd never read another book by this writer, but when I saw a copy of Eye in the Sky on the dingy shelves of a local used bookstore I was drawn to it in spite of myself. I threw me mentally off-kilter as much as had Maze but perhaps because I was a couple years older, this time I as intrigued a I was disturbed, and pretty soon I was reading every PKD book I could find. Just finished Maze of Death .... it sounds like I liked it alot more than you did. It's hard to write anything about this book without spoilers, but I will say I loved the religious system. A Universe where man goes out in to space, and actually finds God? When people debate if said being is really God, or just a very advanced alien? Right up my alley, and very interesting. Of course, the book is also filled with PKD's usual mixture of depressed, neurotic characters, some of which you root for, some which you want to slap in the head and tell them to pull themselves together. I was very surprised by the ending, and in a good way. I can see how one would find it depressing, but it was certainly fitting in the mood of the book. I can imagine this must be a big favorite of Dan's it's like a 70s punk song in novel form.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2015 8:40:27 GMT -5
I think this was the second PKD book I read and there was a gap of at least a couple years between my first ( A Maze of Death) and this one. I'd go along with the idea that it might be his first important book that deals with what became the recurrent theme you refer to - wiki says it came out in 1955 while Time Out of Joint was 1958. I believe that PKD included both in what he retroactively thought of as his "10-volume meta-novel". I had never read anything like PKD before and it took quite a while before my young brain could adjust itself to the disturbing worldview often presented in is stories - I found A Maze of Death so depressing that I thought I'd never read another book by this writer, but when I saw a copy of Eye in the Sky on the dingy shelves of a local used bookstore I was drawn to it in spite of myself. I threw me mentally off-kilter as much as had Maze but perhaps because I was a couple years older, this time I as intrigued a I was disturbed, and pretty soon I was reading every PKD book I could find. Just finished Maze of Death .... it sounds like I liked it alot more than you did. It's hard to write anything about this book without spoilers, but I will say I loved the religious system. A Universe where man goes out in to space, and actually finds God? When people debate if said being is really God, or just a very advanced alien? Right up my alley, and very interesting. Of course, the book is also filled with PKD's usual mixture of depressed, neurotic characters, some of which you root for, some which you want to slap in the head and tell them to pull themselves together. I was very surprised by the ending, and in a good way. I can see how one would find it depressing, but it was certainly fitting in the mood of the book. I can imagine this must be a big favorite of Dan's it's like a 70s punk song in novel form. That's an aspect of Maze? Haven't read it in a couple of decades, but I know it's basically the gist of a throwaway, though memorable, bit of dialogue in Our Friends from Frolix-8.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 27, 2015 8:52:22 GMT -5
Yes, they talk about the 3 aspects of God, how the 4th, the Code Destroyer, is the devil. People send subspace prayers to the God worlds, and sometimes they even get answered. One of the characters is essentially a fanatic, one is a skeptic, and one thinks he's a prophet. It's great stuff... you should read it again if you don't remember it... I'd be curious as to what you thought, as it screamed 'Dan B' to me
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