|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 15, 2016 14:41:49 GMT -5
Drabble II - Double Century Edited by Rob Meades and David Wake A drabble is a short work of fiction, usually around 100 words in length. The Drabble Project was created by Meades and Wake to solicit Drabbles from prominent (and not so prominent writers) and publish them with the proceeds going to charity. Drabble II is the second of these works and includes drabbles by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Arthur C. Clarke and a number of others. All entries are supposed to be exactly 100 words long. Obviously, given the length, there isn't much in the way of plot and no characterization to speak of. But many of them are very good works, and it's always interesting. Not something to make a steady diet of, but an interesting diversion.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2016 14:50:07 GMT -5
RECENTLY FINISHED: Hap and Leonard by Joe R. LansdaleThank you. Even if I hadn’t enjoyed the series of the same name that ran on the Sundance Channel recently, I’d be grateful for its existence because it is almost certainly the reason this book came to be. Is somebody going to reprint an entire run of books to tie into a six-week series? Probably not. But it is feasible to collect the odd and ends created over the years, the short stories and novellas. I’m particularly happy because the two novellas, Hyenas and Dead Aim, are considered #’s nine and ten in the progression and were hard to find at a reasonable price. So, thank you. You get five shorts in this collection too. One is co-written with Andrew Vachss, an interesting piece called “Veil’s Visit,” and the only story here I had read before. It contains the serious matters that are hallmarks of Vachss but retain the humor characteristic of the series. There is also a brilliant entry called “The Boy Who Became Invisible.” It’s only about five pages but it will stay with you. The lightest story is called “Death by Chili,” a promotional piece written for the fourth book, Bad Chili. The rest of the package is uniformly very good. But more importantly, my Hap and Leonard collection is now complete. Well, for the moment anyway. Joe Lansdale is still out there, still creating work. But only a complete idiot would complain about that. Snagged this when it came out, too. I was fortunate enough, though, to have bought Hyenas, autographed & everything, at publication. Didn't know about Dead Aim till too long after it showed up.
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 15, 2016 21:13:28 GMT -5
I've never heard of a Drabble before... sounds interesting!
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Jul 16, 2016 23:20:52 GMT -5
The last book I finished was Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrios. As a long-time fan of spy thrillers, I don't know why I left it so late to give Ambler a try. This is the fourth of his that I've read over the last year or so and they are all excellent.
|
|
|
Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 17, 2016 3:43:44 GMT -5
The last book I finished was Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrios. As a long-time fan of spy thrillers, I don't know why I left it so late to give Ambler a try. This is the fourth of his that I've read over the last year or so and they are all excellent. There was a very good film adaptation made of this story. From 1944 starring Peter Lorre,Sydney Greenstreet and Zachery Scott
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Jul 18, 2016 23:45:15 GMT -5
The last book I finished was Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrios. As a long-time fan of spy thrillers, I don't know why I left it so late to give Ambler a try. This is the fourth of his that I've read over the last year or so and they are all excellent. There was a very good film adaptation made of this story. From 1944 starring Peter Lorre,Sydney Greenstreet and Zachery Scott Not too long after the book was first published, 1939. I've somehow managed to avoid seeing it all these years but now that I've read Ambler's novel I don't have to worry about being "spoiled" any more. Even without looking it up I can already picture which characters Lorre and Greenstreet play - and therefore Scott as well, by elimination.
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 19, 2016 17:37:47 GMT -5
Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber
I've been eyeing this one for a while, just getting psyched up for an epic series....finally decided to pull the trigger.
I had a hard time rating this book... I wavered between 2 and 5 stars at various times. To some extent, there's a bit of a bait and switch.. the description and the first 50 pages or so are an alien invasion story. One could picture it taking place in the distant past of the Honor Harrington universe (which is alluded to but never discussed). Sadly for the book's characters, the aliens are overwhelming and unwilling to communicate, so they resort to sending 1/2 the last fleet secrets thousands of lightyears away to start anew.
They plan to not use any technological emissions until they can outpace the aliens, but some of the survivors instead set themselves up as a new religion, which is based around not using technology involving emissions (electricity, radio, etc). Some disagree, and they fight, but the god makers win.
Fast foward 800 years, and society is quite settled with their made up religion, when an android of one of the technological people wakes up, and decides to try to take the society forward to fight the aliens some day.
All that sounds really interesting, but, sadly, there's no other mention of the alien threat... I suspect ever again in the series (I poked through a later book in the series, and only a few years pass). What the book REALLY is, is a 'tech development' type series(like Ring of Fire or Destroyermen). The 'good guys', Charis, are, much like Manticore, an idealized British analogue with an enlightened Royal family and smart, innovative, plucky citizens.
The Church of God Awaiting (the religion that got made up way back to keep technology down), has developed in 750 years into an analogue of the worst corrupted version the dark ages Christian church, just before the reformation. The book essentially becomes 'what if Henry the VIII had spy satelittes and better cannons than anyone else'.. which is actually quite fun and well done. It's just not at all what the book advertised.
There were also a few very annoying tics that served to repeatedly through you out of the story . . All the names are 'regular' ones that are spelled in a strange, phonetic way (like Zhan for John... Zhysstyn for Justin, Norhmahn for Norman, etc). I get he's trying to show the drift of the language, but it gets annoying really fast.
There's also a few times where he forgets it's not a modern story. The religion has one woman named 'Shen-Wei' as the leader of the resistance to the original gods.. she essentially becomes the devil, and her name is used in place of 'hell' and 'damn'... except when Weber forgets. He also uses a few other modern expressions that make no sense in context.
Worse, though is the cuteness. For some reason, baseball gets into the religious rules, and Weber uses real players (with annoying spelled versions of their names) in the game, which seems to serve no purpose other than to be a shout out to the Atlanta Braves. Then there's a valet named Jeeves.. a couple others that I don't recall.
Overall, though, I was exciting and interested to see what happened in the end, and I'm excited to read the next one, so that definitely qualifies as a good book.
|
|
|
Post by thwhtguardian on Jul 20, 2016 16:17:21 GMT -5
Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber I've been eyeing this one for a while, just getting psyched up for an epic series....finally decided to pull the trigger. I had a hard time rating this book... I wavered between 2 and 5 stars at various times. To some extent, there's a bit of a bait and switch.. the description and the first 50 pages or so are an alien invasion story. One could picture it taking place in the distant past of the Honor Harrington universe (which is alluded to but never discussed). Sadly for the book's characters, the aliens are overwhelming and unwilling to communicate, so they resort to sending 1/2 the last fleet secrets thousands of lightyears away to start anew. They plan to not use any technological emissions until they can outpace the aliens, but some of the survivors instead set themselves up as a new religion, which is based around not using technology involving emissions (electricity, radio, etc). Some disagree, and they fight, but the god makers win. Fast foward 800 years, and society is quite settled with their made up religion, when an android of one of the technological people wakes up, and decides to try to take the society forward to fight the aliens some day. All that sounds really interesting, but, sadly, there's no other mention of the alien threat... I suspect ever again in the series (I poked through a later book in the series, and only a few years pass). What the book REALLY is, is a 'tech development' type series(like Ring of Fire or Destroyermen). The 'good guys', Charis, are, much like Manticore, an idealized British analogue with an enlightened Royal family and smart, innovative, plucky citizens. The Church of God Awaiting (the religion that got made up way back to keep technology down), has developed in 750 years into an analogue of the worst corrupted version the dark ages Christian church, just before the reformation. The book essentially becomes 'what if Henry the VIII had spy satelittes and better cannons than anyone else'.. which is actually quite fun and well done. It's just not at all what the book advertised. There were also a few very annoying tics that served to repeatedly through you out of the story . . All the names are 'regular' ones that are spelled in a strange, phonetic way (like Zhan for John... Zhysstyn for Justin, Norhmahn for Norman, etc). I get he's trying to show the drift of the language, but it gets annoying really fast. There's also a few times where he forgets it's not a modern story. The religion has one woman named 'Shen-Wei' as the leader of the resistance to the original gods.. she essentially becomes the devil, and her name is used in place of 'hell' and 'damn'... except when Weber forgets. He also uses a few other modern expressions that make no sense in context. Worse, though is the cuteness. For some reason, baseball gets into the religious rules, and Weber uses real players (with annoying spelled versions of their names) in the game, which seems to serve no purpose other than to be a shout out to the Atlanta Braves. Then there's a valet named Jeeves.. a couple others that I don't recall. Overall, though, I was exciting and interested to see what happened in the end, and I'm excited to read the next one, so that definitely qualifies as a good book. The series is pretty fun especially after the first book, in fact I usually suggest skipping the first book with the caveat that they understand that there was an alien invasion and the survivors live in a dark age like society. You're right about the names though, I usually just re-name them in my mind to deal with it.
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on Jul 21, 2016 17:48:39 GMT -5
John Norman's Tarnsman Of Gor To make a long story brief, I fell in love with the b-grade sword and sorcery films it spawned in the latter half of the 1980's, but didn't discover the books until much later. Best description I can give is that it's a dollar-store knock-off of Burrough's Barsoom series mixed with a heavy amount of BDSM, but that really doesn't get into the realm of inherently distasteful until Book 11 or so I've heard
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 21, 2016 22:26:49 GMT -5
@ Guardian - Yeah, I did the same with the names, it was just annoying. The first couple it was kinda like some sort of Will Shortz game, but if I wanted those I'd put the book down and do a sudoku @ Batflunkie - I've read 2 Gor books, and both were pretty bad... the women told the men how they loved to be submissive and that slavery was their proper place.. that sorta thing. I have no idea when in the series they are, though... I picked them up at random and didn't know what I was in for.
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on Jul 22, 2016 7:20:14 GMT -5
@ Batflunkie - I've read 2 Gor books, and both were pretty bad... the women told the men how they loved to be submissive and that slavery was their proper place.. that sorta thing. I have no idea when in the series they are, though... I picked them up at random and didn't know what I was in for. Like I said, I liked the movies for what they were and wanted to check out the books as they were kind of what got me into sword and sorcery as a concept. I also don't mind a bit of risque foreplay in stories, I don't think anyone does, but I'm not about to put my own "escapist fantasy" ahead of something that I find completely abhorrent as what's in the later Gor novels. Some might be into that, but it's not a taste that I think I will ever garner a liking for Also reading Zelazny's "Creatures Of Light & Darkness". Very cool hard science fiction/prototype cyberpunk story about warring factions of Egyptian Gods. Like peanut butter and chocolate, they're just two great tastes that go great together
|
|
|
Post by brutalis on Jul 22, 2016 10:21:11 GMT -5
OWWW. Now you have made me remember how much my brain hurt the 1st time i read Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Darkness. It literally was the most difficult read i had experienced at the time i began it. i found my rhythm once i was fully into the book and then after a few months i had to read it once more after thinking about it so much. the 2nd read brought a better understanding and more enjoyment. And it was my 1st foray into Egyptian history/mythology 2nd only to growing up with the Universal Mummy movies. A life long love and curiosity for Egypt sprung from there...
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on Jul 22, 2016 11:49:13 GMT -5
And it was my 1st foray into Egyptian history/mythology 2nd only to growing up with the Universal Mummy movies. A life long love and curiosity for Egypt sprung from there... My own interest came from the anime/trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh!, which if you've never seen it, is heavily steeped in Egyptian mythology and games of chance and life and death. The intial anime adaptation was incredibly grim and I kind of see why it was passed over when the series was adapted for english speaking audiences in the early 00's, we at least got the manga though I've always had a deep admiration/appreciation for mythology and parables and stuff like "The Book Of The Dead" is no exception
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 22, 2016 13:03:37 GMT -5
I haven't read that Zelazny book.. sounds really interesting.
I had no idea Gor had a movie... if they downplay the bad stufff.. I could see that being really fun.
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on Jul 22, 2016 13:11:46 GMT -5
I had no idea Gor had a movie... if they downplay the bad stufff.. I could see that being really fun. It had two actually, one for Tarnsman (just called "Gor") and one for Outlaw, the second one was lampooned on an episode of MST3K
|
|