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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 26, 2017 13:01:36 GMT -5
I am currently reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court, by Mark Twain. It's very witty, very entertaining, but now I must look at L. Sprague de Camp's Lest darkness fall with a little less enthusiasm, as it basically recycles Twain's idea. The concept expressed by Twain that made me laugh the most, and that doubtlessly unwittingly, is that the first thing a civilization needs is a patent office. Harh!!!
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 26, 2017 13:41:44 GMT -5
Read The innocence of Father Brown ... my wife is a big fan of the show, and checked it out but was turned off by the cover, I think... I had no idea from TV it's contemporary to Holmes! Turns out the show is better.. but a few of the stories were pretty good. A bit preachy, but that's, I think, the point.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 31, 2017 11:25:07 GMT -5
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. This is a re-read ahead of watching the television show...eventually (who puts stuff on freaking Starz?). I read this when it first released and I've read it once or twice since then...but it's been over a decade. This really is a fabulous book. A look at what does and does not make America tick. I honestly think that non-Americans have a better handle on America than we do. Gaiman here...Ennis in Preacher...de Toqueville. It seems to take an outsider to actually understand America and Americans. There are some parts that are dated. Obviously the internet has changed so that technical boy doesn't feel quite as right as he did. Though he's still not that far off. Still, a great book well deserving of the accolades...and it was way overdue for me to read it again.
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Post by DanBintheUnderworld on May 31, 2017 11:44:06 GMT -5
Reading a 1992 true-crime paperback right now, Forever & Five Days, by Lowell Cauffiel that incorporates the not-unusual device of using italics on the first reference to someone for whom he uses a fictitious name. All well & good, but I wonder if there's any particular reason why he calls a certain individual (not involved with the criminal acts being portrayed) "Jim Shooter" ...
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 1, 2017 21:35:45 GMT -5
I hadn't read anything my daughter's liked for a while, so I grabbed the False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen, which my oldest thought was great when she was younger, and got my middle daughter to read recently.
I think I would very much like to read something by this author that's not 'young adult'. This is a very well crafted (if predictable) story, with a good sense of mood and style.
It did lack the usual world building one generally finds in a fantasy book, but it actually worked really well in this case.. one's view was broadened with the character, which is a old trick, but one that often works quite well.
That said, I'm not sure I'm interested in the rest of the series... everything works out pretty nicely. It's clear there COULD be more books (and, in fact, there are 2 more), this is a rare complete package in one book. I'd highly recommend it for any kid just acquiring a hankering for fantasy.
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2017 23:41:39 GMT -5
Reading a 1992 true-crime paperback right now, Forever & Five Days, by Lowell Cauffiel that incorporates the not-unusual device of using italics on the first reference to someone for whom he uses a fictitious name. All well & good, but I wonder if there's any particular reason why he calls a certain individual (not involved with the criminal acts being portrayed) "Jim Shooter" ... He was going to call him "Adolf Hitler" but wanted something more provocative.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 1, 2017 23:49:04 GMT -5
I am currently reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court, by Mark Twain. It's very witty, very entertaining, but now I must look at L. Sprague de Camp's Lest darkness fall with a little less enthusiasm, as it basically recycles Twain's idea. The concept expressed by Twain that made me laugh the most, and that doubtlessly unwittingly, is that the first thing a civilization needs is a patent office. Harh!!! de Camp recycling someone else's work? The hell you say! I always liked the fact that Twain takes King Arthur to task for being too removed from the populace. Nice bit of social criticism there. One of my favorite Twains and I wish Terry Gilliam would have filmed it, as planned.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 2, 2017 0:05:02 GMT -5
I've finished two Terry Pratchett omnibi: The Small Gods Trilogy (Pyramids, Small Gods and Hogfather) and the Rincewind Trilogy (Sourcery, Eric and Interesting Times). I had already read Hogfather and enjoyed it (a satire of Christmas and holiday traditions, as well as various minor gods). Pyramids pokes fun at Egyptian civilization, while Small Gods pokes fun at religious institutions as hierarchical power, rather than spiritual guidance. Rincewind is generally my least favorite of Pratchett's major characters; but, Interesting Times puts him in a pseudo-Chinese empire, where he is reunited with Twoflower (his traveling companion in Pratchett's first two Discworld books (Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic), as well as Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde. The best parts are the polite revolutionary slogans from a group of rebels, who have based their ideology on a travelogue written by Twoflower, What I Did on My Vacation. Cohen is always fun, as he is a geriatric barbarian hero (deadliest man on the Discworld because he lived to that age, in that line of work) who shows the youngsters a thing or two. Man after my own heart. The Silver Horde are similar aged barbarians, including (spiked) wheelchair-bound Mad Hamish, Truckle the Uncivil, Caleb the Ripper, Old Vincent, Boy Willie and an ex-teacher named Ronald Saveloy. I've read all of the Witches books and the City Watch; so, these were the last Discworlds.
I cherish the fact that I have a signed and personalized copy of Thud, signed before his alzheimer's made even signing his own name impossible. I can only imagine what he would have written in response to the current state of affairs.
Currently reading Empire State from Adam Christopher. Bit of a parallel dimension, pulp adventure/mystery, superhero tale. He's no Alan Moore; but, it's intriguing so far.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 3, 2017 6:07:11 GMT -5
Defintely post when you finish Empire State.. that's on my list... I really like his Robotic detective/Assassin in Made to Kill.. though I am sad he hasn't written a sequel.. I might have to wait and see if Empire State actually gets finished. Sword of Lankor Howard Cory c. 1966 I like the cover... not familiar with the signature, though. Good reads says 'Howard Cory' is a psedonym for Julie Jardine, but I couldn't find any info elsewhere... there is one other Howard Cory book, an ace double with PKD. Fantastic Fiction also ties Larry Maddock to the same person or people... and list it as a Psedonym for Jack Jardine... there are several Larry Maddock books... this one was, in fact, listed as Larry Maddock when it was recently kindle-ized in 2014...perhaps Julie Jardine was Jack's wife, and wrote this one, hence the alternate pseudonym? not sure what the deal is there, but I always find that stuff fasinating. While the book does have aliens in it, it's really a straight Barbarian tale... though the sci fi trappings that come into play at the end do give it a bit more depth than the typical Conan patstiche. The main story could easily BE a Conan patstiche, though the main character, Thuron, doesn't like money nearly as much as Conan does. The story calls out much more to REH than Burroughs (who gets the advertisement in the back.. probably more due to the fact that it's an ACE book than it's similarities)... it's a pretty good read if you're in the mood for a 60s teen wish fufillment type story, complete with magic sword, pirates, amazons, and evil priests. The best part, though, is the epilogue, which gives an awesome explanation of the gods in the book and lets the sidekick of the story be the real winner, which is rare.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 4, 2017 10:57:56 GMT -5
Gutenberg.org has been providing all my reading material of late, and right now I have endeavoured to rectify a major flaw in my culture: I admit it, I have not yet read all the Barsoom novels. I've just started Llana of Gathol, and was pleasantly surprised to see that John Carter was actually in it; I feared that as was the case with other novels dealing with his offspring, he would but play a peripheral role.
I was a bit diasppointed to realize that part of this novel had been adapted by Marvel in a John Carter annual, though, with no mention of Carter's granddaughter.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 8, 2017 7:51:23 GMT -5
One of these days I have get nice copies of the John Carter books and read them in order. Today's book: The Atom Conspiracy Jeff Sutton I kinda like the cool abstract-ish cover, but it really has almost nothing to do with the story. I guess if you squint really hard it could be a depiction of the last fight scene, but it's a stretch. This one surprised me.. I thought at first it was going to be a by the numbers spy novel set in the future, but, in fact, it was pretty interesting. Sutton (who, in alot of his other books is a big fan of space travel), sets a world that banned all atomic research after WWIII in 1970. His world is completely unified, with it's capital in Australia (who mostly avoided the nuclear exchange) and all political power and social status revolves around IQ... the 'elections' are a test, best score wins. After technoloigically stagnating for hundreds of years, humanity is on the brink of a evolutionary breakthrough... mind powers.. some 'espers' (telepathy) and others with move fantastic powers. The Main character, Krull, is a middling police officer in a small town that is called on to find people illegally doing atomic expirements after a man turns up dead with radiation poisioning. He ends up betrayed by the government and on the run.. of course there's a girl (or two), and things twist at the end and it all works out (it is a 60s YA sci-fi, after all), but surprisingly thought provoking along the way.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 8, 2017 9:58:27 GMT -5
Compliments of a Fiend by Fredric Brown. The fourth case for uncle and nephew detectives Am and Ed Hunter finds Uncle Am kidnapped and Ed working with the Starlight Agency and the police to try to find Uncle Am. The case involves the numbers rackets, a beautiful lady who is in love with Ed, but who he may not love, and the hint that somebody out there may be hunting and collecting people named Ambrose. This is the weakest entry thus far. Honestly, it's because there isn't a whole lot going on for large stretches of the book. And honestly, Ed isn't as interesting a character as Am...so the lack of Uncle Am is noticeable. That said, the book does a good job of showing the frequent drudgery of detective work that is almost universally glossed over in mystery novels, particularly those of this vintage. It's worth a read, but it's a let-down after three good books in a row in the series.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 8, 2017 12:28:38 GMT -5
I just re-read a book that I absolutely loved when I was about eight years old. I got it from the library then and haven't seen a copy of it in over 50 years. On a whim, I put in an interlibrary loan request and got it last week. The Teaspoon Tree by Mary Babcock Palmer It's a whimsical adventure quest, and I found it just as delightful this time. The protagonist is a girl, a detail that I had not remembered. I guess I was a feminist at age eight. Her name is Andulasia, which I also didn't remember, but I think when I learned about the region of Andalusia in Spain, the name seemed familiar. The girl in the story is And ulasia, and the Spanish region is And alusia. Anyway, Andulasia sets off from home with her popgun (do kids play with popguns any more?) and hears about the Teaspoon Tree from one of her talking animal friends. She decides to go see it and bring it home, and has a series of encounters and adventures along the way - the Lady Who Names Things and her guards, the Commuting Animal, the fearsome Melliflua, a tremendous thunderstorm, the Antiquarian and his wife, some talking chipmunks, a dinosaur and an owl, all of whom are funny in various ways. For whatever reason, whimsical writing like this was falling out of fashion at the time; the only comic book writer who was good at it in the 60s was Richard Hughes of ACG. That may account for why the book wasn't a big success and the author never wrote another children's book. If you know someone who's a little too young for Alice in Wonderland or The Hobbit, give them a copy of The Teaspoon Tree.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 9, 2017 18:39:18 GMT -5
Advertisement for the Science Fiction Book Club from around June of 1954. This is from the back cover of Mad #16.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 10, 2017 21:54:25 GMT -5
Wow, that's pretty cool... I didn't know it started that long ago... funny they kept that same intro deal through the 90s.
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