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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2020 3:46:55 GMT -5
Dune is on my to-reread pile. I haven't read the original novel itself since 2004 and writing my senior thesis on it and it's sequel Children of Dune. In retrospect, while I am happy with the work I did, it has kept me away from a perennial favorite as digging into the text and writing about it on a daily basis for an entire semester has put me off going back. Prior to that I read it about every other year since I was 14 or so. I have enjoyed reading some of the expanded Dune books though (much to the chagrin of many here )
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 17, 2020 11:16:10 GMT -5
Venus in Danger (Perry Rhodan #14) by Kurt Mahr Perry and company come home after the long quest to find immortality, only to find things are a bit different, and the 'Eastern Bloc' are back at it.. this time trying to take over the base on Venus. The story continues to have a fair amount of comic relief, this time from the bad guys... the Russian general's torturous trip across the Venusian jungle is worth of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It's done well though, in that even Perry commends him on his bravery in surviving, so perhaps the comedic effect is just my own take. Next books promises more pages (adding some non -Perry Rhodan material) which is nice... these last few with just one novella (as opposed to the first couple that had 2 each) are pretty light.. I'm glad I'm not reading them as they came out, I'd be seriously annoyed!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 17, 2020 11:31:37 GMT -5
Martians, Go Home by Fredric BrownI don't remember exactly when I first read Martians, Go Home. Probably late junior high or early high school. I do know that I loved that Kelly Freas cover. And that it was a bit of a revelation SF could be funny. Ultimately the book would end up high on my list of books I've re-read the most often. And here we are again. The plot, such as it is, is pretty simple. Martians have invaded the Earth. Well...kind of. They look like the stereotypical "Great Gazoo" type Martians. But the invasion is more of an infestation. They are incorporeal but opaque. Earthers can't touch them and they can't touch the Earthers. But they're incredibly loud, extremely annoying and have the ability to see in the dark, see through solid objects, teleport (or Kwim) at will, and seemingly have no real interests other than being pests. Since they can ferret out any secrets, in a short period of time there aren't any. And since the Martians are complete and utters jerks they use those secrets to make everyone's life miserable. The viewpoint character is Luke Devereux, science fiction writer. But who needs science fiction when Martians are hanging out in nearly every home and the economy is crashing because the little buggers are disrupting everything. While this is definitely humorous SF, Brown takes pains to show the painful results of the crashing economy and the human toll that it takes. One of the great examples of SF humor. And one of my favorite books.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 18, 2020 11:51:43 GMT -5
Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
While I know alot of them are out there, I've, so far, avoid these 'relative of Holmes' books, mostly because I can't picture not being annoyed at how Holmes himself will be depicted when he's not the main character. My wife grabbed this one for her family book club though, and really liked it, so I gave it a try.
There were alot of really fun things... I LOVE that the main character doesn't do the thing they always do in these books that have a female lead, which is have her pretend to be a boy. The fact that she instead USED being a girl to her advantage was awesome... quite logical and unique (to me, at least) and very appreciated. Enola is a smart 14 year old, but isn't Holmes, which is good.. she does solve a mystery, but it's one that makes sense for her to solve (since it mirrored her own situation).
The mystery was a back seat to her finding her mother, which, while clever, is definitely the part that annoyed me. My Sherlock Holmes doesn't dismiss women.. but rather sees them as inscrutable alien creatures that logic cannot predict. I can accept that he didn't figure out where his mother was, since Enola held back all the important clues, but chasing her down should have been easy. A small nod that he wasn't trying that hard (whether to vex Mycroft or for some other reason) would have been all it took... instead, they did the opposite, which really annoyed me.
If one gets over that (or doesn't have as set a head canon of Holmes as I do) it's a very good young adult mystery that sets up the trappings of a series very well.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2020 2:33:58 GMT -5
Finished The Yellow Hoard (Avenger #2) by Kenneth Robeson... These pulp novels are short quick reads, a stark contrast to the epic fantasy like the Wheel of Time books I have been reading lately. Yellow Hoard (as the title implies) is about a treasure hoard of gold, Aztec gold-the hidden treasure of the Aztecs and the hidden tomb of Montezuma. A series of five seemingly innocuous clay bricks brought back form an archeological expedition form Mexico spark a murder spree which draws the attention of Dick Benson, the Avenger. A pretty standard, but enjoyable pulp adventure adding a new member to the supporting cast in the form of Nellie Gray, the daughter of the murdered archeologist who ends up joining the Avenger's ongoing crusade against crime. -M
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 19, 2020 13:46:18 GMT -5
Cheon of Weltanland. Book 1: The Four WishesCharlotte Stone, 1983 Bought this one on a lark some years ago, as I’m sometimes taken in by paperbacks with lurid cover art by Boris Vallejo (esp. if the publisher is Daw). I expected a cheesy, raunchy sword & sorcery tale, but it wasn’t quite that. Don’t get me wrong, there are indeed scenes of exciting, bloody battles and some soft-porn level sex scenes, but also places where it got a bit too real (i.e., there’s several instances of sexual assault – including the main character when she was still a child). However, it’s also a rather intelligently constructed novel. In some ways, it’s a standard sword & sorcery tale, but with one caveat, the gigantic, iron-muscled, lusty protagonist is a stunningly beautiful Lesbian woman instead of the typical brawny guy. Kind of like a Conan Elseworld – it even takes place in a similar setting which sort of seems like it’s our world in some hypothetical ancient past, with peoples that roughly correspond to our own Europeans, Asians, Africans, etc. and beasts from prehistory (like, e.g., Baluchitheriums and ichthyosaurs). And the northern land mass is called Hyperborea… The story is narrated in the first person by the titular Cheon, and a one-page introduction by some unidentified scholar from a few centuries in her future tells us that her autobiography was recently “rediscovered,” and that she is a mostly reliable narrator, since much of what she recounts is backed by other documents (there are also occasional footnotes throughout the book with ‘scholarly’ commentary or speculation on the accuracy of certain assertions made by Cheon). This book goes from her traumatic early childhood after her family was massacred by barbarians, through her early teens in the care of a sorceress, who teaches her the ways of magic, and her servants, one of whom is a former soldier who instructs her on the finer points of armed and hand-to-hand combat, to the beginning of her career as a wandering sword for hire, eventually ending up on the crew of a freebooter ship. The book closes on a bit of a cliff-hanger that leaves you wanting more, but alas… According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, by the way, ‘Charlotte Stone’ is a pseudonym for Dominique and Charles Nightingale, who don’t have many other writing credits in the SF and fantasy spheres. It’s amusing, though, that there’s a brief author bio included which states that “Stone” is a former university lecturer who had written a number of fantasy books in both English and French.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 20, 2020 9:36:23 GMT -5
Interesting that even the authors created a 'character' for themselves. I wonder just how many of these Conan rips there are out there?
Even more interesting there's another Charlotte Stone that's an author of Bodice-Ripper Romance Novels, and a book series that stars a Dr. Charlotte Stone (looks CSI-ish)
Finally, the authors (maybe) seem to have tried again in 2002,with 'Cheon, Witch Warrior'
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 20, 2020 10:51:06 GMT -5
(...) Finally, the authors (maybe) seem to have tried again in 2002,with 'Cheon, Witch Warrior' Nope, that's just a reprint of the book I reviewed above.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 21, 2020 8:08:18 GMT -5
Weird.. they reprinted it almost 20 years later? Wonder if they intended to pick it back up and it didn't work out?
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 21, 2020 13:56:22 GMT -5
Cryoburn (Vorkosigan Saga) By Lois McMaster Bujold
Just a bit of a caveat... this book is getting grade on a curve, but on the fact of missed potential, and the fact that it's not anywhere near a sent off for Miles in the way that Captain Vorpatri's Alliance was a great ending for Ivan.
The story is another fun mystery/spy romp of a similar type of the last few 'Lord Auditor' books. The problem is where it failed to talk about a wide variety of thought provoking ideas that it touched the surface of, but didn't actually get into.
The book is recent enough that it could very easily have been extremely relevant to today's politics, but instead it just set things up to think about, but didn't offer any ideas, solutions, or problems... just an agonizingly interesting platform to discuss the very foundations of Democracy, but then didn't deliver.
The end of the story was also very disappointing in it's brevity and suddenness, for such a monumental event. Sure, that' s how it goes sometimes, and there's something to be said for that, but knowing the next (and final) book doesn't really have much of Miles in it, it's not at all satisfying.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 24, 2020 9:51:18 GMT -5
The Heckler (87th Precinct) by Ed McBain
I hadn't really been loving the last couple books, I thought maybe I was about done with the series, but this one was amazing. First off, I'm always a sucker for a Holmes reference, and having one of the detectives reading Holmes in the station and recognizing their case was like the Red Headed League was super fun... made even more so because it was a Red Herring to boot.
I loved the bad guy had this crazy complicated plan (because smart bad guys always over complicate things), and it got foiled by the tiniest of random details.
I'm not sure I'm sold on the 'deaf man' as recurring criminal mastermind... I mean, he failed. All he really did was sow a bunch of chaos. I guess we'll see how that goes next time... the internet tells me he's in 5 books all together (not so many out of like 70) so it won't be a huge thing either way.
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Post by berkley on Dec 25, 2020 19:29:56 GMT -5
Cheon of Weltanland. Book 1: The Four WishesCharlotte Stone, 1983 Bought this one on a lark some years ago, as I’m sometimes taken in by paperbacks with lurid cover art by Boris Vallejo (esp. if the publisher is Daw). I expected a cheesy, raunchy sword & sorcery tale, but it wasn’t quite that. Don’t get me wrong, there are indeed scenes of exciting, bloody battles and some soft-porn level sex scenes, but also places where it got a bit too real (i.e., there’s several instances of sexual assault – including the main character when she was still a child). However, it’s also a rather intelligently constructed novel. In some ways, it’s a standard sword & sorcery tale, but with one caveat, the gigantic, iron-muscled, lusty protagonist is a stunningly beautiful Lesbian woman instead of the typical brawny guy. Kind of like a Conan Elseworld – it even takes place in a similar setting which sort of seems like it’s our world in some hypothetical ancient past, with peoples that roughly correspond to our own Europeans, Asians, Africans, etc. and beasts from prehistory (like, e.g., Baluchitheriums and ichthyosaurs). And the northern land mass is called Hyperborea… The story is narrated in the first person by the titular Cheon, and a one-page introduction by some unidentified scholar from a few centuries in her future tells us that her autobiography was recently “rediscovered,” and that she is a mostly reliable narrator, since much of what she recounts is backed by other documents (there are also occasional footnotes throughout the book with ‘scholarly’ commentary or speculation on the accuracy of certain assertions made by Cheon). This book goes from her traumatic early childhood after her family was massacred by barbarians, through her early teens in the care of a sorceress, who teaches her the ways of magic, and her servants, one of whom is a former soldier who instructs her on the finer points of armed and hand-to-hand combat, to the beginning of her career as a wandering sword for hire, eventually ending up on the crew of a freebooter ship. The book closes on a bit of a cliff-hanger that leaves you wanting more, but alas… According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, by the way, ‘Charlotte Stone’ is a pseudonym for Dominique and Charles Nightingale, who don’t have many other writing credits in the SF and fantasy spheres. It’s amusing, though, that there’s a brief author bio included which states that “Stone” is a former university lecturer who had written a number of fantasy books in both English and French. I have a copy of this but haven't read it yet, like a lot of the late 20th-early21st century SF and fantasy I've picked up over the last few years. ot one of Boris's better covers, IMO, though not as bad as some of the stuff he turned out later. I'm a big fan of the whole woman-warrior trope and that's probably the main reason this one caught my eye. The origin you describe sounds quite similar to Red Sonja, doesn't it? Not a favourite of mine (in spite of my claim to like that kind of character), but I won't hold that against Stone's creation.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 27, 2020 11:04:13 GMT -5
Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn
I'm very glad the title was more implication than storyline.. while there was Treason involved, it's not REALLY Thrawn's. He does work with the Chiss here though, which is a bit of a thing (though only because the Empire.. GOOD guys would have called it an alliance).
I didn't realize I'd miss Eli until he came back... he's really a cool character that I hope someone else uses at some point. The space battles here were amazing... truly worthy of the best Space Navy action ... not something I was expecting.
The ending leads up to the end of Rebels, which was not surprising, but did leave a bit of an opening.. almost as if Thrawn WANTED to be lost? I'm not sure Disney will ever do it, but they COULD move forward with this in a very interesting way indeed.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 28, 2020 12:00:48 GMT -5
Divided Soul: The Life Of Marvin Gaye by David RitzI guess I'll start by saying that I'm not a big Motown fan. I love me some soul and R&B from that era. But I tend to prefer the grittier sound that came from Stax and from Atlantic. Motown was just a bit too slick for my tastes. The exception to that was Marvin Gaye. I genuinely consider 1971's What's Going On to be one of the best albums ever recorded. I also tend to be skeptical of celebrity bios. Particularly if they're done with the approval of the celebrity. However, I felt that David Ritz did a good job working with Ray Charles on Brother Ray, giving us the details without holding back Charles' flaws. And apparently Marvin Gaye felt the same because he approached Ritz to work with him on a bio. Unfortunately Gaye was murdered before the book was finished and Ritz proceeded on his own. I'll admit that I knew little about Gaye other than his music and that he was murdered by his father. So this was all a reveal for me. And what I Ritz showed us was an incredibly flawed and broken man who was capable, when he wanted to do the work, of absolute musical genius. Gaye grew up with a father who was ostensibly a minister in a small, bizarre, Pentecostal church, but who was in actuality a lazy, mean, abusive (to his wife and his children) tyrant, who lived off his wife and later his son. There is just a litany of issues that arose because of the senior Gaye's treatment of Marvin and his mother. Marvin grew up wanting to be the black Sinatra and he held out that hope his entire life periodically releasing pop albums that never found commercial or critical success. He was a musician (and he was an accomplished drummer and a decent pianist) who suffered from debilitating stage-fright and only forced himself to perform live when he was in such financial straits that it was his only escape. At a time when Berry Gordy expected his Motown artists to release albums every six to eight months, Gaye would work for years on his albums. He was (as many artists are) notoriously bad with money, constantly owing huge sums to the IRS, constantly borrowing money from friends, while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on an epic cocaine and marijuana habit. He desperately wanted a "true love" and the kind of family life that he was deprived of as a child, but was incapable of having that with either of the two women he married, both through his own faults and because of the women he chose to be with. If there's a fault in the book it's that it does sometimes overrun into a bit of hero-worship by Ritz. It's clear that Gaye and Ritz became friends (with a period of estrangement when there was a dispute about Ritz's contributions to the song Sexual Healing). I never felt this colored the way Ritz presented Gaye's personal life. He presented the bad side of Marvin as well as the good. Where it tended to come through was in the frequently effusive praise of some of Gaye's lesser albums (though some have certainly been subject to increased critical acclaim since their release). Marvin's life was tragically cut short when he was shot by his father. While the elder Gaye got off light there is almost no question this was a premeditated murder. But ultimately it is also clear that Gaye's lifestyle and his increasing mental health issues made it plain that Gaye likely was going to succumb to his demons sooner rather than later. And the world was a lesser place without his musical talent.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 28, 2020 18:07:48 GMT -5
SunburstPhyllis Gotlieb, 1964 In 1984, some sort of mishap caused an explosion at a nuclear power facility near a small midwestern town. This 'sunburst' led to radiation poisoning of much of the population. It was cordoned off, and nobody could come in or out except for the military. Among the children born to the people who remained were many who had very scary abilities, combinations of mental telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, etc., and a number of them exhibited antisocial tendencies, so that military kept them in a special facility - caged them off, actually. The story takes place in around 2024, and mainly follows the events in the life of Shandy Johnson, a 13 year-old girl who was orphaned when she was about 4 after both her father and then mother died of radiation poisoning. Shandy, while not one of the strangely 'gifted' children, is unique in that she's an 'imp,' short for impervious, meaning that those who have telepathic abilities can't read her mind or perceive her at all. When the military authorities learn about this, they become interested in her - and this eventually leads to a big mess of problems for her... It may seem this book is focused on the fears of nuclear annihilation and the perils of using nuclear power, a very prevalent theme in the mid-20th century, but actually that's more of a plot device. It's actually more of a mediation on the problems of juvenile delinquency, and often Gotlieb does a really good job of portraying the anger and disorientation of antisocial children and adolescents. She also puts forth some really, well, interesting theories on the causes of delinquency, positing a possible genetic predisposition for it, something I found rather questionable. Even so, this is a pretty solid and well-written novel.
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