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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 13, 2020 6:34:05 GMT -5
Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of HamJRR Tolkien, 1979 This was a re-read (one of many) for me. Normally, I feel guilty about re-reading stuff when there’s so much on my shelves waiting to be read the first time, but this f-in year in general (the pandemic plus – here in Zagreb – earthquakes and most recently, some flooding), compounded by some recent family tragedies has really pushed me to consume some literary comfort food in the past few weeks, which I’ll be posting about in the next few days. For those who haven’t read “Smith of Wootan Major” (originally published in 1967), it’s a really simple story: a little boy unknowingly swallows a fairy talisman, a small metallic star, that was hidden in a cake during a village feast. Not long after, he begins singing one morning, and the star falls out of his mouth and he puts it on his forehead, where it remains. Most people hardly notice it, but it apparently gives him a wonderful singing voice, great skill as a blacksmith (the family profession) and occasional bouts of wanderlust. He often goes on long journeys, and the star allowes him to freely pass into the land of faeries, and there he sees many wondrous things. There’s no breath-taking adventures, no quests, no pitched battles nor tragic romances – the Smith is actually a devoted family man, who marries his childhood sweetheart and has two children with her. Regardless, this is a such a magical little story, almost like a lengthy poem in prose form. “Farmer Giles of Ham” (originally published in 1949) is possibly my favorite thing written by Tolkien (yes, even more than The Hobbit). It’s a satirical medieval legend that pokes fun at actual medieval epics but also modern fantasy stories. The unlikey and mostly reluctant – albeit also vain and blustering – hero is the titular Giles, a rather rotund farmer who first accidentally chases away a giant who was about to stomp on the village of Ham. He then gets cajoled by his fellow villagers to similarly ward off a dragon who comes to ravage the land not long afterward. When, against all expectations, he succeeds in this as well, the king orders him to join an army of knights who are charged with going to the dragon’s lair and confiscating his treasure… The last time I read this was well over 20 years ago, and I’d forgotten just how funny it is. I wish Tolkien had written more stuff like this, because he really had a delightfully dry wit. (And I'm particularly fond of Giles’ talking dog, Garm.)
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 14, 2020 7:52:04 GMT -5
Yellow Fraction by Stanley Bennett Hough (writing as Rex Gordon) The was almost a good book.. Gordon has some interesting things to say on the nature of politics and political control (especially in a McCarthy-ish situation, or perhaps 50s style communism). The plot, though, was a bit lacking. There were like 4 different plots running at once, and and it was too much for this short of a book. The flipping between them definitely made it difficult to follow, I though, just because by the time one had who was who, the book was over. The 'action' part, which followed Len and his friends, could have been great if it was more developed, but as it was it just didn't make sense. They get sent up on a suicide mission, fine, but how come they have plenty of food and air? Someone checked that, and not, you know, the engine?? It wasn't even hand-waved away, but just completely ignored. Gordon showing off he knew about time dilation (though I don't think he explained it right) was the only bit of 'hard' science to be found, and it's presence made it feel like he forgot the rest. Towards the end (with Berkeley's chapters) there was some really good and thoughr provoking thoughts on the nature of government and propaganda, which gave it some redemption.. I feel as though this is a rough draft in what could have been on of the great classic sci-fi novels with a good editor. Also, the title... clearly it's meant to be 'Yellow Faction'.. how did that get messed up?
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 14, 2020 8:28:12 GMT -5
Akata WitchNnedi Okorafor, 2011 I find that reading good SF/fantasy YA literature is sometimes balm for the soul, and Okorafor is really one of the masters of the genre (right up there with Ursula Le Guin). I like her ‘adult’ prose as well, but her YA stuff is something else. The main character in both books is Sunny Nwazue, an American-born Nigerian teenage girl, who feels doubly insecure in her school because she’s not only ‘American’ but also an albino. Then her life takes a real left turn when one of her schoolmates, a boy named Orlu, and a neighborhood girl, Chichi (who doesn’t go to school), tell her that she’s one of the ‘Leopard People,’ who have magical abilities. She begins to attend instructions with a teacher, together with Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha (a recent arrival from the US), who helps them hone their talents and generally learn how to use their magical abilities responsibly. The four of them, however, have a tendency to get into a number of perilous situations, some of their own making, others not. Eventually they have to deal with a renegade Leopard person who has become a serial killer targeting small children, which eventually leads to a confrontation with a malevolent spirit being. Akata Warrior (2017) Set almost two years after the first one. Sunny is still balancing her normal life with her family and school and her life and learning in the Leopard community – one of the biggest no-nos for Leopard people is divulging or even accidentally revealing in any way their existence to normies, who they call ‘Lambs’. This causes no end of problems with Sunny’s family, esp. when her older brother gets in trouble with a secretive and violent fraternity-like organization at his university and Sunny has to use her abilities to help him get out of that mess without him finding out how. Eventually, Sunny also has to have a showdown with the same entity that she confronted in the first book. This sequel is even better than the first one, but both books are fantastically well written – I can’t recommended these enough.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2020 4:02:12 GMT -5
I decided it was time to finally read through all of the Wheel of Time, and tonight I finished the first book, The Eye of the World. It's the fifth time I have read this book. When I first discovered this series, shortly after finishing university, I believe book four was just about to be released. I read the first three and then book four. At the time, it was rumored to be a seven book series. A year later, book five came out, and I reread 1-4 before diving in to number five. Did that each time a new book came out through book seven, now knowing, it would not be a seven book series. The books kept getting bigger and the end kept feeling further off. I loved the world Jordan created, and the characters, and by that point, I was deeply invested in it all, but I just couldn't keep up, so made the decision to wait until it all finished, then I would read the series all the way through. Book seven was the last I read (but I had read the prequel novel a New Spring as well). The greatest fer I and some of my friends at the time who were in to fantasy novels has was the Jordan would die before the series was finished. In 2007, that was exactly what happened. Brandon Sanderson was brought in to finish the series from Jordan's notes and with instructions given by Jordan before he died. I had kept buying them up through book ten, but stopped there. In 2012, I got the bug to read the series, but only got through the first book before other things distracted me and I ended up getting rid of the books figuring I would never read the series. It was about then I took a long hiatus from reading epic fantasy (nearly seven years, as I hadn't read any until 2019 when I picked up the Hobbit again). Over the past year I have been exploring a lot of modern fantasy, and the bug to finally tackle the Wheel of Time crept in. I no longer had the books, so I rebought the first novel (a new printing with a horribly blah cover not the one with the Matthew Sweet cover above because it seems that the upcoming Amazon series has driven up prices of earlier printings of these books in the secondary market even though they used to be ubiquitous in used book stores, especially around the time I sold off my copies) and dove in. It took me nearly 2 weeks to get through the nearly 800 pages of the first book, but I finished it tonight and had ordered book two via Amazon last week. When I tried to reread the series in 2012, parts of this book felt like a slog. I hadn't felt like that any of the other times I read it, but it's why I never got past the first book on 2012. I wasn't sure what to expect this time. It's why I only ordered the first book initially. If I got bogged down again, I didn't want to have bought books I wasn't going to read. Even though it took me two weeks, it wasn't a slog at all this time. If I had had more time to read, I would have finished it quicker. I didn't want to put it down each night, but I need to knock off and get some sleep. Tonight, I have about 80 pages to go, and I figured I would knock off 40-50 and finish it tomorrow night, but no, I got sucked it and had to finish it tonight. A lot of the book came back to me in general terms (what do you expect after 5 reads), but a lot of the details had been forgotten, so it still felt fresh reading it this time. The first book wears its Tolkien influence on its sleeve, but as the series progresses it moves away from that, really starting with book 2. A lot of the 70s and 80s saw fantasy novels dominated by Tolkien clones and Tolkien rip-offs, things like the Sword of Shanara that I loved in high school, but reading as an adult left me disappointed by how much it was just Brooks inserting his own character into the Tolkien blueprint and addling nothing new. Jordan plot and structure for the first book certainly hearken to Tolkien's blueprint, but he adds a lot of his own ingredients in, most especially in the number of strong female characters he includes and in the unique magic system he created, plus his world feels nothing like Middle Earth or a slight variant of it. There is a very clear dividing line between classic epic fantasy in the Tolkien vein, and modern epic fantasy as epitomized by things like Martin's A song of Fire and Ice, and Jordan's Wheel of Time is very much the transition point for that dividing line. In some ways, it hearkens to the Tolkien mode, but in many more it blazes new trails and breaks ground creating fertile soil for modern fantasy to spring up in. The groundwork for modern fantasy is laid here, and it is simultaneously a classic fantasy series and a modern one. Only thirteen (fourteen if I reread the prequel again) books to go. -M
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 15, 2020 12:05:41 GMT -5
The Emperor of the Last DaysRon Goulart, 1977 Snapped this one up with a few others in a used bookstore in Portland, OR last time I visited in 2018. It was cheap, I saw Goulart’s name on it, liked the cover art and figured it was a space opera. It’s actually more like a rather humorous caper story, though, set back in 2029 (that was a few years ago, right? Seems like it…). An intrepid young reporter disappears while investigating the suspicious deaths of several high-profile members of the only remaining opposition party in the US. She had shared some of her concerns with a section chief in the United States Facts System (bascially the central national security database), and the computer he works with, an AI named Barney. The latter gathers a group of unlikely associates, all with special talents and abilities (including a cyborg teenager and telekinetic petty thief) to find the reporter, and, in the process, foil a plot to take over the world by a secretive millenarian cabal with agents at the highest levels of government. While not a masterpiece, this is a solidly entertaining book (although there are a few things that didn't age well, like a reference to young black woman as a ‘Negro girl’). That aside, I think it could be made into a pretty good movie or comic book adaptation – esp. given the various characters with unusual abilities. The ending also seemed to indicate that Goulart was setting up future adventures with these same characters, but as far as I can tell he never revisited them.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 15, 2020 13:51:20 GMT -5
That looks like a fun one!
I agree with MRP about some of the old 'epic fantasy' stuff... I LOVED the Shannara books when I was a kid, and was mortified how terrible the first one is now looking back. I don't remember if I stopped at book 9 or 10 in Wheel of Time, but I was REALLY annoyed at the time about the lack of ending, and I'm not a big fan of Sanderson, so I never read the 'finale'
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 17, 2020 12:40:38 GMT -5
Galaxy JaneRon Goulart, 1986 Another of Goulart’s comic SF novels. Don’t let the cover or it’s blurb fool you: this one isn’t about the swashbuckling space pirate you see pictured. Rather, it features one of Goulart’s recurring characters, muckraking interplanetary reporter Jack Summer, and is set in the Barnum system of planets, which appears in many of his novels and stories – and it’s also the setting for the Star Hawks newspaper strip he did with Gil Kane (in fact, a character from Star Hawks makes a guest appearance here). The news organization that Summer works for sends him and a young cub reporter (who’s also basically the boss’ daughter) to do a fluff piece about a movie production that will feature the epic story of ‘Galaxy Jane’, a legendary pirate and rebel who was active in the system a hundred years before. But they’re actually assigned to uncover a drug smuggling ring that’s somehow connected to the movie production company. Much mayhem ensues… Like the one I reviewed above, this one is an enjoyable light read, basically the literary equivalent of fast food. However, a similar caveat also applies about certain bits that didn’t age well: here it’s a kind of casual, probably non-intentional nor malicious sexism that crops up here and there.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 17, 2020 14:40:52 GMT -5
Stolen Away by Max Allan CollinsCollins brings Nate Heller back to become involved in one of the earlier "Crimes of the Century" the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping. Since the kidnapping took place in March of 1932, the first part of the book occurs while Heller is still a detective with the Chicago P.D. and the later part just after he opened his Heller Detective Agency. Due to his recovery of kidnapped child in the immediate aftermath of and initial investigation of the kidnapping, Lindbergh requests Heller act as a liaison and assist in the investigation (something somewhat similar did happen because of the overtures of Al Capone that he could get the Lindbergh Baby back). So we see the investigation through the eyes of Heller as he interacts with most of the actual players (and a couple that are pastiches). He's later called on by the Governor of New Jersey to see if he can find evidence either exonerating Richard Hauptmann or at least show he didn't work alone. Collins, as is his want in this series, gives us every possible conspiracy theory. You know full well if you've read any previous Heller novels that, at the very least, Hauptmann didn't work alone, and that he's likely innocent. One of the joys of reading these novels in the internet age is that it's a lot easier to follow Collins down his rabbit holes and get a better view on both the views that Heller is presenting and the conventional wisdom as to what happened. It had been a significan amount of time since I'd done any real reading on the case. My take-away is that, while I don't by any means subscribe to the view of Heller, there's ample evidence that the case was screwed up from the get-go due to incredibly sloppy police work in the initial investigation, the general ineptness of Norman Schwarzkopf, and Lindbergh insisting on controlling the investigation. The read was a bit of a roller-coaster. At first it seemed like it was going to be standard Heller. About 1/3 of the way in I was thinking that it was actually going to be my least favorite of the series thus far. But then at just past the half-way mark it really turned around and I lost sleep pursuing the second half of the book. It's a good read. And if it drags at points it is well worth pushing through.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 18, 2020 14:45:14 GMT -5
Star Hawks: Empire 99 (1980) Star Hawks #2: The Cyborg King (1981)Ron Goulart, illustrations by Gil Kane This first one is a mash-up of two different story arcs in the Star Hawks comic strip that Goulart pretty seemlessly turned into a single coherent story. Pretty much all of the illustrations are individual panels from the newspaper strip. A fun little read, which you can literally finish in a single sitting. The second one contains an entirely new story, involving the political turmoil in one of the planets in the Barnum system caused by the mad cyborg king (as per the title). My impression is that this story is probably a plot recycled by Goulart after he stopped writing the newspaper strip. Again, a fun little romp, with new illustrations by Kane.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2020 15:10:46 GMT -5
Stolen Away by Max Allan CollinsCollins brings Nate Heller back to become involved in one of the earlier "Crimes of the Century" the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping. Since the kidnapping took place in March of 1932, the first part of the book occurs while Heller is still a detective with the Chicago P.D. and the later part just after he opened his Heller Detective Agency. Due to his recovery of kidnapped child in the immediate aftermath of and initial investigation of the kidnapping, Lindbergh requests Heller act as a liaison and assist in the investigation (something somewhat similar did happen because of the overtures of Al Capone that he could get the Lindbergh Baby back). So we see the investigation through the eyes of Heller as he interacts with most of the actual players (and a couple that are pastiches). He's later called on by the Governor of New Jersey to see if he can find evidence either exonerating Richard Hauptmann or at least show he didn't work alone. Collins, as is his want in this series, gives us every possible conspiracy theory. You know full well if you've read any previous Heller novels that, at the very least, Hauptmann didn't work alone, and that he's likely innocent. One of the joys of reading these novels in the internet age is that it's a lot easier to follow Collins down his rabbit holes and get a better view on both the views that Heller is presenting and the conventional wisdom as to what happened. It had been a significan amount of time since I'd done any real reading on the case. My take-away is that, while I don't by any means subscribe to the view of Heller, there's ample evidence that the case was screwed up from the get-go due to incredibly sloppy police work in the initial investigation, the general ineptness of Norman Schwarzkopf, and Lindbergh insisting on controlling the investigation. The read was a bit of a roller-coaster. At first it seemed like it was going to be standard Heller. About 1/3 of the way in I was thinking that it was actually going to be my least favorite of the series thus far. But then at just past the half-way mark it really turned around and I lost sleep pursuing the second half of the book. It's a good read. And if it drags at points it is well worth pushing through. This sounds like something that I'd enjoy. Do all the Heller books involve conspiracies? Also, is this a good place to start?
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 18, 2020 15:38:28 GMT -5
Stolen Away by Max Allan CollinsCollins, as is his want in this series, gives us every possible conspiracy theory. You know full well if you've read any previous Heller novels that, at the very least, Hauptmann didn't work alone, and that he's likely innocent. One of the joys of reading these novels in the internet age is that it's a lot easier to follow Collins down his rabbit holes and get a better view on both the views that Heller is presenting and the conventional wisdom as to what happened. It had been a significan amount of time since I'd done any real reading on the case. My take-away is that, while I don't by any means subscribe to the view of Heller, there's ample evidence that the case was screwed up from the get-go due to incredibly sloppy police work in the initial investigation, the general ineptness of Norman Schwarzkopf, and Lindbergh insisting on controlling the investigation. The read was a bit of a roller-coaster. At first it seemed like it was going to be standard Heller. About 1/3 of the way in I was thinking that it was actually going to be my least favorite of the series thus far. But then at just past the half-way mark it really turned around and I lost sleep pursuing the second half of the book. It's a good read. And if it drags at points it is well worth pushing through. Slam, just curious, do any relatives of the Lindberghs figure as characters in the story?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 18, 2020 15:48:48 GMT -5
Stolen Away by Max Allan CollinsCollins, as is his want in this series, gives us every possible conspiracy theory. You know full well if you've read any previous Heller novels that, at the very least, Hauptmann didn't work alone, and that he's likely innocent. One of the joys of reading these novels in the internet age is that it's a lot easier to follow Collins down his rabbit holes and get a better view on both the views that Heller is presenting and the conventional wisdom as to what happened. It had been a significan amount of time since I'd done any real reading on the case. My take-away is that, while I don't by any means subscribe to the view of Heller, there's ample evidence that the case was screwed up from the get-go due to incredibly sloppy police work in the initial investigation, the general ineptness of Norman Schwarzkopf, and Lindbergh insisting on controlling the investigation. The read was a bit of a roller-coaster. At first it seemed like it was going to be standard Heller. About 1/3 of the way in I was thinking that it was actually going to be my least favorite of the series thus far. But then at just past the half-way mark it really turned around and I lost sleep pursuing the second half of the book. It's a good read. And if it drags at points it is well worth pushing through. Slam, just curious, do any relatives of the Lindberghs figure as characters in the story? As I recall just Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It did point out that the Lindbergh's generally stayed at the Morrow Estate during the week when Lindy was working in New York City and generally only went to Highfields (their home in New Jersey) on the weekends.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 18, 2020 15:54:42 GMT -5
Stolen Away by Max Allan Collins This sounds like something that I'd enjoy. Do all the Heller books involve conspiracies? Also, is this a good place to start? I'd say it stands alone pretty well so you could certainly start with it. It's the fifth book in the series so if you start at the beginning you're not going to take super long to get there. And there may be a few minor spoilers for things that happened in books 1-4. And overall I'd say, yes, so far they all look at "alternate" views of the standard historical view of the events in the book. Those would include the assassination attempt on Roosevelt that ended in the death of Anton Cermak, Frank Nitti's suicide, and events surrounding the deaths of John Dillinger and Bugsy Siegel.
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 18, 2020 17:35:21 GMT -5
Slam, just curious, do any relatives of the Lindberghs figure as characters in the story? As I recall just Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It did point out that the Lindbergh's generally stayed at the Morrow Estate during the week when Lindy was working in New York City and generally only went to Highfields (their home in New Jersey) on the weekends. Read a book about 25 years ago that speculated that her sister was the culprit b/c of what we'd today call some kind of emotional or psychological issues and that the rest was a cover-up to protect the family. Then things got out of hand.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 18, 2020 17:43:48 GMT -5
As I recall just Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It did point out that the Lindbergh's generally stayed at the Morrow Estate during the week when Lindy was working in New York City and generally only went to Highfields (their home in New Jersey) on the weekends. Read a book about 25 years ago that speculated that her sister was the culprit b/c of what we'd today call some kind of emotional or psychological issues and that the rest was a cover-up to protect the family. Then things got out of hand. That's actually not one of the conspiracies I came across when I went down various rabbit holes in the reading. One of them was that Lindbergh himself killed the child, though that broke in to two different camps. One was that it was accidental and happened because Lindbergh was a prankster who had pretended before that the child was missing. The other was that the child had some genetic abnormalities and Lindbergh got rid of it because it wasn't the ideal baby. The most damning thing for Lindbergh was the absolute hash he made of the case by taking charge and the ridiculousness of the local and state police allowing it. That was one of the precipitating factors in the passage of the "Little Lindbergh Law" because it was felt that Federal agencies would be less likely to bow to the wishes of powerful victims.
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