What are we reading?

Started by Martok, March 05, 2012, 01:13:59 PM

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Gusington

I Love loved loved Peter the Great 😎

Never read a Massie book I didn't love, actually.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

airboy

Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber is $1.99 on US Kindle today.
https://www.amazon.com/Swords-Deviltry-Fafhrd-Gray-Mouser-ebook/dp/B00J90EZIA?_bbid=2281071&tag=bookbubemailc-20#nav-subnav

This is a Farfred and the Gray Mouser collection including "Ill met in Lankmahr"

WallysWorld

Quote from: Gusington on September 11, 2016, 02:39:00 PM
I Love loved loved Peter the Great 😎

Never read a Massie book I didn't love, actually.
Agree!

Massie's Catherine the Great book is my "to buy" list too.
"I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it* and what *it* is seems weird and scary to me." - Abraham Simpson

Gusington

I have to read that one. Dreadnought is one of my favorite books of all time.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Gusington

Speaking of great books, Justinian's Flea is one of the best books I have ever read on anything. Most of you guys would love it. Took me a week to finish, which is really fast for me.

And now, in honor of beginning The Witcher 3, I am about to crack open The World of the Witcher, recommended by BBoyer:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1616554827/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Airborne Rifles

Quote from: mirth on September 11, 2016, 03:30:32 PM
Quote from: Gusington on September 11, 2016, 03:17:56 PM
Dreadnought is one of my favorite books of all time.

+1

Castles of Steel for me. I've Read Peter th Great more than once too.

mirth

Quote from: Airborne Rifles on September 12, 2016, 05:49:51 PM
Quote from: mirth on September 11, 2016, 03:30:32 PM
Quote from: Gusington on September 11, 2016, 03:17:56 PM
Dreadnought is one of my favorite books of all time.

+1

Castles of Steel for me. I've Read Peter th Great more than once too.

All of Massie's stuff is gold.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Gusington

I've had a copy of Castles of Steel lurking behind me for years. I really have to get to it.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

nelmsm

Have been playing some CMNAO lately so this weekend started on Red Storm Rising for the umpteenth time. I actually wore out my first copy and had to buy a second. Fortunately found a copy at Friends of the Library sale. Retibution by Max Hastings is up next.

JasonPratt

Finally finished Shattered Chains yesterday -- I just read a lot slower nowadays because I'm old.  :buck2: The books are only 300 pages of relatively large font small paperbacks, after all.

Quality of this third book in the original Magic: the Gathering series remains up to par, although I noticed the author, Clayton Emery, dialed waaaaaaayyyy back on the interesting alt-English terms and turns of phrasing this time. Too bad, I thought that gave the previous book some nice extra flavor. The reduction isn't really a negative, just less of a positive, though.

As I noted upthread, I was surprised at how quickly and how strongly CE brought back and integrated the plot of Book 1 (Arena, which is really its own story). By the end of this book, though, I felt like maybe this had been mandated by Wizards of the Coast (the property owners) or maybe HarperCollins (the publishers), because while a certain character thus factors strongly here in Book 3, the character (trying to avoid spoilers) spends most of the book quite divorced from the plot of Book 1. Still, any continuity building is appreciated.

The grim-greyness (as I coined the term) of the series so far has also dropped back a touch, although that may just be a random flux. Still a high casualty rate in the hero team along the way!

The concept of the new story (this book being actually the second in an ongoing trilogy, with Book 1 effectively being an independent prequel) continues to lend itself well to small-unit tactics and strategy management, as the main characters chew on how to make their new little "army" work most efficiently. This warms the cockles of my little groggy heart.  :smitten:

As a fan of the card game, I was pleased to see the new first expansion (at the time of the book's release) being integrated into the storyline in a fashion that wasn't janky: the first action scene out of the gate (and these books start off running so far) features an enemy wizard who comes from a background where she uses Arabian Nights spells! I'm pretty sure the all-important next expansion set, "Antiquities", got repeatedly referenced yet along the way, too, with the author working in more references to the Brothers' War, Phyrexia (the Hell for Artifacts) and its denizens, and those who tried to oppose both dangers.

I wasn't entirely a fan of how the only way the protagonist team has even the slightest chance of accomplishing their goals, involves them having stumbled (in the previous book) into a hunt for the Most Powerful Artifact Ever Which Just So Happens To Have Been Built To Do What They Want To Do Although No One Knows That Until This Book.  ::) :P That just seems like too much of a convenient plot gift, which no amount of handwaving generalities about "the gods" or "fate" can make seem more plausible since there is literally nothing in the books so far to suggest that there's a "fate", or any "gods" that would care about setting this up to happen -- much the contrary, actually, because the "gods" of the milieu (so far) are just elevated wizards who can now travel between planes!

I did however appreciate that this (quite literal) Plot Device doesn't end up working as well as the protags were hoping, and the final chapters of the book reveal that if anything their use of it will be directly backfiring on them! The author also brings out some of the ethical problems in using the thing at all.

Anyway, my low entry expectations for enjoying the series, continue to be strongly exceeded. Onward to Book 4, The Final Sacrifice, which will end the current trilogy (and maybe any semblance of a 'series' for the rest of these first books).

I instantly checked Book 4's back cover, first thing, and was greatly amused that it continues to feature the same two cards bearing on the plot of Book 1 (we'll see if they finally loop back around to that book's plot specifically in the city of Estark) -- and also that the card for the Sewers of Estark, previously known on the first two back covers as "Sewers of Cityname"  :2funny: , continues to just not have the title of the card printed on it at all anymore!  :crazy2: :uglystupid2:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Sir Slash

Just started, "Killing The Rising Sun" by Bill O'Reilly. Three Hundred pages. So I should be finished about bedtime.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

airboy

I've recently finished Death's Bright Day by David Drake.

His RCN series is some of the best Space Opera books ever written This is the 12th book in the series.  I like this series much better than the Honor Harrington books.

Death's Bright Day is not as good as say my favorite 7 books in this series.  I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon.  But 4 stars in the RCN series is a 5 star for pretty much any other author of space opera.

David Drake had his 70th birthday this year.  So no telling how many more books he will write.  Drake served in the 11th Cav in Vietnam/Cambodia so he has a military background for these books and the Hammers Slammers series.

mirth

Damn. I had no idea Drake was 70.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Staggerwing

Quote from: airboy on September 15, 2016, 12:01:01 PM
I've recently finished Death's Bright Day by David Drake.

His RCN series is some of the best Space Opera books ever written This is the 12th book in the series.  I like this series much better than the Honor Harrington books.

Death's Bright Day is not as good as say my favorite 7 books in this series.  I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon.  But 4 stars in the RCN series is a 5 star for pretty much any other author of space opera.

David Drake had his 70th birthday this year.  So no telling how many more books he will write.  Drake served in the 11th Cav in Vietnam/Cambodia so he has a military background for these books and the Hammers Slammers series.

His Belisarius series ( 'An Oblique Approach', etc) is pretty good as well.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
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