What are we reading?

[Gusington]

.

[Gusington]

Now reading Alien: The Blueprints by Graham J. Langridge, a giant, oversized coffee table book modeling all the structures, ships and vehicles from the Alien movie franchise.

[SirAndrewD]

[Gusington]

whoops

[Gusington]

The above was a quick read   

Now on to Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay by William Gibson:

https://shorturl.at/sNQ03

[Sigwolf]

I'm pretty sure Lane Myer's little brother from Better Off Dead would order the book Andrew posted.

As for the Alien 3 screenplay... please post your impressions when you finish.  I still remember the disappointment I felt watching the movie in the theater when it released.  I would love something to make that memory go away.  Then again, if it's really good, maybe it will make it worse. 

[Gusington]

^I will. I am probably the only person who will openly admit that I enjoyed Alien 3. What a universally hated movie. I enjoyed it.

[Sir Slash]

In space, no one can hear you scream, "It Sucks"!  No really, it wasn't that bad.

[endfire79]

Alien 3 has its bright spots. @AlienTheory on YouTube does really great segments about the whole Alien film series/comics and lore and has a nice one on Alien 3 and its different cuts & Gibson story etc. I could listen to this guy talk all night on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/@AlienTheory

These days I'm still getting through ASOIAF A Dance with Dragons. Not letting GOT Season 8 spoil my taste for this series. 

On the Grog side, I still have to finish up 'Furies: War in Europe 1450-1700'

Furies: War in Europe 1450-1700

[Gusington]

^Nice, thanks for those suggestions.

[Gusington]

I'm not finished with the Alien 3 novel, but 100 pages in. It is awesome. Very different than the movie that was made. Gibson's political preferences drip from it but if you don't mind it, it is a very good book.

I may feel different when I get to the end but I doubt it.

It feels like a proper Alien story, the tech descriptions are awesome, the mood is perfect, the characters likable and it is a breezy read where I can devour 50 pages at a time, which is very fast for me.

If other Alien novels are even half this good I will be getting many more...hopefully this isn't extraordinarily good because it is Gibson.

[ArizonaTank]

Just finishing "Conquistadores A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest" by Fernando Cervantes

I give a guarded recommendation for this one.

The strengths of the book is that it covers some of the key conquistadors such as Cortez, Pizzaro and even Columbus in great detail. Most historical narratives you see elsewhere have the Incas, Aztecs and other Native Americans being bowled over the minute the Spanish show up. The book demonstrates that in fact, the Spanish only "won" through jaw-dropping audacity and sheer dumb luck in many cases. While the Spanish enjoyed a technological superiority in terms of steel, gunpowder and horses, the natives, particularly the Inca, learned how to beat them on many battlefields, but it was not enough.

Like the Romans in barbarian lands, the Spanish also won because they managed to exploit the cracks in the native governments. The Spanish would look for allies; in many fights for every Spanish soldier the Spanish had 3 or 4 native allies.

The weakness of the book is that sometimes it goes into deep dives into the religious, governmental and philosophical aspects of the era. The book sometimes becomes very academic and long-winded in these sections and I had trouble pushing through them.

Another weakness of the book is that it focuses on just a few key conquistadors and mostly ignores the rest.

Anyway, if the era is of interest to you...sure give this book a try.

https://www.amazon.com/Conquistadores-Untold-History-Spanish-Discovery/dp/1101981261/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7ZLLDG4BV4G1&keywords=Conquistadores+A+New+History+of+Spanish+Discovery+and+Conquest&qid=1692550255&sprefix=conquistadores+a+new+history+of+spanish+discovery+and+conquest%2Caps%2C138&sr=8-1

[Gusington]

^I have that book in my shopping cart right now. And on my night stand I have, ready to read, 'Dogs of God - Columbus, the Inquisition and the Defeat of the Moors' by James Reston Jr.

https://tinyurl.com/2be58ner

But first I will be reading 'The Ruin of All Witches - Life and Death in the New World' by Malcolm Gaskill.

https://tinyurl.com/mr2aes7e

[SirAndrewD]

[Gusington]