What are we reading?

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

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Gusington

^It's Pen and Sword book so it's put together very well, with lots of historical detail. There are some editing errors in the first few pages I have read so far so Brant would lose his mind. Carey is an expert in Muslim history though and the team he put together to produce the maps and illustrations is well respected.


слава Україна!

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

-JudgeDredd

Hiimori

Just returned from a battlefield tour to Bastogne and the Ardennes (La Roche, Houffalize, Easy Company foxholes in Jack's Wood...). To prolong this impressive experience (already back at work  :-\), I've started reading "Bastogne" by Michael Tolhurst, a book from the Battleground Europe series. Good read so far, very detailed with some useful travel tips about visiting the area today, lots of photos, cards, and background information. The book also suggests some tours, but for planning a full-fledged Ardennes-Battle of the Bulge tour, I would highly recommend "A tour of the Bulge Battlefields" by William C. C. Cavanagh.
Homefront Wargame Center - supporting our hobby!

www.homefrontcenter.de

JasonPratt

#962
Updating my Wheel of Time read-thru: I've switched to a 10%/day plan, partly in anticipation of the coming slog, and partly because I have other things I want to freaking read this year (including new entries in the ongoing brilliant Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fanfic); so I've burned through three books this month, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords, and just now finishing up The Path of Daggers.

Can't say I'm much looking forward to the next two books, since between them they killed my interest in the series (until I confirmably heard it really did end respectfully well). But blowing through them this quickly should, by tautology, get me through them quickly at least. ;)

Books 6, 7, and 8, disappointed me when I originally read them, yet on previous catchup rereads I found I liked them more than I was expecting based on my memories of them. That odd experience repeated itself this time, too.

I can see clearly enough why they disappointed me after (what I regard as) the high-water mark of Book 5: up until then, plenty of things happen in each book, and there's an impressive and important climactic action sequence with multiple levels of engagement and things going on at the end, with major clear accomplishments.

That changed with Book 6. Several important things do happen -- the Black Tower is formed from scratch and its soldiers get to have an initial mission (during the climactic action sequence); a lost artifact is learned about which will help solve a major problem; Rand sets up a plan to deal with the Forsaken general Sammael and rescue the nation of Illian with as little damage as possible; one of the last "Forses" (as we liked to call the Forsaken back on the Compuserve WOT forum) shows up to start causing trouble; two of the previously slain Forsaken get rebooted into new bodies so they can cause trouble, too; the Superfade Shadar Haran makes his first appearance; and the White Tower puts a very clever plan into action which results in Rand being put in the worst danger of the series so far (and for the next several books as well) leading to a bloody climactic action sequence. Did Min's side of the romantic plot advance, or was that in the next book...? (She does not much of anything in these three books.)

And yet the slog also begins (or shifts into a lower gear to the point that I begin to resent it): an inordinate amount of time is spent with the Supergirls and the rebel White Tower camp DOING PRACTICALLY NOTHING, partly because no one in charge has an idea what to do (which is reasonably believable but not fun to read about) and partly because RJ's solution (having the third Supergirl, Egwene, summoned to lead them as an ostensible puppet) is something that would move their side of the plot along too quickly compared to other parts. Demandred does nothing obvious, although he seems linked to the Black Tower somehow. (And then disappears from the plot so completely over the next two books that fans thought one or two new characters might be him in disguise.) The newly rebooted Forses proceed to go do nothing for a while. Shadar Haran does nothing but loom and act unusual for a Myrdraaal. Sammael gets another Forsaken, Graendal, on his side, but meanders around waiting for Rand to invade Illian. Rand cannot invade Illian because the White Tower interrupts him with their own plan; and while that plan is admirably clever and a great threat to Rand, the resulting action sequence lacks the fully epic layers of the previous five books. Worst of all, Matrim Cauthon (the fan-favorite male character of the series) gets shuffled around accomplishing nothing, partly because his purpose during one half of the book is to only be a strategic decoy, and partly because his purpose in the second half of the book is to go do something the plot won't allow and so he starts a whole other thread of plot late in the book which cannot possibly have time to go anywhere.


Similarly, several important things happen in Book 7 -- Sammael is decisively and permanently defeated; the Supergirls find their artifact (and a group of hidden women who are a treasure all to themselves); Rand takes important initial steps in reconciling with some rebels to his rule and gets involved in an action scene which inadvertently gives him the hint on how to clean the taint from the male side of the One Power; the Seanchan Forerunners invade much more successfully than the first time, quickly snapping up about half of "Randland" before anyone knows what's going on; and the Forse leader returns to start catching up on the plot since he's been gone. If Min's romantic plot didn't advance in Book 6, it does now (I think it was now), and the Lan/Nynaeve romantic plot finally comes together with their marriage.

And yet the slog also continues. Much of the first part of the book deals with the same action scene that finished out book 6, told from other perspectives, and that does help flesh out that scene better but it's also necessarily redundant. The dicey political situation set up by Rand's capture takes some time, and it's nicely tense, but the only real question is how Rand will navigate it without just snapping and killing people off left and right (which would be disastrous). The hunt for the artifact in Ebou Dar BORES THE LIVING HELL OUT OF EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE STORY, and so doesn't do anything for the reader, either, despite Robert Jordan strumming the combined comic tensions of the various characters to the absolute limit while the plot cannot move forward. The artifact is found (and a nice little action sequence commences), but there's no time left in the book to do anything with it. The Seanchan invasion is supposed to be happening off away from where the characters know what's happening, so for the most part it happens off-screen until the very end, and then rocks fall on the best character in the series (Mat) while everyone else is running away. The climactic action sequence, to rescue Illian and destroy Sammael, becomes a tamer repeat of the previous Forsaken fights (with more long-distance counter-punching by Sam), and ends with a death so ambiguous that readers were sure for years that Sammael wasn't supposed to be dead after all (if I recall correctly RJ had to confirm it by Word Of God during a convention Q&A session eventually). Also Rand launches it at the last minute, literally on the spur of the moment. Why not earlier in the book? Because... then the book would be over. Or shorter. The return of the Forsaken leader is shrouded in mystery because he isn't operating openly yet and doesn't look (or much act) the way he used to, and so he doesn't really do much either yet. Egwene has gotten the Salidar White Tower moving toward a confrontation with the 'official' WT, but that's a plot for a later book so nothing gets accomplished there (yet several chapters are spent making sure nothing is happening there). Oh and Shadar Haran skulks around threatening other villains on occasion but not doing much for a supposed avatar of Satan. The rebooted Forsaken twins are inserted into their various groups to spy what's going on, but by the nature of their mission they don't really do anything (and it isn't overly clear yet who one of them even is for sure).


Do things happen in Book 8? Sure: the artifact is finally used, and fixes a major problem (and introduces a different major problem); the Seanchan more-or-less conquer the Whitecloaks (and free an important minor character whose plot hasn't been going anywhere for a while, and whom I cannot imagine contributing anything to the plot later); Moridin, the new Forsaken leader, takes more active steps to rein in his remaining minions and get them working together instead of competing with one another; and Rand counter-invades one of the Seanchan arms of expansion to keep them from threatening Illian later. Oh, and he survives an assassination attempt at the end of the book. Meanwhile Eg finds a clever way to politically maneuver herself into better power.

BUT IT TAKES FOREVER TO GET THOSE THINGS DONE! Except when the time comes to actually do them, then it only takes a few chapters. Rand's counter-invasion is a muddled fog-of-war mess over two chapters toward the end of the book; until then he doesn't do much; after then he has a fight with someone whom he doesn't even realize is a Forsaken (who isn't very competent) and then decides to go into hiding next book. (Whee.) The first 25% of the book (maybe 30%) is spent with a very large group of bickering women, adding to the numbers of bickering women, and finally using the artifact before running away again (although at least there's an impressive explosion to round things off). Eg is stuck literally slogging along in the snow after the weather changes, inching toward her political victory, and setting up a rest for the next book (if I recall correctly her side of the plot won't move forward until somewhere in Book freaking 11!) Moridin's actions are entirely behind the scenes again, the Forsaken fight at the end is an even tamer and quicker version of previous Forse fights (because the guy doing it isn't a fighter unlike previous Forses and doesn't have any other serious advantages either, so he sucks at his job and mainly just confuses things). RJ spits on reader expectations, not only by making the long-anticipated rematch between Rand and the Seanchan a confusing mess, but by (apparently) fulfilling a long-expected prophecy as unimportantly and boringly as possible! I continue to hope this is only misdirection on his part, and that the prophecy will be more importantly fulfilled later, although I've yet to hear that happens -- but even if it's misdirection it can only build bad will with faithful readers who have waited over ten years, maybe closer to fifteen, for that story element to happen, and then to have it (apparently) happen as a preliminary side-effect to another part of the plot that underperformed to long anticipations. (The fandom was positively LIVID back in the day. With many more years of perspective I'm only mildly annoyed. Then again, I did spend about an hour writing up all this. ;) Holy bleep, I'd better save my text...!)

Oh and the most interesting and beloved character in the series is out of action the whole book, never appearing once.

And one of the other most interesting characters, stuck in a terrible romantic storyline liked by no fan anywhere (that I can recall ever hearing), gets sent off (along with his terrible romantic storyline) on the beginning of a diplomatic mission-in-force (with his own small army) to do nothing in this book but arrive in the area and meet with a powerless queen in secret. I am reliably informed by people who continued reading after Book 9 that the terrible romantic storyline utterly handicaps this side of the plot, keeping it from moving forward with any accomplishment (and leading the character, Perrin, to do things which earn him hate from long-term fans) at least as far as Book 13.  :-\


So, yeah. The slog has begun, and will only get worse next month. Still, I'm past the halfway point (bookwise anyway, not sure about wordcount or pagecount) as of the end of Book 7, and by the 20th of August I should be past the slog altogether, with four books of climactic plot tie-ups to go. :)
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!

Staggerwing

The Mongoliad is turning out to be a formidable read.

Lots of hard-core fighting with secret societies, thrilling chases, courtly intrigues, and a few suspiciously familiar characters (or their analogs, anyway). There are also a bunch of related shorts and novellas written by many authors and spanning perhaps a thousand years.... This is turning into quite the literary franchise!
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!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

Greybriar

I am currently reading The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace by H.W. Brands.
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

Grimnirsson

Starting with the first book of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson, An Army At Dawn. So far I like the style and it's the perfect fit for the game on our table right now Axis Empires: Totaler Krieg
Homefront Wargame Center - supporting our hobby!

www.homefrontcenter.de

JasonPratt

And so, having griped about the WoT slogfest (with no doubt another gripe coming next month as I finally once and for all finish the slog), allow me to bring you the amazing anti-slog and completely free Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fanfic.

The Mobi version is attached below, works just fine on Kindles. Other formats can be found at http://hpmor.com/ (although the very nice PDF version with the official Potter font has not been updated for many chapters. Makes a good and very extensive introduction to the series, though.)

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!

JasonPratt

(I tested the upload first to make sure the file would arrive as a zip. Now for more information.)

Why should a Groghead read HPMOR? Aside from the clever humor and the author's love for the franchise in all its crazy details? (Not me, I only know the series from the movies. ;) )


Because Professor Quirrell, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor (and so much more ;) ), decides the best way to train the students is by breaking up each year into teams and having them fight one another in dangerous mock battles with plenty of strategic and tactical brilliance by the various generals. With Harry being a clear fan of Warhammer 40K.

It. Is. Awesome.

QuoteOmake Files #1: 72 Hours to Victory -- aka "what happens if you change Harry but leave all other characters
constant"

Dumbledore peered over his desk at young Harry, twinkling in a
kindly sort of way. The boy had come to him with a terribly
intense look on his childish face—Dumbledore hoped that whatever this
matter was, it wasn't too serious. Harry was far too young for his life
trials to be starting already. "What was it you wished to speak to me
about, Harry?"

Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres leaned forward in his chair, smiling
grimly. "Headmaster, I got a sharp pain in my scar during the Sorting
Feast. Considering how and where I got this scar, it didn't seem like
the sort of thing I should just ignore. I thought at first it was because
of Professor Snape, but I followed the Baconian experimental method
which is to find the conditions for both the presence and the absence of
the phenomenon, and I've determined that my scar hurts if and only if
I'm facing the back of Professor Quirrell's head, whatever's under his
turban. While it could be something more innocuous, I think we should
provisionally assume the worst, that it's You-Know-Who—wait, don't
look so horrified, this is actually a priceless opportunity—"

That was only an Omake (the author knows his anime, too), a brief humorous sidestory chapter showing how quickly the story would be over if Harry was competent but Voldy wasn't. HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED IS VERY VERRRRY COMPETENT NOW!! The story might still be finished in Harry's first year at school, but the first 83 chapters (in the PDF) run 1391 pages. 1400 pages of fast-moving plot.

A short description of the fanfic would in fact be, "What if most of the characters were far more competent than they were in the books/movies?" In Harry's case, that's because his aunt convinced his mother to give her a potion to permanently turn her thin so she could court and marry a scientist rather than the real story's Dudley. So Harry was raised in a loving, nurturing single-child home, where his talent was fostered long before he ever discovered magic is real.

It isn't entirely a Marty Stu story: Harry makes mistakes (sometimes drastic ones) and doesn't always follow the author's beliefs or philosophies (although he does come close). He earns his victories through hard work and preparation, properly applying Canon!Harry's natural talents and advantages. And as noted, the other characters typically turn out to be far more competent than Harry himself is expecting, earning his respect along the way despite not being "scientists".


For a much more spoilerish (though alphabetically sorted) overview of the plot, to help readers decide if they want to invest their time, I recommend the TVTropes page at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality  .
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!

Martok

Quote from: JasonPratt on July 28, 2013, 07:59:06 PM
Oh and the most interesting and beloved character in the series is out of action the whole book, never appearing once.
Would that be Thom or Loyale, perhaps? 

I don't keep up with the WoT community, so I have no idea which characters might be the crowd favorites (although I do know Faile is almost certainly at the bottom of that list!). 

"Like we need an excuse to drink to anything..." - Banzai_Cat
"I like to think of it not as an excuse but more like Pavlovian Response." - Sir Slash

"At our ages, they all look like jailbait." - mirth

"If we had lines here that would have crossed all of them. For the 1,077,986th time." - Gusington

"Government is so expensive that it should at least be entertaining." - airboy

"As long as there's bacon, everything will be all right." - Toonces

JasonPratt

#969
Quote from: Martok on July 29, 2013, 01:45:17 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on July 28, 2013, 07:59:06 PM
Oh and the most interesting and beloved character in the series is out of action the whole book, never appearing once.
Would that be Thom or Loyale, perhaps? 

I don't keep up with the WoT community, so I have no idea which characters might be the crowd favorites (although I do know Faile is almost certainly at the bottom of that list!).

Mat, although Loial does have a strong following. And briefly shows up in TPoD with a cameo; unfortunately in the later books he's often connected with the wretched Faile plotline, something neither he nor his fans are at all happy about.  :P

Thom is barely in the book either, if at all; I think I recall him being stuck back with Mat, just not under rocks.

I'll recall correctly soon; Mat certainly returns for WH, and while I don't recall him doing all that much (aside from finally meeting the Daughter of the Nine Moons) I do recall his part of the plot being the best in that book.


Meanwhile, I quickly caught up on the massive update to HPMOR yesterday: that's how to pull a clear-in-hindsight gut wrenching disaster in the plot! Nicely done. The author also throws out several good hints that he's on the final downhill slope and will be finishing soon. (Well relatively soon, next spring maybe.) Still nothing but love for that book.
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!

republic

I'm reading a great book about the TU-22 Blinder.  One of the most detailed single aicraft book I've read.  I had no idea the TU-22 was regularly used at low level, which lead me to this video: 

airboy

Grey Tide in the East was an excellent WW1 Alt-history.  Grogheads has a book review of this.

mirth

Quote from: republic on August 02, 2013, 06:53:10 PM
I'm reading a great book about the TU-22 Blinder.  One of the most detailed single aicraft book I've read.  I had no idea the TU-22 was regularly used at low level, which lead me to this video: 


Damn, those are some crazy passes!

What's the book you're reading?
"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

Toonces

Quote from: Grimnirsson on July 29, 2013, 03:39:23 AM
Starting with the first book of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson, An Army At Dawn. So far I like the style and it's the perfect fit for the game on our table right now Axis Empires: Totaler Krieg

I couldn't get into An Army at Dawn, but I'm just finishing up the second one, The Day of Battle.  I have the third one covering Normandy through the end of the war queued up, Guns at Last Light.
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

mirth

Quote from: Toonces on August 04, 2013, 03:25:05 PM
Quote from: Grimnirsson on July 29, 2013, 03:39:23 AM
Starting with the first book of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson, An Army At Dawn. So far I like the style and it's the perfect fit for the game on our table right now Axis Empires: Totaler Krieg

I couldn't get into An Army at Dawn, but I'm just finishing up the second one, The Day of Battle.  I have the third one covering Normandy through the end of the war queued up, Guns at Last Light.

You couldn't get into An Army at Dawn?  May I ask why? I thought it was better than The Day of Battle, though both were superb. Haven't read the last one yet.
"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