What are we reading?

[Gusington]

I don't dabble a lot in WWII alternate history stuff. ACW and WWI alternate history I dig.

[mirth]

You should try 1945 by Forschten and Gingrich. It was way the hell out there but the whole bit with Skorzeny conducting raids on American soil was interesting.

Fun read. I wish they had done the follow-on books.

[bbmike]

Forstchen's The Lost Regiment series was excellent. Would make an awesome move.  O0

[mirth]

Forstchen's The Lost Regiment series was excellent. Would make an awesome move.  O0

A Lost Regiment movie has been rumored for many years. I think it was optioned at least once,  but nothing came out of it.

I liked the first few books, but they became repetitive as the series went on.

[BanzaiCat]

As long as you stay away from Harry Turtledove. Paint drying is far more exciting than his pedantic plots.

[Gusington]

Never read him on the advice of almost everyone here.

[mirth]

As long as you stay away from Harry Turtledove. Paint drying is far more exciting than his pedantic plots.

Yep. I've tried many times to read Turtledove. Never made it past the first chapter of anything he's written.

[Gusington]

I hate stories where a Confederate units get AK47s or a Roman legion lands on Mars.

[BanzaiCat]

Forstchen's The Lost Regiment series was excellent. Would make an awesome move.  O0

A Lost Regiment movie has been rumored for many years. I think it was optioned at least once,  but nothing came out of it.

I liked the first few books, but they became repetitive as the series went on.

I think the first four are pretty amazing; it's one of my favorite series ever. The fourth is pushing it a bit (not sure if it's the third or fourth one where they defend the Rome/Roma area or not). I did read a few after that but I don't remember the plots from them.

There was indeed a movie in the works, which got me all excited. I don't even see it showing up on IMDB anymore. Forstchen.com's last update on this was from 2007 I think. A shame, but then again, considering Hollywood's track record, they'd find a way to screw it up and make it pander to the Chinese market.

[mirth]

I hate stories where a Confederate units get AK47s or a Roman legion lands on Mars.

As stupid as those concepts sound, you'd think they could at least be fun in a pulpy sorta way. Turtledove just makes everything dull.

[BanzaiCat]

I hate stories where a Confederate units get AK47s or a Roman legion lands on Mars.

Guns of the South was...an okay read. It was the ONLY book Turtledove did that was readable for me (admittedly I read it early on before I even knew who he was - I worked at Waldenbooks at the time and saw the hardcover with Lee on the cover holding an AK-47 and that got me all moist in the cockles of my alt-history heart).

I tried his Roman Legion series (the Videossis Cycle? Something like that, I don't care enough to look it up) where a Roman legion is transported to another planet, and I couldn't get through it.

Turtledove's books are like what's wrong with trailers these days. Trailer-makers can make any movie look like the most amazing thing ever, but when you go see it, the movie sucks balls. That's Turtledove in a nutshell - great ideas, awesomely shitty and boring executions.

[mirth]

Forstchen's The Lost Regiment series was excellent. Would make an awesome move.  O0

A Lost Regiment movie has been rumored for many years. I think it was optioned at least once,  but nothing came out of it.

I liked the first few books, but they became repetitive as the series went on.

I think the first four are pretty amazing; it's one of my favorite series ever. The fourth is pushing it a bit (not sure if it's the third or fourth one where they defend the Rome/Roma area or not). I did read a few after that but I don't remember the plots from them.

There was indeed a movie in the works, which got me all excited. I don't even see it showing up on IMDB anymore. Forstchen.com's last update on this was from 2007 I think. A shame, but then again, considering Hollywood's track record, they'd find a way to screw it up and make it pander to the Chinese market.

I think the fourth is where I stopped reading. Those first 2-3 where excellent.

[BanzaiCat]

That's one of the few series that actually gets better the further into it you get...at least for those first three or four books.

[mirth]

Turtledove's books are like what's wrong with trailers these days. Trailer-makers can make any movie look like the most amazing thing ever, but when you go see it, the movie sucks balls. That's Turtledove in a nutshell - great ideas, awesomely shitty and boring executions.

That's why I've tried reading his stuff so many times. The jacket synopsis always sounds really cool and the cover art looks great, but what's inside sucks.

[Gusington]

Come for the great ideas, stay for the shitty, boring executions!

Since I do love steampunk and dieselpunk genres, that is probably directly related to my like of older alternate history with a nice dash of plausible tech and events. Nothing too out there, like Star wearing underwear or a sober Toonces.