That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons bring us some web forums whereupon we can gather
http://www.octopusoverlords.com/forum/
I've read all three, not the lectures, they are very good.Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 12:34 pm Has anyone here actually read them? Just curious how good they are.
Edit: Also, ZOIKS! "Print Length: 3107 pages"
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene is also $2.99:In this sprawling and vividly imagined fantasy, historical novelist Durham (Pride of Carthage) chronicles the downfall and reinvention of the Akaran Dynasty, whose empire, called Acacia, was built on conquest, slaving and drug trade. The Acacian empire, encompassing "The Known World," is hated by its subjugated peoples, especially the Mein, who 22 generations earlier were exiled to the icy northland. Having sent an assassin to kill the Acacian king, Leodan, the rebel chieftain, Hanish Mein, declares war on the empire. As Acacia falls, Leodan's treasonous but conflicted chancellor, Thaddeus Clegg, spirits the king's four children to safety. When the Mein's rule proves even more tyrannical than the old, the former chancellor seeks to reunite the now adult Akaran heirs—the oldest son Aliver (once heir to the throne), the beautiful elder daughter Corinn, their younger sister, Mena, and youngest brother, Dariel—to lead a war to regain the empire. Durham has created a richly detailed alternate reality leavened with a dollop of magic and populated by complicated personalities grappling with issues of freedom and oppression.
Take any of physics' major theories of the fundamental nature of the universe, extrapolate its math to the logical extreme, and you get some version of a (so far unobservable) parallel universe. And who better to navigate these hypothetical versions of the "multiverse" than Brian Greene? Normally an unflinching apologist for string theory, the bestselling author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos here treats all viable alternate realities to a laudably fair shake. For a book exploring the most far-reaching implications of bleeding-edge mathematics, The Hidden Reality is surprisingly light on math, written as it is "for a broad audience … its only prerequisite the will to persevere." Such perseverance pays off with a motley cast of potential universes featuring doppelgängers, strings, branes, quantum probabilities, holographs, and simulated worlds. The result is that rare accomplishment in science writing for a popular audience: a volume that explains the science and its consequences while stimulating the imagination of even the uninitiated.
Picked this up. Chernow's the guy famous for writing the Hamilton bio that inspired the musical. I haven't read that, but I've read the recent Grant biography by Chernow, which was amazing.jztemple2 wrote: ↑Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:41 pmI've read all three, not the lectures, they are very good.Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 12:34 pm Has anyone here actually read them? Just curious how good they are.
Edit: Also, ZOIKS! "Print Length: 3107 pages"
Today on Kindle, Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow for $2.99 USD. I read it in hardcover, it's very good.
I'm the same way, but it's more due to under-representation in the genres I read than a conscious choice. I guess it's on me to make the effort to seek them out, though.ImLawBoy wrote:It struck me recently that I don't read many woman authors (and I probably don't really read that many non-white authors, although I'm less obviously aware of this than gender).
I've got to say, that's me. I used to read a lot of Anne Rice (before she got too melodratic), and there's the occasional woman author now and again, but it's pretty sparse these days. Of the 13 books I've finished this year (plus the current one I'm reading), exactly zero of them were written by women. If I'm being honest with myself, I've avoided books by woman authors in the past because I was worried that something would be too treacly or something. I really do need to expand my horizons, because I think I'd benefit from reading from different perspectives.I’m embarrassed by the number of grown white men I meet who only read other white men, and I believe that habit starts in high school.
Well, I read pretty much only history and I pick out to read what I like based on subject matter. I only follow a few authors specifically and it matters little to me the gender or race. And I'm terrible at names anyway so I'd really have to look up which authors I've read lately.YellowKing wrote: ↑Mon Aug 27, 2018 5:06 pmI'm the same way, but it's more due to under-representation in the genres I read than a conscious choice. I guess it's on me to make the effort to seek them out, though.ImLawBoy wrote:It struck me recently that I don't read many woman authors (and I probably don't really read that many non-white authors, although I'm less obviously aware of this than gender).
Purchased!Smoove_B wrote: ↑Thu Aug 30, 2018 9:33 am It should be mandatory reading in school - The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan is $1.99 today.
I’ve been reading a lot of N.K. Jemisin recently. I think she classifies herself as an “Afro-futurist” but the books I’ve read fall more into the fantasy genre than sci-fi. In any case, I’ve enjoyed her books and would recommend her to anyone looking to diversify their reading.YellowKing wrote:I'm the same way, but it's more due to under-representation in the genres I read than a conscious choice. I guess it's on me to make the effort to seek them out, though.ImLawBoy wrote:It struck me recently that I don't read many woman authors (and I probably don't really read that many non-white authors, although I'm less obviously aware of this than gender).
Waiting for justice in Chicago
Here is the epic story of an American conflict zone: where the death toll for US citizens has climbed twice as high as in Afghanistan and where the staggering majority of homicides go unsolved. From the award-winning journalists at The Marshall Project, these are the true stories of real people fighting for justice in a city struggling to overcome a brutal legacy of violence and corruption.
5 short Kindle books with audio narration
You purchased this item on June 17, 2016.
I never understand the love for this series. I really think I must have missed something - maybe there were secret chapters or something.Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat Sep 01, 2018 9:52 am If for some reason you haven't read the First Law trilogy (and really, why haven't you?), the first book in the series is on sale today for $2.99:
The Blade Itself
True story - many years ago (8? 9?) Triggercut recommended this series and it was without question *the* book that got me back into reading regularly after my daughter was born. I still have paper copies of the entire series (because I was foolish back then), but now I own it all on Kindle. I think I've read the entire series at least 3 times; I enjoyed it tremendously.
Well, first and foremost, it has a beginning, a middle and an ending. I know that sounds crazy, but after Martin and Jordan, it was a refreshing change of pace.
In Quicksilver, the first volume of the "Baroque Cycle," Neal Stephenson launches his most ambitious work to date. The novel, divided into three books, opens in 1713 with the ageless Enoch Root seeking Daniel Waterhouse on the campus of what passes for MIT in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Daniel, Enoch's message conveys, is key to resolving an explosive scientific battle of preeminence between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the development of calculus. As Daniel returns to London aboard the Minerva, readers are catapulted back half a century to recall his years at Cambridge with young Isaac. Daniel is a perfect historical witness. Privy to Robert Hooke's early drawings of microscope images and with associates among the English nobility, religious radicals, and the Royal Society, he also befriends Samuel Pepys, risks a cup of coffee, and enjoys a lecture on Belgian waffles and cleavage-—all before the year 1700.
I really enjoyed the series. Yes, it's unwieldy (it's Neal Stephenson, after all), but I loved all the history baked into it. In that respect I actually liked it a bit more than Cryptonomicon, even if getting through the entire series was a bit of a grind.Smoove_B wrote:I tried reading Cryptonomicon years ago, but found it to be unwieldy. My gut is telling me this will likely be the same, but man...$2 for a 960 page book I'll never have to carry?
Threw a couple of recommendations into the book thread, but for a female horror novelist, I remember Muriel Gray's The Trickster and Furnace as being really good. Each one, as well as a third book by her are on Kindle for $1.99 eachImLawBoy wrote:I was reading an essay last week about "The Canon", and it was mostly an updating of the same type of piece that's been written in various formats and media since I was going to college about too much emphasis on certain types of books. Expand the canon to include more women, minority, etc., writers. It's a worthwhile discussion to have, and this article takes a really nice approach to it. It was really referring more to the high school canon, and it doesn't say to just completely ignore the dead white men. Rather, it says that many of the books in the canon are better experienced when you're older and have a little perspective. It argues to keep a lot of the classic stuff, but to put new stuff in there, too. It even includes a section on adding comics.
Anyway, out of all of that, one line kind of struck me:I've got to say, that's me. I used to read a lot of Anne Rice (before she got too melodratic), and there's the occasional woman author now and again, but it's pretty sparse these days. Of the 13 books I've finished this year (plus the current one I'm reading), exactly zero of them were written by women. If I'm being honest with myself, I've avoided books by woman authors in the past because I was worried that something would be too treacly or something. I really do need to expand my horizons, because I think I'd benefit from reading from different perspectives.I’m embarrassed by the number of grown white men I meet who only read other white men, and I believe that habit starts in high school.
Jordan had those too! It just took 20+ years to see which part was which.
I read the trilogy. Didn't know there were stand alone books that came after, but even had I known, it is unlikely I would have read them based on the trilogy.Second, I don't know how far you managed to get. Did you just read the first book? The trilogy? The two stand alone books that came after?
It's been a while since I read them (guessing about 5 years), but I remember it being terribly pointless and depressing. It wasn't a place I had any desire to revisit and there were no characters I cheered for. But to each their own.Regardless, I liked it because it took fantasy conventions and mixed them up. Not just the grimdark nature of the story, but overall how everything unfolds. He managed to use what I'd come to expect in a fantasy series against me, completely blindsided by the big reveal at the end. I never saw it coming and when it all came together, it was awesome. I liked the characters and their individual arcs. I dunno, but I get it. There are things people mention here that I just couldn't ever get into either.
With regards to the First Law trilogy - I loved book 1, but felt book 2 and book 3 really bogged down with the fake quest. Some other interesting things were still happening, but it bogged down for me.stessier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 04, 2018 10:37 amJordan had those too! It just took 20+ years to see which part was which.
I read the trilogy. Didn't know there were stand alone books that came after, but even had I known, it is unlikely I would have read them based on the trilogy.Second, I don't know how far you managed to get. Did you just read the first book? The trilogy? The two stand alone books that came after?
It's been a while since I read them (guessing about 5 years), but I remember it being terribly pointless and depressing. It wasn't a place I had any desire to revisit and there were no characters I cheered for. But to each their own.Regardless, I liked it because it took fantasy conventions and mixed them up. Not just the grimdark nature of the story, but overall how everything unfolds. He managed to use what I'd come to expect in a fantasy series against me, completely blindsided by the big reveal at the end. I never saw it coming and when it all came together, it was awesome. I liked the characters and their individual arcs. I dunno, but I get it. There are things people mention here that I just couldn't ever get into either.
