Books Read 2022

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Jaymann
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Now for something completely different:

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The premise is simple yet brilliant. What if the redshirts on a starship realized the danger to them from away missions and avoided them like the plague. It's as crazy as you would imagine. Leave it to Scalzi to flesh this idea out into a full novel instead of just a short story. I didn't care much for the meta ending, but it's a great read. 6/8 malfunctioning blasters.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by Hipolito »

I liked Redshirts too. Wil Wheaton did a great job with the audiobook.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra : "i'm not going to tell you what to think, i'm going to ask you _how_ you might think" this is only a very thin narrative (at best) of a pseudo-parable veneered over a bunch of monologues on what 'to overcome man' might mean
Spoiler:
yeeeeeeeaaaah not gonna happen
yet oodly enjoyable to read. another book that really really needed an editor, but it engaged my interest all the way through
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Hipolito wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 10:57 pm I liked Redshirts too. Wil Wheaton did a great job with the audiobook.
I loved the idea but I thought it just fell down in the second half. I will readily admit I have trouble sometimes getting humor out of the written word.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Finished Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark in hardcover. After slogging through Duma Key, this was exactly the quick, tight horror tale I needed. Checking in at under 200 pages, it packs a lot of punch in a few pages. It's set in the early 1920s and it follows Maryse and her friends as they hunt Ku Kluxes. In this world, the Klan is a term reserved for regular white folks who don the hood, and Ku Kluxes are the demons that eventually take over the Klan. Maryse uses the magic sword she can conjure up when needed to attack them, along with her companions Chef (a bomb expert who disguised herself as a man to fight in WWI) and Sadie (a crack shot with her Winchester and her sarcastic wit). With the pending re-release of Birth of a Nation, which somehow puts white people into a thrall of sorts and allows the demons to come and possess them, there is a real fear that we're entering the end times. Plus there's magic and science and stuff.

The premise might sound kind of silly, but it's really well written and fast paced, and I had a lot of fun reading it.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Hyperion by Dan Simmons

I really enjoyed this book. Something about it made me think of Asimov and Frederik Pohl. It has that "old" sci-fi style that I find attractive. The basic plot is a tale of 7 strangers brought together to go on a religious pilgrimage. A pilgrimage only one of them can return from. During the trip the seven each tell their story, and those tellings are the meat of the story.

Now the story ends at a point that could be an ending, but since there is a second book (The Fall of Hyperion) I am going to guess that the ending is just a set up for the next book. I write that not really knowing the answer. I will be getting the second book at some time.

I would definitely recommend this book.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Wings of Fire: A Combat History of the F-15
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Deadpool: Dead Presidents by Gerry Duggan, Brian Posehn, and Tony Moore (trade paperback): This is a collection of the first 6 issues of the Deadpool series that launched in 2013. I'm not much into superhero comics, but I was drawn to the theme of this one. The wisecracking mercenary fights dead U.S. Presidents who have come back as zombies. Kind of fitting to read this on the Fourth of July weekend.

The humor ranges from laugh-out-loud to dad-joke-groan. I love all the references to Presidential trivia and apocrypha. And I appreciate how Deadpool's love of women, violence, and jokes is a nihilistic way of dealing with trauma and despair.

I don't love this comic enough to become a regular reader, but I am intrigued by the Dr. Strange character that appears in it. I may have to check out his movies. 6 out of 8 jelly beans.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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The Wheel of Time, Book 10: Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (hardcover): This book is widely considered to be the worst in the series, and with good reason. The amount of good material isn’t even a fourth of this nearly 700-page tome. As in previous books, the prose is occasionally so sloppy that that it doesn’t make sense even after multiple reads.

Chapter 7, in which a group of people examine some darkhound tracks, may be the worst chapter in the whole series. It is pages of people silently exchanging facial expressions and repositioning their horses for vague political reasons. Jordan takes his dawdling to its most ludicrous and dysfunctional extreme here.

I did quite enjoy the awkward meeting with the teenage Caemlyn High Seats in Chapter 12 and the siege camp shenanigans in Chapter 15. I even think these chapters approach the level of George R.R. Martin’s work. I also liked the creepy tour of So Habor and the various reactions to the big event that ended book 9.

But book 10 is dominated by hordes of indistinct characters saying and thinking uninteresting things. At least the rest of the series is supposed to be much better. 2 out of 8 sacks of grain.
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London Centre for Book Arts - Making Books: A Guide to Creating Handcrafted Books : logically laid out and presenting modular groups of steps from simplest (pamphlet) to rounded case (sewn hardback) bindings. easy to follow and the design is pleasant to look at. this works as a very good 'intro to bookmaking' guide.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum

I've been meaning to read this for awhile, but the Ukraine war has prompted me to catch up on delayed Russia / Ukraine reading. This is about the Holomdomor, the Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s. It tells the story about how the USSR's forced collectivization caused major grain production reductions. That then lead to Soviet officials to conclude that people were holding out on turning over grain, which led to state gangs running around seizing all the food that peasants were "hiding". So the forced collectivization + food seizures + continued government exports led to a massive famine in which millions died.

The main question is whether the famine was caused by Soviet negligence and stupidity, or whether it was intentional with the focus of killing as many Ukrainians as possible and to break any Ukrainian resistance to Russian / Soviet rule. This book lays out decent evidence for both sides of that argument, though nothing 100% conclusive.

The book is very good, albeit depressing. Applebaum is a good author and knows her stuff in this area. Strong recommend if you're interested.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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In my reading of Stalin he had no problem with killing innocent people if it somehow led to whatever his goal was, whether they were friends or foes.
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Alan W. Watts - The Wisdom of Insecurity : this was written in the veeeery early 1950s so the audience is very much mid-century American but the message is very good and is related in an effectively rambling way (which continues to make solid points all along). it's funny how 'the meaning of life' is so right in front of you
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El Guapo wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 10:31 pm Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum

I've been meaning to read this for awhile, but the Ukraine war has prompted me to catch up on delayed Russia / Ukraine reading. This is about the Holomdomor, the Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s. It tells the story about how the USSR's forced collectivization caused major grain production reductions. That then lead to Soviet officials to conclude that people were holding out on turning over grain, which led to state gangs running around seizing all the food that peasants were "hiding". So the forced collectivization + food seizures + continued government exports led to a massive famine in which millions died.

The main question is whether the famine was caused by Soviet negligence and stupidity, or whether it was intentional with the focus of killing as many Ukrainians as possible and to break any Ukrainian resistance to Russian / Soviet rule. This book lays out decent evidence for both sides of that argument, though nothing 100% conclusive.

The book is very good, albeit depressing. Applebaum is a good author and knows her stuff in this area. Strong recommend if you're interested.
I haven't read this one, but I assume you know her GULAG and IRON CURTAIN. I guess RED FAMINE is set between them, or parallel with GULAG.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Scuzz wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:37 am In my reading of Stalin he had no problem with killing innocent people if it somehow led to whatever his goal was, whether they were friends or foes.
There's no doubt about that. The question is whether he was intentionally trying to kill Ukrainians specifically via creating a famine.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Dec 03, 2013 9:14 pm There's also the book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:16 pm Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

A truly enlightening book about the period between 1932 and 1945 that covers the institutionalized death that was enacted on the lands between Germany and the Soviet Union, covering the famines applied to the Ukrain, Stalin's purges, and, of course, the Holocaust.

The book is full of personal details of those who suffered and died at the hands of these two countries, and gives a much deeper insight into how the policies developed and evolved, how they ere applied, and the justifications in play at the time.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

This is book 5 in the A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I would recommend this book in the series although it did leave me with two questions. One made me think that maybe I either missed something or that there is something coming up in a future book to explain something. I am trying not to spoil anything, can you tell.

Anyway, there is a character who appears in book 4 and book 5, but in book 5 it seems like the time line should be before book 4. If you know the books you know Erikson plays with time and space, so it is possible the books could do that. But I expected some sort of explanation by the end of book 5 and didn't get it.

The other thing that "bothered" me was the way some of the characters were written. While 3/4 of the book are pretty much in line with the style of the previous books Erikson chose to turn a couple characters into basically Discworld characters. If that was his intent he did a good job but it just seemed strange this far into the series to suddenly veer that way with a couple characters.

Overall the plot was one of the easier ones to follow and Erikson's use of complicated magic was toned down some, there was magic but it was more of a traditional fantasy type of magic. He did actually take part of a chapter to explain, one character to another, how Erikson's version of magic works. Maybe it was just me but I thought I saw parallels between our world today and the empire under attack in the story.

One last comment, I kind of wish I had a source with a who's who of these books because at the current pace I am starting to have trouble remembering who everyone and everything is.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (hardcover): This is a modern fantasy novella with a touch of cyberpunk. It’s about two young black siblings in South Central Los Angeles. The girl has psionic powers that are growing more potent and difficult to control. Her younger brother, nicknamed “Riot Baby” because he was born during the Rodney King riots, is timid and tech-savvy. As they grow up, they observe, and have their own ways of dealing with, a cruel, violent environment and a system that’s rigged against improving it.

That sounds like it could be an exciting story, and for the first half, it is. But the second half is more reflective and laid-back. I feel that the change in tone and pace prevents the book from reaching its potential.

Still, it got me thinking about the wounds, still multiplying and profusely bleeding, caused by generations of racism. It wisely observes that order is not peace, and that positive thinking can misdirect you as much as negative thinking. If racism is the foundation of USA (and the author and I would probably agree that it is), then what would have to happen for justice to finally have a chance? 4 out of 8 Werther’s candies.
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Finished a couple of audiobooks:

Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson

If you're a fan of Elvira (like me), there's plenty to love about this one. Cassandra led a very interesting life, with an almost Forrest Gump-ish knack of being in the right place at the right time to bump into celebrities on her way to stardom. This book particularly benefits from the audio version, as Cassandra herself narrates it with appropriate Elvira wit and sarcasm. It's a great insight into how fame doesn't come easy, and also a fantastic retrospective of a long and varied career.

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

I don't usually read YA stuff, but come on - who can resist a horror novel about a clown in a cornfield? Not this horror fan! Seriously though, this one did make a lot of highly anticipated lists just before it came out so it was always on my radar. If this book was a movie, it would read like your typical slasher which I'm perfectly OK with. It was fun, it was quick, and there's a sequel coming out next month.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley (ebook): Normal conflict is healthy and helps us solve problems. But high conflict, the kind that makes us outraged and determined to destroy the idiots who disagree, serves only to perpetuate itself. It seduces us, draws other people in, escalates, and spreads like wildfire.

The author identifies "accelerants" of high conflict such as:
  • Binary thinking (it's us versus them)
  • Our tendency to label and categorize others
  • "Firestarters" who have a vested interest in sustaining the conflict
  • Negative emotions such as humiliation and anger, which have an addictive hold on us
  • The "conflict industrial complex" that includes news media, social media, and USA's winner-take-all electoral system
Here are ways to tame high conflict:
  • Active listening
  • Separating oneself from firestarters
  • Embracing complication and nuance
  • Seeking the root cause of a conflict
Ironically, the best way to win people over may be listening to them without trying to win them over.

To explore these concepts, the author interviews some interesting people such as an environmentalist who railed against genetically modified organisms even after learning that they could have some environmental benefits, a lawyer who was a legendary peacemaker but became a vicious attack dog when he entered local politics, and a former member of a Chicago street gang who is now a peace activist and "violence interrupter."

She also studies an attempt to actively apply these concepts to bring two sides of an issue together. A group of conservative Michiganders and a group of liberal New York Jews held summits in each other's cities to discuss gun control. They struggled to put side their judgment and anxieties, but ended up feeling emotionally closer and less judgmental afterward. Later, when the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting took the lives of 11 Jews, the Michiganders flew to New York and gave a speech of solidarity in front of their counterparts' congregation.

Something bothers me about that scenario. Even after all that, the minds of the Michiganders weren't changed; they were still against the regulation of assault rifles. I'd like to ask the liberals: what is the benefit of having a kumbaya moment with conservatives when they still support the policies that lead to your annihilation? But maybe I'm still stuck in the high-conflict mindset just by posing that question.

I'm trying to integrate the lessons of this book with the lessons of stoicism I gained from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Our lives are short and insignificant in the totality of human history. We will die and be forgotten. So while we are alive, why should we think that we must solve all the world's problems? Why carry all that burden and misery on our own shoulders? Instead, maybe we should humbly strive to improve things on a small scale, listening to our rivals with curiosity and helping the few we can. 6 out of 8 astronauts.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Hipolito wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 12:09 am
The author identifies "accelerants" of high conflict such as:
  • Binary thinking (it's us versus them)
it's the very definition of how anything can be polarized. create any question on anything at all with just two answers that are opposite of each other, and even when one is clearly correct, you will always find people who will choose the incorrect answer just so they can exercise their 'free will'
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Re: Books Read 2022

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hitbyambulance wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 1:22 am
Hipolito wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 12:09 am
The author identifies "accelerants" of high conflict such as:
  • Binary thinking (it's us versus them)
it's the very definition of how anything can be polarized. create any question on anything at all with just two answers that are opposite of each other, and even when one is clearly correct, you will always find people who will choose the incorrect answer just so they can exercise their 'free will'
I guess the author would say that when we're presented with that binary scenario, we should try to disrupt it by embracing the complexity and nuance of the issue. This slows the pace of conversation and lowers the temperature of the conflict, so that there's less of this. :tjg: One way to do this is by listening to the people who are embracing the obviously wrong answer, asking them questions (out of curiosity and clarification, not to trip them up), and acknowledging that even the "correct" answer doesn't fully address the complexity of the situation. The wrongful ones will then hopefully feel that they've been heard, lower their defenses, and exercise their free will to examine their own position. They will then see the flaws in their thinking and come around to a more sensible answer. leading to more of this. :obscene-drinkingcheers:
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Jon Chad - Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball : early history was fascinating. some of the writing kinda cringey and more than a few of the illustrations were too on the nose for the panel being illustrated. excellent glossary.

Fred Minnick - Mead: The Libations, Legends, and Lore of History's Oldest Drink : impulse read. the writing was really not good. also not interested in using mead as a cocktail mixer (which most of the recipes in here were for). did learn some things from the history portions, but i could have done without this one.

Milton Murayama - All I Asking for Is My Body : historical fiction (written over 20 years) about a Japanese/JA family working a sugar cane plantation in 1930's/40's Hawaii. the American-born eldest son wants far more from his life than is possible on the plantation. enjoyable storytelling
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Forward Observer (Illustrated): An Artillery Observation Crew in World War II

Originally written in 1944 from interviews with two members of a crew wounded in the North Africa campaign.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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The Hit by David Baldacci

This is the second book in his Will Robie series. I picked up a couple of Baldacci's books at a used book sale. The first one in this series is reviewed above someplace. It was really nothing special. I enjoyed this book a little more. It is basically a quick no thinking read based on the inherent likability of the main character, who is a hit man employed by the CIA to do their dirty work. There is a rogue agent and a conspiracy going on and our hero gets into the middle of it.

This isn't great literature but for a quick read it will suffice.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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The Natural Laws of Violence by Michael E. Nolan (ebook, LibraryThing Early Review): The author is a veteran of many tours of duty in the Middle East with extensive experience as a military advisor and lifelong training in martial arts. He wrote this brief treatise to explain the mechanics of violence, hoping to help military personnel improve their performance and civilians "grow the peace."

He lays out "Nolan's Natural Laws of Violence," which are:
  1. The first participant to effectively use violence will be victorious.
  2. Violence naturally tends to escalate.
  3. Action is required to be victorious in violent situations.
  4. The ideal position for a participant is one where the participant can effectively execute violence against others, but others cannot effectively execute violence against the participant.
When you first read these, you may think, well duh, these are obvious. But the way the author explains them makes you realize that these aren't merely tactics, but natural laws. And if they were obvious, then history wouldn't be filled with examples of armies ignoring these laws (and consequently losing wars). I've never served, but I'm a veteran of countless computer game wars, and it struck me how effectively these laws apply in Starcraft and Mass Effect.

He makes a lot of other observations I like:
  • To be generous, you have to have some power over the person you're helping.
  • Because violence and warfare are governed by natural laws that don't care about any human being's opinion, one must have the discipline to be absolutely rational and objective.
  • Violence is the very foundation of all human law. This is something I've believed for a long time; I think I picked it up from Ayn Rand. But the author goes on to explain something I didn't realize: that "honor" may seem like an intangible value, but people who fight for honor are really fighting for wealth, success, sex, and the other tangible things that come with being considered honorable. That ties back to the earlier lesson of needing to put aside emotions in favor of objective truth.
  • He expresses great admiration for the "monetization of violence" (i.e., a legal system in which people are financially penalized for their crimes and torts). Countries that don't have a strong law-and-order system that monetizes most violence are rather unpleasant places to live.
  • Traditions and rituals in both martial arts and the military help hone disicipline, focus, and group cohesion. I usually scoff at rituals and traditions, but now I'm reconsidering my attitude about them.
  • Military personnel who commit atrocities are themselves enemies, and should be dealt with mercilessly. This is a great point, and I feel the same about the many veterans who participated in the 1/6 terrorist attack on the Capitol. It grieves me that they haven't been adequately punished. Again, we need to monetize our violence better!
Though I enjoyed this short read, I feel it's incomplete. After laying out the four laws, the book loses structure, and you can kind of tell this from the valuable but disparate observations I note above. He promises to explore both the "masculine, straight-line and rational" and the "feminine, circular, and intuitive" aspects of violence, which he later calls Ares and Athena. I was really looking forward to this breakdown, but it's not really there. And while I think this book can help military personnel and those who are thinking of joining, I don't think civilians have as much to gain. There's potential for this book to have the same appeal in corporate boardrooms as Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Vyasa's Bhagavad Gita, if it's fleshed out into something more well-rounded. 4 out of 8 ooda loops.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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“Stand amongst the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer.”
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Finished The Sandman Vol. 1 - Preludes and Nocturnes, written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III, colored by Robbie Busch, and lettered by Todd Klein. In the buildup to the debut of the series adaptation on Netflix, DC Unlimited released the first eight issues (which make up the first volume) of The Sandman for free. While I have the first six volumes of The Sandman floating around the house, I figured it would be fun to try it out on the app. The Netflix series apparently covers volumes 1 and 2.

Volume 1 tells the story of how Dream was captured by English weirdos in WWI and imprisoned for 70 years, and then his journey to retrieve his "tools of office" that were stolen from him during his captivity. I've read this before, but it's been 15 years or more and I remembered very little of it, at one point questioning whether I had actually read it previously or not. I've long been struck by Neil Gaiman's talent, so I'm surprised this didn't stick with me more deeply after my first read. I suspect it will do better on read number two, particularly given that it's at roughly the same time as the Netflix series.

Quick note about reading in the app vs. reading on paper. The app does a great job zooming around the page to capture the art and text that is supposed to come next and not being beholden to a specific frame if it makes more sense to zoom in on something. There's a bit of flipping of my phone from landscape to portrait and back again to get the best view, but it's not too bad. My biggest problem is that it doesn't show a full page preview before zooming in. (You can do it manually, but then you have to realize that you've actually moved on to the next page.) That's not a big deal on the more traditional pages, but there are some pages that really benefit of getting the full view of the unique layout before drilling into the specifics. I grabbed my paper version for the last issue just for comparison and it confirmed that paper is superior to the app.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

This is a re-read of a book I probably originally read in 2010 when it came out. Hard to believe it was that long ago. It is the first stand alone book Abercrombie wrote following his First Law trilogy. I read this again to get me hyped for the final book of his new trilogy which finally released in paperback last week.

I really like Abercrombie and this book is a fine example of his style. Action, great characters, humor and enough changes of direction to keep you guessing where the story is going. Abercrombie includes characters from the First Law trilogy and many of the family names from this book appear in the new trilogy. So there is a continuity not only in the world but in the characters.

If you haven't read any Abercrombie I highly recommend you give it a try. But don't start with the stand alones, start with the First Law.
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Re: Books Read 2022

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The Hunger - Alma Matsu (Audiobook)

I've always been fascinated with the Donner Party story and have read a couple of non-fiction books about it. This is a fictitious take on it with a supernatural bent that was quite entertaining. Matsu keeps the horror on a low simmer in the background as she unweaves the personal stories of the characters on the ill-fated excursion. You may find yourself with more questions than answers, but that was fine by me. The creepy atmosphere set upon this historical backdrop was more than enough to keep me entertained.

Also big props to narrator Kirsten Potter. Most Audible books I've listened to so far have been male narrators due to the genres I read, so it was refreshing to get a female voice. She was very good.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by Rumpy »

Picked up The Poppy War by R.F Kuang on a whim, and I don't know if any of you are familiar with it, but dang, it's been blowing me away in how good it is. First half feels like Harry Potter meets The Karate Kid; a poor war orphan joins a prestigious martial arts academy. But then it veers into a military epic. I'm usually skeptical of heaped on praise when it comes to books, as more often than not, a book tends to be disappointing, but in this case the praise is fully warranted. It's particularly impressive considering this is the author's debut, and she's written two more since to make it into a trilogy, and while I'm only halfway into this, I'm very eager to read the other two. It's east-asian fantasy, but based on the second Sino-Japanese war and the author makes it an engaging read.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by El Guapo »

The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss

Finished this last week. I had gotten semi-bored with it and put it down half-way, then picked it up again pretty recently and wound up getting re-engrossed in it. It's very well written and pretty interesting, but also kind of winds up being a series of short stories centered around Kvothe (the main character). I guess my main issues with the series thus far is that while in some ways it's refreshing that it's not all anchored around some world-threatening quest, at the same time it'd be nice if the story had a little more of a focus around some type of main quest. Like there is an overarching quest in the background, but it's *very* far in the background and Kvothe hasn't really made much in the way of progress towards addressing that. The other thing is that the core storytelling mechanic of having Kvothe recount his adventures but from kind of a sad / depressing point in his life is, you know, kind of sad and depressing about where all this is ongoing.

Anyway, I have very much enjoyed the series overall. Now I guess I get to enjoy the "when will the next book come out?" folks...
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by El Guapo »

DUNE: The Graphic Novel, Book 2: Muad’Dib, by Brian Herbert & others.

Been going through the Dune Graphic novels as they're released. I read Dune back in high school and loved it. I've never really re-read books, so this is a nice way to do a quick re-read while enjoying the story in a different format. The art is beautiful, and they're nice quick reads. Otherwise...it's Dune, you should read it if you haven't.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by hitbyambulance »

A P O S I M Z - Tsutomu Nihei : i don't normally do manga series reviews, but this one was egregious enough that i have to say something... from the creator of BLAME!, BIOMEGA and Knights of Sidonia - it's pretty clear the cancel order for this series was given (in the collected form, in the 9th volume) as the entire tone is altered and everything rush-rushed to wrap everything up in the last few issues. after the measured, slow pace of the previous 50 chapters, here clarity, structure and atmosphere are shanghaied and 'disappeared' as multiple main characters (of which there weren't that many to begin with) are killed off in rapid succession with barely a comment, fights that would take up half a chapter previously are now not even depicted, with just a one-panel aftermath scene or someone summarizing the result in a single sentence, and The Final Showdown occurring in the span of a few pages and then _The End_ right after... it's jarring, cheap, amateurish and disappointing for a storyline i was mostly enjoying - until this happened. : /

(was also recently reading Platinum End [Tsugumi Ōba and Takeshi Obata of Death Note] which suffered the same fate. it was pretty cringey throughout tho...and just plain not good. definitely unrecommended)
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by Jaymann »

El Guapo wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 1:49 pm The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss

Finished this last week. I had gotten semi-bored with it and put it down half-way, then picked it up again pretty recently and wound up getting re-engrossed in it. It's very well written and pretty interesting, but also kind of winds up being a series of short stories centered around Kvothe (the main character). I guess my main issues with the series thus far is that while in some ways it's refreshing that it's not all anchored around some world-threatening quest, at the same time it'd be nice if the story had a little more of a focus around some type of main quest. Like there is an overarching quest in the background, but it's *very* far in the background and Kvothe hasn't really made much in the way of progress towards addressing that. The other thing is that the core storytelling mechanic of having Kvothe recount his adventures but from kind of a sad / depressing point in his life is, you know, kind of sad and depressing about where all this is ongoing.

Anyway, I have very much enjoyed the series overall. Now I guess I get to enjoy the "when will the next book come out?" folks...
I think you have hit on a major difficulty for Rothfuss to finish the series. He may have written himself into a corner by telling where the story is headed, and so far there hasn't been a whiff of any kings or killing thereof. Sure if he planned on 2 or 3 more books he could pull it off. But to wrap it up satisfactorily in a single volume seems problematic. There have been hints of more story to come after the recounting, but that would entail even more writing. Alegedly the author claims he has "written" the third book but just needs to fine tune it. For 11 years.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by hitbyambulance »

Jaymann wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 2:22 pm I think you have hit on a major difficulty for Rothfuss to finish the series. He may have written himself into a corner by telling where the story is headed, and so far there hasn't been a whiff of any kings or killing thereof. Sure if he planned on 2 or 3 more books he could pull it off. But to wrap it up satisfactorily in a single volume seems problematic. There have been hints of more story to come after the recounting, but that would entail even more writing. Alegedly the author claims has "written" the third book but just needs to fine tune it. For 11 years.
what i read is he admitted he has an attempt at a third book, but it's not that good and he doesn't know how to make it better.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by El Guapo »

Jaymann wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 2:22 pm
El Guapo wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 1:49 pm The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss

Finished this last week. I had gotten semi-bored with it and put it down half-way, then picked it up again pretty recently and wound up getting re-engrossed in it. It's very well written and pretty interesting, but also kind of winds up being a series of short stories centered around Kvothe (the main character). I guess my main issues with the series thus far is that while in some ways it's refreshing that it's not all anchored around some world-threatening quest, at the same time it'd be nice if the story had a little more of a focus around some type of main quest. Like there is an overarching quest in the background, but it's *very* far in the background and Kvothe hasn't really made much in the way of progress towards addressing that. The other thing is that the core storytelling mechanic of having Kvothe recount his adventures but from kind of a sad / depressing point in his life is, you know, kind of sad and depressing about where all this is ongoing.

Anyway, I have very much enjoyed the series overall. Now I guess I get to enjoy the "when will the next book come out?" folks...
I think you have hit on a major difficulty for Rothfuss to finish the series. He may have written himself into a corner by telling where the story is headed, and so far there hasn't been a whiff of any kings or killing thereof. Sure if he planned on 2 or 3 more books he could pull it off. But to wrap it up satisfactorily in a single volume seems problematic. There have been hints of more story to come after the recounting, but that would entail even more writing. Alegedly the author claims he has "written" the third book but just needs to fine tune it. For 11 years.
In reading the first two books I was almost the whole time waiting for him to advance the story forwards from the point at which Kvothe is recounting his story. Googling this earlier it sounds like Rothfuss is just going to finish the story being recounted (e.g., "day 3" of the story). But if so, as you say it sounds like it'd have to be a whole new series (probably a new trilogy) to take place after the chronicles are over...and is he up for that?

Either way, he is where he is, so probably best just to finish the chronicle, and to move things forward in another series. Or maybe pitch that as a TV show if he doesn't want to write a new trilogy.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by Jaymann »

Just finished:

Image
Generally a time travel book is right in my wheelhouse, and initially I was intrigued. But I found the search for the "American Dream" (not a spoiler since it was disclosed early on) to be slightly hokey. Eventually I found the story to be a bit repetitive and skimmed through the final few chapters. The ending wrapped things up neatly, if not particularly satisfying. 4/8 tricorn hats.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by Scuzz »

El Guapo wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 1:49 pm The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss

Finished this last week. I had gotten semi-bored with it and put it down half-way, then picked it up again pretty recently and wound up getting re-engrossed in it. It's very well written and pretty interesting, but also kind of winds up being a series of short stories centered around Kvothe (the main character). I guess my main issues with the series thus far is that while in some ways it's refreshing that it's not all anchored around some world-threatening quest, at the same time it'd be nice if the story had a little more of a focus around some type of main quest. Like there is an overarching quest in the background, but it's *very* far in the background and Kvothe hasn't really made much in the way of progress towards addressing that. The other thing is that the core storytelling mechanic of having Kvothe recount his adventures but from kind of a sad / depressing point in his life is, you know, kind of sad and depressing about where all this is ongoing.

Anyway, I have very much enjoyed the series overall. Now I guess I get to enjoy the "when will the next book come out?" folks...
I loved Name of the Wind, but I really disliked Wise Man's Fear.

Rothfuss is a mess and it really is a question as to when and if this series will be finished. He does a lot of youtube stuff talking about it if you are interested. He still claims it will be finished in one more book, but after the second book I really doubt that. I think he has GRRMs problems. Loves telling stories but can't finish a plot.

He also I guess has had some depression/mental health problems.
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Re: Books Read 2022

Post by Scuzz »

hitbyambulance wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 2:24 pm
Jaymann wrote: Mon Aug 15, 2022 2:22 pm I think you have hit on a major difficulty for Rothfuss to finish the series. He may have written himself into a corner by telling where the story is headed, and so far there hasn't been a whiff of any kings or killing thereof. Sure if he planned on 2 or 3 more books he could pull it off. But to wrap it up satisfactorily in a single volume seems problematic. There have been hints of more story to come after the recounting, but that would entail even more writing. Alegedly the author claims has "written" the third book but just needs to fine tune it. For 11 years.
what i read is he admitted he has an attempt at a third book, but it's not that good and he doesn't know how to make it better.
His book editor from the first book wasn't around after that. He really needs someone to tell him when he is done.
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