Book Recommendations?

ranalin wrote:
Malor wrote:

I don't think the MMO aspects were unusually prescient or anything

No offense, but you'd be wrong. Like i said before the only one that has even been remotely close was EQ:Next. Even the next set of MMOs that are based on voxel tech coming out this year aren't even close. The game talked about in SnowCrash was more along the lines of Second Life mixed with a Shooter. Very similar to RP1's Oasis game.

I do agree the book is more adventure than SF.

Right, none of that matters. It's not important, and could have been replaced with almost any technology that A) let him communicate from remote locations, and B) gave him some kind of global notoriety, at least a little fame, so that the main antagonist would recognize who he was. The MMO stuff is the mechanism Stephenson chose, but isn't inherently of particular interest.

Just finished In an Absent Dream, McGuire's newest. Wow, it was really short, I blew through it in two or three hours. Amazon says the paper edition is 208 pages, but it feels more like 160, as it reads very quickly.

This is a series about a world where children occasionally find doors in reality, ones that take them... elsewhere. So far, it's been different for every kid. Apparently, the central rule is that they'll find a place they can potentially be happy, but they have to figure out how a given world works well enough to prosper before getting eaten or something else terrible. And nearly all realities seem to send the children back after a time; after returning, they may be deliriously happy to be home, or may start pining for the place they lost. Some kids can never return to their alternate worlds, and some of those will spend their entire lives looking for the path. Others have little trouble returning. A very few can easily step back and forth between their world and ours, but that seems to be extremely unusual.

Earlier books have focused on a special school, one for returnees from worlds, aimed at teaching them how to reintegrate into society and become human again, and the children attending it. This one is about a young girl's initial discovery of her door and her adventures in the world she finds, the Goblin Market. Her particular world allows people to travel freely back and forth between realities, but only up until their 18th birthday, at which point the door will never open for them again. They have to explicitly choose to stay in the Market before 18, or they'll be ejected permanently. And, of course, she's not quite sure....

The style in this was quite different than McGuire's usual. She tends toward very prosaic, vernacular-filled stories, squarely in the urban fantasy genre. This one's not like that. It's far more formal, with no slang at all. It feels like a modernized fairy tale, and reminds me very strongly of the children's books I read back in the 1970s. But I can't recall any specific examples, and I'm not educated enough to know what that style was called, or even if it has a name, so "modern fairy tale" is about the best I can come up with. It's a bit like Spinning Silver (the one I just talked about) and a lot like some of Catherynne Valente's stuff. (the Girl in Fairyland series, mostly.) It's sort of... you can almost picture this story type in an updated Brothers Grimm omnibus, a collection of little morality tales, of myths designed to teach children the right way to behave.

I'm struggling a bit here, because I'm not sure this is a real category of book, and it's hard to pin down. Someone with a broader background in cultural myth could probably be much clearer than I am. This feels like a real thing to me, but I'm not entirely sure how to categorize it and draw borders around it, so it's hard to describe properly.

As fairy tales go, this is a pretty good one. Valente's maybe a little better at the form, but McGuire's not bad at all.

firesloth wrote:

Have started to read Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana. It's clearly written in a different era (1958), but I'm finding it's humorous take on intelligence activities fun so far.

I finished Our Man in Havana. It had some interesting and funny bits. On the whole, though, I find it hard to really recommend. Greene tries to keep the text succinct by jumping from one thing to another with little transition, which makes it difficult to work out what's happening in a few cases. And the wrap up of the story was a bit too standard for my tastes. Glad I read it, but not one I'd ever go back to.

That said, I'm now a bit intrigued by the movie starring Alec Guinness.

Robear wrote:

Firesloth, if you like Havana, try Le Carre's "The Tailor of Panama". Great stuff. :-)

Interesting. I've read a lot of Le Carre, but Tailor is one neither of my local libraries have, either in digital or hardcopy. I'll watch for a sale on the Kindle version.

Odd. It's usually considered one of his better ones, I think. Hope you find it.

Just started How to Invent Everything by Ryan North, best known as writer of some of the Adventure Time comics and Marvel's Squirrel Girl, as well as the wonderful Dinosaur Comics online. So far it's a real treat. It's frame is that it is a guide for stranded time travelers so that they can reinvent civilization from scratch, which ends up being a really interesting look at the foundations of civilization in a hilarious package. I've been listening to the audiobook, which is read by Ryan North himself. His delivery is great, and his certain Certis-ness to it. Canadian-ness, I guess?

Hangdog wrote:

Just started How to Invent Everything by Ryan North, best known as writer of some of the Adventure Time comics and Marvel's Squirrel Girl, as well as the wonderful Dinosaur Comics online. So far it's a real treat. It's frame is that it is a guide for stranded time travelers so that they can reinvent civilization from scratch, which ends up being a really interesting look at the foundations of civilization in a hilarious package. I've been listening to the audiobook, which is read by Ryan North himself. His delivery is great, and his certain Certis-ness to it. Canadian-ness, I guess?

Got that for Christmas, and read about half while I was in the hospital. Love it so far.

Hangdog wrote:

Just started How to Invent Everything by Ryan North, best known as writer of some of the Adventure Time comics and Marvel's Squirrel Girl, as well as the wonderful Dinosaur Comics online. So far it's a real treat. It's frame is that it is a guide for stranded time travelers so that they can reinvent civilization from scratch, which ends up being a really interesting look at the foundations of civilization in a hilarious package. I've been listening to the audiobook, which is read by Ryan North himself. His delivery is great, and his certain Certis-ness to it. Canadian-ness, I guess?

Audiobook, you say? Hmm...

Mario_Alba wrote:
ranalin wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:
Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Absolutely, I still have a lot of resentment for Trichy making me read ‘Jonothan Strange and Mr. Norrel’ - I hated it so much, yet he and Josh gush about it.... ;)

It took me so much effort and willpower to get through that book...

I enjoyed the hell out of that book and the show wasn't that bad either.

I'm glad you liked it! The first 200 pages were pure torture for me (back then I still insisted on finishing every book I started), so I let the book rest for a year, and then came back to it... and the remaining chapters were more bearable. Never watched the show, though.

To be fair, the first time I read that book, I LOATHED it. But when I tried it again, approaching it as less a fantasy story and more something in the vein of Jane Austen, I really appreciated it. It's still not my favorite, but I think it's a hell of a book.

vypre wrote:
Hangdog wrote:

Just started How to Invent Everything by Ryan North, best known as writer of some of the Adventure Time comics and Marvel's Squirrel Girl, as well as the wonderful Dinosaur Comics online. So far it's a real treat. It's frame is that it is a guide for stranded time travelers so that they can reinvent civilization from scratch, which ends up being a really interesting look at the foundations of civilization in a hilarious package. I've been listening to the audiobook, which is read by Ryan North himself. His delivery is great, and his certain Certis-ness to it. Canadian-ness, I guess?

Audiobook, you say? Hmm...

I guess I should warn about the audiobook: I've not seen the print edition, but there appear to be a fair number of illustrations and charts. North stops and describes/reads these illustrations in a way that I suspect may even be funnier than the graphics themselves.

trichy wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:
ranalin wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:
Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Absolutely, I still have a lot of resentment for Trichy making me read ‘Jonothan Strange and Mr. Norrel’ - I hated it so much, yet he and Josh gush about it.... ;)

It took me so much effort and willpower to get through that book...

I enjoyed the hell out of that book and the show wasn't that bad either.

I'm glad you liked it! The first 200 pages were pure torture for me (back then I still insisted on finishing every book I started), so I let the book rest for a year, and then came back to it... and the remaining chapters were more bearable. Never watched the show, though.

To be fair, the first time I read that book, I LOATHED it. But when I tried it again, approaching it as less a fantasy story and more something in the vein of Jane Austen, I really appreciated it. It's still not my favorite, but I think it's a hell of a book.

I think that's somewhat similar to what happened to me --when I came back to it, I knew what to expect and approached it differently. Still didn't think it was great, but at least I wanted to finish it, as opposed to feeling like I had to finish it.

Mario_Alba wrote:

I think that's somewhat similar to what happened to me --when I came back to it, I knew what to expect and approached it differently. Still didn't think it was great, but at least I wanted to finish it, as opposed to feeling like I had to finish it.

Hmm, I went in blind, but I thought it was fantastic. Then again I have a soft spot for Victorian era novels and this was definitely hitting those notes for me. The supernatural parts were just a nice bit of garnish on top.

ComfortZone wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:

I think that's somewhat similar to what happened to me --when I came back to it, I knew what to expect and approached it differently. Still didn't think it was great, but at least I wanted to finish it, as opposed to feeling like I had to finish it.

Hmm, I went in blind, but I thought it was fantastic. Then again I have a soft spot for Victorian era novels and this was definitely hitting those notes for me. The supernatural parts were just a nice bit of garnish on top.

I've only read the first quarter, but I liked what I read. I'm always interested in how authors "do magic", and the magic in that book made more sense than in, say, the Harry Potter series (did I mention we were reading this series through, as a family? Woof.)

So much love for this book! Man, I really wish I felt this way. I'll take Harry Potter over Jonathan Strange any day!

I could appreciate how well written Jonathan Strange was, and I did finish it, but it felt too long, and overall I was a little ambivalent about it by the end. I'd like to check out the miniseries at some point.

Mario_Alba wrote:

So much love for this book! Man, I really wish I felt this way. I'll take Harry Potter over Jonathan Strange any day!

Please note that I haven't finished JS&Mr.N. I *did* finish HP & the Goblet of Fire, after which I wanted to hang and immolate myself. Better luck with OotP.

I felt that Norrell took too long to begine. Like others, the first time I tried it, I was bored to tears. Tried again a few months later, and for me, there was a specific point where the story caught me and I was into it. I had feared that the entire thing would be like a poorly written Society potboiler, but it turned out that was kind of the intro. It just went on longer than I expected.

I ended up liking it, but I’m hesitant to recommend it unless you are the type that thinks “Oh, yes, some magic would have really livened up the Bronte’s books!”. In which case, dig in!

Finished Luna: New Moon. I immediately purchased the sequel. Really really good stuff! Thanks for the recommendation, Ro!

Natus wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:

So much love for this book! Man, I really wish I felt this way. I'll take Harry Potter over Jonathan Strange any day!

Please note that I haven't finished JS&Mr.N. I *did* finish HP & the Goblet of Fire, after which I wanted to hang and immolate myself. Better luck with OotP.

Noted

And for what's worth, I enjoyed Goblet of Fire more than Order of the Phoenix (still loved it, though). I hope you like it at least as much!

Robear wrote:

I felt that Norrell took too long to begine. Like others, the first time I tried it, I was bored to tears. Tried again a few months later, and for me, there was a specific point where the story caught me and I was into it. I had feared that the entire thing would be like a poorly written Society potboiler, but it turned out that was kind of the intro. It just went on longer than I expected.

I ended up liking it, but I’m hesitant to recommend it unless you are the type that thinks “Oh, yes, some magic would have really livened up the Bronte’s books!”. In which case, dig in! :-)

Oh, that does it...this has made it onto my to-read list.

Robear wrote:

I ended up liking it, but I’m hesitant to recommend it unless you are the type that thinks “Oh, yes, some magic would have really livened up the Bronte’s books!”. In which case, dig in! :-)

Nailed it I'm not saying it's some great work of literature but it was a total guilty pleasure for me. I devoured it in a few sittings.

Well, I also felt that by reading Pride and Prjudice, and Zombies... I was just tricked into reading Pride and Prejudice....

Not seeing the problem here

Mario_Alba wrote:
Natus wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:

So much love for this book! Man, I really wish I felt this way. I'll take Harry Potter over Jonathan Strange any day!

Please note that I haven't finished JS&Mr.N. I *did* finish HP & the Goblet of Fire, after which I wanted to hang and immolate myself. Better luck with OotP.

Noted

And for what's worth, I enjoyed Goblet of Fire more than Order of the Phoenix (still loved it, though). I hope you like it at least as much!

It's funny, because OotP starts so strong, right in what I consider Rowling's strengths. It's night and day from the plodding, overwrought, "just sit there while I monologue, Mr. Bond" of GoT, but I also hear that HP himself turns a bit annoying, so we will have to see. I don't know, from all the lists I've seen, that OotP anyone's favorite book.

In related matters, we may have to take our kids to Cursed Child on B'way, if either of us can spare an organ.

Yeah, Harry does turn a bit annoying in OotP, but he's also 15. Rowling does a good job writing teenagers and their melodrama. It's not always fun to read, but I think it's better than people sometimes give it credit for.

LastSurprise wrote:

Yeah, Harry does turn a bit annoying in OotP, but he's also 15. Rowling does a good job writing teenagers and their melodrama. It's not always fun to read, but I think it's better than people sometimes give it credit for.

Added to that he's also been through some serious trauma and has no real outlet for that. That said, his tantrums are hard to read.

Thanks to Robear and the recommendation for Jack McDevitt's The Engines of God. This was the first book to arrive from the library after asking for scifi recommendations a few pages back. I'm about halfway through it and am enjoying it. It feels a little bit of its time (written in the mid-90's) but I'm enjoying the primary plot and characters. Looks like it's the first in a series. Are the subsequent ones worth checking out?

I have enjoyed all of them, Beanman. (I like the Alex Benedict ones better, because I like snappy mysteries, but that’s just me.)

Sally, so happy you liked Luna! You see what I mean about his ability to create cultures and societies? Amazing.

Glad you all are enjoying them!

For those who like Brandon Sanderson, his Reckoners books are all on sale at Amazon for $1.99 each.

Update from Friday, January 11 on the first batch of ten books on my book backlog pile:

Poetry Adventure and Love by Ed Elgar
Tick (Book 1) by Allison Rose
Indecent Proposal by Jack Engelhard
Proximity: A Novel of the Navy's Elite Bomb Squad by Stephen Phillips
Progeny by Shawn Hopkins(80%)
Secrets in the Shadows by T.L. Haddix
Trapped on the Titanic by Tammy Knox
Rowena Through the Wall by Melodie Campbell
Pandora's Genes by Kathryn Lance
Tomfoolery by Lou Harper

Indecent Proposal was fairly entertaining when I read it, but not very memorable to me.

Proximity was kind of a mixed bag. If you have a high interest in the details of what Navy Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Technicians do, this may be your book! It has a LOT of detail to the point where in many places, it is like very much like reading non-fiction, and probably very good non-fiction. As a novel, it really needs an editor because the EOD details interrupt the pace and make it a bit textbook dry for a thriller because it throws too much at once and sometimes it seems there are more acronyms per page than actual words.

You can tell the author really knows his stuff though. (He had been a Navy EOD Tech.)

I'm now about 60% through Dostoevsky's The Idiot.

Progeny is kind of like Christian fiction meets Dan Brown meets Stargate. I'm enjoying the story and like books about these subject matters, but it's very male-centric. The women so far who have shown up in it are pretty weak and you can tell the author has a very stereotypical view of women's roles. I do like the storyline in the book enough to want to read the next one though, so I'll probably go off course from my above list to read the next two books in this trilogy before going to the next one.

Non-fiction (not counting Proximity above ) is very stalled at the moment, but as I do need to prepare a bible study and sermon series for Lent, I'll be reading through He Chose the Nails by Max Lucado as that is the study that was chosen for this year.

So i saw a pre order notice that a new book by Peter Clines was about to come out and that it was 3rd in a series.

Apparently 14, The Fold and the new book are tied together. So i figured i'd reread 14 and The Fold again.

Spoiler:

Not sure how i missed it at the time i was reading The Fold, but the green cockroaches, monsters, as well as science sourced by the crazy scientist Koturovic tie them together. Not really a sequel, but a shared universe.