Author Topic: What book(s) are you reading?  (Read 758897 times)

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chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3840 on: March 28, 2023, 07:18:51 PM »
Thanks for the link, I've marked it to-read.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3841 on: April 01, 2023, 02:31:38 AM »
Sanderson's 2nd book of four from his kickstarter just dropped digitally and...it looks like he's going hard on his Pratchett influence with this one. Which is great because I really enjoy his humor writing. This is the one book of the four that is not canon lore connected universe Cosmere stuff and is just a standalone fun book he wrote.

May just read this digital rather than wait 3 months to get the physical copy.


Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3842 on: April 09, 2023, 10:39:48 PM »
Started reading Discworld #7 - Pyramids and listening to We are Legion (We Are Bob).

Both are pretty fun. I think Pyramids reads a lot better than the previous Wyrd Sisters so far.

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3843 on: April 15, 2023, 08:43:58 PM »


The Ben Bernank is kind of a jerk. Most of the Fed stuff in this is pretty basic but I know most people don't really understand it so I won't complain. The bulk of this is sort of a biography of two somewhat random dudes and it switches from one to the other halfway through and there's no "endpoint" to the story for either so that's a questionable narrative choice. I do wonder if it started as a biography of the one guy, a Fed board dissenter, and then he took another job and dropped out of the story because he wasn't part of the Fed story anymore. Most of what I liked is that the guy read the released Fed meetings so I don't have to, they're released many years after the fact. That's where you learn how much of a jerk Bernanke and a few others were. Saw he wrote a new book trying to explain some economy thing at the library and laughed like lol what a jerk. This book covers the time from like 2006 mostly forward through COVID but all the "action" in is in the first half because after the first guy and Bernanke leave everyone mostly agrees all the time about doing stupid stuff. Also the minutes aren't available yet so we wouldn't really know if anyone disagreed anyway.



Mildly deceptive title, this is really about the film industry in China not Hollywood specifically. Hollywood does play a role obviously and it covers some similar ground on that to another book or two I've shared in the thread but the vast bulk of it is really about Chinese film itself. I thought it was somewhat interesting how although the author seems somewhat more favorable of China and the CCP (although she may have just been being even-handed) she portrayed the state guided and promoted propaganda type films much more cynically than that other book on Hollywood/China I read which seemed to view things like Wolf Warrior 2 as legitimate threats to American cultural hegemony. She notes by contrast that basically nobody outside of China gives a shit about Chinese blockbusters and how the CCP is somewhat like "I don't get it, we put the explosions, we put the quips, we put the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we showed the success of the Belt and Road Initiative for encouraging independence from capitalism, why does the rest of the world not eat this stuff up?" She also notes that the CCP is not unique in being paranoid about the power of film, the Qing and KMT had similarly extensive and harsh censorship although in the former case it was more of the "wait, they're showing this in theaters?" type of reaction versus controlling the means of production. She doesn't note it explicitly but I thought it was somewhat amusing that one aspect the CCP deliberately copied from the Hollywood studio system and found to their continuing advantage was all kinds of layers of bureaucracy that can take your scripts and budgets and movies away from you and change everything no matter what they promised you before and then stick your name on it. :american



Jeff Immelt sucks. Wait a minute... This is, as the title might imply, the whole story from after some guy nobody's ever heard of invented a light bulb or something. Anyway, GE gets really big, Jack Welch becomes God, etc. then Jeff Immelt fucks it all up. Pretty much everyone alive was willing to be interviewed for this, Welch did multiple interviews so he gets a slightly more favorable treatment than everyone else although he probably was better anyway. Best part is that this is after Immelt's own book and also he gave interviews for it which leads to most of the second half being the same format: guy tells you about some GE thing, goes to Jeff Immelt's version, then asks everyone else who says "that's bullshit, he's lying." Jeff Immelt has a pretty simple theory for what went wrong at GE: people didn't listen to Jeff Immelt's brilliance enough. Everyone else seems to think it was that Jeff Immelt wouldn't listen to anyone else. Welch was a tyrant but he could be won over and not only could he be but he enjoyed the entire give-and-take process. Immelt wouldn't even read the reports people brought him, make a decision from the "gut" despite not knowing anything about any of the businesses and then demand absolute loyalty. For some strange reason, this didn't work. Immelt doesn't outright suspect he was sabotaged by wreckers and Kulaks but he does think too many other people were focused on their careers rather than what was best for GE (following Jeff's ideas with total loyalty) which is apparently delivering a $2 a share dividend and just buying shit semi-randomly.



Are you sitting down? China's been erasing events from its official history. I know, it was surprising. In this case the CCP has pretty much erased that Zhao Ziyang did anything. Now, you might be asking, who is that? Oh, just a minor guy, let me quote Wikipedia here: "was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1982, and CCP general secretary from 1987 to 1989." Anyway, after Tiananmen they blamed him for literally every problem in China, put him under house arrest, accused him of being part of a capitalist plot and erased him from official documents. Now you might wonder, how can you erase the head of the country and The Party? Easy peasy, see all his good ideas, those were actually Deng Xiaoping's. Sure, you thought they were just vague random sayings but actually they were really specific policy orders. The bad ones, well like Jeff Immelt's 99 Problems that was just Zhao, evil capitalist who rose to the premier spot in the CCP, not following Deng's perfect wisdom. While the book mostly covers only the above noted dates, the coda is an amusing look at how Xi Jinping has now effectively erased Deng as well, not completely like Zhao (who still goes unmentioned) but now Deng is just some guy from the before time back before Xi's perfectness came to power and gets mentioned only in passing rather than as the "chief architect" history they used to cover over Zhao. If I had a complaint, there's one section where the various Chinese officials are discussing some problems including "inflation" and the guy discusses it like they are, say, American officials which makes the entire discussion not really make sense, I was baffled somewhat about the chapter and assumed it was something I might just have to look up or whatever but then I read another official on another subject talking about Marxist philosophy and it hit me, the officials may have been using all the kinds of economic language we're used to but they were actually talking about things involving state rationing so stuff like the "inflation" wasn't actually ever happening. It's a minor point in the book but it was the main flaw I found in it. The other may have been that he didn't really "wrap" up the story and let Zhao be erased from his own book, the guy wrote a memoir that got out through Hong Kong, the author read it (and reads Chinese) as it's used as a source and you're left wondering if the guy is like "yeah, they fucked me, but that's the game." Chinese officials have been pretty candid in their memoirs so he might have had a whole section on how Jeff Immelt sucks!

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3844 on: April 20, 2023, 11:18:39 PM »


Finished Lock-On Vol.2 last night.
That was actually a pretty good step up from their first volume. Only 1 or 2 kinda wonky articles. Very thick volume, some interesting write ups like:

Kenji Eno biography (I'd played D2 and Enemy Zero growing up and I knew his name but didn't know much about him until this)
Ratchet & Clank series breakdown, including a cool article on Ratchet 1 speedrunning hacks
Bit on the history of Jack & Daxter
Nier series breakdown
Zelda series breakdown
Interview series on Mundaun
Interview series with Keita Takahashi
Interview series with Suda51 on NMH
Short breakdown on the history of Rockstar Games (nothing really new, but some interesting takes)
Article on the whole cyberpunk genre of games like Shadowrun
Too many articles on actual Cyberpunk 2077
Plus a nice article on Spiritfarer which reminded me that I should give it another shot and am currently playing it.

All in all it was a good read. Looking forward to vol.3 and vol.4 when I get to them.

Also despite the Hollow Knight softcover and some great HK fan art, the actual article on HK was kind of whack.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3845 on: April 21, 2023, 02:00:36 AM »
Finished up Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter which is the third volume in the Warhammer 40K Horus Heresy series.




I just love this series. The Grim Dark setting is wonderful and the characters are all so well realised, especially for a series that was essentially written like a TV show with a writers room and all.

I am not really into 40K, but I do admire the attention to detail and the worldbuilding. The best praise I can give the series is that it would be just as enjoyable in an original setting.


https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/815091
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NekoFever

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3846 on: April 27, 2023, 06:00:27 PM »
They occasionally do a big Horus Heresy ebook Humble Bundle where you can get like 20 of them for next to nothing. They’re trash but it’s entertaining trash.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3847 on: April 27, 2023, 08:35:25 PM »
They occasionally do a big Horus Heresy ebook Humble Bundle where you can get like 20 of them for next to nothing. They’re trash but it’s entertaining trash.
That's how I got them a few years back.

Trash is good sometimes. You need comfort food in your life to contrast to the times when you eat like a king.
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Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3848 on: May 05, 2023, 03:49:17 AM »
Finished Discworld #7 - Pyramids

That was a good book. Felt like the most fleshed out and accomplished novel in the Discworld series so far. Has a good structure that comes together, lots of characters, good story and fairly humorous, lots of great takes on society and humans, and some good running gags like Hat, the Vulture Headed God. It's a bit messy, but overall it's a legit great book.

Not sure if I'd say it's my favorite Discworld book so far, but I think it's objectively the best one. It's probably a book I wouldn't mind re-reading someday.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3849 on: May 10, 2023, 01:40:48 AM »
Finished the audiobook of Bobiverse #1 - We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Really enjoyable book for about the first 60-70% until caveman tales and gorillas, at which point that subplot became the "boring subplot" where the rest of the book was interesting sci-fi and that was kinda zzz and brought down the pacing each time it jumped back there. It was still ok, and the other subplots were still great, but I thought it brought down the last 30% because of that subplot.

Also the ending felt a bit abrupt, and because there's all these storylines going on separately, the final chapters didn't feel like a real "come together wrap it up satisfying conclusion" but rather moving all the story arcs forward a little bit. The end.

I get that works in that there's more books in the series, but yeah, felt like a Season 1 vs a self-contained thing.

But that all sounds more negative than I actually am on it. I thought it was really entertaining, especially outside of the gorillas sub-plot, and as someone that's not really into sci-fi, I thoroughly enjoyed it. A really solid 8.5/10.

I'll continue with the series unless it gets bad. Probably stick with the audiobooks because I thought the narrator did a good job with the various characters making them sound unique.


Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3850 on: May 10, 2023, 02:25:36 AM »
Finished up Strange Dogs which is a novella in The Expanse series and have dived straight into book #7 (Persepolis Rising).



Strange Dogs was a great little novella giving a bit of prep for the big time jump between book #6 and #7.

I already knew the basics of the story because this novella was part of season 6 of the TV show.

Something I am always impressed with is the way each of the multitude of characters in The Expanse, even the bit part players, always have excellent characterisation and feel like unique personalities. It's amazing what the two authors achieved with this series considering the level of output they had.
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Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3851 on: May 12, 2023, 03:06:34 AM »
Started listening to Dresden #1 - Stormfront

Seems solid so far. I think I just really enjoy Noir gumshoe detective audiobooks. Like I really enjoyed Red Harvest. Hearing the gumshoe self-narrator just seems like a good fit for audiobook narrators.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3852 on: May 12, 2023, 03:49:01 AM »
I read that a while ago. I really enjoyed it but haven't managed to get onto the second book yet. I might pick that up once I'm done with the Expanse.
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chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3853 on: May 12, 2023, 10:40:45 PM »
There are some tonally problematic things with Stormfront, but from book 2 or 3, it's just fantastic. Butcher said he was writing for a certain audience, and then abandoned that as he progressed.

Joe Molotov

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3854 on: May 12, 2023, 10:56:19 PM »


Picked it up on a whim because the cover looked cool and the synopsis sounded neat.

Quote
GOD IS DEAD, his corpse hidden in the catacombs beneath Mordew.
In the slums of the sea-battered city a young boy called Nathan Treeves lives with his parents, eking out a meagre existence by picking treasures from the Living Mud and the half-formed, short-lived creatures it spawns. Until one day his desperate mother sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew.
The Master derives his magical power from feeding on the corpse of God. But Nathan, despite his fear and lowly station, has his own strength and it is greater than the Master has ever known. Great enough to destroy everything the Master has built. If only Nathan can discover how to use it.
So it is that the Master begins to scheme against him and Nathan has to fight his way through the betrayals, secrets, and vendettas of the city where God was murdered, and darkness reigns...

I assume this is just a historically accurate portrayal of living in Britain.
©@©™

benjipwns

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3855 on: May 12, 2023, 11:00:34 PM »
There are some tonally problematic things with Stormfront
Quoting this out of context to signal my agreement.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
:teehee
[close]

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3856 on: May 13, 2023, 12:07:39 AM »
There are some tonally problematic things with Stormfront, but from book 2 or 3, it's just fantastic. Butcher said he was writing for a certain audience, and then abandoned that as he progressed.

Yeah, I can see that even early on. The main guy is kind of overly try hard macho and dismissive of women. There's kind of an occasional cringe line or two but otherwise it's good so far.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3857 on: May 14, 2023, 01:06:51 PM »
There are some tonally problematic things with Stormfront
Quoting this out of context to signal my agreement.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
:teehee
[close]

:lol

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3858 on: May 14, 2023, 01:10:18 PM »
Dresden is pretty cool in that the first 12 books basically just continually get better and better.  The series doesn't really launch off until the last half of book 3 though.       


I read a cozy fantasy just to see what the hype was about -- it's not my thing.  But the book, 'The Bookshop and the Barbarian', had a pretty good joke in the first chapter.  The main character, Maribelle, buys a bookstore and finds it's infested by Goblins, and then gets told by the town guard that they can't help her because it is illegal to remove them as they are an endangered species due to to many adventures killing them for experience.  Then, in Always Sunny fashion, the next chapter is titled 'Maribelle hires a murder hobo'.

Also listening to 'Hardwired' and it is pretty cool so far. 
« Last Edit: May 14, 2023, 01:19:38 PM by Madrun Badrun »

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3859 on: May 22, 2023, 11:28:37 PM »
Almost done with Dresden #1. This book moves so fast. Really breezy read/listen. Pleasantly surprised by this. Was expecting just an alright series that gets good after a few books, but this is a great exciting fun book outside some problematic elements. Feels like it'd make a great movie adaptation. Reminds me of Constantine. Definitely will add this series to my First Law, Discworld, Sanderson, Wheel of Time fantasy book rotation.

Also finishing up tonight John Scalzi's The Kaiju Preservation Society which I started last week for a book club I'm going to on Friday. Wasn't sure about the intro, was a bit too zoomer speak, but once it got past that I like the way Scalzi writes dialogue. Feels very much like TV show quipping. I've just got a bit left to finish tonight but the book's been pretty funny. Laughed quite a bit throughout. More than I do from your average Discworld book. Also like Dresden #1 it's short and paced quickly, so was easy to blow through and very enjoyable. Will probably try more of Scalzi's novels.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3860 on: May 23, 2023, 01:43:00 AM »
Old Man's War series is good. Got a bit silly by the end, but definitely a good guilty pleasure kind of series.
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Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3861 on: May 23, 2023, 10:23:24 AM »
So yeah, finished The Kaiju Preservation Society. Good book, would make a fun TV series.

The thing is though that the book is great for like the first 80% of it when it's a comedy about office workers in Jurassic Park. Funny stuff. Good writing. Then the last 20% finale when it tries to have an action adventure summer movie finale it's just...boringly generic.

At least in this book Scalzi's strength is his dialogue and humor and his weakness is his plot and action. Still a good short read.


Is Old Man's War or any of his other stuff humor?

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3862 on: May 23, 2023, 04:32:31 PM »
Old Man's War is pretty funny, but it's not outright comedy. More cynical and sarcastic. I haven't read Kaiju Preservation Society for reference, but it is definitely on the lighter, funnier side of sci-fi.
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Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3863 on: May 24, 2023, 08:51:21 PM »
Finished Dresden #1. Was great outside the finale which dragged out with action and the whole everything going wrong until the very last second thing.

Also, at least book #1 felt more like a horror detective book than a fantasy series. Felt like tons of point n click adventure games that are supernatural murder mysteries like Gabriel Knight and Wadjet Eye stuff like Unavowed or Blackwell series. Considering that's my favorite genre of PnC, it's probably why I enjoyed this one so much.

Is the series generally more horror (gore, demons, ghosts, vampires, spooky stuff) or fantasy (fairies and wizards v wizards)? I always thought this was a fantasy series, but for my tastes I'd prefer more of a Stephen King detective series.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3864 on: May 24, 2023, 08:54:16 PM »
Actually caught up with my audiobooks now. About halfway through Sanderson's secret project #1 Tress of the Emerald Sea in physical.

When I finish that I'll figure out some next reads. Probably Abercrombie on physical. Maybe Bobiverse #2 on audiobook, or maybe something else there like a horror book.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3865 on: May 25, 2023, 03:18:12 PM »
Also, now that I finished Stormfront, can someone go into the tonally problematic issues with the book? Honestly I expected something pretty bad from that warning, but the only thing kind cringe was a love potion which he didn't make on purpose (horny skull forced him), and he didn't use on purpose (Susan grabbed the wrong potion) and nothing came out of it. So it seemed mostly harmless?

I mean Harry's descriptors of when he meets women tend to describe their eyes and sometimes their bust, which is slightly cringe, but pretty typical of late 90s/early 00s as typical male written writing. Was expecting something a lot worse with the tone warning.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3866 on: May 27, 2023, 02:37:59 PM »
So this seems like a good deal for the Murderbot audiobooks

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/marthawells-agriddle-and-more-audiobooks-books

But since I'm new to audiobooks, I don't even know how to listen to mp3s on my phone anymore since all the cloud services where you upload your own stuff shut down. With audiobooks on Audible or Spotify even if I go listen to other stuff it keeps track of where I was in the audiobook when I come back to it. Not sure it's worth the savings in the bundle if I need to find my place each time with an mp3.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3867 on: May 27, 2023, 02:53:31 PM »
Ended up buying, it, getting a book app BookPlayer that reddit recommended, getting the cloud drive working and getting the file over and importing it

...only to find out that HumbleBundle fucked this bundle up and all the downloads are just the 1 chapter samples and not the actual books  :awesome


I'm sure they will fix this quick. Will check back again tonight.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3868 on: May 27, 2023, 05:51:31 PM »
So are any of the other books in that bundle worth reading besides the murderbot ones?

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3869 on: May 27, 2023, 06:03:45 PM »
So are any of the other books in that bundle worth reading besides the murderbot ones?
Never heard of any of them. Even allowing for not judging books by their covers, none of them fill me with confidence.
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Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3870 on: May 27, 2023, 08:53:22 PM »
So are any of the other books in that bundle worth reading besides the murderbot ones?
Never heard of any of them. Even allowing for not judging books by their covers, none of them fill me with confidence.

$20 still a good deal for all those Murderbot audiobooks, so I don't mind.

Potato

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3871 on: May 27, 2023, 11:20:37 PM »
Definitely
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Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3873 on: May 31, 2023, 06:50:43 AM »
Bebpo and chrono you guys got Goodread accounts?

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3874 on: June 01, 2023, 12:51:25 AM »
Bebpo and chrono you guys got Goodread accounts?

Nah, I try to minimize internet accounts these days. Don't have time for more than an inactive forum.

What's your Goodreads? Maybe I'll follow it after this place dies.

HardcoreRetro

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3875 on: June 01, 2023, 06:22:12 AM »
Read that Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold is getting a movie adaptation. They best not fuck this up. (They will.)

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3876 on: June 02, 2023, 10:34:30 PM »
Over halfway through Murderbot #1 All Systems Red and idk

The first quarter when it was a dry humor piece about an antisocial murderbot dealing with humans was pretty funny. Good stuff.
The 2nd quarter when it's like 100% serious action sci-fi plot....eh, I find this really dry and boring and hard to get through.

Basically I have zero interest in this series as a legit plot focused sci-fi series,
but I'm down for it if it's just a dry comedy series.

Will see how the book/novella turns out by the end and if I'm interested in continuing.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3877 on: June 03, 2023, 05:31:11 AM »


Finished Sanderson's Tress of the Emerald Sea

It's a good enjoyable Princess Bride-esque pirate adventure. Likeable characters, interesting world that's lightly explored, and a few Cosmere teases, but overall nothing really stood out and has a bit of a fluff feel to it.

It's better than Skyward #3 and Mistborn Era 2/Book 4 The Lost Metal, so it's a step back in the right direction. But just doesn't have the compelling writing of Sanderson's better books like Warbreaker or Stormlight. It's also written in a very YA tone like Skyward so that might be it too.

Enjoyed it. *** out of **** stars. The hardcover is gorgeous with amazing illustrations and coloring and it's a good length.

Fingers crossed some of the other kickstarter secret project books are a bit better though. Or at least I hope some of them aren't YA tone.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3878 on: June 03, 2023, 05:35:17 AM »
The book club I try to make it to if I can, which read The Kaiju Preservation Society last month (and I missed the damn book club event because I was too knocked out from surgery  :maf ), is reading This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar for the June book.

So I think I'll give that a try next, otherwise next book I'm reading is Best Served Cold. Keep meaning to get to it and with the news of the film adaptation, I think it's time to read it.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3879 on: June 03, 2023, 02:15:08 PM »
Audible US sale is crazy for any of the 85% off series.  Could easily spend 500$.  Debating which series I should pick up.

edit:  bought 20 books for 80$.  Half The Laundry Files series and the full Sun Eater novels plus others
« Last Edit: June 03, 2023, 06:03:44 PM by Madrun Badrun »

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3880 on: June 04, 2023, 06:29:52 PM »
Listening to Will Wight's youtube stream.  The giveaway this last time was almost half a million books and was about the same as all the other giveaways combined  :o  Pretty cool to see how popular he has gotten given he is probably the best-known self-published author. 

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3881 on: June 07, 2023, 04:12:55 AM »
Finished This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone alternating chapters. About two time agents going back and forth between time strands to change history.

I really didn't enjoy the prose and stream of conscious style it was written in. Especially in such a weird world lore setting. There's no time spent establishing anything and it's just really confusing to follow and would work better as a visual medium piece I think.

Eventually it starts to click and the last 1/3rd where there was actually "some" plot was mildly enjoyable. But so much of the 200 page book is just poem-like ramblings of time period events over a single page.

The first half definitely got me feeling like "at this point in my life, why should I be wasting any reading time on books that aren't 'fun'", but it was short and part of a book club. Having finished it, it was maybe worth the time, maybe. Definitely not my kind of thing. I'm a boring old fogey who likes my prose straight forward and understandable.

Looking forward to jumping into Best Served Cold tomorrow. Almost done with Murderbot #1. Will listen to Dresden #2 next on the audiobook side.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3882 on: June 07, 2023, 11:52:17 PM »
Ok, finished Murderbot #1. Was good.

Bebpo

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3883 on: June 08, 2023, 12:06:13 AM »
Audible US sale is crazy for any of the 85% off series.  Could easily spend 500$.  Debating which series I should pick up.

edit:  bought 20 books for 80$.  Half The Laundry Files series and the full Sun Eater novels plus others

Oh shit, I hadn't paid attention to this since I wasn't caught up in audiobooks yet.
Now I am and wow, glad I didn't miss this. Bobiverse books are $2.50.

*edit* Ok, didn't grab too much since I don't go through audiobooks that quickly.

Grabbed Bobiverse #2-#4, Dresden #2/#3 and Project Hail Mary. Between those and the rest of the Murderbot audiobooks I got from the humble sale that should last for about a year.

« Last Edit: June 08, 2023, 12:30:12 AM by Bebpo »

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3884 on: June 09, 2023, 05:06:55 AM »
Best Served Cold is super fucking good so far. Abercrombie writes so damn well and his characters are extremely enjoyable.

I looked him up and saw he did a YA series in 2014/2015.
...I can't imagine him doing YA. All the First Law stuff is very, very mature writing and very, very adult everything.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3885 on: June 10, 2023, 02:10:17 AM »
Yeah, I'm going to blow through all the rest of Abercrombie's bibliography pretty quickly after this. Makes me remember how much I liked reading the First Law trilogy even if I was kind of disappointed in its nihilistic conclusion. His characters are A++ and everything is so well written.

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3886 on: June 12, 2023, 01:28:36 AM »
I'll spare you guys my normal lengthy unfunny obvious commentaries (I posted those in the .net thread) and make just short comments about these:

Quite good, many of the Goodreads reviews stupidly accuse him of political bias (and one of "hating America") because he accurately mentions Trump on one page of the conclusion as someone who also likes "law and order" and is "suspicious of immigrants" when his real bias is just that he accepts the standard popular narrative of history:


Adequate, the Ford one is the clear superior, the Reagan one suffers because he didn't really integrate any challenges to his thesis except from pro-Reagan sources upset at his lack of use of force and he turns to ad hoc explanations sometimes because his thesis is that everything Reagan did was connected to some kind of master plan:


Bad, not even about corporations but select big businesses, he even starts out his book on the "history of corporations" by defining out the bulk of corporations existing today and probably in human history from even being corporations, and this guy is a law professor who then goes on to fail describing the law accurately in a number of other ways:

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3887 on: June 12, 2023, 02:44:21 AM »
My only gripe about Abercrombie's Best Served Cold is that the main two characters and their interactions feel like a rehash of the main two from the First Law trilogy, which makes me wonder about Abercrombie's range a bit.

Shivers PoV seems like the exact same PoV as Logen was. Naive fish out of water Northman, humble natured, always trying to be a better man and bring some camaraderie to the party. Monza being a hard assed antisocial murder machine basically like Ferrio. Just feels kind of samey even if it's still very entertaining.

Olivia Wilde Homo

  • Proud Kinkshamer
  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3888 on: June 12, 2023, 07:52:26 PM »
American Midnight is a good book about a time period very few know much about. Highly recommended.
🍆🍆

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3889 on: June 12, 2023, 08:39:43 PM »
Read that Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold is getting a movie adaptation. They best not fuck this up. (They will.)

That was my first books by that author and I really love it. I think there is room to do it right!

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3890 on: June 13, 2023, 12:40:16 AM »
Audible US sale is crazy for any of the 85% off series.  Could easily spend 500$.  Debating which series I should pick up.

edit:  bought 20 books for 80$.  Half The Laundry Files series and the full Sun Eater novels plus others

Shit, looks like I slept through the sale.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3891 on: June 15, 2023, 12:11:33 PM »
Best Served Cold

The brothel scene was A+++
Book is like Dark Fantasy x Ocean's Eleven x Tarantino


Though I will nitpick more and say the massive re-use and shoving in your face constantly of stuff from First Law is a bit overkill. Like a small character like Shivers, ok, that works. But like

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Vitari, Cosca, Carlot de Eider, Jezal, etc... everyone yelling THE CRIPPLE, THE CRIPPLE RUNS IT ALL, etc...
[close]

It's kind of a bit too much fanservice? Like it feels detrimental to the plot standing on its own with its own characters. It really doesn't need all these connections, not too mention it's kind of a ridiculous coincidence all these characters are just happening to show up again in the same spot.

I think the original characters in Best Served Cold are great. Morveer and Day the poisoners are so, so good. Friendly is uh, interesting lol. Just doesn't need all the connections in your face imo.

But it's very entertainingly written and plot-wise, so it's fine.

It definitely feels like it's written for film/TV, but the biggest hurdle of a film will be truncating what is a pretty long fucking book into a 2 hour medieval Tarantino film.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3892 on: June 17, 2023, 12:27:40 PM »
Best Served Cold

Damn, this book got dark in the Visserine arc.

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3893 on: June 17, 2023, 10:15:10 PM »
Best Served Cold

The brothel scene was A+++
Book is like Dark Fantasy x Ocean's Eleven x Tarantino


Though I will nitpick more and say the massive re-use and shoving in your face constantly of stuff from First Law is a bit overkill. Like a small character like Shivers, ok, that works. But like

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Vitari, Cosca, Carlot de Eider, Jezal, etc... everyone yelling THE CRIPPLE, THE CRIPPLE RUNS IT ALL, etc...
[close]

It's kind of a bit too much fanservice? Like it feels detrimental to the plot standing on its own with its own characters. It really doesn't need all these connections, not too mention it's kind of a ridiculous coincidence all these characters are just happening to show up again in the same spot.

I think the original characters in Best Served Cold are great. Morveer and Day the poisoners are so, so good. Friendly is uh, interesting lol. Just doesn't need all the connections in your face imo.

But it's very entertainingly written and plot-wise, so it's fine.

It definitely feels like it's written for film/TV, but the biggest hurdle of a film will be truncating what is a pretty long fucking book into a 2 hour medieval Tarantino film.

Because I was unaware of First Law, I started with this book and loved it. What seems like fanservice for you was my introduction to the characters. Maybe it’s better that way?

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3894 on: June 17, 2023, 10:49:32 PM »
Best Served Cold

The brothel scene was A+++
Book is like Dark Fantasy x Ocean's Eleven x Tarantino


Though I will nitpick more and say the massive re-use and shoving in your face constantly of stuff from First Law is a bit overkill. Like a small character like Shivers, ok, that works. But like

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Vitari, Cosca, Carlot de Eider, Jezal, etc... everyone yelling THE CRIPPLE, THE CRIPPLE RUNS IT ALL, etc...
[close]

It's kind of a bit too much fanservice? Like it feels detrimental to the plot standing on its own with its own characters. It really doesn't need all these connections, not too mention it's kind of a ridiculous coincidence all these characters are just happening to show up again in the same spot.

I think the original characters in Best Served Cold are great. Morveer and Day the poisoners are so, so good. Friendly is uh, interesting lol. Just doesn't need all the connections in your face imo.

But it's very entertainingly written and plot-wise, so it's fine.

It definitely feels like it's written for film/TV, but the biggest hurdle of a film will be truncating what is a pretty long fucking book into a 2 hour medieval Tarantino film.

Because I was unaware of First Law, I started with this book and loved it. What seems like fanservice for you was my introduction to the characters. Maybe it’s better that way?

Did you feel like reading Best Served Cold first spoiled too much of the First Law Trilogy? For something that's standalone it references everything so much I feel like it would kind of ruin a lot of the plot points in that trilogy if someone read it after.

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3895 on: June 18, 2023, 04:56:13 AM »
The writing just has to be good. Everybody knows the main outline for Lord of the Rings, but I'm still enjoying reading the books in 2023.

How does knowing outcomes ruin the plot points anways. You got 3 whole books to find out how things came out to be the way they are. People put way too much weight on spoilers. If the only thing keeping you interested in books/movies/games is the surprise of the next plot point I'm going to assume they aren't very good on their own.

Do you ever reread books you like? If spoilers are that important why ever reread anything.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3896 on: June 18, 2023, 09:17:06 PM »
The writing just has to be good. Everybody knows the main outline for Lord of the Rings, but I'm still enjoying reading the books in 2023.

How does knowing outcomes ruin the plot points anways. You got 3 whole books to find out how things came out to be the way they are. People put way too much weight on spoilers. If the only thing keeping you interested in books/movies/games is the surprise of the next plot point I'm going to assume they aren't very good on their own.

Do you ever reread books you like? If spoilers are that important why ever reread anything.

I don't think I've ever re-read a book.

I agree with what you're saying, I'm just iffy on Best Served Cold being a good jump in point since it feels like so much of it needs having read the prior three books.
I mean I'm at the part where there are eaters in Puranti, and if I hadn't read the previous books and known what eaters are, I think it'd be kind of confusing.

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3897 on: June 19, 2023, 10:10:15 PM »
Best Served Cold

The brothel scene was A+++
Book is like Dark Fantasy x Ocean's Eleven x Tarantino


Though I will nitpick more and say the massive re-use and shoving in your face constantly of stuff from First Law is a bit overkill. Like a small character like Shivers, ok, that works. But like

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Vitari, Cosca, Carlot de Eider, Jezal, etc... everyone yelling THE CRIPPLE, THE CRIPPLE RUNS IT ALL, etc...
[close]

It's kind of a bit too much fanservice? Like it feels detrimental to the plot standing on its own with its own characters. It really doesn't need all these connections, not too mention it's kind of a ridiculous coincidence all these characters are just happening to show up again in the same spot.

I think the original characters in Best Served Cold are great. Morveer and Day the poisoners are so, so good. Friendly is uh, interesting lol. Just doesn't need all the connections in your face imo.

But it's very entertainingly written and plot-wise, so it's fine.

It definitely feels like it's written for film/TV, but the biggest hurdle of a film will be truncating what is a pretty long fucking book into a 2 hour medieval Tarantino film.

Because I was unaware of First Law, I started with this book and loved it. What seems like fanservice for you was my introduction to the characters. Maybe it’s better that way?

Did you feel like reading Best Served Cold first spoiled too much of the First Law Trilogy? For something that's standalone it references everything so much I feel like it would kind of ruin a lot of the plot points in that trilogy if someone read it after.

The references to Firsy Law had no context for me, so it was like saying “many Bothans died to bring us this information.” It was world-expanding by hinting at a larger picture, but I didn’t know it was pointing at specific things at that time.

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #3899 on: June 26, 2023, 06:44:27 AM »
Alright, finished Best Served Cold - Great book

I think the first half is 10/10 goofy horrible fucked up fun, and then the second half is considerably less fun but still pretty good. I liked First Law Trilogy a bit better than this because I preferred the PoV characters more and the larger scope story with more magical/world lore stuff, but then I was really underwhelmed by the final in First Law Trilogy whereas Best Served Cold lands the finale. Everything comes together great and satisfyingly.

It's almost ironic in that Best Served Cold which is a more "bad people doing bad shit and this can only end badly" kind of thing, that Best Served Cold's endings are more traditional structure satisfying endings with deus ex machina saves and stuff, whereas First Law Trilogy is like some decent people trying to do good things and it pretty much just ends badly for everyone which I found unsatisfying, but I guess that was also more daring I suppose because it bucked being a crowd pleaser. Especially since basically the ending for First Law Trilogy is that

spoiler (click to show/hide)
the bad guy wins.
[close]

I can definitely see how Best Served Cold can work in live-action, especially given the character endings, but yeah it is a big ass book and I don't see how you do that in a single movie and make it work. At minimum I think you'd need to do it Kill Bill style with two films that are like 2-2.5 hours each.

Since that was pretty lengthy, going to take a break from Abercrombie for a bit before I read the next book in the series. Looking forward to it though, but mostly just hoping at some point the books get more into the magi and eaters and stuff. I'm guessing that stuff is probably saved for the main series sets and not the standalones. I think one of the best scenes in First Law Trilogy was in like book 2 where one of the magi runs into two eaters who just wiped out a group of soldiers and the two eaters go after Ferro and the magi with all their super magic abilities and then the magi just fucks them up real fast in messed up ways like turning one's bones into water and the body just flaps down. I want to see more scenes like that later in the series.