What are you reading? Options

[SubRosa]

I finished reading Rebel Rising by Beth Revis. It was excellent. It is the story of Jyn Erso, starting with Saw Gererra taking her after the death of her mother and capture of her father. It literally ends with her first meeting with Mon Mothma and the Rebel Alliance on Yavin. I really appreciated the extra work the author took to incorporate things from other Star Wars media. It takes the most from the novel Catalyst, which is natural as that is the story about her parents and how they got entangled with the Empire and Orson Krennic to begin with. A lot of the Saw Gererra stuff is tied to Rogue One of course, like when Saw first said that "one fighter with a sharp stick and nothing left to lose can take the day." Things from the tv shows also get mentions, such as Fulcrum, and even meiloorun fruit.

It is not your typical story, which tells a single tale of one specific event. Rather it follows her life for some fifteen years or so. We see where she gains her skills. Saw's descent in paranoia. How and why he abandons her. And how her life got even worse.

All throughout there are hints about the Empire building the Death Star. Saw and Jyn keep coming across little pieces of the puzzle, but of course can never put it all together as we, who know what is going to happen, can. It is lots of little thing like the Empire's interest in kyber crystals. Mining massive amounts of metals used for starship construction, and taking great pains to hide where those metals are going to. Even down to Jyn in prison making starship wall panels. More than the entire Imperial starfleet could ever use.

It gets really bleak by the ending. But it does make her character in Rogue One make so much sense. Cassian Andor and the other commandos in Rogue One were not the only ones who had a need to find redemption. Not to mention a need to find a death that meant something. All in all a really good read. While the book gets depressing, it makes Rogue One's ending feel more uplifting. Now I want to watch the movie again.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 13 2017, 02:17 AM

[SubRosa]

I just finished Guardians of the Whills, by Greg Rucka. Another excellent book. Like Rebel Rising, it gives a lot more depth to Chirrut and Baze. I thought they had a great bromance in Rogue One. Their relationship really shines here.

For example, this really sums up Baze:

“No,” Baze said.

The word was, in so many ways, the perfect embodiment of who Baze Malbus had become, as blunt and as hard as the man himself. No was the word that seemed to define Baze Malbus these days, all the more so since the Imperial occupation had begun. No, and in that word Baze Malbus was saying many things; no, he would not accept this, whatever this might be, from Imperial rule to the existence of a Jedi in the Holy City to the suffering the Empire had inflicted upon all those around them. No, ultimately— and to Chirrut’s profound sadness— to a faith in the Force.

and then Chirrut:

His sense of place, of direction, of movement, told him that they had turned along the Old Shadows, the long outer wall of the Temple of the Kyber that was forever condemned to remain shielded from sunlight. This, too, had meaning. For the light to exist, there must be the dark. For the Force, there must be balance.

and later:

“Sit,” Chirrut said.
“I have to do something,” Wernad repeated.
“We are doing something,” Chirrut said. “We are keeping faith.”

Jedha City itself really shines here. It is a character just like all the others. Guardians of the Whills really brings the place to life, with its different neighborhoods, history, and diverse population of races and faiths. After reading this, Jedha feels as real to me as Detroit, or Chicago, or London. It makes the city's fate all the more sad and poignant.

The story itself is good, and tight. Maybe a little too tight. It reads really fast. That is my only complaint, if you can call it that. It is set a few years before Rogue One. Saw Gererra comes to Jedha and begins his campaign against the Imperials during the story. Chirrut and Baze get caught up with Saw's partisans. But that relationship does not last. They have wildly different goals. Chirrut and Baze are fighting for the people of Jedha. Saw, OTOH, is simply fighting against the Empire, and he does not care how many innocent people get killed in the crossfire. A local orphanage serves as a stark symbol of the gulf between each view point. There are only 6 kids in it at the beginning of the book. Within a few months of Saw Gerrerra, there are 34. In fact, the plot really revolves around that orphanage, which I really liked. It keeps the story and the fight against the Empire grounded in humanity, and shows what Chirrut and Baze are really made of.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 13 2017, 02:14 AM

[SubRosa]

Yesterday and today and read two short Star Wars E-books - Perfect Weapon by Delilah Dawson, and The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku by Landry Walker. Perfect Weapon was ok, but its protagonist seems to suffer from Mary Sue syndrome for much of the story. I think if the author had not gone on so much about how every man who saw her wanted to have sex with her it would have been much better. But as it goes on it is revealed that she is not quite so perfect after all, especially when the big double-cross is revealed near the end. She kind of reminded me of Ventress. But without all the backstory that (eventually) made Ventress such a complex and tragic character.

The Crimson Corsair was a load of rollicking fun, a classic Star Wars thrill ride. It did not have much depth. As in none. But it was filled with wild action and excitement. Plus a 'treasure' which was not quite what the characters expected. But even that had a nice twist.

[Acadian]

Just got back from a week of travel/visiting Acadian Sr. Took the opportunity to read Plains of Passage - the fourth book in the Earth's Children series that traces the massive saga of a young blond heroine during earth's ice age.

I've read up through and including this fourth book in the series many years ago and am pleased that the authoress went on to publish four additional novels in the series so I have plenty more of this saga to savor.

The series is a wonderfully rich and sprawling portrait of both east and west Europe during the ice age when both ancient man (neanderthal who relied heavily of inherited memories - instincts) and early modern man (cro-magnon who relied on the ability to visualize and create innovative solutions) existed at the same time. The heroine (a young cro-magnon blond) endures no shortage of crises, where her ability to adapt to her environment as both a huntress and medicine woman serve her well.

As I've mentioned before, this series has had a significant impact on Buffy Fiction from the beginning. I think that is why I enjoy the series so much; when I am on the road it helps ease not playing or writing with Buffy.

Edit: Added missing 'e' to end heroine - thanks SubRosa.

This post has been edited by Acadian: Jun 16 2017, 12:49 AM

[SubRosa]

One of these days I am going to get around to reading those. Whenever I run out of Star Wars books I suppose!

But I don't think you meant that the protagonist was a blond opiate?

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 16 2017, 12:24 AM

[Acadian]

Lol, thanks, SubRosa.

Ayla's the heroine's name. Lost her family at age five in an earthquake and was found/raised by a tribe of neanderthals until her independent thinking and willfulness caused them to kick her out of the tribe. Thrust out on her own, the young woman befriends and raises two young horses, a baby cave lion and a wolf cub - who all grow up to be like family to her.

Ayla does eventually find herself a boyfriend and, though a good match, their relationship is rather tempestuous - and the authoress does not shy from describing their frequent and passionate couplings. She also lingers extensively describing the terrain, flora and fauna of the time - which seems appropriate given Ayla's skill as a healer who uses plants extensively and lives with animals.

Though the tale is told primarily from Ayla's perspective, the narrative is third person that head hops so much as to render the narrative almost omniscient. Since I was trained by you to avoid head hopping, her frequent PoV changes took some getting used to.

[Decrepit]

Status update:

I indeed moved on to The Great Hunt, book two of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Have read surprisingly little of it. Or not so surprising. Much of the time I would normally spend reading has been devoted instead to assembling and configuring the new PC, along with, more recently, monkeying with an experimental Oblivion install on that rig.

[Callidus Thorn]

I've started rereading the Hellequin Chronicles, which is proving once again to be great value for money. I picked them up for something like £1 per ebook, and the setting's good, the characters are entertaining, and the stories are fun enough that I'm too distracted by them to get overly critical. And given the number of redheads popping up, the author seems to share my weakness for them(or at least, the main character does, but I think they pop up a little too often for that to be the reason), which is a nice bonus.

This post has been edited by Callidus Thorn: Jun 16 2017, 07:22 PM

[Callidus Thorn]

Finished reading Lev Grossman's Magicians trilogy, and they didn't fare quite so well this time around. Still love the first book, but the second was somewhat dodgy on its premise and continuity, and the third makes a few jumps for the setup that don't really seem merited. But I still enjoyed the trilogy.

Now I just have to try and figure out what to read next...

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

After watching season 1 of Starz's American Gods (viewed via a small monthly subscription through Amazon Prime), Khajiit decided to pick up the book it was adapted for TV from, American Gods by Neil Gaiman. This one is really enjoying it.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jul 6 2017, 03:28 AM

[Callidus Thorn]

I've only ever read one book by Neil Gaiman; Stardust, and I was so disappointed by it that it put me off him completely.

I've been reading Cities in Flight by James Blish. It's actually four stories bundled together, and this is one of the reasons I'm not particularly keen on it. The first book was brilliant, but for me things start to go wrong with the second. The first gives you this big setup to the momentous events it concludes with and lays the ground for.

The second book picks up more than 350 years later, following events only tenuously connected to the setup the first book left behind, while dropping some tantalising details of events that took place in that gap without giving any more detail than is strictly necessary. And to be frank, what's skipped over sounds to be far more interesting than the actual story. But it was still a reasonable story.

Book three was pretty bad in my opinion. Too much happened, too quickly, and too coincidentally. The impression I got was one of the author throwing mud at a wall to see what stuck. It also introduces a few things that have never been mentioned before, without any kind of setup to justify their inclusion or even a decent explanation of them.

I've only just started book four, but I'm not too optimistic about it given that it's completely left behind the title, as the city that the story follows is no longer capable of flying. And the author seems to have decided to arbitrarily bump the stakes even higher than in the third book, and he went pretty mad with that towards the end.

This post has been edited by Callidus Thorn: Jul 10 2017, 08:05 PM

[ghastley]

I've been reading Cities in Flight by James Blish.

I recall reading those back in the decade they were written. Those were the days when the library came to you in rural areas, and I was just getting into reading Sci-Fi. (At around the same age my contemporaries were just getting into reading!)

They're probably better if you read them as a kid, or maybe you have to read them before they get old.

[Decrepit]

I'm still slowing working my way through The Great Hunt, book two of Wheel of Time. Between assembling the PC, building a modded Oblivion install, and neck, shoulders and back pain making it nowadays unpleasant to lie down for any great length of time I'm not doing nearly as much daily reading as normal.(Since early adulthood I've done almost the whole of my pleasure reading abed.)

[Decrepit]

At 0300 this morning I finished my seventh reading of Robert Jordan's The Great Hunt, book two of The Wheel of Time. Took me long enough! At this rate I'll end the year having read fewer books than any year since developing a passion for reading in early adulthood.

[Decrepit]

At 2300 yesterday evening I completed my sixth reading of Robert Jordan's The Dragon Reborn, book three of The Wheel of Time. I started in on book four but nodded off almost before I began.

[Decrepit]

At 2210 yesterday evening I finished my sixth reading of Robert Jordan's The Shadow Rising, book four of The Wheel of Time. This volume houses some of my favorite story-lines in the series. Rand and Mat's initial visit to Rhuidean and the unraveling of the Aile past. The breaking of the White Tower. First and foremost, Perrin and Faile in The Two Rivers.

I place much blame for my lessening of interest during the middle volumes on the Perrin-Faile story-line in general and Faile as a character in particular. Thankfully that's not in evident here. Not yet. Yes, Faile already displays some of the characteristics that will later make many of her passages hard to endure, but at this stage they are sufficiently offset by more admirable qualities.

Tanchico is pretty darn good too. I honestly don't think this volume has any major faults. A minor flaw...during a confrontation in Tanchico Jordan uses the stale device of letting the "villain" gloat over her supposed certain victory over an opponent, in the process revealing much valuable info about a valuable object to that opponent, who wins out in the end. Jordan himself attempts to justify the reveal in the following paragraph, but for me the explanation doesn't quite pan out. Not a lease breaker, but regrettable in a book of this caliber.

I began book five, The Fires of Heaven, after finishing Shadow, but fell asleep after about twenty pages.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Aug 19 2017, 12:50 AM

[SubRosa]

It is not exactly reading, but for this weekend The HPLHS has their Dark Adventure Radio Theater production of The Call of Cthulhu free for download. It is very cool. I highly recommend it.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

It is not exactly reading, but for this weekend The HPLHS has their Dark Adventure Radio Theater production of The Call of Cthulhu free for download. It is very cool. I highly recommend it.

Oooh Khajiit is getting it!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Just got done listening. Found it was rather enjoyable!

[Decrepit]

At 2314 yesterday evening I concluded my sixth reading of Robert Jordan's The Fires of Heaven, book five of The Wheel of Time. Another fine series entry, the highlight of which, for me, is Mat's "antics" during the battle at Cairhien. If forced to assess individual novels up this point I'd place book four slightly higher, but that's splitting hairs. Some consider this the last high quality entry prior to the series' mid-books decline. I disagree, considering book six amongst Jordan's best. Leastwise that has been my opinion during all previous series reads. We shall soon (?) see if my stance survives unaltered.

Even my listing of completion times and dates scribbled inside the book's cover proved of interest to me. It shows my initial reading to have ended on 1 Jan 1996, followed by a seconded reading finished 26 Feb of the same year! I initially assumed one of those dates to be in error. Not so. My computer reading log for 1996 shows that I indeed concluded my initial reading when I said I did, then went back and began reading the series from book one, eventually reaching and re-reading book five. I don't think it's possible for me to read that many massive volumes in anywhere close to that short a time-span any more.

I suppose it goes without saying, thought I'm obviously about to, that I will likely begin book six, Lord of Chaos, by day's end.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Aug 22 2017, 12:31 PM