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> What are you reading?
Decrepit
post Sep 1 2018, 07:36 PM
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At 1315 this afternoon I finished my second read of Robert Harris' Pompeii. Reached its end so fast (by my slow reading standards) I didn't have time to consider what to tackle next.

Bought Pompeii used less that four years ago. Read it for the first time not long afterward. The large town / small city about ten miles away once had two dedicated used book dealers and three conventional book stores, one of which also dealt in used titles. By the time I bought Pompeii the two dedicated used book stores were long gone, as was one of the three conventional stores. Nowadays there's only a Barnes & Noble, which of course doesn't carry used.

ADDENDUM:
Decided to read David Gemmell's Troy series and am forty pages into book one, Lord of the Silver Bow. Enjoyed these books quite a lot both previous readings. Not sure why I've not sought out other of Gemmell's writings.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 2 2018, 08:08 AM


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Decrepit
post Sep 6 2018, 11:44 PM
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At 1712 this afternoon, at the tail end of supper, I finished my third read of David Gemmell's Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow. I'll start in on book two, Troy: Shield of Thunder, no later than bedtime.


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SubRosa
post Sep 8 2018, 06:53 PM
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I just finished 'reading' HP Lovecraft's Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath on audiobook. This is the first time I finished it. I tried once before, but never got very far. Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories never did much for me. I have the same problem with it that I do with most of the DC Comics settings (Central City, Midway City, Coast City, etc...), or Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy universe. It doesn't seem real to me, so I cannot bring myself to care about what happens there. It just seems like a bunch of made-up names just thrown off the writer's cuff, with no significance, no history, no real way of fitting into a larger world.

I decided to give Dream-Quest a chance yesterday on almost a whim. I had just finished The Silver Key, which I really liked, and that put me in the mood for more Randolph Carter. This time I was armed with a map of the Dreamlands which helped me put the places in perspective.

I found I liked it. I realized that the Dreamlands were Lovecraft's way of trying to create a fantasy-like setting. It seems that when you look at the fantasy writing of that era - 20's and 30's, no one ever just created their own standalone fantasy world, called it Earth (or whatever), and wrote as if our own Real World Earth never existed. Instead people always seemed to start with our Earth as a starting point, from which their protagonists traveled to some other realm. John Carter to Mars. Through the Looking Glass, and so on. Or they set their stories far back in our Earth's past, like Conan in the Hyborian Age, or even Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Lovecraft's Dreamland is not a place of mighty thewed barbarians lopping off heads until the blade of his Atlantean sword is worn dull. But it did strike me as very similar to The Hobbit. Where the protagonist is a relatively ordinary person going on an adventure. He gets captured, escapes through his wits and help from his friends, rinse and repeat. When I looked at it through that lens, Dream-Quest was a fun romp.

The Silver Key likewise reminded me of Hook, and the grown-up Peter Pan trying to regain his childhood wonder of days with the Lost Boys. In this story Randolph Carter has been beaten down with logic and reality, forgotten how to dream, grown up and become an adult. He is The Logical Song in print. He spends the story trying to reclaim his lost youthful spirit, his love of life, his zest. No spoilers, but it has a happy ending.

Now I am starting Through the Gates of the Silver Key, which is a sequel to The Silver Key. The people left behind are puzzling over Carter's disappearance. New Dreamlands adventures beckon.


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Decrepit
post Sep 13 2018, 03:52 PM
Post #944


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At 2316 yesterday night I finished my third reading of David Gemmell's Troy: Shield of Thunder and am already some pages into the third and final book, Troy: Fall of Kings.


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SubRosa
post Sep 13 2018, 10:03 PM
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I started reading The Terror, thanks to the tv series by the same name. It is good, but jumps around through time an awful lot, which can get confusing. I am really astounded by the minute attention to detail by the author. I have spent a lot of time googling things like Fast Ice, growlers, hummocky flows, the idea of the Open Polar Sea, and even things like the Preston Patent Illuminators. He went to a lot of work to make the book as authentic as possible (given that no one really knows exactly what happened to the Franklin Expedition).

An interesting coincidence is that a few months ago I saw a documentary about the Franklin Expedition - Nova: Arctic Ghost Ship, and how they had discovered the last of the two ships - the eponymous Terror. Now I might want to go back and watch that again.


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Decrepit
post Sep 22 2018, 01:50 PM
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At 2235 yesterday evening, shortly before falling asleep, I concluded my third reading of David Gemmell's Fall of Kings, bringing to a close his Troy series. Like Eddings' Redemption of Althalus read not long ago Fall credits both David and his wife Stella as authors. (The two earlier entries are not co-authored.)

Were I to read no more books this year Troy would be my pick for both "best overall read of the year" and "best re-read of the year." I find it very impressive and an easy recommendation. Certainly there's much sadness within volume three, but who reads a recounting of the Trojan epic expecting a happy ending?

I've not yet decided what to read next. Troy will be a tough act to follow.


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Decrepit
post Oct 10 2018, 09:25 PM
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Staying up until 0126 Fri morning 5 Oct finishing it, not falling asleep until circa 0230, then waking for the day at 0430 being the most likely trigger for my ongoing bout of poor health, I've not felt up to reporting my sixth read of S.P. Somtow's The Shattered Horse until now. (How's that for a screwy sentence!?!)

It is a perfect followup for David Gemmell's Troy series. Shattered Horse centers on Robert Graves' statement in The Greek Myths that "some say xxxxxxxx survived and became King of Troy after the departure of the Greeks." By sheer happenstance Gemmell's Troy ends with that character alive (though a brief epilogue shows a totally different post War existence for him.) The books are otherwise quite different. Troy is basically historic fiction with a nod to the supernatural in the form of provably actuate prophecy. With Shattered Horse supernatural elements associated with the myths are most definitely real and play a large role in the story. I think both are great reads, but give the nod to Gemmell.

Liking Gemmell's Troy as I do, I ordered three older Gemmell fantasy novels. Am reading the first of them now, Legend. My take thus far is that Gemmell's writing matured quite a bit between Legend and Troy. Nothing particularly wrong with Legend. It's your basic mid 80s fantasy of a group of "heroes" standing against seemingly insurmountable odds. Then again, much the same can be said of the more recently written Troy. The different, I think, is in the telling. At any rate I enjoy Legend enough to eventually reach its end and will likely move on to the followup.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Oct 10 2018, 09:30 PM


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Decrepit
post Oct 13 2018, 01:40 PM
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Wanting a little change of pace while watching videos at YouTube this morning I decided to see if anything was available on Somtow's The Shattered Horse. As expected, being a "older" title (mid 80s) its presence is practically non existent. I did, however, find an excellent several minute long reading beginning at the start of chapter one. It's enough to get a decent impression of how well written and interesting the book is.

I'm still working my way through Legend and remain disappointed that the book is, imo, several notches beneath the author's latter written Troy series in pretty every respect. Readable, but as of now not something I'd recommend. Troy, on the other hand, remains a VERY solid recommendation.


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Decrepit
post Oct 16 2018, 11:25 PM
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At 1658 this afternoon, chewing my last bite of supper apple, I concluded my first read of David Gemmell's Legend, first book in what would become his Drenai Saga. As mentioned, for me this novel doesn't hold a candle to his later written Troy series, which I think quite highly of indeed. To its credit, I feel it improves at around page 265 and becomes a more interesting read from there until the end some eight pages later. Not perfect by any means, but good enough so that I now look forward to seeing what book two, The King beyond the Gate, offers, where before I seriously considered not continuing on.


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Uleni Athram
post Oct 20 2018, 05:23 PM
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Livy. Specifically, his entries about the Second Punic War. All because I got hooked by the Carthaginians in Rome: Total War, and when I’m hooked to something I must learn about it 120%.


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Decrepit
post Oct 26 2018, 06:31 PM
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At 1211 this afternoon I finished my initial read of David Gemmell's The King Beyond the Gate. As with book one I was not overly thrilled with it. And like book one its final pages partly redeem it for me. I debate continuing on with book three, Quest for Lost Heroes.

Friday evening addendum:
I've not read far in Quest..., but thus far it's made a appreciably better early impression than did either of its two predecessors.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Oct 27 2018, 01:30 AM


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Decrepit
post Nov 2 2018, 10:42 AM
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At 2102 yesterday evening I finished my initial read of David Gemmell's Quest for Lost Heroes. I feel it a marked improvement over its two predecessors though not on par with the author's later Troy series. Quest is also the last book of its series I own. Had I stopped reading at the end of book two I'd have abandoned the series with no regrets. Book three alters that stance somewhat. I now have a mild desire to continue on. Whether or not I do so remains to be seen.


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SubRosa
post Nov 29 2018, 01:27 AM
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I have been reading Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games books. I finished the first, and am half-way through the second. They are good. I go right through them, always wanting more. The movies were very faithful to the novels, with only some minor changes that are clearly made for the film format (trimming things down to be more concise and save running time, etc...).

As always, there is more background to things in the novels, such as the nature of Avox's, where the Peacekeepers come from, etc... Plus a few more characters and scenes. The Capitol comes across as much more vile and perverse in the novels as well. For example, at the end of the first film the remaining tributes are driven to the cornucopia by mutant hounds. In the novel those mutations were created from the other dead tributes, and each possessed their traits, such as their original eyes, hair color, etc... So Katniss could tell who they had been in life. That was extra creepy. My guess is that they either could not make it look good for the movie, or didn't have the money to make them all unique like that.


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Winter Wolf
post Nov 29 2018, 10:47 AM
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I have always wondered what those 'Hunger games' books are like. Trouble is I know nothing about it, books, movies, plot line, nothing. I do remember friends being so into it a half dozen years ago. I might have to check.

Currently I am reading 'Dogs of War' by Frederick Forsyth. The only trouble is I am also reading a 1339 page book on Jack the Ripper, so things are going quite slowly... laugh.gif


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treydog
post Nov 29 2018, 04:01 PM
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I also found them quite compelling. Mrs. Treydog gave me a hard time about "burning through" the books- and then she started reading them and also found them hard to put down.

I am currently nearing the end of the last (so far) DC Smith book, "A Private Investigation".


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Decrepit
post Nov 29 2018, 04:35 PM
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After having read pretty consistently since the beginning of the year I've done little reading to speak of since finishing the last of three recently purchased David Gemmell fantasy novels at the very beginning of Nov. Not for lack of trying. I originally attempted a newly acquired scholarly work, but found I couldn't focus enough to grasp it. I then began a re-read of David Eddings' Belgarath the Sorcerer. I consider it mediocre Eddings, enjoyable enough but no page turner. Made it to about page 200 then lost interest. I'm now tackling a book owned for decades but never read, a study of Gawain's place in the Arthurian mythos, his downfall from Arthur's premiere knight to a more or less second-tier player in later epics, and how and why this came to be. Haven't gotten very far past the introduction.

It doesn't help that I've become very involved in the game Kingdom Come Deliverance, which is eating into some of the time I might otherwise have spent reading.


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SubRosa
post Dec 6 2018, 10:50 PM
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I finished the Hunger Games books. They were good. I recommend them to anyone who likes sci fi. I think I preferred the movies. Maybe because I saw them before reading the books. But I think it is just that they are tighter and more focused than the books. Though the novels do fill in more background, so they are definitely worth the read if you are a fan of the movies. For example, I never really understood where all the Peacekeeper troops came from in the movies. But the books explained it.

After that I moved on to Red Wolf, one Liza Marklund's Annika Bengtzon series. This is one where I saw the movie first too, from the 6 part Annika Bengtzon films starring Malin Crepin. It was decent. But I don't much like Marklund's writing style. It can be confusing at times, forcing me to go back and re-read things several times in places to understand what it is going on.

Today I started Dreadnought, by April Daniels. It is the first book in her Nemesis series. I am really loving it. It is a wonderful coming of age story of a transgirl who inherits the mantle of a fallen superhero. I really liked her depiction of the main character. It is nice to see a writer who is willing to acknowledge that gay and/or trans people exist. I also liked how she describes how the protagonist uses her powers. It is sort of a window into a higher dimension, like she is glimpsing the clockwork behind the universe.



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SubRosa
post Dec 14 2018, 02:40 AM
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I finished Dreadnought, and the sequel Sovereign. Both were really good. Outstanding characterization all around, especially with the protagonist. She is a very well-rounded character, with plenty of issues that stem from being a transgendered person in our world. It keeps her down to earth, in spite of being someone who deserves the name of Dreadnought.

I really liked the world-building here. The author gives a reason for why people have powers. Not just the regular mutant-style powers, but magic, and hypertech as well. That reason is an asteroid-like object called Nemesis that rolls through the solar system every 3,000 years, made up of exotic matter. It randomly turns people into supers, just by existing. It figures highly in both books.

The hypertech is something I really liked. It is something that cannot be replicated with normal technology. In fact, it often completely flies in the face of the laws of physics. Basically people have a power to make gadgets, and it is really that power that makes them work. Because of that the world is not flooded with super-tech gadgets. It is only something that their creators and a few others that they give their stuff to can use.


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SubRosa
post Dec 21 2018, 02:16 AM
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I finished The Great Gatsby today. I was not that impressed. Fitzgerald's writing style is very colorful and descriptive. But sometimes overpoweringly so, as several times I had to go back and re-read passages because his sentences run so long on poetry that I forget what the subject was. Still, he has a sense of sarcasm that I truly relate to. Most of the story seems to be simply a satire the shallowness, self-absorption, and moral and material corruption of the upper classes in the 1920s.

Unfortunately this seems to take the place of a plot for most of the story. It does not really seem to get going until about 80% of the way in. Granted, by that time characters and events that seemed random now fall into place. Then we can see that this is a story of a man - Gatsby - living in the past. He is trying to regain that glorious moment when he was happy. But that of course is doomed to failure. Ultimately it is a rather depressing tale that seems full of sound and fury, but signifies nothing.


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Decrepit
post Dec 22 2018, 01:15 PM
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At 0441 this morning, 22 Dec 2018, I concluded my fifth read of David Eddings' Belgarath the Sorcerer. I've always considered it mediocre Eddings. This reading did not alter that opinion. But I knew that would be the case going in so am not disheartened. It is what it is. I will NOT continue on with Polgara the Sorceress. With that installment I feel Eddings milked the franchise more than it can bear. Not sure what I'll tackle next. Slow as I am, Belgarath is apt to be my final completed novel/book of 2018 no matter what I pick or how quickly I pick it.


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