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What are you reading? |
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SubRosa |
Sep 8 2018, 06:53 PM
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Ancient
Joined: 14-March 10
From: Between The Worlds
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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 |
Oct 10 2018, 09:25 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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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 |
Oct 13 2018, 01:40 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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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 |
Oct 16 2018, 11:25 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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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 |
Oct 20 2018, 05:23 PM
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Master
Joined: 19-September 11
From: From: From: From
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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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I wanna slap people and tell them I love them
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SubRosa |
Nov 29 2018, 01:27 AM
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Ancient
Joined: 14-March 10
From: Between The Worlds
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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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SubRosa |
Dec 14 2018, 02:40 AM
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Ancient
Joined: 14-March 10
From: Between The Worlds
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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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