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Old 02-08-2013, 06:13 AM   #15586
pdurrant
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Darkship Renegades by Sarah A. Hoyt. The sequel to Darkship Thieves
A good sequel, but I felt that some of the space stuff was poorly done. (A 'decaying' geosynchronous orbit!)

Next up: The Grey Horse by R A MacAvoy. I got this one in a fictionwise sale in May 2011. I have enjoyed the other books by MacAvoy that I've read, and this one is looking interesting too, in an Irish mythology kind of way.
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Old 02-08-2013, 09:31 AM   #15587
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Old 02-08-2013, 05:18 PM   #15588
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I'm reading "Close Your Eyes" by Iris Johanson It's a bit disappointing, but I'm determined to get through it.
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Old 02-08-2013, 06:27 PM   #15589
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I've just started on 'The Hunger Games' and yet to see what all the fuss was about. I keep thinking that perhaps I'll stop and switch to something else, but have been pushing on, hoping it will get better.


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Old 02-08-2013, 07:31 PM   #15590
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I just started The Kris Longknife Series with mutineer by Mike Shepherd. This one grabs you from the start.
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Old 02-08-2013, 08:08 PM   #15591
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Cool Lory S. Kaufman & Carolyn Keene (Mildred A Wirt)

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I finished reading both Third Shift - Pact and the second Nancy Drew Mystery, The Hidden Staircase. Hugh Howey's new addition to the silo saga was really really first rate, as always. Now on to Jeffrey Deaver's, The Bone Collector since quite a few posters really seemed to like it a lot and the fifth Nancy Drew Mystery, The Secret of Shadow Ranch (out-of-sequence because I just read 3 and 4 [also out-of-sequence]).
Well finished up the Nancy Drew Mystery, The Secret of Shadow Ranch and also Jeffrey Deaver's, The Bone Collector and enjoyed them both a lot! Next I'm going to give Lory S. Kaufman's SciFi YA novel, The Lens and the Looker a try and I'm also reading the sixth Nancy Drew Mystery, The Secret of Red Gate Farm.

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The Lens and the Looker. It’s the 24th century and humans, with the help of artificial intelligences (A.I.s), have finally created an almost perfect “post-dystopian” society.

To make equally perfect citizens for this world, the elders have created History Camps, full-sized recreations of cities from Earth’s distant pasts. Here teens live the way their ancestors did, doing the same dirty jobs and experiencing the same degradations. History Camps teach youths not to repeat the mistakes that almost caused the planet to die. But not everything goes to plan.

In this first book of the Verona Trilogy, we meet three spoiled teens in the year 2347. Hansum, almost 17, is good-looking and athletic. Shamira, 15, is sassy, independent and an artistic genius. Lincoln, 14, is the smart-aleck, whose wisecracking hides deep insecurities.

The three “hard cases” refuse the valuable lessons History Camps teach. But when they are kidnapped and taken back in time to 1347 Verona, Italy, they only have two choices: adapt to the harsh medieval ways or die.

The dangers are many, their enemies are powerful, and safety is a long way away. It’s hardly the ideal environment to fall in love – but that’s exactly what happens. In an attempt to survive, the trio risks introducing technology from the future. It could save them – or it could change history.
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In The Secret of Red Gate Farm. Solving crime never takes a vacation! While off on a summer visit to Red Gate Farm, Nancy becomes suspicious of a secret society gathering near the ranch. Her curiosity gets the best of her and she is drawn to investigate. Despite the risks to her own safety, the pretty titian-haired detective remains undaunted in her determination to solve the mystery.

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Old 02-09-2013, 01:06 AM   #15592
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I just finished Anthem by Ayn Rand and found it quite fascinating. I wouldn't mind if it were a liiiiiiiitle longer! From the looks of it, her other books don't have that problem. LOL

Up next, The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlen.
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Old 02-09-2013, 01:18 AM   #15593
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Cool Ayn Rand

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I just finished Anthem by Ayn Rand and found it quite fascinating. I wouldn't mind if it were a liiiiiiiitle longer! From the looks of it, her other books don't have that problem. LOL

Up next, The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlen.
I've never read Anthem (it's considered to be a novella), but did read her two most famous novels, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, back when I was about 20. Liked them then, but don't think I would now.

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Old 02-09-2013, 04:50 AM   #15594
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I just finished Cannery Row and began Shogun by James Clavell

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I've just started on 'The Hunger Games' and yet to see what all the fuss was about. I keep thinking that perhaps I'll stop and switch to something else, but have been pushing on, hoping it will get better.


Stitchawl
How far in are you?

I thought that series was quite good, but again, I'm not a seasoned reader anyway, the books present an interesting scenario.
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Old 02-09-2013, 06:26 AM   #15595
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Next up: The Grey Horse by R A MacAvoy. I got this one in a fictionwise sale in May 2011. I have enjoyed the other books by MacAvoy that I've read, and this one is looking interesting too, in an Irish mythology kind of way.
It was a good tale. No flashy quest or danger, but a well-told tale of 1890s Ireland, with a touch of the supernatural. Recommended.

Next: Sunset of the Gods by Steve White. One of my recent Baen purchases, the second in a series that starts with Blood of the Heros, which gets recapped quite well in the first chapter or two.

I must have read Blood of the Heros, but it hasn't stuck in my mind particularly, even with the recap to remind me. perhaps this one will stay with me better.
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Old 02-09-2013, 06:39 AM   #15596
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I've just started on 'The Hunger Games' and yet to see what all the fuss was about. I keep thinking that perhaps I'll stop and switch to something else, but have been pushing on, hoping it will get better.
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I just finished Cannery Row and began Shogun by James Clavell
That is one of my 'All Time Best Books!' ('Noble House' was #2) I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did. From there, read 'Taipan,' then 'King Rat,' and finally 'Noble House.' Taipan is a historical fiction of the founding of Hong Kong, laying the ground work for Noble House. "King Rat" is set in Changi Prison Camp during WWII and introduces two characters who play an important role later in 'Noble House.' And in 'Noble House' you will meet a young woman named after a relative you met in 'Shogun!'

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How far in are you?
I thought that series was quite good, but again, I'm not a seasoned reader anyway, the books present an interesting scenario.
I'm at about 200 pages. It's keeping me reading but I doubt I'll read the last two books. Unless there is some sort of wild plot shift, I feel as if I know exactly where the story is headed.


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Old 02-09-2013, 11:25 AM   #15597
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That is one of my 'All Time Best Books!' ('Noble House' was #2) I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did. From there, read 'Taipan,' then 'King Rat,' and finally 'Noble House.' Taipan is a historical fiction of the founding of Hong Kong, laying the ground work for Noble House. "King Rat" is set in Changi Prison Camp during WWII and introduces two characters who play an important role later in 'Noble House.' And in 'Noble House' you will meet a young woman named after a relative you met in 'Shogun!'
So... that's definitely not the publication order, then But I trust you, so I'll follow your recommended order (if I ever finish this thousand-page book to continue another thousand-page one... )
(I picked Shogun in the first place because it's the most read one in the saga )
You don't suggest the two later ones, Whirlwind and Gai-Jin?
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Old 02-09-2013, 02:12 PM   #15598
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I just finished Cannery Row and began Shogun by James Clavell
Such a rare reading experience and I remember that I didn't want it to end. It did, though, and I was sobbing. A few years later, I reread it and loved it all over again.

Time for a reread!
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Old 02-09-2013, 03:15 PM   #15599
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(I picked Shogun in the first place because it's the most read one in the saga )
You don't suggest the two later ones, Whirlwind and Gai-Jin?
Not the person you're asking, but I've read all of James Clavell's fiction besides Whirlwind because my dad had all the books (I haven't read Whirlwind because neither he nor I have been able to find wherever he last put the paperback). Gai-Jin is an okay tie-in which bridges the Tai-Pan and Shogun branches of Clavell's Asian saga. It's chronologically after those two, but is kind of a fill-in-the-gaps prequel to Noble House, so I'd recommend reading that first if you're still interested. Here's a mini-writeup I did on the various Clavell novels and their tv/film adaptations in a historical fiction recs thread last year if you're morbidly curious.

As for me, no sooner did I enthuse about looking forward to George R.R. Martin's upcoming Dunk & Egg novella and finish reading A Feast for Crows through, than he announces that the latest D&E will not be coming out after all, and he's swapping in some kind of historical prequel story about an old royal conflict in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I'd have preferred to see D&E, but I like other backstory filler well enough, I suppose.

In the meantime, I have no shortage of convention-twisting fantasy to read, and accordingly I read John Moore's Heroics for Beginners: A Novel, which is a very funny fantasy spoof of fairy-tale tropes in general and the Big Heroic Evil-Thwarting Rescue Which Earns the Princess' Hand in particular, with a touch of the Evil Overlord List thrown in.

Like Moore's other such novels, a couple of which I read around this time last year it turns out to be two years ago, it takes a tongue-in-cheek almost deadpan send up approach to the comedy elements, which IMHO makes things even funnier than if they'd been treated as outright farce.

Recommended if you like trope-satirizing fantasy spoofs (and are willing to track down an out-of-print paperback). I'm impressed by the cover art, which is done by someone who actually read the novel, or at least paid attention to whatever the author suggested in the way of ideas, since it's got a clearly depicted sign of the official Fortress of Doom public opening and closing hours as described in the story (alas, no view of the gift shop).

Also read in paper from the library Mercedes Lackey's latest Valdemar series installment, Redoubt, which is 4th in the apparently open-ended Collegium Chronicles series-within-a-series. The previous volume of this I apparently did read around this time last year.

And it's more of the same, and the same accompanying flaws and frustration. Though it looks like she finally toned down Mags' annoying Funetikally Spelt Aksent a bit.

Once again, there's a long, drawn-out ramble about Mags' living situation and self-doubts (and he has so, so many) and his various mundane Heraldic trainee activities and his friends' personal dramas which are described in a weird level of irrelevant detail which takes the "show, don't tell" convention of storytelling and kind of turns it into a "show and tell", or maybe a "show that you're not exactly telling, but kind of telling that you're showing" thing.

If it all feels like filler, that's because it probably is, because unless you're desperately interested in weddings, polo-playing competitions, other people's family drama (which incidentally was handled in an Idiot Ball fashion which deliberately made the "bad" family members look like exaggeratedly evil total incompetents whom you're amazed managed to ride as far as Haven without falling off their horses while twirling their moustaches), and Mags' really deep thoughts about his new undercover apprenticeship as an aspiring underworld thug as relates to his former mine-slave situation, this story basically goes nowhere.

Okay, near the end, there starts the actual plot which finally provides the requisite story element where something happens which does eventually provide Mags with a tiny Clue as to his mysterious background hinted at over the past 3 books, before the status quo is restored and he can get back to his regular round of polo, personal drama, and musing about Being A Mine-Slave Turned Herald, but it's really too little, too late and probably won't be followed up upon much in the next book, any more than the previous tiny Clues have.

And while it's interesting to see some more stuff about how the neighbouring country's religion got so corrupt without getting checked in a world where the gods really do exist, the lovely explanation as to why their god didn't step in sooner and strike the corrupting usurping faux-priests down Because of Reasons that the common people needed to strive for freedom and justice and whatever themselves would be a lot more convincing if I didn't know that in the "present" continuity, several hundred years of priestly demon-running peasant-burning oppression were finally overturned by (not really a spoiler, since this first showed up in print some 15 years ago, but in case you haven't read that far in the series and don't want to know)
Spoiler:
a temple coup with very direct and obvious godly backing and interference with "miracles" and striking down of the blasphemers via divine means
. That's a long time to claim Prime Directive motivations before getting fed up and doing an intervention, and I'd drop any god who did that like a sack of easily-droppable things for clearly not providing value for money in the worship/faith department for seven $%^-ing centuries of deliberately-prolonged human misery. Not to mention the regular mini-genocides flushing the useful psychic abilities out of the national genepool.

Not recommended, unless you like me are morbidly curious as to where the storyline's going (nowhere, and in long, drawn-out circles to get there like a dying vulture picking out tiny bones of actual advancement from the scattered carcass). Lackey's writing was considerably better before she started doing long, drawn-out inner monologue character rants (okay, she kind of always did that, but then she started regularly substituting them for actual character insight and development), and her plotting was considerably tighter when she confined each storytelling arc to no longer than a trilogy, with each book-length installment telling a partially-whole story by having something major addressed and resolved in it towards solving the overall arc problem. This ongoing open-ended series-within-a-series thing is really making the quality and enjoyment suffer (besides the other writing issues).

Even though the Collegium Chronicles is kind of marketed as a continuity-free prequel newbie jumping on point for the main Valdemar series, IMHO, you're far, far better off starting at or near the beginning (I recommend picking up the very good Tarma & Kethry stories, which are highly enjoyable) even though the chronology, continuity, and number of books to tie-in/pre-read is more complicated.

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Old 02-09-2013, 11:05 PM   #15600
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Today I started Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett. It's one of the many paperbacks in my bookshelf that has sat there unread for quite some time. Anyone read this before?
This was really good. I don't know if any of you have seen the mini-series Carnivale, but this book reminded me a bit of that show. The grim depression; the grim people in the grim depression; the grim adventures of the grime people in the grim depression etc...

There were clearly supernatural elements but you weren't bombarded with them and there was far too much fore-shadowing to say that this book had a twist at the end. Didn't bother me though.

There were a few editing mistakes (more on facts/logic than language), with crochet and knitting used interchangeably and a character suddenly being replaced with another in mid-paragraph. Not sure why errors like that wouldn't be picked up prior to release - but this is the world we live in I guess.

Just like Carnivale, the meaning of what transpires is not always clear, with very deep speeches only hinting at purpose and rather fantastic pieces of narrative whose meaning was sometimes elusive but no less beautiful for that.

I'm now a goodly portion through A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute. I'm very glad this book was chosen by the book club for February. Although the writing itself doesn't inspire me much, it's very easy to get swept away in the story.
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