Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

By 'eck - that was the name of my Grammar School .....

ahh, you haven't watch Disney channel for a good while, have you? they made a movie based on that book. The name's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

hey wait, what is a "Grammar school"? I don't suppose you learned English grammar in elementary and secondary school?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

ahh, you haven't watch Disney channel for a good while, have you? they made a movie based on that book. The name's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

hey wait, what is a "Grammar school"? I don't suppose you learned English grammar in elementary and secondary school?

Grammar schools

It was Grammar School - Percy Jackson - when I started in the 60's and then it 'changed' into Comprehensive by amalgamating with the adjacent Secondary Modern ... ie. 'going downhill'

Entrance into the Grammar School depended on "11+ exam" (at age 10-11), failure pushed one into the Secondary Modern.....

[shootingMaNs]

Currently reading "Dawn Crescent" by David and Daniel Dvorkin, an alternate history about Desert Storm. It started out all right, but it's becoming a struggle to finish.

Not sure what to read next. I picked up "Shoeless Joe" by W. P. Kinsella as a freebie from B&N, but I also feel like reading some Honor Harrington. The baseball season has started, and my Reds are back in 1st place, so I'm kinda leaning toward "Shoeless Joe."

Originally Posted by Fbone

Finished The White Mountains by John Christopher. Fun, breezy read. I'll probably read the prequel on how the Tripods appeared before completing the series.

I read these years ago(back in the dark ages when I was in Junior High), and still have them on my bookshelf. Might be worth a re-read!!!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Well the description of Genesis sounded good, and it was an ok read. Perhaps I was expecting something a little more like the Mars series, but still as a book it was good.

Exodus, well I can understand why he wrote the book in the way he did, and it didn't bother me. Just the whole book seemed nothing really to do with a civilisation travelling through space, and more just a civilisation. I shook my head numerous times at the fact that they started off rather technologically savvy, and after thousands of years civilisation went backwards and seemed to sit at like a medieval time - very simplistic. Take away the sun tube and realistically the story could have been based anywhere in the world and been an alternative historical fiction.

I still haven't finished up the Mars series. I found it a little too hard (& improbable) for my tastes.

I think that the isolation from the ship element of things is part of the story. I think his implicit argument is that generation ships must be protected from their passengers as much as from any external threat.

And that I like historical stories probably helped my opinion of it.

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

It was Grammar School - Percy Jackson - when I started in the 60's and then it 'changed' into Comprehensive by amalgamating with the adjacent Secondary Modern ... ie. 'going downhill'

You're that old?

Sorry, I mean no offense.

I'm reading Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

You're that old?

Sorry, I mean no offense.

I'm reading Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero.

I liked the Lost Hero quite a bit. I think that it might turn out to be my favourite Rick Riordan series. I'm currently reading his newest book "The Throne of Fire", in the Kane series. I find the series fun, but not as interesting as the Percy Jackson series. But then again, I am more partial to Greek gods, so that might have something to do with it.

[ATDrake]

Finished The Last Camel Died at Noon, which has the best title of all of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries.

Usual tropes apply: redheads suspected of being villainous, aristocrats known to be useless, another set of confounded young lovers, the inordinately precocious child wanders off on his own adventures only to reappear just in time to conveniently save the day, must uphold British standards of decency and excellence wherever we go pour encourager les autres, etc. etc.

This is set apart from other Peabody tales by being intended as an homage to H. Rider Haggard's novels. So we get the Peabody-Emersons on the trail of a long ago disappearance of an explorer who may or may not have discovered a mysterious hidden civilization (or just died in the desert alongside the camels).

It's openly an action adventure tale with only mild mystery elements and a somewhat different narrative structure, as part of the tale is told in foreshadowing flashback-to-how-we-got-to-the-dead-camels.

It was the extras that made this book, actually. The hardcover edition I have from the library comes with maps, sketches of the "discoveries", and some loving book designer took the time to add these little scarab-shaped scene spacers and chapter header/footer silhouettes featuring a) Amelia in her bloomers wielding a parasol in a manner that resembles a demented Mary Poppins and b) the soon to be doomed camel train. Awesome.

Moderate recommend. Still not free of the annoying series clichés that had begun to afflict the Peabody books, but definitely stands above the immediately previous ones by virtue of a more imaginative (if mildly improbable) plot and execution, and the bonuses included in the 1991 Warner Books North American hardcover edition which may or may not still exist in the more recent reprints.

[maianhvk]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I liked the Lost Hero quite a bit. I think that it might turn out to be my favourite Rick Riordan series. I'm currently reading his newest book "The Throne of Fire", in the Kane series. I find the series fun, but not as interesting as the Percy Jackson series. But then again, I am more partial to Greek gods, so that might have something to do with it.

Last time I checked we weren't twins but still... why are our tastes so similar! I really like Percy Jackson series, The Kane Chronicles is okay but I actually don't like Egyptian gods, and Lost Hero is a little confusing at first but again I like Greek guys better than animal-headed guys

I think this has something to do with Riordan's sense of humor. I like it when the characters are in the most terrifying situations and they mutter very funny things

[ATDrake]

Finished yet another in Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody, Plucky Victorian Egyptologist With Inordinately Precocious Day-Saving Offspring mysteries.

This time, it was The Snake, The Crocodile, and the Dog and for once, the inordinately precocious offspring does not save the day, in part because amazingly, they actually went and left him behind in England this time.

There are no words to express my delight at this development. There is, however, interpretive dance:

Too bad it won't last because I'm already on the next book. But for once, Ramses' contributions to the story are actually amusing. Who knew that an ocean and half a hemisphere's separation would make the kid that much more tolerable and thus, mildly entertaining?

Anyway, this volume was a sort of callback to the very first Peabody mystery The Crocodile on the Sandbank, with Emerson and Amelia going back to Amarna, where they first met, in part due to nostalgia and dealing with fallout from the previous book, and then for more pressing reasons as one of those improbably convenient plot devices makes them have to go through their early relationship again and thereby re-examine their feelings for one another.

A little contrived, but considering what went before, quite novel and enjoyable. Oh, and I award bonus points for the presence of "Dr. Sigismund Schadenfreude". Now there's what the BBC likes to call "nominative determinism" in action.

Mild recommend, especially if you liked the first two books in the series, since there are a fair amount of callbacks to those adventures.

And since you could practically make a drinking game out of it:

• Redheads suspected of being nefarious masterminds: 1
• Incidents of face-slapping which demonstrate True Love: 1
• Duplicitous maybe-spy additions to the camp who are won over by their admiration of Peabody and/or Emerson: 1
• Characters making protestations of deep and affectionate non-platonic devotion to Peabody and/or Emerson (who are not themselves Peabody and/or Emerson): 1
• People who unexpectedly turn out to be other people in disguise: 1
• People who are suspected of being other people in disguise who turn out not to be those people: 1
• Shirts ruined by Emerson popping the buttons off as he removes it so that Peabody can admire his bronzed breast: at least 1

Sadly, no exorcisms this time around.

But there's a new and different demented Mary Poppins-like bloomer and parasol-wielding Amelia Peabody silhouette for the chapter headers in the library's hardcover edition. I wouldn't have thought they'd go to the trouble of designing more than one.

[caleb72]

Just finished eBully by David Confifer. Gave it 3 stars.

It was a very easy read and it was entertaining - also very topical. However, I felt it was a little "Scooby Doo" for me. I actually grabbed that from the novel itself. One of the characters thought the series of events was like a Scooby Doo episode and so did I.

That said - 3 stars means I still liked it. Interested to read more of his work.

Still reading The Blade Itself by Abercrombie. 50% and it's feeling like a bit of a slog (maybe because I've been focusing on smaller novels lately). I do like it though. I'm thinking 3.5 stars at the moment but I'll see how the second half plays out.

[phenomshel]

Gave up and skimmed the last story in the Teeth anthology. Been reading it on my phone for what feels like a month. I like anthologies on my phone though, because they're easy to pick up and put down.
Finished "My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon" and now trying to read "Flowerbed of State" by Dorothy St. James. I say "trying to read" it because for some reason it's slow going. I don't think it's the book, I think it's me.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by maianhvk

You're that old?

Sorry, I mean no offense.

Oi !

Young whippersnapper ....

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Women in Deep Time by Greg Bear. I got this back in December 2008 during a Fictionwise 40% off sale, using Micropay from a 100% rebate sale. That added up to an astonish level of discount overall. I do miss the old Fictionwise.

This seems to be three novellas by Greg Bear. I've liked some of his other stuff, so hopefully I'll like these.

Yes, good SF from Greg Bear with interesting ideas and stories, each Novella complete in itself.

Next: Young Flandry by Poul Anderson. An omnibus of the first (in internal chronology) three Flandry novels: Ensign Flandry, A Circus of Hells and The Rebel Worlds.

[orlok]

After all the recommendations, I have just started The Hunger Games. So far, so good

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by orlok

After all the recommendadtions, I have just started The Hunger Games. So far, so good

I must read this one day before I'm the last person on Earth to do so.