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

[Apache]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I recently reported that I'd really enjoyed "The Lizard War", by John Dalmas, but I should add a caveat to that: the author has the protagonist use metric measurements, but the author clearly doesn't actually have a clue about the metric system, which is somewhat annoying. At one point in the story, for example, he has his ankles chained together with a chain "800cm long", which gives him room enough to do a few exercises. "800cm" is 8m, or about 25 feet! Clearly the author meant "80cm", not 800. This issue of multiplying correct lengths by 10 occurs three times that I noticed in the book.

Please learn the difference between cm and mm, Mr Dalmas!

I should pull my paper copies and see if it is printed like that too,
Apache

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I recently reported that I'd really enjoyed "The Lizard War", by John Dalmas, but I should add a caveat to that: the author has the protagonist use metric measurements, but the author clearly doesn't actually have a clue about the metric system, which is somewhat annoying. At one point in the story, for example, he has his ankles chained together with a chain "800cm long", which gives him room enough to do a few exercises. "800cm" is 8m, or about 25 feet! Clearly the author meant "80cm", not 800. This issue of multiplying correct lengths by 10 occurs three times that I noticed in the book.

Please learn the difference between cm and mm, Mr Dalmas!

That is ANNOYING, but it's also an indictment of Baen who published it. No way that should have gotten through. It clearly should have been either 80 cm, or 800 mm. But not 800 cm.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by CRussel

That is ANNOYING, but it's also an indictment of Baen who published it. No way that should have gotten through. It clearly should have been either 80 cm, or 800 mm. But not 800 cm.

In another instance of it, the protagonist picks up a "stick about 1950cm long" to use as a walking stick. I don't know about anyone else, but I think I'd find a 60-foot long walking stick somewhat inconvenient.

In the sequel, "The Helverti Invasion", the same protagonist who appeared in the earlier book uses Imperial measurements (feet and miles, rather than cm and km).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In another instance of it, the protagonist picks up a "stick about 1950cm long" to use as a walking stick. I don't know about anyone else, but I think I'd find a 60-foot long walking stick somewhat inconvenient.

Even if he had written "about 1950mm" that's still a weird approximation. "about two metres" would work.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Even if he had written "about 1950mm" that's still a weird approximation. "about two metres" would work.

Exactly - nobody would ever say "about 1950mm". mm are just the wrong choice of units for that length.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next I am taking up Swimming Pool by Mary Roberts Rinehart, a print book lying with me since last few years, bought from a train station book stall, tried earlier to read but did not finish it. In fact the print quality of this paperback is not good and appealing, but this time I'll read it finally and pack in my print books' boxes.

Finished Swimming Pool by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Phew.. it was an strenuous job to read a heck of bad printing with too small font size. It is one of the reasons I prefer reading ebooks only nowadays because I can change the font size and typeface to suit my eyes. Anyway, the storyline was exceptionally good, reconfirming the title of 'The American Agatha Christie' to Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Spoiler:

Desperately afraid, Judith Chandler barricades herself in her bedroom. Her sister, detective novelist Lois, has no patience for Judith's bizarre behavior. However, a real-life mystery unfolds when Judith disappears from her locked room without a trace.

Next I am taking up Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich, an ebook, of course.

[Apache]

Unfortunately most Americans do not understand nor use the Metric System. Most are opposed to implementing it in our school systems. But, anyone planning to have a career in the jewelry business had better have a working knowledge of the Metric System. I can just see someone trying to describe the length, width and depth of a diamond using the Imperial System. Although I once had a customer ask me to tell him how much his diamond was worth..........................over the phone. After explaining that I would have to see it to measure, weigh and grade the stone, he informed me "that it was about the size of a dime".
Yesterday I had a customer who wanted to purchase two .75 carat round diamonds for earrings. He also stated that he did not want to spend more than $1,500.00. I wish I could buy two .75 carat round diamonds at wholesale for $1,500.00.
Apache

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Next book is Mary Higgins Clark's Before I Say Good-Bye.

I gave this book 3 stars. Below is my review :

Quite a disappointment after the heady rush that Mary Higgins Clark's books brought to me. This book of hers, Before I say Good-Bye, is more like Jeffrey Archer rather than the style of prose that Mary herself specialized in. Also Mary's daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, has penned the type of books that caught my attention.

There is a mystery element here. Faint, very faint indeed, but its presence dislocated the ending of the book. The author had planned each day in the life of her characters, meticulously. Each date is chock full of action, of stuff brewing up in the horizon. But taken altogether, the full product is less than the sum of its parts.

The death of a couple of the characters did enliven things, but then the dull words had no respite for me. I had to wade through a lot of fluff to reach the end. I think partially reason of my reaction is that we don't get to know the characters better as time passes by. It's a pity, because the book certainly had potential.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Wizards at War by Diane Duane (NME edition). I've nearly caught up with my re-read.

This one seems to run too fast with recent astronomical ideas for my liking at the start.

It was OK. I think that the identification of the menace with a current hot topic (astronomically) was a mistake, and unnecessary. I thought one element of the resolution was odd.

Next up: Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone.

The last of the craft series in publication order, fourth in internal chronology, and a direct sequel (I think) to the first in publication order, Three Parts Dead.

Looking good so far.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm currently about halfway through Lila Bowen's Wake of Vultures. The first book in a Weird Western series. A fun change of pace.

Quite good. After starting with a bang, it got a little wandery/pondery through the middle. It finished pretty strong, though. The "Western" part was outstanding, actually. It was the "Weird" part that seemed like it could use some work. Perhaps that will be improved in the second volume (that I'll be reading at some point, but not immediately).

Now starting Brom's Lost Gods.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

If you are a fan of The Princess Bride you really should read [As You Wish]. It is very good.

I didn't mention what I was going to read after that, mostly because I didn't know. In the end I read The Martian again, this is the only book I have felt compelled to read more than twice in the last 5+ years, I have only re-read 3 others in that time (HHTTG). I used to re-read books much more often. This has become one of my favorites and I know I will re-read it again in a couple more years.

Next up: Neuromancer by William Gibson.

[ATDrake]

Haven't been reading books as much lately and currently juggling between several titles, but I did manage to finish The X-Files: Antibodies by Kevin J. Anderson, a vintage tie-in novel I bought several years back when it was on 99 cent sale. TBH, I couldn't tell if I'd read it before or not, since there were some parts I thought I recognized, but others that seemed completely new, and I've no idea whether that's just the effect of it being an X-Files tie-in novel, which are kind of same-y as to the plots, or a Kevin J. Anderson tie-in novel, which are kind of same-y as to the storytelling.

Aside from that, it was a perfectly cromulent read done with Anderson's usual serviceable craftmanship for media franchise tie-in novels. Although I found myself much more sympathetic to the mysterious shadowy conspiracy viewpoint this time around. Not that I think that Cancerman and his ilk would actually be doing anything good with the techno-Macguffin, but IMHO any plucky rogue researcher who displays that much of a willful disregard for lab safety protocols and the potential consequences of having that kind of stuff get loose in the wider world, no matter how good a cause they think they're working towards, is pretty much asking to have a termination squad called down on themselves, their project, and anyone else they might have happened to unknowingly infected with it, pour encourager les autres.

[Luffy]

There are four new books that I've lined up for reading. The Arrangements- Box Set, by Annie Adams, One Good Eclair by mobileread's Maria Schneider, Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, and Duma Key by Stephen King.

[HarryT]

Finished "A Quantum Murder", by Peter F. Hamilton. The second book in the "Greg Mandel" trilogy of near-future SF detective stories. Following his successful investigation of industrial espionage in the Event Horizon corporation ("Mindstar Rising"), Greg Mandel is asked by the billionaire owner of Event Horizon, Julia Evans, to assist the police in their investigation of the seemingly impossible murder of a reclusive scientist in a country house in which he and his six students lived. An SF twist on the classic "English Country House" detective story. As with the previous book, I thoroughly enjoyed this and would whole-heartedly recommend it. Truly excellent.

[MickeyC]

Next up a Mitch Rapp novel, Order to Kill by Kyle Mills. So far, seems very Vince Flynn-ish.

And a very good read it was. Equal to Vince Flynn's books IMHO. Easy to see why it's on The NY Times best seller list