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

[HarryT]

Just finished "Mother of Demons", by Eric Flint. I bought this from Baen in September 2000. Very good SF about a human expedition to a planet of the star Tau Ceti providing the catalyst for revolution among the local inhabitants (who resemble giant molluscs). My only complaint about this book is one common to many Baen books: an inability to spell the words "millennium" and "millennia" correctly! Why so many people think there is only one "n" is the words I honestly don't know, and it really annoys me when a professional publisher gets it wrong, not just once, but in many books.

[Aanya]

I am presently reading...
1: Little Women
2: Lord of the Flies
3: The Giver

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Just finished "Mother of Demons", by Eric Flint. I bought this from Baen in September 2000. Very good SF about a human expedition to a planet of the star Tau Ceti providing the catalyst for revolution among the local inhabitants (who resemble giant molluscs). My only complaint about this book is one common to many Baen books: an inability to spell the words "millennium" and "millennia" correctly! Why so many people think there is only one "n" is the words I honestly don't know, and it really annoys me when a professional publisher gets it wrong, not just once, but in many books.

Blame General Mills. I saved the box.

[Latinandgreek]

I just started reading Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his year of pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. August has been a great month for me book wise, I hope that the rest of you have been enjoying your summer reading as much as I have!

[bfisher]

Reading David Drake's "The Sea Without A Shore" (RCN #10). Leary and Mundy still as good as ever. Unfortunately, probably 2015 or 2016 until the next installment.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I just started Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman. So far I'm enjoying it immensely.

And I just now finished it. What a wonderful book it was. Not only does it offer a look into the world of Conservative Judaism, but the mystery was top-notch as well. And Mr. Kemelman played fair. Even I picked up on who the real killer was. Sure, there were plenty of red herrings laying around to muddy the trail, and at a point when all the evidence seemed to coalesce upon a certain suspect, I found myself thinking, "Well, if this person did it, why did my suspect do what he did?" But in the end, I was right. Highly recommended.

Now I think it's time for another non-fiction. The last one—The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton, whose fiction I enjoy—was a bit of a slog.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: The Traders' War by Charles Stross. The second omnibus in his Merchant Princes series, comprising The Clan Corporate and The Merchants' War. I really enjoyed the first omnibus, and I'm looking forward to this one.

And I'm enjoying it. But there is one thing that's irritating me, but although I don't think it's a spoiler at all, it is a bit long-winded now I've written it out, so I'll wrap it in tags

Spoiler:

We have two worlds. Our Earth and a parallel Earth where lots of history is different, and the level of the settlements in the US is up to around the 1200s or so.

Some people from the other Earth can travel to Earth and have been doing for the bast couple of hundred years. A character brought up on our Earth notes the many people in the other Earth who have smallpox scars. Clearly smallpox is still endemic on the other Earth.

But no-one is raising alarm bells about this. Their concerned about other trivial security concerns, but no-one seems to have considered the possibility of the reintroduction of smallpox to our Earth where almost no-one is vaccinated against it.

I can only think that he's going to raise this later, but I'm half a book in and it's still a non-issue.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Just finished "Mother of Demons", by Eric Flint.

One of my favorites that I reread regularly.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
Just finished "Mother of Demons", by Eric Flint.

One of my favorites that I reread regularly.

Mine too and I also just finished a reread.
Apache

[Yapyap]

I've had a horrendously busy week (well, not helped by getting sucked into watching the European Championships in athletics) so I'm still on my re-read of Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men. With only 60 pages left, I'm fairly sure I'll manage to get it finished before the final book, The Dying of the Light comes out in 11 days.

I've got several pre-ordered books that have arrived in the meantime, so if I get LSODM finished today, I can move on to one of those.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And I'm enjoying it. But there is one thing that's irritating me, but although I don't think it's a spoiler at all, it is a bit long-winded now I've written it out, so I'll wrap it in tags

Spoiler:

But no-one is raising alarm bells about this. Their concerned about other trivial security concerns, but no-one seems to have considered the possibility of the reintroduction of smallpox to our Earth where almost no-one is vaccinated against it.

... and now I'm suddenly feeling really old at my 39 years. (On the other hand, me and a lot of other people born in or before the 1970s would still be safe. )

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

... and now I'm suddenly feeling really old at my 39 years. (On the other hand, me and a lot of other people born in or before the 1970s would still be safe. )

It depends on where you lived as a child. In the UK the majority of children weren't vaccinated for smallpox from the 1940s on, and almost none from 1971 onwards. I certainly didn't, and I'm 11 years older than you.

Still no mention in the book.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It depends on where you lived as a child. In the UK the majority of children weren't vaccinated for smallpox from the 1940s on, and almost none from 1971 onwards. I certainly didn't, and I'm 11 years older than you.

Still no mention in the book.

Yeah, hence my "a lot of other people". We had smallpox vaccination until 1980 (so pretty much everyone of my generation and older, and those 4-5 years younger than me, are all vaccinated), and I assume that - or a similar time scale - was true for the entire Soviet Union and a lot of other parts of the world that weren't "the West".

There might be few people vaccinated in Western countries, but it's a lot more people worldwide than "almost no one"!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

There might be few people vaccinated in Western countries, but it's a lot more people worldwide than "almost no one"!

You're right! I was generalising from my personal experience without proper data.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You're right! I was generalising from my personal experience without proper data.

Of course your original point still stands anyway, at least to an extent.

Spoiler:

Regardless of how many people are still around who are, in fact, vaccinated against smallpox (some further googling tells me that it was still commonly done in the US until 1968-1970, and officially ended in 1972), there are still entire generations of younger people who are not vaccinated - in the US, where the series mostly seems to take place, I assume we can say "the overwhelming majority of people born after 1970" - so the risk is still major.

Also, this is reminding me that I should probably read some more of the Merchant Princes series. I read the first one and found it okay - not awesome enough to really want to continue, but then I ended up getting my mother the translation of the first book and she enjoyed it, so I do now have the second and third book as translated versions, too and could, in fact, give those a try...

[Rps]

Hello all, I just finished Divergent, I think it was one of the rare times that the movie had better pacing and flow than the book. That said, on its own, it is a good read. I am now about 100 pages in on Game of Thrones ( or about the 12th chapter in other books )
And I am also starting The Lost Symbol .... Busy busy.