Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 646

Crusader · 06-10-2011, 01:46 PM

I just finished with Neal Asher's The Line of Polity (my review here) and I really liked it. There's just something so gripping about his writing style and the detail he puts into the ecology of the world he created is astounding.

If you like action packed science fiction give his work a go.

orlok · 06-10-2011, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iridal

INow on to The book thief by Markus Zusak!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

covingtoncat73 · 06-10-2011, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orlok

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

It is an amazing book. I listened to the audiobook, which I bought from iTunes, when it came out.

ATDrake · 06-10-2011, 07:01 PM

Finished The Falcons of Narabedla by Marion Zimmer Bradley, a fairly straightforward pulp-fictiony adventure about an Earthman who gets pulled into the intrigues of a seemingly alien world.

This is one of her very early sf/fantasy novels (circa 1964, with an introduction written circa 1979), and shows a lot of the elements that would get repeated throughout her future early books:

Old-fashioned Earth-men physically or mentally kidnapped to a futuristic spin-off society to serve the local feudal lord's schemes but end up thwarting plots and finding a niche! Psionic powers and the telepath-backed aristocratic elites who wield them to keep the mindblind peasant populace in check! Struggling with the stranger who seemingly controls your body (or does s/he?)! Man-eating mutant plantlife! Remote-controlled birds of doom! Red suns and extra moons! Amber-eyed feral women! Ambiguously tricksterish effeminate men! Gender-blending maybe-neuter figures! Pseudo-technomagical Talismans which enable the interface between amazing-powers-with-a-horrific price and the people who would pay to use them! Science gone mad! Veils and Towers and Zandru, oh my!

All that's truly missing for this to be an early Darkover book are the redheads, really. Disappointingly, not a single one.

Mild recommend. I liked it and consider it worth the < $2 I think I paid for it via Fictionwise, but then I'm okay with early MZB if it doesn't cost me too much, and I suspect you have to enjoy early MZB or something very like it in the first place. Otherwise it's got mainly curiosity value.

Probably best if you really liked Winds of Darkover and/or The Spell Sword and/or Two to Conquer. E-book edition had minor occasional punctuation drops in the way of typos, but while mildly annoying, not sufficient enough to interrupt or destroy the meaning of the overall text.

chrisanthropic · 06-10-2011, 08:11 PM

I just finished reading our own Mr. Ploppy's first collection "Punk Faction". A short story centering on a couple of punks in 1980's Britain. Being a huge fan of the first wave of punk rock I was very excited to read this, but also more than a bit hesitant...punks aren't known for their great use of language or intelligent conversation. Luckily the apprehension was unneeded as the book was beautifully formatted, error free, and very well written.

I just found out that he released a second collection a few days ago so that's what I'll be reading tonight.

WT Sharpe · 06-10-2011, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

...I think I'm going to turn back to Chandler for a bit of tasty noir... along with tracking down as many finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for the best short science-fiction of 2010) as I can.

I'm currently getting my shot of noir from reading The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, the June 2011 Mobile Read Book Club selection. So far it's very enjoyable. Sam Spade was a great character.

Of course, I still haven't quite finished the May selection (Tolstoy's Anna Karenina) but I'm nearly there. Anna Karenina would be more interesting if, like Sam Spade, she beat people up and talked trash to cops.

chrisanthropic · 06-10-2011, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Anna Karenina would be more interesting if, like Sam Spade, she beat people up and talked trash to cops.

That's a great idea! Someone should do a mashup of the two, along the lines of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".

maianhvk · 06-11-2011, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iridal

Now on to The book thief by Markus Zusak!

you'll love it, no doubts!

me, I'm finishing Narnia and How to train your dragon series. Enough for children's book. I'll come back for either Games of Thrones, or Monster Hunter International then...

thinkpad · 06-11-2011, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maianhvk

me, I'm finishing Narnia and How to train your dragon series. Enough for children's book. I'll come back for either Games of Thrones,

If you get far enough into the book, I think you might start to like it. At least that was the case with me

Quote:

Originally Posted by maianhvk

or Monster Hunter International then...

lestatar · 06-11-2011, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisanthropic

That's a great idea! Someone should do a mashup of the two, along the lines of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".

zomg...so funny. I just discovered those mashup books! lol they are queued on deck on my K3

I hope they are as wonderfully twisted as I imagine them to be...

orlok · 06-11-2011, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lestatar

zomg...so funny. I just discovered those mashup books! lol they are queued on deck on my K3

I hope they are as wonderfully twisted as I imagine them to be...

I enjoyed the prequel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls but just couldn't finish the original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for some reason. Might have been that the first one was trying to be truer to Jane Austen, whilst later in the series it was more for fun?

I'd be interested to hear how you find them, if you do take the plunge.

lestatar · 06-11-2011, 07:02 AM

^ good info Orlok, thanks for heads-up. Will try and remember to ping you and tell you what I think.

@DiapDealer: re: giving up on multi-volume stories. I hear ya. With the notable exception of Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire, I normally do not read series-type books that are not "completed"...I simply do not have the patience to wait so I will acquire all the books and then consume them one after the other.

OT, but for me exactly the reason why I cannot watch episodic TV [or actually, TV in general], "24" being a perfect example. I will not watch any weekly episodes, preferring instead to wait until the season is over and the DVDs are released. Then, I abscond back to my man-cave, shut off my cell phone and BB, whip out the take out menus and proceed to watch the entire season all in one weekend.

I have done that for 7 of the 8 seasons of 24.

Of course, now I have broken my own protocol with HBO's Game of Thrones adaption.

pdurrant · 06-11-2011, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

F&SF Magazine, May 2002

A better than average issue for me. I liked all three novelets: "The Short Ashy Afterlife of Hiram P. Dottle", "The Mask of the Rex" (although it ended at an odd point) and "The Essayist in the Wilderness".

Next up, one of my recent Fictionwise purchases: The Winds of Time and Other Stories by James Schmitz

DiapDealer · 06-11-2011, 08:34 AM

@lestatar: we are birds of a feather RE book series and TV, then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up, one of my recent Fictionwise purchases: The Winds of Time and Other Stories by James Schmitz

I really enjoyed Schmitz' Telzey Amberdon/Hub universe stories, but I'm not familiar with any of his other stuff.

WT Sharpe · 06-11-2011, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orlok

I enjoyed the prequel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls but just couldn't finish the original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for some reason. Might have been that the first one was trying to be truer to Jane Austen, whilst later in the series it was more for fun?

I'd be interested to hear how you find them, if you do take the plunge.

My opinion of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was given way back in post #5898 of this thread.

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06-10-2011, 01:46 PM	#9676
Crusader Space Cadet Posts: 1,180 Karma: 4030536 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: South Africa Device: Sony PRS-T1, Cybook Opus, Kobo Glo	I just finished with Neal Asher's The Line of Polity (my review here) and I really liked it. There's just something so gripping about his writing style and the detail he puts into the ecology of the world he created is astounding. If you like action packed science fiction give his work a go.

06-10-2011, 07:01 PM	#9679
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	Finished The Falcons of Narabedla by Marion Zimmer Bradley, a fairly straightforward pulp-fictiony adventure about an Earthman who gets pulled into the intrigues of a seemingly alien world. This is one of her very early sf/fantasy novels (circa 1964, with an introduction written circa 1979), and shows a lot of the elements that would get repeated throughout her future early books: Old-fashioned Earth-men physically or mentally kidnapped to a futuristic spin-off society to serve the local feudal lord's schemes but end up thwarting plots and finding a niche! Psionic powers and the telepath-backed aristocratic elites who wield them to keep the mindblind peasant populace in check! Struggling with the stranger who seemingly controls your body (or does s/he?)! Man-eating mutant plantlife! Remote-controlled birds of doom! Red suns and extra moons! Amber-eyed feral women! Ambiguously tricksterish effeminate men! Gender-blending maybe-neuter figures! Pseudo-technomagical Talismans which enable the interface between amazing-powers-with-a-horrific price and the people who would pay to use them! Science gone mad! Veils and Towers and Zandru, oh my! All that's truly missing for this to be an early Darkover book are the redheads, really. Disappointingly, not a single one. Mild recommend. I liked it and consider it worth the < $2 I think I paid for it via Fictionwise, but then I'm okay with early MZB if it doesn't cost me too much, and I suspect you have to enjoy early MZB or something very like it in the first place. Otherwise it's got mainly curiosity value. Probably best if you really liked Winds of Darkover and/or The Spell Sword and/or Two to Conquer. E-book edition had minor occasional punctuation drops in the way of typos, but while mildly annoying, not sufficient enough to interrupt or destroy the meaning of the overall text.

06-10-2011, 08:11 PM	#9680
chrisanthropic Fiend Posts: 148 Karma: 559930 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: none	I just finished reading our own Mr. Ploppy's first collection "Punk Faction". A short story centering on a couple of punks in 1980's Britain. Being a huge fan of the first wave of punk rock I was very excited to read this, but also more than a bit hesitant...punks aren't known for their great use of language or intelligent conversation. Luckily the apprehension was unneeded as the book was beautifully formatted, error free, and very well written. I just found out that he released a second collection a few days ago so that's what I'll be reading tonight.

06-11-2011, 07:02 AM	#9687
lestatar LB's lolz Mutt Minion Posts: 2,902 Karma: 5700001 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Hong Kong now but NYC forever Device: Kindle3, GalaxyTab, BB Bold9700, BB 8300, Sony Clie, Palm Vx, Palm III	^ good info Orlok, thanks for heads-up. Will try and remember to ping you and tell you what I think. @DiapDealer: re: giving up on multi-volume stories. I hear ya. With the notable exception of Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire, I normally do not read series-type books that are not "completed"...I simply do not have the patience to wait so I will acquire all the books and then consume them one after the other. OT, but for me exactly the reason why I cannot watch episodic TV [or actually, TV in general], "24" being a perfect example. I will not watch any weekly episodes, preferring instead to wait until the season is over and the DVDs are released. Then, I abscond back to my man-cave, shut off my cell phone and BB, whip out the take out menus and proceed to watch the entire season all in one weekend. I have done that for 7 of the 8 seasons of 24. Of course, now I have broken my own protocol with HBO's Game of Thrones adaption.

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