Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading? - Page 1722

ReadingManiac · 05-07-2017, 08:11 AM

Perusing a short humor book today. The Cat Rule Book by Deni Raqueteur. Very funny because it's all true!

ATDrake · 05-07-2017, 08:44 PM

Finished Looking to the Woods by Frédérique Molay, 4th and latest in her Paris Homicide series starring Unusually Young Chief of Police Nico Sirsky and His Team (and Assorted Members of His Family Who Frequently Make Reference to Being of Mixed Polish-Russian Descent Like They Were Being Paid By a Tourist Board). After an enjoyable pair of unusual cases with interesting setups and motivations, back to the crazed sadistic psychosexual serial killer taunting the authorities who have to outrace their murderous mission timeline drawing board. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

Quite aside from the main plot—which in and of itself was not a bad idea, being a cribbed mashup from two Hitchcock films—which IMHO was simply executed rather flatly (and thus, poorly compared to its obvious potential) and despite going on about how each serial killer, copycat or otherwise, had a unique signature, failed to differentiate its usage of this plot point sufficiently to establish it convincingly enough, this was disappointing in other ways.

Because, not content with piling on the increasingly gorily murderous melodrama and shocking surprise twist upon shocking surprise twist, it also piled on the personal relationship drama in a very clumsy way that was probably supposed to cleverly tie into some themes about the victims of killings and their surviving loved ones and reflect some character development realization about the importance of other characters. But the whole thing was actually just a boring overdone cliché of the sort that would have been solved by one scene of the characters sitting down and talking to each other like adults (and was, though the author attempted to drag it out further), stretched out over around 75% of the story length, which I guessed pretty much right after it got so obviously set up early on and just kept waiting for the prolonged annoyance to be over.

There's a point where this sort of thing overloads from attempted bone-chilling tear-jerking pathos into unintentional utter ridiculousness, and that probably happened somewhere around the 40-60% mark. Look, just pick dwelling upon psychoanalyzing the killer's Really Deep Thoughts about the meaningful personal significance of their gruesome ritualized dismemberment habits or pick wallowing in the Designated Hero's anticipated heartbreak and depicting everyone around him feeling sorry about that but thinking he needs to confront the cause himself and that he really is loved and cared for by a wide variety of personally important people; don't try to stuff both into one not-that-long-or-complex series installment.

A sadly underwhelming continuation (apparently the author had shelved the manuscript for this one after completing the 3rd novel several years back, but the translation publisher persuaded her to finish it) to an otherwise fairly nifty international mystery series with a number of strengths to recommend its earlier installments. And this one did contain most of the better series qualities which made the previous ones so entertaining, just in lesser amounts and drowned out by the unimaginatively clichéd meh and its not-so-good series tendencies. Eh, hopefully the upcoming 5th, which is supposed to be a prequel, will do better. If nothing else, being a prequel will probably spare it from more of the particular overly sentimental personal relationship drama development that afflicted this one.

pdurrant · 05-08-2017, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And now I'm reading Imperative by Steve White and Charles E. Gannon.

Alien invasion and mass war. And ending half-way through! Now to wait for the next installment...

Next up: F&SF, May/June 2017.

HarryT · 05-08-2017, 06:20 AM

Just finished "The Rackham Files", by Dean Ing, which I bought from Baen in 2004. This is a collection of two novellas and a novel featuring Private Eye Harvey Rackham. The first novella is a "high-tech thriller" about a chemical warfare threat; the second pure SF about the hunt for a carnivorous alien along the lines of "Predator". The novel is about the events surrounding and subsequent to a nuclear war, and Rackham's methods of surviving it.

Very enjoyable.

Dngrsone · 05-08-2017, 08:12 AM

Okay, finished The Silver Strand, moving on to Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes.

CRussel · 05-08-2017, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRussel

Next up, To Fire Called, the latest from Nathan Lowell. This is #2 in Seeker's Tales follow-on series from his original Solar Clipper series. I've been looking forward to this a lot, so it goes to the front of the list. And tomorrow is the official release of The Gathering Edge, so I need to "read fast".

Finished To Fire Called, by Nathan Lowell -- a worthy addition to the Solar Clipper series. It did leave me in serious want of the next one, of course.

Also, yesterday I finished The Gathering Edge. This is #20 in the Liaden Universe(r) and it's mostly centered around Theo. An excellent book, with some very interesting threads starting to come together.

Finally, today, I finished Less than a Treason, the 21st entry in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series.

Spoiler:

Overall, I thought the beginning of this book was a bit weak, but I got well past that and enjoyed it. Four stars, though, not 5 stars.

timebug · 05-09-2017, 05:07 AM

Currently working through almost all of John Varleys
books. I read the 'Gaia' Trilogy two or three times in
the past, and of course 'Millenium' which is a good
book, despite the terrible film! But I am enjoying his
slant on all things cosmic, and I like his sense of the
absurd.

Rev. Bob · 05-09-2017, 05:53 AM

Starting my ARC of James Morrow's upcoming The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, which at $9.99 for 182 pages appears to be aimed at the "premium novella" market. I've already gotten a good chuckle out of Picasso's cameo appearance.

astrangerhere · 05-09-2017, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Now reading Banana Yoshimoto's Moshi Moshi on the Kobo.

Finished Moshi Moshi and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.

Moving on to a big hardbound copy of Jeff Lemire's Essex County.

Dngrsone · 05-09-2017, 10:53 AM

Blew through Six Wakes, might be my favorite for the year. Too many books in my pile, not sure which to read next...

DiapDealer · 05-09-2017, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Blew through Six Wakes, might be my favorite for the year. Too many books in my pile, not sure which to read next...

I was quite fond of that one myself.

kansaskyle · 05-09-2017, 02:14 PM

I finished Ancillary Justice, and rated it four stars. I found it a little confusing understanding the rank structure, the he/she aspect of the characters and what value that held, and the concept of a human. I guess in this space opera, there are many humanoids out there, not like in our universe where humans are limited to Earth. I do plan to continue the series.

Up next is Neuromancer.

astrangerhere · 05-10-2017, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Moving on to a big hardbound copy of Jeff Lemire's Essex County.

Finished this last night. A lovely semi-autobiographical story about one family in Canada. It's one of my wife's absolute favorites, and I can see why.

Now on to an out of print paperback that said same lovely wife got me for Christmas - The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories.

Also started Flynn Berry's Under the Harrow last night on the Kobo.

Dngrsone · 05-10-2017, 10:59 AM

So, I picked up Absent by Katie Williams. I'm three quarters of the way through it and I have a strong suspicion that there's a reveal immanent. This is not a bad thing: bad is when I can see it coming well before the halfway point.

I'm not the type who seeks out ghost-narrative novels, but I do occasionally find one... the first, I think was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, then there was The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender, and now this. All worth rereading at some point (for me) and recommending to others who don't mind reading first-person narratives of dead girls.

seanyyz · 05-10-2017, 01:54 PM

Trying to finish Paul Auster's 4-3-2-1. It is a doorstopper in hardcover and huge on the kindle. It was a New York Times book club selection and I was trying to finish it before their online discussion April 20 but obviously missed that.
Once I am done I am onto Small Mercies by Eddie Joyce for the same book club choice for May (Big City Book Club).
After that it is a re-read of the scandalous Swimming Pool Libraries by Alan Hollinghurst for another book club in June.

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05-07-2017, 08:11 AM	#25816
ReadingManiac Genre Jumper Posts: 1,070 Karma: 11070900 Join Date: Dec 2015 Device: Kindle paperwhite	Perusing a short humor book today. The Cat Rule Book by Deni Raqueteur. Very funny because it's all true!

05-07-2017, 08:44 PM	#25817
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 Looking to the Woods by Frédérique Molay, 4th and latest in her Paris Homicide series starring Unusually Young Chief of Police Nico Sirsky and His Team (and Assorted Members of His Family Who Frequently Make Reference to Being of Mixed Polish-Russian Descent Like They Were Being Paid By a Tourist Board). After an enjoyable pair of unusual cases with interesting setups and motivations, back to the crazed sadistic psychosexual serial killer taunting the authorities who have to outrace their murderous mission timeline drawing board. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Quite aside from the main plot—which in and of itself was not a bad idea, being a cribbed mashup from two Hitchcock films—which IMHO was simply executed rather flatly (and thus, poorly compared to its obvious potential) and despite going on about how each serial killer, copycat or otherwise, had a unique signature, failed to differentiate its usage of this plot point sufficiently to establish it convincingly enough, this was disappointing in other ways. Because, not content with piling on the increasingly gorily murderous melodrama and shocking surprise twist upon shocking surprise twist, it also piled on the personal relationship drama in a very clumsy way that was probably supposed to cleverly tie into some themes about the victims of killings and their surviving loved ones and reflect some character development realization about the importance of other characters. But the whole thing was actually just a boring overdone cliché of the sort that would have been solved by one scene of the characters sitting down and talking to each other like adults (and was, though the author attempted to drag it out further), stretched out over around 75% of the story length, which I guessed pretty much right after it got so obviously set up early on and just kept waiting for the prolonged annoyance to be over. There's a point where this sort of thing overloads from attempted bone-chilling tear-jerking pathos into unintentional utter ridiculousness, and that probably happened somewhere around the 40-60% mark. Look, just pick dwelling upon psychoanalyzing the killer's Really Deep Thoughts about the meaningful personal significance of their gruesome ritualized dismemberment habits or pick wallowing in the Designated Hero's anticipated heartbreak and depicting everyone around him feeling sorry about that but thinking he needs to confront the cause himself and that he really is loved and cared for by a wide variety of personally important people; don't try to stuff both into one not-that-long-or-complex series installment. A sadly underwhelming continuation (apparently the author had shelved the manuscript for this one after completing the 3rd novel several years back, but the translation publisher persuaded her to finish it) to an otherwise fairly nifty international mystery series with a number of strengths to recommend its earlier installments. And this one did contain most of the better series qualities which made the previous ones so entertaining, just in lesser amounts and drowned out by the unimaginatively clichéd meh and its not-so-good series tendencies. Eh, hopefully the upcoming 5th, which is supposed to be a prequel, will do better. If nothing else, being a prequel will probably spare it from more of the particular overly sentimental personal relationship drama development that afflicted this one.

05-08-2017, 06:20 AM	#25819
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Just finished "The Rackham Files", by Dean Ing, which I bought from Baen in 2004. This is a collection of two novellas and a novel featuring Private Eye Harvey Rackham. The first novella is a "high-tech thriller" about a chemical warfare threat; the second pure SF about the hunt for a carnivorous alien along the lines of "Predator". The novel is about the events surrounding and subsequent to a nuclear war, and Rackham's methods of surviving it. Very enjoyable.

05-08-2017, 08:12 AM	#25820
Dngrsone Almost legible Posts: 1,457 Karma: 4611110 Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: In a high desert, CA Device: Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Tab A (2017), Likebook P78	Okay, finished The Silver Strand, moving on to Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes.

05-09-2017, 05:07 AM	#25822
timebug Ancient Sage Posts: 14,585 Karma: 15493448 Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Derby U.K. Device: Kobo Reader	Currently working through almost all of John Varleys books. I read the 'Gaia' Trilogy two or three times in the past, and of course 'Millenium' which is a good book, despite the terrible film! But I am enjoying his slant on all things cosmic, and I like his sense of the absurd.

05-09-2017, 05:53 AM	#25823
Rev. Bob Wizard Posts: 1,760 Karma: 9918418 Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Here on the perimeter, there are no stars Device: Kobo H2O, iPad mini 3, Kindle Touch	Starting my ARC of James Morrow's upcoming The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, which at $9.99 for 182 pages appears to be aimed at the "premium novella" market. I've already gotten a good chuckle out of Picasso's cameo appearance.

05-09-2017, 10:53 AM	#25825
Dngrsone Almost legible Posts: 1,457 Karma: 4611110 Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: In a high desert, CA Device: Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Tab A (2017), Likebook P78	Blew through Six Wakes, might be my favorite for the year. Too many books in my pile, not sure which to read next...

05-09-2017, 02:14 PM	#25827
kansaskyle Addict Posts: 245 Karma: 765530 Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Austin, TX Device: Kobo Aura One & Forma, Kindle Voyage, PW, and Oasis 3	I finished Ancillary Justice, and rated it four stars. I found it a little confusing understanding the rank structure, the he/she aspect of the characters and what value that held, and the concept of a human. I guess in this space opera, there are many humanoids out there, not like in our universe where humans are limited to Earth. I do plan to continue the series. Up next is Neuromancer.

05-10-2017, 10:59 AM	#25829
Dngrsone Almost legible Posts: 1,457 Karma: 4611110 Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: In a high desert, CA Device: Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Tab A (2017), Likebook P78	So, I picked up Absent by Katie Williams. I'm three quarters of the way through it and I have a strong suspicion that there's a reveal immanent. This is not a bad thing: bad is when I can see it coming well before the halfway point. I'm not the type who seeks out ghost-narrative novels, but I do occasionally find one... the first, I think was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, then there was The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender, and now this. All worth rereading at some point (for me) and recommending to others who don't mind reading first-person narratives of dead girls.

05-10-2017, 01:54 PM	#25830
seanyyz Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 2068472 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Toronto, Canada Device: Kindle Oasis	Trying to finish Paul Auster's 4-3-2-1. It is a doorstopper in hardcover and huge on the kindle. It was a New York Times book club selection and I was trying to finish it before their online discussion April 20 but obviously missed that. Once I am done I am onto Small Mercies by Eddie Joyce for the same book club choice for May (Big City Book Club). After that it is a re-read of the scandalous Swimming Pool Libraries by Alan Hollinghurst for another book club in June.

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