03-03-2013, 05:57 PM | #15811 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
Posts: 71,515
Karma: 306214458
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Norfolk, England
Device: Kindle Voyage
|
Wow. Your backlog must be much bigger than mine. I also have (nearly) all of Baen's ebook output, but I *have* read nearly all of them.
|
03-03-2013, 07:11 PM | #15812 | |
Wizzard
Posts: 11,517
Karma: 33048258
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Roundworld
Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia
|
Quote:
As for me, I've got a backlog of non-leisure reading things and assignments eating up my time, but in between I'm managing to sneak in chapters of Hiromu Arakawa's manga Fullmetal Alchemist, in the French translation by Kurokawa, which they've been recently repackaging in more affordable omnibus editions (only up to tome 9 out of 27 total, though). It's one of my favourite series, which posits a world in which "science" diverged into alchemy around the time of Newton (at least in the anime), with the principle of Equivalent Exchange being their world's version of the First Law of Thermodynamics, and deals with the effect of an alchemically-based scientific culture brought to "modern" times with technology equivalent to our world (in a non-steampunk manner) and conflict with conquered-neighbour religious beliefs and the mindset of military expansionism enabled by said alchemy. While I've watched all the original anime adaption (both when it aired on Canada's YTV youth channel in the mid-2000s, and again when I later bought them on sale on DVD and did a nostalgia re-watch last month), I've only read a few scattered volumes of the English-language Viz translation from the library, so it's interesting going through them in order. I understand the story at some point begins to diverge considerably from the first anime (I've ordered the second FMA anime on Blu-Ray, which is a remake more faithful to the source manga, but won't be receiving the discs for several months yet due to being tied up with another pre-order) because at the time of production, the manga was only halfway finished and the author specifically requested they make up a different ending from what she had planned. I admit to a certain nostalgia for the original anime ending and follow-up movie, just because I'm a sucker for alternate universe historical crossovers, but it'll be interesting to see how the storyline of the manga actually unfolds (which I expect to find out sooner from watching the second anime than reading, since Kurokawa looks to have been releasing the new omnibuses at 1 every few months at best, though it looks like they're starting to speed up the rate a little). Kurokawa's editions are pretty nice. They've printed them in the original right-to-left, and have packaged tomes 1-3 in the first omnibus at the same cost as the succeeding 2-tomes-per-omnibus volumes, which is a nice introductory price, and include all the bonus stories and materials and even translate the author's brief introductory remarks for each tome on the front flap as well. * I actually wish I'd bought more before they collapsed, especially from the sf/f & mystery backlist imprints. Oh B&N, why couldn't you have had one last mega-sale before killing the remains of the once-fatted cow? I would have bought out almost my entire wishlist and you'd have a few more hundred dollars to keep you afloat while your corporate owners squabbled over how best to divvy up the spoils. |
|
Advert | |
|
03-03-2013, 07:46 PM | #15813 | |
Warrior Princess
Posts: 5,038
Karma: 9724231
Join Date: Sep 2009
Device: PRS-505; PRS-350, PRS-T1, iPad, Aura HD
|
Quote:
I am about halfway through the manga (perhaps a bit further), and I really enjoy the series. My local library has copies of the manga so I usually just take out volumes from there. I never got a chance to watch the series on YTV - I wasn't in Canada at the time, but I used to love watching anime on YTV. Funimation does offer free (and legal) viewing of the second Fullmetal Alchemist series on YouTube, both in the subbed and dubbed versions, if you want to get a head start on watching the series before your edition gets delivered. I've watched the first 10 episodes or so. |
|
03-03-2013, 08:03 PM | #15814 | ||
Wizzard
Posts: 11,517
Karma: 33048258
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Roundworld
Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
03-03-2013, 08:21 PM | #15815 |
Junior Member
Posts: 2
Karma: 10
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Mexico
Device: kindle
|
Just gave up on Tathea by Anne Perry (I don't quit on a book very often -- this is now one of them).
Yesterday I started East of the Sun by Julia Gregson and can't put it down. |
Advert | |
|
03-03-2013, 10:27 PM | #15816 | |
Warrior Princess
Posts: 5,038
Karma: 9724231
Join Date: Sep 2009
Device: PRS-505; PRS-350, PRS-T1, iPad, Aura HD
|
Quote:
|
|
03-03-2013, 10:40 PM | #15817 | |
Wizzard
Posts: 11,517
Karma: 33048258
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Roundworld
Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia
|
Quote:
|
|
03-04-2013, 02:09 AM | #15818 |
Opsimath
Posts: 12,344
Karma: 187123287
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
Device: Sony PRS-650, iPhone 5, Kobo Glo, Sony PRS-350, iPad, Samsung Galaxy
|
[quote] Originally Posted by Stitchawl View Post
I'll be glad when I finish it ('11/22/63') and can move on to something else. Stitchawl It's not the first time, and I doubt it will be the last. I wonder if I was just really psyched up about it from all the comments, and expected more? It's not a 'bad' read, just not the spell-binder I was expecting. Stitchawl |
03-04-2013, 12:02 PM | #15819 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 19,832
Karma: 11844413
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tampa, FL USA
Device: Kindle Touch
|
|
03-04-2013, 02:41 PM | #15820 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 5,101
Karma: 24047426
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Utrecht, the Netherlands
Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition
|
Yesterday, I finished Karin Slaughter's Faithless, another good instalment of the Grant County/Georgia series. However, like many other readers I'm getting a bit annoyed with the main characters' on again/off again relation.
I'm now reading The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan, the second instalment of the Ranger's Apprentice series. |
03-04-2013, 07:44 PM | #15821 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 5,886
Karma: 464403178
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: 33.9388° N, 117.2716° W
Device: Kindles K-2, K-KB, PW 1 & 2, Voyage, Fire 2, 5 & HD 8, Surface 3, iPad
|
Dana Stabenow
Quote:
I enjoyed Though Not Dead so much so that I'm already a good way into Restless In The Grave which is the 19th of the Kate Shugak novels as well as the 5th of the Liam Campbell novels and it's quite engrossing so far. |
|
03-05-2013, 02:43 AM | #15822 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,694
Karma: 4601218
Join Date: Nov 2012
Device: Kindle Oasis
|
Just started The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. A slow start so far but I've read that it gets much better once the protagonist embarks on a quest which I'm assuming is going to be a strange one.
|
03-05-2013, 08:53 AM | #15823 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,101
Karma: 11315768
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: UK
Device: Kindle, Kobo Touch, Nook SimpleTouch
|
I finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell about a week ago. I liked it, overall. It's an unusual take on a first contact story, being on one level a straightforward SF tale, and on another an exploration of faith. The characters are mostly likeable and interesting, and I found the (not intrusive) religious stuff interesting even as an atheist. We know from the start that there was some kind of disaster, and there's a constant tension over when things are going to go wrong, and what actually happens. Worth a read.
After that, I went straight into the 900-page fantasy Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey. It's a troublesome one, this. I think the central premise will put a lot of people off, but I am really liking it so far. Fantasy protagonists often have some kind of special power marking them out for greatness. They are the most powerful wizard in the world, or the finest swordsman, or most skillful assassin, or some such. In Kushiel's Dart, the protagonist's gift is that she loves pain. It's an erotic fantasy, and quite dark, at that, but if you can live with that, it has a rich, interesting world (basically ours, but skewed), and so far a fairly gripping story. I'm already looking up the rest of the series. |
03-05-2013, 08:59 AM | #15824 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 27,553
Karma: 193191846
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
|
I Finished Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond -- a collection of short stories (obviously inspired by L. Frank Baum's Oz books/characters) edited by John Joseph Adams. Although there were several stories that were really good (Robin Wasserman and Ken Liu), there were three that "stole the show" in my eyes: Rachel Swirsky's "Beyond the Naked Eye", Orson Scott Card's "Off to See the Emperor" and Jonathan Maberry's "The Cobbler of Oz."
Say what you want about OSC (and I've said it myself: I'm not a fan of the man), but his "Off to See the Emperor" is far and away the only story in the collection that even came close to capturing the magic, tone and childish wonder/whimsy that I remember from reading the original Baum stories as a boy. Next up: Ransom by David Malouf. Last edited by DiapDealer; 03-05-2013 at 02:31 PM. |
03-05-2013, 09:54 AM | #15825 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 19,226
Karma: 67780237
Join Date: Jul 2011
Device: none
|
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Hey hey! I found the first Kindle 3 bug! | WilliamG | Amazon Kindle | 22 | 02-14-2012 05:28 PM |
Advice on Action | jaxx6166 | Writers' Corner | 5 | 06-25-2010 12:29 AM |
Hey! From Reading - P.A. that is. | GlenBarrington | Introduce Yourself | 3 | 01-01-2010 09:00 PM |
Seriously thoughtful Affirmative Action | Jaime_Astorga | Lounge | 39 | 07-07-2009 06:24 PM |