What are you reading? [March 2017]

trappedslider · Mar 20, 2017

Since I last posted, I've read The Whistler by John Grisham ( the ending felt a bit rushed),Day by Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne book one in a series. I've also read the Notes from the Internet Apocalypse trilogy by Wayne Gladstone (it was okay, all were less than 300 pages or so) and One Second After and One Year After by William R. Forstchen ( very good, Look forward to reading the third book The Final Day.)

Kramodlog · Mar 21, 2017

I finished The Color of Magic. It was light and fun, but I'm divided on reading other Discworld books. The series is supposed to get better, but how good does it get? At some point I think I'll read Mort, as it always comes up in lists of the better Discworld books, but I'm just not sure.

I also finished The Invisible Man. Wells' work is impressive in the sense as he thought a lot about the details of invisibility when no one before him (as far as I know) did. Like how eaten food wouldn't become automatically invisible in the Invisible Man's stomach. How smoke in the lungs from a cigare would be apparent. Or how footsteps in the mud could be followed.

The character and the story aren't paticularly enjoyable. Griffin, the Invisible Man, isn't likable. He is selfish and paranoid. Today an author could only cast him as a superhero. Here he is a villain. The novella originally came out as a novella, so it feels like Wells wrote the story as it was published, and sometimes you have sense he changed his idea about the plot. Still, it is an influencial classic and I'm glad I read it.

I started Ender's Game. I'm 36 pages in. It is a modern classic that gets a lot of good, enthusiastic reviews, so I've been wanting to read it for a while. For a book written in 1985, it sure has a retrograde take on women. It looks like a it is all about wondering if the end justifys the means. The bullying of the protagonist is already getting on my nerves. It is just a trope we see too often on TV, in films and mangas.

Ralif Redhammer · Mar 21, 2017

I’d definitely give some of the later Discworld novels a try – the Night Watch ones are my personal favorites, but there’s a lot that’s good. Colour of Magic is fun, but it’s only the beginning.

Griffin is assuredly the villain, the monster of The Invisible Man, and a jerk. I think the movie version helped the story by adding the part about the invisibility serum also causing madness (I think that wasn’t in the book, anyway, it’s been a while).

Yeah, Ender’s Game is problematic. I get that it’s an influential piece of military sci-fi, but it’s got some troubling themes and it’s hard to uncouple the book from Card’s antics.

Kramodlog · Mar 21, 2017

Ralif Redhammer said:
Griffin is assuredly the villain, the monster of The Invisible Man, and a jerk. I think the movie version helped the story by adding the part about the invisibility serum also causing madness (I think that wasn’t in the book, anyway, it’s been a while).

It doesn't say that it the novella. Kemp, the doctor the Invisible Man tells his story, says that Griffin is "pure selfishness". I think it was Wells telling us, consciously or not, how he envisioned his character. But that only makes the character two dimensional.

Yeah, Ender’s Game is problematic. I get that it’s an influential piece of military sci-fi, but it’s got some troubling themes and it’s hard to uncouple the book from Card’s antics.

Reminds me of Starship Troopers.

Zaukrie · Mar 21, 2017

Finished Ocean at the End of the Lane. Gaiman is a genius.

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tardigrade · Mar 21, 2017

Currently re-reading "The City and The City" by China Miéville. I've read most of his stuff and I find him pretty hit-and-miss (I liked The Scar, Perdido St Station and most of the short fiction in Looking for Jake; I hated Embassytown and Kraken, and I was ambivalent about Iron Council) but TC&TC has become one of my favourite books. I'd like to include Beszel/Ul Qoma in a campaign one day but I don't think I'm a good enough DM to pull it off yet. If you haven't read TC&TC, I'd strongly suggest giving it a go.

There are only about three books I regularly re-read - the other two are American Gods and Dune.

I also have three other books on the go at the moment - "The Real Middle Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages", "Monday starts on Saturday" and "The Chrysalids" (a re-read). And I just finished "The Girl with all the Gifts" (absolutely loved it; great homage to I Am Legend) and "When Breath Becomes Air", which was pretty much exactly what I expected - not utterly amazing, but thoughtful. "I Contain Multitudes" is next in my pile, unless I decide to go back to American Gods again; all the hype over the new series next month is making me want to dig it out.

I've read almost every Discworld novel, but my favourite is still Small Gods, although Guards! Guards!, Lords and Ladies and Hogfather are also firm favourites.

Ralif Redhammer · Mar 21, 2017

My re-reads are The Lord of the Rings (sometimes I get ambitious and include The Hobbit and Silmarillion) and Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls and Drawing Blood for that 90s Goth nostalgia. Have a bunch I keep meaning to return to, though.

tardigrade said:
There are only about three books I regularly re-read - the other two are American Gods and Dune.

Blue · Mar 22, 2017

Nellisir said:
Your reading list sounds a lot like my reading list. Under Heaven is great, but Bridge of Birds is permanently affixed to my best books list.<sigh>

Just finished Bridge of Birds and was delighted! The story structure with it's plentiful flashbacks and stories differed from what I regularly see in a way that really brought home the feel of the setting. I was discussing with my wife the reoccurring characters and effortless way they accomplished "side tasks" like gaining wealth, if it was part of the Chinese story cues, but then that actually ended up being a plot point. Actually, so much was plot points - masterful job of laying pipe for it suddenly to have meaning.

It's a very different book then Under Heaven. UH brought me to a level of how thinking differs, BoB engaged the whole story structure to do the same more immersively. I cheered for Number Ten Ox, but I cared for Shen Tai. I really enjoyed them both.

I am strongly resisting the urge to lift the "...and I have a slight flaw in my character." introduction wholesale for an RPG character. I don't do things like that, but it was so wonderfully apropos.
</sigh>

Janx · Mar 22, 2017

Finished the civil war novel a writer's guild member published and my friend's novel draft.

Started the first in the Iron Druid series last night.

Blue · Mar 22, 2017

Kramodlog said:
I finished The Color of Magic. It was light and fun, but I'm divided on reading other Discworld books. The series is supposed to get better, but how good does it get? At some point I think I'll read Mort, as it always comes up in lists of the better Discworld books, but I'm just not sure.

I've been on a recent kick of reading Discworld, which included re-reading The Color of Magic. It's ... zanier but a lot less well developed then the later books. I personally enjoyed later books significantly more. It's less episodic vignettes and more whole stories, and just benefits from having written more books in the Discworld so there is more to reference and pull in. Just more mature all around.

Kramodlog said:
I started Ender's Game. I'm 36 pages in. It is a modern classic that gets a lot of good, enthusiastic reviews, so I've been wanting to read it for a while. For a book written in 1985, it sure has a retrograde take on women. It looks like a it is all about wondering if the end justifys the means. The bullying of the protagonist is already getting on my nerves. It is just a trope we see too often on TV, in films and mangas.

It's on my top books list so I'm far from unbiased, and I first read it decades ago when the tropes weren't so worn down. Though it's harder for me to read now that I have children (same reason I can't reread Game of Thrones). If the ends justify the means is explored and deconstructed in the book, not just taken as a given. And if you haven't already spoiled twists I suggest not reading any reviews or seeing the movie.

BTW, if you do finish it, stop there. The other books in the series are something different, and reading Ender's Shadow last year (the same timeframe told from Bean's PoV) actively harmed my enjoyment of Ender's Game.