What are you reading in 2023?

[ART!]

Christopher L. Bennett's Star Trek novel Ex Machina.

It takes place maybe a month after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and does a really good job of incorporating the repercussions of events and character development in that movie. It does the same with the TOS episode "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky".

I started reading it a year or so ago, but got distracted by some other shiny thing, so I'm finishing it now. Interestingly, I found Bennett's prose style cumbersome and overbearing back then, but I like it now. Weird.

 

[ichabod]

I just finished Witch King by Martha Wells. It was a decent book, but not up to her usual level. The characters didn't seem as good, but maybe that's just me missing her usual sarcastic bastards. She still managed to make me laugh here and there. I missed her world building on this one as well. It's not that there were any problems with the world, it's just more of a standard fantasy world than she usually writes. From the acknowledgements it sounds like she's trying to take her writing in new directions with this work. Knowing her, I expect the next one in this direction will be better, and hopefully I will also like the new direction. This book isn't billed as part of a series, but there are certainly more stories to tell in this world.

I was going to start rereading the Murderbot books after Witch King. That would be the end of my plan to reread all (okay, most) of my fiction collection. However, given that a new Murderbot book is due in November, I am going to put that off, and try to reread them so I finish just when the new book comes out. Instead, I'm going to go back and read all the new books I haven't read since starting to reread everything. The first one up is the long way to a small angry planet, by Becky Chambers.

 

[MockingBird]

Started reading The Hedge Knight. Just finished up the last book of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Glad I waited to read the books once the show was finished. I don't think I would have enjoyed Game of Thrones as much. I really love when we get glimps of the times before the books take place.

 

[overgeeked]

Tonight I finished Eyes of the Shadow from the July 1931 issue of The Shadow Magazine. This novel was the first appearance of Lamont Cranston as the Shadow. There were several death traps, a few mistaken identities, and one ape-man. So much ridiculous fun. Damn do I love the pulps.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In today's world, it's hard to separate a creation from the one who made it.

A quote I heard a long time ago that I think remains pertinent is "no one ever talks about separating the art from the artist when they're a good person. No one ever says you have to keep Mister Rogers the person separate from his work."

Checked out Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons this past week.

It's a great read, backed up by some phenomenal research.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

A quote I heard a long time ago that I think remains pertinent is "no one ever talks about separating the art from the artist when they're a good person. No one ever says you have to keep Mister Rogers the person separate from his work."

Years ago, I worked the ferry run from Hyannis to Nantucket. There were rumors that Mr Rogers owned some waterfront property on the island. There were further rumors that he was less than an ideal neighbor and wanted to build up the property, such that some folks would have lost their view of the Sound. I've never spent time to confirm this, and kind of think it was just people with too much time on their hands making things up, but the folks that I heard it from had all sorts of bees in their bonnets about it. Don't know if they still let their children tune in.

 

[trappedslider]

A quote I heard a long time ago that I think remains pertinent is "no one ever talks about separating the art from the artist when they're a good person. No one ever says you have to keep Mister Rogers the person separate from his work."

Call me simple or post about it in the other thread, but I'm just able to go "I enjoy this" and not care about anything else. I bought two copies of Battlefield Earth (one got lost, so I replaced it) do I know that the author founded a crazy religion/cult thing yes, does that fact interfere with my enjoyment of the book no it does not.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Years ago, I worked the ferry run from Hyannis to Nantucket. There were rumors that Mr Rogers owned some waterfront property on the island. There were further rumors that he was less than an ideal neighbor and wanted to build up the property, such that some folks would have lost their view of the Sound. I've never spent time to confirm this, and kind of think it was just people with too much time on their hands making things up, but the folks that I heard it from had all sorts of bees in their bonnets about it. Don't know if they still let their children tune in.

Can't say I ever heard any of those rumors, but one never knows. I can say that I live in Mister Rogers' hometown, and the only stories I have ever heard from people that met him were of his kindness.

Call me simple or post about it in the other thread, but I'm just able to go "I enjoy this" and not care about anything else. I bought two copies of Battlefield Earth (one got lost, so I replaced it) do I know that the author founded a crazy religion/cult thing yes, does that fact interfere with my enjoyment of the book no it does not.

I do think the conversation changes when you're talking about the works of someone deceased vs. those of someone still alive and benefiting from sales. That being said, I wouldn't call you simple. The art vs. artist debate isn't a simple thing, and people still chase it in circles to this day.

 

[overgeeked]

Years ago, I worked the ferry run from Hyannis to Nantucket. There were rumors that Mr Rogers owned some waterfront property on the island. There were further rumors that he was less than an ideal neighbor and wanted to build up the property, such that some folks would have lost their view of the Sound. I've never spent time to confirm this, and kind of think it was just people with too much time on their hands making things up, but the folks that I heard it from had all sorts of bees in their bonnets about it. Don't know if they still let their children tune in.

Imagine living a life so wholesome that the closest you get to controversy is "wanted to build up the property" and possibly causing people to "[lose] their view of the Sound." Not actually did so, but wanted to. The potential of doing something that would inconvenience others was as close as you got to controversy. That's wild.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Imagine living a life so wholesome that the closest you get to controversy is "wanted to build up the property" and possibly causing people to "[lose] their view of the Sound." Not actually did so, but wanted to. The potential of doing something that would inconvenience others was as close as you got to controversy. That's wild.

I did a quick search and got nothing on the story, though I wasn't very thorough. I think it's probably BS. That said, there is a lot of resentment between townies on the island and summer people (as there is in a lot of parts of coastal New England), and it comes out in stuff like this -- overdevelopment of the island is a real concern, but it probably doesn't need to be attached to celebrities for folks to get organized on it.