BenFiasco14 said:

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FL_Ag1998 said:

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BenFiasco14 said:

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YouBet said:

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Apparently, George RR Martin lives in same town as I do so if I ever run across him, I will ask him for an update. There is a local nerd bookstore that only carries sci-fi/fantasy nerd stuff, and they have entire walls of just Martin's books. I was perplexed by this until I realized he actually lived locally and I think he owns a building next door or something.

In addition, I talked to the absolute dork that was running this shop and asked him if they carried in Warhammer because you would think a place like this would be the perfect Warhammer shop...and he had no idea what it was. I've never been so disappointed in a sci-fi/fantasy book dork in my life.

And then I realized...I am the dork.

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I read once that Martin will only work on Winds of Winter in Santa Fe in a specific room on a specific old school type writer. Because he created this restriction, he never works on it, cause he travels constantly.

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I'm pretty sure anything like that self-imposed "restriction" is just an excuse because the guy is 1) lazy with all of the fame he's garnered, and 2) scared that he'll never meet fan expectations.

We're not going to get a conclusion that's written by him. The best we can hope for is that after he's dead his estate will let someone else finish it.

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Oh, 100%. Just artsy fartsy BS. I also agree he will never finish Winds, let alone A Dream of Spring.

I also read somewhere (no clue how true) that his will specifically forbids his estate from continuing the series with a different author.

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Now let you mention it, I think I've heard that, too. Because the commentators were saying how selfish he is that he's gonna be lazy and not finished the books, but also not let anybody else finish it either.

BenFiasco14 said:

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FL_Ag1998 said:

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BenFiasco14 said:

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YouBet said:

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Apparently, George RR Martin lives in same town as I do so if I ever run across him, I will ask him for an update. There is a local nerd bookstore that only carries sci-fi/fantasy nerd stuff, and they have entire walls of just Martin's books. I was perplexed by this until I realized he actually lived locally and I think he owns a building next door or something.

In addition, I talked to the absolute dork that was running this shop and asked him if they carried in Warhammer because you would think a place like this would be the perfect Warhammer shop...and he had no idea what it was. I've never been so disappointed in a sci-fi/fantasy book dork in my life.

And then I realized...I am the dork.

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I read once that Martin will only work on Winds of Winter in Santa Fe in a specific room on a specific old school type writer. Because he created this restriction, he never works on it, cause he travels constantly.

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I'm pretty sure anything like that self-imposed "restriction" is just an excuse because the guy is 1) lazy with all of the fame he's garnered, and 2) scared that he'll never meet fan expectations.

We're not going to get a conclusion that's written by him. The best we can hope for is that after he's dead his estate will let someone else finish it.

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Oh, 100%. Just artsy fartsy BS. I also agree he will never finish Winds, let alone A Dream of Spring.

I also read somewhere (no clue how true) that his will specifically forbids his estate from continuing the series with a different author.

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If that happens, a bunch of people will write their own fan fiction versions of the ending and put them out there for free on the internet.

Some lazier ones will just have AI write it in Martin's style. Pretty soon, you'll have so many different versions available, it will be choose-your-own-adventure for fans as to which ending they want.

I'm honestly a little surprised that hasn't happened already, but maybe hope springs eternal among his fan base.

The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh (B) - Obviously the title is a play on Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Should be a must read for every Tankie. While the Soviet's had a slew of impressive technical first, they were almost entirely done for propaganda one upmanship, often with little scientific value.

Next non-fiction read: The Great Fire: Smyrna, September 1922 One American's Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century's First Genocide by Lou Ureneck

I'm a little more than half way through God Emperor of Dune

Audiobooks
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (A) - Highly recommend. A three fold story, a bit of history of Salinas Valley, CA, an exploration of Steinbeck's maternal family (The Hamiltons) particularly his grandfather and the main storyline of the Trasks which has very obvious parallels of the biblical story of Cain and Abel.

Next up Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman a novel of the Great Patriotic War. Was going to try Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down because of Claude!'s recommendation but could not find a good reading of the novel on YouTube so I decided to see if I can find a copy with my next trip to Half Price Books or the library.

January
1) A Team For America: The Army-Navy Game That Rallied a Nation at War by Randy Roberts (B)
2) Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert (B+)
3) What Christians Believe: Understanding the Nicene Creed by Bishop Robert Barron (A)

February
4) A Gentleman in Moscow by by Amor Towles (A)
5) The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams by Adam Lazarus (C)

Audiobooks
1) The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien - A mixture of listening and reading the text in an attempt to actually finish the book after many failed attempts in the past. I think listening to the stories comes across as the telling of lore instead of a dry history.
2) Frankenstein (or, The Modern Prometheus) by Mary Shelley (B)

March (Not a good reading month of reading for me)
6) The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (B-)

Audiobooks
3a) Don Quixote Part 1 by Miguel de Cervantes (A-)

April (All three of these book are rather short, so another not particularly good reading month for me)
7) Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent and Easter by Amy Welborn (B)
8) The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel (C-)
9) Night by Elie Wiese (A)

Audiobooks
4) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (A)
5) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (C+)
6) All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (A)

May
10) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
11) Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (C+)
12) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by by J.K. Rowling

Audiobooks
3b) Don Quixote Part 2 by Miguel de Cervantes (B)
7) Hitler's Last Soldier in America by Georg Gaertner, Arnold Krammer (B+)

June
13) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
14) Perelandra by C.S. Lewis (B)
15) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Audiobooks
8) Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain (B)
9) The Colour Out of Space and Others by H.P. Lovecraft (B)

July
16) True Grit by Charles Portis (A-)
17) The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel (C)
18) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
19) In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (A-)
20) That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis (B+)
21) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
22) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
23) The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (B-)
24) The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

Audiobooks
10) The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton (B)
11) The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton (C+)
12) A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (A-)
13) The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (A)
14) The Pearl by John Steinbeck (A-)

August
25) Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (B)
26) Children of Dune by Frank Herbert (B+)
27) The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh (B)

Audiobooks
15) East of Eden by John Steinbeck (A)

Finally succumbed to the hype and finished Book 1 of Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Very fun. Laughed out loud quite a bit. I almost never do audiobooks but it seems like literally everyone recommended it's arguably the best way to consume this story, so I did about 2/3 of the book on audio format....and I think the audio book was a fantastic call. The quality of voice acting and even voice effects were outstanding. If I closed my eyes, it sounded like a movie being played out. I think alot of the humor was derived from the delivery of the voice actors and I don't think it would have hit as hard if I was just reading it in my head.

Definitely excited to continue the series. I was also very impressed with the layering of politics/background of the larger universe. Most LitRPGs are too narrow focused on the main POV character, understandably, they neglect to expand the "lore" of the rest of the world or background characters and I think the author showed a lot of talent in not making that mistake. I want to know more about Mordecai, and Zev, and even the 2 crawler hunters.

My only nitpick is similar to action movies where sometimes the battle sequences are actually the boring part because I know the main POV characters can't die. I worry that as the books get longer the author dedicates too many pages to ultimately inconsequential fight scenes.

Overall: 4/5* - would recommend to anyone looking for a very well done popcorn read.

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I worry that as the books get longer the author dedicates too many pages to ultimately inconsequential fight scenes.

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Welp, you should probably quit now then. The entire series is fighting. They are effectively in a video game....having to fight their way through it....to try and survive. That's the whole point.

YouBet said:

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I worry that as the books get longer the author dedicates too many pages to ultimately inconsequential fight scenes.

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Welp, you should probably quit now then. The entire series is fighting. They are effectively in a video game....having to fight their way through it....to try and survive. That's the whole point.

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I understand that but thank you for ignoring the rest of the heaping praise i gave the book.

M.C. Swag said:

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YouBet said:

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I worry that as the books get longer the author dedicates too many pages to ultimately inconsequential fight scenes.

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Welp, you should probably quit now then. The entire series is fighting. They are effectively in a video game....having to fight their way through it....to try and survive. That's the whole point.

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I understand that but thank you for ignoring the rest of the heaping praise i gave the book.

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Well, I didn't mean to be. Just amused by the statement since the entire series is fighting for survival. It's an awesome series though.

YouBet said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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YouBet said:

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Quote:

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I worry that as the books get longer the author dedicates too many pages to ultimately inconsequential fight scenes.

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Welp, you should probably quit now then. The entire series is fighting. They are effectively in a video game....having to fight their way through it....to try and survive. That's the whole point.

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I understand that but thank you for ignoring the rest of the heaping praise i gave the book.

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Well, I didn't mean to be. Just amused by the statement since the entire series is fighting for survival. It's an awesome series though.

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The fight scenes with just Carl and Donut are ultimately meaningless because I know they can't die (at least not yet) so there's no real stakes. A well written fight scene is still enjoyable but the inherent Achilles heel of any single POV story telling is that you know nothing can really happen to that POV if the series is to continue. That was my point.

I'm glad my nitpick "amused" you to the point you thought it was necessary to tell me it's a book about a video game and that I should "quit now."

Finally read The Help after sitting down to watch the entire movie.

After reading the book, I actually agree with the movie critics (a rarity) who said the movie softened the edges of the book too much.

I realize you can't include every single thing in a book in a movie, but there were central parts of the story in the book left out of the movie.

I don't know if Kathryn Stockett would be allowed to publish such a book today, or if they'd even make it into a movie today. It's a testament to everything that has changed in the last 15 years.

M.C. Swag said:

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YouBet said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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YouBet said:

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Quote:

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I worry that as the books get longer the author dedicates too many pages to ultimately inconsequential fight scenes.

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Welp, you should probably quit now then. The entire series is fighting. They are effectively in a video game....having to fight their way through it....to try and survive. That's the whole point.

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I understand that but thank you for ignoring the rest of the heaping praise i gave the book.

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Well, I didn't mean to be. Just amused by the statement since the entire series is fighting for survival. It's an awesome series though.

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The fight scenes with just Carl and Donut are ultimately meaningless because I know they can't die (at least not yet) so there's no real stakes. A well written fight scene is still enjoyable but the inherent Achilles heel of any single POV story telling is that you know nothing can really happen to that POV if the series is to continue. That was my point.

I'm glad my nitpick "amused" you to the point you thought it was necessary to tell me it's a book about a video game and that I should "quit now."

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Jesus, lighten up Francis. It's the Entertainment board for Donut's sake.

I actually had a similar issue with the Dresden books. Long fight scenes on paper just aren't for me.

M.C. Swag said:

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YouBet said:

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M.C. Swag said:

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YouBet said:

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Quote:

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I worry that as the books get longer the author dedicates too many pages to ultimately inconsequential fight scenes.

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Welp, you should probably quit now then. The entire series is fighting. They are effectively in a video game....having to fight their way through it....to try and survive. That's the whole point.

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I understand that but thank you for ignoring the rest of the heaping praise i gave the book.

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Well, I didn't mean to be. Just amused by the statement since the entire series is fighting for survival. It's an awesome series though.

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The fight scenes with just Carl and Donut are ultimately meaningless because I know they can't die (at least not yet) so there's no real stakes. A well written fight scene is still enjoyable but the inherent Achilles heel of any single POV story telling is that you know nothing can really happen to that POV if the series is to continue. That was my point.

I'm glad my nitpick "amused" you to the point you thought it was necessary to tell me it's a book about a video game and that I should "quit now."

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As the books progress there will be a LOT of new characters introduced, and they'll all continue to increase their skill sets and abilities. What will also increase is the intricate nature of the "game" and politics of the real world. So, while Donut and Carl remain the main protagonists, and its (probably) safe to assume they won't die, don't assume the battles won't have effects on them or their compatriats.

Harker by James Patterson -- Eh, a quick listen, pretty transparent but it was a free listen so definitely worth the time it killed. I did like how he incorporated original characters and their names into the current storytelling. Renfield in particular was clever.

Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann.

This was a difficult read, harder than Mann's "Buddenbrooks". Manns last novel, written in 1947, is about a fictional German composer who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for fame and musical genius.

The book is written as if it is an biography, written by the now late composers friend. The biographer, also a fictional character, is writing at the end of WWII about events which took place before and after the First World War.

The novel is about the composers meteoric rise to greatness and horrific fall. A loose allegory of Germany's descent into the Third Reich and ultimate ruin though by no means the focus of the story.

5/5.

Finished Volume 2 of A True History of the Conquest of New Spain, the memoirs of the conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of Hernando Cortes' officers.

Volume 2 finds us in a now subjugated Mexico, with Peru falling quickly on her heels. With the Spanish in firm control at this point, I found this second volume not nearly as exciting as it dealt much more with internal Spanish political maneuvering and how so and so got this post which isn't fair and so and so got this title but why because he didn't fight with us ….

But it was still good and I'm glad I listened to it. You seriously cannot get this anywhere else, an eyewitness of the fall of the Aztecs and the very beginning of Spanish colonization

Speaking of Diaz's complaints, a common motif throughout the book is that nobody remembers, cares about, or knows the real story of the Conquistadors. He's writing as an old man, still in the 16th century. Alas, he hammers home that he and 4 others still alive are the only ones left who know what it means to be a real Conquistador, with honor, etc.

Diaz had no true Scotsman on full display or shall I say, no true Conquistador!

I will miss Diaz who's been my companion for the past month or so. I've enjoyed sitting by his campfire and listening in as he tells a story that's perfect for ghost story hour.

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert (C) - Explores some interesting themes and ideas, strong beginning but also has some very cringe monuments and a rather meh end. Overall just did not do it for me. So this will likely bring my Dune journey to an end since the last two novels are considered the weakest of the bunch.

August
25) Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (B)
26) Children of Dune by Frank Herbert (B+)
27) The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh (B)
28) God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert (C)

Audiobooks
15) East of Eden by John Steinbeck (A)

King Rat complete. Very different than Shogun, Tai-Pan and Gai-Jin but I'm glad I read it. Last year I did a bunch of reading on the Pacific in WW2 and this is a worthy edition to all that.

Finished The Shadow of the Gods

Liked it a lot. Highly recommend. I like the 3 parallel storylines and the magic system / setup.

Started The Hunger of the Gods

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. Until now, I'd somehow never read the debut novel of my favorite author of all time. This book was hilarious, and as always with Dickens, full of iconic characters.

I finished Kingfisher's three short "Sworn Soldier" books. A bit weird, like most of her stuff, but lots of humor for what's supposed to be horror genre. I recommend

Just finished The Dog Stars. Different than what I usually read but enjoyed it a lot.

Gearbreakers is up next, but was also thinking of re-reading the Red Rising series.

Might hold off on the RR reread. Looks like we are still at least a year out from the final book release.

Just finished DCC: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride and am moving directly into This Inevitable Ruin.

Absolute said:

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Might hold off on the RR reread. Looks like we are still at least a year out from the final book release.

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Yes wait on the re-read at least until we have a release date. That prime re-read time because it will probably be at least a few months from announcement to release.

Death of an Archbishop - Willa Cather

Apparently, this is considered by some to be one of the best books/westerns of the 20th century but I had not heard of it. My wife bought it along with several other books focused on New Mexico now that we live here

It was written in 1927 and is about a Catholic Bishop that is assigned to New Mexico right after NM becomes a US state. It's beautifully written, which you will see as a common refrain in reviews, but I also personally found it to be a little boring. It's a series of vignettes that take place over this Bishop's lifetime running his diocese in Santa Fe and traveling all over the southwest dealing with the local Indians, Mexicans, and new Americans. Some of the vignettes are interesting especially the ones that tell a story that actually does not involve the Bishop, but it's a fairly mundane walk through this Bishop's life.

Been on the fence about starting this one but this pushed me over the edge. Can't put it down now!

StinkyPinky said:

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LB12MEEN said:

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LB12MEEN said:

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Just started the 3rd book "Ruin" in the faithful and the fallen series by John Gwynne. The first two books I finished quickly and will do the same with the next two.

Update, on to the 4th book. Wrath!

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Just finished the series. Loved it!

Great character development and Gwynne is excellent at fight/battle sequences.

On to his next series " The Bloodsworn Saga" bc I already have it but I almost thought about starting Robin Hobb's "The Farseer Trilogy. It will be next.

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I just started the Bloodsworn trilogy. It's early but so far so good. Also reading Five Decembers by James Kestrel which had high recommendations and has started off great as well. Love when I have two very different but very good books going.

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Finished Bloodsworn. It was solid, liked F&F more just bc it developed the characters better and was a more advanced story.

Now have a decision to make. What to read next. Might go with the Knight of the 7 kingdoms. Edit, need to finish Dune and Messiah so going to do that first.

Claude! said:

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Completed: Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. The author spends a year embedded with the Baltimore PD's homicide team. The book that made Simon's career, and rightfully so. The second or third time I've read it, and it's still excellent. Simon is at his best when relating the twists and turns of the cases and has a knack for bringing out each detective's personality. If there are points where the book drags, it's when Simon is talking in abstract about the system, especially from a defendant's point of view; without the grounding of the cases and personalities involved, it gets a lot less interesting. Thankfully those instances are few and far between.

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I need to read that. Simon also wrote The Corner, and was the writer and show runner of The Wire. His nuanced take on Baltimore and how various institutions had failed its people has always interested me.