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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph What book are you reading right now?

Discussion in 'Community' started by droideka27, Aug 31, 2005.

  1. DantheJedi

    DantheJedi Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 23, 2009
    I just got my copy of Star Trek: The Newspaper Strips Volume One in the mail from Amazon. I'm going to start reading it shortly.
     
  2. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    Didn't know they had a newspaper comic of ST. Which era is this - Kirk, Picard, or newer than that?
     
  3. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    you're doing it wrong
     
  4. MariahJSkywalker

    MariahJSkywalker Poopoo Head star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 11, 2005
    War & Peace. Probably take a few months to finish it because I keep getting distracted.
     
  5. DantheJedi

    DantheJedi Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 23, 2009
    Kirk era. It was published in American newspapers in 1979, with the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (which is why the early strips have the characters wearing the uniforms from that movie,but they gradually changed to the Wrath of Khan uniforms), and was published until 1983.

    IDW is supposedly publishing four volumes of these, the first two comprising the Star Trek American strip from 1979 to 1983, and the last two being ST strips published in Great Britain in various magazines in the early 1970s. The American strips capture the tone of the show and movies more, but these British strips are said to be more weird sci-fi adventure more in tune with Gold Key's Star Trek '60s-'70s comics than the show, so after this first book I'm going to get the second one, and maybe wait and see.
     
  6. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Yeah, this book sucked. It has a few decent moments but I just could not like much about it.
     
  7. AmazingB

    AmazingB Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 2001
    Doing a quickie re-read of A Christmas Carol.

    Amazing.
     
  8. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    FINALLY finished "The Fires of Heaven." I've started The Poison Jar by Sid Hamer today.
     
    NYCitygurl likes this.
  9. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    Aww, man, and after everything :(
     
  10. King_of_Red_Lions

    King_of_Red_Lions Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 28, 2003
    The Road by Cormac McCarthy

    I listened to the audio book.


    An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

    This is the greatest book I've read this year.


    The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett

    Illustrated by Paul Kidby.
     
  11. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Inoright? It's a 4 book series too. To each their own.

    I am off to a used bookstore to find:

    Daemon by Daniel Surrez, The 'Ware' books by Rudy Rucker, Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott, Signal To Noise by Eric Nylund, Black Glass by John Shirley, Looking Glass by James Strickland, Under The Amoral Bridge by Gary Ballard. Any of those will do.
     
  12. AmazingB

    AmazingB Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 2001
    Baseball Dynasties by Rob Neyer. I've had it for like 10 years, figure I'd try to blow through it before Christmas when I expect to have a bevy of new reading material. Bevy!

    Amazing.
     
  13. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    About halfway through The Bones of Avignon by Jefferson Bass. It's part of their Body Farm series of crime novels. I've been fond of the prior novels but not so fond of this one (so far, anyway). Most of the action takes place in France and jumps between past and present. I'm not bored enough to quit it but it might go to the charity shop when I finish as I can't see a re-read in my future.
     
  14. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    "I am off to a used bookstore to find:

    Daemon by Daniel Surrez, The 'Ware' books by Rudy Rucker, Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott, Signal To Noise by Eric Nylund, Black Glass by John Shirley, Looking Glass by James Strickland, Under The Amoral Bridge by Gary Ballard. Any of those will do."

    Ok, I didn't find any of that. 8-}

    I did wander into an rpg store and picked up Queen of Thorns and Called to Darkness of the Pathfinder Tales. But But Count Jeggare will have to wait as I did find Islands In The Net and that combined with GURPS Cyberpunk which i will get for Christmas will keep me techy for a bit longer.

    [​IMG]
     
  15. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    And now I've started on Wheel of Time 6: Lord of Chaos.
     
  16. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Before They Are Hanged. As I predicted, an improvement on The Blade Itself. With the place-setting done, Abercrombie moves his characters into more interesting positions as wars and quests get underway. It means that the action gets more involving and the characters get a better chance to shine, and they really are great characters. Abercrombie's protagonists are, to a man (and woman) a real bunch of bastards, yet incredibly compelling. Abercrombie doesn't depend on sympathy to get you to follow them -- each has a certain base level of sympathy, but what really makes them grab the reader is their complicated natures, the way they interact with each other and the world around them, the personal journeys they're on. Abercrombie never really bothers to pretend that they're heroes -- they're just interesting, and maybe hopefully less bad than the other guys, and that's typical of the way he plays with fantasy tropes for unexpected outcomes. He also manages to avoid the usual fantasy fixation with worldbuilding, keeping the exposition highly limited and the narrative focused on the characters, which results in a tight story with a plot that never quite does what you expect.

    The Last Argument of Kings. A great conclusion to the First Law trilogy. It's nothing but extended payoff of everything built up previously, followed by payoff of the narrative left turns in the book itself. Every time the book seems to build to a climax, it reveals that there's more, and, appropriately, nobody is really let off with a happy ending. These are ambiguous characters, and they get ambiguous and unexpected endings. The characters genuinely develop over the course of the books, too, the sort of genuine change that occurs too seldom. Abercrombie is not playing this thing safe at all. He's clearly having a ton of fun subverting expectations and fantasy tropes, and it's just as fun to read. A big finish with enough closure to satisfy and enough left open to leave the reader begging for a continuation -- a really great job sticking the landing from a debut author.
     
  17. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    > with a plot that never quite does what you expect.

    Heh, by that I bet you are referring to
    the thing they are looking for not being where they thought it would be after a whole book of travelling to it.
     
  18. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Yeah, that. And other developments, too; Abercrombie has a general tendency to set things up to look like they're going one way, to play on your expectations of a happy ending or a big fight or a Chekhov's gun going off, then to pull off in another direction.
     
  19. SWpants

    SWpants Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2004
    I'm more than half through Lord of Chaos but I got a lot of books for Christmas and through Goodreads. I'm going to flip to Insincerely Yours: Letters from a Prankster by Bernard Radfar today.
     
  20. AmazingB

    AmazingB Manager Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 2001
    The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Almost 100 pages in, not sure how I feel about it yet.

    Amazing.
     
  21. New_York_Jedi

    New_York_Jedi Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 16, 2002
    The First Law Trilogy left me depressed, but in a good way. If that makes sense. Bayaz man, Bayaz...

    Anyways, received for Christmas and started reading Both Flesh and Not , a collection of essays by the late David Foster Wallace. It takes its title from his marvelous essay on Roger Federer. The rest hasn't been as good, or as good as Consider the Lobster overall, but its generally interesting. About halfway through.
     
  22. heels1785

    heels1785 Skywalker Saga + JCC Manager / Finally Won A Draft star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2003
    Been on a Bourdain kick recently after watching his show for the first time a few weeks ago. Reading one his books, Medium Raw, it's fantastic.
     
  23. RC-1991

    RC-1991 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 2, 2009
    Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization, by Paul Kriwaczek. Interesting look at the Fertile Crescent, which is an area and time period that I am not very familiar with. Author interjects his own opinions at times, though he's a journalist rather than an historian, but it's a decent read so far.
     
  24. Arawn_Fenn

    Arawn_Fenn Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jul 2, 2004
    Um, no.

    Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive comprise a trilogy of sorts.

    Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties comprise a separate trilogy of sorts.
     
  25. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    I loved the way he slowly developed from "amusingly smartass mystery man" to "terrifying monster" over the course of three books, and not necessarily because anything in his nature changed -- just because we saw more of him. Great writing.