Amph What book are you reading right now?

The War of the Roses by Dan Jones.

 

Double post

 

Showdown at Centerpoint

 

Emma. Jane Austen's titular protagonist is deeply flawed, a woman too much flattered by those around her, too caught up in her own schemes, to avoid making mistakes throughout the book, but that's what makes her so entertaining. Emma treats its flawed characters with great warmth, treating the misadventures of Emma, the self-absorption of Mr. Woodhouse, and even the misdeeds of Frank Churchill with affection rather than too much judgment. Though Austen seems quite aware of her characters' follies -- there's a wonderful bit right at the end in which it becomes obvious, despite how readily everyone's forgiven him, just how little Frank Churchill has learned and just how mediocre his character really is -- this is one of her least moralizing books, treating everything as coming out alright in the end for this friendly, well-intentioned, close-knit group of characters. The result is light and fun, something that feels almost like a Shakespearean comedy.

 

The Scam (2006) – James Byron Huggins

On its face, this book would seem like a departure for Huggins. It’s about a huge financial scam being run by a mysterious conglomerate with shadowy figures at its heart; a group of unlikely heroes are set on the task of running the financial scam to ground and exposing the villains behind it. This sounds like a very different kind of thriller than Huggins’ usual turf, but fear not! The villains have hired an icepick wielding killer code-named Iceman to track down and murder those on their trail. Throw in a chess prodigy who also happens to be a crack shot with any weapon you throw at him and a badass female Israeli soldier and this book provides more bullet spraying than number crunching. It’s a good hundred pages too long, though, and it’s not nearly on the level of The Reckoning, the book in Huggins’ bibliography that it most resembles. It’s a fairly solid genre thriller, not much more. 2 ½ stars.

tl;dr – nominally about a financial scam, this book actually delivers a ton of action and gunplay, but the characters are lacking and it’s far too long for what it is: a potboiler. 2 ½ stars.

 

I fail to see any possible issue with this book.

 

I just finished this book and it was awesome! At first, it seemed like a children's book with humanoid dinosaurs, creatures of every shape and size, a pictures on ever other page. But then you have decapitations, talks of cannibalism, and quite a lot of violence from those seeking rare books.
The story is about Optimus Yarnspinner exploring Bookholm, the City of Dreaming Books, in search of the author of a mysterious manuscript. Along the way, Optimus meets all sorts of unusual characters, experiences moments of both whimsy and horror, and learns more about himself as he's also searching within himself to become an author.
Bookholm itself sounds like a place where I'd love to live. The city is filled with book sellers, writers, publishers, libraries, cafes, and individuals who build their entries existence around books. This includes book hunters who don heavy armor, while wielding swords and other weapons, and exploring the catacombs beneath the city for those ultra-rare tomes.
I have to rank this right up with the Complete William Blake as my all-time favorite book, and it as secured a permanent spot on my book shelf.

 

The Fireman by Joe Hill

 

The Dark Nest Trilogy III: The Swarm War

and

Point of Contact (the new Ryanverse novel)

 

I just finished reading Star Trek Destiny by David Mack. It is set 2381 and it an incredibly important even in the Star Trek novel verse. It's about an equivalent of the NJO in terms of scale and stakes. The Borg invade the AQ and it seems as though the federation's final days are at hand. This story takes place at the same time with a story set in the 2160s(or fifties) with Captain Erika Hernandez and her crew having their ship severely damaged in a Romulan raid and limping to a world called Erigol, there they encounter a race of beings called the Caeliar. I won't spoil any further but these events are related excellent trilogy. High stakes.

Recommend to anyone who considers themselves a Trek fan.

 

The Lovecraft Code by Peter Levenda. Not bad so far but it helps if you are familiar with HPL's stories as there are references all over the place (and I'm only up to chapter 8).

 

Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves.

 

That was a great read.

 

Still on Point of Contact

Now on Legacy of the Force: Betrayal

 

Star Wars Aftermath finally!!!!!!!!
after this hopefully Thrawn!!!!!!!!

 

Reading Nothing to Lose by Lee Child.

While also reading some back issues of Guns & Ammo and American Handgunner a friend let me have.

 

Sorcerer (2006) – James Byron Huggins

Well, I’m wrapping up my survey of Huggins’ work with this novel and after pretty disappointing outings on the last couple, I’m glad to end on a book that is somewhat a return to form. It isn’t as high intensity as The Reckoning, Leviathan or Cain, but it’s a better thriller than anything he’s written since those. A retired cop and his family move into an old home in the country, only to discover that evil lurks in the basement. Actually, it’s an immortal Egyptian sorcerer (one of the ones who fought with Moses!) who has been buried there for centuries. Yeah, it’s an Egyptian sorcerer buried in America; look, it’s a whole thing. The characters are slightly more interesting than in Huggins’ last two, particularly the retired cop and the villainous sorcerer. Getting inside the villain’s head is always a good thing in a Huggins novel and the sorcerer himself is a well-done villain. The action is high-energy and as good as any action he’s written since Hunter, I’d say. It’s a fun genre novel, mixing action and horror in a charming way. It’s likable and entertaining and an improvement on Huggins’ last few novels for sure. 3 stars.

tl;dr – ancient Egyptian sorcerer battles retired cop and killers from the Vatican in this fun return to form from Huggins; excellent action & some good characters make this a fun genre piece. 3 stars.

 

Finished Point of Contact. Going to start on The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger.

Also still reading Legacy of the Force: Betrayal.

 

Aftermath

 

Saturn Run was a good first contact novel done in a good hard scifi way.

Now on to Invisible Planets: Collected Fiction by Hannu Rajaniemi. This guy wrote the Quantum Thief which Iliked and The Fractal prince which desperately needed an info dump which the author refused to do.

 

VadersLaMent Saturn Run is tentatively set to be my next read after I finish Morning Star. Not familiar w/John Sandford, but I know sci-fi isn't his usual genre. Reviews are solid, so I'm game unless something else pops up on my radar in the interim.

 

Still on Dark Tower I: Gunslinger. Now on Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines

 

The Circle (2013) – Dave Eggers

We would finally be compelled to be our best selves . . . There would be this phenomenal global sigh of relief. Finally, finally, we can be good. In a world where bad choices are no longer an option.

Egger’s acclaimed satirical thriller about the ever increasing encroachment of technology into our lives has been on my list to read since it came out. The release of the film adaptation finally gave me the excuse I needed to prioritize it and, though I avoided the film, I found the book to be quite good. It’s the story of a young woman who lands a highly coveted job at The Circle, a powerful tech company with its own campus, dorms, free meals, beanbag chairs, etc. etc. It’s a barely heightened Facebook/Google type establishment, but the deeper Mae gets into the company the farther its reach seems to extend. The book is at its best when its being most cuttingly sarcastic. There are some wonderful passages about Mae’s ever increasing workload that just cut right to the heart of corporate culture and the section of the book that deals with the “mandatory fun” angle of the company is dead on target as it dismantles the culture of social networking as a necessity. The Circle is a company where you miss a coworker’s Thai luncheon at the risk of getting a black mark in your file and if you have to stay awake until one in the morning to get your social rank in the company into the top one-hundred, well, then that’s what has to happen. Later, there’s an astonishing passage where Mae struggles to decide about whether or not to click a Like button on a post that goes on for well over a page of interior monologue and at the end, she genuinely feels like she’s made a courageous decision by Liking an anti-terrorism campaign. The thriller elements are a bit thinner and pretty low stakes. There’s a “twist” you’ll see coming a mile away and things ultimately just don’t get all that sinister, or maybe this is my generational bias showing. At over five-hundred pages, it’s overlong, I think, but it’s a very entertaining book and I laughed out loud a lot. Definitely worth a read. 3 ½ stars.

tl;dr – satirical thriller about ever encroaching technology with cutting, hilarious sarcasm that rings absolutely true; too loosely plotted & an anti-climactic climax, but still a fun, brisk read. 3 ½ stars.

 

Started on my copy of Treasure Island. I didn't get to it last summer, but I'm planning on finishing it this summer.

 

Gold from Crete by CS Forester. A collection of stories set in WW2. It's vintage Forester, and of course the best parts are at sea.

 

House of Chains Malazan 4. Halfway through. Loving it again. Made a dent in Safehold 8 past few days finally.