Amph What book are you reading right now?

Just finished; Vulcan's Forge by Jack Du Brul. No, it's not a Star Trek novel (though unsurprisingly there is a ST novel titled Vulcan's Forge), it's an adventure novel in the Clive Cussler mold. In fact, Du Brul has co-written several novels w/Cussler. The plot is absolutely bat guano crazy, w/the villains (plural) plan(s) making those of most Bond baddies look downright plausible by comparison. The hero here is typical of the genre. He's a geologist who just so happens to be good at whatever else he may be tackling at the moment and he's got a cadre of colorful friends and associates with plot convenient skills. The women are all incredibly smart until the plot needs them not to be, and their legs are longer than the last day of school. That said, I enjoyed it. Sometimes you want a gourmet meal and others you want fast food. This is the latter, and there's nothing wrong with that. I wasn't in the mood to unpack a lot of heady stuff. I just wanted simple, red meat action adventure and that's what it delivered. - 7/10

Now reading... I don't know. I'm still very much in the mood for simple action. I've got another Du Brul book here, as well as two of Cussler's more iconic offerings (Inca Gold and Sahara). I've also got a pulpy sci-fi offering from Jack Vance Planet of Adventure (a compendium of four short novels). Both the author and the novels are well regarded.

 

"The Final prophecy"

 

Seventh Decimate by Stephen R. Donaldson.

Fire. Wind. Pestilence. Earthquake. Drought. Lightning.
These are the six Decimates, wielded by sorcerers for both good and evil.

But a seventh Decimate exists—the most devastating one of all...

Sounds like a bit of a spin on his Seven Wards of Kevin Landwaster from the Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant. I have been looking forward to this.

 

i'm reading "roughing it" by mark twain, "life against death" by norman o. brown, and just starting "the book of dust" by philp pullman.

 

Oathbringer, Malazan 6, Grace of Kings. Between those 3 and Xbone and PS4 my dvr is piling up quick. Happy I put Dresden 5 on hold till I finish Oathbringer.

 

Great book. The bit where he and his two friends get lost in the snowstorm is brilliant.

 

I'm so upset that my library didn't have Oathbringer ready to go today, as there's a hold list. My former library system was on the ball with that stuff. *mutters incoherently* Hopefully I'll have it before Thanksgiving break next week.

Did you read the 32 chapters online?

 

Re-reading the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett. This was my introduction to the Warhammer 40K books.

 

Nah I never read sample chapters. This way I get my $ worth of new material. Speaking of $ the price hike for book 3 is pretty high. 1 was $27.99, 2 was $28.99 and 3 is $34.99. It is built much sturdier then 1&2 which is great cause I don’t think those will survive multiple reads unlike this one. However I do fear in the coming years we will see a $50 SLA book.

 

Oh geez that is A LOT of money for the book!! Makes me glad his other series have shorter books that work in PB form

 

I never read Inca Gold. I did read Sahara and I can't recommend it.

 

Yep it’s high. The quality is superior to 1&2 though. The pages are so thin, the spine is stronger with a better adhesive so it doesn’t bend. Plus all the artwork in it so it’s more $. Like I said on both issues I fear the wear and tear on 1&2 on multiple reads and am sure that the price in later books will reach $50 easy(if they keep being 1K+ pg books)

 

The only Dirk Pitt novel I’ve ever read was Raise the Titanic. It’s utterly rediculous, but it was a fun read.

 

Yeah, I liked his early stuff, Titanic, Vixen 03, Mediterranean Caper, Night Probe, but either my taste changed as I grew up or Cussler's writing jumped the shark. Either way, I had trouble reading Sahara cuz my eyes kept rolling.

 

So naturally I decided to start reading Sahara yesterday . Only about 20 or so pages in, but so far... I'm digging it. It starts w/a prologue w/a Confederate boat fleeing w/Abraham Lincoln as a prisoner! I was like "Itch, scratch. Scratch, itch.". Work has been extremely stressful of late, and as I read before bed as a way to decompress (or perhaps decompose, as it's felt lately) all I'm in the mood for at the moment is brain candy. The further removed from reality the better.

 

Where's Wally The Wonder Book

 

The Unifying Force

 

The Bridal Canopy by S.Y. Agnon

A Jewish father's quest to find dowries and husbands for his three daughters. Some review blurbs compare it to Don Quixote. Half-way through, I'm not getting that vibe.


Blood Of The Fold by Terry Goodkind

I purchased many volumes of the Sword Of Truth series dirt cheap at a library book sale and am slowly reading through the fantasy epic. This is the third novel in the series.


No One Writes To The Colonel and Chronicle Of A Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez

Two novellas. The first is a bleak picture of an older couple's struggle in an unfair world. The second is an examination of a murder that is justified by everyone; except, perhaps, the narrator, author, victim and this reader.


The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Woland and an anthropomorphic cat create supernatural mischief in this novel that jumps between modern Moscow and ancient Jerusalem.


Talking Pictures: How To Watch Movies by Ann Hornaday

A guide to turn a casual movie watcher into a more critical reviewer.


Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho, Stories And Texts For Nothing and Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett

Prose, poetry and a play from a master of the language.

 

Abaddon's Gate. In the third Expanse book, we finally move beyond bland corporate conspiracies making stupid use of the protomolecule and into exploring the consequences of the protomolecule itself. It's an improvement. As everybody ends up going through a wormhole gate to a strange station and its bizarre manipulation of the laws of physics, we get some sci-fi exploration as well as a lot of drama based on chaos within the mixed fleet doing the exploring as it runs into issue after issue. Our villains are present throughout the story, hateable faces who are intimately involved in the plot rather than anonymous conspirators unmasked at the end. One of them is even a POV character, and though she's a ridiculous character with motivations apparently stolen from a cartoon, at least she's present. There are some really gripping developments as things get increasingly out of hand within the fleet. And speaking of POV characters, while it's disappointing that none of the interesting folks from the last book recur -- Holden is the only character who keeps coming back -- Holden continues to develop well and the other new POV characters are very good. Bull, the chief of security on a repurposed OPA warship, is struggling to keep things running, keep the whole fleet safe, and keep his imbecile captain from ruining everything, and he's a really great character, a dedicated, badass pragmatist. At the other end of the spectrum is Anna, a gentle pastor who continues trying to stand up for her principles and be a voice of calm even as she struggles with the twists and turns of the situation around her. I was really impressed with her, mostly because it seems really hard for people generally to write good, realistic, sympathetic Christian characters, and the authors really succeeded with her, making someone who isn't a caricature and whose belief in God's love feels real and meaningful. Even the rather silly villain, a spoiled rich girl who wants to destroy Holden to avenge the honor of her locked-up father, the last book's villain, at least gets a compelling struggle with the consequences of what she's doing, and she's well-written for being a rather cartoonish concept. The series keeps getting better, which is a good sign.

 

Oathbringer has been pretty damn fun so far up to the 270 pg mark. I did have to break bk 2 last night though and skim the ending 100 pgs because I was just blanking on soooo much which is making me mad as my recall is usually quite good but my head was just blank. Hmm

 

I have a crap memory, so I can empathize with forgetting on info. tor.com has a great recap of the first two books, but by the time I get to the end, I forget what I read 10 minutes prior.

I read the first 32 pages when they were being released and found myself going "yeah, I don't remember this name, let alone the detailed events."

 

I read the Tor thing for 1&2 not 2 hrs ago. Pretty good so prob will be good to keep on with 3 now.

 

Just finished The Dread Wyrm, book 3 of the Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. I liked it better than the first two. Still too many minor characters and subplots, but fewer than the last book. Some of the major characters are finally starting to appeal to me, and the combat scenes are always excellent.

 

You mean the bit where he meets Clive Cussler in the desert didn't work for you?

I am re-reading some chapters out of Some Kind of Hero, about the 007 films, before starting on Blood of Elves by Andrej Sapkowski. I picked up Witcher 3 on Steam on sale, and have loved the narrative.

EDIT: Sarge, is that the series beginning with The Red Knight?

 

Yes, that's the one. The author studied the same Italian swordplay master I did, so the way he describes the fights is crystal clear to me, but probably considerably less so to most people.