Book Thread 2018^H9

Yes, the 1st book has always been $3.99 as a discounted entry. It sucked me in and I paid full kindle price for the next two and would gladly do it on the following books (but merry christmas to me on getting the last two cheap!)

They’re pretty meaty, close to 300 pages on each book.

and weird how the amazon link isn’t working anymore. Oh well.

These books are legit just a blast, and Will knows how to set things up and pay them off, all while arranging the next big events. The characters are a hoot, too. I love 'em to death.

I’m on Memories of Ice again and picking up a lot of things I missed the first time through. Hoping to make it past the next book this time!

I was looking for some sf to read anr came across these on a list of books to read for 2018. I enjoyed them both.

I just finished the second of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series. Fantastic, fantastic stuff. I love it. I was a little surprised that the second book in the series focussed on essentially new characters rather than picking up where the first book left off and now looking at the blurb for the third book on Amazon, it seems that the third book does the same! Will Chambers eventually come back to the original characters do you think or will all of her books essentially be separate stories taking place in the same setting?

My final count for the year: 63 books.

About half were a re-read of the Spenser novels, which in addition to being short, have a ton of dialogue which creates a lot of white space.

The book I’m currently reading at the end of 2018, going into 2019 is 1984. I read Animal Farm back in high school, and before we read it, the teacher put this huge glossary on the board, like the horse character represents the People of Russia, and this pig character is Lenin and this pig character is Marx, and this pig character is Stalin, etc. So it was a very interesting book knowing the parallels in advance.

1984 is much more in your face about everything. It doesn’t need a glossary of parallels. You have your Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Love, you have Big Brother literally watching you (possibly) through your TV, you have a literal Thought Police. I am really loving this book so far. It’s got something to say and it’s got the balls to say it loudly.

I hope she keeps doing what she’s been doing. I really love her stuff, and one of the things I like about it is that I don’t have to refresh myself on what’s happened before when I pick up a new book. There are ties between all of them (e.g. a main character in the third book is the sister of the captain from the first book), but they can all be read standalone, which is awesome.

I hope so. I felt the first one was a bit dull, except for the flashbacks to China during the cultural revolution.

There is another series where the soldiers travel forward and back in time, but I can’t remember the author or the title right now.

I finished the second one, I thought was actually… bad , nearly bad enough to make me quit the series. Not bad in a really weird interesting way either, there were elements of the B movie style writing & plot in Book 1 but its in Book 2 that it really kicks in.

But I will go through the third one and hope it gets better.

So I’m bummed out. I finished book 5 in the Cradle Series by Will Wight and I was really disappointed this series is not complete.

I was burned by Stephen King & the gunslinger series, then George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones series - but I bailed after only 2 books on that one. I swore I would never start a series before it was all done but I got suckered into this.

So, I love the series - awesome story, great world building, and a growing group of protagonists with a looming event that ever accelerates them and now I have to wait a few years for this to play out. Bummer.

In other news, I did get the next Murderbot diaries book from the Library and am going to continue these. They are quick reads - 150 pages, so will likely be done shortly.

Yeah, I had a good run there for a couple of decades with a huge high quality backlog. Now I find myself waiting for next installments in multiple series…

:(

I did the same thing. I realized Martin might take forever to finish the series so I bailed. I originally got burned on a David Gerrold series, War of the Chtorr. He started that back in the '90’s I believe and it still isn’t finished. It’s been over 15 years since he last published one. And it’s not like he has no plans to finish it. He just doesn’t get it done.

It’s worse than that, actually. The first book came out in 1983 (the year I was born) and only the last to date was published in the 90s. (1993).

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

I got this used a couple years ago and finally decided to read it after reading 1492 by Charles Mann a couple months ago. It is not as “entertaining” as 1492 but it does contain some very interesting observations. I also found it basically supported what I believed to be the answers as to why some peoples/societies developed differently from others. Not an easy read but worth the trouble.

The Waterworks by E.L. Doctorow

A first person narrative about a missing persons case in 1870 New York City. The story is told by a newspaperman who went looking for a missing freelance writer who was his friend. Told in a sometimes strange time traveling back and forth way that early on at least kind of muddies up the story. It is an interesting read, a good story of the times if you will, but if you are looking to read something by Doctorow I would recommend Ragtime or Billy Bathgate.

As good as The Name of the Wind was by Rothfuss I can’t really recommend that series now because (a) the second book isn’t nearly as good and (b) he may never finish the series.

Guns, Germs and Steel is very good and I much prefer Diamond to Mann — I find Diamond to be a better writer and the connections he suggests are more plausible IMO.

You might want to try Diamond’s Collapse, which is a discussion about why societies destroy themselves based on examining ones that did, e.g. Easter Island.

Have you read 1494 by Mann? Reviews of it seem rather negative based on his research and the connections he makes. As for Diamond, I did enjoy the book and will look for Collapse, but I am more into history than social/cultiral interaction, if that makes sense, so it took me a little longer to get into Guns, Germs and Steel than it did 1492.

Actually, glad you asked the question. Mann’s 1491 is sitting on my bookshelf, as yet unread, and what I was thinking of was Menzies’ 1421, when I responded to you before. My mistake!