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What are you reading? Fourth Quarter 2023


williamjm
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Talking Walls by Matt Bua.  This is a local artist's investigation into the possible pre-Columbian stone constructions in the North Eastern United states, spurred by his observations of what at first appeared to be common stone walls at his own property in Kiskatom, near Catskill, NY.  

Interesting read with a lot of local and personal connection to my interests, and the author is careful to admit the limitations of his methodology, but nonetheless makes a pretty strong case that many structures we assume to be of colonial origin are much older. 

Would love to see some local archaeologists run with this thesis.  

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I read the Monarchies of God by Paul Kearney (all 4 books), which was recommended on this board. I found it a good yarn and well worth the read, but I thought the ending was far too abrupt, solving a conflict that had been growing for the better part of three books in a couple of hundreds of pages, and every single female character was poorly served by the narrative (only having importance as the wife or lover of a male character).

The preponderance of werewolves made me remember I had actually read another book by Paul Kearney before: the Wolf in the Attic, which also has werewolves in it. Though this is a far shorter book, lacking the epic of the Monarchies of God and more Young Adult in tone, I found it a warmer story.

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Most recently I've been reading the classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus, (aka Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks).

Prescient not just by being published over a decade before the meme, but also for the actions and motivations of the billionaire antagonist of when and why he switches sides in the Torment Nexus debate.

Spoiler

And Vatueil's sections hit very differently on a re-read, when you know what the very last word of the book is.

 

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2 hours ago, Denvek said:

Most recently I've been reading the classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus, (aka Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks).

Prescient not just by being published over a decade before the meme, but also for the actions and motivations of the billionaire antagonist of when and why he switches sides in the Torment Nexus debate.

  Hide contents

And Vatueil's sections hit very differently on a re-read, when you know what the very last word of the book is.

 

Damn, but I miss Iain Banks.

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I finished Martha Wells' System Collapse. I thought it was another entertaining entry in the series. It picks up directly from the end of Network Effect as Murderbot and its allies try to protect several groups of colonists from a predatory corporation. We never really get to know the colonists well so it's a bit hard to care too much about what happens to them but it does set up some good scenes as their protectors try to outwit the numerically superior corporate forces. This is particularly tricky as the main character has to deal with some newfound vulnerabilities as they try to adjust to the situation they find themself in after the end of the previous story.

I'm now reading Jodi Taylor's Just One Damned Thing After Another, the first in what seems to be a lengthy series of time travel stories. It started off seeming quite whimsical but some more serious elements come in as the story goes along.

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Just wrapped up John M. Ford’s The Dragon Waiting.  I enjoyed it overall but feel like it would have been more enjoyable with a stronger knowledge of the time. Had some difficulty with characters referenced by title by some characters in a scene while others referred to the same characters, in the same scenes by surname. 

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I got back from a trip with the incredible urge to reread the Dunk & Egg tales. Seeing how we cannot control the outcome, I try not to think too much about the long gaps in between ASOIAF content from GRRM, but finishing these three stories hit me hard. I really would like to get more stories about this pair. In fact, I think that in some ways I'm more invested in their story now than in the main story. Odd isn't it?

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6 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I got back from a trip with the incredible urge to reread the Dunk & Egg tales. Seeing how we cannot control the outcome, I try not to think too much about the long gaps in between ASOIAF content from GRRM, but finishing these three stories hit me hard. I really would like to get more stories about this pair. In fact, I think that in some ways I'm more invested in their story now than in the main story. Odd isn't it?

He said he won’t release another D&E until TWOW is out(even though he already has the entire story plotted out) :( don’t expect to read any more of em. I’ve re read them much more than the main series as well. Just seems like a happier time in that world.

Edited by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II
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16 hours ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

He said he won’t release another D&E until TWOW is out(even though he already has the entire story plotted out) :( don’t expect to read any more of em. I’ve re read them much more than the main series as well. Just seems like a happier time in that world.

Or at least happier characters. Thanks for sharing the info. Hope your analysis ends up being wrong of course, but only time will tell :) 

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Rereading Abraham’s Dagger and Coin, having recently introduced the series to my daughter. Just started King’s Blood.

Also just started listening to Deadhouse Gates. First time as audio. I mostly limit my audio books to history, but we’ve got them and I’ve had more road time recently. 

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I've returned to The Slow Regard Of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss. I'm only on day 2 but I'm struck again by what a tight and fascinating character exploration this is. 

I actually think it's his best work.

It's hard to articulate exactly what makes it work so well but jumbled in the reasons would be the unique feel that he accomplishes through Auri's simple awareness of the proper balance of things, combined with her insistence / need to assist them to achieve that balance.

Elements of OCD manifest, which makes sense given that she's a bit cracked. It's a clever way to take the knowing of things & render that into both a disability & a virtue. She's simply living the right way as she knows it. She's not broken. She has different values and that changes everything about the way she relates to the world. Perhaps it's more strange when someone becomes a namer / knower and maintains a similar relationship to the world?

Through all of the intuitive healing that she's doing in (for? to?) the world, you get her anthropomorphizing essentially everything. And, again, that's a clever way to actualize the knowing of things. These things do have a nature, if you are open enough to see it. Do they truly feel or is she feeling the clicking into place of a thing perfectly able to fulfill its purpose like the lining up of dominoes into a perfect structure? Hard to say.

Years ago, I had thought Auri a pretty uninteresting character. First of all, the existence of this particular character exploration suggests she has future import (princess, etc) but, secondly, the execution of it lends her enough weight that I am excited to see it.

Anyway, I have no great revelations and perhaps this subject is only of importance to me, the one experiencing it. But I figured I'd share.

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On 11/28/2023 at 6:29 PM, TheLastWolf said:

Please advise

 

As chance would have it, I am currently almost finished with listening to "Dune: Messiah", the second book in the series. I do think that it is interesting, but it tries very hard to seem more profound and complex than it is and  feels somewhat bloated as a result.  It also became clear to me that I don't remember the "Dune" novel as well as I thought I did, so maybe these criticisms apply there too? IIRC, more happens there, but it is also more than 2 times longer, so perhaps it is similarly ponderous? Of course, it introduces all the worldbuilding, so maybe not.  I do think that "Messiah" is still a worthwhile listen, though and intend to go on to "Children of Dune" after refreshing the first book in my memory.

I was a bit shocked by the... commonalities between WoT and this book, though. Jordan always denied having read Dune, but I just can't believe it.

 

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I read Jodi Talyor's Just One Damned Thing After Another, the first book in her Chronicles of St Mary's series. I thought it was a very quick book to read, it's definitely a page turner and goes through events at a fast pace. I thought Maxwell was an entertaining protagonist to follow, although sometimes a bit exasperating because she does make some terrible decisions at times. For a book about time travelling historians it didn't spend as much time in the past as I might have expected but maybe that will happen more in the later books in the series now that the premise has been established. Out of the various time jumps I think the one back to the Cretaceous did the best job of conveying a sense of wonder about being able to travel to the past.

I think there were some plot holes, even if you avoid trying to think too hard about the details of how the time travel works. The way St Mary's is set up doesn't make much sense, to some extent this is a plot point so things can be improved but it would still have helped if it was a bit more believable to begin with. The passage of time is also confusing, at one point Maxwell explains she has been at St Mary's for five years even though it feels like she has only completed her training recently.

Overall, it was an enjoyable book to read despite some plot issues and I will pick up the second book at some point.

I've now moved onto Roger Zelazny's A Night In The Lonesome October. I have heard a lot of praise for this and it has been good so far. I didn't know a huge amount about it beforehand so I was a bit surprised to find it was narrated by an admittedly very articulate dog.

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The Hand of the Sun King by JT Greathouse wasn't particularly good. There's a few interesting ideas but it's not particularly well written and the characters were pretty flat so it didn't really hold my interest. Also when the main focus of the book is the main character having one foot in either side of a conflict making one side pretty unredeemably awful is kind of a boring choice.

I've been reading various different Bosch books by Michael Connelly since I started watching the tv series without really worrying about reading them in order. They're decent, easy read crime thrillers without being anything too special. I read the first one The Black Echo recently. In all the books Bosch is a kind of on the edge, breaking the rules to get job done kind of cop but he's kind of noticeably awful in this one. This was written back when Connelly was a crime reporter with the LA Times who actually spent a lot of time around real detectives so it's little concerning. Maybe it's just early 90s sensibilities of where the line was.

At the moment I'm reading Jade War by Fonda Lee. I enjoyed the first book so hopefully this one should be good too.

 

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On 12/2/2023 at 6:37 PM, Mexal said:

I’m about 1/3rd into Tai Pan by James Clavell. I’m listening to the audiobook and I’m enraptured. Excellent narration and a compelling story. Might have to do a Shogun reread before the show comes out in Feb.

I haven’t read Tai Pan since I was a teenager, and even then it seemed a bit heavy on the orientalist exoticism.  How does it hold up for an adult reader and modern sensibility?

King Rat and Shogun were his best work, IMO, in that order.  Tai Pan third by some distance, and I DNFed any others I tried.

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15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I haven’t read Tai Pan since I was a teenager, and even then it seemed a bit heavy on the orientalist exoticism.  How does it hold up for an adult reader and modern sensibility?

King Rat and Shogun were his best work, IMO, in that order.  Tai Pan third by some distance, and I DNFed any others I tried.

I mean, there is definitely quite a bit of that, but it's not really surprising in the context of the story. It's told from the British traders point of view and given at that time how closed off China was, I'm not at all surprised that everything the Chinese does would be considered exotic. It really hasn't bothered me. I am thoroughly enjoying the competition between Struan and Brock.

I'll have to check out King Rat.

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On 12/2/2023 at 6:37 PM, Mexal said:

I’m about 1/3rd into Tai Pan by James Clavell. I’m listening to the audiobook and I’m enraptured. Excellent narration and a compelling story. Might have to do a Shogun reread before the show comes out in Feb.

I recommend going to Noble House right after Tai Pan.

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