October 2021 Reading Discussion

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"The Doors of Eden" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Hits one of my nerdisms dead on: it's an alternative-history multiverse story where the timelines diverge in different /geological/ eras, with everything from lemurs to trilobites developing civilisation. The plot is a bit manic for my tastes, but there are some nicely drawn characters. Mainly worth it for the ideas.
 
A mixed bag of recent reads. Two good followed by two poor:
Sunborn by Jeffrey A Carver - I'm really enjoying this series which, for me, gets better with each volume. More here.
Blades of Antioch by S J A Turner - Another very good well researched volume in this Roman series. More here.
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve - too juvenile and too fantasy biased for me, though I acknowledge it's well written. More here.
Into the Fire by Elizabeth Moon - started well but fell apart half way through. More here.

I liked "Into the Fire" but it was very oddly paced. Felt almost like two books in the series had been hastily compressed into one.
 
I liked "Into the Fire" but it was very oddly paced. Felt almost like two books in the series had been hastily compressed into one.
Yes I would agree with that. From a little online digging I gather she suffered some quite severe concussion and I think it was during the writing of the book. She keeps horses so I'm guessing that may have been the cause of it. she talks about other people having to help her deal with slowness and clumsiness in the acknowledgments. I suspect something like a fall from one of her horses around half way through writing may have had something to do with it. She also talks about this slowing her writing of a third book, though she's never specific about what the actual cause was.

I actually thought the first half of the book was better than the first one - Cold Welcome - and the second was worse.
 
Mike Hammer? Nope can't say I have
mickey spillanne is the writer. pure pulp cop. bad guys, femme fatales, violence, grit and bullets. if you want something less.. violent, try erle stanley gardner, the criator of perry mason. he has other work besides perry
 
Just finished Casino Royale by Ian Fleming; the plot of the Daniel Craig movie follows it quite closely.

I read it first when I was about 12. It never ceases to amaze me what is made available for children to read - amongst other unpleasant things James Bond has a taste for rape, it seems. But then my younger sister garnered lots of attention at school reading out the juicier segments of The Exorcist while I ended up reading Valley of the Dolls because a school friend passed it on to me (perhaps one of the most boring books I have ever forced myself to finish) and neither of us has turned into either a drug addict, prostitute or demon worshipper. I guess you get out of a book what you put into it.
 
Just finished Casino Royale by Ian Fleming; the plot of the Daniel Craig movie follows it quite closely.

I read it first when I was about 12. It never ceases to amaze me what is made available for children to read - amongst other unpleasant things James Bond has a taste for rape, it seems. But then my younger sister garnered lots of attention at school reading out the juicier segments of The Exorcist while I ended up reading Valley of the Dolls because a school friend passed it on to me (perhaps one of the most boring books I have ever forced myself to finish) and neither of us has turned into either a drug addict, prostitute or demon worshipper. I guess you get out of a book what you put into it.
yeah, tell that to schools that are burning books... i mean, schools burning books? is this world ever returning to sanity? sorry... rhetoric. this world was never sane. there are people thar against harry potter because it promotes witchcraft... i don't know how walt disney is still standing. oh well. there's a new bob blanton out and a new weber.
 
yeah, tell that to schools that are burning books... i mean, schools burning books? is this world ever returning to sanity? sorry... rhetoric. this world was never sane. there are people thar against harry potter because it promotes witchcraft... i don't know how walt disney is still standing. oh well. there's a new bob blanton out and a new weber.
But how much are any of 'Weber's" new books actually written by Weber? Am I being too cynical? And the blurb for the Gordian Protocal sounds (at risk of being censured for political stuff) like a right wing wet dream. From the few I've tried I'm afraid that I'm disinclined to buy any further Weber co-written books.
 
But how much are any of 'Weber's" new books actually written by Weber? Am I being too cynical? And the blurb for the Gordian Protocal sounds (at risk of being censured for political stuff) like a right wing wet dream. From the few I've tried I'm afraid that I'm disinclined to buy any further Weber co-written books.
well it's from the crown of slaves sereis and not gordian protocol so... by the way i didn't touch that series and have no plans to touch it. i read the blurb and decided to keep away..is not as bad as giant ants but ... the crown is in the honor universe so....
 
well it's from the crown of slaves sereis and not gordian protocol so... by the way i didn't touch that series and have no plans to touch it. i read the blurb and decided to keep away..is not as bad as giant ants but ... the crown is in the honor universe so....
Ah okay, I'd missed that one, still not sure I'll get it as I have found I really don't get on with Eric Flint's writing style and, to be honest, I can't detect any Weber influence in there, other than a few stock Weber expressions dropped in randomly here and there.
 
mickey spillanne is the writer. pure pulp cop. bad guys, femme fatales, violence, grit and bullets. if you want something less.. violent, try erle stanley gardner, the criator of perry mason. he has other work besides perry
I believe Stacy Keach played him on tv in the 80s
 
Just downlanded Man O War by Dan Jones ...probably because of the Reggie Rigramole madness that went on over in the 300 word challenge thread.
 
Tonight I'm trying this one (from 2011)

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Now reading Let it Bleed (1995) by Ian Rankin. I tried to read this last year but for some reason I decided it was boring and it was a DNF. I even got rid of it on bookmooch! Mood swings...
Luckily I managed to find another copy in the charity shop. And it has Reading Group notes at the back whatever they are...
 
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