Books: What have you been reading?

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Just finished reading a junior non-fiction book on the Bounty Mutiny. It featured the incredible survival of how the exiled Bligh and co. sailed in a tiny boat from the south Pacific to east Timor surviving on tiny portions of bread and sea birds. They were living skeletons when they arrived. An inspiring story for our troubled times.

It inspired me to borrow a longer book on the topic. Trouble is, it features once popular entertainer and now jailed sex offender Rolf Harris on the cover!

This begs the question : what are some great books with terrible covers? (or bad books with great covers?)

At a charity thrift store I passed up a chance to buy a recent collection of Phillip K Dick stories including the one that inspired Total Recall. But the cover was of that forgettable remake where he never even got his ass to Mars!
OTHER examples?

[Deathstroke]

I finished the new Archer Mayor police procedural The Orphan's Guilt today.

[Dante Milton]

Gold Wings Rising by Alex London, the final book in the Skybound Saga trilogy. Some interesting revelations and a nice resolution, but overall just kind of an adequate series.

19 Love Songs by David Levithan, a collection of short stories about love. Very sweet, but not overly sentimental.

[comicscollector]

I am reading Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958) by Robert A. Heinlein.

[FluffySheep]

I've just started Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Carrying on with sci fi after finally finishing Dune. I found Dune a bit frustrating to read but glad I read it.

[The Darknight Detective]

New (short) Kindle poems for tomorrow: Splores of a Halloween, Twenty Years Later (1867) by Alexander Dick and Myra's Well: A Tale of All-Hallow-E'en (1883) by George Francis Dawson.

[BeastieRunner]

Are you enjoying it? It's turning back into being a chore to read for me and I still can't connect with any characters in it.

Dune is one of my all-time favorites. So I am a bit biased. However Herbert, like Tolkien, he's not for everyone. I hardly recommend Dune to people anymore because I think a lot of modern readers do not like the pacing or the monologuing. There's not much action compared to a lot of modern sci-fi but the message of rebellion and the jihad I think is very poignant given the current world conditions. I think the theme is still timeless in Dune and very appros of current conditions.

I picked it up as a reread after I finished To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars by Christopher Poalini (author of Eragon).

I am enjoying my reread of Dune. I've been reading a lot of cinematic fiction, space opera (which was TSiaSoS), and epic fantasy lately. The toned-town pace and slow build to turns and moments has me really into it right now.

After I finish, I'm off to An Absolutely Remarkable thing and then I am diving into the new Chuck Palahniuk novel that came out in September (the Invention of Sound) which sounds like a return to form for him. I really enjoyed his first 5 or so books (Survivor and Invisible Monsters being my favorites), didn't really dig his experimental phase, and wasn't a fan of either Fight Club sequels he did so hearing this is more like Choke, Lullaby, Survivor, Fight Club, and Invisible Monsters makes me happy.

Okay side-track aside now ... the world building in TSiaSoS made me really want to reread Dune and compare them. So this reread has been largely focused on the religions and world building (I'm using the map more to see how it works) but the pace has been nice for me. Herbert, like Tolkien, is a great study for world building. A lot of the beats of Star Wars come from Dune, which is why I think Dune is a great place to learn some builds if you're wanting to get into the literary side of sci-fi.

I've just started Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Carrying on with sci fi after finally finishing Dune. I found Dune a bit frustrating to read but glad I read it.

What frustrated you and why were you glad you read it?

[FluffySheep]

Dune is one of my all-time favorites. So I am a bit biased. However Herbert, like Tolkien, he's not for everyone. I hardly recommend Dune to people anymore because I think a lot of modern readers do not like the pacing or the monologuing. There's not much action compared to a lot of modern sci-fi but the message of rebellion and the jihad I think is very poignant given the current world conditions. I think the theme is still timeless in Dune and very appros of current conditions.

I picked it up as a reread after I finished To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars by Christopher Poalini (author of Eragon).

I am enjoying my reread of Dune. I've been reading a lot of cinematic fiction, space opera (which was TSiaSoS), and epic fantasy lately. The toned-town pace and slow build to turns and moments has me really into it right now.

After I finish, I'm off to An Absolutely Remarkable thing and then I am diving into the new Chuck Palahniuk novel that came out in September (the Invention of Sound) which sounds like a return to form for him. I really enjoyed his first 5 or so books (Survivor and Invisible Monsters being my favorites), didn't really dig his experimental phase, and wasn't a fan of either Fight Club sequels he did so hearing this is more like Choke, Lullaby, Survivor, Fight Club, and Invisible Monsters makes me happy.

Okay side-track aside now ... the world building in TSiaSoS made me really want to reread Dune and compare them. So this reread has been largely focused on the religions and world building (I'm using the map more to see how it works) but the pace has been nice for me. Herbert, like Tolkien, is a great study for world building. A lot of the beats of Star Wars come from Dune, which is why I think Dune is a great place to learn some builds if you're wanting to get into the literary side of sci-fi.



What frustrated you and why were you glad you read it?

I loved the world/universe and the story itself, and I enjoyed it enough to want read Dune Messiah at some point. One thing I found was that I didn't feel for any of the characters. There were characters who I would've liked to see have seen more of (Kynes and Alia mainly) but I didn't feel involved emotionally with anyone really, which lowered the stakes for me. Like you said, I found the pacing a bit frustrating and I think that's the reason why I had to put it down temporarily and go back to it. The final 5th of the book had me hooked but it felt like a long time getting there. The other thing I like a bit of in a book is humour, which I didn't see any of in Dune. Part of me thinks that was a conscious decision because of how oppressive and harsh Arrakis is, so I can't complain too much about that.

Dune has been my first proper sci fi book, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. I'm looking forward to see how it compares to something more modern like Children of Time. What did you make of To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars?

[BeastieRunner]

I loved the world/universe and the story itself, and I enjoyed it enough to want read Dune Messiah at some point. One thing I found was that I didn't feel for any of the characters. There were characters who I would've liked to see have seen more of (Kynes and Alia mainly) but I didn't feel involved emotionally with anyone really, which lowered the stakes for me. Like you said, I found the pacing a bit frustrating and I think that's the reason why I had to put it down temporarily and go back to it. The final 5th of the book had me hooked but it felt like a long time getting there. The other thing I like a bit of in a book is humour, which I didn't see any of in Dune. Part of me thinks that was a conscious decision because of how oppressive and harsh Arrakis is, so I can't complain too much about that.

Dune has been my first proper sci fi book, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. I'm looking forward to see how it compares to something more modern like Children of Time. What did you make of To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars?

Fair warning on Dune the series: Messiah is a bridge book and is often included in Children of Dune. It was written in a series of magazines as a way to build up Children of Dune. You kind of can't read it unless you read Children of Dune next. In fact, a lot of people skip Messiah but I would advise against it. Children of Dune has some deeper characterization which sounds like it is what you wanted.

I'm anxious to hear what you think of Children of Time. If you want some more modern sci-fi to try, I would recommend the Martian, Axiom's End, Annihilation (stay away from the sequels!), and the Three Body Problem (stay away from the internet unless the person matters more than the art to you). If you're looking for more contemporary sci-fi, I'd suggest Jurassic Park, Hyperion, and Neuromancer.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is Poalin's first adult, first non-Eragon related book. I enjoyed it more than Eragon I think. It is adult, which is jarring for some of his audience since Eragon starts more YA, grows into GA, and ends in the more adult fantasy side of things. It also addresses of lot of his style issues and he clearly has matured as a writer. This man is going to be around a long time I think. TSiaSoS is a first contact story.

TSiaSoS starts off as a very stilted sci-fi thriller/horror with some not-so-good romance dialog. It gets to the point where I was about to say "Dude, you're ripping off Alien now" but then he takes a clever left-turn. Then it becomes more space opera and when you think you're going to get your typical Mass Effect/Star Trek/Star Wars ending, the book takes a left turn into Lovercraftian, gothic, esoteric style. The turns and twists feel earned. The aliens are odd and largely different than what you see in most modern sci-fi. Unless you're a comic book reader. It is very much a space opera and plot based, which some people may not like. It has already been optioned into a movie. The romance gets better and more subtle later which I enjoyed. And the ending while it opened up many paths, it was satisfyingly complete. It also made me think. And to top it all off, the author hid a numeric cypher, a numeric theme, and an acrostic in the book, which I have only found part of so far. The book also contains many more maps and pictures of star systems that most modern or contemporary sci-fi as well as the science behind his sci-fi universe, written as scientific papers set in the world you read about. There is lots of humor in it, including some Douglas Adam's level puns.

Again, please share your thoughts on Children of Time. Anxious to see what you think.

[rusty]

I've been working my way through the 1632/Ring of Fire series by Eric Flint and other authors since June. At the moment, I'm reading Grantville Gazette VII, the seventh collection of short stories set in that universe. This is the 30th book that I've read in the series and they are still a lot of fun.

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The next book I read will probably by Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey. It is the eighth novel in the Expanse series. I've been watching the tv series since it premiered and just got around to reading the books and the novellas this year. The series should wrap up with the ninth book next year.

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[The Darknight Detective]

New Kindle book:The Gringos (1913) by B.M. Bower.

[The Darknight Detective]

New books: Blood Rites (2004), the sixth Dresden Files novel by Jim Butcher.



Also, on my Kindle tomorrow, I will begin The Hidden Children (1914), the fourth book in the Cardigan series by Robert W. Chambers.

[Starter Set]

Back on Taoism main texts. (like the Tao Te ching to just name the most famous)

I'm not a religious man but any stretch of the imagination, but Taoism is one school of thoughts i find myself coming back every time.

[Brandonwong923]

Currently reading Peter Straub's "Ghost Story" A little more than halfway through and I'm really enjoying it.

[Kai "the spy"]

Got started on this tome: