What was the last book you read? Post about it here.
I just finished Shadowrun #4 - Drops of Corruption (from the recent line of SR novels). I really enjoyed #1-#3, but #4 is a bit harder pill to swallow. First of all, 1-3 were a trilogy and all involved mostly the same characters. #4 has a couple of cameos from a few of the characters I liked in 1-3, and one character that I didn't like so well in 1-3 plays a more central role in #4. So I guess it was a bit frustrating at first not having all my "friends" from the series in it.
The plot in #4 however, I thought was very well done, if a tad slow moving. I can see why he did it the way he did, however. It involves the mafia, and one character who was basically a good person slowly getting trapped into working for the mob and how they hooked him in. There are a lot of nasty characters in this book as one might expect from a book dealing with organized crime. Even the main character, who was as I said essentially good, was hard to like for other reasons I can't get into without spoilers. So having a cast of essentially unlikable characters didn't help my enjoyment of the story too much either.
But as I said the plot was well done, and in the end, a rewarding story that actually did have a "lesson" or whatever. There were some really cool scenes in the book, and overall I felt this was a book worth reading especially for Shadowrun enthusiasts like myself. Not my favorite in the series, but I did end up enjoying it, even though it was a slow read for me and I set it down several times before I finally got into it.
This is not a novel I can heartily recommend to anyone. If you enjoy books about organized crime, this book might be for you, with the caveat that it is completely fictional and not all that realistic, plus set in a fantasy future. If you like Shadowrun, this book is definitely worth picking up for a couple of reasons. First, it's a good in depth look at how the mafia in Seattle operates, and secondly it involves a bit of Tir Tairngire, which was interesting, and of a mage who has "burnt out" so you kind of get a feel for how that would work. This book is not a "fan fiction" work, the writing is good quality writing, but the subject matter is such that essentially it will appeal to a limited set of eyes.
SmarmySir wrote: > sgtshaggy wrote: >> Athens, WV this way (hometown), but we're too small for a Borders
>> .
>>
>> shags
>>
>>
>
> Well, our Athens is where University of Georgia is located, so it
> has to be big.
>
Heaven.
"a woman that's not a veternarian knows mroe crap about dogs than I do!"
Feeb wrote: > SmarmySir wrote: >> sgtshaggy wrote: > |>> Athens, WV this way (hometown), but we're too small for a Borders
> |>> .
> |>>
> |>> shags
> |>>
> |>>
>>
>> Well, our Athens is where University of Georgia is located, so
> it
>> has to be big.
>>
>
> Heaven.
>
>
I love Athens. I want to move there, but my wife loves Jefferson. I like Jefferson, but Athens is... as you said, Heaven.
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Annihilation - Just finished the this mini-series by Marvel Comics. This was several mini-series all tied together, most of them concentrating on a specific character but then all thrown together for a grand finale in the main Annihilation mini-series. They are collected in three trade paperbacks (see links below). This story is about a space war, with many various factions. The main enemy faction is the "Annihilation Wave", a race of insectoid beings from the Negative Zone. Then there are the Skrulls, a shapeshifting space-faring race, the Nova Corps, sort of like self appointed galactic police, the Kree, a humanoid race that excels at war, and so on. Also making prime appearances are Silver Surfer, Firelord, Red Shift, Stardust, and other former heralds of Galactus. Just about every other major player in the Marvel Universe makes an appearance EXCEPT for most of the Earth superheroes, who were embroiled in their own Civil War during the Annihilation event. I really can not recommend this series highly enough, it's superb. Nearly every mini-series was very compelling, and the books were surprisingly newbie friendly. I didn't have any trouble following events and I had barely known Silver Surfer and had practically no previous knowledge of most of the other main characters. Still, the books do a good job of introducing you to the characters so that you get a feel for what they are about. And the best part is, it's not over yet, since Marvel followed this series up with the Annihilation Conquest series which I plan to read next. 9/10
Warcraft Archive volume 1: Not so great: [mostly] random characters not in any of the games and quite frankly, lame stories. I look forward to reading the War of the Ancients though.
"a woman that's not a veternarian knows mroe crap about dogs than I do!"
Oh! I also recently finished reading all of the released Girl Genius by Phil & Kaja Foglio (met them both at Worldcon). Fun stuff. Kinda steampunk and magic spun together in a usually witty way. Also much less racy than Xxxenophile...in fact, not racy at all, really.
SmarmySir wrote: > I was in Athens last night, killing time. I had to take my wife there
> to meet some of her friends for some bachelorette party or something,
> and didn't want to drive the 25-30 minutes back here and then turn
> around again to back to get her, then drive the distance back here
> AGAIN, so I grabbed something to eat with a buddy of mine that happened
> to be in town, then went to Borders for the following 2 1/2 hours.
> I started reading I Am Legend, got about 50 pages in, and so decided
> to buy it. I finished reading it a few minutes ago... it's weird,
> however. The actual I Am Legend part of the book is only HALF the
> book itself. The rest is short stories... I was not prepared for
> that.
>
> Anyway, the book was fantastic. MUCH better than the movie... it
> was really nothing like the movie, except for a few basic plot elements.
> It put a pretty scientific spin on the whole concept of vampires,
> and actually succeeded in making it believable. Excellently written,
> very interesting, and quite tense in places. I will be reading more
> of Matheson's work, for sure.
Being that appreciate your taste I decided to DL the audio for this and listen while I ran. I also heard many unforgettable quotes, which I forgot and wanted to remember; so I picked up a hard copy as well. Anyway, I finished it tonight and decided to share my thoughts:
First off, I though the book kicked major ass and was a complete mind fudge (this guy has so many themes hinted at you can't pin down the point: I wrestled with racism, anti-religion, pro-science, hyper-religiosity, anti-science, pro-medicine, pro-nature, anti-nature, pro-govt, pro-anarchy etc... it really was quite interesting)until chapter 12. Then the science starts to show up and it's a little outdated. First off, the major "element" was the bacteria causing the "vampirism." He says it's a bacteria, but then says it releases bacteriophages that continue the "infection." I did some research to see if maybe the bacteriophage just wasn't understood then, but it's simply a virus that infects bacteria. Now this could purposely be part of the story to reveal Neville's "impulsive" need to reach conclusion, but I doubt it.... it's the glue. Anyway, that's pertinent because the movie would be completely wrong if that concept were continued. The causative agent was a virus all along and could not be "cured" with any drug. The science fiction of the novel has since become bad real science. For that reason, the book is excellent, but the movie is, in my opinion better. I say this because the science in the movie is completely believable and the technology actually exists. I wrestled with the idea of "should the movie have been a complete stand alone with a different title?" but I think not. It does an excellent job at showing how science has progressed and the same idea has been brought into the future. It's almost a worthy "sequel" to the book, maybe Neville was just a fool and the science didn't have to be correct... but having read the book and using the movie as a companion really makes the movie shine... because the movie is almost completely original in it's scientific basis! Anyway, someone flame me.
"a woman that's not a veternarian knows mroe crap about dogs than I do!"
Man, you looked deep into that! I'm no scientist, so the "explanations" in the book sounded pretty good to me (though of course I knew they couldn't be THAT accurate). I just attribute the inaccuracy with the fact that the book was written in the 50's (how modern it felt, though!) and that Neville was just a regular guy with a lot of books and some self-taught microscope skills.
I was disappointed in the movie for other reasons, however. I didn't like the vampire/monster people in the movie... I thought they shouldn't have been entirely CG (only when they were doing things normal humans couldn't do like leap 20 feet or hang upside down and tear chunks out of the ceiling), but rather creatures more along the lines of the movie/graphic novel 30 Days of Night (but then that probably would have bumped the rating from PG-13 to R cuz those effers were SCARY). That's strictly nit-picky anyway. I was actually pretty freaked out when Neville went in the dark building after his dog chased the deer inside.
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Yeah, the book is WAY ahead of its time for the 50's. I researched Matheson and his personal beliefs etc... this guy is an enigma. Anyway, I suppose what I mean is I like the science the movie is based off of better, and knowing that the book was so different makes the movie "look" much more smooth and original. The book is definitely always "better" though.
I do have a scientific bias in this matter. But what's cool about the inaccuracies is that they can be attributed to Neville's being a self-taught layman. It could even deepen the meaning in it's statement that we can't expect to overcome and understand the world completely unaided.
I'm reading it again.
"a woman that's not a veternarian knows mroe crap about dogs than I do!"
I have a LARGE backlog of reading to do, but I do intend on revisiting I Am Legend again soon, especially since I read it in less than 24 hours the first time.
Anyway, I'm about 3/4 into 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. This is his second novel (I believe), and it's a good one. I haven't been much of a King fan in the past, but after reading his stellar Dark Tower series (haven't read books 4-7 yet, though... heard they're a bit different), I thought I'd give him a go. The man is actually quite an excellent writer. While his stuff tends to be pretty predictable and sometimes cliche, his actual writing is pretty damn compelling. Back to the book, it was more compelling to me in the first half of the book, while the tension was building and we only get glimpses of the evil stuff going down. Now that the "action" has picked up, it can be pretty creepy, but the fact that the
vampires are pretty much your traditional mythical vampires
kind of actually tones down the scary to me. I guess I'm a little spoiled by Matheson's
vampires
in I Am Legend by now. King delves into other themes like the evils of "small town America" and etc, but I pay most attention to his writing, really.
I don't whether I should continue with King after this book or read H.P. Lovecraft's compilation of stories in The Road to Madness.
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Classic Battlestar Galactica Volume 1 - This is a story that pretty much stars Starbuck from the original 70's Battlestar Galactica scifi show, although you see many familiar characters and some new ones that are cool also. I really can't say much about the plot without giving the whole thing away, but it involves the Battlestar Galactica going back to the colonies and visiting one of the far out colonies to retrieve a holy relic which they believe will help them reach Earth. The characters in this book are true to the show, which is to say, Starbuck is a womanizing lecher who is cock-sure of everything he does, and Apollo is the careful one, etc. I enjoyed this for mostly nostalgic reasons. The art was pretty good but nothing spectacular. You could definitely recognize the characters, and the ships and such were very recognizable. But the art never really wowed me. Fortunately it was good enough not to detract from the story. The story felt like an episode of the TV show, and it was pretty entertaining but not terribly surprising for the most part. If you liked the show you may like this. If you like the new show, this may be fun to read to get a feel for how the original show was. If you don't care about BSG this isn't going to change your mind. 7.5/10
The Darkness Ultimate Collection - One of the coolest anti-hero characters I've read about recently is Jackie Estacado, aka The Darkness. This double-sized trade paperback has two stories in it. One is issues 1-6 of Vol. 1 of The Darkness comic which tells the origin story of how Jackie, a mafia enforcer, aquires the powers of The Darkness. Basically The Darkness is the powers of hell, as opposed to The Angelus, the powers of heaven and the sworn enemy of The Darkness. Jackie has to cope with his new powers, the price that he must pay for them, and a cult bent on controlling him, his mafia enemies, as well as The Angelus and her cohorts. Not to mention keep the people he cares about alive through all of this. The second half of the book starts with the end of vol 1 of The Darkness with issue #40, then continues with issues 1-6 of Vol 2. This was also releases as Rebirth or something like that. I can't say too much about the 2nd story without giving away a lot of spoilers but it basically has Jackie in another situation where he much outwit his enemies and use the powers of The Darkness to get even with them. I really highly recommend this series if you like dark comics about dark heroes or anti-heroes. The artwork is fantastic and very sexy. When Jackie manifests his Darkness powers it is cool as hell. Plus several of these stories were written by Garth Ennis who is the master of adult themed comics IMHO. Not one for the kiddies. 9/10
virtuadept wrote: > Just finished 2 graphic novels.
>
> Classic Battlestar Galactica Volume 1 - This is a story that pretty much stars Starbuck from the original 70's Battlestar
> Galactica scifi show, although you see many familiar characters and
> some new ones that are cool also. I really can't say much about the
> plot without giving the whole thing away, but it involves the Battlestar
> Galactica going back to the colonies and visiting one of the far out
> colonies to retrieve a holy relic which they believe will help them
> reach Earth. The characters in this book are true to the show, which
> is to say, Starbuck is a womanizing lecher who is cock-sure of everything
> he does, and Apollo is the careful one, etc. I enjoyed this for mostly
> nostalgic reasons. The art was pretty good but nothing spectacular.
> You could definitely recognize the characters, and the ships and such
> were very recognizable. But the art never really wowed me. Fortunately
> it was good enough not to detract from the story. The story felt like
> an episode of the TV show, and it was pretty entertaining but not
> terribly surprising for the most part. If you liked the show you may
> like this. If you like the new show, this may be fun to read to get
> a feel for how the original show was. If you don't care about BSG
> this isn't going to change your mind. 7.5/10
Isn't Starbuck the blond chick in the newer series?
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SmarmySir wrote: > Isn't Starbuck the blond chick in the newer series?
Yes. She's basically the same character as the original BSG version, except as a woman. She's promiscuous, she smokes cigars, she's cocky, she's hot headed, etc. The original Starbuck was a blond dude, played by Faceman from the A-Team (Dirk Benedict).
#626 posted September 15, 2008 at 6:47am (EST) edited September 15, 2008 at 6:48am (EST)
Feeb wrote: > PeteKelly wrote: >> Read the Twilight books with my g/f. lol. It has it's moments.
> I'm
>> about to read The Road
>>
>>
>>
>
> I'm gonna read those. I love vampires and for some reason, "teen"
> fantasy. Was it cool?
>
>
It's very teen fantasty and lovey dovey but, I wasn't tortured. I honestly enjoyed most of it. There are times when it slows down a bit and a couple points where I was like "that's it?". I myself am a big vampire and werewolf fan as well. You'll probably enjoy it. The action does pick up in the second book but, these are love stories though so it's never the central point. If you're into teen fantasy and vampires and a teen love story's alright with ya you'll probably dig this. I didn't think it was badly written.
I thought, for the most part Jacob Black was a pretty cool character.
Jacob Black is the main werewolf guy. They're more rugged which would totally make the werewolves in these stories more appealing to males. The books aren't as bad as alot would think. I laughed at first when she was wanting me to read them with her so she had someone to discuss them with. It was fun because I was doing something with my g/f, true but,I did also enjoy the books.
He's in the second book New Moon quite a bit. I found his character alot more interesting and I like how she ties his being Native and a werewolf together. In the second book he's actually in it more than Edward.
Recently finished The Lance Thrower by Jack Whyte. It was a departure from the Chronicles of Camulod storyline that he painstakingly created in his prior 6 or 7 books, but it was nice.
Now I'm on to Pet Food Nation for reference. Scrambled eggs and oatmeal for my cat, eh? We'll see...
I've been reading Robert E. Howard short stories (Conan).
shags
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. - Robert E. Howard
Picked up George R. R. Martin's A Game Of Thrones on a whim. Started it today, and really like it so far.
shags
PS Anyone read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace? I was reading an article (Time, I think) on his suicide, and they mentioned the book. Sounds interesting. Anyone read it, care to comment?
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. - Robert E. Howard
I've been teetering between wanting to start A Game of Thrones and NOT wanting to start it. It's just so long, and I hate getting really far into long books and just losing interest.
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sgtshaggy wrote: > PS Anyone read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace? I was
> reading an article (Time, I think) on his suicide, and they mentioned
> the book. Sounds interesting. Anyone read it, care to comment?
SmarmySir wrote: > I've been teetering between wanting to start A Game of Thrones and
> NOT wanting to start it. It's just so long, and I hate getting really
> far into long books and just losing interest.
It's sooo good. I doubt you will lose interest. Easily one of the best fantasy novels ever written.
#639 posted September 29, 2008 at 3:07pm (EST) edited September 29, 2008 at 3:07pm (EST)
It's too early for me to herald it as the best fantasy novel ever written, but the first 75 pages are OUTSTANDING.
shags
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. - Robert E. Howard
