Octopus Overlords

Mort by Terry Pratchett.


This is my first Discworld book that is not part of the "Night Watch" series. I enjoyed it, it was an easy read with some good laughs but for whatever reason I didn't like it as much as the others. Less character development maybe, less plot....I don't know.

Scuzz wrote:Mort by Terry Pratchett.


This is my first Discworld book that is not part of the "Night Watch" series. I enjoyed it, it was an easy read with some good laughs but for whatever reason I didn't like it as much as the others. Less character development maybe, less plot....I don't know.

I liked a lot of the other Death books better - seems like they had more character development for Death. Plus many of them feature Death's granddaughter, Susan Sto Lit, who I really like.
I also liked the Witch books - mostly featuring Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. I think the first of this set is "Equal Rites". Mistress Weatherwax is a pretty major character in that, though not the protagonist.

I have been told Reaper is very good, so I will stick with them.

The Falklands War 1982(Essential Histories) - Osprey

It has certainly piqued my interest about it and likely will lead to more readings about those battles and late 20th century conflict.

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson


The book chronicles the real story of a guy (and his family) who was named Ambassador to Germany in 1933. William Dodd was a history teacher and ended up being a major voice against Hitler after serving as Ambassador.

It is a very easy read as Larson tells a good story with lots of facts and interesting characters. You get a good feel for Germany of the mid-1930's and for what it was like to live there.

I read Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich years ago and this is a much easier read of the period. Larson tells the story through the lives of Dodd, his daughter Martha and his son Bill. His daughter in fact gets a lot of ink and was introduced to Hitler.

Just finished Wool Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey. Its a post-apocalyptic series of shorts reminiscent of Fallout. Very entertaining. Would love to see a well-made TV series in this vein.

Toe wrote:Just finished Wool Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey. Its a post-apocalyptic series of shorts reminiscent of Fallout. Very entertaining. Would love to see a well-made TV series in this vein.

There is a Book 6 prequel. It's not as engaging as the first 5, but it does give you a better idea how they got there.

gwartok wrote:

Zarathud wrote:I devoured Ready Player One in a day and a half. It's like someone mined my 80s nostalgia, and put it on paper. The descriptions and pop culture references could not have been more vivid in my mind..

Ditto.

If you enjoyed this the author is holding an Easter egg hunt in vein the of the novel and the winner gets a DeLeon!

I’ve hidden an “Easter egg” in the text of both the hardcover and paperback editions of Ready Player One. If readers can find this hidden clue, it will lead them to the first of three increasingly difficult video game challenges. The first video game challenge is an Atari 2600 game that contains another Easter Egg that will lead you to the Second Challenge. Completing the Second Challenge will lead you to the Third and Final Challenge.

The second gate doesn't open until July 1st so get cracking!

just finished Book 3 of The Game of Thrones. Sad to see that I'm nearly caught up, but I'm liking it.

July 15th, 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords

Just finished John Dies At the End. Very surprised there isn't more discussion about it. I really enjoyed it and it was fairly original. Maybe because it's been around for so long. Definitely has a Stephen King meets Ghostbusters feel.

Barnes and Noble has 6 free ebooks right now. Heres the link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-web/379003594" target="_blank

The books available are:
1) Map of Bones (James Rollins)
2) Sex and the City (Candace Bushnell),
3) The Vow (Kim Carpenter)
4) The Boxcar Children Summer Special (Gertrude Chandler Warner)
5) Brave (Tennant Redbank)
6) Perfect Island Getaways (Patricia Schultz)

Mainly posted this because of the first on the list. Its one of Rollins Sigma books and its a very good read.

Finished "A Storm of Swords" a while back. Didn't like it while reading it. Enjoyed it, by the end.

Then read "11/22/1963" after. Not a big Stephen King fan, and thought this book was so-so. Interesting enough to keep reading, but not very satisfying by the end.

And now, despite some reservations, I started up "A Feast of Crows". Didn't want to get bogged down in another Game of Thrones book, but that's what I wanted to read so, yeah.

The Memory of Blood by Christopher Fowler --- The latest Bryant & May mystery. I like these, but now I don't remember the particulars. You might think octogenarian detectives would bore, you would be wrong. (and hey, it's OCTOgenarian!)
The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker --- Loosely in the Company universe but without most of the people from the Company. I really liked Baker's version of Mars (a hard place to live). Sadly, Kage Baker passed away so no more new books from her.
The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett --- I wasn't sure I'd like this since the first time I tried to read a Rincewind book I didn't like it, but I thought the Australia references were funny and overall I did enjoy this one.
May Contain Traces of Magic by Tom Holt --- Where has this writer been all my life? Hey! He has quite a few books for me to read. In this one, a salesman for a magic company becomes involved in a strange conflict among demons. He's helped out by his GPS - yes, by his GPS.
The Tough Guide to FantasyLand by Diana Wynne Jones --- You could think of this as a companion book to "The Dark Lord of Derkholm" and "Year of the Griffin". It's a guide to fantasy cliches written as a tourist reference to a place called "FantasyLand".
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett --- You know that folk song where a woman dresses as a man to go to war with her lover? In this, a woman does that but to find her missing brother. And, of course, everybody has some kind of secret.
Red Shirts by John Scalzi --- There's a thread about this somewhere. You might have noticed that Star Trek crew members who died on "away missions" always wore red shirts. Are they doomed to that fate? Some of them want to change that.
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold --- The new Miles Vorkosigan book. If you have never read one, you should, starting with "Warrior's Apprentice".
Pagan's Crusade by Catherine Jinks --- This was okay, but I liked "Evil Genius" far better.
Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones --- I was surprised to see a Diana Wynne Jones book in the "grown up" section of the library. By now you should know I am a big fan of hers (and I'm happy to see that there are at least 16 more of her books that I haven't read).
Blonde Bombshell by Tom Holt --- Tom Holt!!!! The Ostar send an intelligent bomb to blow up Earth. Of course, things don't go quite as planned.

Clearly it's been a while since I said anything about what I've been reading - not for lack of enjoyment. I tried reading the second book in the Eli Monpress series (by Rachel Aaron) but I've lost interest in that series.

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk


I read this for two reasons. One, I had finished the first 4 books in the Song of Fire and Ice series (I have the fifth book in paperback on order) and wanted something with a lot of characters and scope to it. I knew this and the follow up book (War and Remembrance) were large historical novels so I thought I would give them a try. Secondly, I had just read In the Garden of the Beast and this seemed like a good follow up to that.

This book is half history book and half novel. Okay, maybe 1/3 and 2/3. But there is enough history here to satisfy that demand and the novel part is interesting and while, maybe a bit far fetched, it does introduce you to many characters and issues of the time. The book follows the Henry family through 1939 to Pearl Harbor. Patriarch Victor Henry is appointed naval attache to Hitler's Germany and everything starts from that. Henry has a way of becoming involved with many important people of the time.

I did enjoy this book and can only hope the second book sticks with the history first, soap opera second theme of this book.

disarm wrote: Among the Living - Timothy Long - January 13

I was looking through this thread for a good read and just saw this (I normally lurk around OO). If I didn't say so before, maybe on GT, thank you for checking out my book.

-Tim

Scuzz wrote:The Winds of War by Herman Wouk


I read this for two reasons. One, I had finished the first 4 books in the Song of Fire and Ice series (I have the fifth book in paperback on order) and wanted something with a lot of characters and scope to it. I knew this and the follow up book (War and Remembrance) were large historical novels so I thought I would give them a try. Secondly, I had just read In the Garden of the Beast and this seemed like a good follow up to that.

This book is half history book and half novel. Okay, maybe 1/3 and 2/3. But there is enough history here to satisfy that demand and the novel part is interesting and while, maybe a bit far fetched, it does introduce you to many characters and issues of the time. The book follows the Henry family through 1939 to Pearl Harbor. Patriarch Victor Henry is appointed naval attache to Hitler's Germany and everything starts from that. Henry has a way of becoming involved with many important people of the time.

I did enjoy this book and can only hope the second book sticks with the history first, soap opera second theme of this book.

I recently finished The Caine Mutiny by Wouk and it was an awesome read. If you haven't read it, check it out!

I just recently watched the last 45 minutes of the movie. I probably will read the book.

Crusis wrote:

disarm wrote: Among the Living - Timothy Long - January 13

I was looking through this thread for a good read and just saw this (I normally lurk around OO). If I didn't say so before, maybe on GT, thank you for checking out my book.

-Tim

Not only did I check it out, but I also really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the follow-up as soon as it's ready

disarm wrote:

Crusis wrote:

disarm wrote: Among the Living - Timothy Long - January 13

I was looking through this thread for a good read and just saw this (I normally lurk around OO). If I didn't say so before, maybe on GT, thank you for checking out my book.

-Tim

Not only did I check it out, but I also really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the follow-up as soon as it's ready

Awesome, and good to hear! Among the Dead should be out in the next 6 months. The book is done, edited, and into my publisher, now it is up to their publication schedule.

-Tim

Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden.

This follows on the trend I believe I am done with in reading about the Iran Hostage Crisis. This one focused heavily on the hostages, their plight, and and a veneer of the political maneuverings of the US and some of what is known about the hostage takers.

It did not go into a high level of detail about the planning of the Desert One fiasco, and did not get what Scuzz apparently did about him savaging the plan as "ill-prepared and poorly planned". I got much more out of the books by Beckwith and Col. James H. Kyle on the subject.

This is the daily Kindle deal today:

The Time of the Dark
by Barbara Hambly

Do we have a thread for unread books?

Curious if anyone has read it...damn you Kindle daily deals and your enticing summaries!

http://tinyurl.com/9vdn47z

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Finally got around to this one. It's been in my backlog forever. Got started on it over my vacation after finishing the previous book. Of course, then I read the Author's Note about how a bunch of other stuff is connected, including The Complete Robot and his other Robot novels as precursors. Which led me to check out The Complete Robot from the local library.

Prelude was good, but it's evident that it's setting the stage for something bigger.

I did a thesis on I, Robot back in high school. Asimov passed away the week before it was due. I've also read some of his science literature. He was truly an impressive author.

I have read the Foundation Trilogy three times and I do have and have read the Prelude books. Next time I feel like reading the Trilogy I will have to make a point of starting with Prelude.

Carpet_pissr wrote:This is the daily Kindle deal today:

The Time of the Dark
by Barbara Hambly

Do we have a thread for unread books?

Curious if anyone has read it...damn you Kindle daily deals and your enticing summaries!

http://tinyurl.com/9vdn47z

I read it quite a few years ago, back when the series was new and I must have liked it because I know I read the series. It's hard for me to remember which of my old books is which - I think this had a wizard sitting in a small, modern kitchen, holding a can of beer. I could easily have liked it for the cover.
That's probably not much of a recommendation. Hambly is kind of hit or miss for me. Some of her series really intrigued me, others just didn't cut it.

I finally finished A Clash of Kings over the weekend and dove right into A Storm of Swords


I debated whether to wait until after watching the HBO series adaptation but impatience won out.

Anybody read Libriomancer? It's been getting some good praise, but the premise sounds like a young adult book and I'm not really in the mood for Inkheart.

Jag wrote:Anybody read Libriomancer? It's been getting some good praise, but the premise sounds like a young adult book and I'm not really in the mood for Inkheart.

The book cover in your link looks like a nerd romance book.

Maybe I just want it to be a nerd romance book though.

Jag wrote:Anybody read Libriomancer? It's been getting some good praise, but the premise sounds like a young adult book and I'm not really in the mood for Inkheart.

The synopsis sounded interesting until I reached the sentence where he's attacked by vampires. The literary raping of Vampires has become so pervasive that I wont touch a book that uses them any more. Its a cheap cliche thats simply trying to cash in.

I agree, which is why I was asking. Between the cover and that blurb. I got the same old crap vibe, but the user reviews are pretty good, including this one from IO9.

Regarding the vampires, I think he's actually making fun of them:

And yes, the vampires turn out to be a breed that were created by someone who took material out of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books, and somehow infected a real human with Meyerian vampirism, sparkles and all. Over the course of the book, we meet plenty of other types of vampires who have been turned using blood from Anne Rice books or various other versions of vampire lore — there seem to be hundreds of types of vampires running around, each based on a different piece of popular source material.

ah, well thats a bit more promising, then.

That actually sounds pretty entertaining, with a lot of appeal for the well-read audience.

The io9 review makes a comparison to Peter David, whose Apropos of Nothing series was excellent, funny but with a lot substance than just an excuse to string together a lot of puns.

I'd recommend the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne as more entertaining humorous fantasy that still manages to have an engaging overall plot.

War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk



This is the second book in Wouk's two book set about the Henry family and the history of WW2. The first book is Winds of War. I found this book another excellent read although the story line around Natalie and Aaron and the concentration camps were a little disconcerting. Maybe because I have seen Dachau it is hard to imagine a place like that "coming to life" in a novel.

I would recommend these books to anyone who enjoys sweeping historical novels. Wouk even finishes the book with a couple pages describing exactly which events, places and names were real.

I noticed Wouk has written two books on the founding and history of Israel. Has anyone read those? I will be looking to get a copy of the Caine Mutiny as well.

I'm in the last book of Sanderson's the Mistborn series and it's excellent. I'll be looking for some new books soon...

There's a flash forward Mistborn book. I haven't picked it up yet, though.

So I ordered Dance with Dragons 3 months ago in trade paperback from Barnes and Noble. The book was to be released August 28th. It wasn't. I have now been informed that the trade paperback release date for this book has been pushed back to March 28th, 2013. That sucks.

Scuzz wrote:So I ordered Dance with Dragons 3 months ago in trade paperback from Barnes and Noble. The book was to be released August 28th. It wasn't. I have now been informed that the trade paperback release date for this book has been pushed back to March 28th, 2013. That sucks.

"We're going to need a bigger binding machine."

Just finished Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes.

It's a fictional story about Bravo Company and their trials around a two month period of securing a mountain top (Matterhorn), leaving it then having to retake it. Marlantes used his own experiences as a Marine bush Lieutenant in writing the book and the realism definitely shows. Seems like there are a lot of Vietnam issues tied into one single company (tiger attack, fragging, etc) but it makes for a good read.

Finished "A Feast for Crows". Pretty much agree with others' reviews of it. Meandering, and not much seems to happen until the last chunk of the book. But it's part of the journey... /shrug

Finished a re-read of Wild Cards (vol.1) on Kindle in the meantime.

Next up: World War Z. And am currently reading Hangman's Daughter (free Kindle Lenders...) and Washington's Crossing (Kindle cheap...).

The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

After reading the Author's Note on Prelude to Foundation about the overall timeline and inter-related nature of his works, I decided, to paraphrase Inigo Montoya, go back to the beginning.

The collection apparently leaves out Robot Dreams, which is available at the local library. Looking at the wiki page, there are other Asimov stories that are not robot related in there as well. Listed after that, it goes to Caves of Steel and progresses up through the Foundation series.

I had actually written the major paper in Honors English over I, Robot, which is contained within The Complete Robot. I remember specifically that Asimov passed away exactly one week before the final due date.

All in all, I enjoyed the "new" stories that I hadn't read, reading the ones that I remembered, and even rediscovering those that I had forgotten.

Isgrimnur wrote:The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov

After reading the Author's Note on Prelude to Foundation about the overall timeline and inter-related nature of his works, I decided, to paraphrase Inigo Montoya, go back to the beginning.

The collection apparently leaves out Robot Dreams, which is available at the local library. Looking at the wiki page, there are other Asimov stories that are not robot related in there as well. Listed after that, it goes to Caves of Steel and progresses up through the Foundation series.

I had actually written the major paper in Honors English over I, Robot, which is contained within The Complete Robot. I remember specifically that Asimov passed away exactly one week before the final due date.

All in all, I enjoyed the "new" stories that I hadn't read, reading the ones that I remembered, and even rediscovering those that I had forgotten.

Just a sidenote....

The first Foundation trilogy was completed before the first Robot Trilogy (Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and Robots of Dawn). Although the timeline is reversed, Asimov did lots of "re-visiting" his worlds before the collapse of the Empire in his Foundation trilogy. The setting from the beginning of "Foundation" and the beginning of "Caves of Steel" are almost identical. Just viewed from two completely different perspectives. And both happen to be sci-fi/mystery/detective novels.