Octopus Overlords

Pyperkub wrote:Finished

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - was interesting to read this for the first time. I might have to read some more Dickens this year

The Perks of being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky - saw the movie last year, and enjoyed it, but felt that there was something missing in the translation to the screen. The letter format seemed to work much better to tell the story, and the themes were expanded by sections of the book that were cut from the movie. I also found the Study topics interesting (as this is one of the newer HS Literature books that ends up on the banned lists frequently)

Down on the Farm - Charles Stross (Laundry novella/Short story) - fun addition to Stross's Laundry files

Overtime - Charles Stross (Laundry short story). apparently somewhat out of chronology, but in the correct order - a holiday-themed Laundry story. One of the better ones (he doesn't go overboard in explaining magic/mathematics conjunction. Convinced me to pay over 9.99 for the Apocalypse Codex...

Bump to add these two:

The Apocalypse Codex - from a pacing perspective, probably the best Laundry novel yet (but Jennifer Morgue is still the best).

Lost Homicidal Manaic (goes by Shirley) - Jeff Strand's most recent Andrew Mayhem novel. A bit darker than most of his stuff (and he's a horror writer), but a lot of the humor is still there. His books are just crying to become movies (I'd really like to see Wolf Hunt get done right).

Paris 1919...Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan



I took forever to read this book. I have read several on WW1 lately and this seemed like a good place to go, but for every interesting tid bit in the book there are pages of slow, sleep inducing non-interesting discussion about how parts of the treaty was written. I enjoyed meeting the people involved but you can only read so often about how a border was based on a something here, then here, then there again etc.

Overall I would give the book 3 of 5 stars. It does convey what a mess the Peace Conference was and how basically 4 countries, 4 men, made all the big decisions. I had no idea the world wide extent of the trade offs made in the Versailles Treaty.

This book also does one other thing that I see often in history books. Why so few maps? There should be a map at the start of every section when MacMillan discusses the shape of countries and what went into that. Instead you must refer to the front of the book at maps that are much to crowded and small to illustrate her points. Do maps cost more than text to print?

I would imagine that maps require a different type of printing mechanism, making them very difficult to intersperse properly with the text. Much easier to have a mini-binding (not an official term)* of maps thrown in at a particular location.

* Apparently, the term for that is signature.

Isgrimnur wrote:I would imagine that maps require a different type of printing mechanism, making them very difficult to intersperse properly with the text. Much easier to have a mini-binding (not an official term) of maps thrown in at a particular location.

I wondered about that. It is something I have noticed quite often, especially in newer books.


Kind of like how most books have pictures in one spot in the center I guess?

Updated. Really enjoying the Tremeraire series -- very excited that Peter Jackson has the books under contract. It would be the perfect follow up to The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit.

He does? Wow, thought that was a little known obscure series. I'm worried that it could come off hokey though. The books were actually kind of hokey, but still fun.

Finished Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines

It was ok.

Jackson's aware that there is some risk -- and he's considered doing it as a mini-series instead of several movies.

Just finished the Hangman's Daughter. Considering I got my new paperwhite on Saturday and did not read it until it charged up...I'd say it was a quick read at least. The plot was only ok but the setting was interesting enough to keep me reading.

I don't post most of my reading here (due to laziness) but I recently finished The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Terrific spooky mystery story. Lots of dark alleys, half-forgotten memories, men accosting the main character with, "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your nose out of this." Very highly recommended.

Military Intelligence: A Picture History by John Patrick Finnegan

This is published by the History Office of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command. As such, it goes into a fair detail about the structure, organization, and location of the headquarters of the Army MI groups throughout the years.

I doubt many people that are non-military aficionados would care to read through it. It's under 200 pages, and, of course, full of pictures, but can be kind of dry.

Audiobooks: The last few I've listened to kicked my ass in terms of requiring me to stop and rewind to figure out what's going on.

Midnight's Children (Rushdie) and Telegraph Avenue (Chabon) are the first that forced me to refer to my Kindle versions many times as well as listening to the audiobook segments involved.

Whispersync comes in handy - when you have it.

Just finished Citadel by John Ringo, part of Troy Rising series

http://www.amazon.com/Citadel-John-Ringo/dp/1451637578" target="_blank

Premise: in the previous book, the Humans, after being conquered by the Horvath, one guy developed the technology to fight back... by creating a battlestation with just solar-pumped light arrays (and a lot of tricky tech). The station is named Troy. In this book, the human allies, the Glatun, is at war with the Rangora, and is about to lose badly. Humans need to unite and prepare for total war, but it needs time to finish Troy, and the Rangora may not give them much time...

Ringo is pretty good in creating interesting worlds based on interesting tech (yet not totally outrageous) and this book has interesting characters. The problem are relatively minor. 1) the aliens are acting too human (albeit with funny names) and 2) humans are a bit too flippant. It makes for LOL dialog, but not always appropriate.

Babylon Confidential: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and Addiction by Claudia Christian

It's a quick hitter of an autobiography that chronicles her life, moving in circles with the big names of Hollywood, but also serves as a story of her alcoholism and redemption through the Sinclair method.

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond

While not the most prolific scientist when it comes to books, Jared Diamond has always produced high quality, thought provoking content. Ever since his days as a contributing editor to Discover Magazine, I've been a fan of his and read everything published. We are all getting on in years now, and Diamond is getting a little too old to keep adventuring to the rarely-documented areas of Papua-New Guinea and other exotic locales. As such, this book includes a lot of memoir material that deviates from the thesis of the book.

Tribal societies such as those in PNG are examples of what Diamond characterizes as "traditional" societies. As agriculture and urbanization took hold, our own western society (as well as equivalents in China, India, Japan, Egypt and the Middle East) deviated from the hunter-gatherer paradigm exhibited by modern "traditional" societies. These societies are most common on isolated islands or relatively recently colonized locations such as Australia, The Philippines, and sub-Saharan Africa. These tribes have their own languages...some islands might have hundreds of distinct languages (not dialects), most spoken by tenuously few people.

As in his books Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel; Diamond advocates the preservation of these dwindling cultures, arguing that loss of language will forever deprive the world of the collected wisdom and lore of these tribal societies. He also concedes it could be a losing cause -- much of the industrialized world just doesn't care about such things and believe that such people will be better off getting with the modern program. Diamond presents documentation on what effect can be expected...especially the introduction of non-communicative diseases (NCDs) like heart disease and diabetes. Some will argue shorter lifespans are one reason NCDs are relatively unknown to these societies. Accidental or environmental death (famine, weather disasters, etc) are far greater hazards that most of us face in the first world. But those who do survive to old age can stay remarkably healthy and active, with no sign of these NCDs. Furthermore, when people migrate to cities and become urbanized, they often embrace the western lifestyle too readily, and show greater instances of obesity and related problems (take American Samoa, for example). Among the dietary considerations covered by Diamond is salt intake -- there are tribes whose members take in as much dietary salt in the course of a year that some Americans use in just a day or two (and that the FDA guidelines specify as a month's intake). Diamond tries to provide take-aways by which tribal societies can contribute to the modern world. It's not all a one-sided bias, however -- he doesn't suggest, for example, that we follow the example of one tribe that kills the women when their man dies (with the full cooperation of the woman, I might add). On the plus side, Diamond discusses the benefits of bilingual education -- something that will soon be a topic in my own household and I was glad to see my own thoughts not only validated, but enhanced by his coverage of research that suggests those raised in a bilingual household are able to stave off dementia-related illness in late life by an average of four years.

I hope Diamond has another book or two in him. I'd love to read a more straight-forward memoir as he's certainly had some interesting times. Like an aged grandpa who often strays off topic to reminisce about long-past adventures, Diamond often goes a little off track, but the since the stories are interesting, we forgive him.

The Onion Book of Known Knowledge

Ah, The Onion. When things get too serious, The Onion is always there to provide a chuckle and remind us to lighten up a bit. In the midst of a period of serious reading, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge offered a brief respite of brain candy. Presented alphabetically (with commentary on each letter of the alphabet), the book touches on a variety of subjects ranging from religion to Star Wars to Michael Jordan. I found the book to often be amusing, occasionally getting a laugh -- reminiscent of a similar book (two actually) by John Hodgeman. This book won't enrich your life in any meaningful way -- but if you brain needs a break between reading books on ancient Rome, tribal societies, and the War of 1812; then it makes for a nice diversion.

Finished "A Rising Thunder" (A Honorverse novel) by David Weber

http://www.amazon.com/A-Rising-Thunder- ... ng+thunder" target="_blank

The Star Kingdom (Empire?) of Manticore is on a collision course with the Solarian League, and someone is pulling the strings from behind the scenes. As both sides prepare for the final showdown, one planet must decide on its fate...

While this book is a decent addition to the Honorverse, very little actually happened in the novel, except it moved the plot forward by a few months.

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by Chris Kyle

I've got to put in a plug for Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, a novel about Thomas Cromwell and the England of Henry VIII. It's easily the best historical novel I've read since The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

In no particular order:

Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage

The Hunger Games

Overtime

World War Z

The Apocalypse Codex

A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War

11/22/63 Stephen King - Great book. Classic King and we even meet some classic King characters. Better than much of his later stuff.

The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks. Enjoyed this one alot. Slight twist on orphan to hero plot. Starting the next one now.

Finished "The Hot Gate" by John Ringo, 3rd book in the Troy Rising series.

This one basically gave the Terrans one of those hard scenarios, but actual battle is short and toward the near end, and again, very heavily anglo-viewpointed (but within reason), where the Americans gets a culture shock when the South Americans are trying to integrate into the Terran Alliance, and the Rangora are not standing by waiting for the Terrans to just build up their defenses...

Re-read The Hobbitt

Finished The Warded Man by Peter V Brett

Finished Goblin Quest by Jim C Hines

I feel like I'm missing a book or two when my Kindle app reset on the iOS.

While Tremeraire was easy to read and light, reading the third and fourth book made me want a break.

I'm pretty sure I read something before Brett's The Daylight War was released. While some may not like where sexual undercurrents lead, I was fascinated with how the book looks back at some critical events from the viewpoint of the Inerva and Abban. The plot development slows significantly, but the conflicts among the main characters provides for interesting possibilities. My hope is that the series can resolve the storylines without falling into some redundant character traits. While not the strongest in the series, there are moments of excellent insight into his world and I am very interested in the next book.

Mageborn: The Blacksmith's Son was remarkably bland and short. Telling me all about the interesting background of characters that remain two-dimensional before they die is not the best start to a series. There are also too many "convenient" modern discoveries which provide moments of deus ex machina, offset by moments were the characters were oblivious. My fear is that the characters will fall into the overused tropes.

The Kinshield Legacy so far seems to avoid this problem. Even a few chapters in, the characters have some real human (or inhuman) qualities. Hopefully it will provide a nice counterpart to Mageborn.

Getting started on Stephen Hunter's Night of Thunder.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Thunder-Swa ... of+thunder" target="_blank

When someone ran Bob Lee Swagger's daughter Nikki off the road, leaving her in a coma, it's clear someone is trying to silence her... but for what? Was it for her reporting on the meth operations in the area? Or is there a bigger conspiracy involving corrupt cops, cultish evangelicals, Southern gangsters, and more? But one thing's for sure... Bob Lee Swagger doesn't back down, and he's much too good an ex-marine to leave any bad guys standing after he's done...

EDIT: Finished, and it's one heck of a ride. It's a detective novel too, as there's a lot of different clues left here and there about who the real culprit is. And it'd make one heck of a movie, IMHO.

My reading time has been seriously limited over the past six weeks or so, but I managed to finish The Eye of the World last night. Still a great book, even ~20 years after I last read it.

I should go on and start The Great Hunt, but I'm also tempted to take a change of pace and start reading the Dresden Files.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie


I read the First Law Trilogy last year and knew I had to read this. I think I may have liked this book better, or perhaps knowing his style now I was just readier for what was coming. Abercrombie's "gritty" fantasy world is a great read, just don't expect to run into any 100% good, or even 100% bad guys for that matter.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the First Law series. It takes place in the same world but with different characters, although some names will ring a bell. The story is about revenge and the lengths some will go to get it. It also question the satisfaction of revenge.

I did have problems with a few things. Abercrombie's sex scenes are a little over the top for me but I understand most of them are plot moving and are used for effect, just as in the First Law books. I also thought several of the last chapters were a touch out of character for Abercrombie, almost as if he let Terry Pratchett "guest write" a few.

Overall though this book is an easy 4 1/2 out of 5 for me.


And now it is on to The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.

The Slave's Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 by Gene Smith

One problem of a slave-based economy is that it can be susceptible to subversion by an invading force pandering to the slave's desires. As most desire freedom, one British strategy during the War of 1812 (referred as "a stupid war fought by stupid people" by Colonel John Elting) was to offer freedom in the hopes that grateful slaves would enlist as British soldiers. Asylum was enough to tempt thousands into escaping their masters and seeking the Crown's protection, but the strategy didn't pay the dividends hoped as too many non-combatants (women, children and elderly) created a resource drain that wasn't quite offset by the additional troops. That some of the British resettlement policies included other slave-holding parts of the empire (such as Trinidad) added to skepticism as many opted to stay with the devil they knew. Still others were too paralyzed by extreme response of plantation holders when fleeing slaves were captured. We all know how the story ended -- in spite of their cooperation on both sides during the war (American generals such as Andrew Jackson recruited regiments of black freed men as well as conning slaves slaves to fight in return for freedoms that never came), it would be another 50 years for emancipation to arrive in the American south.

There are several problems Gene Smith was unable to overcome in this book. While it is apparent that he searched far and wide for evidence of combat units containing slaves or former slaves by all sides (including Spain and other Caribbean islands in actions taking place around this time), documented, compelling stories are hard to find. This results in some inconsistent presentation -- during one account of a unit of freed men recruited from New Orleans, he lists the names of some of the recruits, their largely mundane occupations, and in once case, for no reason other than he actually had such information, the actual street address of one man. Smith's telling of the story moves around too much both geographically and in time, and it seems he often repeats the same information when alluding back to something he already covered. Finally, I had to check the copyright notice -- sure enough, it was 2013, not 1890. Mr. Smith, if the general said "Goddamn it", then Goddamn it, say so! I don't want to read G___dd__t like it's some child's text book.

Stylistic considerations not withstanding, this book does little to alter Colonel Elting's thesis on this war. Yes, blacks played a role, but in all but a few cases, it would be a stretch to claim they played a pivotal role. They were more like pawns in a game of chess, a game with few winners in the end. But still, many of these otherwise fine soldiers had to wait many years to get their due (and most didn't survive to receive their accolades), somewhat reminiscent of our treatment of Viet Nam war veterans. I'm glad Gene Smith took the time to tell the story, and mostly glad I took the time to read it.

The War of 1812: A Complete Chronology with Biographies of 63 General Officers by Bud Hannings

Hanning's The War of 1812 is a reference volume that provides a day by day account of newsworthy activity starting with preliminary events as far back as 1803 and ending with Indiana's 1816 admission to the union. Included are biographies of 63 generals and prominent colonels. Oddly missing are some pretty prominent admirals, however. Since intrusion of British sea power at the expense of American sovereignty was among the prime causes of this war, the omission is curious indeed.

Major engagements are illustrated by often hard to read maps. Text is encyclopaedic in nature, Hanning offers no commentary or opinion of his own. This book is a useful accompaniment to other books on the subject, and it would have been useful when I was doing research for wargames based on this conflict. Fortunately, this book arrived just as was reading another book on the War of 1812, and I enjoyed using it as a companion. By itself its a little dry, but if you need to dig deeper while reading a narrative history on the subject, this is a nice book to have.

Just finished "Pursuit of Honor" by Vince Flynn

http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Honor-Vin ... 1416595171" target="_blank

After the attack on Washington D.C. that claimed hundreds of lives, and even a suicide attack on the Counter Terrorism Center itself (barely averted by sharp shooting from super-agent Mitch Rapp), the 3 surviving terrorists have disappeared into the American boonies... In the meanwhile, a traitor in the top ranks of Washington is committing treason by revealing past operations, even codenamed ones. Mitch Rapp and Mike Nash are authorized to take down the 3 remaining terrorists through ANY means necessary. However, Nash is breaking under the strain. When one of the terrorists got tired of hiding and decided to seek more glory as "Lion of Al Qaeda", Rapp and crew must somehow, against, avert catastrophe...

The book goes into the homefront problems of an "operator" and a lot of psychological issues, sociopathic personalities, and such. There's still action, and a lot of tough talking threatening, and some such. This is the last of the "modern" Mitch Rapp series (the next one is like a prequel, tells Mitch Rapp's beginning). It's a pretty good wrap up of the previous stories. If you like this sort of books, it's a good one.

I think the next two books in the series - American Assassin and Kill Shot - are prequels, but his newest book - The Last Man - is back to modern day.

If anyone is looking for a really great end of the world/apocolypse/rogue virus/vampire/zombie series I cannot recommend The Passage Trilogy enough. The first book was great, if not a little lengthy, but the second in the series - The Twelve - is unbelievably good. The third and final book is being written and due out next year. Justin Cronin was able to get the second book out on time last year and it looks like he's on track to finish the third by next year as well.

Both books start out in Year Zero and describe the backstory and outbreak of the virus and the resulting fallout over the next few weeks/months, and then the books jump ahead about 90 years to show the future and the ongoing war against the "virals". The story is also sometimes told through journals and documents that are from 1000 years in the future during the global conference studying this "Quarantine Period". Interesting stuff.

The Passage is about 800 pages and The Twelve is about 600 so you'll have enough to keep you busy until the finale comes out.

Finished Exodus by Steve White and Shirley Meier

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/141655 ... adtmobs-20" target="_blank

This is a "Starfire" novel, in that it's set in the Starfire starship combat universe. Starfire is one of those sci-fi fleet combat universes from Task Force games, where the Terrans have a couple civil wars, as well as fight a couple other alien species. Steve White and David Weber had written a couple other books in the same universe before, and this book is in a same vein, as the peaceful existence of the humans is about to come to an end... from a new invader, with technology that will be difficult to combat...

The book is clearly set as the starting piece of at least a trilogy, as the fate of the war is left hanging, though there's a bit of deja vu if you also read "The Lost Fleet" series, as there's a similar setup. The new aliens are setup quite nicely, though there's a ton of jargon and acronyms and such that were not well explained except to people who already know the game or have read other novels in the Starfire universe. As I got this hardback in a thrift store for dirt cheap I can't really complain.

The American Black Chamber by Herbert O. Yardley

This is a first-hand account of the codebreakers that were part of the government from 1919-1929 before its destruction at the hands of Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson ("Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."), and the setting up of the organization

It covers the gamut from secret ink, ciphers, and codes over the years covering wartime espionage and diplomatic cables.Parts of it can be rather dry, as he quotes extensively at times from these diplomatic cables, but it is still an excellent read into the history of codes and codebreaking, more in depth than the stuff most of us toyed with as children.

Finished Tau Ceti Agenda by Travis S. Taylor

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143913 ... adtmobs-20" target="_blank

This is book #2 of the "Tau Ceti" series, and this is what happens when you let Americans write stories about mecha combat. It's fun, as the mecha are doing things just like the stuff in Macross, blitzing all over the sky, transforming into different modes as situation require, dogfighting and shooting.

Imagine Robotech / Macross style mecha combat, albeit done in a somewhat more believable fashion. I had somehow skipped the first book, but it's interesting setup for the universe. Imagine a near future, where Mars was long colonized, and a civil war broke out between Mars and earth, and somehow millions of "separatists" left Earth via means unknown (it's NOT a colony ship) and the US developed tri-mode mecha (bot mode, fighter mode, and eagle mode, same as Macross's mecha, fighter, and guardian modes) and hovertanks (think Robotech / Southern Cross, 2 modes only) but so did the separatists.

In this book, a CIA operative discovered a giant separatist conspiracy to sway the presidential election on Earth, but she has to survive to get the information out. On Earth, President's trip to Disney World was rudely interrupted by a major terrorist attack. Out in space, a Marine expeditionary force was ready to attack the separatist outpost in the Oort Cloud, but was ambushed in turn. It may be one bad day for President Alexander Moore, and the US of A, but he is a marine, and marines will carry the day... or die trying.

Combat is good, and the conspiracy stuff is great, as it's one tactic after another, and there's a big twist ending that leaves you scratching your head, as in WTF?!

The Intelligence Wars: Lessons from Baghdad by Steven K. O'Hern

Serving in Iraq, O'Hern was the director of the Strategic Counterintelligence Directorate in Baghdad in 2005.

His book covers the specifics of what, to me, has become the same old story: political storytelling trumps facts on the ground, the armed forces prefer technology to actual human intelligence gathering, and information sharing between different groups is more the exception than the rule.

I did learn a few things from the book such as details about the arms, equipment and training coming out of Iran to impact the war zone. But for someone that's read a lot about military history in a post WWII environment, there's not much new here. The conclusions, appear to be sound, but the environment isn't going to change without a strong shift in the leadership.

Anybody have any suggestions for some "real crime or murder" books?

I recently saw the movie Zodiac on a cable channel and am thinking about reading the book it is based on. Only problem is of course that the case was never solved. I was thinking Helter Skelter would be a good place to start.

Back in the day I read In Cold Blood (great book) and Compulsion (also very good).

Finished The Night of the Swarm by Robert V. S. Redick

This is the final book of the Chathrand Voyage series and wrapped everything up nicely if not a little strangely at the end. Very good series if you're interested in a fantasy that's not run of the mill.

Scuzz wrote:Anybody have any suggestions for some "real crime or murder" books?

I recently saw the movie Zodiac on a cable channel and am thinking about reading the book it is based on. Only problem is of course that the case was never solved. I was thinking Helter Skelter would be a good place to start.

Back in the day I read In Cold Blood (great book) and Compulsion (also very good).

It may not be exactly like "in cold blood," but "Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer is great. It is about the fundamentalist mormons but it is based around a murder investigation. Although, I like anything Krakauer has done.

I am also too lazy to post (and can never keep updating my books spreadsheet) but, especially for Jeff V, I am reading "Spillover" by David Quammen (he also wrote "The Song of the Dodo.") I am about 1/4 of the way through and find it very good.

Scuzz wrote:Anybody have any suggestions for some "real crime or murder" books?

I recently saw the movie Zodiac on a cable channel and am thinking about reading the book it is based on. Only problem is of course that the case was never solved. I was thinking Helter Skelter would be a good place to start.

Back in the day I read In Cold Blood (great book) and Compulsion (also very good).

Not based on any particular crime but if you want to read about some real life crime I highly recommend David Simon's Homicide A Year on the Killing Streets which led to the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street.

David Simon is also known for that other cops and criminal show, The Wire.