What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Dunkum he/him]

10 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Yeah fair enough. Mavra, Nicodemus (and Dierdre and Tessa), Maeve, and Cowl are the only, like, straight up villains that are actually recurring. I will say that Nicodemus is also probably better than even Marcone as of right now which is quite high praise

high praise indeed

[aneonfoxtribute]

Spoiler

Hades is great, to no real surprise. Hades is consistently great in basically everything. Percy Jackson, Hades, you name it. Not God of War but I don't think he ever says anything there anyway so meh.

 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

45 minutes ago, Spren of Kindness said:

Finished Starship Troopers!  It was pretty good.  A little bit formulaic in parts, but I liked the ending.  A couple spoilery thoughts:

  Hide contents

I wasn't very impressed with the character interactions - it felt more like an overview told from years after the events.  But it worked.  There were definitely things to think about, and I'm happy to say that I have no idea what the controversial part was, because now I don't have to have an opinion on it.

 

Spoiler

Heinlein's various "controversial" writings after often overstated. Yes, there are a lot of problematic Heinleinisms and yes he does have an overstated influence on the sci-fi genre, but those are currently being dealt with and Heinlein will soon go the way of Asimov and Clarke.

Starship Troopers is deemed controversial because of the idea in it that only those that have served in the military should have the right to vote. The association of the "space bugs" with communism might lead some commentators to frame the story as "Fascism vs. Communism" where fascists are the good guys. 

Bookwise, that's a bit of a stretch. The humans being fascistic is only a valid interpretation of the movie adaptation, which has its own deal. 

There's also pro-imperialism stuff, but that was a characteristic of most of the science fiction of that time and is hardly unique to Heinlein and Starship Troopers. 

 

[Spren of Kindness she/her]

52 minutes ago, Ooklara said:

  Hide contents

Heinlein's various "controversial" writings after often overstated. Yes, there are a lot of problematic Heinleinisms and yes he does have an overstated influence on the sci-fi genre, but those are currently being dealt with and Heinlein will soon go the way of Asimov and Clarke.

Starship Troopers is deemed controversial because of the idea in it that only those that have served in the military should have the right to vote. The association of the "space bugs" with communism might lead some commentators to frame the story as "Fascism vs. Communism" where fascists are the good guys. 

Bookwise, that's a bit of a stretch. The humans being fascistic is only a valid interpretation of the movie adaptation, which has its own deal. 

There's also pro-imperialism stuff, but that was a characteristic of most of the science fiction of that time and is hardly unique to Heinlein and Starship Troopers. 

 

 

Spoiler

Gotcha.  I'll be honest, I didn't recognize any of that while reading.  It took me two thirds of the book to figure out what the main character's name was, and I just thought the bugs were a hive mind.

It has been said that I live under a rock, and this is probably a good example of that.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Planning on finishing Skin Game today and as luck would have it Peace Talks is available immediately, so I'll be starting that tomorrow

[Condensation she/her]

I found an amazing series, I'd definitely recommend it. House of Night, by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast. The first book is Marked. It's about vampyres, there's a good amount of romance, and there's an occasional swear word.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Finished Skin Game. That was pretty good

[Briar King]

I wouldn’t start Peace Talks without seeing if Battleground is available like immediately after.

I mean not like it really matters as you won’t have the real time months long break we had I guess. It’s just the frustration of it being split when I still don’t think it needed to be besides extra $ to take from us who buy them.

Edited January 28, 2021 by Briar King

[Lecky Twig she/her]

I have a big problem with reading too many books at once, at the moment I'm reading: The Poppy War, Dune, The Two Towers, White Sands (prose), and I've kinda started Lord of the Flies but I'm reading that for school and I have plenty of time so it's low on my priority list. 

My goal is to not pick up anymore books until I finish all the ones I'm currently reading. 

[Briar King]

It’s at times a bad habit and I wish I never started it yet I haven’t been able to stop yet though I absolutely will when I start GGK’s Lions of Al Rashan. 

[aneonfoxtribute]

There's no real way for me to ensure that I get Battleground immediately after Peace Talks. I put out a hold on Battleground but who knows if it'll be available by the time I am finishing up Peace Talks. If I finish Peace Talks and REALLY want to get to Battleground immediately, though, I can use Scribd since I haven't used a free trial for that

[Spren of Kindness she/her]

Well, I finished The Midnight Star.  Not a whole lot to say about that one other than the ending was interesting.  So now it's on to The Clockwork Rocket, and continuing Anne of Avonlea.

[aneonfoxtribute]

I will say I'm very excited for Peace Talks, because the slower more dialogue focused parts of Dresden are always the most enjoyable for me

[aneonfoxtribute]

Got to chapter 8 of Peace Talks and I can definitely see why it needs two books. It is setting up a LOT.

Spoiler

The titular peace talks, Ebenezer taking issue with Harry keeping Maggie close, the White Council threatening to remove Harey'a status as a wizard of the Council, Lara having the ability to give Harry two commands he has to follow without question, the police following up on the events of Skin Game, and Thomas apparently attempting to kill Etri. And there could be even more. There is so much going on.

 

[Briar King]

Have hit pg 1000 of RoW. The end is coming then I can finally get into the forum. Hopefully it’s still somewhat active after this long since release.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

@Briar King We're just waiting for you to post in the forum, then we'll stop 

[Briar King]

Ended part 4 and on interludes now and I’m so pissed off as I had set the book down to go get a cup of coffee it was fine and got back and somehow my book ripped. I had been expecting this to happen with these books being so big but only after multiple reads. I’m not even done and my binding is coming apart. Wonderful. These are to expensive now and apparently shoddy work. I keep my books bookstore shelf worthy for decades. I’m pissed off.

[aneonfoxtribute]

39 minutes ago, Briar King said:

Ended part 4 and on interludes now and I’m so pissed off as I had set the book down to go get a cup of coffee it was fine and got back and somehow my book ripped. I had been expecting this to happen with these books being so big but only after multiple reads. I’m not even done and my binding is coming apart. Wonderful. These are to expensive now and apparently shoddy work. I keep my books bookstore shelf worthy for decades. I’m pissed off.

That's really weird, nothing like that never happened with mine. I don't think you should take it out on the people who made the books, it seems rather unfair to just proclaim it shoddy work when it's presumably bound in the exact same way as every other book.

[Briar King]

A spade is a spade. Bks 1&2 are questionable long term especially 2. Slogbringer got something right besides part 5 which was the binding. It was a noticeable step up along with the price hike. Having mine magically fall apart with - 200 pgs left on 1st read even though I take supreme care with my books isn’t good. I stand by the shoddy punch.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

@Briar King That's because they no longer bind the spine with Hobbit Snot. It's not really their fault, the UK leaving the EU has caused the market to be flooded with products that are essentially watered down Hobbit Snot. Add to that concerns about the spread of covid-19 through Hobbit Snot (the science is unclear if hobbits can get or spread the virus) and Tor had to use Boxer Glue for the health and safety of its employees and customers as well as in consideration of cost and benefits.

Edited January 29, 2021 by Ooklara

[Briar King]

I was definitely thinking Covid could be playing a part in this case. Just sucks..that thing was $40 and I’m not going to replace it. I ll have to attempt to fix myself with some super glue if I can to keep it from coming apart further.

Just grr

Edited January 29, 2021 by Briar King

[Spren of Kindness she/her]

Two thirds through The Clockwork Rocket.  I have no idea what's happening.  Well, I do, but I don't understand three quarters of the dialogue.

[Draginon he/him]

Got around to finishing Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan. I was not having a good reading time from October through December so I only finished yesterday.

It was interesting but felt very grounded in the 80’s. I can definitely see how he went from Conan the Barbarian to WOT since I kept thinking it reminded me of what I imagine a Conan book might be like, never read or watched anything Conan so I’m only guessing here.

However I was kind of bored at times reading it. It was only 350 pages but it felt about 50 too long. Here’s how bad the boredom got, sometimes I only read 2 pages before closing it again. I’m not sure how much Harriet edited it to make it publishable but I think she should’ve done another pass just to tighten it up just a smidge.

 

Well I was hoping Dawnshard would’ve been sent by now but now I know I’ll still be waiting another couple months so I’m going to go play in Sir Terry Pratchett’s sandbox for a little bit with The Colour of Magic.

[Spren of Kindness she/her]

Finished The Clockwork Rocket, and have finally moved on to Champion by Marie Lu!  Also finished Anne of Avonlea, so I'll probably move on to Anne of the Island next.

[Briar King]

Exactly 60 days..finished RoW.