Goodjer Recommends discussion

Right now I'm reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's a futuristic cyberpunk novel written over 20 years ago (1992), so it's really amusing to read about the future through the eyes of a person who thought, for instance, that video tapes would forever be the way to watch movies.

Robear in the forums said it best with "most cyber punk are now period pieces".

If you liked the Black Company books like I did, try the Dread Empire next. Same author, same dark fantasy, but different setting and cast.

Psha, if you like The Black Company the proper next place to go is Steven Erikson's Malazan books. ;)

Current reading:
The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
Et Cetera Discordia by Cramulus

I'm working on:
- The Goblin Emperor for the sword and laser podcast. I'm not far into this yet but I am loving it so far. Quite an interesting and intelligent take on a fantasy novel.
- Beautiful Lego from one of the recent humble book bundles. I have been getting back into Lego recently so this came about at the right time
- The Wicked + The Devine also from a humble bundle. I'm not totally sold on this one yet. I love the premise, and the writing style and art are both great but I'm not really getting drawn into the actual story.

Just finished A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power. I have mixed feelings -- it was an interesting look to what was going on inside North Korea... but not much more than that.

Part of my problem with it was me, though. I don't read a lot of nonfiction, and several times I found myself wishing that the book would act more like historical fiction, and give me more of the emotion and interior life of the characters... and then I had to remind myself that the people weren't just characters.

Next books up are three I've checked out of the library: Furies of Calderon (that's the, hey, write a book that's "lost Roman legion" + Pokemon challenge [x]), Orfeo, which caught my eye on the new books shelf, and Hexed, since I've been reading the Illona Andrews series, and the book has a short story in the universe in it.

Christopher wrote: "I'm working on:
- The Goblin Emperor for the sword and laser podcast. I'm not far into this yet but I am loving it so far. Quite an interesting and intelligent take on a fantasy novel."

The Goblin Emperor is about ten books down my to-read list...

I'm actively working my way through back-issues of the Poetry Foundation's monthly magazines and The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today. But I am, according to GoodReads, at least "currently reading" 20 books.

Kameron Hurley's The Mirror Empire. Started slow, I had a hard time keeping up w/ the multiple perspectives, but it's really hitting its stride and I'm enjoying it more with each chapter.

Kelsey wrote: "Right now I'm reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's a futuristic cyberpunk novel written over 20 years ago (1992), so it's really amusing to read about the future through the eyes of a person..."

It's quite entertaining to read that some 20+ years later. Supposedly Google Earth was inspired by the Metaverse.

Hey folks. Reading "Dragon Haven" by Robin Hobb, 2nd book in the Rain Wild Chronicles series (4th series of 5 in the overall sequence). Still really enjoying it, despite this being the...golly...8th Robin Hobb book in a row I've read. I want to read all the way through to the most recently published book before I start the Mazalan series so I'm not jumping back and forth between epics. :D

Dave wrote: "It's quite entertaining to read that some 20+ years later. Supposedly Google Earth was inspired by the Metaverse. "

A *lot* of things were inspired by the Metaverse. Google Earth and Second Life are the more obvious ones.

I'm reading Half the World, second book in Joe Abercrombie's Shattered Sea series. The first book Half a King was really tight and well done. It is categorized as YA so it's not as gritty as his other stuff that I've read like the First Law series. That doesn't diminish it though.

I am also just coming off several of Bernard Cornwell's books in both the Saxon Tales and Grail Quest series. I love his stuff. It's historical fiction that stays very close to the accepted historical events. He outlines any embellishments he's made at the end of the books. He also writes ridiculously good battle scenes.

Erik wrote: "Dave wrote: "It's quite entertaining to read that some 20+ years later. Supposedly Google Earth was inspired by the Metaverse. "

A *lot* of things were inspired by the Metaverse. Google Earth and ..."

It's pretty hard when reading this to remember that this was the first time a publicly available Internet of this size was really put into a book... unless Neuromancer was written before Snow Crash? Either way, I keep telling myself "this isn't more than just an avatar-based chatroom", then have to remind myself "wait, this was fresh ground... it's not yet another cyberpunk World Wide Web".

Neuromancer came first in terms of imagining a public internet, but I believe that was all text/code. Snow Crash's Metaverse added the metaphor of virtual space that users visually traversed.

Edit: Originally camelCased Metaverse because I hate myself.

Erik wrote: "Neuromancer came first in terms of imagining a public internet, but I believe that was all text/code. Snow Crash's Metaverse added the metaphor of virtual space that users v..."Neuromancer had a stylized cyberspace. Not text. But certainly not as well described as that of Snowcrash.

"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding..."

"Case jacked in, he opened his eyes to the familiar configuration of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority's Aztec pyramid of data."

Now I want to re-read Snow Crash and Neuromancer.

I should probably participate in the actual intention of the thread. Right now I'm knee deep in book 13 of the Dresden Files, "Ghost Story". Man I really love this series. Every book seems to flesh out the world in a way that is just so goddamn interesting.

I just finished reading The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life which I really enjoyed. So in an effort to try and read some of the classic books that I had always wanted to read, I am now reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I will be going back to Sci Fi or Fantasy Fiction after this for at least a book or two though. Need something a little easier to read.

Dave wrote: "Now I want to re-read Snow Crash and Neuromancer.

I should probably participate in the actual intention of the thread. Right now I'm knee deep in book 13 of the Dresden Files, "Ghost Story". Man I..."

I'm glad someone could make it through that series. I got through the first two books and gave up. Jim Butcher is not a good writer in my opinion, and I made my view clear in the main GWJ thread but he feels like a gamer writing fan fic on the back of his notepad in History class that somehow got published. I know he was self published, and I like how he has made a name of himself and is doing well, but... I don't know if it's warranted.

I hear Dresden Files gets better, but it was too pulpy and generic for me to stomach it when I have so many other books that I could be reading.

On the Audible, I'm reading The Girl Who Played with Fire (second book of the Millennium trilogy, by Stieg Larsson) - this continues to be some dark, dark stuff, but it's really great at grabbing me, and propelling me to keep listening.

On Kindle, I'm slowly picking my way through Braineater Jones - I think Trichy recommended this on his podcast, and it was gifted to me during Secret Santa. It's really fun, pulpy zombie/Film Noir mashup, but I'm not great at finding time to read ye-olde style, with my eyes, these days.

Also on Audible, I'm listening to the Dresden Files for the third time through, since I'm sharing the experience with my wife, for her first read of the series. It's really wonderful watching her reactions to moments that I know are coming up. We've just started book 14.

I can find ways to enjoy Dresden Files. The male gazey introductions of every female character tend to back off a bit as the author grows, and the completely made up Chicago geography ... somehow hasn't driven me insane yet. But I've also done some genre-theory deep-dive stuff on detective fiction, so if nothing else I can entertain myself with watching how the books do and don't engage with genre conventions.

We listen to them on Audible for long car rides, though.

Speaking of Audible, I have Gone Girl on Audible and I find myself unable to handle much of it at at time. I gather from movie marketing that it plays a lot with the idea/trope/cliche of (spoiler in hover text), but that's not what bugs me. What bugs me is watching a young marriage go off the rails because they won't address their issues with each other, and keep judging each other by the expectations they had for marriage back when they first met and were all crushing on each other. On good days, that just upsets me. On bad days I start to sympathize, and then I start feeling less sympathetic toward my own spouse, and that's not something I'm looking for in a novel.

But anyway, I guess I'm slowly plodding through it. The Audible version has different readers/voices for each spouse, though, and they both do a good job.

Currently reading Excession by Iain M. Banks. Love me some Banks, and really like this book. Making my way through his entire catalog again.

I've been meaning to try some Ian M. Banks. What's a good book to start with?

Dave wrote: "I've been meaning to try some Ian M. Banks. What's a good book to start with?"

I'd recommend Consider Phlebas as a good starting point. It is not his best book but it does a pretty good job of introducing the Culture and is a pretty fun read.

Oh, and I realized I had poked my head in here twice without answering the question. :/

I am currently re-reading The Pacific War: 1941-1945 a one volume treatment of WWII in the Pacific.

I am also reading The Three-Body Problem on my phone. It is a sci-fi book set in China during and after the Cultural Revolution. There are many interesting ideas in it.

I am trying to also read Best Served Cold but I am really struggling getting into it. Also, I am struggling getting into The Peripheral. In both cases I am having a hard time with the characterizations. I am just having a hard time buying into why the characters are doing what they are doing.

In Best Served Cold, I'd say that ambivalence about motivation is a central theme. Monza starts off like Lee Marvin in Point Blank, but the further she gets from that rebirth, the more complexities she develops in her motivations, as the revenge gets less and less cold.

Tanglebones wrote: "In Best Served Cold, I'd say that ambivalence about motivation is a central theme. Monza starts off like Lee Marvin in Point Blank, but the further she gets from that rebirth, the more complexities..."
I mean, I get why Monza is doing what she is doing. Well, in the big picture at least, although I don't always get her scene-by-scene motivation. The other characters in the crew though? No idea why they do anything. If that is a major theme, it is over my head (certainly a possibility!) it just makes reading more of a task.
I kind of felt like this when I read The Blade Itself, which I ended up really liking as well as the other two books. So I should trust Abercrombie and push past this sense. Of course my other currently reading books are monopolizing my time at the moment.

Just finished Station Eleven. Recommended if you like literary science fiction. It's a character study of a variety of people who survive a worldwide pandemic. Less violent than you might expect, given the premise (and no zombies in sight -- I am so [i]over[/i] zombies).

Very lyrical, and reminiscent of Cloud Atlas.

Next up, I think I'm going to finish my run-through of the Lemony Snicket books. After that, I'm not sure, but possibly last year's Year's Best Science Fiction collection.

Finished A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Pretty good for taking a theme and applying it to a sweeping history of civilization. Nothing super surprising, but plenty of neat trivia.

Starting Capital in the Twenty-First Century on Audible now. It's dense enough that I find I can't speed up the playback as much as usual. Maybe I'm less familiar with the material, though. I like that it comes at all the usual politically charged arguments about wealth distribution and insists on tackling the topic from data. That means a less sensational thesis, but a thesis I'm more interested in, ultimately.

Just finished Stephen Mitchell's wonderful translation of Gilgamesh. Now I'm on to Iron Men and Saints, a history of the first crusade by Harold Lamb. I hadn't realized before I picked it up that it was written in the 1930s. Quite a few archaic interpretations of medieval history were making me scratch my head. That said, Lamb's an excellent storyteller, and has a gripping narrative, even if it's based on some now-discounted theories of the time.

Gilgamesh: A New English Version
The Crusades: Iron Men and Saints

Thanks for the links, Erik - I just gave up on The Crusades: Iron Men and Saints at about the 30% point. The author's historiography was too outdated for me to enjoy, or get anything new out of, despite his breathy pace of storytelling. On to something lighter, fluffier, and more fun - Hexed (The Iron Druid Chronicles #2).

"Nothing to Envy", a great look into North Korean society and how it has in some ways literally stopped progressing. It is frozen in time and in a way that dooms people to being poor and broken in all aspects of society.

One of the best documentaries I've ever read. Incredibly fascinating.

Katy wrote: "After that, I'm not sure, but possibly last year's Year's Best Science Fiction collection."

Turns out it's Fool Moon. Technically a re-read... but I never got past book three the first time I read the series, so I'm taking another go. I read through Storm Front for a second time last fall, and I don't want to lose the thread completely.

I've been trying to read at least one nonfiction book a month, but I've missed that goal this month, unless I find some sort of lightweight memoir which will be a fast read, which wasn't quite the spirit of my goal. (But if anyone wants to recommend a fluffy memoir likely to be available as an ebook from my county library or the NYPL, I'm all ears.)

if anyone wants to recommend a fluffy memoir[...]

Response too slow. Reduced to reading about kitchen utensils, e.g. Consider the Fork.

So far, so good, however. In the introduction alone, I've learned about a fairly recent kitchen item I've never encountered, the chicken brick, and the author has called out unusual food only found in Futurama.

Very readable, and available on Kindle Unlimited, though I checked it out of the library, myself.

Reminds me of Darius Kazemi's satirical anti-fork campaign.

If you haven't read Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach, it'd be a good candidate for next month.

Tanglebones wrote: "If you haven't read Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach, it'd be a good candidate for next month."

Good idea to read Mary Roach, though it's more likely to be Packing for Mars, since we own a copy I haven't read. Or maybe What If?, which is also sitting on the TBR pile.

Hexed downed in about no time at all. Absolute popcorn, which was a nice palette cleanser. Next up, The Killing Moon, on recommendation of KaterinLHC/The Heroine's Journey.

Just finished Terms of Enlistment, a nice, not-too-heavy military-ish sci-fi book. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Also finished The Pacific War: 1941-1945 for the I-don't-know-how-many-th time. Alas, the book literally disintegrated in my hands as I was finishing it (not a comment on the book's quality, more one on how many times I have read it and how old that copy was).

Now to finish Ancillary Justice and my other lagging books. Although I am sure to start some other books because I am an insane person evidently.

Just started "Ready Player One", something that has been on my list for a long time. I got the e-book on Kindle for all of $4, so it was a good investment.

I'm also starting the Fables comic series - on #1 right now.

Just finished The Queen of Attolia. This is the second of a series of YA Fantasy novels set in and around a landlocked kingdom reminiscent of the city-states of ancient Greece. This one's concerned with the conflict between the queens of two neighboring nations, and the thief (think spymaster, though not exactly) caught between them. Lots of palace intrigue and maneuvering armies. Quite a different tone than most fantasy novels, and definitely worth looking at.

The first book in the series is The Thief.

Time for some Repairman Jack. Currently reading The Tomb . I'd enjoyed the book of short stories, Quick Fixes ,which trichy had suggested as a good starting point) and saw this on the shelf at the library.

I'm a little unsure about reading order (I like to have a plan going in), but I'm pretty sure this is the start of the Repairman Jack series.

Started Joe Hill's Locke and Key last night, and blew through three volumes (not issues - volumes) before I knew it. I had to put the tablet down or risk getting no sleep at all.

I presume that's a different Joe Hill than the early labor activist.

Surprisingly, yes. This is Stephen King's son, who's studiously avoided using his dad's last name professionally.

Just finished Ready Player One. I... liked it. I think. It is well written but the nonstop masturbatory prose about the 1980s got old real quick. We get it Ernest - you grew up in that decade and are a big nerd. Stop jamming every reference possible into the book. It's a solid 3/5 stars.

I'm reading all parenting books now.

What to Expect When You're Expecting
Smart Love
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood

Just finished The Girl on the Train.

I thought it was an interesting premise for a mystery. Multiple points of view, unreliable protagonists, and a clever, though not too surprising, twist. Seasoned mystery readers won't be caught off guard, but it's a fun summer read.

3.75/5.00

Erik wrote: "I'm reading all parenting books now.

Can I presume that congratulations are in order? My only advice is not to pay too much attention to pronouncements of The One True Way to Parent, and do what fits the personalities of everyone involved.

As far as books go, I just finished Unnatural Death. Not particularly recommended unless you're being a completist about reading Sayers. It's too much a product of its time, and showcases all its prejudices against everyone who isn't a cis white male Catholic.