Author Topic: What are we Reading Now: Conan the Librarian (Read 150582 times)

Banzai · « **Reply #390 on:** 01 August 2018, 11:07:16 »

More Lawrence Block. Reading A Ticket to the Boneyard today.

Major Headcase · « **Reply #391 on:** 01 August 2018, 18:43:27 »

Pulled an oldy off the used book store shelf yesterday. Picked up a copy of Dune for 50 cents. Tried to read it when I was 14 but just couldn't get into it, now I'm older and more patient I think I'll appreciate it better. Hell, if I can make it through the Game of Thrones books now, Dune will be easy!! 😆
Also grabbed a copy of The Bourne Identity. The plot is SO MUCH better than the movie! But I love Cold War spy and intrigue novels!
If anyone can recommend any good espionage books set in the 50s, 60s and 70s, I'm all ears!! 😁

Daryk · « **Reply #392 on:** 01 August 2018, 19:11:43 »

As far as the rest of the Dune series, I thought books 5 and 6 were the best, though 4 wasn't too bad. Two and three were hard to read, even though they were shorter.

Banzai · « **Reply #393 on:** 02 August 2018, 11:07:19 »

Quote from: Major Headcase on 01 August 2018, 18:43:27

If anyone can recommend any good espionage books set in the 50s, 60s and 70s, I'm all ears!! 😁

Robert Ludlum is a lot of fun in that genre, and John le Carré is a master and created of the medium's great characters, George Smiley. Call for the Dead is his first book, and they get better from there. Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy is arguably the best spy novel ever written.

Kidd · « **Reply #394 on:** 02 August 2018, 12:01:15 »

The latestTinker Tailor is the best spy movie I've ever watched - that is, spy, not action - but I'm sorry, I find John Le Carre's prose much too convoluted and the payoff too dull for really enjoyable reading.

The prose of Frank Herbert's Dune and Tolkien's LOTR is just as difficult to comprehend (and some say GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire too) for different reasons, but the payoff is well worth it. Not really so for the Smiley trilogy.

Perhaps I'm spoiled as I read loads of espionage expose memoirs and some other spy and political fiction (Jack Higgins, Jeffrey Archer, Fredrick Forsyth) before attempting Le Carre. So a lot of tropes in the books were to me nothing new.

Trajan Helmer · « **Reply #395 on:** 19 August 2018, 21:08:30 »

Currently reading The Rational Male by Rollo Tomassi

Eye-opening book to say the least.

Kidd · « **Reply #396 on:** 21 August 2018, 13:33:10 »

Hellfire by Ed Macy

Eye opening insider's view into UK Apache ops, though a little brief and could do with more detail. I didn't know just how deadly automation, sensors and networking really makes just one flight of AH-64Ds... possibly even several times more effective than the first Apaches I daresay.

Dubble_g · « **Reply #397 on:** 21 August 2018, 21:28:44 »

Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson

Honestly, felt like a pretty straight copy of World War Z by Max Brooks, only dumbed down a lot. Still, it's an easy read, like of like the literary equivalent of a Transformers movie.

More on my site: https://one-way-mirror.blogspot.com/

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #398 on:** 21 August 2018, 21:40:43 »

I think i got that book from the library, read three chapters, and returned it.

Dubble_g · « **Reply #399 on:** 21 August 2018, 22:58:07 »

Yeah, it's a very returnable-after-reading-just-three-chapters book.

Banzai · « **Reply #400 on:** 22 August 2018, 12:12:17 »

Quote from: Dubble_g on 21 August 2018, 21:28:44

Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson

I think it has a great core idea, but it never had the scope to pull off a World War Z/The Good War-level story. On the whole I found it very unsatisfying. That said, however, there are some scenes and sections that are very effective. One was the part where the AI threatens the young daughter of a Congresswoman through an Internet-connected doll. The build up and conversation are effective and creepy, enough so that that scene is one of very few that had any impact. I think it would have been better as a straight novel rather than an oral history.

Kidd · « **Reply #401 on:** 22 August 2018, 12:24:26 »

WWZ itself is kind of light, though it does cover a wide scope geographically

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #402 on:** 22 August 2018, 12:28:33 »

Yeah, I was annoyed by how gobsmack stupid the military was in WWZ.

Kidd · « **Reply #403 on:** 22 August 2018, 12:54:20 »

Quote from: MoneyLovinOgre4Hire on 22 August 2018, 12:28:33

Yeah, I was annoyed by how gobsmack stupid the military was in WWZ.

I think Max Brooks used it to push some political views which were... not necessarily plot-relevant.

I get that he had to find some way to negate military firepower so the zombies have an actual winning chance. But there are other ways to do it. In hindsight all that guff about how basically M1 Garands are supposedly better than M16s for killing zombies... ::)

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #404 on:** 22 August 2018, 13:07:46 »

Because let's face it, zombies just aren't threatening if the other side remembers it has artillery and close air support.

Kidd · « **Reply #405 on:** 22 August 2018, 13:23:42 »

Quote from: MoneyLovinOgre4Hire on 22 August 2018, 13:07:46

Because let's face it, zombies just aren't threatening if the other side remembers it has artillery and close air support.

WWZ did some other countries well, where the apocalypse pushes simmering geopolitical hotspots over the boiling point such that the military has its hands full dealing with more conventional threats on top of the zombies. But again that's where the book feels thin... it could have spent more time detailing those conflicts than on ramrodding his "technology is an American crutch" spiel.

Banzai · « **Reply #406 on:** 22 August 2018, 18:02:38 »

It is a great zombie novel, but that sets a pretty low bar...

Dubble_g · « **Reply #407 on:** 22 August 2018, 20:50:24 »

You know, after years of either schlocky or goofy zombie books and movies (Shaun of the Dead), I remember WWZ feeling very fresh when I first read it, back in '08 or whenever it was. I'm not normally a fan of the genre, but I appreciate the thought that went into it, and the oral history style was also a breath of fresh air.

Yeah, pretty much any zombie apocalypse book has to massively cripple the military in order to explain how it's defeated by an enemy lacking any kind of anti-tank, anti-aircraft or anti-shipping capability (or even any kind of ranged weaponry), but it was interesting the way Brooks used the zombies = virus/disease analogy and made it work.

Certainly, it feels much more grounded than Robopocalypse, with its magic-eyed girl and freedom-singing fembot right out of Robotech. :P

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #408 on:** 22 August 2018, 21:43:18 »

I liked Shaun of the Dead just because I have trouble taking zombies seriously as a threatening opponent, at least on anything larger than a small-group-of-trapped-people scale.

But yeah, WWZ really beat the heck out of Robopacalypse.

Ghostbear_Gurdel · « **Reply #409 on:** 22 August 2018, 22:18:17 »

by pure happenstance, (and thanks to my local library) I am now reading Conan the Barbarian by Robert Howard. :P

Kidd · « **Reply #410 on:** 23 August 2018, 02:18:45 »

Quote from: Dubble_g on 22 August 2018, 20:50:24

You know, after years of either schlocky or goofy zombie books and movies (Shaun of the Dead), I remember WWZ feeling very fresh when I first read it, back in '08 or whenever it was. I'm not normally a fan of the genre, but I appreciate the thought that went into it, and the oral history style was also a breath of fresh air.

True

Have you read the one before WWZ? Zombie Survival Guide? It's dry but again, fresh format to approach the genre. It was the popularity of the Guide that led to WWZ.

Jaim Magnus · « **Reply #411 on:** 23 August 2018, 07:01:58 »

Quote from: Ghostbear_Gurdel on 22 August 2018, 22:18:17

by pure happenstance, (and thanks to my local library) I am now reading Conan the Barbarian by Robert Howard. :P

The stories are quite entertaining. I have a whole collection of Conan stories that I re-read periodically.

Ghostbear_Gurdel · « **Reply #412 on:** 23 August 2018, 09:15:03 »

After playing conan exiles I decided I'd like to know more about the character/world. Nothing better than the original material

Ruger · « **Reply #413 on:** 23 August 2018, 10:51:14 »

Quote from: Jaim Magnus on 23 August 2018, 07:01:58

The stories are quite entertaining. I have a whole collection of Conan stories that I re-read periodically.

I have the three volume collection that has all of REH's original Conan works...I'm also about a half dozen or so books away from having at least one each of all the other Conan novels written by other authors over the years...but other than the Savage Sword of Conan compilations, best not remind me of how many of the comics I have to go...

Ruger

Demon55 · « **Reply #414 on:** 24 August 2018, 19:12:52 »

I recently read:

Assumption of Risk by Michael Stackpole
Bred For War by Michael Stackpole
Be Unstoppable by Alden Mills

Kidd · « **Reply #415 on:** 25 August 2018, 01:09:35 »

Reading. Killer Angels. By Michael Shaara. About Gettysburg. Wish he wouldn't. You know. Chop his sentences. Like this. And insert. The occasional irrelevancy. Or well. Vocal tic. Bit dry. When a history book. Or Wikipedia. Is more interesting. And this. Is a novel. It kind of. Really. Doesn't say much. About the writing.

Triptych · « **Reply #416 on:** 25 August 2018, 12:56:46 »

We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young by Hal Moore.

Im surprised that the movie covered so little of what was written in the book. All in all, very good, though the formatting is kinda messy since Im reading the pocketbook edition.

Elmoth · « **Reply #417 on:** 25 August 2018, 16:15:45 »

Alpha Strike intro rules.

Also my notes for tomorrow's game.

Banzai · « **Reply #418 on:** 27 August 2018, 11:02:11 »

Quote from: Kidd on 25 August 2018, 01:09:35

Reading. Killer Angels. By Michael Shaara. About Gettysburg. Wish he wouldn't. You know. Chop his sentences. Like this. And insert. The occasional irrelevancy. Or well. Vocal tic. Bit dry. When a history book. Or Wikipedia. Is more interesting. And this. Is a novel. It kind of. Really. Doesn't say much. About the writing.

Which is funny when you consider it was one of the main inspirations for Joss Whedon's Firefly. Because say what you will about Joss, his dialog is never stunted or dry.

nckestrel · « **Reply #419 on:** 27 August 2018, 11:11:32 »

Tor's free eBook Club is giving a free ebook copy of the Black Company by Glen Cook if you haven't read that already, or want to reread it. (A new Black Company novel is coming out next month, Port of Shadows).