The Book Thread

[Bedrockbrendan]

Been re-reading Return of Condor Heroes and decided to do podcasts covering five chapters at a time. The first one was 10 chapters just to get the ball rolling:


Chapters 1-10: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-stukf-842c8c
Chapters 11-15: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-9ep79-8550c0

[Fritzef]

I've been reading Saxon: Book of Dreams by Tim Severin, which I picked up cheap at a library book sale. Severin is maybe better known as a travel writer, who specializes in recreating ancient voyages and writing about them, in books like The Brendan Voyage and so on. But apparently he's written some fiction series as well--one is about Vikings and another about pirates. This is the first book of a series which follow the adventures of a Saxon nobleman sent as a royal hostage to Charlemagne's court. The writing is nothing particularly special, but the book moves quickly and its hero Osric is appealing enough. In this first volume (I think it's a 3-book series) he falls in with Roland, who will die by the end. That's not a spoiler, since it is mentioned on the first page. Severin's version of Charlemagne's court is something of a mixture of history and the stories about Charlemagne's paladins from the Chansons de Geste and medieval romances.

It's getting me in the mood for something Carolingian, which is appropriate, since the Pendragon spin-off Paladin just became available.

[Spike]

I worked my way (at last) through Joe Abercrombie's Wizard's Law trilogy.  I am not amused.

Leaving aside the manifold literary criticisms I have regarding the books (book 1: Has no plot. Book 2: Has a pointless plot (go to a place and get a thing. Oops. Thing not there, go home, find thing. Fuck you, Joe.), the biggest problem I have is that I'm now convinced that Joe Abercrombie is, in fact, a very bad person, a bully who has only learned that victims of bullying deserve to be bullied, because if they didn't deserve it, they wouldn't be bullied.

And that's just the start of the moral and ethical failings of his books.  I mean: Two of his 'heroes' are serial killers...

[Spike]

Finished The Scarlet Pimpernel last night.  Weird read for many reasons. I think the Baroness was probably a better playwright than novelist, as not much happens in the book, but there are pages and pages AND PAGES of internal monologues about la feelz.

Yet you can clearly see the seed germs for Zorro right there on the page.   That said the single biggest complaint I have with it is that there is virtually no Scarlet Pimpernelling in the book whatsoever.  Everyone talks about The Pimpernel, but mostly we get shots of Bruce Wayne being 'not-pimpernel' and Mrs Wayne waffling on about how she wishes good ol' bruce was half the man the Pimpernel or how horrible it is her brother has a date with Madame Guillotine.

Still a good read.

[jeff37923]

I read Rocket Girls by Housuke Nojiri and enjoyed it. It is well thought out adventure romp in the same vein as Heinlein's juveniles, but it is based on the difficulties and hazards of spaceflight while also having a Japanese female oriented touch of light comedy. The only drawback is that the english translation of the book feels a bit awkward due to the language differences when translated.

[Spike]

I've been 'reading' the Dead Six series by Larry Corriea and Mike Kupari.   I think they are aiming for the Tom Clancy/Lee Childs audience, and given my one shot at the Jack Reacher series, I'm going to say they've managed to do just fine at meeting expectations.   There's a very subtle shade of supernatural going through these things, or rather its somewhat blatent but sparely used and never explicit.

My big problem is the gear porn.  I like guns and such as much as Big Larry, but honestly you don't need to tell me the fucking BRAND of your character's silencer every time you mention it. Or for that matter the BRAND of their fatigues in addition to the pattern. Every time.  Seriously, I think the books would be about 10% shorter if the authors wrote like normal people instead of like paid shills for every manufacturer of guns, ammo and random bits of militaria they could find.

But its miles ahead of the first Monster Hunters International, so there's that.



EDIT TO ADD:::  So I finished up the Trilogy and I was struck by another annoying trait of the books. In an attempt to make the over the top skilled good guys somehow more realistic than 'action heroes' the writers are almost too eager to mentally and physically destroy the characters... yet still they have to survive, participate and win in the end.  Its almost masochistic, and often times means the 'action' starts to drag on and on, just so the hero can heroically come back from being on the recieving end of a horrific beating and still win in the end.

Seriously, Each of the two main heroes have a fight that ends the trilogy that seems to go on for four or six chapters (two or three chapters each) before somehow they win against all (like, seriously... ALLLLLLLLLL....) the odds.  Valentine literally gets blown up with a 40mm grenade yet manages to rally to defeat the nigh unstoppable Psycho-bitch villianess assassin/billionaire/mob-boss AND push her nuclear bomb out of a 300mph bullet train despite it being in a several hundred pound box, while Lorenzo, the 40 year old super-thief gets curb stomped into oblivion by the 270lb steroid freak that outfights entire mercenary teams single-handedly yet still somehow wins, though he winds up going through somethign like THREE Deus Ex Machina to do it.

Oddly, I'm reminded a bit of my foray into the Kindle Harem-lit genre... after a few books you start skipping the sex scenes to get on with the story... only you can't really skip the masochistic violence. Like the Heroes you have to endure it to get to the end...  Its such an extreme over-reaction to the untouchable action hero that its actually less believable that these guys didn't just give up after chapter one!

Oddly, I recall Monster Hunter International 1 did the same thing to Larry Correia's Self-Insert protagonist.  Like he literally spends chapters 2-4 in a hospital bed, with everyone remarking at how bad ass he was for merely surviving the fight in chapter 1.

So, that's a thing.

[Malkuth]

I recommend checking out Larry's Grimnoir series. While it does contains a bit of gun-porn (this is LC after all) it focuses more on the superpowers and 1930s pulp hijinks. I also mostly agree with you in regards to Abercrombies stuff Spike. I pretty much hated all the characters in the First Law series. Sure this might be the authors intention, but it doesn't really make me want to read any more about them. Contrast Logan and Bayaz with say Karsa Orlong and Shadowthrone from Malazan. Both pairs are morally detestable beings, however the latter duo are far more likable characters in my opinion.

Recently I have alternated between R A Lafferty's corpus of work, and Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood cycle. Jungian archetypes and supernaturally empowered neanderthals abound. Also, just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Sleeping Giant which was a nice one off.

[Spike]

I'll probably revisit Larry, since I've liked his work on Warmachine and his online essays/rants for some time, and I've heard he moved away from the Self Insert that so grated in MHI.

One day I'll have to check out the Malazan stuff, since i've been hearing its praises for... hmm... a decade or so?  I dunno... I took almost 15 years off from reading because so much of new stuff was so stuffed with bullshit I couldn't stand any of it anymore... this from a guy who would put away a new paperback nearly every day.

[Malkuth]

I know how you feel in regards to the sheer amount of dreck that is being released these days. I hold off reading certain Gene Wolfe and Tim Powers novels so that I know that even if nothing good is coming out in the next little while I have something to look forward to. Malazan is huge, sprawling and has far from perfect but it is absolutely worth the read if you have the time.

[Omega]

For those that like the older R.E Howard style Planet Romance style tales, while going through my roommates book collection after her death was reminded that she had a nice collection of A. Merritt's books. I have only two. The Moon Pool, and Fox Woman which I believe have mentioned before. Kat also had The Face in the Abyss and her own copies of The Moon Pool and Fox Woman. And others. I believe Dwellers in the Mirage. Merritt's writings influenced other writers of the era. Lovecraft for example really liked Dwellers in the Mirage for its alien aspects.

The Moon Pool, from 1918, is an interesting one as it sprawls all over the place and follows a pair of travellers, The main hero, an Irish pilot. And his friend, a scientist. After alot of mishaps they end up transported to an underground world and face off against an ancient race and their creation. Overall it was a good read. but I ended up disliking the main character because he was so closed minded.

Face in the Abyss, written in 1923, I liked alot more and has an adventurer descend into an ancient underground civilization and contends with the machinations of an imprisoned demigod. Also notable as one of the prominent characters on the heroe's side is the lamia or yuan-ti-like Yu-Atlanchi. Note the slight similarity of names even to the D&D race.

Fox Woman I have not yet had a chance to read.

[Omega]

And for those who think gender bending established characters is a new thing...

Was recently reminded of a book that was in school way way the hell back in that bygone mythical era of the 70s.

Heraclea: a Legend of Warrior Women by award winning Bernard Evslin who did quite a number of books on mythology.
Heraclea is an odd one. It presents a sort of spin on the tale of Heracles and runs with the idea that the legends were based on an amazon woman named Heraclea who wanders the land and does most of the tasks Heracles is known for, but with odd twists and turns. It is actually not a bad book and is well written and Evslin puts his classical acumen to good use.