What are you reading? 2020
08-01-20, 10:20 AM
#151
Re: What are you reading? 2020
08-01-20, 10:30 AM
#152
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: What are you reading? 2020
I’m a sucker for time travel stories. This was a good, fun fluff read, but not something that’ll stick with me over the years. Basic story is there’s these time cops from 2150ish that monitor for timeline changes (usually made by people trying to make their ancestors wealthy) and go back to correct the changes and keep the timeline on track as much as possible. An agent on a mission to the 1990s ends up having his “space/time GPS” damaged, leaving him stuck. So he starts a new career and family. 18 years later, his old company finally finds him, and him having a family (especially a daughter that was never meant to exist) creates issues since it violated his non-interference oath. Hijinks ensue. It’s a fun read if you go in knowing it’s not high-brow literature. It’d probably make for a good limited series on a streaming service.
Check out the one I posted earlier, The Rise and Fall of DODO, it's somewhat similar in tone - "DODO" is a government organization trying to
Spoiler:
It's over 700 pages but moves pretty quickly and is a really fun read.
I just started John Grimes Survey Service series with
60s pulpy scifi.
08-01-20, 10:54 AM
#153
DVD Talk Hero
Thread Starter
Re: What are you reading? 2020
Two more John D. MacDonald books, The Green Ripper and Cinnamon Skin.
In the 1980s MacDonald has started continuity between books. In The Green Ripper, Travis McGee infiltrates a terrorist training camp in the California mountains and kills them all. There is a lot of discussion about where terrorists come from and how people are radicalized. Travis realizes that he got lucky, so in Free Fall in Crimson, he is more cautious, but his friend Meyer is psychologically wounded. The book has an unflattering depiction of Hollywood culture. It was written a year or two before a bad movie was made of his 1978 book The Empty Copper Sea, but there might have already been some anger. In Cinnamon Skin Meyer has been depressed for a year, but is kicked out of it when someone blows up the boat he lives on.
In the 1980s MacDonald has started continuity between books. In The Green Ripper, Travis McGee infiltrates a terrorist training camp in the California mountains and kills them all. There is a lot of discussion about where terrorists come from and how people are radicalized. Travis realizes that he got lucky, so in Free Fall in Crimson, he is more cautious, but his friend Meyer is psychologically wounded. The book has an unflattering depiction of Hollywood culture. It was written a year or two before a bad movie was made of his 1978 book The Empty Copper Sea, but there might have already been some anger. In Cinnamon Skin Meyer has been depressed for a year, but is kicked out of it when someone blows up the boat he lives on.
08-02-20, 12:51 AM
#154
Former Member
Re: What are you reading? 2020
Marc Zicree discusses the History of Science Fiction in Literature, with rare copies of these novels.
The first Science-Fiction I ever read was Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in High School.
The first Science-Fiction I ever read was Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in High School.
08-03-20, 01:39 PM
#157
DVD Talk Hero
Thread Starter
Re: What are you reading? 2020
The Lonely Silver Rain, which is the last Travis McGee Novel by John D. MacDonald.
It's excellent. You know how some series of books kind of peter out toward the end as they run out of good ideas? Or how it sometimes feels like the author is fulfilling a contractual obligation, grinding out another book? This book is one of the best. I'm sorry that there aren't any more.
It's excellent. You know how some series of books kind of peter out toward the end as they run out of good ideas? Or how it sometimes feels like the author is fulfilling a contractual obligation, grinding out another book? This book is one of the best. I'm sorry that there aren't any more.
08-04-20, 10:28 AM
#158
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Re: What are you reading? 2020
That sounds good, I like that type of story too.
Check out the one I posted earlier, The Rise and Fall of DODO, it's somewhat similar in tone - "DODO" is a government organization trying to
It's over 700 pages but moves pretty quickly and is a really fun read.
Check out the one I posted earlier, The Rise and Fall of DODO, it's somewhat similar in tone - "DODO" is a government organization trying to
Spoiler:
It's over 700 pages but moves pretty quickly and is a really fun read.
08-11-20, 01:45 PM
#161
Re: What are you reading? 2020
A couple of things finished:
I've read all of the "Joe Ledger" series (this is the 9th). Looking back on my goodreads ratings, I seem to oscillate between 4 and 3 stars (out of 5). For me, this is one of the lower ones in the series. It had a good idea for a theme (AI, robots, and nanotechnology). But for a series that's supposed to be about action, there was surprisingly little of it in 500+ pages. Half the book seemed to be the life-history of the villain and countless call outs to the other books in the series. It's hard for me to imagine a new reader not being annoyed by this, since you're constantly reminded how Joe Ledger's previous adventures were much more interesting than this one.
There are numerous cases of long-running series that I just tire of at a certain point. Though I really enjoyed the last book in the series, Kill Switch, so I'll give this another chance to pull me back in.
Also finished:
A bit of a departure for me, but all of the glowing reviews and monster best-seller status intrigued me. And the story and setting sounded interesting. And while the feminist romance aspects weren't my cup of tea, I liked the writing style and atmosphere (and the "murder mystery" part of the story had an interesting conclusion).
I've read all of the "Joe Ledger" series (this is the 9th). Looking back on my goodreads ratings, I seem to oscillate between 4 and 3 stars (out of 5). For me, this is one of the lower ones in the series. It had a good idea for a theme (AI, robots, and nanotechnology). But for a series that's supposed to be about action, there was surprisingly little of it in 500+ pages. Half the book seemed to be the life-history of the villain and countless call outs to the other books in the series. It's hard for me to imagine a new reader not being annoyed by this, since you're constantly reminded how Joe Ledger's previous adventures were much more interesting than this one.
There are numerous cases of long-running series that I just tire of at a certain point. Though I really enjoyed the last book in the series, Kill Switch, so I'll give this another chance to pull me back in.
Also finished:
A bit of a departure for me, but all of the glowing reviews and monster best-seller status intrigued me. And the story and setting sounded interesting. And while the feminist romance aspects weren't my cup of tea, I liked the writing style and atmosphere (and the "murder mystery" part of the story had an interesting conclusion).
08-14-20, 01:39 PM
#165
DVD Talk Hero
Thread Starter
Re: What are you reading? 2020
I've been working on The Waters of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris for a few months. Morris was one of the inventors of modern fantasy. Before Morris, fantasies took place long ago, or on the Moon, or around the corner in Fairyland. Morris invented the idea of a stand-alone world, one with no connection to our world.
You know how a lot of fantasy used to be written in an old-fashioned language? Morris started that too. The whole book is written in a fantastic archaic language, which is hard going. However, he was a poet and a translator of epics, so he has a lot better understanding of how words should go together, unlike some stuff I've read.
I'm enjoying the story, but the language slows me down. Here's the first page.
In part 1, a witch steals a baby. She raises the girl alone in a lonely house at the side of a lake. It's not a great childhood, but the girl acquires a fairy (or something) as a secret adult friend. When the girl is seventeen, she escapes. She had no food, no fire, no clothes or shoes. So she starts Part 2 with absolutely nothing but her good nature and her intelligence.
The protagonist is a refutation of the standard Victorian heroine, who was beautiful and graceful and useless. She is smart, courageous, and hard-working.
CS Lewis was obviously a fan, because The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is strongly influenced by this book.
You know how a lot of fantasy used to be written in an old-fashioned language? Morris started that too. The whole book is written in a fantastic archaic language, which is hard going. However, he was a poet and a translator of epics, so he has a lot better understanding of how words should go together, unlike some stuff I've read.
I'm enjoying the story, but the language slows me down. Here's the first page.
THE FIRST PART: OF THE HOUSE OF CAPTIVITY.
CHAPTER I. CATCH AT UTTERHAY.
Whilom, as tells the tale, was a walled cheaping-town hight Utterhay, which was builded in a bight of the land a little off the great highway which went from over the mountains to the sea.
The said town was hard on the borders of a wood, which men held to be mighty great, or maybe measureless; though few indeed had entered it, and they that had, brought back tales wild and confused thereof.
Therein was neither highway nor byway, nor wood-reeve nor way-warden; never came chapman thence into Utterhay; no man of Utterhay was so poor or so bold that he durst raise the hunt therein; no outlaw durst flee thereto; no man of God had such trust in the saints that he durst build him a cell in that wood.
For all men deemed it more than perilous; and some said that there walked the worst of the dead; othersome that the Goddesses of the Gentiles haunted there; others again that it was the faery rather, but they full of malice and guile. But most commonly it was deemed that the devils swarmed amidst of its thickets, and that wheresoever a man sought to, who was once environed by it, ever it was the Gate of Hell whereto he came. And the said wood was called Evilshaw.
CHAPTER I. CATCH AT UTTERHAY.
Whilom, as tells the tale, was a walled cheaping-town hight Utterhay, which was builded in a bight of the land a little off the great highway which went from over the mountains to the sea.
The said town was hard on the borders of a wood, which men held to be mighty great, or maybe measureless; though few indeed had entered it, and they that had, brought back tales wild and confused thereof.
Therein was neither highway nor byway, nor wood-reeve nor way-warden; never came chapman thence into Utterhay; no man of Utterhay was so poor or so bold that he durst raise the hunt therein; no outlaw durst flee thereto; no man of God had such trust in the saints that he durst build him a cell in that wood.
For all men deemed it more than perilous; and some said that there walked the worst of the dead; othersome that the Goddesses of the Gentiles haunted there; others again that it was the faery rather, but they full of malice and guile. But most commonly it was deemed that the devils swarmed amidst of its thickets, and that wheresoever a man sought to, who was once environed by it, ever it was the Gate of Hell whereto he came. And the said wood was called Evilshaw.
The protagonist is a refutation of the standard Victorian heroine, who was beautiful and graceful and useless. She is smart, courageous, and hard-working.
CS Lewis was obviously a fan, because The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is strongly influenced by this book.
Last edited by Nick Danger; 08-14-20 at 01:51 PM.
08-15-20, 10:03 PM
#166
DVD Talk Legend
Re: What are you reading? 2020
I’m a sucker for time travel stories. This was a good, fun fluff read, but not something that’ll stick with me over the years. Basic story is there’s these time cops from 2150ish that monitor for timeline changes (usually made by people trying to make their ancestors wealthy) and go back to correct the changes and keep the timeline on track as much as possible. An agent on a mission to the 1990s ends up having his “space/time GPS” damaged, leaving him stuck. So he starts a new career and family. 18 years later, his old company finally finds him, and him having a family (especially a daughter that was never meant to exist) creates issues since it violated his non-interference oath. Hijinks ensue. It’s a fun read if you go in knowing it’s not high-brow literature. It’d probably make for a good limited series on a streaming service.
I finished Animal Farm. If I read it in grade or high school, I remember none of it. I'm familiar with the common ideas and it was fun to see how they came about. A quick and easy read. And now on to Here and Now and Then!
08-17-20, 10:35 AM
#168
DVD Talk Reviewer
Join Date: Feb 2001
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Re: What are you reading? 2020
Just started:
This one came to me thru a horror subscription service I get monthly, but the promise of Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America seems wonderfully weird....
This one came to me thru a horror subscription service I get monthly, but the promise of Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America seems wonderfully weird....
08-21-20, 01:41 AM
#170
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Re: What are you reading? 2020
I snagged this off Ebay based on your review. I'm really in the mood for something lighter - and time travel-y!
I finished Animal Farm. If I read it in grade or high school, I remember none of it. I'm familiar with the common ideas and it was fun to see how they came about. A quick and easy read. And now on to Here and Now and Then!
I finished Animal Farm. If I read it in grade or high school, I remember none of it. I'm familiar with the common ideas and it was fun to see how they came about. A quick and easy read. And now on to Here and Now and Then!
I just finished this up. Didn’t know anything about it other than it involved this mystery affliction that causes a group of people to start sleepwalking together. Turns out there’s a LOT more going on than I had expected, including a plague that jumps from bats to humans (it was released last year, prior to Covid). Really good book.
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Tom Banjo (08-27-20)
08-23-20, 04:20 PM
#172
Re: What are you reading? 2020
I just finished this up. Didn’t know anything about it other than it involved this mystery affliction that causes a group of people to start sleepwalking together. Turns out there’s a LOT more going on than I had expected, including a plague that jumps from bats to humans (it was released last year, prior to Covid). Really good book.
Just finished a couple (by authors I had never read before):
I didn't read Bird Box (though I saw the movie). For some reason, I hesitate to read books after I see the movie ... although I have no problem going in the opposite direction. Anyway, I didn't really care for this. I never bought into the general premise, which kept reminding me of that Seinfeld episode where George suddenly becomes a genius after giving up thinking about sex. Maybe it would've worked better if the author built up any mystery about what was going on. I see Josh Malerman has written a number of other books that sound interesting ... but now I'm hesitant to devote more valuable reading them to try another.
Also finished:
This I liked a lot. It takes a while to get into the fantasy/horror elements, but I thought the slow-burn character development and atmosphere paid off in the end.
Last edited by brainee; 08-23-20 at 07:36 PM.
08-24-20, 11:16 PM
#174
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Re: What are you reading? 2020
Btw, I’m with you on your other statement... I also have a hard time committing my time and energy to reading a book if I’ve already seen the movie or tv adaption. If it’s reasonably faithful to the book, at least, I find it hard to justify giving so many hours to reading a story that I already know.
08-26-20, 11:42 AM
#175
Moderator
Re: What are you reading? 2020
Just started this. My 5th Winchester book I think. His non-fiction stories often read as great adventure tales. Recommend him when I can.
