sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Mar 20, 2017 14:07:56 GMT -8
Working on Columbus Day now. Slow starter. Almost done. I waver between this being amusing, and stupid.
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Post by chronovore on Mar 20, 2017 17:27:45 GMT -8
I hear you. In contrast, I just finished a military SF novel, and started another military SF novel, and because the writing styles are similar I keep waiting for the established bad guys from the other series to show up. I've only read the first Malazan book but, yeah, it's a very different tone from Locke Lamorra. Ever read Altered Carbon? Its a good series. SF/Cyberpunk/Detective Yeah, I loved it. Also the author's other non-Kovacs book, THIRTEEN. Actually, I read Altered Carbon and then Anthony Kiedis' addiction-focused biography, Scar Tissue; in effect, I read Altered Carbon and then about an altered cabrón.
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sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Mar 21, 2017 6:14:27 GMT -8
Oh, hey... I have a free Kindle download this month. Any suggestions?
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Post by sovereigncitizenkane on Mar 21, 2017 10:04:03 GMT -8
Oh, hey... I have a free Kindle download this month. Any suggestions? You want Fiction or non-fiction?
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sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Mar 21, 2017 12:07:45 GMT -8
Whatever. Just something worth readin'.
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Post by chronovore on Mar 21, 2017 16:47:12 GMT -8
Whatever. Just something worth readin'. What authors do you normally enjoy? I don't want to recommend Elmore Leonard if you're a fan of Jane Austen.
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sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Mar 23, 2017 6:27:14 GMT -8
Audible's having a 2-for-1 sale right now.
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Post by sovereigncitizenkane on Mar 23, 2017 10:57:32 GMT -8
As far as non-fiction I've been enjoying The Nine, Murder in the Supreme Court and Satan's Silence (Always had an interest in the Satanic Panic).
Fiction, I always recommend Alas, Babylon or Civilized Monsters. Also been getting into LitRPGs lately but it's a lot of piss poor writing.
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Post by chronovore on Mar 23, 2017 16:45:44 GMT -8
I finished The Lost Fleet: Dauntless yesterday. It was taught and enjoyable, though Campbell repeats some phrases or character habits excessively. It sometimes felt like a cross between a Horatio Hornblower novel and Idiocracy; the troops Black Jack must lead are at times caricatures: churlish, disrespectful, prideful, and foolish. The reasons for it are logically drive – but so was the societal decline in Idiocracy.
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Post by chronovore on Mar 23, 2017 18:15:31 GMT -8
Audible's having a 2-for-1 sale right now. I got in on it for The Gods of HP Lovecraft and War Dogs. Instead of the latter, I'd meant to click on the urban fiction collection, Mean Streets, and didn't notice before checkout. I was curious about War Dogs anyway, so I'm keeping it.
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Post by sovereigncitizenkane on Mar 23, 2017 20:01:36 GMT -8
Audible's having a 2-for-1 sale right now. I got in on it for The Gods of HP Lovecraft and War Dogs. Instead of the latter, I'd meant to click on the urban fiction collection, Mean Streets, and didn't notice before checkout. I was curious about War Dogs anyway, so I'm keeping it. The one by Guy Larson about the Gun Runners?
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Post by chronovore on Mar 24, 2017 23:37:37 GMT -8
I got in on it for The Gods of HP Lovecraft and War Dogs. Instead of the latter, I'd meant to click on the urban fiction collection, Mean Streets, and didn't notice before checkout. I was curious about War Dogs anyway, so I'm keeping it. The one by Guy Larson about the Gun Runners? I don't think so... it was a collection of four novellas.
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sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Mar 26, 2017 18:15:37 GMT -8
Finishing the second book of Expeditionary Force, Spec Ops.
Expeditionary Force has the supreme benefit of being read by R.C. Bray (he did The Martian). The premise is that an alien race invades Earth, another alien race invades shortly thereafter and chases the first race off, and we hail our New Alien Overlords as saviors. Humanity then offers up our military forces to the second group of aliens to help go fight the first guys.
The central character is Joe Bishop, a US Army grunt.
About 2/3 thru the first book, Columbus Day, he finds (SPOILERS) a superintelligent AI left behind by the progenitor Elders. This AI is also an asshole, so Bishop names him Skippy to take him down a notch. This Deus Ex Machina in a box is what makes be flip between hating and loving the series; loving it because Skippy is such a 'lovable' sarcastic asshole; hating it because his existence in the first book pretty much removes all difficulty from obstacles (labeling him Deus Ex Machina is pretty literal, here - at one point he basically destroys an alien starship task force by himself). The second book, the author dials back his omnipotence a lot, but then makes up for it by making Joe Bishop the luckiest goddamn man in the galaxy.
That said, I can't wait to buy the next one, so...
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Post by ayslyn on Mar 26, 2017 20:07:18 GMT -8
Listening to the third book in Ian Douglas' Star Carrier series. It has similar flaws to the Lost Fleet books (he LOVES to explain time delay in space battles), but like the Lost Fleet books his stuff is fun. His books about the Marines (starting with Semper Mars) were excellent.
He's VERY Ameri-centric (not in a 'MURICA!!! sort of way), so that could, I suppose, turn some people off.
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Mar 26, 2017 22:50:26 GMT -8
Currently reading IQ84 (big book, but quite intriguing) 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami? Have to say I was rather unimpressed by it, it just failed to grab me in the slightest. I've just finished an alt-history book called United States of Japan, was OK but nothing amazing. Just about to start The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, have heard good thing about it. Also got a pile of early pre-50's sci-fi waiting to be read at some point. Just started this and I'm really enjoying a Chinese take on science fiction thus far!
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