[Williams]

Just a simple little thread where you can post the books you are reading at the moment.

Whether its good or bad let everyone know your thoughts

Me first: Reading Kobayashi Maru on and off but finising off a Stephen Baxter novel called Anti-Ice a victorian setting where a material called anti-ice (with nuclear like properties) has advanced technology. To the rate that a space ship has been sent into space around 1860. Told from the 19th century perspective, a simple bit of fun. I'm still not sure if im getting on with Kobayashi yet..

[Irene Brustad]

Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

[Barbara]

I'm reading "The Trouble with Tribbles" the story behind the birth, sale, and final production of one episode in Star Trek history, by David Gerrold (1973).

Picked it up for a penny!!!!! It's out of print.

[Terilynn]

I am reading the last ten pages of Star Trek Destiny, Book One Gods of Night.

[Squidman458]

I'm reading the Trek United forums! I know things have been crazy, but I really miss the TU news updates. Also reading Huck Finn. Interesting read as an adult.

[Captain_Hair]

Joseph M. Steinbrunner, on Sep 30 2008, 06:55 PM, said:

I'm reading the Trek United forums! I know things have been crazy, but I really miss the TU news updates. Also reading Huck Finn. Interesting read as an adult.

They'll be back soon. I'm reading... well, a ridiculously expensive calculus textbooks. Whoo.

[Terilynn]

Captain_Hair, on Sep 30 2008, 05:16 PM, said:

They'll be back soon. I'm reading... well, a ridiculously expensive calculus textbooks. Whoo.

*hands CH a razor blade* Here it's faster and more effective...

[Captain_Hair]

Terilynn, on Sep 30 2008, 08:07 PM, said:

*hands CH a razor blade* Here it's faster and more effective...

Gracias, my lady. *debates whether to use razor on self or book*

[mlaz]

Just keep that razor away from my book.


The book I am reading is: De blanke Masai by Corinne Hoffman.

[ensign edwards]

"The Word and the Void: book one, Running with the Demon" by Terry Brooks. This is the first contemporary fantasy book I've ever read (I don't think Harry Potter counts), and I'm not quite sure what to think of it. Normally, I'm a high fantasy man.

[Terilynn]

^Modern fantasy? It sounds...weird. Highlanderish or blade runner-ish? Neither?

I think I'm going to go buy that graphic novel about the little warrior mice...it looked very cool and I need something way different from Destiny.

So - without having to use the spoilers (since you all know what I hate about the book already) I will be reading the second book because when you surgically remove the bad parts, the story on the whole is actually pretty compelling.

We shall see. Next book doesn't come out for awhile. So I just got those CDs of all the Trek comics...I think I'll peruse those....

[ensign edwards]

Quote

^Modern fantasy? It sounds...weird. Highlanderish or blade runner-ish? Neither?

Since I'm not terribly familiar with either of those, I couldn't really tell you. Right now, it seems sort of inspired by Christian mythology. The Word is sort of like God, and the Void is sort of like the Devil. It's really not that different from Brooks's other books, from what I can see, but instead of being set in a magic kingdom or post-apocalyptic Seattle, it's set in smalltown Illinois in the present day.

[Terilynn]

ensign edwards, on Oct 1 2008, 10:00 AM, said:

Since I'm not terribly familiar with either of those, I couldn't really tell you. Right now, it seems sort of inspired by Christian mythology. The Word is sort of like God, and the Void is sort of like the Devil. It's really not that different from Brooks's other books, from what I can see, but instead of being set in a magic kingdom or post-apocalyptic Seattle, it's set in smalltown Illinois in the present day.

*Shrugs* tell me how it goes...

[ensign edwards]

^Okay, well, I just finished it.

Overall, it wasn't a bad book, but I had some problems with it. Personally, I just have a lot of trouble suspending my disbelief with modern fantasy. It's easy for me to believe that magic works in Middle Earth or Santhenar or some other made up world, but I know for a fact that there are no sorcerers and demons roving the US. I think that urban fantasy (another word for the subgenre) is best done in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner. That's one of the things I like about the Hellboy movies; you don't have to take them in a fully serious way because they don't take themselves in a fully serious way.

The pacing is also very slow (although it's sufficiently well done that you don't notice it too much), and I found the twist at the end to be very predictable.

I might finish the trilogy (because it's technically part of the Shannara universe, if nothing else), but it's not going done as one of my favourites.

Anyway, now I'm reading "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay. It's the first non-SF/fantasy novel I've read in, well... ever, maybe. I can't remember another. It's the basis for the first season of Dexter, a TV show I love.

[Barbara]

I have officially finished all 12 books in a mini-series by Ted Dekker. Some - were very good. Some - were horrible. I could barely get through them. The first one I read was the best. Really liked it. He should have stopped there.

Now, I'm at a standstill. I'm sick in bed, and no books to read. That is the ultimate nightmare. I do have a book a friend gave to me called Capture the Wind for Me by Brandilyn Collins. Anyone ever read it? I'd rather have a SciFi novel in my hands right now. I could re-read a ST novel. I only have a hundred or so in the house.

[fastillion]

Hahaha, I'm reading stacks. And stacks. And stacks of operators manuals for the engines, trucks, tiller-trucks, pumpers, and MS-Devices.
><><><
Oh man....

[Barbara]

fastillion, on Oct 26 2008, 04:17 PM, said:

Hahaha, I'm reading stacks. And stacks. And stacks of operators manuals for the engines, trucks, tiller-trucks, pumpers, and MS-Devices.
><><><
Oh man....

Maybe that would make me sleep better!

[Irene Brustad]

wops! Wrong thread, hehehe

This post has been edited by Irene Brustad: 27 October 2008 - 03:16 AM

[ensign edwards]

I'm reading "The Tides of Fate, book one: The Tower of Shadows" by Drew Bowling.

[Plazmataz]

I'm on a short stories kick at the moment. I just finished Heinlein's The Menace from Earth, and now I've started The Man Who Sold the Moon.

Heinlein is my favorite author...