What are you reading right now?

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phongn
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by phongn »

Finished reading Charles Stross' The Laundry series - a world where extradimensional Cthulhoid horrors are real, P=NP, and maths is the key to magic (which can let you also summon demons and other terrible things. Think about what that means in an era of fast and easy computation). The world is lurching to a 70-year era where the stars dim and the eyes of baddies open, and its up to a bunch of secret (and overly bureaucratic) intelligence agencies to try to keep the world from ending. It's a fun read with each major book an homage to something in the spy or action genre.

Also going through Tim Powers' Declare, which is sort of like the above, but with a more Le Carré Cold War take on the genre.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by weemadando »

I'm glad someone else finally picked up Declare after me shouting about it from the rooftops.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by phongn »

weemadando wrote:I'm glad someone else finally picked up Declare after me shouting about it from the rooftops.
I've missed much of this thread so it wasn't your suggestion (rather, me reading the Laundry series and finding out about Declare). It's certainly written better than Stross' work (no insult to him, but Powers is sharper pretty much everywhere).
Spoiler
I wonder how Andrew and Elana will handle each other now - and if perhaps there is a salad waiting for them in Turkey.
As for the Laundry and darkness, Case Nightmare Green is coming mid-series (planned arc of 9, plus side-stories) and will probably make things rather unpleasant, to say the least.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by AMT »

Twilight.

Ha! No, I'm kidding.
Rereading the Dune series of novels. On God Emperor of Dune right now.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by weemadando »

AMT wrote:Twilight.

Ha! No, I'm kidding.
Rereading the Dune series of novels. On God Emperor of Dune right now.
You would be better off reading Twilight.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by The Yosemite Bear »

starting to compare the two and imagined that oh the pedowolf would befine she was born with all the memories of a revrend mother.....
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by AMT »

weemadando wrote:
AMT wrote:Twilight.

Ha! No, I'm kidding.
Rereading the Dune series of novels. On God Emperor of Dune right now.
You would be better off reading Twilight.
Eh, I plan to stop after God Emperor. Seems a fitting end.
Besides, Twilight was the first book in about 20 years that I stopped reading. On purpose. And I've read some shit. I literally could not continue it about a quarter of the way through.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Haruko »

Liked Dune, but only read the first novel. How was Dune Messiah?
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by AMT »

Haruko wrote:Liked Dune, but only read the first novel. How was Dune Messiah?
Not nearly as good as the first. It's an interesting read, but the later books are much more... I wouldn't say ponderous, but paced slower. Lots more discussion compared to Dune... or at the least it feels that way.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Haruko »

By the way, have you seen the miniseries Children of Dune based on the books Dune Messiah and Children of Dune? I liked this miniseries, so it made me wonder if the books are worth a look see. I thought the book for Dune was far better than the film adaptations (a lot more nuance for example, especially for the dinner table scene early in the story, and the scene where Paul slays a Fremen and sheds tears after being chided by his mother). Ironically, I suspect that the film Children of Dune is better than the books it is based on.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by AMT »

Haruko wrote:By the way, have you seen the miniseries Children of Dune based on the books Dune Messiah and Children of Dune? I liked this miniseries, so it made me wonder if the books are worth a look see. I thought the book for Dune was far better than the film adaptations (a lot more nuance for example, especially for the dinner table scene early in the story, and the scene where Paul slays a Fremen and sheds tears after being chided by his mother). Ironically, I suspect that the film Children of Dune is better than the books it is based on.
I watched the series yes, and I have to agree with your assessment on it. If you liked the series, I think you'll like the books.
I do wish they'd continued past children of dune/dune messiah though...
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by weemadando »

phongn wrote:
weemadando wrote:I'm glad someone else finally picked up Declare after me shouting about it from the rooftops.
I've missed much of this thread so it wasn't your suggestion (rather, me reading the Laundry series and finding out about Declare). It's certainly written better than Stross' work (no insult to him, but Powers is sharper pretty much everywhere).
Spoiler
I wonder how Andrew and Elana will handle each other now - and if perhaps there is a salad waiting for them in Turkey.
As for the Laundry and darkness, Case Nightmare Green is coming mid-series (planned arc of 9, plus side-stories) and will probably make things rather unpleasant, to say the least.
Did you ever read the Merchant Princes series? If you want an idea of just how badly Stross is willing to have his worlds go, check that out.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Darth Quorthon »

I'm currently reading The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday machine. I'm also trying to finish Martin's A Dance with Dragons but I'm finding it a bit ponderous.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Guardsman Bass »

I've done selective chapter reading in Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan. I'm losing interest in the topic in general, but certain chapters in the book were extremely interesting, particularly the chapter on how USAID and the distortions created by dumping a ton of aid money in the country.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Gandalf »

Guardsman Bass wrote:I'm now reading Michael Lewis's Moneyball. The book was written in 2003, so it's interesting to think about what has happened since then. Unfortunately for the Oakland A's, the advantages of Sabermetrics disappeared once everybody started doing it - they haven't had a winning season in the past 4 years.
I'm reading that now.

For anyone browing this thread, could I please get an idea of what scouting was like before this? Did they really just look at "he has good form" or "he hits well" as opposed to a ton of numbers?
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Dalton »

I don't know if I should continue on with Burroughs' Barsoom series. I have mixed feelings about it.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by weemadando »

Apocalypse Codex has landed on my Kindle, but I'm finishing off How to Get Away With Murder in America by Evan Wright. Here's the description:
This is a story that the CIA will not want you to read. It will likely shake your faith in the highest levels of America’s national security establishment. And it will leave you feeling as if you are living not in the United States but in a seedy banana republic where there is no line between the good guys and the bad guys.

In “How to Get Away with Murder in America,” the celebrated journalist Evan Wright reveals the extraordinary story of Enrique “Ricky” Prado, an alleged killer for a major Miami drug trafficker who was recruited into the CIA. Despite a grand jury subpoena and a mountain of evidence unearthed by a federal task force, Prado was promoted into the agency’s highest echelons and charged with implementing some of the country’s most sensitive post-9/11 counterterrorist operations, including the agency’s secret “targeted assassination unit.” All while staying in close touch with his cocaine-trafficking boss and, evidence suggests, taking part in additional killings for him.

After Prado retired in 2004 at the rank of SIS-2—the CIA equivalent of a two-star general—he moved to a senior position at Blackwater, the private military contractor, where he continued to run the same, now-outsourced “death squad.” Contrary to government assurances that it was never actually activated, Wright reveals explosive testimony from one of the Blackwater assassins that Prado’s unit was indeed carrying out assigned killings. As a former military intelligence officer told Wright in 2011, “Private contractors are whacking people like crazy over in Afghanistan for the CIA.”

In “How to Get Away with Murder in America,” Wright discloses never-before-seen federal investigation files and lays out a mind-boggling and ultimately damning indictment of Ricky Prado and the intelligence community that embraced and empowered him. It is the deeply disturbing story of a criminal case abandoned because of CIA intervention, political maneuvering, and possibly corruption. Its cast includes Mafia capos, former U.S. Senator Bob Graham, former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, former CNN host Rick Sanchez, and Prado’s longtime boss at the CIA and then Blackwater, J. Cofer Black, who is now a “special adviser” to presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Wright also delivers a stunning portrait of Prado’s childhood friend Albert San Pedro, a.k.a. “the Maniac,” the drug lord whom he served for years as loyal bodyguard and enforcer, as well as their longtime nemesis Mike Fisten, the detective who began pursuing them more than two decades ago and still hopes to put them both in prison for murder.

There are many conspiracies in Wright’s story, all of them unsettling. Did the CIA knowingly hire a suspected murderer with strong ties to drug traffickers? Or was the agency a stooge, infiltrated by an underworld hood described by one investigator as “technically, a serial killer”?

“How to Get Away with Murder in America” is likely to have serious repercussions for the U.S. national security establishment. And it will shake to the core your conceptions of government and justice in America.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Haruko »

Kenzaburo Oe's A Personal Matter.

I was searching for celebrated, contemporary Japanese novels, and Oe's Nobel Prize winning work was one of the results. A Personal Matter is described as "the story of Bird, a frustrated intellectual in a failing marriage whose utopian dream is shattered when his wife gives birth to a brain-damaged child" (back cover).

Also picked up Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by InnerBrat »

Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys.

It is hitting ALL MY BUTTONS right now. Legacy! Destiny! Kickass girls with uncles!
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Skywalker_T-65 »

I'm reading the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson right now. I've read all the books short of the newest one, Iron Grey Sea, and they are actually really good books. I was a little leery about reading them at first (sentient raptors vs. sentient Giant Lemurs with WW2 humans helping them? :? ) but once I got started I couldn't stop. Anderson is a surprisingly good author, and has managed to make this seemingly crazy idea work really well.

I highly recommend these books in other words. :D
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Darth Nostril »

Just devoured The Apocalypse Codex after my return to civilization.
phongn wrote:As for the Laundry and darkness, Case Nightmare Green is coming mid-series (planned arc of 9, plus side-stories) and will probably make things rather unpleasant, to say the least.
That's the first I've heard of it being a 9 book arc. Just had a nerdgasm.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Randalthorpk »

at the moment im actualy Rereading the elfhome series (almost through wolf who rules for the second time) so I can read Elfhome and actualy fit everything together, at the same time im rereading the Safehold series in preperation for the release of the next book (same reason as above), and I just finished reading the Bahezll series (Oath of Swords, War Gods Own, Windriders Oath, and Warmaids Choice)
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Haruko »

Been reading school books. But when that is done, I will finally read Seymour Martin Lipset's and Gary Marks' It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States. Been wondering that for a long while.
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Darth Nostril »

Dalton wrote:I don't know if I should continue on with Burroughs' Barsoom series. I have mixed feelings about it.
The later books get progressively worse in quality, if you're struggling now then don't bother with the rest.
Same goes for a fair few of the 'classics', for example the last two books of the Lensman series are complete pants.
So I stare wistfully at the Lightning for a couple of minutes. Two missiles, sharply raked razor-thin wings, a huge, pregnant belly full of fuel, and the two screamingly powerful engines that once rammed it from a cold start to a thousand miles per hour in under a minute. Life would be so much easier if our adverseries could be dealt with by supersonic death on wings - but alas, Human resources aren't so easily defeated.

Imperial Battleship, halt the flow of time!

My weird shit NSFW
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Re: What are you reading right now?

Post by Dalton »

Darth Nostril wrote:
Dalton wrote:I don't know if I should continue on with Burroughs' Barsoom series. I have mixed feelings about it.
The later books get progressively worse in quality, if you're struggling now then don't bother with the rest.
Same goes for a fair few of the 'classics', for example the last two books of the Lensman series are complete pants.
I don't know, I tore through Gods of Mars and I'm working on Warlord of Mars. I may stop there depending. Getting kinda sick of hearing about John Carter's undying love for Dejah Thoris.
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