What are you reading right now?

[Darth Nostril]

It does get rather trying, Warlord is a good place to stop Thuvia & Chessmen just drag out the agony, the former IIRC doesn't really involve John Carter it's mostly some never heard of before character's undying love for some other Martian beauty of heart stopping loveliness who must absolutely be saved from a fate worse than death. The latter drags up yet another evil foe for Carter to demolish to save his beloved red planet from yet another fate worse than death.
Burroughs succumbed to the law of diminishing returns with later books sucking sweaty donkey cocks.

[Dalton]

It does get rather trying, Warlord is a good place to stop Thuvia & Chessmen just drag out the agony, the former IIRC doesn't really involve John Carter it's mostly some never heard of before character's undying love for some other Martian beauty of heart stopping loveliness who must absolutely be saved from a fate worse than death. The latter drags up yet another evil foe for Carter to demolish to save his beloved red planet from yet another fate worse than death.
Burroughs succumbed to the law of diminishing returns with later books sucking sweaty donkey cocks.

I've kind of noticed that pattern. Thuvia was a slave rescued from the Therns in Gods of Mars; I think it's Carter's son Carthoris who has to go save her from peril. I wonder if they encounter the Blue Men of Mars who communicate not with words but elaborate instruments.

[Edi]

I read all the Barsoom books several times over when I was a kid. Thuvia, Maid of Mars is one of the most boring books of the series, but I rather liked Chessmen of Mars. After that, you can basically skip almost all of them, the only one I remember as being somewhat better was Llana of Gathol.

[The Grim Squeaker]

And for tonights reading trick - all 60 issues of Waren Ellis's "Transmetropolitan".
Good series! I enjoyed it. (I hadn't read it in the past due to thinking it was confused stuff by Grant Morrison).
Recomended!

Next up (apart from academic reading and study) - "Priests of Mars" by Graham McNeill, WH40K and the first book of the Macharian crusade - "Angel of fire". And some Python, and machine learning texts as soon as I find some.

[Dalton]

I read all the Barsoom books several times over when I was a kid. Thuvia, Maid of Mars is one of the most boring books of the series, but I rather liked Chessmen of Mars. After that, you can basically skip almost all of them, the only one I remember as being somewhat better was Llana of Gathol.

In every book so far John Carter effortlessly finds a few dudes with shaky faith, get them to abandon their religion and thus through them raises an army of <color> men to take down the Jeddak/Goddess/Holy Thern/Whatever. I mean c'mon, Tars Tarkas, Kantos Kan, Dator Xodar et cetera?

[Edi]

I read all the Barsoom books several times over when I was a kid. Thuvia, Maid of Mars is one of the most boring books of the series, but I rather liked Chessmen of Mars. After that, you can basically skip almost all of them, the only one I remember as being somewhat better was Llana of Gathol.

In every book so far John Carter effortlessly finds a few dudes with shaky faith, get them to abandon their religion and thus through them raises an army of <color> men to take down the Jeddak/Goddess/Holy Thern/Whatever. I mean c'mon, Tars Tarkas, Kantos Kan, Dator Xodar et cetera?

In the first three books, yes, and the same pattern repeats in Thuvia. John Carter doesn't appear as a primary character in Chessmen and the same is true of Llana of Gathol. There were also the one or two books where the main character is a different earthman, Ulysses Paxton, which I also liked better than some of the others with John Carter.

When you read any Burroughs books in general, you can see that same pattern repeating. Whether the Barsoom series, the Tarzan series or the Pellucidar series, they are very formulaic, though the Tarzan series is the greatest offender in this respect.

Note also that when I say I read them as a kid, I mean that. It was between 3rd and 7th grades, which was 23 to 28 years ago and some of my memories are no doubt colored by that fact.

[Dalton]

Weren't these originally serials?

[Darth Nostril]

Think you'll find that's true of a lot of older scifi, the only way to get published back then was via short story or serialisation in Astounding Tales etc.

[CaptHawkeye]

Chalk up another guy who finished Tooze's "Wages of Destruction". Now if only I could find a similar quality book on the economics of the Soviet Union.

[Vendetta]

Just finished The Apocalypse Codex, the latest Laundry Files novel by Charles Stross. Bob Howard continues to live in Interesting Times, thanks to the efforts of an evangelical preacher with a terminal case of mistaken identity as to what he's trying to hasten the second coming of, and all signs point to even more interestingness in the imminent future. (Imminent for Bob, doubt we'll see another book at least 2014, sequel to Saturn's Children is next year's business, though there is the collab with Cory Doctorow coming up pretty soon)

[InnerBrat]

About halfway through The Last Run , which is the third and final prose novel in the Queen and Country series. Tara Chace is currently treating her own bullet wound and collapsed lung on the roadside, having already administered a chest tube on the floor of a pharmacy she crashed a stolen car into, while fighting asphyxiation.

You wish your favorite character was this badass.

[Crazedwraith]

Currently re-reading Discworld City Watch books for the umpteemth time.

But new books i've read recently include... Master & Commander. The first Patrick O'Brien book. Much denser and harder to read than Forrester's Hornblower and not as good. Not helped by reading wiki and knowing that Aubrey's exploits exactly match the real life Cochrane's.

The other book is Changes of the Dresden Files. The first half of this book was very interesting in the way it pushes Harry's buttons and destroyes his life, driving hi mto the edge. The second half though was severely lacking in actuall pay off for me. A lot of tactics/action seemed borrowed from previous books and then end... meh. I spoiled myself on it and it didn't really affect me. Compare to Dance With Dragons where another event that I'd been spoiler on still felt like a punch to the gut when it actually happened.
Spoiler

Refering here to Harry's and Jon Snow's deaths

[Dalton]

Just picked up Anansi Boys during the NOOK sale last weekend. So far it's piqued my interest but I suspect like most Gaiman books it'll take a bit to really ramp up.

[InnerBrat]

Just picked up Anansi Boys during the NOOK sale last weekend. So far it's piqued my interest but I suspect like most Gaiman books it'll take a bit to really ramp up.

Have you read American Gods? It's not required, as it's not a strict sequel, but they're in the same universe.

[Dalton]

Just picked up Anansi Boys during the NOOK sale last weekend. So far it's piqued my interest but I suspect like most Gaiman books it'll take a bit to really ramp up.

Have you read American Gods? It's not required, as it's not a strict sequel, but they're in the same universe.

Fuck yes.

[InnerBrat]

Just picked up Anansi Boys during the NOOK sale last weekend. So far it's piqued my interest but I suspect like most Gaiman books it'll take a bit to really ramp up.

Have you read American Gods? It's not required, as it's not a strict sequel, but they're in the same universe.

Fuck yes.

Then you'll love Anansi Boys

[Edi]

Currently in the middle of David Anthony Durham's Acacia, which despite the somewhat intriguing premise is decidedly uninspiring in many ways. Somehow it just falls flat on its face in too many ways. I'm halfway through and not inclined to pick up the sequels.

Next on the list is the omnibus edition of Glen Cook's Darkwar. After which I'm probably going to reread the entire Black Company series, since I never got to read the last one. My copy was a misprint that had some 100 pages twice in succession, with the pages that should have been there missing, which was enough to introduce a nearly killing rage.

[FaxModem1]

Was reading Foundation, but put that down for now and I'm reading Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire. It's a little hard to be concerned about the story, as I have no non-movie characters I really care about, and I know what's going to happen to the movie characters in Return of the Jedi.

[Dalton]

Can anyone recommend some free Sci-Fi eBooks, e.g. must-read classics? Like from the Baen library or otherwise. Classic Sci-fi has a unique feel all its own.

(Yes, I'm still reading Anansi Boys but I'm a cheap-ass Kindle jockey looking for freebies)

[Darth Nostril]

Lots on Project Gutenburg, let me look up the link to the free Lensman set....

[Ahriman238]

How to Read Literature like a Professor.

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying this book as it takes a very thorough, straight-forward yet fun way of explaining how to look for hidden themes or allusions. With many examples and relating always to earlier in the book.

@Dalton: Mutineer's Moon and sequels are still on the Baen free Library. So's the entire Posleen War series, but it takes a special sort of mindset to really enjoy those.

[Dalton]

Thanks - I'll raid the library later

Edit: I see only the first two Posleen books and the first Dahak book as free...?

[InnerBrat]

Rob, have you tried NYPL's website? They have a collection of epubs available through a digitization process with Google and a lending system.

Though I'm buggered if I know how the lending e-book system works. Let me know if you try it!

[Darth Nostril]

Dalton try here for the Dahak series (it's all three books in a single volume - and yes it's legit)

[Dalton]

Thanks - I just emailed it to my Kindle.