Book Me, Dano.

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

Well, I always wanted to be well hung.


These are the Voyages Season 2, a making of history of the second year of the original Star Trek, is out now on Kindle and downloaded. Hopefully it'll avoid the proff reading and fact checking problems the first book had as there were all sorts of memos and production notes reprinted for the first time that were so interesting the slightly dodgy surrounding text was even more annoying.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Rack 'n Ruin
Posts: 1193
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:31 pm
Location: Debris, UK

Post by Rack 'n Ruin »

inflatable dalek wrote:...proff reading...
Comedy gold! :lol:
Wreck and Rule!
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

Rack 'n Ruin wrote:Comedy gold! :lol:
I didn't charge you a tenner for that though did I?

Though now I will, pay up bitch!
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Heinrad
Posts: 6281
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2001 5:00 am
Location: Riskin' it all on my Russian Roulette!

Post by Heinrad »

Finished Dave Barry Hits below the Beltway, and have now started on the Doctor Who New Adventures novel that I got when I got the Dave Barry book, Shadowmind, by first time author and regular cover painter Christopher Bulis, if the text on the back cover is to be believed.

I had forgotten how generally serious the NA books were. Even the pure comedy of Benny and Ace peering into the console room because Benny had wandered in earlier to ask the Doctor something and had a weird, momentary flash of the first Doctor standing at the console seems somber and dark.
As a professional tanuki (I'm a Japanese mythological animal, and a good luck charm), I have an alarm clock built into me somewhere. I also look like a stuffed animal. And you thought your life was tough......

3DS Friend Code: 1092-1274-7642
User avatar
Heinrad
Posts: 6281
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2001 5:00 am
Location: Riskin' it all on my Russian Roulette!

Post by Heinrad »

Having finished Shadowmind, I started reading Mr. Monk in Trouble by Lee Goldberg, based on the TV series Monk.

I wish the guy was still writing these. I also wish Monk was still on the air.
As a professional tanuki (I'm a Japanese mythological animal, and a good luck charm), I have an alarm clock built into me somewhere. I also look like a stuffed animal. And you thought your life was tough......

3DS Friend Code: 1092-1274-7642
User avatar
HeavyArms
Protoform
Posts: 2207
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:00 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

Post by HeavyArms »

Recently bought the third installment of Karen Traviss' Halo trilogy; Kilo Five: Mortal Dictata, from Robinson's Book Store.
Destruction is my specialty
User avatar
HeavyArms
Protoform
Posts: 2207
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:00 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

Post by HeavyArms »

Bought Star Wars The Old Republic: Revan, which is a sequel to the KOTOR video games, from Robinson's Book Store.
Destruction is my specialty
User avatar
Dead Man Wade
Posts: 4890
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:15 pm
Location: Funny location

Post by Dead Man Wade »

I've started reading my daughter Good Omens each night before bed. I figure it's only a short time before she's insisting on Go Dog Go!, so I might as well make use of the time I have.
User avatar
Skyquake87
Protoform
Posts: 3986
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:34 am

Post by Skyquake87 »

I am currently reading The Crisis Of Innovation In Water And Wastewater, an academic book from ten years ago, but one I've found very useful in filling out my background knowledge about my work. So uh, bit of a busman's holiday. A bit like when I watched the Watermen on BBC2.
User avatar
HeavyArms
Protoform
Posts: 2207
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:00 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

Post by HeavyArms »

Bought Tolkien's The Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth last week and this week I bought the first installment in Karen Traviss' Halo Kilo Team trilogy: Glass lands.
Destruction is my specialty
User avatar
Heinrad
Posts: 6281
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2001 5:00 am
Location: Riskin' it all on my Russian Roulette!

Post by Heinrad »

Having just finished Small Vices by Robert B. Parker, I'm now starting The Professional, also by Parker.
As a professional tanuki (I'm a Japanese mythological animal, and a good luck charm), I have an alarm clock built into me somewhere. I also look like a stuffed animal. And you thought your life was tough......

3DS Friend Code: 1092-1274-7642
User avatar
Sades
Posts: 9483
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2001 5:00 am
Location: I APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE

Post by Sades »

I'm NOT reading Game of Thrones, because Hound wants me to hurry up and read it so we can watch the TV show. Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk.

(Truth be told, I've got it started.)

The rest are comics. Reading The Walking Dead and the new Justice League United solely for Equinox. Collecting it mainly for the small one, as aspiring to be a super heroine is far cooler than aspiring to be a princess.

I just hope they don't kill her off in some horrible fashion, that would be majorly lame.

Oh, and Miracleman.
This is my signature. My wasted space. My little corner. You can't have it. It's mine. I can write whatever I want. And I have!
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

Not a book as such, but an unabridged audio book reading of Terry Nation's Survivors novel!



First up, Carolyn Seymour does a very good job on reading duties, in particular capturing Lucy Fleming surprisingly well.

The first segment is basically a straightforward adaptation of the first two episodes, and as this some of the best material Nation ever wrote it's impressively strong and makes for a gripping listen, especially with all the little details that they couldn't have afforded on TV.

The rest of the book- with one odd exception- sees Nation strike out on his own and it's hard not to read it as his rebuttal of what Terrance Dudley did to the first season as it went on. The most obvious dig at the show's producer is that the central dilemma of the first episode Nation didn't write (with Charles trying to get all the women to set up with multiple partners) is casually adopted by one of the characters here with no problem or comment from anybody else as if it's the most insignificant thing in the world.

(And yes, it's only characters created by Nation, there's a Ruth but she's so unlike the Doctor from year 2 it could just be a coincidence).

So the scale is not only bigger- with a quick side visit to those holed up in Piccadilly- but Nation's firm ideas of where the series should have gone and what it should have done are extremely to the fore. It's nice that George Baker's group are a recurring background threat as well, the series seemed to set him up as a main baddy and then he was only mentioned once afterwards (Dudley's influence again?).

Mind, that plot doesn't get any real sort of payoff, and the ending is clearly trying so hard to be shocking but instead just feels like Nation ran out of space (the "Twist" is also really obvious, hmmmm, I wonder why one of the four people following them is very carefully not named?), it's also ironic the book finishes at the point it was really venturing into territory the show couldn't have afforded. Mind, it's also territory Brian Clemens wanted to do with his original idea for a post plague series he claims Nation stole, if he'd have read the book he'd have had an aneurysm.

Still, the main weakness of the book is the random decision-amidst the new material- to devote an entire chapter to adapting Garland's War (on run time, it's twice as long a chapter as any of the others as well). Which feels a bit pointless, especially as Garland is then killed off-page later anyway.

Also, "Suddenly she realised she was masturbating" is probably the last sentence I would ever have expected to appear in a Terry Nation novel.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Notabot
Posts: 2142
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:15 am
Location: Lowden, IA

Post by Notabot »

In continuing my Audiobook journey through the Game of Thrones novels, I'm kind of annoyed with A Feast for Crows. The story has introduced a bunch of new, tangential people, and that's fine. It's starting out very slow, and that's fine too since most of them have (and when you've got 20 hours of book, you can afford to be slow).

My biggest beef is that Roy Dotrice, the reader, doesn't seem to be as into it anymore. He has changed the pronunciation of a number of character names (Catelyn Stark was being pronounced Cat like meow, but is now like Kate-lyn, Petyr Baelish was Pit-tar and is now Peter, etc). Maybe that's to fit with the show (I haven't watched it), but it's annoying. He has also changed the voice he uses for some characters to something totally obnoxious and irritating (Arya's storyline was one of my favorites, but he's using such a dumb voice for her that it's almost hard to listen to). And he's been inconsistent in some pronunciations (Brieene alternates mid-paragraph between Bry-een and Brie-anna) and voices (using the wrong character's voice mid-conversation, having someone's accent change within the same chapter, etc.) I understand that with a project this huge, there are going to be changes and errors, but they just seem really, really blatant on this book.

But despite all that (and all the stupid gratuitous raping), I'm still enjoying the series and want to see how it all turns out.
User avatar
Summerhayes
Posts: 1384
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:50 pm
Location: Nagano, Japan

Post by Summerhayes »

Just finished reading Consider Phlebas, the first of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. It was an exceptional slice of real hard sciece fiction. A lot of space operas boil down to a punch-up or a sword fight or a space battle that could as easily be a naval one. Here, transhumanism, politics, artificial intelligence, space travel and alien life are all explored in a much more interesting way than the usual stuff. I can't wait to read the rest now, and considering my mum owns them all and has been to two of the man's talks I can't believe it took me this long to start.

Also, I finished Halo: Combat Evolved for the first time today and playing that at the same time as I read this book. I couldn't help but notice a lot of similarities, so seeing the game's developers mention the book's influence made me feel really smug for cottoning on.
I like bears.
User avatar
Denyer
Posts: 33033
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2000 4:00 am
Location: Perfidious Albion
Contact:

Post by Denyer »

Logical follow-on read to Phlebas is Look to Windward, which refers back to the same war (titled from the same poem as well).
User avatar
Cyberstrike nTo
Protoform
Posts: 4186
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2002 5:48 pm
Location: In the Dead Universe known as Indianapolis
Contact:

Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

Currently reading Dragon Age: The Calling, the second novel based on the Dragon Age video game series, and is the second prequel to the first game, Dragon Age: Origins. The third novel, Dragon Age: Asunder is more a less an interlude of sorts set in between the events of Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Bought the Dragon Age: The Masked Empire and Dragon Age: Last Flight the fourth and fifth novels respectfully, based on the Dragon Age video game series.

The problem with both Asunder and The Masked Empire is that the endings to both novels are more or less spoiled by the party memeber Cole who debuts in Asunder and an unavoidable quest that has the main characters from The Masked Empire in the game Dragon Age: Inquisition.

And from the description and the cover art to Dragon Age: Last Fight seems about what happened to the Griffins, the winged mounts that the Grey Wardens used to have but the Griffins mysteriously died out and how they might be coming back to the DA Universe.
Please visit Outlaw Colony my new message board it's a fun site for fun people.
User avatar
Notabot
Posts: 2142
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:15 am
Location: Lowden, IA

Post by Notabot »

Cyberstrike nTo wrote:the second novel... is the second prequel to the first game, Dragon Age: Origins
This sentence makes me laugh. Two prequels to a game called "Origins".
User avatar
Cyberstrike nTo
Protoform
Posts: 4186
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2002 5:48 pm
Location: In the Dead Universe known as Indianapolis
Contact:

Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

Notabot wrote:This sentence makes me laugh. Two prequels to a game called "Origins".
There is a HUGE amount of backstory and history in the Dragon Age games they could 100 novels set before the events of the first game and barely scratch the surface.
Please visit Outlaw Colony my new message board it's a fun site for fun people.
User avatar
Notabot
Posts: 2142
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:15 am
Location: Lowden, IA

Post by Notabot »

Finished "A Feast for Crows" and was deeply disappointed! Not just with the items from my previous post (which I'm sure everyone remembers and has been pondering for the last few weeks), but NOTHING HAPPENS!! It's an entire book of development with no major events. Even the final "climax" is more development for what might happen than anything actually happening. It was honestly enough to make me consider skipping "A Dance with Dragons" and just reading a synopsis. HOWEVER...

I'm totally glad that I didn't, because Dance with Dragons actually goes back and covers the story lines that were missing from Crows. Maybe Mr. Martin got word that his fans actually enjoy stories about the characters they like instead of imaginary histories of lines of royal descendency.

So I've enjoyed the first 4 hours of Dance with Dragons far more than the entirety of Feast for Crows, and I'm hoping that it keeps up the good pace.
Post Reply