Books Read 2010

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:57 am

Anansi Boys and American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Wife is reading Stardust and I started Neverwhere.

I absolutely loved the first two up there.

It brings to mind his writing of Sandman.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:48 pm

Spealer for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

As much as I liked Ender's Game, I hated the second book of the series, Speaker for the Dead. To make matters worse, in his notes afterward, Card mentions this was the book he wanted to publish first, Ender's Game was written to give it a back story.

To be fair, this could have been done-in by the quartet of readers who combined to read the audiobook version. The whiny, pathetic voices made all of the characters sound helpless and hopeless -- it really was depressing to listen to because of this. On top of this, much of the story involved a dysfunctional family in a Portuguese colony world, so the readers threw in cheese accents that just made it all worse. The rather silly thing is that, apparently at the time of Ender's Game (on earth, 3000 years prior to the events in Speaker for the Dead), the earth had migrated toward a common language, and now, after all this time and spread across 100 colony worlds, it's not a mutated form of this common language that has cropped up on the various worlds, but a rekindling of old, ethnic languages dating back to our time. That really isn't how culture or linguistics work.

What is kind of nice to see is the acknowledgment of relativity. It's how Ender is still alive, and only in his mid-30's while back on earth, 3 millennia have passed. His sister, left on a Nordic planet 22 light-years away, is appropriated aged when they talk over an instantaneous voice/data link (somehow, communication is real-time even though travel is not), and they will become in sync presumably in the next book as she is leaving on a voyage that will take her to the Portuguese planet in 2 weeks her time (but 22 years for Ender).

Otherwise, this planet is special because it is home of only the second intelligent species the humans have encountered. Called "piggies," they are less advanced, and it seems the undergo one of the more unusual metamorphosis ever conceived. The interplay with them, again, because of the readers I think, was not very compelling. The most important event though was the segue from Ender's Game, where the dormant hive queen (representing the last of the first intelligent species we encountered that Ender wiped out), is reintroduced into an environment where she can resurrect the species. Hopefully, that will lead to a little more action in the subsequent stories.

lildrgn · Post by **lildrgn** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:27 pm

Just finished The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry. The main character, Joe Ledger, is who Jack Reacher wishes he was. Loved this book and the first one, Patient Zero. Good stuff.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:31 pm

Jeff - I liked Card's series about another character from Ender's Game - I think his name is Bean? First book might be called something like "Ender's Shadow". I also didn't care for Speaker for the Dead and the rest of the Ender series. Card often lets his main character get way too powerful - godlike, in fact - and then I lose interest in them.

lildrgn - being a fan of Jack Reacher, I'll have to take a look at the Joe Ledger books.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:42 pm

Just added to my Finished list:

Legacy of the Drow - R.A. Salvatore (Innocent enough high fantasy stuff. Was my "sit in the car and bring into the restaurant with me when I eat lunch out alone" book.)
American Gods - Neil Gaimin (one of my all time favorites. Second time reading it, pulled it off my shelf on a whim and didn't put it down until I had finished it. If you haven't read this book, you owe it to yourself get to your library now and read it)
Dzur - Steven Brust (I absolutely love the Drageria novels by Brust, but I stopped reading them a couple of years back. I had the opportunity to get caught up with Vlad this weekend while I was sick. Missed you, buddy.)

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:50 pm

Bad Demographic wrote:Jeff - I liked Card's series about another character from Ender's Game - I think his name is Bean? First book might be called something like "Ender's Shadow". I also didn't care for Speaker for the Dead and the rest of the Ender series. Card often lets his main character get way too powerful - godlike, in fact - and then I lose interest in them.

Thanks. Xenocide is starting out to be a drag as well. I listened to about 90 minutes of it today while running, and it was just hard to focus on what was happening. The readers now sound like they are all doped up on Valium. However, I have the whole lot in audio form, so I will continue to persevere.

I'll check and see if I can get the Bean series. He was a mildly interesting character in Ender's Game, but, like several of the characters, seems to have been discarded in this series.

theohall · Post by **theohall** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 7:37 pm

Jeff V wrote:
Bad Demographic wrote:Jeff - I liked Card's series about another character from Ender's Game - I think his name is Bean? First book might be called something like "Ender's Shadow". I also didn't care for Speaker for the Dead and the rest of the Ender series. Card often lets his main character get way too powerful - godlike, in fact - and then I lose interest in them.
Thanks. Xenocide is starting out to be a drag as well. I listened to about 90 minutes of it today while running, and it was just hard to focus on what was happening. The readers now sound like they are all doped up on Valium. However, I have the whole lot in audio form, so I will continue to persevere.

I'll check and see if I can get the Bean series. He was a mildly interesting character in Ender's Game, but, like several of the characters, seems to have been discarded in this series.

The novels following the character Bean are: Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant. They don't follow the route the Ender novels took and tend to be more politico-action thrillers in those that come after Ender's Shadow. Good books although the first (Ender's Shadow) is by far the best of them, just like Ender's Game far outshines those that followed.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:23 pm

Finished Skunk Works, by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos

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Ben Rich was the guy who ran Skunk Works, alongside "Kelly" Johnson and succeed him as well. In the book, he went over the various programs he was involved in... F-117 (and the predecessor, the Stealth Tech Demonstrator), the U-2, the SR-71, and shared little tidbits available from the people who were there as it happened, and how the military actually increased costs and discouraged innovation in their short-sighted quests to save money, and how politics intruded in almost all aspects of plane making, and how Skunk Works got its name and reputation.

Some of the tidbits from the book (there were plenty)

-- According to Gary Powers, he wasn't actually hit by the SA-2 missile. The near-miss shockwave threw him out of control, snapped off his tail, and the resulting stress tore off the wings. Apparently, the missile his one of the Soviet interceptors sent up to catch him, as he saw another plane fell out of the sky as he plummeted toward earth.

-- The SR-71 was supposed to be RS-71. LBJ slipped up and called it SR-71, so the Air Force changed ALL of the paperwork to say SR-71 instead.

-- The Pentagon have TENS OF THOUSANDS of auditors, whose sole purpose is to observe the various R&D projects undertaken for the military. However, the paperwork generated is almost NEVER read. Some estimated that (in the 1980's) the auditor's officer gets 1.1 million pages of documents A DAY. All the documents must be transported (often by secured courier), stored and guarded. MILLIONS are spent just to guard these documents nobody will ever read again. It is estimated that just having auditors increases overhead by at least 25%

-- Skunk Works have submitted design for every aircraft design competitor there was, and more. Many were rejected due to political reasons. Among them:

==The "A-12", which was supposed to be the "armed" version of SR-71, actually works fine. They have actually tested launching missiles at Mach 3, with targets at all altitudes, with radar having 100+ mile range, and intercepts at 80+ mile range. That's before the Phoenix missile, long regarded as the best AA missile. But the program was chopped, because MacNamara need to save money for this thing called Vietnam. (Incidentally, A-12 was the fuselage design number)

== The TFX project, which eventually became the F-16. The original TFX requirement was for a plane even SMALLER than the current F-16. Skunk Works looked at the design, and submitted something 20% larger. The smaller design was accepted, and later enlarged, ended up being almost same size as the Skunk Works design, except Skunk Works have more fuel capacity.

== Skunk Works had also designed the BX project (the stealth bomber). The official air force specs called for something between F-111 and B-1 in size. Northrop Grumman designed something larger, much larger, and less stealthy than the Skunk Works version. Northrup Grumman got the contract. Why? probably because NG was forced to cancel the F-20 Tigershark program that it had planned to sell to Taiwan when China objected vociferously, and was "given" the B-2 project as consolation prize. The Air Force logic used to justify their decision was even though the bomber was larger and less stealthy, it can carry more bombs, and thus requires less sorties, so the "vulnerability" aspect cancels out.

== There was no "Aurora" hypersonic plane. Reagan era's promise of National Spaceplane was impossible given contemporary technology and metallurgy and stuff. There was no alloy that can withstand the Mach 6 or higher flight temperatures. Aurora was a code name for funding of SR-71 development project.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 3:53 pm

Now on my Amazon wish list. Thanks.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:32 pm

Stardust, by Gaiman. Now starting a set of four by Mario Acevedo (with the titles being such as they are, figure my kids won't be reading them soon). The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, x-rated Bloodsuckers, the Undead Kama Sutra, and Jailbait Zombie.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:38 pm

Shadow Games & Dreams of Steele by Glenn Cook

These are the 4-5 books in the recommended order of the series. As someone earlier wrote about them I don't think they are as good as the 1-2-3. The fourth book is just too rambling, less focused than the previous books and the fifth book is written from another angle.

I would recommend both however. If you have read 1-2-3 and enjoyed them then you know the characters and you are interested in their futures. Croaker and the Lady are the center pieces of the books and their "relationship" is the main story, especially in Shadow Games.

Dreams of Steele ends with a revelation that shouldn't surprise the reader, but it still sends you reaching for the next book.

Shadow Games 3 of 5
Dreams of Steele 3 1/2 of 5

These books are sold in a single volume along with "The Silver Spike"....a book I have not read as it does not tie into the series chronology, so I have read here. Therefore I will finish the series and then come back to it.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:52 am

You OOers who worship our aquatic overlords may want to check out China Mieville's latest, Kraken.

The description:

British fantasist Mieville mashes up cop drama, cults, popular culture, magic, and gods in a Lovecraftian New Weird caper sure to delight fans of Perdido Street Station and The City & the City. When a nine-meter-long dead squid is stolen, tank and all, from a London museum, curator Billy Harrow finds himself swept up in a world he didn't know existed: one of worshippers of the giant squid, animated golems, talking tattoos, and animal familiars on strike. Forced on the lam with a renegade kraken cultist and stalked by cops and crazies, Billy finds his quest to recover the squid sidelined by questions as to what force may now be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Even Mieville's eloquent prose can't conceal the meandering, bewildering plot, but his fans will happily swap linearity for this dizzying whirl of outrageous details and fantastic characters.

It's sitting in my backlog at the moment but I can't wait to check it out.

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:18 am

YellowKing wrote:
Even Mieville's eloquent prose can't conceal the meandering, bewildering plot

Sounds like it would just annoy me to no end. (I'm comfortable with being the Jeff V of fiction.)

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:41 am

David Moody - Hater
Can't decide if it was brilliant and scathing or terrible and self-indulgent. An experience not unlike reading anything by Philip Roth, so I'll have to go with "all of the above".

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:07 am

Big Update:

Wistril Compleat - Frank Tuttle
Just 3 entertaining short stories, but it was only $1 on Kindle. It's about a powerful, loner mage and his nervous sarcastic apprentice foil. For $1 it's absolutely worth the 90 minutes of your time (if that).

Suck It, Wonderwoman - Olivia Munn
Autobiographical sketches from Olivia Munn from Attack of the Show! et al? I really don't know who she is and I read this on a recommendation from a friend who normally has good taste. I would guess that if you're a fan of hers it would be really good, but as a random biography, not so much. Definitely some funny parts, and I didn't have to slog through it, but I don't have any interest in getting a followup or learning anything else about her.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
Tried to read this a couple times, but finished it this time. Enjoyed it a great deal more too. I don't know that it was ever hard to read or anything, I just lost interest. It's actually very good and gives a great portrait of life in the 1800's. My favorite part is how society has changed but people haven't.

Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
Highly recommended, though the second half is kind of repetitive. The gist is that our brains can make split second intuitive decisions that are often right even if we can't come up with specific reasonings to substantiate it. However, sometimes it's wrong. Examples of the former are art experts can often tell a fake within seconds without being able to pinpoint specific evidence. The latter is negative associations with race when presented with pictures on a screen. Perhaps the most interesting part was loaded language can influence your decision making and recall process. People that have positive languange spoken to them before testing (smart, creative, analytic, energy) do better on testing than those with negative language (difficult, long, pressure, failure), but only if they are unaware of the language and reasoning for it ahead of time.

Seventh Sword Trilogy - Dave Duncan
Reluctant Swordsman, Coming of Wisdom, The Destiny of the Sword
Absolutely superb start to finish. Set in parallel earth set in a pre-literate society, the Goddess's champion has failed, so she takes a lead chemical engineer's brain/soul/whatever from Earth and places him in Her failed Swordsman's body. It's a voyage of discovery for Shonsu, his companions, the World, and it's People. I'm not sure I can recommend it enough.

Night Angel Trilogy - Brent Weeks
As good as the previous trilogy was, this one was even better. However, it elicits more emotion and passion from the reader. There were definitely times when I was angry at the author and I even cried along with the characters. Brent cites his influences as Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and George RR Martin (including his adult themes. You've been warned) and it shows. You can pick out the good of each author and see how Brent has fused it into the book. It's really tough to explain as it's so epic from start to finish, but I'll give it a shot. In a corrupt city, in the worst part of town, street gangs run everything. Azoth wants out, and to do so attempts to apprentice himself to Durzo Blynt. Durzo isn't a craftsman he's a Wet Boy; meaning he's an assassin that uses magic. And he's the best there is. Unfortunately that often comes with internal demons, and Durzo is no exception.

edit: Oops forgot 3 more

Halo: First Strike - Eric Nylund
Yes, it's a Halo book so it's fluff. But it's good fluff. Nylund does a great job of fleshing out the universe and giving Master Chief depth. This is really more of a followup to his Fall of Reach where he gives all the good background story of the Spartans. This one is set just after Halo I when they are escaping from Halo's destruction and before they get back to Earth for Halo II. I really enjoyed his angle. As much as I enjoy Nylund's,

Halo: The Flood - William Dietz
Is terrible. Granted, he was given Halo (original) as a backbone and told to write a story on it so he didn't have a lot to work with. But he did nothing with it either. You might as well just go back and play Halo as the conversations are even the same, and there's little to no added character depth.

Light of Eidon - Karen Hancock
Definitely a Christian allegory, but it was free and it was pretty entertaining. I would definitely suggest reading the amazon reviews and they are pretty polarized. And it's definitely not good enough to overlook the bad reviews, but if the somewhat cheesy plot nor the Christianity (in disguise.. sorta?) don't offend you, it's worth a read if you don't have a bunch of stuff queued up already.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:43 pm

Chaosraven wrote:Mario Acevedo (with the titles being such as they are, figure my kids won't be reading them soon). The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, x-rated Bloodsuckers, the Undead Kama Sutra, and Jailbait Zombie.

fans of lkh Anita Blake should consider these light reading. About 300 pg, with a Vampire Detective as main character. Weird cross between vampire and detective novel. Rate 'em as 'ok'. I think the 'world' could have used a little more fleshing out.

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:50 pm

If you like that kinda thing, I'd strongly recommend Mike Carey's books about Felix Castor, freelance exorcist. Fantastic setting, very noir, really well written.

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:17 pm

lildrgn wrote:Just finished The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry. The main character, Joe Ledger, is who Jack Reacher wishes he was. Loved this book and the first one, Patient Zero. Good stuff.

Ok, I liked the first one quite a lot, but I'm now about 30 pages into the second book and already deeply annoyed with one of the core premises. I'm not spoiler tagging this because I've barely scratched the surface of 500 pages here.

A pair of major characters are twins, male and female, who were born conjoined. Conjoined twins have to be identical. Opposite-sex twins have to be fraternal. Unless the novel comes up with a plausible way these characters were engineered this way (which could happen, considering the subject matter), the book is pretty much ruined for me. Make up fantastic new technology all you want, but don't screw up the basics of known biology. Ugh.

lildrgn · Post by **lildrgn** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:58 pm

I know nothing about bio, but I think as you read, it'll either become a non-issue... or you'll want to throw the book in the trash.

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 1:11 pm

Considering there was a unit on the genetic diseases referenced in the next couple of chapters in my 11th grade biology class, I'm really wondering about Maberry's research.

Can't throw it in the trash. Library book.

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:25 am

Finished. Not bad. I'll go 3 out of 5 on my library's ranking system.

Spoiler:

WYBaugh · Post by **WYBaugh** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:19 pm

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - Comparisons are made to the author being a cross between a dark Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett and it's not too far off. Very enjoyable read about a man who makes a deal with the devil to get his soul back by recruiting 100 new souls through a traveling carnival. If you enjoy English style humor and it being slighly dark, you'll enjoy this book.

Mistborn - Nothing to really say since the book has been discussed here but I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next two.

Little Fuzzy - Classic old book about determining whether the little critters, Little Fuzzy's are sapient and prevent the evil 'company' from abusing their right to the planet.

The Ruling Sea - Second book in the series about the voyage of the Chathrand. Excellent series.

The second book in an appealing trilogy continues the adventures on and around the great ship Chathrand. Imperial Princess Thasha stands with her bridegroom before the priest for a wedding that is supposed to seal peace between longstanding enemies. She is not expected to survive, for behind the nuptials seethe multiple plots and intrigues. The imperial spymaster is trying to start a civil war; the Chathrand’s captain is mad and serves an evil sorcerer; the tiny Ixchel have their own plans. After escaping death by a hair, Thasha and her comrades face a voyage across the Ruling Sea, which is so vast that only the Chathrand can cross it, and whose southern border is unknown.

The Jennifer Morgue - For those who like a geek James Bond. Very good book.

In this alternately chilling and hilarious sequel to The Atrocity Archives (2004) from Hugo-winner Stross, Bob Howard is a computer übergeek employed by the Laundry, a secret British agency assigned to clean up incursions from other realities caused by the inadvertent manipulation of complex mathematical equations: in other words, magic. In 1975, the CIA used Howard Hughes's Glomar Explorer in a bungled attempt to raise a sunken Soviet submarine in order to access the Jennifer Morgue, an occult device that allows communication with the dead. Now a ruthless billionaire intends to try again, even if by doing so he awakens the Great Old Ones, who thwarted the earlier expedition. It's up to Bob and a collection of British eccentrics even Monty Python would consider odd to stop the bad guy and save the world, while getting receipts for all expenditures or else face the most dreaded menace of all: the Laundry's own auditors. Stross has a marvelous time making eldritch horror appear commonplace in the face of bureaucracy.

JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:47 pm

Johannes Cabal the Necomancer I'd just put that in my library's Suggested Purchases list. Hope to check it out eventually. That's the thing about library books; they're eventual reads.

[Edit: Funny, I checked my library's digital books and they just added the audiobook Johannes Cabal, so now I have it too. THIS is why I don't get a Kindle; the books I REALLY want I can buy, the casual reads I get from the library.]

[Edit again: 8/18 Finished Johannes Cabal Necromancer. Thanks for the recommendation (or thanks for the mention of the book). I thought it good enough that I'll try for Johannes Cabal Detective.]

Eco-Logic · Post by **Eco-Logic** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:30 am

I just finished Patient Zero by Maberry, and after lunch today I'm going to pickup Dragon Factory.

Thanks so much for the recommendations. Patient Zero was fantastic.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 4:59 pm

Finished "Alternate Generals", an anthology on what would have happened if a different general was at the scene of a certain battle? Some are interesting, some are not. It is interesting that most of the alternate history involving the Confederacy seems to think that the South would have renounced slavery within 2 decades or so. There are some gems, like "Charge of Lee's Brigade" (General Robert E. Lee leading a cavalry bridge replacing the Charge of the Light Brigade) but others aren't quite as interesting.

Finished "Foreign Babes in Beijing". It is interesting view on how laowei (non-Chinese) viewed China, and how China viewed them back. When you get down to it, Chinese are some of the most xenophobic people in the world, really. It's just that they don't *hate" or "fear" the foreigners... they merely treat you with disdain, or exoticness... based on stereotypes. The author was there when the missiles hit the Chinese Embassy at Belgrade. Overnight anybody who looked like American are in trouble, and subtext like what word did US used to "apologize" or "regret" became huge issues.

Working on "Takedown", written by the guy who helped catch Kevin Mitnick, "Honor of the Clan" by John Ringo and Julie Cochrane (part of the post-Posleen War series), and a book on evolution (and how Creationists and "Intelligent Design"-ers are trying to muddy the issue, and why).

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 8:51 pm

Attila by William Napier

The first of a trilogy of novels chronicling the life of "The Scourge of God," Attila covers the notorious Hun's early life from a hostage in Rome (the Huns and Romans were nominally allies), to his escape just prior to the sacking by the Goths and ending with exile by his uncle, the King, shortly after making his way back to his people. Aided by a fictitious Romano-Brit officer, Lucius, whose paths cross an unlikely number of times, as well as an escaped Greek slave boy, Orestes (who is not fictitious), Attila comes across as a wild child, but one quick to learn from his mistakes. Also introduced is Aëtiius, a Roman boy of similar age who in turn was a hostage of the Huns. The two befriend each other, but because of Attila's treatment by the Romans, the alliance was canceled and Aëtius was returned to Rome. We all know the major role he is destined to play in later volumes.

Attila rather humanizes the young barbarian boy -- he does seem to be learning values of virtue that will belie his future ruthlessness. It will be interesting I think to see how Napier handles this transition in later volumes.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 9:17 pm

Argh! Forgot... finished "One Shot", a Reacher novel. This one is not that good. It started interestingly enough, but the clues are planted early on that you saw who it was from a mile away. And Reacher was way too talky by the end. There was enough action, but not quite satisfying somehow.

Let me put it this way... When the teaser they put into the end for the NEXT novel is more interesting than the novel itself, the novel itself is not that good.

lildrgn · Post by **lildrgn** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:46 pm

Finished the DaVinci Code. Dug it. Back to zombies thanks to Crusis at GT. Now reading As The World Dies: The First Days by Rhiannon Frater.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:11 am

Finished "takedown" by one of the guy who tracked down Kevin Mitnick. The guy is a genius as he was in a graduate program without even a BS degree! Well it is his book, but I don't think he padded his resume much. The book chronicles the break-in all the way to Mitnick's capture and arraignment. Even for non unix geeks some of the stuff is pretty interesting. In the end author laments that the original Internet has but a few walls but now firewall is everywhere security is feeding the paranoia. Guess that is where Internet lost its innocence.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 4:20 pm

Finished "The Needs of the Many", a Star Trek novel by M.M. Martin. This is the book written from Jake Sisko's POV, as sort of an interview that sets up the Star Trek Online universe. And it's pretty darn fascinating look at how the universe could have gotten that bad.

Without much spoiler, basically, Specie 8472 (the folks from fluidic space, if you keep up with Voyager), the folks that can fight the Borg, decided to fight our space as well... and they have a good trick up their sleeve... They turned out to be better shapeshifters than even the Founders/Changelings. And they managed to infiltrate all major governments (including Federation, klingon, Romulan, Gorn, and possibly other powers as well). It referenced the TNG side of the new movie (the part shown in the "Countdown" comics, sort of the prequel to the movie), and bazillion other things. The Klingons basically felt that they're getting soft in alliance with the Feds, and Martok was deposed in combat, and a while later Klingon and Gorn started a war, and withdrew from the Khitomer Accords. Romulan Empire was fragmented and messed up, complete with civil war when Sela, Tomalok and other players, plus Remans, had a power struggle. Sela lost, but eventually regained power and got crowned Empress. Yeah, it's a mess alright.

The interviews are interesting, as almost all the major players were interviewed, and even a few bit players. LaForge, Janeway, Maddox (from Measure of a Man), Jack (from the genetic supergeniuses, like Bashir, from DS9), Seven of Nine, Garak, and more.

Read a different Anthology, also DS9, called Visions and Prophecy, and it's supposedly also used Jake Sisko as the narrator. The stories are interesting enough and makes me want to do a bit of Star Trek revival on my own. I've dropped Star Trek novels for several years when they started doing the "series" and started using large print and whatnot to make a "series" of novels out of what used to be a single novel. On the other hand, the post-DS9/VOY era is somewhat interesting.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:17 pm

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

I just can't take any more of this series. Set thousands of years in the future, Ender's world seems saddled with a medieval Catholic world-view that is tedious beyond all imagination. It wasn't enough for Ender (and humanity) to face the guilt of xenocide of the Buggers in the excellent Ender's Game. The primitive, yet sentient Piggies in Speaker for the Dead added a new set of philosophical contrivances. Now Xenocide bring yet another complication -- another seemingly sentient life -- in the form of, wait for it....a virus! And this virus appears to be incompatible with human life, but is crucial in the life cycle and evolution of the Piggies. So now there is much agony over the ethics of re-engineering of this virus to make it less toxic to people.

Meanwhile, Ender creates in reality from his memories of youth his long-dead brother Peter, who was an evil bastard in youth but grew to be a respected leader of humanity back in the early colonial days, 3000 years ago (or, from Ender's perspective, about 20 years ago thanks to relativity). He also recreated a younger version of his now middle-aged sister. Peter, it seems, will attempt to win his former self's job back...but he was created out of the memories of young Ender who had only first-hand knowledge of evil Peter. Sounds like an old Star Trek episode, and might be an interesting thread in the next book. However, I am not sure I have the patience to suffer through another of these.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:36 pm

Never read Xenocide. In fact, I never read Speaker for the Dead either.

If you dig Card but can't stand the Ender-verse, I would suggest you track down "Empire", set in a very near future. The sequel just hit bookstores in hardcover.

Empire -- a team of terrorists gunned down the President only weeks after a colonel wrote a threat assessment... with the exact same plan in the assessment. Who is the traitor in the government? Is there a larger conspiracy involved? Who were operating the new hi-tech biped armored walkers attempting to shut down Washington DC? Who is the puppet master?

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:02 pm

A Game of Thrones... Ok, those who have already told me to read it may now virtually smack me upside the head for not reading it before. Picked up the rest on the way to work. Those of you who haven't read it/them do so before you let too much more time expire. Remus, the smack is VIRTUAL ONLY.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:15 pm

Kasey Chang wrote:
If you dig Card but can't stand the Ender-verse, I would suggest you track down "Empire", set in a very near future. The sequel just hit bookstores in hardcover.

Thanks, I might consider it down the road. Card is now batting .500 in 4 books of his that I read -- not a good average.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:03 am

I enjoyed the Shadow series

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:12 am

Just finished Fragment by Warren Fahy in something like 3 days... enjoyed it quite a bit, very "Crichton-esque".

Fahy's imaginative debut puts a fresh spin on the survival-of-prehistoric-beasts theme popularized by Jurassic Park. When members of the cable reality show SeaLife, aboard a ship in the South Pacific, respond to a distress beacon from Henders Island, several of the show's scientists wind up slaughtered by bizarre animals on the remote island. In response, the U.S. government blockades Henders Island to contain the serious biothreat its unique fauna could pose to humanity. The ship's botanist, Nell Duckworth, joins the investigative team, which quickly finds that arthropods on the island have evolved into sophisticated and ferocious life forms.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:15 am

Jeff V wrote:
Kasey Chang wrote: If you dig Card but can't stand the Ender-verse, I would suggest you track down "Empire", set in a very near future. The sequel just hit bookstores in hardcover.
Thanks, I might consider it down the road. Card is now batting .500 in 4 books of his that I read -- not a good average.

Or perhaps Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, something Jeff mentioned earlier. I thought it was quite well done.

theohall · Post by **theohall** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:24 am

I've barely read anything this year - darn work, games, movies, and moving.

The Empire Novels - Asimov. Compilation of The Stars, Like Dust, The Currents of Space, and Pebble in the Sky. I actually had not read any of those before, which is shocking. Good stories, still totally relevant today. It is astonishing how well Asimov's sci-fi holds up over time.
The Robot Novels - Asimov. Compilation of The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn. Re-read because I like the Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw characters.
By Heresies Distressed - Weber. Continuation of the Safehold series. Fun series, but at some point the protagonists have to hit a wall. Has not really happened, yet, in the series.
The Adventure of the Gloria Scott - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventure of the Speckled Band - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb (Soldier Son trilogy Book 1)

Magically, now that I am finally settle in to Jax, I have found reading time. Of course, some of it will vanish now that football season is starting and time will be needed to manage fantasy teams.

Currently reading - Forest Mage - Robin Hobb (Soldier Son trilogy Book 2)

Soldier Son trilogy is a completely different world from the Farseer, Fool and Liveship traders series. It's kept my interest so much I managed to read 170 pages of the 2nd book over the past 2 days - 70 of it while finding time during working hours. Like the magic concept she has implemented and how the protagonist gradually learns more and more of the world without becoming all-knowing and super-heroish.

Crabbs · Post by **Crabbs** » Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:07 am

I guess I'll add my books in here, since I've started listening to a lot of Audiobooks form the library.

The Hunger Games (7/8)

Catching Fire (part 2 of Hunger Games trilogy) (6/8)

Fun Post apocalyptic series where kids from different surviving zones get match-up in a gigantic death-match once yearly.

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
The Magician (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)
The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)
An easy read, targeted toward a younger audience (Young adult) but still very entertaining if you like the Harry Potter like sorcery. Fast Paced, read the first 3 books in this series over a matter of 3-4 weeks. (6/8)

ASOIF Re-listened to all 4 in hopes that it would spur George to finish the next book. If you have just read the books, the audio books are amazing with Roy Dotrice giving life to the characters so well in Books 1-3. (8/8)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Audio) What a fun listen. Easily entertaining story interwoven with many historical accounts to provide 'plausibility.' Well worth the time. Made me want to check out some Civil War Histories where my knowledge is very lacking (6/8)

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:21 pm

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

As someone who has been connected to the net since Al Gore invented it, I just couldn't resist this title. On one hand, it's the kind of book I think I could have written myself. If I felt it necessary to do so, that is. And, may now I do. Of course, now I might be a little too late thanks to Mr. Carr.

In The Shallows, Carr sets out to define not only how our brains are "wired" for certain cognitive tasks, but also covers in detail how our brains got that way, in the form of a history of learning, from oral histories to effects the written word. While interesting in it's own right, this portion of the book seemed to be simply filler compared to the actual thesis. Once Carr focused on the topic, my patience was rewarded.

There are things we have always suspected but never confirmed. In the case of this book, it's the illusion that "multitasking" is an admirable skill. Carr cites studies that show that nearly always, multitasking means that a single task simply isn't done well. We retain less information, and are inclined to take the most expedient route to a solution. The Internet, Carr contends, is a substitute for memory -- while it has great capacity as a reservoir of knowledge, it does not abet individual thought or inventiveness. Carr cites studies that show multitaskers are much more likely to accept a known solution to a problem because the net makes it expedient to do so. Creativity that could generate a better solution is relegated to a secondary roll -- the demands of multitasking always lead to the most expedient solution. Those of us living the multitasking lifestyle are doing so on a very superficial level, hence the title of the book, The Shallows.

One example that Carr visits multiple times is that of a graduate student, top of his class, who refuses to read books and has declared them obsolete. This student is a Rhodes Scholar, and yet feels no need to ever read an entire book. Carr contends that reading a book not only exercises the skill of focus, but also can lead to a deeper understanding on a given topic than Google-delivered web pages could ever hope hope to achieve. Research has borne this out: comprehension on straight text (ie, books), is far greater than the measured results of readers following hyper-linked documents.

I admit I do use the Net in much the manner that promotes the bad habits Carr describes. Now, I also read on average a book a week, so there may be some hope yet. I am, however, now more acutely aware of behavior that potentially dumbs-down the human species. I just told my girlfriend that I had no need to remember how to convert from C to F in the temperature scale. The internet can reember for me. However, she actually need so know this stuff. I am certain what she needs to know is best, even if the future will lead to the most expedient solution.