Books Read 2011

[Isgrimnur]

Yeah, I read Speaker for the Dead, but if it hadn't been tied to Ender's Game, I doubt I would have been interested enough in the story blurb to pick it up.

[Pyperkub]

Finished recently (added to the original list):
The Frozen Sky - Jeff Carlson - this was an interesting short SF story about an expedition to one of Jupiter's moons discovering life in a different ecosystem

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen -- this kept my interest, and had some interesting moments, especially with the real-life Circus incidents. A greater appreciation of the book is gained by reading the afterward.

Alison Wonderland - Helen Smith - a peculiar PI/character study. Kind of hit and miss on it's whimsy, but the plot is very sparse. Some of the character insights are as funny as Douglas Adams, but the rest of the book doesn't hold up.

Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King - four dark tales from King. On the whole as a fan of his stuff, I was unimpressed.

Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia/Margaret Stohl - this was an excellent YA-ish story set in the South. More along the lines of The Witching Hour than Twilight, with some pretty good characterizations. It ends the story well, even though there are (at least) 2 more books in the series - it can be read on it's own just fine.

[Bad Demographic]

because of that 100 Sci-Fi novels list from last month, i got around to reading Orson Scott Card's _Ender's Game_. it was ok. are the 'sequels' worth reading?

Ender's Shadow, which is a parallel story to Ender's Game is worth reading. The sequels to Ender's Game take a completely different tack. They are essentially about Ender over-coming is self-imposed guilt

Spoiler:

for wiping a species out of existence and re-connecting with his siblings.

Spoiler for those who haven't read Ender's Game. I did not like the sequels.

I didn't like them much either although I read them all. I liked the Ender's Shadow books better.
I like Card's writing but in his series his characters tend to become godly powerful (based on the Ender's books and the Alvin the 7th son books). They become so powerful that their only real challenge is to overcome stuff like feelings of guilt.

[Isgrimnur]

Dear Mom: A Sniper's Vietnam

Joseph T. Ward was a Marine Scout Sniper. This is his tale of his time in country, the operations he went on, the friends he entered service with, and the letters that he wrote home to his mother.

It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I eat this stuff up.

[silverjon]

Robert Kirkman managed to take jaded me by surprise twice yesterday, once in the first "Rise of the Governor" novel and once in the latest comic trade acquired by my library. Neither one is the pinnacle of great writing. After several times mentioning it in a single book, I think I got the idea that zombies reek of shit and rotting bacon. But I do respect someone who can come up with a story I can't predict the ending of after reading a couple of pages... particularly in the case of the novel, which is a prequel.

Brian Wood's DMZ is very good, and I'm glad I'm finally getting around to reading that. Two volumes down.

Cowboys Vs. Aliens was not as funny as I'd hoped.

[Isgrimnur]

Finished War by Sebastian Junger

I'm working my way through it now. If you ... enjoyed is the wrong word. If the book was something that you remain interested it, I highly recommend that you watch Restrepo, the documentary that Junger and Tim Hetherington (now deceased) filmed during those trips.

[lildrgn]

Yeah, I meant "found interesting," but I think you know what I meant. I've made it about half way through Restrepo.

[Jaymann]

Had to go home last night with nothing. None of the recommendations were available at that branch.

Picked up Transition by Iain M. Banks today. We'll see.

I pretty much all things Banks, let me know how that is. As a gamer you should definitely check out The Player of Games.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished "Gone Tomorrow", a Reacher Novel by Lee Child

http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Tomorrow-Jac ... 0385340575" target="_blank

Gone Tomorrow starts with an intriguing teaser... Jack Reacher wandering through New York, on a subway 2AM in the morning, spots a woman who fits every profile of a suicide bomber, except it makes no sense... wrong time of day and all that. Then he approached her, tried to talk her out of it, and the woman who then proceeds to point a gun at him... then blew her own brains out. And a lot of people started asking questions... of Reacher. Did the woman talk to him? Passed anything along? (The answer is no). Then a name, another name (of a Congressman), was dropped, by multiple groups of people... one of them's Feds (except they don't show ID), one of them's privateers (i.e. security companies), one's NYPD (it's their jurisdiction), and one's the victim's brother, a New Jersey cop. There's layers and layers of deception, and the plot will involve... Al Qaeda and OBL. (Yes, that recently deceased one).

And who knew Reacher *can* fight with a knife, even though he doesn't like it?

One of his better books. Not quite as tense as Persuader or even The Enemy, but this one is better than 61 Hours, IMHO, or Without Fail.

[Isgrimnur]

Yeah, I meant "found interesting," but I think you know what I meant. I've made it about half way through Restrepo.

That was actually about me finding the right words rather than anything you posted.

I just finished War myself. On deck this week (leading into Veterans Day) , I'm going to try and watch Restrepo again while the book is fresh in my mind.

[lildrgn]

Finished The Killing Moon by Chuck Hogan.

Loved it.

Now listening to The Drop by Michael Connelly. Not sure what to read next.

[WYBaugh]

Finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline just an awesome book for us geeks.

[rshetts2]

Yeah, I read Speaker for the Dead, but if it hadn't been tied to Ender's Game, I doubt I would have been interested enough in the story blurb to pick it up.

I really enjoyed Speaker for the Dead. Thought it was excellent. While it is a new chapter in Ender Wiggins life, the book is not a spiritual successor to Enders Game. I read it many years after Enders Game and was aware that it wasnt going to be anything like Enders Game at all. Removing that expectation and reading the book for what it was probably helped quite a bit.

[WYBaugh]

Almost finished with Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Had to post early just because it is so good I have not been able to put it down. Typically I finish an average novel in about a week - this one has taken me two days.

The novel concerns a multi-billionaire founder of a virtual reality universe called OASIS who leaves behind an "easter egg" in the code that will enable the finder to inherit his vast fortune. A teenager named Wade Watts embarks on the quest to solve the puzzle before it is obtained by an evil corporation. What makes the novel so fun is that it is absolutely bursting at the seams with 80s pop culture references. You see, the founder of OASIS was a huge fan of the 1980s culture he grew up in, and has embedded his virtual world with recreations of that decade.

Anybody who is a fan of the 80s, video games and/or geek pop culture in general owes it to themselves to read this book!

Wil Wheaton reads the audiobook. Just saying...

And he did an awesome job!

[Isgrimnur]

Guy Fawkes: A Complete History of the Gunpowder Treason

This is a 19th century study of the topic by an Anglican priest. Between his affiliation and the involvement of Jesuit co-conspirators, he is not too nice about the Catholic Faith, as one would expect. He's not frothing at the mouth about it, and makes a point to differentiate between those prosecuted for treason as opposed to being persecuted for religion.

I did appreciate the book, as I had been wanting to know more about the treason and am becoming more interested in European history.

Next Up: Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy

[lildrgn]

Reading Ready Player One thanks to you guys. I like the premise, I can't stand the dialog. YMMV.

[GreenGoo]

I pretty much all things Banks, let me know how that is. As a gamer you should definitely check out The Player of Games.

So I'm rapidly scrolling through the thread when the pic flashes by and I think "hey, I'm reading that" so I scroll back up and

I'm having difficulty getting into it for various real world reasons. It has come across as disjointed with very little to explain what the hell is happening except through a first person description of things happening to the main character. That, combined with only short reading stints means I have only the vaguest idea about what is going on after about 70 pages.

Not sure I'll have a valid opinion at the end of this. I may just finish it and still not have a clue what I've read. Weird.

Edit: I have player of games and Consider Phlebas on my bookshelf at home. I may have read one or two others of his that I can't remember. I enjoy the culture concept and enjoy his take on spaceships as individual entities.

[Zaxxon]

I'm committing a drive-by posting to share an invite link to an OO group on GoodReads that I recently created. I've tried getting into updating the books I've read in these threads but haven't had much success sticking with it because I'm lazy and it takes a few more steps than updating GoodReads. If anyone is on that service, please join the group!

This concludes the drive-by posting.

[lildrgn]

I've done my share of updating there, but between that, OO and GT's books read lists, it got a bit goofy. But if there's reason to go back to Goodreads, I'll be there!

[Zaxxon]

But if there's reason to go back to Goodreads, I'll be there!

I'm not suggesting anyone swap out from this thread over to DR. Just that I find GR useful and if any of you are also participating there, joining the group is a good way for us to easily 'friend' up over there.

[lildrgn]

I didn't mean to switch, but it is kind of a cool catch-all for the books I've read. I'm trying to import a rough .doc file there now of my last 3 years of books. We'll see how it looks shortly.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Ragnarok by Patrick A. Vanner.

http://www.amazon.com/Ragnarok-Xan-Sska ... 1439133840" target="_blank

The problem with this book is it's basically a series of no-win scenarios, with no resolution at the end of the book. Usually in a war story, you get the hero "barely averting disaster, but evil have another plan coming into fruition soon". In this book, the hero can't avoid anything. Humans are about to lose the war, and nothing the hero (actually heroine) do will avert it. The battles also makes no sense upon first read (I'll have to re-read it to see if it's something I missed, but spoilers...)

Spoiler:

The story is that the humanity is at war with these nasty lizard-like aliens (who calls humans "dry-skins"). They did an ambush at Ross 128 and wiped out human fleet a few years back.

Near the beginning of the book the aliens did a Pearl Harbor and wiped out most of the human expeditionary fleet (somehow they knew where all the human ships are and jumped in on top of them). The hero's ship was ordered to run back home to tell home fleet what happened. That makes sense.

At the end of the book the aliens warped in unmanned kamikaze ships filled with nukes and detonated it inside the home fleet, destroying most of home fleet. The hero, now in a super-ship, was ordered to retrieve a research team on Mars (already invaded by the aliens) and make a run for it (not to save Earth).

Does that make any sense?

[silverjon]

What you see as "problem", Vanner saw as "premise"
http://scififanletter.blogspot.com/2011 ... anner.html" target="_blank

Spoiler:

Ragnarok is a ‘what if’ story. There are a several stories in books, TV series, and even movies that have to deal with humanity and/or civilized human cultures being destroyed or pushed back by an encroaching enemy. A majority of these stories deal with this premise by having the protagonist fighting back to reestablish civilization or find a new home for civilization. But, what if the heroes of the story realized that the reestablishment of civilization is beyond their ability, but instead, decide to clear the way for someone else? Ragnarok is the expansion of that idea. One ship, one crew, willing to sacrifice everything to eradicate an alien menace by any means necessary, to include genocide, in the hopes that humanity will be able to rebuild itself with the threat of alien aggression severely stunted or outright removed.

[Zaxxon]

Finished Mercury Falls this weekend. I enjoyed it. It's a quick read with a lot of HGTTG-esque humor. The plot summary:

While on assignment in Utah, Christine Temetri isn’t surprised when yet another prophesied Apocalypse fails to occur. After three years of reporting on End Times cults for a religious news magazine, Christine is seriously questioning her career choice. But then she meets Mercury, a cult leader whose knowledge of the impending Apocalypse is decidedly more solid than most: he is an angel, sent from heaven to prepare for the Second Coming but distracted by beer, ping pong, and other earthly delights.

I think the over-the-top humor could annoy some folks, but I thought it was a fun book.

[Kasey Chang]

What you see as "problem", Vanner saw as "premise"

Oh, I get the idea. Ragnarok is basically armageddon, mutual destruction, die with hands wrapped around each other's throat, "if humanity goes down then the aliens won't survive either" type of idea. Unfortunately, the plot curve is completely ****ed.

In other words, this entire book is basically the WRONG STARTING POINT. This novel, which should stand alone in itself, is basically a novel-length intro chapter to his proposed "arc". However, even if you take this as "act 1" of a 3 act play, the plot is of the wrong shape.

Generally, in a plot, there's a balance between forces of good vs. evil, or hero vs. villain. At first, there's equilibirum (50/50). Then evil does something that upsets the balance (60/40), then hero wins a minor victory (40/60), then stakes are raised, evil gets a major victory (90/10), then finally hero pulls out all the stops and vanquishes the evil (Hollywood ending) or some sort of equilibrium is reestablished (back to 50/50). Even a single act should be this way with the individual scenes doing the up/down swings.

This book doesn't have that. You start normal, then the aliens attack, hero has no reposte. Aliens attack again. Humanity's toast. You go from 50/50 all the way to 99/1, then a minor victory to 95/5, then the book ends. Phooey.

I'm sure there's a sequel to this novel, and IMHO, first 3/4ths of this book is worthless filler. What should happen is start right at the major attack, and that serves as the intro for whatever "sequel" may come. That sets up the 50/50, then sudden upset of the balance (down to 99/1), then the hero have to slowly build up back to 50/50 (i.e. we all die). Instead of a whole novel, the story in this book could be done in a single chapter (and a prologue).

[Kasey Chang]

Finished "Vulcan's Fire", part of Harold Coyle's "Strategic Solutions" series.

http://www.amazon.com/Vulcans-Fire-Haro ... 0765313731" target="_blank

Strategic Solutions is a PMC, i.e. a mercenary company that in a previous book, made US government look foolish (not their fault, it's the Israelis) it's not getting much work. So when Israeli came with a contract, they really have no choice to accept. The job is to train Druze militia to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon. While it sounds straightforward, the truth is anything but. A Hezbollah captain in the area, good enough to wipe out a Israeli spec ops team, was called to a meeting in Iran. He needs to cover for a special mission... in Lebanon, in the area that will be trained by SSI. The two forces are on a collision course... and the special mission may involve... special weapons.

Harold Coyle is good at ground combat descriptions, and this is no exception. Soldiers fight and die, each according to their duty and faith. I don't quite like the ending though, but I will admit it made sense, as Coyle (and co-author, Barrett Tillman) setup the guy's motivation quite far back. He was a devout, but being repeatedly used and give his life made him question his faith, and a final decision that is somewhat surprising, if a little TOO convenient for the good guys.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished "Space Wars: The first 6 hours of World War III"
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Wars-First- ... 0765313790" target="_blank

This book tries to sound like a tech thriller in the vein of Clancy, Dale Brown, and so on, but falls pretty flat. The authors are "wargamers" (official ones, works for government think tanks) and this is their scenario when a rogue force go after satellites for variety of reasons, and in this vacuum of coverage various nefarious forces started to move toward more dastardly purposes...

Spoiler:

The book postulates: what if an ex-Russian scientist was able to create an EMP weapon that can kill satellites, even hardened military ones, from the ground, and it was financed by the Colombian drug cartel, who is using the space insurance industry as a way to launder money? While US struggles to replace the satellites, Iran and North Korea are moving to take advantage of negative satellite coverage. At the end, US have to use its ASAT rockets to kill two French GPS satellites to prevent the Iranians from using the guidance package for their missile aimed at Israel.

Unfortunately, this book is too much self-congratulatory, and too much lambasting the government for cutting programs when not needed and then try to scramble to reactivate the programs when it's needed.

[Bad Demographic]

Hmmm. Haven't been keeping up with this thread.
Recently finished One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
If you've read any of the Thursday Next books you should like this one. The main character is actually not Thursday Next but the fictional character who plays Thursday Next in the books. The real Thursday Next is missing and it's up the the bookworld Thursday Next to find her - or maybe she's the real Thursday Next confused and dazed from a head injury...
Fforde's writing is whimsical and clever and full of literary jokes and references of which I actually get maybe 50%-66%.

Just finished (today even!) The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn. This is the fourth in the Chet & Bernie mysteries. Bernie agrees to pose as a woman's boyfriend for parents day at her son's summer camp. When they arrive at the camp the boy has disappeared and what should have been a simple job becomes a missing persons case that turns out to be more complex than expected.
I thought this book was a little better than the previous three although Quinn seems to be stuck in his formula of "Chet and Bernie get separated - probably because Bernie the P.I. has been arrested by crooked police - Chet has to make his way home or to Bernie. Chet somehow solves the case". Actually this time Chet doesn't solve the case, Bernie does, a nice change of pace. As usual though, the book's charm comes from Chet's narration. Maybe Quinn was a dog in his last life.

[Gumps]

Very late to the thread, but this is a topic I could get into. We will see if I can start and keep up with thw soon to be started 2012.

Here are books that I have read lately and can remember.

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein (nook). Finally read this classic - loved it.
Furies of Calderon -Jim Butcher (nook)
Academ's Fury - Jim Butcher (nook)
Cursor's Fury - Jim Butcher (nook)
Captain's Fury - Jim Butcher (nook)
Prinep's Fury - Jim Butcher (nook)
First Lord's - Jim Butcher (nook)
The Templar Legacy - Steve Berry
By Schism Rent Asunder - David Weber
By Heresies Distressed - David Weber
A mighty Fortress - David Weber
1984 - George Orwell (nook)
White Corridor - Christopher Fowler
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde
Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde
A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (nook)
The warlord of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (nook)
The Gods of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (nook)

Currnetly Reading
Drood - Dan Simmons

That is what I can remember for now.

[Isgrimnur]

Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy

Boy, was this a fun one. You've got Popes that lead armies, ones openly have their homosexual lovers live in the palace, ones that enrich their families and houses at the expense of all else, try to rule the entire Holy Roman Empire, etc.

What I gather from reading this book is that the Popes down through the centuries were just as prone to being petty, venal, and prone to corruption as any other ruler throughout history.

There are always people with power that do great things throughout history, and there are a few in here that did that, but the people in charge of the church, including the cardinals that elected and supported (in some cases, controlled) the Popes, they are just as human as everyone else and were as prone to those foibles.

A office deserves respect, even if the person holding it may not.

[WYBaugh]

Finished Low Town - Very interesting, gritty, fantasy detective book. Kind of predictable but still a good read.

Monster Hunter International - Very cool start of a series and book but kind of falls flat towards the end.

[Bad Demographic]

Well I'm about 40% of the way through Jasper Fforde's The Last Dragonslayer and I don't think I'll finish it this year - too many other things I should do today.
It's been a good year for reading. Got through 48 books and only thought 1 was crappy. I'm sad that Terry Pratchett probably won't be writing as much because I put a huge dent in my "Pratchett - to read" list this year. I'm sad that Diana Wynne Jones died some years ago since I've finally started reading her books and enjoy them quite a bit.
On the good side, Chris Gwinn is still aces with me as a book lender/recommender. I really enjoyed Lev Grossman's The Magicians and even more, Michael Bishop's Count Geiger's Blues.

For next year I might try to read more non-fiction. I like the writing of Jennifer Ouellette and will try to read one or two of her books (she doesn't have all that many). And I think I'll go back through this thread and pick out some books some of you other OOers read and liked, especially since I'm otherwise reduced to waiting for new books from John Scalzi, Christopher Fowler, Jasper Fforde, Patrick Rothfuss and some others and hoping against hope that Leonie Swann (Three Bags Full) will put out a second book.
I guess each new year is an adventure in reading. I look forward to seeing where books take me.

Happy New Reading Year to all of you.