TSF Book Club
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@Kruse said in TSF Book Club:
Joe Abercrombie, Anthony Ryan, Mark Lawrence - all fucking good recent nerd-fiction.
Unless somebody chimes in and reckons I've made a mistake, I've decided to cancel the 2nd attempt at Thomas Covenant. Gonna reset my brain with some proper trash... Jack Carr looks proper brain-wipe material... and then maybe have a go at a classic or two.
There is something fucking wrong in Stephen Donaldson's head aye.
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@mariner4life said in TSF Book Club:
@Kruse said in TSF Book Club:
Joe Abercrombie, Anthony Ryan, Mark Lawrence - all fucking good recent nerd-fiction.
Unless somebody chimes in and reckons I've made a mistake, I've decided to cancel the 2nd attempt at Thomas Covenant. Gonna reset my brain with some proper trash... Jack Carr looks proper brain-wipe material... and then maybe have a go at a classic or two.
There is something fucking wrong in Stephen Donaldson's head aye.
I prefered his Gap Cycle, but that was still weird as fuck. And sci fi sick!
Anyway, maybe there is hope for A Song of Ice and Fire. In GRRM's latest blog he said about a recently deceased fellow writer
He had been working on a novel called BLACK TRAIN COMING even longer than I have been working on THE WINDS OF WINTER. It would be great if one of his writer friends finishes it for him.
GRRM is on record as saying he will finish the series or it won't get finished. But maybe we'll get a Wheel of Time situation...
The only way I think it will be finished is an excellent writer like Sanderson sorts it and finishes it for him.
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@Kruse I read the first six books when they first came out but didn't even realise that he hadn't written another four.
Fantasy in the 70's didn't have a history of anti-hero's and he did sort of try and address adult themes. My recollection is the first trilogy is a redemption arc and the second one inverts it. He comes back aeons later and is the true believer in a land that is the anti-thesis of everything he 'fought' for in the first three books.
I think I was probably too young to recognise it for the bs it was. I certainly couldn't stomach any of Donaldson's other books that I later tried to read
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I just finished Bravo 3 Zero, by Des Powell (ex SAS) and Damien Lewis
I never realised it existed, but this is related to the more famous, Bravo 2 Zero, in fact, there was a Bravo 1 Zero too that were all sent out on that same night as B20.
Good read, and puts B20 into way more context and how much of a clusterfuck it was sending those patrols out.
Read a few other books by Damien Lewis, mainly in the non-fiction, war genre
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@Nevorian said in TSF Book Club:
Good read for horse fans and even non horse fans, great hard work pays off story about Chris Waller
Never seen a biography on a horse before.
Probably more entertaining than some sports biographies I’ve read to be fair.
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This, and Vol 2, are absolutely top notch. But he's doing a Jordan/Martin time scale on book 3!
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@MN5 said in TSF Book Club:
@Nevorian said in TSF Book Club:
Good read for horse fans and even non horse fans, great hard work pays off story about Chris Waller
Never seen a biography on a horse before.
Probably more entertaining than some sports biographies I’ve read to be fair.
A lot of it is about the horse but much of it about the team that made her so successful. And plenty of NZ connections that some here may know
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@MN5 said in TSF Book Club:
@Nevorian said in TSF Book Club:
Good read for horse fans and even non horse fans, great hard work pays off story about Chris Waller
Never seen a biography on a horse before.
Probably more entertaining than some sports biographies I’ve read to be fair.
Never read Seabiscuit then? Or Secretariat?
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@canefan said in TSF Book Club:
@MN5 said in TSF Book Club:
@Nevorian said in TSF Book Club:
Good read for horse fans and even non horse fans, great hard work pays off story about Chris Waller
Never seen a biography on a horse before.
Probably more entertaining than some sports biographies I’ve read to be fair.
Never read Seabiscuit then? Or Secretariat?
I think I’d rather have my toenails pulled out
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@canefan said in TSF Book Club:
@MN5 said in TSF Book Club:
@Nevorian said in TSF Book Club:
Good read for horse fans and even non horse fans, great hard work pays off story about Chris Waller
Never seen a biography on a horse before.
Probably more entertaining than some sports biographies I’ve read to be fair.
Never read Seabiscuit then? Or Secretariat?
I watched Mr Ed as a kid?
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@Machpants that was based on @MN5 life!
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@taniwharugby said in TSF Book Club:
@Machpants that was based on @MN5 life!
Remind me never to shower in front of you again. I prefer it when the ladies notice
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@dogmeat said in TSF Book Club:
@Machpants Heard him talking about WWII on his brother Tom's pod The Rest Is History. Might give them a go.
Yeah he's doing lots of TV type stuff, and it's reducing his focus on his books. GRR Martin Mark 2!
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Emily the Criminal reminded me of this short story that opened with an excellent premise, but tried a bit too hard to be Lovecraftian/Ballardarian for its own good. Worth reading though.
https://zerohplovecraft.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/the-gig-economy-2/
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Liu Cixin - The Three-Body Problem
... and then the rest of the trilogyIt seems I'm a bit late to the party - I thought it was a fairly recent thing, but apparently not.
Anyway... interesting in a few ways...- First book - not really sure what's going on until nearly the end. Just... so many cryptic storylines going on. Which made it kinda hard going at first, then intriguing, then confusing, then... good.
- Also... the relatively unique viewpoint of a Chinese writer...
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- Especially in the scenes set during the Cultural Revolution.. a Chinese person writing about that was... interesting.
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- But also... I think in one of the later books, some chat about the academic culture under a leader rather reminiscent of the current... and... rather critical
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- And also - just having a non-seppo-centric view of the future... a future where the culture is actually reasonably well represented by the major entities
- But then... eventually - just high-concept Sci-Fi. But reasonably well thought through.
- Oh, and little ol' NZ, the Tangata Whenua, the Haka, and what-not - make an appearance at some point.
In general - pretty good read.
Tit-watch - zero. -
Operation Relentless - Damian Lewis
The true story of a DEA sting operation to capture Victor Bout aka The Merchant of Death, a Russian arms dealer (who the movie Lord of War was loosely based on)