What are you reading? — Page 17

RicOlie_2 said:

I'm making my way through The Book of Mormon and am on The Second Book of Nephi right now. There are many phrases and ideas from the New Testament in that book, which is interesting, since Nephi supposedly wrote first. I plan to become much more familiar with The Book of Mormon over time, so that I can understand Mormonism better, as well as being better prepared to debate with regards to Mormon theology and scripture. The same goes for most religious texts. I am of the opinion that knowledge (real knowledge, that is, not an incorrect understanding of the text) of another person's scriptures is the best way to understand their religion and allows for better discussion related to religion.

 Good idea.  But don't stop there.  Make sure you read the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price as well, as they contain many other doctrines.

RicOlie_2 said:

Allah is similar to the way God is portrayed in the Old Testament, so I don't know why some Christians accuse Islam of being such a violent religion with an evil God. I think the Islamic take on God is a bit more so than the Jewish one, but only slightly so. That being said, I think it comes down to the way the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews thought God was.

Too many people are quick to attack those with splinters in their eyes while ignoring the beams in their own. 

I'm currently reading The Man in the High Castle, the alternative history novel by Philip K. Dick which explores a world where the Axis won World War II and America got divided up between Nazi Germany and Japan. As is par for the course with PKD, I'm enjoying the novel.

As an aside, I'd just like to mention that one thing about TMITHC in particular has me amused. One of the main characters of the book is named Frank Frink, who used to be Frank Fink before he changed his last name to hide his Jewish identity.

And to think that people actually believe Dick's claim to be in communion with a higher power was just the result of drugs and mental illness. ;-)

Tobar said:

A while ago someone recommended The Stainless Steel Rat.

Anyone have any recommendations for fun Sci-fi novels in the same vein as Star Wars?

 "Deathstalker" by Simon R Green. 

Space opera. Magic powers. Evil empire. Unlikely hero. Epic history.

Sometimes it's over the top beyond the strains of any credibility, but the author shows more creativity per chapter than some manage in their entire careers.

• Then there's a series of three if you like it. Good stopping point.
• If you like those you can read the next two. That's a good stopping point.
• Then there's three 'prequal' novellas if you like what you've read so far.
• If you're still going... there's three more "Next Generation" sequals.

METRO 2033. Cause I finished the video game on my self-built PC.

I'm reading The Disaster Artist which is about Tommy Wiseau and the making of The Room.

I just discovered that in the audiobook, the author does Tommy's dialogue in a Tommy voice so I'm considering finding an audio copy instead.

It's written (and voiced) by Greg Sestero who played Mark in The Room (oh hai Mark).

Ah, well. I guess this thread was just doomed to failure from the start.

Tobar said:

Luke is pretty well developed and sounds authentic.

Really? I found his character far too stoic and his dialogue horribly artificial and stilted.

I like the premise of the book but the execution leaves a lot wanting. If the book had just focused on Luke's journey to rebuilding the Jedi Order it would have been a lot better off.

Indeed. But KJA just has too shoehorn a ludicrous superweapon plot into each and every one of his major stories. After all, if the Empire built one superweapon (Or two, counting the second Death Star.), why wouldn't they build another? And if they were built, why wouldn't the Imperials use them? *rollseyes*

RicOlie_2 said:

Ah, well. I guess this thread was just doomed to failure from the start.

I'll probably post in there whenever I get around to finishing another SW book.

Right now I have finished the audio book of World War Z  I am listening to the audio book despite the fact that I am completely sick of zombies and I have some problems with the story. I could go on and on about how stupid the idea that shuffling zombies who have to bite you to be effective could ever defeat armed troops in body armor is but the rest of the book is pretty well done. It's more about a complete breakdown of civilization then it is about zombies,you could replace them with just about any threat and it would be the same basic story. So over all I would say I enjoy it. Oh but the audio book with it's all star cast is the way to go. Martin Scorsese completely steals the show as the greedy asshole who made a fortune off of a drug that didn't work. Even if you only listen one part of the book make it that section because it is a laugh riot. Well that and Simon Pegg's attempt to sound like he is from Texas:)

Still there are logic problems that bug me that help me understand why some people can't stand this book if those sort of things bug you.  For instance I have to ask, what sense does mothballing the whole airforce make? I mean I can understand that bombs didn't work but if there is one thing Zombies can't attack in any way it's a helicopter with a giant machine gun. I mean ground troops can get swarmed and yes I know the helicopters would not take out the brains on their first try but it seems to me once you don't have to worry about friendly fire all you would have to do is have a few helicopters hovering over any location and shooting zombies and those forces would be in zero danger. Sure as I said they may not hit the brains but at some point the zombies will be so full of wholes that they can't move and would no longer be a threat and you wouldn't lose a single person or gun doing this. It seems like Max Brooks has an in built bias in favor of the third world and just wrote this book to put down the united states militarty and it's people and try to bring some dream world of his to life where both are completely useless. The trouble is he nocks apart the logic of his own world to get there. For instance he doesn't want the zombie to run, okay but then how did they knock out two thirds of the military? We only hear about one battle lost, that battle could not have involved the inter military, why didn't they regroup and just switch the ammo and tactics? Also at no point is it even brought up that the zombies could be supernatural, it's a plauge in this story and that means they should obey the laws of physics. So then why doesn't freezing burst their cells? Why doesn't salt water corrode them? I corrodes battleships, shouldn't it corrode exposed flesh and organs? If the heat of the third world kills zombies why does the cold of the first world? How can they stand up to the intense pressure at the bottom of the ocean? Why doesn't that crush them? if they eat everything in sight and they are not smart enough to climb over walls then once all other food is gone why don't they attack other zombies? There is no indication that they have a hive mind or anything like that. We are told at one point the zombies don't freeze because they have no water in their bodies. Okay I can go with that but then how do they move and come to think of it how do they see? Eyes must be kept moist in order to function, that is why we blink, shouldn't all the zombies be blind? It seems to me the biggest problem with this book is a problem of in universe logic, the world is set up with a certain logic that works and draws you into it and makes you think about it in a logical way but then when it gets in the way of the story the logic is thrown out the window. The trouble is that by that point the reader has been trained to think about things logical so it really stands out when things stop making sense.

One other problem is one of basic style.  These are supposed to be interviews and why some of the dialog is very good the descriptions are bit too poetic and detailed for me to believe it is a real person talking and not something written by a writer and that takes me out of the moment.  For instance every person gives a very detailed description of what a zombie looks like.  The trouble is this is supposed to take place in a world where everyone has seen a zombie so why would they do that.  For instance if I am describing say an Asian person to someone in real life I don't describe in detail ever line on their face or look for a creative way to bring the person to life, I will just say something like "He's the tall Asian guy who works at Wal Mart." because the person I am talking to doesn't need it explained to them what an Asian looks like.  the same goes for describing the action. People will get a little too detailed about sights and sounds and describe them in a way and use the type of phasing a writer does when trying to bring a scene to life for the readers.  Now don't get me wrong these things do make for an intense read that draws you in at some moments but more often then not I found myself being draw out of the moments by the fact that it didn't feel like real people talking it felt like a writer writing.

Still it did sell it's self as a history book that felt like it was documenting real events and it does a good job drawing you into certain scene so it is as close as I have come to liking anything zombie related in a long time so that is something.  As it stands I would say this is a decent book that has a good first two acts of set up but then falls apart in the middle. 5./10.

Finally finished the Han Solo Adventures trilogy. I was a bit disappointed with all three. I put it down several months back and only just came back to it, so the disconnect doesn't help. Anyway it was just too slow and the writing style not engaging. Zahn's style isn't the best either, but his stories are so good that les engaging wording doesn't bother me. Daley did well with the radio dramas, but fell short here.

Picked up the Harry Potter books again. Rowling is simply an excellent author. All my efforts not to enjoy her works has failed, as I confess these are wonderful books.

I've been going through the post-ROTJ "Legends" EU for a while now. It's slower going than I'd like, but so far I've read Truce at Bakura (good), Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (excellent), X-Wing: Rogue Squadron (good), and I'm currently halfway through X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble.

At the risk of being overly self-promoting, I've been reviewing each one on a blog I started after I finished Bakura. The ads aren't mine, they're all wordpress's, so I don't make a dime off of the blog at the moment. Eventually I may try to monetize it if traffic becomes consistent, but first I have to, you know, post something more than once a month (or read faster).

The Truce at Bakura review

The Shadows of Mindor review

X-Wing: Rogue Squadron review

I would just copy/paste the reviews here, but ... well ... they're long. Possibly too long even for the blog. But if anyone's interested in my reviews, they're right over there.

I didn't finish reading this book, so perhaps I shouldn't review it. I guess I am anyway, though, seeing as I've gone this far what with the cover image and the introduction and the hey, hey, hey, this underwhelms me?

Yep, that's my opinion of this collection of short stories; there are a few gems in there, but they're few, far between, and sandwiched between a whole lot of meh.

Here's the list of the stories I felt were the best:

"A Time to Mourn, A Time to Dance: Oola's Tale" by Kathy Tyers

"And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale" by William F. Wu (My enjoyment from this story is primarily derived from the morbid absurdity of a retarded Gamorrean carrying a rotting corpse it doesn't realize is dead around with it as it tries to solve a murder mystery, though, so it's definitely not a story for everyone.)

"Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale" by Kenneth C. Flint

"A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett" by J. D. Montgomery 

This is my first Star Trek novel. Unfortunately, I didn't like it; to be brutally blunt, I thought it sucked. And that's sad, because it started off with a lot of promise

In the first chapter, Kirk, Scotty, and McCoy have a discussion on the nature of transportation and what happens to the soul when a person is dematerialized and reconstituted during beaming. This immediately caught my interest and drew me into the story; as far as I know, the moral and metaphysical quandaries behind the transporter technology have never been directly addressed in any of the films or series', so I was interested in seeing how the author would tackle those questions following Spock's accidental duplication following an experiment with faster-than-light, interstellar beaming. 

From there on out, though, the book just descends into a tedious quagmire involving some impending war with the Klingons, the disappearance of the Organians, Spock One and Spock Two hating one another, and the rest of the crew trying to find out which is the duplicate so that they can kill him (Wow, that really sounds in character for Kirk & co, doesn't it?)

In the end, it turns out the duplicate Spock is evil (because he's a reversed mirror image of Spock, physically as well as morally, ya know), some boring reality-warping bullshit happens on Organia, duplicate Spock dies (presumably), and then I quit reading the damn book because it was a complete waste of time and I wasn't going to waste the rest of it reading the rest of it.

I've begun reading My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane. I've heard a lot of good things about her Trek novels, so I'm hoping this'll be a whole lot better than the floundered disaster Spock Must Die! was.

It's funny; the more I like a thing (a book, movie, etc.), the less I have to say about it.

I guess I'll just say this: I'm definitely going to read the next book in the trilogy.

I finally finished reading my first novel in French (a translation of 1984). It was a nice milestone to reach. I'm far from finishing Bilbo le hobbit, which I started in July or August, but now that I've got one novel out of the way, I don't imagine this one will take too long. 

I love fantasy but I haven't read a wide variety.  I've kinda stuck to the staples, namely The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia.  Well, I recently watched The Neverending Story for the first time in probably two decades (sorry, I don't know how I misworded it in your thread, Frink, because I loved this movie as a kid).  Thought I'd give the book a go.  There is an excellent translation (it's originally in German), and though I'm not too far into it, it truly is fascinating and original, without delving too much into cliches.  It's a fun read, and I recommend it highly.

The Neverending Story is definitely a novel I need to get around to reading one of these days. I've never seen any of the films, but I did watch a short-lived TV series inspired by the book some years back which I enjoyed, so I'd love to read the original story itself.

Oh, I'll get around to watching at least the first one someday. =P

Don't watch the sequels.  To call them the PT of the Neverending Story universe would be an understatement.  They are not based on any book and they are rubbish.

And the Childlike Empress crying in Tobar's gif there is an amazing actress for such a young child.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I'm currently reading The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley, and I've finished the first two books and am currently on the third.

Han Solo at Stars' End wasn't all that engaging, though it picked up enough at the end to make it worthwhile, while Han Solo's Revenge was the complete opposite -- the story engaged me at first, but it floundered and fell flat at the end.

Overall, they're decent stories with decent characterization, and they succeed at making the SW Universe feel larger by taking place in regions beyond the Empire. But unless Han Solo and the Lost Legacy proves to be a truly excellent story that makes up for the shortcomings of its predecessors, I won't be keeping my copy of the book.

I thought I'd return to this post and give a conclusion to it.

After giving the book a several-month-long break to focus on other books, I picked it back up and resumed reading Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. The first few chapters were shaping up to be a good read, but then something went wrong in the seventh or eighth chapter; too much started happening all at once, I became lost in the plot, I tried to continue, but by the nineth chapter I just threw up my arms, said to hell with it, and quit reading right there on the spot.

To sum things up, I really wanted to like The Han Solo Adventures more than I did, but they were just alright, nothing spectacular, and since I have limited shelf space, I'm weeding my copy of the book to free up space for other books.

Now, as to the other books I've read/tried to read:

This is my second Star Trek novel, and I'm happy to say that unlike Spock Must Die!, I actually liked this story. The Romulans are probably the most interesting ST race after the Vulcans to me, so it was nice to get some insight into their language and culture -- especially insight that wasn't tainted by TNG's crappy interpretation of the race. I also enjoyed that Diane Duane included some very alien aliens among the Enterprise's crew.

On a somewhat more disappointing note, the story was kind of convoluted and hard to follow. Maybe it's just that I read the novel intermittently while riding on the bus, but it felt like someone took a rough draft of a novel -- a rough draft with good characterization and a decent plot, mind you -- and published it without bothering to edit out the extraneous details or improve the pace.

Coming to a conclusion, I'll say that it was a nice read, but I don't know if I really want to hang onto my copy. I suppose I will -- at least until I get a chance to read more of Ms. Duane's Romulan-focused novels and see if it's worth hanging onto for the "full story".

I've never bothered reading the X-Wing novels before, but I've heard plenty of good things about them. Couple that with the fact that I loved I, Jedi (also written by Stackpole) and found the X-Wing comics decent, I felt it was about time I checked this series out.

Well, the novel started out on a high note: the characters were written well enough -- especially the Imperial ones. However, once I got to the passages focused on dogfights and other forms of fighter-flying, my eyes started to glaze over. One of the reasons I avoided reading these books in the first place was because I was afraid I'd find descriptions of fighter pilots flying their snubfighters boring. Well, it looks like my fears were justified; if the book wasn't centred on character interactions on the ground (or in a starship large enough to stand and walk around in), I was bored.

As you can probably suspect, I quit reading, stopping almost halfway through. Perhaps the later novels in the series prove more engrossing, but I guess I'll never know, will I? *sad sigh*

Finally! A book I managed to read all the way through! Of course, it being a rather thin book written for kids, that's no big surprise, is it?

Well, Bunnicula is an alright book for children, but reading it as an adult, I can't help but find it meh. That's rather sad, though, as I enjoyed the Bunnicula series when I was a kid. Now I'm hesitant to read the sequels in fear of having a similar reaction to them, that my warm childhood memories of the series will be spoiled.

As for what I'm currently reading:

This is my first nuEU novel, and aside from a brief-but-needless mention of clone troopers and an accompanying allusion to Order 66, I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully it'll end on a good note and I'll have finally read something from the nuEU which doesn't suck.