Books

[JediHunter]

I finished reading Cradle by Arthur C. Clarke. It was a decent book which I am happy to have finished. Although a bit anti-climactic. I also read I am Legend right after I saw the movie... finished it in three days, at work, on breaks. It was ok.. not as good as I thought it would be, but definitely a good book to read in order to understand the older generations... but yea, now I am reading Starship Troopers.. and hopefully will be done with that in the next two weeks or so...

[Darth_Rob]

My gf got me the Colbet Book "I Am America". I look forward to reading it, especially now that I will have more time to read.

[DarthTofu]

My gf got me the Colbet Book "I Am America". I look forward to reading it, especially now that I will have more time to read.

 

Ditto. I also got Unwind by Niel Shusterman (sp?). He's a pretty good author, albeit a somewhat juvenile one. He has a knack for not writing predictable books, though- IE the obvious couples will not still be together by the end of the book, and he'll keep you guessing throughout.

 

In fact, he was the guy Orson Scott Card wanted to write the Bean quartet originally before he took it over. Card still sort of looks up to him; I got to meet him at a conference for the Florida Council of Teachers of English for play that I wrote that won first in a state competition, and he was a pretty darned engaging speaker. I got two of his books and discovered that he's a rather engaging author as well.

[Evaders99]

Finished a number of books so far...

 

Since you mentioned him,

 

Orson Scott Card's Empire - finally out on paperback.. yes OSC writes other things besides scifi. He has a great column on political issues. Basically the book is a what if there were a civil war in modern America and ends up a sorta action-thriller, blue states VS red states, extremism on both ends. He obviously points out the flaws in the liberal philosophy, but he doesn't believe in a strict conservative viewpoint either. His main point is that political extremism on both sides could end up in a war, where each side truly believes the other is "evil"

 

Orson Scott Card's A War of Gifts - its a short novelle, usually I don't end up buying these (more $ than a softback for less material), but I like to support the author. It was nice to see Ender (as a child) doing his thing.

 

For my Star Wars reading,

Legacy of the Force: Fury - which I probably already mentioned somewhere, is more set up for the concluding books than anything else. Allston's character make some cameos, but the Solo-Skywalker clan is much more the focus of Legacy.

 

Republic Commando: True Colors - a different vive than the last two RC books. Feels like it should close the trilogy out, but it doesn't satisfy me.

 

The Golden Compass - yes I watched the movie. And the book is surprisingly similar, little cut out besides the more graphic bits. It doesn't end on the same point, but I expect they are leaving that for the sequel. Despite all the attention it has gotten from the religious groups, I don't see why it is so bad. But then I admit - I don't understand the whole issue with Harry Potter either.

[DarthTofu]

I finished Unwind in less than twenty four hours. That good- had me up 'till five AM reading it. Ugh!

 

I can see very much why Card would have wanted Schusterman (Again, sp?) to write the Bean quartet- he writes a character who is very much like Bean's nemesis Achilles, and yet not him at all, and creates an amazingly realistic world of madness.

 

Basically it's like this: After the second Civil War fought over abortion (I'm guessing he and Card collaborated there) it was determined that there would be a compromise: From the moment of conception, a life cannot and will not be touched. However, from when the child is thirteen to when the child becomes an adult at eighteen, they can be retroactively aborted, or "unwound," which is technically not killing them. Instead their bodies are "unwound" and all of the tissues and such are placed into living, breathing people to give them life, drastically increasing life expectancy and such- and the child is still alive, just in a different way, now. In the form of a thousand bits and pieces scattered among a thousand people.

 

Very good book; if it's juvenile, it's juvenile only in the respect that Ender's Game was juvenile.

[SOCL]

Republic Commando: True Colors - a different vive than the last two RC books. Feels like it should close the trilogy out, but it doesn't satisfy me.

This isn't supposed to sound sarcastic, but you do know there is a fourth book in the process correct?

 

I'm reading this book, also, but I have increasing issue with Traviss. I feel like she lets too many of her own likes/dislikes into her novels, veering the plots further and further from their originally intended purpose. Hard Contact was, in my opinion, right on the mark as far as this series should have been. The arrival of Kal Skirata, Walon Vau, and the Mandalorain obsession in Triple Zero made that story just awkward since it really didn't fit with the scheme of the series as a whole. True Colors seems to be more of the same, if not worse: the plot has stop being about the commandos (indeed, Omega and Delta squads are doing their own bit which hardly has to do with the apparent main story arc) and increasingly about Skirata and the Mandalorians. Personally, I love Mandalorians, but can't stand the way Traviss says "This is the way they are, end of story" and will use any venue she's given to scream that point from a bullhorn. Hell, the Null ARC troopers become more of main characters than the commandos! Niner, who was my favorite character in Hard Contact, is now a background character with now POV scenes like he had in that first novel! It utterly annoys me that Traviss would diverge so far from the story of the commandos to tell the story of "what happens to the commandos based on what Skirata and the Mandalorians decide."

[DarthTofu]

I finally snagged a copy of Fury from my friend- stayed up 'til 3 AM reading it last night. Granted, this was starting at around 1:30 AM.

 

Spoilers for the first 108 pages follow: It's nice to finally see Kyle Katarn getting more than a cameo finally, though I'd really like to see more of all of the Masters in action. For being Masters of the Force they don't seem to get out very much- finally Kyle Katarn has, though, now he's been stabbed through the chest and might not make it. I believe my words at that point were "Oh my God! Aaron Allston killed Kyle Katarn! You bastard!" Hopefully he makes it, but I don't know; I'll be kind of sad if he doesn't. I always liked him in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games.

 

I also hope to see Jaina finally getting some "screen time" that she's been denied throughout most of the series. She's Jacen's twin sister, for pity's sake, and the "Sword of the Jedi." You'd think that would warrant her doing more important things than hunting Alema Rar- you know, like hunting, Jacen, maybe? Ah, well...

[SOCL]

I also hope to see Jaina finally getting some "screen time" that she's been denied throughout most of the series. She's Jacen's twin sister, for pity's sake, and the "Sword of the Jedi." You'd think that would warrant her doing more important things than hunting Alema Rar- you know, like hunting, Jacen, maybe? Ah, well...

Read on Tofu. And have you seen the cover to Invincible?...

[Darth_Rob]

Im a couple of chapters into Colbert's "I Am America". It is sooo freakin great! Its one of the few books that I have read and actually laughed out loud.

[DarthTofu]

Finished Fury last night- I'll talk about that more in the Legacy thread. Suffice to say that I enjoyed it.

 

I'm also reading Colbert's book, but I didn't get terribly far before picking up Unwind and Fury respectively. I can't read too long out of that book before I just get bored with it- It's an overdose of Colbert, and it isn't really intelligent humor like you get from the show (on occasion) so far it's just been pure randomness and stupid opinions that aren't really all that satirical.

[Darth_Rob]

I feel that the book is exactly like his television show, and is chock-full of his random, over-exaggerated opinions. This is one book that would make an awesome book on tape (as long as he was the one reading it).

[SOCL]

It's an overdose of Colbert, and it isn't really intelligent humor like you get from the show (on occasion) so far it's just been pure randomness and stupid opinions that aren't really all that satirical.

I feel the same way about both the show and the book. I think the majority of it is now just randomness and stupidity and lost much of its intellectual humor--it's the reason I watch The Daily Show and then shut off the TV.

[Darth_Rob]

It's an overdose of Colbert, and it isn't really intelligent humor like you get from the show (on occasion) so far it's just been pure randomness and stupid opinions that aren't really all that satirical.

I feel the same way about both the show and the book. I think the majority of it is now just randomness and stupidity and lost much of its intellectual humor--it's the reason I watch The Daily Show and then shut off the TV.

 

I dont think Colbert was ever as "intelligently humorous" as the Daily Show. The Daily Show mocked the days current events, while Colbert occasionally commented on them, but generally goes off on his own rants about other stuff, with a over-exaggerated conservative view, which I find awesomely humorous. I tend to avoid The Daily Show more often these days, and stick to just Colbert.

 

On the plus side, they settled their writers strike thingy, and will be back to new programs next Monday.

[DarthTofu]

Hey, that's cool. Dear God, television has taken over the books thread! Damn you, Colbert!

 

I'm back to Colbert's book, now, but I'm also going through Religion for Dummies, non-fiction. It's an overview of all of the world's religions that enough data could be gathered on, and is really quite interesting. Fun fact: The Eastern countries kick the Western countries collective asses in terms of fun, interesting religions.

 

West: Repent! You're a dirty, naughty sinner, but Jesus loves you! Unless of course you don't believe in him. Then you're damned for eternity over that.

East: Check it out! Our gods have, like, twenty arms! And guess what? If you screw up the first time, you've got a couple more chances! How awesome is that?! And we're even willing to coexist!

Middle East: Wait, what? When did this happen? AIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAI!

 

... Or something like that.

[SOCL]

On the plus side, they settled their writers strike thingy, and will be back to new programs next Monday.

Actually, Stewart and Colbert still have no writers, at least ones that belong to the Guild. Like Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, and Conan O'Brian, they're winging it on their own...and it's really not very good. I didn't bother watching Colbert Monday, but as far as I understand, the character of Steven Colbert (i.e. the "ultra-conservative") belongs to the Writer's Guild...

 

I finished True Colors; here's my review of the novel as posted on Facebook:

Like most, if not all of Traviss's Star Wars writing: messy. Traviss attempts to tell too many stories in too short a time, and her background as a reporter is all too apparent. Plots, though interesting, seem utterly unrelated aside from small threads and common characters, most poignantly so in the fact that the basis of the series was to be centered around the "adventures", if you will, of Republic Commandos, but has instead turned into something that can more aptly be titled "The Adventures of Kal Skirata the Mandalorian and his Clone Sons". The plot is compelling in itself, but Traviss's weakness lies in creating a novel instead of a report, so the ups-and-downs don't exist and it reads more like an elaborate history book rather than a novel, which not be a bad thing in itself, but certainly does not add anything significant to the story as a whole, just one more element of the cold-hard-facts typical of reporter writing. Traviss would do well to take a lesson from George Orwell, a reporter at heart himself, and realize that compelling stories are motivated by drama and not facts, and though excessive drama can certainly be unfavorable, no drama at all simply makes it bland. With a good story, but poor execution, True Colors does not live up to either the game that spawned the series or the first novel, Hard Contact, earning it a 3 out 5 (just like Triple Zero), just missing a 2.5 because of how interesting the story is as a whole.

[Darth_Rob]

I was happy that the new episodes started, but I felt that Steward devoted way to much time and energy on Monday's show to the strike.

[SOCL]

I was happy that the new episodes started, but I felt that Steward devoted way to much time and energy on Monday's show to the strike.

I agree wholeheartedly. Indeed, all of the shows who have gone back on without their writers have concentrated far too much on the strike, especially bashing it.

[SOCL]

It's been about a week since my last post, so...

 

Has anyone noticed that Jon Stewart's show is called A Daily Show with Jon Stewart instead of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? Yep, the Writer's Guild owns the name of the show.

 

I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring right now, but it's moving significantly slower than The Hobbit; however, the Black Riders are likely the creepiest things in literature, at least in the way Tolkien describes them.

 

I'm also reading The Catcher in the Rye, but I'm bored as hell with it. I probably should have read it in high-school because I would probably identify with it better, but now I'm having a hard time dealing with the character's teen-angst.

[Darth_Rob]

It's been about a week since my last post, so...

 

Has anyone noticed that Jon Stewart's show is called A Daily Show with Jon Stewart instead of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? Yep, the Writer's Guild owns the name of the show.

 

Colbert did the same thing. Instead of pronouncing it "Colbare Repore" he says it like it looks.

[DarthTofu]

I kinda liked what I had to read of Catcher in the Rye. We read part of the first chapter in class during the first day of school, just to show us how woefully innept we were at spotting hidden details. They're like booby traps, except it takes a teacher asking questions to trigger them.

 

I'm reading Brave New World right now. It's good, but you can't take it in very large chunks at a time. I have to read a chapter or two and then pause to try to digest it, and occassionally I have to step back from the really annoying swap back and forth between three different perspectives in terms of 1.5 sentences, for about two pages, to figure out A) Why he's doing that and B) Who the hell's point of view he's on.

 

It's a kind of confusing book when you take an AP view, a disturbing book when you take a human view, and a decent book when you don't take a view.

[Krytos]

I really need to pull my thumb out and read something soon. I'm thinking of trying to borrow Do Androids dream of Electrical Sheep sometime ... soon ... ish ... maybe

[Sinister]

I just finished a book called Day By Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne. I highly recommend this book. It's basically this military man's personal journal about his survival in a world that has been overrun by...zombies. It starts off with him trapped in his house while the dead are walking the streets preying on the living. It details everything from his plan of escape, to finding other survivors and trying to locate a safe haven. It's definitely a page turner.

[DarthTofu]

I'm rereading Unwind right now, and I have a copy of Speaker for the Dead. The former I know is great, the latter I hope will be great.

 

Unwind is effectively a novel of a satire. It takes a stand on abortion by creating the Bill of Life. It goes something like this: There was a massive second civil war in America: The Heartland War. It was fought over abortion. To appease the two sides, a new idea was composed. From the moment of conception a child cannot be touched. However, from the ages of thirteen to eighteen the child's parents of guardians may choose to retroactively abort the child, under the condition that the child's life does not technically end.

 

The process is called unwinding. No one quite knows how it works, but the parts of the retroactively aborted child, or Unwind, are harvested from their body- fully living- and transplanted into the bodies of people who are still alive. Every last bit of the child is still working, just in a different place.

 

The book raises a bunch of difficult questions, such as when life ends. It follows three unwinds, all being unwound for different reasons. One has had issues at school, and his parents have gotten fed up with him. One is a resident of a state home, and funding has dropped, prompting several of the mid-range to lower-performing members of the home to be unwound. One is being "tithed," or donated, by his highly religious family, in order to give ten percent of all they own to charity.

 

Needless to say, I seriosuly like the book. The characters are very dynamic, and it doesn't weigh itself down by explaining everything that they say or think.

[Darth_Rob]

I really have to start reading again for myself, and not school-assigned books. I have The Once and Future King waiting for me on my bookshelf. I think it is about King Arthur and his life and death, beginning with his training under Merlin.

[SOCL]

Read World War Z by Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks). Even if you don't like zombies (I'm certainly not what you would call a "fan"), it really has less to do with zombies as it does the human condition; i.e. reaction to crisis. It's easily one of my favorite novels! I read it all in a day! Absolutely brilliant! I won't detail it the plot since that would give much of it away, but it's written exactly like a true oral history, a series of small vignettes about people who survived the "Zombie War" that explores the human condition and humanity, addressing the numerous, numerous issues that plague society in the modern day, all against the backdrop of a zombie outbreak (i.e. zombies are not in the fore). Reader reviews seem to indicate that most people were actually not even aware of a lot of global issues/crises until they read this book!

 

READ IT!