Never read any Mieville....no wait, the "Moby Dick hunting giant moles from trains" one? Did I finish it? Can't remember. Noticed there was a Mieville book in the school library of all places. Japanese of course, probably a bit over my head.The Other Dave wrote:I recently read The City & The City by China Mieville. I'm not actually such a huge fan of Mieville - "urban fantasy" doesn't do much for me, and I found the Bas-Lag books more than a tad overwrought. The thing about The City & The City, though, is that Mieville having written it is sort of a red herring. In the end, it's not really a fantasy novel at all, and everything is explicable without relying on magic (well, aside from the magic of psychology and social conditioning, I guess). Rather than urban fantasy, it's instead a really good post-Soviet Eastern European police procedural with a neat psycho-political twist. Good stuff!
The Book Thread
Re: The Book Thread
...and now his Head was full of nothing but Inchantments, Quarrels, Battles, Challenges, Wounds, Complaints, Amours, and abundance of Stuff and Impossibilities.....
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Cervantes, Don Quixote
- YellowStreak
- Legend
- Posts: 1358
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 2:57 pm
- Location: Nagoya
Re: The Book Thread
I've been reading stuff that may not float the boats of most board members, but are up my alley...
Worm - the first digital war - the story of the Conficker virus (I'm sure we all remember that one! What? Just me? OK.... )
Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard - the story of how DES was cracked. Good cryo-history read.
Worm - the first digital war - the story of the Conficker virus (I'm sure we all remember that one! What? Just me? OK.... )
Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard - the story of how DES was cracked. Good cryo-history read.
So many games, so little time....
Building a pile of shame since 1983
Building a pile of shame since 1983
Re: The Book Thread
This evening I read:
Harry Potter and the Potrait of what Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash.
It's a short excerpt written by a predictive text program that was fed the Harry Potter series. It is absolute genius!
http://botnik.org/content/harry-potter.html
Harry Potter and the Potrait of what Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash.
It's a short excerpt written by a predictive text program that was fed the Harry Potter series. It is absolute genius!
http://botnik.org/content/harry-potter.html
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450
- me_in_japan
- Moderator of Swoosh!
- Posts: 7396
- Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 2:46 pm
- Location: Tsu, Mie, Japan
Re: The Book Thread
jeezus H jiminy jumpluf, but that was godDAMN surreal.
current (2019) hobby interests
eh, y'know. Stuff, and things
Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...
eh, y'know. Stuff, and things
Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...
Re: The Book Thread
Yep, but funny as hell. I guess AI has a ways to go before it can replace real writers.me_in_japan wrote:jeezus H jiminy jumpluf, but that was godDAMN surreal.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450
- me_in_japan
- Moderator of Swoosh!
- Posts: 7396
- Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 2:46 pm
- Location: Tsu, Mie, Japan
Re: The Book Thread
Sooooo....
Has anybody else tried The Southern Reach trilogy, by Jeff Vandermeer? Book 1 was made into that netflix film Annihilation (which was very good, btw)
I've recently finished the trilogy, and they're...well, certainly good books. Well written, and very thought provoking. A bit too thought provoking, in fact. In fact, what da hell are they actually about? Anybody? Answers on a postcard, or later in this thread, please, cos I'm stumped. And I tried looking up other folks' ideas online. Ended up researching semiotics...
Anyway, they're definitely worth a read. My best description would be...
1. not like the movie. At all.
2. Lovecraftian. Kinda.
3. Make a very good attempt to show what might happen if humanity encountered a species that was totally unlike us. Like. Totally.
4. Creepy.
5. A bit too open to interpretation for my liking. I likes me a neat bow around my storylines, thank you very much.
Has anybody else tried The Southern Reach trilogy, by Jeff Vandermeer? Book 1 was made into that netflix film Annihilation (which was very good, btw)
I've recently finished the trilogy, and they're...well, certainly good books. Well written, and very thought provoking. A bit too thought provoking, in fact. In fact, what da hell are they actually about? Anybody? Answers on a postcard, or later in this thread, please, cos I'm stumped. And I tried looking up other folks' ideas online. Ended up researching semiotics...
Anyway, they're definitely worth a read. My best description would be...
1. not like the movie. At all.
2. Lovecraftian. Kinda.
3. Make a very good attempt to show what might happen if humanity encountered a species that was totally unlike us. Like. Totally.
4. Creepy.
5. A bit too open to interpretation for my liking. I likes me a neat bow around my storylines, thank you very much.
current (2019) hobby interests
eh, y'know. Stuff, and things
Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...
eh, y'know. Stuff, and things
Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...
- The Other Dave
- Destroyer of Worlds
- Posts: 5117
- Joined: Tue May 18, 2010 3:46 am
- Location: Nagoya
- Contact:
Re: The Book Thread
They've been on my radar for a while but I haven't picked them up yet - that sounds right up my alley, though, sort of Danielewski-esque (if you haven't read House of Leaves, you should, although its own Lovecraftian (kinda), creepy, and open to interpretation vibes are dialed all the way up to 11).me_in_japan wrote:Sooooo....
Has anybody else tried The Southern Reach trilogy, by Jeff Vandermeer? Book 1 was made into that netflix film Annihilation (which was very good, btw)
Feel free to call me Dave!
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Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 17 infantry
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Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 17 infantry
Re: The Book Thread
Got to say I'm piqued too. I don't think I've read any sci-fi since, I think it was TOD who pointed me at "Blindsight", a great, great, first contact story. Come to think of it, I don't think I've read anything since....... the complete works of H.P Lovecraft followed by some P.G Wodehouse last year I think......
...and now his Head was full of nothing but Inchantments, Quarrels, Battles, Challenges, Wounds, Complaints, Amours, and abundance of Stuff and Impossibilities.....
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Cervantes, Don Quixote
- me_in_japan
- Moderator of Swoosh!
- Posts: 7396
- Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 2:46 pm
- Location: Tsu, Mie, Japan
Re: The Book Thread
I may have a look at that Blindsight some time. As for SR, you can get all three for 1000en on the kindle, if you’re so inclined.
current (2019) hobby interests
eh, y'know. Stuff, and things
Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...
eh, y'know. Stuff, and things
Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...
Re: The Book Thread
I suppose this is the most recent book thread so even though it seems to have been quite a while since the last post I can't find anywhere better to post about Black Library novels so I'm posting here.
I just finished reading Alpharious: Head of the Hydra and even though it seemed a bit short I enjoyed reading it. No spoilers but as you could probably guess from the title it goes into Alpharious' backstory and I would recommend reading it if you're interested in either the Alpha Legion or pre-heresy events.
Also I love the limited edition version that I got, and it is probably the coolest collector's edition book I own, even compared to the Siege of Terra series.
The first picture is the "case" which contains the actual novel. For some reason the cover just reminds me of Lex Luthor.
Another book I read fairly recently was Brutal Kunnin. It's one of the rare books that includes the Ork perspective and every single line of Ork banter and shenanigans was great fun. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Ork way of life as it contains plenty of awesome moments of Orkish ingenuity. I didn't bother counting pages but at least half of the book is from non-Ork perspectives so just keep that in mind.
I just finished reading Alpharious: Head of the Hydra and even though it seemed a bit short I enjoyed reading it. No spoilers but as you could probably guess from the title it goes into Alpharious' backstory and I would recommend reading it if you're interested in either the Alpha Legion or pre-heresy events.
Also I love the limited edition version that I got, and it is probably the coolest collector's edition book I own, even compared to the Siege of Terra series.
The first picture is the "case" which contains the actual novel. For some reason the cover just reminds me of Lex Luthor.
Another book I read fairly recently was Brutal Kunnin. It's one of the rare books that includes the Ork perspective and every single line of Ork banter and shenanigans was great fun. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Ork way of life as it contains plenty of awesome moments of Orkish ingenuity. I didn't bother counting pages but at least half of the book is from non-Ork perspectives so just keep that in mind.