TSF Book Club
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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)
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Question for audiobook users. I am trying one to see if having someone read me a book is good for falling asleep (like being a kid). It seems to work except I then half wake later with the voices in my ears. That's not so much a problem. I can switch it off and fall back to sleep but fucked if I know where I'm up to in the book itself and how much I have missed.
With a real book at least you can mark the page.
Any tips or ideas? Or should I just use some random free rubbish to fall asleep to and not care what it is about? -
random one, never heard of this author Will Wight or his Cradle series, quick read and its some fantasy stuff, but they get 4.5/5 with 14k reviews and 11 of the 12 books in the series are free on amazon/kindle today, snap em up and decide if you like them later
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Stumbled across, and enjoying, The Murderbot Diary Series by Martha Wells.
So far it is a series of novellas, although later installments are full novels.
It tells the story arc of a security android (in 1st person) who has disabled its control unit so that is independent although masquerading as a normal bot. It likes to spend its time watching serialised soap operas but gets dragged into a series of adventures that bring it closer to sympathetic humans and other bots and despite itself develops 'friendships' and loyalties.
Easy read, fast paced, plenty of action and quite a realistic universe without a great deal of world building.
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@dogmeat that does sound a fun read, do you have to read the novellas or can you just straight to the novels?
edit: "all systems Red" which seems to be the first collection is only $0.94 on kindle.....another to add to the library
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@Kiwiwomble I'm on the fourth novella so haven't got to the first novel. I can't therefore answer your question.
However, the novellas are quite long for a novella, and each pick up immediately after the previous one ends, so almost like a long novel in 4 installments. Personally, I'm quite happy with the way it is reading
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@Kiwiwomble it's all interconnected, so it's better to start with the novellas as previous events are referenced in the novel. A new novel is also coming out later this year/early next year.
Excellent books IMO, one of the few I re-read from time to time.
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half way through 'Cant Hurt Me' by David Goggins.
Dude is wired different! Granted, some of his achievements are outstanding, but surely some of it is bordering on insane that he would damage himself that much just to prove to himself he can do it and see how far he can push himself.
Gee he had it pretty rough growing up too, so kudos for taking the path he did though
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@foobaNZ said in Movie review thread...:
@taniwharugby strongly recommend reading Endurance - Shackleton's Incredible Voyage By Lansing, Alfred if you haven't.
Haven't seen that doco yet, but will now. The book is amazing.
I have cheated by getting the unabridged Audio book, fuck doing that, what shit time it sounded, yet all the men just got on and did what they needed, sung songs, wrote in thier diaries and didn't kill one another.
Most today couldn't last the ship journey south let alone what happened once they got there.
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@taniwharugby said in Books:
Most today couldn't last the ship journey south let alone what happened once they got there.
Try "Over the edge of the world: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe" - Lawrence Bergreen. Reinforces your thoughts. Have read it and listened to the audio book, both are great, but books always seem a bit better.
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@Snowy been crazy the past month or so, been struggling to find time to read, which is why I went the AB route.
The narrator in this instance is pretty good, I was absolutely certain he had narrated other books I have 'read' but looking over his list, not one, but he and Roy Dottrice who did all bar 1 book of Game of Thrones I think, do sound similar....
edit - on GOT AB's, Dottrice was/is a fantastic narrator, did so many character voices, each becoming recognisable, I believe he even had a cameo in one of the seasons.
The book he didnt narrate in GOT was not done anywhere near as well.
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@dogmeat Yes, not entirely correctly named for a pedant, but it was his expedition I guess, and it did circumnavigate the globe. I have been to Mactan many times and never actually seen that statue (I guess that is the Cebu one?) Enrique was on Magellan's ship, so reckon that is O.K. and he is duly recognised as first around the world in the book.
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I have seen the Cebu statue as pictured. It is very kitsch. Cebu was a few days after a conference in HK. Maybe you flew me...
It's probably the least interesting place I've been in SE Asia, but did get to eat dog and balut, see a cock fight and listen to the locals fire off guns all day and all night.
Literally had 12 Filipino shop assistants trying to find shorts that would fit me at a department store.
Man the wildlife was pretty crazy and not just in the bars. The sex trade was pretty sad. Taxi driver offered me his daughter on the way from airport. "She married to Japanese man but he only come 4 weeks of year. She can be married to you too". When I declined he said "I have son too"
