Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you READING?

Finally started A Game of Thrones today. Should have been studying but Caroline had another dental appointment and I didn't want to drag the laptop with me at 8:00 AM. Only about 100 pages in but I'm hooked.

I read a wonderful tribute to Vonnegut today where the writer mentioned that The Sirens of Titan was his first ever Vonnegut book. This made me remember a few bits about Winston Niles Rutherford (wasn't that the protagonist's name?) and the reason for the title of the novel. I've read a few, Cat's Cradle, Slapshot and Welcome to the Monkey House but sadly I have NOT read his most acclaimed works, Slaughterhouse Five or God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.

I think I'm going to get a new copy of it and a few others that I've never read and go on a Kurt Vonnegut jag this spring.

I've been re-reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom" series: John Carter! Swashbuckling adventure on Mars!
Check your brains at the door!

I've just started Illium by Dan Simmons. This is the first book I've picked up in months. Haven't gotten very far but I'm hooked. I wish I could devote as much energy to non-speculative-fiction. I guess I must be a nerd Sci Fi is life candy to me

Lol

I loved those! John Carter of Mars, Tarzan at the Earth's Core and Carson of Venus Space Rock!

Been awhile since I've given a few book reports so here's what I've read recently:

Eyes of Prey
Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines
Legacy of the Force: Tempest
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
Death Masks
Blood Rites
Dead Beat
Proven Guilty
The Scarlet Ruse
Thunderbird Falls


Eyes of Prey by John Sandford

I guess with this type of series the bad guy is going to drive the plot, pacing, and ultimately the reader’s enjoyment. Lucas Davenport is Lucas… a little more moody than I like my heroes, but given the circumstances his mental state is entirely understandable. I thought the bad guy(s) were a little weak in this story and it hurt the book overall. Not only that, but Lucas figures out that one of the bad guys is involved early on but can’t prove it and the ultimate actions and relationship of the bad guys is chronically predictable.. The new love interest for Lucas is likeable in a party girl, what me worry, kind of way. All in all I’d give this story a weak B.

Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines by Karen Traviss
Anymore, a Star Wars book just shuts my mind down as I’m reading it. I’ve read so many of them that I have very little hope or remembering the details of the story even after I’ve just read it. It’s almost like the projects I’ve worked on at worked. Don’t ask me a question about something I worked on two weeks ago… I don’t know what I did. So here I sit three or four weeks after reading this book and I’m struggling with what happened between the covers.

Oh yeah… this was the one with Boba Fett. Pretty good story. Really nice plot but a little short on action, especially where Boba is concerned. Traviss is a wonderful author though, and I love her take on the Mandalorian/Clone heritage in the Star Wars Universe. The focus of this book is on the next generation of heroes and villains in the galaxy far, far away and I’m struggling with the villain. I don’t want him to be the villain, so once I get past that… It’s a really well written book.


Legacy of the Force: Tempest by Troy Denning
This book had a lot of “Oh no he didn’t” factor to it. Things are starting to unravel in the Galaxy Far Far Away. Maybe this time will be different… I don’t want it to happen this way, but I guess that’s what makes for good drama.

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshan
No real major flaws in this book. It was a nice Star Wars story that occupied a few nights’ attention span.

Death Masks by Jim Butcher
Butcher has shot to the top of my favorite authors list with a bullet. Every one of his Dresden stories have been thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable. Every last one is rife with well thought out imagination and intricate plots that don’t give themselves away.

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
Reading a Dresden book is like catching up with an old friend. A friend that you genuinely like, not one that you bumped into at the supermarket and can’t wait to forget again after the obligatory “How’s life?’ and ‘We should catch up again soon.” Followed by the head tilt and slight shoulder shrug. With a Dresden book you just shake hands, sit down and lean into it, thinking, “Man I missed you.”

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
Probably one of the funnier and more off beat of the Dresden Series.

Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
Man I did not see this one coming. Another exemplary foray into the Dresden series.

The Scarlet Ruse by John MacDonald
This was a hearty welcome back to the Travis McGee series for me. While this one strays a little from the previous two McGee novels’ paths, Trav is still a Gumshoe type trying to right a wrong. Great visual descriptions by the author make these stories memorable long after having read them. The characters are well defined and likeable. If you’re looking for late 1960’s Florida style noir, you can’t get much better than John MacDonald’s Travis McGee series.

Thunderbird Falls by CE Murphy
This was the follow up to her first book, “Urban Shaman”. A nice little tale about Joanne Walker and her adjusting to her new found powers. Murphy has pacing issues with me sometimes, but I’ve managed to get through them and finish the books. She’s not inspiring me to rush out and pick up the third book in the series, but someday I’ll stumble over to the used book store and pick it up.

Is this a good thing? or a BAD thing? Have there been any books picking up after the Jedi beat those plant people?

I just found out our library (8th best in the country!) carries graphic novels. I tried a couple Star Wars. A Bobo Fett and some elseworlds type thing. Not too impressed yet.

Honestly... I'm a little confused by your post. I think the confusion comes from the fact that there are two different Star Wars story lines going on right now that are named "Legacy of the Force". There's the novels which is scheduled for 9 total and are about 20 years or so after the movies. Now my facts may be off on the following, but the other Legacy of the Force series is being told right now in the graphic novels and takes place a generation or two after the novel Legacy of the Force story line. That just might be called the "Legacy" era though. I don't know for sure.

I'm reading the novels and I can't remember any Jedi vs. Plant people thing in them. I'm enjoying the story line of the novels, but I'm hoping that things turn out better than what Anakin Skywalker's fate did. Right now I'm not seeing that, but I'm hooked for the ride. I don't plan on picking up the separate graphic novel story in the near future, so I can't comment on it, but I think that may be where your plant people are.

Unless I haven't come to the plant people yet or you are thinking about something from a previous story line... I vaguely recall Han and Luke being on a weird planty-like planet in the Dark Nest Trilogy, but man that's been a while since I read that. It may just have been a mossy covered substance that corroded things.

Understandable.


"plant people"

I just cannot think of the story line title, but it just recently finished up. They were a race from some other galaxy or some such, whose tech was based upon plants and genetics. They grew their weapons and such.

Can't believe I cannot remember what they were called?

Anyhow, you answered MY question.

Thanks.

A biography of Philipe, Duc d'Orleans. French Regent after the death of Louis XIV. Kind of an overlooked historical figure who was ahead of his times in many aspects.

I'm going to Key West next week, so I loaded up on some reading material to bring with me:

'Book of Fate' by Brad Meltzer, mainly to see if his mystery novels are really better than his comics, as they say.

'The Stand' by Stephen King.

'Pride & Prejudice' by Jane Austen, because I remember being shocked at how much I liked it in college and I got it for the cool price of $4!

I also still have to read 'The Brothers Karamazov' and I'm rereading Harry Potter 6 to gear up for the seventh book.

I do remember some discussion much earlier in this thread on 'The Time Traveler's Wife', which I almost bought. Then I couldn't remember if people liked it or not. I'll have check and then make my decision.

Have you read The Stand before Cobie? Still my favorite book of all time. We actually just talked about it with CJ this weekend.

Nope, never have! My brother just finished it and couldn't reccomend it enough. Its also what my mom consider to be King's best and scariest book, and she's pretty much read them all.

Your favorite? Now I have to read it first! Cool--this was something I threw in the pile at the last minute!

Abridged or unabridged, I loved it. My top five books of all time:

1. The Stand
2. Lucifer's Hammer
3. A Canticle for Lebowitz
4. On the Beach
5. Hunters of the Red Moon

There's a theme to the first four. Can you guess it?

Blockade Boy:

The way you are describing it now the plant people sound like the Yuuzhan Vong from the New Jedi story line. Don't know if I'd think of them as "Plant" people though as that limits their philosophy. I'd think of them as more "organic" and anti-technologic.

Gotta agree with Scott here on The Stand... that is a great story. But I read a story recently that I think blows The Stand away. I'll comment more on it in my next post.

THAT's THEM! Good stories but as for philosophy, I tend to leave a lot of the deeper meaning of books on the floor, hence "Yuuzhan Vong" became "plant people." I'm not too interesting at parties, lol.

Can't wait to hear what that book may be.

Alright here goes...

I would have put this book in with one of my other posts, but this story deserves a post of its own.

It's not really a horror story although it is by an author that came up through the horror ranks. It even has monsters, ghosts, demons, and murder in it as well.

But this tale is really a story about life. The title (appropriately so) is Boy's Life and it was written by Robert McCammon. It's about a 11 going on 12 year old boy growing up in 1964 Southern Alabama. Even though I had not been born at that time, I had no problems visualizing or connecting with the period or the characters.

I ran the gamut of emotions reading it, which I suppose a good story will make you. But at the end, I felt deeply satisfied and inspired. It made me look at things that I'd been pondering about for several years and I found that I was able to express why and how those things were important to me in a way that I hadn't before.

I can not recommend this book enough. Just an absolutely fantastic read.

Minesurfer, I read that book about a year ago, and I agree completely. A truely excellent read, well worth picking up if you haven't read it already.

I read it back when it came out, 90 or 91. Good book. But his Swan Song was much better.

I don't read anywhere near as much as I used to, or should, but I'm trying to get back into it.

I've only read two books so far in 2007.

The first was the old Robert Ludlum thriller 'The Osterman Weekend' - it was a pretty good page-turner but it felt a little bit dated and the twist at the end seemed a bit silly.

The second was the new Nobel Prize-winning masterpiece 'The Road' - loved it!

Extremely well-written and completely engaging. He developed the bleak post-apocalyptic world so, so well. Almost too well! There is no doubting that this is a grim, dread-filled book.

But what makes it so moving is that at the centre of all this death and horror (and the horror is pretty unspeakable) is this amazingly pure love between a father and son. And so despite the extremely depressing nature of the book there's also an amazingly uplifting quality to it. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone.

I recently finished re-reading cultural commentator Ian Penman's 1998 collection of essays, "Vital Signs: Music, Movies, and Other Manias." Witty, eloquent, irreverent, and ever-skeptical, this book is both great fun and food for thought.

Just finished reading "The Dante Club." It's a novel akin to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with 19th century American writers as a group of crime stoppers.

Just finished "Ender's Shadow," a book written to parallel "Ender's Game." Clever idea and fast paced from the beginning. Makes the first book even more interesting.

I'm reading a dark comedy written by a good friend of mine, who is a true wit:

"HOW TO BECOME A CEO - AND MAKE A KILLING" by CHRISTOPHER E. METZGER. (sorry for the caps - I did a cut and paste)

Chris draws upon his own pre-author Wall Street days to create a wonderfully sarcastic look at todays corporate culture. It's a gem.