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

Finished it. Enjoyed it and would definitely still recommend it, especially to my fellow zombie nuts.

After a while, though, I'd say that the format lost its novelty. Some pieces were a lot more captivating than others. Having everything being told in hindsight was kind of a suspense-killer, knowing that the narrator lives to tell the tale. And the purpose of many chapters was not to tell a story so much as to explain certain procedures and how certain things happened.

But there were stil many chilling, memorable moments. And, again, so many ideas were presented that made you realize that this was totally what would happen if there was ever a zombie apocalypse in real life. It was very well thought out and expertly crafted by Max Brooks.

Probably the one thought that occurred to me repeatedly as I read the book was that this was one of the very few works in the genre that painted the zombie apocalypse as a scenario in which mankind and its society would ultimately survive, albeit with its population severely decimated. That's not a spoiler. It's obvious if you read the back cover, the table of contents or even just the first few pages.

In pretty much every other "serious" zombie movie, comic book or whatever, survival seems either unlikely or impossible. In World War Z there's a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it's not so terribly, overwhelmingly bright. Taken alleghorically (as I think the book is meant to be on some level), that's kind of comforting, even as the book pulls pretty much no punches.

I liked WWZ as well. I thought, as you did, that there were some really good moments that could have been more dramatic if told 'in the moment.'

Max Brooks has obviously given the topic a lot of thought, and it really pays off here. I believe it will be a fun movie to watch, if it ever does get made/finished.

Also enjoyed his Survival Guide.

My wife has the Survival Guide as well. I intend to read that one at some point when the mood hits, as it did for WWZ. Again, I can't see any fan of the genre not benefitting from reading WWZ at some point.

Finished this up today. It's a pretty easy read and moves quickly once things get really going.

It's a definite different take on the whole Zombie thing...what the difference is involves the cause (yep, you find out exactly what's behind it.)

The zombies are pretty standard, with one main difference, that works into the 'twist' above.

The convention setting makes for a fun distraction during all the carnage that happens. Leading to some fun jokes and quotes being thrown around. Some great stuff about Red Shirts...in a way that you would not expect.

I recommend it to people that really love the zombie genre, and want something just a little bit different, but very familiar.

Finished this. The verdict: solid read, though I'm a little disappointed this apparently is among the best of the best in the current sci-fi field.

The basic plot is about an evil corporation that starts a war between Mars, Earth, and the Asteroid Belt in an attempt to distract everyone from their experiments with an alien zombie virus from beyond the solar system. The main characters, the survivors of a destroyed vessel that transports ice from Saturn to the Asteroid Belt and a Ceres-born detective searching for a missing girl who turns out to be tied into the evil plot, are fairly cliched though well-written. Nothing in it really stood out as "completely ass-kicking awesome" in my mind, however. Most of it could easily have been the plot of a cheesy SyFy movie.

Leviathan Wakes was quite readable and I agree that is was generally cliched. The one thing I did like was Holden the XO's belief that everyone should know everything and the tendency of that to cause a whole bunch of problems.

Right now I've started the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher. Dresden is a Chicago-based wizard/detective. He's pretty much the standard down-on-his-heels private eye, except he doesn't seem to drink much and isn't much of a hit with the ladies, and the magic adds a nice touch.

The Stinson book on using the speed square for building rafters.

That's not rickshaw code for "Viagra label" is it?

I have finished the book recommended by FC "Company of the Dead".
Great book, but I'm going to wait for FC to appear again before discussing it.

Right now I am reading the following:
Virus by Robin Cook
Night of Knives by Ian C Esselmont
Complete Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum

I just finished "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming" by Mike Brown. I thought it was a wonderful tale of how Brown discovered Eris and several other big objects at the edge of the solar system. I recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in astronomy.

^^I've thought about reading that for awhile, so I'll add it to my list!

I just finished "The Invisible Gorilla: and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us." Pretty good read, but seemed a little repetitive at times.

Here is one of the videos, btw.


http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html

Well, I'm pretty much finished Virus and it reminded me of why I don't read Robin Cook.
His plot is ok, but his methods of writing leave no measure of suspense. He doesn't just foreshadow upcoming events, he completely telegraphs them.
In addition to that, there was not a single likeable character in the novel. Sure they all had a good quality or two, but they were all overwelmingly dislikeable, hateful, self involved asshats.
I've been forcing myself to finish it. Thank the stars I only have a couple of chapters to go!

Viridis, I tried your mailbox twice but it's full, so here's my question on Lightholler from Company of the Dead. The details are a bit murky now - I got the book from the library so don't have it here to re-check.

The team left Lightholler in New York City, then headed out west. Later, Lightholler showed up there. I thought he had gone off to die in NYC, or would just not have survived the timeline change. So I couldn't figure out how he was still in the picture.

I'm just going to throw the whole thing in spoilers tags....

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">
Do you mean when they got the machine working and made a pit stop in NYC on the way to get Wells?

Lightholler went off in NYC to save himself in the tunnel. The early part of the book where the masked person saved Lightholler from the kidnappers...that was future Lightholler.
During that encounter he was shot, but managed to make it back to the team before collapsing.
They took him with them to the past and when they arrived the machine started to overload.
Lightholler chose to go off to oblivion rather than die in the desert and stayed in the machine while the team left.

Many years later the machine reappears in Roswell with Lightholler still (alive) inside.
Kennedys now adult daughter expected this and was waiting with a medical team to save him.

At the very end of the book, back in our time, we see Wells in Vegas again. A limo with two old folks inside who have a strange conversation with him. The two old folks were Kennedys daughter and Lightholler.

Lightholler could continue to exist as the author had already established with Wells that someone could change the timeline and continue to exist in the new one.
</span></span>

I hope thats what had you wondering, but....

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">
Either the Author didn't do the research, or (way cooler idea) the timeline was not restored correctly.
Kennedy'd daughter sends Lightholler to Newfoundland in eastern Canada immediately after the Roswell crash to recover from his injuries.
Newfoundland didn't even vote to join Canada till the year after Roswell and didn't join till two years after.
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Thanks, VL. That clears it up, somehow I missed part of that in reading. And a very good point about Newfoundland... maybe there will be a sequel?

Yeah I'm really hoping the dates there were on purpose. I've been considering writing Kowalski to find out for sure.

Since my last post I've finished the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Excellent modern day fairytale, but I had forgotten how different it is from the movie.

Night of Knifes I'm still reading. Really well written but I'm taking it slow. It adds quite a bit of back history to the Malazan series.

Sphere by Micheal Crichton. Typical Crichton fare with lots of pseudo-science and speculation.
Enjoyable enough of a read, though I blew through it pretty quick.

Just started Gears of War: Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss. This one is based on the Gears of War video games. Timeline wise it is set between the first and second games, with flashbacks to events before the first game. It is considered to be canon by the game creators.
So..I'm a big fan of the Gears games, but I really didn't expect much from this novel. I must say that thus far (I'm at 23% according to Kindle) I am pleasantly surprised. Don't get me wrong, its not exactly high literature, however it is well written and the story is engaging. In terms of quality, I would rank it with the better Star Wars expanded universe novels.

And finally, I begun reading my book on Egyptian grammar and hieroglyphs again.

Reading Stephen King's 11/22/63, another time travel book. The last Stephen King I read was The Stand, and I just gave up about 2/3 of the way through, it just went on and on.

This one is much more to my liking. The main character, Jake Epping, is an English teacher who gets recruited by a dying friend to go back in time and prevent the assassination of JFK.

King writes charmingly but succinctly about the differences between the 1950s and today (the 50s smelled worse but tasted better). And of course, there's a love story. I shouldn't say "of course", this being Stephen King, but time travel stories seem to favour the time-crossed lovers dilemma.

It's a brick of a book, over 800 pages. Just part way through but it's a winner so far. King notes in an afterword that he tried to write this book in 1972, but the event was still too fresh, and he's glad he waited. So am I.

^ I haven't read much King (The Long Walk is the only one that springs to mind) but that one and his other recent one, Under the Dome, really appeal.

I haven't read a book in ages so since I'm on holidays I picked up a book on a whim - The Infinities by the Booker-prize winning author, John Banville. It was exactly the WRONG kind of book to get me back into reading!

It's not a long or overly-difficult read but I needed something punchy and interesting to respark my love of books and this one is just way too dry and maudlin. He's obviously a very gifted wordsmith but I am about 3/4 of the way through the book and NOTHING has happened. Just a family waking up and going about their morning business while thinking about each other and their lives. That's been it for about 200 pages! The only interesting hook so far is that some of the Greek Gods are manipulating things behind the scenes but none of that has really amounted to much yet either.

I'm thinking of finally starting on the Game of Thrones books next so hopefully they'll provide me with the excitement I crave.

Drift by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. It's an easy read on a weighty topic. Rachel writes very much like she talks on her show. There's an easy and conversational wit. She explores the reasons that the United States has drifted from the founding father's ideas of no standing military, requiring approval of Congress for war, and limited Presidential powers to a permanent war footing. She makes her points in a way that appeals to the sensibilities of modern conservatives. It's well researched.

Last five books I've read: Dune, The Castle of Llyr(huge Prydain fan), Blood Rites (Dresden Files), Animal Farm, Death Masks (Dresden Files).

Currently reading Dead Beat (Dresden Files)

On deck: Taran Wanderer, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, and Autumn Twilight. All fantasy. Have never read any Conan works (except the comics) or the dragonlance stuff either.

Love the Dresden stuff, Jorge.

I am currently reading Larry Correia's stuff, the Grimnoir and the Monster Hunters. Trying to find them in order (a pet peeve personally of mine is not reading books in proper order, it can alter the perceptions of things and twist them into something the author didn't intend, I've noticed. but, its just one of mine, I don't think everyone feels that way, lol).

Really trying to find new authors to read, but it's very difficult considering I have particular tastes.

I *just* finished this last night, FC... I LOVED it. The last few pages choked me up. Story pages, I mean... LOL. King's afterword was interesting in getting his sources and perspective.

Definitely a book I intend to reread someday.

That's next up for me. I can't remember if I posted about it but I loved 'Under the Dome'. IMO his best since Green Mile.

I'll ask Mrs. Ginny for that one next...

And I can't wait to hear your thoughts on 11/22/63...