Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
Since my favorite part of the Martian was the math (the part with the calculation of how many potatoes our Protagonist needs to not die was the moment I knew I'd love the book) this is the best recommendation you could give. Wishlisted.Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I really liked it but can absolutely imagine other people finding it completely insufferable. I remember when I was a kid I had a book that was a plot interspersed with math problems that you had to solve to move forward (well, not really, you could flip ahead of course). I loved that book and this reminded me of that and I loved seeing the breakdown of the problems in this one. Also the ending, while obvious in retrospect, is pretty great.
I liked the Superman book a bit more, but this was still very good. Loved how he chronicled the movies, especially the '89 Batman. Highly recommended for fans of The Dark KnightThe Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon. I loved his Superman "biography" last year, so I'm sure I'll love this as well
This is one of my favorite fantasy series. Dagger and Coin is pretty good, but I feel like Abraham really poured himself into the Long Price Quartet in a way he hasn't done on anything since (much as I love the Expanse). The third book of Long Price in particular is quietly devastating in the best way.I'm in the middle of the second book of the Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham (Co-author of the Expanse). It's a fantasy series set after the fall of an empire where the society that is economically dominant maintains their edge through control of magical spirits, and another group tries to undermine them through subtle intrigue. I'm really enjoying it.
I'm most impressed by the characters. There are so many who could be one note to fit their role in their story but he gives all of them depth and complexity.This is one of my favorite fantasy series. Dagger and Coin is pretty good, but I feel like Abraham really poured himself into the Long Price Quartet in a way he hasn't done on anything since (much as I love the Expanse). The third book of Long Price in particular is quietly devastating in the best way.
My wife enjoyed those iron druid books quite a bit but admitted they get pretty trashy. Same energy as all her horny vampire books.A while back, I read Hounded, the first book of the Iron Druid series for a book club. It's... OK? It has some fun stuff in there, and I like the idea of playing with Celtic magic and mythology, but there was really nothing there in the book. The super-cool super-powerful main character, who horndogs after and/or gets laid by all sorts of beautiful women, mythological and otherwise, is really just kind of tiresome in the wish-fulfillment bro-iness of it all. I do like his werewolf lawyers (and one vampire lawyer), and the Irish widow down the street is a fun character (best scene - she freaks out when she witnesses the MC kill a someone, actually a celtic god, who comes to fight him, but he tells her "don't worry, he's English" and she immediately says "Oh, then that's good!" and volunteers to let him bury the body in the backyard.) His dog doesn't talk per se but they communicate telepathically and he's an alright character too, I guess, if not a bit stereotypical (and also annoyingly horny). Some of the witches and other celtic gods are kinda interesting. But overall it was just kinda...there. Kia liked it and is on book 4 of the series, but her reading tastes tend a little lighter than mine.
Took me a while to figure out what I was in the mood to read, but I dug up Senlin Ascends from the depths of my Kindle library to finally start in on that. The setting, at least, is extremely up my alley.
Paddling North, about a woman who kayaks 850 miles along the coast of Alaska alone at the age of 60. About halfway through and it's a bit too stream of consciousness for me, but good reading right before bedtime. Her line in the opening chapter about making sure to bring a pencil with notches to measure the needed distances on maps really stuck with me for some reason.
Well, this was excellent, as I thought it would be. If you're a fan of the show, totally recommend.Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series by James Hibberd
OofThe very first The Expanse book, Leviathan Wakes, reads like the formulaic 37th tie-novel set in the world of the once popular The Expanse table top role playing game.
More like Senlin Ascends Up A List Of Good Books, am I right? The characters in this book are all so good, all coming very close to feeling like caricatures in their depictions and personalities, but with a really strong humanity underlying it that anchors them and keeps it all from getting downright silly. It has the feel of a, what, like a Kafka or early social-realism satire with the setting and the way it's all approached. The flow and the machinations... I really dig it.Took me a while to figure out what I was in the mood to read, but I dug up Senlin Ascends from the depths of my Kindle library to finally start in on that. The setting, at least, is extremely up my alley.
I bounced hard off the book because of that.Ancillary Justice: This book suffers from a whole lot of Proper Name Syndrome.