Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[KaliYoni]

And some earlier commentary here on women's massive contributions during WWII...

What Book Are You Reading?

Part way through A Game of Birds and Wolves The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II by Simon Parkin. It is the story of a group of British WRENS who war-gamed the German U-Boats in WWII. Impressively well-written.

forums.macrumors.com

----------
Recently finished (first half is a very interesting exploration of Ratmansky's pre-US life and career, second half is essentially a fan's–as opposed to a critic's– thoughts on recent works):

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374717490/theboyfromkyiv

About to start (saw author's obituary a few months back, decided I needed to get acquainted with Byatt):

Possession by A. S. Byatt: 9780375712357 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A. S. Byatt’s beloved novel—winner of the Booker Prize and an international best seller—is a spellbinding intellectual mystery and an utterly transfixing love story. “Gorgeously...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

 

[Scepticalscribe]

And some earlier commentary here on women's massive contributions during WWII...

What Book Are You Reading?

Part way through A Game of Birds and Wolves The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II by Simon Parkin. It is the story of a group of British WRENS who war-gamed the German U-Boats in WWII. Impressively well-written.

forums.macrumors.com

----------
Recently finished (first half is a very interesting exploration of Ratmansky's pre-US life and career, second half is essentially a fan's list of recent works):

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374717490/theboyfromkyiv

About to start (saw author's obituary a few months back, decided I needed to get acquainted with Byatt):

Possession by A. S. Byatt: 9780375712357 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A. S. Byatt’s beloved novel—winner of the Booker Prize and an international best seller—is a spellbinding intellectual mystery and an utterly transfixing love story. “Gorgeously...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

I must keep an eye out for this, and read it; I love books such as these.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

And some earlier commentary here on women's massive contributions during WWII...

What Book Are You Reading?

Part way through A Game of Birds and Wolves The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II by Simon Parkin. It is the story of a group of British WRENS who war-gamed the German U-Boats in WWII. Impressively well-written.

forums.macrumors.com

----------
Recently finished (first half is a very interesting exploration of Ratmansky's pre-US life and career, second half is essentially a fan's–as opposed to a critic's– thoughts on recent works):

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374717490/theboyfromkyiv

About to start (saw author's obituary a few months back, decided I needed to get acquainted with Byatt):

Possession by A. S. Byatt: 9780375712357 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A. S. Byatt’s beloved novel—winner of the Booker Prize and an international best seller—is a spellbinding intellectual mystery and an utterly transfixing love story. “Gorgeously...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

It's lovely to see how the crusty older sea captains couldn't believe that sweet young flibbertigibbets who had never been to sea (and one even got seasick in a ferry) could be telling them how to engage their underwater enemy. Until, in the war games, when they did what they were advised, and won. Then they swallowed their pride and learnt what they were being taught.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Yes, there were several groups of women whose stories have only been coming out --

1. The Bletchley Park ladies who did all the grunt work of decoding the Enigma messages while Turing and Welchman took all the glory.
2. A similar group of ladies founded by Elizabeth Friedman (who went on to found the NSA, only recently recognised) who did something similar with the German messages coming out of South America (and, I believe, the Atlantic).
3. A third group of women in Australia who decoded the Japanese messages in the Pacific.
4. A fourth group of women who took on the task of training British and US captains and crew how to combat and evade the German U-boats.
5. Another group of ladies whose job it was to ferry (by flying) newly built fighter planes of all types from the factories to the airfields where they were needed. Because they flew all sorts of different planes, they were often better, more skilled pilots than the people who ended up flying them.
6. Don't forget Nancy Wake.

Another group: The "Refrigerator ladies" programming the ENIAC

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Another group: The "Refrigerator ladies" programming the ENIAC

Fantastic article, and thanks for linking it, and drawing our (certainly, my) attention to it.

My mother would have loved reading this.

 

[obeygiant]

Dune Messiah

 

[halledise]

just finished 'The Chaos Agent' - now halfway through 'Shogun', yet once more …

 

[pachyderm]

Ya know, I love going in there.

Although I recently purchased a book from Amazon.

He wrote the novel/film Arkansas.

My cover...

Not a bad novel at all...

 

[halledise]

My cover...

Not a bad novel at all...

Arkansas was a pretty good read

 

[pachyderm]

Arkansas was a pretty good read

I just saw the film version of Arkansas. I really liked it too...

I'm awaiting my copy of A million Heavens...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Reading "Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World" by (the invariably excellent and always readable and interesting) Mary Beard.

 

[pachyderm]

I just saw the film version of Arkansas. I really liked it too...

I'm awaiting my copy of A million Heavens...

I'll start it tonight...

 

[Zendokan]

Malazan, Book of the Fallen series:

I will finish book 3 (Memories of Ice) today and will start with book 4 (House of Chains).
I started beginning of January with the series, but I read only when I'm pendling on the train (2x/week for 2x45min/day).

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Malazan, Book of the Fallen series:

View attachment 2360658

I will finish book 3 (Memories of Ice) today and will start with book 4 (House of Chains).
I started beginning of January with the series, but I read only when I'm pendling on the train (2x/week for 2x45min/day).

Are they any good?

Anything unusual or original or especially interesting re characters, narrative, plot, world-building?

How are the female characters written?

 

[diggy33]

The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni.

 

[Snow4maen]

Last night I read Micheal Rosen's Many Different Kind's Of Love. His story of nearly dying from COVID and the treatment he received with the NHS. It was not what I expected, not a typical book but a collection of messages from the staff who looked after him, and his reflections in poetry. It was amazing. I've recently discovered him and he is mostly a children's author. I have also read some of his children's poetry and I am looking forward to enjoying some of his children's books. I've quickly come to have a lot of love for this special person, seems like a very good man.

 

[Zendokan]

Are they any good?

Anything unusual or original or especially interesting re characters, narrative, world-building?

How are the female characters written?

I've now finished the first 3 books and they are very good.

You can see that Steven Erikson is a fan of Glen Cook's The Black Company and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, but the Malazan books stand on their own. The magic system is great and different, using "Warrens" (I let Daniel Greene explain it better:

). Also interesting is that people can ascent to become gods of certain warrens through the "Houses" of said warrens.

Rest of the worldbuilding: in the first 3 books, I've encountered humans, 3 non human races, magicians, priests, soldiers, mercenaries, undead soldiers, zombie velociraptors, dragons, shapeshifters, gods, elder gods, ascendants, shadow dogs, cannibal hordes, demons and monsters. It's a pretty crowded place.

I've started the 4th book and from what I can see is that for there are two different stories told in parallel that are connected now by light threads, but will possible become to one storyline with the procedings of the story.
So book 1 and 3 is the Bridgeburners saga, book 2 and 4 follows the Imperial Historian Duiker.

Female characters are written very well, the Malazan Marines have both sexes in their ranks and they can be just as foulmouthed, sarcastic and stubborn as their male counterparts.

The only thing that you have to get used to is at the start of book 1 and book 2 (the start of the two storylines) is that you will hit the ground running with boots on, meaning that for the first 50 pages of each book you are thrown in the story and will not know what is up or down, left or right, but if you keep with it, it will all become clear and you settle nicely in the story.
Glen Cook started his Black Company with the same techniques, but there it was the first 100 pages before you started to understand the story.

My top fantasy books are at this moment:
1) Steven Erikson - Malazan, Book of the Fallen series (first 3 books)
2) Glen Cook - The Black Company series
3) Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time series
4) Steven King - The Dark Tower series
5) J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I've now finished the first 3 books and they are very good.

You can see that Steven Erikson is a fan of Glen Cook's The Black Company and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, but the Malazan books stand on their own. The magic system is great and different, using "Warrens" (I let Daniel Greene explain it better:

). Also interesting is that people can ascent to become gods of certain warrens through the "Houses" of said warrens.

Rest of the worldbuilding: in the first 3 books, I've encountered humans, 3 non human races, magicians, priests, soldiers, mercenaries, undead soldiers, zombie velociraptors, dragons, shapeshifters, gods, elder gods, ascendants, shadow dogs, cannibal hordes, demons and monsters. It's a pretty crowded place.

I've started the 4th book and from what I can see is that for there are two different stories told in parallel that are connected now by light threads, but will possible become to one storyline with the procedings of the story.
So book 1 and 3 is the Bridgeburners saga, book 2 and 4 follows the Imperial Historian Duiker.

Female characters are written very well, the Malazan Marines have both sexes in their ranks and they can be just as foulmouthed, sarcastic and stubborn as their male counterparts.

The only thing that you have to get used to is at the start of book 1 and book 2 (the start of the two storylines) is that you will hit the ground running with boots on, meaning that for the first 50 pages of each book you are thrown in the story and will not know what is up or down, left or right, but if you keep with it, it will all become clear and you settle nicely in the story.
Glen Cook started his Black Company with the same techniques, but there it was the first 100 pages before you started to understand the story.

Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to write a detailed reply; much appreciated.

My top fantasy books are at this moment:
1) Steven Erikson - Malazan, Book of the Fallen series (first 3 books)
2) Glen Cook - The Black Company series
3) Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time series
4) Steven King - The Dark Tower series
5) J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings

Have you ever read anything by Robert Jackson Bennett?

I love his Divine Cities trilogy, (superb world-building, wonderful characters - and terrific female characters with intelligence and agency - and a fantastic narrative) and his Foundryside trilogy is also excellent.

I strongly recommend both trilogies.

Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastards series) is also pretty good (however, I like it less than I used to) - but, with a mere three books (out of a planned seven) written (or published) over the past twenty years, I'm not sure that the series will be brought - successfully - to any sort of a conclusion.

 

[rhett7660]

just finished 'The Chaos Agent' - now halfway through 'Shogun', yet once more …

View attachment 2358600

View attachment 2358599

I too started Shogun... I am reading it and Book 9 in the Warhammer Horus Heresy series.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

My top fantasy books are at this moment:
1) Steven Erikson - Malazan, Book of the Fallen series (first 3 books)
2) Glen Cook - The Black Company series
3) Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time series
4) Steven King - The Dark Tower series
5) J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings

In addition to Robert Jackson Bennett (Divine Cities trilogy and the Foundryside trilogy, both of which are excellent), I would also recommend Garth Nix (Abhorsen trilogy, - by far his best work, to my mind), and Jonathan Stroud (Bartamaeus trilogy, and the Lockhart series, which are both also excellent).

 

[Boil]

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Personally, I wish - devoutly desire, and passionately wish - that G R R Martin (and, Scott Lynch, for that matter) would simply set themselves - and confine themselves - to the basic business of writing (and finishing) the series that brought each of them to prominence in the world of fantasy, rather than engaging in - and losing themselves in - this sort of pure self-indulgence by creating and crafting extra stories based on (irrelevant if entertaining) asides (to the main saga) that occur to them while twiddling thumbs, instead of attacking their keyboards and actually writing their books.

Leave the extra stories, tweaks, and the temptations of further world-building until after you have finished (and published) the main work on which all of this extra stuff is based and from which it is derived.

 

[Boil]

Personally, I wish - devoutly desire, and passionately wish - that G R R Martin (and, Scott Lynch, for that matter) would simply set themselves to the business of writing (and finishing) the series that brought each of them to prominence in the world of fantasy, rather than engaging in - and losing themselves in - this sort of pure self-indulgence by creating and crafting - extra stories based on asides (to the main saga) that occur to them while twiddling thumbs.

leave the extra stories, and the temptations of further world-building until after you have finished (and published) the main work on which all of this extra stuff is based and from which it is derived.

I believe we will (eventually) get The Winds of Winter, but am not going to hold my breath for A Dream of Spring...?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I believe we will (eventually) get The Winds of Winter, but am not going to hold my breath for A Dream of Spring...?

"Eventually" strikes me as being the key word in that sentence.

To be quite candid, I harbour doubts about even that; actually, I think that nothing whatsoever will serve to motivate G R R Martin to bring the series to a fitting close and conclusion if the (lavish) TV series failed to do so.

Besides, it may be much more remunerative to simply indulge oneself by toying and tweaking elements of the background and world-building than to sit down and firmly focus on bringing the thing to a close.

 

[splifingate]

"Quantum Radio", by A. G. Riddle

Audiobook ver., I must confess . . . Narr. by Ray Porter.