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Finished Red Rising: Dark Age

I like how the author was willing to have Darrow lose and lose badly in what was a clear cut fight as opposed to him being backstabbed. The story really desperately needed that to happen. Genuinely think all those Free Legion scum deserved to die and Darrow has nobody but himself to blame for getting those murderers killed. I hope he dies a horrible death because it’s really all he deserves right now. Most repulsive character I’ve ever read. Which maybe isn’t the authors intent but there you go. Hopefully Darrow gets hanged and nobody pulls his feet. It’s really off putting how he’s framed as a hero throughout the story.

It was nice to see some of the characters evil, I am just doing what’s necessary, actions result in them being utterly ruined. Although, I don’t think any of the characters particularly learnt their lesson. At first I thought Darrow was taking this to heart with “maybe this is the sort of compromise that poisoned our Republic”. But sure enough like clockwork by end of book he’s back to being an amoral arsehole who believes in nothing and thinks he should have killed all those Prisoners of War. Even though…the Rising never take Prisoners which really confused me no end but there you go. So I am still leaning towards the Rising becoming a Stalinist Dictatorship or some weird Dune Messiah nonsense.

I didn’t like how the author wrote the Vox and Red Hand out of the story. Even the Ascomani plot line is all just various fronts for the multiple Society factions. I think this all just makes things very easy for Darrow and takes the story down a less interesting road. For example there Halicarnassus the Orange on Mercury who is, I am not exaggerating, the first character who’s actually seriously criticised Darrow on this story. But the threat of the Society is used to airbrush over these differences in a way that felt profoundly unearned on Darrows part. Just a bout of self pity.

Was very good finally getting Mustang story. Although, I did kind of get annoyed how her and Victra really became the focal points of a lot of the anti Republic and anti Gold stuff. When it’s entirely Darrows fault and he’s conveniently kept away from people like Lyria or Ephraim (RIP). Was good seeing Victra take out the trash with the Red Hand, unlike Darrow who is too busy getting his men massacred and clearly doesn’t think dealing with the Red Hand was a priority. Solidarity I guess.

I still have this issue with the characters attitude towards Darrow committing mass murder like with the Storm Gods. Which BTW, I do not believe the character from Golden Son to Iron Gold would have disagreed with Orion; he absolutely would have killed everybody on Mercury as he did at Gannymeade. He’s repeatedly and proudly told us he does not give a dam. But it’s the fact that so many of the other characters either aren’t bothered by it or keep leaping to defend the indefensible instead of discussing why he shouldn’t be put against a wall and shot. Too often it falls back on him basically being the Lisan Al Ghaib and people being blinded by how amazing he is at killing. Especially Mustang who very clearly told him in book 2 she was not okay with the atrocities and genocide. So unless that red line is just way higher for the author I am just not buying many of these interactions. There’s some weird moral framing going on. Darrows genuinely a horrible monster throughout the story. Lysanders way off the mark thinking he was ever a good man. Eo clearly died because of men like Darrow.

Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by GRRM

Needed some more Game of Thrones goodness after House of the Dragon season 2 ended. Pretty good stuff, and downright wholesome in places, which is pretty surprising given the author and the world this collection is set in. Much more ground level than GoT and HotD.

Its also getting an HBO series set for release in 2025.

Seems my beloved 2000AD Ultimate Collection is now extended to 400 issues.

So as well as buying a house in the next year or so? I’ll be needing new book cases. Or, given house purchase will be my forever home, find a local carpenter to fit proper custom shelves and have myself a library for a spare room.

 nels1031 wrote:
Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by GRRM

Needed some more Game of Thrones goodness after House of the Dragon season 2 ended. Pretty good stuff, and downright wholesome in places, which is pretty surprising given the author and the world this collection is set in. Much more ground level than GoT and HotD.

Its also getting an HBO series set for release in 2025.

I liked it too and now cannot wait for its series. Recommended read for fans of GoT and/or
knights/medieval stories.

Reading Stephen King’s short story collection the Bazaar of Bad Dreams. So far it feels like vintage King, in a good way.

 nels1031 wrote:
Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by GRRM

Needed some more Game of Thrones goodness after House of the Dragon season 2 ended. Pretty good stuff, and downright wholesome in places, which is pretty surprising given the author and the world this collection is set in. Much more ground level than GoT and HotD.

Its also getting an HBO series set for release in 2025.

Have you read Fire and Blood - its alot better than the last 2 Song of Ice and fire novels which were awful


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Shadow Walker wrote:
I have just started L5R novel Three Oaths by Josh Reynolds.

I have really enjoyed the series =

Platons state.

Re-reading The Dervish House by Ian McDonald. Cracking near-future sci-fi set in Istanbul, which follows multiple plot lines following a terrorist bombing during a heatwave. I would say the story is almost an irrelevance, it's worth reading purely for the awesome world-building. Future (OK, not very future now - the book was written back in 2010 and is set in 2027) Istanbul comes alive on the page, and feels like an incredibly dynamic exciting place to be.

Working my way through the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Almost done (about 4/5th through) with the lest book and just ordered the next set.

 Nevelon wrote:
Working my way through the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Almost done (about 4/5th through) with the lest book and just ordered the next set.

Fun read. The sequels are decent, too.

Currently reading On the Origin of Species. Not exactly current, but it's one of the most important books of the last couple of centuries at least. Absolutely in awe of its clarity and the humility Darwin displayed as well.

The Discovery Of Witches

By Matthew Hopkins.

Long since entered Public Domain, this is a free read. And should you assault your common sense so? You’ll find that interwebulae woo pedlars and hate preachers come from a long, long line of really obvious liars, who’ll use argue one thing to justify themself in one story, before argue the exact, mutually exclusive, opposite, to justify themself in the next.

It’s a frankly challenging read when you know that mental case sent an awful lot of people to their death on basically no evidence or rational argument.

Just finished Earthrise. A nice little scifi book by Arthur C Clarke.

still on platons state.

Issues 181 and 182 of the 2000ad Ultimate collection. Thistlebone (creepy Folk Horror tale) and The Out (really solid sci-fi, about a human reporter on the furthest region of space.

With just 9 months to run, I’m very much in the home stretch of this collection.

And so far, there’s been maybe three volumes (Tyranny Rex, two of Dan Dare) I’ve just not been able to get on with. Which is pretty good going!

Salem’s Lot

Another day’s monotony’s gotten me to the point I’m like a snail, I’ve got to read a good plot, or end up in jail or shot. Enjoyment’s my only melonfarming option, boredom’s not. (Somerset) Maugham, I love you but I’ve got to go—October cannot go on without Salem’s Lot. So here I go. Peepers fail me not! This may be the spookiest opportunity I got.
I better lose myself in the manuscript the minute I flip it (open). I better never put it down. I got one shot, will not miss out on Barlow. October only comes once in a year’s time, yo.



Had to be done.

After watching some YouTube videos about it, I begun reading Jurassic Park: The Lost World. I would've started reading Jurassic Park but I couldn't find my copy. I haven't read any Michael Crichton novel since high school where I read the Jurassic Park books, Sphere, Timeline, and the one about nanobots that can replicate humans, can't remember its name.

In all honesty, I don't remember Michael Crichton's prose being so...simplistic, to be diplomatic. But it works and I'm quite enjoying it so far.

 Adrassil wrote:
After watching some YouTube videos about it, I begun reading Jurassic Park: The Lost World. I would've started reading Jurassic Park but I couldn't find my copy. I haven't read any Michael Crichton novel since high school where I read the Jurassic Park books, Sphere, Timeline, and the one about nanobots that can replicate humans, can't remember its name.

In all honesty, I don't remember Michael Crichton's prose being so...simplistic, to be diplomatic. But it works and I'm quite enjoying it so far.

The last one is Prey. I read these books in middle/high school as well. Crichton is what sent me on my sf path, more so even than Dune. He's got a few others that I didn't care for much... Congo, Rising Sun. I would recommend The Andromeda Strain, though I'm not sure how well it's aged.

Congo was actually really good. Much better than the movie. But yes, Crichton was one of my mainstream starting sci-fi writers.

Congo is a great movie because it has Bruce Campbell on screen.

The real gem in Congo is Tim Curry as Herkermer Homolka, formerly of Romania.

I've been reading a bunch of old sci-fi stuff, including several of Fred Saberhagen's Berserker stories. Years ago, on my dad's recommendation, I read Saberhagen's Books of Swords, and they are some of the best sci-fi/fantasy I've ever read. If you get a chance to read anything by Fred Saberhagen, I highly recommend it.

Warptide wrote:

 Adrassil wrote:
After watching some YouTube videos about it, I begun reading Jurassic Park: The Lost World. I would've started reading Jurassic Park but I couldn't find my copy. I haven't read any Michael Crichton novel since high school where I read the Jurassic Park books, Sphere, Timeline, and the one about nanobots that can replicate humans, can't remember its name.

In all honesty, I don't remember Michael Crichton's prose being so...simplistic, to be diplomatic. But it works and I'm quite enjoying it so far.

The last one is Prey. I read these books in middle/high school as well. Crichton is what sent me on my sf path, more so even than Dune. He's got a few others that I didn't care for much... Congo, Rising Sun. I would recommend The Andromeda Strain, though I'm not sure how well it's aged.

That's right! Prey! Thanks for the reminder. Prey actually scared me more than any of his other novels, just the idea alone. The ending was also intense. Also, I always remember that Jurassic Park: The Lost World was the first and only novel that has actually managed to give me a fright, which is pretty crazy now I think about it, lol.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
I've been reading a bunch of old sci-fi stuff, including several of Fred Saberhagen's Berserker stories. Years ago, on my dad's recommendation, I read Saberhagen's Books of Swords, and they are some of the best sci-fi/fantasy I've ever read. If you get a chance to read anything by Fred Saberhagen, I highly recommend it.

Not sure if I ever got around to the berserker series. It seems like I would have, just no memory of them.

It will second the recommendation for the Books of Swords. Still have those on the shelf, good reads.

-Silmarilion (tolkien)
-Beyond good and evil (nietsche)
-Unpublished pages of the secret teachings of all ages (manly hall)
-The inivisible rainbow (firstenberg)

Going back and forth between these, but I have too much to do to stick to it, usually end up reading 2-3 pages and then forget about it again for a week.

I put Jurassic Park: The Lost World aside as I ordered a new copy of Jurassic Park which arrived a couple of days ago. So started to read that. I'd say the prose is, ironically, much better than JP: TLW. Just got up to the part introducing Alan Grant and I skipped the sentences describing him as it'll allow me to imagine him looking like Sam Neill, lol. Will also read his dialog in a NZ accent as Sam Neill can't keep up an American accent to save his life, lol.

I never got around to reading the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, but I recently picked up a boxed set of the books. The only problem now is that my work schedule is not conducive to reading time. It's next up in the queue, though...

 Just Tony wrote:
I never got around to reading the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, but I recently picked up a boxed set of the books. The only problem now is that my work schedule is not conducive to reading time. It's next up in the queue, though...

I’ve read the first one. Not a fan. Tried the second one a couple times, just can’t get into it. Have the 3rd, never made it that far.

I know Asimov is one of the greats of sci-fi, but I’ve never been a fan,

I always found him to be better at short stories. His original three Foundation books are more like a sequence of novellas rather than full novels, which is likely why I remember them fondly while I feel the rest of his Foundation novels and later Robot novels blow.


Speaking of authors whose short stories are their best work, I finished Salem’s Lot and I’m going back to some of King’s short stories for a while.

 Nevelon wrote:

 Just Tony wrote:
I never got around to reading the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, but I recently picked up a boxed set of the books. The only problem now is that my work schedule is not conducive to reading time. It's next up in the queue, though...

I’ve read the first one. Not a fan. Tried the second one a couple times, just can’t get into it. Have the 3rd, never made it that far.

I know Asimov is one of the greats of sci-fi, but I’ve never been a fan,

I've sifted through his robot short stories, and read the "Caves of Steel" trilogy, for a lack of a better term, and I'm a fan. I just wasn't motivated to chase down these books until it accidentally happened. I also have Nemesis sitting around that I never finished.

I'm reading up on post-Nemesis Star Trek novels from around 2005 onwards. Read USS Titan Taking Wing, then Death in Winter and now Articles of the federation. They all tie together loosely, they're of varying quality, but they're all better than the writing in "Picard"...