Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I haven't watched the TV show but the books are amazing. Murderbot's internal monologue is fantastic. It's the perfect mix of anti-social snark and begrudging heroism. If any adaptation nails that balance—especially Murderbot's deep desire to be left alone with its media playlists while somehow still saving everyone—it’s going to be incredible.

I'm still working my way through my Dashiel Hammet collection. I'm up to the collected Continental Op stories. Very hard-boiled, with lots of gin, cigarettes, and casual murder. It gets kind of samey, so I have also been reading spy novels when I need a break. I started with Ian Fleming, and moved on to Eric Ambler, Len Dieghton, and of course John LeCarre.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Easy E wrote:
I am still hammering through that Peter Straub novel.

The guy has some great purple prose, but tends to meander. He has a hard time finding his point and the story is almost "dream-like".

Which Straub novel? I’ve only finished two, Ghost Story and Dreamlands, and they both fit your description, although one is narrowly a very good book and the other falls on the edge of the blade for total wastes of time.

The Throat and it is about a serial killer from the past and a potential "modern" copycat in a town in the Midwest...... I think.

Kenobi, by John Jackson Miller.

Basically Obi-wan decides to swap the high ground for the rough ground on Tatooine to watch over Luke. Yet no matter how much he tries to keep a low profile, and a distance from Luke, he ends up the talk of the local town...and Qui-Gon for some reason doesn't answer his meditations. The Sand People are also showing an interest in Tatooine's newest resident.

If you want to escape the Disney-era and go back to "more is less" stories, then you can't go wrong here and it fits nicely after seeing Revenge of the Sith. Its a good sci-fi western in it's own right, but not sure if it can be appreciated as a standalone novel for one not familar with Star Wars.

Thumbs up and certainly one of the best Star Wars novels published.

Unseen Academicals

Is it a Discworld novel about football? Not ‘arf! Whilst not exactly a sports fan myself, I was taken to see Hearts play by my Dad when I was a kid, so there’s nostalgia value for me there.

And this is another very solid entry. Ostensibly a Wizards novel, this is more about entirely new characters Glenda, Jools, Trev and Mr Nutt, and how one can escape the Crab Bucket, and rise ever further through life. You just have to know about the Crab Bucket first.

There’s also the unwritten implication that Glenda Sugarbean might be a natural Witch. She doesn’t do magic at any point, but her role in her community is most definitely witch like.

It’s also pretty long for a Discworld novel, but it never drags.

On to the next one, which is I Shall Wear Midnight. Pretty sure I’ve read it before, but have no real memory of the story. So that’ll be nice.

Actually, I’m going to offer yet more praise for PTerry as a writer, and creator of a fantastic setting.

In the later books? He moves away from the long established characters. Oh, the Lancre Witches, Rincewind and The Watch still feature of course, and well they should. But as the world developed, he was bold and dare I say sensible enough to introduce entirely new protagonists to develop the world further. Tiffany Aching, Moist Von Lipwig, William De Worde. And it worked beautifully. We start to see him poke and prod his own creation, clarifying and occasionally adjusting How Things Work.

To give those folk centre stage, whilst keeping those that came before relevant is masterful writing. Sadly, due to his untimely passing we can only imagine where, if things had been different, Discworld might be today.

Just a phenomenal writer, and a thoroughly decent (if very angry) Human Bean. On balance I’m glad Rhianna decided not to let anyone else pick up the torch. I of course crave more tales from that unique world. But I think it was the correct call.

I'm sitting around at home sick the past few days so I read Dominion Genesis, a relatively recent 40k novel.

Overall I liked it. I enjoyed the fact that it had no astartes characters at all, it was a purely human/AdMech perspective story. And I like how it shows the weakness of the Mechanicum when it comes to dealing with emotional trauma, since they eschew the weakness of the flesh they really don't have a lot of healthy ways to deal with emotion.

The one criticism I saw was that the end was a bit abrupt, and it felt like the author could've used another few chapters to extend the characters' arcs.

Still, it wraps up well and all of the plot threads pay off. I'm hoping we get another book with these characters.

 ScarletRose wrote:
I'm sitting around at home sick the past few days so I read Dominion Genesis, a relatively recent 40k novel.

Overall I liked it. I enjoyed the fact that it had no astartes characters at all, it was a purely human/AdMech perspective story. And I like how it shows the weakness of the Mechanicum when it comes to dealing with emotional trauma, since they eschew the weakness of the flesh they really don't have a lot of healthy ways to deal with emotion.

The one criticism I saw was that the end was a bit abrupt, and it felt like the author could've used another few chapters to extend the characters' arcs.

Still, it wraps up well and all of the plot threads pay off. I'm hoping we get another book with these characters.

I saw this at the shop on Thursday afternoon, does it feature any Knights or Titans?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 ScarletRose wrote:
I'm sitting around at home sick the past few days so I read Dominion Genesis, a relatively recent 40k novel.

Overall I liked it. I enjoyed the fact that it had no astartes characters at all, it was a purely human/AdMech perspective story. And I like how it shows the weakness of the Mechanicum when it comes to dealing with emotional trauma, since they eschew the weakness of the flesh they really don't have a lot of healthy ways to deal with emotion.

The one criticism I saw was that the end was a bit abrupt, and it felt like the author could've used another few chapters to extend the characters' arcs.

Still, it wraps up well and all of the plot threads pay off. I'm hoping we get another book with these characters.

I saw this at the shop on Thursday afternoon, does it feature any Knights or Titans?

Not really, because of the events of the story they have one armiger. There's a scene where the armiger and it's pilot get the spotlight, but it's definitely not a big robot book.

I Shall Wear Midnight

Fourth book in the Tiffany Aching sequence, and the best so far. By this time, Tiffany is 15, going on 16, and has matured significantly, being a Witch and all.

What I enjoy about this sequence of novels is that Tiffany’s thoughts, doubts and insecurities are revealed to us. And in a way which suggest that even Granny Weatherwax must have, or have had, the same. That a Witch must overcome them, but never deny them. Because it’s in confronting those doubts and insecurities that you grow as a person, and make an effective Witch.

And as ever, PTerry gets this across to you without ever talking down or otherwise condescending his audience.

Just picked Sharpe's Command Bernard Cornwell's latest Richard Sharpe novel (Here still a Major in May 1812).

Because Mr. Cornwell has gone back and written further adventures of my favorite British Rifleman in almost a willy nilly fashion and inserted him into every battle physically possible (and one he shouldn't have been involved with at all)... it's always a bit difficult to remember in his books what exactly is going on in the land of Richard Sharpe.

But, I will probably burn through this 300 page book by Monday. I love his writing style, and will read whatever he writes next.

(Also, I wish Sean Bean would make another Sharpe's TV show or movie.)

Just started on Shards Of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Not very far in but I will say that so far it has a very Sororitas-y feel to it! I will also say that, from reading a number of his books, he has a fearsome, intimidating level of imagination and writing ability. If you are into pretty grand sci-fi I'd put him up at the same level as, or maybe a little beyond, Iain Banks.