YouKneeK’s 2017 SF&F Overdose Part 2

My last thread was starting to load slowly, so I decided to start a new one.

Introduction (for anybody who missed it before)
The long version of my introduction can be found in my first thread.

Here’s a brief summary of what to expect from my reading and reviews:
1. I read mostly science fiction and fantasy, although I sneak other genres in now and then.
2. The books I read tend to be at least a few years old as opposed to being the latest releases.
3. I review every book I read and I’ll post my full reviews in this thread, probably one or two a week.
4. I try not to spoil anything in my reviews, since I hate spoilers myself. I’ll use spoiler tags if I’m bursting to talk about something spoilerish.
5. I have a tendency toward wordiness in much the way that water has a tendency toward wetness…

2017 Reading Index

Clicking on the Date Read will take you to the post containing the review.

   Date Read/
 # Review Link	Title				Author(s)		
 1 2017-01-02	Carpe Jugulum			Terry Pratchett
 2 2017-01-06	Childhood's End			Arthur C. Clarke
 3 2017-01-15	Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell	Susanna Clarke
 4 2017-01-21	The Science of Discworld	Terry Pratchett, 
						Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
 5 2017-01-22	Redshirts			John Scalzi
 6 2017-01-28	Watership Down			Richard Adams
 7 2017-01-30	Revelation			Carol Berg
 8 2017-02-03	The Fifth Elephant		Terry Pratchett
 9 2017-02-09	The Three-Body Problem		Cixin Liu
10 2017-02-10	The Dark Forest			Cixin Liu
11 2017-02-25	Death's End			Cixin Liu
12 2017-02-26	The Truth			Terry Pratchett
13 2017-03-04	Thief of Time			Terry Pratchett
14 2017-03-07	Pride & Prejudice		Jane Austen
15 2017-03-09	The Last Hero			Terry Pratchett
16 2017-03-11	The Amazing Maurice and His	Terry Pratchett
		Educated Rodents
17 2017-03-15	The War of the Worlds		H. G. Wells
18 2017-03-19	Night Watch			Terry Pratchett
19 2017-03-24	The Science of Discworld II	Terry Pratchett, 
						Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
20 2017-03-26	The Graveyard Book		Neil Gaiman
21 2017-03-30	The Wee Free Men		Terry Pratchett
22 2017-04-02	Monstrous Regiment		Terry Pratchett
23 2017-04-05	The Man in the High Castle	Philip K. Dick
24 2017-04-08	A Hat Full of Sky		Terry Pratchett
25 2017-04-12	Going Postal			Terry Pratchett
26 2017-04-15	The Princess Bride		William Goldman
27 2017-04-17	Thud!				Terry Pratchett
28 2017-04-19	Wintersmith			Terry Pratchett
29 2017-04-21	The City & the City		China Miéville
30 2017-04-24	Making Money			Terry Pratchett
31 2017-04-30	Unseen Academicals		Terry Pratchett
32 2017-04-30	A Collegiate Casting-Out of	Terry Pratchett
		Devilish Devices
33 2017-05-06	The Lions of Al-Rassan		Guy Gavriel Kay
34 2017-05-07	I Shall Wear Midnight		Terry Pratchett
35 2017-05-12	Snuff				Terry Pratchett
36 2017-05-12	The World of Poo		Terry Pratchett
37 2017-05-14	Regarding Ducks and Universes	Neve Maslakovic
38 2017-05-19	Raising Steam			Terry Pratchett
39 2017-05-20	The Shepherd's crown		Terry Pratchett
40 2017-05-27	A Tale of Two Cities		Charles Dickens
41 2017-05-31	Nexus				Ramez Naam

Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman



I really enjoyed The Graveyard Book while I was reading it. The story and characters held my attention and it was a short, fast read. Having finished it, I do wish there had been more meat to it. The story had a reasonably satisfying if bittersweet end, but there were things that could have been fleshed out better and I wish the book had a sequel or two. I’d really like to see the characters again and find out what happens next for them. It feels like I was with them for too short of a time.

The story begins just after the parents and older sister of the main character, Nobody, have been murdered. Nobody is a toddler when the book begins, oblivious to what’s going on, and the only reason he isn’t murdered with the rest of his family is because he has a tendency to escape his crib and wander off. Since the murderer left the door to the house open, Nobody is able to wander out of the house and up the hill to a graveyard where he’s protected and raised by the dead who inhabit the graveyard. The author was inspired by The Jungle Book, which explains the title.

One particular complaint I have now that I’ve finished is that the underlying motivation for the murder wasn’t explained sufficiently at all. We were given an explanation, yes, but it’s one that brings up more questions than it answers. There were also great secondary characters in this book, and I wish we had seen more of them and learned about them in more detail. That’s really my only complaint with this book. I really enjoyed it, but I was left wanting more.

Next Book
Back to Discworld with The Wee Free Men, the first book in the Tiffany Aching subseries.

I loved Wee Free Men!

>4 BookstoogeLT: I’ve been looking forward to seeing what this subseries (the only one I haven’t tried yet) is like.

>5 YouKneeK: Personally, I found the first book to be the best and each successive one not as enjoyable. However, bear in mind that I found the first 2 Discworld books to be my favorite as well :-)

>5 YouKneeK:, >6 BookstoogeLT: Also bear in mind that, afaik, most of the Tiffany Aching books were written after Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I hope you'll enjoy them, YouKneeK! It's one of my favourite series, even though I agree with Bookstooge that the later books aren't quite as strong narratively as the works he wrote in his prime. I advise having tissues ready when you get to The Shepherd's Crown, though. I bawled.

>7 dovelynnwriter: Ah, thanks, I had been wondering at what point that took place, but hadn’t taken the time to look it up. I read about 20% of the book yesterday and I’m enjoying it so far.

>8 YouKneeK: I think it's after I Shall Wear Midnight, but I'm not wholly sure. I think the raw brilliance is still visible and tangible, but the polish gradually gets less shiny compared to his other works. I'm just... so in awe by his ability to write and keep writing. The Wee Free Men so far! ^_^

I read Wee Free Men a few years ago at the insistence of my son. I loved it and started collecting Pratchett books whenever I see them at sales. I'm just taking them as I find them, without worrying about order.

Ach! The Nac Mac Feegles are such fun!

Crivens!!!
:o)
This reminds me that I need to get my hands on Wintersmith.

>10 SylviaC: How old was your son at the time? It’s fun when you can share books with your parents and vice versa. I read a lot of my mom’s books when I was younger and into my teens, but we don’t have many reading interests in common these days. I got addicted to SF&F in my 20’s, and she doesn’t care for those genres very much, which is a large reason why I didn't discover them until adhulthood.

>11 jjwilson61:, >12 clamairy: LOL, when the Nac Mac Feegles showed up in some of the earlier books, I had a heck of a time figuring out what they were saying. I’m not sure if my Nac Mac Feeglish(?) is improving, or if Pratchett dumbed it down for the YA books, but it’s been much more comprehensible in this book so far.

>13 YouKneeK: Isn't there a glossary in your book? Check the back.

>14 jjwilson61: Nope, no glossary that I see, but part of the fun is in figuring it out for myself anyway. :) It hasn’t been any trouble at all (yet, anyway) in this book.

>13 YouKneeK: My son was probably about 13 at the time. He used to read books that I suggested sometimes, but he works at a library now, so he doesn't bother with my books anymore. My daughter prefers to assert her independence by refusing to read my books. But if I give her a book that I haven't read, she'll read it willingly. My mother and I shared most of each other's reading tastes. She was my very best reading buddy.

>13 YouKneeK: AFAIK the Feegles speak a form of very broad Glesga Scots. A background knowledge of Rabbie Burns might just help, occasionally.

>16 SylviaC: Ha, that’s funny that your daughter will read your books only as long as you haven’t read them yet. :)

>17 hfglen: It did sound pretty Scottish in my head, but I must admit complete ignorance about specific Scottish dialects and Robert Burns. For that matter, I'm pathetic when it comes to poetry in general.

Review: The Wee Free men by Terry Pratchett



The Wee Free Men is the first book in the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld. Calling it “young adult” might be a stretch since the protagonist is nine and I thought the story seemed suitable for a younger audience. On the other hand, as with many children protagonists, she probably behaved as if she were older than a typical nine-year-old. In any case, the story was entertaining enough for an adult to enjoy and I did enjoy it quite a bit.

The story is set in a small farming community, where witchcraft is frowned upon. Tiffany, whose late grandmother was possibly a witch, seems to have some skills in that area herself. Those skills are put to the test when creatures from another world start showing up near Tiffany’s home. Without any other witches living nearby, she must try to deal with things herself until more experienced witches can arrive. Fortunately, she does have a ‘little’ help in the meantime.

Tiffany Aching is a good character, easy to sympathize with and root for. I also really enjoyed the Nac Mac Feegles who are the “Wee Free Men” referenced in the title. They, and to some extent the talking toad, were a lot of fun. There wasn’t as much satire and puns in this book, but it did have some light humor.

A shockingly observant person might notice that my total “book” count crept down again by one number (from “50ish” to “49ish”). As a reminder, this count includes each individual story on my list, including short stories, for simplicity’s sake. The other day, I was looking ahead on my list and discovered that Where’s My Cow? isn’t easily available for me. My library system doesn’t have any copies at any branch, and there isn’t a Kindle edition available. I don’t want to purchase a physical copy. Since it appears to be a 32-page illustrated children’s book, I’ve decided that the 5-10 minutes I spent searching for it was probably already more effort than was warranted and I decided to just cross it off the list. I'm sure it's very cute, but nothing of that length is likely to stick with me very long anyway.

Next Book
Monstrous Regiment, the third book in the Industrial Revolution subseries of Discworld.

>19 YouKneeK: However, if you ever have children, Where is my Cow? should be at the top of your list of books to aquire/buy. I'm assuming you don't have children, but maybe yours are grown? In which case, grandchildren would be a great audience for this book as well. I get a young vibe from you though. Oh the assumptions we make online! I suppose what I'm trying to say is, as a children's book lover, I loved Where is my Cow? but I can understand why one would not want to purchase it to add to their collection if there were no children in their life. :)

>19 YouKneeK: That was such a fun story. And it didn't read like a YA book at all. Reminds me that I need to pick up the rest of the Tiffany Aching books at some point.

>20 MrsLee: I really don’t have any children in my life. The children in my immediate family are in their first couple years at university. I myself am one of those oddities who is truly happy as a single person and I have every intention of staying that way. (I’m 41, so I have a good track record so far!) But who knows, maybe someday there will be an occasion for me to read it. :)

>21 Narilka: I’m looking forward to reading the rest of them.

Review: Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett



Monstrous Regiment is the third book in the Industrial Revolution subseries of Discworld.

The book starts off with our main character, Polly, transforming herself into Oliver. Yep, she’s chopping off her hair and dressing up like a boy so she can go and enlist in the military. She lives in a small country that’s always at war with its neighbors. Women here are not allowed to dress like men or fight. It is, along with many other things such as cats and chocolate, an Abomination to their god.

This Industrial Revolution book seemed a little different from the previous two because it didn’t introduce a revolutionary new industry. It was more of a war (or anti-war) book, and a book about prejudice and stereotypes. It did have some ties to the previous books though, mostly in the form of character cameos. I liked the story pretty well, and it had some good (if not very original) messages as well as some humor. It did get over-the-top ridiculous at some points, even for Discworld, particularly toward the end.

Next Book
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. This will be the second of his books that I read. I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? about 6 months ago and liked it pretty well, although I did have complaints, mostly in regard to dangling or insufficiently-fleshed-out plot threads.

>13 YouKneeK: I've been listening to the audios of the Tiffany Aching books so the dialect of the Nac Mac Feegle wasn't too much of an issue. I did find myself saying "Crivens!" a lot, and then I figured I'd better look it up to make sure it wasn't something I shouldn't be saying within earshot of people with much more delicate sensibilities than my own. :o)

>24 clamairy: Crivens is a great word. :)

I can see where audio would help. It seemed really toned down in The Wee Free Men, though. I guess it’s partly because they had a lot more speaking lines, which provided enough context to figure out the unfamiliar words. In Carpe Jugulum, they pretty much just randomly showed up, spouted off a few lines of semi-coherent words, then disappeared again.

Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick



“Huh?” That was pretty much my reaction at the end of this book. The first and only other book I’ve read by Philip K. Dick was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. I thought that book had a weird ending, but I think The Man in the High Castle out-weirded that one.

The general setting is in an alternate reality in which the Axis powers won World War II instead of the Allied powers. Japanese culture is dominant in the U.S. Nearly everybody speaks and thinks in broken English and uses the I Ching to make decisions and answer questions, while Germans are apparently all obsessed with the Nazi ideal. In other words, I thought the depiction of other cultures in this book seemed stereotyped, and the choppy English quickly became tiresome to read.

I think this book may have been intended more as a vehicle to express ideas than to tell a story. There are interesting ideas here, and some clever plot elements, but the story itself felt pretty thin to me. There are several plot threads, one or two of which could be considered the “main plot”, but there weren’t really any tangible results of the events in the book.

The main characters weren’t very likeable. Juliana was just plain loco. I hated Childan, to the point that I may have told him I hated him out loud a couple of times while reading. I warmed up to a couple of the others later in the book after I understood them better, but I didn’t get attached to any of them or care much what happened to them.

Of the two PKD books I’ve now read, I definitely preferred Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Its story interested me more, whereas I was occasionally bored by this one. I did enjoy some aspects of it, but not consistently. As a side note, this book has several German phrases that aren’t translated within the book, so it was nice to be able to highlight the phrases on my Kindle and instantly get a translation.

Next Book
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett, the 2nd book in the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld.

>26 YouKneeK: "so it was nice to be able to highlight the phrases on my Kindle and instantly get a translation."

One of the best things about ereaders, IMHO. Now if only Kindle would add Latin to the list of translated languages I'd be completely satisfied.

>26 YouKneeK: Dont let the book The Man in the High Castle discourage you from watching the Amazon series it inspired. One of the best things I've seen in a long time.

>28 stellarexplorer: Gotta disagree there. That tv series was as boring as the book appears to be :-) I gave up after episode 9 or so. It made me NOT want to read the book and after this review, I'm definitely staying away.

>27 clamairy: I agree that Latin would be a useful addition, especially given how often authors use it. Sometimes, if it’s a fairly common Latin phrase that less-ignorant-than-me people already know, the Wikipedia panel will have an entry for it with a translation. That only works occasionally, though.

>28 stellarexplorer: Thanks, I’ve been considering that I might at least give it a try since it’s free for Amazon Prime members. (I was interested enough to check, anyway!) It may take me a while to get around to it though, since I’m not a big TV watcher. PKD has interesting ideas, but I imagine other people might be able to take those ideas and turn them into something a little more coherent...

>29 BookstoogeLT: LOL, I’m starting to think my role in life is to help you figure out (or confirm your own suspicions) which books not to read. :)

>30 YouKneeK: Don't knock it. Every book I don't read based on your reviews is time saved and frustrations and rants set aside.

>27 clamairy: >30 YouKneeK: Latin: you could, of course, try asking fellow-Dragoneers (hint, hint).

>28 stellarexplorer: I just finished season one, and really enjoyed it. The casting is quite good, and they must have a decent budget because the settings are pretty cool.

I am determined to get everything I can out of my Prime annual fee so I mean to explore more of their Original Series'.

>32 hfglen: I appreciate the offer, but when I'm reading I want the translation ASAP. I can always find what I can't suss out myself either on my phone or PC. It would just be more convenient to have it done for me with one touch. LOL I am familiar with the common phrases, but I still get thrown by the uncommon ones. But if I ever really get stumped I'll pick your brain, Hugh. :o)

>30 YouKneeK: Yes, so many filmmakers have turned his work into something that works better. I love the Amazon series, but as Bookstooge indicates, YMMV. But if you are the right viewer, it's fantastic.

>31 BookstoogeLT: I’m always glad to help save some time and frustration! ;)

>32 hfglen:, >34 clamairy: I’m with clamairy on the ASAP thing. :) With the built-in translation function, it’s an instant answer for the languages it can translate. I’m less likely to do any manual work to look it up unless I really, really want to know. I always have my smartphone within arm’s reach, but even that isn’t always worth the effort to me, particularly with foreign languages where I have to spell it out carefully instead of just saying “ok Google” and talking to it, or at least using Swype. I hate typing on mobile devices; I feel sooooo slow at it.

>33 Darth-Heather: I definitely fail to get my money’s worth when it comes to the Prime video. I use it sometimes, but not regularly. I get a lot of use out of the free/fast shipping, though, and I use a few of the other features too.

This post has nothing to do with books aside from the fact that the subject of this post, my cat Ernest, is frequently curled up on my lap sleeping while I read.

I just had to share some of the shenanigans that go on in my home. The video quality is bad because I took them with my phone at the spur of the moment. The freak doesn’t perform on demand, so I just have to get lucky. The 2nd one is especially bad because I didn’t have good lighting.

Fun with a door. Video - 53 seconds. (Most of the action is at the beginning.)
Fun with a drawer. Video - 1 min, 44 seconds. (There’s a stretch where absolutely nothing happens from around 00:20 to 00:50; you might want to skip that part.)

>37 YouKneeK: I had no idea you could host stuff at amazon. I shall have to check that out.

So how did he get down from the door in Vid1?

>37 YouKneeK: He is gorgeous!

>37 YouKneeK: I'm so glad my cats have not learned either of those tricks lol

>37 YouKneeK: That 2nd video totally reminded me of this...

>38 BookstoogeLT: Yeah, it's one of the random little Prime benefits they've added over the recent years. I’ve found it pretty useful. There's a "Prime Photos" app you can download, and photos taken on the device can then be set up to go to the cloud automatically, or they can be sent manually. They also have a Family Vault feature that allows you have a shared space with other people. I bought my mom a simple tablet for Christmas (she’s never had a tablet or a smart phone before) and she enjoys being able to share photos with me in our Family Vault. If you have the Prime Photos app installed, you'll get a notification when somebody adds a photo to the family vault.

He gets down from the door by just jumping straight down on the floor, angling toward the outside where the carpet is. It’s quite a jump, but he does it on a daily basis like it’s nothing. I wanted to get a video of that part, but he can stay up on the door for 15-30 minutes sometimes and I don’t have the patience to wait around trying to get a video of it. :)

>39 clamairy: Thanks. :)

>40 Narilka: LOL, I don’t mind the door trick so much, but the drawer trick got annoying fast, especially when he does it in the middle of the night. I’m also not at all thrilled with his claws scrabbling at my furniture. For the most part he hasn’t really scratched it, but there’s one area on the dresser that I’m not happy about. The problem is that he seems to do bad things more often when I try any tactic to make him stop. I spent two years trying to get him to stop pawing at my bedroom blinds in the middle of the night, then finally I just gave up on the whole thing and pretended to ignore him. Now he rarely does it any more. I’m holding out a small amount of hope that the same will eventually prove true with the drawers. Of course, by then he’ll find a new way to drive me crazy, I’m sure!

>41 ScoLgo: LOL, that's funny. I’m always very paranoid about checking inside the washer or dryer before I start running it. He’ll crawl into anything, and sometimes he moves so fast that I think he’s two cats because I don’t know how he gets from point A to point B without my noticing.

>42 YouKneeK: Side note... Our great dane was standing next to my desk watching the videos of your cat right along with me. When I started the first video playing, he perked right up and could not take his eyes off the screen, (he's a rescue with 'issues' and other animals really freak him out).

I could totally picture him hiding behind that washing machine, thinking, "Oh, please... Oh, please..." - except he's way too big to fit behind something as little as a washing machine... Hahaha...

Re the drawers, would kiddie locks work? (Or should that be kitty locks, heh, heh...) They'll look ugly, but should stop him getting them opnen in the first place. Or if the drawer has a key, just lock it.

>43 ScoLgo: LOL, I hope Ernest didn’t cause your great dane too much trauma! He was probably hoping somebody would shut the drawer on my cat. ;) I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to meet a great dane “in person”, but I have very fond memories of watching the movie “The Ugly Dachshund” when I was a teen. I don’t know if I’d appreciate it as much as an adult, but back then I laughed until I couldn’t breathe and I adored the great dane.

>44 Maddz: In the long run, that would probably be the best solution. I just cringe at the damage he might do in the short term if I did that. Now that he knows he can open them, he won’t just accept that he can’t open them anymore. If they don't open as expected, he’ll just put more energy into it and start approaching it from different angles. This would probably go on for months (at least) because he doesn’t forget or give up on things easily.

Love the videos. I'm pretty sure that drawer was made for that kitty, you should just be glad it's holding the kitty's attention so he isn't getting into something else!

>46 MrsLee: LOL, it would be ok if it were just that drawer. He opens a variety of drawers though, plus some cabinets like the one under that drawer. I had to warn his sitter about it when I went out of town, or else she probably would have thought somebody had ransacked my home. At least he hasn’t yet decided it would be fun to start pulling things out of the drawers and dragging them around the house. If he starts doing that, I’ll have to bite the bullet and find a way to lock them.

Thank goodness cats sleep a lot. He makes up for the trouble by being sweet and cuddly most of the time. :)

Review: A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett



A Hat Full of Sky is the 2nd book in the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld. I really enjoyed this one, maybe slightly more than I enjoyed the first Tiffany Aching book. It had an equally good story, and I thought it was a bit funnier.

In this book, Tiffany is now eleven and she leaves her home on the chalk for the first time so she can learn how to be a proper witch. She travels to the mountains where she’ll serve as an apprentice for a witch named Miss Level, who is a bit unusual. Meanwhile, a power-hungry entity has sensed Tiffany’s power and is about to catch up with her.

The Nac Mac Feegles had some particularly funny moments in this book, and I also liked Miss Level. Tiffany is still a great and likeable character who is easy to root for. There were also some good messages in the story about being nice to people you don’t really want to be nice to, helping people you don’t really want to help, and doing the things that need to be done even if you really don’t want to do them.

Next Book
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. This is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig subseries of Discworld. I had mistakenly thought I’d tried all the Discworld subseries already, because I didn’t notice the Moist von Lipwig subseries title associated with this book and two others. It appears to be at least loosely related to the Industrial Revolution subseries.

>37 YouKneeK: I have to say that when he disappeared right inside the drawer I did half expect to see him appear from the cupboard below!

>49 Peace2: Ha, that would have been funny! There’s a wooden slat underneath the drawer preventing him from falling through when he crawls behind the drawer, otherwise that’s probably what you would have seen. He loves to squeeze back behind the drawer.

The first time I saw him slip back there, I noticed it just in time to see his tail disappear. I couldn’t see how he possibly could have fit back there, so I was afraid I was going to have to disassemble the furniture to get him back out. I guess, in the midst of my worry, I’d forgotten that cats are a liquid…

>49 Peace2: I thought the same thing! (And I'm sure he would have if it weren't for that slat.)

>48 YouKneeK: I really enjoyed this one, too. Maybe not more than the first, but at least as much.

Just belatedly catching up here - what a gorgeous cat Ernest is! And so clever too - what a mixed blessing that can be!

Glad you are enjoying the Tiffany Aching books. I think Wintersmith is my favourite of the series.

>52 Sakerfalcon: Thank you! :) I should get to Wintersmith pretty soon; it’s the third book on my list after the one I’m currently reading. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Review: Going Postal by Terry Pratchett



Going Postal is the first book in the Moist von Lipwig subseries of Discworld, which is also associated with the Industrial Revolution subseries. In the case of this book, it’s maybe a little more of an “Industrial Counterrevolution”.

The post office in Ankh-Morpork has effectively been out of commission for a while, with tons of undelivered letters sitting around. Meanwhile, over the past several books, we’ve seen the development of a faster and more efficient method of communication called the “Clacks”. However, lately there have been issues with the Clacks -- mismanagement, downtime, and maybe even murders.

The main character, Moist von Lipwig, was a fun character of the “lovable rogue” archetype. I wasn’t too sure about him at first, but he grew on me as the book went on. Vetinari also had some good moments in this book. The story itself held my interest really well. In fact, I think this may be the first Discworld book for which I actually stayed up a few minutes past my bedtime one night because I wanted to know what would happen next. I only stayed up about 15 minutes late, but I take my bedtime very seriously so this isn’t a common occurrence for me. :)

I enjoyed the ending, and I particularly liked the choices Moist made it the end. To be more specific, I liked that he looked at the bigger picture and considered the greater good. He backed off from his original plan that would have effectively destroyed the Clacks until they could be rebuilt, realizing that they fulfill a vital role and also that there were a lot of good people involved in the industry who would suffer. Instead, he found a way to deal with the corrupt management that was the root problem.

Next Book
The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Nope, I’ve never read it before. I might have seen the movie when I was a little girl. I have one or two very, very vague and incoherent images in my head that I somehow associate with that movie, but I really don’t know for sure if I actually saw it. In any case, I know nothing about the story so I look forward to discovering what it’s about as I read it.

>54 YouKneeK: Re: The Princess Bride... I was a big fan of the movie from the time it was released. Didn't get around to the book until a couple of years or so ago. Enjoyed it immensely. I dare say that you are in for a treat!

>54 YouKneeK: Oooh, you're in for a treat. :o) Just read that one a couple of years ago, but the movie is a family favorite.

>55 ScoLgo: Dagnabbit, it looks like I copied you. But your post wasn't there when I was typing up mine.

I never like the Moist books. Mainly because of his name. It just disgusted me instead of making me laugh and all I could picture was some guy with HUGE lips just dripping with saliva trying to kiss everyone on sight.
*you're welcome*

>57 clamairy: First! ;-D

>58 BookstoogeLT: I about spit out my tea when I read that! lol

>55 ScoLgo:, >56 clamairy: Ha, that is funny that you both just read the book a couple of years ago. From what little I had time to read last night, I’m guessing you're both probably right about me being in for a treat. :)

>58 BookstoogeLT: Eew, LOL, thanks so much for that mental image! And it looks like you almost made >60 Narilka:’s screen moist. ;)

I read the book long before I saw the movie and I was somewhat disappointed in the movie since there was so much that was left out, particularly the back stories of Inigo Montoya and Fezik(?). (Although the part of the book where the author was searching for the book for his son got a little tiresome as I remember).

>62 jjwilson61: I haven’t had much time to read the book yet; work has been a little crazy this week. So far I’ve read that first section about the author that you mentioned, and I’ve read that first little bit in the story itself where we meet Buttercup.

I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far quite a bit, including the part about the author and his search for the book. Actually, I was a little confused as to whether that section was actually part of the story, or if it was a really long and interesting unmarked introduction. The edition I’m reading had a 30th year anniversary introduction, then a 25th year anniversary introduction, so I thought maybe this was the original introduction. (I skipped past the 30th and 25th year introductions until after I finish the book. I’ve read introductions for popular, older books that had spoilers because they assumed people knew the story already.)

That first part scared me that I was reading some sort of an abridged version. I used my Kindle to look up the name referenced as the “real author” to see if there was a different book I should be reading. Fortunately, for the sake of my sanity, the very first thing that came up was a wiki entry telling me that he was a fictional author invented by Goldman for the purposes of this book. So I’m still not entirely sure if any part of that first section of the book is actually true, or if it was all fiction, but I enjoyed it in any case. :) I’ll Google it after I finish the book if I haven’t learned the answer by then. For now I’m just going to enjoy the ride.

Revew: The Princess Bride by William Goldman



The Princess Bride is yet another one of those classic books that “everybody” has read but that I have just now read for the first time. I don’t think I’ve seen the movie either, although it’s possible I saw it when I was very young and just don’t remember it. A few of the lines in the book were familiar, but that may just be because I’ve heard people quote from the movie over the years.

I really enjoyed this although I think, maybe a little oddly, I enjoyed the framing story the best. I did enjoy the main story, and it held my interest, but its satire gave it a tendency to cross the line into ridiculousness. In many ways it was like reading Pratchett’s Discworld books: entertaining and clever, but not usually the kind of story that I would get completely wrapped up in.

The framing story, on the other hand, felt a little more serious, if less fantastical, and added a couple layers on top of the main story. It was those layers that I particularly enjoyed. I have a little more to say about that, but I’m going to put it in spoiler tags. If there’s anybody else in the world who knows as little about the story as I did, I don’t want to rob them of the fun I had. :)

When I first started reading the book, I was worried that I’d somehow gotten the wrong book and was reading an actual abridgement. I was reading in my Kindle, so I touched the name of Morgenstern on my screen and was immediately informed that he was a fictional author created by Goldman. So that undoubtedly saved me some frustration in trying to find the “real” book. :) After that, I was completely absorbed by trying to figure out which parts of the framing story were real and which parts were fake. I laughed several times for no other reason than because I was so confused about what (if anything) was real and what wasn’t. Then, on top of that, there’s the implication that the main story itself was based on true events and places. I just loved that whole aspect of it, the layer upon layer of fiction made to appear real and written about so seriously that I started to wonder if parts of it were real after all. Google helped clear up the last of my confusion after I finished reading the book. Assuming the info I found on Google was real, of course, and not a cleverly planted framing story for the framing story! ;)

For anybody who does read this for the first time, I have some pieces of advice:
1. If you start the book and think you’re reading the wrong book, don’t worry, you’re not.

2. If possible, get a more recent edition that includes the 25th and 30th anniversary introductions. I thought they were worth reading, and I think one or both editions may have added some material at the end also.

3. But do not, under any circumstances, read those 25th and 30th anniversary introductions before you read the main book. Especially not the 30th. It’s full of spoilers, and I think it would be harder to appreciate it without having the knowledge gained while reading the book. In particular, it answers a question you won’t know you have until you get to the end of the book, by which time you may have forgotten you were given the answer because it didn’t mean anything to you when you read it. Fortunately, past experience has taught me to avoid reading introductions for classic books until after I’ve read the book itself. They so often assume the reader already knows the story.

I’m normally reluctant to spend time watching movies, but I think I’ll watch this movie, probably tonight. It helps that I’m on vacation this coming week, so I can surely manage to spare the time for one movie. I always hear such great things about this one.

Next Book
Thud! by Terry Pratchett, the seventh book in the Watch subseries of Discworld.

>64 YouKneeK: Let us know what you think of the movie. I love it. Enough so that I've never even thought about reading the book. Didn't want to take away from the Pure Awesomeness...

>64 YouKneeK: Enjoy! Such a fun movie :) If you like it, Cary Elwes (the actor who plays Wesley) wrote a behind the scenes memoir that's quite charming.

>65 BookstoogeLT:, >66 Narilka: I just finished the movie. :) It was almost like a different entity. The basic events of the main story are similar enough, but it has a very different tone. And of course the framing story is gone, which was a large part of the book. The grandfather reading the book to his sick grandson in the movie doesn't count, since that's only the most miniscule part of the framing story, and even that part was different than the book. The movie is a simpler, feel-good type of story. The book is more satirical and the princess bride part of the story often comes across as pretty silly. The book has a more cynical tone, and a much more ambiguous ending, even if the book originally stopped at the same place as the movie does.

I thought the book was funnier, but a large part of that may be because I had read it first, and because I watched the movie so soon afterwards when I still had the book echoing in my head. Some of the funny or dramatic lines in the movie just sounded wrong to me because they weren’t delivered the same way I had recently heard them in my head. For the most part, I preferred the characters in my head to the ones in the movie, but Buttercup was much, much more likeable in the movie. In the book, she’s ditzy to the point of being annoying. She annoyed me some in the movie, but not nearly as much. Spoiler for movie: Like when she just stood there acting helpless and distraught instead of leaping for Westley’s fallen sword and attacking the R.O.U.S that was mauling Westley.

I enjoyed the movie, but I think I prefer the book. I'd likely feel different if I'd grown up with the movie and seen it several times. The tone of the book could seem a little like a slap in the face at times as compared to the movie.

>67 YouKneeK: I've been waiting to comment until you finished the book and the movie. For me it was movie first, then book years later. I did not enjoy the book at all. :)

>68 MrsLee: I’ve read a few other reviews since posting mine, and I’ve seen several similar comments. The people who were introduced to it via the movie first were usually less enthusiastic about the book, and vice versa. They’re so different in tone that whichever one is experienced second must seem like a bit of a shock.

I saw the movie several times before I tried to read the book. I wasn't able to get very far in the book, but that probably had more to do with the very dense print than the content. I'll try again someday when I find a more readable copy.

>70 SylviaC: I hope you enjoy it if/when you try again!

>64 YouKneeK: & >67 YouKneeK: Glad you enjoyed the book but sad to hear that you didn't appreciate the movie so much. It definitely seems to be the case for whichever you encounter first as I'm one that fits in the film first and better camp. It's just one of those that I can just sit and watch if I happen to come across it while channel hopping.

I also saw the movie before reading the book and don't remember liking the book nearly as much, though it's been such a long time that the book is now hazy in my memory. In fact I rewatched the movie a few weeks ago :)

Edit: I had a similar experience with Wicked. Saw the play first and loved it. The book was much harder to enjoy because of it.

I think I read the book before I saw the film, but I can't be sure. The two events would have been fairly close together, and it would have been 30-odd years ago now... I know I watched the film within the last couple of years.

I don't recall preferring one to the other either. I think you have to regard a film as being based on a book if the book came first (which I think it did?) and treat them as separate entities. Witness the furore over Peter Jackson's version of LoTR and The Hobbit with content in the films not being in the books... (Personally I preferred the Ralph Bakshi LoTR but that's another story.)

>73 Narilka: I once, several years ago, tried to listen to Wicked as an audio book but I couldn’t get through it. Someday I want to try it again in print, as I do think it’s something I’d enjoy. I just have a lot more trouble paying attention when I listen versus when I read. I’ve never seen the play, though.

>72 AHS-Wolfy:, >74 Maddz: I think, in general, it’s much more difficult for a movie to really thrill me, even when they aren’t based on a book I've enjoyed. They last longer than I really want to spend sitting in front of the screen, so they try my patience, and yet they’re usually too short to fit in enough story meat and character depth to satisfy me. I did love the Lord of the Rings movies, though. (I watched them before reading the books.)

The book was written in 1973 and the movie released in 1987, so yeah, the book came before he movie.

>75 YouKneeK:

I'm with you on that! I even find it difficult to watch TV for longer than an hour. I got out of the habit of watching TV when I used a small CRT portable, and never got back into the habit even though I now have a decent-sized flat screen. I've also developed a tendency towards motion-sickness which modern roller-coaster camera-work can trigger, so I avoid cinemas too. (I first observed this watching the title sequence to Life on Earth on my sister's enormous screen a few years back.)

Review: Thud! by Terry Pratchett



Thud! is the seventh book in the Watch subseries of Discworld. Tensions have always been high between the dwarves and the trolls. Now a dwarf has been murdered in Ankh-Morpork, and it looks like a troll might have been responsible.

As with the previous Watch book, it focuses heavily on Vimes, but he continues to be far more likeable than he was earlier in the series so I’m continuing to warm up to him. The story itself didn’t really stand out from the previous books. Yes, it does a good job of portraying the conflict and prejudice that can arise between two groups of people. Yes, it has some great things to say through the use of subtle, and not-so-subtle, humor. The problem is, we’ve seen this quite a bit now in Discworld, particularly in the Watch books, so it’s starting to feel a little repetitive.

The story did hold my interest, and I wasn’t bored, but I don’t think it will be one of the more memorable stories when I’m looking back on the series. Speaking of which, I’m down to seven books, one illustrated novel, and one short story left to read. I started this series a little under a year ago, on April 26. It will feel weird when I finally finish it and I'm no longer a regular visitor to the Discworld.

Next Book
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett, the third book in the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld.

Review: Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett



Wintersmith is the third book in the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld. In this book, Tiffany has made a mistake that has put not only herself but also everybody she knows, and a whole bunch of people she doesn’t know, in danger.

There really isn’t too much I can say about this book that I haven’t already said about the previous two. I’m still really enjoying the series, and I still really like the characters in it. In this book, two of my favorite characters from previous books got a decent amount of page time, so I was especially happy about that. And how could anybody not love the idea of Granny Weatherwax with a little, white kitten?

Next Book
The City & the City by China Miéville. My first and last time reading Miéville was in late 2015 when I read Perdido Street Station and the other two books in that series. I had mixed reactions to his work, even mixed reactions within the same books. I've been wanting to give his work another try.

>79 YouKneeK: Mieville is one of those authors that the blurb on any of the books just turn me off, no matter how many good reviews I read...

>80 BookstoogeLT: From what I’ve read of him so far, he’s very imaginative, and sometimes I get completely wrapped up in the stories he tells. But there are also times when it seems like he tries way too hard to be creative, not just with the content but also with the way he phrases things, and then it becomes either distracting or boring.

I'm ambivalent about China Mieville; there's a strong strain of magical realism in his work - even in his fantasies. The City and the City is odder than most, though - Paul was surprised that I actually read it as he didn't think it was my cup of tea.

Of the few I've read City adn City is his least weird and more mainstream offering, and didn't really work. He's so exceptionally inventive that he fails to put a coherent world around it.

>78 YouKneeK: - if you ever get a chance the actual Thud boardgame is remarkably interesting to play - long, but well worth it, as you might expect a unique concept. To me these later Vimes books are the pinnacle of discworld.

>83 reading_fox: Ha, they made an actual board game out of it? Thanks for letting me know about it; that does sound interesting!

>82 Maddz:, >83 reading_fox: I only read about 40 pages of The City & the City last night, but I’m really interested in the “elsewhere” aspect and the taboos around acknowledging it. I look forward to (hopefully) learning how things got that way.

Because of my own ambivalence about Miéville, I checked this one out from the local library instead of purchasing the e-book. The e-book is currently $12 on the U.S. Amazon site which seems too high for an 8-year-old book by an author I've had a mixed reaction to.

The library only had physical editions, so I’ve had to put a little more effort into keeping all the characters and places straight. I’ve finally reached the point where it’s feeling like less effort, though. Except I can’t understand why touching the top of my page won’t present me with a clock so I can see what time it is… really annoying. ;) I didn’t realize how often I did that until I couldn’t do it.

>84 YouKneeK:

IIRC, it's never entirely explained - unless it's something I missed which is quite possible given the density of the writing. I'll let you finish and see if you pick up on the same tropes as I did.

I've really liked wht I've read so far from Mieville. The City & the City being my second favourite of his works behind Perdido Street Station. Hope this one works out for you.

>85 Maddz: Dense is a good word for it. I’d forgotten just how often I have to re-read his sentences. There’s something about his sentence structures that my brain has trouble parsing sometimes.

>86 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks. I liked Perdido Street Station quite a bit. It took me a little while to really get into it, and I had some complaints, but I did get engrossed by it eventually.

>84 YouKneeK: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4532/thud but it looks like it's out of stock at normal retailers. You might come across it 2nd hand in a gaming shop somewhere.

>88 reading_fox: Thanks for that link! I doubt I'd have much opportunity to play it in any case, but it was fun to see some pictures. I also followed a couple of the links off of that link that had some more detailed rules and descriptions of what it was like to play it. It looks like a fun experience.

Review: The City & the City by China Miéville



The City & the City is essentially a police procedural in a strange and interesting setting. The book opens up with our main character, Inspector Tyador Borlú, arriving onto the scene where a dead woman has been found. The story follows him as he attempts to solve the mystery.

The setting intrigued me from the moment we were given the first hint of it at the end of the first chapter. The story itself was ok. It held my interest, but I wasn’t completely absorbed by it. What made the story interesting to me was its setting and the way the setting affected the murder investigation. The problem for me was that the story wasn’t about the setting, and that was the part I was most interested in reading about. There was very little background given about it, and very few tangible explanations. It still played a huge role in the story, and was still fun to read about, but I wanted more meat.

I had a heck of a time deciding how to shelve this. I don’t like to get too complicated with my shelving. If a book crosses genres, I try to pick whichever general genre seems to fit it the best. If a book tells a mystery story in a science fiction or fantasy setting, then I’ll shelve it as either science fiction or fantasy. But this book? I don’t know. On Goodreads, the majority of members have shelved it as fantasy. That surprises me, but maybe most people took certain aspects of this story a lot more literally than I did. Science fiction doesn’t really fit either, although I’d buy into that more readily than I’d buy into the fantasy label. In the end, I decided to just stick with the one thing I was sure of and shelve it as “mystery”. :)

I have some more comments about the setting, but I’ll have to put them behind spoiler tags:
I really, really wanted to know the history of how the city came to be fractured the way it was. We were given some very vague and generic theories, but nothing tangible. I guess the explanation wouldn’t really have fit properly in the story, since none of the characters knew the answer themselves.

As I read, I was constantly trying to decide whether or not the city was actually, physically divided in some way or if it was all psychological and cultural. In the end, I decided it was psychological/cultural since people and objects could easily pass between the cities as if they had just walked across a normal street. The people in Breach also didn’t seem, once we saw them in action, to have any special abilities beyond training to help them blend in and access to technology to help them keep tabs on what was going on. I think each country at some point in the past, for some reason nobody knows, took possession of different parts of the city and built those parts up with their own architectural style. But I wanted to know how it got that way. It seems like there’s interesting story potential there.

We also weren’t really told why breach was such a big taboo either, although it’s a little easier to speculate why two different countries with tense relations would want to maintain (or simulate, anyway) strict borders. The concept of “unseeing” was a fun one, and it added an interesting element to the murder investigation. I could completely buy into the idea that people who grew up in this setting would find it natural to unsee the “foreign” people and their city even though they were really sharing the same city. People in the real world also learn to unsee things they don’t want to see, although maybe not quite on this scale.

Next Book
Making Money by Terry Pratchett, book 2 in the Moist von Lipwig subseries of Discworld.

I actually filed mine in my crime section (including the physical copy I used to own) as I considered the crime element to predominate rather than the SFnal elements. It is an oddity, I will agree. What I think a lot of people who file it under fantasy are picking up on are the magical realism aspects of the book, and magical realism is probably a better descriptor than either fantasy or crime.

The other tropes I spotted were the Cold War thriller tropes of pre-unification Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie and oddly, Istanbul and Beirut. The Middle Eastern flavour - a bit of urban Western sophistication vs rural Eastern values, especially the Middle East in the 1940s - 1950s before the Christian communities largely upped and left. I'm thinking along the lines of pre-civil war Lebanon which is probably because of my family background; although I have few memories of living in Cairo, they are my earliest memories and I used to hear stories about living there and about Beirut while I was growing up (my paternal grandmother was Lebanese).

>91 Maddz: I’ve always had trouble understanding what the “magical realism” label really means. Whenever I’ve Googled it, I’ve found a variety of sometimes-contradictory definitions. They usually seem to indicate that some actual magic is involved, which I don’t think fits this story. On the other hand, if “magical realism” involves something that seems magical, but actually has real-world explanations, then that label would fit this book beautifully.

I had trouble pinpointing the location of the cities beyond “somewhere Europe-ish”, so it was interesting to read your take on that. You definitely have a better background for recognizing the relevant elements than I do.

>92 YouKneeK:

I've recently been reading a collection of Joan Aiken's short stories, The Monkey's Wedding which I got from from the Small Beer Press Humble Bundle a while back, and I'd classify that as magical realism. Oddly, there's a John Wyndham short story that would qualify as well (think it's collected in Chocky). To me, magical realism is the mainstream version of urban fantasy: stories set in the real world, dealing with real world themes, that have a single magical element (which could be a fabulous creature or a spell) that in some ways turns the story on it's head. It's important that the magical element doesn't predominate.

Yeah, despite considering myself as White British, and being born in the UK (Mum came back to the UK to have me and only just made it) I only have a single British grandparent and technically hold triple nationality.

The other author that the Mieville reminded me of was Lawrence Durrell; especially the Antrobus stories collected in Sauve Qui Peut, Esprit de Corps and Stiff Upper Lip. To me, it came across as quite a literary book and as more crime fiction than SF or Fantasy.

Review: Making Money by Terry Pratchett



Making Money is the second book in the Moist von Lipwig subseries of Discworld. I’m enjoying this subseries quite a bit; I’m sorry it only has three books.

In this book, Moist von Lipwig finds himself unexpectedly involved in banking. The way in which this happens is pretty amusing, and the situation provides many chuckles throughout the book. I’m still really enjoying the character, and I also love that Lord Vetinari gets some decent page time in this subseries. The story itself wasn’t super exciting, and I was never in any great suspense about what would happen next, but it was funny and held my attention throughout.

Next Book
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. This is the last full-length novel in the Rincewind subseries of Discworld.

I think Unseen was the last Discworld I ever read? Hope you have fun with it...

>95 BookstoogeLT: For some reason I’d thought you’d read all of the main books. Did you get tired of them? Or just meant to get to the rest and never did? At least now I'll know not to go crazy trying to find your reviews after this book. Whenever I can't find it here, I look on BL.

It’s hard to believe I’m so close to the end after all this time. In fact, tomorrow is the one-year anniversary for when I started this series. :)

>96 YouKneeK: I was getting tired of Pratchetts more and more pointed preaching in his books for whatever pet point he was trying to make.
So I figured I'd end with Rincewind just like I started all those years ago.

>97 BookstoogeLT: Makes sense.

There is something really wacky about the page count in this Kindle edition. Amazon claims it has 546 pages. I’m always skeptical about their Discworld page counts anyway because the books seem so much shorter in terms of reading time than the stated page counts. But according to my Kindle, I’m on page 37 and I’ve read 4%. If 37 pages is 4% of the book, then this book is 925 pages long which, for Discworld, is preposterous. Additionally, the “dots” on the home page of my Kindle that are supposed to represent length are nearly twice as long as the dots for the last book (supposedly 485 pages).

I keep getting distracted from the book by page count perplexities. :) And I don’t know why, since it’s not like I really care. I’m going to read the book either way. It's just something I can't help paying attention to.

>98 YouKneeK: What kindle do you use?
I just went and looked and the paperback copy is 530'ish pages and I think most kindle editions take their page counts from a paper copy, whether hardcover or mmp.

As for the percentage, I wonder if the footnotes play a part? Ie, one footnote, in the back, counts as 1 page? That would certainly inflate the number without actually making it a huge book.

>99 BookstoogeLT: I use the Oasis. Thanks for looking at your paperback. I guess Amazon’s page count isn’t that far off then. I think I do remember reading that, like you said, they use one of the physical editions to determine page count for the e-books.

When I look at the total pages from within my Kindle, it says there are 540. (The footnotes in the Discworld books aren’t usually included in the page count; they’re off floating in their own space after the “end” of the book.) I guess at some point it will balance out. I’ve had a couple other e-books do something similar, although not quite on this scale, and the page #'s slowly started to get more in line with the percentage.

>100 YouKneeK: You have an Oasis?!? how do you like it? My k4's buttons are starting to go so I am looking around for a new ereader by christmas. I read enough that a premium model is worth it. I'm also considering the Kobo aura one, as it is a bigger reader, but without buttons. And I figure it is about time I try out a Kobo. I started with the sony505, used a 350sony's mini reader, had a nook simple touch for a bit and then when I got the k4, liked it enough to stick with it since '12 or so.

>101 BookstoogeLT: I love the Oasis. I felt a little ridiculous when I bought it because it’s so expensive, or at least it was when it first came out, and I already had a newer model Kindle that was working fine. I’m glad I got it, though. It’s the most comfortable model I’ve used, to the point that I’m going to be reluctant to upgrade again. I might end up being one of those people who stock up on extras if they discontinue the model, like people did with the Kindle Keyboard. :) (For reference I’ve had 5 Kindle models: the original, the Kindle Keyboard, the 2nd generation Paperwhite, the Voyage, and the Oasis.)

The main thing I like about it is the funky shape that distributes all the weight into whichever hand is holding it, with the physical buttons easily accessible. It makes it feel a lot lighter, and it’s easy to hold and operate one-handed. For me, that’s the main advantage of the Oasis. The “extended” battery in the cover seems more like a gimmick to me, but I’ve never had battery life trouble with any of my models. I can’t remember if there are any other major features of the Oasis versus the cheaper Paperwhite.

Of the newer models, the frontlit technology introduced with the Paperwhite (this is also on the Oasis) is the most notable improvement. When I checked out the physical version of The City & the City from my library last week, I was reminded just how annoying it is when you don’t have a good reading light magically following your page wherever you go. :)

I’ve never tried the Kobo, or really even looked into it in great detail, but I have the general impression that people who have one seem to like it. If you get one, I’d be really interested to read what you think about it. Or what you think about whatever else you decide to buy instead.

>102 YouKneeK: I'm still pretty on the fence about the kobo. Every other post at mobileread in the kobo section is someone complaining. But the people who do use them and like them really seem to love the suckers. And the Aura one is their bigger line. With diabetes just starting to affect my eyes now, I'm probably going to have to bump up my font size and a bigger reader would allow me the same number of words per page so I don't have to flip so often.

But. I've wanted an Oasis since they came out. I'm used to and like the kindle UI setup and the ergonomics of the oasis just seems like it would fit me perfectly.

I'll probably do a post this fall when I do get around to getting one or the other...

>103 BookstoogeLT:, if you run a Mac, avoid the Kobo. I gave up on my Kobo Touch as it refused to communicate with Calibre correctly once I used a SD card, and it got so unresponsive too. I got an eInk Android ereader - the newest Icarus Illumina. Now Paul's Aura may be having problems (although it may have been the USB cable - Kobos are picky over cables). After a bit of a hiccup trying to figure where sideloaded books were going (unplug the device, and let it process the content!), I'm very pleased with it. I'm slowly getting used to having buttons again!

My main issue is avoiding a device that locks you into a vendor, and Kobo seems to be going down that route especially with the latest firmware update. I've been collecting ebooks since '95 when I used to read on my Palm m500 and I have tons of stuff from the Baen Free Library (from way back when).

>101 BookstoogeLT: et all.

I've had no issues with my Kobo at all, it plays very nicely with Calibre (not on a mac though). But I much preferred the buttons of the 505. The touchscreen just ins't how I read or like to use devices. The waterproof is a nice to have though.

Re pagenumbers: Some books seem to be formatted for ~paperback page sizes, which means if your font takes you over/under that size than the number of ebook page turns can be quite different from the quoted pages. Sometimes it allows for this and sometimes you just read page 77, tun the page and are still on 77.

>104 Maddz: Thankfully, I'm a windows guy, so that kind of problem I don't have to worry about. And the vendor lockin is one of the reasons I'm hesitant to go with the oasis. I've got the de-drm tools installed in calibre, so when I buy a book, I know I can keep it. But the new kfx format hasn't been broken yet and at some point the tricks to keep on getting an azw3 (older kindle, older k4pc) aren't going to work and then I'll be out of luck.
Good to know that about Kobo. I haven't paid much attention to them over at mobileread until VERY recently, so I'm learning.

>105 reading_fox: What kobo do you have?

>105 reading_fox: - the Kobo aura H20 https://uk.kobobooks.com/collections/ereaders/products/kobo-aura-h2o

After I'd replaced the battery on my 505 and then that too had started to fade this seemed like the best option in the UK.

>106 BookstoogeLT:

I suspect the attempt to lock people into Kobo with the new firmware stems from the losses they've been making. My issue with Kobo itself (apart from the hardware issues) is that I don't find the store interface particularly user-friendly (the only good thing is that it's better than the Google Play or Smashwords interface which isn't exactly a recommendation). I also dislike Adobe DRM - it's a PITA to use if you want to access the actual files - and I've heard horror stories about people being locked out of their content and having to repurchase. I've purchased off Smashwords but not Google Play (at least not for books).

Hence why I went down the Android route (the other advantage is being able to use Seabear's app again). I used to own an Elonex (Hanlin) and liked that; unfortunately it got sat on. Luckily I caught Kindle for Mac before it ran the update, so I'm good with getting AZW3 files for the time being (and on the iPad it doesn't matter). I suspect KFX8 will be cracked within the year in any case. Even FairPlay has been cracked (and no, I haven't bothered much with iBooks - maybe a couple of freebies).

>107 reading_fox: Thanks.

>108 Maddz: Glad to hear all this stuff.

>108 Maddz: "I also dislike Adobe DRM - it's a PITA to use if you want to access the actual files - and I've heard horror stories about people being locked out of their content and having to repurchase."

It is possible, via a search engine, to add a 3rd party add-in tool to calibre which strips this on book loading, forever avoiding such problems. I believe interfering with DRM is technically illegal in the US.

Kobo's store is better than it was - at one stage they didn't have a basket you had to buy each book individually (who after all would wan tot buy more than one book at once?!). But this has since changed , and even the search works pretty well.

Review: Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett



This book was semi-entertaining, but it definitely won’t be one of my favorites from Discworld. I also think I was a little misled by the Discworld chart I’ve been referencing. The chart lists this as part of the Rincewind series, but he hardly appears in the book at all and has very little to do with the story. He’s a fun character; I was looking forward to one last book about him.

Our main characters are four non-wizards who work on the staff at Unseen University. The other wizards who often feature in the Rincewind books also get a fair amount of page time, more than Rincewind himself does. The basic story is that the wizards of Unseen University, to avoid the travesty of a reduced cheese selection, must form up a team and participate in a football competition. (Soccer to us Americans.)

It wasn’t a bad book, and I liked the main characters, but it was an easy book to put down. Part of that wasn’t the book’s fault; it was my week to be on call for work, and month end is never the calmest time to be on call, so I was distracted and tired. It took me most of the week to get through the first half of the book, and then it started to pick up and I was able to finish the second half more quickly.

Next “Book”
My next “book” is actually a short story, A Collegiate Casting out of Devilish Devices by Terry Pratchett. This is also listed in the Rincewind section of the chart, as the last entry, so we’ll see if I actually get any Rincewind this time. :) It’s only six pages, so it won’t be much of him in any case.

Thanks for the thumbs up. I had to laugh when I read my review again. I'd completely forgotten about Pratchett's chubby fetish...

>112 BookstoogeLT: Ha, that made me laugh too. :)

Review: A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices by Terry Pratchett



This was cute and a little bit funny, but it was also very short and it didn’t really have any substance. It was basically a meeting of the Wizards of Unseen University in which they discuss an inspection report for their university. Alas, Rincewind was nowhere to be found, nor was he even mentioned.

This short story can be read for free here.

Next Book
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. I read my first Guy Gavriel Kay book (Tigana) a little over a year ago and I really enjoyed it. I’ve been meaning to cycle back around to him and try another one of his books.

>114 YouKneeK: Oooh, you're in for a treat! :o)

>114 YouKneeK:

Also try A Song for Arbonne too. The 3 books were all published after The Fionnavar Tapestry trilogy and to my mind are some of his best work. They are certainly more adult in style than The Fionnavar Tapestry. (TFT was finally published in a Kindle edition last year - I got it as my birthday present to myself, and both Paul and myself owned print copies of TFT, although one set was disposed of when we merged libraries.)

>115 clamairy: I’m looking forward to it!

>116 Maddz: Thanks, if I enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Tigana, I'll probably try to get through his entire publication list over time.

I tried to start it earlier, but I managed about 10 pages and then got hit with more work issues. Thankfully it’s my last day of on-call duty for this rotation. :) What little I read seemed interesting.

>117 YouKneeK:

If you do start reading GGK's backlist, (and I hope you do), read The Fianavar Tapestry before Ysabel. The latter is by way of being a stand-alone sequel, and it helps to read TFT first to understand the backstory.

Another author to look out for if you like GGK is Charles de Lint..

>118 Maddz: That's good to know about Ysabel, thanks! I've heard of de Lint, but he's one I haven't gotten around to trying yet.

A good jumping-in point with deLint is Moonheart. I also really enjoyed Memory & Dream

Lions is also in my TBR. I hope it's great.

Oooooh, GGKay. I hope you're enjoying The Lions of Al-Rassan, YouKneeK! And I second the recommendation for A Song for Arbonne, especially since you liked Tigana. I'd like to add that both the Fionavar Tapestry and Ysabel are veeeeery different from Tigana and his other books in many ways. Ysabel, especially, is unlike his other works.

And I also second the recommendation for De Lint and Moonheart especially. If I recall, it was my starting point and I really loved it. I'm also partial to The Cats of Tanglewood Forest and The Wild Wood. (And, oh, if it turns out you enjoy De Lint's work, I'd also recommend Terri Windling's The Wood Wife. ^_^)

Where de Lint is concerned, the urban fantasies set in Ottowa (Moonheart series and Jack of Kinrowan series) are more GGKish than the Newford urban fantasies. He's also written some pure fantasy, which I like, but not as much as his urban fantasy, some horror (under the pseudonym Samuel Keys) and some one-offs like the cyberpunk Svaha and The Little Country set in Cornwall.

>120 Darth-Heather:, >122 dovelynnwriter:, >123 Maddz: Thanks for the GGK and CDL recommendations and info! I went and looked at the synopsis for Moonheart and that does sound really good. I probably won’t get to it very quickly, but it’s definitely on my radar now. :)

>121 Narilka:, >122 dovelynnwriter: Last night I kept getting sooo many interruptions from work while I was trying to read The Lions of Al-Rassan. I think I read maybe 30 or 40 pages, by which time I was already hooked and getting increasingly annoyed at having to put the book down. :) Now that I’ve passed the on-call baton to the next team member, I hope to be able to sit and focus on it for a while this evening.

Maddz, tomorrow is your first day at the new job, right? I hope it goes well!

Yes, I start today. I'm still in bed, but himself has woken me me with a cuppa before I get moving. At least this week I shall be on the 7:10 not the 6:30 (my boss doesn't get in until around 9 and they don't pay me to sit around for an hour doing nothing...)

Ack! I'm exhausted... Paul, bless him, had supper ready to dish up when I finally got home 25 minutes ago. Oh well, only another 3 trips, then the weekend, Monday in again, and then Tuesday is a non-working day. Hopefully my token will have arrived by Monday so I can work from home Wednesday and Thursday, otherwise I'll be in again Wednesday.

Still, already started report building - at least I don't have to worry about statutory stuff this year.

>127 Maddz: I can only imagine, what a commute on top of a long day. Paul sounds awesome! I’m glad you were able to jump right into reporting building on the first day.

Review: The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay



The Lions of Al-Rassan is the second book I’ve read by Guy Gavriel Kay, the first being Tigana. I really enjoy his writing style. One thing in particular that I’ve enjoyed about both books is that they each managed to satisfy my epic fantasy cravings within a single, standalone novel. I enjoy a good epic fantasy series, but a standalone does have the advantage of being easier to fit into my reading schedule.

The story involves the cultural and religious conflicts between various factions in a peninsula on a fictional world. We follow some of the more influential characters from those different cultures, most of whom are very likeable, as their goals coincide and conflict with each other. The author writes characters and camaraderie very well. Sometimes I thought there was a little too much melodrama, and sometimes events were a bit too coincidental, but mostly it was a well-written and engaging story. It did get to the point where I was laughing every time yet another person ended up in Ragosa, though! And I laughed even harder when one of the characters remarked on it also.

It’s probably arguable whether this book really counts as fantasy. It definitely has a solid epic fantasy feel, depending I guess on what you think of when you hear “epic fantasy”, and it’s clearly set on a fictional world with two moons. However, there weren’t really any actual fantastical elements aside from one secondary character with an unexplained special ability. The story and setting are inspired by and have some parallels in real-world history.

It was easy to decide on a 4.5 star rating on the sites where I can give half stars, but it was much, much harder to decide whether to round up or down on Goodreads. In the end, I decided to round down. There was just a little too much bitter in the bittersweet ending, however much I expected it. I also felt frustrated with some of the characters’ choices, and there was the aforementioned melodrama and coincidences. Overall, though, I really enjoyed reading this book and I was completely engrossed by it while I was reading it. I’ll likely try to fit Kay’s work back into my reading schedule sooner rather than later.

Next Book
Back to Discworld with I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett. This is the fourth book in the Tiffany Aching subseries.

>129 YouKneeK: This is one of my favourite novels by GGK. My all-time favourites are the two books of the Sarantine mosaic duology. I do agree that he can get melodramatic, and rely on coincidences, but his writing and sense of place is so beautiful that I can overlook it.

>130 Sakerfalcon: That looks good, also! Clearly I’ll just have to read all his books eventually. :)

Review: I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett



I Shall Wear Midnight is the fourth book in the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld.

In this story, there is an entity that is causing an increase of bigotry against witches, and naturally its prime target is Tiffany. The story was ok, but very short and the plot was pretty thin. The book was carried by the characters, who are all still a lot of fun. I liked that we got to spend a short amount of time in Ankh-Morpork, which isn’t a normal setting for the Tiffany books, and I especially liked that we finally got a tie back to the first Witches book, Equal Rites. The timeline is rather questionable, but I was just happy to see some reference to it.

Next Book
Snuff by Terry Pratchett, the last full novel in the Watch subseries of Discworld.

>129 YouKneeK: Great review. I may need to move that up in my TBR.

>133 Narilka: Thanks, I hope you like it if/when you read it!

>132 YouKneeK: I don't think I've read Snuff, so I look forward to reading it vicariously through your review :-)

>135 BookstoogeLT: I read about 25% of it during a flight today. It’s very Vimes-centric, one of those “Vimes goes off somewhere” stories, so not as much of the ensemble cast in this one. I’d prefer the ensemble, especially for the last Watch book, but it’s entertaining me so far.

I think I just need to try to time it so that I'm not reading the next book (The World of Poo) on the flight back. There are some things I just don't particularly want to read in a public place with other people sitting practically on top of me... especially if it has pictures.

>136 YouKneeK: I am sitting here desperately trying to think of poop jokes. And failing.
I guess, in the balance, that is a good thing...

>137 BookstoogeLT: LOL, a clear sign of maturity. ;)

>129 YouKneeK: "There was just a little too much bitter in the bittersweet ending"

I find that true of most of Kay's writing. Which is why I quit reading Tigana I found it so bloody depressing.

>139 majkia: I don’t always do well with bittersweet/sad endings, depending on how invested I was in the story and characters to begin with. Having known in advance that those are the types of endings Kay typically writes helped me brace myself a bit. I expected the worst possible ending, and only got the second worst. :) But he made me care in spite of my attempts to prepare myself, so it was still a little painful.

To quote something in the third book of The Park Service trilogy, "I find myself hoping for a happy ending, but really it’s only a happy pause, because if you let any story play out long enough, they all end."

I can’t do much about real life but, when it comes to my fiction, I’d rather end on a happy (or at least hopeful) pause. :) But it has to feel realistic, too.

Review: Snuff by Terry Pratchett



Snuff was the 8th and final novel in the Watch subseries of Discworld. Vimes reluctantly goes off on a “vacation” to the country with his family. His impressions of the country, having spent all his life in the city of Ankh-Morpork, are amusing, and naturally he manages to find a mystery to solve which leads to very little relaxation.

I enjoyed the book, but I had hoped it might be more of an ensemble story. This was mostly a Vimes story and there was very, very little page time given to the other members of the Watch or any of the other Ankh-Morpork characters. It was still entertaining though, and it made a couple of boring flights seem to pass more quickly.

Next Book
The World of Poo by Terry Pratchett, which I expect to be a children’s book since it was referenced many times in the book I just finished.

Review: The World of Poo by Terry Pratchett



This was definitely one of the stranger things I’ve read in recent years. The World of Poo is a Discworld-based children’s book that is referenced quite a bit in the previous Discworld book I just finished, Snuff. The main character, Geoffrey, develops a fascination with poo and starts collecting samples from various creatures he encounters, some of which are fictional Discworld creatures.

The Amazon product page lists it as being geared toward ages 8 through 12. 12 seems a little old to me, but I guess 8 sounds about right in terms of the simplicity of the story and language. On the other hand, there are a few snide comments aimed more at adults that seem likely to raise some questions. I’m also not sure the average younger child would fully appreciate the Discworld setting and be able to confidently sort through the mish-mash of real and fake facts, unless they’ve read some of the novels.

Anyway, it was a cute and very quick read, and it was a fun little tie-in to the main books. I may even have learned a thing or two from it, although I don’t expect those things to have any major impact on my life...

Next Book
Regarding Ducks and Universes by Neve Maslakovic. I don’t really know anything about this book except that it’s on a list that has inspired most of my reading choices over the past couple years and has helped me experience a pretty wide variety of SF&F books. I bought it recently when it went on sale. The ratings seem low, so I expect it might not be one of the better ones, but the title has me curious and it’s fairly short.

I was going to say that I'd never heard of "Regarding Ducks..." but then when I went to look, I realized it was published in 2010. So no surprise then. The little blurb for it reminded me, in an odd way, of Paul Melko's Walls of the Universe. And that was written in '09? Must have been something in the water that year...

>143 BookstoogeLT: I haven’t read the blurb, and I’m not familiar with Melko’s book. I did discover while reading the 1st page that this is an alternate universe story, though. I guess that’s not terribly surprising, given the title. I don’t yet know where the ducks come in. :) Alternate universe stories tend to appeal to me, and it’s been a while since I’ve read one, so I’m interested in it so far. I don’t yet have any opinion on duck stories…

I only managed to read a few pages this morning, though, so it’s too early to tell much. A work project is going to have me stuck at the computer and on conference calls for most of the morning. And I have to leave on yet another business trip tomorrow evening. The next couple of months are probably going to be travel and weekend project hell. At least I get time to read on the plane trips!

>144 YouKneeK:

And I'm finding I now have time to read on the commute (but not strap-hanging on the Tube - the Northern line is way too crowded). Huntingdon to King's Cross, and the Docklands Light Railway, I can get a seat and read. However, having got a new shiny, I might be able to read on the Tube - the screen on an iPhone SE is small enough to have it in front of my face.

So far, I'm slogging through The Emperor's Edge (and finding it a chore - it's too coincidental in places for my taste), but I will have to go back to the the BI 4 text I got last December as LBTH has just given us access to BO4.2 (why can't I insert a nested query condition anymore - oh, I have to click a button now)... I've just picked up the Tremontaine series, so that might be a good strap-hanging read.

>145 Maddz: I guess that’s one benefit of your outrageously long commute! If I had some good public transportation options where I live, I would happily forgo driving in exchange for being able to read during my commute. I don’t know how well I would do with reading standing up, though.

>129 YouKneeK: I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I agree that there is very little that marks this book as fantasy, except for that one special gift/talent you mentioned. I think I loved the world building for Lions even more than I did for Tigana. Yup... his endings are bittersweet.

>146 YouKneeK:

Fortunately it's only 4 stops, but it's usually jam-packed and standing room only. I often can't get on the first train in the morning either. It's that section of the commute with all the steps that's driving my quest for the perfect commuter bag - at the moment I have a smart leather tote but with all I carry it's heavy. Really I want a messenger or satchel style but finding one in leather is not easy.

>147 clamairy: The world building really was good. I was surprised when I realized how little actual fantasy there was in the book, because it felt like epic fantasy to me. I love an interesting magic system and/or cool special powers, but I guess that’s not necessarily the most important part of it for me.

>148 Maddz: I use a very non-stylish backpack to hold my laptop and other stuff I need on workdays. I also use it as my “personal item” why flying on business. I like being able to just strap it on and forget I’m carrying it. I don’t like anything that dangles from my shoulders; I don’t even carry a purse when I’m just out running errands.

>149 YouKneeK:

Sadly, a backpack won't cut it style-wise for a female trying to present a professional image. (I blame The Apprentice for the modern female professional image requirements - the guys are luckier in that they can get away with backpacks unless they're working at an investment bank.) Besides I don't like them on the Tube - is that someone just cramming in behind me or is that someone fiddling with the backpack?

I've been poking around on Amazon & Ebay and have spotted some rather smart-looking canvas messenger bags which I think will make the cut. At least a messenger can be shifted to the front of the body where you can see any wandering hands. (My current messengers are both rip-stop nylon and hence very un-smart even though I can cram everything I need in them.)

>150 Maddz: I hope you're able to find something appropriate and reasonably-priced. I work in a laid-back environment where most people wear jeans all week and I’d say at least half of us, male and female, carry backpacks. One would have to be wearing something pretty dumpy or outrageous to get much of a reaction, but I guess that’s more of a U.S. IT thing. :)

>151 YouKneeK:

Got something pretty smart for a reasonable price (50% off) which will arrive Wednesday. As I'm homeworking the rest of the week, that gives Paul time to apply NicWax.

Review: Regarding Ducks and Universes by Neve Maslakovic



I’ve been curious about the title of this book since I first saw it. I tend to like the odder titles that make me speculate about the contents of the book. By the end of the first page, the “Universes” part is clear. The story is about two alternate universes that, as a result of a scientific experiment that happened several years before the book began, have become linked together. It’s even possible for people to travel between the universes. The “Ducks” part of the title doesn’t really become clear until maybe halfway through the book, so I won't talk about that.

I think I’m somewhat predisposed to like alternate universe stories, and it’s been a while since I’ve read one. I was a little iffy on the main character, Felix, who seemed a bit contradictory. On the one hand, we begin the book with him essentially taking a vacation to the other universe with the intent of breaking the law. On the other hand, he seems a little too passive as events unfold.

I thought the author could have done more with this interesting setting than she did. For example, we have two universes that, over time, have developed some significant differences. There could have been many interesting differences to explore, but guess which one got the most page time? E-books versus paper books. Although I find it easy to get drawn into a conversation on the subject, because I have definite opinions on the matter, it’s not really something I want to read about in a book, especially when it doesn’t add anything new to the many discussions I’ve already seen over and over.

At the beginning of the book, Felix’s main motivation is to spy on his “alter” (the version of himself in the alternate universe) who he’s afraid might become a successful author before he does. I found it difficult to connect with his attitude, but it was fun to consider how I might react to my own alter and her failures or successes as compared to my own. It couldn't really relate to Felix’s fear that his alter might be “better” than him. Any rational person goes through life knowing that, however good they are at something, there will always be somebody else out there who is better at it. If you can’t handle that…?? I would love the chance to collaborate with somebody who was so similar to me, with similar aptitudes but possibly different experiences and skill sets that we could share and learn from to improve both of ourselves. Who better to learn from than somebody who shares your communication and learning style, and somebody who can understand better than anybody else what motivates you?

Overall, I liked the premise and the book was a quick read. The story was light and uncomplicated, but it did make me think a little bit. However, sometimes the story got tedious, and I was never very attached to the characters. Although the main premise was interesting, the story was stretched a little thin and could have taken better advantage of the interesting setting.

Next Book
Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett, the last book in the Moist von Lipwig subseries of Discworld, and the second-to-last of all the Discworld books on my reading list.

>153 YouKneeK: If there were 2 Bookstooges, we'd be the universes' greatest bank robbers! Yeehaw!

Ebook vs Paper, really? That is kind of disappointing and either shows the author is obsessed with that or has a severe lack of imagination :-(

>154 BookstoogeLT: LOL, now there’s something the author should have explored… the effect on crime (and crime fighting) if sets of people with similar skills and the ability to intimately understand what the other person was thinking/planning worked together to commit (or solve) a crime.

Regarding the e-book versus paper thing… yeah. If it had just been a paragraph or two I probably would have just rolled my eyes and forgotten about it, but it just kept coming up again and again.

Review: Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett



Raising Steam is the third and final book in the Moist Von Lipwig subseries of Discworld, and the second-to-last book in the entire series. In this book, we meet a new character by the name of Simnel who has invented the steam engine and introduced the concept of fast travel by train. Meanwhile, there is more unrest between the traditional and modern dwarfs.

This book spends a lot of time talking about trains: building trains and railways, operating trains, the benefits of trains, train safety, and so forth. This is not, to me, a particularly exciting topic, and sometimes I had trouble pushing through the book. I was interested enough that I didn’t want to abandon it, especially not so close to the end of the series, but it put me to sleep a few times. I was also on my second week of business travel and pretty worn out in any case, so maybe this had as much to do with me as it had to do with the book.

Vetinari, a character I’ve greatly enjoyed since his first introduction, gets quite a bit of page time in this book, but for some reason he didn’t seem like Vetinari to me. Normally he’s more taciturn. He manipulates and influences people with a few pointed words, with silence and perhaps some intimidating looks, and with visual aids. That's one of the reasons I enjoy his character so much. In this book, he had a tendency toward detailed monologues and explanations, and there were one or two weird sections where he sounded like the CEO of a company using corporate buzzwords.

It wasn’t a bad book, and there were parts I enjoyed, but it wasn’t at the level I’ve come to expect from the Discworld books. Combine that with a topic I wasn’t that interested in, and I just didn’t enjoy this as much as the previous books.

Next Book
The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett. Last one!

>156 YouKneeK: Glad I stopped when I did then...

>157 BookstoogeLT: I might have skipped that one if I could have sent a message to my past self from a week ago. :)

>156 YouKneeK: Ack. If I ever make it that far into the series I'll be skipping that one. I'm impressed that you stuck with it.

>156 YouKneeK:

I haven't read the book, but it sounds like Pterry is riffing on the train spotting hobby (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railfan#Trainspotting) which was (is?) a well-known nerd hobby in the UK.

>159 clamairy: I’m not nearly as good at abandoning books as I ought to be. Once I start one, curiosity (and maybe stubbornness) keeps me reading to the end. I don’t have trouble abandoning a series if I’m no longer enjoying it, but for some reason a single book is more difficult. Fortunately, I haven’t read too many books in recent years that I’ve really disliked.

>160 Maddz: You’re probably right; he did have some train spotters in the book.

After I posted my review, I read a few other reviews and the reactions seem pretty mixed. Some people enjoyed it pretty well and didn’t seem to be bothered by the things I had trouble with. I did see other reviews with similar complaints to mine, though.

>161 YouKneeK: I've got a few years on you, and I think that makes a difference. I begrudge the time spent reading something I don't love, unless I know it's educating me. I'm more willing to bail on something I didn't pay for. :o)

I love trains, and loved learning about Train Spotting, so really enjoyed Raising Steam. One thing about it, Pratchett has a book for just about anybody's tastes or hobbies. :)

Review: The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett



The Shepherd’s Crown is the last Tiffany Aching book and, published after the author’s death, it’s the last book in the entire Discworld series. It’s very short, not having been completely fleshed out by Pratchett before his death, but it tells a complete story. Tiffany, now a full-fledged witch, finds her responsibilities increasing beyond her ability to keep up. Meanwhile, the elves are getting up to mischief again.

Unlike the last Discworld book I had read, the characters didn’t feel off to me, with one possible exception from a character who was only in the book for a page or two. I also enjoyed the story pretty well. It wasn’t one of the best, but it didn’t bore me either. However, one major aspect of this story was spoiled for me months ago, so the story had much less impact than it would have had otherwise.

And so here I am, after starting the very first book one year and twenty-one days ago, at the end of the series. I started it with skepticism, not really expecting to care for it since I don’t normally do well with satirical, wink-at-the-reader type humor. I love humor in my books, but I’ve always preferred humor that feels like a natural extension of the story and its characters whereas this type of humor tends to pull me out of the story to admire the author’s cleverness and consider the real-world parallels. Maybe I was in the right frame of mind when I decided to try this series, or maybe Pratchett just did it exceptionally well. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed this series quite a bit.

I don’t think I ever rated any of the books higher than four stars, because these aren’t the type of stories that I get completely wrapped up in. And yet the fact that these books didn’t completely absorb me is one of the things I liked about them. There were some I liked more than others but, in general, they were light, fun, and usually entertaining. They were particularly excellent travel books because they didn’t demand my full attention. I’m not much of a re-reader, but I could see myself picking some of them up again someday, maybe in a few years, as reading material while traveling. It might also be fun to try them as audio books.

Next Book
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I decided this was a good time to fit in my classic selection for the second quarter. As I explained earlier, I’ve decided to read one classic book per quarter, alternating between completely new-to-me books and books that I read but didn’t appreciate when I was in school. This is one of the latter.

I know I read this in high school, but I remember absolutely nothing about it aside from the fact that it didn’t interest me. I can’t even be certain that I read the whole book. I admit I’m going into it with some trepidation, although I do expect that I’ll do better with it as an adult based on references I’ve seen to the book in recent years. I did get an annotated version of this one, in case I need help understanding some of the cultural and historical references.

Wow, I'm impressed not only with your perseverance in getting through the entire series in just over a year, but also that you stayed engaged and continued to enjoy them right to the end. Much as I liked all the ones that I've read so far, I'm sure I would have burned out after the first half dozen or so in quick succession.

>165 SylviaC: For most of that time, I read 1 Discworld book per every 4 books. I did read several of them in a row when I first started, mainly because I was eager to try the different subseries, and then earlier this year I decided to pick up the pace again to finish the series more quickly. It was quite a few books from one series in a relatively short time period, though!

I do tend to read a series all at once, or at least closely together, assuming I enjoy it enough to keep reading in the first place. If I take a long break from a series, I’m not likely to go back to it at all. It helped that they’re such short, fast reads. To me, they felt like no more than two-thirds the length of other books with similar page counts. I was reading them on my Kindle, so I don’t know if they were printed with larger font sizes or if it’s just that they have fewer words per page since they’re pretty dialogue-heavy. Or maybe it was a false perception on my part.

A Tale of Two Cities is one of the best ways to get into Dickens. It's relatively short (only 1 volume) and is about a time in history that still fascinates people (the french revolution). I hope you enjoy it but even if you don't, you'll definitely expand your horizons with it...

>167 BookstoogeLT: I think I’ve read about 25% of it; it’s hard to tell with all the annotations. I’m a little ways past the court scene. I’m not engrossed by it, but I’m not bored either. I’ve had some trouble with the pacing due to the annotations. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that was annotated, definitely not on this scale, so I don’t quite have the knack for it. I’ve had to re-read a few chapters without the annotations after reading it with them because the annotations were so numerous and distracting that I lost the flow of the story.

The annotations are mostly interesting and helpful, explaining terms, expanding the historical context, etc. Some term explanations seemed excessively obvious to me, maybe in part because I read so much fantasy. For example, I was surprised to see “smith” defined. I especially enjoy the annotations that give additional historical context. One annotation explained that Dickens’ reference to what Americans call French fries in chapter 5 was a major anachronism, and then the annotator went on to talk about the history of the French and potatoes, including a funny anecdote about one of the methods used to try to get them to eat potatoes. It was very interesting to me, but it also distracted me from the actual story.

I might have done better to read the text by itself the first time, and then go back to read the annotations afterward, but I think I’m getting used to it now. They’re heaviest in the introductory chapters that set a new scene, so it isn’t always that bad.

>168 YouKneeK: I would suggest reading the story alone first, to get the flow and pace and mood, then when you are finished, go back and skim any annotations you want to. YMMV, but I would hate for you to miss the flow and mood of this story.

>169 MrsLee: Thanks, I may switch to doing that if I have more trouble with it, and I think I'll try it that way from the start the next time I read an annotated book to see which way works best for me.

The last several chapters I’ve read have been lighter on annotations, and I’ve been re-reading any chapters that are too heavily annotated. Whenever I reread a chapter I usually catch nuances that I missed the first time, and it is nice to do the re-reading with the context from the annotations already in my head, so there are some benefits to getting that annotated info at the start, if I can find the right balance.

>168 YouKneeK: I re-read A Tale of Two Cities a few years back and for me, it was hard to get started, but once I got about 50% of the way through it, my interest picked up. Hopefully you'll find a similar experience.

>171 Karlstar: That’s good to know! So far I’m finding some sections quite interesting, but I’m also having to pause quite a bit to take breaks when I find myself re-reading the same paragraph over and over. I just reached the introduction of Monseigneur (the guy who requires four strong men and a cook to get his chocolate for him lest he surely die), and several aspects of that introduction made me laugh, but then I suddenly lost all ability to make forward progress and had to walk away from it for a bit.

One thing I’ve particularly enjoyed about both of my classic selections this year (the first being Pride and Prejudice is the sarcastic humor.

>164 YouKneeK: Nice to see the series ends on a higher note.

>173 Narilka: - Higher writing style yes. Lighter no. I've always felt his Tiffany books to be a lot more powerful than the more obvious adult ones, despite their simplicity.

>169 MrsLee: and >170 YouKneeK:. I would echo the recommendation made by @MrsLee. Get into the flow of the narrative and see if that speeds you through the novel. I've always loved A Tale of Two Cities and felt that the pacing worked pretty well. (And I don't care for much else of Dickens' work.)

>173 Narilka: Yes, I had been a little worried after the previous book!

>174 reading_fox: I thought the Tiffany books had similar themes to some of the adult books, but they were maybe slightly more obvious and the stories tended to be more concise. I enjoyed them at least as much as the adult books, and more in some cases.

>175 jillmwo: Thanks. I think I passed the halfway mark last night. I’m pretty well interested in the story, although my progress still feels a bit slower than is typical for me. There was one point in my reading yesterday, shortly after Lucie and Darnay returned home from their honeymoon, when I suddenly became absolutely convinced I know how the story is going to end. I don’t think I’m remembering it from high school, although I guess it’s possible that I’m doing so subconsciously, because nothing at all about this story has seemed familiar to me as I’ve read it. And I could be wrong about what I think will happen, but the foreshadowing does seem pretty obvious, to the point I’m surprised I didn’t reach the conclusion sooner.

>176 YouKneeK: I agree with you on the Tiffany books. But, admittedly, I'm biased because it's probably my favourite subseries. Which one did you enjoy most, you think? *nosy*

>177 dovelynnwriter: Of the Tiffany books, I think I enjoyed the first two slightly more than the second two, with the second (A Hat Full of Sky) being the favorite by a very slight margin. Unlike the other subseries, I enjoyed these pretty consistently so there wasn’t one that really stood out strongly over the others. Did you have a particular favorite?

>178 YouKneeK: I really appreciate how even the Tiffany books are as well. ^_^ For me, at least, there's a slightly stronger thread tying them all together than we find in the other series.

My favourite out of the Tiffany books? Like you I enjoyed the first two books slightly more, but that's largely because the second two weren't as polished due to the circumstances, I think. Ask me on any given day and I'm like to give you an answer that's true at the time. Right now, I'd go with The Wee Free Men because it was the first Tiffany book. For the series as a whole... I think Tiffany Aching inches ahead of the others very slightly, but it's fairer to say that the Rincewind/Wizards sybseries is my least favourite instead. That, at least, is consistently true.

>179 dovelynnwriter: I had mixed feelings about the Rincewind books. On the one hand, I thought Rincewind was a hilarious character. He made me laugh a lot. On the other hand, I thought the stories in that subseries were, on average, the most disjointed and thinly-plotted of the bunch.

I loved the Witches subseries. Maybe not as consistently as Tiffany, but I think Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad were my two favorites of all the books. Some of the Watch books were especially good too, but I thought that series was less consistent. Death seems to be a favorite for many, and I liked the character, but I liked him better during his short appearances in the other subseries.

Review: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens



Ramblings about the Book
People who follow me may have seen me mention my intent to fit one non-SF&F classic per quarter into my heavily SF&F-based reading diet. A Tale of Two Cities was my classic reading selection for the second quarter. Last time, I chose an author and book that was completely new to me. This time, I chose a book that I had been assigned to read in tenth grade but that I didn’t enjoy at the time and in fact didn’t remember at all about 25 years later.

My interest in this story fluctuated a little bit, especially in the first half, but I enjoyed it quite a bit by the end. The first chapter starts in 1775, and the book was written by Dickens in 1859, so I guess that makes this historical fiction squared. :) It’s set just before and during the French Revolution, which is a period of time I knew little about. No doubt we discussed it in my tenth grade class, but those were the types of lessons that usually had me sneaking to read my own book if I was well-positioned to do so without getting caught, or nodding off in boredom if I wasn’t…

The characters never really grabbed me, except maybe toward the end. Lucie in particular was hard for me to appreciate. Dickens tells us about her impact on others but, for the most part, she just seemed to sit around and act distressed or sympathetic or on the verge of fainting without actually doing or saying much. It's an interesting contrast with the more vivacious female characters in my previous classic selection, Pride and Prejudice. Of all the characters, I think Lorry was the one who felt the most genuine to me, and he was the one I liked best. Carton did grow on me quite a bit too, though. I didn’t dislike the others; I just didn’t feel too invested in them.

Everything is very heavily foreshadowed. This story didn’t hold many surprises, except for a few small ones, because the author telegraphed everything well in advance. I was a little over halfway through the book when I finally put two and two together and predicted (correctly) how the book was going to end. In fact, I felt a little silly for not realizing it at least a couple chapters sooner. It’s possible that I subconsciously remembered it from 25 years ago, but the book never felt at all familiar to me as I read it. Well, aside from the opening words anyway. Despite knowing how things were going to end, I did get really caught up in the story and the emotion of what was happening in the later chapters.

Ramblings about Annotations
Knowing I didn’t like this book as a teen, I was more nervous about reading it than I otherwise would have been, so I decided to get an annotated version. I think this was the first time I’ve read anything annotated, and I had trouble finding the right balance. I don’t normally skim when I read books. If the words are there, I’m going to read them. If my eyes glaze over and I don’t absorb them, I’ll probably go back and read them again. So you might be able to imagine how I tackled the annotations at first. I read every single one of them within the segment where they were presented. In some of the introductory chapters, there were so many that I lost the flow of the story and had to go back and re-read the chapter afterward. This may have contributed to my trouble getting into the story, but many of the annotations were very interesting, and I think more historically informative than the story itself, so I did want to read them.

On the other hand, the annotations were sometimes repetitive, and many of the terms that were explained were very obvious within the context and didn’t, in my opinion, need explaining. I guess younger teens and/or people who don’t read as much would appreciate them more. Also, people with holes in their head. The ones that gave historical context were the ones I enjoyed the most, when they weren’t repetitive. For example, I got really, really tired of reading reminders that Dickens was using the title “Monseigneur” in a historically inappropriate manner. I understood it the first time, really!

About halfway through the book, I started feeling really bogged down by annotations and I started to lose interest in them. I finally managed to talk myself into skipping them, and I was glad I did. I’m sure I missed out on other things of interest, but I had reached my limit. I wasn’t even tempted to go back and skim through the ones I skipped after finishing the book. If I read other annotated works, I’ll have to try different tactics to figure out what works best for me. I think, as people have suggested, reading the story by itself and then going back to the annotations afterward will be the best course of action, with the occasional pause to read an annotation during my initial read if I see one tied to something that confused me.

Rambling Summary
Wow, that was a lot of rambling even for me! I tend to have a rating in mind as I read a book, mentally adjusting it as my opinions change. This book was no more than 3 stars for quite a while, but it grew on me and I mentally adjusted it to 3.5. It wasn’t until I finished the book and reflected on how much I enjoyed the last few chapters and the way everything tied together that I realized I couldn’t give it less than 4. Maybe I didn’t love it as much as many other people do, but I did appreciate it and I hope to give more of Dickens’ work a try someday.

Next Book
Nexus by Ramez Naam. This is the start of a science fiction trilogy.

>181 YouKneeK: I never read annotations on the first go through. They distract way too much. Glad you persevered and finished the book though.

In regards to Nexus, just don't be taken by surprise by the sheer amount of profanity. It overwhelmed me when I tried to read the book...

>182 BookstoogeLT: I can definitely see why, regarding the annotations. It seemed like the edition I read had an excessive # of annotations, but maybe most annotated books are like that. There were close to 800, most of them at least a paragraph long.

I was never sure how many pages my edition actually had. Amazon claimed 400, so that’s what I went with, but my Kindle listed it with about twice as many “dots” on my home page versus other books around the 400-page range. I didn’t read all the pages anyway, since I started skipping the annotations halfway through and I skipped the bonus material at the end, so I’d rather err on understating versus overstating.

Thanks for the warning on Nexus. Since you say “tried to read”, I guess it was a DNF for you? I’m not normally bothered by profanity as long as it seems to fit the personality of the character(s) using it and doesn’t feel completely random.

>183 YouKneeK: Yeah, I gave up around the 50% mark. Besides the profanity, I found it rather "hopeless" and I can't stand that.

I just searched my books here and found it. It was one of those without an author, so I've added that. Not sure how long it'll be before it shows up in the main grouping though.

>184 BookstoogeLT: I look forward to reading your no-doubt scathing review after I finish reading the book. :) I've started it (only 7% in) and I'm pretty interested so far.

We actually seem to have a lot of power here to fix things (like combining editions) without needing special librarian status. The general steps are:
1. From one of the work pages, click “Editions” at the bottom of the left-hand menu.
2. You should see a list of “Potential work combinations” that you can combine once you confirm they’re really the same book.

>185 YouKneeK: Not very scathing actually. I must have been in a nice mood or something. I just added a date read so the review showed up. Bad leafmarks formatted one though.

I hope you enjoy it...

>181 YouKneeK: Glad you enjoyed it! I've never liked the women in Dickens' stories who were supposed to make men ready to die for them. He does write some good "bad" women though. I think. It's been a long time since I've read him.

>187 MrsLee: Thanks! I bet you're right about the "bad" women... Madame Defarge was a bit creepy in this book.

Apart from the inevitable associations with English Literature at school, I've never gone for Dickens as I find him unbearably sentimental (if not sententious)). I tend to find Victorian writers follow that particular style. I prefer earlier or later classics - so Henry Fielding or Jane Austen rather than Dickens, H G Wells or Virginia Woolf rather than George Eliot.

>189 Maddz: So many authors I still have to read. :) I don’t think I’ve read anything by Fielding, Woolf, or Eliot at all. I can definitely see where Dickens was far more sentimental than Austen or Wells, though, at least based on the single book I’ve read from each. Some of the dialogue in A Tale of Two Cities was a bit too melodramatic for me, in terms of their day-to-day routine conversation. I didn’t mind it as much toward the end where events seemed better aligned in my mind with that type of dialogue.

>188 YouKneeK: "a bit creepy"? I would call her an unforgettable nightmare! She is one woman I will never forget, and possibly the reason I never took up knitting. :D

>188 YouKneeK: and >191 MrsLee: She was vengeful. She was focused in her hatred and determined that no one should escape her. As @MrsLee notes, she's unforgettable as a character. She represents that unsuspected and unmeasured hatred for an existing status quo that goes unnoticed until the population's passion boils over. She's horrifying and she's hard to summon up compassion for, simply because her hatred knows no bounds.

Madame Defarge is shot by Miss Pross in something of a shocking scene but which has all kinds of satisfying symbolism to it. Miss Pross' goodness overcomes Madame Defarge's evil.

>192 jillmwo: Ouch. I agree that was a great scene, and I know the book is over 150 years old, but I would have been so frustrated if I’d come across your post before I finished the book. Somebody else who follows my thread and encounters it unexpectedly might feel the same way. That was one of the few surprises in the story for me, and it was a great one.

I’m proof that people who don’t know the story are still reading it, and it isn’t just me. I have a friend on Goodreads who read it for the very first time last month, and another friend on BookLikes read it this past January who hadn’t read it since high school.

A major event in the very last Discworld book was spoiled for me in another thread in this group, and I'm still feeling cranky about that. Maybe it’s surprising that nothing like that has happened to me before in my 3.5 years of book site participation, but it hasn’t. I'm starting to feel a little gun shy. Are spoilers generally not considered too big of a deal here? You all have been here way longer than I have, so I'll understand if that's just the way the group has developed.

>193 YouKneeK: maybe spoilers depend on who is talking? I spoil away in my reviews, big time. And most of the time I don't add "spoilers", except for when I do.

>194 BookstoogeLT: Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve not had any trouble with yours because it’s very clear what book you’re reviewing. If it’s a book I want to avoid spoilers on, then I just don’t read your post.

It’s possible that it has more to do with the format than anything else. I’ve really, really enjoyed this format because it feels more like an ongoing discussion about books, as opposed to comments being tied to a specific review about a specific book. Any book might be discussed at any time, even if it's not the one most recently reviewed. It’s also a great group, everybody is friendly, and I’ve enjoyed the quality of interaction I’ve had here more than on the other sites where conversation is a little more stifled by the format.

But maybe the format’s biggest advantage (for me) is also its biggest disadvantage (for me). On other sites, discussions are tied to a review. If somebody reviews a book I know I’m going to read, then I don’t read that review and therefore I don’t see the subsequent comments. That could explain why I’ve not had any major spoiler issues on other sites.

>195 YouKneeK: Glad you read my reviews that way. Since I try to write my reviews for myself, I want to let my future self know what happened so he doesn't have to read the book all over again. So while I'm not TRYING to spoil the book, neither am I avoiding them.

As for the format, you are definitely correct. These threads go all over the place, all over time. It made me laugh when you described your reaction to the thread format :-)

>193 YouKneeK: Concern about spoiling it for others is a fair point to raise. (I've edited the post to add the spoiler tags. Apologies)

>197 jillmwo: Thank you. :)

>193 YouKneeK: Yikes. Let me know in a private message what thread it was and I'll see if I can get the person to edit it. I've had a few things ruined for me as well, and I know how upsetting it can be. :o( In general I think most people do try hard to be mindful, but it's so easy to slip.

PS I think I figured out which post you're referring to. I had already requested that post be edited and I thought it had been, but I just checked and saw only some of the spoilers were hidden. I am so sorry.

>199 clamairy: Thank you very much. :) I apologize if I went a bit off the deep end; my hatred of spoilers is strong. It's the potential downside of enjoying sites like this, I guess, and I've been remarkably lucky up to that point.

The worst spoilers I've seen on LT were a couple of very brief reviews for mysteries that basically just stated the names of the murderers. Both were by people who didn't like the books, and seemed to feel that if they couldn't enjoy them, no one else should either.

The spoiler tag is a fairly recent development on LT, and has made it easier for me to include things in my public discussions or reviews that I used to only post in private comments. I'm not terribly bothered by spoilers myself, unless it's a mystery. I've even been known to check the endings of non-mystery books to make sure I'm cheering for the right characters. I do try not to spoil things for others though.

>201 SylviaC: The more I like a book, the more I want to conceal the slightest plot point that could prevent others from enjoying it as much as I did. If I hate a book, I can kind of understand lacking motivation to conceal spoilers, but I still can’t imagine intentionally spoiling it as in the case of the mystery reviews you mention.

I didn’t know the spoiler tag was fairly recent on LT; that makes it easier to understand why long-time members might not be in the habit of using it. I think the spoiler tag, in its various incarnations on various sites, is a glorious invention. :)

When you read, is it more out of interest to see how the story is executed and/or for the characters than for the story itself? I’m more excessive about spoiler avoidance than most. I try to avoid even reading book synopses, at least directly before I read a book. My ideal scenario when starting a book is to know nothing about it. I can only remember one time in recent history that I gave into the impulse to check the end of a book, about seven years ago when I was extremely emotionally invested in a character and I was afraid they were going to die. I couldn’t focus on enjoying the story and finally decided I had to know.

>202 YouKneeK: etc.
If you delve back into the history of 'BookTalk' and 'Talk about LT' groups, you'll be able to find the extremely long and very passionate arguments about spoilers, what they are, and what if anything to do about them, perhaps not quite as contentious as the 'review comment' debate, but nearly. I certainly wouldn't recommend reading any reviews before the book. In reading threads it's a bit harder to control. The whole point after all is to talk about the book, on this 'your' thread you'd hope you'd have some say in the matter, but there'll always someone who hasn't read the book.

That said I'm very easy going about spoilers, as normally in the vast majority of cases you need to have read the whole prior story for it to have any impact or meaning. It's the How that matters, not just that so'n'so is killed off.

>203 reading_fox: It sounds like a debate that will never reach a consensus. :) In my opinion, the spoiler tag allows the best of both worlds. It’s simple to use, and it allows people to talk freely about spoiler-ish details without negatively impacting their fellow readers.

It’s probably difficult for people who don’t mind spoilers to understand how much they reduce the enjoyment for people who do hate them. For me, knowing the ‘what’ (i.e., somebody is killed) is at least as bad as knowing the ‘how’. If the event is a surprise, I’ll miss the chance to be shocked. If it’s an emotional scene, I’ll miss some of the emotional impact due to being prepared for it. If it’s something I might have recognized clues for and predicted the event on my own, I’ll have been robbed of that self-satisfaction.

I love the format and the freedom of the discussions here, and especially how willing everybody is to have in-depth conversations about books. I've been enjoying my conversations here significantly more than on the other sites I use. It’s just that I've realized unmarked spoilers are a lot harder to avoid in this format. I can (and do) avoid posts that mention particular book titles, but that doesn’t work if I don’t recognize the title for a book later in a series I’m reading (that’s what happened to me). The title also understandably might not be mentioned in a reply to another post further upstream.

On the other hand, if what you want to do is to discuss the book it can be very tiring to constantly be on the lookout on what might spoil the book for someone who hasn't read it. But in the case of a book discussion thread then someone who wants to avoid spoilers should know to stay away.

>205 jjwilson61: I can see why it would be tiring to try to anticipate what might bother somebody with a more stringent view of spoilers than you. There will always be a gray area in terms of what people consider a spoiler. My initial concern was about the big spoilers, such as the death of a main character, as in the two spoilers that initiated my discussion.

As far as your second sentence, I’m not sure how to interpret that. Most threads here in the Green Dragon consist of book discussions. Are you suggesting I should “stay away” from the Green Dragon? Or are you making the rather obvious suggestion that a thread about a specific book should be avoided by somebody who wants to avoid spoilers for that book? I’ve seen very few threads like that in the Green Dragon so, in that context, it would appear you mean the former.

If you’re reacting in a hostile manner to my discussion, I’d like to emphasize that I’m not trying to dictate anything. As I already said, you all have been here much longer than I have. Everybody makes mistakes; my initial concern was mostly that this might be a regular occurrence here. I’ve been told it isn’t, so that’s great to know and I’ve moved past my concern. If there’s a specific person who consistently posts spoilers, and if that becomes a problem for me, I assume the block function is effective.

So… if we can move past the spoiler discussion, here’s something hopefully less inflammatory to talk about. I’ve been thinking about which classic book I should read for the third quarter. I had already narrowed it down to something by Steinbeck, an author whose work I’m pretty sure I’ve never read. The problem I’m having is with picking a specific book. Since many of you know the classics far better than I do, I thought it would be fun to put it to a vote. Whichever book has the highest # of votes by the end of June will be the one I read next quarter, probably in mid August or early September.

Don’t worry about leading me astray; these are all books I’d like to read eventually, and I won’t avoid Steinbeck for the rest of my life if I don’t like the one that gets chosen. :) I just thought, since I don’t have any strong opinions on the matter, it might be more fun to let other people pick.

Since I don’t think there’s any way to change the poll options, I’m re-defining the meaning of the words “yes”, “no”, and “undecided”. There’s no hidden meaning behind which books I assigned to which words; I just did it alphabetically.

Yes = Cannery Row
No = The Grapes of Wrath
Undecided = Of Mice and MenEdit: Voting is closed. I've taken the results as of July 1, 2017, 6:49 am EST. Of Mice and Men is the winner!

I hope we pick a good one for you. I've read all three but I have very little memory of Cannery Row, for some reason. I've enjoyed Steinbeck much more as an adult than I did in high school. My favorite of his has been East of Eden which I read first in my early 30s and again in my mid 40s. It seemed so much more meaningful the second time around.

Best of luck with Steinbeck!
I read the Red Pony in highschool and had such an aversion to it that I've never read another one by him since. At some point I'll probably read either Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath. But that is for the future.

>208 clamairy:, >209 BookstoogeLT: Thanks! :) Somehow, Steinbeck never made my high school’s reading list.

I like but don't love Steinbeck. Somehow the Grapes of Wrath fell a bit flat for me, but sometimes that happens with books that are "classics"; they get a bit hyped and my expectations aren't realistic. I also read Tortilla Flat and while it is kind of a good character sketch, there isn't really a plot.

I did quite like Winter of Our Discontent though.

>209 BookstoogeLT: I had the exact same experience with The Red Pony, but I did go on to read other books by Steinbeck. I have a love/hate relationship with him. I absolutely love his writing, but it can take me to the deepest depths of emotion, which is why I love him and avoid him at the same time. :)

I've read all three of the works above, and it's hard to recommend one because of what I expressed. Sometimes it depends on where your interest in history lies. I had relatives who were migrant workers in the Depression, and also some who worked in the canneries of Monterey, so those were more interesting to me, but almost all of the books I've read by Steinbeck provoke that love/hate response, and I keep reading him. Except Travels With Charlie: In Search of America, which I only loved.

My next read by him will be about Baja, California.

I seem to recall owning The Red Pony many years ago but it got culled because I found it depressing. It wasn't something I read at school - we did English Literature (as opposed to American). I may have read (or tried to read) Cannery Row but don't recall much about it (I may be conflating it with a SF novella I vaguely remember).

>211 Darth-Heather: I sometimes find that to be true with SF&F classics, as far as the hype goes. For the non-SF&F classics, I think it helps that I didn’t enjoy them in school so my head is full of anti-hype. :)

>212 MrsLee: Ok, now I’m even more curious to read Steinbeck than I was before!

>209 BookstoogeLT:, >212 MrsLee:, >213 Maddz: In keeping with my heathenish tendencies, I had never even heard of The Red Pony until your posts. I guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t on my radar as a choice for my first Steinbeck read...

Hey, wicked sorry for starting Part 3. I didn't think it would go through, but I wanted to test.
Welp, I don't even know what to say at the moment.

When MrsLee mentioned The Red Pony, I didn't think I had ever read it. But when I looked at the covers, one of them was so familiar that I must have read it. I could vividly recall that cover from a specific time in my childhood, but I can't remember if it was a school book or a library book. I suspect it was probably school, since I have the impression of having handled it regularly over a longer period than I would have taken to read a library book. It's funny how our memories work.

Review: Nexus by Ramez Naam



Nexus is the first book in a science fiction trilogy. The term “Nexus” refers to an illegal drug of sorts that contains nanotechnology. After being ingested, Nexus creates a network that allows people with the drug in their system to share thoughts and emotions with each other. College students have secret parties where they all take Nexus and then they glory in the empathy and the oneness of it all. Evil people use it for mind control.

There are two main point-of-view characters. Kade is a brilliant college student who, along with a friend, has significantly enhanced what Nexus can do. He has idealistic visions of sharing it freely with the world so it can be used to improve society. Sam is an agent for a U.S. military organization. She works to prevent the distribution, development, and use of the drug so that it can’t be misused.

It was really an interesting story. It did lag in spots, mostly in the first half, but I didn’t have much trouble staying interested. The main parts that lagged for me were the discussions and arguments about the morality of suppressing or sharing something like Nexus. The arguments were written well enough, and would have been interesting in a smaller dose, but anybody who reads a lot of science fiction has probably seen similar arguments before in various contexts. I felt like they came up a few times too often.

In the second half, things got quite intense, and pretty violent. It's definitely not the most graphic book I've read but, if there are any particular types of content warnings that will make you avoid a book, I think it’s safe to say that those warnings apply here to at least some extent. If you don’t mind a brutal book, this one has an interesting story and is written well. I also liked and empathized with the characters, and the moral dilemmas were real enough that I often wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen or who to root for.

This book doesn’t really end in a cliff hanger; it would stand alone if you don’t mind not having all of your threads wrapped up at the end. There’s clearly much more story to tell, and I plan to move directly on to the second book to find out what happens next.

Next Book
Crux by Ramez Naam, the second book in this trilogy.

I went into the Nexus trilogy a bit sceptically, thinking it might turn out to be more action thriller than SF, but it turned out to be a great read - far more thoughtful than I expected. I agree with you that the moral greyness made it far from clear who to root for, and made it a more engaging read for me than one where the good and bad were obvious from the outset.

>218 Sakerfalcon: I do tend to enjoy books more if they keep me guessing a little bit, at least while the story is still in progress. It makes me want to keep reading to learn the answers and/or see if my guesses are correct.