Well read record of a space born few. Haven’t read the others but I did like that one.
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Tiamats wrath.
DO NOT LOOK AT THIS BEFORE READING.
Just killed off Amos.
Eta
now Bobbie just took a pdc round.
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Calculating Stars, Space Opera and Beneath A Sugar Sky are all awesome.
And I thought Sugar Sky the weakest in the Wayward Children series so far.
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Good. Something to add to the reading list.
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Fair warning: Sugar Sky is not the first in the series and spoils events for Every Heart A Doorway.
I reccomend starting with Every Heart A Doorway if you’re going to dig into this series. They’re all novellas, though, so it’s not a huge amount of pre-reading.
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Thanks for the advice.
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Reading it right now. Whoa! (I didn’t look at your spoiler.)
Actually I think it got off to a slow start, but it’s sure making up for it now.
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What a coincidence, I just started that book earlier in the week after having bought it last year.
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“Say, Doc, did you hear? The whole country club took a loyalty oath on the eighteenth green. Whitey No. 2 was caddying. Them members all took off their hats and swore they would not destroy the U.S. government.”
“I’m glad,” said Doc. “I was worried. Did the caddies take the oath too?”
“Some of them did, but not Whitey. He’s kind of an idealist, you might say. He says if he gets an idea to burn down the Capitol he don’t want no perjury rap to stand in his way. They won’t let him caddy no more.”
“Doc laughed. “So he can’t carry golf clubs anymore because of his ideals?”
“They say he’s a security risk,” said Mack. “Whitey claims he ain’t got a good enough memory to be a security risk. Besides, they don’t talk about nothing out there on the golf course except money and dames.”
Doc said, “Heroes always get punished at first."
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Of late I have been back to burning through a cheapo Lovecraft collection like $5 for an epub of everything. I am at 700+ pages read so far and I haven’t got bored.
I definitely cringe at the racist parts now but man he does capture the whole we are just one small and insignificant race of beings who are tiny compared to the vastness of the universe well.
I started in after reading The Ballad Of Black Tom which was a freebie novella from Tor. It retells The Horror at Redhook from the view of the black servant of the villain and is very very good.
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Pre-ordered Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame.
Unlike many pre-orders, I (and you, if you’re interested) it’s not a blind bet.
Tor has released the first chapters online. Tor is the publisher, this is a legit release, not some leaked copy.
And it’s good.
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Tor has always been good about that. I always appreciated their ePublishing branch in the early days of ebooks.
I love Seanan McGuire’s works, but i burn through them so fast. Which I should weigh against the books I buy and get x% through and never pick up again.
But as to what I’m reading right now…
Picked up a new copy after talking with a friend who had not read it and so I needed to refresh my memory.
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I just finished “The Radium Girls” by Kate Moore, a fascinating book about the radium dial painters between WWI and WWII, who were slowly poisoned (and irradiated) by their work. The book is a little confusing as the story shifts back and forth (I had a hard time keeping the characters straight), but in a way it mirrors the lack of communication among doctors, scientists, and the workers at the time. Not to mention the deliberate misleading by the companies involved, who were making a heck of a lot of money on the backs of the women who did the painting (and who paid the price).
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I just finished reading “Sweet Thursday,” Steinbeck’s sequel to “Cannery Row.” It wasn’t bad. It was very pleasant. My criticism of it would be that it has more pages than ideas.
In Sweet Thursday, the Cannery Row community has lost its direction due to changes brought to life’s patterns by the Second World War. The canneries have closed down due to over-fishing. Some people have left, some have died and some new people have filled in the holes.
Two interesting new characters are Joseph and Mary Rivas (that’s one person), and the Seer. Both of those two could have had a collection of short stories all their own.
Doc has returned from the army, where he had been assigned to treat VD, and wants to resume his previous life. But somehow he has no inspiration.
The community collectively diagnoses his trouble and schemes to arrange a relationship between Doc and a drifter named Suzy.
Suzy seems like an interesting addition at first, but as the story progresses she becomes less fascinating. She’s introduced, then disappears for a few chapters, and when she reappears she seems changed. It’s almost like she’s two different characters.
Frankly, in my opinion, the story behind the book is more interesting than the book itself.
Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin liked Cannery Row, and wanted to make a musical out of the self-contained setting and colorful characters. But there were two things missing from the book that hindered its adaptation: a story and bit of romance.
So, they put this problem to Steinbeck. Interestingly, Steinbeck was excited by the idea of one of his books being turned into a musical. So he wrote them a whole new book, Sweet Thursday, which came complete with a linear narrative and romance.
Problem 1 was solved. Now Feuer and Martin wanted to get Frank Loesser to write the music. Loesser was a good choice because had the ability to be very creative all-the-while being humorous and retaining a certain earthiness. This writing style would have fit very-well into the project, but at the time he was already occupied with “The Most Happy Fella.”
Somehow the producers were able to get Rogers and Hammerstein instead. Rogers and Hammerstein could be creative and humorous, but they did not have that earthiness. By the time they were finished with the project, Steinbeck’s story had become quite sanitized.
Steinbeck was unhappy by what had been done, and a bit confused.
Initially the producers wanted to cast Henry Fonda as the lead, but he couldn’t sing. He was replaced. Ultimately the two leads were unknowns, which is fine. But this lead to the main characters receiving billing under Helen Traubel, who played a supporting character.
And the musical was called “Pipe Dream,” which makes no sense. In Cannery Row there are some itinerant workers who live in large pipes, but there is no mention if this detail in Sweet Thursday. Suzy, let it be known, lives in the boiler.
Here’s a still from the show. Doc looks he was cast pretty well. Suzy should have been played by Joan McCracken.
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There is a picture which shows him on the Rhine with two German girls and another corporal. Krebs and the corporal look too big for their uniforms. The German girls are not beautiful. The Rhine does not show in the picture.
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I sped through The Girl Hunters by Mickey Spillane which I found in a LFL. The 6th Mike Hammer book.
It opens with Mike getting picked up by the police as he has been on a 7 year bender thinking Velda is dead.
Anyway our hero learns she isn’t sobers up and finds himself up against professional assassins and is in a race to find Velda before they do.
Fun two fisted but horribly sexist action and Mike as usual does not let love get in the way of doing what needs to be done.
Now I have gotten to one that has been in my to read pile for a bit. Metropolis by Thea Von Harbou.
The movie is an all time favorite of mine and I snatched up a copy of the book in a used book store more than awhile ago. Very good so far.
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I just finished this movie tie-in:
A transcript of the then banned-in-the-US film (with over 250 selling points!) followed by excerpts from the transcript of the first trial. Probably only for those without access to the film, those writing term papers, and people like me who have seen the film a good half dozen times.
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Cool, now I know where The Fall for that album title from:
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My intro to The Fall and still probably my favorite.
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There’s also this:
Online reviewers have mocked this comic for its inappropriate title, claiming the original IaC (Y) is a porn film. That’s highly debatable (I think few would claim so now). Actually, the film’s leading lady spends a lot of time investigating the class structure of her native land, so the title’s not without relevance.
This was no doubt accidental.
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