What Are You Reading?

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Blackfielding
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Blackfielding »

scrilla wrote:What do you do if you need to split a huge pdf file into some smaller parts? I have a collection of fairy tales and want to split the file into single pieces and send them to my kids. How can I do that in the most simple way?.
I wouldn't install a separate application onto my PC in your place. Better use a great online service pdf.io. It is really simple with intuitive interface.
Last edited by Blackfielding on Tue Sep 28, 2021 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Obiwanshinobi
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Obiwanshinobi »

Not sure if I like the official English title*, but here it is - Defending the Motherland. The Soviet Women Who Fought Hitler's Aces by Lyuba Vinogradova, who once had greatly helped Antony Beevor gather historical sources founding the Stalingrad book of his.
While written in Russian, it was clearly done with export in mind. Some of its exposition must be trivial for an Eastern-European reader. It is, however, distinctly "feminine" in approach to detail. You'll get to read about perception of literature read at war (those were the days before TV, never mind smartphones), disciplines, make-up, fuel, grease, underwear, hunger, disease and so on. I am not trying to be condenscending. The book's about World War II's female Soviet military pilots - not only the so called Night Witches; they were also designated as heavy bombing and fighter aircraft pilots. And, in all fairness, not only female pilots, but also female navigators and female ground staff. I find it difficult to say something exhaustive about such a book. It is panoptical.
And it's genuinely sympathetic to Ukraine and Belarus, dare I say - this alone makes it pretty outstanding within context.

*) Come to think of it, I do.
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MOSQUITO FIGHTER
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by MOSQUITO FIGHTER »

Just finished Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. I genuinely disliked all the characters in the book except for Kaladin who was awesome. The story is split pretty evenly with Kaladin and Shallan. Shallan I found to be extremely dull and I was genuinely looking forward to getting finished with her parts of the story and getting back to Kaladin. Maybe she gets more interesting in the next book. I don’t know.

Didn’t care much for a huge part of the book being dedicated to finding out the truth about a assassination attempt either.

Still the world building and lore was interesting. Probably will start in on the next book later but I have to admit I was expecting more considering all the high praise this series has received. So yeah to me less than half of this book was enjoyable. But that part was pretty good.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by ED-057 »

review #1 - Boris and Arkadi Strugatsky - The Inhabited Island
(recent translation of old Soviet sci-fi)
A future Earth man travelling the universe becomes stranded on an unknown planet populated by non-space-faring humanoids. He finds himself in a country scarred by war, where large numbers of people display an irrational devotion to nameless leaders, and a small minority who are not thusly afflicted are viewed with suspicion or hunted down. Meanwhile, there are autonomous war machines, mutants, and hostile neighboring nations to worry about. Will our hero manage to understand this world? What role will he fill?

Verdict: Better than the average anime plotline. Feels relevant to the present time. Thumbs up.

review #2 - Klaus Schwab, Thierry Malleret - COVID-19 The Great Reset
Rumour has it that this is the book where the WEF maestro lays out his plans for world domination. I read the book and found that it is really just the ramblings of an out-of-touch, wealthy technocrat. There is nothing in it to convince me that the authors are capable of formulating a plan to take the garbage out on a day when their servants aren't available, much less formulate a plan to bring many nations under one authority. That's not to say that there is nothing here to be concerned about, since the worldview presented is clearly deficient, and this worldview is likely shared by similarly out-of-touch, wealthy technocrats throughout 'the west', who are over-represented in government and corporate structures.

The book offers many observations and asks many questions, but is light on insight or conclusions. It reminds me of the time the Dalai Lama wrote a book about physics. There is a certain naivite and unsubstantiated optimism that permeates the book. The dot-com boom must never have ended for the authors, as they are in love with ideas like online commerce, work-from-home, tracking and tracing phone apps, "smart toilets", e-sports, and "exercising online instead of going to the gym" (WTF?)

Governments are assumed to be both benevolent and omnipotent. The word 'corruption' only appears twice, and only in reference to "poor" and "African" countries (OMG rayciss!). The authors insist that international cooperation is necessary to solve, mainly, environmental problems, though inequality and other social issues are also mentioned. But at the same time, the book is overflowing with reasons why this won't be successful. The conflict between democracy, national sovereignty, and globalization (ie. pick two) is noted. The unfortunate meeting of globalization and a pandemic, in terms of spreading the disease, supply chain breakdowns, and subsequent tendencies toward scapegoating and protectionism, is noted. The uneven economic damage caused by the pandemic and associated mititgation measures, as well as the expected winners and losers of future trends are noted. That the hugely disruptive lockdowns only led to an 8% drop in carbon emissions is noted.

in summary:
"Yo dudes, we heard there is a pandemic that's totally screwing everything up. Ain't that wild? But after you're done with that, can't we put a bunch of bureaucrats in a room and have them fix climate change? Thx."
Last edited by ED-057 on Sat Apr 30, 2022 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
BitGid
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by BitGid »

Just finished My Year Of Rest And Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfeghand it was AMAZING.

I’m about 160 pages into Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn and the only interesting bits were about Cyprus and Chernobyl.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

Started the Heat 2 book... about 175 pages in a few days, and I'm a terribly shitty reader. It's fantastic.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by CStarFlare »

BitGid wrote:Just finished My Year Of Rest And Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfeghand it was AMAZING.
I was almost a bit jealous of her at times. Wouldn't it be nice to just write it all off for a while? Though I imagine anyone actually doing that would take years off their life, if they didn't end it in the process.

I'm about halfway through Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The narrator is delightfully mad.
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I'm sorry Ms Jackson

Post by NYN »

CStarFlare wrote:I'm about halfway through Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The narrator is delightfully mad.
Sounds nice. How's Jackson overall? I've only read the most obvious: Hill House; not that I disliked it, but it's very much in the (warped) mindfields of the group. I'll say it's the style choice that I stubbed my toe on, not the creep. Too much intrusion of an narrator who knows all the feels of everybody. It's not for me.
Is her other stuff similar? Thought of picking her shorts, but remain hesitant.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Sima Tuna »

I've been on a chinese fiction kick recently. Spent a couple years reading and rereading multiple english translations of both Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin. Just recently, I finished Legend of the Condor Heroes. The officially-translated version of the latter was quite unsatisfying, as translations go. Many lines were removed or dumbed down, and certain names were literally translated as words, which is always the worst. Some of the translated names are okay, such as Viper Ouyang. But others, like Mercy Mu, Count Seven Hong, Apothecary Huang and Woodcutter Nan, are just horrible. The translation would have been better if all names were left untranslated. Names are names. I do not need to know the "meaning" of the name, and if I do then that information can be provided parenthetically.

There are some decent translations of RotK and Water Margin, however. Sidney Shapiro's work is extremely readable. The other translations suffer from being too stiff, only translating the "short" version of Water Margin, employing the Wade-Giles romanization and/or translating the names of characters literally. So a character like Ximen Qing becomes "Lord Westgate." Presumably because his name means "west gate." :roll: Shapiro's work does not commit this fault and leaves the names alone.

RotK has many translations and the ones I am familiar with were mostly fine. As I don't speak or read chinese, I can only comment on the readability of the prose and how the translation does or doesn't add absurd "english-isms" to the story.

Do I need to comment on the quality of any of these stories? They are all classic works. What's the point of me saying "yes, I liked it" when I bring up The Count of Monte Cristo? :lol: For its age, The Water Margin remains an absolute blast and I continue to read and reread it whenever I'm in the mood for some righteous, evil-slaying banditry.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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Just picked up two books by Brian Catling, Hollow and Earwig. I didn't realise he had anything other than the vorrh trilogy published! really excited to read these. I think he's an absolute genius!
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Re: I'm sorry Ms Jackson

Post by CStarFlare »

NYN wrote:Sounds nice. How's Jackson overall? I've only read the most obvious: Hill House; not that I disliked it, but it's very much in the (warped) mindfields of the group. I'll say it's the style choice that I stubbed my toe on, not the creep. Too much intrusion of an narrator who knows all the feels of everybody. It's not for me.
Is her other stuff similar? Thought of picking her shorts, but remain hesitant.
I've only read this and Hill House, and that's been almost a decade. We Have Always Lived in the Castle's narrator does narrate as though she knows what others are thinking, but you start to notice her odd patterns of thinking and it's pretty clear that she's not connected to the logical structure of the world so it doesn't feel like a narrator who knows things she shouldn't.

I think it's a wonderful book, and at 150 pages it's not a big commitment. It seems to be her highest-praised work so if you're Jackson curious this does seem like the one to try. It's got me thinking of going back to Hill House, though I remember enjoying it a lot more than you did. :)
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by o.pwuaioc »

Sima Tuna wrote:I've been on a chinese fiction kick recently. Spent a couple years reading and rereading multiple english translations of both Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin.

Just recently, I finished Legend of the Condor Heroes. The officially-translated version of the latter was quite unsatisfying, as translations go. Many lines were removed or dumbed down, and certain names were literally translated as words, which is always the worst. Some of the translated names are okay, such as Viper Ouyang. But others, like Mercy Mu, Count Seven Hong, Apothecary Huang and Woodcutter Nan, are just horrible. The translation would have been better if all names were left untranslated. Names are names. I do not need to know the "meaning" of the name, and if I do then that information can be provided parenthetically.

There are some decent translations of RotK and Water Margin, however. Sidney Shapiro's work is extremely readable. The other translations suffer from being too stiff, only translating the "short" version of Water Margin, employing the Wade-Giles romanization and/or translating the names of characters literally. So a character like Ximen Qing becomes "Lord Westgate." Presumably because his name means "west gate." :roll: Shapiro's work does not commit this fault and leaves the names alone.

RotK has many translations and the ones I am familiar with were mostly fine. As I don't speak or read chinese, I can only comment on the readability of the prose and how the translation does or doesn't add absurd "english-isms" to the story.

Do I need to comment on the quality of any of these stories? They are all classic works. What's the point of me saying "yes, I liked it" when I bring up The Count of Monte Cristo? :lol: For its age, The Water Margin remains an absolute blast and I continue to read and reread it whenever I'm in the mood for some righteous, evil-slaying banditry.
Thanks for this. I wish more were interested in the classics!

Do you have a name or two for a translation that doesn't introduce absurd anachronisms and unusual Anglicisms, "translate names" literally, or use the short version of Water Margin? I can live with a stiff translation just fine (the academic in me, I suppose), but these are unforgivable sins of translation. Have you ever read Yu Sumei's translation of RotTK?

I've been wanting to read Sima Qian and RotTK for years (going on 20 now), but never got around to it because of translation issues. I did end up finding good translations of the DDJ and Art of War, thankfully, but the fiction and historical stuff has been more elusive. (Not to mention Sima Qian's volumes are numerous, and I'm not sure all of it has ever been put into another language other than Chinese.)
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Sima Tuna »

o.pwuaioc wrote:
Sima Tuna wrote:I've been on a chinese fiction kick recently. Spent a couple years reading and rereading multiple english translations of both Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin.

Just recently, I finished Legend of the Condor Heroes. The officially-translated version of the latter was quite unsatisfying, as translations go. Many lines were removed or dumbed down, and certain names were literally translated as words, which is always the worst. Some of the translated names are okay, such as Viper Ouyang. But others, like Mercy Mu, Count Seven Hong, Apothecary Huang and Woodcutter Nan, are just horrible. The translation would have been better if all names were left untranslated. Names are names. I do not need to know the "meaning" of the name, and if I do then that information can be provided parenthetically.

There are some decent translations of RotK and Water Margin, however. Sidney Shapiro's work is extremely readable. The other translations suffer from being too stiff, only translating the "short" version of Water Margin, employing the Wade-Giles romanization and/or translating the names of characters literally. So a character like Ximen Qing becomes "Lord Westgate." Presumably because his name means "west gate." :roll: Shapiro's work does not commit this fault and leaves the names alone.

RotK has many translations and the ones I am familiar with were mostly fine. As I don't speak or read chinese, I can only comment on the readability of the prose and how the translation does or doesn't add absurd "english-isms" to the story.

Do I need to comment on the quality of any of these stories? They are all classic works. What's the point of me saying "yes, I liked it" when I bring up The Count of Monte Cristo? :lol: For its age, The Water Margin remains an absolute blast and I continue to read and reread it whenever I'm in the mood for some righteous, evil-slaying banditry.
Thanks for this. I wish more were interested in the classics!

Do you have a name or two for a translation that doesn't introduce absurd anachronisms and unusual Anglicisms, "translate names" literally, or use the short version of Water Margin? I can live with a stiff translation just fine (the academic in me, I suppose), but these are unforgivable sins of translation. Have you ever read Yu Sumei's translation of RotTK?

I've been wanting to read Sima Qian and RotTK for years (going on 20 now), but never got around to it because of translation issues. I did end up finding good translations of the DDJ and Art of War, thankfully, but the fiction and historical stuff has been more elusive. (Not to mention Sima Qian's volumes are numerous, and I'm not sure all of it has ever been put into another language other than Chinese.)
The Yu Sumei translation of RotK is the one I'm familiar with.

https://www.amazon.com/Three-Kingdoms-C ... 366&sr=8-2

I have read at least one other translation of RotK, but it employed the Wade-Giles romanization and was quite a bit harder to understand as a result. The Yu Sumei translation is excellent imo. I can only speak as an english reader, so it's possible there are nuances not communicated by the translation. But it does not translate names literally and it's very readable. I've read the books cover to cover many times, and these are the versions I read whenever I reach for RotK.

As far as I know, the two primary english translations of The Water Margin available commercially are the J.H. Jackson translation and Sydney Shapiro translation. The J.H. Jackson one is stiff (even the updated re-edit sold by Tuttle,) covers only the "short version" of the Water Margin story and has other issues. One advantage of the J.H. Jackson re-edit is they edited back in a lot of the profanity, violence and vulgarity which was part of the original story. But it's still using the short version translation, and I can't recommend it.

https://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-Chinese- ... 6628&psc=1

^This is the "small paperback" 4-volume edition of Sydney Shapiro's translation. Of the commercially available translations of Water Margin, I think this one is the best. It's easy to read, highly entertaining and contains the full novel. There are some minor problems even with this edition, such as a few typos. But this is still the translation I read. Now, the Shapiro translation is available a few different ways. You can also find it as a 2-volume giant softcover "easy reader" edition with large print. That's probably the most enjoyable way to experience the story, but it's a bit bulky. I prefer the 4-volume set because you can carry a book with you wherever you go and slide it into a pocket easily.

There are little mangas and comics of both RotK and Water Margin. I've read a few of the RotK ones. They're neat, but I think they work best when you're already familiar with the story. Many RotK/Water Margin adaptations abridge the events of the stories too much. I think some might be confused by those versions if they're new, as story beats will happen too quickly.

I should mention the 2010 RotK television adaptation, which is freely available in full on YouTube. Rather than abridging, it expands the story out to 90ish episodes of an hour each. I could read the entire novel in less time, so they added quite a lot. It's not 100% faithful to the novel, but I think most of its embellishments are in the name of good drama and character development. You get a lot of time with each principle character (more so than the book,) and the actors are great. The costumes, sound design and fight scenes are extremely amateurish, but this is mostly a tv show about people talking to each other (plotting, discussing morality, debating). If you focus on that part of the show, you'll have a lot of fun with it.

The Three Kingdoms subreddit over on Reddit is probably the best place to ask about translations of other chinese works. Even if a commercial translation doesn't exist, the people there will probably have some idea of fan translation websites you can look into. That subreddit is home to many chinese literature scholars and fanatics.

Unfortunately, a lot of chinese works, including very famous ones, are still untranslated. The (highly flawed) Condor Heroes translation is a recent phenomenon, and it's the only commercial english translation available anywhere. If you want a better version in English, then you have no choice but to go with fan translations.

https://wuxiasociety.com/translations/

Here is a website for you to check out. They have many fan translations of chinese wuxia novels here. Of course, this is only wuxia genre fiction and not historical fiction like RotK. But if you're looking for more english fan translations, this is one of the major sources I know of.
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the castle in the Jackson

Post by NYN »

CStarFlare wrote:I think it's a wonderful book, and at 150 pages it's not a big commitment. It seems to be her highest-praised work so if you're Jackson curious this does seem like the one to try. It's got me thinking of going back to Hill House, though I remember enjoying it a lot more than you did. :)
Thanks! Next for a Jackson novel. Sounds like the Castle could be the flip side to the House in style for me.
For the shorts I'll just play The Lottery and others and see if I get lucky there.
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save tradition, play the lottery!

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Action to words, I went to read The Lottery and Other Stories and finished it. I gained much respect for the gal as a writer. She writes about working gals, children and mothers, husbands and other folks, and it never rubbed me as banal. Always underlying the surface with something or some thing. Not much is straight horror, mind you, and yes, it's the fine stuff. Clear to see why she is taught in school with being neat as she is. To me, that takes some appeal from any writer, but I can't say that was her goal. Funny, bizarre, satire, surreal, quaint: Jackson does it all. I relished in particular 2 stories that have a strong stance on the segregation of her era, haven't read much about that from others. That's the stuff. I've decided I'm going for her Hangsaman next.
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HPL cured

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Three strikes! People read, but won't talk about it anymore.

NE0N0MIC0N by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows.

As the title suggests, Moore is doing HPL. Or rather inverting ol' Howard and his, uhm, unenlightened p.o.v. with the weird tales. I found that premise most fun with Lovecraft Country (novel and HBO show), so more of it is very welcome. Putting in The Sex that Howie only hinted at and diversity he clearly omitted is a fair addition to context. They way Moore connects the many stories is gratifying to any who bothers to read the old stuff. Most ingenious ring some song lyrics by "The Rats in the Malls" that made me laugh out loud:

Alan Moore wrote:...YOUR ELDRITCH BITCH, I WANNA BE YOUR WHITE APE, WANT YOU TO FUH-FUH-FUCK ME 'TIL I CHANGE MY SHAPE...

AND I GO IOG SOTOT, H'RRNAI NH'GA NYARLATHOTEP, IA, IA...

YOU'RE LIKE A DRUG I CAN'T RESIST, A STRANGE HIGH, DANCING TO HOUSE IN THE MIST...

I WANT MY THING ON YOUR DOORSTEP, MY HAUNTER IN YOUR DARK, I'M GETTING SQUAMOUS JUST THINKING HOW YOU WALK...

(chorus)

I WANT YOU INS MUH MOUTH, I WANNA GO DOWN DEEP, I WANNA DO YOU UP AGAINST THE WALL OF...
And then the FBI raids the place. The final unspoken word would be "SLEEP". :lol:

Hilarious when you're steeped enough into ol' Howie's realm. This is fanfic done fun. And right. :P

I haven't finished this, yet know already it's only the road to Providence and more madness.
Excited.

e: t > d x 1
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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I'm reading The Scions of Shannara, by Terry Brooks.

I mistakenly assumed that this book was the start of the Shannara series when I bought it, but I'm so far in now that I don't think there's much sense in slowing down on it. It's incredibly engrossing, almost goes as quickly as a Terry Pratchett book. It lacks the extremes of passion in, say, the Earthsea books, but the world-building and character development are masterful, and action sequences are sharp and exciting.

It's unfortune that the show was crap. I hope it gets another chance with a different set of show runners at some point.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Mischief Maker »

vol.2 wrote:I'm reading The Scions of Shannara, by Terry Brooks.

I mistakenly assumed that this book was the start of the Shannara series when I bought it, but I'm so far in now that I don't think there's much sense in slowing down on it. It's incredibly engrossing, almost goes as quickly as a Terry Pratchett book. It lacks the extremes of passion in, say, the Earthsea books, but the world-building and character development are masterful, and action sequences are sharp and exciting.

It's unfortune that the show was crap. I hope it gets another chance with a different set of show runners at some point.
Hah! I made the same mistake when I read it years ago. Later I tried reading the originals, but the writing quality was significantly less. I think jumping in at Scions I got a more mature writer with a willingness to stretch the boundaries a little more.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by vol.2 »

Mischief Maker wrote:Later I tried reading the originals, but the writing quality was significantly less.
I'm a little concerned about this, but I think I'm going to pause on the 90s trilogy after the first book and try to catch up. There's a heck of a lot of other books after the Scions stuff, but only 3 books in the 70s, so it will go pretty quick.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

Neuromancer

Not the easiest read but I was also on a shitty long flight. Not too long so I should be fine to get through it.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Sima Tuna »

Neuromancer is enjoyable. I read a bunch of cyberpunk novels when I was on a cyberpunk kick. When I came off my cyberpunk kick, very few of the novels stuck with me. Neuromancer is one of the few, along with Wetware, that I come back to. I consider it a true classic of the genre. Johnny Mnemonic (short story) is the prequel to Neuromancer and of comparable quality.

The rest of Gibson's work didn't grab me like Neuromancer.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

Cheers for that -- are the rest in the "Matrix Trilogy" worth a go? Apple TV bought the rights. I am extremely curious how they're going to do this. Really hoping for 80's version of the a futuristic Tokyo - complete with those terminals and shit.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Sima Tuna »

You might as well try them out. I don't recall any of the stories being too long. The stories that one person disregards, maybe another will latch onto and treasure.

Ah yes, there are a couple other cyberpunk novels I forgot I enjoyed. One is Accelerondo, by Charles Stross. The other is Blindsight, by Peter Watts. And the third is Schismatrix Plus, by Bruce Sterling. I've read a considerable amount of Watts' output and still consider Blightsight far and away his best full-length novel. He has some good short stories as well, however. Accelerondo I enjoyed for its sheer uniqueness. So many cyberpunk, science fiction-y kind of stories end up derivative of Snow Crash. They'll have this video game, street samurai, neo-noir, techo-retro aesthetic. At its worst, it feels like little more than reading a Shadowrun campaign. So I prefer tales of the bizarre and out-there. Neuromancer is a classic of traditional cyberpunk. Blindsight, Accelerondo, Schismatrix, Wetware... These stories are all taking the core concept of cyberpunk (humanity transcending itself with technology) and veering off into wildly divergent directions with it.

A newer cyberpunk story is The Electric Church. It's very punchy and exciting, but I think rather devoid of depth. Comparable to a video game, which I think is the danger of many cyberpunk stories.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by cave hermit »

I have quite a bit of time on my hands for the next month or so, I should actually read a novel for once. The only literature I have been reading for the past decade or so of my life have been medical reference textbooks and academic papers. If I see another "et al." I think I am going to scream. Oh wait, there's one, I just wrote it in the last sentence. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I sampled a bit of Also Sprach Zarathustra a few months ago, mostly since I already had a very nihilistic outlook and wanted to be able to better articulate my chronic apathy, moral or otherwise. Turns out I am what Nietzsche would refer to as "Letzter Mensch", or "Last man", a passive nihilist with zero ambition concerned only with ensuring basic comfort until oblivion.

Sounds about right actually.

I got James Rolfe's recent autobiography in the mail awhile ago. Very relatable read actually, mostly a series of personal stories and anecdotes. Probably nothing remarkable to most people, but given I have almost no personal relationships and am a socially isolated parody of a human being, reading these kinds of basic life experiences makes me say out loud, "I'm not alone in feeling this way!" No fits of rage followed by torrents of excrement unfortunately.

I'd like to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Game of Throne novels. I never watched any of the films or Netflix shows or whatever, I don't really watch any TV for that matter. I would just like some nice quality fantasy stories to have play out in my head at my own pace.

I'd also like to read some of The Witcher short stories before trying out any of the games.

Discworld would be nice as well.
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BIL
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by BIL »

cave hermit wrote:I'd like to read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Game of Throne novels. I never watched any of the films or Netflix shows or whatever, I don't really watch any TV for that matter. I would just like some nice quality fantasy stories to have play out in my head at my own pace.
ASOIAF is a good time, imo. An addictive blend of epic scale, moving character study, and raucous, often harrowing low fantasy... but I almost feel like saying don't bother, unless GRRM finally sorts out at least The Winds Of Winter (penultimate book). The decade-plus blueballing shows no signs of abating, sadly - the daft old cunt keeps piling on more projects. And tbh, if I were that old and that rich, I'd tell everyone to fuck off too, retiring to my deluxe nerdbunker to bang out scores and write STs/reviews. But it's still kinda shitty of him. :sad:

Don't bother with the show, or if you do, expect a brutal drop in quality post-season 4. That's where they started adapting Books 4 and 5 and, rather than taking their time, as they had with the prior three (pretty much straight adaptations), they began to skip entire storylines and characters, while making up their own incredibly retarded ones. The rot starts off merely irritating (S5) before really biting down in S7, before S8 - now in the realm of pure fanfiction - arrives to destroy the show's legacy forever.

I'd never seen a production die of sheer laziness before. HBO was chucking money at them to continue, and GRRM was begging them to just adapt the fucking books, but nope. "But thuh actors were gettin bored lmao" FUCK the actors. Fire and hire hungrier talent. "Ah must have me Kip McFuckFace as Jon Snoo" Yeah, that worked out well. Image "MUH KWEEN"

Had they done their work, they'd be just about reaching the middle of Book 5 this year, maybe. GRRM himself is to blame as well, the fat lazy fuck, but the dipshit showrunners could've easily made it to this point before running out of material.

Ah, fuck me. The Kingbreaker woulda been so rad to see. Barristan's actor has quite vocally called the showrunners useless cunts for shitcanning his character, and storyline, along with so many others. I'm glad their careers have gone nowhere post-GOT, I hope they end up living together in the same dumpster, angrily 69ing for warmth and calories (a diminishing gambit!).

“The bleeding star bespoke the end. These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” Fuck yeah I'm gonna bust, this mahfucka cheerfully crazy, and suavely evil, and terrifyingly well-informed! Book Euron would take one look at show Euron, glossectomise the mincing twat, then lash him to a mast and run a rape train on him so big, and so black, nobody would so much as whisper the word "representation" ever again.

"It may be that I will need to take your hand."

"If you take my hand, I will kill you. But first, I will tie you over the rail and make the crew a gift of your arse. Get on with it."

"There will be pain."

Life is pain, you fool. "Do it."
Fuck yeah I'm gonna bust AGEEN! Book Victarion is a riot. A great brooding beast, not without some sympathetic qualities; his unmatched gift for nautical ultraviolence of no comfort to his wounded soul, his ongoing misadventure delivering jaw-dropping brutality and black farce alike! He'd take one look at Show Victarion (who is also Show Euron) and strangle him to death with his VOLCANO_ARM, then make a gift of his arse to the Drowned God.

-_- George, I'll settle for just The Continuing Adventures of Euron and Vicky in webtoon format. Or more Hedge Knight novellas, those are ace too! In fact, even if you never read ASOIAF, give A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms (Hedge Knight omnibus) a go. Lovely stories, more innocent and traditionally valorous than ASOIAF, but never toothlessly so.

Aagh, those stupid cunts! They could've just adapted the Hedge Knight stories! >_< Baelor Breakspear, I guarantee, would've become a beloved fan favourite. What a mensch. At least it seems House Of The Dragon (show) isn't shitting the bed with its handling of the Targ dynasty. Those novellas have some good stuff too, in particular, The Princess And The Queen is metal as fuuuuck. Getting chills just recalling a certain hypersonic dragon-mounted killing blow, shmuppin as fuck m8! :shock:
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

Sima Tuna wrote:You might as well try them out. I don't recall any of the stories being too long. The stories that one person disregards, maybe another will latch onto and treasure.

Ah yes, there are a couple other cyberpunk novels I forgot I enjoyed. One is Accelerondo, by Charles Stross. The other is Blindsight, by Peter Watts. And the third is Schismatrix Plus, by Bruce Sterling. I've read a considerable amount of Watts' output and still consider Blightsight far and away his best full-length novel. He has some good short stories as well, however. Accelerondo I enjoyed for its sheer uniqueness. So many cyberpunk, science fiction-y kind of stories end up derivative of Snow Crash. They'll have this video game, street samurai, neo-noir, techo-retro aesthetic. At its worst, it feels like little more than reading a Shadowrun campaign. So I prefer tales of the bizarre and out-there. Neuromancer is a classic of traditional cyberpunk. Blindsight, Accelerondo, Schismatrix, Wetware... These stories are all taking the core concept of cyberpunk (humanity transcending itself with technology) and veering off into wildly divergent directions with it.

A newer cyberpunk story is The Electric Church. It's very punchy and exciting, but I think rather devoid of depth. Comparable to a video game, which I think is the danger of many cyberpunk stories.
Good stuff -- appreciate it. I suck at reading but trying to change a few things about my life in 2023. Will keep these as a reference!
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by rapoon »

Sima Tuna wrote:
Ah yes, there are a couple other cyberpunk novels I forgot I enjoyed. ......... The other is Blindsight, by Peter Watts.
I'm genuinely interested in understanding why you would categorize Blindsight as cyberpunk. Where is the "high tech, low life" framework that exists in Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Neuromancer, Snow Crash, or Johnny Mnemonic? Blindsight has more in common with Rendezvous with Rama than any of the previously mentioned books & short story. Watt's background in biology is what lends such a brilliant perspective to what could succinctly be called a first-contact hard sci-fi novel. But I'm not seeing the social disparity with technology as the catalyst, that exists in the aforementioned books, which I associate as the underlying premise for any Cyberpunk book or story (e.g. the Lo Teks in Johnny Mnemonic).

edit: to be crystal clear so there's no misinterpretation, I'd like to read your perspective on this. I'm not attempting to be combative. "Cyberpunk" has become so bastardized, it's thrown around like a cheap blanket to push a narrative. That's not the case here, but the underlying intention is often lost.

I'd recommend anyone who begins the Sprawl Trilogy, beginning with Neuromancer, to finish the other two books: Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Count Zero is stellar, and by far and away my personal fav of the group. Gibson matured as a writer, they're easier to ingest simply because there's far less techo-babble. It's not usual for someone to have to read Neuromancer 2-3 times before it clicks. Shit, the 20th anniversary edition has forward by Gibson in which he's fully transparent about his ignorance with regards to technology, which is a good thing; his ignorance led to a wellspring of creativity with no preconceived rules or boundaries, but 35+ years later can lead to even more head scratching than it did in the 90s.

Snow Crash is no more or less responsible for the current interpretation of the Cyberpunk landscape as littered with neon signs, dystopian high-rises, and cyber augmentations (most of which don't even exist in the Sprawl Trilogy or Snow Crash) as Neuromancer. Despite being partially satire with ludicrous premises, from a technical perspective the book is far more plausible than Neuromancer because it was written by a highly technical person (see Stephenson's bug reports to Debian that he submitted for years). Either way, both are incredibly influential and are really required reading.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by drauch »

cave hermit wrote:I sampled a bit of Also Sprach Zarathustra a few months ago, mostly since I already had a very nihilistic outlook and wanted to be able to better articulate my chronic apathy, moral or otherwise. Turns out I am what Nietzsche would refer to as "Letzter Mensch", or "Last man", a passive nihilist with zero ambition concerned only with ensuring basic comfort until oblivion.
I don't know how apathetic I am, but I harness a very dreary and morose outlook on life and myself. You might like Emil Cioran. His stuff is actually pretty hilarious at times. The Trouble with Being Born is great.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by EmperorIng »

Sima Tuna wrote:Neuromancer is enjoyable. I read a bunch of cyberpunk novels when I was on a cyberpunk kick. When I came off my cyberpunk kick, very few of the novels stuck with me. Neuromancer is one of the few, along with Wetware, that I come back to. I consider it a true classic of the genre. Johnny Mnemonic (short story) is the prequel to Neuromancer and of comparable quality.

The rest of Gibson's work didn't grab me like Neuromancer.
I had to give back my library copy at the moment (and gotta wait for my turn again) but I was enjoying the "sequel" to Neuromancer, Count Zero. It has way more moving pieces and jumps between 3 or 4 disconnected protagonists (at least so far disconnected) but the world and setting is pretty enjoyable. I only got a third of the way through but I hope to get the book back again.

it does lack that signature noir, downbeat styling of Neuromancer, as well as its singular focus but so far that hasn't been a problem for me.

I think what I would tell someone getting into these Gibson cyberpunk books is that for about a third of the book (or more), since he doesn't explain what all the slang means, you don't really understand what's going on except vaguely. However, and this was marvelous when I was reading Neuromancer this fall, all of the sudden it finally clicked. That little bit of acculturation and realization made the reading of the book all the more rewarding.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Sima Tuna »

rapoon wrote:
Sima Tuna wrote:
Ah yes, there are a couple other cyberpunk novels I forgot I enjoyed. ......... The other is Blindsight, by Peter Watts.
I'm genuinely interested in understanding why you would categorize Blindsight as cyberpunk. Where is the "high tech, low life" framework that exists in Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Neuromancer, Snow Crash, or Johnny Mnemonic? Blindsight has more in common with Rendezvous with Rama than any of the previously mentioned books & short story. Watt's background in biology is what lends such a brilliant perspective to what could succinctly be called a first-contact hard sci-fi novel. But I'm not seeing the social disparity with technology as the catalyst, that exists in the aforementioned books, which I associate as the underlying premise for any Cyberpunk book or story (e.g. the Lo Teks in Johnny Mnemonic).

edit: to be crystal clear so there's no misinterpretation, I'd like to read your perspective on this. I'm not attempting to be combative. "Cyberpunk" has become so bastardized, it's thrown around like a cheap blanket to push a narrative. That's not the case here, but the underlying intention is often lost.

I'd recommend anyone who begins the Sprawl Trilogy, beginning with Neuromancer, to finish the other two books: Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Count Zero is stellar, and by far and away my personal fav of the group. Gibson matured as a writer, they're easier to ingest simply because there's far less techo-babble. It's not usual for someone to have to read Neuromancer 2-3 times before it clicks. Shit, the 20th anniversary edition has forward by Gibson in which he's fully transparent about his ignorance with regards to technology, which is a good thing; his ignorance led to a wellspring of creativity with no preconceived rules or boundaries, but 35+ years later can lead to even more head scratching than it did in the 90s.

Snow Crash is no more or less responsible for the current interpretation of the Cyberpunk landscape as littered with neon signs, dystopian high-rises, and cyber augmentations (most of which don't even exist in the Sprawl Trilogy or Snow Crash) as Neuromancer. Despite being partially satire with ludicrous premises, from a technical perspective the book is far more plausible than Neuromancer because it was written by a highly technical person (see Stephenson's bug reports to Debian that he submitted for years). Either way, both are incredibly influential and are really required reading.
Blindsight, like most cyberpunk novels, is about humanity. It's about transcending humanity, and what happens when we do. It's about finding humanity in the midst of technological overload, and how or why we should do this.
Spoiler
Siri Keeton is as Cyberpunk as protagonists get. Blindsight doesn't really hammer home how alien its characters are, and how much they've transcended their humanity with technology, engineering and other advanced methods, until you read a bit into the story. You learn the multiple personalities are cultivated for purpose. The doctor seems inhuman because his humanity is spread across numerous robotic instruments. His flesh is merely a wrapping-whatever "him" exists, exists out there in the vast organism which he becomes when linked with his tools. Amanda Bates isn't a soldier-she's the entire Army. She's the entire military-industrial complex condensed into a single frame and then linked to an infinite supply of combat drones.

And vampires are the most inhuman of all. What was it you said, "high tech, low life?" A vampire doesn't have higher thoughts. But it uses higher technology. It sits at the top of the food chain, with a beyond-genius IQ, yet is barely conscious of itself.

Blindsight isn't a novel about encountering an alien out there. It's a novel about encountering the alien inside us. Every character in the expedition is inhuman to some degree. They've been engineered to the gills, all to remain relevant in a world where human skillsets have been outpaced by AI and vampires.

To be fair, Watts doesn't spend all that much time discussing the ways that the characters have been modified. But we do get little bits here and there. I think the purpose in his framing is to allow the reader to form opinions of the characters which are incorrect. We believe that Siri Keeton is emotionless and vulcan-like because he tells us he is. We believe the captain is a dangerous predator because we are told so. But all of the information we receive is filtered through Siri, an unreliable narrator.

If you think Schismatrix Plus is cyberpunk, then how can you say Blindsight is not? Both are consumed with the question of humanity and both are set in a far-flung future, where genetic engineering and technology are used to design and modify "better" people. Aliens exist in Schismatrix as well. The "Hive" story in Schismatrix Plus is particularly relevant to Blindsight. The thesis is almost exactly the same. Hell, the structure isn't dissimilar.
TL; DR Blindsight, Schismatrix Plus and Neuromancer all ask what it means to be human. They all criticize the state of a society which creates inhuman people. And they ask us to follow on the journey of lost souls attempting to find their humanity again. Although said individuals may not realize that it what they are seeking.

Spoilered for massive sperge. And spoilers too I guess. It's fine if someone doesn't think Blindsight is cyberpunk. You can categorize novels any way you like. Cyberpunk is a nebulous genre in the first place, and ranged from the almost entirely incorporeal Matrix to grounded-and-gritty Terminator. But whatever you call it, I still recommend reading Blindsight.

Also Rendevous with Rama is boring as fuck compared to Blindsight.
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