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Post by DementedDuck on Mar 30, 2015 9:01:47 GMT -8
I know what you mean about the resolution; I think, being young, I was easily impressed by the puzzles and art, so I overlooked the ending. I might try rereading A&D and/or Digital Fortress again and see how I like it as an adult.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Mar 31, 2015 8:53:40 GMT -8
The Windup Girl: Great, really solid book! Started this just the other day after finishing Broken Monsters. About 75 pages in and really enjoying it. Just finished Windup Girl. I really enjoyed it. Nice rec, AL.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on Mar 31, 2015 9:49:29 GMT -8
Yay, glad you liked it! I also managed to proselytize it to a friend of mine to whom I lent my copy, so I'm spreading the word nicely.
I just started The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which has been on my list for a while, and is so far both really good and excruciatingly nostalgic.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Mar 31, 2015 11:10:53 GMT -8
I'm curious about The Magicians, I've read some pretty positive reviews and also had a few negatives from friends.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on Apr 5, 2015 13:48:49 GMT -8
The Magicians by Lev Grossman: So close to great!
Let's get one thing out of the way: if you are a lover of well-crafted, beautiful sentences, strung into well-crafted, beautiful paragraphs, every page of this book will be like a sip of fine wine. Lev Grossman knows how to smith words.
On to the book. The Magicians follows Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant but dissatisfied teenager from Brooklyn. Quentin puts his Ivy League dreams on hold when he receives an offer of admissions from Brakebills, a magical academy in upstate New York. For Quentin, who grew up reading of fantasy adventure in the Fillory books (a Narnia stand-in kind of series), it's an opportunity he can't pass up. But it turns out life with magic is still just life, with all the frustration and loneliness that entails, and some extra danger to boot.
I really loved this book-the plot was exciting and like I said the writing was great. And at first I had no problems with our hero Quentin. But my gripe with the book is that frankly he turns out to be incredibly unlikable. That's not to say he's unrelatable-I felt as if Quentin had most of my bad traits, but without the good ones I use to balance them out, so I could certainly understand him even if I didn't like him. But as the book wore on he got less pleasant rather than more, and the ending was unsatisfying to me for that reason. (Although there are two sequels, so perhaps redemption can occur).
The Magicians also hit very close to home for me in a lot of ways, though. First of all, the author went to the same high school as me, and in certain passages of the novel I could tell he was describing very specific places which I had been to in my town, with only slight changes to fit the book.
In addition, I think Grossman really captured parts of the experience of going to an 'intense' school. College is awesome and I love it, but at the same time, I don't think most popular culture does justice to just how grueling and isolating it can be at some institutions. I am pretty happy at school, and my school is a pretty happy place, but it walks a fine line in terms of its workload, and the pressure really takes its toll on people. And by that I mean it hurts people. This book portrayed that well, and the reality for many thousands of students is indeed a life of crushing work, punctuated by substance abuse and occasional moments of admissions-brochure bliss. It's not something you see a lot in fiction in my experience.
On a lighter note, I also felt Grossman was really in touch with the 'Harry Potter generation.' Most of us of a certain age were a tiny bit disappointed on our eleventh birthdays when we didn't get a Hogwarts letter, and I think Quentin kind of comes from that same background, which leads to a whole host of complicated emotions for him when he discovers as a high school senior that magic is in fact real. That's not something you usually see among fantasy heroes, who generally get over their doubts in that regard quickly if they have them at all.
For those reasons, I connected with The Magicians like very few other books I have read. It was a quick read mostly because I rarely wanted to put it down. But, the main character was pretty obnoxious, which by the end detracted from my enjoyment somewhat. And the ending of the book itself left something to be desired. Despite that I'd still wholeheartedly recommend The Magicians.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on Apr 5, 2015 13:49:59 GMT -8
Oh yeah, and the author's brother, Austin Grossman, wrote a phenomenal book called Soon I Will Be Invincible that I have read several times and guarantee you guys would love. I'll review it at some later date.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on Apr 19, 2015 10:14:09 GMT -8
The White Castle by Orhan Pamuk: Nebulously on the edges of the 'magical realism' genre, this book tells the story of an Italian scholar who ends up enslaved in the 17th century Ottoman empire. Simple prose (at least in the translation I read) and intimate psychological exploration make for a bizarre but gripping, thought-provoking read. I recommend it! No relation to fast food.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Apr 21, 2015 5:49:19 GMT -8
I'm curious. I'd never heard of it, but the reviews look really interesting.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Apr 28, 2015 6:42:52 GMT -8
Just finished reading Hild by Nicola Griffith. It's historical fiction set in the early 600s in Northumbria. It's an active time in the "dark ages", Edwin is trying to unite Northumbria and Christianity is slowly spreading across the isle. Through these events, we have the story of Hild, aka St. Hilda of Whitby. Very little is known of the historical Hild, and all of it is basically from a couple pages from Bede. We know her father was in line to be a king of Deira (one of the two ruling houses of Northumbria) and he was murdered when she was a toddler. Eventually, she became an abbess, took a role in the Synod of Whitby (which was important in the adoption of Roman Catholicism in Britain), was renowned for her wisdom leading various kings and princes to seek her advice, and possibly turned a bunch of the snakes into stone (the area is rich in ammonites).
Griffith takes the view that Hild/St. Hilda was clearly a stand out for the time and place and constructs a story to try and justify her position and importance in a very male dominated era. Hild's mother, Breguswith, dreamed that Hild would be the light of the world, and her clever machinations have Hild set up to be the seer of Edwin's court at a very young age. She uses careful observation, clandestine methods of information acquisition, and skillful manipulation to keep herself in this role. The novel specifically follows her up through her teenage years. As you might imagine, it deals a lot with the precarious position of a seer at court, and the difficulties of a young Hild in finding friends and people to support her personally, not just politically. It's even harder when an awful lot of people consider her to be a witch. Not only that, dire consequences await should she fall out of favor. Not just for her, but for her mother and half-brother.
The story itself is good, and interesting. There's, as you might suspect, a lot of political maneuvering, which I enjoyed. It was a little difficult to get into, in part because of the names. There's Oeric and Osric, Breguswith, Aelfrid, Aethelburh, Cadwallon, Caedmon and a slew of other Old English, Old Welsh, Old Cornish, names. Also the author throw in a number of Old English words that I stumbled a little with at first, but later found no less accessible than any fantasy name. It also helped that I discovered a glossary of the common ones in the back. In general, I'd recommend this book, though unfortunately, I learned towards the end that it's the first of a trilogy with the remainder yet to come.
If the delicate political stuff is something you enjoy this will appeal. Hild, and perhaps the author herself, would say that the subtle manipulations of prophecy and behind the scenes information are a woman's way of securing power and safety in a male dominated world, so if that appeals, this would likely be something you'd enjoy. And while obviously the details of Hilds life and a lot of the interpersonal details are fictional, a lot of the larger happenings in the book are real. Edwin's conquest of Lindsey, Elmet, the struggle at Gwynned against Cadwallon all happened. His problems with Osric, his baptism by Paulinus, the spread of Roman Catholocism in opposition to native monasteries, this all lines out with what I've been able to read up on afterwards. I found that all interesting. Maybe you will to.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on May 3, 2015 6:29:54 GMT -8
For my cinematography class, I have to make a visual interpretation of a poem. I already have some potential ideas, but...suggestions? It should be reasonably short and something that I can have a reasonable chance at doing justice to.
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Post by DementedDuck on May 3, 2015 9:14:28 GMT -8
Snag a daffodil on your way to class.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on May 3, 2015 9:49:47 GMT -8
I meant poem suggestions.
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Post by DementedDuck on May 3, 2015 12:48:00 GMT -8
That was a poem suggestion.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on May 3, 2015 13:46:25 GMT -8
Is the daffodil the poem or was your post the poem?!? Either way so deep...
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Post by DementedDuck on May 4, 2015 2:39:42 GMT -8
LOL Daffodils is a poem by William Wordsworth. I was providing the poem and the visual interpretation.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on May 4, 2015 5:43:16 GMT -8
So is it something as simple as what Ducky is suggesting or is it more some short film type thing?
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Post by AhoyLindsay on May 4, 2015 6:13:28 GMT -8
@ducky: Ohhh. Leif: A short film, since it's a movie-making class. I think I'm going to do a portion of Psalm of Life: www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173910 specifically the second verse and maybe one other, since he says it's okay to do just portions of poems. ...But if that fails, I'll go for the daffodil thing and just film it.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on May 4, 2015 8:37:27 GMT -8
To a Louse by Burns is a favorite and lends itself to a short humorous scene. Though admittedly it's trickier than finding a daffodil or Grecian urn or something. Ozymandias could be a short with a circle pan. Though you'd need a city and ruins and a way to swap out between them during the length of a circle pan. So... CGI.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on May 4, 2015 11:24:04 GMT -8
That louse one is cute, I'd never heard of it before. Should I deliver it in a perfect Scottish accent? Actually, I did consider Ozymandias, because, life update: I've been studying abroad in Istanbul this semester! So city and ruins abound. In fact I went to Ani a few weeks ago and had that poem on my mind the whole time.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on May 4, 2015 12:45:03 GMT -8
Nice! That's awesome. I'm totally jealous.
And yes, I've often wondered if my fondness for Burns was influenced by the fact that the English teacher who introduced him to us was Scottish.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on May 8, 2015 13:22:33 GMT -8
William Gibson's new(ish)book, The Peripheral, is really pretty good. There's 2 story lines, the first, Flynne (in the near future)unknowingly witnesses a murder while filling in playing a computer game for her brother. Wilf Netherton is recruited to help figure out what Flynne witnessed, as Flynne was not really playing a computer game, but rather via the magic of computers, was running an anti-paparazzi drone in some (not terribly near) future. A proxy battle emerges in Flynne's timeline for control of her before she can identify the killer. The main actors are working from Netherton's timeline. It's well written though a little difficult to get into, as Gibson just drops you in with little to no exposition. Stylistically, it's done with a series of short chapters, alternating between Wilf and Flynne POV. And I mean short. Few, if any, were over 10 pages. The whole novel was a departure from what Gibson has done recently with the Blue Ant trilogy and much more overtly sci fi. I was slow getting in, but found the last 2/3 or so very engaging and just blew through them. Would recommend.
At some point in the past, I considered and effortpost on Gibson, and can't remember if I did one, so you have a short one here, along with a general recommendation to pick up whichever of the 3 trilogies most appeal, along with a note that they are only sorta loosely trilogies. As wiki says about one of them, "subtly interlinked by shared characters and themes (which are not always readily apparent)." So if you wanna grab one without the others, it oughta work out fine.
The Sprawl trilogy features Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. More or less definitive Cyberpunk. You ought to read Neuromancer anyways, it's really good and genre defining. All are set in gloomy future dominated by corrupt corporations, and at least 2 of the 3 (I can't quite remember MLO well) deal in some regard with emergent AIs.
The Bridge Trilogy features Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties. These are all set in a pre-cyberpunk future, as there is a rush to control the burgeoning cyberspace technology. They're set mostly in a post earthquake San Francisco and Tokyo.
The Blue Ant trilogy is set in a "next week" type future that's functionally not too different from now. These books are Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. All of these feature an individual who is contracted by Blue Ant to research some sort of art, whether it's mysterious online video clips, locative digital art, or super fancy secret jeans. The story lines then intersect with some larger evidence of spy or other activity. Each is complete in itself, telling the story of the individual, but over the course of the trilogy you get more of an idea of what Blue Ant is doing.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on May 22, 2015 9:08:22 GMT -8
I went into "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" by Charles Yu expecting a comedy-ish time travel story. Sort of maybe a Jasper Fforde meets Max Brooks type thing. I reckon some of the bad reviews on Good Reads and elsewhere stem from that expectation. It was not at all that book, and was better for it. The main character, probably not coincidentally, is named Charles Yu. He's a man in his early thirties drifting through life as a time machine repairman, and finds himself looking through time for the father that left as a teenager.
Rather than a sci-fi book about time travel and paradoxes and killing Hitler, this is much more about relationships and perception and the way we create a sense of self. It's short, relatively easy to read, though there is some technobable interspersed, though it usually resolves very quickly into something making a larger point. Basically, I just really enjoyed it.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on May 29, 2015 5:56:16 GMT -8
In fact, I think Doomsday Book could do with a review. Just read this, and I agree with AL. This was a really good book.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on May 31, 2015 11:34:39 GMT -8
Yay! I'm glad you liked it. I have every intention of taking your recommendations, too, but the library here doesn't have Gentlemen of the Road so it'll have to wait. I got half-way through Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy recently but had to return it to the library (and they wouldn't let me renew it), so I'm on tenterhooks about that one. Which made me wonder what a tenterhook is, so if anyone else is curious: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenterhook
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Post by DementedDuck on May 31, 2015 15:11:09 GMT -8
Thanks, wikipedia.
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Post by AhoyLindsay on May 31, 2015 20:03:31 GMT -8
Points to whoever can come up with the best generalization of that sentence structure-'Frankenstein is a stein in a device called a Franken. Congresspeople are people in a device called a Congress. Jellybeans are beans in a device called a jelly...'
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Jun 1, 2015 6:11:39 GMT -8
Yay! I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, I'm pretty impressed with Ms. Willis. I enjoyed Dog and Doomsday in entirely different ways. Have you read anything else by her? I was thinking of grabbing All Quiet here in the near future. You know, I accidentally walked off with an old roommates copy of The Tailor of Panama. I've never read Le Carre, but now all these hooked tenters have me curious.
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Post by firebolt153 on Jun 2, 2015 20:37:39 GMT -8
I read The Night Manager recently because it's being made into a six-part miniseries with Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston. There are definitely tenterhooks involved.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Jun 8, 2015 7:22:15 GMT -8
Just finished reading Wise Children by Angela Carter. It's the life story of Lucky Chances, twin sisters, and "natural" children of Melchior Hazard, the greatest Shakespearean actor of the day. The novel follows the adventures and interactions of the Hazard family, entirely from the outside view of Dora Chance. Surely you know the story of woman who danced with a man who danced with a woman who danced with the Prince of Wales. Well, that original woman was Dora, and her sister Nora as well. It's short, and pretty easy to read. It's quite comedic in parts. In some ways it's a meditation on class, looking at the differences between the successful family of the Hazards, and the song and dance Chances. It's also indirectly a lot of thinking about parents, and what it means to be one. It's also a chronicle of entertainment in the 20th century, from the stage to movies to TV. It's also more or less a Shakespearean comedy as told by your old bawdy aunt, the sort of septuagenarian aunt who'd slip you lube on your wedding night. There's twins everywhere, mistaken identities, children of unsure parentage, and just enough magic for a happy ending. Ms. Carter sure can cover a lot of ground in 230 pages.
It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did, I more or less blew through the end. I enjoyed it.
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Leif
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Post by Leif on Jun 12, 2015 15:25:56 GMT -8
So I just checked out Six-Gun Tarot on the basis of the inside flap:
This is going to be amazing in either the good way or the bad way. I'm ready for it.
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