Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Nice! I actually didn't realize there was a sequel, I found it interesting enough that I'd read that for sure.
-
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
- The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
- Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
What'cha Reading?
- Thread starter Falselogic
- Start date
Finally started on Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. My tentative plan is to binge the Age of Madness trilogy next month
Finished up The Three-Body Problem and really wasn't impressed. Picked up Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and found it immediately more engaging. It's a long one, but it seems like it might be a relatively quick read.
Really enjoyed this one, probably not a surprising opinion. Going to try to read Red Country before the year is up. Have no interest in The Heroes though. Currently reading "What Do You Mean, Murder?" Clue and the Making of a Cult Classic by John Hatch. For my monthly reread, it's The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, and much like I gave myself a project in November with that Madonna bio, December I'm reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Finished Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez yesterday. This was a really interesting one. The book is many things: horror story, family story, even a bit of post-dictatorship Argentina story. One of the things I liked about it was how quickly it can shift in tone, turning from scenes of domestic life to magic and violence on a dime. It's a bit of a slow burn, but I think it's worth it.
The Heroes is my favorite one. If you're into the rest of Abercrombie's stuff what is it about The Heroes that disinterests you?
Yep. One of my favorites that I read this year.
didn't care too much for the characters
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Reading A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway for my Classics Book Club
This is my first Hemingway book, and since this is 1) a memoir from before he was famous, 2) talks a lot about other writers I don't know that well, 3) set in 1920s Paris (a setting so many people seem to pine for but I don't get it), I'm not connecting with this book at all. He just kind of babbles about mundane stuff then says mean things (he's just been a huge dick to Gertrude Stein and Katherine Mansfield so I'm extra annoyed), then occasionally something profound is written that's wonderful and worth elevating but then we're back to cranky babbling and name dropping. I'll definitely be leaving it unrated until after my book club talks about it because they've helped me make connections and turned me around on a book before but I think this one is a dud for me.
I am curious to read more Hemingway if this is representative of his style though. I don't see many "classic" books that are written like this. Just the subject matter of this one has nothing to do with me or my interests.
This is my first Hemingway book, and since this is 1) a memoir from before he was famous, 2) talks a lot about other writers I don't know that well, 3) set in 1920s Paris (a setting so many people seem to pine for but I don't get it), I'm not connecting with this book at all. He just kind of babbles about mundane stuff then says mean things (he's just been a huge dick to Gertrude Stein and Katherine Mansfield so I'm extra annoyed), then occasionally something profound is written that's wonderful and worth elevating but then we're back to cranky babbling and name dropping. I'll definitely be leaving it unrated until after my book club talks about it because they've helped me make connections and turned me around on a book before but I think this one is a dud for me.
I am curious to read more Hemingway if this is representative of his style though. I don't see many "classic" books that are written like this. Just the subject matter of this one has nothing to do with me or my interests.
Oh nice! It was my first Hemingway too, seven or eight years back. Perhaps embarrassingly, I picked it up immediately after watching Midnight In Paris which does quite well at evoking some nostalgia for that time and place, even though I didn't really know much about it beforehand.
I quite liked the irreverence in the book, the silly anecdotes and sass about poor Fitzgerald. It comes together more towards a central point by the end, but the early meanderings I could see not landing for many.
Finished the book on Clue, and for my new nonfiction, I'm reading Patrick Stewart's Making It So
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I just got that from the library! Probably not starting it until the weekend but excited.
Finished Children of Time and loved it. Would happily root for uplift spiders again any day. The people-part was good too but a little more frustrating at times. Anyway, I proceeded immediately to pick up the sequels and have started Children of Ruin, which has already proven interesting again in just the first section. This Tchaikovsky guy might be on to something!
Of a book you haven't read?
don't they feature characters from the first trilogy?
Some, yeah. Some new ones too.
FelixSH
(He/Him)
I just read Eight O'Clock in the Morning, by Ray Nelson. Very short, less then six pages. It's the story that the movie They Live is based on. I have watched that movie around Halloween, and after learning that it is based on a story, I wanted to know the source.
It's so short that, if one is curious, just read it. But it's not good. It starts with the protagonist, for no apparent reason, waking up from mass hypnosis. No reason for why anyone is under the control of the creatures, and they are completely incapable of defending themselves. The protagonist also has no problem starting to kill them. Like, I think he kills more of the creatures than there are pages in the story. He is also very unsympathetic towards his still-controlled girlfriend (six pages was enough time to hit her in the face).
A rare case where the movie is way better than the book.
It's so short that, if one is curious, just read it. But it's not good. It starts with the protagonist, for no apparent reason, waking up from mass hypnosis. No reason for why anyone is under the control of the creatures, and they are completely incapable of defending themselves. The protagonist also has no problem starting to kill them. Like, I think he kills more of the creatures than there are pages in the story. He is also very unsympathetic towards his still-controlled girlfriend (six pages was enough time to hit her in the face).
A rare case where the movie is way better than the book.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I'm about a third of the way through and loving it so far.
Read Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne after seeing it in my local bookstore, saying to my girlfriend "I've heard this is good", and her telling me I should get it. And it was good! I want to give extra praise to Ryan Browne (the artist). In a series that gets just as unhinged as you might expect from the premise ("everyone on Earth gets one wish at the same time"), a lot of the craziest shit just happens in the background of wider shots, and there's so much detail and silly nerd shit for the people who care to look. There's a lot of beautiful and grotesque stuff in the main panels as well.
The only thing I wish we'd gotten more of is I feel like there were some concepts that were mentioned once or twice and then never really followed up on, whether they didn't have space for everything or they just wanted to leave some stuff to the readers' imaginations. For example, Dougland? Which seems to be a place that captures people and converts them into...more Dougs? I desperately wanted to see this, but we only get told about it in passing instead.
The only thing I wish we'd gotten more of is I feel like there were some concepts that were mentioned once or twice and then never really followed up on, whether they didn't have space for everything or they just wanted to leave some stuff to the readers' imaginations. For example, Dougland? Which seems to be a place that captures people and converts them into...more Dougs? I desperately wanted to see this, but we only get told about it in passing instead.
Yaaaaaaay another Adrian Tchaikovsky fan! Children of Ruin is my favorite book of his that I've read so far, but I also highly recommend the Final Architecture series if you'd like something in more of a space-opera vein. As author's go, he is ridiculously prolific, but I've never read anything he wrote that wasn't at least okay.
zonetrope
(he/him)
It might have just been my headspace at the time (which wasn't great), but I found the octopus sections of Children of Ruin borderline incomprehensible, in a way that I didn't with the spider sections of Children of Time. I just had a really tough time understanding what was going on. I'm glad to hear there's a lot more Adrian Tchaikovsky where that came from, though.
So, so much more.
Just finished up Empires of EVE, a history of EVE Online. I enjoyed it well enough, but because of the limitations of mechanics inside of a video game, the events can become a bit rote, even if the players change.
There's some meat on the bone here, but perhaps less than you might want for its length. Treating the rise and fall of organizations and territorial battles inside a video game with the same seriousness of a real world history book is novel, and if that sounds like something you'd be into, there's probably something here for you.
There's some meat on the bone here, but perhaps less than you might want for its length. Treating the rise and fall of organizations and territorial battles inside a video game with the same seriousness of a real world history book is novel, and if that sounds like something you'd be into, there's probably something here for you.
I think I'm landing around here somewhere. Ruin hasn't quite grabbed me the same way Time did, so far, I think because the octopuses (and the alien habitat) are less relatable than the spiders' developing civilization. Though this might also be my headspace at the moment (which is also not great).
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
The first book for my Classics book club next year is Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, which I'd never heard of. But everyone I've mentioned it to has great things to say about the book or the author. Surprised I've never heard of her and excited to read it, although people have confirmed that it's a dark and haunting book, since it's about a Native America veteran with PTSD I know it's going to be a lot.
System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7) by Martha Wells - Picking up right after the last book, this deals with the remaining and ongoing problems on the same planet, a combination of various humans trying to get themselves murdered and our favorite SecUnit trying to both protect them and deal with its own trauma from the previous book. I maintain that I prefer the self-contained sci-fi whodunit nature of the novellas, but I’m certainly sticking with the series.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy - There are interesting parallels between this and Wil Wheaton’s book; the twenty-year gap between their ages means little when the problem is child stardom and narcissistic parents. There’s a quote about McCurdy turning “lemons into lemonade”, and yes, while it seems like she’s gotten herself together, her childhood through her twenties was a giant mess of abuse, eating disorders, poor mental health and slow, messy recovery. She’s a very good writer, though, so I’d be interesting to see what else she comes out with. (I’ll also note that I never saw her TV work—her Nickelodeon era was too late for me and too early for my son.)
Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire - The latest Wayward Children book, another standalone. This one comes with a big trigger warning for a lead-up to (but no actual incidence of) child abuse. And knowing what I do of McGuire’s history, this feels like a book she wanted to write specifically for that successful escape. It’s also about growing up too fast and losing your childhood without realizing it, and being manipulated by adults who should know better for their benefit, which is a very clear parallel to the victims of abuse. I’m not sure this is as strong a story as some of the others, but it’s another one where there’s a thesis to unpack from it.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy - There are interesting parallels between this and Wil Wheaton’s book; the twenty-year gap between their ages means little when the problem is child stardom and narcissistic parents. There’s a quote about McCurdy turning “lemons into lemonade”, and yes, while it seems like she’s gotten herself together, her childhood through her twenties was a giant mess of abuse, eating disorders, poor mental health and slow, messy recovery. She’s a very good writer, though, so I’d be interesting to see what else she comes out with. (I’ll also note that I never saw her TV work—her Nickelodeon era was too late for me and too early for my son.)
Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire - The latest Wayward Children book, another standalone. This one comes with a big trigger warning for a lead-up to (but no actual incidence of) child abuse. And knowing what I do of McGuire’s history, this feels like a book she wanted to write specifically for that successful escape. It’s also about growing up too fast and losing your childhood without realizing it, and being manipulated by adults who should know better for their benefit, which is a very clear parallel to the victims of abuse. I’m not sure this is as strong a story as some of the others, but it’s another one where there’s a thesis to unpack from it.
Finished it, just in time to squeak in under the wire for 2023. I did come around more on Children of Ruin by the end and overall I really liked it, though the Octopuses never did get as relatable or fun as the spiders did. I like CoTime better, but I'd still recommend Ruin to anyone wondering whether to follow up on Time.
The epilogue has me going "wut" so I'll probably move on to Children of Memory right away!
Wow, I really dropped the ball on updating for a while there, my apologies
1. Finished A Christmas Story by Caseen Gaines, a really awesome BTS look about the movie and the franchise as a whole.
2. The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron. First book in the Eli Monpress series. Interesting take about how magic is tied on with spirits. Will continue series
3. Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi. This was an alright stand alone horror about demons possessing children in an orphanage at the turn of the 20th Century
4. Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek by Thea Glassman. Looks at how seven teen driven TV shows, from Fresh Prince of Bel Air to Glee changed television
1. Finished A Christmas Story by Caseen Gaines, a really awesome BTS look about the movie and the franchise as a whole.
2. The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron. First book in the Eli Monpress series. Interesting take about how magic is tied on with spirits. Will continue series
3. Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi. This was an alright stand alone horror about demons possessing children in an orphanage at the turn of the 20th Century
4. Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek by Thea Glassman. Looks at how seven teen driven TV shows, from Fresh Prince of Bel Air to Glee changed television
Did you know it's been fifty years since my favorite author published his first novel? I'm about to start a four year project of going through (most of them rereads) Stephen King's work. Also, starting Barbra's book as my monthly project
