Whatcha Readin'?

Picked up these from a free library on the way home.

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I’ve read No god but God by Reza Aslan (which was excellent), but I’ve not read that one. It looks interesting.

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Just started The Shockwave Rider. I blame @OtherMichael.

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Camels bearing apes, ivory and peacocks will be sent to your work address for this, as soon as I can open an account with a decent camel, ape, ivory and peacock exporter.

This is like J.K.Rowling, except it’s cleverer, much better written and very funny indeed.

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I just started it, and am super excited to see how it all unfolds!

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Wot? YOU’VE NEVER READ THIS?!?!

Read “The Stars My Destination” next if you haven’t read that either. Then Dune.

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Or you could just watch the film version.

Or the Twitter version.

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*hangs head in shame*

The Stars My Destination has been on the list for ages.

Dune, I read the first…three, I think.

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Too bad there were never, ever any more.

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Hey, God Emperor was pretty cool.

It’s just too bad there were never, ever, any more after that.

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I stopped at God Emperor. I threw it down when done and said “No more!”

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You’ve never tried the marvellous prequels from Brian “my dad invented Dune, dammit!” Herbert and Kevin J. “such a nice guy, pity his books stink” Anderson?

If so, consider yourself lucky.

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That’s a good place to stop.
Dune has a conclusion.
Messiah kind of does.
Children has a conclusion, as it cleans up most of the loose plot threads from Messiah.
God Emperor has a conclusion.

After that, you need to the last four books to get anything resembling a conclusion, and the Legends of Dune series for that conclusion to make any sense.

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No, I didn’t try those because they were transparently awful just feeling the aura emanating from them. What were you thinking?

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It’s been a long while since I’ve been here, properly–I lurked on and off for the past few months. Last time I was in this thread, I started reading through Doctorow’s With a Little Help and Sneed’s Paris, He Said. Finished and enjoyed the former, but had to stop halfway through the latter due to the narrative’s emphasis on overall details. Wasn’t a bad thing, but it detracted from the main conflicts to the point that I got lost.

Recently, I just read it through Haterz by James Goss, who also did the recent novelization of the Doctor Who story, “The City of Death”. Haterz is a black comedy and crime novel that follows Dave who gets sick and tired of a person’s Facebook postings to the point of murder. After that, he finds himself working for a secret organization that turns that killing into a spree targeting some of the major players responsible for most of the vitriol and hate online. Goes without saying, it’s dark and depressing, but worth the read if you can stomach the material.

Right now, I’m alternating between two books: Celebrity: How Entertainers Took Over the World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy by Marina Hyde and The World of Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse. Some well needed humor for a year like this, especially Hyde’s book.

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Currently reading the Hellgate: London novels, having found the second two for $1 each at a local used bookstore and the first for $3 via Amazon.

They are… about what you’d expect, for novelizations of a not terribly successful video game. Kind of entertaining but basically pulp trash. I hope they paid some of the author’s bills at least.

Reading them makes me want to play the game again, except I know I’d be disappointed in it again. I really want a Hellgate remake that has the time, budget, writers and QA that it needs to do justice to it.

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Myself, I’m a completionist; I knew that Chapterhouse and Heretics didn’t conclude the series, so I wanted to know the story was supposed to end. And I read Prelude and Legends to give context for the last two books.

And now that I know how it ends, I never have to read them again.

And any other books that they release afterwards are obviously not necessary to conclude the series, because the series is concluded.

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I did end up reading all of Asimovs increasingly crappy Foundation pre-/seq-/inter-qels, and then that second trilogy authorized by his estate (IIRCthe Gregory Bedford one was terrible, the Greg Bear and David Brin ones less so).

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Or, I did, at any rate.

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