[General Battuta]

Consider Phlebas is a weird book. It has sequences I admire but it's so repeatedly ugly.

Player of Games is good. It's all about making you wonder, alongside Gurgeh, whether the Culture is really all it's talked up to be. Does a good society use people and civilizations as instruments? Who's the player, who's the game, whoa man.

When you're done you'll be ready for Use of Weapons 

[NGTM-1R]

Revisiting old friends.

Dick Francis, one of the greater losses to English literature in the last five years according to exactly nobody but me. The Edge, Hot Money, and Driving Force.

[pecenipicek]

Consider Phlebas is a weird book. It has sequences I admire but it's so repeatedly ugly.

Player of Games is good. It's all about making you wonder, alongside Gurgeh, whether the Culture is really all it's talked up to be. Does a good society use people and civilizations as instruments? Who's the player, who's the game, whoa man.

When you're done you'll be ready for Use of Weapons 

Well, it does give an interesting overview of the "political process" i suppose...
"Oh this civilization is in space but not organised the way we'd like? Lets make it topple from the inside out. Why bother with weapons of mass destruction when we can carefully destroy the only thing keeping it together."

Actually, the ending sequence with Nicosar and the almost ending of the game were the most interesting bits.



Also,

Spoiler:

Flere-Imsaho/Mahwrin-skel is a DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK

[StarSlayer]

Isaac Asmiov's  The Currents of Space

[FlamingCobra]

I read the first two Dresden Files books between Wednesday night and today.

[NGTM-1R]

Hey, so you remember Red Storm Rising, right? If you read it and liked it, you owe yourself to read this article; it's about how Larry Bond and Tom Clancy, among others, developed the chapter Dance of the Vampires, using Bond's gaming system Harpoon to simulate Soviet air attacks on Strike Fleet Atlantic. Fun fact: according the the scenario notes, Clancy played Soviet commander. Bond was referee.

Choreographing The Dance of the Vampires

In fact the battle depicted in the book—in what by all indications became one of the most difficult chapters for the pair to plot and write—was gamed out in three separate Harpoon sessions, designated Vampire I, II, and III between December 1984 and July 1985. Vampire I is documented in a thirty-page report that contains briefing materials for both sides, detailed tables listing the ships in the NATO task force, the aircraft and ordnance available to the Soviets, diagrams of the ships’ formation, weather conditions, and so forth. There then follows a blow-by-blow account of the battle, which moves through several distinct phases, from the Soviets’ attempts to locate and “fix” the course of the NATO warships to the “outer air battle” as fighters from the carriers scramble to intercept the incoming bombers to the missile launch and resolution of the strike—which ends up leaving the NATO formation decimated. Vampire II, played in March 1985, yielded even more extensive documentation; in addition to an after-action report similar in format to the previous, there are copious players’ notes as well. This time the game appears to have moved more slowly, with the battle never reaching its climactic end-stage (despite the session lasting into the early hours of the morning). Nonetheless, the materials suggest that much of the “play” consisted in the preparatory activity by which plans were laid, forces tasked with missions, and contingencies evaluated. Clearly by this point the scope and complexity of the scenarios were straining the Harpoon system (and Bond, as the referee) to the limit. Vampire III, played out over multiple game sessions several months later, concluded with the spectacular destruction of USS Nimitz by missiles launched from a Soviet submarine.

[StarSlayer]

Victor Milan's The Dinosaur Lords

See my June 21, 2015 post above for the sick cover art.  Had to get it in hardcover, no regrets.

[StarSlayer]

Isaac Asmiov's  Prelude to Foundation

Andy Weir's The Martian

The Martian was a lot of fun, I cranked it out in a day because I could not put it down.

[NGTM-1R]

E.B. Potter's biography of Nimitz.

Was rather disappointed to learn he actually had many of his personal papers burned after his death.

[StarSlayer]

From what I've read it seems in keeping with his character, though I agree its too bad they are not available.

[InsaneBaron]

Warhammer 40,000 isn't normally my thing, but I decided to give Gaunt's Ghosts a try. Got the omnibus edition of the first three books. Almost done with it; not bad. Not bad at all. Didn't know you could make something so believable and human out of, well, teh Grimdark.

[karajorma]

To start things off, I have currently started to read Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which as it turns out, I have been putting off for far too long. It's amazing.

I haven't read that but I have read Anansi Boys which maybe set in the same universe and was actually envisioned first. I really enjoyed that one.

Right now I'm halfway through the second of the Witcher books. I'm enjoying the story a lot but I do get the feeling that I'm missing some of the nuance in the translations.

[StarSlayer]

O fish, are you constant to the old covenant?


Tim Powers' Declare

Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant

David Weber's

• Off Armageddon Reef
• By Schism Rent Asunder
• By Heresies Distressed
• A Mighty Fortress
• How Firm a Foundation
• Midst Toil and Tribulation
• Like a Mighty Army
• Hell's Foundations Quiver

[StarSlayer]

Scott Hawkins' The Library on Mount Char...


What a trip.

[General Battuta]

Scott Hawkins' The Library on Mount Char...


What a trip.

I liked that book a lot.

[The E]

It is very likeable.