Author Topic: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session  (Read 2177 times)

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Offline StarSlayer

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The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
James S. A. Corey's The Expanse Series:
  • Leviathan Wakes 
  • Caliban's War 
  • Abaddon's Gate 
  • Cibola Burn
  • Nemesis Games
  • Babylon's Ashes
Ernest Cline's Ready Player One
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice
 
It begins in medias res, similar to the Hyperion Cantos and takes a little bit to put together your understanding of the verse but once it clicks the story is pretty cool, the concept reminds me of something tutta would come up with. :yes:  I'm already into the second of the trilogy Ancillary Sword.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 
Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Looking to perhaps reread the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, as I found out recently they're in the public domain which means I can download them for free without any potential repercussions.
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.

 
Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
I read a science fiction book when I was a kid, and I remember almost nothing about it, but I would like to find it again. On the off chance this bare description rings a bell with anybody, I'd appreciate the help.

Description: There's some sort of space station/colony thing. On it, there are a bunch of dormant robots, who when they were active, were really bad news. While looking through the abandoned sub-basement (or whatever you'd call an old, abandoned area) of the colony, the protagonist stumbles across one of the robots alone in an empty room.

Here's a detail that stuck particularly with me: the robot was covered in dust, even though there wasn't enough gravity to cause dust to settle, except maybe VERY slowly. So the humans figure (either now, or later in the book) that the dust was drawn to the robot electromagnetically, instead of the normal way. And as it turns out, the robot did that on purpose to make it seem like it'd been there way longer than it actually was.

Then a bunch of robots come active on the station and start breaking things and killing dudes, and that's all I remember.

I think the title was shared with an Atari 2600 game. This makes me think it was a Berserkers book, but none of the ones I've looked at seem remotely close to the premise.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Wrapped up Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch Trilogy
  • Ancillary Justice
  • Ancillary Sword
  • Ancillary Mercy

Very enjoyable.   :yes:
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline niffiwan

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Paul Ham - 1914: The Year the World Ended

Man Europe's leaders were screwed up before WW1.
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
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Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
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m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 
Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
I just finished a reread of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet, aka Predator Cities, aka The Hungry City Chronicles, aka the Confused Marketing Strategy Cycle. I loved them when I was 11 and went into it with the standard fear that they'd be corny and slight and mildly embarrassing to have enjoyed. This... was not the case. All the swashbuckle and action and the immensely creative, beautifully described setting was still there, but where the plot and characters might have come out contrived and archetypical when reading them as an adult they instead revealed a ton of depth that I never saw the first time round. In his ability to combine rousing, fun adventure stories with convincing, subversive and moving characters, Reeve is head and shoulders above most adult genre authors. It's one of the best series I've ever read (the ending is ****ing perfect) and I hope to god Jackson & co can do it justice on film.
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 
Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
I'm currently reading Blitzed which is a book that tells the tales of drugs and the Nazis. At the start of the book (which is currently where I am at), Blitzed neatly explains how Germany was the chemical capital of the world and how pervasive the usage of drugs was around the world, but especially in Germany. For understandable reasons, as there's literally nothing else you could be doing in Germany at the time. Or atleast, nothing constructive. I am currently at the point where the Nazis are sending drug addicts to gas camps, which is still very much the early days.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Craig Alan's Here Be Dragons

Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology

Neil Gaiman's American Gods
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 
Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Kindle Sample of The Once and Future King

soon: Le Morte d'Arthur and Ivanhoe

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Just finished reading the Babylon 5 Centauri Trilogy. I had the actual books for years but never got round to reading them until I got a digital version. Psi core and then Technomage trilogies are next on the list.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]

 

Offline The E

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
I've been reading

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Garland.

In many ways, this book feels like a return to awesomeness for Stephenson. It's a lighthearted tale of witches and time travel, told with flair and humour, which after the relatively heavy material of Seveneves and REAMDE feels very refreshing.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

  

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Chugging through Stephen King's Darktower series:

  • The Gunslinger
  • The Drawing of the Three
  • The Waste Lands
  • Wizard and Glass

I really do enjoy the world building, for someone with an active imagination it offers quite a pallet.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 
Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Team Yankee, written by Harold Coyle and proofread by absolutely nobody

 

Offline Col. Fishguts

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Chugging through Stephen King's Darktower series:

  • The Gunslinger
  • The Drawing of the Three
  • The Waste Lands
  • Wizard and Glass

I really do enjoy the world building, for someone with an active imagination it offers quite a pallet.

I finished the series last year. The pacing gets slow at times, but it's worth to push on.
I do hope the movie that comes out this summer does it justice... the cast at least looks promising.
"I don't think that people accept the fact that life doesn't make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it." - D. Lynch

Visit The Babylon Project, now also with HTL flavour  ¦ GTB Rhea

 
Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
I read Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan, which is an historical semi-non-fiction story about an Italian dude in Italy during WW2. I recommend it.

I just finished Armada by Ernest Cline, which is a reference-heavy alien-invasion story. I'm on the fence about it, personally, but if you disliked Ready Player One than I super don't recommend this one.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: The HLP Book Club - 2017 session
Been reading Roald Dahl's stuff the last few days. There were a few I missed as a kid and the advantage is I can read a couple of books a day without it impacting on my free time.
Karajorma's Freespace FAQ. It's almost like asking me yourself.

[ Diaspora ] - [ Seeds Of Rebellion ] - [ Mind Games ]