Which book are you reading currently? #8

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I have never been able to make up my mind. It is either this one or "Red Storm Rising"

 

Been reading some Warhammer 40k books a while back. I was introduced to the Warhammer 40k universe by the game Dawn of War, and thought it was a pretty dumb universe/setting. The books didn't change that, but I wasn't expecting any syndicated writing to do that anyway.

The Warhammer 40k universe is backwards in a weird kind of way. No new technology researched, banking on old technology, technology managed and maintained by priests. Getting too much into technology is a heresy, but all their warfare depends on it in a big way. And they're apparently always at war. And, in keeping with the setting, everybody either dies or becomes a heretic. Or both. Oh, and heretics become demons by default - real demons, too, not in the catholic way.

Makes the stories predicatable. Plus killing of likable characters is pretty annoying as well. Never did understand how Game of Thrones became so popular, couldn't even get through the first book, myself.

Some of the books in this setting are ok, though. Dan Abnett, for instance, is a fairly good writer and there are some others that are decent as well. I started reading some of Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts books, but as is to be expected of a series of books that has more than 17 volumes by now, it gets rather annoying to read. Recurring villains, escaping villains, that kind of stuff gets under my skin after a while. Like the revolving door they seem to have in the Gotham Asylum, where a villain that's been locked up for at least 20 times already escapes pretty much every week.

 

Started reading some Harry Potter again. Read the first 5 books over a christmas holiday some five years or longer back. Now finishing the series by reading the last two books. As usual the resolutions just kind of dropout of the thin air by the end of the book.

At least it's not so much pulling a rabbit out of hat, as I pretty much have already heard how the last two books end. More or less.


Reading the books reminds of this picture someone made a long time ago:


Would've been more fun. Also been a bit quicker.

 

20% in to Word's of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. Loving it. Considering it is 1,088 pages I will be reading this for a bit. Some of us have jobs and families.

 

Almost done with the last of the Malazan books.

 

If you figure out what exactly gets resolved, let me know. I couldn't really figure it out.

 

Spoiler

As I understand it Kellanved and Dancer orchestrated it in such a way that they could kill the Crippled god. Which we as readers might not approve of by the end seeing as it turns out that he isn't a bad guy really but K and D are of the opinion that his outside influence is either somehow dangerous to the world itself or just too powerful for those two or something. I get the impression that the point of the ending is that there is little point.

 

Just finished The Social Animal by David Brooks. Absolutely worth a read - he discusses the significance of the unconscious mind and how we are not rational, logical creatures (despite GOP politicians' insistence that everything is in our control and a product of our personal responsibility) and that community and compassion help people and societies grow productively and healthfully. He doesn't bring the politics into it with specific anti-GOP rhetoric - that was my addition - but he does talk about the current political sphere and how human beings work quite differently in reality. He uses a lot of sociological studies (while also critiquing the trend in some sciences to assume people are all 100% rational) to describe how people act in various points in their life. An excellent read.

Moving onto Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five now - haven't read it in a few years but I loved it.

 

Thanks for using the spoiler tags, having just finished the book yesterday I've got a lot on my mind, but as for what got resolved... yeah I'm not sure... I'll use spoiler tags myself in case anybody stumbles in here about to read the books

Spoiler

I guess my thoughts are similar to joacqin's, it looked like there'd be new powers, it looked like that from a few books ago, but the standing powers took care of that. It did look like Adjunct Tavore's forces would die in a heroic last stand, that was also being setup for a few books, and a lot of the last book, then at the end it didn't happen.

I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

Can I just say though that the whole... crossing the desert then only using that water trick at the very last possible moment after most of the army had died was infuriating to me.

 

Seems like you two got the same idea as me. I was hoping at least for a bit of an epilogue about what the bridge burners were setting up, what would happen to Kalam when he woke up, that kind of stuff.

Unfortunately his new series about the fall of the first Tiste Andi city (I forget the name), which doesn't really appeal to me as a subject in his universe to read about. Sure if I start reading it, it'll probably be fun to read, but Karkanas (or whatever) as depicted in the Malazan books was generally a bit depressing place, so whatever book is written about this would have to deal with that kind of impressions first, and can only then be considered by itself.

Read some of Larry Niven's Ringworld books lately. The first one was pretty good, the second one (Ringworld Engineers) was a bit bland and the focus on the human character was perhaps not the most interesting choice. The third one (Ringworld Throne) was boring me. This whole system about trading and making agreements by having sex gets a lot of attention and is a bit of an annoying gimmick. So stopped reading it.

 

I just finished this one. I consider a month and half on a book this size pretty damn good. For the record I loved it. Now starts the long wait for the next book. Who will finish first, Rothfuss, Martin, or Sanderson? My money is on Sanderson

Now I'm moving on to some light reading. I'm reading "The Human Division" by John Scalzi.

 

I finished One Hundred Years of Solitude about a week before Marquez died, so that was a bit eerie. Currently working on Histories by Herodotus, I don't think he will die in the foreseeable future

 

I am doing something that I rarely do. I am reading two books at once. The second book is "Shrinkage" by Bryan Bishop. It is subtitled "Manhood, Marriage, and the tumor that tried to kill me". Bryan is a member of the troupe that puts out "The Adam Carolla Podcast".

So far the book is brilliant. I have laughed and I have come close to balling my eyes out. I am sure at some point I will. Mrs. Snook has been dealing with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer for 16 years so this is something which hits really close to home.

How and why some people live and others die so quickly is something that is beyond my ability to comprehend.

 

It differs for different people. I have an uncle that was diagnosed as a terminal cancer case with tops 2-3 years to live. That was nearly 20 years ago. I'll not say he's in good health, but he's hanging in there with all his might.

 

'The Striker' by Clive Cussler

 

'Invasion' by Robin Cook.

 

"Run to Overcome" by Meb Keflezighi

 

A Feast For the Crows.

 

Interrupted my read of Herodotus with Chronicle of a death foretold and de kleine Johannes, when I've finished the third book of histories I will try to find and read my copy of Malazan book of the fallen.