Last book(s) you read?

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danielmann861
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by danielmann861 » Wed Oct 25, 2017 4:02 am

Jameron wrote:Koe no Katachi

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Great story, I'll watch the anime soon (hopefully).

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I have a copy of that film on my HDD...still haven't watched it yet. Should rectify that.

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dongregg
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by dongregg » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:15 am

dongregg wrote:The Guns of Avalon, second in the Amber series. Now on the third, Sign of the Unicorn.

It occurs to me that writing fantasy is easier in some respects than writing a story based on a real time and place. You have to get the details right if it is a real place. Sounds, smells. But with fantasy, you get to make up how a place looks. Especially, you get plot resolutions by having a wizard show up in your cell to spring you. Or you can exercise supernatural abilities.

But I am content. Although my LTROI writings have not been without goof ups, Sweden seems so real to me. I know that's why the story stayed in Malmö for 11 months, with few trips even to Copenhagen. Read Ei's reluctance to leave as my own reluctance personified. :)

But Zelazny -- He was a master of swords and sorcery. There are plot surprises that are just brilliant. Amber has lived in my mind as a real place for decades.
Well, the first two books in the series, Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon came to life again as I read them. However, the last three books of the series made little impression on me some 40 years ago.

The Sign of the Unicorn is so dense with plot twists, red herrings, suspicions, and shifting cabals that it read like the arguments of Job's friends -- dense, closely reasoned, and as interesting as watching paint dry. I just plowed through it.

The fourth, The Hand of Oberon, pretty much convinced me that the story of Amber had driven Zelazny mad by that point such that he alone on earth could keep the ins and out of the story in his head.

Almost through with the final book, The Courts of Chaos, and I find that I don't care who comes out on top, who the unsuspected real villain is, or even whether or not Amber is destroyed by its antithesis, the Courts of Chaos.

Anyway, Roger Zelazny, I thank you for Amber, and I know that it will live in my heart to the end. Thank you wherever you are -- in Amber, or in your favorite world in Shadow, or some other place that far outstrips my pedestrian imagination.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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dongregg
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by dongregg » Fri Nov 03, 2017 7:03 am

"Funny Little Snake," Tessa Hadley, The New Yorker, 10/16/2017.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”


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dongregg
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by dongregg » Sun Nov 05, 2017 4:07 am

To clear my pallet of swords and sorcery, I've begun a reread of The Hussar, by Gregor von Rezzori, 1958, in English trans, 1960. The story takes place after the Great War, in the Austro-Hungarian town of "Tchernopol," which is based on Czernowitz, now in the Ukraine across the border from Romania. Von Rezzori's dry sense if humor and his astute observations of people and the human condition make this one of the best finds of my life. Reading it again now after several decades is an even richer experience. :wub:

"She would make us repeat a phrase over and over again for hours, and I will never forget what refinement of speech she could put into a simple sentence such as 'Herbert was murdered.'" p. 24

"One day we saw a hussar on horseback, recognized him, and loved him." p. 27

"He was famous for his coarseness and gruff good humor and for his stupidity, which was extraordinary, even for a cavalry officer." p. 61

"Aunt Elvira entered the classroom with the affected smile of adults who look upon children as semi-dangerous and semi-idiotic." pp. 234-235
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Jameron
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by Jameron » Mon Nov 06, 2017 11:09 am

gkmoberg1 wrote:https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/10 ... ead-books/

I have only read one book on this list. Fail.
I wonder which one that was :think:

;)

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"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was … himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."

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gattoparde59
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by gattoparde59 » Wed Nov 08, 2017 7:59 pm

George Eliot, Adam Bede. "World building," usually used in fantasy and science fiction applies to Eliot's depiction of rural England circa 1800. I was transported to an alien world where they speak the same language, sorta.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

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ltroifanatic
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by ltroifanatic » Thu Nov 09, 2017 1:31 am

Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.It's about a famous mutiny that happened off the coast of Australia early 17th century.The blurb on the cover says "Betrayal.Shipwreck.Murder.Sexual Slavery.Courage".Interesting to read how easy it can be to lose your humanity under certain circumstances.Also how some rise to the occasion and show the best qualities.(just like Eli).. :wub:
Please Oskar.Be me for a little while.

Tom Eaves
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by Tom Eaves » Mon Dec 04, 2017 8:40 am

Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. An excellent book about revolution. Highly recommend!

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Jameron
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Re: Last book(s) you read?

Post by Jameron » Mon Dec 04, 2017 6:53 pm

Tom Eaves wrote:Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. An excellent book about revolution. Highly recommend!
Hello Tom, welcome to We The Infected :D

I'm currently dipping into The Moon is a Harsh Mistress on my phone when I have twenty or so minutes to kill. It's more a re-read as I read it many moons ago
and wondered if it still had the magic it once had for me ... yep, it does.

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I have recently finished La Belle Sauvage (book one of The Book of Dust trilogy), the companion/sequel story to Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". I enjoyed it a lot as it wove it's way between the previous stories of Lyra, Lord Azrael, and Oxfordshire.

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"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was … himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."

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