Tosh
There Can Be Only One
backhanded but i'll fucken take it
Book Reviews
- Thread starter Brick
- Start date
Not at all! Your competition was a compulsive liar with a shitty YouTube channel, and a semi-closeted Nazi with a personality like sandpaper. You are head and shoulders above the others, I promise.
ABB
Mega Ultra Ultimate Magnificent Chief Moderator
@Tosh
@bconcrete uses a lot of relatively legal steroids and can probably sustain single-arm seizures better than most of us. So he would be my first pick. My second pick would be his other arm.
The Wanderer, Fritz Leiber. A planet (The Wanderer) suddenly appears in Earth orbit, wreaking havoc due to gravitational forces, first breaking up the moon and then causing disastrous tides and earthquakes on Earth. The story follows about a dozen different groups, some on Earth and some in space, as they navigate this rather unsettling development and try to get to the bottom of WTF is going on with this new planet. Intriguing story, but I didn't really love it due to the writing style. Lots of books jump from narrative character to narrative character (most notably the GoT series), but I didn't really think Leiber did a good enough job bringing us back to the setting for each, so I frequently found myself thinking "wait, who is this group again?". Many characters will suddenly due weird, out of character things with not much explanation. Also, was written about 60 years ago, and some parts didn't age well at all. Can't really recommend.
Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, Lawrence Bergreen. I had previously read Bergreen's account of the Magellan voyage but I think that review is on the old site. For those who failed history class, Marco Polo is more than some annoying game that little girls play at the pool. At just 17, he set out with his father and uncle along the Silk Road, chasing fortune as traders and intending to reach all the way into the Mongol Empire and make contact with Kublai Kahn. His travels would take him throughout China, but also through Persia, Afghanistan, Maylasia, India, and possibly parts of Africa. Upon his return he eventually joins the Venician war effort against rival Genoa, and is imprisoned along with a writer, to whom Marco tells his tales and it becomes the work Travels by Marco Polo written around the year 1300. Bergreen addresses some of the skepticism about Marco's tales; skepticism for good reason, as he is prone to exaggeration and outright fantasy (telling of eastern magicians casting spells to control storms, and the like). But some skeptics went so far as to claim Marco never made the journey at all; but, over the centuries, other contemporaneous accounts and modern verifications have pretty much settled the argument that he did indeed make this 24-year voyage, but he and his co-author likely spiced things up a good bit. Really interesting read, I enjoyed it.
Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, Lawrence Bergreen. I had previously read Bergreen's account of the Magellan voyage but I think that review is on the old site. For those who failed history class, Marco Polo is more than some annoying game that little girls play at the pool. At just 17, he set out with his father and uncle along the Silk Road, chasing fortune as traders and intending to reach all the way into the Mongol Empire and make contact with Kublai Kahn. His travels would take him throughout China, but also through Persia, Afghanistan, Maylasia, India, and possibly parts of Africa. Upon his return he eventually joins the Venician war effort against rival Genoa, and is imprisoned along with a writer, to whom Marco tells his tales and it becomes the work Travels by Marco Polo written around the year 1300. Bergreen addresses some of the skepticism about Marco's tales; skepticism for good reason, as he is prone to exaggeration and outright fantasy (telling of eastern magicians casting spells to control storms, and the like). But some skeptics went so far as to claim Marco never made the journey at all; but, over the centuries, other contemporaneous accounts and modern verifications have pretty much settled the argument that he did indeed make this 24-year voyage, but he and his co-author likely spiced things up a good bit. Really interesting read, I enjoyed it.
ABB
Mega Ultra Ultimate Magnificent Chief Moderator
Ever trip out on Planet 9? The wanderer may not be too far off...
ABB
Mega Ultra Ultimate Magnificent Chief Moderator
Something causing things way out there to move erratically. we're talking 10x farther than Pluto with like a 15,000 year orbit around the sun. that ain't worth kicking around?
ABB
Mega Ultra Ultimate Magnificent Chief Moderator
solid 10 min though. solid
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess. Written in 1964 but set is some sort of undefined near-future dystopian England, this follows the misadventures of a young street kid and his band of "droogs" (friends) who for the first third of the novel take part in a variety of heinous activities including robbery, rape, child rape, murder, etc. He is eventually caught, and after a couple of years in prison is subjected to a new and controversial (and somewhat cruel) therapy to "cure" him of his violent impulses. I remember the movie fairly well, and it seemed pretty faithful to the book (except the ending, but that's a longer story). Burgess, a linguist, created a sort of teenage slang/pidgin that he uses throughout the book when the main hooligans speak - and I mean A LOT. At first, I found this off-putting, but eventually you can figure out the words in context and as the story goes you'll find yourself understanding it pretty naturally. A very good book; brutal, but thought provoking.
The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane. An American classic, written in the 1890s and set during the Civil War. A youth has left his farm and enlisted in the union army, untested and naive. Would his courage stand in the face of horrific battle? Well, our young hero fails his first test and cuts and runs during an initial battle early in the story. Can he recover his courage and honor, and avoid consequences of his apparent cowardice? Thus begins the tale. Really, really good writing that actually holds up well after 130 years or so, making plain why this became a classic. Interesting story about the author; when the book started to get circulated among publishers and various literary types, those in the industry arranged a meeting with the then-unknown Crane. Given how accurately the book portrayed the atmosphere of war, they expected a grizzled old veteran of some kind to walk in, not the 23-year-old Stephen Crane who had somehow written this book so well.
bconcrete
VolksFAGGIN
I remember that book from mandatory reading in high school. Unlike some other mandatory reading, this one I remember being really good and quite engaging. Good call.
Ha, that's where I first encountered it too, maybe even in Jr. High. I still have a ton of old classics from high school and I'm doing some downsizing, so re-reading the ones I want to check out again before donating them, although this one won't be donated, it's got to go in the trash the condition is so bad because it's so old (cover price was 50 cents), missing a back cover and pages falling out. It's toast.
goodcat1337
Well-known member
Reading through DCC, I've been recommended some other stuff to try out. Any of yall read Red Rising? I've been hearing a lot about it, and will probably make that my next read once I'm done with book 3 of DCC.
bconcrete
VolksFAGGIN
Yeah, I've read the Red Rising series.
It's not BAD, it's engaging for sure, an easy read, and you'll be interested. But to me, they are very much your typical YA "Righteous Individual Fights The Evil Power Structure" books. The writing is solid, but it doesn't do anything that hasn't been done before, doesn't break new ground in any new ways, it's just solid. You'll read all of them, give them a 7.5/10, and never go back to it again would be my guess.
osubuckeye4
Well-known member
FIFY?
bconcrete
VolksFAGGIN
No.
It's YA style shit so it's like evil, twirl the moustache types versus can-do-no-wrong-young-paragon-of-virtue. I'm sure you're familiar with the trope, teenagers love that shit, adults are bored of it.