Sunday Morning Book Thread - 08-27-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: tankascribe)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Another contribution from the Horde. This little kitty enjoys reading the digital version...Gotta move with the times, yo!

"HOLLYWOOD" ENDINGS IN BOOKS

Today's little column is inspired by a couple of comments from naturalfake:

Welp, I need to give up writing book reviews of half-read novels on this here book thread.
Last week, I talked about the new novel, Whale Fall concerning a guy swallowed by a sperm whale, that is supposed be "scientifically accurate" in its depiction of his dilemma and efforts to find a way out.
So, to cut to the chase, the novel completely, and i mean absolutely, positively jumps off the reality rail in an effort to come up with a big, explosive, spectacular Hollywood ending that will not only get the protagonist out of the whale but will allow him to solve all his Daddy issues in one fell swoop.
It's really a stupid mess as the last quarter(?) or so of the book enters Hollyworld, the fantasy world were reality, physics, and consequence are all wiped away in an effort to give you the reader a big ole Hollywood ending.
Whale Fall is a book that would've and could've easily had a relatively quiet ending that kept the "realisticish" setting and given the character change that the author wanted, buuuuuut, he wasn't writing a book. He was writing a Hollywood movie of the cheesiest sort.
Sad.
Posted by: naturalfake at August 20, 2023 09:32 AM (QzZeQ)

And:

Maybe that would be an interesting topic.
Books that are actually written to be movies instead of books to be read.
There's nothing inherently wrong in trying to get the big bucks by having a movie-friendly story cuz that's where the big bucks are.
However, so many novels/stories are ruined by trying to give us a big crazy Hollywood ending instead of something more in character with their actual story.
Movies too, can be ruined in stretching for the HUGE eye-0melting climax. The Pope's Exorcist, I'm looking at you.
Posted by: naturalfake at August 20, 2023 09:44 AM (QzZeQ)

If you are writing a book with the intent of getting it made into a Hollywood movie, then you are probably writing for the wrong reasons. You might be better off spending the time and effort in crafting a screenplay. A novel intended for the screen would have to be adapted into a screenplay at some point anyway, so might as well do your best in writing in that genre instead of writing a novel. If the movie turns out well, then write a novelization afterwards or in conjunction with the movie.

Another risk in writing a story that is really intended for the big screen is that if Hollywood does come knocking on your door in order to turn your story into a movie, then they may decide to rewrite the story according to their vision and not yours. The result may not be at all what you intended. Or it might just be a huge mess. Look at what Peter Jackson did to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. It's just a complete disaster of a movie trilogy. Tolkien is rolling in grave over what was done to his beloved children's story.

As naturalfake points out, there is nothing inherently *wrong* in writing a novel with a Hollywood-style cinematic ending as long as it makes sense for the story. Throwing in a big spectacular ending just for the sake of spectacle may cause your audience to disengage from the story as they are not expecting that particular twist. Readers and audiences can be picky about sudden shifts in tone and style within a book or movie. An abrupt shift can cause a cognitive dissonance in the reader, removing them from the willing suspension of disbelief necessary for them to become invested in the story. On the other hand, when done well, the reader will go away with a positive reading experience, hopefully coming back and reading the story again and again because they enjoyed it so much the first time. Brandon Sanderson does a pretty good Hollywood-style ending in many of his books. Sometimes the ending is so crazy awesome there is no way Hollywood could ever capture it on screen.

What are some more examples of stories written with a "Hollywood" ending that doesn't work?

++++++++++

++++++++++

BOOKS BY MORONS

I've started reading your Sunday library thread and even dared to contribute to it last week (The Fall of the FBI.) I'm a 28-year US government analyst who seized upon my mandated covid sabbatical to write the novel that had been percolating in my mind for years. This is the sequel, The Deplorable Underground.
Would you consider sharing it with your readers? It's a pro-American, pro-MAGA adventure set in 2093 decades after a US civil war that divides the country into Blue and Red halves, and leads to an independent enlarged Texas Republic (sop to my relatives in Dallas) and four states seceding to join Canada.
My protagonists are lured back into the Diversity Justice Republic (blue) they thought they'd managed to escape for the still-red US. My male protagonist David goes astray while en route to rescue his wife Malia held captive in Anacosta (formerly Washington DC) and finds himself organizing a leading a band of downtrodden Deplorables against the Social Crediteers who rule the DJR. Yes, it helps to know something about UAVs and guerrilla warfare....
Thanks for your attention, and I look forward to joining the Sunday Library chat more regularly now that I know about it. Regards, Paula Weiss

Paula was kind enough to include a map of her re-imagined America:

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I read The Noticer by Andy Andrews. This little book is a self-help/personal growth book. An old man named Jones, who notices things that others miss, and who gives advice to people to help them gain a new perspective on their lives in Orange Beach, Alabama. The little stories are entertaining and informative.
It was weird how I came to read this book. I put two books on hold for my wife at our local library. A few days later when I went to pick them up, there were three books with the addition of The Noticer. I know I did not order it. I had never heard of the author or the book. I figured a librarian or the man upstairs wanted me to read it, so I did. Happy I did. It's an uplifting read.
Posted by: Zoltan at August 20, 2023 09:13 AM (SBhXX)

Comment: Hmmmm. Based on Zoltan's description and the description I found on Amazon, I do have to wonder if "Mr. Jones" may have been an angel walking among us, Michael Landon style. Also, the weird circumstances in which Zoltan came to read this book tends to point to a divine origin of sorts. I know "God works in mysterious ways" sounds like a cliché, but I'm a firm believer that He will give us a nudge in the right direction when we still our minds and listen. I've seen and experienced too many odd circumstances in recent years to discount that possibility.

+++++

For something completely different, thus week's recommendation is Candide by Voltaire. This. 1758 comedy focuses on suffering. How is a book on suffering funny? In this story Voltaire takes on the Optimists, who were very popular in the day. Candide is a man of simple mind, who meets up with his mentor Dr Pangloss and sets out on an adventure. Dr Pangloss believes that "All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds" no matter what tragedy befalls him, and many do. Essentially, Voltaire is ridiculing the Optimists of the day who misinterpreted Leibnitz to the point that they believed every incident in life was part of a greater benefit, refusing to see that man's free will means that evil can coexist with good. Candide and Pangloss experience the Lisbon earthquake, a shipwreck, and an auto-da-re, among other incidents, all the while with Pangloss repeating his "all is for the best" mantra, no matter how ridiculous he sounds. This is biting satire at its earliest, and quite funny.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at August 20, 2023 09:35 AM (rDw6A)

Comment: I have only heard about Voltaire, but have never read any of his works. Perhaps that is something that should be remedied. I do like a good satire. However, I may not be well-versed enough in contemporary events of his day to fully understand the humor.

+++++

This week, I read Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. This was my daughter's selection for Family Book Club.
It is presented in interview style. An unnamed character of the shadowy, ultra-deep state variety interviews the scientist and military personnel who find and recover pieces of an ancient alien robot.
Of course, it all goes terribly wrong.
For sci-fi, it was really light reading, which is probably why I enjoyed it. Sci-fi is usually not my thing, but that ancient alien theme appeals to me.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at August 20, 2023 09:42 AM (OX9vb)

Comment: I think it's a "Family Book Club" is a really cool idea and that everyone gets to choose a book to read. How do the logistics work? I'm guessing that you don't all go out and purchase your own copies of each book, though maybe you do. Or do you check them out digitally from on online library service?

+++++

I've also been reading Lost in the Middle: Midlife and the Grace of God by Paul Tripp. I have one of those birthdays ending in "0" coming up - yes, I'm turning 30, how did you know??! - and the losses, regrets, and consequences of my sins are adding up. I'm finding this book immensely helpful.
Posted by: screaming in digital at August 20, 2023 09:49 AM (aBJcM)

Comment: I, too, will be turning 30 years old in the not-too-distant future (next year about this time), give or take a couple of decades. As I grow older, I do find my perspective on life changing quite a bit. I've recently been undertaking a spiritual journey of sorts this year. It's been highly rewarding and I'm very glad I'm taking those steps. I try not to dwell too much on my past sins, but I do try to "do better" with the time I have left to me, perhaps atoning for them in some small way.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (940 Moron-recommended books so far!)

+-----+-----+-----+-----+

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS WEEK:

Riverworld Book 3 - The Dark Design by Philip José Farmer -- I already have books 1, 2, and 4, so I might as well finish off the series (book 5 is on its way!)...

Riverworld Book 5 - Gods of the Riverworld by Philip José Farmer -- And it's here!

Mag Force 7 Book 2 - Robot Blues by Margaret Weis & Don Perrin

Nora Kelly Book 4 - Dead Mountain by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison -- A reliable source (YMMV) informed me that this would be an excellent science fiction anthology to add to my collection.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Knights of the Black Earth by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin -- Xris Cyborg hunts his former friend who tried to kill him for unknown reasons...only to discover that his former friend went from a he to a she to avoid detection...

The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven -- Louis Wu returns to the Ringworld to save it from destruction (based on incorrect calculations Larry Niven made in his first Ringworld story).

Old Bones by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- The first book of their Nora Kelly series. What really happened to the Donner Party? Is there gold up in them thar hills?

The Scorpion's Tail by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson unravel the mystery behind a mummified body found in an old ghost town in New Mexico

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or discussion topics that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 08-20-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 present!

Posted by: DanMan at August 27, 2023 09:00 AM (8uzBS)

2 oh yeah, gonna be a good day...

Posted by: DanMan at August 27, 2023 09:00 AM (8uzBS)

3 Tolle Lege
Nothing new today, maybe Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe series book continued

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 09:01 AM (MOY79)

4 Hello, fellow bibliophiliacs!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:01 AM (Ak1+U)

5 Good morning horde. Can't wait to read "Deplorable Underground."

Posted by: TRex at August 27, 2023 09:01 AM (IQ6Gq)

6 no need to nood, perfesser tole us he was about to post

Posted by: DanMan at August 27, 2023 09:02 AM (8uzBS)

7 Walking through a retailer last week and a book caught my eye. A Song for Achilles. Always us for a Greek myth retelling, so I flipped through the pages. It had four, count 'em, four pages of blurbs saying how great it was. Read most, until I got to one particular one. It was by the Advocate, gushing about the story. I stopped right there and put the book down. Researched it at home, and of course, it's about the gay sex between Achilles and Patroclus. It won an award, of course....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:03 AM (Angsy)

8 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:03 AM (7EjX1)

9 That 'these pants' photo writes its own jokes.

Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:05 AM (7EjX1)

10 hiya

Posted by: JT at August 27, 2023 09:05 AM (T4tVD)

11 Hollywood-ready novels are dialog- and action-heavy with a predictably diverse cast of characters.

None of which are bad in and of themselves, but it's gotten to where I can tell if a novel is just an extended elevator pitch.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:05 AM (Ak1+U)

12 I'm continuing with books from the last century -- and doesn't that make us feel old? This one came out in the 1970s when I was in high school, but it's set in the late 1950s, when I wasn't around.

It's titled "Marco Polo If You Can," an entry in the Blackford Oakes series by William F. Buckley Jr. Oakes is a CIA agent -- or at least he was; an early scene in this novel sees him dismissed from the agency. He must have been recalled to service, because the opening scene has him on trial in the U.S.S.R. after the plane he was in crashed. Any resemblance to the Gary Powers U-2 incident is strictly intentional.

This is the second Oakes book for me, and I recently acquired two others. As the series had only 11 books, this looks to be another one I'm collecting.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 27, 2023 09:05 AM (p/isN)

13 I think the pants guy is being stimulated by the artist.

Posted by: JT at August 27, 2023 09:06 AM (T4tVD)

14 My Bible is packed in one of the million boxes down in my basement, so I got a second one to tide me over until I sort through all my stuff (ha!). I found a "C.S.Lewis Bible, For Reading, Reflection, and Inspiration", with excerpts from his writing interspersed throughout.

No Pauline Baynes illustrations of anthropomorphic critters, alas.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:07 AM (Ak1+U)

15 Just a little pick with Paula's map. The moment Hawaii detached from the US, China would colonize it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:08 AM (Angsy)

16 12 I'm continuing with books from the last century -- and doesn't that make us feel old?
-----

Wait, the last century is the 19th!!

Right?!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:08 AM (Ak1+U)

17 Eek! My drive-by comment got picked up and put in a post! Thanks, Perfessor! Would love to hear more about your spiritual journey, if we have a chance to chat in Corsicana.

Posted by: screaming in digital at August 27, 2023 09:09 AM (aBJcM)

18 That map!

No way Michigan joins Canada - unless we conquer it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:10 AM (llXky)

19 Picked up "Ireland" by Frank Delaney, a short novel of stories from Irish history.

Enjoying it immensely.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at August 27, 2023 09:10 AM (5B8p4)

20 That 'these pants' photo writes its own jokes.

Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:05 AM (7EjX1)

I'm sure they all have an explosive ending!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:12 AM (Angsy)

21 Another sale for The Deplorable Gourmet. We gave a copy to our nephew and his wife with a brief explanation about the humor and inside jokes. Just got a text asking if it is still available. They think her step mom would enjoy both the recipes and the humor. They placed the order last night. (The contagion continues to spread.)

Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:12 AM (7EjX1)

22 On a whim, bought long ago a volume of many of the correspondence between Voltaire and Frederick the Great.

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 09:12 AM (MOY79)

23 Regarding "cinematic" novels, Evelyn Waugh's books use lots of dialog and show rather than tell. He did not like Hollywood, visited the place because he was always short of money, and wrote The Loved One based on what he saw (it is not a flattering portrait).

It was subsequently made into a terrible film, that only vaguely references the book, proving his point.

Yet Brideshead Revisited's television adaptation has to be one of the finest ever undertaken, and part of that is because of Waugh's writing style.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:13 AM (llXky)

24 How do we define "Hollywood ending"?

To me, that means happiness for the protagonist. Most producers want the audience to leave in a good mood. (I know I do.) The goal is to get repeat business.

A book, however, can end with the reader depressed, and it doesn't matter. The publisher has already got your money; you're not going to buy multiple copies.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 27, 2023 09:13 AM (p/isN)

25 I've been reading a real oddity: _Salammbo_, by Gustave Flaubert, the guy who wrote Madame Bovary. After examining the lives and infidelities of the French upper middle class -- and getting dragged into court for it -- he decided to write a sword-and-sandal novel set in ancient Carthage. He got very into the research, pestering scholars and archaeologists, even taking a trip to Tunisia (in the 1850s, when that wasn't an easy thing to do).

I like it a lot. Others may find it slow, with too much description, but it fits my guiding principle for fiction: that's what it would be like. I can believe I'm reading about people in Carthage.

And the world is far more fantastic and interesting than 99 percent of the politically-correct Extruded Fantasy Product on the bookstore shelves.

It's based on a real event: the revolt of mercenaries after the First Punic War. In real life, of course, it was because the Carthaginians tried to stiff their hired soldiers and the mercs thought that Carthage was ripe for looting. In the novel it's driven by the doomed romance between the mercenary leader Matho and the Carthaginian maiden Salammbo.

Recommended. I may even look at Bovary again.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 09:13 AM (QZxDR)

26 I've started a new habit with some of my books: highlighting and writing in the margins. I've never done that; it felt like a desecration. But my reading increasingly deals with the power and importance of words in history, religion, culture, imagination, beauty and other matters. I come across examples in poetry, literature, religious readings, academic analyses, and essays that I want to notate and recall more easily.

This is a very brief and inadequate description of my reasons for this. But I can say that the short time I've been doing this helps to see wisdom and beauty in very diverse books.

I don't know if this is a common practice among the Horde.

Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:13 AM (7EjX1)

27 I'm with you, A.H. No way! Not unless MI/WI/MN is consolidated into the Lake Empire of Michigoomi

And the ultimate indignity is Ohio being part of the Real USA, but not Michigan.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:15 AM (Ak1+U)

28 Sure Paula Weiss. We buy Deplorable Underground and end up on some OGA watch list. Not falling for that again.

Just kidding, heading into the cart today.

Posted by: Candidus at August 27, 2023 09:16 AM (886E0)

29 >>Books that are actually written to be movies instead of books to be read.

Books by Matthew Reilly are like a Michael Bay movie - in a good way. Pure action fun. Doubt he does this intentionally, just his style. Highly recommend his "Contest" and "Great Zoo of China."

Posted by: Lizzy at August 27, 2023 09:17 AM (avru5)

30 No way Michigan joins Canada -- unless we conquer it.
--------------
Just try, pussy!

You're O for five so far including the Pig War!

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at August 27, 2023 09:17 AM (krqg6)

31 Now reading the first of the Malta anthologies by Raconteur Press out of North Texas, entitled "Ghosts of Malta". I'm a few stories in and all of these have been intriguing and exceptionally well written so far.

Others in the four-book series are Knights of Malta, Saints of Malta, and Falcons of Malta.

The thing I keep hearing from this group when they're requesting stories to be submitted for an upcoming anthology is that stories must primarily be entertaining to read. That's a good focus to adhere to.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 27, 2023 09:18 AM (qPw5n)

32 Kitty is reading the Necronomicon. And taking notes.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:19 AM (Ak1+U)

33 Morning horde
I want to thank whoever recommended Stone's Fall. I'm listening to it on Audible and it is excellent. So many twists and turns. It runs a total of about 24 hours. It's definitely worth it.

Finished reading I'll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara about her obsessive journey to find the Golden State Killer. It was good but not great. It was sad that it took over her life and she passed away before he was found and arrested.

Currently reading The Rival Queens by Nancy Goldstone. History of the battle between Catherine de'Medici and her daughter Marguerite de Valois. Makes me glad I'm a peasant.

Posted by: Mpfs at August 27, 2023 09:19 AM (G5ty7)

34 Right before bed I read James Rollins' "The Starless Crown", which is a pretty generic fantasy novel (volume 1 of a series, it seems) about...fantasy journey stuff? Impending doom? I dunno, I'm along for the ride and it's a library book, so no harm no foul if it's a clunker.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:20 AM (Ak1+U)

35 I'm with you, A.H. No way! Not unless MI/WI/MN is consolidated into the Lake Empire of Michigoomi

And the ultimate indignity is Ohio being part of the Real USA, but not Michigan.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:15 AM (Ak1+U)
---
I just looked it up and the combined National Guard troops of those three states outnumber Canada's army. Shall we annex Ontario?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:20 AM (llXky)

36 >>A book, however, can end with the reader depressed, and it doesn't matter. The publisher has already got your money; you're not going to buy multiple copies.

And books that leave you wanting to shoot yourself?
I threw out Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island" after I finished it. Knowing the movies based on his books, such as "Gone, Baby, Gone" it is his thing to have a depressing ending, eh?

Posted by: Lizzy at August 27, 2023 09:20 AM (avru5)

37 I took your suggestions to heart last week and reworked the cover. Comments welcome.

https://is.gd/FkmXpi

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:21 AM (9yUzE)

38 One book specifically written to be made into a movie even had a lead character pretty much specified: The Legacy of Heriot, by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes, and Jerry Pournelle. Written in the late 80's, the protagonist is an Austrian former UN soldier with extensive combat experience.

Posted by: Candidus at August 27, 2023 09:21 AM (886E0)

39 Sorry, spelling: The Legacy of Heorot

Posted by: Candidus at August 27, 2023 09:22 AM (886E0)

40 I took your suggestions to heart last week and reworked the cover. Comments welcome.

https://is.gd/FkmXpi

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:21 AM (9yUzE)

VTK, is that a guy with long hair blowing in the wind, or a woman?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:23 AM (Angsy)

41 I'm fascinated by the concept of a different political division of this continent. Ever hear of the proposed state of Franklin?

But when the splits come, I don't think the individual states will keep their boundaries. Especially California. I think the northern mountain area would gladly break away from SoCal and the Bay Area.

And no way would Cook County remain in the U.S., except to attempt to subvert it.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 27, 2023 09:23 AM (p/isN)

42 Listening to (is that in keeping with the thread?) "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. Clocking in at 45 and-a-half hours, it seems quite the audio book bargain. Enjoying it, though it took about 20 hours to cross into "Act II" and start getting interesting.

Posted by: MacphersonStruts at August 27, 2023 09:24 AM (iGxXm)

43 Candidus, I did not know that. I really enjoyed those books.

The technology exists to make any of my favorite SF novels into movies/series, but we're in a place right now where I want NONE of them made into movies/series.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:25 AM (Ak1+U)

44 How do we define "Hollywood ending"?

To me, that means happiness for the protagonist. Most producers want the audience to leave in a good mood. (I know I do.) The goal is to get repeat business.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 27, 2023 09:13 AM (p/isN)
---
Increasingly, this means that characters who should have died are miraculously alive at the end. In a remarkable convergence, earlier this week I posted a column at bleedingfool.com highlighting the decline and fall of the lightsaber. It used to be rarely seen, always significant, and now they're pretty much in every shot.

And then a day later, Disney's latest show featured a character who was impaled by a lightsaber, but inexplicably survived the same sort of wound that killed Liam Neeson's hapless Jedi and Harrison Ford.

My question is this: can anyone keep remain enaged when these death-defying events regularly happen? Once certain death is now reversible, it seems there's no point.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)

45 One thing I always look for in a map of the Post-Divorce US is a land bridge to San Diego. The New Republic has to have Pacific access. From Camp Pendleton south to the Mexican border, across to Texas.

(otherwise I am left behind the lines).

Posted by: Candidus at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (886E0)

46 Listening to (is that in keeping with the thread?) "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. Clocking in at 45 and-a-half hours, it seems quite the audio book bargain. Enjoying it, though it took about 20 hours to cross into "Act II" and start getting interesting.
Posted by: MacphersonStruts at August 27, 2023 09:24 AM (iGxXm)
---
It's well worth the effort to get to the end.

"Journey before destination." - Dalinar

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (BpYfr)

47 Also reading "As It Turns Out", a book about Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick by her sister Alice Sedgwick Wohl. The Sedgwicks were/are of old New England stock, and descriptions of the stultifyingly proper and hidebound ways of the Andover/Groton/Haaaavuhd life kind of show why many of their offspring chose different paths. Edie was the spoiled baby of the family and a wild child who enchanted everyone in her orbit, especially the fringe elements.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (Ak1+U)

48 That map!

So, South Carolina and Florida are part of the commie blue east coast?

I made my own map along similar lines, but broke it down further to account for red counties in blue states. Hawaii was independent. West of the Sierras was the People's Democratic Republic of Pacifica whose flag was a rainbow flag with a pink peace sign in the center. On the east coast was the Atlantic Democratic Union, stretching from Maine to Norfolk. The Great Lakes and upper midwest formed a country, and the rest formed the North American Federation. Chicago was an independent city-state; like Singapore only violent and dysfunctional.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:27 AM (9yUzE)

49 This week I read most of the first issue of "Savage Realms," an e-zine I bought off Amazon. It's an anthology of Sword and Sorcery themed short stories. Basically, an attempt at a pulp revival. The first issue is an obvious homage to Robert E Howard in general, and Conan the Barbarian in particular.

So far, I'm enjoying it. Fun stories, easy to read in one sitting. And while the first three stories each featured the Barbarian archetype as the main hero, the main character isn't actually Conan, so there is enough variety in personality and style that it doesn't feel repetitive.

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 27, 2023 09:27 AM (Lhaco)

50 "One certain death is now reversible, it seems there's no point.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd"

That's how I feel about video games. You should get one chance.

Posted by: fd at August 27, 2023 09:28 AM (vFG9F)

51 VTK, is that a guy with long hair blowing in the wind, or a woman?

If it isn't obviously a woman, than my drawing skills are worse than I thought.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:28 AM (9yUzE)

52 The technology exists to make any of my favorite SF novels into movies/series, but we're in a place right now where I want NONE of them made into movies/series.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 09:25 AM (Ak1+U)

Agreed. Another one of their's (minus Barnes) I'd love to see made after the creative destruction of Hollywood is The Mote in God's Eye.

Posted by: Candidus at August 27, 2023 09:28 AM (886E0)

53 That map!

No way Michigan joins Canada - unless we conquer it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:10 AM (llXky)

And if we did, we'd take a slice of Ohio for nostalgia's sake. And we'd cut everyone off from the Great Lakes, except those who signed our treaty.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at August 27, 2023 09:29 AM (/+bwe)

54 but if Deplorable Underground is the sequel, where's the predecessor, Fall of the FBI?

Inquiring minds don't like to start in the middle.

Posted by: yara at August 27, 2023 09:30 AM (xr64u)

55 Increasingly, this means that characters who should have died are miraculously alive at the end. In a remarkable convergence, earlier this week I posted a column at bleedingfool.com highlighting the decline and fall of the lightsaber. It used to be rarely seen, always significant, and now they're pretty much in every shot.

And then a day later, Disney's latest show featured a character who was impaled by a lightsaber, but inexplicably survived the same sort of wound that killed Liam Neeson's hapless Jedi and Harrison Ford.

My question is this: can anyone keep remain enaged when these death-defying events regularly happen? Once certain death is now reversible, it seems there's no point.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)
----
Critical Drinker also pointed out that being impaled by a lightsaber is about as lethal as a papercut these days.

The lightsaber was once regarded as one of the most dangerous, lethal weapons in the galaxy. Only someone with Jedi abilities could wield them (or a very, very small few with exceptional dexterity).

Now they are about as ubiquitous as a Swiss Army Knife.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:30 AM (BpYfr)

56 The lightsaber was once regarded as one of the most dangerous, lethal weapons in the galaxy. Only someone with Jedi abilities could wield them (or a very, very small few with exceptional dexterity).

Now they are about as ubiquitous as a Swiss Army Knife.

Hollywood mentality. "Light sabers are cool! So thousands of light sabers are thousands of times as cool."

It doesn't work that way.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:31 AM (9yUzE)

57 This week I read most of the first issue of "Savage Realms," an e-zine I bought off Amazon. It's an anthology of Sword and Sorcery themed short stories. Basically, an attempt at a pulp revival.

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 27, 2023 09:27 AM (Lhaco)

Not my genre interest, but that's the kind of stuff we need happening. I wonder if the lockdowns instigated some of this? As a person trying to dip a toe into the writing world, this is of interest to me. Places to send stories, even online because there are few general interest magazines that buy stories anymore unless from established names.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:32 AM (Angsy)

58 That's how I feel about video games. You should get one chance.

Posted by: fd at August 27, 2023 09:28 AM (vFG9F)
---
Meh, they're time-wasters. It's like losing a game of solitaire. Reshuffle, play again.

When one writes fiction, the plausibility of the world is important, and if there is violence, it has to be credible. It's one thing to have the traditional detective/cop story where a character gets the standard flesh wound in a shoulder that clears up with a sling, but even that can only get used so much before it loses any dramatic effect.

I mean, I get TV shows where the main character's danger is mostly a puzzle to be solved and so you watch to see how the writers manage it, but in a novel, it seems silly.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:32 AM (llXky)

59 For a perfect example of wait a minute this guy should be dead, check out Richard Neely's novel The Plastic Nightmare and the movie Wolfgang Petersen made of it (movie title: Shattered) with Tom Berenger, Bob Hoskins, and Greta Scacchi. The movie's fun, but when you get to the finish and see how they save the character in question you'll wonder whether the director, screenwriter, or both had a few too many before shooting that day's footage.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 09:33 AM (a/4+U)

60 Oh, silly me. it's not called Fall of the FBI. It's the Antifan Girlfriend.

Posted by: yara at August 27, 2023 09:33 AM (xr64u)

61 I always thought of a lightsaber as a glorified switchblade. And they were rare.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 27, 2023 09:34 AM (p/isN)

62 Hollywood mentality. "Light sabers are cool! So thousands of light sabers are thousands of times as cool."

It doesn't work that way.
Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:31 AM (9yUzE)
----
Especially since several of the series are set after the fall of the Galactic Republic, when Jedi were hunted to extinction. Lightsabers should be exceptionally rare, valuable, and treasured possessions by those few who are fortunate to find one. Crafting one is a right of passage for Jedi. It's a difficult task and signifies one's transition from Padawan to full Jedi status.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:34 AM (BpYfr)

63 If it isn't obviously a woman, than my drawing skills are worse than I thought.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:28 AM (9yUzE)

I just couldn't tell if it was hair or something else. The fact that the pant legs are rather trim sort of leads me to it being a woman. You can't get men's pants without balloon sized legs. I much prefer the style from the late 50s/60s on men's pants. I guess it's because we're too fat now, you need room for elephant legs.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:35 AM (Angsy)

64 Now they are about as ubiquitous as a Swiss Army Knife.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:30 AM (BpYfr)
---
Did you read my column? That's almost exactly how I put it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:35 AM (llXky)

65 When one writes fiction, the plausibility of the world is important, and if there is violence, it has to be credible. It's one thing to have the traditional detective/cop story where a character gets the standard flesh wound in a shoulder that clears up with a sling, but even that can only get used so much before it loses any dramatic effect.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:32 AM (llXky)
---
This is one of my gripes with Preston & Child's Agent Pendergast series. The hero suffers grievous bodily injuries that should kill him more than once or at the very least significantly maim him for life. But in the very next novel, he may not be "fine" but he's more or less fully functional...until he gets wounded again at the end of the book.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:38 AM (BpYfr)

66 That's how I feel about video games. You should get one chance.

I finished Stormblood last night; and I died several times on the way.

I just couldn't tell if it was hair or something else. The fact that the pant legs are rather trim sort of leads me to it being a woman.

I should figure out a way to make the boobies bigger. Kinda hard to see 'em with that big ass gun in the way.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:38 AM (9yUzE)

67 This week I read Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child. Dr Jeremy Logan, enigmologist, goes deep into the Adirondacks to an artists' lodge to finish a monograph he has been trying to finish for months. He needs the peace and quiet to finally wrap it up. Unfortunately for him, there have been a few hikers in the area that have been killed by a bear, or a wolf, or something, always during a full moon.... Logan is asked to add his unique expertise to the investigation by a university friend who is now a ranger, and things rapidly escalate from there. In the area lives a family who have completely separated themselves from society, and rumors about them have spread for years. Once again, Lincoln Child takes folklore and adds some modern science to provide an interesting story. The setting of a nearly impenetrable forest so close to major metropolitan areas adds to the mystery. This is book number five in the Jeremy Logan series.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at August 27, 2023 09:38 AM (k4luL)

68 Richard "Ya Boy Zack" has done several videos about comics which are (in his opinion) obviously created as pitches for Netflix series. Some of his criteria:

-- present-day big-city setting (cheap to film)
-- characters with superpowers that don't require a lot of VFX to depict (telepathy: just put a finger to your temple and look constipated; fast healing: just don't bother with injury makeup; invulnerability: just don't bother with blood squibs; etc.)
-- characters defined by identity check-boxes ("she's a differently-abled genderqueer Muslim Pacific Islander")
-- yet characters without a lot of vivid personal details, so that whatever flavor-of-the-week actress can be cast in the role
-- "focus on relationships" so you can have a lot of scenes of people talking to each other rather than doing stuff (cheap plus actors love that shit)
-- comics or geek culture references that your divorced aunt will recognize

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 09:38 AM (QZxDR)

69 Especially since several of the series are set after the fall of the Galactic Republic, when Jedi were hunted to extinction. Lightsabers should be exceptionally rare, valuable, and treasured possessions by those few who are fortunate to find one. Crafting one is a right of passage for Jedi. It's a difficult task and signifies one's transition from Padawan to full Jedi status.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:34 AM (BpYfr)
---
When they showed kindergartners doing group weapons training in Episode II I thought it was nonsense on stilts. NO.

If Jedi are about peace and wisdom, weapon training doesn't start until they're 13 or so. Until then, move rocks, stand on your head, find peace. Talk about breaking canon, didn't Yoda make a huge deal about how Luke needs to put the damn weapons away, yet there he is, teaching the little tykes how to defeat blaster fire before they're big enough to ride a bicycle.

That's Hitler Jugend territory.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:39 AM (llXky)

70 My question is this: can anyone keep remain enaged when these death-defying events regularly happen? Once certain death is now reversible, it seems there's no point.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)

My 11 year old grandson got very much into "The Clone Wars" animated series, which I freely admit has much better writing than any of the movies after the first 3. But although it was a favorite character of his, I was rather disgusted to find that Darth Maul actually survived being chopped in half by a light saber and came back to be a significant character. It's an admission that they can't come up with decent new characters, so they just resort to magical ways to resurrect old ones. But Maul did look kinda cool with spider legs.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 27, 2023 09:39 AM (q3gwH)

71 How come Oklahoma City gets marked on the map? St. Louis I understand; it's a port. But so is Catoosa, just outside Tulsa. T-Town should get labeled.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 27, 2023 09:39 AM (p/isN)

72 Please, it's not even close to a phaser.

Let me know when you can set your light saber to "wide field."

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 27, 2023 09:41 AM (RIvkX)

73 Richard "Ya Boy Zack" has done several videos about comics which are (in his opinion) obviously created as pitches for Netflix series. Some of his criteria:

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 09:38 AM QZxDR)
---
Since one way of looking at a comic book is as a storyboard for a movie/television episode, I can see how that might work.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:41 AM (BpYfr)

74 Please, it's not even close to a phaser.

Let me know when you can set your light saber to "wide field."
Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 27, 2023 09:41 AM (RIvkX)
---
In Margaret Weis' Star of the Guardians series, she has a twist on the lightsaber. It's not only a weapon that can be wielded just like a traditional lightsaber, but the wielder can switch it to "shield mode" to protect the wielder from weapons fire. It tends to drain a lot more energy in that mode, though. And as its partly powered by the physical strength and stamina of the wielder, that can become a plot point.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:43 AM (BpYfr)

75 Sorta off topic but if your a fan of true crime or sports figures who are terrible people try these podcasts.

Small Town Murder and Crime In Sports. Two comedians who weave the tale with gusto. Warning: lots of swearing and stuff.

Posted by: Mpfs at August 27, 2023 09:43 AM (G5ty7)

76 My 11 year old grandson got very much into "The Clone Wars" animated series, which I freely admit has much better writing than any of the movies after the first 3. But although it was a favorite character of his, I was rather disgusted to find that Darth Maul actually survived being chopped in half by a light saber and came back to be a significant character. It's an admission that they can't come up with decent new characters, so they just resort to magical ways to resurrect old ones. But Maul did look kinda cool with spider legs.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 27, 2023 09:39 AM (q3gwH)
---
Yes, that's the other part of it. Make a new villain! Come up with a new character!

The last book of the Dragonlance books I read was the one where a villain buried under tons of rock in a previous book was inexplicably hunting the heroes. It was not something to take lightly - I threw it with great force.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:43 AM (llXky)

77 I should figure out a way to make the boobies bigger. Kinda hard to see 'em with that big ass gun in the way.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:38 AM (9yUzE)

Yeah, I had to deduct 2 points because they weren't visible.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:44 AM (Angsy)

78 Having only a superficial knowledge of 2020 election fraud claims, I sought a detailed source, and it looks like Joseph Fried's 2023 book "Debunked" fills the bill.

Posted by: Peel gp A Grape at August 27, 2023 09:44 AM (MvF+J)

79 Perfesser: sure, a comic is not that different from a storyboard . . .

. . . except that in a comic you've got an infinite budget for sets, actors, costumes, locations, effects, etc. Consequently it's suspicious when comics DON'T take advantage of that.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 09:44 AM (QZxDR)

80 I want to thank whoever recommended Stone's Fall. I'm listening to it on Audible and it is excellent. So many twists and turns. It runs a total of about 24 hours. It's definitely worth it.

Posted by: Mpfs

You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoy it. It is my favorite novel now; I have read it several times and still enjoy it. It is such a cleverly written story.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at August 27, 2023 09:45 AM (k4luL)

81 If Jedi are about peace and wisdom, weapon training doesn't start until they're 13 or so. Until then, move rocks, stand on your head, find peace. Talk about breaking canon, didn't Yoda make a huge deal about how Luke needs to put the damn weapons away, yet there he is, teaching the little tykes how to defeat blaster fire before they're big enough to ride a bicycle.

That's Hitler Jugend territory.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:39 AM (llXky)
----
That's a good point. You'd expect to find the children in a meditative pose, or perhaps strengthening their body via repetitive chores, like Shaolin monks.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:45 AM (BpYfr)

82 . . . except that in a comic you've got an infinite budget for sets, actors, costumes, locations, effects, etc. Consequently it's suspicious when comics DON'T take advantage of that.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 09:44 AM (QZxDR)
---
That leads to the problem of power creep, where to add dramatic tension THE WORLD IS IN DANGER.

Every. Damn. Time. It's what happens.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:47 AM (llXky)

83 Meh! If you've seen one ~~cat laying on an open book looking like he's reading~~ light saber you've seen 'em all.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 27, 2023 09:49 AM (991eG)

84 >>Right before bed I read James Rollins' "The Starless Crown", which is a pretty generic fantasy novel (volume 1 of a series, it seems) about...fantasy journey stuff? Impending doom?

I read one of his Sigma series books, The Sixth Extinction, and it was fun. Not knowing the characters' back stories from previous books didn't matter.

Posted by: Lizzy at August 27, 2023 09:49 AM (avru5)

85 -- "focus on relationships" so you can have a lot of scenes of people talking to each other rather than doing stuff (cheap plus actors love that shit)

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 09:38 AM (QZxDR)
---
The problem is that the writers are shallow and vapid people who are incapable of writing good dialog or relatable characters.

It's interesting that the only 'small story' films you see today tend to be religious. The mainstream has lost any concept of the human condition. It's all diversity check boxes.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:50 AM (llXky)

86 That map doesn't show the military bases. I believe that would be important as to who would controls those bases.

Posted by: dantesed at August 27, 2023 09:51 AM (88xKn)

87 in a comic you've got an infinite budget for sets, actors, costumes, locations, effects, etc. Consequently it's suspicious when comics DON'T take advantage of that.

One of the many comics groups that fill my Facebook feed posted a page that was entirely two people seated at a table talking. For nine panels.

Completely misses the point of comics.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 27, 2023 09:51 AM (p/isN)

88 And not only is the world in danger, there's only one person who can stop the disaster.

That one person is of course opposed by all the bureaucratic fools in sight, but that person will Bend the Rules and/or Stop at Nothing to do what must be done.

Of how the main character's psychic wounds from the past are healed during all this, we will not speak...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 09:51 AM (a/4+U)

89 How come Oklahoma City gets marked on the map? St. Louis I understand; it's a port. But so is Catoosa, just outside Tulsa. T-Town should get labeled.
Posted by: Weak Geek

I was more concerned that OK didn't go with TX. That seems more likely to me.

Posted by: She Hobbit at August 27, 2023 09:51 AM (ftFVW)

90 78 Maybe, have 5 books on 2020 election already

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 09:52 AM (MOY79)

91 That map doesn't show the military bases. I believe that would be important as to who would controls those bases.

Posted by: dantesed at August 27, 2023 09:51 AM (88xKn)
---
Yes, and the adherence to state lines is without precedent. West Virginia split off because the tension with Richmond was irreconcilable. I know some folks envision urban enclaves, but those would have been reduced by sieges and surrender in a matter of days.

Geographic boundaries would become more important. Again, look at the example of Spain - the provinces didn't vote, it came down to how the garrisons declared.

Obligatory Long Live Death plus now completed.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:54 AM (llXky)

92
Of how the main character's psychic wounds from the past are healed during all this, we will not speak...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 09:51 AM (a/4+U)
---
She (it's always a she now) has the power to save humanity and always has - her struggle is to accept her awesomeness and then violently destroy those who don't.

Stunning and brave, that.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:55 AM (llXky)

93 Question for the Horde. I'm well past 29 and find myself reading, reciting, and enjoying poetry more and more. Partly for the physical aspects of meter, rhyme and word usage and for the way they combine to stimulate my imagination to visualize and see meanings (at least to me) beyond the subject of the poem. It might be centuries old like Spenser's Faerie Queen and Shakespeare's Sonnets or modern verse from Malcolm Guite, Wendell Berry's Sabbath Poems, or TS Eliot. The greater life experience and wider reading that can come from getting older enhances my appreciation of poetry. I might have 'understood' a poem in college days but fifty years later that level seems inadequate for what was written.

Anyone else going through this?

Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:56 AM (7EjX1)

94 @89 --

I thought that, too, but maybe we were wanting to show our independence on a smaller scale.

Oklahoma is not the tail to Texas' dog.

Posted by: Weak Geek, regretting the SEC move in advance at August 27, 2023 09:57 AM (p/isN)

95
(1/2)
I rarely encounter a book for which I have some knowledge of the author. It is rarer still that the book relates an extraordinary personal story. Such a book and person is “The Burden and Blessing of Memory”, by Ann Jaffe. Born in 1931 in Eastern Poland, Ann and her family were Jewish. They resided in an area that became the killing fields - those portions of Eastern Europe in which the Nazis simply killed Jews in place rather than send them to concentration camps to be killed. Two events of happenstance kept her and her family from perishing when Jews were being rounded up to be killed and, ultimately, her family survived by living in Belarusian forests.

She recounts the horrors that unfolded to her family and Jews in her village and from September 1, 1939, to the crucial change that occurred when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, and July 4th, 1944, when she and her family were liberated by the advancing Soviet Army. Her subsequent travels are related - through displaced persons’ camps, Canada, and finally the United States, where she is alive today and a good friend of my mother-in-law.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 27, 2023 09:58 AM (xG4kz)

96 I thought that, too, but maybe we were wanting to show our independence on a smaller scale.

Oklahoma is not the tail to Texas' dog.

Posted by: Weak Geek, regretting the SEC move in advance at August 27, 2023 09:57 AM (p/isN)
---
I thought Texas was really just Baja Oklahoma.

(Dan Jenkins reference, for those who missed it.)

BTW, he kind of dropped out of view. I read a few of his books and they were quite witty.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:59 AM (llXky)

97
(2/2)
Ann has spoken about her experiences to innumerable groups; some were recorded and are online. Here she is talking to students at Villanova - https://youtu.be/OQuWM6veMOo?si=Xu1zHgD_scE74XlQ. Here she is talking at Mississippi State - https://vimeo.com/30390185.

“Ann tells her story not from a place of unresolved hatred, but from a place of tolerance, demonstrating the transformative impact of kindness.” I cannot recommend Ann’s story and this book highly enough.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 27, 2023 09:59 AM (xG4kz)

98 I see Jenkins died in 2019, but he kept writing into the Aughts. His cultural moment was the 70s though.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 10:02 AM (llXky)

99
I've raced in carts - shopping carts.

Adult beverages may have been involved.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at August 27, 2023 10:02 AM (xG4kz)

100 They think her step mom would enjoy both the recipes and the humor. They placed the order last night. (The contagion continues to spread.)

Public outcry for Vol II is building!

Posted by: Oddbob at August 27, 2023 10:03 AM (nfrXX)

101 It's one thing to have the traditional detective/cop story where a character gets the standard flesh wound in a shoulder that clears up with a sling, but even that can only get used so much before it loses any dramatic effect.

*********

In the TV sseries Gunsmoke Matt Diillon was shot approximately 56 times.

TrueWest magazine: "My figure includes: eight shots in the left arm, six in the left shoulder, four in the left side, one in the left leg, five in the right arm, five in the right shoulder, six in the right side, three in the right chest, four in the right leg, three forehead grazes, five in the back and several creases. The poor marshal was also knocked unconscious 29 times, stabbed three times and poisoned once."

Posted by: Muldoon at August 27, 2023 10:04 AM (991eG)

102 I have been reading a lot of the Robert Parker Spenser detective novels. While waiting for number 8, I picked up the copy of Appaloosa that Hrothgar loaned me.
Wow. What a change. It's a Western!
It took less than 10 pages to discover that I wanted to dive into this book with a passion as the two main characters were so interesting.
"It was a long time ago now and there were many gunfights to follow, but I remember as well, perhaps, as I remember anything, the first time I saw Virgil Cole shoot."
He then goes on to describe himself. West Point grad, soldier, buffalo hunter, bouncer, gold miner, always moving west to seek"expansion of the soul".
There is Parker's signature snappy dialogue but there is action on almost every page.
Turns out the book was made into a movie starring Ed Harris as Virgil and Viggo Mortenson as Hitch which is perfect casting. Have to find the movie now.
Luckily, Hrothgar has book 2. 😁

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023 10:04 AM (t/2Uw)

103 Question for the Horde. I'm well past 29 and find myself reading, reciting, and enjoying poetry more and more. Partly for the physical aspects of meter, rhyme and word usage and for the way they combine to stimulate my imagination to visualize and see meanings (at least to me) beyond the subject of the poem.

I have been dabbling in poetry lately. And the main character in something I wrote recently deals with trauma by writing short Ogden Nash type poems.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 10:04 AM (9yUzE)

104 That map doesn't show the military bases. I believe that would be important as to who would control those bases.
--------------
And pumpkin spice production centres -- he who controls the spice controls the white girls!

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at August 27, 2023 10:05 AM (krqg6)

105 I don't know if this is a common practice among the Horde.

I have never been able to highlight/write in books. In college, I would look for used text books where the previous owner had highlighted what I would have and buy those.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 27, 2023 10:07 AM (nfrXX)

106 Any future with a divided USA has to imagine what happens to the rest of the world. China runs wild in Asia, Russia runs wild in eastern Europe, Iran runs wild in the Middle East, etc. New powers and alliances would emerge in response: I can see India and Japan forming a strong alliance (I'm kind of surprised they haven't already). The EU must either reform itself and get serious, or die.

Plus, of course, the whole world would be plunged into the worst economic depression since the fall of Rome . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 10:07 AM (QZxDR)

107 89 How come Oklahoma City gets marked on the map? St. Louis I understand; it's a port. But so is Catoosa, just outside Tulsa. T-Town should get labeled.
Posted by: Weak Geek

I was more concerned that OK didn't go with TX. That seems more likely to me.
Posted by: She Hobbit at August 27, 2023 09:51 AM (ftFVW)

maps are fun, but it makes more sense to look at current economic ties. A grouping based on that criteria would be Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. (yes, Kansas) Those economies are all tightly linked. I think another unit would be centered on Florida, along with Alabama, Georgia, the Carolina's, and Tennessee. Some places may just devolve into no-mans land.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 27, 2023 10:07 AM (q3gwH)

108 In the TV series Gunsmoke Matt Diillon was shot approximately 56 times.
------------
And VD from Miss Kitty and the other gals??

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at August 27, 2023 10:07 AM (krqg6)

109 Lost in the middle sounds great ,as does the new US adventure MAGA novel by Ms Weiss. (I may have met her mom in Texas last year; her story and circumstances sound familiar. I think I posted something about the book way back when but can’t find it.)

Anyhoo, I finally finished Little Women and definitely enjoyed the slow pace and glimpse into the genteel way of life. Time to dive into one of the russian classics, I guess.

Posted by: LASue at August 27, 2023 10:08 AM (Ed8Zd)

110 Harlan Ellison was by all accounts a zealously litigious dickhead, but man, could he write.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at August 27, 2023 10:10 AM (5YmYl)

111 Just returned from a constitutional with the lively but never prancercizing Mrs naturalfake.

Lessee what's upstairs.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 27, 2023 10:10 AM (QzZeQ)

112 There are lots of books turned into movies that are lamented - often there just isn't screentime, but then there are others where they only share the title and little else.

I had a reverse experience the other day. Sra blaster and I really like the movie World War Z. I was in a used bookstore and saw the book (written by Mel Brooks' son btw) and opened it and saw characters and places not in the movie. I put it back down. First time I felt dissuaded to read a book because it was different from the movie.

I did later pick it back up. Reading it now.

Posted by: blaster at August 27, 2023 10:11 AM (dWjpk)

113 And then a day later, Disney's latest show featured a character who was impaled by a lightsaber, but inexplicably survived the same sort of wound that killed Liam Neeson's hapless Jedi and Harrison Ford.

My question is this: can anyone keep remain enaged when these death-defying events regularly happen? Once certain death is now reversible, it seems there's no point.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)

I was just watching/listening to a Youtube podcast where the panel started joking that the lightsaber stab obviously didn't kill Han Solo, and he is currently at the bottom of the shaft he fell into, pulling the "I'm still alive, but I'm very badly burned" routine from Austin Powers.

But, yeah, Disney Star Wars is especially bad when it comes to actual consequences of life-or-death events...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 27, 2023 10:11 AM (Lhaco)

114 The first book in Laura Weiss’ series is The Antifan Girlfriend. It also sounds good!

Posted by: LASue at August 27, 2023 10:12 AM (Ed8Zd)

115 And all this time I thought cats liked to lay on print because of the texture of the paper. It truly is just to inconvenience us.

Posted by: McLurkerson at August 27, 2023 10:14 AM (wNDOJ)

116 Read two books in my extensive library I had not got around to reading. This is quite rare.

The Battle of Midway
The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy's Greatest Victory, edited by Thomas C. Hone

This book shows the evolution of what was known at the time through Naval Institue Proceedings acticles. Much of the earlier information, even 30 years later, was incomplete and factually wrong. I learned the wrong things.

Only 65 years after the battle did a consensus cover what actually happened. Many of the previous information was corrected.

Still, this book brings out important facts. The most concealed one was the senior aviator on USS Hornet (CV-

CDR Stanhope Ring,, led 1/3 of the total carrier planes on the wrong compass heading. Those planes were out of the fight, and many ditched, killing pilots while costing the US Navy badly needed aircraft.

The squadron commander of the torpedo planes (VT-

tried to tell his commands he was wrong, and he knew where the Japanese carriers were. He was told to shut up. But that commander mutinied and led his planes to being wiped out as they tried to torpedo the IJN carriers.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 27, 2023 10:16 AM (u82oZ)

117 I think the novel World War Z would have been vastly improved by just leaving out the whole sequence pitting the US Army against the zombie horde. It depended so much on everyone in the Army holding a blimp-sized Idiot Ball that I just couldn't force myself to believe it.

Defeating the Army could have been done with vigorous handwaving kept mostly off-stage. By trying to show rather than tell, Brooks only revealed his own lack of research and LA-NYC bubble mindset.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 10:17 AM (QZxDR)

118 In the TV series Gunsmoke Matt Diillon was shot approximately 56 times.

Yeah, but how many did he kill?

Posted by: dantesed at August 27, 2023 10:17 AM (88xKn)

119 To the person listening to the Way of Kings:

There is amazing art work in the paper copy that captures all the flora and fauna described in the book. It is one of the things that I think makes Sanderson so unique. His world actually holds together. The way the people, creatures and plants interact makes sense.
If you have an opportunity to see a copy, it is worth it for that reason. I still remember thinking I would never get through 900 pages only to see 1100 in book 2.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023 10:18 AM (t/2Uw)

120 On the resurrected website (leneal.com) I posted the small book grandiosely entitled 'How To Make A Successful Movie'. The book describes very briefly how I happened to research historical Picture Stories, and what resulted from it. The principle is very simple (I think): when presenting a work of 'entertainment' to a mass audience, one is crafting a variant/cousin of the National Personification, like Uncle Sam or Mother Russia.
The 'story' is nearly irrelevant to any actual success.
There are two other books dealing with the subject, a kind of study of historical Picture Stories, and another dealing with Orthodox Christian Ikons.
It has applications in propaganda but I haven't gotten to that yet.
HTMASM is a quick, sarcastic read and most 'creative types' absolutely hate it.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:18 AM (43xH1)

121 Chicago was an independent city-state; like Singapore only violent and dysfunctional.
Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at August 27, 2023 09:27 AM (9yUzE)

So basically, Chicago?

Posted by: LASue at August 27, 2023 10:19 AM (Ed8Zd)

122 I can see India and Japan forming a strong alliance (I'm kind of surprised they haven't already). The EU must either reform itself and get serious, or die.

Plus, of course, the whole world would be plunged into the worst economic depression since the fall of Rome . . .
Posted by: Trimegistus

I can't see the EU surviving under any circumstances. The UK left, and they were one of the big net funders. France has its own problems, and the biggest economy, Germany, is in free fall. Germany can't survive buying LNG at five times the price of Russian piped gas, when natural gas not only powers their electrical grid but is the feedstock for their plastic, chemical, and fertilizer industry. The rest of the EU are more or less net takers, so there is nobody to pay for it anymore.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at August 27, 2023 10:19 AM (k4luL)

123 Not my genre interest, but that's the kind of stuff we need happening. I wonder if the lockdowns instigated some of this? As a person trying to dip a toe into the writing world, this is of interest to me. Places to send stories, even online because there are few general interest magazines that buy stories anymore unless from established names.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 09:32 AM (Angsy)

"Savage Realms" started in early 2021, so, yeah, it could very well be lock-down inspired.

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 27, 2023 10:19 AM (Lhaco)

124 Thank you Perfessor for the always wonderful Book Thread! I do mostly audiobooks. Finished Great Society by Amity Shlaes. Another excellent economic/sociological history by Ms Shlaes; this time focusing on the years beginning at the end of JFK’s admin through the beginning of Nixon’s second term. I was a youngster during those years, but remember enough of the DC busybodies* names who appear. Evidently Romney*s dad was as big of a bore as Mittens is.

I always am too late for the Film Thread. Thank you TJM for last night’s excellent essay on Peter Weir.

Posted by: SuperMayorSuperRonNirenberg-It*s Hot Here, But My Buffness Is Hotter at August 27, 2023 10:20 AM (CwYS8)

125 A big Thank You to everyone who read 'Let Us Now Be Famous Men', I very much appreciate your time and effort!

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:21 AM (43xH1)

126 Don't know of a movie, and The Walking Dead dabbled in how a Zombie Apocalypse gets started but has any book gone how it could started?

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 10:21 AM (MOY79)

127 The lightsaber was once regarded as one of the most dangerous, lethal weapons in the galaxy. Only someone with Jedi abilities could wield them (or a very, very small few with exceptional dexterity).

Now they are about as ubiquitous as a Swiss Army Knife.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 27, 2023 09:30 AM (BpYfr)

__________

In the original trilogy, they were also used sparingly. Almost every time one activated, something of consequence happened, usually something with high emotional stakes.

And if it wasn't a big emotional deal, it was memorable, like gutting a two-legged riding snow-goat.

Posted by: McLurkerson at August 27, 2023 10:22 AM (wNDOJ)

128 Don't know of a movie, and The Walking Dead dabbled in how a Zombie Apocalypse gets started but has any book gone how it could started?
Posted by: Skip'

The book (NOT the movie!) World War Z.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:22 AM (43xH1)

129 The complete sacrifice of VT-8, VT-3, and VT-6 led to focusing the IJN defenses on low-level attacks. Meanwhile, the Enterprise and Yrktown dive bombers, high overhead, has a clear path to attack. In five minutes they mortally damaged 3 of the 4 IJN carriers.

Other revelations were there were two USS Hornet (CV-8 ) torpedo plane pilots survived. One iid famous, as he was in the water near the IJN carriers. The other was from the detachment sent to take off from Midway island.

There were 6 planes in that detachment. 5 were shot down, with no hits. The sixth did not hit, but, with one dead and 2 severely wounded crew-members, managed take the flying sieve back to Midway to crash land. The pilot ENS Bert Earnest, was awarded two Navy Crosses for that one flight.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 27, 2023 10:24 AM (u82oZ)

130 I'm back, folken! This week I finished Loren D. Estleman's 2022 Amos Walker private eye story, The Monkey in the Middle, which touches on the death of the woman Walker was married to and divorced from many years ago. It's also set during a Detroit summer instead of a winter, which did not thrill me in itself, but was a nice change from others of his I've read.

At present, reading Dick Francis's 1971 Rat Race. Horse racing figures in it, of course -- he was a former jockey -- but also piloting planes. I don't know if he simply researched it, or if he was an amateur pilot himself. I highly recommend his 1960s novel Flying Finish.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 10:24 AM (omVj0)

131 G'morning, Horde.

Cobs, someone needs to fix the mainpage. It has the crazy idea this is September.

Posted by: creeper at August 27, 2023 10:24 AM (cTCuP)

132 I've started a new habit with some of my books: highlighting and writing in the margins. I've never done that; it felt like a desecration. But my reading increasingly deals with the power and importance of words in history, religion, culture, imagination, beauty and other matters. I come across examples in poetry, literature, religious readings, academic analyses, and essays that I want to notate and recall more easily.

This is a very brief and inadequate description of my reasons for this. But I can say that the short time I've been doing this helps to see wisdom and beauty in very diverse books.

I don't know if this is a common practice among the Horde.
Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:13 AM (7EjX1

Benjamin McAvoy on YT has a great show in classics and is a big fan of marginalia and note taking. I haven’t tried it yet but plan to

Posted by: LASue at August 27, 2023 10:25 AM (Ed8Zd)

133 Also, I posted last week? the translated Two Stories By Malaparte, and since then have found the original book is not quite in public domain so if you have any interest in that grab it soon because I have to remove it; any more work will require permission from the estate.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:25 AM (43xH1)

134 >>>the four states that joined Canada in 2060
LOL

Posted by: m at August 27, 2023 10:26 AM (SpRPx)

135 By the way, professor, Candide is only about 150 pages long, so you could read it in a day. You don't need to know about the then current events, and it is hilarious.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at August 27, 2023 10:26 AM (k4luL)

136 Matt Dillon was the Timex of US Marshalls.

Posted by: Toad-O at August 27, 2023 10:27 AM (cct0t)

137 Don't almost all Zombie Apocalypse stories start with a pandemic?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023 10:27 AM (t/2Uw)

138 TrueWest magazine: "My figure includes: eight shots in the left arm, six in the left shoulder, four in the left side, one in the left leg, five in the right arm, five in the right shoulder, six in the right side, three in the right chest, four in the right leg, three forehead grazes, five in the back and several creases. The poor marshal was also knocked unconscious 29 times, stabbed three times and poisoned once."
Posted by: Muldoon at August 27, 2023 10:04 AM (991eG)

When one reads too much Conan the Barbarian--especially the comics--it becomes horrifying how many times he is rendered unconscious by a blow to the back of the head. The brain damage he must have suffered is immeasurable. As much as I enjoy reading about the character, I really wish there were some alternatives, so things didn't become quite so ridiculous...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 27, 2023 10:28 AM (Lhaco)

139 Talking about bad novels written to be movies, I suppose I should give a sort of counter-example.

A very good novel clearly written to be a movie and yet not just a high-calorie screenplay is-

famous screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's first and only novel, "Altered States".

Chayefsky wrote the screenplays for "Network", "Hospital", "Marty" and several others. So, he was a Hollywood movie critter for sure.

Yet, when he wrote "Altered States", he took the novel form seriously with great description and serious but not narrating-info dump-style movie dialog.

It's a very good novel in and of itself. With a big ending that fits the story and writing that has proceeded it.

Ironically enough, being a power in Hollywood did not save him from hating the handling of his story and dialog and screenplay at the hands of mad filmmaker Ken Russell. They fought viciously, In the end Paddy took his name off the credits and went with a pseudonym.

I guess the moral here is that when you sell your work to Hollywood, you've sold your work to Hollywood.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 27, 2023 10:28 AM (QzZeQ)

140
Turns out the book was made into a movie starring Ed Harris as Virgil and Viggo Mortenson as Hitch which is perfect casting. Have to find the movie now.
Luckily, Hrothgar has book 2. 😁
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023

***
Parker himself wrote a couple more in the series, and as with his Spensers, his publisher has farmed out more novels in the series to other, similar writers. Parker wrote good Westerns -- after all, the hardboiled crime story and the Western are very much alike. See Elmore Leonard, who began with Westerns, and Loren D. Estleman, who has continued to produce them all through his fifty-year career.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 10:29 AM (omVj0)

141 The squadron commander of the torpedo planes (VT- tried to tell his commands he was wrong, and he knew where the Japanese carriers were. He was told to shut up. But that commander mutinied and led his planes to being wiped out as they tried to torpedo the IJN carriers.
Posted by: NaCly Dog'

If you're into the Pacific War I highly recommend the archive of The Pacific Islands Monthly magazine; the National Library of Australia has the entire print run archived for free, and it's absolutely fascinating reading!
It's also outstanding for all kinds of crazy Pacific tales, truly bizarre stuff.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:29 AM (43xH1)

142 Don't almost all Zombie Apocalypse stories start with a pandemic?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023 10:27 AM (t/2Uw)

Was "Day of the Triffids" really about kudzu?

Posted by: BignJames at August 27, 2023 10:30 AM (AwYPR)

143 When one reads too much Conan the Barbarian--especially the comics--it becomes horrifying how many times he is rendered unconscious by a blow to the back of the head. The brain damage he must have suffered is immeasurable. As much as I enjoy reading about the character, I really wish there were some alternatives, so things didn't become quite so ridiculous...
Posted by: Castle Guy'

What a baby.

Posted by: Tarzan at August 27, 2023 10:31 AM (43xH1)

144 The final revelation was how close it could have been. The IJN favored attack over reconnaissance. ADM Yamamoto did not pass on good traffic analysis evidence that the Americans were not going to be surprised. A better search plan, using only 6-8 more aircraft, was not picked. Their navigation in thick fog was excellent, putting them within 5 miles of where US Navy intelligence had predicted they would be. If they had been off course, the US strikes from the carriers would have missed. We were at the edge of possible attack range as it was.

The constant US attacks led Nagumo to wait until he had an escort force for his armed strike aircraft. If he had launched immediately on the US carriers, he would have swept the floor of our forces.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 27, 2023 10:32 AM (u82oZ)

145 Speaking of hard-boiled detectives, that Mike Hammer seems like a pretty good egg...

Posted by: Muldoon at August 27, 2023 10:32 AM (991eG)

146 I guess the moral here is that when you sell your work to Hollywood, you've sold your work to Hollywood.
Posted by: naturalfake'

I remain mystified by people who sell their work to H'Wood and then get all upset when they do unspeakable things to it. You sold it. Get over it. If, by some lottery-winning chance H'Wood bought one of my books I'd take the money and run, and refuse any input whatsoever.

Posted by: Tarzan at August 27, 2023 10:33 AM (43xH1)

147 Think it was James M. Cain who was asked in an interview what he thought about what Hollywood had done to his books. He pointed to the shelves and said Hollywood hadn't done anything to the books -- they were all right there to be read.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 10:35 AM (a/4+U)

148 Not a book comment, but the Australian SSG game company released Carriers at War. A well designed game. Yet I could win in any scenario, with either side, except at The Battle of Midway. I played a lot, and only won once as the Americans.

The IJN won all but that once.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 27, 2023 10:36 AM (u82oZ)

149 Actually, the peak "The movie is nothing like the book" is 'LA Confidential'.
They literally took scenes of people in the book saying particular lines and reassembled them in a different order to make a workable screenplay. On the DVD at the end in the extras there's an interview with James Ellroy (the author) and he says he was dumbfounded and amazed at the way they did it. Cause the book as written would been a hot mess, the story is streched out over about ten years, just the way things would happen in real life. With all kinds of side plots that don't fit at the end.

Posted by: ed in texas at August 27, 2023 10:37 AM (aRhta)

150 I agree that "The Mote in God's Eye" would make an excellent movie but there is just so much material to cover to actually "get it", I think it would make a better series or something.

Posted by: pawn at August 27, 2023 10:37 AM (wsHtO)

151 So far, I'm liking Parker's Western best so far. The Jesse Stone books have so much dialog I get bored waiting for something to happen. The Spenser stories have gotten more interesting but it still seems like there is more introspective commentary than mystery to be solved.
I liked how Appaloosa was all action and movement. What woman could resist alpha males, guns and horses?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023 10:37 AM (t/2Uw)

152 LenNeal

I missed that. Not surprising, as the bibliography of The Battle of Midway is 220 ages long.

But I do think I have a quite solid grounding in the Pacific theater of WWII.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 27, 2023 10:39 AM (u82oZ)

153 Yeah, but how many did he kill?
Posted by: dantesed

************

Once again, from True West magazine: "If you add in the ones U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon capped in the made-for-TV movies, the total is 407."

Clearly the most prolific serial killer in American folklore.

If you don't count the thousands of inadvertent victims of Johnny Appleseed. (Wormy apples, choked on an actual apple seed, Isaac Newton-like incidents etc.)

Posted by: Muldoon at August 27, 2023 10:39 AM (991eG)

154 They literally took scenes of people in the book saying particular lines and reassembled them in a different order to make a workable screenplay.
Posted by: ed in texas'

I liked the book a lot (although sordid even by my standards); and the screenplay of LA Confidential is a masterpiece of distillation to make a terrific movie.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:40 AM (43xH1)

155 Real life intrudes...

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 10:41 AM (a/4+U)

156 Pacific Islands Monthly was a magazine published from 1930 to 2000, and during WWII was the paper-of-record for the scattered islands. There is all kinds of totally obscure information in it from the wartime issues, dealing with evacuees, escapes, plane crashes, Vichy French protectorates, all kinds of weird and now forgotten issues and events.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:44 AM (43xH1)

157 I liked the book a lot (although sordid even by my standards); and the screenplay of LA Confidential is a masterpiece of distillation to make a terrific movie.
Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023

***
The couple of works I've read by Ellroy didn't grab me, or maybe it was that his style confused me.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 10:45 AM (omVj0)

158 Just found out Appaloosa movie is available on Prime for $3.99.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023 10:45 AM (t/2Uw)

159 Oh. One last revelation.

The Battle of Midway was not particularly hard on the IJN aviators. They dd not lose that many pilots, and the pilot's morale went up, after the battle.

The loss of all the flight deck crews, from refuelers to spotters, ordnance, to aviation mechanics and maintainers was quite heavy. This is what crippled IJN aviation in the long run, along with not pulling the best pilots from combat to train new aircrews.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 27, 2023 10:46 AM (u82oZ)

160 My book club read Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. It won Hugo and Nebula and every award everywhere.

The author has done this thing where the main empire is genderless and so uses female pronouns for everyone, male or female. And it just makes it so hard to read. It distracts from the story and it's off putting. In the third act the action and plot actually get good and the virtue signaling fades way into the background, but by that point it's too late.

Posted by: blaster at August 27, 2023 10:46 AM (dWjpk)

161 The greater life experience and wider reading that can come from getting older enhances my appreciation of poetry. I might have 'understood' a poem in college days but fifty years later that level seems inadequate for what was written.

Anyone else going through this?
Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 09:56 AM

Yes. Some Yeats that didn't impress me and lesser-loved Frost speak to me now.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at August 27, 2023 10:47 AM (/+bwe)

162 Amazons Without Remorse is a movie that shares its title with a book and nothing else.

Posted by: blaster at August 27, 2023 10:48 AM (dWjpk)

163 Rereading The Edge Series by Ilona Andrews.
Pity it never took off the way their Magic one did. Really fun worldbuilding.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 27, 2023 10:48 AM (vHIgi)

164 When one reads too much Conan the Barbarian--especially the comics--it becomes horrifying how many times he is rendered unconscious by a blow to the back of the head. The brain damage he must have suffered is immeasurable. As much as I enjoy reading about the character, I really wish there were some alternatives, so things didn't become quite so ridiculous...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 27, 2023 10:28 AM (Lhaco)

There are alternatives, you know.

Posted by: Vulcan Neck Pinch at August 27, 2023 10:48 AM (Angsy)

165 Pacific Islands Monthly was a magazine published from 1930 to 2000, and during WWII was the paper-of-record for the scattered islands. There is all kinds of totally obscure information in it from the wartime issues, dealing with evacuees, escapes, plane crashes, Vichy French protectorates, all kinds of weird and now forgotten issues and events.
Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 1

***
Not the same thing, but my mother kept a lot of the Yank magazines from the Forties for many years. I pored over them when I was about 10 or 11, and recall mostly that they were intended to be morale builders for the servicemen and -women. Usually there was at least one not-at-all-racy-to-us pinup in B & W of a rising Hollywood starlet. Veronica Lake did one, I think.

Mom did not keep them in plastic, so they were a little fragile even then, and would probably have crumbled away by now if I'd kept them.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 10:49 AM (omVj0)

166 If only we could have had a Family Book Club. What a weird dynamic my family had. My parents were not huge readers but by God they were going to raise kids who read. (Although among the inheritances from my father was a copy of The Peter Principle that I knew that he had.). Anyways, my oldest sis read trashy romance novels. My middle sis read horror novels. When it came time for me to get into novels I read the Jack Ryan series, among others like that, among tons of nonfiction that I read.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 10:50 AM (f0XAF)

167 Thank you, "Perfessor" Squirrel, for another in a series of excellent book threads.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 27, 2023 10:50 AM (u82oZ)

168 "Whale Fall" is a term used by ocean biologists, it refers to the oasis of resources caused by a whale dying and sinking to the bottom so the critters that live there can colonize it and eat it all up. It is a fascinating thing: the ocean floor is resource poor since it is energy poor, and the only real source of calories and energy is from stuff that falls from the surface. Most of the critters there live on minimal energy and move fairly slowly, a dead whale is an all you can eat banquet and draws critters from miles around.

As the basis for a plot, it sounds more interesting than some contrived Jonah story.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 10:50 AM (xhaym)

169 "I had a reverse experience the other day. Sra blaster and I really like the movie World War Z. I was in a used bookstore and saw the book (written by Mel Brooks' son btw) and opened it and saw characters and places not in the movie. I put it back down. First time I felt dissuaded to read a book because it was different from the movie.

I did later pick it back up. Reading it now."

-------

The movie bugged me because of its reliance on massive coincidences and its "trying to return to his family" plot that is a lazy skeleton structure that almost every genre movie/TV show relies on now (cuz "the normies find it relatable", I guess.)

I liked the book more because Brooks really seemed to have thought things through. And the vet's story of his experience in the Battle of Long Island was gripping and revelatory of one particular reason why a military would have a difficult time defeating a zombie horde.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at August 27, 2023 10:50 AM (5YmYl)

170 'Ancillary Justice' sounds annoying.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:50 AM (43xH1)

171 Omaha, hut hut
Omaha, Omaha, hut
haiku on "Two". Break!

/Peyton Manning poetry

Posted by: Muldoon at August 27, 2023 10:53 AM (991eG)

172 'Amazons Without Remorse'

I thought it was a book/movie about Amazons. I thought it might some Troma production...

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:53 AM (43xH1)

173 Howdy Horde! I finally finished "Hamilton". Great reading. One of my takeaways is that some of the founding fathers, whose leadership and judgment appear impeccable in comparison to the sad lot we have today, fall far short of our estimation when observed up close. All had failings of character. Secondly, the destructive bitterness of party faction has been with us since the beginning.

I also read my first Preston and Childs novel- "The Cabinet of Curiosities". I loved it! I'm looking forward to reading the others that I picked up at a vintage store. From Perfessor's notes, I see that Nora Kelly, one of the characters in "The Cabinet of Curiosities", has a series dedicated to her. I want to read all of the Pendergast series first, but I'm sure I'll be interested in those.

Lastly, I read "The Second Mrs. Astor: A Heartbreaking Historical Novel of the Titanic" by Shana Abe. It tells the tale of Madeleine Talmadge Force and her life leading to her marriage to John Jacob Astor and their subsequent tragic voyage on the Titanic. I really enjoyed it.

Posted by: Moonbeam at August 27, 2023 10:54 AM (rbKZ6)

174 I decided to sketch a stack of books yesterday. One of the ones I pulled out was a copy of Beowulf. My husband took a class in college that used it as text. I happened to open it and found all sorts of notes on the text, written in tiny handwriting. I don't think it was done by my husband. Not sure what happened to the notetaker, but the notes just stop.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 27, 2023 10:54 AM (ouTlx)

175 Sometimes the combination of a book and a movie or tv series enhances both. I saw The Peripheral on Prime before I read the book. It would have been hard to understand some of the book if I hadn't seen the TV and it gave the characters in the book faces as it was very well cast. Reading the book after seeing the series, I could see where the TV series deviated but I understood why they did it. The first book is open to a lot of different interpretations of what is happening which gets cleared up in the second book. I'll be interested to see how they do this in the second season of the series.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 27, 2023 10:54 AM (t/2Uw)

176 Tangentially related to books: I loved Dune. Great novel. So when I heard Dune 2 got pushed off to March 15, 2024 I was bent. And disappointed.

The Guild needs to send a third stage guild navigator over to WB to demand details. The Spice Must Flow.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 10:54 AM (f0XAF)

177 Amazons Without Remorse is a movie that shares its title with a book and nothing else.

Posted by: blaster at August 27, 2023 10:48 AM (dWjpk)

Amazons Without Remorse! Now available online!

Posted by: buhnorP at August 27, 2023 10:55 AM (Angsy)

178 Quite a fantastic collection is the History of the 2nd World periodicals from the 70s, often the articles are from officers who were there

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 10:56 AM (MOY79)

179 107 . . . maps are fun, but it makes more sense to look at current economic ties. A grouping based on that criteria would be Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. (yes, Kansas) Those economies are all tightly linked . . .
Posted by: Tom Servo
________

The rivalry and back and forth insults between Okies and Texans has always been amusing, but the views and attitudes of their citizens are in close alignment (other than in the dark blue s***holes in Texas).

Where I differ with you is when you poison your south central US well with Kansans. Anytime I see Kansas described as "deep red," I laugh. In the last 20 years, Kansans have elected two leftwing moonbats as governor---and then re-elected them. The state is controlled by suburban wine moms.

Posted by: Kam Fong as Chin Ho at August 27, 2023 10:56 AM (gf7Ez)

180 I happened to open it and found all sorts of notes on the text, written in tiny handwriting. I don't think it was done by my husband. Not sure what happened to the notetaker, but the notes just stop.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 27, 2023

***
She was crunchy and good with ketchup.

Posted by: Grendel and His Mother at August 27, 2023 10:56 AM (omVj0)

181 LenNeal,

" On the resurrected website (leneal.com) I posted the small book grandiosely entitled 'How To Make A Successful Movie'."

I'm reading that now. I really enjoyed the "Famous Men" story. You really channeled Heinlein properly but that's not the only good thing about it, it was a very fine piece of writing.

Posted by: pawn at August 27, 2023 10:57 AM (wsHtO)

182 "Whale Fall" is a term used by ocean biologists, it refers to the oasis of resources caused by a whale dying and sinking to the bottom so the critters that live there can colonize it and eat it all up. It is a fascinating thing: the ocean floor is resource poor since it is energy poor, and the only real source of calories and energy is from stuff that falls from the surface. Most of the critters there live on minimal energy and move fairly slowly, a dead whale is an all you can eat banquet and draws critters from miles around.

As the basis for a plot, it sounds more interesting than some contrived Jonah story.
Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 10:50 AM (xhaym)

Whale fall is used as a possible threat to the protagonist. But, it turns out to be super easy, barely an inconvenience thanks to serendipity.

I think whale fall was used as a title cuz it sounds cool rather than something like Whalemanduckin.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 27, 2023 10:58 AM (QzZeQ)

183 173: I read Alexander Hamilton by William Sterne Randall some years back. Recommend.

Maybe we of the Horde can put together a library of sorts on the Founders?

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 10:58 AM (f0XAF)

184 You really channeled Heinlein properly but that's not the only good thing about it, it was a very fine piece of writing.
Posted by: pawn'

Did you catch 'Bob H' and his pronouncements?

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 10:59 AM (43xH1)

185 Not sure what happened to the notetaker, but the notes just stop.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 27, 2023 10:54 AM (ouTlx)

Urp.

Posted by: Grendel at August 27, 2023 11:00 AM (Angsy)

186 If that were true, Kris Kobach would never get elected. Like many states, the cities are blue and the rest is red.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 27, 2023 11:00 AM (ouTlx)

187 126 Don't know of a movie, and The Walking Dead dabbled in how a Zombie Apocalypse gets started but has any book gone how it could started?
Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 10:21 AM (MOY79)

The movie "28 days" had a somewhat plausible origination story, especially after Wuhan.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 27, 2023 11:00 AM (q3gwH)

188 Thanks for The Book Thread Perfesser !

Posted by: JT at August 27, 2023 11:00 AM (T4tVD)

189 Not sure what happened to the notetaker, but the notes just stop.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 27, 2023 10:54 AM (ouTlx)

Mohammed's stenographer.

Posted by: BignJames at August 27, 2023 11:01 AM (AwYPR)

190 Don't think saw 28 Days

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 11:04 AM (MOY79)

191 Amazons Without Remorse! Now available online!
Posted by: buhnorP at August 27, 2023 10:55 AM (Angsy)

Amazon's Women, on the Moon, Without Remorse!

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 27, 2023 11:05 AM (q3gwH)

192 Ancillary Justice is a decent book, but it and its author have, I fear, been ruined by feminist idiots praising it for the wrong reason.

The business with the pronouns was intended to give the reader a sense of how alien the viewpoint character is. She (?) literally can't distinguish between men and women.

Feminist idiots went squee! Female pronouns! Genderfluidity! Queerness! Doubleplusgood!

Leckie, unfortunately, let that go to her head, so that a promising writer of real science fiction, with some good historical influences, is now just writing bullshit to satisfy feminist idiots.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 11:06 AM (QZxDR)

193 Paula Weiss has thrown AZ into the abyss of the 'west coast messed coast' (channeling someone else).
This is absolutely a horrible thing to do to the once great State of AZ.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at August 27, 2023 11:06 AM (K+1Pw)

194 I might be tempted by "Old Bones" - as it deals with the sad fate of the Donner Party. My first historical dealt with the pioneer wagon party who preceded them by two years, also got stuck in the Sierra Nevada in deep snow, had to break into separate groups, nearly starved - but didn't - and still got safely to California with two more than they started with. (Babies born on the trail.) They did everything right - and hardly anyone has ever heard of them - while the Donner Party did everything wrong and everyone knows about them. There is also a lost diary associated with both parties, diaries known to have existed, but lost and never found. (To Truckee's Trail is my fictitious account of the Townsend-Murphy-Greenwod party of 1844,(

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at August 27, 2023 11:06 AM (xnmPy)

195 Recently watched Knock at the Cabin which was a good movie. I looked up the book it was based on and there were some clear plot changes made that made the story more enjoyable for a movie.

Things an author in a book could get away with but not so much onscreen

Posted by: blaster at August 27, 2023 11:07 AM (dWjpk)

196 For Founding Fathers material I read Gary Wills' 'Inventing America'.
A lot of people will argue with it but I found it invaluable for my personal conception of what the American Revolution was about and what it was supposed to accomplish. It's not an easy read; I read it when I was maybe 17-18 and it took me a full year to read it, as at the time I had no background in philosophy or comparative religion; I had to learn as I went.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:07 AM (43xH1)

197 193 Paula Weiss has thrown AZ into the abyss of the 'west coast messed coast' (channeling someone else).
This is absolutely a horrible thing to do to the once great State of AZ.
Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at August 27, 2023 11:06 AM (K+1Pw)

New Mexico doesn't go to anyone except the cartels - there's just not much there worth the effort.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 27, 2023 11:07 AM (q3gwH)

198 The thing I keep hearing from this group when they're requesting stories to be submitted for an upcoming anthology is that stories must primarily be entertaining to read. That's a good focus to adhere to.
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 27, 2023 09:18 AM (qPw5n)

Per Larry Correia and Steve Diamond in an interview with Lawdog Raconteur Press is coming out with regular themed anthologies.
They consider it to be a modern form of pulps

They have regular calls for submissions and they have specific guidelines and they mean it.

https://thelawdogfiles.com/raconteur-press

Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 11:07 AM (xhaym)

199 112: a similar experience, over decades: in February 1983, ABC aired the miniseries “The Winds of War”. I was a bit young to understand what it was about, but there are segments I remember. There is a sequence of it that I call “The 15 minutes of television that foretold the next 40 years of my life.”. Anyway, I remembered little if it, so when I read the Herman Wouk novel in 2010, I was OK. (I saw the miniseries again the past spring looking for video footage to show the history class and….well, I was impressed.). Continued…

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 11:08 AM (f0XAF)

200 Books vs. movies . . . I can only think of a few films which were actually better on *all* levels than their source novels. Die Hard, Hunt for Red October, and Wolfen come to mind. All were improvements over the books -- in the case of October, a significant improvement.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 11:10 AM (omVj0)

201 Leckie, unfortunately, let that go to her head, so that a promising writer of real science fiction, with some good historical influences, is now just writing bullshit to satisfy feminist idiots.
Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 11:06 AM (QZxDR)

I didn't read her that way but the other way round. She started to fan service feminist idiots and win the "Hugo for Modern Audiences ". And she did. She put that in front of the story and yes what gets rewarded gets multiplied.

Posted by: blaster at August 27, 2023 11:10 AM (dWjpk)

202 Then, in November 1988/ May 1989, I damn well knew what WWII was. I even read a little about the Holocaust. Then ABC aired War and Remembrance. (This was one of Those Moments that I referred to earlier.). 22 years later, it was time to read the book. BUT…I saw the miniseries from beginning to end. Would that cross pollination mess up my reading? (Such a thing happened to me when I read It soon after seeing the miniseries in 1990.). Well, not as much as I feared because so much time had elapsed. In fact, I’ll say this: reading the Holocaust scenes in the novel was actually far worse than seeing them in the miniseries, and those were so graphic and effective I used them in class when teaching about the Holocaust.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 11:14 AM (f0XAF)

203 Ciampino's Rescue kitties

There's another more extensive photo update #158 at the link.
Take a look if interested. Make sure to click on
"See Older Updates" as well if it's your first time.
https://is.gd/WQ5JcT

ALSO LIVE STREAMING!! - Biscuits' BABIES ON WEBCAM
Now most nights as well

https://www.twitch.tv/kittenwatch

Posted by: Ciampino - Books, books, wonderful books .... at August 27, 2023 11:17 AM (qfLjt)

204 Reasons Texas would want New Mexico:
1. Sandia Labs
2. Hatch Chilies
3. ??? I got nuthin'

Posted by: Oddbob at August 27, 2023 11:19 AM (nfrXX)

205 I have read all the Robert Crais 'Elvis cole/Joe Pike' novels that I could lay my hands on, 1-15.

Posted by: Ciampino - Books, books, wonderful books ... at August 27, 2023 11:19 AM (qfLjt)

206 Don't think saw 28 Days

If we're still talking zombies, you probably mean "28 Days Later." "28 Days" was a chick flick with Sandra Bullock.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 27, 2023 11:22 AM (nfrXX)

207 I dunno. I don't see Florida becoming part of the DJR East.

Posted by: Can't let America's wang go limp! at August 27, 2023 11:23 AM (fhX0j)

208
They have regular calls for submissions and they have specific guidelines and they mean it.

https://thelawdogfiles.com/raconteur-press
Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023

***
Hmmm. Their "What a parent will do to protect a child" genre: I have a short story featuring a mother and her son in a tough situation . . . and she has done what she thought was right to protect him, but now he's here and in the middle of the storm. And it turns out he has the key to save them this time. Maybe that would fit?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 11:23 AM (omVj0)

209 I can only think of a few films which were actually better on *all* levels than their source novels. Die Hard, Hunt for Red October, and Wolfen

***
Princess Bride

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 27, 2023 11:25 AM (vHIgi)

210 "Books vs. movies . . . I can only think of a few films which were actually better on *all* levels than their source novels. Die Hard, Hunt for Red October, and Wolfen come to mind"

---------

The Godfather and Blade Runner.

I liked the novel of Wolfen better. Movie was good, though.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at August 27, 2023 11:27 AM (5YmYl)

211 Contact, the movie, was way better than Contact, the novel.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 27, 2023 11:27 AM (QZxDR)

212 If we're still talking zombies, you probably mean "28 Days Later." "28 Days" was a chick flick with Sandra Bullock.
Posted by: Oddbob at August 27, 2023 11:22 AM (nfrXX)

I recall someone saying that he was halfway through "28 Days" and was still waiting for the zombies to show up.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, A.A.S. Drafting Technology at August 27, 2023 11:28 AM (T/Lqj)

213 I admit I did not like PKD's 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?'.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:28 AM (43xH1)

214 As I grow older, I do find my perspective on life changing quite a bit. I've recently been undertaking a spiritual journey of sorts this year. It's been highly rewarding and I'm very glad I'm taking those steps. I try not to dwell too much on my past sins, but I do try to "do better" with the time I have left to me, perhaps atoning for them in some small way.

For me it's not so much an atoning for past sins as regretting the time wasted not taking any risks or really putting myself out there or anything. Take it from someone who knows - playing everything safe yoir whole life leaves you atrophied, stunted, and burdened with a crushing load of regret.

Posted by: Someday you will die, so make it count while you have a chance at August 27, 2023 11:28 AM (fhX0j)

215 I know I didn't see 28 Days, don't think saw 28 Days Later

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 11:29 AM (MOY79)

216 I recall someone saying that he was halfway through "28 Days" and was still waiting for the zombies to show up.

It does seem like a failure of the naming process on someone's part.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 27, 2023 11:29 AM (nfrXX)

217 Twenty-Eight Days in May??

KABOOM!

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at August 27, 2023 11:29 AM (krqg6)

218 I had completely forgotten 'Die Hard' was a book. The sequel of sorts to 'The Detective'. What an odd trail that was!

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:30 AM (43xH1)

219 Sgt. Mom, the wagon trains were not a giant line of wagons on the same trail, on the whole (at least the Oregon bound ones) were groups of wagons that traveled together and would at times switch out between bands, and sometimes used side routes. There was a captain who supposedly knew what he was doing and had a sure route (Looking at you Stephen Meek) and would pass up and down between the groups and give general direction.

A very good series of interviews of pioneers is the Lockley Files, starting with Interviews With Pioneer Women by Fred Lockley. He did one with Pioneer Men which has a variety of titles, and there is a third with high end movers and shakers in the Oregon territory. Lockley did his interviews in the Twenties.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 11:31 AM (xhaym)

220 One author, when asked about movies based on his works, said its Win/Win.

If it's a good movie, you get to say "Well of course it is, it's based on my brilliant novel!"

If it's a stinker film, you get to cry "Look what they did to my brilliant novel!"

But you still get to cash that check.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 11:31 AM (Ak1+U)

221 TWD never tipped its hand on the virus origin I don't think. 28 Days Later was much better on that front. While they called it the "rage" virus is seemed like some form of enhanced rabies that didn't kill the host. The lab geeks could have figured out a way to subdue or cure it but the ALF dipshits unleashes it on the world. Stupid fucking activists ruin everything.

Posted by: Megarabies! at August 27, 2023 11:33 AM (fhX0j)

222 Hmmm. Their "What a parent will do to protect a child" genre: I have a short story featuring a mother and her son in a tough situation . . . and she has done what she thought was right to protect him, but now he's here and in the middle of the storm. And it turns out he has the key to save them this time. Maybe that would fit?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 11:23 AM (omVj0)

You miss every shot you don't take. They are serious about their submission guidelines since they get lots and that is their first winnowing.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 11:34 AM (xhaym)

223 222 Hmmm. Their "What a parent will do to protect a child" genre:
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 11:23 AM (omVj0)

What if the kid's an asshole?

Posted by: I mean like a full on Hunter Biden level degenerate but with violent tendencies at August 27, 2023 11:37 AM (fhX0j)

224 TWD never tipped its hand on the virus origin I don't think. 28 Days Later was much better on that front. While they called it the "rage" virus is seemed like some form of enhanced rabies that didn't kill the host. The lab geeks could have figured out a way to subdue or cure it but the ALF dipshits unleashes it on the world. Stupid fucking activists ruin everything.
Posted by: Megarabies! at August 27, 2023 11:33 AM (fhX0j)

I heard someone's extended rant matching Shawn of the Dead against the 28 days movies, and that slow undead zombies are far better that "cannibalistic Cheetah people"

Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 11:38 AM (xhaym)

225 For me it's not so much an atoning for past sins as regretting the time wasted not taking any risks or really putting myself out there or anything. Take it from someone who knows - playing everything safe yoir whole life leaves you atrophied, stunted, and burdened with a crushing load of regret.

Posted by: Someday you will die, so make it count while you have a chance at August 27, 2023 11:28 AM (fhX0j)

So much missed, if you don't put yourself out there because you think "that's just not done," or, "I'd look stupid doing that."

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 11:38 AM (Angsy)

226 I had completely forgotten 'Die Hard' was a book. The sequel of sorts to 'The Detective'. What an odd trail that was!

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:30 AM (43xH1)

Imagine Ol' Blue Eyes in the McClain role. (it was going to be him, when first written, I think)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 11:41 AM (Angsy)

227 You miss every shot you ~~don't~~ take.

Posted by: the LAPD at August 27, 2023 11:41 AM (krqg6)

228 The map was based on the agreed split in 2060 after a Civil War. Give the author a break.

Posted by: Bolly Would at August 27, 2023 11:41 AM (MNhXM)

229 "playing everything safe yoir whole life leaves you atrophied, stunted, and burdened with a crushing load of regret."

Posted by: Someday you will die, so make it count while you have a chance

I recently came across this one:

"Don't live the same year 75 times and call it a life."

I'm gonna retire next year after Medicare kicks in and spend five years slowly meandering slowly around the country camping (mostly boondocking) so I can read, think, write and talk to people. I've worked in an office long enough.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 27, 2023 11:41 AM (NBVIP)

230 So much missed, if you don't put yourself out there because you think "that's just not done," or, "I'd look stupid doing that."
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 11:38 AM (Angsy)

Yep. Or "it'll never work" or "she'd never go out with someone like me" or "I don't know how to do that" or "I can't do that" or "I'll just fail again." We spend so much time preemptively defeating ourselves - and in a significant number of cases we get conditioned to think this way. It's really quite awful.

Posted by: Life not lived is worse than death at August 27, 2023 11:42 AM (fhX0j)

231 Two posts back to back in three minutes?! Wake up, Book Threadists!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 11:43 AM (Angsy)

232 I've been reading the first in a series about a rouge pilot flying an antique float plane around Key West looking for adventure and whatever comes his way, Red Right Return by John H. Cunningham. I quite like it but I've long had a fantasy about being a rouge pilot flying an antique float plane around the South Pacific looking for adventure and whatever comes my way. It's unclear who the bad guys are but there are three primary suspect, the Cuban commie rat bastards, a Santeria cult, or a radical Cuban exile group wanting Bay of Pigs II. I was concerned that the commie rat bastards would be presented as misunderstood good guys but no. Our hero has a run in with Cuban state security and they are definitely not good guys. Further, Cuba is presented as a third world shit hole. A CNN news team is presented as not exactly heroic but definitely convenient for our hero. Anyway, I quite like it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at August 27, 2023 11:44 AM (FVME7)

233 Regarding the map... why dis South Carolina? Take away Lindsey Graham and it's more American than any other state in that reimagined USA.

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at August 27, 2023 11:45 AM (F5SKq)

234 What if the kid's an asshole?
Posted by: I mean like a full on Hunter Biden level degenerate but with violent tendencies'

It would actually be funny to do a thinly disguised Biden Crime Family short story set in a Sci-fi 'future' and see if anyone notices. "How far would Xenon Quadraped go, to protect his offspring when their lineage dialer is misplaced?"

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:45 AM (43xH1)

235 I had completely forgotten 'Die Hard' was a book. The sequel of sorts to 'The Detective'. What an odd trail that was!

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:30 AM (43xH1)

Imagine Ol' Blue Eyes in the McClain role. (it was going to be him, when first written, I think)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023

***
Sinatra had played Joe Leland, the lead in The Detective, and had it in his contract that in any other stories about Leland, he wanted first refusal of the role. Since Nothing Lasts Forever, the sequel, was about JL, they had to ask Sinatra about Die Hard. Of course he was too old, and knew it, and they had to go on to Bruce Willis.

My imagination says, What if Die Hard in a form much like the 1988 film had been made in, say, 1962, and Sinatra had been cast in the lead? That would have been great.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 11:45 AM (omVj0)

236 Late to the thread thanks to a very long sermon.
Thanks Perfessor for another great thread

Maybe we of the Horde can put together a library of sorts on the Founders?
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 10:58 AM (f0XAF)
*****
This is a great idea.

*******
As for the EU, I am amazed it has lasted this long. But UK left, and starting next year we need visas to visit EU countries, so - is this the beginning of the official end?

Posted by: Grateful at August 27, 2023 11:47 AM (IQ6Gq)

237 Imagine Ol' Blue Eyes in the McClain role. (it was going to be him, when first written, I think)
Posted by: OrangeEnt

"Do be do be do, motherfucker."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at August 27, 2023 11:47 AM (FVME7)

238 Thank you, Pefessor, for yet another amazing book thread.

Last week was my vacation week, spent on a lake in Maine with no internet and almost no phone service. It was a good week for relaxing and reading.

I finished Rod Dreher's Live Not By Lies which left me rather depressed. The similarities between what happened in Czechoslovakia prior to the Communist takeover and our own situation in the US are concerning. The suffering and sacrifice involved and the importance of the religion and the Church in eventually overcoming and overthrowing the Communists has given me much to think about.

On a lighter note, if you can call a murder mystery light, I also read Jonathan Kellerman's City of the Dead and it did not disappoint. It was much like his previous Alex Delaware stories with lots of twist and turns and a satisfying ending.

Finally, I'm more than halfway through Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection. Some of the stories I read many years ago, some are new to me. Either way, I've been enjoying them very much and look forward to finishing the collection.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at August 27, 2023 11:49 AM (jwAmR)

239 Maybe we of the Horde can put together a library of sorts on the Founders?
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 10:58 AM (f0XAF)

We'd need multiple libraries. It's not like they're all buried in the same place.

Posted by: Hear ye! Hear ye! Get this damned building off me! at August 27, 2023 11:49 AM (fhX0j)

240 or "she'd never go out with someone like me"

We spend so much time preemptively defeating ourselves - and in a significant number of cases we get conditioned to think this way. It's really quite awful.

Posted by: Life not lived is worse than death at August 27, 2023 11:42 AM (fhX0j)

(smh)
Knew a Japanese girl in eighth grade in the French club with me. Soooo wanted to ask her out, but was afraid she was in the "Smart Girl" clique. I didn't.

A couple of years ago, a neighbor from back then found my FB and asked if I was me and if I wanted to join the high school group. Said, nah, but looked at the posts. Found the Japanese girl saying she didn't have any friends at the time I knew her. Missed opportunity because I was scared to get turned down. I encourage my kids to do what they want so they don't miss out on anything. Shoulda done that myself....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 11:50 AM (Angsy)

241 From what I've read, "Men in Black" the comic book ran a poor second to the subsequent movie.

Posted by: Weak Geek, regretting the SEC move in advance at August 27, 2023 11:51 AM (igiqb)

242 Rouge pilots always Return Red Right!

[As if we've never made the same typo!]

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at August 27, 2023 11:52 AM (krqg6)

243 Even if Die Hard had been adapted from the Thorp novel right after it was published in 1979, say in '80, Sinatra would have been about 65; far too old for the energetic moves required by the film script. True, Joe Leland was not a very young man in the novel either. He'd been a fighter pilot in WWII, I believe. (The Detective the novel appeared in about 1964-65, so that checks.) But I don't think he was 65 or more in 1979.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2023 11:52 AM (omVj0)

244 we need visas to visit EU countries, so - is this the beginning of the official end?
Posted by: Grateful'

ETIAS is not legally a 'visa', it is an 'enhanced security check'. It has no diplomatic worth; a visa is an internationally recognized way to enable foreign nationals to travel to and through other countries; it is a legally valid and globally recognized method. ETIAS is nothing of this sort. EU is not 'requiring a visa' of US passengers, it is conducting an 'enhanced security check' and therefore is it completely arbitrary and has no mechanism of appeal if denied.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:53 AM (43xH1)

245 You miss every shot you don't take.

-
I've been pondering which is my predominate deadly sin, gluttony or sloth? Of course, since the 2000 election, wrath has been making a comeback.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at August 27, 2023 11:54 AM (FVME7)

246 I encourage my kids to do what they want so they don't miss out on anything. Shoulda done that myself....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 11:50 AM (Angsy)

Yeah I do the same thing precisely because I didn't do it myself. They shouldn't have to live that way and suffer its emptiness just because I did. There's no virtue in that.

Posted by: Good for you. Seriously. at August 27, 2023 11:54 AM (fhX0j)

247 237 Imagine Ol' Blue Eyes in the McClain role. (it was going to be him, when first written, I think)
Posted by: OrangeEnt

"Do be do be do, motherfucker."
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at August 27, 2023 11:47 AM (FVME7)

----
"Come on fly with me let's fly, we'll get together, have a few laughs..."

Posted by: Fred Astaire as John McLane at August 27, 2023 11:55 AM (F5SKq)

248
::
You miss every shot you don't take.
::

What scares you more: failure or success?

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 27, 2023 11:56 AM (NBVIP)

249 "Do be do be do, motherfucker."
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at August 27, 2023 11:47 AM (FVME7)

----
"Come on fly with me let's fly, we'll get together, have a few laughs..."

Posted by: Fred Astaire as John McLane at August 27, 2023 11:55 AM (F5SKq)

Aw crap! It's too late in the thread to start a "replace yippie ki yay, mf'er" with a line from another leading man in the Willis role.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 11:57 AM (Angsy)

250 ETIAS is a system similar to Canada's: no 'visa' is required for a US citizen to visit Canada, but the US shares LE database with Canada. This EU thing is very likely to be similar.
Many things will keep a US citizen out of Canada permanently (DUI/OWI being one, for instance); this is very likely going to be very similar and with political screenings as well.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 11:57 AM (43xH1)

251 @244 Found the EU guy.

😋

Posted by: Fred Astaire as John McLane at August 27, 2023 11:58 AM (F5SKq)

252 The UK could leave the EU relatively easily because it never adopted the Euro, thanks to Maggie. Any other split-off will be a challenge because of the need to settle trillions in debt represented by outstanding Euros, and second-order challenges with Euro-dominated debt.

A US break-up of states would create similar problems. Reneging on the debt is an option, but that will create other problems.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 27, 2023 11:58 AM (RqMSv)

253 250: My record is spotless and I have found Canada has consistently the hardest country to enter.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at August 27, 2023 11:59 AM (f0XAF)

254 A US break-up of states would create similar problems. Reneging on the debt is an option, but that will create other problems.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 27, 2023 11:58 AM (RqMSv)

Of course, debt to whom? Feds? Guarantee the debt but pay back in something other than money. Debt to blue states that split. Nothing.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 12:00 PM (Angsy)

255 writing a book with the intent of getting it made into a Hollywood movie

Heh. That one story I wrote a long time ago, I started out with a final form of graphic novel in mind. It ended up as, um, mixed media web tale. I didn't write it thinking Hollywood live-action blockbuster… there weren't any slam-bang fistfights or big explosions, at least not "on-screen" (intentionally!), but "could be animated" did cross my mind.

It are what it am.

Posted by: mindful webworker - trying to relate to real writers at August 27, 2023 12:00 PM (3Mgjo)

256 Morning Hordemates.
I'm going to put Deplorable Underground on the list.
HOA block party today so I gotta make cookies. (Snickerdoodles).
Have a good one!

Posted by: Diogenes at August 27, 2023 12:00 PM (hv9bm)

257 I'm not in the EU; but I travel to Europe fairly often. I have serious concerns ETIAS is going to block me from even traveling THROUGH the EU.
It applies to transit passengers!

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 12:00 PM (43xH1)

258 Sgt. Mom, the wagon trains were not a giant line of wagons

-
According to YT, the old trope about circling the wagons in the face of an Indian attack was BS. There simply wasn't enough time. They did circle the wagons to camp but that was to enclose the livestock.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at August 27, 2023 12:01 PM (FVME7)

259 Thanks for the thread, Perfessor. Saddest part of Sunday morning, indeed.

Wolfus, sent you an e-mail.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 27, 2023 12:01 PM (Angsy)

260 Money is a kind of debt. Hamilton understood this.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 27, 2023 12:02 PM (RqMSv)

261 Snickerdoodles?

*perks up*

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 27, 2023 12:02 PM (NBVIP)

262 I'm not in the EU; but I travel to Europe fairly often. I have serious concerns ETIAS is going to block me from even traveling THROUGH the EU.
It applies to transit passengers!
Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 12:00 PM (43xH1)

But not refugees from Sub-Sahara Africa I suspect. How well do you tan?

Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 12:02 PM (xhaym)

263 My record is spotless and I have found Canada has consistently the hardest country to enter.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33'

I can't go at all, ever. It led to a problem booking a flight to Japan; I can't fly through Vancouver, which is the best way.

Posted by: LenNeal at August 27, 2023 12:02 PM (43xH1)

264 Elmore Leonard books were made to be turned into movies, or TV series. Some better than others.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 27, 2023 12:03 PM (RqMSv)

265 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2023 12:03 PM (MOY79)

266 You miss every shot you don't take.
::

What scares you more: failure or success?
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 27, 2023 11:56 AM (NBVIP)

Failure. Terrified of it. Learned from an early age that to try and fail (i.e. to attempt and not perform with near-instant success) is basically the worst thing you can do. It's shameful, disgraceful, brings embarrassment and dishonor to your parents, and brings upon disappointment, rejection, and withholding of an already infinitesimally small of parental love. To fail is to be a failure. It's not a learning process it's a demonstration of your own incompetence and worthlessness as a human being. Success is the bare minimum expectation. If you aren't going to succeed then don't try.

Posted by: Can't handle a football like Flutie when you're 6? You're a disgrace. at August 27, 2023 12:04 PM (fhX0j)

267 Currently re-reading The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan. His theme is the history of the later Roman Republic in the century or so prior to the Triumvirates, when the Republics went through a series of crises that undermined its peaceful government of consent by both the patricians and plebians, and paved the way for dictatorial government. Duncan claims he is not making a specific allegorical comparison between that period of history and our current era in the USA. (The book was published in 2018.) The reader is free to draw their own conclusions, and shudder. It's still an excellent work of period history in its own right, and one will learn a great deal about how the republic worked, or was supposed to work, before it was perverted by too much blood and gold.

Posted by: exdem13 at August 27, 2023 12:04 PM (W+kMI)

268 I just picked up Whalefall yesterday. Oh well, I'll give it 100 pages.

Posted by: Megthered at August 27, 2023 12:06 PM (FVy9j)

269 LenNeal,

"Did you catch 'Bob H' and his pronouncements?"

No, I did not but, omg....

At first they were coherent but then he just kind of lost it. Is this the "joke'?

Posted by: pawn at August 27, 2023 12:08 PM (wsHtO)

270 I could see the French saying piss on it and adopting a version of the CAF that they already print and administer. Italy France and Germany were buying up their old currency and coins at a set redemption price ten years ago, I would not be surprised if they were hoarding them for "some day" when the Euro went bust.

Spanish economist Jesus Huerta de Soto once claimed that the only benefit of the Euro was that Spain couldn't engage in willful money printing and create either massive inflation or massive business cycles since issuance of Euros and credit were regulated by the ECB. However, it appears that is a problem as well, since national policy has little effect on the ECB and EU economic policies.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 27, 2023 12:08 PM (xhaym)

271 I'm tempted to get "Whalefail" just to see the carnage.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at August 27, 2023 12:13 PM (Ak1+U)

272 Question for the Horde. I'm well past 29 and find myself reading, reciting, and enjoying poetry more and more.
. . . .
Anyone else going through this?

-
Yes. It seems counterintuitive to me but as we age we pursue the more subtle pleasures. One might think that as we age and become jaded, it would take the bigger bang to impress but that remains the province of the young.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at August 27, 2023 12:22 PM (FVME7)

273 One improbable issue with The Deplorable Underground is that it assumes that Canada will remain whole. I'd bet that Alberta and Saskatchewan would rather join the rump of the USA and BC would join the DJR West.

Posted by: MichiCanuck at August 27, 2023 12:41 PM (B/mPC)

274 I'm making $90 an hour working from home. I never imagined that it was honest to goodness yet my closest companion is earning 16,000 US dollars a month by working on the connection, that was truly astounding for me, she prescribed for me to attempt it simply. Everybody must try this job now by just using this website... www.Payathome7.com

Posted by: www.Payathome7.com at August 27, 2023 12:43 PM (4HAQC)

275 272 ... AW
I like your phrase 'subtle pleasures'. Elements of literature and, especially, poetry are missed by younger folks because they are outside their experience and, sadly, education. Tennyson's "Ulysses" won't mean as much or be as poignant when life is still unresolved and at full throttle. That is one reason why I enjoy fiction from the 1800s so much this last decade or so. There is a delicate effectiveness in good writing from that period that calls for perspective and a desire to savor the words used. As an example, my enjoyment of LOTR in 1965 doesn't compare to my rereadings decades later.

Posted by: JTB at August 27, 2023 12:44 PM (7EjX1)

276 Listening to (is that in keeping with the thread?) "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. Clocking in at 45 and-a-half hours, it seems quite the audio book bargain. Enjoying it, though it took about 20 hours to cross into "Act II" and start getting interesting.
Posted by: MacphersonStruts at August 27, 2023 09:24 AM

Hey! I'm listening to that, too! Horde mind and all that.

On the other hand, I've got so many audiobooks in my to-be-heard queue, that I'm listening to it at double speed.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at August 27, 2023 12:57 PM (iZEhM)

277 I had read a couple of Lee Childs "Jack Reacher" books when they 1st came out, liked them well enough until...Tom Cruise bought the rights and made a self starring film. Tommy boi is NOT Jack Reacher, and the disconnect created was enough to overcome the suspension of disbelief. I read no more. Last month I found a box with a dozen or so of his books at an estate sale, $5, bought them. Looked up chronological order online, made a list, Read the 1st one...it was good enough to read the next. Between my boxfull and some ordered through the library? I am now 21 books into the list of 35.
On another front, I am in negotiation with the daughter of recently deceased fellow for his "Compleat Collection" of hard bound Louis L'Amour books, 112 volumes.
I had read nearly all of them as a "Yute", it was one of the few things by step father and I bonded over..he picked them up to read on planes and traveled a lot. I made a list, and he and I started checking them off.

Posted by: birddog at August 27, 2023 02:12 PM (1E8/t)

278 The Riverworld books are OK - the first two are excellent, but the series goes downhill from there. There is at least one anthology of stories set in Riverworld by a variety of authors, most of which are quite entertaining.
For me, vintage Farmer is the World of Tier series. With the exception of the last book, "Red Orc's Rage", which is pretty dull, the books are non-stop action by some highly entertaining characters in some wildly imagined worlds: classic sci-fi at its best.

Posted by: Nemo at August 27, 2023 02:20 PM (S6ArX)

279 @LenNeal,

Enjoyed “Famous Men.” Missed the Bob H/Heinlein references, though. Damn! Will have to re-read.

One minor editing nit to pick. Near the end you refer to “taught-breasted;” I believe it should be “taut-breasted.”

Posted by: March Hare at August 27, 2023 03:12 PM (WOU9P)

280 45 One thing I always look for in a map of the Post-Divorce US is a land bridge to San Diego. The New Republic has to have Pacific access. From Camp Pendleton south to the Mexican border, across to Texas.

(otherwise I am left behind the lines).
Posted by: Candidus at August 27, 2023 09:26 AM (886E0

Also need to lasso in Vandenberg, Pt. Mugu, Edwards, Ames, JPL, etc.

Posted by: Fox 2! at August 27, 2023 03:14 PM (3rjuK)

281 "Question for the Horde. I'm well past 29 and find myself reading, reciting, and enjoying poetry more and more.
. . . .
Anyone else going through this?"

always been a Kipling fan,
and cherish the L'Amour poetry, It's all "Guy Stuff".
Ember in the Dark? Awesome.
Words of a Wanderer? I'm a Stranger Here?Yup...thats me
I will confess...I have copied and sent a couple to ex's, and got laid."For old times sake"

Posted by: birddog at August 27, 2023 03:18 PM (1E8/t)

282 THe 22nd story in a now 36 volume fantasy series starts in a Library.

Posted by: Fox 2! at August 27, 2023 03:19 PM (3rjuK)

283 Great comments on the Deplorable Underground map! To answer some: yes, Hawaii does become a naval base for the PLAN, which exercises strategic command over the Diversity Justice Republic naval elements. China takes advantage of the US losing its Pacific Coast to swallow the Philippines-one of the main MAGA characters in TDU is a Filipino exile. The end of the TDU is a lament on how the world has fallen into disarray with the lack of a strong and principled US.

Posted by: Paula Weiss at August 27, 2023 04:31 PM (BYPtp)

284 The question I get most often is “how could Florida and SC be in the Diversity Justice Republic?” Think of how liberals keep moving south after ruining their home states. There are plenty of Dems in both states waiting to counterattack. By 2060 when the civil war ends, the Antifans are likely strongest along the coasts even if they can’t push too far into the interior and a compromise treaty might well give them states that don’t look like promising Left territory today. Thirty five years from now I don’t think we can take any of this for granted.

Posted by: Paula Weiss at August 27, 2023 04:36 PM (BYPtp)

285 Yes, The Antifan Girlfriend was the first novel and TDU is technically a sequel but can be read independently. TAG has a lot of the world building and is kind of a reverse Handmaid’s Tale in which my heroine suffers at the hands of wokist men. It has a whole chapter about Hawaii!

Posted by: Paula Weiss at August 27, 2023 04:44 PM (BYPtp)

286 Finally, to the poster who thinks she may have met my mom last year in Texas, I hope you did, because my mother unexpectedly died in October 2021. You may have met the mother of my SIL, Michelle Weiss, in Dallas. Her parents own a very nice little luncheon place there and are delightful people and rockribbed conservatives. Really finally, I apologize to the AZ reader, but half of Arizona goes to Texas so it’s not a complete disaster. And the fate of Chicago gives me some concern—maybe a crazy violent city state would have been
more logical. Thank you all for the comments!

Posted by: Paula Weiss at August 27, 2023 04:48 PM (BYPtp)

287 I thought Texas was really just Baja Oklahoma.

(Dan Jenkins reference, for those who missed it.)

BTW, he kind of dropped out of view. I read a few of his books and they were quite witty.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at August 27, 2023 09:59 AM (llXky)

I was fortunate enough to have hung around Dan a few times at various TCU events. He was funnier in person than in print, a literal non-stop joke machine that kept all around him in stitches. I strongly suggest his stories of "Goat Hills" golf course, and the cast of characters surrounding that semi-mythical muni course.

Posted by: Brewingfrog at August 27, 2023 04:50 PM (bZTDg)

288 I'm trying to remember where I read an SF short story, and I'm hoping the horde can help (the horde has helped me before). I believe this story would date to the late 40s or the 50s.

The protagonist goes back in time to the Cretaceous and explores in a robot triceratops (I think the triceratops was named Sam). He finds two blond-haired Martian children (boy and girl) who ran away because Mars is boring and are now stranded on Earth. The girl demonstrates the ability to do complex calculations in her head. He becomes a father figure to them. Eventually they have to go back to Mars so he will not be harmed by the other Martians.

The protagonist goes back to his own time and is talking to his assistants. He looks at the female assistant's light brown hair and thinks that people's hair often darkens as they get older. He then asks her to do some complex calculation in her head, which she does. He realizes that the children went back to Mars, constructed a time machine, came 100 million years into their future, and made their way to Earth to be with him.

Does anyone recognize this story?

Posted by: LW at August 27, 2023 06:36 PM (7HrEH)

289 Skipped all the comments, just want to know: where did you find DANGEROUS VISIONS?

I read it some 30 years ago and still vividly remember several of the stories. It's probably, literally, the best scifi anthology of all time... and I lost my copy to a less-than-amicable breakup. *sigh*

Someday I'll get another copy. It's a keeper.

Posted by: quieti at August 27, 2023 08:53 PM (Op1Aj)

290 LW -- I could be remembering wrong, but I'm sure I read something like this in high school in an issue of IF Magazine -- think it was the cover story for the issue. Author was probably Robert F. Young. Will dig a bit through isfdb.org and Pulp Mag Archive.

Check back here later tonight or some time tomorrow -- will post anything I find here and will also post it to next week's book thread.

Later.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 08:55 PM (a/4+U)

291 LW -

The story is by Robert F. Young. Title - When Time Was New.
Appeared in the Dec 1964 issue of If Magazine, and was the cover story.

Link to isfdb.org entry listing magazine publication and anthology appearances:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?61365

Issue is online at Internet Archive. Link:
https://archive.org/details/1964-12_IF

Quieti --
Dangerous Visions is presumably going to be reprinted by Blackstone Books around Feb 2024.

Bests to all.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 09:05 PM (a/4+U)

292 "One minor editing nit to pick. Near the end you refer to 'taught-breasted;' I believe it should be 'taut-breasted.'"

Maybe she was wearing a training bra.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at August 27, 2023 10:28 PM (cYrkj)

293 @Just Some Guy, thank you so much! It's a more recent story than I expected.

I knew the commenters here could help me.

Posted by: LW at August 27, 2023 10:41 PM (ha96s)

294 LW -

Happy to help out. It was the robot triceratops that did it -- I remembered getting strange looks while reading that magazine on the way home from high school on the Chicago CTA 59th street bus.

Bests.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 10:43 PM (a/4+U)

295 It's funny the things that stick in your mind. You can see by my synopsis of the plot that I had totally forgotten about the kidnappers, but I remembered the triceratops was named Sam. That is the only name I remembered from the story.

Posted by: LW at August 27, 2023 11:26 PM (ha96s)

296 I'd forgotten just about everything about the story except the magazine cover and the author and that I'd liked it. Young did a number of time travel stories -- not quite in the same class as Jack Finney's work, but not bad at all.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 27, 2023 11:34 PM (a/4+U)

297 When one reads too much Conan the Barbarian--especially the comics--it becomes horrifying how many times he is rendered unconscious by a blow to the back of the head.
Posted by: Castle Guy

Remember the Hardy Boys mysteries. They got conked on the head in nearly every book.

Posted by: Gordon at August 28, 2023 04:07 AM (v9KcC)

298 I enthusiastically recommend the Bob and Nikki series of novels (also known as bob's Saucer Repair). Funny, well written and insightful. I'm hooked, and am now rereading #37 in the series. They come out every month or so, and I have really enjoyed the ride. Start with #1 and your pleasure will be magnified.

Posted by: Doc at August 28, 2023 05:11 AM (Io/Ba)

Processing 0.03, elapsed 0.0389 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0132 seconds, 307 records returned.
Page size 211 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.