Sunday Morning Book Thread - 03-10-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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...(careful, they are "fra-jeel-ay")

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

Today's pic is not the library on Antares Prime. Nope. It's a picture of the Sandro Penna Municipal Library, located in the hamlet of San Sisto, smack dab in the middle of the Italian peninsula. As libraries go, it's fairly small, with only about 20,000 volumes. It is part of a larger library system, so presumably there's an ILL function between them for people to order resources that are not locally available.

EPIC REVIEW - Malazan Books of the Fallen

I suppose I could regale you with an in-depth, 2000-word review of Steven Erickson's Malazan Books of the Fallen, but most of you would go back to bed....Instead, I'll just try to hit some highlights of my reading experience. I spent the first 10 weeks of 2024 reading this series--approximately 1 book per week. I don't think I set any speed records, but that's a respectable pace for reading over 9,700 pages.

SYNOPSIS: Thousands of years ago, a god was snatched down from the heavens by mortals who wanted to harness his power. When he fell to earth, he was sundered into several different pieces scattered all over the world. Some these pieces were captured and then used to power alien races' Magitek devices and other wise fuel the rise and fall of empires all over the world. The Crippled God, as he's now known, has spent countless millennia attempting to recover his scattered fragments and find a way home. Although he's initially presented as an evil god manipulating the native gods and races to do his bidding, he turns out to be much more sympathetic in the end. The Malazan Empire is currently in the process of conquering the world and the key elements of their army are caught up in a celestial conflict that is far beyond their comprehension as they fulfill their destinies.

THEMES: For an epic fantasy, this series defies common themes and tropes that we often see in those series. For instance, there is no single Chosen One destined to defeat evil and save the world. Instead, there are numerous characters who have been tapped by fate/luck to serve out a particular purpose, though they are often reluctant to play out their role. There is also no defining conflict between good v. evil. Erickson uses the Moorcockian struggle between order and chaos as his main dueling ideologies. Numerous factions represent the forces of chaos as they attempt to destroy the world while the Malazan Empire and its allies are a stabilizing force. Unlike most Empires, the Malazan is a relatively benign influence on the world, bringing order and stability to the territories it conquers. If I had to pick a true central theme to this series, it would be the importance of family. We see the family relationships play out over and over again throughout the series. Erickson highlights that family is not always about blood, but also about the bonds of friendship that are formed when people face struggles and conflicts together. The Bridgeburners, for instance, are very much a true family because of all the incredible adventures they go through. The men and women of that unit of the Malazan Empire will gladly lay down their lives for one another, without hesitation. The Bonehunters, another elite unit formed after an incredible series of events, embrace the Bridgeburner's ethos and become their own family. We see that more than once, as characters are willing to sacrifice themselves to save their brothers in arms again and again. The lesson is pretty clear that soldiers may or may not fight and die for ideologies like the glory of the Empire, but they will absolutely throw themselves into the breach if it means their buddy will go home to his own family.

Overall, this series is excellent and I can understand why it consistently scores high among fans of epic/grimdark fantasy. It is *very* grimdark in places, with characters going through horrific experiences that make the Hamas butchers seem as warm and fuzzy as the Care Bears. There's also a lot of rape. I mean *A LOT* of rape, though to Erickson's credit rapists almost always come to a karmic end because of their actions (one evil bastard has his genitals ripped off and shoved down his throat). Even though the tone can be quite dark, there is quite a lot of humor in the series as well, which gives us readers a break from the more serious tone prevalent throughout the books. This is not a series I'd recommend for the "fantasy-curious" crowd, but dedicated fans of epic fantasy, especially those who have enjoyed George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire or Joe Abercrombie's First Law will probably enjoy it. You will need to carve out considerable time to make it through the series and I'd recommend reading them straight through so that you can remember what happened in previous books. Erickson is clever enough to write them as mostly stand-alone novels, though, so you can finish one and take a break if you need to.

FINAL SCORE: B+

NEXT EPIC READING EXPERIENCE - Earthsea Saga by Ursula K. LeGuin (NOTE: The entire omnibus edition of all six books of Earthsea is shorter than ONE book of Malazan...)

BOOKS BY MORONS

Got a couple of books for you today. One is more Moron-adjacent rather than a true Book By Moron, but I'm inclined to post it anyway just because.

I'm a longtime lurker at AoS (and a very - very - occasional commenter under the name "napresto" [this nic does ring a bell -- PS]). I enjoy your book thread a lot, and especially enjoyed your writing this past weekend about books featuring alternate worlds, time travel, etc.

In that vein, I recently published my first novel, World Without Rain, which adopts several of these ideas in interesting and unique ways. I know you keep a list of Moron books on your Libib website (as well as sometimes mentioning them on the AoS site in your Sunday book thread). I thought I'd email, hoping you might be interested in including my book one of these days. Here are some details, just in case.

World Without Rain is a sci-fi adventure full of airships, futuristic technology, military conflict, amazing places, and fascinating people. I think it would appeal to fellow Morons because, while not an overtly political book, it strongly advocates for a freedom-oriented, pro-individual liberty perspective throughout the protagonist's story arc. Plus it's got lots of cool places, battles, and interesting characters. Anyone who enjoys high concept sci-fi and intriguing character relationships coupled with lots of action and adventure would probably enjoy it.

Much more information is available on my website: World Without Rain

It's available in eBook, BW print, and color print formats through Amazon: https://a.co/d/iIW1rXy

Many thanks for your consideration! Looking forward to your next book thread!

Sincerely,

Nate Prestopnik

I checked out Nate's website. He has some pretty neat 3D illustrations and artwork, along with some interesting items that would be great on the Gun and Hobby Threads. I even found some blueprints for bookshelves! I may have to try making some as these seem pretty easy to do...Even ace could figure these out...

This next one is not by a Moron per se (as far as I know, but then this blog has a fairly wide readership). I know ace has linked to John Nolte's content as recently as this week.

Hi Perfesser

I follow John Nolte on Twitter/X (@NolteNC). Nolte was the original editor of Big Hollywood under Andrew Breitbart (PBUH, 12 years gone this past week). John has a novel out, Borrowed Time, which I believe would be of great interest to SMBT readers. Here's a beautiful review of the novel, from which I'll pull just one quote:

Borrowed Time is a love story. It's a horror story. It's a near-future, dystopian fiction story. It's as much about Nolte himself as it is about our modern world. It is about his peculiar perspective as an outsider observing every horrible and great thing humans have manifested. And it is about faith.

Let's help a trusted brother out - after all, our commentariat has been dining out on Andrew's praise of our comments over Ace's content for more than a decade, and Andrew entrusted John with the very first of the Bigs. Thanks.

-Candidus

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class

Rob Henderson

I read this yesterday. A really good read with some very troubling issues.

The last part of the book rakes over many liberal ideas and more importantly points out their ideas for the masses are not at all how they live.

I recommend.

Posted by: rhennigantx at March 03, 2024 09:10 AM (ENQN6)

Comment: "[T]heir ideas for the masses are not at all how they live." That seems to sum up A LOT about liberalism. They always seem to have such wonderful ideas for the rest of us, such as living in 15-minute cities and eating bugs, but they are not at all keen on adopting that lifestyle for themselves and their children. Foster care is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, you have people taking in foster kids to game the system and grift from the local and state governments. On the other hand, you also have loving, caring people who take in foster kids and do their best to give them a stable, healthy environment. One of my old college buddies and his wife did this, raising three adopted kids as best they could, despite the fact the three boys were initially dealt a bad hand at life. But now they have loving parents who care for them as deeply as if they were biological sons.

This week I read The Very Last War by WH Hawthorne.

If Mr Hawthorne isn't a "ron, then he should be. It seemed like whole sections of dialogue between some of his characters had been lifted from this very blog. It is a fun story, well written, about the typical attack on America and it goes from there. Fun, funny, probably in some aspects, and this being a smart military blog, there are a few suspensions of disbelief needed there, but it is worth the read.

As he says, It'll be fun, seriously.

Posted by: Diogenes at March 03, 2024 10:57 AM (W/lyH)

Comment: I went and checked out the reviews of this book on Amazon. Seems like the people who didn't like it are the ones who have a different political ideology than the author. They commented that W.H. Hawthorne seemed to be injecting a lot of right-wing political bias. Of course, if they had read the blurb for the book, they could probably have picked that up as it's not hard to figure out. Hawthorne spent 40 years working in the defense industry, so he has inside scoop on how the American military-industrial complex really works and can bring that experience to his storytelling.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Malazan Book of the Fallen 10 - The Crippled God by Steven Erickson

It's over. Done. Finished. All 9,700+ pages. As endings go, it was pretty good. I was quite engaged with the events during the climax over the last 100 pages or so. The epilogue is also pretty short. We get to see who survived as they mourn over the fates of those who did not. I can now cross this series off my bucket list, though I may pick up some of the other books in the series (there are about two dozen or so). I do have to read the Kharkanas trilogy, but it's not quite finished yet. Hopefully that will happen later this year or maybe early next year.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

This is a Moron Recommendation written by one of my favorite current authors. It's a much needed antidote to the grimdark fantasy of Malazan, though it does have a fairly dark edge as well. The world building is vastly different and makes absolutely no sense, but it's not supposed to. It's more of a fairy tale or a fable than a proper epic fantasy story. According to Sanderson, his wife asked the following question after watching The Princess Bride: "What if Buttercup went after Westley instead of just sitting there waiting for him?" Sanderson combined that with a few other ideas noodling around in the back of his head and came up with this story. It's a very strange world. It's shaped like a dodecahedron (seriously), and twelve moons--one for each sea--constantly rain down deadly spores that will kill you in a heartbeat in a variety of horrible ways if they get wet. There's a whimsical nature to the narrator as he relates the events from his point of view (he's also a character in the story). Enjoyable, breezy read.

Cyberbooks by Ben Bova

I've never read anything by Ben Bova, but I do know he's a science fiction writer (and editor) of some repute. I'm giving this a whirl because it sounded interesting. It's a satiric look at the publishing industry in the "future" where an enterprising MIT engineer creates an electronic book that will revolutionize the publishing industry, removing the need for paper-based publications! It's clear that Bova, who has some firsthand knowledge of the publishing industry is poking fun at the people who work in the New York publishing houses. This book would probably never be made today because of how it just skewers the humorless scolds in publishing. It's only gotten much worse in the past 35 years since this book came out in 1989. Still a fun read, though. You can see shades of Terry Gilliam's Brazil and Luc Besson's The Fifth Element in just how disfunctional and chaotic New York City is in this near-future dystopian satire. I wonder if Bova ever looked back at this book and compared it to the rise of Amazon...(He passed away in November 2020, so he lived long enough to see how Amazon dominates the modern publishing marketplace, especially for eBooks and Audiobooks.)

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

I did get a few more books this week, though it will be a while before I get around to reading them.

• The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson -- This is the fourth and last book in his "Secret Projects" series.


• Interstellar Medic: The Long Run by Moron Author Patrick Chiles -- I've enjoyed his other books and this looks to be fun as well.


• Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton -- This was a Moron Recommendation recently...


• Salvation Lost by Peter F. Hamilton


• The Saints of Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton


• A Night Without Stars by Peter F. Hamilton


• Corstae by David Vining -- Some Moron (*cough*TJM*cough*) guilt shamed me into purchasing this. I'm willing to give it a go, but it may be a while.

I also made the mistake of stopping by a local game shop that sometimes has a box of books on clearance for $2 each. Whoops!

• Cyberbooks by Ben Bova -- I am interested to see how prescient this book is about digital books given it was written in 1989.


• G.O.D. Inc. 1 - The Labyrinth of Dreams by Jack L. Chalker -- I usually enjoy his book series on some level. The entire series was available, so why not snatch them up for a couple bucks each?


• G.O.D. Inc. 2 - The Shadow Dancers by Jack L. Chalker


• G.O.D. Inc. 3 - The Maze of Mirrors by Jack L. Chalker


• Guardians of the Flame 5 - The Warrior Lives by Joel Rosenberg -- Fills in a gap. I *will* get around to reading these...One of my college roommates recommended them a long time ago.


• Lords of Dûs 1 - The Lure of the Basilisk by Lawrence Watt-Evans -- NaCly Dog has recommended a couple of books by LW-E. I already have a couple and enjoyed them somewhat...so why not try some more? At $2 each, this is a pretty good deal.


• Lords of Dûs 2 - The Seven Altars of Dûsarra by Lawrence Watt-Evans


• Lords of Dûs 3 - The Sword of Bheleu by Lawrence Watt-Evans


• Lords of Dûs 4 - The Book of Silence by Lawrence Watt-Evans


• The Rebirth of Wonder by Lawrence Watt-Evans

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 03-03-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. It can't rain all the time.