Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-23-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Colossus of Maroussi)

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 (now with extra JUNE!)...

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

Moron Colossus of Maroussi sent me today's pic, which is of the library found in Metten Abbey, a Benedictine establishment in southeastern Bavaria near the Czech and Austrian borders. It's one of the oldest abbeys in Bavaria and served as a both a repository of knowledge and as a school for several centuries. The abbey did go through a period of secularization, but it has since been re-established as an abbey and as a school. The library itself was established in the 1260s. It currently houses around 150,000 works and is open for tours. This ceiling fresco is just gorgeous, though it's from the church and not the library.

THE ARROGANCE AND FOLLY OF MAN

If you've been paying attention to what I've been reading over the last few weeks, you will see several Michael Crichton books: Micro, Prey, The Terminal Man, and most recently, Next.

All of these books have one central theme in common: mankind is prone to extreme arrogance and folly when it comes to attempting to exploit the rules of the natural world. Of course, anyone who has read Jurassic Park--or, more likely, seen the movie--knows how this plays out. An idiot scientist with way more brains than common sense attempts to find a loophole in God's creation and then exploit it for fun and profit. The results are predictable: the scientist's creation escapes beyond his control and wreaks havoc, sometimes on a large scale (e.g., Greg Bear's Psychlone or Blood Music). Numerous innocents pay the price for the scientist's foolish attempt an controlling forces way beyond his control and understanding.

Mankind has been telling and retelling stories about the folly of man for thousands of years (see Genesis Chapter 3 for an example). In more recent years, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein serves as the ultimate warning against playing God. He does not like competition. Those who deem themselves to be like unto gods will usually find themselves humbled, paying a terrible price. The Greeks referred to this trait as "hubris" or "overweening pride."

We see the arrogance and folly of man played out in the real world on a daily basis. Ace, J.J. Sefton, and the other COBs bring us countless stories of the Elite attempting to play god among us mortals by declaring this and that to be essential for the continuation of the human race, without regard for any of the potential consequences.

My favorite example from Crichton's Next involves a biotech startup company arguing in court that they have the absolute right to a man's cell lines because he willingly gave them permission to harvest *some* of his cells. When the company's stash of cell lines was sabotaged by a rival, they decided that they had the right to harvest any and all cells they wanted from the original source in whatever manner and time they pleased. The man took exception to this and disappeared. However, the company then argued that they were entitled to the next best thing: cells harvested from the man's daughter and grandson, as they *might* contain cells with the same genetic markers they had already patented. It was such a ludicrous argument that not even a California judge bought into it. Although this scenario is fictional, Crichton tends to write stories "ripped from the headlines" (he includes a bibliography of additional reading at the end of his books) so it's not inconveivable at all that a biotech firm might try this for real, if it hasn't already happened.

We see shades of this in real life when people argue that women have an absolute right to their bodies when it comes to abortion, but none of us have any right at all to refuse an experimental, potentially lethal shot that *might* protect us from a more-dangerous-than-usual strain of the flu. It's for the public good, you see. Just insane.

(Pixy Misa's Daily Tech News for today perfectly illustrates the arrogance and folly of the Elite with respect to power generation and AI.)

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...AND LET'S NOT FORGET THE ARROGANCE AND FOLLY OF WOMEN

I missed WeirdDave's excellent Thursday night ONT, but I caught up with it Friday morning and the following link caught my eye. (NOTE: I was seriously trying to avoid the "T-man" this week, but this was too good NOT to comment on...)

'The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim' To Introduce Long-Lost Tribe Of Female Warriors Led By Helm Hammerhand’s Daughter

Apparently, Phillipa Boyens has decided to create an anime film based on the following line from Appendix A.II of The Return of the King: "To one of these councils Freca rode with his men, and he asked the hand of Helm's daughter for his son Wulf." Out of this, Boyens was inspired to document the heroic saga of this young woman's struggles among the male-dominated Rohirrim as they fought their ancient nemesis, the Dunlendings.

What sort of normal person flips through the Appendix of one of the greatest works of English literature and sees a single line of text about an unnamed woman who is possibly going to be set up with an arranged marriage and then decides to create a full-length feature film to tell that woman's story?

Although the young woman in question does have a role to play, it's mostly because Freca of the Dunlendings was seeking a political alliance with Helm Hammerhand, thus the offer of marriage between Helm's daughter and Freca's son, Wulf. Helm laughed in Freca's face, calling him a fat old man. Naturally, Freca didn't like that much. Helm and Freca later went out into a field to discuss matters at length, and Helm killed Freca. This caused Wulf to declare a blood feud with Helm and his kin, of course, and for many years the Dunlendings and Rohirrim raided each other in battle. Typical Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon tribal antics.

There's no reason to bring in Helm's daughter as a named character who then unites the Rohirrim under the banner of a lost tribe of female warriors who proceed to kick the Dunlendings out of Rohan. That never happened. So why even bother to tell that story?

There are plenty of ways to tell the story of the House of Eorl (Appendix A.II in Return of the King), but you'd want to focus in on the ACTUAL events that occurred as Tolkien described them, not make up entire stories on a single line of text that has no meaning in the overall storyline. In fact, much of Appendix A could be turned into an exceptional adaptation under the right showrunner/director. But that will never happen because woke Hollywood refuses to understand basic principles of storytelling and has NO interest in bringing the original source material to life.

Oh, and WHEN The War of the Rohirrim bombs at the box office (and it will), guess who will be blamed for its failure. Will it be the writers that created the story? The director that brought the story to life on screen? The studio executives that greenlit this project? No, as always, the blame will be cast down on you and I because we are misogynists and homophobes (expect a gay subplot) who don't appreciate quality storytelling.

SUMMER BASED BOOK SALE!

Good morning, Perfessor,
The Summer Based Book Sale is live!
Bypass the cultural gatekeeping, support non-woke authors, and get yourself some great books from both established and emerging talent for only $0.99 - many titles free - but only for one week! The sale runs through Tuesday June 25, 2024.
https://basedbooksale.substack.com/p/the-summer-based-book-sale
Thanks for support indie authors,
Hans

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell is a short, easy read compared to some of Durrell's other works. It chronicles three years that Durrell spent on the Greek island of Corfu in the early 1950s. It is in parts travelogue, biography, and humor, and reveals a simpler and less complex time in Greece, when good friends and good food were understood as central to a happy life.
Colossus of Maroussi

Comment: Colossus of Maroussi reached out to me via email and wanted to know if Morons might be interested in more recommendations of classic works. He shared this one with me. I invited him to send me more recommendations that may be featured in the future, as I think there are a lot of Morons who have read the classics and could discuss them in depth...

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The last Plantagenet king of England died on Bosworth Field in 1485. His body was stripped and carried through town by the usurper Henry and discarded. For 500 years, a caricature was presented to the world of this missing king, until a group dedicated to restoring his name decided to investigate. In The King's Grave by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones, the 2011 quest to find Richard is documented from the initial request to the final confirmation. By overlaying ancient and modern maps, a site dig in a parking lot was planned and authorized, and in nearly the first place that they looked, a skeleton with evidence of scoliosis was recovered by the team. Using DNA technology and family tree information, two living descendants were located and proved a perfect match. Richard III had been found and a royal burial in Leicester was planned. This story is not only an archeological quest, but a revisiting of the tale long believed of an evil king whose reign has been disparaged since shortly after his death. This is an intriguing book that retraces the war of the roses, challenges long held perceptions, and recounts an amazing discovery.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 16, 2024 09:14 AM (3yy8E)

Comment: History is written by the victors. It makes a certain amount of sense that a king might be vilified by history if his successors were politically opposed to him. This is also a pretty cool story of how SCIENCE! (the real kind) can recreate the historical record and provide closure to a turbulent time in history. I remember seeing several news articles that came out while it was happening. I believe some of them were posted on AoSHQ, as a matter of fact.

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I actually read a novel this week. A kids novel, or I suppose the current term is young adult novel, but, still, a novel. Snow Dog by Jim Kjelgaard. I read a lot of this author as a kid, and I just bought a stack of used books, to relive my childhood, and to gift to my nieces, one of whom is a voracious reader, and another who really likes dogs.
Snow Dog is very much in the genre of White Fang. It features a puppy who is born in the wild, but to semi-domestic parents. He grows up to be a master hunter, and awesome in just about every way. Eventually, he comes into contact with the civilized world, a fur trapper in this case, and struggles through re-domestication. Oh, and along the way he fights a blood feud with a particularly evil leader of a wolf pack.
Intellectually, I knew these books were violent. After all, every meal in the wild comes from our hero-dog killing another creature. And, naturally, there are literal dog-fights in books like this. But in this case, the violence was especially in-your-face. On literal page 1 we are introduced to an angry wolf, who enjoys killing people and dogs, and will seek them out specifically to kill them. Grizzly...
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 16, 2024 09:35 AM (Lhaco)

Comment: Nature is harsh, brutal, and doesn't care about your feelings. That doesn't mean it isn't wonderful and beautiful. We accept a certain amount of risk whenever we go outside to interact with nature, but we can also experience the joy and miracle of God's creation. Books like this can be very educational for children because they can vicariously experience the rawness of nature and feel what it is like to struggle in the wild, without having to go outside and do it for real.

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

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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.

Psychlone by Greg Bear

Although Greg Bear is mostly known for relatively "hard" science fiction, this was a bit of a throwback to paranormal horror stories. It's an early book from 1979, where the country (maybe the world) is threatened by a mysterious, unexplainable phenomenon that is capable of wiping out entire communities. It may be powered by the angry dead.

Sandman Slim: A Novel by Richard Kadrey

This is the first novel in a series of urban fantasy stories revolving around an escapee from Hell. James Stark was sent to Hell as a mortal by a circle of mages who envied Stark's natural magical talents. While in Hell, Stark was forged into a weapon through his experiences and training (he was a gladiator and hitman for the Princes of Hell). Now that he's free back on Earth, he has some unfinished business with those who sent him to Hell in the first place. Although he's more pissed off about what they did to his girlfriend. Stark is an antihero character. A professional asshole, but with some noble qualities. He himself says that there are some things that he will not abide while in his sight, such as a carjackers attempting to steal a vehicle from another person. (Stark is quite keen on stealing vehicles himself, just not while other people are in them.) He's also generally kind to those who either pose no threat or who may be a bit down on their own luck. But don't piss him off. He will wreck your day.

Next by Michael Crichton

This is the fourth Michael Crichton novel I've read recently. Unlike the others, there does not seem to be a plot so much as a series of inter-related vignettes about the state of genetic engineering and the issues that surround it. Most of the characters are pretty unlikeable in many ways, as they represent rather unsavory aspects of genetic engineering, such as the woman who gene-spliced human DNA into an African parrot, or the Fauci-like head of the NIH that portrays himself as an evangelical Christian but is all-in on human-embryo stem-cell research and eventual human cloning. He embraces his perceived role as a "saint" in the government, but covers up a number of ugly activities. At the end of the book, Crichton gives his honest opinion about various issues covered in the story, such as gene patents (he's against them), laws about public disclosure of genetic testing (he's for them).

The Bad Place by Dean Koontz

Someone posted in the comments recently about books where the author's name on the cover is larger than the title of the book. Well, this is one of those books. It's an early Dean Koontz novel (1990). It has a lot of Koontz' signature weirdness to it, which I'm starting to recognize after reading quite a few of his novels recently (with several more to read...). The plot mainly follows Frank Pollard, who keeps waking up in strange places after a very strange night indeed. He doesn't know who he is or why this is happening to him.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 06-16-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. That tornado heading your way may be more vengeful than you know...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 08:59 AM (fwDg9)

2 Hi, gang

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 23, 2024 08:59 AM (q3u5l)

3 Insert last week's comment here.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

4 300 pages into Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light, tell history of WWII from D-Day to end, at the Market Garden campaign

Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 09:02 AM (fwDg9)

5 Metten is definitely worth a visit, if one is in the neighborhood. It's downstream on the Danube from spouse's hometown.

Posted by: RS at June 23, 2024 09:03 AM (E7m29)

6 It's not a folly-of-arrogance-re-technology novel like the ones that made him famous, but one of Crichton's pseudonymous thrillers is worth a look. Check out Binary (originally published as by John Lange). A good fast read and filmed for an ABC movie of the week in the 70s called Pursuit with Ben Gazzara and E. G. Marshall.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 23, 2024 09:03 AM (q3u5l)

7 BOOKZZZZ

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 23, 2024 09:05 AM (Ka3bZ)

8 I read The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, which was recommended here some time ago. I like the popular histories written by Larson. This book interweaves two stories centered in Chicago in the early 1890's: The 1893 World's Fair and that of a serial killer. Meticulously researched, this history reads like a novel.

Posted by: Glenn Mackett at June 23, 2024 09:05 AM (rGaN8)

9 At the end of the last thread, I said I was going to clean up a few last chores before the Book Thread. Then Stirling the large black cat leaped into my lap and settled down. He's still here, which makes it hard to type --

Okay, there he goes.

Morning, Book Folken!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:05 AM (omVj0)

10 How do I describe "The Great Time Machine Hoax" by Keith Laumer? Incompletely.

Chester W. Chester has a whopping big estate tax bill but can't pay it because Great-Grandfather had poured his entire fortune into building a supercomputer that can replicate any event in history. Chester and his cousin Case, trying to figure out a way to make money off this thing, call up a scene of early mankind, only to learn too late that it's not just an image. Think holodeck.

And we're off into time-tripping adventures in which Chester becomes a new man. Think Remo Williams, the Destroyer.

I think Laumer rushed the ending; one of the last chapters was stuffed with exposition. But overall, I enjoyed the book.

*****

I also finished "Captain Britain and M.I. 13," a Marvel series from 15 years ago that died after 15 issues (an unintentional miniseries). I'm sorry the comic ended -- but its last story was such a humdinger (Dracula. Leads. Vampire. Invasion. From. Moon.) that I don't know whether the writer, Paul Cornell, could have topped it.

I found out after I finished the series that it was a sequel of sorts to the miniseries "Wisdom." (Pete Wisdom is 13's boss.) I await that from eBay.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)

11 Good morning morons thanks perfesser for this magnificent achievement in book threads

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 23, 2024 09:06 AM (RIvkX)

12 Still reading the Oppenheimer book, American Prometheus.

I'm up to the part where we nuke Japan, war's over, but now some off the scientists feel bad about the death toll and the terrible weapon they have unleashed on the world.

Posted by: Don Black at June 23, 2024 09:06 AM (/7KEl)

13 I did not read this week.

Posted by: rhennigantx at June 23, 2024 09:08 AM (ENQN6)

14 I'm reading A.J. Cronin's The Keys of the Kingdom, which focuses on the life of a Scotsman, Francis Chisholm, who -- raised by Protestant relatives after the accidental death of his Catholic parents -- grows up to become a priest and eventually to run a mission in China, starting in about 1898 and running forward in the story to 1938. A film was made of it in 1944 w/ Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, and Vincent Price. I did not know this, or had forgotten it, until a speech by Father Chisholm, late in the book, seemed so perfect for Gregory Peck that I went to IMDb and looked it up. I must have seen it, or part of it, at some time.

Anyway, good stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:08 AM (omVj0)

15 Addendum (take that, Pixy!)

And only yesterday did I find a "Wisdom" trade collection at a comics shop that I haven't visited in years. However, the single issues are still cheaper.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:08 AM (p/isN)

16 300 pages into Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light, tell history of WWII from D-Day to end, at the Market Garden campaign
Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 09:02 AM (fwDg9)

Operation Market Garden: Montgomery's screw up.

Posted by: dantesed at June 23, 2024 09:09 AM (Oy/m2)

17 Thanks for the book thread, Perfessor!

It's a great way to ease into a Sunday morning, with knowledge imparted along the way...

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at June 23, 2024 09:09 AM (U3L4U)

18 Will have to check out Next. State of Fear too (if I've got the title straight). My reading of Crichton has lots of holes in it.

But next on the list is a revisit of some of Jonathan Carroll's stuff. And Simenon's Maigrets beckon, but good Lord there's 75 of 'em...

Off to help set up for the nifty Mrs Some Guy's annual family reunion; will read comments later.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 23, 2024 09:10 AM (q3u5l)

19 Top pic is beautiful

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 23, 2024 09:10 AM (Ka3bZ)

20 One of the most underappreciated presidents is profiled by Amity Shlaes in her book, Coolidge. Calvin Coolidge was a simple man who wanted to get the government out of the lives of Americans as much as possible. He rose rapidly from the statehouse to the governor's mansion, and then to vice president. When Warren Harding died in office, Coolidge became president. In a time known for raucous living, Coolidge was a quiet, laconic man, known for restricting his answers to the minimum of words. He took the oath in his living room, sworn in by his father. Now in charge, Coolidge was dedicated to ensuring that the government return to its original roots. He insisted on cutting both taxes and budgets, fighting public sector unions, and resisting new spending. Despite his old fashioned outlook on government, he was unafraid of new technology: he popularized cars and airplanes, and oversaw the electrification of the cities. For the first time in years, the United States government ran at a surplus, something that has been elusive in the century since. Shlaes has provided us with an intimate look at the quiet president, one whose principles are desperately needed today.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 09:11 AM (uBD5u)

21 In writing news, I have had a story accepted by Raconteur Press! Yes, they sent me a contract for it and everything. The worrisome part: Four hours after the email with the contract, I got a note from another editor saying they regretfully could not use the story.

HUH? I emailed the first editor, inquiring, and then thought, "As well hung for a sheep as a lamb" and signed and sent the contract back. I asked for a confirmation, but have heard nothing.

So I don't know whether to celebrate or not!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

22 This book isn't putting Montgomery in a very good light.

Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (fwDg9)

23 What sort of normal person flips through the Appendix of one of the greatest works of English literature and sees a single line of text about an unnamed woman who is possibly going to be set up with an arranged marriage and then decides to create a full-length feature film to tell that woman's story?

I don't think that's an illegitimate way of creating a story. Does anyone else?

(not considering the motivation of the new writer)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (0eaVi)

24 Will have to check out Next. State of Fear too (if I've got the title straight). My reading of Crichton has lots of holes in it.

Posted by: Just Some Guy

State of Fear is fantastic, and still timely.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (uBD5u)

25 Was Market Garden the first two-word code name for a military operation? For that matter, when were code names first used?

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:13 AM (p/isN)

26 Good morning! I have made a dry cappuccino to peruse this thread for potential books to read as I float around our tiny pool like the wannabe princess I am. Yay!

Posted by: Piper at June 23, 2024 09:13 AM (pZEOD)

27 Good morning (and a damn hot one) fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 09:15 AM (zudum)

28 *An idiot scientist with way more brains than common sense attempts to find a loophole in God's creation and then exploit it for fun and profit.*

This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: Anthony Fauci at June 23, 2024 09:15 AM (dg+HA)

29 What sort of normal person flips through the Appendix of one of the greatest works of English literature and sees a single line of text about an unnamed woman who is possibly going to be set up with an arranged marriage and then decides to create a full-length feature film to tell that woman's story?
*
I don't think that's an illegitimate way of creating a story. Does anyone else?

(not considering the motivation of the new writer)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024

***
Not a bad way to derive a story at all. You ask yourself, "What was she thinking, how did she get into that situation, and what happened after that," and you have a springboard. Turning it into a woke/feminist (BIRM) screed is something else entirely.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:16 AM (omVj0)

30 good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 23, 2024 09:16 AM (JcnCJ)

31 State of Fear is fantastic, and still timely.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (uBD5u)
---
I'll be reading that soon...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 23, 2024 09:16 AM (BpYfr)

32 *Eowyn, frantically waving her hands, standing on tip-toe*:

"HELLO!!! I'M RIGHT HERE, YOU KNOW!!!

Sheesh, people have such crappy memories. Sigh."

Posted by: Sharkman at June 23, 2024 09:17 AM (/RHNq)

33 *An idiot scientist with way more brains than common sense attempts to find a loophole in God's creation and then exploit it for fun and profit.*

This is about me, isn't it?
Posted by: Anthony Fauci at June 23, 2024

***
Damn straight it is.

You wonder how Crichton would have reacted to the Sniffle Scare and Face Diaper Hoax. I'm sure he'd have been a voice of reason, now, but I wonder how he'd have gotten his message out. FB, Twatter, and the media would have done their best to muzzle. him.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:18 AM (omVj0)

34 I've read only a few of Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, but I've seen that he would use a minor character from one book as the lead in a subsequent book.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:18 AM (p/isN)

35 I don't think that's an illegitimate way of creating a story. Does anyone else?

(not considering the motivation of the new writer)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (0eaVi)

Elaborating on a throwaway line from another story? No, not so much.

Warping it into something that obviously never happened in the Tolkien-verse and trying to pass it off as canon? That's a paddlin'.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 23, 2024 09:19 AM (jGGMD)

36 Reading (on audio) Kings of the Wyld by Eames which was rec'd late in last week's book thread
Kind of like The Expendables in fantasy setting

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 23, 2024 09:21 AM (Ka3bZ)

37 Good morning horde. Thanks for the meaty content Perfessor. Always appreciated.

Posted by: TRex at June 23, 2024 09:21 AM (IQ6Gq)

38 I don't think that's an illegitimate way of creating a story. Does anyone else?

(not considering the motivation of the new writer)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024
---
It can work, with the right writers. For instance, every single character in the Mos Eisley cantina from Star Wars has had a short story written about them. Same with Jabba's palace.

Those stories are interesting and an opportunity to add depth and complexity to the Star Wars universe. Some of them will show up in later books and stories as well.

It can be done well. But the owners of Tolkien's IP have no interest in telling good stories.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 23, 2024 09:21 AM (BpYfr)

39 Been so hot reading is only thing have done much

Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 09:22 AM (fwDg9)

40 For that matter, when were code names first used?
Posted by: Weak Geek

I recall hearing that the practice started in WWI. It was a way to identify operations without revealing anything of the plan. Given how new radio was, and how easy transmissions were to eavesdrop on, that makes sense. It is funny how many companies use them now, when the operation involves laying off staff or closing a plant.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 09:22 AM (uBD5u)

41 So I don't know whether to celebrate or not!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

Neither has replied, yet?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:23 AM (0eaVi)

42 Also on my TBR pile is Waiting for Winter, a collection of short stories by John O'Hara. I've read little of him. My motivation for trying his stuff years ago came from a review of one of John D. MacDonald's works, calling John D. "the John O'Hara of crime fiction." I can sorta see their resemblance in style, characterization, and (to a degree) subject matter.

But if I had two books in front of me, both unread, an O'Hara and a MacDonald? I'd have to decide whether to grab the MacDonald first or save it for dessert.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:24 AM (omVj0)

43 Moron Colossus of Maroussi sent me today's pic, which is of the library found in Metten Abbey, a Benedictine establishment in southeastern Bavaria near the Czech and Austrian borders. It's one of the oldest abbeys in Bavaria and served as a both a repository of knowledge and as a school for several centuries. ...This ceiling fresco is just gorgeous, though it's from the church and not the library.

Ah, the birthplace of Scandinavian minimalism.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 09:25 AM (xCA6C)

44 Read Colonial Nightmare by Moron author David M. Vining. This historical tale recounts Major George Washington's mission by the governor of Virginia to deliver a message to the French General who has decided to overstep his bounds and colonize the Ohio Valley, which at that time was being colonized by English settlers in the Colonies. The trip undertaken by GW is harrowing, not only because of unknown territory and horrible winter weather, but also because GW has multiple encounters with what can only be described as an otherworldly being intent on killing anyone it encounters. No one knows for sure if the dark force has been unleashed by France as a weapon, or whether it resides outside the Ohio Valley. I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the new territory, the harrowing journey from Virginia, up through what is now Pittsburgh, and up north nearly to Lake Erie, and the recounting of everyday life for those tasked with the mission. GW's official diary of the mission omits any reference to the strange and deadly being. Recommended. (The book's editor was missing during the final read of the manuscript, but don't let those errors detract from a well-told and gripping adventure.)

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (U3L4U)

45 State of Fear is fantastic, and still timely.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (uBD5u)

I have to disagree...somewhat.

State of Fear is *useful*, for all the information it provides to refute the global warming fearmongers. The temperature charts, especially.

But as a story, it isn't very good. It's a reverse version of The Day After Tomorrow: open preaching to the audience combined with revenge fantasies about the other side of the aisle. It's memorable for the information, not for the strength of the plot or characters.

Posted by: Dr. T at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (jGGMD)

46 So I don't know whether to celebrate or not!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:11 AM (omVj0)

Neither has replied, yet?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024

***
Nope, and it's been a week. One of our ALH people last week said here that Raconteur was responsive to queries, as they like to publish new writers, so I'm puzzled.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (omVj0)

47 Yay book thread! Yesterday I dropped by The Archives bookshop and made a few purchases. The Archives is the sister-store of Curious Books, and the former is being closed down and what remains of its stock transferred to the latter.

This is kind of a shame because The Archives has its own parking lot, whereas Curious Books is downtown, you have to pay to park. Anyway, it's 1/2 off everything at The Archives, and while it's getting cleaned out, there are some gems there. I found three.

One was a little handbook on trilobites, a fossil quite common in Michigan. My wife loved it. I also picked up Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep because I always wanted to read it and enjoy the movie. I wonder if this has an actual plot. The move sure doesn't (though the hot bookstore babe makes up for that).

Finally, I picked up a copy of Guns of the World, a collector's guide from 1972, edited by Hans Tanner. More on that to follow.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (llXky)

48 Re " The King's Grave":

There is a 2022 movie "The Lost King" directed by Stephen Frears and starring Steve Coogan and Sally Hawkins which recounts the effort to find Richard's grave. Informative and amusing. Recommend.

Posted by: Tuna at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (oaGWv)

49 Wolfus, isn't it a lion as a lamb? Hope it works out.

Posted by: From about That Time at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (4780s)

50 I'd have to decide whether to grab the MacDonald first or save it for dessert.

I wonder where you got that phrase ...

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:27 AM (p/isN)

51 I don't think that's an illegitimate way of creating a story. Does anyone else?

(not considering the motivation of the new writer)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (0eaVi)

Seems as good as any other way.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 09:27 AM (OX9vb)

52 Operation Market Garden: Montgomery's screw up.
Posted by: dantesed

Montgomery defended Market Garden to the end. His argument was that it achieved 90% of its objective. The mere fact that without the bridge over the Rhine the entire thing was pointless was of no consequence.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 23, 2024 09:27 AM (L/fGl)

53 Basically fan fic about side characters
Needs to treat the original with respect though

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 23, 2024 09:28 AM (Ka3bZ)

54 I've started my re-reading of Forrest MacDonald's superb "Alexander Hamilton: A Biography". A most timely event, for it is a reminder that what ordinary men decide is too much, for men of genius and ambition, the task is just enough to accomplish.

Rather than go into the details of the book, I would strongly urge those interested in the beginnings of the Republic to read the reviews. Never mind the one and two stars, they're by people easily bruised when reading frank appraisals of THEIR heroes

One observation common in several of the comments: For a personal biography of Hamilton, Chernow does an adequate job (I've read it. Eh.) But for describing Hamilton's preparation and execution of his greatest accomplishment, the institution of the US financial system, MacDonald's book is unsurpassed.

Posted by: mrp at June 23, 2024 09:28 AM (rj6Yv)

55 You wonder how Crichton would have reacted to the Sniffle Scare and Face Diaper Hoax. I'm sure he'd have been a voice of reason, now, but I wonder how he'd have gotten his message out. FB, Twatter, and the media would have done their best to muzzle. him.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:18 AM (omVj0)

Joe Rogan had the most popular show in the world, and he was forced out of American media altogether, and had to set a deal with a Scandinavian firm for his voice to be heard.

They'd have no problem shutting Crichton up. They silenced millions of people.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 23, 2024 09:29 AM (0FoWg)

56 Still reading the Oppenheimer book, American Prometheus.

I'm up to the part where we nuke Japan, war's over, but now some off the scientists feel bad about the death toll and the terrible weapon they have unleashed on the world.

I read that book awhile ago, and really enjoyed it, but it does veer overmuch into Oppie's angst, with the clear impression that the author didn't agree with dropping the bomb. That was reinforced by the recent movie, which again was quite good, but made clear in the end by a less than sympathetic portrayal of Truman that the filmmaker agreed with the author.

I just wanted to shake all of the angsty Hamlets and say "What did you think we would do with it? If you really felt remorse, you should have left the Manhattan Project and joined the Marines before the invasion.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 09:29 AM (xCA6C)

57 “ Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.”

Isaiah 33:2

Posted by: Marcus T at June 23, 2024 09:30 AM (AEwIA)

58 Just started Judi Dench's "Shakespeare The Man Who Pays the Rent" wherein she recounts her stage appearances in the Bard's plays and her thinking about each role. So far so good. I was surprised to learn Dame Judi is 89 years old.

Posted by: Tuna at June 23, 2024 09:30 AM (oaGWv)

59 Wolfus, isn't it a lion as a lamb? Hope it works out.
Posted by: From about That Time at June 23, 2024

***
I've always heard the phrase as "As well hung/hanged for a sheep as a lamb." In any case, the situation is more like the deal where George Costanza has been fired on a Friday, but he's not sure his boss meant it, so Jerry and the others advise him to show up on Monday as if nothing had happened and see what develops.

I signed and returned the contract in good faith and in a timely fashion.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:30 AM (omVj0)

60 May the odds ever be in your favor Wolfus

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 23, 2024 09:31 AM (RIvkX)

61 I recall hearing that the practice started in WWI. It was a way to identify operations without revealing anything of the plan. Given how new radio was, and how easy transmissions were to eavesdrop on, that makes sense. It is funny how many companies use them now, when the operation involves laying off staff or closing a plant.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 09:22 AM (uBD5u)
---
Code words become necessary when you have to undertake detailed planning and map out future operations. When wars were being "planned" from a saddle, they were unnecessary.

World War I had pre-set war plans and then as the conflict deepened, pre-set offensives (or withdrawals) and to maintain operational security, you used code words.

Market Garden is known by its code because it's the easiest descriptor. Other operations had combo names and combo variants, including the plans before Market Garden.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 09:31 AM (llXky)

62 I read "The Black Cloud" by Fred Hoyle. It's a science fiction novel in a very Asimovian style--there's lots of talk and discussion and theorizing, and the dreaded cataclysm appears and is dealt with in a page or two. Then it's back to more discussion.

It's a good book, very readable, with a lot of interesting ideas in it.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at June 23, 2024 09:33 AM (CHHv1)

63 Nope, and it's been a week. One of our ALH people last week said here that Raconteur was responsive to queries, as they like to publish new writers, so I'm puzzled.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:26 AM (omVj0)

As far as I can tell, Raconteur is just run by Lawdog. I'm not sure how many "employees" there are. Maybe there's just one or two working on it. They have issues coming out every couple of weeks, so perhaps they're overwhelmed with getting the issues out.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:33 AM (0eaVi)

64 Basically fan fic about side characters
Needs to treat the original with respect though
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 23, 2024

***
My Girl From U.N.C.L.E. fanfic short story, about agent April Dancer's second mission, did that. She and her original partner Mark Slate were side characters in one episode of the main show before the silly spinoff, so I gave them their own story: I treated them as smart, competent agents -- and April learns what it's like to have to shoot someone on a mission, even if it's a bad guy.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:34 AM (omVj0)

65
All of these books have one central theme in common: mankind is prone to extreme arrogance and folly when it comes to attempting to exploit the rules of the natural world.
_____________
Pow! Right between the eyes
Oh, how nature loves her little surprises
Wow! It all seems so logical now
It's just one of her better disguises

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at June 23, 2024 09:34 AM (Dm8we)

66 Ive been revisiting dan silvas gabriel allon series he was a stringer for upi mostly in european and the middle easr he wrote one word war two standalone and two others with another spy in the 90s where he subscribed to the lefty notions about much everything including israel one of his sherpas was greg craig

Allon i thought was much grounded about israel but he relies too much on benny morris who has done too much damage to israels identity who believes the palestinians got a raw deal he borrowed liberally from drummer girl with a character much like abu nidal he calls him tariq hourani who is the engine of the arc at least for three of books tariq worked for arafat killed allons family irefenge then turned on him

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:34 AM (PXvVL)

67 As far as I can tell, Raconteur is just run by Lawdog. I'm not sure how many "employees" there are. Maybe there's just one or two working on it. They have issues coming out every couple of weeks, so perhaps they're overwhelmed with getting the issues out.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024

***
On their Substack, there's a post about the editorial staff. The "bios" are comic, but there are supposed to be six or seven of them. The two I've dealt with are on the list.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:36 AM (omVj0)

68 I finished reading 'Surprised by Joy' by CS Lewis. Interesting story about his conversion to Christianity.

Didn't realize he was wounded in WWI.

Posted by: dantesed at June 23, 2024 09:37 AM (Oy/m2)

69 In State of Fear, Michael Crichton mauls global warming fanatics and their lies with glee and dark humor. A must read.

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 23, 2024 09:37 AM (JcnCJ)

70 I read "The Black Cloud" by Fred Hoyle. It's a science fiction novel in a very Asimovian style--there's lots of talk and discussion and theorizing, and the dreaded cataclysm appears and is dealt with in a page or two. Then it's back to more discussion.

It's a good book, very readable, with a lot of interesting ideas in it.
Posted by: BeckoningChasm at June 23, 2024

***
I read his Fifth Planet, about an expedition to an Earthlike world circling a nearby star, when I was in high school. Need to revisit it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:37 AM (omVj0)

71 Even minor characters have a backstory.

I've often thought about writing a story about Malchus. He was the servant of the high priest Caiaphas. When a large group came to arrest Jesus in the predawn hours in the garden of Gethsemane, the apostle Peter impetuously overreacts and swings his sword wildly. He inadvertently cuts off Malchus' ear. After admonishing Peter, Jesus goes on to heal the wound and restore Malchus to good health. (BTW, it's the last miracle Jesus is recorded to have performed.)

So, what about Malchus' story? Wasn't his life forever changed? He would have gone through life handicapped and disfigured. What about his spiritual world view? As servant of the high priest was he as orthodox a Jew as possible? Was he convicted Jesus was a heretical criminal blasphemer?

And now in one brief miraculous healing moment his perspective is radically altered.

That's an interesting plotline.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 23, 2024 09:38 AM (dg+HA)

72 In revenge for targeting arafats number 2 we discover in book 4 his wife was still alive but horribly scarred

They call him the kill artist because hes an art restorer an incident has his handler shamron bring him back

Circling back allon hires his bodel female assustant on the previous mission to track down tariq in europe who is on one final mission

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:39 AM (PXvVL)

73 In State of Fear, Michael Crichton mauls global warming fanatics and their lies with glee and dark humor. A must read.

I'm kind of surprised they haven't dug him up and gibbeted him above the city walls for apostasy.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 09:39 AM (xCA6C)

74 I've been reading some fairly heavy material involving Saint Thomas Aquinas, Aurelius, and CS Lewis. Time for a break while some of the material (and there is a LOT of it) digests.

I'm in the mood for some Donald Hamilton but not just the Matt Helm books. I dug into the book shelves and got out his "Cruising With Kathleen" and his excellent westerns. I have managed to find most of the westerns over time but it took some looking and luck. For some reason the westerns were not reissued. Unless there is a copywrite problem, I don't know why. They are as good as anything by Louis L'Amour.

I'm starting with Cruising With Kathleen, about sailing, which is a fun read and very much has the Hamilton 'style' of good pace and description, some humor, and plenty of his opinions on various matters.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 09:40 AM (zudum)

75 . . . So, what about Malchus' story? Wasn't his life forever changed? He would have gone through life handicapped and disfigured. What about his spiritual world view? As servant of the high priest was he as orthodox a Jew as possible? Was he convicted Jesus was a heretical criminal blasphemer?

And now in one brief miraculous healing moment his perspective is radically altered.

That's an interesting plotline.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 23, 2024

***
It would be. And you could keep the identity of the healer, and the exact location of the incident, a secret until the very end.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:40 AM (omVj0)

76 Where he is off to kill the president and arafat long story short both survive

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:41 AM (PXvVL)

77 I love code words because they show the great variety in the English language. Mincemeat and Torch, for example. More recently, we've had Pinball, Hexagon, and Keyhole.

Funny, no matter how ordinary the word is, its use as a code in real life gives it a certain cachet.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:42 AM (p/isN)

78 I'm about halfway through Oathbringer the third in Branson Sanderson's Stormlight series. I had to have read ( listened to) it before because I knew the twist revealed in it, but I have zero memory of practically any of it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 09:42 AM (XjtdB)

79 I'm in the mood for some Donald Hamilton but not just the Matt Helm books. I dug into the book shelves and got out his "Cruising With Kathleen" and his excellent westerns. I have managed to find most of the westerns over time but it took some looking and luck. For some reason the westerns were not reissued. Unless there is a copywrite problem, I don't know why. They are as good as anything by Louis L'Amour.

I'm starting with Cruising With Kathleen, about sailing, which is a fun read and very much has the Hamilton 'style' of good pace and description, some humor, and plenty of his opinions on various matters.
Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024

***
I know. It's hard to find anything by Hamilton now, let alone his Westerns. I mentioned on the Tech Thread that Grit will show The Big Country with Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Burl Ives, Chuck Connors (a very different role for him), and Charlton Heston this p.m. at 3 Central. The film is based on one of Hamilton's novels.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:42 AM (omVj0)

80 I imagine his story would bd much like that of thd roman centurion who repented although i imagine the garrison would have treated him badly

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:43 AM (PXvVL)

81 Since last I was here, I read Big Trouble by Dave Barry. I had forgotten how funny he is. I wouldn't call it a great book but it made me laugh out loud multiple times and that's what I want in a comic novel. I started Milan Kundera's The Joke and a reread of The Red Badge of Courage. In my youth I loved Stephen Crane and this is reminding me why.

Posted by: who knew at June 23, 2024 09:43 AM (4I7VG)

82 I've been reading Prairyerth by William Least Heat Moon. It's about the Flint Hills in Kansas. I read Blue Highways a long time ago, but thought I mind find this interesting. There are some very good stories in this and if he had an editor, those stories would have made a fine book. There's just so much junk in this. And last night, I hit the chapter with the sustainable agriculture guy that said we has four years of oil left and we needed to go back to draft animals. The book was written in 1991. The Kansas I live in has more little oil wells going in and big impressive machines out harvesting wheat.

And he whines a lot about the failure to put in a tall grass National Park. Since one does exist out there, I guess he shouldn't have worried. Lefty authors are unreadable because they can't stick to the subject matter. Not sure if I'll finish this.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at June 23, 2024 09:43 AM (xjTDL)

83 I used to get voice mails from some guy's parents (his number was a digit off from mine). I always thought it would be a good premise for a mystery or thriller, someone needing help, or threatening someone, but calling the wrong number. And things go awful from there.

"Charles? Are you there?"

But, I'm no writer, so someone else will have to pick it up.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 09:44 AM (OX9vb)

84
It can work, with the right writers. For instance, every single character in the Mos Eisley cantina from Star Wars has had a short story written about them. Same with Jabba's palace.
----

I read these! They were good fluff and would have made better Star Wars anthology episodes than the crapulence they foisted on us.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 23, 2024 09:44 AM (goWOv)

85 73 They'd have to dishonor his corpse, because they couldn't handle him when we was alive.

He gave a speech to some environmental group -- Sierra Club, Audubon, I forget which. And he absolutely skewered them. It was brutal and hilarious.

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 23, 2024 09:45 AM (JcnCJ)

86 Speaking of Moron authors, a couple of weeks ago I was in a college town located in southern Utah and came upon a bookstore called The Book Bungalow. It's an independent book seller. I asked about certain authors I know from AoS and ALH. None of them were in stock, but the store employee told me they are open to deals with indie authors.

The first section in the store is packed with sci-fi/fantasy, so any morons writing that genre would probably be able to sell a few copies. They would sell on consignment. Seems to be a place frequented by college students, so you might be able to sell a few copies.

The Book Bungalow
94 W Tabernacle St
St George UT 84770

thebookbungalow.com

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:45 AM (0eaVi)

87 @74 --

I read "Cruising With Kathleen" a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:45 AM (p/isN)

88 I've raved on here before several times about Ryan Williamson and Jason Anspach's trilogy set in The Land of the Black Sun, consisting of "Doomsday Recon," "Death or Glory," and the forthcoming "Born in Battle."

Platoon of Army Recon Scouts is transported from 1989 Panama to a crazy world filled with monsters, magic and hot Aztec warrior women (the Sugar Skull Gals). Hilarity, time and spacial travel and much mayhem ensue.

Williamson has been posting excerpts of "Born in Battle" on X over the past 2 months as he's been writing it. He finished the rough first draft last Monday, and I asked him if I could give it a read, and he sent it to me, shockingly.

It's spectacular and ties up the story perfectly. I was astounded that a first draft would be so coherent and well organized. The final version will probably be out in a month or so. I highly recommend.

Also, Williamson has written "The Widow's Son" and "The Spear of Destiny," which are also excellent and absolutely bonkers. I highly recommend.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 23, 2024 09:45 AM (/RHNq)

89 I'm in another Loren Estleman short novel, "Paperback Jack". Freshly returned from Europe, former hack writer Jacob Heppleman finds that the pulps he used to churn out stories for have dried up. Paperback novels are where it's at. Now he's going to extrude pap as Jack Holly for Blue Devil Books.

You can feel the spin-rack crapola crumble in your hands after one perusal. Heck, I can smell the pulpy paper and cheap glue! We had a few of these in the house when I was a kid.

I loved the rags he used to contribute to: Double-Barreled Detective, Goon Squad, Daredevils and Dogfaces, Silk Sheets, Gams and Guns, My Secret Sin, Muff Pistols (!) -- that's some good straphandle fodder there.

Like all Estleman stories, witty and agile writing.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 23, 2024 09:46 AM (goWOv)

90 To be a follower of jesus could not have been easy

Peter knew how the religious authorities treated any heresy so his thrice denial seemed sensible

We know how saul treated new followers specially gentiles like stephen and how he was regarded

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:46 AM (PXvVL)

91 Last week I spent about $20 on three ebooks. One is about mapping fictional worlds and the other two are about world building but approach it in completely different ways.

I got them so I could flesh out my Weird West dino world in the hopes that would help guide the direction of the story.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 09:47 AM (XjtdB)

92 There's just so much junk in this. And last night, I hit the chapter with the sustainable agriculture guy that said we has four years of oil left and we needed to go back to draft animals. The book was written in 1991.

Posted by: Notsothoreau

Whenever I hear this, Jethro Tull's Heavy Horses plays in my head.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 09:47 AM (/slNc)

93 []And last night, I hit the chapter with the sustainable agriculture guy that said we has four years of oil left and we needed to go back to draft animals. The book was written in 1991.

Posted by: Notsothoreau

Whenever I hear this, Jethro Tull's Heavy Horses plays in my head.

Traffic's John Barleycorn would also work.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 09:48 AM (xCA6C)

94 Other things you notice about the kill artist there is a character which is very much based on robert maxwell who was the mossads daddy warbucks until he got too curious

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:50 AM (PXvVL)

95 @83 --

Happened with the Hardy Boys in "The Bombay Boomerang." Frank dialed the wrong area code and overheard a raid in the Pentagon.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:50 AM (p/isN)

96 Basically fan fic about side characters
Needs to treat the original with respect though
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 23, 2024 09:28 AM (Ka3bZ)

True, and I hope my comment reflected that. Like Dash and others said, it seems a legit way to write a story. Whether the writer and the rights holder care about being true to the original has no bearing on the point.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:50 AM (0eaVi)

97 Thanks to whoever recommended Nevil Shute's "Ordeal" (aka "What Happened to the Corbetts"). Shute wrote this on the Eve of WWII as a sort of "what if", in which a nice middle class family in southern England experiences the aftereffects of a series of surprise aerial bombings (the enemy is never named, but The Hun is implied). The destruction is bad enough, but the lack of clean water brings about disease, the people fleeing the disease spread it further, and few are around to take care the everyday business of life like food and fuel production and distribution. Their situation becomes ever more dire as they try to find a safe haven.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 23, 2024 09:51 AM (goWOv)

98 I read a comic book collection this week: "Marada The She-Wolf" by Chris Claremont (of X-Men fame) and John Bolton (not the ambassador to the UN). It's a short book, 3 adventures told in maybe 150 pages. The story ostensively takes place in the Roman Empire of the first century, but there's magic, and the setting is functionally identical to that of the Conan stories of Robert E Howard. Essentially, we have a comic about a more sensibly-dressed version of Red Sonja.

The artwork (Jonh Bolton's contribution to the book) is top notch. Well above the usual comic quality. It was originally intended to be presented in black-and-white, so the linework shows all the detail that is needed. But then, they came back and colored it; not in the usual comic book cell shading, but with watercolor paint. Again, a lot more detailed than the norm. The comic has a very story-book vibe. A dark and spooky story-book, at times, but story-book nonetheless.

(continued...)

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 23, 2024 09:52 AM (Lhaco)

99 Last week I spent about $20 on three ebooks. One is about mapping fictional worlds and the other two are about world building but approach it in completely different ways.

I got them so I could flesh out my Weird West dino world in the hopes that would help guide the direction of the story.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024

***
The background of an SF or fantasy story is extremely important to the tale. Otherwise you might as well be writing a standard Western, crime story, or drama. It's fun to develop the stuff and to get to know your world, and tempting to shovel all of it into your story, but you don't need to tell it all. You learn over time what needs to be on the page and what doesn't, I guess.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:53 AM (omVj0)

100 Some e-books are almost as expensive as dead tree editions now. I want authors to get paid but this backfired and I just check it out of the library, if available. If not? Oh well.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 23, 2024 09:53 AM (goWOv)

101 Why did Mossad need money from Robert Maxwell? I expect they get a budget from the nation of which they are an official agency.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 23, 2024 09:54 AM (QkS9F)

102 woke Hollywood refuses to understand basic principles of storytelling and has NO interest in bringing the original source material to life.

My take on Hollywood is that the power players in Hollywood are made up of a significant number of second and third generation Hollywood elite. They are in positions of power to influence content not because they have demonstrated creative, artistic abilities but because of who their parents and grandparents were.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 09:54 AM (jY9Ov)

103 That was reinforced by the recent movie, which again was quite good, but made clear in the end by a less than sympathetic portrayal of Truman that the filmmaker agreed with the author.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 09:29 AM (xCA6C)

I don't think there's anything wrong with an unsympathetic portrayal of Truman. We only hear about how he dealt with the war and stuff, but he was a nasty machine pol. He spoke as badly about the Rs as the Ds do today.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:55 AM (0eaVi)

104 I made 75 miles of the 100 mile Nijmegen death march in 91.
I was forced to do the last 25 miles in a Hummvee.
My heels seperated from my foot as well as the pad on my right foot. Medic came by to check everyone and I had to have my boots cut off. Got back to post and underwent a procedure I have yet to find anybody else having gone through. The sucked the fluid from my foot. Put it in a bottle in brown shit and reinjected it into my feet. Felt like fire going in.
I was walking fine about a day later. And nails wouldn't penetrate my feet.
I had a fractured left hip the whole time too.
My wife's Grandfather died during Market Garden (a sub-mission involving some nuke facility in the area). Her father didn't know when or how he died until the '90's. I guess the mission was so embarrasing the British just kept it secret.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 09:55 AM (xcIvR)

105 Thanks to whoever recommended Nevil Shute's "Ordeal" (aka "What Happened to the Corbetts"). Shute wrote this on the Eve of WWII as a sort of "what if", in which a nice middle class family in southern England experiences the aftereffects of a series of surprise aerial bombings (the enemy is never named, but The Hun is implied). The destruction is bad enough, but the lack of clean water brings about disease, the people fleeing the disease spread it further, and few are around to take care the everyday business of life like food and fuel production and distribution. Their situation becomes ever more dire as they try to find a safe haven.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 23, 2024

***
Eris, I think that was me. At least I recently read the story and I think I mentioned it here. Glad you liked it.

You never know quite what you're going to get in a Shute story, except that ordinary people will wind up doing extraordinary things, and it's all well told.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:55 AM (omVj0)

106 Though it would probably require the inclusion of "Evil" in "THE ARROGANCE AND FOLLY OF MAN", The Expanse books by James SA Corey are a pretty recent addition to this genre.

Posted by: cthoms at June 23, 2024 09:55 AM (CPMw2)

107 For operations they want to keep on the qt for trasnsprt comms et al the author credits andrew neil

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:56 AM (PXvVL)

108 And I am still reading William Tecumseh Sherman by James McDonough. I think he tries to be fair towards Sherman. It's well written and nice to read about competent people

I ordered a second Paperwhite. It's the best way to read thick, heavy books.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at June 23, 2024 09:56 AM (xjTDL)

109 Go, go, Godzilla!

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 23, 2024 09:57 AM (QkS9F)

110 Yes much of hollywood was in wallaces corner as it turned out in 48 campaign he wasnt considered enough of a true believer he cast out at least some of the commies the nerve of him

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 09:58 AM (PXvVL)

111 My take on Hollywood is that the power players in Hollywood are made up of a significant number of second and third generation Hollywood elite. They are in positions of power to influence content not because they have demonstrated creative, artistic abilities but because of who their parents and grandparents were.
Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024

***
You are probably right. Sam Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle (Universal), and Harry Cohn (Columbia), to take three examples, were not writers or creative . . . but they knew enough to hire people who could write and were creative. They goal was to make money by entertaining audiences. The current bunch either don't care, or want to lecture us.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:59 AM (omVj0)

112 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd: I've read The Big Sleep and loved it but it is just like the movie. Great characters, interesting set-up and then just confusion. But worth the read anyway. And you are right about the hot bookstore lady.

Posted by: who knew at June 23, 2024 09:59 AM (4I7VG)

113 On the face of it, a book like Guns of the World isn't worth much. The firearms market is radically different from what it was in 1977, and the focus of collectors has likewise shifted considerably.

Thus, while there are articles on Lugers and Colts, much of it focuses on what was hot at the time - historic American rifles. This makes sense what with the Bicentennial and all, so there are deep dives into Kentucky Rifles and Civil War weapons. Bowie knives get a lot of ink as well.

What drew my interest was the snapshot it offered of the industry at that point in time. As the editor wrote, the 1970s marked a sea change in firearms collecting. Gone were the days of $9.99 catalog purchases. Tighter import laws, growing gun controls, and a maturing market meant considerable changes.

At the same time, the book points out timeless truths about doing research and being duped by false conceptions of scarcity or abundance.

Of particular interest to me are the discussions of prices, which have shifted quite a bit in some cases and not so much in others. One can marvel at the concept of a top-end Garand being $300, but I remember when Russian Mosins were $100.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:00 AM (llXky)

114 Though it would probably require the inclusion of "Evil" in "THE ARROGANCE AND FOLLY OF MAN", The Expanse books by James SA Corey are a pretty recent addition to this genre.
Posted by: cthoms at June 23, 2024 09:55 AM (CPMw2)
---
I've not read the books, but I have watched the television show and I concur 100%.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 23, 2024 10:00 AM (BpYfr)

115 95 @83 --

Happened with the Hardy Boys in "The Bombay Boomerang." Frank dialed the wrong area code and overheard a raid in the Pentagon.
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:50 AM (p/isN)

Oh! It's true, isn't it, that there's nothing new under the sun.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 10:00 AM (OX9vb)

116 On their Substack, there's a post about the editorial staff. The "bios" are comic, but there are supposed to be six or seven of them. The two I've dealt with are on the list.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 09:36 AM (omVj0)

Maybe they're part time workers with other main jobs? Still, they should have said something within a week. Wait and see, I guess unless you are considering subbing the story elsewhere.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 10:01 AM (0eaVi)

117 Richard III...now find out what he did w/the princes.

Posted by: BignJames at June 23, 2024 10:01 AM (AwYPR)

118 I also read Small Farmer's Journal which is mainly about draft animals. I'm not opposed to them. I just think it would cause a big die off if we had to do that.

Did you know there is a Bob Dole wheat? Found that out this year.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at June 23, 2024 10:01 AM (xjTDL)

119 Did oppenheimer have terrible judgement probably in the staff he recruited which led us to greenglass fuchs and the rosenbergs

For that reason teller chose to act much like elia kazan he cannot be forgiven for that

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 10:01 AM (PXvVL)

120 (part 2 of my rambling about the comic book "Marada the She-Wolf")

The writing on this book is...average. The stories are your standard sword and sorcery fare. Nothing super-innovative or amazing. But nothing particularly bland or insulting bad. Sadly, that puts it well above several other sword-and-sorcery comics I've read. It's amazing how many writers will take a gig writing Red Sonja when they seem to actively hate the character and her setting. But, I digress...

I do have one big bone to pick with the storytelling: Our main character is a lady-adventurer, a master sword-fighter, yada-yada. But when we are introduced to her, she's been captured, traumatized, and sort-of brainwashed. Basically, she's in no condition to be the lead character of a sword and sorcery adventure. So the first act is just another character telling her how great she is, and trying to get her to remember how to be herself. It's not quite as bad as Nerdrotic's "Her-o's Journey" (The heroine starts out awesome, and then has to realize how awesome she is) but it's not a fun read. Among other things, it makes us feel like we've missed half the story.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 23, 2024 10:01 AM (Lhaco)

121 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd: I've read The Big Sleep and loved it but it is just like the movie. Great characters, interesting set-up and then just confusion. But worth the read anyway. And you are right about the hot bookstore lady.
Posted by: who knew at June 23, 2024

***
The story goes that when someone asked Chandler who killed the chauffeur in the novel, he said he didn't know.

His best short piece is the justly famous "Red Wind," with the opening line, "There was a wind blowing that night. . . ." His best mystery qua mystery is The Lady in the Lake. And Farewell, My Lovely is pretty good all around too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:02 AM (omVj0)

122 I don't think there's anything wrong with an unsympathetic portrayal of Truman. We only hear about how he dealt with the war and stuff, but he was a nasty machine pol. He spoke as badly about the Rs as the Ds do today.

Agreed, but I was referring specifically to the dropping of the bomb. Truman had a huge decision to make, made the correct choice, and didn't need any whining from Oppenheimer, who conveniently never had to face any real danger.

I always have the sense that Oppenheimer was publicly trying to influence how history would view him, and Truman had no time for it. He had to make real decisions. Being conflicted was a luxury Oppenheimer had, but Truman (and millions of soldiers) didn't.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 10:03 AM (xCA6C)

123 In other literary news . . .

[Fire Marshal] “Squad” Member Jamaal Bowman Accused of Plagiarism

-
David Weigel
@daveweigel
Bowman up now: “We are gonna show fucking AIPAC the power of the motherfucking Bronx.”

-
Sounds like Himmler. Meanwhile, that bastion of truth, Politico . . .
POLITICO
@politico
A trip to the West Bank changed Jamaal Bowman's world view. The New York congressman left feeling profoundly demoralized and lost his hope for a two-state solution.

-
Well, at least he's not in favor of a two-state solution.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 23, 2024 10:03 AM (L/fGl)

124 I just finished reading a bio of Thomas Cochrane, the British naval hero of the Napoleonic era whose career was even more implausible than any of the fictional characters like Aubrey or Hornblower based on him. He really did capture a frigage with a sloop, and then later fight three ships of the line with the same sloop for most of a day before he had to surrender. When his enemies in the Admiralty forced him out (a manufactured scandal and a rigged trial -- hmm) he went off to South America, founded the Chilean Navy, also helped win the independence of Peru, then commanded the Brazilian and Greek navies as well.

The bnok's called siimply _Cochrane_, and it's by Donald Thomas. Recommended.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 23, 2024 10:03 AM (QkS9F)

125 A perfunctory tip o' the hat to the Perfessor, to acknowledge that my comment from last week made it onto the main thread! that's always fun to see...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 23, 2024 10:03 AM (Lhaco)

126 117 Richard III...now find out what he did w/the princes.
Posted by: BignJames at June 23, 2024 10:01 AM (AwYPR)

That is one of the weirder stories from the War of the Roses.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 10:04 AM (xcIvR)

127 And now in one brief miraculous healing moment his perspective is radically altered.

That's an interesting plotline.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 23, 2024 09:38 AM (dg+HA)

That's not a bad story generator. A long time ago, I found a book in a relatives house about Simon of Cyrene, the man roped into carrying Jesus' cross. He gave him a complete life story. So, it's been done before. Don't see why you couldn't do it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 10:05 AM (0eaVi)

128 Richard III...now find out what he did w/the princes.
Posted by: BignJames

Read The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:05 AM (fR1Q6)

129 Took a tip from Sara Hoyt and downloaded a novel in the genre of Georgette Heyer, a later date so not a Regency novel since the regent is now the king. Cecily by Alida Leacroft. She's got a ways to go to be the next Georgette Heyer, however she stays away from the sex narrative of current Regency authors like Balogh and others.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at June 23, 2024 10:05 AM (2NHgQ)

130 What sort of normal person flips through the Appendix of one of the greatest works of English literature and sees a single line of text about an unnamed woman who is possibly going to be set up with an arranged marriage and then decides to create a full-length feature film to tell that woman's story?

I don't think that's an illegitimate way of creating a story. Does anyone else?

(not considering the motivation of the new writer)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 09:12 AM (0eaVi)

We have a word for that: "derivative". Usually considered the mark of a poor writer. The woman is a parasite.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 23, 2024 10:05 AM (dOXkF)

131 The book also includes a facsimile of a 1904 firearms catalog, demonstrating just how much our currency has been debased. In those days, a $10 rifle was on the high end. And how wouldn't go for a Springfield rifle from the Civil War for a mere $3.50?

I'll conclude by noting that the book is essentially the voice of old collectors telling me about what they got, how much they paid and how they came by it. There's a summary of military arms that includes a discussion of how they got here. Chinese Type 53 rifles, for example, are Vietnam bringbacks. Chinese Chiang Kai-shek pattern rifles can be found all over Asia. Arisakas are ubiquitous and run $30 - great value for a sporter!

It's not for everyone, but I'm well pleased with it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:05 AM (llXky)

132 34 I've read only a few of Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, but I've seen that he would use a minor character from one book as the lead in a subsequent book.
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:18 AM (p/isN)

I like this. It's a good way to do a series without forcing an order, or making readers wait on tenterhooks for the next installment. A novel can stand alone.

Tana French does this with her Dublin Murder Squad stories.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 10:07 AM (OX9vb)

133 I also finished "Captain Britain and M.I. 13," a Marvel series from 15 years ago that died after 15 issues (an unintentional miniseries). I'm sorry the comic ended -- but its last story was such a humdinger (Dracula. Leads. Vampire. Invasion. From. Moon.) that I don't know whether the writer, Paul Cornell, could have topped it.

I found out after I finished the series that it was a sequel of sorts to the miniseries "Wisdom." (Pete Wisdom is 13's boss.) I await that from eBay.
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)

Wait, Pete Wisdom is still running around the Marvel Universe? Cool! I rather liked him when I read Excalibur (in the late 90's) but I figured they'd let the character fall off the face of the Earth after that series got cancelled. I hope his mini-series treats him well.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 23, 2024 10:08 AM (Lhaco)

134 CS Lewis is well represented in my library. Hard to estimate how times I've read Tales of Narnia. The Abolition of Man is my favorite work by Mr. Lewis. One thing I haven't read is his SF trilogy. I recently listened to someone discussing his works and he stated that the third book in that trilogy, The Hideous Strength, was a fictionalized extension of The Abolition of Man. I bought the trilogy and it arruved on Thursday. My question to my well read morons is should I start with the Hideous Strength, the third book in the trilogy, will it diminish the story?

Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 10:08 AM (jY9Ov)

135 Happened with the Hardy Boys in "The Bombay Boomerang." Frank dialed the wrong area code and overheard a raid in the Pentagon.
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 09:50 AM (p/isN)
---
Per a discussion here some weeks back: "Dr. Anal and The Bombay Boomerang."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:08 AM (llXky)

136 Richard III...now find out what he did w/the princes.
Posted by: BignJames at June 23, 2024
*
That is one of the weirder stories from the War of the Roses.
Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024

***
Josephine Tey, in The Daughter of Time, has her Scotland Yard inspector, Grant, ask "Cui bono?" -- as any good detective should -- and come up with the theory that Henry VII did away with them. Their deaths made it even easier for him to seize the throne once he'd killed Richard in battle. (I think that was his motivation. Been a while since I read the book.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:08 AM (omVj0)

137 But, I'm no writer, so someone else will have to pick it up.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 09:44 AM (OX9vb)

Sorry, wrong number.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 10:10 AM (0eaVi)

138 Noe about the author of american prometheius kai bird son of an arabist wrote a takedown of mcgeorge bundy from the left a bio of robert ames

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 10:10 AM (PXvVL)

139 I think there are some books I appreciate more because of positive memories I associate with the circumstances when I read them. I reread Crichton's Andromeda Strain recently. One of the reasons I like it is because as a kid I would read it at the swimming pool after my swimming lesson while I was waiting for my sister to finish her lesson so we could walk home together, and the relief I felt at being done with the lesson spilled over into the book. If that makes any sense to anybody.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at June 23, 2024 10:11 AM (hsWtj)

140 Their deaths made it even easier for him to seize the throne once he'd killed Richard in battle. (I think that was his motivation. Been a while since I read the book.)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius,

Once Richard and the prices were dead, there were no bloodline relatives left to challenge Henry.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:11 AM (fR1Q6)

141 I always have the sense that Oppenheimer was publicly trying to influence how history would view him, and Truman had no time for it. He had to make real decisions. Being conflicted was a luxury Oppenheimer had, but Truman (and millions of soldiers) didn't.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 10:03 AM (xCA6C)
---
A lot of people jumped on the "the Bomb was a mistake" bandwagon after the fact, including military officers who wanted to appear humane. Dugout Doug was one of them, and it's hard to read his quote because you know that deep down he was pissed that he didn't conquer Japan at the cost of a 1 million US soldiers.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:12 AM (llXky)

142 Good morning all.
I'm visiting family this weekend so have not had a lot of time to read.
Still reading People of the Book. Although I got pushback last week about how "based on real events", I am liking it as a novel. I'll have more to say when I finish it.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 23, 2024 10:14 AM (ucoMn)

143 Speaking of Lewis: Screaming In Digital, did you get to visit The Bird and Baby on your Inklings tour?

Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 23, 2024 10:14 AM (goWOv)

144 I just wanted to shake all of the angsty Hamlets and say "What did you think we would do with it? If you really felt remorse, you should have left the Manhattan Project and joined the Marines before the invasion.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 09:29 AM (xCA6C)

In Unbroken, the biography of a US Olympic runner who became a Japanese POW, it states that the Japanese weren't stunned by the total killed just by the fact that it only took one bomb. Dropping "The Bomb" not only saved all those lives that would have been lost in the proposed invasion. It also saved the lives of all the POWs because Japan had begun liquidating its camps.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:16 AM (XjtdB)

145 The lefties will abandon their heroes at the drop of a hat but they can nurse a grudge for a century. Look at how they still demonize Hearst, Ford, Edison, and Rockefeller, even as they slavishly worship Bezos, Soros, Iger, and Zuckerberg.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 23, 2024 10:16 AM (QkS9F)

146 Josephine Tey, in The Daughter of Time, has her Scotland Yard inspector, Grant, ask "Cui bono?" -- as any good detective should -- and come up with the theory that Henry VII did away with them. Their deaths made it even easier for him to seize the throne once he'd killed Richard in battle. (I think that was his motivation. Been a while since I read the book.)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:08 AM (omVj0)
---
Yeah, but the crucial question is: how? How do you infiltrate someone into the Tower, kill the princes without raising any kind of alarm, and having no witnesses to the act? Only Richard could have pulled that off.

Richard also benefitted from bumping off the lovable scamps, so I don't see why Henry is the prime suspect.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:16 AM (llXky)

147 I've seen reports about War of the Rohirrim for some time and I hope it is decent but have my doubts. I'm not a fan of Anime. It looks clunky. Give me a Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny cartoon or even the early Popeye.

The story of Helm Hammerhand could be an exciting film. Rather grim, but exciting. Having some of the women characters fighting in desperation would be okay. There is a line from Eowyn about 'the women of Rohan have learned that those without swords can still die on them' or words to that effect. She is also referred to at one point by Aragorn as a 'shieldmaiden of Rohan' so the idea of women in battle is not unknown. But to extrapolate those tangential remarks to a long-lost tribe of female warriors is just invading Tolkien's world and words. Sort of like the unneeded, and unwanted, fluff added to the three Hobbit movies.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 10:16 AM (zudum)

148 Taking a minor character from Lord of the Rings and expanding it into an anime film is laziness and a hope that Tolkien fans will pay good money to watch since it's based on a known winner. How did Rings of Power work out for Amazon and it had money thrown away on it.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at June 23, 2024 10:16 AM (2NHgQ)

149 woke Hollywood refuses to understand basic principles of storytelling and has NO interest in bringing the original source material to life.

-
Why Sydney Sweeney’s “Barbarella” Could Rock Hollywood

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 23, 2024 10:17 AM (L/fGl)

150 Their deaths made it even easier for him to seize the throne once he'd killed Richard in battle. (I think that was his motivation. Been a while since I read the book.)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius,
*
Once Richard and the prices were dead, there were no bloodline relatives left to challenge Henry.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024

***
Right; their deaths benefited Henry much more than they would have Richard, as they were seen as being under R.'s protection. If he'd seized the throne with them vanished or found to be dead, everybody would have said he'd done it. I think I've read that Richard was actually rather protective of them and popped them into the Tower of London (which was a royal residence then, not really a prison) to keep them safe.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:18 AM (omVj0)

151 I really don't understand the hand wringing over the atomic bomb. Japan was going to have to surrender, and the bomb minimized the lives that would be lost in the endeavor, both American and Japanese. Far more Japanese died in conventional bombings, and the idea of allowing a million additional American casualties just to avoid using a weapon that could end it in days is ludicrous.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:18 AM (SSjZd)

152 I thought the Big Sleep was a great book. The movie not so much. Bogart just did not fulfill my vision of a sexy detective.
I admired the research that went into State of Fear. My favorite book of Chrichton is the one about dinosaur bone hunters in the old west. And I could not read Timeline at all. But I don't eally like time travel books.
I love the picture at the top. Just gorgeous.
Probably all I have time for today. ❤️

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 23, 2024 10:18 AM (ucoMn)

153 Bad Popes have also tried to disparage predecessors too. Witness Bergoglio versus Benedict XVI.

Nature want us dead.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 23, 2024 10:19 AM (VuZH8)

154 Yeah, but the crucial question is: how? How do you infiltrate someone into the Tower, kill the princes without raising any kind of alarm, and having no witnesses to the act? Only Richard could have pulled that off.

Richard also benefitted from bumping off the lovable scamps, so I don't see why Henry is the prime suspect.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024

***
Were they known to be dead before Henry seized the throne? Then yes, their murder would have been hard for Henry to manage. But if they only disappeared and were presumed, or found to be, dead *after* Henry defeated Richard, there would have been no problem for the new king to bump them off.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:21 AM (omVj0)

155 Good morning, Sharon!

I finished The Running Grave. Wow. That was intense.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 10:21 AM (OX9vb)

156 My question to my well read morons is should I start with the Hideous Strength, the third book in the trilogy, will it diminish the story?
Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 10:08 AM (jY9Ov)

Long ago and faraway, I read Lewis' Space Trilogy.

The books all build on each other. Mostly, because Lewis has things to say, as you might expect. So, if you skip "Perelandra" and "Out of the Silent Planet", you won't have all the info Lewis wants you to have.

However, whenever I think about the Space Trilogy, just about all I remember comes from "That Hideous Strength". It's clearly the strongest story of the lot.

I'd start at the beginning but that's just me. If you just want a good story to read, "THS", once it gets going, is pretty strong on its own.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 23, 2024 10:22 AM (eDfFs)

157 Dr. Michael Chrichton’s book about the fake global warning sure pissed off the politically correct crowd

Posted by: Eromero at June 23, 2024 10:23 AM (DXbAa)

158 We have a word for that: "derivative". Usually considered the mark of a poor writer. The woman is a parasite.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 23, 2024 10:05 AM (dOXkF)
---
Right, and they paid a lot of money for a pre-existing fanbase and pre-built fantasy world.

Which they are going to take a massive dump on.

If they want freedom to create, come up with their own Girl Power planet and write something on their own.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:23 AM (llXky)

159 They arent dead well eventually they were but not at the time alison weir still believes that story phillippa gregory does not

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 10:23 AM (PXvVL)

160 The lefties will abandon their heroes at the drop of a hat but they can nurse a grudge for a century.

-
Pigs are apparently flying over a frozen Hell and the left can't deal with it. Snopes exposes the hoax about Trump calling neo-Nazis very fine people.

https://shorturl.at/lwQ5K

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 23, 2024 10:23 AM (L/fGl)

161 Dr. Michael Chrichton’s book about the fake global warning sure pissed off the politically correct crowd
Posted by: Eromero

It is funny seeing Crichton's books get high online ratings, except one book.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:25 AM (SSjZd)

162 I thought the Big Sleep was a great book. The movie not so much. Bogart just did not fulfill my vision of a sexy detective. . . .

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 23, 2024

***
True, Marlowe was supposed to be fairly good-looking. Mrs. Grayle in Farewell, My Lovely found him attractive, for instance, as did rich girl Linda Loring much later (they were going to be married at the end of Chandler's last novel).

One of the best film Marlowes I've ever seen was Powers Boothe in the sereis of HBO adaptations in the '80s.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:25 AM (omVj0)

163 Dr. Michael Chrichton’s book about the fake global warning sure pissed off the politically correct crowd
Posted by: Eromero

How can that be when they believe in science? And Stonehenge painting?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 23, 2024 10:25 AM (L/fGl)

164 I used to get voice mails from some guy's parents (his number was a digit off from mine). I always thought it would be a good premise for a mystery or thriller, someone needing help, or threatening someone, but calling the wrong number. And things go awful from there.

"Charles? Are you there?"

But, I'm no writer, so someone else will have to pick it up.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 09:44 AM (OX9vb)

Shortly after moving to Texas we started getting calls from a very confused old lady trying to reach her son. We had an old Missouri number and a local number and somehow *both* were very close to her son's personal and business numbers. I always tried to be polite and eventually the calls stopped. I wonder what became of her.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:26 AM (XjtdB)

165 Posted by: Norrin Radd at June 23, 2024 10:11 AM (hsWtj)

Might want to check out ALH. Jerry Jenkins was offering an inspirational writing course.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 10:27 AM (0eaVi)

166 Right; their deaths benefited Henry much more than they would have Richard, as they were seen as being under R.'s protection. If he'd seized the throne with them vanished or found to be dead, everybody would have said he'd done it. I think I've read that Richard was actually rather protective of them and popped them into the Tower of London (which was a royal residence then, not really a prison) to keep them safe.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:18 AM (omVj0)
---
So how does the theory work? Did Henry send a ninja into the Tower or did his minions whack them after the battle had been decided?

Oh, and if you really want to keep someone safe, you keep them in plain sight and riding in your train - which was what the rest of the nobility were doing. You put someone in a fortress when you want them ghosted.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:27 AM (llXky)

167 Shortly after moving to Texas we started getting calls from a very confused old lady trying to reach her son. We had an old Missouri number and a local number and somehow *both* were very close to her son's personal and business numbers. I always tried to be polite and eventually the calls stopped. I wonder what became of her.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette

Interestingly, your number is also almost identical to Ted Bundy's Florida number.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:29 AM (hyrne)

168 I always tried to be polite and eventually the calls stopped. I wonder what became of her.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:26 AM (XjtdB)

In an interesting twist, I received a call from the guy's sister a couple of years ago, wanting to tell him where the air bnb was where she was staying. She was in town for their mother's funeral.

We had a lovely conversation, and that's the end of that story.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 23, 2024 10:31 AM (OX9vb)

169 151 ... "I really don't understand the hand wringing over the atomic bomb. Japan was going to have to surrender, and the bomb minimized the lives that would be lost in the endeavor, both American and Japanese. Far more Japanese died in conventional bombings, and the idea of allowing a million additional American casualties just to avoid using a weapon that could end it in days is ludicrous."

Don't let reality and reason cloud your judgement, you American Firster!! Your betters know that the US is bad and a bully.

A while back The Smithsonian planned a big exhibit for the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing and word got out that it was going to be a blame America onslaught. There was so much public outrage, especially from veteran groups and their families, about that approach the whole thing was scrapped and redone. But the fact the Smithsonian leaders thought denigrating America was a fine approach hurt the Institution and continues to. I'm not the only one who will never go to the Smithsonian again or get their magazine.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 10:31 AM (zudum)

170 The lefties will abandon their heroes at the drop of a hat but they can nurse a grudge for a century. Look at how they still demonize Hearst, Ford, Edison, and Rockefeller, even as they slavishly worship Bezos, Soros, Iger, and Zuckerberg.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 23, 2024 10:16 AM (QkS9F)
---
There is no core to their belief system. It's about whatever they want at any given moment. They can't be hypocrites because they are Good People. Yard Sign Calvinists, they are saved and you are not. You are irredeemable. They are without sin. Pelagianism in Birkenstocks and wearing an Apple watch.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:32 AM (llXky)

171 Posted by: All Hail Eris at June 23, 2024 09:53 AM (goWOv)

When I bought the tree last week I had considered getting a different book on map creation, but it was *more* expensive as an ebook so I decided to pass.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:33 AM (XjtdB)

172 @133 --

As of 2009, Pete Wisdom was running around the Marvel Universe. He'd lost a lot of his snarkiness, which I realize now was a Warren Ellis trademark.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 10:35 AM (p/isN)

173 Yeah, but the crucial question is: how? How do you infiltrate someone into the Tower, kill the princes without raising any kind of alarm, and having no witnesses to the act? Only Richard could have pulled that off.

Richard also benefitted from bumping off the lovable scamps, so I don't see why Henry is the prime suspect.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

I don't think anyone knows when the princes died. As far as I know, even the bones discovered several years ago have not been identified. So, the princes may have still been alive when Henry reached London.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:35 AM (qdFC5)

174 163 Dr. Michael Chrichton’s book about the fake global warning sure pissed off the politically correct crowd
Posted by: Eromero

How can that be when they believe in science? And Stonehenge painting?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Free the Trump 45! at June 23, 2024
I think we’re in the early stage of Fahrenheit 451.

Posted by: Eromero at June 23, 2024 10:35 AM (DXbAa)

175 Robert montgomery is kiss me deadly you only see him at the end

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 10:36 AM (PXvVL)

176 I'm re-reading the Ellis Peters "Brother Cadfael" books on Kindle Unlimited. I'm pretty sure I have a set of the paperback series packed in a box in a storage unit. I think. Maybe.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at June 23, 2024 10:37 AM (/ZMUq)

177 No sorry lady in lake

Theres an annotated edition of big sleep that has all the little details

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 10:38 AM (PXvVL)

178 One of the best film Marlowes I've ever seen was Powers Boothe in the sereis of HBO adaptations in the '80s.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:25 AM (omVj0)

I did like that series. But, filmed in Britain?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 10:39 AM (0eaVi)

179 I finally got to see the Robert Montgomery take on Philip Marlowe, and was not impressed. The central gimmick, of having everything seen literally from his viewpoint, only seeing RM's face when he looked in a mirror, was clever, I guess. But Montgomery insisted on giving Marlowe a "palooka"-style Brooklyn dialect, at least a hint of it, in the narration -- hoping to make Marlowe sound tough. Marlowe in RC's novels was a born-and-bred California boy' I think we're told he came from a town north of LA. He wouldn't have talked like a Bowery Boy.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:40 AM (omVj0)

180 Good morning Hordemates. I'm still working my way thru Masters of the Air. A very excellent read.

Posted by: Diogenes at June 23, 2024 10:40 AM (W/lyH)

181 I thought the Robert Montgomery Marlowe film was based on Farewell, My Lovely, and they changed the title because they were afraid people would think (with Montgomery) that it would be a romance.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:42 AM (omVj0)

182 I've read several Michael Chrichton books but my favorite is "The Great Train Robbery". Chrichton managed to write a thriller that moved fast with interesting characters while including plenty of detail that let the reader understand the mid-Victorian era of England. It's an effective novel.

BTW, the film of the same name based on the book starring Sean Connery is great and a lot of fun and sticks pretty close to Chrichton's story and words.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 10:42 AM (zudum)

183 He had to make real decisions. Being conflicted was a luxury Oppenheimer had, but Truman (and millions of soldiers) didn't.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 10:03 AM (xCA6C)

Churchill's WWII series brought up something that might not be well known. FDR had studiously kept Truman out of the information loop pretty much up until the moment he died. Truman was trying to get up to speed on *everything* and didn't have much time to get there. He certainly had my sympathy for that.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:43 AM (XjtdB)

184 But Montgomery insisted on giving Marlowe a "palooka"-style Brooklyn dialect, at least a hint of it, in the narration -- hoping to make Marlowe sound tough. Marlowe in RC's novels was a born-and-bred California boy' I think we're told he came from a town north of LA. He wouldn't have talked like a Bowery Boy.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:40 AM (omVj0)

It seems we have a misapprehension of the details in Mongomery's work.

Posted by: Slip Mahoney at June 23, 2024 10:43 AM (0eaVi)

185 I don't think anyone knows when the princes died. As far as I know, even the bones discovered several years ago have not been identified. So, the princes may have still been alive when Henry reached London.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:35 AM (qdFC5)
---
That's why I think Richard did it. He bitterly opposed their mother, and usurped the throne over his nephew.

If he was really interested in their safety, he'd have kept them with him, but of course that would open him to assassination and an attempt to put the rightful heirs on the throne.

Put simply, they were a greater threat to Richard than Henry because they were of the same line with a stronger claim.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:44 AM (llXky)

186 I've got The Princes in the Tower by Allison Weir on the TBR stack.
Gotta grind through A Distant Mirror first. Becoming quite the grind that one is.
Then there is the Perkin Warbeck story..
I really try to avoid history based fiction as the real world is odd enough but thank you for the recomendation.
Weird how what started out as an attemp to give my neices and nephews a family tree chart for Christmas one year turned into a years long dig with it's own stack and computer files and translating french stuff and hours upon hours of reserch.
My brother once asked me where I publish my stuff. I told him I didn't. It's all in my room. He thought it weird I could walk through 1250 to 1650 royal history like a madman and never organized a web page for it or for that matter even told anyone.
He was doing parallel research and one Christmas it came up. We dominated that year with our independent research coming to the same conclusions until we realized we were talking about two different sides of the family. He was doing our name and I was doing my moms moms line. There is a particular moment in 1350 that has me digging farther to this day.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 10:44 AM (xcIvR)

187 Some people say that Crichton lectured his readers. Well, he did -- but about fascinating stuff related to the story he was telling. I love being lectured if it reveals fascinating things and is connected to the story in some way.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:44 AM (omVj0)

188 @82: Posted by: Notsothoreau at June 23, 2024 09:43 AM (xjTDL)
*******
I thought Blue Highways was Least Heat Moons (aka Trogden) best effort but Riverhorse is good too. But yeah, lefties can’t just STFU and write, they always have to preach to the unwashed.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at June 23, 2024 10:44 AM (OwJlr)

189 I haven't had the heart to dig in the War of the Rorhirim rumors. They're just too depressing to deal with. In part because Hollywood should have learned their lesson by this point! They have no reason to believe that 'this time it will work.' Just so depressing...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 23, 2024 10:44 AM (Lhaco)

190 Churchill's WWII series brought up something that might not be well known. FDR had studiously kept Truman out of the information loop pretty much up until the moment he died. Truman was trying to get up to speed on *everything* and didn't have much time to get there. He certainly had my sympathy for that.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:43 AM (XjtdB)
---
FDR regarded Veeps as tires - rotate them out as needed. See also "Cactus Jack" Garner's appraisal that the vice presidency wasn't worth a glass of warm piss.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:46 AM (llXky)

191 I found montgomerys take amusing i guess you could go with garners or mitchums later work

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 10:47 AM (PXvVL)

192 A final note before I head out - if the princes were truly the last threat to the Tudor claim, why was Henry VIII so obsessively paranoid about it? The answer was that there WERE other claimants because of all the various royal intermarriages.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:48 AM (llXky)

193 But the fact the Smithsonian leaders thought denigrating America was a fine approach hurt the Institution and continues to. I'm not the only one who will never go to the Smithsonian again or get their magazine.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 10:31 AM (zudum)

I was given a subscription to the magazine. Every article has a mandatory Climate Change and/or Diversity angle. Some are just tacked on, others are the basis for the article.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at June 23, 2024 10:48 AM (/ZMUq)

194 Howard hawks knew he had to lighten the script to avoid the hays code

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 10:48 AM (PXvVL)

195 Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 10:44 AM (xcIvR)

So, why haven't you published any of it? Even if not of your family, someone might be interested in the work.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 10:49 AM (0eaVi)

196 Lent a co-worker my copy of Triumph Regained by Mark Moyar and heard he is giving it a 👍

Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 10:49 AM (fwDg9)

197 Put simply, they were a greater threat to Richard than Henry because they were of the same line with a stronger claim.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

The one thing that goes against Richard is that he tried to have them declared illegitimate. But, several years ago I saw a Time Travellers episode from BBC that explored the topic, and the date ranges for the princes' births and their fathers expeditions suggests that they may indeed have been illegitimate.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:50 AM (qdFC5)

198 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:12 AM (llXky)

I knew a lady whose mom, part of the evacuation of the Philippines by US naval families, had a goat named MacArthur. Presumably because she disliked the goat as much as she hated the man.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:50 AM (XjtdB)

199 187 ... "Some people say that Crichton lectured his readers. Well, he did -- but about fascinating stuff related to the story he was telling. I love being lectured if it reveals fascinating things and is connected to the story in some way."

Agreed. And Chrichton's 'lectures' weren't long or intrusive or got in the way of the story. It might be a sentence or two that made the action or character richer for the reader.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 10:50 AM (zudum)

200 As of 2009, Pete Wisdom was running around the Marvel Universe. He'd lost a lot of his snarkiness, which I realize now was a Warren Ellis trademark.
Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 10:35 AM (p/isN)

Too bad, his snarkiness was most of his charm...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 23, 2024 10:51 AM (Lhaco)

201 I wouldn't touch this Tolkien stolen story with a 10 foot pole

Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 10:51 AM (fwDg9)

202 "Some people say that Crichton lectured his readers. Well, he did -- but about fascinating stuff related to the story he was telling. I love being lectured if it reveals fascinating things and is connected to the story in some way."
*
Agreed. And Chrichton's 'lectures' weren't long or intrusive or got in the way of the story. It might be a sentence or two that made the action or character richer for the reader.
Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024

***
Sometimes he took several paragraphs, or even most of a page. But when he did, it was always entertaining and always important for the reader to understand the story fully.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 10:53 AM (omVj0)

203 One can marvel at the concept of a top-end Garand being $300...

According to my handy dandy inflation calculator app -- which can't be updated often enough to keep up with FJB -- $300 in 1977 would be roughly $1550 now. So maybe a bit low compared to actual prices I've seen but not crazy wrong.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 23, 2024 10:56 AM (/y8xj)

204 I think we’re in the early stage of Fahrenheit 451.
Posted by: Eromero at June 23, 2024 10:35 AM (DXbAa)

Absolutely. I was shocked to realize, when Eldest Kidlet, read it for an English class, that "niceness" was the excuse for expurgating *everything*. Eerily prescient.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 10:58 AM (XjtdB)

205 @Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 10:08 AM (jY9Ov)

I've been working my way through C.S. Lewis' Space Trilolgy and am about 3/4 through That Hideous Strength. I agree with what others have said here before - it is not necessary to read the first 2 books to enjoy the 3rd. However, it does give me a better understanding of the story, and especially of the character Ransom. I'm enjoying THS the most out of the trilogy and I'm looking forward to finishing it this week.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at June 23, 2024 10:58 AM (uB95p)

206 I would accept going out defending my library from book burners as a very honorable death.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 10:59 AM (xcIvR)

207 According to my handy dandy inflation calculator app -- which can't be updated often enough to keep up with FJB -- $300 in 1977 would be roughly $1550 now. So maybe a bit low compared to actual prices I've seen but not crazy wrong.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 23, 2024 10:56 AM (/y8xj)

Not outrageous...but I wonder about condition/quality...for a DCM specimen.

Posted by: BignJames at June 23, 2024 11:00 AM (AwYPR)

208 Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” covered the story of how Mrs. Lacks’ cells were obtained from her during cancer surgery and then used for research when researchers discovered those cells would grow in a lab. (As it turns out, they grow too well, contaminating many other cell lines.) Many years and lawsuits later, the Lacks family received compensation for the use of Mrs. Lacks’ cells.

Posted by: March Hare at June 23, 2024 11:00 AM (jfX+U)

209 "State of Fear."

He put a great bibliography in an appendix.

"Cool It" by Bjorn Lomborg is great.

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 23, 2024 11:01 AM (VuZH8)

210 Ransom is a philologist, same as Lewis.

Who else could pick up the languages of Mars and Venus so quickly?

Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 23, 2024 11:03 AM (VuZH8)

211
In May, handler Kaz Hozaka won this year's Westminster KC show with his Miniature Poodle and announced his retirement. Now there's a note in Dog News that Kaz has passed away. A great handler and a true gentleman.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 23, 2024 11:05 AM (MoZTd)

212 I really don't understand the hand wringing over the atomic bomb. Japan was going to have to surrender, and the bomb minimized the lives that would be lost in the endeavor, both American and Japanese. Far more Japanese died in conventional bombings, and the idea of allowing a million additional American casualties just to avoid using a weapon that could end it in days is ludicrous.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at June 23, 2024 10:18 AM (SSjZd)

Eh, it's mostly due to two things.

1) The Russians didn't have the Bomb. And used their influence with the Left to create a slew of propaganda around the danger of the Bomb. Which would be less dangerous, if they had it cuz then America wouldn't use their weapon if they could be hit back. There's your America as bully stuff.

2) More important: The Bomb wasn't a clean kill. You firebomb someone, it's done the day the fire stops.
With the Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the radioactive isotopes poisoned the land and the radiation itself caused plenty of cancers immediately and years later. There were lots of birth defects and deformities in children born for decades after the Bomb. (con't)

Posted by: naturalfake at June 23, 2024 11:09 AM (eDfFs)

213 I'm re-reading the Ellis Peters "Brother Cadfael" books on Kindle Unlimited.

I know it's almost a meme to talk about how the book was better than the movie or TV show but anyone who only knows the series from the Derek Jacobi and liked it should definitely read the books.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 23, 2024 11:09 AM (/y8xj)

214 It took four years for kurchatov to set the bomb off

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 23, 2024 11:10 AM (PXvVL)

215 So, why haven't you published any of it? Even if not of your family, someone might be interested in the work.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 10:49 AM (0eaVi)

I didn't do it right. I'm a scatterbrained disaster.
I might someday try and organize it. Citing sources instead of my hodge podge of notebook files cobbled together and stacks of papers.

It's a very odd take on Richard II. A huge scandal around his mom.
And why I think he never should have been king.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 11:11 AM (xcIvR)

216 I wouldn't touch this Tolkien stolen story with a 10 foot pole
Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 10:51 AM (fwDg9)

Come on, they're not that tall!

Posted by: The Dutch, the tallest people in Europe at June 23, 2024 11:12 AM (0eaVi)

217 >>
Posted by: Oddbob at June 23, 2024 11:09 AM (/y8xj)
++++++
Thanks for the recommendation. I really enjoyed the TV series, so I’ll have to look into the books.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at June 23, 2024 11:12 AM (OwJlr)

218 FDR regarded Veeps as tires - rotate them out as needed. See also "Cactus Jack" Garner's appraisal that the vice presidency wasn't worth a glass of warm piss.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 23, 2024 10:46 AM (llXky)

Even so, FDR had to have known he was dying. He put major operations at risk by keeping Truman out of the loop.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 11:13 AM (XjtdB)

219 Ransom is a philologist, same as Lewis.

Who else could pick up the languages of Mars and Venus so quickly?
Posted by: No one of any consequence at June 23, 2024

***
The only other philologist hero I can recall is in Harlan Ellison's teleplay "Soldier," on the original Outer Limits. Oh, and I think Amy Adams's character in the film Arrival.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 11:14 AM (omVj0)

220 >>>I wouldn't touch this Tolkien stolen story with a 10 foot pole

Posted by: Skip

>Never cross the Tolkien geeks if you plan to live past 29 years old.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at June 23, 2024 11:14 AM (dmXQN)

221 There were lots of birth defects and deformities in children born for decades after the Bomb. (con't)
Posted by: naturalfake

Yes, I have a third tentacle thanks to my visit to Hiroshima.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at June 23, 2024 11:15 AM (IG4Id)

222 Even so, FDR had to have known he was dying. He put major operations at risk by keeping Truman out of the loop.

Just look at him in pictures from the Yalta Conference. I think he, in his arrogance, thought he was immortal.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 11:15 AM (xCA6C)

223 Just look at him in pictures from the Yalta Conference. I think he, in his arrogance, thought he was immortal.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 23, 2024 11:15 AM (xCA6C)

You may be right. The human capacity for self deception is nearly infinite.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 23, 2024 11:17 AM (XjtdB)

224 9con't)

And, of course, more cancer and sickness caused by the contamination for years afterward. People with Hiroshima/nagasaki on their records couldn't get married outside of those with the same type of record.

I think we can all agree that it's one thing to kill your enemy. It's another to poison their children for generations.

The discovery of all the problems associated with the Bomb caused a lot of the 2nd-guessing about the whole episode, which if you look back was initially taken as a massive positive. Only as the sequelae to the Bomb popped up did it start to lose its luster as a great American achievement.

I even had a patient who was one of the first American solders to land on Nagasaki. He had recurrent episodes of cancer throughout his life because of the radiation he experienced. His friends died from it too.

However-

within the context of WWII and what was known at the time,j I'd say dropping the nukes were justified.
And actually most Japanese thinks the decision saved lives.

I don't think there's as much hand-wringing over you think, but the hand-wringers are very loud.

That's about it.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 23, 2024 11:18 AM (eDfFs)

225
The handwringing about Hiroshima and Nagasaki are part and parcel of the Left's disparagement of the US war effort. We got in too late. We were racist to the Japanese. Our efforts in Europe were minimal. Our strategic bombing was worthless. Their beloved USSR won the war. And so on.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 23, 2024 11:18 AM (MoZTd)

226 >>>Yes, I have a third tentacle thanks to my visit to Hiroshima.

Posted by: weft cut-loop

>At first I read this as testicle and I thought, "this man is blessed by the gods."

Posted by: Dr. Bone at June 23, 2024 11:20 AM (dmXQN)

227 Supposedly, after many years in prison 3 of the 4 "War powers" overseeing Rudolf Hess in a prison - France, Russia, Great Britain and United States voted annually for letting the old bastard out. Only Soviet Union would deny parole. This was routine and apparently went on for quite a while. One year Soviet Union delayed and/or said "Da" to let him go, forcing GB to deny parole for Rudolf Hess. They sure must have a lot of skeletons in the closet over there in YooRup!

Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:22 AM (16bRC)

228 "Some people say that Crichton lectured his readers. Well, he did -- but about fascinating stuff related to the story he was telling. I love being lectured if it reveals fascinating things and is connected to the story in some way."

Agreed. And Chrichton's 'lectures' weren't long or intrusive or got in the way of the story. It might be a sentence or two that made the action or character richer for the reader.
=====

Think about how long ago he was writing. I really think he was one of those Leonardo people who were genius at anything they did. I laughed at how somehow he is 'bad' nowadays. Personally, I found his 'lectures' very enjoyable. Most of us can not sustain multiple interests in multiple fields with any degree of competence.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 23, 2024 11:22 AM (MIKMs)

229
Spandau was in West Berlin. The Soviets vetoed Hess's release because his imprisonment gave them a toe hold there.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 23, 2024 11:27 AM (MoZTd)

230 The government was pretty enthusiastic about Nuclear training, and even marching troops to ground zero in field exercises whilst setting off bombs.

A group of officers even volunteered to stand under a nuclear airburst. They survived fine, and lived for many years afterword. Not so for people downwind of some of these tests. The whole crew of a John Wayne movie kicked up some dust somewhere filming on location in Utah, and lots of movie stars ended up dead from cancers. The Nuclear test shots must have been something to participate in, I must admit, having a long history of blowing stuff up in rural areas as kids.

An interesting side story to all this, was a curious case of photographers in the midwest 1940s wondering why their Kodak film was getting these streaks on them. Radiation was a fallout effect, from cattle and milk to mysterious ruined film. This caught the attention of Kodak in Rochester, who knew what it was about, but it had to be kept secret.

Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:30 AM (16bRC)

231 218 ... "Even so, FDR had to have known he was dying. He put major operations at risk by keeping Truman out of the loop."

Keeping Truman uninformed is a perfect example of FDR's presidency. So many people when I was growing up regarded FDR as some kind of angel. The more I've learned about him the more I consider he and his presidency were a malignancy. And don't get me started on Woodrow Wilson or LBJ.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 11:30 AM (zudum)

232 229
Spandau was in West Berlin. The Soviets vetoed Hess's release because his imprisonment gave them a toe hold there.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 23, 2024 11:27 AM (MoZTd)

Which means GB vetoed it at the KGB's insistence. Remember GB's MI6 was totally comped at the time.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 11:32 AM (xcIvR)

233 Keeping Truman uninformed is a perfect example of FDR's presidency. So many people when I was growing up regarded FDR as some kind of angel. The more I've learned about him the more I consider he and his presidency were a malignancy. And don't get me started on Woodrow Wilson or LBJ.
Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 11:30 AM (zudum)

So, basically, any D president is a malignancy.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 11:33 AM (0eaVi)

234 I've been listening to some radio theater from the 50s: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Free lance private eye stuff. Very entertaining.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 23, 2024 11:34 AM (dg+HA)

235 An interesting side story to all this, was a curious case of photographers in the midwest 1940s wondering why their Kodak film was getting these streaks on them. Radiation was a fallout effect, from cattle and milk to mysterious ruined film. This caught the attention of Kodak in Rochester, who knew what it was about, but it had to be kept secret.
Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:30 AM (16bRC)

My neighbor was a "downwinder". Southwest Utah. His theory was they never set them off when the wind was blowing towards Vegas because the scientists all lived there and knew. So they sacraficed the Mormons in Utah instead.
He gave me a movie a local there he knew made called Downwinders. Heartbreaking.
I wonder if it's on youboob.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 11:38 AM (xcIvR)

236 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 11:39 AM (u82oZ)

237
For some reason, I have a fascination with descriptions in books of the food served, menus, things like that. Must be the Italian in me.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 23, 2024 11:39 AM (MoZTd)

238 >>>The Nuclear test shots must have been something to participate in, I must admit, having a long history of blowing stuff up in rural areas as kids.

>Some folks remember the grammar school drills where children were trained to hit the floor and shelter under classroom furniture. Good stuff. Like a Fauci pandemic.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at June 23, 2024 11:39 AM (dmXQN)

239 Didn't the Soviets have an advantage though, the implication being they really had something to hide with Hess, and could thus always be a vote to keep him locked up. I guess. The whole story was weird. I like how they still locked people up in the Tower back then. They probably learned something about interrogation along the way.

Another neat story, a B17 and crew crash landed in Russia during the war. I think they were so far off the beam they sat out the war basically. But the Soviets reverse-engineered the entire damn B17, it fell into their hands.

The US government lost a patent dispute and presumably had to pay royalties to the German company that made the Mauser or whatever, having incorporated the design into the official US army rifle. I think this was during World War I. Hm.

Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:39 AM (16bRC)

240
The US government lost a patent dispute and presumably had to pay royalties to the German company that made the Mauser or whatever, having incorporated the design into the official US army rifle. I think this was during World War I. Hm.
Posted by: Common Tater

_________

After WWI, Vickers had to pay sizable royalties to Krupp for using their fuse design.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 23, 2024 11:41 AM (MoZTd)

241 Time for first launch has been brought forward 10 minutes.
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO SPACE ACTIVITY FOR JUNE 23.

SpaceX 2 launches scheduled:

1. New T-Zero: June 22, 1:15 p.m. EDT, 1715 UTC, 19:15 CEST.
https://www.youtube.com/live/mUcEVCyyTmM

2. Launch Time: 8:45 p.m. PDT (0345 UTC, 05:45 CEST - June 24)
https://www.youtube.com/live/Td_ab0AE1Y0

Posted by: Ciampino - Booked #05 at June 23, 2024 11:42 AM (qfLjt)

242 Great Brittain had to pay Kruup royalties on the artillery fuses they used in WW1.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 11:43 AM (xcIvR)

243 The US government lost a patent dispute and presumably had to pay royalties to the German company that made the Mauser or whatever, having incorporated the design into the official US army rifle. I think this was during World War I. Hm.

Someone with better knowledge can correct me but my understanding is that when the war broke out, the US stopped paying the royalties.

Posted by: Oddbob at June 23, 2024 11:43 AM (/y8xj)

244 Some folks remember the grammar school drills where children were trained to hit the floor and shelter under classroom furniture. Good stuff. Like a Fauci pandemic.
=====

In the Midwest, inner hallways. Tornado drills. They are still a big thing.

Posted by: mustbequantum at June 23, 2024 11:44 AM (MIKMs)

245 I'd start at the beginning but that's just me. If you just want a good story to read, "THS", once it gets going, is pretty strong on its own.
Posted by: naturalfake

Thanks NF. Took a break to milk the girls and had to head in to church early. Wife is doing musuc/worship this morning. Makes sense. I guess I was looking for an excuse to be lazy. Not that I doubt that I won't enjoy the first two books. Confirmation always helps.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 11:45 AM (jY9Ov)

246 Did a lot of reading, for a change.

Finished Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction edited by Robert Silverberg.

Top of the line was "Orphans of the Helix", Dan Simmons (Hyperion Cantos) and "Investment Counselor", Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game series).

Of mild interest was "A Separate War", by Joe Haldeman (The Forever War series) and "Temptation", David Brin (Uplift Universe).

Actively disliked "Old Music and the Slave Women", Ursula K. Le Guin (Ekumen), "A Hunger for the Infinite", Gregory Benford (the Galactic Center series), and "The Way of All Ghosts", Greg Bear (The Way).

The rest were meh.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 11:45 AM (u82oZ)

247 Another neat story, a B17 and crew crash landed in Russia during the war. I think they were so far off the beam they sat out the war basically. But the Soviets reverse-engineered the entire damn B17, it fell into their hands.

Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:39 AM (16bRC)

It was a B-29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-4

Posted by: BignJames at June 23, 2024 11:45 AM (AwYPR)

248 Reforger, that's not a theory, that is a fact they did not set them off until winds were "favorable" i.e. not blowing towards Vegas. You could see the flash a long, long ways.

I'm not sure what the time frame was. Alamogordo was the only open air test for quite a while, and was moved to Nevada.

For a while, there was some academic debate as to whether escape velocity of a man made object had been achieved at some of the early nuclear tests. The math sort of works out.

They set off a really large bomb underground, at the bottom of a deep well shaft. At the top was a large metal "manhole cover" of quite a lot of mass. It was never found. So it's possible it shot straight out of earths gravity well. Maybe.

Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:45 AM (16bRC)

249 >Some folks remember the grammar school drills where children were trained to hit the floor and shelter under classroom furniture. Good stuff. Like a Fauci pandemic.
Posted by: Dr. Bone at June 23, 2024 11:39 AM (dmXQN)

People mock the "Duck and Cover" drill, but it made good sense if you were far enough away from the blast to only have to deal with flying glass from broken windows.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at June 23, 2024 11:46 AM (/ZMUq)

250 Yeah, B29. The top-of-the-line aircraft par excellance. That makes more sense.

Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:47 AM (16bRC)

251 Also read a book that has been unread for years. Jack Chalker's Midnight at the Well of Souls.

I like his fantasy River of the Dancing Gods series better. This gets donated to the library.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 11:47 AM (u82oZ)

252 Slow Book thread today.

Major prayers for J.J.

Posted by: Reforger at June 23, 2024 11:47 AM (xcIvR)

253 Thanks Katie!

Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 11:49 AM (jY9Ov)

254 Nuclear drills, all that stuff made sense, as far as that goes until the advent of accurate aimed independent ICBM and hydrogen weapons. Whole new ball game.

Posted by: Common Tater at June 23, 2024 11:49 AM (16bRC)

255 Finally returned to hard hard SF with The Complete McAndrew stories by Charles Sheffield.

The folly of earthbound goons is part of the story, but lots of wild physics. Fun.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 11:50 AM (u82oZ)

256 Common Tater

ISTRT that in WWII the US Government nationalized all the active German patents for US use.

WWI may have been different, but this is a well concealed part of history.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 11:52 AM (u82oZ)

257 233 ... "So, basically, any D president is a malignancy."

Pretty much, at least for the 20th and 21st (so far) centuries. Wars, inflation, loss of personal freedoms, and consolidation of power for the feds and away from individuals. Remember Obama's " fundamentally transforming the United States of America." Then WW I, WW II, Korea, Viet Nam and the lies about it, whittling away the second amendment, taking gold away from individuals, politicizing the CIA, FBI, and the Judiciary. I regard both the George Bush presidencies as quasi-D.

One reason most of my reading of history is the Civil War and earlier is because since about 1900 it is too damn depressing.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 11:52 AM (zudum)

258 In the Midwest, inner hallways. Tornado drills. They are still a big thing.
Posted by: mustbequantum at June 23, 2024 11:44 AM (MIKMs)
---
Because tornados are a very, very real threat in many areas. We have a number of designated areas on campus where people are supposed to retreat in case of a tornado sighting. They have been used numerous times.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 23, 2024 11:53 AM (BpYfr)

259 Gotta cut out a little early. Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 23, 2024 11:55 AM (0eaVi)

260 The US government lost a patent dispute and presumably had to pay royalties to the German company that made the Mauser or whatever, having incorporated the design into the official US army rifle. I think this was during World War I. Hm.
Posted by: Common Tater

The US Government paid royalties to Mauser for the 5-shot ammunition stripper clip up to WWI. In an alternate universe, Teddy Roosevelt saw the M1903 Springfield rifle, fired everybody in the Army who worked on it, and adopted the Mauser M98. And we would have joined the German side in WWI.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at June 23, 2024 11:55 AM (/ZMUq)

261 Common Tater

The Soviets slavishly copied obvious manufacturing defect in those B-29s. They had more than one. The issue was decided by Stalin.

The difference between inventing a process and stealing a process or invention is still with us vis-a-vis the Chinese.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 11:56 AM (u82oZ)

262 Still plugging away at LOTR. It's interesting and exciting even though I'm still a little confused on some minor points. After I'm finished I'll finally watch the movie which should clarify some things for me -at least pronunciations , which I keep mentally stumbling over.

Posted by: LASue at June 23, 2024 11:56 AM (llS7k)

263 Thanks Perfessor. Don't get here very often but this is always a worthwhile thread. Appreciate your efforts.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 11:57 AM (jY9Ov)

264 Almost time to wind up the highlight of the week! Thanks, Perfessor, and the rest of you upright book readers!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 11:58 AM (omVj0)

265 Thanks Perfessor. Don't get here very often but this is always a worthwhile thread. Appreciate your efforts.
Posted by: Sock Monkey * levitating above the madness at June 23, 2024 11:57 AM (jY9Ov)

It's always nice when folks can drop by when they have time!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 23, 2024 11:58 AM (BpYfr)

266 "Perfessor" Squirrel

Where are the national design competitions to standardize school buildings, large buildings and homes to be safer from tornadoes?

It is a "does not pencil out" budget issue. But it costs lives and treasures.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 11:58 AM (u82oZ)

267 255 Hi, Salty!

Hope Mrs. Salty is doing well.

RE: "History is written by the victors."

You could fill a large library with the books and memoirs of defeated commanders.

"History is the lies of the victors... AND the delusions of the vanquished."

In the case of Richard III (see "the Last Plantagenet," above, some of the comments of the "losers" WERE memorialized & are well known: "If you put the Crown of England on a fence post, I would still fight for it."

I forget which of Richard's captured noblemen said that. One of them did.

Posted by: mnw at June 23, 2024 11:59 AM (NLIak)

268 NOOD

Posted by: Skip at June 23, 2024 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

269 Sigh. Nood.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at June 23, 2024 12:01 PM (/ZMUq)

270 "Perfessor" Squirrel

Thank you for allowing me to be late. I was up last night, reading.

Also glad to see all that knowledge of the times being kept up alive in a library. I assume Google Books has scanned that all in. Could be a historical thesis on the transferal of knowledge back then.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 12:01 PM (u82oZ)

271 mnw

So good to see your comments. Are you up to traveling these days?

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 12:03 PM (u82oZ)

272 nnw

Mrs Salty is back to where she was before her fall. But she is a lot more cautious.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 23, 2024 12:04 PM (u82oZ)

273 165 I need to check out ALH again. I started beta reading someone’s story but didn’t finish it. I’m bad that way.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at June 23, 2024 12:27 PM (DYKW0)

274 Using a minor character or incident from literature or history has been a common jumping-off point for writers seeking inspiration or wanting to take advantage of already-built worlds. It can work very well if it's not merely a gimmick and the writer is good. It also helps if the writer understands the background or world he is incorporating in his story and respects it.

Tom Stoppard did something like that with "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." A more prominent character was used in "Wicked." Roger Zelasny also did something of the sort with "A Night in the Lonesome October." I omit all the Sherlock Holmes pastiches and the like as they, mostly, try to be continuations of a series about the main character, but stories about the grown-up adventures of a Baker Street Irregular-I think it likely someone has written such-might fit the description.

L. Sprague de Camp wrote historical novels based on minor characters or incidents from ancient times; "An Elephant for Aristotle," "Dragon of the Ishtar Gate," Arrows of Heracles," "The Bronze God of Rhodes," etc.

Using a very minor character from Tolkien could work if properly done, which is unlikely today of course.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at June 23, 2024 12:46 PM (cYrkj)

275 Landing: Droneship: A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG)

Landing complete

Amazing

Posted by: Braenyard at June 23, 2024 01:23 PM (JjNlG)

276 Ho hum. Another flawless launch and recovery. I am still amazed at all of it.

Posted by: JTB at June 23, 2024 01:26 PM (zudum)

277 "I thought the Robert Montgomery Marlowe film was based on Farewell, My Lovely, and they changed the title because they were afraid people would think (with Montgomery) that it would be a romance."

Nope, the Robert Montgomery film "Lady in the Lake" was based on the Chandler book of the same name, which, BTW, was an amalgam of the two Chandler stories "Lady in the Lake" and "No Crime in the Mountains." Chandler mined some of his short stories, frequently about a detective named Johnny Dalmas, for his novels. He thought this somehow diminished the short stories and they languished out of print until his death.

You're thinking of the Dick Powell movie "Murder My Sweet" based on the Chandler book "Farewell My Lovely" which, according to the stories I've heard was retitled because the studio thought the film-going crowd might mistake it for a romance as Powell was a singer and romantic lead earlier in his career.

BTW, "Murder My Sweet" was a remake. The first version on film was the Falcon flick, "The Falcon Takes Over," with George Saunders as the Falcon in the Phil Marlowe role. "Murder My Sweet" was made about 2 years later.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at June 23, 2024 01:40 PM (cYrkj)

278 I find the story of Richard III utterly fascinating. Bosworth was a true turning point. If Richard had better luck, more trustworthy supporters, and managed to kill Henry Tudor that day, then no Henry VII or XIII or Elizabeth I. No split with the Catholic Church.

I've read Philippa Langley's book and the Daughter of Time. I believe Richard was framed.

Posted by: RedGhost 12 at June 23, 2024 01:50 PM (waK+Q)

279 "The only other philologist hero I can recall is in Harlan Ellison's teleplay 'Soldier,' on the original Outer Limits. Oh, and I think Amy Adams's character in the film Arrival."

Jack Vance's novel "The Languages of Pao" was about philologists constructing artificial languages to change a society and create effective warrior, merchant and technical classes. The book was apparently based on something called linguistic relativity or the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. IIRC, when I last read it I thought it had more than a whiff of Krozebski's general semantics about it which would make some sense as several science fiction authors, Robert Heinlein for example, in the 40s and 50s were incorporating some of Korzebski's ideas into stories.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at June 23, 2024 02:04 PM (cYrkj)

280 @234 --

Add me to the Johnny Dollar fan club.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 23, 2024 02:58 PM (p/isN)

281 The only other philologist hero I can recall is in Harlan Ellison's teleplay "Soldier," on the original Outer Limits. Oh, and I think Amy Adams's character in the film Arrival.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 23, 2024 11:14 AM (omVj0)
*****************************************

Ellison's short story "Soldier" was published in 1957, and Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life" was published in 1998, with the former adapted in an Outer Limits episode and the latter adapted into the film Arrival. Might also consider the protagonist of Roger Zelazny's story "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", published in 1963.

Posted by: Zombie Harlan Ellison at June 23, 2024 03:03 PM (MSSFv)

282 Weak Geek; many of the "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" eps are available on the Internet Archive. There are also several ewetube channels that have them individually or in bunches. Hearth and Home Entertainment on ewetube has many of the Johnny Dollars grouped by the various actors who played Dollar-Charles Russell, Edmund O'Brien, John Lund, Bob Bailey, Bob Readick and Mandel Kramer at different times-Johnny Dollar is a favorite of Hearth and Home.

For my money, Bailey was the best Johnny Dollar, and his multi-part stories (generally 5 or so 15 minute eps broadcast daily) were the best he did. Kramer (the last Johnny Dollar, exiting in the 60s) was also pretty good, albeit it seemed to me that Kramer's Dollar was involved in more criminal and spy stuff than his predecessors. If you like Bailey's breezy portrayal of the character you might try his "Let George Do It" radio show as it has something of the flavor of his "Johnny Dollar" eps.

As you can probably tell, I'm also a Johnny Dollar fan, and if I'm only providing stuff you already know my apologies; but there might be some readers here who would like to give the show a try and for whom the above info might be helpful.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at June 23, 2024 03:23 PM (cYrkj)

283 Very, very late to the book thread. I was sitting here thinking 'Lawrence Durrell, Lawrence Durrell, why do I know that name?'

I had to look it up. Of course, the 'Alexandria' series. I read those probably 35 years ago, but could not connect with Durell's name. Weirdly, perhaps I thought of Malcom Lowry.

Since I'm here, I will mention that I have been reading Patrick O'Brian's collection of short stories, 'The Rendezvous'. I've been very surprised by it. Not at all what I would have expected. I don't even know how to categorize it. 'Brit Gothic'? Oddly, only a few of the stories are actually sited in Britain. At any rate, there is some very dark stuff in there.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 23, 2024 05:22 PM (XeU6L)

284 I have the Johnny Dollar broadcasts on tape. I recall as a kid, lying in bed in the dark and listening to them on the radio.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 23, 2024 05:25 PM (XeU6L)

285 104 Reforger:
The sucked the fluid from my foot. Put it in a bottle in brown shit and reinjected it into my feet. Felt like fire going in.

This sounds like standard treatment for blisters on the feet common while rucking in the military.
The fluid is sucked out of the blister using a hypodermic needle and a syringe maintaining the skin on the blister.
Then Tincture of Benzoin is injected into the blister.
Burns like fire, but prevents a nasty bloody wound and you can continue mission.
Tincture of Benzoin is the secret weapon of special forces medics: good for everything from cracked nipples to painting on the edges of a wound before closing it with butterfly bandages or Steristrips. Clean up with alcohol if you have any left in your rations.

Posted by: waepnedmann: at June 23, 2024 11:06 PM (o9Yqc)

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