Sunday Morning Book Thread - 6-1-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Ace)

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

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

PIC NOTE

Ace posted this in the sidebar recently. I really like the concept behind this book. The author licensed a number of science fiction cover art pictures then constructed an entire "future history" around the pictures, giving each spaceship depicted therein a reason for its existence within this "future history" and how it shaped that history in a conflict between humans, the inhabitants of Alpha Centauri, and the inhabitants of nearby Proxima Centauri. It's the kind of book that would be an excellent resource for a space-based role playing game. For example, GURPS would be able to incorporate this without any trouble. Just add a few stat blocks for the ships and you could create a tabletop strategy game as well.

THE NIGHTMARE IS OVER!

After three seasons, Amazon has finally cancelled the execrable abomination known as Amazon's Wheel of Time!

Ace mentioned this last week:

Amazon cancelled the ludicrously-expensive woke adaptation of the "Wheel of Time" series of fantasy books after three woke seasons.
I am not familiar with the books or the series. I've seen a couple of YouTube videos about each. Here are some of the issues that many have with the series:

• The show was blatant about forced diversity in its casting


• The show pushed gay storylines and propaganda not present in the books


• The books' main character, a Chosen One type savior, is male, but the series downplayed his importance and elevated the importance of a female character


• A conceit of the series was the division between the sexes as far as magic -- both sexes could work magic, but each sex had its own style of magic -- but the show downplayed this to create a kind of magical gender equality which ran against a major point of the book

I really have to repeat that I know nothing about the books or the show and all of my "knowledge" is of the second-hand, "barely care" variety. Everything I just wrote could be wrong.

But I doubt it.

--Ace

I pointed out that Ace was 100% spot-on with his analysis, despite the fact that he's never read the books nor has he ever watched the show. His comments are based entirely on what little he's seen on the interwebs. Let's take a closer look and see WHY Ace is right on every single point.

The show was blatant about forced diversity in its casting

In the books, Jordan does an amazing job creating a vibrant, diverse world, where every realm has a unique and distinct culture, so that when he mentions "Aiel," "Cairhienin," or "Shienaran," you can easily picture in your mind what people from those lands look like. The Two Rivers, where the story begins, is no different. It's a small region that has been isolated for hundreds of years. As a result, everyone has the same general features due to a lack of genetic diversity. Rand Al'Thor, the main character, stands out because of he was an orphan that was brought into the Two Rivers by his adoptive father, Tam. Rand's height and hair and eye color are all distinct.

In the show, we see that the Two Rivers is much more cosmopolitan, with a wide variety of facial features, hair colors, and skin tones. It makes no sense. The creators of the show even "diversify" those from outside the Two Rivers by casting people who look nothing like the descriptions of characters in the books. Min Farshaw, for instance, is a 40-year-old Asian woman instead of being a Caucasian woman in her early 20s, as she's portrayed in the books. (She's from Andor, which is a distinctly Caucasian realm. She also becomes one of Rand's main love interests in the story, which makes the television version of her seem even weirder, as she's much, much older than Rand in the show.)

The show pushed gay storylines and propaganda not present in the books

In the books, Jordan does NOT include blatant gay themes or relationships. As most, there are hints of such, but it's ambiguous enough that readers can apply their own interpretation as they see fit. It's not explicit at all.

In the show, Rafe Judkins, the showrunner, makes it VERY clear early in the show, that there are a lot of explicitly gay relationships. The male Warders who are bonded with their female Aes Sedai, for instance, often engage in orgies where everyone participates with everyone else, regardless of gender. Moiraine, the main viewpoint character of the show, is in a lesbian relationship with her superior, Siuan Sanche, as one whole episode features them getting away from it all for some "alone time." None of that is in the book at all. Both Moiraine and Siuan are straight, eventually finding themselves attached to men by the end of the series. They are portrayed in the books as driven by their mission (finding the Dragon Reborn) to the exclusion of all other concerns, which is why they don't exhibit much interest in men within the books.

The books' main character, a Chosen One type savior, is male, but the series downplayed his importance and elevated the importance of a female character

This is one of the more egregious violations of the lore. The books are explicitly about the journey of Rand Al'Thor as he goes through the five stages of grief before finally accepting his destiny as the Messianic hero, the Dragon Reborn, who is prophecied to break the world again even as he restores the balance between Darkness and Light. Although he's not the main character in every book, overall, this is HIS story. Jordan is very clear about that almost from page 1. Oh, and the Dragon Reborn is most definitely a MALE figure in every Age. Always and forever.

In the show, Moiraine is given the top billing, even in the promotional materials. She begins the show with a narration of events (completely divorced from the book) explaining the story so far. All of the events in the show revolve around HER choices and struggles. Rand, Mat, and Perrin (the main Power Trio) are background characters at best. Mat and Perrin are both descended to extras within their own story arcs. It's infuriating since all three have pretty cool storylines within the books. Mat, in particular, is one of the most beloved characters by fans of the books, but here he's barely given anything to do.

A conceit of the series was the division between the sexes as far as magic -- both sexes could work magic, but each sex had its own style of magic -- but the show downplayed this to create a kind of magical gender equality which ran against a major point of the book

If there is a central theme to the books, it's that the world is divided into male and female halves. Both men and women have important, complementary roles to play within the world. You cannot have one without the other. When either men or women are dominant, that leads to chaos and division. We see that constantly throughout the story. The One Power is divided into the male half (saidin) and the female half (saidar). The greatest feats of magic are performed when both halves of the One Power are wielded together, which doesn't start to happen until the end of the series when saidin is finally cleansed of the Dark One's taint (it's complicated). Almost all politics is divided among men and women in various ways at both the local and national levels. In the Two Rivers, for instance, the men serve on the Village Council and the women serve in the Women's Circle. Nearly all of the problems that occur in the story are a result of men and women refusing to communicate with each other. In fact, the main conflict is the result of women choosing not to participate in restoring the Dark One's prison thousands of years ago, leaving it to Lews Therin Telamon and his Hundred Companions (all male) to try and clean up the mess. They only partially succeeded.

In the show, they changed everything. From the very opening narration, it's made clear that MEN are responsible for all the ills of the world. The all-female Aes Sedai look upon men with thinly (and sometimes not-so-thinly) veiled contempt. The heroic characters from the books (Rand, Perrin, and Mat) have been replaced by the other Power Trio (Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne). Nynaeve in the show gets her own moment at the end of Season 1 when she single-handedly defeates a horde of Trollocs at Tarwin's Gap, a feat which was accomplished by Rand Al'Thor in the books and is the definitive moment when we see him for what he is: The Dragon Reborn. The show even goes so far as to imply that WOMEN can be the Dragon Reborn.

All in all, I'm very glad that this abomination of a series is finally OVER. The main problem with this series, and other franchises that are currently bombing, such as Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc., is that the source materials of Wheel of Time and other franchises present NORMAL relationships and characters. People that the vast majority of us can relate to. Sure, those characterizations are exaggerated for dramatic effect, but we understand them as they are familiar to our own life experiences. However, the showrunners who develop these intellectual properties are so steeped in Hollyweirdness that they do not understand "normal" anymore. They are surrounded and immersed within the deviant lifestyle to the point that THAT is normal to them and they cannot understand why normies hate it. Until they figure it out, which they can never do, as that would invalidate their existence, they will continue to produce terrible stories that alienate viewers and readers alike.

BOOKS BY MORONS

After a long, long hiatus from writing, I've published a pair of books. The style is Douglas Adams crossed with John Ringo. And the short version is, these are classic space operas about an evil galactic empire and the rowdy band of rebels that are trying to bring it down. The twist is, they are from the empire's point of view.

The Baddies - Ogden "OK" Kevitch meant to join the Rebel Pact. Really, he did. But through a series of bad decisions, he's joined the Imperial Scorpion Horde instead. Recruited into a food service detail on a Horde battlecruiser, he plots to sabotage the Imperium from within, but his well-intentioned attempts at resistance keep backfiring in the empire's favor.

Hell Yeah! We're the Baddies - Lena "Midnight" Morrigan used to be a top Horde intelligence operative. But after a major screw-up, she's been demoted and sent down to the same battle cruiser OK is serving on. Her only chance to restore her power and reputation is by exterminating the Rebel Pact.

Both of these books wrap around the same series of planetary invasions, attacks on rebel bases, and secret missions amid an escalating war. OK gets the view from the trenches, Morrigan gets the view from the bridge.

Anyway, appreciate you bringing attention to this. Thank you.
Victor Tango Kilo

The Baddies

Hell Yeah! We're the Baddies!

MEET A MORON AUTHOR!

Moron Author Celia Hayes will be visiting a couple of bookstores in June:

• June 7 - The Twig Book Shop in the Pearl Brewery complex in San Antonio, Texas. There is a very nice and well-attended Farmer's Market on the grounds of the Pearl complex at weekends, with lots of local vendors selling artisan foods, vegetables, honey, candy, organic meats and eggs of all kinds, so it would be worth a look-in for any Texas book fans anyway.


• June 14 - The Boerne Bookshop in Boerne Texas, a small town just outside San Antonio. The Boerne event is a multi-author event, in conjunction with their two-day market on the old Town Square - so that might be another draw for Texas readers who don't want to go all the way to downtown San Antonio.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

My guiltiest reading pleasure a children's book, Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell. Purchased the paperback from Scholastic books in grade school. Probably still have it around somewhere in the attic, however I purchased it for my iPad through Kindle. Read every couple years.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at May 25, 2025 10:01 AM (2NHgQ)

Comment: When I read the synopsis of this book, it sounded very familiar. In fact, it sounds a lot like the plot to C.S. Lewis' classic The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Though I suspect the actual story is quite a bit different. This book was originally published in 1946, so it's possible Lewis used it for inspiration.

HOLY SHIT. That Terran Trade Authority Handbook on the 70s Mystery Click ... not only do I remember it, I read it cover to cover many times as a kid.

Back then, I probably could recite the book's words from memory. Even looking at it now, I remember the names of many of the ships. My dad was a big sci-fi and fantasy fan. A full wall in our living room was bookcases from floor to ceiling. He had 100s of books. If there was a sci-fi or fantasy book from Jules Verne to later Niven, he had it. Even some oddballs like The Iron Dream.

Anyway, I was a little kid when I found the " Trade Authority" among the collection. Great book, very clever and some great illustrations for the time. I wonder where I can get a hard copy?

Posted by: Elric Blade at May 30, 2025 12:16 PM (iFTx/)

Comment: This book provides an interesting "future history" of events as mankind leaves the boundaries of our solar system and explores the nearby star systems, especially the Alpha Centauri system.

MORE MORON RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE: AoSHQ - Book Thread Recommendations

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

• From Eros to Gaia by Freeman Dyson -- NaCly Dog recommended this a couple of weeks ago and it sounded interesting. I was able to find a copy on Amazon for only $6. However, it's in pretty rough shape, though still readable. BONUS: It's signed by the author!


• The Hammer and the Cross by Harry Harrison -- An alternate history/fantasy involving a conflict between a Viking and the Church set in medieval England (AD 865).


• A Trio for Lute by R.A. MacAvoy


• The Spell of the Black Dagger by Lawrence Watt-Evans

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.

King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist

This was one of those weird novels that is part of a feedback loop with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books. Martin was clearly influenced by authors of epic fantasy like Tad Williams and Raymond E. Feist. In a twist, both Williams' and Feist's recent books show a clear influence from George R.R. Martin. King of Ashes has quite a bit of political intrigue among factions, with very little magic in play, at least until the end, when it's obvious that magical factions are influencing events. It's not one of Feist's better works, so I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series any time soon.

Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont

This is a standalone novel set in the Malazan universe. Esslemont co-created the setting with Steven Erickson. Both of them are archaeologist/anthropologists and they developed a very unique, interesting world. Return of the Crimson Guard is set sometime during the events of Malazan Books of the Fallen. Empress Laseen is struggling to consolidate her hold on the continent of Quon Tali. The Crimson Guard is all that stands in her way. They have taken a mystical Vow to end the Malazan Empire. The most dedicated--called the Avowed--are so driven by their Vow that they are nearly impossible to kill.

As with most of the books in the Malazan world, there's a lot of moral ambiguity between factions. No faction is completely in the right here and it almost seems pointless that they are fighting at all. Because of the forces that are unleashed on the battlefield, entire cities and countries are laid waste during the conflict. Malazan is a world of badass, as most of the important characters all get a moment to shine, performing heroic deeds that go beyond mere mortal capability. These deeds are how certain mortals can "Ascend" to godhood. It's a wild series and very enjoyable, with lots of fantastic military action.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 6-25-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 01, 2025 09:00 AM (E63nu)

2 Booken morgen horden

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:01 AM (gDlxJ)

3 I actually did read last week! Raconteur Press always sends out stuff from old writers. Read a couple of pulp era scifi and western shorts.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 09:03 AM (0eaVi)

4 It's mourning time in the comics and science fantasy communities after the death of Peter A. David a week ago. PAD, as he was sometimes known, wrote extensive, highly praised runs on the Incredible Hulk, X Factor, and Supergirl, who was not Superman's cousin this time around. He also wrote several novels in the Star Trek lines and other standalone fantasy books. He was 68.

The TBR stack includes a PAD novel that I bought new maybe 30 years ago. I'll crack it in tribute after I finish "Flashman's Lady."

Regarding Flashman, I've just finished an exciting chapter in which he was involved in combat on a river in Borneo's Sarawak region. I've been digging out my atlases, but the book has a basic map that is all you need.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 01, 2025 09:03 AM (p/isN)

5 Where’s my personal spacecraft?

Posted by: Eromero at June 01, 2025 09:04 AM (LHPAg)

6 I read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. This is the first book in The Stormlight Archive series. Sanderson has created a wonderful fantasy world, populated it with many interesting characters, and has several threads developing, including one with vivid battle scenes. What I like most about the book is how he weaves ethical and philosophical questions within all the stories.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 01, 2025 09:05 AM (SQp7G)

7 G'morning literary Horde. I'm continuing on with the Levon Cade books, and I'm on the last book available in the 12 book series, "Levon's Scourge".

Good series for those of you who like righteous violent payback on the forces of darkness, while the main protagonist isn't invulnerable, though at this point I'm thinking the law of averages plus risks taken would have taken Cade out of the picture.

Still, it's been a fun ride so far. Great books to have along when you need something to occupy your time for a few minutes (or hours.)

Chuck Dixon is the author.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 01, 2025 09:05 AM (O7YUW)

8 Read / reading this week:

Preston & Child - Reliquary
Tony Hillerman- The Blessing Way
Brandon Vogt - Return : How to draw your child back to the Church
Brotger Lawrence - The Practice of the Presence of God (rec'd by FenelonSpouse)

Might return to library without finishing - Believe by Ross Douthat- it's ok, but more for unbelievers imo

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:06 AM (dE3DB)

9 Why read at all,.You know, ChatGPT can summarize it for you.
AND read the summary to you!

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at June 01, 2025 09:07 AM (/lPRQ)

10 Morning, Book Folken!

No writing or editing done this week. But I have been reading: Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread, for instance. Quite good, though it's not The Accidental Tourist by any means.

And I've started Killing Floor, the first of the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. It's told in first person by Reacher, which I understand is not maintained farther along in the series (?). It is vivid and immediate. A couple of chapters early on involving Reacher spending most of a weekend in a state prison are riveting. Bit by bit Child is giving Reacher a reason to get involved with the people and the mysterious criminal situation he's walked into.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 09:08 AM (omVj0)

11 Why read at all,.You know, ChatGPT can summarize it for you.
AND read the summary to you!
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at June 01, 2025 09:07 AM (/lPRQ)+
----
CliffsNotes is officially obsolete.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:08 AM (GlyvH)

12 Yay Book Thread!

Pace the "Wheel to Time" debacle, it was the same story with Amazon's "The Rings of Power," aka "We Had Rangz."

For those interested, here is my writeup from the time, that echoes the Perfesser's sentiments:

Why is Amazon’s ‘Rings of Power’ so Patently Racist?

"If you were watching a movie set in 1985 – say an Amish crime thriller – and the characters repeatedly used iPhones to communicate, you might be annoyed. Even if the story ended up being half-decent, you’d probably have a hard time buying into the film because the technology was simply wrong for the period. You may even mention it online.

Now imagine if instead of accepting this valid and obvious criticism, the film’s producers and other industry-friendly reviewers instead attacked you for being a “technophobe” and an enemy of human progress.

That’s pretty much what’s going on with The Rings of Power, except that instead of misplaced technology, the showrunners have made utterly implausible casting choices. Rather than address these reasonable and serious critiques, they are instead slandering their audience."

https://tinyurl.com/2jmastdw

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:08 AM (ZOv7s)

13 I'm reading Stoicism and the Art Happiness by Donald Robertson. I'd call it a simple introduction to Stoicism applied.
I'm listening to Church History in Plain Language.
I am fascinated by Church history.

Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at June 01, 2025 09:08 AM (kTd/k)

14 Morning, Perfessor.

Howdy, Horde.

Not a lot of reading this week -- a few Ramsey Campbell short stories. Looked at the list of open submissions at the Raconteur Press site and thought that a couple of 'em were devoted to themes I might like to tinker with. So I've got a first draft for their creature-feature anthology. Still needs some work but I should have something to submit when they open it up.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:09 AM (q3u5l)

15 I think I'll pick up "The Baddies" as my next book since I'm almost out of Levon Cade books. Thanks "Perfessor" for highlighting this one!

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 01, 2025 09:09 AM (O7YUW)

16 I mentioned the real elly conwayz argylle on the movie thread its more of a caper involving nazi gold dastardly russians and doing in south asia i think clive owen would have beem a better fit than cavill

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 09:09 AM (bXbFr)

17 On my to read - Mickey 17
Just curious to compare book to movie

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:09 AM (dE3DB)

18 Might return to library without finishing - Believe by Ross Douthat- it's ok, but more for unbelievers imo
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:06 AM (dE3DB)
---
He's a member in good standing of the Catholic commentariat, though I can't recall him writing anything at all interesting. He's probably nice to talk to on the symposium circuit and with his health issues (which defy medical explanation), he gets a lot of sympathy plugs.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:10 AM (ZOv7s)

19 >>> As a result, everyone has the same general features due to a lack of genetic diversity.

Kind of like E'Arth before cheap mass transit (big azz steam ships).

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at June 01, 2025 09:10 AM (/lPRQ)

20 Oh and tell me what book published in the past 12 months you very much enjoyed

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:11 AM (gDlxJ)

21 Since he has a sketchier background the son of two drug smugglers in the triangle

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 09:12 AM (bXbFr)

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

And welcome to June. How the hell did that happen? It was February just a few minutes ago.

Posted by: JTB at June 01, 2025 09:12 AM (yTvNw)

23 If you like spaceship art, John Berkey's Painted Space is for you. There are probably a few of his works in the anthology mentioned above.

A while back I got into concept art books, and they are fun to flip through on an idle afternoon.

Rodney Matthews is another illustrator with some books out.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:13 AM (ZOv7s)

24 After hearing about From Eros to Gaia by Freeman Dyson on this site, I got it out of the library. I didn't like it. It is a collection of article written by Freeman about various science topics. The articles I read (I didn't finish the book) contained some "facts" plus alot of Freeman's opinions. Some of the articles topics I know about from personal experience. Some of his facts were in error and I disagreed with many of his opinions. He was way too "woke" for me. As Thomas Soule observed, just because you are an expert in one area doesn't make you an expert in other areas. I think Freeman was outside his area of expertise in a number of his articles.

Posted by: zogger at June 01, 2025 09:13 AM (HGKOZ)

25 @17/vmom:

"Mickey 7" is the first book and "Antimatter Blues" is the sequel.

I've read both, and I very much enjoyed them. What I read of the plot of the movie (no I didn't go see it) I'm going to say that they butchered the books. I hope Edward Ashton got paid well for the rights.

I've read two other stand-alone novels by Ashton: "Mal Goes to War" and "The Fourth Consort" - both enjoyable.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 01, 2025 09:13 AM (O7YUW)

26 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I started The Lord of Spirits this week, by Andrew Stephen Damick. It is "An Orthodox Christian Framework for the Unseen World and Spiritual Warfare."

A. H. Lloyd has mentioned the podcast several times, but I don't like listening to podcasts much, so I got the book. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but so far, it's an interesting examination of "gods" vs God.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 01, 2025 09:14 AM (h7ZuX)

27 Oh and tell me what book published in the past 12 months you very much enjoyed
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:11 AM (gDlxJ)
---
I enjoyed Larry Correia's last two books of the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior: Graveyard of Demons and Heart of the Mountain

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:14 AM (GlyvH)

28 Where’s my personal spacecraft?
Posted by: Eromero at June 01, 2025 09:04 AM (LHPAg)

Don't you read the ads in the back of the magazine? They're right there for only 99 cents and a SASE.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 09:14 AM (0eaVi)

29 5 Where’s my personal spacecraft?
Posted by: Eromero at June 01, 2025 09:04 AM (LHPAg)
----

It's in the shop, along with your jetpack.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 09:15 AM (kpS4V)

30 Also read this week, J.B. Priestley's Benighted, the basis for the 1932 Boris Karloff film The Old Dark House (which was the American title for the book). You'd think a 1927 novel would be slow, thickly written, and dull, but it's not at all. There's no supernatural stuff going on, but plenty of madness and darkness amid a raging storm in Wales that forces five disparate people to take shelter in the "old dark house." There's a love story, personal stories of the individuals (rather like a John D. MacDonald novel, except mostly told in dialog), and quite a bit of action.

I'll have to look up Priestley and see if I can find more of his stuff. My local libraries, well, I was lucky to find this one.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 09:15 AM (omVj0)

31 I've been pushing The Call of The Wild on the grandson, he's finally plowing through it and loves it.

It's a version for younger readers and it softens a lot of the plot points but it maintains the overall spirit of the book.

That book is one of my favorite books.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 01, 2025 09:17 AM (XV/Pl)

32 Looked at the list of open submissions at the Raconteur Press site and thought that a couple of 'em were devoted to themes I might like to tinker with. So I've got a first draft for their creature-feature anthology. Still needs some work but I should have something to submit when they open it up.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:09 AM (q3u5l)

Don't forget to post it at ALH if you need a beta read.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 09:17 AM (0eaVi)

33 Rather than address these reasonable and serious critiques, they are instead slandering their audience."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

The left seems to default to this on everything these days.

Posted by: Auspex at June 01, 2025 09:17 AM (j4U/Z)

34 Oh and tell me what book published in the past 12 months you very much enjoyed
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:11 AM (gDlxJ)
---
A null value. Empty set.

I'm waiting on a bunch of Graham Greene books to arrive. I ordered them through ebay dealers, so much cheaper than Amazon. Still working through Bulfinch's Mythology, now into the Norse gods, who seem even more constrained than the Greek ones.

Again, the ones ruling the world didn't make it. Seems to be a recurring theme with pagans. Very vague on creation but absolutely in the driver's seat now (though some admit it may not last).

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:18 AM (ZOv7s)

35 Wolfus,

I've not gotten around to Priestley, but Valancourt Books has reissued a bunch of his work in the last few years. And if memory serves archive.org had quite a few of his titles in downloadable pdfs.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:18 AM (q3u5l)

36 @27/"Perfessor" Squirrel: "I enjoyed Larry Correia's last two books of the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior: Graveyard of Demons and Heart of the Mountain"

Thanks for the reminder, I need to get to those two. Maybe those are next... :-)

(As the digital TBR pile threatens to file over and create a great mess of scattered bits everywhere.)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 01, 2025 09:18 AM (O7YUW)

37 On the TBR pile: Preston & Child's Thunderhead; The Third Gate by Child alone; and an impulse library choice, To Wake the Giant, a "big" 2020 novel by one Jeff Shaara about, you guessed it, Pearl Harbor. It starts in Dec. 1940, so we will get the run-up to the big day -- which to me is as fascinating as the war itself. I don't know if Shaara is "woke" or considers FDR to be a heroic leader or what . . . but I'm willing to give the book a try.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 09:19 AM (omVj0)

38 The sad truth is that many new books simply cannot hold up to the classic books of the last 250 years.

There are very few books released today that will be remembered 250 years from now.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 01, 2025 09:19 AM (XV/Pl)

39 Zoltan, welcome to Sanderson's world building. Like you, I was amazed at how well his planet's flora and fauna worked and the drawings gave a visual aspect that made the reading seem like watching a movie.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 01, 2025 09:20 AM (t/2Uw)

40 OrangeEnt --

Will post some time this week or next.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:20 AM (q3u5l)

41 Like harry harrisons stainless steel rat arc

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 09:21 AM (bXbFr)

42 Wolfus,

I've not gotten around to Priestley, but Valancourt Books has reissued a bunch of his work in the last few years. And if memory serves archive.org had quite a few of his titles in downloadable pdfs.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025

***
Yes, this edition of Benighted is from Valancourt. Maybe the big regional ibrary will have a few of them. I'll take a look at archive.org, though reading those will require me to sit at the big computer screen in my bedroom!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 09:21 AM (omVj0)

43 A. H. Lloyd has mentioned the podcast several times, but I don't like listening to podcasts much, so I got the book. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but so far, it's an interesting examination of "gods" vs God.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 01, 2025 09:14 AM (h7ZuX)
---
They made a book? Interesting. I don't know if it would be as fun as them doing their 80s cultural reference riffs, which were one of the reasons to tune in.

I highly recommend the first two seasons, which will blow your mind. After that, the show jumped the shark and became more stridently anti-Catholic. I hope they cut the book down to just the fun/interesting stuff.

I mean, I suppose there is an audience for "Why Orthodox Eucharistic Miracles Are Real But Catholic Ones Come From The Devil," but it's got to be pretty small.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:21 AM (ZOv7s)

44 "ibary" = "library." Sheesh.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 09:22 AM (omVj0)

45 The sad truth is that many new books simply cannot hold up to the classic books of the last 250 years.

There are very few books released today that will be remembered 250 years from now.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 01, 2025 09:19 AM (XV/Pl)
----
Sturgeon's Law is very much in effect:

"90% of everything is crap."

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:22 AM (GlyvH)

46 @38: "There are very few books released today that will be remembered 250 years from now."

that was true 250 years ago.

I must've read something good this week, but I can't remember what it was.

Posted by: yara at June 01, 2025 09:22 AM (k9S3D)

47 Most of my reading this week has been poetry or poetry related. I splurged on the recent 3 volume collection of poems by JRR Tolkien. It has just about every poem he wrote, not just the ones concerning Middle-Earth, and how they changed over the years as he kept reworking them. Just thumbing through one volume there are three versions of his Beren and Luthien poem, starting in 1919 and ending with what appeared in LOTR. Different styles, different meters and some wording but the theme is maintained. Many of the poems are traced the same way. This is heaven for Tolkien nerds like me.

Posted by: JTB at June 01, 2025 09:22 AM (yTvNw)

48 The sad truth is that many new books simply cannot hold up to the classic books of the last 250 years.

There are very few books released today that will be remembered 250 years from now.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 01, 2025 09:19 AM (XV/Pl)

It's why I preserve and cherish my Debbie Does Dallas editions.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at June 01, 2025 09:24 AM (g8Ew8)

49 A book from the last 12 months I enjoyed?

Joseph Epstein's autobiography. Dana Gioia's 99 Poems New & Selected. S.T.Joshi's Ramsey Campbell: Master of Weird Fiction.

If I look at their pub dates, I'll probably find that they're all a tad outside the last 12 months, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:25 AM (q3u5l)

50 Yeah there has been too much internecine strife between faiths

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 09:25 AM (bXbFr)

51 The sad truth is that many new books simply cannot hold up to the classic books of the last 250 years.

There are very few books released today that will be remembered 250 years from now.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at June 01, 2025 09:19 AM (XV/Pl)
----
Sturgeon's Law is very much in effect:

"90% of everything is crap."
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
===

And now with digital libraries we have so much more space to put our crap --> much much more crap.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at June 01, 2025 09:25 AM (/lPRQ)

52 Last night I finished my umpteenth re-read of "Heart of Darkness," and my enjoyment has deepened over time. When I was young, the pacing seemed a bit slow, and Conrad seemed to get unnecessarily overwrought at times, but now it seems just about right, perhaps because I'm old enough to appreciate it fully.

I also think that his point about women living in their own world is more accurate than ever. In his time, it was one of sentiment and spirituality, and reading the book in the 80s it seemed hopelessly wrong.

But now it rings true. I think women absolutely have a greater capacity to lose themselves in moral abstractions of "goodness," and that the big difference today is that their moral compass has a badly bent needle. Then: convert the savages. Now: gender is fluid.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:26 AM (ZOv7s)

53 I woke up this morning to a text from my son with pictures of my granddaughters reading the books I gave them yesterday. The 8 yr old reading The Secret Lake by Karen Inglis and the 6 yr old reading Ivy and Bean books.
Seemed appropriate for Sunday morning.❤️❤️

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at June 01, 2025 09:27 AM (t/2Uw)

54 Sturgeon's Law is very much in effect:

"90% of everything is crap."
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:22 AM (GlyvH)

Oh, so he's read my stuff?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 09:27 AM (0eaVi)

55 Aha! Found my copy of Cowley's "Spacecraft: 2000 to 2100 AD". Cover is a bit different (that yellow ship is on the title page).

The book was published in 1978. Our timeline is a slacker BarcaLounger potato compared to this book's projections. We should have a functioning lunar station and commercial trips to Mars by now! Two years until the warp generator is perfected (2027).

Let's bust a move, people!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 09:28 AM (kpS4V)

56 Two years until the warp generator is perfected (2027).

Let's bust a move, people!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 09:28 AM (kpS4V)
----
Elon Musk would probably have a working prototype by now if he wasn't distracted by DOGE.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:29 AM (GlyvH)

57 And now with digital libraries we have so much more space to put our crap --> much much more crap.
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at June 01, 2025 09:25 AM (/lPRQ)
---
The gatekeeping now is pretty minimal. Big publishers are owned by liberal women, but you can circumvent that if you want.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:29 AM (ZOv7s)

58

We need more books about commie homos being mutilated by CHUD...

Posted by: Just Sayin at June 01, 2025 09:30 AM (EmGAY)

59 good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 01, 2025 09:31 AM (ftcl+)

60 Sturgeon's Law is a bit off when it comes to my stuff -- I'd have to say more like 96%.

Strangely, I don't think Sturgeon's Law applies to Sturgeon's own work.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:31 AM (q3u5l)

61 The book was published in 1978. Our timeline is a slacker BarcaLounger potato compared to this book's projections. We should have a functioning lunar station and commercial trips to Mars by now!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 09:28 AM (kpS4V)

That is irritating. Space had such promise and we wasted it. I'm sure there's more than one reason for it, but we should have progressed further. Who to blame?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 09:33 AM (0eaVi)

62 Thanks for the link! I'm looking forward to doing in-person book events again, after the covidiocy killed off so many of them!
I've been reading MM Kaye's biography of her childhood in India "The Sun in the Morning" - it's an interesting read, if very long. She had an excellent memory, and a lovely, untroubled childhood (which is kind of a relief to read about, actually.) Her mother was glamorous and lovely, her father literate, loving, and interesting - the head of British military intel in India during WWI. Because of the war, she and her sister were essentially stranded in India, splitting their year between winters in old Delhi, and summers in the high-altitude summer capital of Simla. She and her sister adored living in India, and didn't care for Britain at all. It's a lovely read - and she drew on much of that knowledge for the novels she wrote later.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 01, 2025 09:33 AM (Ew3fm)

63 Morning booken folken.
I used to read until I konked out before bed but I now work swing shift. I don't know why but I can't seem to make reading work so soon atter work. My mind is in decompress/after action review mode and won't switch to reading mode. I find myself staring at pages and just zoning out on what is going on at work.
I know there are people who can switch in an instant and never pay work a minute of thought afterwards (some who don't give work a minute of thought during) but I can't. I think I'm going to set aside some time like around lunch where I just sit and read but with this extra time I have in the mornings I do projects and yardwork. So I'm busy until I have to shower and get to work.

So, haven't read anything this week and that is my weak excuse.

Posted by: Reforger at June 01, 2025 09:33 AM (xcIvR)

64 Yeah there has been too much internecine strife between faiths
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 09:25 AM (bXbFr)
---
Father Stephen is the one with the big axe to grind. Father Andrew would often try to quiet him by pointing out that there are Eastern Rite Catholics whose Mass is exactly the same as theirs.

An interesting comparison is the fact that the Catholic Church was often instrumental in beating back Communist/Atheist aggression (Spain, Mexico) whereas the Orthodox Churches have a flawless record of failure in this regard.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:33 AM (ZOv7s)

65 Excellent breakdown of the issues with the Wheel of Time abomination. I admit breaking into a happy dance when Amazon announced they weren't moving forward with it!

Reading wise, I started Nancy J. Cohen's "Writing the Cozy Mystery." It's charming in and of itself, and a nifty little advertisement for her series, but it offers some excellent advice for character, setting and plot development that can apply across all genres.

Posted by: moki at June 01, 2025 09:34 AM (wLjpr)

66 Heh. I just finished reading a story by Robert Silverberg that was written in the early 1980s, but it is remarkably prescient.

It's quite relevant in the current era.

I'll have more to say about it next week. Stay tuned!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:34 AM (GlyvH)

67 The past few days I've been reading _Inventing the Renaissance_ by Ada Palmer. You may remember her name as she made a big splash a few years ago with an SF series, "Terra Ignota." But this book is part of her day job, which is teaching Renaissance History at the University of Chicago. It's not so much a history of the Renaissance as a book about how different eras have defined the Renaissance and made use of it -- except that the first era to make and use that definition was the Renaissance period itself. Fun book, lots of "everything you know about this subject is probably wrong" but does not descend into Postmodern lunacy. Palmer's attitudes are about what you expect from a contemporary academic but she's not shoving them down your throat. Worth looking at.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 09:35 AM (78a2H)

68 17 On my to read - Mickey 17
Just curious to compare book to movie
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 01, 2025 09:09 AM (dE3DB)

Speaking of which...I listened to Bubba Hotep by Joe R. Lansdale this week, because I had told my sister about it. When Mom was in the rehab facility after her stroke, I was calling it the Shady Rest, in reference to the movie, which I had found funny.

She'd never seen the movie, and I found that it's in book form, so we both downloaded. Ugh. I am not fond of the book. The whole first chapter is all about Elvis and his diseased and non-functional man junk, and his skirt-chasing, and it turned me right off. I know my sis won't get through that first chapter to the rest of the adventure.

I know that all happened in the movie, too, but the casting was great and the nurse made that part funny and bearable.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 01, 2025 09:35 AM (h7ZuX)

69 We need more books about commie homos being mutilated by CHUD...
Posted by: Just Sayin at June 01, 2025 09:30 AM (EmGAY)
---
Do you own Long Live Death? Lots of Reds getting whacked in there. You'd love it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:35 AM (ZOv7s)

70 I know that all happened in the movie, too, but the casting was great and the nurse made that part funny and bearable.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 01, 2025 09:35 AM (h7ZuX)
---
Is this an entry into the exclusive "Movie is better than the book" club?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:38 AM (ZOv7s)

71 Interior monologues sometimes are best unexpressed

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)

72 Is this an entry into the exclusive "Movie is better than the book" club?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:38 AM (ZOv7s)

Yes. Without question.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 01, 2025 09:39 AM (h7ZuX)

73 If memory serves, Newt Gingrich's book Window of Opportunity, talked about the delay in pursuing space exploration and exploitation. I seem to recall him citing gaps in past history of about 20 years between discovery and real progress in colonization of new territories.

But yeah, we've been dragging our feet.

One of my favorite 1950s monster movies, It! The Terror from Beyond Space, sets the first manned Mars expedition in 1973. *Sigh*

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:40 AM (q3u5l)

74 Just finishing up Dr. Brant Pitre's excellent new book "Jesus and Divine Christology," in which he absolutely eviscerates the utterly biased and dishonest trend in "Jesus Studies" over the past 150 years of asserting that Jesus never acted or spoke prior to the Crucifixion as if He was divine. Of course he did, in the Gospel of John, as well as the Synoptic Gospels.

With special attention lavished on the execrable Bart Ehrman and the so-called "Jesus Seminar's" unsupportable findings that only 18% of Jesus' sayings and 16% of Jesus' deeds reported in the Gospels actually occurred. It's nice to see a scholor treat this ridiculous trend with the contempt that it deserves, with Dr. Pitre's subtle digs supported by his very deep research and brilliant analysis.

Highly recommended.

I think I am going to move on to Eusebius' "Ecclesiastical History", and also continue enjoying reading deeply in my new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, which is a work of art and a profound compendium of knowledge. The notes that connect the OT with the NT in a myriad of ways I'd never previously been aware of are amazing. Again, highly recommended.

Good morning, Book Nerds.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 01, 2025 09:40 AM (/RHNq)

75 Tolle Lege
And reading I am getting in having no power yesterday and still can't get internet connection but have F-1 race on now.
Reading Rick Atkinson's The Day of the Battle, and lots of information in it I didn't know.

Posted by: Skip at June 01, 2025 09:40 AM (xhhbf)

76 Interior monologues sometimes are best unexpressed
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
---
I to "show" all my thoughts through dialog. Sometimes I will allow an expression to convey a "what?!" kind of reaction, but mostly I like to leave that to the reader's imagination.

Some of it comes down to who the narrator is.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:41 AM (ZOv7s)

77 64 Interesting point, A.H. Lloyd. One of the structural flaws of Eastern "Orthodoxy" is its power dynamic between the church and the state. As you know, more than one Eastern emperor pushed a pet heresy on believers and clergy.

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 01, 2025 09:41 AM (ftcl+)

78 This past week I read a very disappointing graphic novel by the name of "Tex: Valley of the Shadow." It's an Italian-made comic about a cowboy named Tex, and this particular story was created to commemorate the character's 75th anniversary. Unfortunately, they did this by creating a 100-page near-death-induced dream sequence, in which our hero hallucinates references to the high-points of his past. This failed for me on two levels. First, I'm new to the character, so I wouldn't know a classic Tex adventure from one that was drawn yesterday. Second, I hate dream-sequence/hallucination stories. They remove any stakes, or any sense of cause-and-effect. There's no way to tell whether the character's actions will have any consequences, or if the whole scene will just re-set and dissolve into the next scene once the author has made his point. So, yeah, I got nothing out of the story, and will likely never pick up the book again...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 09:42 AM (Lhaco)

79 Posted by: Weak Geek at June 01, 2025 09:03 AM (p/isN)
----

One of my fondest memories of Nerddom is Peter David and another guy doing an MST3K-style riff on "The Apple", wherein Kirk and Company encounter a planet of beach bros and surf bunnies serving a great stone god, Vaal. The second episode was "Shore Leave". When Theodore Sturgeon's name flashed in the credits, Peter yelled "No wonder 90% of it was crap!"

He had a Klingon puppet to help with the insults.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 09:42 AM (kpS4V)

80 If memory serves, Newt Gingrich's book Window of Opportunity, talked about the delay in pursuing space exploration and exploitation. I seem to recall him citing gaps in past history of about 20 years between discovery and real progress in colonization of new territories.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 09:40 AM (q3u5l)

Fooled around too long and let the non-space faring capable countries make space off limits to us. That was a big mistake. Space and the moon belongs to us and a couple others, not "the world."

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 09:42 AM (0eaVi)

81 Hey, I just learned Sturgeon wrote "Killdozer!".

Renaissance man, that one.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 09:43 AM (kpS4V)

82 Continuing my poetry reading, I finally got Malcolm Guite's "After Prayer". It's a series of sonnets he wrote inspired by the rich, varied imagery in George Herbert's poem "Prayer" written in the early 1600s. Each phrase of the Herbert poem is the catalyst for a sonnet. I always enjoy Guite's writing and this series brings out depths in Herbert easily missed by a casual reading. I feel enriched from the reading. (I now have just about everything Guite has published. The books go in the same bookcase as Tolkien, Lewis, Chesterton, and Inklings.)

Posted by: JTB at June 01, 2025 09:43 AM (yTvNw)

83 -- The show was blatant about forced diversity in its casting --

No one wants to admit that one invariable characteristic of tribal / pretechnological groups is that they are racially monochromatic. Tribes and pretech villages do not admit persons who differ from the local norm. Consider the unending warfare that characterizes Earth's remaining tribal societies.

Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at June 01, 2025 09:43 AM (Nmmyc)

84 Just finishing up Dr. Brant Pitre's excellent new book "Jesus and Divine Christology," in which he absolutely eviscerates the utterly biased and dishonest trend in "Jesus Studies" over the past 150 years of asserting that Jesus never acted or spoke prior to the Crucifixion as if He was divine. Of course he did, in the Gospel of John, as well as the Synoptic Gospels.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 01
---
My wife has several of his books, and I particularly enjoyed The Jewish Roots of Mary.

The more I hear about the Ignatius Study Bible, the more I want one, but the time is not quite yet. Soon.

Also, glad to see modern """Bible Scholars""" getting slapped around. We need more of this. So much of their nonsense is easily refuted simply by comparing the Bible to other works of antiquity and noticing how there is a completely different standard applied in regards to reliability.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:45 AM (ZOv7s)

85 I'm still reading "Travels In Arabia Deserta", written 1870 or so. I was having trouble with some of the archaic Arabic words, but about halfway thru I discovered a glossary in the back! It's a hassle to flip back and forth though, one reason physical books are better than ebooks.

The flip side of that though is I probably never would have had access to this book without ebooks.

Posted by: fd at June 01, 2025 09:45 AM (vFG9F)

86 Reading wise, I started Nancy J. Cohen's "Writing the Cozy Mystery." It's charming in and of itself, and a nifty little advertisement for her series, but it offers some excellent advice for character, setting and plot development that can apply across all genres.
Posted by: moki at June 01, 2025

***
I need to have a look for that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 09:45 AM (omVj0)

87 I just read The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons, a Sherlock Holmes adventure. Bought it because it was offered for two bucks on kindle, I have know idea who Dan Simmons is, but it seems he is a somewhat popular and prolific writer. No idea why he was writing a Holmes story, but it was a good one, entertaining.
In spring, 1893, Holmes interupts the author Henry James contemplating suicide, and enlists his help in determing whether the historian Henry Adam's wife was murdered, and also to prevent the assasination of Grover Cleveland and a number of other world leaders by a group of anarchists. Most of the main characters are literary and political figures of the time.
In telling the story, the author seems to be enjoying himself pontificating rather snarkily on the writers of the time and playing with author's perspective and the like.
All in all a fun read, light and airy. May have to check out some of this guy's other stuff.

Posted by: From about That Time at June 01, 2025 09:46 AM (n4GiU)

88 74 The Jesus Seminar scholars are a plague. The scribes and Pharisees were scholars, too, and they wound up on the wrong side of Truth.

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 01, 2025 09:46 AM (ftcl+)

89 Regarding The Wheel of Time and other TV/movie adaptations...As a kid/teen, I read Anne McCaffery's "Dragonriders of Pern" books. When the internet rolled around, I learned that Anne was adamite that no one else (besides eventually her son) touch her works. No movies, no tv adaptation, she even cracked down on fan-fiction! (With the big fanfic site of the era refusing to host Pern-fanfic stories) At the time, it seemed like an unreasonable paranoia. But, nowadays, it seems Mrs. McCaffery was ahead of the curve.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 09:46 AM (Lhaco)

90 Second, I hate dream-sequence/hallucination stories. They remove any stakes, or any sense of cause-and-effect. There's no way to tell whether the character's actions will have any consequences, or if the whole scene will just re-set and dissolve into the next scene once the author has made his point. So, yeah, I got nothing out of the story, and will likely never pick up the book again...
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 09:42 AM (Lhaco)
---
I've seen this idea show up in a number of YouTube videos about things readers hate. It's one thing if dreams have an impact on the story because it's a plot device to move the narrative along. It's very different when the entire story is "all just a dream." As you point out, that removes all stakes and we know that there are no lasting consequences for the character (unless we see character development later as a result of that story).

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:46 AM (GlyvH)

91 Thanks for the plug perfesser.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at June 01, 2025 09:50 AM (DIweC)

92 Houtis!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 01, 2025 09:52 AM (E63nu)

93 Poetry adjacent. I just got a copy of Ben Palpant's "An Axe to the Frozen Sea". The rather odd title comes from a line from Kafka: "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us." Palpant is a Christian poet and writer. He interviews a number of living poets, including Guite and Luci Shaw, discussing the creative process they encounter in their writing and how it effects their faith and life. The interviews are more like a relaxed conversation that touch on many aspects of the poets life. Each section is about 25 pages. A quick read but it instills a leisurely pace.

It reminded me. Years ago, Pat Sajak (yes, that Pat Sajak) had a late night interview show on Fox News. It was more about the people than events. Basically, a pleasant conversation with interesting people, not adversarial. The shows were witty, pleasant, and often revealing. Of course, it was cancelled after a year. That was the start of my dissatisfaction with Fox News, even if it's better than other news networks.

Posted by: JTB at June 01, 2025 09:52 AM (yTvNw)

94 I've started my summer reading routine: bike to the park, read a short story in the fresh air and foliage, and then bike home. (My only yard faces a common driveway, which does not make for the most idyllic place to read.) Last year I read mostly sword-and-sorcery stories from the "Savage Realms" e-zine, but this summer I'm starting with stories from a steampunk anthology from Raconteur Press. Alas, the first story I read was pretty meh. Some of the background setting was cool (an independent Texas Republic that sat out the American Civil War, but got deeply involved with the French-Mexican war of Napolean III) but the actual narrated story was far more...pedestrian. Hopefully the rest of the anthology gets more interesting.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 09:53 AM (Lhaco)

95 I'm coming of the the Forest of Lurk to comment on the Wheel of Time. I have the entire series in hardcover, including the novella. I wanted to like the series, I really did, but the first show was all I could stomach. It had nothing to do with the books, good god Perrin was married. If you want to do a fantasy series about girl power, gay power, any kind of power, write your own. Don't suck the blood out of someones else's work.

Posted by: EyeofSauron at June 01, 2025 09:54 AM (u0bih)

96 @78 --

In his later years of "Steve Canyon," Milton Caniff did a lot of "Steve is dreaming" stories, with his characters in some era of history. It was a way to bring in past characters for one more turn around the track. I remember one was set during the Spanish-American War.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 01, 2025 09:56 AM (p/isN)

97 Interesting point, A.H. Lloyd. One of the structural flaws of Eastern "Orthodoxy" is its power dynamic between the church and the state. As you know, more than one Eastern emperor pushed a pet heresy on believers and clergy.
Posted by: callsign claymore at June 01, 2025 09:41 AM (ftcl+)
---
Yes, starting with Byzantium, Orthodox Churches were more arms of the state than an independent entity. As the Ottomans marched forward, the millet system allowed them to survive, but precluded evangelization.

Once they were freed, the pattern was set for state churches and the big controversies of Orthodoxy were each nationality claiming its own patriarchy rather than exploiting their freedom for greater unity.

And of course Peter the Great brought the Russian church to heel by refusing to allow a Patriarch to be appointed. The Reds exploited this and bought of the Orthodox hierarchy by allowing them to elect a new patriarch.

Of course the Russian Church was also heavily identified with the state, which reduced loyalty to it. In Spain, they were very much separate, and violence against the Church radicalized the moderates against the Reds.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:56 AM (ZOv7s)

98 Don't suck the blood out of someones else's work.
Posted by: EyeofSauron at June 01, 2025 09:54 AM (u0bih)

It's what parasites do.

Posted by: Reforger at June 01, 2025 09:57 AM (xcIvR)

99 If you want to do a fantasy series about girl power, gay power, any kind of power, write your own. Don't suck the blood out of someones else's work.
Posted by: EyeofSauron at June 01, 2025 09:54 AM (u0bih)
---
They don't know how to write stories. Even if they did, they know they will only be catering to the 5% of the population that *might* read them.

Vampiric parasitism is the only way they know....

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:58 AM (GlyvH)

100 "Don't suck the blood out of someones else's work."

Kinda makes you wonder how many of the writers on these botched series started out by writing fan-fiction of the gay-Kirk-&-Spock variety, doesn't it?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 10:00 AM (q3u5l)

101 I wonder if funding is withheld if a movie or series is insufficiency diverse. It is certainly the case that some awards demand that boxes checked, and some need the validation of awards.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 10:00 AM (kpS4V)

102 Stanley G. Payne's Civil War in Europe 1905-1949 is an excellent overview of how the various revolutions went down. Lots of interesting information about Finland, Hungary as well as Spain and Russia.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 10:01 AM (ZOv7s)

103 I wonder if funding is withheld if a movie or series is insufficiency diverse. It is certainly the case that some awards demand that boxes checked, and some need the validation of awards.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 10:00 AM (kpS4V)
---
Hollywood implemented diversity rules that must be followed to be considered for awards.

This is why Pedro Pascal is in everything - he checks a diversity box without looking too "ethnic."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 10:02 AM (ZOv7s)

104 I'm starting with stories from a steampunk anthology from Raconteur Press. Alas, the first story I read was pretty meh.
Hopefully the rest of the anthology gets more interesting.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 09:53 AM (Lhaco)

The good thing about RP is they're a place for new writers to get stuff published. It's a nice resource to get work out there.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 10:02 AM (0eaVi)

105 4 It's mourning time in the comics and science fantasy communities after the death of Peter A. David a week ago. PAD, as he was sometimes known, wrote extensive, highly praised runs on the Incredible Hulk, X Factor, and Supergirl, who was not Superman's cousin this time around. He also wrote several novels in the Star Trek lines and other standalone fantasy books. He was 68.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 01, 2025 09:03 AM (p/isN)

Even before I got into comics, I started recognizing Peter David's name from the numerous Star Trek TNG novels I read. He even got his ow spin-off series, with its own starship, a captain named McKenzie (M'k'n'z in his native alien tongue) and the female first officer from the Best of Both Worlds episode. I don't remember many of the details, but I remember liking them at the time. RIP PAD.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 10:03 AM (Lhaco)

106 If you want to do a fantasy series about girl power, gay power, any kind of power, write your own. Don't suck the blood out of someones else's work.
Posted by: EyeofSauron at June 01, 2025 09:54 AM (u0bih)

Those things are done for one reason only: destroy the property and insult its fans, nothing more.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 10:04 AM (0eaVi)

107 Vampiric parasitism is the only way they know....
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:58 AM (GlyvH)
---
They also live in a social bubble where everyone is gay and/or sex obsessed. They have no knowledge of platonic friendships, just power.

That's why there are no actual friendships, because they can't write what the don't know. All of their friendships are conditional and can be negated at any time for wrongthink.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 10:04 AM (ZOv7s)

108 Kinda makes you wonder how many of the writers on these botched series started out by writing fan-fiction of the gay-Kirk-&-Spock variety, doesn't it?
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025

***
Kirk/Spock, read aloud as "Kirk slash Spock." Thus, I understand, coining the term "slash" to mean gay relationships between characters who were established as hetero in the original material.

There is Solo/Illya slash fanfic out there for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. fandom, and I've proudly read none of it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 10:05 AM (omVj0)

109 There is Solo/Illya slash fanfic out there for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. fandom, and I've proudly read none of it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 10:05 AM (omVj0)

Wolfus, have you watched any more of Boomer Doug's vids?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 10:08 AM (0eaVi)

110

Ace/Garrett: The Ewokening

Posted by: Just Sayin at June 01, 2025 10:08 AM (SKp/h)

111 fMost of the way through the 6th book in the Mazalan tale of the fallen. If you buy books based on $ per page this series is excellent, never mind a great 10 book series!
Thanks Perfessor!

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 01, 2025 10:08 AM (ydbCq)

112 There is Solo/Illya slash fanfic out there for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. fandom, and I've proudly read none of it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 10:05 AM (omVj0)
----

You don't review your work before sending it to the fanzine?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 10:08 AM (kpS4V)

113 Anything by Preston & Child ***** Same for Michael Connelly. The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz. The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Posted by: Marybel Smiles at June 01, 2025 10:09 AM (rdTCV)

114 Thanks to a secondhand (possibly third- or fourth-hand) box of books, finally read a Katherine Paterson book that I liked: The Great Gilly Hopkins. My school library had lots of her unnecessarily sad-ending books: Bridge to Terebithia, Of Nightingales that Weep, Jacob Have I Loved, etc.

From her books and a couple others, I got the idea that Newbery Awards were given to books that started good, sucked me in, and made me regret I ever picked them up.

The Great Gilly Hopkins was another Newbery Honor Book, but also won the National Book Award, which still meant something.

Galadriel "Gilly" Hopkins is a foster kid who's a jerk to everybody and plans to act decent long enough to steal money for a bus ticket to her mother's address. The POV is third person, but characters are seen through Gilly's eyes. She cannot figure out her teacher; even using a (literal) race card doesn't get the reaction she wants.

She does change, but like a real-life stubborn kid, follows her plan to its logical conclusion. The ending isn't exactly happy but it's not a tear-jerker. It's surprising to Gilly, but it grows naturally from her previous actions.

Anyway, I recommend it.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at June 01, 2025 10:09 AM (YOP87)

115 I love the writing of Robert E. Howard. Not just the Conan stories but the other characters like Kull, Solomon Kane, El Borak, and the westerns and boxing stories. I had forgotten about Bran Mak Morn, last king of the Picts. I read the stories decades ago but not since. I got a recent edition of all the stories in one volume. A good quality paperback with some excellent illustrations. Howard apparently had an interest in Picts throughout his sadly brief career and included them in various stories of Conan and Kull as well as 'modern' (Roman Empire) times. There is a darkness and grim quality in the stories as Bran fights against the odds even knowing he and his people will lose. Howard uses the struggles to bring out themes of history, desperation and individual determination. It includes Howard's "Worms of the Earth", one of his most terrifying tales. In many ways, this is some of Howard's most effective writing. Like Hound of the Baskervilles or some Lovecraft, this is great reading for a dark and stormy night.

Posted by: JTB at June 01, 2025 10:11 AM (yTvNw)

116 31 ... "I've been pushing The Call of The Wild on the grandson, he's finally plowing through it and loves it."

Thomas Bender,
Has he tried Treasure Island, especially with the NC Wyeth illustrations? If he liked Call of the Wild, Treasure Island might also suit him. I mention the book often but it is one of the treasures (no pun) of my early reading life.

Posted by: JTB at June 01, 2025 10:21 AM (yTvNw)

117 And if he likes Treasure Island, then you can pull out the stops and give him King Solomon's Mines!

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 10:22 AM (78a2H)

118 Wolfus, have you watched any more of Boomer Doug's vids?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025

***
Not yet; I'll have a look this week.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 10:22 AM (omVj0)

119 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at June 01, 2025 09:18 AM (ZOv7s)

I always liked the Norse pantheon better than the Greek as they seemed less capricious.

I also noted that the ruling pantheon in most pagan religions tended to be second or third order, pretty much never first order. The Jews would have seemed very out of place on that account as well as the monotheism.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 01, 2025 10:23 AM (lFFaq)

120 I knew the TV show would suck when I found out they were making Moiraine the main character. While an important character in the early books, she disappears at the end of book 4 and is presumed dead until the penultimate book. That they relegated Matt and Perrin to side characters was a travesty. And the rest of the crap described.

Posted by: Farquad at June 01, 2025 10:24 AM (jWcWv)

121 There is Solo/Illya slash fanfic out there for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. fandom, and I've proudly read none of it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025
----
*
You don't review your work before sending it to the fanzine?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025

***
Not sure what you mean, Eris. I don't write that sort of thing. My MfU fan fiction is in the magazine-story mode, with actual plots and suspense. If a fanzine is strictly or heavily slash, then no, they wouldn't want my stuff anyway.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 10:25 AM (omVj0)

122 R.E. Howard really was a great prose writer. He had the gift of making the reader see and experience things.

A lot of people trying to write Howard pastiches often descend into what sounds like the narration from a D&D game. "He swung, and hit, then parried a blow, then stabbed . . . "

Howard doesn't actually do that. His description of a fight is more likely to be "Conan fought like a wounded tiger, and men died before him." But somehow he makes you _see_ the battle so vividly that you _think_ he must have described it in detail.

That's a master.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 10:25 AM (78a2H)

123 I was just joshin', Wolfus.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025 10:27 AM (kpS4V)

124 I've seen this idea show up in a number of YouTube videos about things readers hate. It's one thing if dreams have an impact on the story because it's a plot device to move the narrative along. It's very different when the entire story is "all just a dream." As you point out, that removes all stakes and we know that there are no lasting consequences for the character (unless we see character development later as a result of that story).
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 01, 2025 09:46 AM (GlyvH)

A dream sequence as a Plot Device: acceptable and worthwhile, provided it's done right.

A dream sequence as the Entire Story: just a waste of time.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 10:27 AM (Lhaco)

125 I was just joshin', Wolfus.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 01, 2025

***
I thought so!

Reviewing the *fanzine* would be a good idea before sending something to them, though. They don't pay, but like publishers everywhere, they do have their own editorial slants.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 10:30 AM (omVj0)

126 I saw that one country music guy, I forget his name, on the Tucker Carlson show. But he wasn't talking about his horrible music. He was mostly railing against John Darby, C.I. Scofield, and Dispensationalism.

As a Jew, I don't have a dog in that fight, but I listened to the whole thing, because it was nostalgic... It reminds me of the fundamentalists I grew up with in rural Colorado. One good friend in particular. We lost touch after he went to the Air Force, but it was nice to hear all that stuff again, lo these many years later.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 01, 2025 10:30 AM (BI5O2)

127 A dream sequence as the Entire Story: just a waste of time.
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 10:27 AM (Lhaco)

You think he means us?

Posted by: Bobby Ewing, Dr. Bob Hartley at June 01, 2025 10:31 AM (0eaVi)

128 A dream sequence as a Plot Device: acceptable and worthwhile, provided it's done right.

A dream sequence as the Entire Story: just a waste of time.
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 10:27 AM (Lhaco)

The White Hotel. Totally dream-driven until it's not.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at June 01, 2025 10:32 AM (g8Ew8)

129 I never really liked "dream sequence" stories because they're never like real dreams.

Also: I don't know why -- maybe it was the evil psychic influence of William Dean Howells -- but authors and screenwriters showed a real phobia about fantastic material for a long time. Or maybe they thought the audiences wouldn't buy it. The book _The Wizard of Oz_ tells how Dorothy went to Oz, kicked ass and chewed bubblegum, and then came home via magic. The _movie_ is about how she dreamed all that after a concussion.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 10:32 AM (78a2H)

130 Long week of vacation was over Tuesday so reading was a little slow. I got about halfway through Thunderstruck with still no sign of the two separate storylines coming together. And, for me, they probably never will because I accidently left the book behind at one of my stays. I'm also about halfway through Henry IV by Ian Mortimer. I knew nothing about him when I started but that's changed. Mortimer does a great job of explaining the impact of all the noble maneuvering.

Posted by: who knew at June 01, 2025 10:32 AM (+ViXu)

131 106 If you want to do a fantasy series about girl power, gay power, any kind of power, write your own. Don't suck the blood out of someones else's work.
Posted by: EyeofSauron at June 01, 2025 09:54 AM (u0bih)

Those things are done for one reason only: destroy the property and insult its fans, nothing more.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 01, 2025 10:04 AM (0eaVi)

Red Sonja frequently falls victim to this. The character is an enduring one who will always have a market (just post of a cover of Sanja looking cool in a chainmail bikini and some poor sap like me will check it out) but the character keeps getting handed to clowns (like Gail Simone or Mark Russel) who hate the things that make the character enduring, or hate the people who read those stories. Sure, these people could write an all-new story that they would enjoy, but no one would buy or care about that story. So instead they de-construct an established character/property, because that's the only thing they can do to actually get attention...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 10:35 AM (Lhaco)

132 I want to thank A.H. Lloyd.

I am reading "Sword of Honor" and am enjoying it.

After reading "Brideshead Revisited" and "Decline and Fall," it appears that Waugh's protagonists seem to be similar in personality.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at June 01, 2025 10:37 AM (ZmEVT)

133
At the recommendation of Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd, I'm reading Franco: A Personal and Political Biography by Stanley G. Payne.

If there's an exception to the old saw that history is written by the victors, it's Francoist Spain. This book is a valuable corrective to the received wisdom that the fascist Franco brutally overthrew a popular, democratic government and instituted a reign of terror for decades.

I don't want to say Franco was a nice guy or that his rule was enlightened and successful, but he was no worse than a lot of European thugs of the time, his time less oppressive than, say, Yugoslavia and when the ostracism lifted in the 1950s Spain grew rapidly. He may not have been loved but he was largely accepted.

His big mistake was fighting communists. That's a one-way high-speed ticket to everlasting hatred from the Left.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 01, 2025 10:43 AM (QnmlO)

134 Also: I don't know why -- maybe it was the evil psychic influence of William Dean Howells -- but authors and screenwriters showed a real phobia about fantastic material for a long time. Or maybe they thought the audiences wouldn't buy it. The book _The Wizard of Oz_ tells how Dorothy went to Oz, kicked ass and chewed bubblegum, and then came home via magic. The _movie_ is about how she dreamed all that after a concussion.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 10:32 AM (78a2H)

I suppose I should clarify; I hate dream sequences that ignore cause & effect. Where there are no consistent rules, and you (the reader) have no way of knowing what matters and what doesn't. A dream sequence that still follows the basic rules of storytelling (like the movie-version of Wizard of Oz) is fine. Or, at least, it can be fine. At the very least, a story like that won't make my eyes glaze over with annoyance.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 10:44 AM (Lhaco)

135 Also, glad to see modern """Bible Scholars""" getting slapped around. We need more of this. So much of their nonsense is easily refuted simply by comparing the Bible to other works of antiquity and noticing how there is a completely different standard applied in regards to reliability.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd




Exactly. Also, modern Jesus "scholars" invariably just outright ignore any event or saying of Christ that doesn't match their preconceived notions in order to make their theories work. A lay person can read their works and say: "Hey, wait a minute, what about X, Y, or Z in Mark's Gospel?!?" These scholars are supposed to be professionals who are conducting comprehensive studies, but an amateur student of the Bible can easily see they are only dishonestly cherry-picking.

Dr. Pitre's "Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist" is also a great read that sheds remarkable light on that Holy gift to humanity.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 01, 2025 10:45 AM (/RHNq)

136 Recursion by Blake Crouch. I found this via a recommendation of someone who usually reads classics. It's sci fi-ish, so a bit out of what I usually read/like but I ripped through it. The plot focuses on a NY detective who discovers what seems to be a pathogen of fake memory syndrome, but turns out to be a memory-saving experiment gone awry that puts the meaning of time in question and the entire world in jeopardy. Along the way, it’s also a love story and a reflection on how memories, even painful ones, define us. It’s kind of a mix of Minority Report, Groundhog Day, the Terminator and About Time. Could be a good movie. Recommend.

Posted by: LASue at June 01, 2025 10:47 AM (9CJNc)

137 I know that all happened in the movie, too, but the casting was great and the nurse made that part funny and bearable.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 01, 2025 09:35 AM (h7ZuX)

I haven’t read the book, but Bubba Hotep is one of my B movie favorites. What I like most is that at the end, you suddenly realize this is really about discarded, forgotten human beings striving to find meaning and purpose in life, even at the end. And it turns out that it doesn’t matter whether they are who they say they are, or if they’re just crazy. When the two main characters die at the end, that’s a great victory, not a tragedy - they have found a death with meaning and purpose, instead of a meaningless death as a forgotten husk who’s been warehoused somewhere.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 01, 2025 10:47 AM (i5oKA)

138 115 I love the writing of Robert E. Howard. Not just the Conan stories but the other characters like Kull, Solomon Kane, El Borak, and the westerns and boxing stories. ... Howard apparently had an interest in Picts throughout his sadly brief career and included them in various stories of Conan and Kull as well as 'modern' (Roman Empire) times. There is a darkness and grim quality in the stories as Bran fights against the odds even knowing he and his people will lose. Howard uses the struggles to bring out themes of history, desperation and individual determination. It includes Howard's "Worms of the Earth", one of his most terrifying tales. In many ways, this is some of Howard's most effective writing. Like Hound of the Baskervilles or some Lovecraft, this is great reading for a dark and stormy night.
Posted by: JTB at June 01, 2025 10:11 AM (yTvNw)

I remember not liking "Worms of the Earth;" Bran himself seemed like too much of a villain in that story. But I enjoy most of Robert E Howard's fantasy/historical adventures. Solomon Kane being my favorite of his characters.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 10:48 AM (Lhaco)

139 His big mistake was fighting communists. That's a one-way high-speed ticket to everlasting hatred from the Left.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 01, 2025 10:43 AM (QnmlO)
-

My introduction to the bright side of Franco was Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia." This was NOT Orwell's bright side, that's for sure. But by the end of the book you realize that Orwell realized it, too.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 01, 2025 10:48 AM (E63nu)

140 I have no idea who Dan Simmons is, but it seems he is a somewhat popular and prolific writer. No idea why he was writing a Holmes story, but it was a good one, entertaining.

All in all a fun read, light and airy. May have to check out some of this guy's other stuff.

Posted by: From about That Time



Simmons wrote the Hyperion Cantos, which is a four book science fiction series that is amazingly creative and interesting. One of the best sci-fi series I've ever read.

I recently downloaded The Fifth Heart, and based on your description, I'll probably start it this work.

Posted by: Sharkman at June 01, 2025 10:51 AM (/RHNq)

141 I've bought a number of books I've started but put down shortly after because it just doesn't hook me in.

It's caused me to just read non fiction recently.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:00 AM (VofaG)

142 Am way behind on Simmons. The Fifth Heart is somewhere in the Amazing Colossal To-Be-Read Pile.

But if you want to see a bone-chiller of an opening some time, check out the first page of Simmons' first novel, Song of Kali. Now that's a grabber.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 11:00 AM (q3u5l)

143 Simmons also wrote the novel _The Terror_ which got turned into a TV series on AMC. He's good -- and he is brave enough to have unpopular opinions. In the early 2000s he got a lot of shit for an essay which said, in effect, "These Islamist terrorists aren't nice fellows. Maybe fighting them is a good idea."

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 11:01 AM (78a2H)

144 The WoT show, which I haven't seen, sounds like it was written by one of the darkfriend Aes Sedai betrayers.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 01, 2025 11:02 AM (cduTK)

145 The worst “dream sequence” in a story that I can think of is the 1953 film “Invaders from Mars”. This boy sees some saucer go underground near his house. His dad goes out to check it, returns with his mind controlled. The martians/aliens begin taking over the town; then it gets horrible when a young girl who’s his friend burns her own house down, murdering her parents; then his own parents die, and a bunch of people he knows die, and the army comes in and some of them die, and then the stupidest looking aliens ever put on film get introduced, and it all gets horrible…

And then he wakes up, and his mom and dad run in and everyone says “ha ha! It was just a dream!”

Whoever wrote that needed to be floggged.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 01, 2025 11:02 AM (i5oKA)

146 Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child.

They're getting sloppy and formulaic.
I'm reading one now where he gets in a fight. Knees the guy in the face killing him. Talks to the diner waitress about the dumpster schedule. Tosses the corpse in and goes with the show.

Posted by: DaveA at June 01, 2025 11:03 AM (FhXTo)

147 139 Homage to Catalonia is a must read. I'm pretty sure his chapter or so dissecting the fake news laid the foundation for his seminal essay "Politics and the English Language."

Orwell was a brave and honest man. His belief in socialism was doomed the moment he heard the first shot fired.

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 01, 2025 11:04 AM (ftcl+)

148 Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at June 01, 2025 10:48 AM (E63nu)


I appreciate Orwell but he remained one of those Socialists who thought it was still the best way but that it just hadn't been done right in the past.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:05 AM (VofaG)

149 Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child.

They're getting sloppy and formulaic.
I'm reading one now where he gets in a fight. Knees the guy in the face killing him. Talks to the diner waitress about the dumpster schedule. Tosses the corpse in and goes with the show.
Posted by: DaveA at June 01, 2025

***
I wanted to see how the series began -- how it appealed to an editor in 1996 or whenever.

I'm picturing the young Rory Calhoun as Reacher, even though I know the novel character is fair-haired.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 11:06 AM (omVj0)

150 He really was syme in a certain way

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 11:06 AM (bXbFr)

151 Stephen Hunter > Lee Child

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:07 AM (VofaG)

152 >>If there's an exception to the old saw that history is written by the victors, it's Francoist Spain.

Being that more than just a few have mentioned in previous book threads their readings of historical accounts of the Spanish civil war, I just picked up 'The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939,' by renowned British historian and highly-acclaimed, bestselling author, Sir Antony Beevor, who also wrote 'Stalingrad' and 'Berlin: The Downfall 1945,' among other historical works.

If I enjoy his work about the Spanish civil war, I'll give both his 'Stalingrad' and 'Berlin' works a looksee, as well.

Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:07 AM (Y1sOo)

153 An excellent book for a kid, especially a boy kid, and I speak from my own yute-ful experience, is Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island."

Another is "Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling.

I fell in love with reading as a young lad as a result.of reading these two books, as well as "Kon Tiki," by Thor Heyerdahl, and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach.

And all of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books.

And "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven and Pournelle.

And . . . I could go on.

I just fell head over heels in love with reading . . .

Posted by: Sharkman at June 01, 2025 11:07 AM (/RHNq)

154 It's interesting to speculate about what might have happened to Orwell if he didn't die of tuberculosis in 1950. I would _like_ to think that as he saw more and more atrocities from Stalin and Mao over the next decade, he would have become a courageous voice against Communism.

Unfortunately, I think it's equally possible that he might have become a fellow-traveler in all but name, toeing the Labour Party line and becoming the kind of anti-Communist who only ever criticizes other anti-Communists for being "too extreme."

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 11:11 AM (78a2H)

155 Kinda pictured a younger David Morse as Reacher. Oh, well...

That dream sequence for Invaders from Mars at least tried to redeem itself at the finish as the kid sees the saucer landing for real later that night. Still... Yeah, it's an annoying move on the filmmakers' part, but it works fairly well if you're seeing it for the first time when you're twelve.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 11:11 AM (q3u5l)

156 I appreciate Orwell but he remained one of those Socialists who thought it was stiIll the best way but that it just hadn't been done right in the past.
Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:05 AM (VofaG)

I've thought the same for a while.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at June 01, 2025 11:11 AM (dR6yv)

157 The bard old guy Thom, who for obvious reasons hated the Aes Sedai at the beginning becomes lovey dovey with Moiraine at the long end. So they would have screwed that up too. Yeah Rand gets all the chicks but I think Thom was Jordan's marysue more than Rand being he was an old dude.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 01, 2025 11:11 AM (cduTK)

158 Burnham whi was a trotskiyte went right but orwell might not have gone all the ay over

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 11:12 AM (bXbFr)

159 Posted by: Sharkman at June 01, 2025 11:07 AM (/RHNq)

I never read it but I remember the controversy that it was anti-religious.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:13 AM (VofaG)

160 If I enjoy his work about the Spanish civil war, I'll give both his 'Stalingrad' and 'Berlin' works a looksee, as well.
Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:07 AM (Y1sOo)

Here we go. Slow thread anyway.

Posted by: Reforger at June 01, 2025 11:13 AM (xcIvR)

161 Sorry, talking about Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:13 AM (VofaG)

162 I rejoiced at the news of the wheel of time cancelation. Sadly Rafe Judkins will probably be allowed to continue to fail by replacing well-loved works with his amateur gay fan fiction, but at least he won't be pissing on Robert Jordan's grave any longer.

Started reading Written on the Dark, Guy Gavriel Kay's new book that dropped this week, and am listening to Ballistic, the 2nd book in Marco Kloos' Palladium Wars series

Finished Of Blood and Fire, book 1 of Ryan Cahill's The Bound and the Broken series. Had heard good things about it, but woof it was rough. Seemed like a subpar Wheel of Time hack. I've seen some admit (and say the author himself says) that the 1st book wasn't very good, but that it improves greatly. Not sure I'll find out, however.

Posted by: tintex at June 01, 2025 11:14 AM (wC4Qw)

163 Morse did get typecast as a villain twelve monkeys the rock a host of others

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 11:15 AM (bXbFr)

164 I read _Jonathan Livingston Seagull_ as a kid, and thought it was a pretty good story about a bird. When I re-read it as an adult I thought it was a bunch of hippie bullshit.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 11:15 AM (78a2H)

165 I forgot about house

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at June 01, 2025 11:16 AM (bXbFr)

166 Captains Courageous remains my favorite book as both a kid and an adult.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:17 AM (VofaG)

167 Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:07 AM (Y1sOo)

You've obviously missed A.H. Lloyd's opinion of Beevor.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 01, 2025 11:17 AM (lFFaq)

168 >>>
And then he wakes up, and his mom and dad run in and everyone says “ha ha! It was just a dream!”

Whoever wrote that needed to be floggged.
Posted by: Tom Servo at June 01, 2025 11:02 AM (i5oKA)


That all was a B&W movie and it's been of RiffTrax too. I'm trying to find it.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 01, 2025 11:17 AM (cduTK)

169 Posted by: banana Dream at June 01, 2025 11:11 AM (cduTK)

I like the idea of Thom as a self-insert. Hadn't thought of that. Old guy who'd been everywhere and done everything tracks though.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 01, 2025 11:19 AM (lFFaq)

170 And then he wakes up, and his mom and dad run in and everyone says “ha ha! It was just a dream!”

Whoever wrote that needed to be floggged.
Posted by: Tom Servo at June 01, 2025 11:02 AM (i5oKA)

You talking about The Wizard of Oz?

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:19 AM (VofaG)

171 The dark one's taint ruins my magic, too.

Posted by: Barry Soetoro at June 01, 2025 11:20 AM (/oah2)

172 I read _Jonathan Livingston Seagull_ as a kid, and thought it was a pretty good story about a bird. When I re-read it as an adult I thought it was a bunch of hippie bullshit.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 11:15 AM (78a2H)

We read it in a creative writing class in high school. I thought it was very "new age" although the teacher said it was written before New Age was a thing.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 01, 2025 11:21 AM (lFFaq)

173 Speaking of the Wizard of Oz, they should have made the very ending of the movie pan away from the farm house with one of those flying monkeys perched on the rooftop.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:21 AM (VofaG)

174 Captains Courageous remains my favorite book as both a kid and an adult.
Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:17 AM (VofaG)

Same. That's one that holds up well.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 01, 2025 11:22 AM (lFFaq)

175 Unfortunately, I think it's equally possible that he might have become a fellow-traveler in all but name, toeing the Labour Party line and becoming the kind of anti-Communist who only ever criticizes other anti-Communists for being "too extreme."
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 11:11 AM (78a2H)

So, you're saying he'd write for the Bulwark?

Posted by: Bobby Ewing, Dr. Bob Hartley at June 01, 2025 11:24 AM (0eaVi)

176 Ok the B&W movie I was thinking of is Robot Monster.

All humanity wiped out, his whole family killed, at the end the kid finds out it was all a dream. Also a weird creepy dude that keeps on trying to make the moves a gal while the whole world ending is going on. Why would a little kid dream about a hormonal creepy teenager? Probably good for drive-ins. The Rifftrax is funny.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 01, 2025 11:24 AM (cduTK)

177 The more I hear about the Ignatius Study Bible, the more I want one, but the time is not quite yet. Soon.

Also, glad to see modern """Bible Scholars""" getting slapped around. We need more of this. So much of their nonsense is easily refuted simply by comparing the Bible to other works of antiquity and noticing how there is a completely different standard applied in regards to reliability.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd


I bought my wife a copy of the Ignatius Study Bible, and she loves it as a reference. It is more like a very footnoted Bible, that explains a lot of the sometimes odd language and euphemisms that are written in the Bible, and what these actually meant to the people of the times contemporaneous to when these things were written.

Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 01, 2025 11:25 AM (tjZg/)

178 I've been acquiring Eric Ambler books based on initial good reviews. Enjoying them. So I picked up what I thought was an Ambler bio. Nope! It was critical analyses of his books. So I guess it waits till I've found and read them all.

Posted by: My friends call me Pete at June 01, 2025 11:25 AM (afP1r)

179 Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 01, 2025 11:22 AM (lFFaq)

I think its solely because of the writing skill and story telling of Rudyard Kipling. He has to be considered in the top five writers of all times imho.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:26 AM (VofaG)

180 I think its solely because of the writing skill and story telling of Rudyard Kipling. He has to be considered in the top five writers of all times imho.
Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:26 AM (VofaG)

Agreed.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at June 01, 2025 11:27 AM (lFFaq)

181 Kipling is one of those writers who gets _better_ every time you re-read him.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 11:28 AM (78a2H)

182 Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 01, 2025 11:25 AM (tjZg/)

ask her if they address the metaphor Camel through the eye of a needle.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:28 AM (VofaG)

183 Good morning and Happy Book Thread Day!

Just read an interesting “Thought Experiment t column in the May/June 2025 issue of Science Fiction. The article is by Kelly Lagor and is titled “Crime and Punishment in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. The column has background on the book (including the fact the American editor did not publish the final chapter), Burgess’s inspiration for the novel, Kubrick’s reasons for some of his directorial and editing choices of the movie, and how Burgess felt about it. A fascinating look on how the focus of the movie is often different from the source novel, but both work in their own way.

Posted by: March Hare at June 01, 2025 11:29 AM (GyTRH)

184 Speaking of the Wizard of Oz, they should have made the very ending of the movie pan away from the farm house with one of those flying monkeys perched on the rooftop.
Posted by: polynikes

Or looked under the Dorothy's bed and there were ruby slippers there.
And a giant flying head in the distance....No, that was Zardoz.

Never mind.

Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 01, 2025 11:29 AM (tjZg/)

185
Beevor unquestioningly accepts the figure of 1100 killed at Guernica, so I'd take anything else he says with a big block of salt.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 01, 2025 11:30 AM (QnmlO)

186 176 Ok the B&W movie I was thinking of is Robot Monster.

All humanity wiped out, his whole family killed, at the end the kid finds out it was all a dream. Also a weird creepy dude that keeps on trying to make the moves a gal while the whole world ending is going on. Why would a little kid dream about a hormonal creepy teenager? Probably good for drive-ins. The Rifftrax is funny.
Posted by: banana Dream at June 01, 2025 11:24 AM (cduTK)

Yup. I was going to point that out if you hadn't. It was also a first-season episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Season 1 was rough, but Robot Monster was one of the better episodes.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 01, 2025 11:30 AM (Lhaco)

187 Should be Asimov’s Science Fiction and “Thought Experiment” column.

I really need a Preview button!

Posted by: March Hare at June 01, 2025 11:31 AM (GyTRH)

188 I read a lot of Richard Bach's stuff as a teen. Bridge Across Forever, One, and JLS. Tried a few years ago to do One again and spent the better part of chapter one realizing I had wasted far to much of my precious little time on earth consuming that tripe.

Bach also divorced his "soulmate" which makes him that much more of an ass as half his crap is based on that.

Posted by: Reforger at June 01, 2025 11:32 AM (xcIvR)

189 My only familiarity of Rudyard Kipling is listening over and over and over to a horrendous, screeching recording of his poem, Boots, while a "POW" at SERE school in Warner Springs, CA in 1985.

I can't imagine liking anything else he has written based solely on that.

But I could be wrong.

Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:32 AM (Y1sOo)

190 Wow- black from Mass, walking the dog, and drinking coffee and the Book Thread is still going strong! A truly great day.

Posted by: LASue at June 01, 2025 11:33 AM (lCppi)

191 Posted by: March Hare at June 01, 2025 11:31 AM (GyTRH)

I have the fastest 'hit post' finger at aos.

luckily we have autocorrect to blame stuff on.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:33 AM (VofaG)

192 That dream sequence for Invaders from Mars at least tried to redeem itself at the finish as the kid sees the saucer landing for real later that night. Still... Yeah, it's an annoying move on the filmmakers' part, but it works fairly well if you're seeing it for the first time when you're twelve.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 11:11 AM (q3u5l)

Saw it in the local theater when I was about 10 when it was brought back for one of the Saturday matinees. Scared the crap out of me back then. Everyone needs to remember, this "dream" explanation was a not used very often before then. AND, audiences weren't as attuned to pop culture and Sci Fi in 1954 when I was a strapping 7 year old.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at June 01, 2025 11:36 AM (5xuJ/)

193 173 Speaking of the Wizard of Oz, they should have made the very ending of the movie pan away from the farm house with one of those flying monkeys perched on the rooftop.
Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:21 AM (VofaG)

Or hanging in a tree.

Posted by: Reforger at June 01, 2025 11:36 AM (xcIvR)

194 My Zoom book club (going on 5 years now) has circled around to Heinlein again and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

I've read lots of Heinlein over the years but never to study and discuss. And I was annoyed by this book because it seems like RAH has written the same book lots of times. An almost Tarantino like rapid fire dialogue among people who are extraordinarily smart and talented with a cynic driving the plot.

I feel bad about being annoyed at Heinlein. But there I am.

Posted by: Dan Bongino at June 01, 2025 11:37 AM (QfvaV)

195
ask her if they address the metaphor Camel through the eye of a needle.

Posted by: polynikes

Yes, it does. From Matthew 19th chapter, 23 verse.

The footnote says this: A parable of impossibility. Jesus thus warns that extreme difficulties face the rich and threaten their entrance into the Kingdom. Only with God's help can the rich detach themselves from the love of money and material possessions. From Matthew 19:22, where the young man is troubled by giving up his possessions and embracing poverty proves Jesus' point.

Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 01, 2025 11:37 AM (tjZg/)

196 Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:32 AM (Y1sOo)

Well it was written intentionally like receptive marching cadence so I can imagine it could also work similar to Chinese water torture.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:37 AM (VofaG)

197 Yeah, here it is.

https://tinyurl.com/6hs7wyau

Yikes!

Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:37 AM (Y1sOo)

198 one hour,

Try some of Kipling's short fiction, say, "The Man Who Would Be King" or "They" or maybe his poem "The Gods of the Copy Book Headings" (which should be required reading every year of school from sixth grade through college) and see if it works for you now.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 11:38 AM (q3u5l)

199 Repetitive = receptive.


thanks autocorrect

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:38 AM (VofaG)

200 185 So ... you wouldn't Leave It to Beevor?

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 01, 2025 11:39 AM (ftcl+)

201 And then he wakes up, and his mom and dad run in and everyone says “ha ha! It was just a dream!”

Whoever wrote that needed to be floggged.
Posted by: Tom Servo at June 01, 2025 11:02 AM (i5oKA)

Except that, after he's told it was all a dream, he goes back to his room and actually sees the saucer from his dream landing in a field.

So was that also a dream or reality?

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at June 01, 2025 11:40 AM (Dg2sF)

202 198 +1 Those, and Arithmetic on the Frontier

Posted by: callsign claymore at June 01, 2025 11:41 AM (ftcl+)

203 "Jesus and Divine Christology,"...with special attention lavished on the execrable Bart Ehrman and the so-called "Jesus Seminar's" unsupportable findings that only 18% of Jesus' sayings and 16% of Jesus' deeds reported in the Gospels actually occurred. It's nice to see a scholor treat this ridiculous trend with the contempt that it deserves, with Dr. Pitre's subtle digs supported by his very deep research and brilliant analysis.

Highly recommended.

I think I am going to move on to Eusebius' "Ecclesiastical History", and also continue enjoying reading deeply in my new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, which is a work of art and a profound compendium of knowledge. The notes that connect the OT with the NT in a myriad of ways I'd never previously been aware of are amazing. Again, highly recommended.

Good morning, Book Nerds.
Posted by: Sharkman at June 01

Will read! And I, too, love my Ignaatius Study Bible. I need to order one for son for his impending bday Fascinating footnotes, maps, etc.

Posted by: LASue at June 01, 2025 11:42 AM (lCppi)

204 Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island."

-
New series on Prime, Nautilus, might be good.

https://shorturl.at/5LPqs

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at June 01, 2025 11:42 AM (L/fGl)

205 Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 01, 2025 11:37 AM (tjZ


Thanks. I was thinking of the literally translation of the metaphor as I had read long ago it was likely talking bout the entrance to a walled city referred tp as an eye of the needle which was not big enough to allow a camel to walk through.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:42 AM (VofaG)

206 fastest post trigger in the west

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:44 AM (VofaG)

207 Speaking of the Wizard of Oz, they should have made the very ending of the movie pan away from the farm house with one of those flying monkeys perched on the rooftop.
Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025

***
There's that visual imagination of yours again. . . .

Has anybody ever done, or tried to do, a story where some of the elements of Oz "leak" into Dorothy's Kansas like that? The flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch are both scary. I'm not saying it would necessarily be a good idea; just wondering if anyone has ever tried it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 11:44 AM (omVj0)

208 Yeah, here it is.

https://tinyurl.com/6hs7wyau

Yikes!
Posted by: one hour sober

Worst. Rap. Ever.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at June 01, 2025 11:45 AM (L/fGl)

209 Off sock.

Posted by: blaster at June 01, 2025 11:45 AM (QfvaV)

210 Try listening to that on continuous loop blaring over the compound's loudspeakers in the wee hours of the morning for about two hours straight.

Drive you near battty, which was the intent, of course.

Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:45 AM (Y1sOo)

211 Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island."

-
New series on Prime, Nautilus, might be good.

https://shorturl.at/5LPqs
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, You and whose army? at June 01, 2025

***
Until I saw some of the 1961 Mysterious Island movie on Svengoolie, I hadn't realized it features Capt. Nemo and the Nautilus. Did Verne ever write a third story about Nemo and his ship?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 11:47 AM (omVj0)

212 I remember that space craft book and others like it from the 80s. Some were recognizable as cover art from books I had read. Others were in the same style so I figured someone grabbed up the art and bundled them and made some money.

I remember those bumblebee ships.

Posted by: blaster at June 01, 2025 11:49 AM (QfvaV)

213 Welp, about time I trundled off to do some chores. Thanks to the Perfessor and all of you for a grand Book Thread start to the new month!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 01, 2025 11:50 AM (omVj0)

214 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June

you have to update us on your house hunting.

Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:51 AM (VofaG)

215 >>Worst. Rap. Ever.

I laffed

Posted by: one hour sober at June 01, 2025 11:52 AM (Y1sOo)

216 I'd toss in Kipling's "The Last Department" as well.

Off to act like I'm doing some sort of useful work around Casa Some Guy.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor. Looking forward to your comments re: Silverberg.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 01, 2025 11:54 AM (q3u5l)

217 Posted by: A face in the crowd.... at June 01, 2025 11:37 AM (tjZ


Thanks. I was thinking of the literally translation of the metaphor as I had read long ago it was likely talking bout the entrance to a walled city referred tp as an eye of the needle which was not big enough to allow a camel to walk through.
Posted by: polynikes at June 01, 2025 11:42 AM (VofaG)

That's a theory I've heard too, but there's no historical evidence of any such gate.

Posted by: LASue at June 01, 2025 11:59 AM (lCppi)

218 Nood CBD.

Posted by: Nazdar at June 01, 2025 12:01 PM (NcvvS)

219 You just need to puree the camel very thoroughly.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 01, 2025 12:42 PM (78a2H)

220 I had this book as a kid and I loved it.

Posted by: Matt_SE at June 01, 2025 12:48 PM (R1kS/)

221 54 OrangeEnt, I did enjoy your ‘Starship Hope’ novel. That was yours, right? I hope my beta read wasn’t too harsh. I’m a bit OCD, which can be a two-edged sword.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at June 01, 2025 12:56 PM (8NnWU)

222 When the two main characters die at the end, that’s a great victory, not a tragedy - they have found a death with meaning and purpose, instead of a meaningless death as a forgotten husk who’s been warehoused somewhere.
Posted by: Tom Servo at June 01, 2025 10:47 AM (i5oKA)

That's a good take on it. I like it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 01, 2025 02:02 PM (h7ZuX)

223 Peter David wrote in his column for Comics Buyer's Guide that if "The Wizard of Oz" was only a dream, Toto still dies by the sheriff's hand the next day.

In my dream world, the old biddy gets killed in a road accident later in the day and the sheriff decides that he has better things to do.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 01, 2025 02:12 PM (p/isN)

224 The TTA setting did get a TTRPG made for it. It is interesting, but the system seems a bit clunky.

Posted by: Bud at June 01, 2025 03:50 PM (sQJE2)

225 upthread √

In his books - Ilium and Olympos - author Dan Simmons flogs islam. He also pimps the happyland westernized version of Buddhism.

Posted by: 13times at June 01, 2025 04:06 PM (pgtZ4)

226 Live in AZ, start reading the book thread after lunch, read all the comments, and here we are.
SWMBO is sitting next to me reading, while I am on my tablet, Diana Or all comes on, singing _'S Marvelous_, and she looks at me and says, "This is just what is I thought retirement was going to be like," and I thought, "Yeah." Make of that what you will.
All of the people hear talking about Preston and Child's had me liking for something of theirs. Found a copy of _Ice Limit_ in the local library. A great adventure story, with a slight SF touch. I'll look for more.

Posted by: buddhaha at June 01, 2025 06:46 PM (izxSr)

227 Pretty sure I had the "Spacecraft" book when I was a kid.

Posted by: NNevets at June 01, 2025 11:50 PM (niUxQ)

228 I know I had that Spacecraft book. I tried copying the artwork for years, made me realize I wasn't going to be a artist. The story was very good from my middle school perspective. Made me think we'd see interstellar travel in my lifetime

Posted by: Bill C at June 02, 2025 06:15 PM (qh1Pk)

(Jump to top of page)

Name: *

Email: *

URL:

Comments:

Processing 0.04, elapsed 0.0443 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0116 seconds, 237 records returned.
Page size 172 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.