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Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-02-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (make sure you are inoculated!). 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, put down that Butterfinger, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
A week or so ago, I went up to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to attend an educational conference. Had a great time. While there, I stopped by the Mercantile Library in the basement of the TJ Library on campus. It's just a neat place. This time they had just opened up an art exhibit featuring works by St. Louis artist Frederick Oakes Sylvester. The picture above is of a display of books that's hard to describe. It's a semicircular cabinet with some books showing a cover here and there. Among the books featured above is Mark Twain's Sketches New and Old, a collection of his short stories. This appears to be a first edition copy.
ON THE DESTRUCTION OF FANTASY LITERATURE
This is one of those videos that leaves me scratching my head because I just don't understand the point she's trying to make here. According to the video, Hilary Layne's thesis is as follows:
We will never, ever see an epic fantasy novel that's as high quality as J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings because Lester del Rey, senior editor of fantasy at Ballantine Books, wanted to milk Tolkienesque fantasy to satiate his own greed.
Seriously. That's her thesis. She attempts to bolster her premise by pointing out that del Rey collaborated with Terry Brooks on Brooks' inaugural epic fantasy novel, The Sword of Shannara (which is pronounced "SHAN-ah-rah" and not "Shan-AR-ah" according to Brooks himself). Lester convinced Brooks to write an epic fantasy novel that was largely derivative of Lord of the Rings and was able to get it published. The book was an instant bestseller, selling over 125,000 copies during its first year and featuring prominently on the New York Times Bestseller list. Based on this success, Lester went on to develop a "formula" for epic fantasy to continue churning out more product and thus making more money. This formulaic writing corrupted fantasy literature forever.
What Hilary overlooks in her thesis are many other factors that were at play at the same time. Ballantine (Lester's employer) already owned the publication rights to Lord of the Rings and were selling more than a million copies a year by the mid-1970s, dwarfing the success of The Sword of Shannara by at least an order of magnitude. Sure, they wanted to sell more books, but Lord of the Rings was a pretty big cash cow all on its own. Lester's genius was in capitalizing on the success of Tolkien by encouraging other writers to tap into the "formula" he had developed. The job of senior editor at a major publisher is, in fact, to sell more books. Working with writers to improve their craft is important, but at the end of the day what matters is what the publisher can sell to their audience. Lester understood his audience and understood marketing far better than Hilary here.
What we actually see in epic fantasy is that for the more successful writers like Terry Brooks (Del Rey), Raymond E. Feist (Bantam Spectra), and Robert Jordan (Tor), is that the first book in their series conforms to Tolkienesque worldbuilding, but then subsequent books diverge tremendously after each author experienced initial success. Each of these authors crafted a world that is as rich, diverse, and interesting as Middle Earth through decades of worldbuilding on their own.
Of course, Tolkien himself was writing his story according to an ancient and time-honored formula: the Hero's Journey, as popularized by Joseph Campbell in Man of a Thousand Faces. Also known as the "Monomyth," the Hero's Journey is an archetypical story framework found in many epic sagas across time and space, as it shows up everywhere when you know what to look for. Modern epic fantasy authors rely on the Hero's Journey in their own stories because that's what sells and is what their audience expects.
As for writing formulaic stories, here's a newsflash. People LIKE formulaic writing, particularly in genre fiction. We like mysteries, westerns, romances, science fiction, and yes, even fantasy, BECAUSE we know what to expect (more or less) as each genre is defined by traditions and tropes that appeal to our tastes. Even literary fiction is constrained by conventions and formulas, as Dave Wolverton explains in his essay, "On Writing as a Fantasist."
Hilary's video is bizarre because it doesn't sound like she's read ANY epic fantasy fiction since Lord of the Rings. Certainly none of the contemporary fantasy literature of the 1970s. A lot of it is pretty good, even if no author ever approaches Tolkien's skill at writing. But then, seriously, who could? He brought an entire lifetime of knowledge, skills, and experiences that most writers will never, ever have to his storytelling. He dived deep into mythology, folklore, and languages to craft his world meticulously one word at a time. And he wasn't successful at first. It took time before he became the fantasy juggernaut we know and love (or loathe) today. He was unique, a paragon of his field. Might as well as why we don't have more Albert Einsteins lurking around.
Another point she overlooks is that readers who enjoyed The Sword of Shannara or similar works might be inspired to go and read the source material from which these books sprang. Thus, Lord of the Rings, which many people might have avoided because they thought it was too hard, now becomes desirable because of it's impact on other works. I'm doing that right now, as a matter of fact, if you look at the books I'm currently reading.
I read through many of the comments on this video to see how her viewers reacted. Most of them roasted her over the coals (metaphorically). Very few tried to defend her viewpoint and when they did, they tended to be roasted themselves. I've watched a few of her other videos where she seems to know something of the writing craft, but she flew very wide of the mark here, displaying a shocking lack of knowledge of fantasy literature in general.
Such a strange video....
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BOOKS BY MORON-ADJACENT AUTHORS
I'm filing this under "Moron-Adjacent Authors" because Buck Throckmorton asked me if I'd post something about the book below by Scott McKay, Senior Editor at The American Spectator. According to Buck, Scott is a fan of AoSHQ.
In a world where Hollywood's woke agenda threatens to drown out truth, one man - armed with some very well-heeled friends - dares to fight back.
Blockbusters follows Mike Holman, a retired journalist turned cultural crusader, as he partners with billionaire Pierce Polk to dismantle the Big Five media giants. With a billion-dollar budget and a vision to revive traditional values, Mike launches Blockbusters Media, sparking a media revolution that crashes Wall Street and captivates the nation.
From a near-miss of personal destruction to a series of Wall Street hostile takeover fights to a billion-dollar Christian epic, film, the stakes soar--personally and politically--as Mike balances love, family, and a pregnant wife against ruthless enemies and a shifting cultural landscape.
Set against the backdrop of a new anti-woke presidency, this fast-paced thriller blends action, satire, and heart, exploring the power of stories to shape society. Perfect for fans of political intrigue and cultural commentary, Blockbusters delivers a bold, unapologetic narrative that's as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.
Amazon Link - Blockbusters by Scott McKay
MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
If, as one of the morons recommended, you do read Around the World in Eighty Days, I suggest you chase it with The Other Log of Phileas Fogg by Philip Jose Farmer. It is a steampunkish science fiction novel written around the concept that the Jules Verne novel is a recounting of actual events...but it is a cover story meant to conceal what truly happened (a conflict of epic proportions with the fate of the world hanging in the balance). The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is presented as the true story that happened behind and between the scenes of the Verne novel. It's a rip snorting adventure and I loved it when it was published in 1973.
Posted by: Danfan at October 26, 2025 09:33 AM (jEQcb)
Comment: Interesting premise. I might have to check that out. I like the idea of stories-behind-the-story in fiction. It turns out this book is part of a larger universe that connects Sherlock Holmes, Flash Gordon, James Bond, and Jack the Ripper--the Wold Newton 'verse.
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Finished The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry.
It is not just about the Influenza, but about the medical efforts to stop it, how cities and towns in America almost crumbled under the large number of deaths, and bad governance. President Wilson and his total indifference to the epidemic is highlighted.
I liked the biochemistry asides and the attitude of the leading medical establishment of the time.
We are survivors of the COVID-19 Wuhan epidemic. IMHO, the recent results were made worse by so called experts of today, misleading the lessons from the past.
The one measure that worked was total isolation.
This is an illuminating cautionary tale. I recommend it.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 26, 2025 09:37 AM (u82oZ)
Comment: So much can be learned from the lessons of the past. It's a shame that people--particularly those with power and influence--choose to ignore those lessons in favor of their own greed and ambition for more power.
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In traditional novel-reading, I'm cruising through the old Dragonlance novel Dragons of Winter Night. I'm enjoying it, though there is a story tic or two that I find annoying. Namely, the book has a habit of picking up a narrative after time-skipping over a quest.
The book is a sequel (book 2 of 3) and the story picks up in the aftermath of a major quest...but not the quest that ended book 1. I had to stop reading and make sure I was reading the series in the proper order. But, I was, there was just a quest that happened off-screen. Pity, I might have wanted to read that.... Then within the book itself, the cast gets split in half, and we follow one half for a while. Eventually we jump back to the other set of characters, as they are dealing with the aftermath of another major quest that we didn't get to see!
Not something that makes me put down the book, but enough to make me grunt in exasperation while reading.
Posted by: Castle Guy at October 26, 2025 10:21 AM (Lhaco)
Comment: The time skips in Dragons of Winter Night were off-putting to me the first time I read them as well. The book starts with the characters celebrating the return of an ancient dwarven hammer, but we never see that quest. We have to wait until Dragons of the Dwarven Depths - The Lost Chronicles Volume 1 before we see how that quest plays out. The time skip in the middle of the novel is equally confusing. We don't see the events of that quest until Mary Kirchoff's short story "Finding the Faith" in Dragonlance Tales Volume 1 - The Magic of Krynn. Although the story still progresses, the reader does feel like they've missed out on key events when they are left out of the main narrative.
Last week I tried something new, attempting to drag this blog kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. A few of you seemed to like it, so let's keep doing it!
Huh. Drop downs. I never saw that on this bunker-oil fueled website before. Neat.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 26, 2025 09:31 AM (BI5O2)
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October has been recommended several times around here. Thanks to popular demand, it's been reprinted, so it's now affordable. It's a nice little Halloween story. The narrator is a guard dog named Snuff, an animal companion to "Jack" (implied to be Jack the Ripper). The two of them are cursed with being "closers" at a dark ritual that takes place when the moon is full on Halloween night. They collaborate with other closers and work against "openers." However, the players in the Game change from time to time, so allegiances are fluid. It's quite a fun ride to see the world through Snuff's eyes and nose as he navigates the perilous Game in which he and his fellow animal companions are trapped. Weirdly, I kept having flashbacks to the movie Cabin in the Woods as there is a similar vibe to the story.
Hell House by Richard Matheson
This is the first Richard Matheson books I've read, though I'm familiar with a few of his other works such as I Am Legend and A Stir of Echoes (both of which were made into movies). Hell House is a troperiffic haunted house novel. It has everything you want in this type of story: skeptical paranormal investigators, psychic sensitives, and a reclusive wealthy financier backing the investigation into the mysteries of a house that has claimed the lives and sanity of so many. Good stuff if you enjoy that sort of thing. Certainly inspired its share of imitators even as it draws upon ghost stories from the past.
Dracula and Other Horror Stories by Bram Stoker
Why didn't you guys tell me Dracula was so good? Oh, wait a minute...you did...repeatedly...as recently as last week...moving on.
It's an odd experience reading this book because even though I've never read it before, I feel like I have. That's because I've seen so many adaptations and retellings in books and films and television that it's been dissected and turned inside out countless times. I do gain an appreciation for the original story, as I can see its cultural impact *everywhere.* Great stuff. Highly recommended.
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 09:59 AM (+qU29)
2
Read a detective pulp story, and a science fiction short.
Alibi Baby by Stewart Sterling (Prentice Winchell)
The story concerns a harbor patrol detective, Koski, finding a hat floating in the East River. There’s blood on it. He deduces it belongs to a security guard of a local boatyard/dry dock. A list of boats is in the hatband, leading Koski to a sailboat under repair. Koski finds evidence of a fight of some type, and the woman aboard alone is nervous waiting for her husband to return. There’s a sound outside, and she calls to him, giving the alert. Koski sets off after the man, and this leads to a story with an interesting ending.
The title is of a novel, which doesn’t have this story, but it appears it was part of a collection from a detective magazine perhaps using the same name. I’ve never read this author before, but if you like pulp detective works, I’d recommend finding more.
(con’t)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:00 AM (uQesX)
3
Med Ship Man by Murray Lienster (William F Jenkins)
Calhoun is a medical service officer waiting to land on a planet, Maya, to meet with the locals to take medical complaints and pass on new medical information, but there's no response from the ground. Another ship is also waiting to disgorge a passenger, a very self-important business owner, so it can get on its way. Calhoun and his “pet,” Murgatroyd, an alien animal, land and find no one, but it's as if they just left in the middle of doing daily activities. Calhoun takes a dislike to the man, Arthur Allison, who has parachuted onto the planet to make land deals. Calhoun doesn’t like businessmen because of something he saw on a cattle ranch planet that used electronic signals to control the herds. Calhoun and the man, Allison, go searching for the inhabitants. Murgatroyd, starts behaving strangely, and Calhoun gives it a sedative. The cat-like animal is more sensitive than humans, and it leads Calhoun to believe someone has installed the same signal device on Maya, to what end he doesn’t know. Is it nefarious, or a mistake? Is Allison involved? What’s actually going on?
Med Ship Man is available on Project Gutenberg
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:01 AM (uQesX)
9
According to the video, Hilary Layne's thesis is as follows:
We will never, ever see an epic fantasy novel that's as high quality as J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings because Lester del Rey, senior editor of fantasy at Ballantine Books, wanted to milk Tolkienesque fantasy to satiate his own greed.
Seriously. That's her thesis.
And it took her thirty-three minutes to say that? Geeze, who'd want to watch that?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:04 AM (uQesX)
Posted by: Eromero at November 02, 2025 10:05 AM (LHPAg)
11
Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was pleasant with a few surprises.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 10:05 AM (yTvNw)
12
Finished Rick Atkinson's The British are Coming, the history of the American Revolution 1775-7
As was working at Moravian University in Bethlehem a important event happened there. The retreating American army went through the Moravian village and reluctantly they opened one of there buildings as a hospital. Close to 500 soldiers died the next two years (1776-79) and were buried in mass unmarked Graves.
I went after work to find this. What was the hospital is still a University building, the Graves are across the creek.
https://tinyurl.com/3py3sftp
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 10:06 AM (+qU29)
13NOTE: TheJamesMadison has started a YouTube Channel and has posted his first official video.
Is it about books, or movies? Because if it's about movies he probably mentions *that* movie.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at November 02, 2025 10:06 AM (ULPxl)
14
I had planned to start a horror story in time for Halloween, but I took a while to finish "Game Without Rules" by Michael Gilbert. For secret agents, Calder and Berens seem to live in a gentle world. That makes it more memorable when one situation is resolved with gunplay. Efficient chaps, these two.
So Halloween is over, but I'll still dive into "The Night Stalker" by Jeff Rice. This book was made into a TV movie, which in turn launched the 1970s TV series of the same name, featuring investigative reporter Carl Kolchak. He's covering a series of killings in which the victims are drained of blood.
The book never was published before the movie, but a recently established publishing house got the rights and crowdfunded a new reprint. A fan of the series, I sprung for it.
I hope to complete it before Christmas.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 02, 2025 10:07 AM (p/isN)
15Last week I tried something new, attempting to drag this blog kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century.
NOOOO!!!!!
I won't go, and you can't make me!
Posted by: Archimedes at November 02, 2025 10:07 AM (Riz8t)
16
I read Travels In Alaska by John Muir. An interesting account of his trips to Alaska and his adventurous hikes.
Posted by: Zoltan at November 02, 2025 10:07 AM (VOrDg)
17
The destruction of fantasy literature is the result of all the major publishers being run by and for woke women.
18
I've been listening to Dennis Lehane's "Since We Fell" this week. It's a slow mover, IMO, and I was about to give it up when something happened to pique my interest.
I think I'm going to switch to non-audio version and read the rest myself, though. I'm probably a self-loathing female gentleman misogynist, because I never seem to enjoy audio books read by women.
19
Is it about books, or movies? Because if it's about movies he probably mentions *that* movie.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at November 02, 2025 10:06 AM (ULPxl)
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You'll have to watch his channel to find out!
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:10 AM (kpS4V)
24
Haven't started another book, could be the continued American Revolution or 1st of Rick Atkinson's WW2 series.
Also Kutuzov the hero of the Russian 1812 War by Alexander Mikaberize.
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 10:10 AM (+qU29)
25
Still working through The Jewish War with Josephus. Vespasian is on the move, grinding through Galilee, Josephus is now his prisoner, and of course the Jews - faced with an existential threat - are turning on each other.
I feel I've read this story before.
Rome's client king, one of the Herods, is of course putting his troops at Vespasian's disposal and urging a swift surrender on the part of the rebels. Shocking.
26
I watched that "How to Destroy Fantasy Literature" a month or so back. I agree with the Perfessor; it wasn't very convincing. Worse, it came off as a passive-aggressive bitter rant. As if she personally resented del Rey and wanted to blame him for, well, whatever she could.
Ironically, other videos from her have popped up on my YouTube feed, and they came off much better...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:11 AM (Lhaco)
27
Used Kindle Unlimited to go through Moe Lane's Fermi Resolution series. His answer to the Fermi Paradox is that just as a world is about to achieve interstellar travel they discover magic, and everything goes all to he'll as the first thing people start doing is casting curses on the things (like oil) that make technology work. In his world that happens in the late 21st century.
There was enough swearing I had to read the books, not just listen to them, and the editing in all of them could use another pass, but they were very close to "couldn't put down" and I stayed up very late a couple of nights reading them.
I also bought his POD Worldbook rpg setting to run solo adventures for myself.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 02, 2025 10:11 AM (lFFaq)
28
I finished Dracula yesterday and I'm continuing my journey through Stoker's other works. I'll have more to say on that subject next week.
This week I finished The Godfather Returns by Mark Winegardner, a sequel to Puzo's original novel and one which fills in periods of time that fall between the three movies. It's good stuff; Winegardner's style is much like Puzo's, his knowledge of Mob culture seems on the same level (or at least he produces his info with assurance), and the plot is twisty and surprising. I looked in vain for something else by him at the library yesterday, but now realize I was looking for WEIN-gardner instead of WINE-gardner.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:12 AM (wzUl9)
31
Just began reading Michael Connely's new one, "Nightshade," and it's not a Bosch, not a Ballard, and I am liking it.
Opens at dawn on Catalina island, the detective-deputy in charge of things is in his Deere Gator, awaiting the judge who motors in on his sailboat, emerging from the fog. Regular weekly trip to deal with routine matters.
After a bit of ordinary things happen, it's still morning, and someone reports a sunken corpse under the mooring line of a Venezuelan sailing yacht. It's a woman.
Thus begins the mystery.
Connely doing Bosch bores me, but this new character might prove interesting.
Posted by: M. Gaga at November 02, 2025 10:12 AM (zeLd4)
32
I've been physically reading a book and listening to an audiobook at the same time. Not literally, but I'll listen while driving or at work and read before bed or on weekends. Sometimes it's the same book but other times it's 2 different books.
I appreciate your jaunty chapeau, and you're never ending efforts to guide the pants requirements scofflaws toward Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
For many of them, "Recalcitrance" is their middle name. Sad!
Posted by: Duncanthrax at November 02, 2025 10:15 AM (0sNs1)
37 I think it's just smart marketing to imitate LOTR or it was once upon time.
When I first read LOTR as a wee lad, I loved it and looked for another fantasy like it.
First, I tried "Gormenghast". Yikes! It's kind of the anti-LOTR. Did not care for it.
Then I tried...I believe it was "The Last Unicorn". Very lame and femmy. No sale.
So, I gave up on that and concentrated on Sci-Fi.
The one reason Lewis' Perelandra Trilogy worked for me. It was SF.
Posted by: naturalfake at November 02, 2025 10:15 AM (iJfKG)
38
Vespasian was a competent emperor of course he was not of the augustan line
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:15 AM (bXbFr)
39
I also read Chenneville: A Novel Of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance by Paulette Giles. After spending seven months in a Union hospital in Virginia recovering from a head wound, Jean-Pierre Chenneville returns from the Civil War to his estate north of St. Louis. He learns that his sister, her husband, and her son have been murdered. After a year of regaining his strength and faculties, he sets out to track down the known killer. An interesting telling of the chase; but the ending wasn't to my liking.
Posted by: Zoltan at November 02, 2025 10:16 AM (VOrDg)
40
Hey, cool! My review got featured! Alas, I have made no more progress in reading Dragonlance since I posted that.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:12 AM (Lhaco)
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I did not enjoy the Dragonlance books. The writing itself wasn't good, and in addition to the omission of plots the deaths of several characters appeared random and contrived. One died of heart failure, which is exactly what I'm reading epic fantasy to see.
41
Currently I'm reading a recent Lee Child Jack Reacher, Blue Moon from 2019. Reacher is on a bus entering an unnamed city of about 100K people. The town's crime mobs, Ukrainians and Albanians, have the town divided up between them. Reacher rescues an elderly man who has thousands in his pocket from being mugged, and finds himself helping the man and his wife deal with an Albanian shylock -- and the Ukrainians who, in a power move, have taken over from the Albanian. So far, so interesting.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:17 AM (wzUl9)
42
Thank you for the the posting about "The Other Log of Phineas Fogg" by the great Philip José Farmer, the bard of Peoria, Illinois.
For readers who like slam-bang, action-oriented fantasy fiction, I can't recommend too highly Farmer's World of Tiers series - or at least the first five, from "The Maker of Universes" through "The Lavalite World". The series' premise is that there was a race of super-scientists, who called themselves "the Lords", and whose technology permits them to create pocket-universes, each with its own laws of physics and biology. Over time, the Lords degenerated from scientific creators to solipsistic consumers; their ability to create or even maintain their technology has faded away, leaving them to fight over the devices that remain. Into this world, Farmer injects an Earthman from a farm in Indiana, and the fun begins.
Highly recommended. Enjoy!
Posted by: Nemo at November 02, 2025 10:18 AM (4RPgu)
43
Also pondered another Soviet political prisoners books suggested by a Russian former USSR citizen and CBD.
Not sure I could bring myself back to 1900s Russian history.
Besides it's by a Trotskyite and can't but feel sacks to be you who did what you did to others.
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 10:18 AM (+qU29)
44
Well, I finished Nicholas Nickleby and on to Barnaby Rudge. I am impressed by Dickens but he does have his tropes...its when you look beyond those implausible happy endings (not all of his stories have them, to be fair) that you find more depth and reality and a Christian Humanity that I find refreshing compared to Current Year attitudes.
45
I watched that "How to Destroy Fantasy Literature" a month or so back. I agree with the Perfessor; it wasn't very convincing. Worse, it came off as a passive-aggressive bitter rant. As if she personally resented del Rey and wanted to blame him for, well, whatever she could.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:11 AM (Lhaco)
Maybe del Rey rejected a book of hers?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:19 AM (uQesX)
46
How does that work, by the way? You have clerics that can speak the magic words, burn some incense, and raise the dead, but can't remedy heart disease? There's literally a spell called (I am not making this up) "cure disease."
So stupid.
And the kleptomaniac hobbits were deeply retarded. Also steel coins.
47
I just watched Witcher season 4. The actor playing Geralt was switched out but I didn't mind, it actually worked. I did try to read the book but it was not originally written in English and the translation didn't work for me. One thing I noticed is there was a lot more cussing in season 4.
48One died of heart failure, which is exactly what I'm reading epic fantasy to see.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 10:16 AM
To be fair, almost all deaths can be classified as heart failure in the end
The few that can't are Lupus.
Posted by: Gregory House, M.D. at November 02, 2025 10:19 AM (0sNs1)
49
A while back, I had my eye on a book, but never pulled the trigger to buy it. Then the decision was taken out of my hands, as it became unavailable on Amazon, and could only be had for above cover price on Ebay (and there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that it would be in my local small-town bookshop). Oh well. But then last week, Amazon got re-stocked, and it was once again available. Then it was available at a 20% discount. Then at a 35% off. Then at full price again. Fortunately, I ordered at the 20% discount.
The reason I waffled on buying the book was the size. It was an oversized book, and Amazon listed it as 14.5" tall. Excessively unwieldy, and I would have to modify a shelf just for it to fit. However, now that I have the book in hand...The manufacturer put the book in a special box, to protect it. Amazon then put the manufacturer's box into another box to ship it. As it turns out, the dimensions listed on Amazon are the dimensions of the manufacturer's box! The actual book is a mere 12.5" inches tall. Plenty big, to be sure, but not all that much taller than the 11" hardcovers that I pack my shelves with, and it fits just fine on those same shelves...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:19 AM (Lhaco)
50
I've been enjoying Mary Oliver's "Devotions", a collection she put together of her poems over the decades. Her poetry and observations are delightful: often simple but vivid imagery that gradually leads to deeper and personal levels. Many of her poems focus on nature and remind me of Henry Beston, John Muir, and even a few Chesterton essays. Observation leading to a sense of communion.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 10:20 AM (yTvNw)
51
Vespasian was a competent emperor of course he was not of the augustan line
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:15 AM (bXbFr)
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A career soldier and the epitome of the Roman military system at its zenith. Competent, proven at each level of command, loyal to Rome and the Empire above all else.
52
I still have yet to finish "Civilizations" by a Frenchman named Binot or something. Translated into English, it is a terrific read.
Alternative history, starring Atahualpa, the last Inca emporer. If you've read about the Incas, they were the biggest grandest thing going in all of north and south America, and were conquered by Juan Pizzaro and about 175 hardened Spanish soldiers with steel, guns, and horses. Those 175 killed about 7,000 Incas in a couple bloody hours after a confrontation, and took the emporer captive.
In this alternative history, the tables are turned, and the Incas sail to Spain, landing in Lisbon right after the tsunami wrecked the place. Atahualpa becomes huge in Europe and passes his own big beautiful bill.
Posted by: M. Gaga at November 02, 2025 10:21 AM (zeLd4)
53
Thanks for another dandy Book Thread, Perfessor!
Finished re-reading Alexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald. Glad I gave this scholarly tome a second glance. The book is packed with facts about Hamilton's intellect and character, and it recounts the sheet magnitude of work and thought needed to implement Hamilton's vision for a free and capitalist America. The country needed to be dragged from its agrarian roots to a free economy, and it seems only Hamilton was the man for the job. We were blessed to have him when we did. In the 1790s, farmers planted crops and hoped for the best, not even counting how many bushels their harvest yielded. I was dismayed to learn the depth of rancor and speculation by the politically powerful and wealthy, as I had believed those to be recent developments. Hamilton worked within the system at the time to accomplish his goals in spite of what the rich and powerful wanted. I have two more books from this same author and look forward to reading them. Archimedes highly recommended this book. Glad I took his recommendation!
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 02, 2025 10:21 AM (kB9dk)
54
The Gorean fantasy series by John Norman is always politely ignored.
Posted by: toby928(c) at November 02, 2025 10:22 AM (jc0TO)
55
The true world of spies is not like a James Bond novel. In fact, 99% of spying is droll intercepts and reports, but so secret that employees cannot let anyone into their trust, even family. Graham Greene spent years in the foreign service, and vignettes that come from his own experiences fill his novel The Human Factor.
Maurice Castle works in the Africa Section in London, having barely escaped from Soweto a few years ago, and local allies spirited his African wife out as well. Now, he interprets messages from the region to aid in fighting the cold war. His superiors suspect that either Castle or his colleague Arthur Davis is leaking. Their bosses are determined to stop the leak at any cost. The novel explores the personal challenges of spying, and the mental toll this work takes on those who engage in it.
Greene slowly reveals how spies can be influenced, how anyone can be an enemy or ally, and the lengths agencies will go to in finding leaks. As the novel progresses, surprising twists sneak up at every turn. Each twist reveals a bit more of the hidden truth unfolding in this novel written by someone who faced similar issues in his own career.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 02, 2025 10:22 AM (0U5gm)
56
Also this week I picked up a 2024 reprint by the Otto Penzler mystery classics line of Ellery Queen's 1949 Cat of Many Tails, their pioneering serial killer novel. The edition has a neat introduction by Fred Dannay's surviving son Richard.
CoMT deserves to be called a classic, for its then-fresh focus on the abnormal psychology of the serial murderer, for the writing and characterization (including of Ellery himself, who once again proves fallible), and for the sharply-etched portrait of a New York paralyzed by a strangler who seems to strike at random -- women and men, all classes, all areas of Manhattan. It's *not* random, as Ellery finds, but as the story opens it seems that way.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:23 AM (wzUl9)
57
It being the week of Halloween I re-read Dracula. DAMN that's a good book.
Dr. Mrs. T. and I recently watched the original silent Phantom of the Opera, and DAMN that's a good movie, too.
Both Phantom (all versions) and all film versions of Dracula do have a common flaw: the Third Wheel Hero.
Essentially the films are set up as a love triangle, with the Girl, the Monster, and the Guy. The Guy saves the Girl from the Monster, the end. Except . . .
The Monster is always a more vivid character (in the movies, again) than the Guy. And chicks dig bad boys. And often the Monster embodies some of those fears about sex which are also very exciting.
So you wind up with the recurring trope in "revisionist" versions where the Girl chooses the Monster instead. Twilight. Shape of Water. Some versions of Phantom.
Whereas I think the solution should be to make Jonathan Harker/Raoul/the Guy more interesting. Certainly Harker's no stick of wood in the novel Dracula, nor is Raoul as boring in print as on celluloid. This also lets the Monster be a proper Monster without descending into fantasy boyfriend foolishness.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 02, 2025 10:23 AM (78a2H)
58
I did not enjoy the Dragonlance books. The writing itself wasn't good, and in addition to the omission of plots the deaths of several characters appeared random and contrived. One died of heart failure, which is exactly what I'm reading epic fantasy to see.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 10:16 AM (ZOv7s)
No offense, but I wonder sometimes if there is a book you DO like. (I say this as someone who bought one of your books and was impressed.)
Posted by: Cow Demon at November 02, 2025 10:23 AM (sVOFR)
59
I started reading the L. Sprague de Camp-edited collection The Spell of Seven the night before Halloween. Starts off with Fritz Leiber’s “Bazaar of the Bizarre”, then Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Dark Eidolon”, Lord Dunsany’s “The Hoard of the Gibbelins”, de Camp’s own “The Hungry Hercynian”, and Michael Moorcock’s Elric story “Kings in Darkness”.
All of them amazing. And I still have a Jack Vance and a Robert E. Howard story to go!
Some of their introductions sound exactly like an amazing old-school D&D adventure blurb. The Virgil Finlay interior illustrations are pretty cool, too.
The John Wright essay linked in the content sounds like fun -- bookmarked for later.
Instead of finishing Glory by Nabokov, I read a couple of the later Maigret novels. Maigret Sets a Trap and Tbe St. Fiacre Affair. Am now reading the last one, Maigret and Monsieur Charles. All so far are much better than the first, but for my taste they don't come close to equalling the non-series books. Will probably read a few more, but later; back to Nabokov or whatever else I get sidetracked into once I finished Maigret and M. Charles.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 10:23 AM (q3u5l)
61
24 Haven't started another book, could be the continued American Revolution or 1st of Rick Atkinson's WW2 series.
------
The History department of my alma mater sent me an invitation to a lecture and book signing by Rick Atkinson next week. Now I can't say that I've gotten nothing out of my history degree
Posted by: Josephistan at November 02, 2025 10:24 AM (FLx59)
62
Finished re-reading Alexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald. Glad I gave this scholarly tome a second glance. The book is packed with facts about Hamilton's intellect and character, and it recounts the sheet magnitude of work and thought needed to implement Hamilton's vision for a free and capitalist America. The country needed to be dragged from its agrarian roots to a free economy, and it seems only Hamilton was the man for the job. We were blessed to have him when we did. In the 1790s, farmers planted crops and hoped for the best, not even counting how many bushels their harvest yielded. I was dismayed to learn the depth of rancor and speculation by the politically powerful and wealthy, as I had believed those to be recent developments. Hamilton worked within the system at the time to accomplish his goals in spite of what the rich and powerful wanted. I have two more books from this same author and look forward to reading them. Archimedes highly recommended this book. Glad I took his recommendation!
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 02, 2025 10:21 AM (kB9dk)
I’ll look for it. I need more books on the Founders and Founders-adjacent to prepare for the 250th.
Posted by: Cow Demon at November 02, 2025 10:24 AM (sVOFR)
63
You'll never get a confluence of factors leading to the creation of a work like "Lord of the Rings" again. Time, place, and the man himself. Tolkien's experiences in WWI, seeing parts of his beloved rural landscape become urban/industrialized, his passion for "the Northern thing", creating languages and history which begat a whole world to contain them -- that he then meticulously mapped with the precision of a cartographer.
C'mon man. We're lucky to have had him.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:24 AM (kpS4V)
64
One type that was a bit different from the beginning was Terry Goodkind's sword fantasy. It has the rough, "hero's journey" skeleton but the rest is pretty different and goes into the philosophical / political direction.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 10:24 AM (3uBP9)
65 I had no idea there's a series of Fletch books. I always thought it was just a dumb comedy movie. But the Fletch books are described as "dark comedy."
Posted by: Soothsayer Remembers Everything at November 02, 2025 10:25 AM (bHQph)
66
Still working my way through Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness series. Slight, but enjoyable, and she does pretty thorough historical research, and the dialog is on-point for the 1930s ... so a nice read at the gym and just before sleep.
I did go ahead and get The Other Log of Phineas Fogg on last week's book club mention, because it so looked like a fun read.
Honestly, just about every book that I have bought in the last couple of years -- aside from research books for my own books -- has been on a mention or recommend from the AoS book thread.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at November 02, 2025 10:25 AM (Ew3fm)
Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 02, 2025 10:25 AM (u82oZ)
69
Frustrated Woman Syndrome. FWS. Woman looks at something done successfully by a man, claims by doing it he ruined everything and as a result we will never have good thing again. It is a form of hysteria. And you can tell by looking at her that she desperately needs the cure.
Posted by: Blunt but not wrong at November 02, 2025 10:25 AM (YrUlT)
Posted by: callsign claymore at November 02, 2025 10:26 AM (duopt)
71
32 I've been physically reading a book and listening to an audiobook at the same time.
Posted by: lin-duh is offended at November 02, 2025 10:13 AM (VCgbV)
I often have two or three books going at the same time, in both audio and print. If I have an audio book that I don't want to "put down," I download the ebook version too, so I can continue when I can't have audio on.
72It being the week of Halloween I re-read Dracula. DAMN that's a good book
Yes, and not at all what I expected. I’ve heard so much about Dracula over the years that when I went to “reread” it about a year or two ago, I was even surprised to discover I’d never actually read it before.
73
I finished a Great Courses lecture series (sort of like an audiobook. almost.) on The Dead Sea Scrolls. At one point the lecturer started talking about the language used in the scroll, which used an odd variance of pronouns; the texts added an extra sound after them, like him-ah or her-ah. The lecturer mentioned a theory that this was done because the writers were part of a specific sect (the Essenes) and this sect used specific language variants to set them apart from others. The lecturer then mentioned that he was initially skeptical of this claim, as it seemed like an extreme way of setting ones-self apart from others.
The lecture was recorded in 2012-ish. Having lived through the subsequent decade, it is now blatantly obvious that some people are perfectly willing to change language and invent entirely new terms just to set themselves apart from those they disagree with!
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:26 AM (Lhaco)
74
Also just picked up a big ol Baen book, The Kingdom of Ys, by the mighty, mighty Poul Anderson and his wife.
75
Except castle is a more noble version of kim philby no a traitor to the Crown whatever the reason
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:27 AM (bXbFr)
76 Vespasian was a competent emperor of course he was not of the augustan line
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:15 AM (bXbFr)
---
A career soldier and the epitome of the Roman military system at its zenith. Competent, proven at each level of command, loyal to Rome and the Empire above all else.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025
***
And a witty son-of-a-gun too. When his son Titus complained about charging people to use the public toilets V. had established, Vespasian held a coin under his son's nose. "Does this smell bad?"
He was known for watching every sesterce; a good idea, since Nero had left Rome's treasury depleted. He was in the audience when, at a comic play, a figure dressed to look like him is wheeled out on a bier. The corpse asks, "How much is this funeral costing Rome?" "One hundred thousand sesterces, Sire." "Very well. Make it fifty thousand and throw me in the Tiber." Vespasian found it hilarious.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:27 AM (wzUl9)
77
Yes Dracula has a richness of detsil the movies cant convey
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:28 AM (bXbFr)
78
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 02, 2025 10:23 AM (EXyHK)
This sounds like the ideal short story collection, PLUS Virgil Finlay illustrations! I'm going to have to find a copy.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:28 AM (kpS4V)
79
Speaking of horror fiction, I recently picked up a lot of Weird Tales magazines off eBay and realized that I already have a few of them in my collection. They're free to a good home, just pay for the shipping. The issues are 308, 332, Winter 1992/93, Spring 1993 and Summer 1993. If anyone is interested, let me know.
Posted by: Josephistan at November 02, 2025 10:28 AM (FLx59)
So Halloween is over, but I'll still dive into "The Night Stalker" by Jeff Rice. This book was made into a TV movie, which in turn launched the 1970s TV series of the same name, featuring investigative reporter Carl Kolchak. He's covering a series of killings in which the victims are drained of blood.
You'll find it an interesting read, I think. Rice's Kolchak is utterly different from the TV version, so you'll have to wrap your head around that. I do find it interesting that you mention the book as being recently out, as I have a copy of The Kolchak Papers from at least a decade ago. It combines both the original 'Night Stalker" book and its sequel, the novel Rice wrote as an adaptation of Richard Matheson's script for The Night Strangler.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 10:30 AM (ufSfZ)
81This sounds like the ideal short story collection, PLUS Virgil Finlay illustrations! I'm going to have to find a copy.
There appear to have been two editions. Both have Finlay interiors; one (probably more expensive) also has a Finlay cover. Before my last comment, I went to the ISFDB to check whether the cover was Finlay, and mine was not; unsurprisingly, Finlay’s cover is far better.
82
Even though I often write fantasy myself, a lot of it bores me. However, I loved Larry Niven's "The Magic Goes Away" stories, and Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East (for which Niven wrote a foreword for an early edition). Perhaps they appeal to me because both were SF writers first, and thought through the elements of their worldbuilding. Plus neither conforms to the classic/cliche "quest" format, at least not on the surface.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:31 AM (wzUl9)
83
Josephistan do go if you can, I see nothing but rave reviews on his history work. Certainly If I could would go.
I will get to his books again, just not sure what to read next
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 10:31 AM (+qU29)
84
It's ironic that the Perfessor is featuring Hilary Layne, I just unsubbed her and it was due to this, frankly ignorant, video.
85
One more Vespasian story: At the time it was tradition for a popular emperor to be declared a god upon his death. As Vespasian lay on his deathbed, he is supposed to have murmured, "Dear me. I must be turning into a god."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:33 AM (wzUl9)
86
In other related Admin news, ocean of pdf dot com is back up and online! Thousands and thousands of books. Although it is technically unlawful to have these copyrighted works and pubs available for free downloading, I find myself remarkably guilt free in this regard. Probably some deep character defect of mine, I denounce myself.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 10:33 AM (usFPI)
87
Some of their introductions sound exactly like an amazing old-school D&D adventure blurb. The Virgil Finlay interior illustrations are pretty cool, too.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 02, 2025 10:23 AM (EXyHK)
---
Old-school D&D was *heavily* influenced by the authors you listed!
88
Finished Mr. Kipling's Army: All the Queen's Men by Byron Farwell
A bark on and off analysis of a very small, clan-ridden Army that won an Empire. Throws a lot of light about a bygone institution.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 02, 2025 10:34 AM (u82oZ)
89
C'mon man. We're lucky to have had him.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:24 AM (kpS4V)
The greatest thing to come out of all his work, is Leonard Nimoy singing the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins!
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:34 AM (uQesX)
90
As for me - last weekend I re-wrote my opening chapter and made it much better. Once I type it up, along with about a dozen pages yet to be typed, my first draft should be mostly finished, so I'll be able to print it out and do my editing. I don't expect the book to be finished before Christmas, but perhaps I'll have it ready for sale by the spring.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 10:35 AM (ufSfZ)
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 02, 2025 10:35 AM (GhIJO)
92
I listened to a lecture series (almost an audiobook) on The Dead Sea Scrolls. One of the scrolls discovered was 'the copper scroll,' which is a list of places that gold and silver have been buried, written out 2 sheets of copper. It is essentially a text-only treasure map! With (if the amounts listed are to be believed) something like 25 tons of gold and 75 tons of silver to be found!
After hearing that, I kinda zoned out the rest of the lecture (chapter) because I was daydreaming about what should have been. Why haven't we gotten "Indiana Jones and the Copper Scroll"? Why wasn't that the basis of a Tomb Raider story? Why not a "National Treasure" style movie with a new character? The scroll is a real artifact. It would be such a small leap of logic to suggest the treasure listed on it is also real and find-able.
Where that treasure would have came from (the Essenes, the Temple of Jerusalem, the army of the Bar Kokhba Revolt) is a matter of speculation unto itself. But, whatever, it could still make for a cool adventure movie.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:36 AM (Lhaco)
93
The hook in the "Civilizations" story begins with a 10th century voyage, it's vikings, headed up by a warrior queen, ships loaded with warriors, iron weapons, and because they plan to camp, horses, cows, cattle, pigs, and chickens.
They do a lot of resettling, moving along the coast all the way down to Panama, over a few years, and the natives learn and acquire things, including smallpox, which kills a bunch, but thus begins herd immunity, and it turns the Columbus discovery 500 year later, into something completely different. Ol' Christopher doesn't make it back to Ferdinand and Isabella.
Forty years after Columbus's death (he's the last survivor) in Tiano captivity, he dies in the arms of a little Cuban princess, civil war breaks out way down in Inca-land, and Atahualpa, age about 20, has to make his exit.
Posted by: M. Gaga at November 02, 2025 10:36 AM (zeLd4)
94
Also on my TBR pile is the third or fourth of Robert B. Parker's Westerns (actually written by him, I mean) about Virgil and Hitch, the series that began with Appaloosa. This one, which I may have read before, is Resolution.
Next is Donald E. Westlake's The Ax, a crime story but not a comic Dortmunder one; and an omnibus volume of Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locust. I think I'd tried the last two before and gave up on them. Maybe I will find them valuable now.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:36 AM (wzUl9)
95
This week's book is "Hemlock and Silver" by the reliably readable T. Kingfisher.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:37 AM (kpS4V)
96
I got a copy of Canterbury Tales in a modern verse translation by Nevil Coghill. It's part of the Penguin Clothbound series which is a nice edition. Coghill was born in 1899, dies in 1980. There was something in his foreword to the volume and the word choice in the translation that felt 'familiar'. Turns out he was, at least, associated with the Inklings and was a life long friend and colleague of CS Lewis. You could feel the shared sense of the group in his writing. I wasn't aware of the connection when I ordered the edition.
This is another radiation in a web of connections and influences I keep running into in my reading. The Romantic poets, Victorian poetry and literature (British and American), MacDonald, Chesterton, Lewis, Tolkien, medieval writings, and in modern days Malcolm Guite, Mary Oliver, Henry Beston, and others are all part of that web. Interesting.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 10:37 AM (yTvNw)
97
If anyone wants a suggestion of a great history book of Western Civilization I would suggest:
The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom
It is gigantic, almost three inches thick, beautiful illustrations throughout, full of great writing and detail. The first book is starts in ancient times of proto-states in Greece, a thousand or so BC then proceeds in detail through the reformation 16th century AD. It would be great for young students and old. I love it but I actually bought it for my daughter because history is the one thing she likes to read about. I'm probably going to snag it for reading a lot.
It's by Roger Kimball's conservative publishing house, Encounter Books.
And a second massive volume is coming in December that takes up from the reformation up to our modern world.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 10:37 AM (3uBP9)
Posted by: Piper at November 02, 2025 10:37 AM (p4NUW)
99Also just picked up a big ol Baen book, The Kingdom of Ys, by the mighty, mighty Poul Anderson and his wife.
I have a recipe from Astrid Anderson (their daughter) for Poul Anderson’s wife’s Danish cookies (brune kager). It came by way of Lee Gold and the recently lamented Alarums and Excursions gaming zine. A good cookie for the holidays. I’ll post it on the Food Thread.
100
I'm rereading "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher. It is a series (oh no!) that started in 2000, and is up to 17 books now. For those unfamiliar with it, it chronicles the adventures of Harry Dresden, Chicago's only practicing wizard/private investigator.
Despite the handicap of being a "New York Times Bestseller!" and having a decent, one-season, TV adaptation made of it, I think it is worthy of being shelf-adjacent to LotR.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 02, 2025 10:38 AM (0vB2I)
101
Any noir fans out there might be interested in this one:
Some time this month Stark House Press will be reissuing Build My Gallows High by Geoffrey Homes aka Daniel Mainwaring. This one was the source for the Mitchum/Greer/Douglas movie Out of the Past, and it's been out of print for a long time. Coming in trade paperback; no ebook listed yet, but a lot of Stark House stuff comes both ways, so maybe.
Just fyi.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 10:38 AM (q3u5l)
102
Ent, that sounds intriguing. Added to the "someday" list.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 02, 2025 10:25 AM (p/isN)
Weak Geek, there are a few stories with that character. Might be in a collection. I just did some slapdash research on the author.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:39 AM (uQesX)
103
I thought—being unhampered of having read the books—that The Dresden Files television show was fun. It struck me as a mashup of The Rockford Files and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
And despite not being picked up for a second season, it ended at a reasonable place.
104
but a lot of Stark House stuff comes both ways
----
Ha! We've been saying that for years!
Posted by: House Lannister at November 02, 2025 10:40 AM (FLx59)
105
No offense, but I wonder sometimes if there is a book you DO like. (I say this as someone who bought one of your books and was impressed.)
Posted by: Cow Demon at November 02, 2025 10:23 AM (sVOFR)
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You must have missed my rave reviews of Graham Greene, whom I shall shortly pick up again. Huge fan of Waugh, Conrad, and more. I like Josephus quite a bit, reminds me of reading Tacitus for the first time in high school.
Dragonlance was frustrating because there were several points where the authors could have made the story much more interesting and they flinched from it. I will say that Book #3 of the Tales series has a short story ("Into the Heart of the Story" I think) that is a laugh-out-loud retelling of the whole story from the perspective of a gnome who was written out of the books. Really funny stuff.
106
It seems that "Silence of the Lambs" rom-com is not that far off. Apparently Clarice and Hannibal do become romantically involved in the sequel.
Posted by: Toad-0 at November 02, 2025 10:41 AM (7Q5f4)
107
I've been quite enjoying Flashman and the Knights of the Sky (Flashback Book 1) by Paul Moore, the story of Sir Harry Paget Flashman's grandsonson (it's complicated) in WWI. There are currently three Flashback novels and I intend to read all. Interesting providence in that the character Sir Harry was stolen from Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's School Days and has now been stolen from George MacDonald Fraser. Harry the Younger appears to have inherited his ancestor's appetites, cowardice, and luck as he is always present at momentous events.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 10:42 AM (L/fGl)
108
Of course if you have a few years to brush up on Western civilization Wil & Arial Durant series, maybe a dozen books each over 750 pages
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 10:42 AM (+qU29)
109As for me - last weekend I re-wrote my opening chapter and made it much better. Once I type it up, along with about a dozen pages yet to be typed, my first draft should be mostly finished, so I'll be able to print it out and do my editing. I don't expect the book to be finished before Christmas, but perhaps I'll have it ready for sale by the spring.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025
***
* Applause! *
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:42 AM (wzUl9)
If you enjoy Westlake's The Ax, grab a copy of his later novel The Hook too. It's a dark delight; if I had to describe the premise in one sentence, it'd be: Think Strangers on a Train Meets the Bookbiz.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 10:43 AM (q3u5l)
111
17 The destruction of fantasy literature is the result of all the major publishers being run by and for woke women.
That's it. That's the cause.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 10:08 AM (ZOv7s)
Very true. And very applicable to many additional genres.
You could also say that genres are being destroyed because publishers/producers want to expand the audience beyond the traditional audience. They are forcibly adding new tropes/elements to the genres, which actively alienates/forces out the original/traditional fans. But these new tropes fail to attract a new/intended audience, because that audience is fundamentally averse to the original genre itself. It's sad to see, but it's downright depressing to see happening over and over and over...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:43 AM (Lhaco)
James Bond was not a spy. He was a secret agent. There is a difference.
Spies are the people who are compensated for supplying information secretly. They report to spymasters -- "case officers," in CIA lingo.
I am persnickety on this topic. I think "spy" became the catchall term for intelligence personnel because the word is short. Fits better in headlines.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 02, 2025 10:43 AM (p/isN)
113
In other related Admin news, ocean of pdf dot com is back up and online! Thousands and thousands of books. Although it is technically unlawful to have these copyrighted works and pubs available for free downloading, I find myself remarkably guilt free in this regard. Probably some deep character defect of mine, I denounce myself.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 10:33 AM (usFPI)
At some point, they've made enough money.*
*I haven't, though.
Posted by: Barry Clayfoot at November 02, 2025 10:44 AM (uQesX)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:44 AM (uQesX)
115
It seems that "Silence of the Lambs" rom-com is not that far off. Apparently Clarice and Hannibal do become romantically involved in the sequel.
Posted by: Toad-0 at November 02, 2025 10:41 AM (7Q5f4)
-----
Considering the rules of the internet, there's a very high probability of Clarice/Hannibal slash-fic out there...
116
The greatest thing to come out of all his work, is Leonard Nimoy singing the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins!
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:34 AM (uQesX)
----
I'd have to put "Bored of the Rings" even higher.
*chef's kiss*
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:45 AM (kpS4V)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:46 AM (bXbFr)
118
I’m reading The Naked Communist by a longtime FBI agent Cleon Skousen, published 1960. He goes into a fair bit of detail about Marx and Engels, and what a total douchebag Marx was in particular. Voltaire described the type of man who can’t even run his own family, but deigns to run the whole world.
Marx didn’t just have his theory of capitalism and economics, he had a series of beliefs on the nature of creation or lack thereof. An explanation of Everything. Since humans are merely the culmination of a series of accidents, there is no god, no agency, no free will, then it is up to man to become god or gods.
Naturally, humans will resist the sweeping away of religion, property rights, and what’s one more wholesale slaughter to usher in utopia? Broken eggs and omelets. There is no morality, anything goes. But everything will be PERFECT when socialism is enacted. So totes worth it.
We certainly see this barbaric fairy tale delusional philosophy at work today. Collectivism has murdered more people than anything, and it isn’t even close. 100 million, not counting the wars. What an asshole.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 10:47 AM (b9poi)
119If you enjoy Westlake's The Ax, grab a copy of his later novel The Hook too. It's a dark delight; if I had to describe the premise in one sentence, it'd be: Think Strangers on a Train Meets the Bookbiz.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025
***
I think I have read it. I don't think I've ever *not* enjoyed a Westlake, whether serious (such as his Richard Stark "Parker" novels) or comic like the Dortmunders.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:48 AM (wzUl9)
120
I'd have to put "Bored of the Rings" even higher.
*chef's kiss*
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:45 AM (kpS4V)
---
I still laugh uncontrollably when reading it.
121James Bond was not a spy. He was a secret agent. There is a difference.
Spies are the people who are compensated for supplying information secretly. They report to spymasters -- "case officers," in CIA lingo.
I am persnickety on this topic. I think "spy" became the catchall term for intelligence personnel because the word is short. Fits better in headlines.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 02, 2025
***
Fleming does have Bond use the word "spy" in reference to himself at least once, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In it, Bond is thinking of resigning from the Secret Service after M has had him on a long and fruitless hunt for Blofeld, who got away after the Thunderball adventure; so maybe Bond is simply disgusted with his work at this point.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 10:52 AM (wzUl9)
122
I'd have to put "Bored of the Rings" even higher.
*chef's kiss*
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at November 02, 2025 10:45 AM (kpS4V)
I think the cheese factor of Mr. Spock singing may just give it the edge.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:52 AM (uQesX)
123
As I often do, I am listening to music as dabble in the Book Thread. A guitarist I'd never heard of came up playing Morricone (which I quite enjoyed) named Mark Grgic. I guess because of the Schumer shutdown, another vowel wasn't available.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 10:53 AM (L/fGl)
124
I took a break from "Radio Free Aldebrach" cuz Ol' Pip K Dick got boring with all his quasi-religious musing.
So, now I'm reading "Mountain in the Sea" by Ray Nayler.
The story of meeting highly intelligent octopuses with true consciousness seemed interesting to me.
I'm about a quarter of the way in, so far it fine if a bit Stephen Kingy in the writing style - a style by the way which must work well because this novel is selling well.
It almost threw me out when reading the sample cuz the heroine when meeting an android goes into this long worried musing about how to think of the android's "gender" so much so that she's socially paralyzed until she can think of xim as "they". Well, that's stupid cuz she's supposed to be this genius Marine Biologist. And knows science. Anywho that was the last of the gender musing, except for random vaguely irritating "they's.
So far, interesting and readable, her octopuses borrow from Arthur C Clark's(???) squids that use the chromatophores on their skin to speak.
Anyway, good as of right now.
Maybe check it out.
Posted by: naturalfake at November 02, 2025 10:53 AM (iJfKG)
125
Nice start TMJ. Edit intro to 30 seconds or so. That’s what new TV shows and commercials do after a few runs.
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 10:54 AM (EYmYM)
126
We certainly see this barbaric fairy tale delusional philosophy at work today. Collectivism has murdered more people than anything, and it isn’t even close. 100 million, not counting the wars. What an asshole.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 10:47 AM (b9poi)
---
It is really just a substitute religion, which is why despite being "scientific," no one ever learns from its failure. Right now the PRC has decided that their managed capitalism isn't working, so they need more centralized planning, which worked so well for them from 1949 to 1979.
On that topic, I highly recommend the late David Horowitz's Radical Son, which illustrates how the Jewish immigrant community he was raised in recreated the synagogue in the form of the Party committee room, complete with summer camps for the kids. Well written and compelling.
127I thought—being unhampered of having read the books—that The Dresden Files television show was fun.
Maybe if it had gone on to a second or third season it would have turned darker like the books did but yeah, it was fun. The hockey stick was a nice touch.
Posted by: Oddbob at November 02, 2025 10:54 AM (3nLb4)
128Of course if you have a few years to brush up on Western civilization Wil & Arial Durant series, maybe a dozen books each over 750 pages
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 10:42 AM (+qU29)
I have that series in hardback. I should get around to actually reading it one day.
MP4, did you get that e-book I sent you?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:44 AM (uQesX)
I did, thank you. I'm sorry for not responding. It was very kind of you to forward it.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 10:55 AM (ufSfZ)
The Secret Agent Who Loved Me just doesn’t roll off the tongue as well😀
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 10:56 AM (EYmYM)
131
He worked with spies like ali karem.bey tanake et al well they were heads of brethren agencies like felix leiter
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:56 AM (bXbFr)
132
52
In this alternative history, the tables are turned, and the Incas sail to Spain, landing in Lisbon right after the tsunami wrecked the place. Atahualpa becomes huge in Europe and passes his own big beautiful bill.
Posted by: M. Gaga at November 02, 2025 10:21 AM (zeLd4)
As an amateur history-buff, there are soooooooooo many things that would have to happen for the Incas to become a seafaring culture. Much less to make them capable of sailing out of the Pacific, into the Atlantic, and across the equator to Iberia. I'm not sure I could buy into that kind of story...
That said, I've always felt that Inca culture has some seriously untapped story-potential. Specifically, Inca-kingship. As I understand it, newly-conquered lands become the personal property of the Inca King. Upon the King's death, those lands pass into the possession of...The King's mummified corpse, and the keepers of said corpse. The new King inherits the throne, but must conquer new lands in order to build up his own wealth. That would become sooooo dysfunctional after a few generations, and there are so many ways that dysfunction could kick off the story of some fantasy epic...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:57 AM (Lhaco)
133
And that novel is totally unlikely the movie even more than moonraker
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 10:58 AM (bXbFr)
134
In this alternative history, the tables are turned, and the Incas sail to Spain, landing in Lisbon right after the tsunami wrecked the place. Atahualpa becomes huge in Europe and passes his own big beautiful bill.
Posted by: M. Gaga
It seems to me that this leans heavily on European technology being imported to the new world and captured, rather than the tribes there developing their own technology.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 02, 2025 10:59 AM (0U5gm)
135
One of the things revealed about CIA ops, they used a series of cutouts in the 1950s to carry out their “research” into mind altering drugs, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, electronic stimulation, etc.
Hundreds of universities, hospitals, prisons, corporations were eager for $$, and had no idea where the money was coming from, one of them was called the Institute for Human Ecology, and the NIH disbursed a lot of cash as well. Others had an inkling sometimes where the money was coming from, but there were appeals to patriotism. Judging from the “plausible deniability” doctrine it should be quite difficult to prove spooks are behind this or that.
You can bet they are Very Interested in Artificial Intelligence, no way around it. Guaranteed. If they didn’t invent it in the first place.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 11:00 AM (04lxq)
136
One of the surprises this week involved "Theo of Golden", a novel by Allen Levi. I have been thoroughly enjoying it, savoring it really. The surprise is looking it up on Amazon. Two years ago the book was self published through Rabbit Room Press (bless them). It has become so popular it required a major house to keep up with demand. The reissue comes out later this month. Even though it is still preorder, Amazon has almost nineteen thousand reviews, mostly 5 stars.
There is a hunger, and I hope a growing one, for quality writing beyond the 'best seller' lists. The reaction to Theo of Golden is one indicator. The editions of classic literature, recently published and presumably selling, is another clue. That's a hope, not an expectation.
BTW, The price of books from Rabbit Room Press is often about the same as Amazon. I prefer to give business to small business when I can.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 11:00 AM (yTvNw)
137
MP4, did you get that e-book I sent you?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 10:44 AM (uQesX)
I did, thank you. I'm sorry for not responding. It was very kind of you to forward it.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 10:55 AM (ufSfZ)
Good. I hope it's useful to both you and Wolfus. I'm nowhere near as far along in publishing anything as you two, so I hope it works.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 11:00 AM (uQesX)
Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at November 02, 2025 11:01 AM (R15jT)
140
Never got around to Horowitz's Radical Son, but his earlier collaboration with Peter Collier, Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the 60s, was one of the books that I read when I was moving away from being a good little democrat voter.
I'm tempted to say that the vanity and conceit involved in the leftist idea that they can plan their way to the perfect society is inhuman; but it just never seems to go away, so maybe that method of suicide is wired into the species somehow.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 11:01 AM (q3u5l)
141 A Machu Picchu story /movie would be cool.
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 11:00 AM (EYmYM)
A Machu Pikachu story/movie would be even better!
Posted by: naturalfake at November 02, 2025 11:02 AM (iJfKG)
142
The kingdom of the golden skull had promise then they botched it
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025 11:03 AM (bXbFr)
143
I'm tempted to say that the vanity and conceit involved in the leftist idea that they can plan their way to the perfect society is inhuman; but it just never seems to go away, so maybe that method of suicide is wired into the species somehow.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 11:01 AM (q3u5l)
Hey, sometimes it just needs a little nudge.
Posted by: Guy with Pitchfork at November 02, 2025 11:04 AM (uQesX)
In the short story "The Living Daylights," Bond is so disgusted by what he did that I got the feeling that he would quit the Service in No. 6 fashion.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 02, 2025 11:04 AM (p/isN)
145 And that novel is totally unlikely the movie even more than moonraker
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at November 02, 2025
***
Fleming thought Moonraker would have made a good film. So did American actor John Payne, who optioned the book in the Fifties as a possible film vehicle for himself as Bond. No idea if Bond would have been Americanized, or if Payne could have done a convincing English accent. Probably they would have rewritten it to be an American missile project. Still, Payne could have made a good Bond.
As for Spy Who Loved Me, Fleming was stretching his writing muscles, writing in a female persona and allowing us to observe Bond from outside, from another's perspective. That can be fascinating if it's well done about a well-loved character. For all its flaws, Spy Who is a pretty darn entertaining experiment.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:05 AM (wzUl9)
146
have that series in hardback. I should get around to actually reading it one year
FIFY Mary
Actually have quite a few, and read the ones I had. Found the entire series at Goodwill bit only bought the middle volumes that is my main interest. Should have gotten the who set for the song they changed
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 11:06 AM (+qU29)
147
I'm tempted to say that the vanity and conceit involved in the leftist idea that they can plan their way to the perfect society is inhuman; but it just never seems to go away, so maybe that method of suicide is wired into the species somehow.
Posted by: Just Some Guy
It resurfaces over and over again, which defines a personality trait. It is the continuously repeating example of the unconstrained view of humanity as described so well by Thomas Sowell.
I am sure I recommended it before, but if you have not read his A Conflict of Visions, you should read it. It completely changed my understanding of how the left works.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 02, 2025 11:07 AM (0U5gm)
148
Speaking of Moonraker, someone on the 'Net developed an entire page on his site to the "never finished" film version of the novel from the 1950s. It starred Dirk Bogarde as Bond and Orson Welles as Sir Hugo Drax -- but was never finished.
It also never existed. The guy (whose name I can't recall) He wrote it up as a tongue-in-cheek hoax. But it was so plausible that you think it really could have happened.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:07 AM (wzUl9)
149
Just re-read Justice Thomas autobiography, My Grandfather’s Son. Damn I’m going to miss him when he’s gone.
I think it should be required reading in every school. It’s the prime example of ‘it could only happen in America’ .
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 11:10 AM (EYmYM)
150
97 If anyone wants a suggestion of a great history book of Western Civilization I would suggest:
The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom
It is gigantic, almost three inches thick, beautiful illustrations throughout, full of great writing and detail. The first book is starts in ancient times of proto-states in Greece, a thousand or so BC then proceeds in detail through the reformation 16th century AD. It would be great for young students and old. I love it but I actually bought it for my daughter because history is the one thing she likes to read about. I'm probably going to snag it for reading a lot.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 10:37 AM (3uBP9)
$100 cover price, and Amazon can't be bothered to provide a 'read sample' option to let people see what they are buying? Bad form, guys.
But seriously, my interest was piqued by the comments on illustrations and the 3" thickness. Oversized books have been on my mind lately. (See one of my earlier posts)
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 11:10 AM (Lhaco)
151
The stone masons who fitted together the andesite blocks in Peru, the earliest examples, e.g. at Cusco were exquisite. It’s really bizarre, no two blocks alike, some with up to 12 angles, fitted perfectly. It’s almost like they were showing off.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 11:10 AM (fS43b)
152
Vespasian was a competent emperor of course he was not of the augustan line
Posted by: Miguel cervantes
Hundreds of Australian students get out of state history exam after it's discovered they learned about the wrong Caesar 😂
https://is.gd/HezUvp
It seems they studied Augustus when they should've been studying Julius.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 11:10 AM (L/fGl)
153
That library at the top reminds me of the local library when I was a youth. It was housed in a Victorian/Gothic type building and so many of the books looked like that: hardcover and many published in the 1800s. It had that same look. I still recall the aroma of that place: old books, ink pads and furniture and floor wax. Intoxicating. The card catalog was in a massive mahogany cabinet. Even though a tall kid I needed a step stool to reach the top drawers.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 11:11 AM (yTvNw)
154
As November 10 will be here soon, I recommend John U Bacon's new The Gales of November, a book about the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
Bacon takes almost 230 pages diving (sorry) into the lives and families of the 29 who went down when the freighter sank. The account of the sinking itself is short and factual as far as can be done, with Bacon reprinting the radio transmissions between the Fitzgerald's captain McSorley and the Arthur M Anderson's captain Cooper.
For those familiar with details of the sinking, Bacon gives (to me) an interesting theory as to why the pilothouse door was found tied open and why Captain McSorley was heard to yell "Don't let no one on deck!"
The book also spends time discussing Gordon Lightfoot's song and, surprisingly, Looking Glass' 1970s hit "Brandy," which was apparently the Lakes sailors' unofficial theme song.
Bacon doesn't spend any time discussing the various hearings held concerning the wreck, saying that other books have detailed them more thoroughly and he is concerned with the families.
Worth reading, if it interests you.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:11 AM (ufSfZ)
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 11:12 AM (L/fGl)
157
The stone masons who fitted together the andesite blocks in Peru, the earliest examples, e.g. at Cusco were exquisite. It’s really bizarre, no two blocks alike, some with up to 12 angles, fitted perfectly. It’s almost like they were showing off.
Posted by: Common Tater
Or maybe it was space aliens.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 02, 2025 11:13 AM (0U5gm)
158
I finished Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery and loved it. Just as good as his Foucault's Pendulum. Started William Craig's Stalingrad and Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power... Craig seems to have collected every first person reminiscence and anecdote available about the battle. It took awhile to get over that both sides were fighting for truly evil leaders and systems and just enjoy the human stories of soldiers caught up in an epic struggle.
Posted by: who knew at November 02, 2025 11:14 AM (+ViXu)
159
Posted by: who knew at November 02, 2025 11:14 AM (+ViXu)
Did the Name of the Rose movie reasonably follow the book ?
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 11:16 AM (EYmYM)
160
Haven't read Sowell's A Conflict of Visions yet; some years ago I did get around to The Vision of the Anointed, which I imagine would overlap Conflict a bit.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 11:16 AM (q3u5l)
161
Worth reading, if it interests you.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:11 AM (ufSfZ)
162
Anonosaurus Rex: Re: Westlake's spelling of ax:
His editor asked him why, and he said "axe" was for classier guys than the one in his book.
Also said at one time that his editor and his wife had an agreement that he could only write a Dortmunder (sp?) book every other one because he enjoyed that world so much he would just move in and never leave!
Posted by: Wenda at November 02, 2025 11:17 AM (wwMOU)
163
That picture up top reminds me of my favorite used bookstores. I think I can even sense the used bookstore smell.
Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at November 02, 2025 11:18 AM (kTd/k)
164
As November 10 will be here soon, I recommend John U Bacon's new The Gales of November, a book about the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
Posted by: Mary Poppins'
Great find, thanks
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 02, 2025 11:18 AM (0U5gm)
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at November 02, 2025 11:19 AM (uM32G)
166
Ha! I don’t think it was ET, but I’d like to hear what modern bricklayers think of these ancient peruvian walls. I don’t see any practical way to do it, our emphasis is straight courses, laid upon straight courses. Theirs was a “jig saw puzzle” design. There are remarkable similarities with some of the earliest Egyptian stone work as well. Huge granite blocks, with wrap around corners and other oddities like various inexplicable “nubs”. Baalbek is another example of later cultures building on top of an earlier, seemingly more advanced culture. I always wanted to visit that, and places like Palmyra.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 11:20 AM (fS43b)
>The federal government told you they don't exist. That's all you need to know.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at November 02, 2025 11:22 AM (uM32G)
168Did the Name of the Rose movie reasonably follow the book?
Not really. I'm told the series (Netflix? Amazon?) was much more faithful, but I never watched it.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:22 AM (ufSfZ)
169
I suppose one of these days I need to tackle Tolkien's work again. I read it in the '70s, at the urging of the future Mrs. Wolfus No. 1 (she called it "the" trilogy, probably because there were so few others then). Mostly what I recall now is the big action scenes, esp. the climactic one at Mount Doom.
And I remember better the Bored of the Rings parody, as I recall more of the parody Doon than I do of Herbert's original Dune.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:23 AM (wzUl9)
170
I have to say I was never impressed by Fleming's Moonraker novel. It's obvious that Ian F. didn't know anybody in any space programs, so the book lacked any of the cool insidery stuff he _did_ know about the diamond trade, intelligence work, Jamaica, gambling, etc. As far as I can tell he didn't really put in much research, either. And piled on top of that, the secret identity of Sir Hugo Drax made me want to throw the book across the room.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 02, 2025 11:24 AM (78a2H)
171
Apparently you can't link it directly, but there's a good LOTR meme here if you scroll about half way down.
https://is.gd/noTTT5
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 11:24 AM (L/fGl)
172
I’ll look for it. I need more books on the Founders and Founders-adjacent to prepare for the 250th.
Posted by: Cow Demon at November 02, 2025 10:24 AM (sVOFR)
* * * *
I read a couple-three books by our own TJM that were set during the early days of our nation, and they were quite good and the history seems solid. Granted, they were fictionalized accounts, but you might enjoy them. I sure did!
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 02, 2025 11:25 AM (kB9dk)
Posted by: The Paolo at November 02, 2025 11:26 AM (FLx59)
174
Did the Name of the Rose movie reasonably follow the book?
Not really. I'm told the series (Netflix? Amazon?) was much more faithful, but I never watched it.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:22 AM (ufSfZ)
I thought the movie was decent but as always you have to ignore Sean Connery’s Scottish accent.
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 11:26 AM (EYmYM)
175
Alternate histories are fun. I knew a guy who had plotted out an alternate history where the Fugger family had sponsored the first exploration to the new world, contacted the Azteks, and happily sold them muskets, horses and mercenaries to continue their expansion.
Project never got really started though.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 11:26 AM (rbvCR)
176Posted by: Trimegistus at November 02, 2025 11:24 AM (78a2H)
While I enjoyed the movie version of Live And Let Die, the book is superior in every way. It would make a great Bond period piece, but Fleming's "racism" ensures no one has the balls to ever try.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:26 AM (ufSfZ)
177
For those familiar with details of the sinking, Bacon gives (to me) an interesting theory as to why the pilothouse door was found tied open and why Captain McSorley was heard to yell "Don't let no one on deck!"
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:11 AM (ufSfZ)
---
Some years ago the actual audio was downloadable, and you could listen to the Coast Guard radio broadcasts directing ships to search for survivors. Amazing bit of history, and one that brings a lump to the throat and high dust content to the room.
The hesitation of the Anderson's captain about turning back is gut-wrench, as is the Coast Guard saying they would never ask him to hazard his vessel, but there might be survivors.
I've read one book by John U. Bacon: Three and Out, which was about Rich Rodriquez's ill-fated time at the University of Michigan. Bacon is a competent writer but he is emotionally manipulative, reminding me of the treacly Mitch Albom. His work with Michigan Football also shows that he cannot be fully trusted. If motivated, he will shade facts or omit information if it suits his agenda.
178
I remember very well reading atte Edmund Fitzgerald interesting newspaper a few days after it happened. WhenI get a hold of my tablet migtget it in ebook
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 11:27 AM (+qU29)
179
The late actor Robert Loggia was a dead ringer for Vespasian. Too bad he was never cast in the role for a film. His Mafia boss persona would have been perfect.
(Though looking at sculptures of Vespasian I strongly suspect he was putty in the hands of his grandchildren when they were little.)
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 02, 2025 11:27 AM (78a2H)
180
166 Ha! I don’t think it was ET, but I’d like to hear what modern bricklayers think of these ancient peruvian walls. I don’t see any practical way to do it, our emphasis is straight courses, laid upon straight courses. Theirs was a “jig saw puzzle” design. There are remarkable similarities with some of the earliest Egyptian stone work as well. Huge granite blocks, with wrap around corners and other oddities like various inexplicable “nubs”. Baalbek is another example of later cultures building on top of an earlier, seemingly more advanced culture. I always wanted to visit that, and places like Palmyra.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 11:20 AM (fS43b)
My favorite out-there theory is that the Inca and Pre-Incans (Was that the Chavin?) had figured out how to use some acid to soften the edges of the stone, letting the odd shapes kinda smoosh-together as they were laid.
Not entirely believable until we can replicate it, but it would also make for a neat bit of fantsy-world-building.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 11:28 AM (Lhaco)
181
I’m in the middle of Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. This is my second reading since I previously listened to the audiobook. The Amazon show is trash. I’d once tried to read the Sword of Shannara, realized it was a LOTR ripoff and didn’t finish it. Maybe I should try it again.
Posted by: sinalco at November 02, 2025 11:29 AM (oBBrJ)
182 I have to say I was never impressed by Fleming's Moonraker novel. It's obvious that Ian F. didn't know anybody in any space programs, so the book lacked any of the cool insidery stuff he _did_ know about the diamond trade, intelligence work, Jamaica, gambling, etc. As far as I can tell he didn't really put in much research, either. And piled on top of that, the secret identity of Sir Hugo Drax made me want to throw the book across the room.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 02, 2025
***
In 1955, the war with Germany was only ten years old. Especially in Britain, which had been directly affected (Dunkirk, the Blitz), anything involving the Germans and the Nazis still carried weight that we don't understand today.
What the novel has, more than maybe any other Fleming, is the deadline, the ticking clock all thrillers need: the moment when the Moonraker rocket will be launched. Everything Bond and Drax do is measured against the time until that happens.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:30 AM (wzUl9)
183
The hesitation of the Anderson's captain about turning back is gut-wrench, as is the Coast Guard saying they would never ask him to hazard his vessel, but there might be survivors.
I've read one book by John U. Bacon: Three and Out, which was about Rich Rodriquez's ill-fated time at the University of Michigan. Bacon is a competent writer but he is emotionally manipulative, reminding me of the treacly Mitch Albom. His work with Michigan Football also shows that he cannot be fully trusted. If motivated, he will shade facts or omit information if it suits his agenda.
Of course, YMMV.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 11:27 AM (ZOv7s)
Before the sinking the Anderson captain did all he could to help the Fitzgerald make its way . He slowed way down to let the Fitzgerald catch up.
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 11:30 AM (EYmYM)
184
Would highly recommend Battle of Lake Erie for a teen reader
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 11:31 AM (+qU29)
185
I tried rereading Lloyd Alexander's "Book of Three". I remember "Black Cauldron" and others being good. "Book of Three" is not good.
It starts out with annoying kid Taran being annoying, and for his reward he gets expositions dumped on him about the Horned King and Prince Gwydion. Then the pet piggie escapes so Taran has to run into the woods and find her. He immediately runs into... the Horned King and Gwydion.
At least Tolkien gave some hints as to why the Ring was a problem, before Gandalf dumps the whole backstory on Frodo and the eaves droppin' gardener. Tolkien also gets Gandalf to tell the hobbits where they're supposed to go in order to meet the striding prince.
Alexander is not Tolkien and actually sucks at trying.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 11:31 AM (sZbq0)
186 The stone masons who fitted together the andesite blocks in Peru, the earliest examples, e.g. at Cusco were exquisite. It’s really bizarre, no two blocks alike, some with up to 12 angles, fitted perfectly. It’s almost like they were showing off.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 11:10 AM (fS43b)
There is absolutely no reason to cut stone like that. The lower tiers are designed to hold upper tiers in ways that had to be planned prior to either tier being cut, and the faces touching are exact fits, but the external and visible faces are irregular, not flat and have those odd scoop texture with the odd bump.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 11:32 AM (rbvCR)
187
Vitellius would be super easy to cast. Just send a casting crew into a Long Island mall and pull the first five goombas at the food court.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 11:33 AM (sZbq0)
188
I blame the weather forecasters for the Fitzgerald sinking. They changed their forecast at least 4x from when the Fitzgerald got underway.
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 11:33 AM (EYmYM)
189
Bacon was finishing the draft for the Fitzgerald book when the U-M scouting scandal broke, and he refused to address it because (he claimed) he was busy on the book.
Later on he published updates and quoted "reliable sources" who were completely 100% wrong, so while he may in fact be able to keep his sports bias from straight history, I'm not so sure. It very much reminds me of "news" reporters who rely on anonymous sources who are dead wrong, and never retract the story or burn the sources for lying to them, which is what honest people would do.
Based on Three And Out, he also commits lies of omission, and his refusal to dig deeper into certain aspects of the book eliminates a way for readers to check his accuracy against other sources.
190
I have a question for the readers and writers here. A while back I took a novella-writing course--it was a length I'd never tried, so I thought guidance would be helpful. The woman teaching it had edited both sf and fantasy magazines and is a prolific writer herself. In her critique of my fantasy novella, she described it as having "marvelous tone." She actually said marvelous twice. My oh my.
Obviously I'd like to do more of whatever marvelous is, but I don't really understand what "tone" means here. Is it another word for voice?
Is it broader than that? What does that suggest to the readers and writers here?
Posted by: Wenda at November 02, 2025 11:36 AM (wwMOU)
191Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 11:20 AM (fS43b)
So you want to look at the channel Uncharted X
He is not as out there as Ethical Skeptic, and he is working on the materials engineering side.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 11:36 AM (rbvCR)
192Vitellius would be super easy to cast. Just send a casting crew into a Long Island mall and pull the first five goombas at the food court.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025
***
I'm ready! Or I would be, if I weren't dead.)
( -- Abe Vigoda)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:36 AM (wzUl9)
193
"Last week I tried something new, attempting to drag this blog kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. A few of you seemed to like it, so let's keep doing it!"
Dropdown arrows? In the AoSHQ blog??
What kind of sorcery is this?
Posted by: Darrell Harris - Je Suis Charlie at November 02, 2025 11:37 AM (0CU3H)
If you stack the stones directly on top of one another, the wall will separate and crumble with the least subsidence or small earthquake. If offset row by row, they stay put.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 11:39 AM (sZbq0)
195
Craig seems to have collected every first person reminiscence and anecdote available about the battle. It took awhile to get over that both sides were fighting for truly evil leaders and systems and just enjoy the human stories of soldiers caught up in an epic struggle.
Posted by: who knew at November 02, 2025 11:14 AM (+ViXu)
---
Enemy at the Gates is a great read, though the film version seems to have been based on just two pages in it.
Craig was of the school of Cornelius Ryan: authors who spent years tracking down survivors to obtain first-person accounts. We know that they may not be accurate, but that human touch is essential to the craft of the historian.
It seems largely lost today, which is ironic given the ease of communication compared to back then.
196
Never take your jalopy to a guy who introduces himself as James, James Bondo. Sure, he'll fulfill your needs, but at what price?
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at November 02, 2025 11:40 AM (uM32G)
197
Thanks MP4 for answering the question about the Name of the Rose movie. I reread the book recently but don't remember if I even saw the movie.
Posted by: who knew at November 02, 2025 11:40 AM (+ViXu)
198
For an interesting alternative history of South America, try this one on Kindle:
Axis of Andes: World War Two in South America
What if, while the rest of the world was busy, the assorted South American nations also went into a frenzy of war?
"The Axis of Andes is the first part of a two part Alternate History series which ultimately rewrites the map of South America. Volume One begins the war with the Invasion of Ecuador, the March on Lima, expanding to trench warfare between Peru and Chile, sea battles between Chile and Peru, and a jungle war slowly spreading through the interior."
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 02, 2025 11:40 AM (0vB2I)
199Obviously I'd like to do more of whatever marvelous is, but I don't really understand what "tone" means here. Is it another word for voice?
Is it broader than that? What does that suggest to the readers and writers here?
Posted by: Wenda at November 02, 2025
***
Wenda, if I could codify what "tone" means and have it mean the same to everybody, I'd be rich. "Tone" can be different for different readers and different in various parts of a book. Though I'd guess you'd say A Confederacy of Dunces has a comic tone, and The Caine Mutiny is dramatic. But To Kill a Mockingbird has both.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:41 AM (wzUl9)
200
The method I've seen described for the close-fit Inca stonework is that they'd move blocks into position then slide them back and forth, grinding the stone and its neighbors into a perfect hairline fit.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 02, 2025 11:42 AM (78a2H)
201
I blame the weather forecasters for the Fitzgerald sinking. They changed their forecast at least 4x from when the Fitzgerald got underway.
Posted by: the way I see it
Another book that's hard on weather forecasters is Isaac's Storm by Eric Larson about the 1900 hurricane destruction of Galveston and the lies covering up government incompetence.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 11:43 AM (L/fGl)
202
Obviously I'd like to do more of whatever marvelous is, but I don't really understand what "tone" means here. Is it another word for voice?
Is it broader than that? What does that suggest to the readers and writers here?
Posted by: Wenda at November 02, 2025 11:36 AM (wwMOU)
---
The statement "I don't like your tone" is usually taken to mean "I cannot dispute what you are saying, but I don't like the way you are saying it."
Having a nice tone means that it is pleasing to read, and that counts for a lot, hence the compliment.
203
...I have two more books from this same author and look forward to reading them. Archimedes highly recommended this book. Glad I took his recommendation!
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 02, 2025 10:21 AM (kB9dk)
I don't have any books by Forrest McDonald, but I do have a book that he wrote the forward for: The Myth of the Robber Barrons, by Burton W. Folsom, Jr. The book is excellent, and McDonald's forward made me want to find more of his own writings. Thanks for the reminder!
Posted by: Darrell Harris - Je Suis Charlie at November 02, 2025 11:43 AM (0CU3H)
204
Oh, and Wenda, congratulations on receiving "marvelous" no less than twice. Some authors, even published ones, don't get that for years, if ever.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:43 AM (wzUl9)
205
My grandfather was a member of the Colorado National Guard during WW1 and was stationed at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas, probably as a guard for conscientious objectors, where the Spanish influenza originated. He never had the flu.
Posted by: huerfano at November 02, 2025 11:44 AM (98kQX)
206
Upon the King's death, those lands pass into the possession of...The King's mummified corpse, and the keepers of said corpse. The new King inherits the throne, but must conquer new lands in order to build up his own wealth. That would become sooooo dysfunctional after a few generations, and there are so many ways that dysfunction could kick off the story of some fantasy epic...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 10:57 AM (Lhaco)
If islam had kings, it would be the story of islam. The closest to reality system that did exist would be the khans of Mongolia.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at November 02, 2025 11:45 AM (TgtaF)
207
The stone masons who fitted together the andesite blocks in Peru, the earliest examples, e.g. at Cusco were exquisite. It’s really bizarre, no two blocks alike, some with up to 12 angles, fitted perfectly. It’s almost like they were showing off.
Posted by: Common Tater
Or maybe it was space aliens.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 02, 2025 11:13 AM (0U5gm)
Having watched Graham Hancock's shows on rethinking how the Americas were poopulated and civilized, I think he's getting at something of a common event/ancestry, but that doesn't much interest me.
What does is the fact that he's not wrong in discovering how much older these civilizations are, than what our Archeological Industrial Complex will admit. The dating of this stuff puts the lie to the idea that the continent wasn't "civilized" until the Asians crossed the land bridge.
Well... nope.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 11:45 AM (7VIKK)
208Before the sinking the Anderson captain did all he could to help the Fitzgerald make its way . He slowed way down to let the Fitzgerald catch up.
You have it backwards. The Fitzgerald was in the lead and McSorley slowed for the Anderson.
Bacon believes that, because of the weather, both McSorley and Cooper decided to take a northern route to Whitefish Bay, a route McSorley had taken before, but one which he was not really familiar with, as opposed to either the direct or the southern routes across Lake Superior.
Bacon believes the Fitzgerald, trying to get to the Soo Locks ahead of the Anderson, bottomed out on Six Fathom Shoal.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:46 AM (ufSfZ)
209
>The federal government told you they don't exist. That's all you need to know.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at November 02, 2025 11:22 AM (uM32G)
---
The Soviets really pushed UFOs as a way to encourage otherwise apolitical Americans to spy on Air Force research and leak it to them. To this end, they faked UFO evidence had had it "smuggled out" of the USSR. The UFO magazines were a completely innocuous way to transmit this information, which also had the benefit of undermining public trust in the American government.
All this came out in 1990 when the USSR collapsed and the spooks wrote tell-all books because they needed the money. It was repackaged during the later 90s as "secrets of the Cold War" for X-files type shows.
210
One reason fantasy after LOTR isn't as good. They were written to an outline intended to sell, not following ancient traditions or taking delight in language. There is nothing wrong with writing to sell but it will seldom match the quality of the original written with spirit and elan. Although Tolkien obviously wanted the books to sell, I believe he was writing for himself and a few others with his viewpoint and appreciations.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 11:47 AM (yTvNw)
If the instructor for that novella workshop is who I think it is, keep plugging away; she knows her business, so you've gotta be doing something right.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 11:47 AM (q3u5l)
212
Having watched Graham Hancock's shows on rethinking how the Americas were poopulated and civilized, I think he's getting at something of a common event/ancestry, but that doesn't much interest me.
-
One of my favorite entertaining crackpots.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 11:48 AM (L/fGl)
213
>>> $100 cover price, and Amazon can't be bothered to provide a 'read sample' option to let people see what they are buying? Bad form, guys.
But seriously, my interest was piqued by the comments on illustrations and the 3" thickness. Oversized books have been on my mind lately. (See one of my earlier posts)
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 11:10 AM (Lhaco)
There’s a bit more detail here on the publisher’s website:
The Vision of Two Authors
Written by two of the most distinguished historians of our time.
The Golden Thread speaks in coherent, singular voices.
…
A Cultural Inheritance
Nearly 1000 curated images—sculptures, paintings, and artifacts—from the vaults of the West’s finest cultural institutions.
…
Living Voices from the Distant Past
Features close to 200 foundational primary source texts drawn from every era.
…
Visual Histories of the World
Enriched by over 150 bespoke maps, each a visual key to the unfolding story of the West.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 11:48 AM (3uBP9)
214
I read Star Wars Aftermath Life Debt. Decent story had some woke garbage in it that was not needed by the story line at all. Almost like the author was forced to put it in.
I don't think you can write anything new in the SW multiverse without woke garbage if you wat the book published.
Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at November 02, 2025 11:48 AM (89Sog)
215
The method I've seen described for the close-fit Inca stonework is that they'd move blocks into position then slide them back and forth, grinding the stone and its neighbors into a perfect hairline fit.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 02, 2025 11:42 AM (78a2H)
Possibly, but much like the Pyramids and Stonehenge, there are theories, but nobody seems to be sure, and efforts to recreate the methods have been... unsuccessful.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 11:48 AM (7VIKK)
216If you stack the stones directly on top of one another, the wall will separate and crumble with the least subsidence or small earthquake. If offset row by row, they stay put.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 11:39 AM (sZbq0)
Yes. And if you carve the stones into shapes that look like you filled Hefty bags 3/4 full of water and stacked them in boxes and froze them, you would have shapes similar to the Cuzco walls
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 11:49 AM (rbvCR)
217
It being the week of Halloween I re-read Dracula. DAMN that's a good book.
Yes, it's superb.
Posted by: callsign claymore at November 02, 2025 11:49 AM (duopt)
218
One of my favorite entertaining crackpots.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 11:48 AM (L/fGl)
Is he a crackpot though? I know the so-called scientific community would like to believe he is, but he seems to go to these places and demonstrate quite convincingly that their theories are wrong.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 11:50 AM (7VIKK)
219
Vitellius would be super easy to cast. Just send a casting crew into a Long Island mall and pull the first five goombas at the food court.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025
***
I'm ready! Or I would be, if I weren't dead.)
( -- Abe Vigoda)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:36 AM (wzUl9)
Pritzker is the name you're looking for. JB Pritzker.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 11:50 AM (uQesX)
220
What does is the fact that he's not wrong in discovering how much older these civilizations are, than what our Archeological Industrial Complex will admit. The dating of this stuff puts the lie to the idea that the continent wasn't "civilized" until the Asians crossed the land bridge.
Well... nope.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 11:45 AM (7VIKK)
---
Otto Muck, a German rocket scientist and developer of the schnorkel for U-boats, wrote Secret of Atlantis after the war and sketches out a version of history where Atlantis is in the Azores, which were the peaks of its mountains. He was writing when gradualism dominated paleontology, so he was already out there.
He calculates (and shows the math) that a heap big rock slammed into the Caribbean around 10,000 years ago, broke the Atlantic fault lines, and caused the last ice age and the Great Flood. Great reading if you can find a copy.
221
Turns out I need to nip over to Petco to pick up some dry food for the furry thugs, or they will have no dinner tonight. I'll be back shortly.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 11:51 AM (wzUl9)
222
97 ... "The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom
It is gigantic, almost three inches thick, beautiful illustrations throughout, full of great writing and detail. The first book is starts in ancient times of proto-states in Greece, a thousand or so BC then proceeds in detail through the reformation 16th century AD. It would be great for young students and old. I love it but I actually bought it for my daughter because history is the one thing she likes to read about. I'm probably going to snag it for reading a lot."
The book thread is always dangerous, at least to my budget. However, The Golden Thread touches on so many themes I've been pursuing in my reading I can't resist. Just ordered a copy from Amazon. This is one that I suspect will be passed down to the next generations in the family. (Hopefully, not for a long time.)
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 11:54 AM (yTvNw)
Japan Deploys Military Following Record Bear Attacks Across Country
https://is.gd/LKiX0e
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 11:55 AM (L/fGl)
224
>>> Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October has been recommended several times around here. Thanks to popular demand, it's been reprinted, so it's now affordable. It's a nice little Halloween story.
I'll have to check it out! Seeing a serial killer from the POV of his dog sounds intriguing.
Apparently a descendent from HH Holmes thinks Holmes was Jack the Ripper. Intriguing theory! And set out to prove it in a show. Does anyone have any good HH Holmes fiction or biographies they recommend? I've read Devil in the White City but am looking for some fiction.
Posted by: LizLem at November 02, 2025 11:55 AM (gWBY1)
225
Gotta admit, I kinda like this week's pants 😂😂😂🎃🎃🎃
226
I should add that Muck's book is the catalyst for my long-standing book project on Atlantis. This is something that has stuck with me since college, just like the Spanish Civil War and ancient China. Those itches took a while scratch, but this is a bit more esoteric and I'd like to get it right.
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:00 PM (2WIwB)
228Does anyone have any good HH Holmes fiction or biographies they recommend? I've read Devil in the White City but am looking for some fiction.
Posted by: LizLem at November 02, 2025 11:55 AM (gWBY1)
The illustrator Rick Geary did a short bio, The Beast of Chicago. I recommend all of his work in the crime genre highly.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 12:01 PM (ufSfZ)
229
Hey, you know how you were complaining about gatekeepers and I was complaining about trying to shut down people with differing opinions? This is what we were talking about.
https://tinyurl.com/529dntan
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:47 PM (rbvCR)
Unpossible! Nylon rope had not been invented when the statues were moved! -The Archeological Industrial Complex.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 02, 2025 12:01 PM (0vB2I)
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 12:01 PM (+qU29)
231Is he a crackpot though? I know the so-called scientific community would like to believe he is, but he seems to go to these places and demonstrate quite convincingly that their theories are wrong.
Posted by: BurtTC
Hancock inserts himself where archaeologists are trying to do their job carefully, and then makes grandiose claims. This muddies everything up. Except for Hancock who can then make money and get attention.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 12:01 PM (sZbq0)
232
Remember "Black Athena"? The scientific community came around to gatekeeping Martin Bernal.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 12:02 PM (sZbq0)
233
Also, I laughed at the "Silence of the Lambs" trailer 😂😂😂
Try Robert Bloch's novel American Gothic; that one was based on Holmes. It's been out of print for quite a while, but should still be available second-hand or through interlibrary loan.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 12:02 PM (q3u5l)
235MP4,
I'm looking forward to it. I've enjoyed all your stories.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 12:55 PM (yTvNw)
Thank you! I appreciate that.
Well, about time to make some tea and relax. Hope you all have a lovely day.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 12:03 PM (ufSfZ)
236
The book thread is always dangerous, at least to my budget. However, The Golden Thread touches on so many themes I've been pursuing in my reading I can't resist. Just ordered a copy from Amazon. This is one that I suspect will be passed down to the next generations in the family. (Hopefully, not for a long time.)
Posted by: JTB
I ordered a copy too. Expensive but I suspect worth every penny. Looking forward to receiving it.
Posted by: Tuna at November 02, 2025 12:03 PM (lJ0H4)
237
I am not a fantasy fan. I tried LOTR three different. times and could not get past the first 100 pages. So...meh. But i appreciate many who.do enjoy it. Just not my glass of scotch.
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:03 PM (2WIwB)
238
the things you learn here!
Just had to take a break from reading the comments to go set the stove and the microwave to the current agreed upon time.
Will not be touching my new "programmable" thermostat (HVAC tech upon installing it: "who the hell goes to the thermostat to find out what time it is?"), even though it is currently displaying 23:56. Wrong, on SO many levels
Posted by: barbarausa at November 02, 2025 12:03 PM (enw9G)
239
p.s. Perfesser, hope you enjoyed Dracula! Looking forward to reading your commentary next week.
Posted by: barbarausa at November 02, 2025 12:04 PM (enw9G)
240
Hancock inserts himself where archaeologists are trying to do their job carefully, and then makes grandiose claims. This muddies everything up. Except for Hancock who can then make money and get attention.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 12:01 PM (sZbq0)
You know what I hate? Gatekeepers.
Everywhere you look, someone is trying to hold truth in their own greedy little fingers, and anyone who steps into their lane, they get all nasty and secretive about it.
No wonder nobody trusts the elites "in authority" anymore.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:05 PM (lH8E4)
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:05 PM (2WIwB)
242
Finally finished Metamorphoses. It took nearly two years, on-and-off.
I also read all three volumes of No Man's Land by Sarah Hoyt. It's super fun, with amazing world-building and vivid characters. It takes a little work up-front to decode Elly's vocabulary and institutions, but that's part of the fun.
I'm not sure what's next. I've got a few other stuck books: Systems Performance by Brendon Gregg, Compilers (the Dragon Book), Prior Analytics, St. Paisios on Family Life. But I'm eying The Pickwick Papers or the Georgics.
Posted by: pjungwir at November 02, 2025 12:06 PM (noE7F)
243
190 I have a question for the readers and writers here. A while back I took a novella-writing course--it was a length I'd never tried, so I thought guidance would be helpful. The woman teaching it had edited both sf and fantasy magazines and is a prolific writer herself. In her critique of my fantasy novella, she described it as having "marvelous tone." She actually said marvelous twice. My oh my.
Obviously I'd like to do more of whatever marvelous is, but I don't really understand what "tone" means here. Is it another word for voice?
Is it broader than that? What does that suggest to the readers and writers here?
Posted by: Wenda at November 02, 2025 11:36 AM (wwMOU)
Congrats! IMO 'Tone' relates to the emotions you want the reader to feel. A marvelous tone obviously means what you wrote made her feel good. Perhaps you evoked a sense of wonder.
Sounds like 'keep doing what you're doing' as far as your prose is concerned.
244Hmmm, are we sure they're not giant mummified people?
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:52 PM (6dloJ)
Tell me that you didn't read the article without actually using the words "I didn't read the article"
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:07 PM (rbvCR)
245I should add that Muck's book is the catalyst for my long-standing book project on Atlantis. This is something that has stuck with me since college, just like the Spanish Civil War and ancient China. Those itches took a while scratch, but this is a bit more esoteric and I'd like to get it right.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 11:57 AM (ZOv7s)
Willy Ley wrote a pretty good essay on Atlantis which is in his anthology, Another Look at Atlantis and Fifteen Other Essays. Ley is a concise and complete writer.
L. Sprague de Camp also wrote a book on the subject, Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature, he goes off into the more pseudoscience maunderings as well.
Those are both good places to start, to figure out what has been said and where to start poking, before you go on to current thought.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:07 PM (rbvCR)
Everywhere you look, someone is trying to hold truth in their own greedy little fingers, and anyone who steps into their lane, they get all nasty and secretive about it.
No wonder nobody trusts the elites "in authority" anymore.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:05 PM (lH8E4)
Indeed. I include newspaper editors in that group as well as broadcast producers. They see themselves as gatekeepers of the truth.
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:08 PM (2WIwB)
247
Hancock inserts himself where archaeologists are trying to do their job carefully, and then makes grandiose claims. This muddies everything up. Except for Hancock who can then make money and get attention.
Posted by: gKWVE
He insists upon himself.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 12:08 PM (L/fGl)
248
What make Muck persuasive to me was the way he took the ancient texts at face value rather than "interpreting" them to fit his pet theory. "Bible scholars" do this all the time.
So he starts with a reading of Critias and Timaeus and compares it with geography to see if it holds up, and it actually does. He notes that the statement that the Acropolis was "higher" back then, is true because the glaciers lowered sea levels, so the port would be farther away, making it "higher." There are lots of details that show that the ancients had sources that are now lost to us.
This also goes back to "Bible scholars" who can only look at surviving texts, while we know (because the titles are often given) that other works were around that were quite important.
249
John U. Bacon is a 100% University of Michigan sports slapdick. He's part of the UM PR Machine, along with all but a couple sports reporters at the Freep, News, as well as some talking heads working for national media outlets.
I wouldn't put a dime in Bacon's pocket by purchasing anything he has written about any subject.
Posted by: one hour sober at November 02, 2025 12:09 PM (Y1sOo)
Thank you for the compliment, JTB. I appreciate it!
Hope you all have a lovely day.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 12:10 PM (ufSfZ)
251
The book thread is always dangerous, at least to my budget. However, The Golden Thread touches on so many themes I've been pursuing in my reading I can't resist. Just ordered a copy from Amazon. This is one that I suspect will be passed down to the next generations in the family. (Hopefully, not for a long time.)
Posted by: JTB
I ordered a copy too. Expensive but I suspect worth every penny. Looking forward to receiving it.
Posted by: Tuna at November 02, 2025 12:03 PM (lJ0H4)
$70 book, but there is a ton of knowledge in there. A frigging harley repair manual for one specific bike is $100 and doesn't include electrical. Thats a separate book, another $100.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 02, 2025 12:11 PM (snZF9)
252
He insists upon himself.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 12:08 PM (L/fGl)
Everybody does.
But apparently only people with letters behind their names are allowed to do it with impunity.
That, and people with government badges.
The rest of you should just shut up and let your betters do their thing.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:11 PM (h9y18)
253
Thanks, guys, for your comments re: my "marvelous tone." You've helped explain something else the editor said--my novella was about a topic she hates, so she read it more or less in spite of herself.
Posted by: Wenda at November 02, 2025 12:12 PM (wwMOU)
254
John U. Bacon is a 100% University of Michigan sports slapdick. He's part of the UM PR Machine, along with all but a couple sports reporters at the Freep, News, as well as some talking heads working for national media outlets.
I wouldn't put a dime in Bacon's pocket by purchasing anything he has written about any subject.
Posted by: one hour sober at November 02, 2025 12:09 PM (Y1sOo)
---
That's what I was getting at. If you know that in his day job he self-censors and puts out the Party Line, it's hard to trust that he's not likewise being influenced in other lines of work.
And there are piles and piles of receipts for this.
255He insists upon himself.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 12:08 PM (L/fGl)
And everyone else insists that he be silenced, discredited, and forbidden access to information. Because that is the basis of science.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:13 PM (rbvCR)
256
Indeed. I include newspaper editors in that group as well as broadcast producers. They see themselves as gatekeepers of the truth.
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:08 PM (2WIwB)
Curtis Yarvin calls this "The Cathedral." It's a grand unifying theory of the elites, who are protective of their fruity little club.
But Curtis has some "crackpot" theories of his own, so he gets dismissed by those who would object to anyone revealing the truth of who our elites are, and how they control us.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:13 PM (h9y18)
Professors Catch Dozens of Students Using AI to Write Apology Letters for Using the Same Tools to Cheat in Class
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 12:14 PM (L/fGl)
258
Try Robert Bloch's novel American Gothic; that one was based on Holmes. It's been out of print for quite a while, but should still be available second-hand or through interlibrary loan.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 12:02 PM (q3u5l)
Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to watch the Gotham series again. Been about five years since I've seen it.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at November 02, 2025 12:14 PM (tw0g2)
259
Is he a crackpot though? I know the so-called scientific community would like to believe he is, but he seems to go to these places and demonstrate quite convincingly that their theories are wrong.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 11:50 AM (7VIKK)
Punching holes in existing theories is one thing, and Hancock is very convincing in that. But proposing new theories is a bit different, and that's where he stretches the evidence enough to warrant the crackpot title. (If you are being uncharitable) Granted, his theories paint a very intriguing tale...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 12:15 PM (Lhaco)
260
p.s. Perfesser, hope you enjoyed Dracula! Looking forward to reading your commentary next week.
Posted by: barbarausa at November 02, 2025 12:04 PM (enw9G)
Good thing he liked it. I did, too. It was the genesis of the ALH epistolary project.
I'm glad to see he won't give us a biting review of Dracula.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 12:15 PM (uQesX)
261
And everyone else insists that he be silenced, discredited, and forbidden access to information. Because that is the basis of science.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:13 PM (rbvCR)
See also: 19, Covid.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:15 PM (h9y18)
262
I used the "he insists upon himself" comment as a snotty comment which, as far as I can figure out, means nothing at all.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 12:17 PM (L/fGl)
263
220 What does is the fact that he's not wrong in discovering how much older these civilizations are, than what our Archeological Industrial Complex will admit. The dating of this stuff puts the lie to the idea that the continent wasn't "civilized" until the Asians crossed the land bridge.
Well... nope.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 11:45 AM (7VIKK)
The book "The Great Divide" points out some genetic evidence that polynesians did at least some of the colonizing of America. Can't recall the specific details, though.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 12:17 PM (Lhaco)
264
Punching holes in existing theories is one thing, and Hancock is very convincing in that. But proposing new theories is a bit different, and that's where he stretches the evidence enough to warrant the crackpot title. (If you are being uncharitable) Granted, his theories paint a very intriguing tale...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 12:15 PM (Lhaco)
The Netflix show, he keeps alluding to his unifying theory, about some ancient event that explains all the common markers that are found all over the Americas.
But the thing is, the show pretty much sidesteps all of that, and just focuses on the facts on the ground (or under the ground).
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:18 PM (h9y18)
265
But Curtis has some "crackpot" theories of his own, so he gets dismissed by those who would object to anyone revealing the truth of who our elites are, and how they control us.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:13 PM (h9y1 ---
He's a grifter, and needs to carve a niche to separate himself from the rest of the herd.
This is why I generally ignore conservative commentators as they are always picking fights among themselves in order to generate clicks and steal audience share.
And this goes way back. David French and Jonah Goldberg never believed a word they wrote, it was just about building an audience and making money. If you read David Horowitz, he goes through the years-long way in which his view changed, how he lost friends, marriages, and struggled with his new beliefs. This makes his change credible. But so many just insist they never changed, or don't even address it, and that's how you know it is just a pose.
266
There is some dispute about the origins of the 1918 or “Spanish Flu”.
There is no question Fort Riley was where it spread like wildfire, but it may well have originated or the vector was wildfowl or geese, which are not known to respect international borders.
The reason it was called “Spanish” flu, Spain was maybe the only country not censoring the newspapers about the influenza epidemic, it was the only way to get information about it.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 12:19 PM (+qoHP)
267
That's what I was getting at. If you know that in his day job he self-censors and puts out the Party Line, it's hard to trust that he's not likewise being influenced in other lines of work.
And there are piles and piles of receipts for this.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
Yeah, I know.
I was simply saying I wouldn't put a dime in his pocket by buying anything he as written about any subject.
You did, though. Shame on you. ha
Posted by: one hour sober at November 02, 2025 12:20 PM (Y1sOo)
268
@55 The true world of spies is not like a James Bond novel. --Paine
Fleming almost certainly wrote Bond in rebellion against the all-too-accurate depictions of espionage by other authors, who dived lovingly into the moral relativism and "lack of candor" in that line of work. He created a guy who didn't have to think about that.
Let's keep in mind that in several languages, Boy Scouts are called "spies," and it didn't always mean reading someone else's mail. There's yet another category from those days: the "confidential agent" who was not a government tool. Fleming was a poor relation of a great banking family who had widespread investments and an intel network of its own.
In addition to having to sort all sorts of insider info on railroad building and steel production, Flemings Bank would have been vitally interested in The Navassa Affair, a slavery and guano murder scandal that made quite a business case. The island, now uninhabited and a disputed US possession, is an easy day's sail from Goldeneye. It's almost certainly the basis for Crab Key.
You can win a martini bet by knowing that "Moonraker" is the only Bond plot in which he does not "get the girl."
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at November 02, 2025 12:20 PM (zdLoL)
269 I am assembling my references for the book I'm intending to write. I have an old spreadsheet of papers from 1957-2008, some 3000 of them, badly recorded.
I'm getting them all in a coherent and consistent bibliographic form in EndNote with abstracts and, when available, actual PDFs of the documents. Then, it's on to the patents. And the papers from 2009-2025.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 02, 2025 12:20 PM (tgvbd)
270
The book "The Great Divide" points out some genetic evidence that polynesians did at least some of the colonizing of America. Can't recall the specific details, though.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 12:17 PM (Lhaco)
My whole thing is, the phrase "the science is settled" is the Big Lie.
Science is NEVER settled, and when new information comes along, it should be welcomed with open arms, explored in every facet it can be, so we can learn new things about our universe.
There are clearly truths about the origins of humanity that have yet to be discovered, and I want everyone out there trying to discover it.
Even the crackpots.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:20 PM (h9y18)
271I am not a fantasy fan. I tried LOTR three different. times and could not get past the first 100 pages. So...meh. But i appreciate many who.do enjoy it. Just not my glass of scotch.
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025
***
NAFILT (Not All Fantasy Is Like That). But far too many authors try to be like that instead of telling a story their own way. See my recommendations of Larry Niven and Fred Saberhagen earlier in this thread. They do go their own way, and it works.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 12:20 PM (wzUl9)
272
Yarvin took The Cathedral concept from a book discussing development of Linux and general programming via open-source, but instead of developing decentralization as a theory, he took Hans Hermann-Hoppe's take on the tragedy of the commons as an interpretation of how governments fail, as a concept to push a centrally planned monarchic system because the elites need to have a solid stake in the future instead of being in a system that rewards short term gains.
I am not fond of Yarvin, and I suspect his antecedents are spooky
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:21 PM (rbvCR)
273
The book "The Great Divide" points out some genetic evidence that polynesians did at least some of the colonizing of America. Can't recall the specific details, though.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 12:17 PM (Lhaco)
---
Cherokee myths are that they came out of the Atlantic. If you drop ocean levels down to the last ice age, an island chain emerges that would lower the difficulty of a transatlantic passage.
It goes without saying that American Indians do NOT want genetic testing for obvious reasons and we recall how during the 1990s, various tribes asserted that their dead were to be shielded from scientific inquiry as well.
274
Hancock is very convincing in that. But proposing new theories is a bit different, and that's where he stretches the evidence enough to warrant the crackpot title.
-
He was a frequent and very entertaining guest on Art Bell. His book Fingerprints of the Gods does seem to propose a lost planet wide advanced civilization.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Oh yeah? Well, You're Another One! at November 02, 2025 12:23 PM (L/fGl)
275
He's a grifter, and needs to carve a niche to separate himself from the rest of the herd.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 12:18 PM (ZOv7s)
So is everybody. So does everyone.
As for Horotwitz, I've heard it suggested he was CIA.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:23 PM (h9y18)
276
That's what I was getting at. If you know that in his day job he self-censors and puts out the Party Line, it's hard to trust that he's not likewise being influenced in other lines of work.
And there are piles and piles of receipts for this.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
Yeah, I know.
I was simply saying I wouldn't put a dime in his pocket by purchasing anything he has written about any subject.
You did, though. Shame on you. ha..
Posted by: one hour sober at November 02, 2025 12:23 PM (Y1sOo)
277
222
The book thread is always dangerous, at least to my budget. However, The Golden Thread touches on so many themes I've been pursuing in my reading I can't resist. Just ordered a copy from Amazon. This is one that I suspect will be passed down to the next generations in the family. (Hopefully, not for a long time.)
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 11:54 AM (yTvNw)
I didn't pull the trigger, but I did look at the Amazon page form the book. I wonder if Amazon's algorithm has noticed a correlation between this thread and actual sales? Assuming we are indeed significant enough to be noted...
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 12:23 PM (Lhaco)
278
See my recommendations of Larry Niven and Fred Saberhagen earlier in this thread. They do go their own way, and it works.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 12:20 PM (wzUl9)
Yes, I've noticed you've pitched Saberhagen before here.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 12:24 PM (uQesX)
279The book "The Great Divide" points out some genetic evidence that polynesians did at least some of the colonizing of America. Can't recall the specific details, though.
Posted by: Castle Guy
This is true. The Marquesas natives got to South America and returned with the sweet potato. Which then spread around Polynesia.
But they first had to get to the Marquesas and that was, what, 1100 AD?
More intriguing is the genetics of the Amazon; some tribes have Melanesian DNA. It's thought that had to have got there through an early, weak population of the Americans then swamped by the ANC-A/ANC-B juggernaut that came with better spears in Clovis NM. There's another relic population among the Blackfeet, but this time still related to the Amerind mainline.
Clovis seems to be the Americas' Bantu Expansion.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 12:24 PM (sZbq0)
280
The reason it was called “Spanish” flu, Spain was maybe the only country not censoring the newspapers about the influenza epidemic, it was the only way to get information about it.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 12:19 PM (+qoHP)
---
Spain was one of the few European countries not at war, so there was no need for wartime censorship to hide military losses due to disease.
Spain made bank selling guns to the Allies, not just Rubys but also copies of the Webley.
281
But Curtis has some "crackpot" theories of his own, so he gets dismissed by those who would object to anyone revealing the truth of who our elites are, and how they control us.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:13 PM (h9y1
There is a club (I am reliably informed...or maybe I read it somewhere) in a privately owned building off K Street in DC that is limited to 100 members. Politicians, rich people, Captains of Industry, selected members of society are members. Elites. Lifetime memberships. Nobody knows how one is selected for membership. Are they the ones who really run America?
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:25 PM (2WIwB)
282
My first fantasy series as a kid was Asprin’s Myth Adventures which was really really different than Tolkien.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 12:25 PM (3uBP9)
283
I am not fond of Yarvin, and I suspect his antecedents are spooky
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:21 PM (rbvCR)
Yeah, I suspect hidden, ulterior motives, and the way he presents himself suggests he believes he's smarter than everyone else.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:26 PM (h9y18)
284
Bacon believes the Fitzgerald, trying to get to the Soo Locks ahead of the Anderson, bottomed out on Six Fathom Shoal.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 11:46 AM (ufSfZ)
No after the Fitzgerald started having problems including losing radar and open hatches they slowed down while Anderson was continuing at a higher speed until they slowed down to help guide .
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 12:26 PM (EYmYM)
285 It goes without saying that American Indians do NOT want genetic testing for obvious reasons and we recall how during the 1990s, various tribes asserted that their dead were to be shielded from scientific inquiry as well.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 12:22 PM (ZOv7s)
The myth of the unique, gaia-loving, gentle and totally original American indian must be maintained.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at November 02, 2025 12:26 PM (npVQX)
286See my recommendations of Larry Niven and Fred Saberhagen earlier in this thread. They do go their own way, and it works.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025
*
Yes, I've noticed you've pitched Saberhagen before here.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025
***
Yes, Empire of the East and his "Books of Swords" novels too.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 12:26 PM (wzUl9)
287
The Madoc legend lasted for centuries. Maybe it’s still around.
Everyone was on the lookout for Welsh speaking light skinned bearded Indians, carrying their pre-Gutenberg Bibles, always somewhere around the next bend, or in the mountains well into the 19th century.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 12:26 PM (Ul5sO)
288
The Golden Thread just arrived yesterday. A big, beautiful book !
Posted by: LASue at November 02, 2025 12:27 PM (lCppi)
289
There is a club (I am reliably informed...or maybe I read it somewhere) in a privately owned building off K Street in DC that is limited to 100 members. Politicians, rich people, Captains of Industry, selected members of society are members. Elites. Lifetime memberships. Nobody knows how one is selected for membership. Are they the ones who really run America?
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:25 PM (2WIwB)
It's called the Diogenes Club.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 12:27 PM (uQesX)
290
I'm reading the book Trimegistus recommended last week: Freedom's Forge
Posted by: Dr. Claw at November 02, 2025 12:27 PM (fd80v)
291
I, myself have moved large heavy objects, like say, an engine block, by rocking them. Once you get them rocking, it's like an inverted pendulum, takes very little effort to maintain the rocking. Once the piece is rocking, you put a little torque on it to make it pivot on the current contact point, and when it rocks the other way it has advanced an inch or two. Rinse and repeat. So easy, an Easter Islander could do it.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 02, 2025 12:27 PM (npFr7)
292
263
My whole thing is, the phrase "the science is settled" is the Big Lie.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:20 PM (h9y1
No disagreement there. I like to point out that not so long ago continental drift was crackpot theory. Ditto the idea that a meteor-strike lead to the extinction of the Dinosaurs.
Posted by: Castle Guy at November 02, 2025 12:28 PM (Lhaco)
293
There is a club (I am reliably informed...or maybe I read it somewhere) in a privately owned building off K Street in DC that is limited to 100 members. Politicians, rich people, Captains of Industry, selected members of society are members. Elites. Lifetime memberships. Nobody knows how one is selected for membership. Are they the ones who really run America?
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:25 PM (2WIwB)
I wonder if it's more like terror cells, in that they exist, but they don't really have to get together, or even communicate directly with each other in order to carry out their nefarious plans.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:28 PM (h9y18)
294
Also how do you go back for survivors if you are behind?
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 12:28 PM (EYmYM)
295
ive been stuck on two books that are good but aren't inspiring. Im going to read a fun novel to try to break my reading log jam and then move to Anna Karenina.
Posted by: LASue at November 02, 2025 12:29 PM (lCppi)
296 The myth of the unique, gaia-loving, gentle and totally original American indian must be maintained.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons
------
This is about me, isn't it?
Posted by: Iron Eyes Cody at November 02, 2025 12:29 PM (XeU6L)
297
PS American Indians have come around to genetic testing in recent decades. The Kennewick specimen was held up by an unrepresentative band of northwest assholes. Their bros seem to be staking a claim to a lot of Vancouver these days, making land ownership by anyone else untenable.
The Blackfeet, Chibchans, Maya, Aztecs, most everyone else seem to be a lot more chill getting their DNA on file. It helps that the Blackfeet can now use that in territorial claims.
Posted by: gKWVE at November 02, 2025 12:29 PM (sZbq0)
298
Huh? Just wrote a post about moving things by rocking them, and hit "post" and it vanished.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 02, 2025 12:29 PM (npFr7)
As for Horotwitz, I've heard it suggested he was CIA.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:23 PM (h9y1 ---
No, there is a different in degree which leads to a difference in kind, and Goldberg and French (especially Kristol Jr.) exemplify this. People pivot but act like they didn't.
Opinions do evolve (mine certainly have), but it's part of a process, sometimes incremental, but also in response to momentous events.
That also ties in to the feasibility of whatever is being discussed. Telling me that *only* a sweeping and completely impractical transformation of society will stop your favorite evil is not really of much use. It's a good pose, though, and some people like taking poses.
300
It's called the Diogenes Club.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 12:27 PM (uQesX)
Wait!
What!!??
Well no one invited me!
*kicks.dirt*
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:29 PM (2WIwB)
301
Never got into Saberhagen's fantasy work, but read a number of his Berserker stories in high school and early college days -- delightful stuff.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 12:31 PM (q3u5l)
302
The myth of the unique, gaia-loving, gentle and totally original American indian must be maintained.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at November 02, 2025 12:26 PM (npVQX)
What is the fear?
I'm not generally a fan of genetic testing, because we're all mutts, but I'm not sure what truths are to be revealed if we discover, so are the natives of various places.
Are we going to then question who has a right to be where they are?
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:31 PM (h9y18)
303
Still working my way through 'Six Frigates'. A remarkable history of the early years of the U.S.
It was not smooth sailing.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 02, 2025 12:31 PM (XeU6L)
304
>>> I loved the Myth series as a kid. Always had a soft spot for humor. I wonder if it would hold up. I should read it again.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 12:31 PM (3uBP9)
305
Polynesians got to Easter Island, and from there to Chile or Peru, and returned with Achira (Canna lilly is another name), and other American plants. Those remnants are found in the lowest level of inhabitation of Eastern Island. And there is evidence that there was travel between Easter Island and the rest of Polynesia
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:32 PM (rbvCR)
306
York, William Clark’s black servant, was part of the L&C expedition. It was said he was quite a hit by the plains tribe nations, who had never seen a black man before. There may be not a few descendants to some degree amongst the modern tribes. One tale has it that he returned after the expedition was over, after he gained his freedom, and lived among the tribes in the upper missouri.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 12:33 PM (xHdZY)
307
No, ... and some people like taking poses.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 02, 2025 12:29 PM (ZOv7s)
Yes. And yes they do.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:34 PM (h9y18)
308The myth of the unique, gaia-loving, gentle and totally original American indian must be maintained.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at November 02, 2025 12:26 PM (npVQX)
What, you mean the ones that wiped out all the mega-fauna in the Western Hemisphere within a thousand years of arriving? Those unique Gaia loving paleoindians?
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:34 PM (rbvCR)
309
It's called the Diogenes Club.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 02, 2025 12:27 PM (uQesX)
Wait!
What!!??
Well no one invited me!
*kicks.dirt*
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:29 PM (2WIwB)
You keep resisting the requirement of getting the identifying genital tattoo.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at November 02, 2025 12:34 PM (npVQX)
310
298
'you mean the ones that wiped out all the mega-fauna in the Western Hemisphere within a thousand years of arriving? Those unique Gaia loving paleoindians?'
They loved how mega-fauna tasted.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at November 02, 2025 12:35 PM (fd80v)
311
Polynesians got to Easter Island, and from there to Chile or Peru, and returned with Achira (Canna lilly is another name), and other American plants. Those remnants are found in the lowest level of inhabitation of Eastern Island. And there is evidence that there was travel between Easter Island and the rest of Polynesia
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:32 PM (rbvCR)
It's kind of cute, how the people who currently inhabit Easter Island have a story that includes how they made the statues.
Except, no. You didn't.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:35 PM (h9y18)
312
Also how do you go back for survivors if you are behind?
Posted by: the way I see it at November 02, 2025 12:28 PM (EYmYM)
---
The Fitzgerald disappeared into a snow squall and never emerged. She disappeared off of radar, but the storm was playing havoc with radar (the Fitzgerald's was knocked out).
In the absence of any idea what had happened, the Anderson held on course and reported the incident. They were getting pounded, so the idea of turning about and prolonging the punishment was not something lightly done.
313
The Gorean fantasy series by John Norman is always politely ignored.
Posted by: toby928(c) at November 02, 2025 10:22 AM (jc0TO)
Well, North Gorea was the Termite Kingdom. Plot had a lot of holes.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 02, 2025 12:38 PM (npFr7)
314
Some recent archeology has upset all the theories that held that humans reached the America’s about 15k years ago; the discovery that groups of humans in fairly large numbers were active on the shores of the lake that is now White Sands, New Mexico between 21K and 23 K years ago. No remains, just footprints, so impossible to say if they were related to Asian groups or other, much older populations.
One find that fascinated me was a set that showed a large number of them surrounding a giant ground sloth that was traversing the shore of the lake.
Posted by: Tom Servo at November 02, 2025 12:38 PM (bI6eY)
315
She'd have made Whitefish Bay if she'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
Posted by: The sailors at November 02, 2025 12:39 PM (XQo4F)
316It's kind of cute, how the people who currently inhabit Easter Island have a story that includes how they made the statues.
Except, no. You didn't.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:35 PM (h9y1
Moai are not particularly hard to make or move you know.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:40 PM (rbvCR)
317
Are we going to then question who has a right to be where they are?
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:31 PM (h9y1 ---
The entire moral framework of American Indians is that they are the *only* truly indigenous people in the world. Everyone else is a colonist.
If it is proven that they came over recently, that they blended with other groups and eeevil white people were merely the latest and toughest group to take over that particular plot of land, that whole business goes away.
In certain circles, the truth is known. The tribes were beating the hell out of each other long before whites showed up, as witnessed by how eagerly they sought allies to kill those people over there.
320
Moai are not particularly hard to make or move you know.
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:40 PM (rbvCR)
I have a couple in my back yard!
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:42 PM (h9y18)
321
305
'She'd have made Whitefish Bay if she'd put fifteen more miles behind her.'
She might have broke or she might have capsized.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at November 02, 2025 12:43 PM (fd80v)
322
Was Fauci in the CDC in 1918?
That could be the answer
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 12:43 PM (+qU29)
323
Whatever you do, don't read the Dragonlance "Dragons of Summer Flame". It's cashing in on the name while killing off multiple characters in stupid ways. I was angry enough when I finished it that I threw the book in the garbage can, to save anyone else from reading it.
Posted by: roamingfirehydrant at November 02, 2025 12:44 PM (Eal7f)
324
She might have broke or she might have capsized.
Posted by: Dr. Claw
-------
She may have broke deep and took water...
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 02, 2025 12:45 PM (XeU6L)
325
Some recent archeology has upset all the theories that held that humans reached the America’s about 15k years ago; the discovery that groups of humans in fairly large numbers were active on the shores of the lake that is now White Sands, New Mexico between 21K and 23 K years ago. No remains, just footprints, so impossible to say if they were related to Asian groups or other, much older populations.
One find that fascinated me was a set that showed a large number of them surrounding a giant ground sloth that was traversing the shore of the lake.
Posted by: Tom Servo at November 02, 2025 12:38 PM (bI6eY)
Apparently the locations of the footprints are not currently accessible to the public. I hope they make them so at some point, when we can safely do so without ruining the site.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:45 PM (aS8Kr)
326Also how do you go back for survivors if you are behind?
The Fitzgerald's last transmission to the Anderson was "We are holding our own," which Captain Cooper took to mean McSorley was going to be able to ride out the storm. When the Anderson got to the Locks, that was when she discovered that McSorley hadn't made it, and that, in fact, the Fitzgerald had probably gone down shortly after the last call.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 12:46 PM (ufSfZ)
327
Diogenes, Perhaps the Metropolitan Club of Washington maybe?
Posted by: Mrs JTB at November 02, 2025 12:46 PM (yTvNw)
328I have a couple in my back yard!
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:42 PM (h9y1
Hey, you know how you were complaining about gatekeepers and I was complaining about trying to shut down people with differing opinions? This is what we were talking about.
https://tinyurl.com/529dntan
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:47 PM (rbvCR)
329
She might have broke or she might have capsized.
Posted by: Dr. Claw
-------
She may have broke deep and took water...
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 02, 2025 12:45 PM (XeU6L)
Maybe aliens.👽
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at November 02, 2025 12:48 PM (vDg2v)
330
As an aside, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, located at Historic Whitefish Point is worth the visit.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 02, 2025 12:48 PM (XeU6L)
331
I don’t think there would have been any survivors in that storm.
Posted by: Tom Servo at November 02, 2025 12:49 PM (bI6eY)
332
Was Fauci in the CDC in 1918?
That could be the answer
Posted by: Skip at November 02, 2025 12:43 PM (+qU29)
Someone named Salvio Fauccolini was the ship's doctor on the ship that brought Sir Walter Raleigh's group to Roanoke.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:49 PM (6dloJ)
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 02, 2025 12:49 PM (XeU6L)
334I loved the Myth series as a kid. Always had a soft spot for humor. I wonder if it would hold up. I should read it again.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 12:31 PM (3uBP9)
The cartoonist Phil Foglio did an adaptation of Myth Adventures. I never read the original book, so I can't say how true he was to Aspirin's novel. I will say that, for a non-SF / fantasy reader like me, it was very funny.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at November 02, 2025 12:50 PM (ufSfZ)
335
Diogenes, Perhaps the Metropolitan Club of Washington maybe?
Posted by: Mrs JTB at November 02, 2025 12:46 PM (yTvNw)
Perhaps, but for those of you with the foresight to buy "The Deplorable Gourmet" be sure to look up my drink recipe therein.The Metropolitan.
You will thank me later.
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:51 PM (2WIwB)
336
321
'I don’t think there would have been any survivors in that storm.'
They would have been darn near impossible to rescue in that storm.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at November 02, 2025 12:52 PM (fd80v)
337
Well, time to go act like I'm doing something constructive here around Casa Some Guy.
Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.
Have a good one, gang.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 02, 2025 12:52 PM (q3u5l)
338
Hey, you know how you were complaining about gatekeepers and I was complaining about trying to shut down people with differing opinions? This is what we were talking about.
https://tinyurl.com/529dntan
Posted by: Kindltot at November 02, 2025 12:47 PM (rbvCR)
So the statues walked?
Hmmm, are we sure they're not giant mummified people?
Posted by: BurtTC at November 02, 2025 12:52 PM (6dloJ)
339
90 ... " I don't expect the book to be finished before Christmas, but perhaps I'll have it ready for sale by the spring."
MP4,
I'm looking forward to it. I've enjoyed all your stories.
Posted by: JTB at November 02, 2025 12:55 PM (yTvNw)
340
Time for my chores. Thanks, all, for a great Book Thread!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 02, 2025 12:56 PM (wzUl9)
341
The stone masons who fitted together the andesite blocks in Peru, the earliest examples, e.g. at Cusco were exquisite. It’s really bizarre, no two blocks alike, some with up to 12 angles, fitted perfectly. It’s almost like they were showing off.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 11:10 AM (fS43b)
If you were to disassemble a columnar-jointed lava flow, and mark each block as to its fit with its adjoining blocks, you could use the pieces to build walls and other structures. Kind of like interlocking pavers.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at November 02, 2025 12:58 PM (npFr7)
342
Perhaps, but for those of you with the foresight to buy "The Deplorable Gourmet" be sure to look up my drink recipe therein.The Metropolitan.
You will thank me later.
Posted by: Diogenes at November 02, 2025 12:51 PM (2WIwB)
I will try it this evening! I just ate my last blueberry, so it will be sans garnish.
Posted by: LASue at November 02, 2025 01:26 PM (lCppi)
343
Reading Dracula now, IIRC when I read it before thought it was good but would have liked more Dracula in it.
Posted by: waelse1 at November 02, 2025 01:55 PM (rXQF7)
344
Turns out, it's hard to find MythAdventure books. They're all out of print, 40-60 $$ on amazon when you can find it. It was such a great read, this kid loved it. I wonder why it hasn't been taken up again? I think kids-teens would like it. It's all set in a fantasy world so it would not be outdated humor. Really too bad. One of the many things I'd do if I was rich is find some way to resurrect it.
Posted by: banana Dream at November 02, 2025 02:18 PM (3uBP9)
345
Just now checked eBay. Seven Myth-Adventures books for $30, including the shipping cost. And that's just the first lot I found.
Myth-Adventures books are out there.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 02, 2025 02:56 PM (p/isN)
346
York, William Clark’s black servant, was part of the L&C expedition. It was said he was quite a hit by the plains tribe nations, who had never seen a black man before. There may be not a few descendants to some degree amongst the modern tribes. One tale has it that he returned after the expedition was over, after he gained his freedom, and lived among the tribes in the upper missouri.
Posted by: Common Tater at November 02, 2025 12:33 PM (xHdZY)
Clark set York up as a teamster. Sometime later York reappears briefly and afterwards disappears from history.
Posted by: 13times at November 02, 2025 03:57 PM (uiJuW)
347
Nova Local- Italians put hazelnuts in everything.
Posted by: Piper at November 02, 2025 04:26 PM (p4NUW)
348
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