Tyson
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Post by Tyson on Nov 23, 2011 18:01:49 GMT -5
World War Z - 7/10 It was alright. I really like how he explains in great detail just how the world would get so fucked by zombies, but at times it kinda drags. I found myself losing patience because of the lack of a central plot and characters to follow. Speaking as someone who hates zombies, I got that book back in '07 I think, and didn't get around to even starting it until '09. I read a good deal of it, and was pleasantly surprised that it was more about the downfall of society and life post-civilization breakdown which is a topic I love. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, but I got about two thirds through it before I started other books (I sometimes have three or four books going at once), and just never got back to it. I recently lent it to someone who in turn lent it to someone else who then lent it to someone else before I got it back. When I got it back I decided to finish it, but someone decided it's be a grand idea to remove my bookmark (something that has happened in the past), and I can't for the life of me remember where I left off.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Nov 26, 2011 23:52:31 GMT -5
^ It's funny that you say you hate zombies, yet love tales of the fall of society and post-civilization life, when that's pretty much what all the best zombie stories are all about.
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Tyson
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Post by Tyson on Nov 27, 2011 10:06:51 GMT -5
Yeah, but I hate zombies. You can have one without the other. Most post-civilization zombie media focuses more on the zombies than day to day life. That's one reason I like the Walking Dead comic. It seems in that book zombies are used more as vehicle to get to the human drama elements of the story.
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Tyson
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Post by Tyson on Nov 28, 2011 0:52:43 GMT -5
Unfortunately, most either don't or get clouded with so many cliches they're a pain to read/watch.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Dec 2, 2011 4:32:59 GMT -5
I know what you mean. Zombie tales are supposed to do that, but most fail at it. A lot of creators get too wrapped up in the zombie as a pop culture monster, rather than properly using it as a vehicle for a plot.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Dec 2, 2011 4:35:51 GMT -5
Btw, I've gotten stuck halfway through the final Hyperion novel, Rise of Endymion. It may be because I started reading it right after finishing the previous installment, and whenever I do that I lose interest halfway through the next book because I've spent way too much time with the same story. The books are awesome, but I was too eager to begin the final one and now I have to push through it. I do think that this is the weakest in the series though, just because there's a part in the middle that realllllly drags. Other than that, it's good so far.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Jan 9, 2012 18:10:59 GMT -5
Finally finished Rise Of Endymion. 7/10 just because I got stuck halfway through because it started really lagging there. Overall, though, it was a really good book. The prequels were just way better. The ending was pretty easy to see a mile off, though.
Conspiracies a Repairman Jack novel 9/10 Love the Repairman Jack novels, and as a fan of X-Files type things, this one was awesome and hilarious.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2012 8:59:33 GMT -5
The Trial by Kafka
Got a ereader for Christmas and found a tone of free books for it in the epub format - too lazy to convert files atm. Most are older books like Poe,Kafka and got I think, all of Friedrich Nietzsche's work. Anyhow The Trial has been good so far just adapting to the way Kafka rights but giving it a solid 8.5/10 cause its kept me interested so far
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Jan 14, 2012 7:44:49 GMT -5
Hell House by Richard Matheson 8/10 - Matheson is an awesome writer. Way ahead of his time. This book exceeded my expectations. It went places that modern horror novels don't even go near and it was written 40 years ago. I can't wait to read all of Matheson's other work now. I Am Legend and Terror at 20,000 Feet were also great.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Jan 28, 2012 17:07:54 GMT -5
Neuropath 10/10 - Scary ass book about a neurologist proving that free will is an illusion created by our brains. Very nihilistic and existentialistic. Very awesome. It makes Hannibal Lector look like a choir boy. Great pacing, characters, and philosophy versus science debates. And some gruesome serial kills thrown in for good measure.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Jan 29, 2012 1:19:25 GMT -5
Huh. Interesting.
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Post by optronix on May 22, 2012 21:52:26 GMT -5
"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", excellent book. I love how much of history (not just Lincoln's life and the Civil War) is pulled on here. Extremely clever and well written. Very addictive too. Looking forward to the movie even more now, though I imagine it may be drastically different.
10/10
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2012 20:31:31 GMT -5
Just finished Nightwatch. Really enjoyed it. Had a pace where I was able to read it and didn't want to put it down. Onto Daywatch next. Maybe watch the movie first, not sure
10/10
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razkazz
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Post by razkazz on Jun 23, 2012 21:12:20 GMT -5
My power was out all afternoon and night yesterday so I finished "Doom 3: Worlds On Fire", by candlelight; appropriately I guess. As a fan of the game, it was awesome to get a ton of background on the people behind the UAC and the characters you meet briefly in the game. Hell didn't actually break loose until around the last 10% of the book, and oddly that was the weakest part. Maybe it's because that was the only instance where it overlapped with events in the game. It just felt like it boiled down to standard cheesy zombie action at that point. The real problem is that there were way too many survivors communicating via headset while battling the hellspawn for it to capture the isolated atmosphere of the in-game experience. It was written by the writer of the game and the pre-hell descriptions of the installation did a great job of rekindling images from the game, so I'm really not sure what went wrong with the ending. I'm thinking it was rushed at the end or he wanted to keep some characters alive for the follow up novel. Whatever the case, I loved the rest of it and the last few chapters didn't put much of a dent in that enjoyment. I know the writer can create great action sequences because the whole war scene on Earth, that introduces the protagonist and stretches through like the first 3rd of the novel, was amazing. It was packed with great imagery, intensely paced, and did a great job of contrasting the interesting but low-key scenes at the UAC labs. Overall, I loved it. Doom 3 the game didn't really require any more story to bog down its pacing, but it introduced such a unique world and side plotlines from the PDA entries that it demanded another visit in greater detail; and 'Worlds On Fire' does that admirably. I give it a 9/10 I have the sequel novel ready to read, but since the main draw of this one was its detailing of the events leading up to the game; I'm not sure how appealing it'll be. I'm hoping the author was just saving his good demon battle ideas for the follow up. Just finished Nightwatch. Really enjoyed it. Had a pace where I was able to read it and didn't want to put it down. Onto Daywatch next. Maybe watch the movie first, not sure 10/10 Having only seen the movies, I don't know how those would work in book form cuz the movies are fuckin' crazy and don't make sense but it's okay cuz they're awesome as shit.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Jun 23, 2012 23:54:45 GMT -5
Yay more book reviews! I kinda stopped in the middle of the one I'm reading now (In The Courst Of The Sun) because it's so long and I started reading comics again.
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Post by optronix on Jun 24, 2012 14:40:04 GMT -5
"Savages" - I read through this in about and two hours. It's that good. Fucking awesome book. 10/10 It's so could you can insert time AND two hours??? ;D
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2012 22:56:59 GMT -5
^
He never will be
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razkazz
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Post by razkazz on Jul 3, 2012 17:15:44 GMT -5
Finally read the Tortured Souls novella. I would've checked it out sooner but I bought the figures used and ended up with every part of the story except for the first. Today I found a readable version of the first part online and then read through my real copies of the rest of 'em.
It was neat to get insight into the characters and I'm glad it was an ongoing story and not just isolated origins for each of the Tortured Souls. It made me like some of the characters more and some of them not as much. Talisac and Mongroid seem kind of out of place in the context of the story; or at least not as consequential or interesting. But that's probably an unavoidable symptom of the action figure/short story tie-in. It's gotta be hard to make all of the characters work equally as well without sacrificing the narrative and turning it into Mortal Kombat. There also has to be some amount of shoe-horning characters into the story after their figures have been designed. Given the constraints, Barker did undeniably well; there's no original toy line/story that compares.
A lot of Barker's work has a tendency to seem too ethereal or not quite tangible; and some things here were very hard to grasp. The two main characters, Scythe-Meister and Lucidique, are cenobite-like pain-obsessed creatures, but unlike cenobites they're still human; and I can't wrap my head around that. They fear being mauled in a fight, but their bodies are already mutilated and covered in "never-healing wounds", and they love each other and commit very human acts like picking flowers; thinking about it too hard, it just doesn't compute.
Ultimately though, it was full of Barker's great descriptions, masterful use of words, and unique ideas that made it an engaging breeze to read through. It gave enough background story to make me see the figures in a completely new light and also introduced a whole new Barker world to think about. 8/10
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Post by Knockworstface on Jul 3, 2012 21:05:52 GMT -5
^ For the most part, I could do without 90% of Clive Barker's writing. Clive Barker sucks. No pun intended. He's all about leather and sadomasochism. He's a borefest in my humble opinion. He'd be great writing leather and bondage porn scripts.
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frinspar
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Post by frinspar on Jul 3, 2012 21:13:49 GMT -5
^ Except that's not true.
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SweetZombieJesus
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Post by SweetZombieJesus on Jul 3, 2012 23:14:58 GMT -5
Which part? That he sucks, that he's all about leather and sadomasochism, that he's a borefest, or that he'd be great writing leather and bondage porn scripts.
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frinspar
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Post by frinspar on Jul 3, 2012 23:29:24 GMT -5
Oh, he'd probably write a decent bondage script. The rest, nah.
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Post by razkazz on Jul 7, 2012 1:34:23 GMT -5
"Doom 3: Maelstrom" - There were unresolved plot threads and character relationships from the last novel that I'm glad I was able to see play out, but overall the story told here would've worked better as 100 or so extra pages thrown onto the first book, rather than a drawn out sequel of its own.
The 1/3rd of the story devoted to the head of the UAC's response to hell breaking loose seemed mostly unnecessary. It's like if the climax of "Aliens" was interrupted by scenes of Weyland-Yutani executives discussing their concern for the atmosphere processor.
And the 1/3rd that took place in an underwater UAC lab on Earth felt completely unnecessary. This story arc served only to hint that the way humans became zombies on mars was similar to how some aquatic tube worms influence other sea life. And it never definitively explained anything, the characters never get directly involved in the conflict and their research ends on a cliffhanger. It makes me think the author came up with this somewhat interesting, yet insanely unneeded connection (uh, they become zombies because hell and stuff) and couldn't get it to fully make sense, so he just didn't. It pisses me off that all of those chapters were basically just filler and a huge waste of time.
On the plus side, the demon encounters were better than in the end of "Worlds On Fire". It was especially cool seeing the boss encounters from the game put into more context than "hey you entered a room and now there's this creature, okay". The protagonist's trek into hell and journey to put a stop to it all was a great reward after a lot of stuff that felt inconsequential, and again if that had just happened at the end of the first novel the whole thing would've been better for it. What made that section of the story really awesome is that you finally got the sense that this was a lone marine, by himself, with no sidekick or constant radio communication. It finally felt like Doom. 6/10
And per Jax's recommendation, I picked up "Monster Hunter International" today. It seems like it's right up my alley so I can't wait to get started on that next.
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CelticPredator
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Post by CelticPredator on Jul 14, 2012 4:19:08 GMT -5
Reading: Book Series that Holeman hates.
The Jack Reacher series.
The Killing Floor. Good introduction to the character, but meh overall. The story wasn't all that interesting, the characters, sans Reacher were kinda eh. 6/10 for me. Not too great. Felt reluctant to start the next one.
Die Trying. Better, there was more mystery, and a better plot. I also found the characters to be far better, such as the main throwaway chick lead. She was tougher, and I rooted for her more. I dug some of the kills, and the final act was a lot of fun. But the "reveal" was dull, and over too quickly. 7/10
Running Blind. This one started off interesting, but got dull real fast. It was just a boring murder mystery. Could've been any character here, Jack needs to fight men, and break their faces. Not crazy women. 4/10
I skipped to book 9, One Shot, which is going to be the movie. And I can see why. I loved the story in this one. Loved the action, the characters, the setting, and the villain. The overall reveal wasn't special, but the final battle in the house was totally worth it. 8/10
So yeah. Fluffy series. But fun. I don't read much, unless i'm going to bed. And it's the perfect sleepy time story.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2012 13:36:26 GMT -5
Picked up Keith Richards bio on clearance so giving that a run through tonight
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razkazz
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Post by razkazz on Jul 20, 2012 21:59:58 GMT -5
I've had a tough time getting into Monster Hunter International so far. It's gotten better since the opening but it's written so plainly that it's not holding my interest very well. What finally got me interested in reading was the poetic writing of Clive Barker where even the simplest thing can sound incredible and put a smile on your face because it's so clever.
Jax mentioned this beforehand, and I don't mean to bash him for recommending the book, because the subject matter is right up my alley and I'm still hoping to get into it. The intro has a lot of parallels to "Wanted" the movie and "Office Space" except the main character is battling a werewolf in his office. And it's a good setup. There's a scene where he hits the creature and its blood splashes on a "hang in there" motivational poster. And it ends there. It's kind of funny by itself but other writers I've read would've taken that concept further and delved into how "curiously the poster's meaning became clear for the first time and he now wailed on the beast with a new found zest". That's the kind of description that excites me when reading, but MHI, at least so far, doesn't go to those extra depths. It's also written in first person which I find much less appealing. Jax, let me know if I'm being too hard on it and missing out.
In the meantime, I picked up Clive Barker's Weaveworld and Star Wars Shadows Of The Empire at a used book store for $3 each. I've wanted to read both of them for a while so I'm gonna try them out.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2012 22:24:10 GMT -5
Shadows is a great Star Wars Novel!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2013 19:20:25 GMT -5
"Ender's Game" - Thought I'd read this again before the movie came out. I remember it being more substantial the first time around. This time it felt more like "Harry Potter and the Intergalactic Gamer Genocide". Only with more kid murder and goofy ideas about how important an asshole ranting about politics on the internet could actually be. Still, better than 95% of the crap out there. On the fence about the sequels. If I'm not mistaken it only gets worse from here. 8/10
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frinspar
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Post by frinspar on Mar 17, 2013 19:41:34 GMT -5
I read the first back when and finished it feeling a bit empty and cold. Didn't follow any of the sequels.
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NecroDragon
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Post by NecroDragon on Mar 18, 2013 0:58:06 GMT -5
I just read Ender's Shadow a few months ago and that was pretty good. You should read that one as well. It's pretty nifty seeing the story from Bean's perspective and he's a much more interesting character. I've heard the other books are not so good though.
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