Books and things with words in them!

As part of my getting back into Warhammer I picked up the Gates of Azyr novella. I say novella because it is only 100 or so pages long! Still it was a quick and entertaining read that sets up the starting point for the new setting for Age of Sigmar. New heroes are introduced and the battle the book focuses around is entertaining.

Started Natural History by Neil Cross today.

Seems interesting so far.

So thats Cibola Burn (Book 4 of the Expanse Series) finished with.  Really good stuff.  It is very simple, action packed sci fi that has a brilliant core group of characters. I also love the general direction of the series and how each book is both stand alone yet touches many of the longer running themes and questions.  The next in the series is already out so I will get onto it pretty sharpish.  

Before that though is The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly.  Apparently it is Jurassic Park with Dragons...

Finished Star Wars: Tarkin by James Luceno and was mostly disappointed by it. It's a cool idea that is never delivered upon. It sounds like it could be fun to find out more about Grand Moff Tarkin, boss of the Death Star. But I actually didn't think his past was all that interesting. It certainly never reasonably explained why he is so well regarded, or how he fully rose to such prominence. And when the main story finally starts taking shape - nearly 100 pages in to what is already a slim novel - Tarkin is made to look so inept and foolish, I fail to see how he has any respect. I think the novel was rush written as well, as many sections are not really fiction, but read like text out of an encyclopeadia. A poor effort, and not as good as it could have been.

So The Great Zoo of China was a bit disappointing.  The overall premise of the story and the description, characterisation and mythology of the dragons were excellent and stood out as the best part of the book by a long shot.  Unfortunately, once things started going wrong the book descended into a long sequence of poorly written and plain ridiculous action scenes.  It was a real slog to read through the middle section but a couple of nice twists later in the book made it ultimately worthwhile. I wish I had just re read Jurrasic Park really. 

Also read the Joss Whedon biography which was very enjoyable.  Didnt cover much that I didnt already know but it was still a nice, easy read.

Star Wars Aftermath comes out on Sept 10th, the "official" story of what happened after Retur of the Jedi (since the Thrawn trilogy is now no longer canon ... boo!) Anyway, I'm definitely going to read this ahead of the new movie.

Finished The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World by Susan Veness. It's a guide to the history of the Florida parks, pointing out unique designs or hidden jokes that many visitors may miss, or not see the links. It was very interesting! I am going to Florida for the first time later this year, and having spent a lot of money on the holiday, I'm wanting to make the most of it. This book was endlessly fascinating, detailing little known facts about all four Disney parks. There were hidden objects to look out for, reasons behind some of the design choices in the parks, and history on why certain objects may have been included. Hopefully this book will have given me a neat understanding of the parks when I visit.

Finished The Three by Sarah Lotz last night.  It was, for the nost part, a gripping, tense and interesting thriller with some horror elements.  I thought it used the general World War Z style very well and the general premise was excellent.  

Right up until the final moments were the book decided to provide absolutely zero closure or explanation and ended on a whimper.  A shame as the ending was so so so bad it has completely ruined the entire book.  A shame really. 

Onto Nights Watch by Terry Pratchett now.  One of his later Discworld books and meant to be one of the best.

I re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on holiday. Loved it (again).  Still my favourite book; wish she'd write some more in that world.

I Robot by Isaac Asimov. I guess I shouldn't be but I was surprised how the movie is NOTHING like this book. At all. But both the book and the film take Asimov's three laws of robotics and tests them out, because rules were made to be broken. The book is a series of short stories, but they are all linked and share the same characters. And each one of these stories tests the three laws in different ways. It was fascinating and interesting, and very thoughtful. And while I can appreciate that, it didn't always grab me, and certainly one or two of the stories were a bit duff, but overall it was a good book.

Finished reading Metal Gear Solid by Ashly and Anthony Burch on my commute this morning. It is a short but detailed look back on the PSone game by two people in the same age group as me so a lot of what they say is personally relatable to me.
 
It is also a non-rose-tinted glasses look back on the game. They tackle the more problematic aspects of the game such as its characterisation of female characters, the schizophrenic game design and the more janky aspects of the script and story. Yet as they keep saying throughout the book the game still rises above those aspects and continues to deliver a unique experience, even compared to other Metal Gear games.
 
If you're interested the eBook version is relatively cheap and it has me interested in reading more of the books published by Boss Fight Books.
 

Link: http://bossfightbooks.com/products/metal-gear-solid-by-ashly-and-anthony-burch

Just finished Golf Monster by Alice Cooper which tells how he took up golf addiction saving his life from alcohol addiction. And while there is a lot on golf in the book and it is clearly written and easy for someone who doesn't like golf to understand, it's still got lots of rock n roll and crazy anecdotes. His book is written with the same humour and style as his songs. It's a reveing and brilliant book. The only thing negative is that it kinda ends in the late 80s and doesn't really cover the 90s and 2000s.

Finished Night Watch by Terry Pratchett today. I have not read a Discworld book for years and so this was my first foray back into the world (having previously read the whole series in order).

Whilst it was amazing to be back in the company of the legend that is Sam Vimes, I thought the main story was fairly weak as it never really went anywhere. It raised some nice questions about the character and had fun with the time travel concept but it was a bit dull overall.

Kick-Ass 3

Rather enjoyable read.

Finished The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly, which was an excellent court room drama about a murder linked to home foreclosures. The book was gripping in the court room, really going into detail and explaining the processes. It was really good fun reading all the arguments. When it leaves the court room its not as great, and some of the story elements were a bit too Hollywoodish rather than true to real life. But by the end, you could kind of make your own assumption about the verdict...until the very finale.

Finished Man  and Boy by Tony Parsons today. It was ok. It wasn't really for me. It's essentially male chick lit, and just as crap, however he did have a pretty good knack at nailing down accurate feelings and emotions in the characters. But I couldn't really empathise with a single male parent story, especially when he was such an irritating character himself. This was a recommended book, and not really the type I read, so I think I might avoid this genre from now on. I've got so much I would like to read I dont want to waste my time on this!

X-Men vs Apocalypse: Ages of Apocalypse.

A GN of the tie-ins to AOA which were hit and miss. I've yet to read AOA but know about it so got the jist of it all.

I read the Tarrantino biography shoot from the hip, its a good book but it was done when all he had done was like dogs, pulp , dusk till dawn and a few other little bits around then, I really need a newer book about him. I then started a book called the Science of Super Powers.

Read the first 100 pages of Armada by Ernest Cline.

It's as badly written and cliched as Ready Player One but also as fun and nostalgic.

Age of Ultron graphic novel by Bendis and Hitch.

I'm presuming that this was done before or around the time the film was released. It's actually not that bad for a Marvel event as it's not all fighting. It involves time travel and has a different ending to the normal superhero fighting.

dste01 wrote:Age of Ultron graphic novel by Bendis and Hitch.

I'm presuming that this was done before or around the time the film was released. It's actually not that bad for a Marvel event as it's not all fighting. It involves time travel and has a different ending to the normal superhero fighting.

It was a book that had many, many years of background build up to it. The second of Bendis' three master plans, the first being Secret Invasion and the third still to come to fruition. It's all been teased over the years,



Although the timeline may have changed from its path thanks to Secret Wars destroying then spitting out the new Marvel Omniverse. 

Anyway! The movie just took the name from the event because it sounded cool which is a shame because it doesn't quite fit with the actual movie. The Age of Ultron in the MCU is like what? A week at best?

Cheers for the info.

Secret Invasion was the last comic that I bought/read back when I stopped reading them. The start of Dark Reign was a good jumping off point.

dste01 wrote:Cheers for the info.

Secret Invasion was the last comic that I bought/read back when I stopped reading them. The start of Dark Reign was a good jumping off point.

That's just when things got interesting!

Reading Doctor Sleep the sequel to The Shinning at the moment, been reading it for about two weeks and I am very near to the end of it.... I have absolutely loved it so I am hoping that the end lives up to all of the build up.

Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig. So very disappointed by this. The whole fresh start of SW EU has been pointless so far. This book would have easily slotted into that old EU no issues and it's not even half as good as many of those stories. 

I think it's just a bad book to start with. I don't know who this Chuck Wendig is but at points it feels like rushed fanfic. There's modern style phrases that seem out of place in SW. Admiral Ackbar appears and, yes, he says it's a trap. It's just dull. For the first half of the book it was directionless waffle with scenes not flowing or pointing the reader to any foresight on what might happen. 

It did pick up towards the end though, when finally characters and plots converged for a finale was the only part of the book that felt interesting and exciting. It was just way too boring and took far too long to get going, and then it's over. The book also has odd interludes of snapshots of events around the universe, but there were disjointed and never followed up on narratively, making them a waste of time. 

It's the first in a trilogy but I'm done already.