Books discussion
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Re: What are you reading right now?
Hmm. You have good taste.Urs wrote:-Just finished The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (actually I may have one left) by H.P. Lovecraft
-Also finished a bit ago: Scar Night and Iron Angel by Alan Campbell.
Re: What are you reading right now?
uh, yeah. Many internetz for lending those to me, good sir.
- Thrawn
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Re: What are you reading right now?
Did you read the other books in the series? Just wondering---it's not like I'm really fond of that trilogy or anything...and I I disagree about the contrived nature of the ending...=}The Great Rings wrote:I'm not reading a lot of books these days. The last new pieces of fiction I read were the newest sequel to Erragon and The Last Command, an old Star Wars novel.
[snip]
The Last Command was ok, but the ending was rather contrived, and focussed too little on the fleet battle (is it just me, or does it seem like their is way too little focus on fleet combat in Star Wars?).
...please remember that "IT'S" ALWAYS MEANS "IT IS" and "ITS" IS WHAT YOU USE TO INDICATE POSSESSION BY "IT".--scott
this goes for they're/their/there as well
this goes for they're/their/there as well
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Re: What are you reading right now?
Yes, I read them. I thought they were a mix of good and bad, though their influence on the rest of the EU and the fan fiction community is obviously great. Oh, and Spoiler Alert:Thrawn wrote:Did you read the other books in the series? Just wondering---it's not like I'm really fond of that trilogy or anything...and I I disagree about the contrived nature of the ending...=}The Great Rings wrote:I'm not reading a lot of books these days. The last new pieces of fiction I read were the newest sequel to Erragon and The Last Command, an old Star Wars novel.
[snip]
The Last Command was ok, but the ending was rather contrived, and focussed too little on the fleet battle (is it just me, or does it seem like their is way too little focus on fleet combat in Star Wars?).
The good:
The Noghiri (spelling?) in the first book. They were quite menacing, since they just never stopped and you never knew when they were coming again. Zahn did a good job of building suspense with them.
Making Leia a more important character, plus the whole story arc with her children, and her having to balance her family and protecting her children with her duties to the New Republic. In fact, Leia basically wins the whole war by turning the Noghiri.
Thrawn's cunning use of cloaks
The bad:
The minimalism in terms of fleet size and troop numbers. This one is somewhat arguable, since while a Galactic civilization should not consider dozens of ships and hundreds of thousands of troops a huge number, those forces would be spread out over an area the size of a Galaxy, and in this case between two evenly matched sides.
The idea that you can figure out an individual's psychology by looking at their culture's/species' art. If we were dealing with real-world cultures, this would almost certainly be denounced as racist. Of course, I rationalize this as a story Thrawn made up to cover his real techniques, or even just an excuse to keep an art museum on his flagship.
The pacing just seemed a little slow over all, and the battle descriptions seemed somewhat dry.
The final raid on the cloning facility dragged out too long for my taste. I'd have like to see more of the fleet battle. Leaving aside that the whole thing probably wouldn't have worked if the Empire had had proper security. Though to be fair, that goes for a lot of the Original Trilogy too.
Their's probably more, but these would be some of the main points.
"One man alone cannot fight the future"-
The X-files
"Send these foul beasts into the abyss"-Gandalf
The X-files
"Send these foul beasts into the abyss"-Gandalf
Re: What are you reading right now?
I guess there was not really a big hint that this happened, as it was only used in a couple other threads, but if you like, you can use
Spoiler:
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UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
Re: What are you reading right now?
Update: I'm starting to read Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) for my Literary Traditions IV class... It will hopefully be much more enjoyable than Austen's Mansfield Park, which we just finished.
For I am Turin Turambar - Master of Doom, by doom mastered. On permanent Wesbreak. Will not respond to private messages. Sorry!
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
Re: What are you reading right now?
Crime and Punishment is good (or at least I enjoyed it), but I'm a bigger fan of Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. A brick of a book, but an interesting read, as I enjoy the trip that he takes into the human mind.
Mainline Maintainer: AOI, DM, NR, TB and THoT.
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
UMC Maintainer: Forward They Cried, A Few Logs, A Few More Logs, Start of the War, and Battle Against Time
Re: What are you reading right now?
Yeah, I plan on reading that too... eventually... probably this summer, if I can find time. It's been on my mental "must read this book ASAP" for far too long. And those people I know who have read it say it's amazing.Turuk wrote:Crime and Punishment is good (or at least I enjoyed it), but I'm a bigger fan of Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. A brick of a book, but an interesting read, as I enjoy the trips that he takes into the human minds.
For I am Turin Turambar - Master of Doom, by doom mastered. On permanent Wesbreak. Will not respond to private messages. Sorry!
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
And I hate stupid people.
The World of Orbivm
Re: What are you reading right now?
Now I am reading TLOTR, the first book. Pretty awesome, I have already read this but when I was younger and I don´t remember the details so I am enjoying it again.
Re: What are you reading right now?
After watching the History Channel until 2 am, I read the second half of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Just had an urge to read through it again. Although I was late to class again >_> I love satire, Mark Twain does nothing if not satire. I want to hunt up Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court again now...
- Crushmaster
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Re: What are you reading right now?
I'm currently reading..."The Adventure Of Missionary Heroism - By John C. Lambert (edited by Joshua M. Wean).
God bless,
Crushmaster.
God bless,
Crushmaster.
Re: What are you reading right now?
You know, I may have seen that book just yesterday
To avoid being off topic:
Startide Rising by David Brin.
To avoid being off topic:
Startide Rising by David Brin.
"There are two kinds of old men in the world. The kind who didn't go to war and who say that they should have lived fast died young and left a handsome corpse and the old men who did go to war and who say that there is no such thing as a handsome corpse."
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Re: What are you reading right now?
I am currently starting on "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck. Just finished Inkheart and Inkdeath(great books!)
Thank you President Bush
Ask not what wesnoth can do for you, but what you can do for wesnoth.-cobra
Ask not what wesnoth can do for you, but what you can do for wesnoth.-cobra
- Elvish_Pillager
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Re: What are you reading right now?
Finished Black Trillium about a week ago. It wasn't as good on the second reading, or maybe my standards for fantasy novels have gone up. I started on the sequel Blood Trillium, which is still quite nice.
(Black Trillium was written by three people: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton. Each of the three wrote a sequel: Lady of the Trillium, Blood Trillium, and Golden Trillum respectively. I haven't read Golden Trillium, but I have read Lady of the Trillium, and it did not really continue the original story.)
(Black Trillium was written by three people: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May, and Andre Norton. Each of the three wrote a sequel: Lady of the Trillium, Blood Trillium, and Golden Trillum respectively. I haven't read Golden Trillium, but I have read Lady of the Trillium, and it did not really continue the original story.)
It's all fun and games until someone loses a lawsuit. Oh, and by the way, sending me private messages won't work. :/ If you must contact me, there's an e-mail address listed on the website in my profile.
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Re: What are you reading right now?
Just got done reading 1984 and Brave New World (rather interesting, to say the least).
Reading:
Strategy & Tactics of the great generals and their battles
Reading:
Strategy & Tactics of the great generals and their battles
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British statesman and philosopher
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
Friedrich Nietzsche
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British statesman and philosopher
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
Friedrich Nietzsche