October Reading Thread

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dask said:
Anyone know what matrilated means or what word Carl Jacobi might have been striving for?
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This might sound like I'm making a poor joke, but if you can't find the word elsewhere, it's a possibility, depending on Jacobi's personality. It could be a made up word derived from "matri" (mother) and "latte" (milk), as in a dome whose shape suggests, er, well you get the idea.
 
HareBrain said:
This might sound like I'm making a poor joke, but if you can't find the word elsewhere, it's a possibility, depending on Jacobi's personality. It could be a made up word derived from "matri" (mother) and "latte" (milk), as in a dome whose shape suggests, er, well you get the idea.
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If I remember right, that was the era where a cat was described as a ball-bearing rat trap in order to tweak the nose of the editors/censors.
 
Randy M. said:
If I remember right, that was the era where a cat was described as a ball-bearing rat trap in order to tweak the nose of the editors/censors.
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Mumbles rocks, which I can see from my house. I don't think this was was a conscious attempt to escape the censor, but Mumbles, which is also the name of the adjacent village, is a corruption of the French word Mamilles, as these rocks vaguely resemble a pair of breasts, if you are very drunk on a foggy night, or a hormonal sailor about to land for the first time since sailing from Chile.
 
Currently on three books, Re-Birding Britain by Benedict MacDonald looking at why we are so poor in wildlife compared to Europe - mix of history and science - and what he thinks should be done about it which is quite radical to my mind and also critical of small nature reserves and some conservationists - a dense read.

When Elephants Weep Jeffrey Mason and Susan McCarthy - published in 1997 and putting the case for animal emotions as well as intelligence, back when the scientific world was more hostile to what was labelled anthropomorphism. Another quite dense read but the discussion of the data and the logic is beautiful. What is not widely known these days, is that Darwin published about animal emotions and intelligence.

Martha Wells The Cloud Roads - the first book of the Raksura. I like her Murderbot so thought I'd give this a whirl. So far inventive fantasy, a little dark without the leavening that you get in Murderbot. About a quarter of the way through.
 
Beatrix & Fred by Emily Spur.
Strange and not my usual thing, but I liked it. :giggle:
 
I’m reading Black Rednecks & White Liberals by Thomas Sowell. It’s a few years old now, but still very relevant (and controversial) regarding race and social issues, and thought provoking.
 
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold was pretty decent overall. It feels more dated than Le Carre's later works - the endless mentions of "pansies" and "queers" makes me wonder if the author had some personal "issues" at the time - but it's well-told and interesting, without the annoying stylistic pretentions of some of Le Carre's later books. It's also short, and large chunks of it are just dialogue. It has some interesting things to say about the grand designs and inhumanity of Communism, and the callousness of espionage. Quite good.
 
I've just finished reading Hunters Of Dune and Sandworms Of Dune By Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert.
These two books follow on from Chapterhouse Dune (Frank herbert's last Dune book before he died) and I although I read them a few years back, I wanted to do so again just to see if and how my opinion might have changed over that time.

It was a bit of a mixed bag. First, the two authors don't try to mimic Frank Herbert's style and for that they should be commended. The problem is that their writing style is not the Dune style that us fans are familiar with. The chapters follow similar formatting to Frank's original in that they are preceded by sayings, quatations etc. from characters within the Dune universe. The story itself lacks something and I struggle to find the right words to describe what I mean. Whereas Frank's Dune was nuanced and convoluted, this version is, for want of a better word, linear. Part of the problem relates to a pet hate of mine - backstory. Often authors decide if they have a successful novel, to expand on this and nine times out of ten (for me) it just doesn't work.

Let me try and explain myself. In Frank's Dune, there are references to the machine wars, the Butlerian Jihad and the origin of Mentats. In these last two books, many of the characters go about their business fretting over this great unknown enemy. Conversely, we, the readers, know exactly who this enemy is. That's a problem because when it comes to the big reveal, there is no big reveal.

Next, the thinking machines themselves. As backstory, they lurk menacingly within history and explain a lot about the present incarnation of the empire but, deployed as an actual approaching menace, the metamorphosis is complete and they become the stereotypical man versus robots story. A cliche.

Let me draw a parallel. Most of us just don't look very good naked. Actual real physical beauty is very rare (and I sit proudly looking down from within the branches of the ugly tree). Clothing, however, can hide a multitude of sins. And this is the problem with Dune. With the known universe naked, we see it as just another bloated, liverspot ridden plodding storyline of humans versus technology.

The ending, I thought, was poor and reminded me of the end of Metropolis (head and heart combined - read the book or watch the movie if you want to know what I mean).

That all being said, they're not bad books but they're not brilliant either. I'd describe them as workmanlike.

This was my second visit to these two novels and I don't think there will be a third.
 
Foxbat said:
I've just finished reading Hunters Of Dune and Sandworms Of Dune By Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert.
These two books follow on from Chapterhouse Dune (Frank herbert's last Dune book before he died) and I although I read them a few years back, I wanted to do so again just to see if and how my opinion might have changed over that time.

It was a bit of a mixed bag. First, the two authors don't try to mimic Frank Herbert's style and for that they should be commended. The problem is that their writing style is not the Dune style that us fans are familiar with. The chapters follow similar formatting to Frank's original in that they are preceded by sayings, quatations etc. from characters within the Dune universe. The story itself lacks something and I struggle to find the right words to describe what I mean. Whereas Frank's Dune was nuanced and convoluted, this version is, for want of a better word, linear. Part of the problem relates to a pet hate of mine - backstory. Often authors decide if they have a successful novel, to expand on this and nine times out of ten (for me) it just doesn't work.

Let me try and explain myself. In Frank's Dune, there are references to the machine wars, the Butlerian Jihad and the origin of Mentats. In these last two books, many of the characters go about their business fretting over this great unknown enemy. Conversely, we, the readers, know exactly who this enemy is. That's a problem because when it comes to the big reveal, there is no big reveal.

Next, the thinking machines themselves. As backstory, they lurk menacingly within history and explain a lot about the present incarnation of the empire but, deployed as an actual approaching menace, the metamorphosis is complete and they become the stereotypical man versus robots story. A cliche.

Let me draw a parallel. Most of us just don't look very good naked. Actual real physical beauty is very rare (and I sit proudly looking down from within the branches of the ugly tree). Clothing, however, can hide a multitude of sins. And this is the problem with Dune. With the known universe naked, we see it as just another bloated, liverspot ridden plodding storyline of humans versus technology.

The ending, I thought, was poor and reminded me of the end of Metropolis (head and heart combined - read the book or watch the movie if you want to know what I mean).

That all being said, they're not bad books but they're not brilliant either. I'd describe them as workmanlike.

This was my second visit to these two novels and I don't think there will be a third.
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Very helpful and even-handed review, thanks.
 
Between other things I'm also now re-reading Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome. Terrific stuff, of course, and so very English, which warms this emigrant's heart. I'm not sure how long it is since I read this, but it was probably while I was at Uni, or just before then, which would make it mumblemumbleyears ago.
 
The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
A mostly historical fiction novel with a bit of time-travel (sort of). Interesting concept, terrible execution: Too much irrelevant extraneous text which should have been left out; an info-dumpy-tell-rather-than-show "letter" that covers a large portion of Part 3 (which was the most interesting part of the book); verbose writing style; and a disjointed format that comes across as three separate stories stuffed into one book with a few common characters and elements that vaguely interact. As a supposed time-travel story, I found the novel disappointing.​
 
The 2001 Penguin Classics edition of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.

I'm assuming the Penguin Classic edition prints the novel the same way it was originally printed i.e. apparently Walpole doesn't know about punctuation (especially speech marks):eek: or punctuation wasn't invented in 1764:rolleyes:, because this edition of the novel doesn't have any. It's just walls and walls of text (no spaces either), which my glazed over. At page 50 (of 100) I needed to find another, more legible, copy. The Open Road Media edition has speech marks, exclamation points, question marks, spaces and indents (thank you, editors!), which was so much more pleasant to read.

Anyway, the story is overly melodramatic (I found it funny, I don't think it was supposed to be?); has pacing issues (to be honest, it's just badly written); has a giant enchanted helmet that randomly appears :eek:(no explanation given, but the reader can assume that Alfonso is a bit pissed off with Manfred's family) to crush some poor bugger to death; a whole lot of events that reminds me too much of Shakespeare (except Shakespeare has the decency to kill off all the annoying people!); some influences from historic events; and a terribly written rhyming prophecy (if you want decent prophecies, go read Tolkien!), all mashed together into approximately 100 pages. This is considered the first Gothic novel - it has ghosts, mysterious events, a castle wedged between monasteries, lots of swooning women, knights in shining armour, some supernatural events, and off course, a bunch of wretched people.

​
 
Stephen Palmer said:
@Elentarri
stephenpalmersf.wordpress.com

The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak

There is a lot to admire in this brand new book about the Neanderthals, and a few things to dislike. I’m still not quite sure what to make of it. Positives first… The author is renowned…
stephenpalmersf.wordpress.com stephenpalmersf.wordpress.com
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I enjoyed your review and share your scepticism of his apparent certainty about the life and society of these almost-humans, about which we know so littte.

I urge anyone who wants to get a feel for how the lives of Neanderthals might have been to read Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear. Although this novel is often dismissed, it is both unromantic and meticulously researched, and it brings plausible differences between H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens into sharp focus. Amongst other things it suggests that interbreeding took place, long before this was confirmed by genetic research. Although I read this book 25 years ago, the impression it gave of life in the time of the glaciers stays with me.
 
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Bick said:
Between other things I'm also now re-reading Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome. Terrific stuff, of course, and so very English, which warms this emigrant's heart. I'm not sure how long it is since I read this, but it was probably while I was at Uni, or just before then, which would make it mumblemumbleyears ago.
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I find it perplexing that anyone should have enjoyed this book, which I was forced to read as a 12-year-old schoolgirl. o_O But you are not alone: my partner and his (late) father found it pants-wettingly funny, and partner has read me the choicest bits, then been rather crestfallen to observe than I am still pan-faced. :giggle:
 
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