vodkafan

Welcome to my 2017 reading experience, Like last year, no reading challenges just a mass of books on my TBR to get through. Reviews are found buried in the following pages: sorry if that is confusing to anybody, I haven't mastered the link thingy yet. Last year was a funny year for reading; my mojo disappeared down a rabbit hole. It may have had a lot to do with my kindle dying and I never got around to buying another one. I intend to do better this year. (k) denotes kindle ebook ® denotes book read primarily for research purposes keeping the same simple rating system this year: 1/5: I didn't like it 2/5: It was okay 3/5: I liked it 4/5: I really liked it 5/5: It was amazing! Books Read in 2017 January The Paris Enigma Pablo de Santis 5/5 Snobbery With Violence MC Beaton 2/5 The Watcher Jane Palmer 2/5 Outsiders Study in the sociology of deviance Howard S. Becker 3/5 Close to Critical Hal Clement 2/5 Ports Of Call Jack Vance 4/5 February Lurulu Jack Vance (re-read) 3/5 Night Lamp Jack Vance 5/5 Medusa's Children Bob Shaw 2/5 Space Opera Jack Vance 3/5 March Maske: Thaery Jack Vance 5/5 Dead In The Morning Margaret Yorke 2/5 The Secret Of Annexe 3 Colin Dexter 2/5 April Songs Of The Dying Earth Anthology 5/5 Lies We Tell Ourselves Robin Talley 4/5 A Gull On The Roof Derek Tangye 3/5 Gone Tomorrow Lee Child 2/5 Killing Floor Lee Child 2/5 The 100 Kass Morgan 1/5 May Necropolis London and its dead Catharine Arnold 4/5 Mrs Jeffries Reveals Her Art Emily Brightwell 3/5 The 100 Day 21 Kass Morgan 1/5 StirFry Emma Donoghue 3/5 Man Walking On Eggshells Herbert Simmons 3/5 The Red Badge Of Courage Stephen Crane 3/5 The Houses Of Iszm Jack Vance 4/5 June Shooting Victoria Paul Thomas Murphy 4/5 The Sealed Letter Emma Donoghue 5/5 Heap House Edward Carey 5/5 July Foulsham Edward Carey 3/5 From Outside In (Anthology) edited by Nushin Arbabzadah 3/5 August The Art Of Being Normal 2/5 Lisa Williamson Inverted World 3/5 Christopher Priest In Search Of Shroedinger's Cat 3/5 John Gribbin September The Man From Maybe 3/5 Leo P Kelly The Housekeeper's Tale The women who really ran the English Country House 5/5 Tessa Boase Time And Time Again 4/5 Ben Elton Over A Hot Stove 2/5 Flo Wadlow Servants 3/5 Sarah Lethbridge Why Do People Hate America? 4/5 Ziauddin Sardar, Merryl Wyn Davies Guardian Of The Horizon (Amelia Peabody #16) 3/5 Sarah Peters November The Time Traders 2/5 Andre Norton December The Girl In The Spider's Web 3/5 David Lagercrantz

Thanks! I watched another full-length Japanese anime called Appleseed which I found in a charity shop. The animation was actually CGI, so a bit like Final Fantasy in the imagery. The story was OK.

The woman at work reckons Patriots V. Packers for the SuperBowl

Well we have Rugby football too, which is the sort of parent game of American football, although the US version has evolved into a somewhat different tactical game... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football a woman at my place of work is a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

Welcome, dreadnaught! When you say the usual dystopian suspects did that include The Handmaid's Tale? If you haven't read that one I recommend it. Most of the interesting Cyber Punk stuff I have read lately was all YA, but unfortunately my kindle busted a while back so I can't recall any titles.

Hi Patch we have a few published authors on here. What sort of genres do you like to read for your own enjoyment?

Welcome! Nice to have a ninja on the forum...

Hi shades, what books you like?

Haha that was funny chaliepud. In 3 years time he will probably be fascinated watching Jennifer Lawrence putting on a spacesuit....Passengers was on my list to watch but I missed it at the cinema...is it good? The trailer didn't seem to hint at much of a story...I don't mind the romance, after all The Abyss had a romance at heart.

Hardcore Henry. The first film ever shot in First Person. So you never saw the main character's face until near the end when it was visible in a mirror. It was insane and very violent but also funny.

It didn't seem to bother Mr Rochester too much! I will check out the Professor, I was not aware of that one thanks

I did like the concept. I can't get emotionally attached to a cartoon though, and I find a lot of anime questionable (for instance there are often "adult" themes, but the protagonists are often little girls) so I don't like the genre in itself. Looking forward to this film though, there is always room for intelligent SF

I saw the Anime version of Ghost In The Shell. The concept is fantastic and very thought provoking but it was hard watching a cartoon all the way through. I am hoping the live action version will be this century's Blade Runner. If they don't mess it up. You can see the trailer for the upcoming film here:

Ah yes there is that. Even I enjoy seeing Tennant on screen. I felt he brought a bit of manic edginess to Dr Who.

You did? Which one(s)? Are you a fan?

I am halfway through writing my first SF novel too. Not done any for a while! Good luck with yours.

Hi Trevor welcome! Read any Jack Vance?

That is interesting. I am surprised Bill Bryson didn't mention that in his books about language and place names. I don't think the ACW got up that far so I wonder if it had something to do with the earlier French/Indian war in the 18th century.

Anything by Jack Vance. His Demon Princes series (5 novels) have lots of zipping about in space ships to different planets and having adventures, as has the Araminta Station series and the Alastor Cluster books . The Planet of Adventure series (4 books) is set on one planet with 4 different alien races and their human slaves on it. All of these are good reading.

I am now...you got me interested in the plot premise.

Hi Angury, you obviously have a deep interest in this whole subject and have read impressively...I hope you are not disappointed by the TV dramatisation of this interesting person. It is bound to be a bit of a snapshot and have a bit of an angle on his personality to suit the plot.

As you say, looks like the trail is stone cold. Nothing comes up on google except this thread! Maybe the whole site has been suppressed, who knows...you said you read some, what was the book about ?

There is a similar situation in the interesting relationship between ZAP210 and Reith in The Pnume by Jack Vance. But it is the last one in a series of four books (Planet Of Adventure) and it won't make much sense unless you read them all. Reith is an Earth spaceman lost on the planet Tschai, which is inhabited by four different alien races and their human slaves. He is forced to desperate measures. Another similar relationship in Slaves Of The Klau by the same author.

Sweet Thames 5/5 Matthew Neale This book was fantastic. I really enjoyed it and lost myself in the pages. It is the sort of book that makes me jealous. It was such a good well crafted story, with the characters having proper arcs which change them irrevocably.

And that's just the first one....