What BOOK(s) are you reading?

Nice! I’m plowing through #2. Everything is going horribly for everyone and it is deliciously painful.

Even in fantasy stories, apparently, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Steel Beach, by John Varley. The first sentence of the book is notorious and unforgettable (google it), but the whole book is an interesting and philosophical science-fiction satire. I read it once back in the early '90s when it came out, but it holds up great for a modern re-read.

Mongrels was quite good, thanks for the rec. A very good take on werewolves, reminds me a lot of Robert McCammon's The Wolf's Hour so much I'm surprised he didn't give it a nod in the credits. It is told with very temporally disjointed sequences and has a highly unreliable narrator effect as well, so take that into account. Being a southern boy and married to a NA girl from the southwest, there is a lot I recognize in this story, even though he keeps the racial element pretty vague. It's VERY easy to read in your own politics, racial bias, socioeconomics, etc into stuff like this and I think the author is pretty deft at telling, but not lecturing, the reader about it. I wish we got more of the end narrative, the books feels like a lot of build up without a big payoff but its very much a "journey not the destination" type thing.

This is a book that could easily become a sort of Werewolf Necronomicon in other stories, since it reads like a thinly coded primer of how to be a proper werewolf like the eldritch tomes conveniently found in countless pulp horror stories. I wonder if this is the niche this author is pursuing, hope so. He's done a decent job at grounding werewolves into a sort of a realistic framework, kinda like how the film Near Dark treated vampires.

The Gilded Ones, YA African fantasy. The plot is vaguely hero’s journey (but, refreshingly, subverts it in places). The writing and characterization are very good, and the setting is a great change of pace from standard fantasy fare.

I have wandered into How the War Was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II by Phillips Payson O'Brien, which is likely a mistake. It's 654 pages regarding ultra-high level strategy, as in "allocation of aluminum ingots" level strategy of the various players in the war.

Years back I read Shattered Sword on the battle of Midway and one of the take-aways was that the U.S. business process for carrier warfare was far more refined than the Japanese, and that it made a difference in a battle where one could argue the Japanese brought the better equipment by a fair margin. This got me thinking about business process in warfare, and I've been moving in that direction ever since. Give up reading yet? Alright, I'll summarize.

O'Brien more or less argues that none of the land battles anywhere in the war were of any importance whatsoever. The war was won on the sea, and in the air, and in factories. All other factors are of so little consequence that they may as well have not even occurred.

I'm about fifty pages in (and the Kindle sample is plenty long for anyone looking for a free intro) and he's making quite a case for it. I don't know if there's another 600 pages of material worth reading, but I guess I'll find out.

This is the equivalent of the argument that the most important civil war commander was Winfield Scott. Once the Anaconda plan was decided on the south was done.

Sagrilarus wrote: O'Brien more or less argues that none of the land battles anywhere in the war were of any importance whatsoever. The war was won on the sea, and in the air, and in factories. All other factors are of so little consequence that they may as well have not even occurred.

Certainly logistics are key and air power became ascendant, but I'd very much doubt that the US/Aussies could have stopped Japanese expansion throughout Asia without engaging in a single land battle. Taking those islands was key and then of course there was China.

Same with Europe. Had German sat tight on Western Europe and not engaged Russia then they probably could have done enough to defuse the bomber threat and pummeled Britain with V2s or whatever to get a decent peace settlement, at least until nukes were on the table. But land invasion was elemental in both weakening Germany and ultimately defeating them.

It's kinda like blitz/rush in football. They aren't the most common plays and even more rarely achieve anything, but the THREAT of it dictates the game in many ways.

It all sounds like a ‘Colonel Berman’ moment to me.

jason10mm wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote: O'Brien more or less argues that none of the land battles anywhere in the war were of any importance whatsoever. The war was won on the sea, and in the air, and in factories. All other factors are of so little consequence that they may as well have not even occurred.

Certainly logistics are key and air power became ascendant, but I'd very much doubt that the US/Aussies could have stopped Japanese expansion throughout Asia without engaging in a single land battle. Taking those islands was key and then of course there was China.

Same with Europe. Had German sat tight on Western Europe and not engaged Russia then they probably could have done enough to defuse the bomber threat and pummeled Britain with V2s or whatever to get a decent peace settlement, at least until nukes were on the table. But land invasion was elemental in both weakening Germany and ultimately defeating them.

It's kinda like blitz/rush in football. They aren't the most common plays and even more rarely achieve anything, but the THREAT of it dictates the game in many ways.

This sounds like an ideal book for you to spend your hard earned money on. It’s quite interesting, quite well reasoned.

So I asked about Alliance-Union titles awhile back, and got crickets from you guys. I read all your science fiction reviews here while I'm looking for Medieval History recs and that's fine, but I just asked about something in your all's wheelhouse and I get crickets? C'MON PEOPLE.

Merchanter's Luck? What should I be looking for in this universe? #AlRoseBetterPutOut

I am trying to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell for like the fifth time. I've gotten farther than ever, page 545, because I took it camping for 11 days. The book is dark, pervasive, immersive and I'm at the point where everything is starting to crumble and the boundaries between this life and the world of the Fae is slowly tearing apart, and there is thick dread in the air.

CranBerries wrote: I am trying to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell for like the fifth time. I've gotten farther than ever, page 545, because I took it camping for 11 days. The book is dark, pervasive, immersive and I'm at the point where everything is starting to crumble and the boundaries between this life and the world of the Fae is slowly tearing apart, and there is thick dread in the air.

I finished it, and was delighted by how the pieces came together, prophesies fulfilled, etc. even though it took about three books to get there.

So now I'm reading the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. It's about a hilariously pessimistic security robot made of cloned organic body parts, armor, weapons, etc. who is bored by or hates humans and is also a killing machine. I've read the first two slim volumes and am starting the third. The first book won all the prizes--I don't know how I missed it.

“So, I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m wounded and one of my organic parts may fall off and plop on the floor at any moment and no one wants to see that.”
― Martha Wells, All Systems Red

“I don't know what I want. I said that at some point, I think. But it isn't that, it's that I don't want anyone to tell me what I want, or to make decisions for me.”
― Martha Wells, All Systems Red

Downbelow Station. Part 2 just dropped. I'm telling you, you guys are missing out. graphicaudio.net.

John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces reads a lot different today than it did even the six of seven years ago when I first read it. Then there was still something pathetic about Ignatius’ crayon screeds scrawled into the void of his Big Chief tablets that balanced his hatefulness and intolerance. Today the Facebook algorithm would be pushing his posts all the way to the top.

Over 400 pages there is only the faintest wisp of a plot, the dialogue is repetitive and every character shares in Ignatius’ worst traits to some degree, but it still works for me. The prose is superb, and at least every conversation has at least one line that’s worth reading a second time to realize it was that good. I love that it’s spite for Myrna Minkoff that inspires his formation of a revolutionary union and secret subversion of the world’s militaries.

It’s not an easy read, but there’s precious little like it.