TSF Book Club
-
<p>Reading the latest in the Logan MacRae series from Stuart McBride. Really good (as have been all of his books), and finding a plot moving 'Laz' out of Aberdeen into a new environment but then still having Steel and the other regulars come back in is an excellent way to freshen things up.</p>
<p>How no one has turned these books into a TV series I don't know.</p> -
My favourite author meets his best character.<br><br>
RIP Sir Terry<br><br><a class="bbc_url" href="http://m.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11416539">http://m.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11416539</a><br><br><blockquote class="ipsBlockquote"><p>
Author Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66 after a battle with Alzheimer's.<br><br>
The bestselling and much-loved author writer died at home on Thursday, surrounded by his family and with his cat sleeping on his bed, according to a statement which is published in full below.<br><br>
Pratchett's Facebook page was updated to say: "It is with immeasurable sadness that we announce that author Sir Terry Pratchett has died.<br><br>
"The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds. Rest in peace Sir Terry Pratchett."<br><br>
The Discworld writer's death was announced on his Twitter profile.<br><br>
He publicly suffered with posterior cortical atrophy, a variation of Alzheimer's, which he was diagnosed with in 2007.<br><br>
Pratchett wrote over 70 books, including 40 as part of the fantasy Discworld series, and sold over 85 million copies in his lifetime.<br><br>
As soon as news broke of his death broke on Thursday afternoon, his website crashed under the weight of fans wanting to remember the writer.<br><br>
He is survived by his wife Lyn and their daughter Rhianna, who retweeted the messages posted on Pratchett's Twitter feed.<br>
A JustGiving page has been set up in his name, which aims to raise money for the Research Institute for the Care of Older People.<br><br>
Pratchett was also an outspoken supporter of assisted dying. "Rather than let Alzheimer's take me, I would take it," he said in 2010. "I would live my life as ever to the full and die, before the disease mounted its last attack, in my own home, in a chair on the lawn, with a brandy in my hand to wash down whatever modern version of the 'Brompton cocktail' some helpful medic could supply.<br><br>
"And with Thomas Tallis on my iPod, I would shake hands with Death."<br><br>
Last summer, Pratchett was forced to cancel an appearance at The International Discworld Convention, as his Alzheimer's - which he called "the embuggerance" - was "catching up" with him.<br><br>
Pratchett was knighted in 2010, when he decided to forge his own sword out of meteorite.<br><br>
A full statement reads as follows:<br><br>
It is with immeasurable sadness that we announce that author Sir Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66.<br><br>
Larry Finlay, MD at Transworld Publishers: "I was deeply saddened to learn that Sir Terry Pratchett has died. The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds.<br><br>
In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirize this world: he did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention.<br><br>
Terry faced his Alzheimer's disease (an 'embuggerance', as he called it) publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.<br><br>
My sympathies go out to Terry's wife Lyn, their daughter Rhianna, to his close friend Rob Wilkins, and to all closest to him."<br><br>
Terry passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed surrounded by his family on 12th March 2015. Diagnosed with PCA [posterior cortical atrophy] in 2007, he battled the progressive disease with his trademark determination and creativity, and continued to write. He completed his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014, before succumbing to the final stages of the disease.<br><br>
We ask that the family are left undisturbed at this distressing time.</p></blockquote>
<br>
Sonewhere a man with a silly hat is wandering off with a 9 foot skeleton with a scythe wearing a black robe riding a white horse named b inky with a little skeletal rat wearing the same robe sitting on its back too. -
<p>I don't think I saw a mention in here of "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. It's about a kid called Wade who is born sometime later this century. His life is crappy, and so are most other people's, everything is done virtually, from education to leisure, and like everybody else he immerses himself in a vast game called Oasis.</p>
<p>Long story short the creator of Oasis starts a competition that is so massive even corporations get in on trying to win it. To stand any chance you have to know pretty much everything about 1980s popular culture. For those of us who were around then the premise is a fun one and the detail is a real nerdfest full of blasts from my past. I really recommend it.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Anyway the reason I mention it is because I just read today that Spielberg has signed on to direct. So looking forward to this one.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="JC" data-cid="483007" data-time="1427873599">
<div>
<p>I don't think I saw a mention in here of "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. It's about a kid called Wade who is born sometime later this century. His life is crappy, and so are most other people's, everything is done virtually, from education to leisure, and like everybody else he immerses himself in a vast game called Oasis.</p>
<p>Long story short the creator of Oasis starts a competition that is so massive even corporations get in on trying to win it. To stand any chance you have to know pretty much everything about 1980s popular culture. For those of us who were around then the premise is a fun one and the detail is a real nerdfest full of blasts from my past. I really recommend it.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Anyway the reason I mention it is because I just read today that Spielberg has signed on to direct. So looking forward to this one.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>That sounds pretty good , I'll try and get a hold of it.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Am reading Given up for dead by Bill Sloan, its the story of Wake Island the first defeat of the Japanese in world war 2 and an Alamo type last stand for the defenders who despite the odds being massively in the japs favour managed to give them a decent hiding in the process. Its a great read, he dismisses a few of the myths the americans used at the time to rally the country but the facts are pretty amazing. </p> -
<p>JUst finished Army of Thieves by Matthew Reilly, even by his standards this had some real unbelievable BS in it, almost like he is looking for the most outrageous and narrowist of escapes ever! Fast paced pop corn stuff...</p>
-
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
<p>Â </p>
<p>JUst finished Army of Thieves by Matthew Reilly, even by his standards this had some real unbelievable BS in it, almost like he is looking for the most outrageous and narrowist of escapes ever! Fast paced pop corn stuff....</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Â </p>
<p>I'm a slow reader compared to most people but I finished Reilly's The Great Zoo of China within four days. I guess that is a credit to the fact he rushes the story along and drops the whole character development thing. Plus dragons are cool.</p> -
<p>From last year, <strong>THE KID: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams</strong>, by Ben Bradlee Jr.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p><img src="https://41.media.tumblr.com/4646da38c3b0fd2942019cd243659276/tumblr_nmh0stL6IQ1rkoi7zo3_1280.jpg" alt="tumblr_nmh0stL6IQ1rkoi7zo3_1280.jpg"></p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Probably the best sports bio I've ever read. Certainly the most meticulously researched.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Utterly fascinating for me, I grew up in the summers of the 1970s on the Russell wharf, and had several chance encounters with the larger-than-life legend. At the time, his name meant nothing to me. He was gruff and simply known around the wharf as "the American baseball player," even if he was in his 50s at the time and obviously passed his playing days. Years later I was dismayed to learn he wasn't just any baseball player, but "the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived." I was lucky enough to see him a couple more times at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Cooperstown in 1991 & '92, where he was a really big deal in the most exclusive club.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>The book extensively covers his legacy, as a volatile baseball icon, as a world-class angler, as a war hero (WW2 & Korea fighter pilot) and eventually his morbid "immortality" with his head currently bobbing in a cryonic chamber with body parts of strangers.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Most of you, I'm fairly certain, won't read this book, but you should request your library to get in in their stacks.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Of particular interest to me were the connections to NZ. There was no mention of his fishing trips to the Bay of Islands where I saw him, but it does discuss some small NZ curiosities.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>In the early 1960s, just after he'd retired from the game, Williams (a.k.a "Teddy Ballgame," "The Kid," "Teddy Tantrum," "The Splendid Splinter") was hired by Sears department stores to lead a "Ted Williams Sports Advisory Board" that included Edmund Hillary.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p><img src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/f2fe0bfc32f8c90cca98032d79450a93/tumblr_nmh0stL6IQ1rkoi7zo1_540.jpg" alt="tumblr_nmh0stL6IQ1rkoi7zo1_540.jpg"></p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Williams was invited by the NZ Tourist Dep't. to come to NZ and attempt the "big three" (trout, marlin, stag) and broke a record. His record would in-turn be broken and he returned to NZ several times to (unsuccessfully) try to re-claim the record.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p><img src="https://40.media.tumblr.com/654b73fac4189b22729393a66a7ec9a8/tumblr_nmh0stL6IQ1rkoi7zo2_1280.jpg" alt="tumblr_nmh0stL6IQ1rkoi7zo2_1280.jpg"></p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>No mention if there was any connection between Hillary and the Tourist Board invite.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Crazily enough, on his flight returning home to USA from his first NZ trip, he met a fashion model who was doing a photo shoot in Sydney for Vogue. He threw peanuts at her and picked her up without telling her who he was. Their marriage was something of a disaster, but it did produce two children for him, and it's these two kids who took it upon himself to get his head chopped off and dumped into that dark cryonic vault.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Once you've read the book, you'll be forgiven for believing Ted's last will & testament is a contrived forgery to get his head into that chamber.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Related, ESPN Grantland last month produced a short documentary about William's "after-life" titled <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://grantland.com/features/30-for-30-shorts-an-immortal-man/'>"An Immortal Man"</a> that uses Bradlee's book as their cornerstone.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Worth watching if you're interested:</p>
<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://grantland.com/features/30-for-30-shorts-an-immortal-man/'>http://grantland.com/features/30-for-30-shorts-an-immortal-man/</a></p> -
<p>I was browsing through Google Play, looking for free books that might or might not involve tits.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Anyway, I found this book (link below - called <em>Titans</em> by Edward W Robertson)Â and thought a bit of scifi would be a good distraction from the daily grind. I really enjoyed it - like that kind of writing style, and the concept around the main character was quite interesting.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=OS7EAgAAQBAJ'>https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=OS7EAgAAQBAJ</a></p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">
<p>Â </p>
<p>Titans</p>
<div><span>by</span> <span><a class="" href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4121443.Edward_W_Robertson"><span>Edward W. Robertson</span></a> <span>(Goodreads Author)</span> </span></div>
<div><span><span>Titans</span></span> <span><a class="" title="3.52 of 5 stars">3.52 of 5 stars</a></span> <span><span>3.52</span></span> <span> Â· </span> <a class="" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18520859-titans#"><span><span></span></span>rating details</a> <span> Â· </span> <a class="" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18520859-titans#other_reviews"><span>540 ratings</span> </a><span> Â· </span> <a class="" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18520859-titans#other_reviews"><span><span>44</span></span> reviews </a></div>
<div><span>Rob Dunbar is the world's best history professor. And with good reason: he's been alive for three thousand years, keeping his existence a secret since before the days of Athens.<br><br>
But a stranger named Baxter has a better use for Rob's vast expertise. Baxter's looking to found a mining company in the Asteroid Belt. In exchange for Rob's help, he'll try to unravel the mystery o</span> <span>Rob Dunbar is the world's best history professor. And with good reason: he's been alive for three thousand years, keeping his existence a secret since before the days of Athens.<br><br>
But a stranger named Baxter has a better use for Rob's vast expertise. Baxter's looking to found a mining company in the Asteroid Belt. In exchange for Rob's help, he'll try to unravel the mystery of Rob's origin.<br><br>
As they're getting their outfit off the ground, they come under covert attack by HemiCo, a powerful Mars-based corporation. And Rob learns Baxter has a secret of his own--he's not human. He's a highly illegal AI.<br><br>
Developed by HemiCo in the wilds of Mars, the first AI escaped decades ago. They've been fighting a shadow war against their creators ever since. Dragged to Mars, Rob is thrown into the center of the fight--and becomes the unlikely leader of a revolution that will change the course of human history in the stars.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<p>Â </p>
<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18520859-titans'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18520859-titans</a></p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>For 3 worlders that can't get Google Play yet<br>
 </p> -
I just finished the most harrowing WW2 book I have ever read, "Bloodlands" by Timothy Snyder. <br><br>
Unlike most books I read on the subject, this doesn't follow campaigns or battles or grand strategy. Instead, this is the story of the people caught between Stalin and Hitler, mainly the people of Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine. The actual front line fighting is only used as a frame of reference for what was happening behind the lines. <br><br>
Starting in the early 30s and the systematic murder of the Ukraine by organised famine, and Stalin's war on the Kulak; through the invasion and occupation of Poland by the Germans and the soviets; then the german invasion and occupation; through to the "liberation" of these countries by the soviets, and their new regime.<br><br>
I'm not normally one who likes a lot of numbers in my history books, it's normally a lazy way of telling a story. But in this case the numbers of people murdered are the story, and the writer uses them to great effect. When he is giving by day numbers of people shot it's hard to comprehend. <br><br>
It also sheds a lot of light on the Holocaust, particularly the time line, and how it evolved in Nazi policy as the tide of war turned. <br><br>
It's an interesting book. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but it was very interesting -
<p>Makes you understand why they fucking hate each other around those parts so much, eh?</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Anyway, back to the author of <em>Titans</em> who I highlighted above - Edward W Robinson I moved onto another free offering of his on Google Play, the first part of his<i>Breakers </i>series, appropriately titled <em>Breakers</em>.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Basically describes the breakdown of society as a pandemic hits worldwide, with an interesting twist. Each novel in the series tells the story from the viewpoint of two protagonists, swapping between them each chapter. Its a very interesting style of writing that has tones of what he did in <em>Titans</em>.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Anyway, I read the free offering, then decided it was worth buying the trilogy for $3.85, then books 4, 5, and 6 for another $3.85 each. Have now read books 1-3 and am just warmed up on Book 4. Like it a lot.</p> -
<p>My father in law, despite living for years under the soviet regime, and effectively escaping in the 80s, still fucking hates the Germans more. In fact, most Poles do, they fucking hate the Germans. In comparison, despite the awful shit done to them by the Russians, their feelings appear much more tempered (it's hardly love though)</p>
-
<p>I think that's probably a much older thing - Slavic races versus Goths.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>My Dad's lot were from Silesia, sort of where Poland and Germany collide (it has changed hands with different empires and wars) and there was a lot of shit went down with Prussia before they moved out here in the 1800s, just before it became part of the German Empire.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Yet they still consider themselves German and my grandfather spoke German fluently, and only learned English when he started school.</p> -
<p>I am just finishing Shogun . What an excellent book , would thoroughly recommend it to anyone .</p>
-
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="485060" data-time="1428926374">
<div>
<p>I think that's probably a much older thing - Slavic races versus Goths.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>My Dad's lot were from Silesia, sort of where Poland and Germany collide (it has changed hands with different empires and wars) and there was a lot of shit went down with Prussia before they moved out here in the 1800s, just before it became part of the German Empire.</p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>Yet they still consider themselves German and my grandfather spoke German fluently, and only learned English when he started school.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>there have been some fucking fluid borders in that part of the world over the past couple of hundred years</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Cactus Jack" data-cid="485132" data-time="1428987884"><p>
I am just finishing Shogun . What an excellent book , would thoroughly recommend it to anyone .</p></blockquote>
<br>
Can't help but think of Richard Chamberlain though ... -
Hmmmmm. One of my best mates at uni was Polish and he hated Russians far more than the Germans. I remember once going with him to a Polish club. Forgot that I had a German soccer shirt on. Was about to leave, but mate said it was ok. If Id worn a Russian shirt on the other hand....
-
<p>Just finished Peter Hamilton's vast Nights Dawn trilogy. Holy fuck, that is one long fucking story. Too long really. He could easily have cut one book. And talk about a deus ex machina ending as well. 3,600 pages of story, and the whole thing is wrapped up in about 4. </p>
<p>Â </p>
<p>The Commonwealth Saga was much better, because it was only 2 books. This one was a bit of a chore to get through by the end</p>