Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sun Mar 22, 2015 6:57 pm
The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter
the sequel to The Time Machine. Quite good I found and ultimately depressing. The vision of the future and the Traveller ultimately staying in 802,471 forever. And yet all throughout quite solidly pictured Rod Taylor. And in spite of descriptions, Baxter's talking Morlock was pictured as in the film. Grim all the same.
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Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:52 pm
,
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Largo's Shark 00 Agent
Posts : 10588 Member Since : 2011-03-14
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sun Aug 02, 2015 1:40 pm
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Salomé Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3303 Member Since : 2011-03-17
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sun Aug 02, 2015 3:02 pm
Erica Ambler wrote:
One Shot by Lee Child
One of the things that no one talks about in publishing is that the last thing you want to do in your free time is read or write. I needed something to get me back into the habit and the Jack Reacher books are so far removed from 'self-improving literature' that I thought they might fit the bill. One Shot turns out to be a penny dreadful. Not as bad as the 'works' of Dan Brown, but getting there. To my surprise, the recent Tom Cruise film adaptation is a slight improvement in that it takes three shit female characters from the book and distills them into one. She's still shit, but then what d'you expect from Rosamund Pike?
I once read the very first Jack Reacher novel, "Killing Floor".
I found it incredibly dull.
The problem (imho) is that his protagonist is so "skilled" that he becomes near invincible, thus rendering any potential suspense a non-starter.
The one female character of note (a local police officer who falls for him) was instantly forgettable, as I recall.
SarahN Universal Exports
Posts : 92 Member Since : 2015-03-21 Location : For it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass.
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sun Aug 02, 2015 7:52 pm
Reachers are hardly read for their memorable characters, they are Superman comics for types who don't want to be seen with a comic; the ones who consider themselves 'manly' - after a fashion.
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Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sun Aug 02, 2015 8:31 pm
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Blunt Instrument 00 Agent
Posts : 6210 Member Since : 2011-03-20 Location : Propping up the bar
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:26 pm
Solo by William Boyd - as middling an effort as Deaver's Carte Blanche, really. There are occasional flashes of the Bond we know and love, but it's not enough.
Gravity's Silhouette Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3994 Member Since : 2011-04-15 Location : Inside my safe space
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:06 am
THE SNOW MAN by Jo Nesbo
I'm halfway through it now. Why this book? Well, there's a movie coming out:
I like Fassbender. I like Rebecca Fergsuson (she's actually an actress I would go pay to see; liked her in The White Queen, Life, and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation). It's filmed almost entirely in Norway, so it has comitted the setting of the book and Norway is one of my favorite countries.
And if you liked any of the "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" books/films, then this might be of interest.
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 00 Agent
Posts : 8477 Member Since : 2010-05-12 Location : Strawberry Fields
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Wed Aug 02, 2017 12:30 pm
Thanks for sharing Grav. I've been keen to see the trailer - looks great. How's the book?
Gravity's Silhouette Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3994 Member Since : 2011-04-15 Location : Inside my safe space
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Thu Aug 03, 2017 7:41 am
FieldsMan wrote:
Thanks for sharing Grav. I've been keen to see the trailer - looks great. How's the book?
It's okay. It hasn't grabbed me from the the first page like GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO did, but it's not boring. Will see where it leads.
Gravity's Silhouette Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3994 Member Since : 2011-04-15 Location : Inside my safe space
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Tue Aug 08, 2017 5:51 am
Gravity's Silhouette wrote:
FieldsMan wrote:
Thanks for sharing Grav. I've been keen to see the trailer - looks great. How's the book?
It's okay. It hasn't grabbed me from the the first page like GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO did, but it's not boring. Will see where it leads.
Finished the book. I'd give it 2 stars. It never really makes an impact like GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. The plot is way too convoluted. Maybe I'm just missing something, but I don't see what the big deal is.
In fact, just based on the trailer, it appears the filmmakers are making changes to the storyline that aren't found in the novel; so maybe they've decided as well that at least the last third of the story needs to be rewritten. Val Kilmer is in the movie, but IMDB is not listing his role, so I'm curious as to who, or what, he's playing in the movie. Changing the identity of the killer might also be beneficial, as I don't think this book's killer has the motivation properly laid out.
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 00 Agent
Posts : 8477 Member Since : 2010-05-12 Location : Strawberry Fields
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:29 am
Hopefully the film has improved on the novel then Grav.
I'm almost done with a book called The Wedding Officer, by Anthony Capella. It's interesting enough but there doesn't seem to be a lot happening beyond what's written, despite being a book for about 400 pages. Compared to Hemingway's remarkable and remarkably short novel Across The River and Into The Trees, it's full of fantastic prose which stays with you after reading it, wondering about what's not being said, but suggested. Also, The Wedding Officer, which was first published about 10 years ago, retains strong leftist overtones politics which becomes all too visible in the final chapters on the lead female's journey. The sensationalisation of communism is infuriating, which I only hope is fixed by the book's end (and the only way I can see that happening is by the man character slapping* some sense into his girlfriend).
*Not literally, Clementine.
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Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:21 pm
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Salomé Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3303 Member Since : 2011-03-17
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:18 pm
"Station Eleven" and "The Singer's Gun" by Emily St. John Mandel
I have to say that whilst I wouldn't call either book bad, I was a tiny bit underwhelmed, especially in the latter.
Which isn't to say that St. John Mandel isn't talented, but she might need some more time before her talent truly blossoms into a great novel.
"Station Eleven" is getting a movie adaptation. It's a movie-friendly story, albeit in a recently overused genre (post-apocalyptic fiction).
Hilly Administrator
Posts : 8059 Member Since : 2010-05-13
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:01 pm
Well, I suppose mine was pedestrian but The Tower by Richard Martin Stern. One of the two books the Towering Inferno was based on. Was largely struck by the links to September 11, chiefly the fire itself but also the use of the North (WTC) Tower for the rescue. Book has a definite down end compared to the film.
Moved onto a 'Tom Clancy' book, one of those written by other authors but touted as Tom Clancy's so and so. Jack Ryan's finest days are far behind him.
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Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:59 pm
mn
Last edited by Erica Ambler on Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
Gravity's Silhouette Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3994 Member Since : 2011-04-15 Location : Inside my safe space
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Fri Jan 12, 2018 6:04 am
Since The Snowman, I've read: Antarktos Rising (Robinson, Jeremy), Death In The City of Light (Kings, David) and Inner Circle, The (Metzler, Brad)
Currently reading The Emperor of Ocean Park (Carter, Stephen A.) and Storm of Swords (Martin, George R.R.)
Nothing has really jumped out at me. All have been fair to good, but nothing excellent so far.
Gravity's Silhouette Potential 00 Agent
Posts : 3994 Member Since : 2011-04-15 Location : Inside my safe space
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Fri Jan 12, 2018 6:12 am
These are the books I've read in the past two years that I have rated as Excellent (Five Stars):
Four Voyages of Columbus (Bergree, Laurence) Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates (Kilmeade, Brian) Vertical Run (Joseph Garber) Lost City of Z (David Gann) Africans In America (Charles Johnson and Patricia Smith) Perfect Murder, Perfect Town (Laurence Schiller) Goerings List (JC Pollock) Defending Jacob (William Landay) Game of Thrones (George Martin) Clash of Kings (George Martin) American Lion (John Meacham) Dust (Charles Pelligrino)
Hilly Administrator
Posts : 8059 Member Since : 2010-05-13
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:32 pm
The Quiller Memorandum (originally The Berlin Memorandum), Adam Hall (actually Elleston Trevor)
for one, Trevor seemed to have written under at least six if not more aliases including his real name of Trevor Dudley-Smith. Quiller is no exception, the first of a score of books as Adam Hall and featuring the eponymous spy. I first read it in 2012, must be the only book I got out back then from the library that's still there. I've seen the film in the intervening years quite a few times and thus, the film did a good enough job from a book that is as complex as the film became. The quote on the back says he's up there with Ambler and others, perhaps he is. Quiller is far removed from Bond, even the Fleming Bond and probably somewhere close to Len Deighton's Unnamed Spy. He has his foibles, he has his strengths and is intelligent to the point of a tad big headed. Or he's just clever. Though I've seen the film, I couldn't picture Segal as Quiller -actually had Richard Todd in my mind reading it. Inga, played by the delectable Senta Berger, is here much more Nazified (apparently having been a child in the Fuhrerbunker as the end came, the daughter of a nurse on the bunker staff) -after she has deceived and taken in Quiller.
I might seek out other Hall/Trevor's one day. Only read his Flight of the Phoenix (though I have The Big Pickup somewhere in my pile -the basis of 1958's Dunkirk).
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Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Wed Mar 07, 2018 10:12 pm
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Kath 'R'
Posts : 354 Member Since : 2017-12-22
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:51 am
The Mask of Dimitrios
I am still somewhere in the middle of Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is my Business and Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op respectively.
I think I am developing a book problem, meaning I have much more new books than time to read them... I've just ordered Trigger Mortis two days ago. I hadn't known before that it's supposed to contain material of Fleming. And, let's face it, I would buy every shopping list Fleming ever wrote.
Control 00 Agent
Posts : 5206 Member Since : 2010-05-13 Location : Slumber, Inc.
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sat Mar 10, 2018 7:40 am
Kath wrote:
The Mask of Dimitrios
I'm just about finished with Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights."
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Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sat Mar 10, 2018 11:40 am
x
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Blunt Instrument 00 Agent
Posts : 6210 Member Since : 2011-03-20 Location : Propping up the bar
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:00 pm
Last was Plague City, a Doctor Who novel set in Edinburgh during, yes, the time when the Plague was greatly affecting the city and 'starring' the Capaldi/Mackie/Lucas Tardis crew.
Am currently 'on' a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories.
Kath 'R'
Posts : 354 Member Since : 2017-12-22
Subject: Re: Last Book That You Read- Fiction Sat Mar 10, 2018 6:15 pm
Controll wrote:
I'm just about finished with Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights."
Do you recommend it?
Erica Ambler wrote:
Make sure you return it to her.
Erica Ambler wrote:
Charles Latimer returns in The Intercom Conspiracy, which is about an alcoholic editor who gets caught up in Something He Shouldn't. My favourite of Uncle Eric's books for some reason.
Thank you for the recommendation! I had decided to complete the Colonel Haki trilogy. So I have ordered Epitath for a Spy some weeks ago...I will definitely add that to my list.
Am I the only one who has a feeling that Grodek's Siamese cats may have been forerunners of Blofeld's Persian cat? The only cat-owner in Fleming's novels is Goldfinger and that does not end well.
Blunt Instrument wrote:
Last was Plague City, a Doctor Who novel set in Edinburgh during, yes, the time when the Plague was greatly affecting the city and 'starring' the Capaldi/Mackie/Lucas Tardis crew. Am currently 'on' a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories.
Does it feature the Mary King's Close, a subterranean quarter right under the Royal Mile of Edinburgh? It was abandoned because of the Plague. And that wouldn't be the first book to attract tourists to the place (there's a novel of Ian Ranking which title has escaped me). Naturally, you can also buy those books at various gift shops. At least this was the case some years ago...