Last Book That You Read- Fiction

Currently reading Hamlet in Lit.

It has to be my favourite Shakespeare play so far ... not that I have read a lot but out of the ones I have read it is my favourite.

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Oh I am well aware of that.

Already seen it on stage, read it, seen two film versions, a Simpsons parody etc.

So now its a reread and analyse.

My last book was A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald. Great story by one of the best American writers period.

Avarice wrote:

Don't want to spoil it for you, Fae, but everybody dies. Except for Yorick, who turns out to have dunnit.

And Horatio. :D

Something Borrowed by Paul Magrs. Another one of the Bride of Frankenstein running a B&B in Whitby. Something amusing that requires little concentration.

I'm currently reading The Book of Human Skin which got rave reviews. I'm not entirely hooked as yet, though. It's all seeming a bit .... meh.... boring.

Moore wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Moore wrote:

Recently Shock Wave and Flood Tide by Clive Cussler.

Meh. I enjoy his early stuff, but this was rather underwhelming. Enjoyable, yes. But doesn't really come close to the quality of the earlier novels.

ditto. More's the pity being a big Cussler fan.

Top 3 be Raise the Titanic, Deep Six, Vixen 03

perhaps.

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read, Brighton Rock (Graham Greene)

I have to be honest. I have only read the Cussler novels once each and still have a few to go through but have been spreading out my reading of them. I remember Deep Six being quite enjoyable and for some reason I remember enjoying Treasure a lot. Although I must confess I still have not read Raise the Titanic yet (!) or Vixen 03 despite the good reviews.

Cussler reckons Vixen 03 was kind of borrowed for Under Siege though as I've not properly seen the film I can't say. Raise the Titanic just feels unique for some reason. Maybe it's the Titanic angle. First of his I read when I was about nine and I still like reading it oh...well, a long time on.

Kennon wrote:

My last book was A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald. Great story by one of the best American writers period.

Great book. MacDonald is a genius. I just went through Cinnamon Skin and A Purple Place for Dying during the past month.

Probably one of the most underrated writers ever.

Ravenstone wrote:

Avarice wrote:

Don't want to spoil it for you, Fae, but everybody dies. Except for Yorick, who turns out to have dunnit.

And Horatio. :D

Horatio and Hamlet = true Bromance.

Moore wrote:

Kennon wrote:

My last book was A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald. Great story by one of the best American writers period.

Great book. MacDonald is a genius. I just went through Cinnamon Skin and A Purple Place for Dying during the past month.

Probably one of the most underrated writers ever.

Yes, I think so too. Only very little of his work is still in print. Luckily McGee remains with us and younger generations can still discover him. A highlight of the genre and American writing. I find him more engaging than most modern series.

What would you guys say is his best story, and why? Maybe I'll go hunting for one.

I'm not yet through with all the McGees but Nightmare in Pink, Bright Orange for the Shroud, The Green Ripper, A Tan and Sandy Silence, Free Fall in Crimson, Cinnamon Skin and The Lonely Silver Rain are all worth a read. The latter books tend to have a little more continuity, so you might want to stick with the earlier ones. I'm told the arc over the twenty years of McGee's adventures is worth following, so I'm reading the remaining books roughly in order. They have a different timing from most of the current thrillers, really literary in the best sense. It's astounding what kind of quality there was on offer in a typical pulp series. McGee is often compared to Jack Reacher (or rather the other way) but there are really worlds between them.

Fae wrote:

Horatio and Hamlet = true Bromance.

Oh dear. I can see the slash fic now. "Is this a dagger I see before me - or are you just pleased to see me?"

Ravenstone wrote:

Fae wrote:

Horatio and Hamlet = true Bromance.

Oh dear. I can see the slash fic now. "Is this a dagger I see before me - or are you just pleased to see me?"

Lovely.

Gives a whole new meaning to the stage direction "Enter Bottom from behind"

Playback- Raymond Chandler

Okay, but disappointing compared to his other works. Sort of left in dark throughout the entire novel about what his client actually did. When you find out at the very, very end it isn't really anything too exciting.

Currently reading Atlas Shrugged, but don't consider it fiction; more like prophesy.

Also reading John Birmingham's WITHOUT WARNING:



If anyone is interested in a hybrid of genres: military thriller and alternate history, John Birmingham is the writer for you.

The first book of his I read earlier this year, WEAPONS OF CHOICE, was a fast-paced thrill ride that was the most non-politically correct book I've ever read. It imagines a multinational naval task force in 2021 accidentally being transported to the Battle of Midway in 1942. It's a clash of societies, cultures, and technologies. Can't recommend it enough.

WITHOUT WARNING puts forth the question: what would the reaction of the world be if America suddenly vanished.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

It imagines a multinational naval task force in 2021 accidentally being transported to the Battle of Midway in 1942.

Hmmm. I wonder if the author has seen The Final Countdown, in which the USS Nimitz is transported back to 1941 just before Pearl Harbor.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Currently reading Atlas Shrugged, but don't consider it fiction; more like prophesy.

Also reading John Birmingham's WITHOUT WARNING:



If anyone is interested in a hybrid of genres: military thriller and alternate history, John Birmingham is the writer for you.

The first book of his I read earlier this year, WEAPONS OF CHOICE, was a fast-paced thrill ride that was the most non-politically correct book I've ever read. It imagines a multinational naval task force in 2021 accidentally being transported to the Battle of Midway in 1942. It's a clash of societies, cultures, and technologies. Can't recommend it enough.

WITHOUT WARNING puts forth the question: what would the reaction of the world be if America suddenly vanished.

heard about this a while back. Sort of lumped together with Harry Turtledove in this altenate history bracket. Intriguing idea if anything.

Hilly wrote:

heard about this a while back. Sort of lumped together with Harry Turtledove in this altenate history bracket. Intriguing idea if anything.

Have to admit, I read the first sixty or so pages of WEAPONS OF CHOICE, put it down, then came back to it again a few months later and really got into it. The first 100 pages or so are literally a massive naval battle between ships from the future and ships in The Battle of Midway. Not knowing a whole lot about the navy, the attention to detail can be a lot to get through for the newbie pleb.

However, once the initial battle settles down and the Americans from 1942 warily go on board the ships of the Americans from 2021, the book gets really interesting. The "down-timers" (people from 1942) are shocked and appalled to see that the "up-timers" have a large percentage of women, gays, and blacks serving as Captains and Commanders and fighter pilots.

The book was written and released in 2004, but you can more or less figure out what the technology is that the book refers to in 2021 (a flexipad would be more or less an IPad today). It doesn't matter how you envision it, because to people in 1942 none of this is familiar. Everything is an astonishment and wonder. They are amazed, and at times repulsed, to see the way women are talking and conducting themselves (much more free to express themselves sexually than the women of 1942); they are also sickened to find out that the U.S.S. Hillary Clinton is not named after a male president, but a female president (and named so because she was "the greatest wartime president the country had ever seen"; the world is at war with Islam in 2021).

Of course when an entire fleet somehow manages to get sucked into a quantum foam wormhole, not every ship from the future lands in the exact same spot in 1942, and thus the Germans and the Japanese are able to get their hands on 2021 technology, including future-history that tells them, to their sadness, they would lose the war and the Jews would get their own state in 1948.

There's also an interesting subplot about the U.S. government creating a zone especially for all the "up-timers" to live in, because the rest of the country would not be able to handle thousands of gays, lesbians, blacks, whites, and women working together and mingling so easily and freely. On top of that, the U.S. government puts in place patent application protection for products and companies that don't yet exist, but will eventually.

Turtledove is on my list of authors to read, but I probably won't get around to his series of books until early next year.

It certainly sounds like a more fleshed out version of The Final Countdown or at least a different take on it as mentioned above. These kind of things where something is something is put where it's not, the modern tech' and WWII era are always entertaining if done well. Certainly done enough to further sell me on the trilogy :)

Turtledove, well, almost like Cussler he's hit in miss in areas. I started off with him and his four books where aliens invade Earth during WWII then moved onto his South Wins the Civil War (something like 11 books if you count his four seperate series that form the whole saga). I wouldn't hurry to get round to it but he does alright I think. No great author I suppose. One book I want to check out is his "Two Georges" written with Richard Dreyfuss of all people where the War of Independence never happened and America remains part of the Empire.

My two cents as today I finished Bernard Cornwell's The Fort. My first Cornwell. Otherwise I'm limping through a somewhat substandard booklist.

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Avarice wrote:

Lovely avatar, Hilly. Nice to have somewhere to rest my head.

about the only perks Diora Baird has.

I'd die happy I suspect.

I was reading DANIEL MARTIN by John Fowles, but quickly found it too serious for the summer climate. I'll return to it in October.

Now, instead, I'm reading through DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS, Ray Bradbury's tribute to Chandler and Hammett. Pretty good, though so far it isn't anything more than homage.

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Avarice wrote:

Probably Strontium-90.

Ah, I figured something was bugging you.