Author Topic: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?  (Read 189701 times)

Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #735 on: August 3, 2009, 08:43 PM »
@ Justin: yeah, PoD is on my to-read list. I actually tried reading it when it came out but I was having a busy semester and couldn't really get into it. Seemed good though. FYI, the third one is coming out this December.

Thanks for the tip on #3... is it supposed to be three books in total?  I have the second book to read as well, so with fantasy football coming up, hopefully I can stretch it out until December.   ;)  I'm about 2/3 of the way thru POD now and it just keeps getting better. 
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #736 on: August 3, 2009, 10:50 PM »
Well there's just those so far. But it's not a preplanned trilogy: Path of Destruction was at the time a standalone, with Rule of Two tacked on afterward, and Dynasty of Evil following. If they keep selling, the series will probably continue.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Bane:_Dynasty_of_Evil
« Last Edit: August 3, 2009, 10:55 PM by Nathan »
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #737 on: August 8, 2009, 05:13 PM »
Loaded up my mp3 player with "Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony" by Eoin Colfer.



Thousands of years ago, fairies and humans fought a great battle for the magical island of Ireland. When it became clear that they could not win, all of the fairies moved below ground–except for the 8th Family, the demons. Rather than surrender, they used a magical time spell to take their colony out of time and into Limbo. There they have lived for decades, preparing to exact their violent revenge on humans.

Now the time spell is unraveling, and demons are beginning to materialize without warning on Earth. If humans were to find out about them, all fairies would be exposed. To protect themselves, the fairies must predict when the next demon will materialize. But in order to do so, they will have to decipher temporal equations so complicated; even a great brain like Foaly can’t understand them. But he knows someone who can: Artemis Fowl.

So when a very confused demon imp appears in a Sicilian theater, Artemis is there to meet him. But he is not alone. There is someone else who has unlocked the secrets of the fairy world and managed to solve complex mathematical problems as only a genius could. And she is just twelve years old. . .
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Offline Rob

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #738 on: August 9, 2009, 03:00 AM »
Finally got around to:


Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #739 on: August 9, 2009, 11:05 AM »


This is a pretty ingenious book about the writing process. It's basically all e-mails between the showrunner and an interviewer talking about how season 4 got made. If you write, I'd certainly check it out, regardless if you're a fan of the show.
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Offline Angry Ewok

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #740 on: August 10, 2009, 04:22 PM »
Last night I finished Volume 2 of Shelby Foote's Civil War: A Narrative. This morning I started with Volume 3. I've been talking about taking a break from the war long enough to read something a little more lighter - but after taking down 2,000 pages, I'm eager to put away the last 1,000. I just know I'll have a huge sense of accomplishment once I've finally done it. This is a great, great series... It's really required reading for anyone interested in American History.


Waiting on my shelf...

Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge
Boone: A Biography
All the Pretty Horses
The Crossing
Cities Of The Plain
LOTR The Hobbit
LOTR Fellowship of the Ring
LOTR The Two Towers
LOTR Return of the King
Rainbow Six
A Bridge Too Far
« Last Edit: August 10, 2009, 04:24 PM by Angry Ewok »

Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #741 on: August 14, 2009, 11:38 AM »
Starting the fourth Odd Thomas book "Odd Hours" by Dean Koontz.



The fourth adventure of Odd Thomas, the young man haunted by the deceased who can also foresee potential murderous disaster, may not be the best—his eponymous initial outing is—but darned if it isn’t the most purely entertaining. Observing Koontz’s SOP, it starts with a bang and goes like a house afire straight through to the penultimate chapter (the last chapter cleans up). Odd goes out for a walk on the boardwalk to find the Lady of the Bell, a pregnant girl roughly his own age (21), who has appeared to him in a troubling dream. He succeeds, but then a blond gorilla and two skinny redheaded guys packing heat show up. When Odd touches the gorilla, he gets a flash of the dream. So does the gorilla, who is immediately, murderously suspicious, so Odd, after sending the girl packing, takes a header off the boardwalk. For most of the rest of the book, Odd flees the three baddies, discovering that the local police chief and a liberal minister are in cahoots with them, until he reverses the procedure to prevent very serious destruction, indeed, aimed at regime change in America. Choosing so grandiose an objective for Odd, Koontz forges the kind of sweeping melodrama, complete with screwball laughs, nail-biting moments, and surprises, that is the bedrock of American narrative entertainment.
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #742 on: August 15, 2009, 10:54 PM »
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #743 on: August 16, 2009, 04:22 AM »
Another one from the "Not half as trashy as it looks, I swear" file. Sequel to Those Who Walk In Darkness, which I read earlier this year.



When a supervillain wasted San Francisco, the U.S. decided to expel all "metanormals" within its borders. Those who choose to remain are hunted down by MTacs, police units who only have one job: kill the freaks. It isn't a terribly original premise--Batman fans will recognize the influence of Frank Miller's seminal graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns--but that's fine, because a premise is all it is, and Ridley knows it. Soledad O'Roark, a 26-year-old MTac and an engineering genius, has a virulent hatred of metanormals. Her tale is one of unremitting darkness, and from early on it's easy to tell it won't have a happy ending.

LAPD's top mutant-hunter, O'Roark has outfought telepaths, human flamethrowers, men with steel skin, and every other kind of freakish super-powered thing. But her high-tech firepower is no match for teammate--and rival--Eddi Aoki's attempts at friendship, which endlessly irritate the solitary Soledad.

When a vigilante starts killing metanormals without mercy, Soledad and Eddi end up working the same case--in a way that neither could imagine. And the hunt for answers pits Soledad and Eddi against a cabal inside the LAPD as well as a serial killer who's slaughtering mutants, cops, and anyone else who gets in his way.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2009, 05:11 PM by Nathan »
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #744 on: August 16, 2009, 06:24 PM »
One more Artemis Fowl book. "Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception" by Eoin Colfer.



The fourth book in the Artemis Fowl saga follows The Eternity Code (2003), in which Artemis' mind was wiped clean of any memories of the belowground world of elves, pixies, and dwarves. In this book, Artemis has reverted to his old life of crime. His archenemy, Opal Koboi, has been in a self-induced coma for a year, plotting revenge on all who thwarted her earlier evil doings. After cloning herself, she escapes and sets her plans in motion, going first to find LEPrecon Captain Holly Short and Commander Root, then taking on Artemis as she schemes to destroy the fairy world. As in all the books, this one has plenty of action as well as great humor and clever plot manipulations. Characters are once again fully realized, and fans will eagerly enter into the spirit of the action.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #745 on: August 20, 2009, 02:37 PM »
Okay, so I'm in the midst of the 2nd Darth Bane book right now and am ticked off.  There is a bit character in the story who happens to be Chiss (Blue Skin, Red Eyes - Thrawn's species).  Anyone who paid attention to Outbound Flight ought to be mighty ticked at this.

Here's why:

- Over 1,000 years before the fall of the Republic, a Chiss woman just so happens to be part of a terrorist organization (against the Republic) that has been infiltrated by Bane's apprentice

- Fast Forward 1,000 years to Outbound Flight.  Thrawn meets citizens of the Republic for the first time and the writer makes a big point of showing how the Chiss people were totally unaware of the republic and how no one in the Republic knew anything about the Chiss race. 

I get the idea of throwing out various different species in the novels to mix things up, but this is a pretty large and pointless plot hole in my opinion.  It's particularly frustrating given that Rule of Two was only written a year or two after Outbound Flight - it's not like this is some really old novel from 15 years ago that the writer just missed or forgot about.   >:(
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Offline Scott

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #746 on: August 20, 2009, 03:15 PM »
I recently read Devil in the White City by Erik Larson...I can't recommend a book more than this one.  It is truly great


Offline Jeff

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #747 on: August 20, 2009, 03:31 PM »
I'm just wrapping up The Way of Shadows, book 1 of a 3-book series by Brent Weeks.

It's got a little bit of everything really - fantasy, magic, ninjas, politics, etc.  Once you get into it, it's easy to see that it takes some cues from the GRR Martin stuff, but it's got it's own things too so it's more then just a clone.

Overall, I give it a B+ (A- if you take into account it was his debut book I guess) and am planning to give book 2 a shot to see where it goes...
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #748 on: August 20, 2009, 04:05 PM »
Okay, so I'm in the midst of the 2nd Darth Bane book right now and am ticked off.  There is a bit character in the story who happens to be Chiss (Blue Skin, Red Eyes - Thrawn's species).  Anyone who paid attention to Outbound Flight ought to be mighty ticked at this.

Yeah, this one seems pretty obvious. I gather there are a bunch of rather pointless continuity wallbangers in those books, including overwriting some of the original Jedi vs. Sith comic that Path of Destruction was adapted from.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2009, 04:06 PM by Nathan »
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Offline Nathan

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Re: JD Book Club: What Are You Reading Now?
« Reply #749 on: August 20, 2009, 04:07 PM »
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