What are you reading?

[trekkiedane]

Last night in bed I wanted to go to sleep reading a short Sci-Fi story or two, I thought, grabbing the book on my night stand; Here Comes Civilization, The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, Vol II.

Turned out the second story I started reading was a novel: Of Men and Monsters... The first line had me hooked: "Mankind consisted of 128 people."

The sun was up when I'd finished.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Nothing like a good hook.

 

[trekkiedane]

Nothing like a good hook.

Turns out 'Mankind' is the name of one tribe of humans living in burrows on an Earth, many generations after some gigantic aliens -known as 'monsters'- have taken the planet for their own purposes.

A band of 'primitive' humans explore a big space, inhabited by aliens and their traps, in search for weapons to fight back with. Wish I'd read it when I was younger though, it reads as a teenager-friendly coming-of-age story with some great Sci-Fi elements.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo

Worth a read for all parties interested in the lasting effects of war on the people we force and ask to serve us

Hugo - What the hell does liberty mean anyhow? It's a word like house or table or any other word. Only it's a special kind of word. A guy says house and he can point to a house to prove it. But a guy says come on let's fight for liberty and he can't show you liberty. He can't prove the thing he's talking about so how in the hell can he be telling you to fight for it? No sir anybody who went out and got into the front line trenches to fight for liberty was a goddamn fool and the guy who got him there was a liar.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Only the Animals, by Ceridwen Dovey. Ten short stories, all narrated by animals, or rather by the souls of animals who have died. IMO, they range from depressing to delightful.

 

[mimic]

Any of you read the Red Rising trilogy? I was skeptical at first, but I ended up really enjoying it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ No, I'm not familiar with that.

Turns out 'Mankind' is the name of one tribe of humans living in burrows on an Earth, many generations after some gigantic aliens -known as 'monsters'- have taken the planet for their own purposes.

A band of 'primitive' humans explore a big space, inhabited by aliens and their traps, in search for weapons to fight back with. Wish I'd read it when I was younger though, it reads as a teenager-friendly coming-of-age story with some great Sci-Fi elements.

That's interesting. I've never read much of Tenn. I should probably get that "complete works" series.

Hugo - What the hell does liberty mean anyhow? It's a word like house or table or any other word. Only it's a special kind of word. A guy says house and he can point to a house to prove it. But a guy says come on let's fight for liberty and he can't show you liberty. He can't prove the thing he's talking about so how in the hell can he be telling you to fight for it? No sir anybody who went out and got into the front line trenches to fight for liberty was a goddamn fool and the guy who got him there was a liar.

That's a bit cynical. You can't see oxygen either, but you know when you don't have any.

Only the Animals, by Ceridwen Dovey. Ten short stories, all narrated by animals, or rather by the souls of animals who have died. IMO, they range from depressing to delightful.

That's a really nice theme for an anthology.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ I think you'd like the book, RJ!

 

[Hugo Rune]

That's a bit cynical. You can't see oxygen either, but you know when you don't have any.

It's not mine, but rather Trumbo's character from the book. A limbless, faceless man left with only his thoughts, suffering because of naive altruistic decisions he made and the deceptive ones made for him.
It's an angry, almost choking, book. Reflecting on the millions that died in WW1, published just as WW2 was beginning in Europe. I am no soldier, I know little of sacrifice, but I feel that the "liberty" I live in is calculated by people with a design in mind that feels more like control than freedom.

A following section of the book goes:

"Tell us how much better a decent dead man feels than an indecent live one. Make a comparison there in facts like houses and tables. Make it in words we can understand"

The protagonist is reacting to the way propaganda uses vague language and concepts ("liberty" and "freedom," for example), which can mean so many things that they're basically meaningless. He is saying that if the "big guys" want people like him to go to war for them, they should at least tell them specifically what they're fighting for. If the big guys just want money and power, they should tell the little guys that they're dying and getting maimed so that the big guys can make more money; they shouldn't use vague concepts like "liberty" to pull the wool over the little guys' eyes. That's what he means when he says that the big guy should use "words we can understand."

Hugo - It's an Anti-War book... the rhetoric is bound to be grand.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^ I think you'd like the book, RJ!

It's in my Shopping Cart. I'm definitely going to get it.

It's not mine, but rather Trumbo's character from the book.

Oh, I knew that.

A limbless, faceless man left with only his thoughts, suffering because of naive altruistic decisions he made and the deceptive ones made for him.
It's an angry, almost choking, book. Reflecting on the millions that died in WW1, published just as WW2 was beginning in Europe. I am no soldier, I know little of sacrifice, but I feel that the "liberty" I live in is calculated by people with a design in mind that feels more like control than freedom.

A following section of the book goes:

"Tell us how much better a decent dead man feels than an indecent live one. Make a comparison there in facts like houses and tables. Make it in words we can understand"

The protagonist is reacting to the way propaganda uses vague language and concepts ("liberty" and "freedom," for example), which can mean so many things that they're basically meaningless. He is saying that if the "big guys" want people like him to go to war for them, they should at least tell them specifically what they're fighting for. If the big guys just want money and power, they should tell the little guys that they're dying and getting maimed so that the big guys can make more money; they shouldn't use vague concepts like "liberty" to pull the wool over the little guys' eyes. That's what he means when he says that the big guy should use "words we can understand."

Hugo - It's an Anti-War book... the rhetoric is bound to be grand.

Well, that's the power of politics and propaganda. They use words that do have meaning-- such as "freedom" or "patriotism"-- in ways that manipulate rather than illuminates. Eventually, the words become so abused that people forget their real meaning, even though that meaning still exists, and become either zombies in the service of the manipulators or anti-social cynics who can no longer respond to fine ideals.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I am really enjoying listening to the Harry Potter books.

I have just started on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

I finished Duma Key. Now to decide what to read next. Decisions, decisions...

 

[GornMcCoy]

Right now I'm working on The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo as well as Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.

 

[trekkiedane]

Currently reading Poul Anderson's There Will be Time, about this guy who can travel through time (both ways) without machinery.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Be_Time

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

I started Space by James Michener, but think I'll break in and read It by Stephen King. 'It' came in the mail today.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ That's a good one.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Right now I'm working on The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo....

I'll be interested to hear what you think of it. I read it a few months ago and just placed her new one on hold at the library.

 

[sbk1234]

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

 

[Spot's Meow]

I am almost halfway through The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero. It's a horror/ghost story, but really unique as it's told in a "found footage" sort of style, entirely through letters, diary entries, voice and video recording transcripts, newspaper clippings, etc. that were "assembled" by the editor after the events of the story take place. That doesn't bode well for the main characters, but I really have no idea where this story is going (in a good way). It's a very interesting read.

I also find it interesting that this is Cantero's first novel in English (native languages are Spanish and Catalan), yet it is some of the most beautiful and sophisticated English writing I've read in a long time.

 

[MANT!]

Norman Spinrad, "The Iron Dream"