The Gaming Den

Cielingcat wrote:Actually that's kind of a ridiculously huge violation of their rights.

Like seriously, I can't really think of anything that's less of a violation of someone's rights.

Not really. It's hardly more restrictive than a typical arrest. Using it on someone trying to kill you is, frankly, much more humane than most real-world tactics.

Torture, which the Cruciatus Curse delivers, is significantly worse.

Currently reading Julian May's Pliocene Exile, Vol. 1. Having previously read Vols. 2 and 3, I had high hopes for Vol. 1. Two reasons I'm not exactly happy:

1) The story starts out in an intentionally boring way. The whole premise of the book is that there's a sorta-one-way time portal to alien-inhabited Pliocene that satisfies the demand for a fresh start for thrillseekers, Renaissance fans and petty criminals. So the first part of the book deals with why exactly the eight main characters are feeling bored and miserable. Nothing exciting happens whatsoever.

2) There's a plot hole, too. Whatever is in the Pliocene portal zone when the device is switched off gets 'ported back to 2140(?) and 6 million years catch up with it once it arrives, thus, the scientists in the future lament the impossibility of two-way communication. But they can actually record the process of disintegration and replay it in slo-mo, it's right there in the book. And the portal is very energy-efficient, so not exactly a broadband connection but infinitely better than nothing. Rosebud.

The whole series is that way. But annoyingly gripping reads. But then again, I'm an Asimov fangirl, so it really hits my style.

I prefer the surveillance and metaconcert novels, though, because it's more a setting I like than exile.

-Crissa

Cielingcat wrote:Actually that's kind of a ridiculously huge violation of their rights.

I think the whole 'memory modification' thing is right up there. Hermione makes her parents forget they ever had a daughter. And their own names.

Just finished reading Pinceps' Fury of the Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher, a good read.

Since Christmas: Duma Key and Just After Sunset by Stephen King.

Working on The Lightning Thief now. Very Harry Potter-ish. Very.

Game on,
fbmf

fbmf wrote:Since Christmas: Duma Key and Just After Sunset by Stephen King.

Working on The Lightning Thief now. Very Harry Potter-ish. Very.

Game on,
fbmf

It's part of that "Hidden world" bandwagon that Harry Potter kicked off.

But it gets better. Along about book 3, it starts kicking ass, and this continues all the way to the end of book 5.

How many books in the series?

Game On,
fbmf

fbmf wrote:How many books in the series?

Game On,
fbmf

Five.

The Lightning Thief
Sea of Monsters
Titan's Curse
Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian.

Edit: I suppose I should say they're not exactly profound. The author does know his myths, and sometimes he sneaks in a retelling of some myth or another. Apparently, his descriptions of dyslexia and ADHD are spot-on (his son has ADHD, he's worked with kids with both that and dyslexia). A few of the characters are awesome.

The villain of the series is actually pretty darn good. He's smart and doesn't make too many mistakes. Generally, defeating one of his schemes means the heroes pay for it.

It is a little annoying how apparently a lot of cultural innovation came from demigods (apparently, two sons of Hermes figured out how to make fast-food restaurants. The Beatles were likewise demigods. WWII involved the children of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.)

But, still, I liked 'em. They're a decent story and the weird Greek stuff that pops up is interesting, and the Greek gods have moved with the times (Wait until you see Hades' opinions on population growth...).

Better than a lot of YA stuff out there. Recommended.

Wow, it's been a month since the last post. I know you Denners out there read. Tell us what you read!

I shall start.

Pretty much all the fiction and one non-fiction by Cory DOctorow

"DOwn and out in the Magic Kingdom" -Doctorow is awesome at futurist imaginings. THe story is set in the future where popularity through diggs or whatever internet popularity scheme reigns on forums is the main way to show your status and wealth. Also Disney. A good read and introduction.

"eastern standard tribe" - taking the idea of circadian rhythms and how one may feel more at home with San Franciscans even though you live in NYC, the book talks about how you slowly start living alongside that time zone through net communication. It takes it a step further by making it a fraternity (not the college sort but just a brotherhood) where everyone helps each other and it goes even further as to having people working as agent provocateurs in other "tribes" of time zones. Working against them in corporations and such.

"Little brother" - probably one of hte more awesome of his books in which, after a terrorist attack on San Francisco, a group of high schoolers are taken in as terrorists and after interrogation are released into the general populace but are unable to tell anyone. meanwhile terrorist-hype turns SF into a city on continual watch. the kids meanwhile angered take on Big Brother through the net and underground anonymous internet and computer networks. It's a very detailed telling of distros, security networks, and such.

"Someone comes to town, Someone leaves town" - a story in part about getting a mesh wifi system up across a Canadian town as well as a more modern fantasy rather than the futurist take on most of his stories. The main protagonist is the son of a Mountain and a Washing Machine. His brothers are, in order, a precog, an island, a sociopath, and a series of nesting brothers (like the Russian dolls)

Definitely a very awesome set of books.

--

"A Leaf In The Bitter Wind" by Ting-Xing Ye is a memoir about a woman who lived during Mao's revolution and how she finally escaped to Canada. It's a rather good read even though I'm a little surprised by some of her decisions in life.

"The last Moghul" by WIlliam Dahrymple is a very good and balanced telling of the 1857 revolt by the Indian Sepoys (soldiers) in the British army that in essence ended the Moghul empire and also kickstarted the Indian revolution by setting off similar revolts. THe initial revolt was in Delhi. The book is told in a wonderful tone and it is sympathetic to both the Britisfh and the Indians while also telling of each other's faults and failings.

"Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck -- man, it has taken me this long to read this book. It was finally a good chance. to read it.

--

next set of reading - "Sense and sensibility and sea monsters" and "pride and prejudice and zombies"

must look into it.

Alrighty.


Well I just picked up The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte. It's extremely fascinating and really seems to be the word on effective methods of displaying data through visual imagery. It goes into depth on various methods, shows why certain graphics are considered extremely well made, and what makes them so. He gives special attention to what he considers possibly the finest statistical graphic ever created.

Minard's Chart of Napoleon's campaign into Russia

Which he believes has all the important aspects that make a data graphic great. It's elegant in it's simplicity, it effectively conveys the data without needing to puzzle anything out, and it draws the viewer in with a compelling narrative.

Other than that I'm currently perusing a few other books.

Blaeu's The Grand Atlas of the 17th Century World

Probability Space, by Nancy Kress - She's one of my favorite authors, but I haven't enjoyed any of her other books quite as much as Beggars in Spain.

Historical Atlas of the Arctic

The Anvil of Ice, by Michael Scott Rohan - I've read the series before (Winter of the World), but the way he integrates Nordic and Native American mythology into his world is quite compelling. It's one of the better fantasy series I've read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels.

I just finished Trust Us, We're Experts about the PR of industry.

Jilocasin wrote:Alrighty.


Well I just picked up The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte. It's extremely fascinating and really seems to be the word on effective methods of displaying data through visual imagery. It goes into depth on various methods, shows why certain graphics are considered extremely well made, and what makes them so. He gives special attention to what he considers possibly the finest statistical graphic ever created.

Minard's Chart of Napoleon's campaign into Russia

Which he believes has all the important aspects that make a data graphic great. It's elegant in it's simplicity, it effectively conveys the data without needing to puzzle anything out, and it draws the viewer in with a compelling narrative.

Yeah, Tufte is a genius for finding art in information. Envisioning Information is another interesting one. I really liked the Soyuz calendar.

[Edit]Oops, looks like the Soyuz calendar is in Visual Explanations. I should really try to find out if there's any difference between his books or if they're all just volumes of one giant tome. [/Edit]

CatharzGodfoot wrote:[Edit]Oops, looks like the Soyuz calendar is in Visual Explanations. I should really try to find out if there's any difference between his books or if they're all just volumes of one giant tome. [/Edit]

Heh, well either way I intend to pick them all up when I have the opportunity.

Maxus wrote:

fbmf wrote:How many books in the series?

Game On,
fbmf

Five.

The Lightning Thief
Sea of Monsters
Titan's Curse
Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian.

Edit: I suppose I should say they're not exactly profound. The author does know his myths, and sometimes he sneaks in a retelling of some myth or another. Apparently, his descriptions of dyslexia and ADHD are spot-on (his son has ADHD, he's worked with kids with both that and dyslexia). A few of the characters are awesome.

The villain of the series is actually pretty darn good. He's smart and doesn't make too many mistakes. Generally, defeating one of his schemes means the heroes pay for it.

It is a little annoying how apparently a lot of cultural innovation came from demigods (apparently, two sons of Hermes figured out how to make fast-food restaurants. The Beatles were likewise demigods. WWII involved the children of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.)

But, still, I liked 'em. They're a decent story and the weird Greek stuff that pops up is interesting, and the Greek gods have moved with the times (Wait until you see Hades' opinions on population growth...).

Better than a lot of YA stuff out there. Recommended.

I'm on The Last Olympian now. Pretty good read, and you were correct that it is a lot better than much of the YA fiction that's out there.

Game On,
fbmf

Maxus wrote:It's part of that "Hidden world" bandwagon that Harry Potter kicked off.

I think this is really the explanation for why series like Animorphs, Everworld, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc. are so poular, because they're about hidden worlds, that induct otherwise "normal" kids on a regular basis, sometimes because of a hidden birth right, sometimes because they're in the right place at the right time. These stories always contain kids with boring/frustrating/tragic lives who want a way out, and they get it. They get shown a secret, and become a part of it, and not only do they get this secret knowledge, which kids love, they get to go forth and be awesome.

The animorphs are pretty normal kids who just happen to walk through an alien crash site and given a super power and the responsibility of fighting off the brain eating big bads that want to take over earth.

The kids in Everworld are a group of young adults whose lives are boring and normal (at first) or kinda tragic (one has OCD to the point where he rubs his hands raw washing them, another is the hated spawn of an affair) who are dragged into a world where the old gods escaped to when belief started dying out, and in this composite myth world they get to be more than what they were.

Harry Potter and Percy Jackson have kids who are born into awesome, but don't know it. They have frustrating lives with abusive guardians and learning disabilities, and then they're brought to Hogwarts/Camp Olympus and told they're better than normal people. They have power, and that the shit of their old lives exists for a reason (the Dursleys, as bad as they are, are part of a protective spell, Percy's ADHD and Dyslexia are from being the son of Posiedon and give him things when he's off being awesome).

And that's all why they sell so well, even Twilight's popularity is partially because of that. When I was a kid, I'd have given anything to be one of these kids that's taken to a hidden world where I got to be a mythic hero, or a wizard, or even a monster out of myth. And a lot of other kids, especially the un-athletic, or unpopular, or disabled, want that same thing, for someone to come along and say:
"You're special, you're better. Here's how you use your gifts, now go forth and be awesome."

fuck, my life's finally on track (sorta) and I still kind of want that...

Northanger Abby - Jane Austen
Middlemarch - George Elliot
Dombey and Sons - Charles Dickens
Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Nicklance wrote: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

I'm just finishing up with this book. Probably wont get to.

Cynic wrote:

Nicklance wrote: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

I'm just finishing up with this book. Probably wont get to.

How is it so far?

Grand Central Arena

Was very good.
Only as an eARC available at the moment.
Well the first half is in the May Webscription. Dead tree is due in May.


Sample Chapters

Finished the Percy Jackson series.

Game On,
fbmf

fbmf wrote:Finished the Percy Jackson series.

Game On,
fbmf

Sweet.

I've...yeah, got them loaned out right now.

Boy, the bookselling industry hates my guts.

Any book I buy stands a fair chance of being read by five other people. At least.

I just finished The Wee Free Men, and am gonna sart A Hat Full of Sky later today. Its a great read.

I love them witches.

I've been reading Colour of Magic.

It's... odd, after having read the entirety of the Night Watch series and the first book of the Death Series. Clearly Pratchett hadn't quite solidified the characterizations of some characters yet.

Prak_Anima wrote:I've been reading Colour of Magic.

It's... odd, after having read the entirety of the Night Watch series and the first book of the Death Series. Clearly Pratchett hadn't quite solidified the characterizations of some characters yet.

Definitely.

Or much about the setting (such as it is).



Also

I just finished The Wee Free Men, and am gonna sart A Hat Full of Sky later today. Its a great read.

I love them witches.

Rock on. I've never seen anyone who read the Wee Free Men and hated it.