LaughingCat
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Posts posted by LaughingCat
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On 8/2/2020 at 2:33 PM, Matryoshka said:
The books recommended there that I've read, while I liked them, didn't hit me the same way as The Goblin Emperor (although I also love Martha Wells' Murderbots, it's not 'like' TGE).
But then someone else recommended something that sounded interesting with this description and caveats:
I might add Andrea Höst's Touchstone trilogy (Stray, Lab Rat One, Caszandra) to the list, as they also feature a sensible, conscientious protagonist dealing with a culture she isn't fully part of, and a narrative which rewards collaboration and following protocol. (Also like TGE and the Foreigner books, I've seen this trilogy criticized as boring, but all of these books satisfy if you like watching people do their best, find allies, and file the right paperwork.)And then I thought of another one that I'd recommend highly to lovers of The Goblin Emperor if any of this is what you liked about it - Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire, which just won the Hugo, and which was also a 5 star read for me - really loved it. It also has a sensible, conscientious protagonist dealing with a culture she isn't part of, and it also has people doing their best, finding allies, and filing the right paperwork. LOL, I love that description. 😂 Especially since it doesn't sound at all appealing, yet it rather accurately describes both those books, both of which were wonderful...
And now I have to go find this Höst trilogy, apparently....
I agree with Matryoshka, the books on this link that I've read were nothing like The Goblin Emperor
However I did not realize that Katherine Addison was a pen name -- looking at her books as Sarah Monette, I have read A Companion to Wolves (written with Elizabeth Bear), and The Tempering of Men and enjoyed them (although they are not like The Goblin Emperor either), but I hadn't heard of any of the others. My library only has Mélusine so I guess I'll be trying that first 🙂
And I have put A Memory Called Empire on hold based on that recommendation 💛
Also wanted to quote a different part of the same comment as Matryoshka includes above:
I initially picked up TGE because I saw it compared to the Foreigner books, which I had just finished rereading and wanted more of, and I agree that it was a good rec. They have the same appreciation for crunchy procedural matters, the same feeling of characters acting from within the constraints placed on the political class of an interesting world, and the same basic decency on the part of the main characters who are a bit out of their depth but who seek out other competent people as allies. Decidedly fewer explosions in TGE, though.
The comparison to Cherryh's Foreigner books is the most interesting to me -- because there are SO many similarities as far as being 'a stranger in a strange land'. Ms. Cherryh portrays being lost and confused and going on anyway extremely well but that is not the feeling I get from The Goblin Emperor -- whose protagonist does not have that 'lost and confused' vibe even though everything is strange and different to him. Perhaps the difference is The Goblin Emperor feels less about being lost and more about being alone? Anyway it is interesting to ponder.
And let me add that CJ Cherryh was my favorite author up until the Foreigner series, which I gave up on after about 4 books (the biggest reason was probably that i didn't love them enough to re-read them, and I started losing track of who was who and why I would care -- I have lately thought that I should give them another try now that she has so many of them out )
For my own reading, I have been slogging through The Other Bennet Sister, which may make me the odd man out here since everyone else seems to be loving it. At this point I feel like it is 2 books -- one with Mary from Pride and Prejudice, and another with her body double -- apparently she was abducted by aliens and they left this changeling who is socially competent in her place. Since this other Mary jumped into the book unexpectedly, I'm not all that invested in her or her romances (I guess I just don't buy that she would have learned this via the methods shown in the story). Plus there's been a few smaller plot devices that have also pulled me out of the story ... spoiler in white: (somehow I doubt that after MONTHS living with Lizzy with no mention of anger or upset, she would suddenly be so wroth with her over something that happened YEARS before that she would be unwilling to accept her 'charity' --not to mention I find it extremely doubtful that Lizzy would even remember the incident much less divine that this would be the holdup -- plus why wasn't Lizzy offering to do this WHILE Mary was living with her! at least a couple simple dresses!)
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12 hours ago, Penguin said:
First, what kind of disappearing are you concerned about? Maybe we don't completely disagree. I already stated my sweeping, general distrust of amazon. When I say that I am unconcerned, what I mean is that I do not foresee all of her books going out of print and becoming unavailable.
One thing I thought of when reading Violet Crown's concerns about books disappearing was -- when I was a teen/young adult (1970's), lots of books disappeared because there were very few places to buy books. Many books I read could only be found through the library system (and I know they had their own limitations on what could be kept). Amazon, for all its faults, opened up a world of books to the average buyer that were no longer published and unfindable before (well, I'm sure serious collectors had their ways -- but to the general public I mean). I know I personally went crazy buying books once I understood what was available, and prices for much of that has only come down since (this is not to say that paper books aren't hitting a online revolution similar to music has, that may affect what is available online-- but that even if things change, there are still FAR more old, out of print paper books available today then when I was young).
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On 6/21/2020 at 11:32 AM, Violet Crown said:
. Also, sorry to say, abandoning Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Wee Girl and I were halfway through and bored to tears. WG couldn't take one more list of polysyllabic fish species that Mommy struggled to pronounce. I couldn't take one more list of pointless figures, measurements, and factoids. I'd started replacing (e.g.) "we were then at 154 degrees 15 minutes west longitude, 33 degrees 47 minutes south latitude" with "we were somewhere in the ocean." Even the promise of a giant squid to come wasn't enough to make us go on.
What I found is that reading boring parts to myself is FAR different than reading them aloud. I skim-read all the boring parts -- and only realized this when I tried to read certain books aloud to my kids -and we're talking books I'd read many, many times to myself and loved! (Swallows and Amazons, I'm looking at you).
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Ok, so am I the only one who thinks the beginning of the Lord of the Rings is BORING! I have reread this many, many times -- yearly for a long time, although lately it is more like every few years -- i didn't think much about it until now but normally I skip a great deal of the beginning. I like all the friendship parts, but I usually skip a lot of the party and then the forest, and Tom Bombadil, and barrowdowns.... Well, I guess I'll continue to trudge through it, desperately waiting until they finally get to Bree (not sure why but that is where I normally stop skipping so much).
Read the new MurderBot book, yay! and the new Penric book, yay again!
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Dealing with Dragons and the rest of the Enchanted Forest Series by Patricia Wrede.
Reading Dealing with Dragons now with DD the younger because it is not a book she would have picked up herself-- she's laughing out loud as we read each day. Read it with DD the older because I loved it when I read it (as an adult) and DD the older loved the whole series. And they are VERY different in their book tastes.
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Looking forward to the Lord of the Rings discussion -- plus it will fit right in my reading year which so far is mostly re-reads.
Recent ones include the MurderBot books which were just as enjoyable the 2nd time. And recently listened to for the first time (although I've read them many times) 2 of the Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold, and then I reread her 1st 3 Penric books since they came out in book form all together.
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Blown away by those numbers I went looking at my states schools. In the big city the high schools are around 3k kids, in my mid-size city, they are around 1.5k, even in what I think of as small towns (<5k) they are still pretty big at around 400 kids -- but then I found these little tiny towns in the middle of nowhere with <1k people and ~16 kids in HS. I don't doubt a tiny HS probably doesn't offer too much in the way of foreign language -- because how could they?
OTOH ~30k town I grew up in has stayed same size and ~same # of students and gone from offering 2 languages( Spanish and French) to offering 5 (Spanish, French, German, ASL, and Mandarin).
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You guys are cracking me up with the melting pot references -- the indoctrination of US children apparently spread to world citizens too!
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I've loved LOTR since my early teens but never much cared for The Hobbit. Although I usually reread LOTR every few years, I have never included The Hobbit in that reread -- but I did finally reread The Hobbit before the movies came out -- it was amazing how I had forgotten a whole section of the book (everything after Bilbo meets the dragon basically). Not sure I'm up to reading it again right now but hopefully will jump in once y'all get to LOTR.
Most of the books I'm reading right now are "new year" type books: Skim re-read Atomic Habits and just started Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, and listening to How To Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind by Dana White. So far that last one is the clear winner in actually getting me to do something 😄 Too early to tell with Tiny Habits -- it starts out well but I'm not sure how he's going to have a whole book on this idea without lots of repetition.
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Favorite childhood books -- as an avid re-reader I don't think most of my favorites at the time survived adolescence and so were lost in the Pit of Lost Memories. I do have a number of books that managed to make it through re-reading as adolescent and adult-- tops are probably: The Secret Garden and Swallows and Amazons (I must admit this 2nd one did not survive a "read aloud" to my kids-- it is much more enjoyable when I can skim over all the many sailing descriptions)
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Robin,
Meant to tell you this in my last post and forgot....
I must admit I downloaded the bingo sheets for myself and older DD last year and then, well.... forgot all about it ….
until today when older DD (who let me remind you is dyslexic) and I had a whole long conversation about how she didn't enjoy reading because it was too much work... at the end of which she tacks on "by the way, where did you put my book bingo for 2020?"
2 Bingo sheets are now downloaded and printed 😄
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On 1/7/2020 at 6:47 PM, Kareni said:
I wasn't overly impressed with The Sharing Knife but found Shards of Honor a pleasant read. I've picked up several more books in that latter series to read at some point. I've heard excellent reviews of The Curse of Chalion.
Of her work, I enjoyed Once a Hero and, to a lesser extent, Cold Welcome.
I read a good review recently of her Christmas stories and have a library copy here at home. All previous attempts at reading To Say Nothing of the Dog have failed
Just wanted to say although I have greatly enjoyed most Lois McMaster Bujold SciFi books, I LOVED the The Curse of Chalion and it's sequel Paladin of Souls. Also LOVE her Penric series in the same universe.
For Connie Willis, I have found much more hit or miss, although I did actually love To Say Nothing of the Dog (which led me to read the classic Three Men in a Boat which I also loved). Bellwether is another of my favorites, but I have found many of her books VERY hard to get started (Doomsday Book I'm looking at you multiple times! and Passage I completely gave up on)
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I've been trying to finish up some books that have been hanging out on my goodreads "reading" list for FAR too long -so just finished Turid Rugaas Calming Signals for Dogs (which was actually quite short and also very good -- I think it is pure dog owner guilt that kept me from reading it 😫 -- will add that I actually used something from it already and it appeared to work wonderfully for my cat chasing, bark crazy dog).
Which is interesting to me because I do NOT have the other type of guilt factor in the link Robin attached and SWB link as well (except maybe in the very last week of the year when I'm only 3 books away from goal LOL). I didn't met my goal in 2018 (2 books a week) and did meet it last year (3 books a week). Even in my last week crunch time, I started a boring (to me) book that was very short -- and then thought NOPE! not struggling through this book just to meet that goal.
Looking forward to all the excellent recommendations from the BAW peeps in 2020!
ETA my goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/friend/i?feature=friend-invite-url&invite_token=NzVjZDhiMjctMzE0Ni00ZTgwLThhZjAtNGRjZmE5OTU2OGZm
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After many months hiatus (well, I've been reading now and then but not posting), wanted to say that I listened to The Goblin Emperor (thanks to MumTo2 I think- I've read it before but never listened) -- it was good but I'm glad I read it first. There were def a couple spots where if I were reading it, I would have gone back and tried to find the earlier reference to something brought up and the names were MUCH more confusing listening than reading. Anyway I still love it 😄
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On 10/10/2019 at 3:28 PM, caedmyn said:
All my kids except DD get themselves up, usually by 7:30 at the latest.
What the other kids can or can't do is irrelevant IMO. If you need it done on your time schedule (as you have stated several times) then for this child you need to wake her up and check on her.
I also am one that struggled with getting up in the morning -- no matter what time I went to bed. I was a total zombie in the morning into my 30's and getting up earlier was far worse for me (although I'm sure it appeared from outside that I was just dawdling around -- from inside I was still mostly asleep!) Thankfully my Dad woke me up every morning in high school. On my own I just struggled (could sleep through walking across the room to turn the alarm off and just desperately threw clothes on and ran out the door many, many times) -- and fwiw nothing that happened every day no matter how urgent (and chores would never have made my urgent list) could maintain a high drive to get up (i.e for special occasions I could do it -- but not every day).
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I think which dry shampoo works depends on hair type. I have thick fine hair and the first (expensive) brands I tried were a total bust -- but the cheapo brands I've tried work well (Suave and some other one I can't remember).
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5 hours ago, Kareni said:
So, how do you feel about walking sticks, mumto2?! (I agree. Patricia Briggs is a good writer!)
Regards,
Kareni
Not mumto2 but I love the walking stick -- it doesn't feel creepy to me at all (although... I should LISTEN to the books and see if I maintain that view 😄 )
spoiler in whilte:
I was soooo sad when she ended the walking stick! I guess it says something about the author when you end up mourning a mostly inanimate object
For Psy-Changlings -- must admit I do not love this series. I like it enough to have read a bunch of them though. But... reading the next one --to me - not near the latest (Tangle of Need), and I just feel mostly 'eh' so far. Not sure what it is though that i don't care for (and its not just this one either, was feeling that way through the last couple I've read)
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Finished Wild Country by Anne Bishop
I have to say -- I put this on hold in all available forms at the library (this is my current habit for any book i strongly desire to read) , and what showed up first was the Audio version. This is the first time that has happened for a fiction book (it has happened a lot for non-fiction books though). And it this case I feel like listening instead of reading affected my enjoyment of the book. It seems to me that my rating of the book was affected by 1) not being able to go back easily to revisit what just happened and 2) I had just finished listening to the 'Sweep" books by Ilona Andrews. The style of writing and the narrator is SOO different between these books. I found the Ilona Andrews books far more enjoyable to listen to I must admit -- and I think that affected my enjoyment of Wild Country. And one thing that was definitely missing was that feeling of getting lost in the book that I usually get while reading -- I will have to reread the book when the print version arrives and see if that makes a difference.
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Read Among Others by Jo Walton, which was compared to The Goblin Emperor in one of Tor's links this month (https://www.tor.com/2019/02/27/how-jo-waltons-among-others-and-katherine-addisons-the-goblin-emperor-tell-stories-of-trauma-and-recovery/) -- Don't really agree with Ms Schnelbach 🙂
Among Others does have a LOT of references to old sci fi books many of which I read in my own teenage years (70's ish - -not the super old stuff), which is about the only thing that kept me going in the book. Otherwise it felt quite slow and I didn't care for the end, whereas I LOvED the Goblin Emperor.
Finished listening to Clean Sweep (ilona Andrews) -- I've been listening to more audio books lately and it's funny how some of them I do not like to listen to at all even though I love the book -- this one was very enjoyable though and I"ve started into Sweep in Peace now.
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Blowing through The Others series this week, currently on #4 "Marked in Flesh".
It's funny that I am enjoying them so much because every time the first book, Written in Red, came up on my radar the last few years, I would read the blurb and think "meh" It was only when the series was talked up here recently that I finally decided to give it a try anyway 👍 So thanks to BAW for once again giving me more enjoyable books to read 😄
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11 minutes ago, Kareni said:
Last night I stayed up late finishing Doris Egan's The Gate of Ivory. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure if I'll continue on with the trilogy.
From Library Journal:
"Stranded by mischance on the planet Ivory, Theodora of Pyrene uses her small talent to read fortunes to support herself until a commission by a sorcerer of the powerful Cormallon family involves her in a web of deceit and murder on a world where magic and technology combine forces. Romantic suspense and exotic local color lend spice to this sf/fantasy debut."
Regards,
Kareni
I really liked The Gate of Ivory a lot -- but the other 2 were quite different. One was more of a mystery style as I remember.
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1 hour ago, Kareni said:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Laughing Cat.
One big difference I recall between the book and the movie is that in the book Mark Watney loses contact with NASA after burning out a some wiring. He is forced to make the long drive using his own resources. (In the movie, if I recall correctly, he maintains contact once contact has been reestablished.)
Like you, I like the book ending better; the movie rescue seemed a tad silly.
You're correct that often Watney's first plan would work; he did take a few lumps along the way though. And, had his plans not worked, we'd have had a short story rather than a novel!
As regards the lack of emotion you mentioned, I think for me that the humor in the book carried a lot of weight. The book made me laugh a lot.
And now I'm curious about George O Smith's Venus Equilateral. I'm heading off to look it up.
Regards,
Kareni
Yes, the loss of contact definitely makes the book more about his skills/wits vs. the environment. I did not get that feeling at all from the movie once he made contact.
Regarding my complaint about it going too perfectly, I did think that feeling may have come somewhat because everything just had to fall together so perfectly for him to be rescued at all -- yet the only 'mistake' I really remember him making was when he lost contact with Earth. Maybe if I reread it in the future that part would not seem to stand out so much to me (i.e. could be the comparison to the movie where he had the advice of all earth could offer him).
And you are right -- there is a lot of humor -- I should have counted that toward emotion. And definitely could be considered a coping mechanism in a hard situation too.
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Finished The Martian today so posting some thoughts since Karini asked for them 😄
This book really reminded me of George O Smith's Venus Equilateral with all the tech talk -- it is a style of book I haven't read in a long while (which may be because I don't read near as much SF as I used too?). I really liked Venus Equilateral for a long time (and reread it multiple times) even though I read it long after its tech was outdated. I might have to dig it out to see if I still like it. Unfortunately, I think The Martian does not have quite as much story outside the technical aspects, and so will probably not age very well.
One downside to The Martian IMO was the Mary Sue/Gary Stu (or perhaps Angus McGyver in this case 🤣 ) feel -although he did make mistakes, there was still a feel of things going too well -it seemed like he fixed almost every problem he encountered the first time with his first idea kind of thing. Perhaps it was the way it was written, as I can think of multiple instances in the book where he didn't ended up going with his first idea - -but at the same time I can't think of any times where the idea he decided to go with didn't work the first time -- there was very little feel of him "let me try this idea out and then see where it needs improvement" and much more of "I know this will work" and voilà it does.One big diff to the movie that I really liked was the end -- which I will put white just in case anyone here doesn't already know how it ends..
the movie ending with the ships captain stepping in and taking over and him implementing his crazy idea of moving himself with his air supply and then the epilogue showing all the people and where they ended up
the book ending where everyone did the job they were TRAINED to do
I must say I really liked the book ending much better there.
Beyond that, the movie seemed to be very true to the book (there was one other big scene left out that I can think of... where he flipped over as driving... but to me that seemed just one more instance of his perfect McGyvering skills rather than adding to the tension). The one really big difference was how much he did on his own vs. with help from NASA, where the book was def. more towards the "McGyver/on your own with only your own wits" and the movie was much more towards "kitty down a hole/rescue of a man in a precarious situation".
Another thought --there was not much emotion portrayed in the book. OTOH I have read other "Man on his own trying to survive the wilderness" books that have the same feel -- so that could be more about portraying the idea that in such a situation you would be so focused on the "next step" needed to survive the day that you would be left with little mental energy left over to angst about your situation (although in this case, if so, he does little to portray that feeling either other than the lack of emotion -- I really brought that thought over from the other books).
I know I read this way after most others -- I'd love to hear others thoughts on this book after having had some time pass ....
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I'm reading The Martian right now -- started it after DH and I watched the movie Friday night. Wrong order I know but I wasn't planning to watch or read it at all 😄
So far (I am maybe 1/3) the movie appears to have been very true to the book -- except in that you don't find out how he was left behind until later in the book but it is the start in the movie (this section of the book was a bit jarring to me in the way it started -- couldn't figure out what was going on at first). Also so far the book is losing to the movie --opposite of my normal reaction.
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Book a Week 2020 - BW33: Pick a book by its cover
in The Chat Board
Posted
Melusine by Sarah Monette -- This book was nothing like the Goblin Emperor (by this author under the name Katherine Addison and which I loved) unfortunately-- much darker, with multiple scenes that could trigger, and one of the 2 main characters was a selfish jerk with no improvement from his travails. It did have flashes of good story mixed in, but overall it really rambled and appeared to be several stories mashed together with no clear point. And sadly, this book does not actually finish the story either, but stops at a halfway point (at least not a cliff hanger halfway point). My only faint praise is that I kept reading til the end. I'm kinda thankful that my library doesn't have the next book, or I'd probably read it to finish the story -- and based on the reviews I read, would hate it.