ThunderPeel2001

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I haven't read either of those books, and I suspect it is quite dissimilar in many respects, but John le Carré's A Perfect Spy – despite its name and the rest of le Carré's bibliography – is not really an espionage novel, but a re-examination of the life of a British intelligence officer. Much of the focus is in the relationship between the main character and his charismatic and destructive con-man father, and how this relationship affected his later life. Even if the novel doesn't fit the bill perfectly, I can still heartily recommend it. It is the best le Carré book I have read, and he has written some excellent books. And I'm not the only one thinking that:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/best-le-carre-novel

 

Incidentally, le Carré just released his memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel. I'm really excited to read it to see how strong the parallels are between it and A Perfect Spy. As I understood it, many of the events of A Perfect Spy are supposed to mirror le Carre's early life to some extent, which makes the novel even more fascinating, and brutal.

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I really didn't get the point of Remains of the Day (unlike Sense of an Ending which I liked better) -- maybe because I read the Barnes book first and thus had my fill of wistful English guys going "what if".

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I'm a little more than half way through Joanna Walsh's Vertigo and while I don't think it is the sort of book you could describe as something you enjoy, it is very smartly written. It consists of these short vignettes where the author just really draws out as much anxiety as possible out of a particular scene (a woman processing her divorce, a couple at a restaurant feeling impatient about the lack of service, feeling out of place in another country, etc.) At its best it is a powerful reflection on some of the moments of quiet desperation generated by adult life. I also appreciate that it is a tiny book that fits in a jacket pocket, ideal for reading while on public transit.

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Incidentally, le Carré just released his memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel. I'm really excited to read it to see how strong the parallels are between it and A Perfect Spy. As I understood it, many of the events of A Perfect Spy are supposed to mirror le Carre's early life to some extent, which makes the novel even more fascinating, and brutal.

 

Turns out the parallels between le Carré's and A Perfect Spy protagonist's childhoods are really strong.

 

I can heartily recommend The Pigeon Tunnel, by the way. It's not so much a memoir than an amazing collection of vignettes throughout the author's life, including encounters with Yasser Arafat, Rupert Murdoch, and a man who calls a French cafe and asks for a made up name whenever he feels particularly lonely, just to listen to the ensuing commotion.

 

I never realized the lengths to which le Carré is ready to go in order to research his novels. Truly fascinating.

 

Also, Stanley Kubrick wanted to adapt A Perfect Spy. Fuuuck.. 

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I've been re-reading all the Gerald Durrell books. They're part of what kindled my love for biology and nature, and they're just as good as they were when I first read them as a kid. Unfortunately they've aged rather badly from a political point of view, but I can forgive that given the massive force for good his Wildlife Trust ended up being.

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Following a bit of post-apocalyptic bent( my vice!) I just finished a book called "Kingdom Come: Abaddon"...only seems to be on Amazon from what I can see. Definitely a different take on the theme, especially location wise( not the good old US for once!)...and relatively contemporary. Not the longest to be fair ( though obvs heading into a series), and starts slightly slowly, but it picks up and rolls through well. Kept me reading anyway.

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Currently trying to read the dense Rebooting the Regions: Why low or zero growth needn't mean the end of prosperity - Edited by Paul Spoonley.

It's a collection reasonably long articles all detailing the structural problems of the regional economy of New Zealand (as well as other countries) as demographics shift to completely favour the national economic centres while the smaller, rural populations face the problems of ageing populations (30% of many towns will be over 65 in the next few decades), and some of the solutions to those problems.

I'm really enjoying it and you can find a short summary interview (about 20 minutes) here

 

Core topics include how to manage depopulation, how to innovate living spaces as businesses close and transit networks age, how to address youth underachievement, how to re-empower local Maori Iwi in shaping their communities, and how some towns have already emerged with success stories in future proofing the coming changes.

 

It's a good book but I'm feeling a bit too distracted to really let my mind settle down for the seriousness of the discussion. It's written by and for people who are already studying population management and policy planning so don't go in expecting a light read; I only found it because I was browsing an airport bookstore in the political heart of NZ.

 

Anyway in the fiction world I found out that Lian Hearn has come out with The Emperor of the Eight Islands (The Tale of Shikanoko) a new prequel series for her fantasy Japan series: Tales of the Otori. I loved this series when I was just a young sprout and this new series goes further back in time to a more mystical era of her fantasy Japan. In a lot of ways this book's setting feels like a much, much more feudal Princess Mononke, just in terms of how the super and the natural tend to coexist.

I've only read the first book but it's the story of a lord's son who is raised by his uncle after his father loses a game of Go to a group of Tengu. Events happen and Shikanoko becomes wrapped up in sorcery as an eccentric practitioner takes him up and gives him an enchanting mask that connects him to the power of the forest and the spirit world before Shikanoko is plunged into the politics of an emerging civil war and a dying emperor.

A lot of it does feel like a standard empowerment focused YA novel but it does take interesting turns here and there with how Shikanoko truly learns his power by experiencing brokenness. The story is a sight darker than most YA you'd expect to read so maybe the readers are expected to age with the books. In any case I found it to be an enchanting story that'll soon have me going back to Takeo and his adventures Across the Nightingale Floor just as soon as I'm finished with yet another(!) Warhammer Horus Heresy Novel. Trudging my way through Nick Kyme's Vulkan Lives! at the moment, it's decent for WH:HH but I'm not really in the mood atm.

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Rachel Kushner's The Strange Case of Rachel K is quick, and very much worth reading. At first I thought it was three short stories, but actually they are all tied together. It's a short read, and worth going in blind.

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My expectations for George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo were pretty high, but somehow it managed to exceed them. What a beautiful thing! It has a really interesting structure that actually serves the story well, and the story itself simply oozes empathy. Just what I want from a Saunders book.

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I finished The Fire Dwellers by Margarent Laurence and I would heartily recommend it to anyone. It's very stream of conciousness, which would normally not be my cup of tea, but this time it was really interesting. There's different ways the author indicates what is happening, what the character is thinking, conversations and memories which seem related to whatever is currently happening. It really seemed to capture the sense of having/being a part of a family really well and was just a beautiful book all round.

 

I'm currently reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I like it a lot, but I think I'm a bit tired of the "perfect super hero flawless genius" stuff that seems to be going on. I'm not sure if there's something happens that will change my mind about the protagonist, but so far I'm not that impressed considering how much hype there is surrounding the book.  

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In what ways is it worse? I was still considering buying the sequel but if it's crap then I won't bother.

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12 hours ago, Dosed said:

In what ways is it worse? I was still considering buying the sequel but if it's crap then I won't bother.

There's a bunch of discussion here https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/10281-the-kingkiller-chronicle-name-of-the-wind-the-wise-mans-fear/

 

In general the meandering Gary Stu nature of Kvother is amped up to the nth degree in the sequel, along with nothing happening to actually progress the arc of his story. He learns stuff, gets out of trouble, nothing of import happens. It's all set-up, no pay-off.

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8 hours ago, osmosisch said:

There's a bunch of discussion here https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/10281-the-kingkiller-chronicle-name-of-the-wind-the-wise-mans-fear/

 

In general the meandering Gary Stu nature of Kvother is amped up to the nth degree in the sequel, along with nothing happening to actually progress the arc of his story. He learns stuff, gets out of trouble, nothing of import happens. It's all set-up, no pay-off.

 

Him learning stuff instead of having already learned everything with his parents traveling theater group seems like a positive though.

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13 hours ago, simonster said:

 

Him learning stuff instead of having already learned everything with his parents traveling theater group seems like a positive though.

Well of course he learns everything super fast and amazingly because of how awesome he is etc so it's actually more grating to me. At least with the upbringing you can sort of get the idea he spent some actual time on practise.

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17 hours ago, Jutranjo said:

I mean, he didn't, right? He's lying all the time to the guy writing the story.

 

I've heard this a lot, but I think it's really a way for Rothfuss to have his Mary Sue cake and eat it, too. When I really and truly lost patience with the series was Felurian.

 

Qvothe gets trapped in fairyland with the ancient embodiment of carnal lust, has sex with her, and lives. This isn't made up at all: he describes Ferulian, fairyland, and the Cthaeh perfectly; he has the magical

shaed (barf) that Ferulian made especially for him, he suddenly acquires bedroom abilities that multiple women are able to confirm, and he has his own pet fairy Bast there to corroborate everything. Whatever else Qvothe fibbed about, like not bleeding when being whipped or calling down the lightning on those bandits, he still snuck into fairyland, slept with someone who has killed everyone she's ever slept with, made her fall for him by playing her music, and escaped to tell the tale. And that's not the only time that Rothfuss can't help making Qvothe demonstrably a badass in addition to reportedly a badass: there's also the time that he defends himself in the royal court against charges of treason, speaking in a language he learned overnight, in front of hundreds of witnesses, just off the top of my head.

 

I'd really like to read a fantasy novel about a fraud who's the hapless beneficiary of rumor and ignorance, but The Kingkiller Chronicles isn't it, if only because Rothfuss doesn't have the discipline to make his character not secretly awesome.

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Just finished Nixonland. Its a fantastic political history and has a lot of parallels to modern party politics. Goldwater being sidelined by his party only during his presidential run is a good example of what the GOP could have done to Trump if they wanted to.


Was surprised how Nixonland does a much better job covering segregated cities in the north than my history classes in middle school did. Ditto for what the DNC did to McGovern. His 1972 acceptance speech is fantastic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orx63ix1y-o


The book also made me appreciate how much more dangerous Trump would be if he were half as smart or devious as Nixon was.
 

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2393575.Nixonland

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On 24-3-2017 at 1:17 AM, Jutranjo said:

I mean, he didn't, right? He's lying all the time to the guy writing the story.

That doesn't make the experience of actually reading the book any better though. Like, having an entire hefty book be basically all bullshit lies just so you can score points down the road is not good writing. Plus, what Gorm said :fistbump:

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3 minutes ago, osmosisch said:

That doesn't make the experience of actually reading the book any better though. Like, having an entire hefty book be basically all bullshit lies just so you can score points down the road is not good writing. Plus, what Gorm said :fistbump:

 

On 3/24/2017 at 6:27 PM, Gormongous said:

 

I've heard this a lot, but I think it's really a way for Rothfuss to have his Mary Sue cake and eat it, too. When I really and truly lost patience with the series was Felurian.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Qvothe gets trapped in fairyland with the ancient embodiment of carnal lust, has sex with her, and lives. This isn't made up at all: he describes Ferulian, fairyland, and the Cthaeh perfectly; he has the magical

shaed (barf) that Ferulian made especially for him, he suddenly acquires bedroom abilities that multiple women are able to confirm, and he has his own pet fairy Bast there to corroborate everything. Whatever else Qvothe fibbed about, like not bleeding when being whipped or calling down the lightning on those bandits, he still snuck into fairyland, slept with someone who has killed everyone she's ever slept with, made her fall for him by playing her music, and escaped to tell the tale. And that's not the only time that Rothfuss can't help making Qvothe demonstrably a badass in addition to reportedly a badass: there's also the time that he defends himself in the royal court against charges of treason, speaking in a language he learned overnight, in front of hundreds of witnesses, just off the top of my head.

 

I'd really like to read a fantasy novel about a fraud who's the hapless beneficiary of rumor and ignorance, but The Kingkiller Chronicles isn't it, if only because Rothfuss doesn't have the discipline to make his character not secretly awesome.

 

 

These, for sure. It also made the Modern Day fight stuff incredibly grating (Spoilers, he gets into a fight in the present day) because it's like, you spend TWO WHOLE BOOKS talking about how badass this dude is, and then that fight is pathetic. I dunno. It's too inconsistent.

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I have recently read Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Miéville, poster child of the New Weird. I have read a few of his other books. I really enjoyed The City and The City and Embassytown, and I liked King Rat decently enough. Now I'm two thirds through his Bas-Lag trilogy, and I have some Assorted Thoughts:

 

Perdido Street Station is absolutely crammed with interesting ideas, from severe body horror to friendly hell-dwellers to a rejection of Tolkien-esque fantasy tropes. Sometimes, this is to its detriment. I don't particularly care for elves and orcs and dwarves and such, and PSS avoids all of this in favour of a bunch of much stranger creatures, like the man-bird Garruda and the extremely sexually dimorphic Khepri. These all have different cultures and ways of living, but they're all overlapping in the city of New Crobuzon. All of these details are interesting, but the story focusses on the invasion of some monsters into the city and the efforts of "rogue academic" Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin. There are a bunch of subplots that weave through this, but some of the story is lost in all of the world details, which is the same problem as the Lord of the Rings just in a different skin. There are a few revelations that happen towards the end that made me feel manipulated, and not in a fun way. I found this book to be mostly a slog, but I spite-read my way through it because I have enjoyed some of the other things that Miéville has written.

 

The Scar is much better! It's the story of Bellis Coldwine and the pirate city of Armada, a conglomerate of stolen ships and scraps. Again, there are a bunch of New Weird fantasy races all living side-by-side. Despite the fact that PSS and The Scar are pretty log (~800 pages each), the latter was a much easier read. There is a smaller cast of characters and they are all contained on this ship-city, and they are much more developed. All of the world details didn't feel like fluff this time, but rather relevant information that also fleshes things out. Some of the twists and turns are obvious to see from miles away, but there are still a few surprises. I really enjoyed The Scar, way more than Perdido! The problem is that I don't know if anything in the setting would make a lot of sense if you just jumped in here, but maybe... ?

 

Anyway, I am interested now in the last of the trilogy, Iron Council.

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For what it's worth, Iron Council is my favourite of the three by some distance. There's some real urgency and the plot feels more focused politically. I'm very curious what you'll think of the ending, I kind of liked it but it gave me Thoughts.

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20 hours ago, Atlantic said:

Perdido Street Station is absolutely crammed with interesting ideas, from severe body horror to friendly hell-dwellers to a rejection of Tolkien-esque fantasy tropes. Sometimes, this is to its detriment. I don't particularly care for elves and orcs and dwarves and such, and PSS avoids all of this in favour of a bunch of much stranger creatures, like the man-bird Garruda and the extremely sexually dimorphic Khepri. These all have different cultures and ways of living, but they're all overlapping in the city of New Crobuzon. All of these details are interesting, but the story focusses on the invasion of some monsters into the city and the efforts of "rogue academic" Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin. There are a bunch of subplots that weave through this, but some of the story is lost in all of the world details, which is the same problem as the Lord of the Rings just in a different skin. There are a few revelations that happen towards the end that made me feel manipulated, and not in a fun way. I found this book to be mostly a slog, but I spite-read my way through it because I have enjoyed some of the other things that Miéville has written.

 

 

Miéville is one of my favourite contemporary writers; Perdido Street Station was the first thing I ever read by him (many years ago now) and I remember absolutely adoring it. It was one of those rare books that reminded me of why I love reading in the first place. It's just bursting at the seams with ideas, character, politics, colour, details - the absolute antithesis of the drab minimalism of 'realistic' literary fiction. I knew it was flawed then - and were I to re-read it now, those flaws would doubtless become more apparent - but even thinking of it now gives me a little giddy rush of enthusiasm. 

 

Regarding those revelations towards the end of the book - I wonder if you mean

the very bad things that happen to Lin. I've always had extremely mixed feelings regarding that part. It is genuinely upsetting; which is, of course, exactly the point. 'Problematic' don't quite cut it - I think it might be one of the worst things he's ever done - but it's been so long ago now that I'd have to re-read it to truly have an opinion about it.

 

The academic blog Crooked Timber hosted an excellent series of essays on Miéville's work a few years ago. This post by CM himself, plus the attendant comments, is a nice example of an author engaging critically with his audience without the whole thing descending into troll wars or a typical Q&A snoozefest. It's rather long and covers a wide variety of topics but if you're interested in his thoughts on those tricky revelations in Perdido Street Station, CTRL+F your way down to part 2.2. I'm not sure he entirely exonerates himself but it's an interesting read regardless. Spoilers, obv.

 

(Also, if you ever get the chance to see Miéville do a reading/Q&A in person, I'd highly recommend it - he is one of the few authors I've seen live who are as engaging in conversation as they are on the page.)

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Good timing - I've just finished reading a couple of Miéville's novels. I did read PSS a few years ago, but it put me off reading any of his other works (that and his marxism, although it doesn't really come on strong in his work). Glad I went back.

 

He's incredibly imaginative when it comes to the worlds he creates. All I've read have excellent worldbuilding. Whereas PSS was a rambling epic, these two are mercifully short, and all the better for it:

 

The City and the City -  loved this one until the end (more on that in a moment). Ever been to another culture where something utterly bizzare is treated as normal? The way the two cities ignore each other is exactly that. It's crazy and yet it makes sense somehow. Nods to police drama tropes were a nice touch. The plot benefits from being a whodunnit that mutates into a conspiracy, but upon reaching its denoument, it fails to satisfy.

 

Spoiler

Corporations did it to steal artifacts. How mundane! It's meant to read like a fake-out, but just feels like the author bottled it at the critical moment.

 

Embassytown - Miéville does SF, and he does it well! Makes the Ariekei really alien, generally avoiding typical SF tropes (such as "aliens are just like humans with one trait turned up to 11!"). I wish we learned more about their society though. Miéville also chooses to play with language - and this is central to the plot, rather than some kind of nerdery. Plot itself builds to a conclusion, stakes getting ever higher, and then sticks the landing. Probably the best one to read for folks new to Miéville.

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On 3/27/2017 at 5:57 PM, Cordeos said:

Just finished Nixonland. Its a fantastic political history and has a lot of parallels to modern party politics. Goldwater being sidelined by his party only during his presidential run is a good example of what the GOP could have done to Trump if they wanted to.


Was surprised how Nixonland does a much better job covering segregated cities in the north than my history classes in middle school did. Ditto for what the DNC did to McGovern. His 1972 acceptance speech is fantastic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orx63ix1y-o


The book also made me appreciate how much more dangerous Trump would be if he were half as smart or devious as Nixon was.
 

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2393575.Nixonland

 

Invisible bridge :The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan and before the storm : Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by the same guy are also worth reading.

 

For more 1960's america books - the Best and the Brightest covers the demotratic administrations handling of Vietnam, Robert  Caro's LBJ series which currently goes up just after the Kennedy assassination and covers alot of American political history,  America in the Kings years  which focuses on the civil rights movement.

 

I just fininshed a collection of critical essays on Mieveille published by Gylphi press who have also done a volume on David mitchell and Maggie Gee

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