Latest Gene Wolfe book you read (1-10 scale)

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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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That's how you know a book is good.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Hyperion 8.3/10 Plenty of 10/10 moments throughout, but certain stuff fell flat. I loved the narrative structure (didn't expect short stories :invcross: ) but there was some weird shifting going on with first-person vs. omniscient narrator - is this clever or just dumb/lazy? It didn't really hurt. I'm not sure if Silenus was intended to be a shitty poet or if instances of shittiness were deliberate because he was muse-less or if Simmons was simply in over his head. The Consul's story was pretty underwhelming so things ended on a disappointing note in that regard, but I wasn't pissed at the way the frame story closed (thanks, board soft-spoilers!). I've heard plenty about how the second book is a let-down, so it'll probably be a good while before I confront that. I can't imagine any of the narrative threads paying off in a way that's as satisfying as the set-up does. I enjoyed the little nods to science/sci-fi stuff throughout. Also, all the "RNA medicine" stuff is satisfying because that's kinda-sorta becoming a reality now/soon.

Thoughts on Weintraub's story:
SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW
The moment where I realized his daughter in the story would de-age into the baby on the pilgrimage!!! Trying to think about her reverse aging shit is so irritating. She should definitely be shoving shit in her ass, expelling intact food from her mouth, and living off of heat that she absorbs from her environment. CO2 in, O2 out. Or something.

And the time tombs... thinking about the logic of them moving backwards through time makes my head hurt. Like... if there was something dangerous inside... does it even matter which direction it's moving through time? I guess if it's going forward, you want to keep it shut forever, but if it moves backwards, you'd want to open it ASAP to prevent it from fucking up your universe's past? Is that even possible? I feel like the timeline has to be fixed. Eh.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

Post by kelly »

Necrometer wrote: Thoughts on Weintraub's story:
SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW
And the time tombs... thinking about the logic of them moving backwards through time makes my head hurt. Like... if there was something dangerous inside... does it even matter which direction it's moving through time? I guess if it's going forward, you want to keep it shut forever, but if it moves backwards, you'd want to open it ASAP to prevent it from fucking up your universe's past? Is that even possible? I feel like the timeline has to be fixed. Eh.
Not what you think. It's explained better in #2. Well maybe not "better" if you're trying to figure it out but definitely need #2 to understand this aspect more.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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kickpuncher wrote:
kelly wrote:Ask the Dust (John Fante) ?/10 I don't think I'm ready to rate this yet?! I also had no idea that it was made into a movie. It was a gift from someone and after I read it I realized it was the second book of a 4 book series. So I feel like I need to read the rest of them before rating because it definitely feels like there was something before it and something after it and I just got this small chunk and don't know what to do with it.
hmm. read this last year, and i thought it stood pretty well on its own?
Do you still post here? I finally got around to reading the first book (Wait Until Spring, Bandini) and I think it's essential! Have a completely different opinion now. Will probably re-read Ask the Dust.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Image

Only book I purposely decided to quit was V
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Homer's Iliad and Odyssey - 7 but god damn did I have to work for it
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - 9
Bram Stoker's Dracula - 8
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 7
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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featherboa wrote:Image

Only book I purposely decided to quit was V
My condolences.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Perdido Street Station 7.8/10 Is this the most steampunk thing ever? First half crushed the second, but still a really enticing world to inhabit. A lot of the plotting rubbed me the wrong way. I don't need everything to be all happy, but don't be a douche in the way you make things shitty. Narrated by John Lee, who was just as enjoyable as on Invisible Cities. Very much looking forward to The Scar, which I am not allowed to buy as an audiobook here, but I was able to torrent.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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The Windup Girl - 8
The 6th Lamentation - 5 :invcross:
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Dune [first third] 1/3.3333 ... had to bail on this because the writing was so bad. if I'd never seen the movie, maybe I could get into it based on the world-building, but as things are it was intolerable. this joins Asimov's Foundation on my list of shitty sci-fi books by people who can't write
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Becoming Animal
I read like 3/4s of it then set it down for a year then finished so
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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People quitting V and Dune on the same page? Whatever the universe's antithesis of a pizza is goes here.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Pilaf H. Horatio Quibbenathy - Rex Odiopa Ulyssus Consortium Dillemma


9/10 cans of intellectual banana milk.

feel smart just braggin up that I read it mens!
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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A Brief History of Misogyny 5/10 well intentioned book by a non-feminist dude ... has a bunch of sentiment about how it's women's role to be beautiful ... kinda irritating
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Citadel of the Autarch 7/10 And now I'm done with Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. I guess I never even rated Sword of the Lictor? It was probably a 7 as well. Despite this series never really blowing my mind or adding up to much more than the sum of parts, it was consistently enjoyable & classy and I routinely found myself missing that world whenever I had been away from it for a while. Recommended that febtus dust the first book off, at least. Honky - you done yet?

Edit: I fucked up book 3's title...
Last edited by Necrometer on Thu Nov 20, 2014 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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what the robin knows
10
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Necrometer wrote:Citadel of the Autarch 7/10 And now I'm done with Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. I guess I never even rated Claw of the Cociliator? It was probably a 7 as well. Despite this series never really blowing my mind or adding up to much more than the sum of parts, it was consistently enjoyable & classy and I routinely found myself missing that world whenever I had been away from it for a while. Recommended that febtus dust the first book off, at least. Honky - you done yet?
Not yet but I need to finish. It's been calling me.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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Disfriendly Goatus wrote:The Windup Girl - 8
Love this book.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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ok i will !
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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guns, germs, and steel - 8/10 - Really got me thinking about how agriculture may have been the first sign of doom. Book likely could have been edited down to half its size or more.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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re-posting this because it's important

Nausea 8/10

Existential Psychotherapy 10/10 :cheers: to KRB for the rec http://amzn.com/0465021476

The Scar [great-so-far]/[now-reading]
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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God Bless You Mr. Rosewater 10/10. To me, there are 3 perfect writers: Vonnegut, PKD, and Vollmann.
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

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legends of the Caucasus - 7
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

Post by featherboa »

a wizard of earthsea

what's the proper way to rate a kid's book?
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Re: Latest book you read (1-10 scale)

Post by BUNGVOX »

featherboa wrote:a wizard of earthsea

what's the proper way to rate a kid's book?
10 fucking skulls

5 squirting juicy pricks

limp to erect [more cock action]

or just rate the sonofabitch like you would any other book.
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