What Are You Reading Right Now?

Much younger, I read the first few of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. It was the kind of King I liked. Not stupid predictable horror, but intelligent and in fact not even horror at all. Sort of a weird sci-fantasy leaning towards alternate history...I'm not even sure what I'd call it.


Anyway, I found out that he'd apparently written several more, completing it. So I started the first book a couple days ago. Was sick, so I didn't feel like doing much but sitting around reading, so I did that. Now I'm 2/3 of the way through the second book. Though I think I forgot there's some later-written novella that is supposed to come first in the story's chronology.

Deep war : the war with China, the nuclear precipice / David Poyer, c2018, St. Martin's Press, F Poye.

Subjects
United States. -- Navy -- Officers -- Fiction.
Special operations (Military science) -- United States -- Fiction.
Naval battles -- Fiction.
Lenson, Dan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction.
United States -- Relations -- China -- Fiction.
China -- Relations -- United States -- Fiction.

Notes
Sequel to: Hunter killer : the war with China-- the battle for the Central Pacific.

Summary
"The war against China turns dire, as the United States struggles to survive in this gripping thriller featuring Navy commander Dan Lenson"-- Provided by publisher.
The United States has suffered a devastating nuclear attack, and faces food shortages, power outages, cyber and AI assaults, and a wrecked economy. Admiral Dan Lenson leads an allied force assigned to turn the tide of war in the Pacific, using precisely targeted missiles and high-tech weapons systems. But as the campaign begins, the entire Allied military and defense network is compromised by Jade Emperor, a powerful Chinese artificial intelligence system that seems to anticipate and counter every move. -- adapted from jacket

Series
Tales of the modern Navy ; book 18
Tales of the modern Navy

Length
298 pages ;

Military fiction with a convincing ring to it. The latest of the series, tracing Lenson's career & progress. Topical, in that the US/China relationship seems to be veering into dangerous waters. Good background information, an encyclopedic grasp of modern warfare.

How Not to Choose a World Bank President

Not reading, but close enough: Presidential Emergency Powers with Matt Waxman

U.S. Foreign Policy Powers: Congress and the President

Recently finished reading/annotating:
-- Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
-- Achieving Our Country

À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier rendered as Remembrance of Things Past), published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927.
Marcel Proust - Wikipedia

I'm presently reading in Volume 2.

“Moscow 1812-Napoleon’s Fatal March”- Adam Zamoyski

If military history is interesting to you, I recommend this...

It's the end of the world as we know it ...

The valley of shadows / John Ringo & Mike Massa, c2018, Baen Books. SF RING.

Subjects
Zombies -- Fiction.

Summary
"From his corner office on the 44th floor of the Bank of America Tower, Tom Smith, global managing director for security, could see the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park--and a ravening zombie horde. Officially, Smith was paid to preserve the lives and fortunes of employees, billionaires and other clients. And with an implacable virus that turned the infected into ravenous zombies tearing through the world, his job just got a lot harder. Good thing Smith, late of the Australian special forces, isn't a man to give up easily. But saving civilization is going to take more than the traditional banking toolbox of lawyers, guns and money. He'll have to survive making shady alliances and move enough personnel to safe havens and prepare to restart civilization"-- Provided by publisher.

Series - Black tide rising ; 6

Length - x, 287 pages ;

A light read. Some interesting twists & turns.

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

Way Station
Clifford D. Simak
Kindle eBook | Jul 21, 2015
238 pages

Summary:

An ageless hermit runs a secret way station for alien visitors in the Wisconsin woods in this Hugo Award–winning science fiction classic

Enoch Wallace is not like other humans. Living a secluded life in the backwoods of Wisconsin, he carries a nineteenth-century rifle and never seems to age—a fact that has recently caught the attention of prying government eyes. The truth is, Enoch is the last surviving veteran of the American Civil War and, for close to a century, he has operated a secret way station for aliens passing through on journeys to other stars. But the gifts of knowledge and immortality that his intergalactic guests have bestowed upon him are proving to be a nightmarish burden, for they have opened Enoch’s eyes to humanity’s impending destruction. Still, one final hope remains for the human race . . . though the cure could ultimately prove more terrible than the disease.

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, Way Station is a magnificent example of the fine art of science fiction as practiced by a revered Grand Master. A cautionary tale that is at once ingenious, evocative, and compassionately human, it brilliantly supports the contention of the late, great Robert A. Heinlein that “to read science-fiction is to read Simak.”

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

So....

Some decades ago I read books I-IV (I think) of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. It was obviously nowhere near completed and I turned to other things, then forgot about it. A month or so ago, I learned he'd written 3 more main installments, something that goes between IV and V but written later, and something I haven't read set before the rest. So I hopped onto amazon.

Over the last three-ish weeks, time permitting, I've chewed through the series' many thousands of pages. Actually took a couple days off to read. I don't know how to describe it. It's sort of fantasy, sort of sci-fi, vaguely horror, sort of western, with a lot of proper generalized novelizing (that a term?) in it. It's completely bizarre, but there really is something to it. I think.

Bear in mind it was written between 1980 and 2012 or something. The language changes. Like Phillip K. Dick, he's not a master of prose. You won't enjoy language that curls around itself, etc. He's an ideas man. And very much unlike his straight horror stuff, his ideas are far from sophomoric here. He does like his vulgarity and so do I, so there's a bit of that cry your pardon.



I'll say this much more. I disdained the ending at first, but then, it was the only ending that made any sense. One hell of a story. One ****ing hell of a story.

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

I am reading:

The Key to Prostate Cancer by Dr mark Scholz

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

Allright. Finished The Dark Tower series.

That was something. Terribly bitter, but with a grain of hope. A true epic, as good as it is strange.

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

Currently reading "Member of the Family"

Pretty chilling story of Dianne "Snake" Lake, who was one of Charlie's girls, starting at age 14.

She had kept quiet and out of the limelight for a long time, but was found in her current life by an investigative journalist recently, so she decided to do an autobiography.

Its pretty messed up stuff, I'm at the part where they just moved to Spahn Ranch. Luckily, for her, she was able to get out without being imprisoned.

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...



Just some lighthearted weekend reading for me.

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...



Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson- true account of two American treasure hunters discovering and exploring a mysterious WW2 German U-boat wreck off New Jersey. I chose the book strictly for research purposes and ended up liking it very much. Not only did I learn a lot of stuff about wreck diving, it was fairly entertaining too. 8.5/10

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

PoS said:

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson- true account of two American treasure hunters discovering and exploring a mysterious WW2 German U-boat wreck off New Jersey. I chose the book strictly for research purposes and ended up liking it very much. Not only did I learn a lot of stuff about wreck diving, it was fairly entertaining too. 8.5/10

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Great book! I read that a few years ago. I'm an avid diver, but not like these guys. You don't mess with trimix and saturation diving, or you end up dead.....as the book shows.

PublicAffairs Publishing - 2018 - 465pp

The author recounts the birth of the Internet and follows the parallel growth of hacking/phishing/virus code as the World Wide Web matures into its present state.

Starting "Thud!" (Terry Pratchett).

Then I may try something my wife's been going on about "The Raj Quartet"; I'm too lazy to go dig up the individual titles, but it's a four-volume story.

Third book in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Triology. Read the first two years ago and and reading this one together with my wife.

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

beefheart said:

Great book! I read that a few years ago. I'm an avid diver, but not like these guys. You don't mess with trimix and saturation diving, or you end up dead.....as the book shows.

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LOL my recent book release deals with saturation diving in detail (though its more of a plot device than the actual story). I'm also a diver myself but I only made it as far as advanced open water.

The Samurai - Jonathan Clements

It's a concise history book for such a big topic: about 300 pages in paperback form. Like most mass-market ones it has that balance between scholarly and accessible.

Re: It's the end of the world as we know it ...

PoS said:

LOL my recent book release deals with saturation diving in detail (though its more of a plot device than the actual story). I'm also a diver myself but I only made it as far as advanced open water.

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Ha! I am advance open water, but I also have nitrox. Nitrox is great, cures a hangover with all that extra O2

Mr Person said:

Then I may try something my wife's been going on about "The Raj Quartet"; I'm too lazy to go dig up the individual titles, but it's a four-volume story.

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They made a BBC TV miniseries awhile back which is based on those books, I believe its titled the Jewel in the Crown.

Mr Person said:

Starting "Thud!" (Terry Pratchett).

Then I may try something my wife's been going on about "The Raj Quartet"; I'm too lazy to go dig up the individual titles, but it's a four-volume story.

Click to expand...

Allright. Finished the Pratchett Detour. Now onto The Raj Quartet

Professor Timothy Snyder - Tim Duggan Books - 2018 - 368 pages

Seneca's letters and moral essays.