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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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grumbler

Quote from: Barrister on November 18, 2019, 03:38:58 PM
Quote from: grumbler on November 10, 2019, 09:04:44 PM
Alexander Kent is a pen name for Douglas Reeman, so if you have read any Reeman you know what to expect from Kent:  good and exciting stories, but not a huge amount of character development.  Much better than Hornblower, and probably the best of the Napoleonic naval fiction.  The ones taking place in the Pacific were particularly good.  The later books (when Bolitho is an admiral and there's a lot more politic involved) are not as good, but still very readable.

Is that a recommendation?  I hadn't heard of these stories before.

I adore O'brien's Aubrey/Maturin series, tried looking for something similar, tried reading Hornblower and found it just bad.

There is a lot more action than in O'Brien's series, so if what you enjoyed about O'Brien was his descriptions of everything, you might be disappointed by Kent.  If you liked the action sequences plus a plot twist per book, then you should like the Alexander Kent books.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Barrister

Quote from: grumbler on November 18, 2019, 04:54:34 PM
Quote from: Barrister on November 18, 2019, 03:38:58 PM
Quote from: grumbler on November 10, 2019, 09:04:44 PM
Alexander Kent is a pen name for Douglas Reeman, so if you have read any Reeman you know what to expect from Kent:  good and exciting stories, but not a huge amount of character development.  Much better than Hornblower, and probably the best of the Napoleonic naval fiction.  The ones taking place in the Pacific were particularly good.  The later books (when Bolitho is an admiral and there's a lot more politic involved) are not as good, but still very readable.

Is that a recommendation?  I hadn't heard of these stories before.

I adore O'brien's Aubrey/Maturin series, tried looking for something similar, tried reading Hornblower and found it just bad.

There is a lot more action than in O'Brien's series, so if what you enjoyed about O'Brien was his descriptions of everything, you might be disappointed by Kent.  If you liked the action sequences plus a plot twist per book, then you should like the Alexander Kent books.

O'brien's funny - sometimes he'll just entirely skip the action scenes, then have the characters describe what just happened to each other.  And I was just as entertained by his descriptions of domestic life in England or routine day to day life on ship, as by some swashbuckling action.

I'll check one out, see if I like it.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Admiral Yi

I borrowed the first Kent book from the public library and it's certainly not literature.  The writing style is more Hardy boys or Tom Swift.  I imagine he was writing for the boy's adventure story market in 1968.

If you haven't already started Beeb, turn around.  It's a trap!

Barrister

Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 19, 2019, 11:06:33 PM
I borrowed the first Kent book from the public library and it's certainly not literature.  The writing style is more Hardy boys or Tom Swift.  I imagine he was writing for the boy's adventure story market in 1968.

If you haven't already started Beeb, turn around.  It's a trap!

Asoka.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

grumbler

The two Midshipman Bolitho books were, indeed, aimed at the YA market.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

KRonn

I'm reading "Europe Between the Oceans" by Barry Cunliffe - 9000bc - 1000ad.  It's about the European continent and the progression of Euro groups, tribes, nations. One main theme is looking at the conditions - societal, resources, weather-  that caused European nations to become strong and dominant entities. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but it somewhat complements Sapiens and Guns, Germs and Steel though it's focused on European societal, economic, cultural progression and rather than those factors of human kind on the whole.

Maladict

Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 19, 2019, 11:06:33 PM
I borrowed the first Kent book from the public library and it's certainly not literature.  The writing style is more Hardy boys or Tom Swift.  I imagine he was writing for the boy's adventure story market in 1968.

If you haven't already started Beeb, turn around.  It's a trap!

I remember devouring the Reeman books as a teenager. Not sure if I'd still enjoy them now.

mongers

Quote from: KRonn on November 20, 2019, 02:43:43 PM
I'm reading "Europe Between the Oceans" by Barry Cunliffe - 9000bc - 1000ad.  It's about the European continent and the progression of Euro groups, tribes, nations. One main theme is looking at the conditions - societal, resources, weather-  that caused European nations to become strong and dominant entities. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but it somewhat complements Sapiens and Guns, Germs and Steel though it's focused on European societal, economic, cultural progression and rather than those factors of human kind on the whole.

Thanks KRonn, I shall definitely pick this up.

I attended a small talk he gave last summer, pretty much on this topic and he gave a excellent presentation.



"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

KRonn

Quote from: mongers on November 30, 2019, 08:36:52 AM
Quote from: KRonn on November 20, 2019, 02:43:43 PM
I'm reading "Europe Between the Oceans" by Barry Cunliffe - 9000bc - 1000ad.  It's about the European continent and the progression of Euro groups, tribes, nations. One main theme is looking at the conditions - societal, resources, weather-  that caused European nations to become strong and dominant entities. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but it somewhat complements Sapiens and Guns, Germs and Steel though it's focused on European societal, economic, cultural progression and rather than those factors of human kind on the whole.

Thanks KRonn, I shall definitely pick this up.

I attended a small talk he gave last summer, pretty much on this topic and he gave a excellent presentation.

Heh, interesting that you heard him speak on this subject. I've been reading several types of similar books, as I mentioned. They give interesting insight on how things developed over time, different historical foccii which I enjoy learning about.

mongers

Quote from: KRonn on December 02, 2019, 09:25:37 PM
Quote from: mongers on November 30, 2019, 08:36:52 AM
Quote from: KRonn on November 20, 2019, 02:43:43 PM
I'm reading "Europe Between the Oceans" by Barry Cunliffe - 9000bc - 1000ad.  It's about the European continent and the progression of Euro groups, tribes, nations. One main theme is looking at the conditions - societal, resources, weather-  that caused European nations to become strong and dominant entities. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but it somewhat complements Sapiens and Guns, Germs and Steel though it's focused on European societal, economic, cultural progression and rather than those factors of human kind on the whole.

Thanks KRonn, I shall definitely pick this up.

I attended a small talk he gave last summer, pretty much on this topic and he gave a excellent presentation.

Heh, interesting that you heard him speak on this subject. I've been reading several types of similar books, as I mentioned. They give interesting insight on how things developed over time, different historical foccii which I enjoy learning about.

Yes, he was very interesting on various type of trade network and how those came and went over time; I should follow you example and crack on with some future reading.  :)
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Razgovory

Finished reading "The Case against Reality" by Donald Hoffman.  It was... very strange.  The premised is that evolution selects for fitness rather than for truth and as a result the world around us is not anything like what we perceive.  That's not a new idea, people have been claiming that for thousands of years, though I never saw someone use Darwin to make this point.  Hoffman is very much in the "gene centered" view of evolution.  I don't know enough about biology to make much of a comment on the idea one way or another, I mostly know it's the view pushed by Dawkins in his "Self-Gene" book. (I've kind of mellowed out about Dawkins.  I don't have the wherewithal to care anymore) so it surprised me that at the end of the book delved into some kind of mysticism and called for science to reject Physicalism.  I half-expected this whole thing to be an argument ad absurdium regarding evolution, but no, he's sincere about it.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

The Brain

Flesh and Steel during the Great War: The Transformation of the French Army and the Invention of Modern Warfare, by Goya. A very interesting description of the development of the French army immediately before and during WW1. I cannot really judge the accuracy since I'm no expert on the French army in WW1 (good information in English is not at all as available as I'd like), but it seems to be fine. I would love to see similar books about all the major powers of WW1.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Eddie Teach

I didn't know Goya was a time traveler.  :hmm:
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

The Brain

Quote from: Eddie Teach on December 07, 2019, 09:49:16 PM
I didn't know Goya was a time traveler.  :hmm:

It isn't really a factor in the book itself, I think it should be judged on its own merits.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Sheilbh

Quote from: Eddie Teach on December 07, 2019, 09:49:16 PM
I didn't know Goya was a time traveler.  :hmm:
If you're interested in that aspect of his career, I recommend the Spanish TV series the Ministry of Time.
Let's bomb Russia!