Grand unified books thread

[grumbler]

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.

[Barrister]

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.

[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]

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.

[grumbler]

The two Midshipman Bolitho books were, indeed, aimed at the YA market.

[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]

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]

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.

[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.

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]

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. 

[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.

[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.

[Eddie Teach]

I didn't know Goya was a time traveler. 

[The Brain]

I didn't know Goya was a time traveler. 

It isn't really a factor in the book itself, I think it should be judged on its own merits.

[Sheilbh]

I didn't know Goya was a time traveler. 

If you're interested in that aspect of his career, I recommend the Spanish TV series the Ministry of Time.