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Grand unified books thread

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

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jimmy olsen

Quote from: garbon on September 11, 2012, 07:33:12 AM
QuoteIf you have ever wondered how Captain Hook's personality would stand out next to those of Blackbeard or Long John Silver this book will be a treat.

:huh:
Pan as an inhuman fae monster is what interested me there. I can see it.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

The Brain

Read the Osprey book on Towton 1461. Graham Turner's artwork is great as always (I love his work on the WotR), but I am not convinced by some things that the author says.

It seems unlikely to me that you would deploy a medieval army with the battles behind one another instead of side by side. I can think of all kinds of C&C issues and it just seems odd. But maybe I'm just ignorant? But my impression is definitely that the two wings and a center system makes a lot more sense. The source quoted for Fauconberg's archer tactics also makes more sense if he only commanded part of the Yorkist archers.

Speaking of Fauconberg, the author's claim that he ordered his archers to leave half of the Lancastrian arrows that had fallen short in the ground (instead of shooting them back at the Lancastrians) to form an obstacle for the Lancastrians when they advanced smells wrong. The source quoted makes more sense if interpreted that part of the arrows were fired back at the Lancastrians and part were not, not because of some command but because that's just the way it would play out IRL. Among other problems with such a command is that the commander would have had to believe that an arrow would do more damage to the Lancastrians as an obstacle in the ground instead of as a missile fired into them, which seems odd to me.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Razgovory

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

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

The Brain

Quote from: The Brain on September 16, 2012, 07:37:05 AM
Read the Osprey book on Towton 1461. Graham Turner's artwork is great as always (I love his work on the WotR), but I am not convinced by some things that the author says.

It seems unlikely to me that you would deploy a medieval army with the battles behind one another instead of side by side. I can think of all kinds of C&C issues and it just seems odd. But maybe I'm just ignorant? But my impression is definitely that the two wings and a center system makes a lot more sense. The source quoted for Fauconberg's archer tactics also makes more sense if he only commanded part of the Yorkist archers.

Speaking of Fauconberg, the author's claim that he ordered his archers to leave half of the Lancastrian arrows that had fallen short in the ground (instead of shooting them back at the Lancastrians) to form an obstacle for the Lancastrians when they advanced smells wrong. The source quoted makes more sense if interpreted that part of the arrows were fired back at the Lancastrians and part were not, not because of some command but because that's just the way it would play out IRL. Among other problems with such a command is that the commander would have had to believe that an arrow would do more damage to the Lancastrians as an obstacle in the ground instead of as a missile fired into them, which seems odd to me.

I notice that the author (Christopher Gravett) puts the battles side by side in his books on Tewkesbury 1471 and Bosworth 1485. I wonder if he has considered the weirdness of a unique form of deployment at Towton. :hmm:
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

garbon

There's now an alt-hist book about the world if Gore had won. :bleeding:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Sheilbh

Just finished The Prime Minister. In my view the best Palliser novel.

Now on The Duke's Children.
Let's bomb Russia!

The Brain

Quote from: garbon on September 18, 2012, 08:25:25 AM
There's now an alt-hist book about the world if Gore had won. :bleeding:

Gor?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Habbaku

The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

dps

Quote from: garbon on September 18, 2012, 08:25:25 AM
There's now an alt-hist book about the world if Gore had won. :bleeding:

Are the survivors reduced to eating moss?

Razgovory

Quote from: garbon on September 18, 2012, 08:25:25 AM
There's now an alt-hist book about the world if Gore had won. :bleeding:

I read that.  It ends with the Chinese all flying away into space in giant city-spaceships.
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

merithyn

Looking at picking up Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, since her second book in the trilogy is out and the third is supposed to be coming out relatively soon. I know Sheilbh and JR have read it. Worth my time?

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away...

Grey Fox

Since this place is about books. Kobo's Mini Ereader is 50$ online only, today only.

I was perusing Amazon last nite to find something to read & came upon 1632. What a ridiculous premise, it has me intrigue.
Colonel Caliga is Awesome.

Syt

I recently read Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Manual.

It explains what a Roman signing up for service in ca. 100 AD could expect - from recruitment, to what equipment to get (helmet to pilum to eating utensils) and how to keep it in good shape, what training and everyday life is like and what to expect when besieging a town or meeting the enemy in open battle:

1. Joining the Roman Army
2. The Prospective Recruit's Good Legion Guide
3. Alternative Military Careers
4. Legionary Kit and Equipment
5. Training, Discipline and Ranks
6. People Who Will Want to Kill You
7. Life in Camp
8. On Campaign
9. How to Storm a City
10. Battle
11. Aftermath


Very fun read, slightly tongue in cheek (soldier's cynicism?). From the same author (Philip Matyszak):

- Gladiator: The Roman Fighter's [Unofficial] Manual
- Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day
- Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day
- MITHRIDATES THE GREAT: Rome's Indomitable Enemy
- The Enemies of Rome: From Hannibal to Attila the Hun

And others.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

crazy canuck

Quote from: merithyn on November 26, 2012, 12:34:29 PM
Looking at picking up Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, since her second book in the trilogy is out and the third is supposed to be coming out relatively soon. I know Sheilbh and JR have read it. Worth my time?

I read both.  They are not for everyone.  I liked them.  My wife didnt finish the first book after trying a couple times.