Comrades in Arms Discussion Board

I just finished reading the "Project Eden" books written by Brett Battles.

After the first post I decided to give the Books a try even though they didn't seem to be like the books I normally read because I like the "Jonathan Quinn" books.

The Books start with the main character Cpt. Daniel Ash being torn from his sleep by a Cry of Pain coming from his daughter. From that point on his life will dramatically change because of a world wide operating secret group he is not yet aware of that will change the world as he knows.

As I don't want to put any spoilers here i'm going to stop here. It's only a little information on the books, but for me the books were thrilling enough to finish all seven books in just two and a half weeks.(maybe I will get a little more sleep now that i have nothing to read again)

It's weird.

I just finished "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" by Tom Clancy. Clancy surely has a way of stretching the beginning of his books. It took me weeks to read the first 200 pages of the book, and days to read the last 250. At one point it became so engaging I couldn't put it down anymore.

I really wish he would have skiped his lengthy introductions. He really knows how to tell an engaging story, it just takes him a fucking eternity to get to it.

Oh yeah, and you need a glossary for the Russian names

I discovered that someone has actually put Daniil Harms' short stories online, translated to English, so here they are:

http://www.sevaj.dk/kharms/kharmseng.htm

If you like absurdist/surrealist stuff and similar you will enjoy it.

Quote:Anton Mikhailovich spat, said "yuck", spat again, said "yuck" again, spat again, said "yuck" again and left. To Hell with him. Instead, let me tell about Ilya Pavlovich.

Ilya Pavlovich was born in 1893 in Constantinople. When he was still a boy, they moved to St. Petersburg, and there he graduated from the German School on Kirchnaya Street. Then he worked in some shop; then he did something else; and when the Revolution began, he emigrated. Well, to Hell with him. Instead, let me tell about Anna Ignatievna.

But it is not so easy to tell about Anna Ignatievna. Firstly, I know almost nothing about her, and secondly, I have just fallen of my chair, and have forgotten what I was about to say. So let me instead tell about myself.

I am tall, fairly intelligent; I dress prudently and tastefully; I don't drink, I don't bet on horses, but I like ladies. And ladies don't mind me. They like when I go out with them. Serafima Izmaylovna have invited me home several times, and Zinaida Yakovlevna also said that she was always glad to see me. But I was involved in a funny incident with Marina Petrovna, which I would like to tell about. A quite ordinary thing, but rather amusing. Because of me, Marina Petrovna lost all her hair - got bald like a baby's bottom. It happened like this: Once I went over to visit Marina Petrovna, and bang! she lost all her hair. And that was that.

That must have been quite some bang! I hope they both enjoyed it, although I doubt poor Marina thinks it was worth it in hindsight.

That's the problem with hindsight though, by the time you get it it's too late to be of any use, other than to make you sad and I'm sure she was quite sad enough already due to losing her hair.

Jose Saramago, Blindness. The premise of the novel is sudden epidemic of blindness that quickly spreads leaving nobody unaffected. Less SF, more moral/philosophical, sort of Walking Dead without zombies and Hollywood.


I can't remember the last time that book got me so obsessed to read it till the end. I stayed up till 6 am reading it, although I started to read it "before the bed" at 3 am. 

SAS Ultimate Guide to Combat: How to Fight and Survive in Modern Warfare



It's been a while since I read it, but I think it's at least a very interessting book. Covers some tactics stuff, some reports from the authors own experiences, weapons, setups of camps and positions, some fortifications ambushes and much much more, When I read it I found it interesting and also entertaining.

I remember I read the Eragon books (years ago, before the 4th and last book came out), all three of them... it's been a while. I'll probably get to rereading them later then read the 4th one.


Another series I did like when I was younger was called "Warriors" (its about 4 clans of cats <yes cats> living in the forest)

(10-09-2015, 05:33 PM)Phantom link Wrote: [ -> ]I remember I read the Eragon books (years ago, before the 4th and last book came out), all three of them... it's been a while. I'll probably get to rereading them later then read the 4th one.


Another series I did like when I was younger was called "Warriors" (its about 4 clans of cats <yes cats> living in the forest)

I don't like the last book very much. Inheritance didn't leave a good impression on me that ive come to expect of Paolini over the first 3 entries, i am a huge fan of the series but it seems he lost his story telling momentum or he just set himself up for a challenge to difficult. You hardly see Gallbatorix who is supposed to be the main Antagonist of the story and when Eragon finally meets him near the end of the book the fight is over in a few chapters and anti climatic. Many subplots accumulated over the series felt like they were rushed to be finished or just left abruptly halted. The ending seems forced and OOC for the main characters because he had to stick with the prophecy from the first book, so solution he takes is actually very sad. I think the book would have turned out very differently if not for the bullshit prophecy that ruined the ending, Paolini was severely limit in his artistic integrity because of this and i don't see how else he could have done and kept in line with the other books. Dont set your hopes too high for this one, i expected a grand and magnificent conclusion but it felt...unnatural.

There is book V promised though, im keeping my fingers crossed, i just pray to god it takes place at least after a hundred years. Can you imagine a 17 year old human boy paired up with a 100+ year old elf woman?

If you're into hard s-f (and I mean hard, not laser pew-pew), I can totally recommend Blindsight by Peter Watts, and its sequel Echopraxia. Blindsight is probably my number two in the genre (number one is Perfect Imperfection by Jacek Dukaj, but I don't know if it's been translated from Polish - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Imperfection).

Apparently Blindsight has been released for free in various formats on author's website:

http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm


I can also recommend Watts' Rifters Trilogy - again it goes hard with science, but it's more on cyberpunk / post-apocalypse side. Definitely a good read too.