What Are You Reading?

[sburke]

I think I'll be adding this to my list

Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II

NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • “A band of brothers in an American tank . . . Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing’s turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury.”—The Wall Street Journal

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D6CGMRN?pf_rd_m=A2R2RITDJNW1Q6&storeType=ebooks&pageType=STOREFRONT&pf_rd_p=ae642e4b-ad2c-4298-8dd0-2f96f1bbdbdd&pf_rd_r=V1AVY5RTDZFGQHS47QC3&pd_rd_wg=XU8pp&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_t=40901&ref_=dbs_f_ebk_rwt_wigo_rtpb1_ms3_kmw_ae642e4b-ad2c-4298-8dd0-2f96f1b&pd_rd_w=TidYx&pf_rd_i=154606011&pd_rd_r=23af2ca5-477d-4a89-bc58-d8f300ce29eb

[StieliAlpha]

On 4/13/2019 at 7:03 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Not in my opinion.....But I'm a huge fan. 

'Feersum Endjinn' might be a bit of a handful as about a third of the book is written in phonetic English, but TBH you seem to have an outstanding grasp on the language:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feersum_Endjinn

Maybe give 'Use Of Weapons' or perhaps 'Player Of Games' a look first:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_Weapons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Player_of_Games

The former is about as close to conventional sci-fi as Banks gets, it's a cool plot and you'll just love the Staberinde!  The latter may well appeal because you are one, it examines the psychologies of game-play to quite remarkable depths for a novel.

If you enjoy those, then treat yourself to this one:

It's just like them.....But more so (& you'll also get to meet the good ship 'Killing Time', one possible source for my forum title)! 

PS - I found the (nominal) first Culture novel 'Consider Phlebas' a lot easier to comprehend retrospectively, once I'd read a couple of the others (but that could well just be me). 

 

I am reading Consider Phlebas since a while now. And I like it. It’s slow reading, but indeed, language is not the issue. The story is, hm, dense, complicated, with loads of weird characters. Luckily, just when I thought “This will be something quite “esoteric”, the action started.

And, of course, reading after works, for an hour or so, in the commuting train, does not really help to ease reading.

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Cool, glad you are finding your way into it. 

Consider Phlebas made a lot more sense to me later after I'd read a couple more novels and come to grips with who & what The Culture are.....Poor Idirans, they knew not who they messed with! 

Edited May 14, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[StieliAlpha]

Next to Ian Banks „Culture War“ cycle, highly recommended by @Sgt.SquareheadI started reading Orlando Figes „Crimean War“ today. I had it resting on the shelf since years now. Big mistake! Obviously an interesting and obscure topic, but easy reading.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

'The Culture' can really grow on you.....Did you meet (Torturer Class ROU) 'Killing Time' yet? 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[jordan8784512]

I always wanted to read tsurezure children manga. This is one of the best.

[StieliAlpha]

On 6/19/2019 at 7:02 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

'The Culture' can really grow on you.....Did you meet (Torturer Class ROU) 'Killing Time' yet? 

But I‘ll get back to the Culture right away. Still half an hour to waste in the train and hordes of homeward bound Swiss militia around me...

[StieliAlpha]

On 6/19/2019 at 7:02 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

'The Culture' can really grow on you.....Did you meet (Torturer Class ROU) 'Killing Time' yet? 

Ok, I just finished Consider Phlebas. And must say: Whow!

It starts somewhat slow, but ends action packed. Would certainly make a nice movie.

Eh, what‘s next? Is there any specific order of the books?

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Not sure that Banks ever suggested one, but I'm sure the fans will have.....Let's see:

 

Publication Order
That said, publication order probably makes the most sense, due to the (very) minor and occasional reference in one book to the events of another. This is the order the books were published in:

1. Consider Phlebas (1987)
2. The Player of Games (1988)
3. Use of Weapons (1990)
4. The State of the Art (1991)
5. Excession (1996)
6. Inversions (1998)
7. Look to Windward (2000)
8. Matter (2008)

Chronological Order
I don't recommend the chronological order, since I don't think Banks was paying enormous attention to this when writing the books. For example, Excession (which is set 400 years after Consider Phlebas) has a clear reference to the events of The Player of Games, but the latter novel is set well over 700 years after Consider Phlebas, which is a clear discrepancy. Still, for the curious, the order the books apparently takes place in is as follows:

1. Consider Phlebas (1331 AD)
2. Excession (c. 1775)
3. Matter (c. 1800)
4. The State of the Art (1977)
5. The Player of Games (c. 2085)
6. Use of Weapons (2092)
7. Look to Windward (c. 2170)

Note that The State of the Art refers to the titular novella of the collection, not the other two Culture stories in the book. I could be wrong (not having read them yet), but I believe the other two stories and Inversions lack any information that can be used to reliably date them at all.

http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2009/03/reading-order-of-culture-novels.html

Gave up trying to use quotes, it was fighting me tooth & nail! 

 

My personal recommendation would be 'Use Of Weapons', followed by 'The Player Of Games' and then 'Excession', this will give you the full on Culture fix in as short a time as possible.  If you still want more Culture after that lot, it really has to be 'Look To Windward', or if you fancy something a bit different you could try 'Against A Dark Background' and/or 'Feersum Endjinn'.

PS - I forgot about 'The State Of The Art':

It's a short story collection and it's very good.....If you've ever wondered what would happen if Earth encountered The Culture, this is the book for you (I guarantee it will have you laughing yourself silly too). 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[StieliAlpha]

1 hour ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Not sure that Banks ever suggested one, but I'm sure the fans will have.....Let's see:

 

Publication Order
That said, publication order probably makes the most sense, due to the (very) minor and occasional reference in one book to the events of another. This is the order the books were published in:

1. Consider Phlebas (1987)
2. The Player of Games (1988)
3. Use of Weapons (1990)
4. The State of the Art (1991)
5. Excession (1996)
6. Inversions (1998)
7. Look to Windward (2000)
8. Matter (2008)

Chronological Order
I don't recommend the chronological order, since I don't think Banks was paying enormous attention to this when writing the books. For example, Excession (which is set 400 years after Consider Phlebas) has a clear reference to the events of The Player of Games, but the latter novel is set well over 700 years after Consider Phlebas, which is a clear discrepancy. Still, for the curious, the order the books apparently takes place in is as follows:

1. Consider Phlebas (1331 AD)
2. Excession (c. 1775)
3. Matter (c. 1800)
4. The State of the Art (1977)
5. The Player of Games (c. 2085)
6. Use of Weapons (2092)
7. Look to Windward (c. 2170)

Note that The State of the Art refers to the titular novella of the collection, not the other two Culture stories in the book. I could be wrong (not having read them yet), but I believe the other two stories and Inversions lack any information that can be used to reliably date them at all.

http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2009/03/reading-order-of-culture-novels.html

Gave up trying to use quotes, it was fighting me tooth & nail! 

 

My personal recommendation would be 'Use Of Weapons', followed by 'The Player Of Games' and then 'Excession', this will give you the full on Culture fix in as short a time as possible.  If you still want more Culture after that lot, it really has to be 'Look To Windward', or if you fancy something a bit different you could try 'Against A Dark Background' and/or 'Feersum Endjinn'.

PS - I forgot about 'The State Of The Art':

It's a short story collection and it's very good.....If you've ever wondered what would happen if Earth encountered The Culture, this is the book for you (I guarantee it will have you laughing yourself silly too). 

Ok, then it‘s clear. I have „use of weapons“ and „the player“ in my „starter package“ and will follow your advise.

Your description of „The state of the art“ reminded me to Horst Evers „Alles ausser irdisch“. Evers is a German comedian, one of those story tellers. “Alles ausser irdisch” is a “Comedy Science Fiction”. Quite funny, but with only a slight change in tone, it could be a dead serious science fiction. In fact, “Consider Phlebas” reminded me a lot to it in the beginning. Very similar, with all those strange people and technologies. Like “anything goes”. If you need a new rule: Invent one. Though Evers draws a somewhat brighter picture than Banks.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

IMHO these two are both markedly better books than Consider Phlebas, so if you enjoyed that one, you will have a ball with these (You'll also get a much closer look at Culture technology, especially Drones & Minds). 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[sburke]

Day of the rangers.   History of the battle of Mogadishu with some new material apparently. Has some good reviews. 

Also just downloaded Madness in Mogadishu. Story told from the viewpoint of the 10th mountain division

Edited July 21, 2019 by sburke

[sburke]

Just finishing Day of the Rangers. Good read and clarifies a few mistakes and omissions from Black hawk down (the book, it also does some for the movie but the movie by it’s very nature deliberately alters characters and events to fit the limits of time a movie has). Also has better maps and some great ground levels pics of the area for a better understanding of buildings and terrain  

still despairing of ever making a really good scenario for this simply because you just can’t recreate the confusion and FOW when the unexpected happens and the communications breakdown. CM also doesn’t allow for the type of control you would need for air support.  Creating a fictional account of a similar situation may work.  The other possibility is doing it in a campaign format.  That could work to overcome some issues and create variability while also tackling the fact that it was an 18 hour battle. 

 

One other tidbit I didn’t know.  Aideed who was the ultimate target for task force ranger had a son who served with the Marine Corp in Iraq.. go figure. 

Edited July 21, 2019 by sburke

[sburke]

Madness in Mogadishu is a good read. Like the style, somewhat similar to Joker 1 but from a company commander perspective. Good details on their experience, some good material for scenarios and some really nice color aerial pictures that give a much better perspective on mapping Mogadishu.  Seems the map I started I may have to alter drastically. It is way too grid like than the reality. Not even quite sure a truly faithful map is possible given the limitations in the editor, but at least I have a better idea what it should look like. 

[sburke]

Next book up. Actually been working though this for a while. Pretty dense but a great read. Lawrence in Arabia:war, deceit, imperial folly and the making of the modern Middle East

https://www.amazon.com/Lawrence-Arabia-Deceit-Imperial-Notable-ebook/dp/B00BH0VSPI/ref=sr_1_5?crid=J4FMMY65FPE5&keywords=lawrence+of+arabia&qid=1563755745&s=gateway&sprefix=Lawrence+of+araboa%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-5

Just came across this  it is on the inter government rivalry between colonial Egypt and India  

The following month, India appeared to try the opposite tack of belittling Hussein. They did so by inserting into the Intelligence Bulletin for the Middle East, a highly classified digest of information restricted to top-ranking military and civilian officials, an interview with a man named Abdul Aziz ibn-Saud. A tribal chieftain from the northeastern corner of Arabia, ibn-Saud called Hussein “essentially a trivial and unstable character,” and made it clear that neither he nor most other Arabian tribal chieftains would ever accede to his leadership. Even if Hussein took the risky step of declaring himself caliph, the supreme religious-political figure in the Islamic world, ibn-Saud argued, it “would not make any difference to his status among other Chiefs and there would be no question of their accepting any control from him, any more than they do now.” To Lawrence, that interview represented a new, and potentially very dangerous, escalation in the competition between Cairo and Simla. That’s because Abdul Aziz ibn-Saud was not just another tribal malcontent bent on retaining his autonomy, but Hussein’s most formidable rival in all of Arabia. Having embraced an extremely austere form of fundamentalist Islam known as Wahhabism, over the previous fifteen years ibn-Saud had led his desert warriors into battle against one recalcitrant Arab tribe after another with a kind of evangelical zeal. The discipline of the Wahhabists was legendary; in that time, ibn-Saud’s reach had expanded from a small string of oasis villages in the Riyadh region to cover a vast expanse of northeastern Arabia. Meanwhile, ibn-Saud was also British India’s man in Arabia, with a close relationship going back to before the war. It was bad enough, in Lawrence’s estimation, that Simla was using the Intelligence Bulletin to promote a man with views so antithetical to British values, but the gambit also underscored a situation almost laughably absurd had it not been so perilous: in their battle for primacy over Arabian policy, two different branches of the British crown were backing two sworn rivals. Surely that was less a recipe for a successful Arab revolt than for civil war—which of course may have been Simla’s true goal all along.

 

Amazing we are still dealing with the fallout of WW1 British and French colonial politics....and US involvement.  Oh yeah standard oil had its fingers in this mess too

[Sgt.Squarehead]

The true cost of empire. 

[StieliAlpha]

On 7/4/2019 at 9:12 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

IMHO these two are both markedly better books than Consider Phlebas, so if you enjoyed that one, you will have a ball with these (You'll also get a much closer look at Culture technology, especially Drones & Minds). 

I just finished “Player of Games“. Awesome, indeed! And a very unusual Science Fiction. Had it‘s length, but also many fantastic twists and turns. The only thing I missed, was a more detailed description of Azad. Hm, that’s probably too much of a gamers view.

Looking forward to “Use of Weapons” and thereafter, I might grab an Ian Banks audio book for free. But then it’ll be enough Ian Banks for a while.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Did you figure out who the hidden protagonist of 'The Player Of Games' is.....It's not as simple as it seems? 

[Michael Emrys]

Last night I began reading Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton. Very good. He flew F-16s for about 30 years, mainly in the SEAD mission. One of the better aviation books that has come my way recently.

Michael

[Erwin]

12 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Did you figure out who the hidden protagonist of 'The Player Of Games' is.....It's not as simple as it seems? 

Read the book some months ago.  I vaguely remember that there were a few interesting concepts - but I can't recall anything specific about the story at all.  Probably it's similar to why I could not read or follow the Lords of the Rings books.  Too many names and relationships etc.  My brain just couldn't handle the story's convolutions. 

 

[StieliAlpha]

19 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Did you figure out who the hidden protagonist of 'The Player Of Games' is.....It's not as simple as it seems? 

Hm, good question. I did not care too much and thought “ Flere-Imsaho”. But since you ask: More probably a Mind in the famous ring, which was never really explained. Or the “ring Mind” actually was Flere-Imsaho...

Did I already say?: The “anything goes” is one of the strongest concepts in the books.

Edited August 7, 2019 by StieliAlpha

[Sgt.Squarehead]

2 hours ago, StieliAlpha said:

More probably a Mind in the famous ring, which was never really explained. Or the “ring Mind” actually was Flere-Imsaho...

There's a clue in the names, you'll probably notice more once you've read 'Use Of Weapons'. 

2 hours ago, StieliAlpha said:

Did I already say?: The “anything goes” is one of the strongest concepts in the books.

Did you discover lava-rafting & artificial volcanoes yet.....I forget which book they are mentioned in. 

 

[StieliAlpha]

41 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

There's a clue in the names, you'll probably notice more once you've read 'Use Of Weapons'. 

Did you discover lava-rafting & artificial volcanoes yet.....I forget which book they are mentioned in. 

 

Jay, or what her/his name is, dreams in „Player“ about building artificial volcanoes on Orbitals.

[sburke]

I should be reading Toni Morrison.   RIP Toni

[BornGinger]

I just about finished the book Ostland, by David Thomas. The beginning of the book tells the story how Georg Heuser starts his new job as a Berlin murder squad detective in the search for the serial killer of women called the S-Bahn murderer. As this is during the war the different police departments are under the control of SS and Georg is later on being send away to the Minsk area in Belarus as a part of the Sonderkommando 1B. It doesn't take long before he understands what is expected of him and he is soon having the title Chief of Gestapo in that part of Ostland. The book also tells the story of the people who wants to sentence him to a long life in prison for what happened in the Minsk area when he was there.