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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9842
Posted: 23 March 2013 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

whew, glad to hear agreement on that.

So many people recommended this book/series, a few after I mentioned I liked Stark's Parker books. "Oh, Reacher is so much better!" 
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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9842
Posted: 23 March 2013 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

97) "Artemis Fowl 8: The Last Guardian" by Eoin Colfer, read by Nathaniel Parker

One of Artemis' long-time foes returns to exact revenge with plans to not only kill Artemis and all of his friends, but all humans on earth.

Fitting wrap to the Artemis Fowl series: all of the usual crew, action and adventure, quips galore, decent mix of super-science and faerie magic. 

Overall, fun juvenile series, tho a little repetitive. As a series, tho, thought it strange that Colfer trotted out the whole Fowl family, with a couple of additions, which he never used to any great extent. Thought there was all sorts of room for development there that never happened. Same with the "young criminal mastermind" angle that was played up heavy to begin with, but Artemis never did anything truly criminal mastermind-y after the initial book. 

However however, my son loved the series (he *is* the market age), and has read/listened to all of the books several times now; not including all of these that we listened to together.
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Steven Myers
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 10 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5619
Posted: 24 March 2013 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I finally finished The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. Though it was a bit dull at times, I think it was worth it to get to the end, when things happen fast. Overall, I wouldn't put it on a high priority reading list. It does have gritty realism and complicated characters, but too depressing to me and I got the characters confused at times. Mostly, my biggest problem is the lack of a central character you can really cheer for. Everyone's pretty much scum, though to different extremes.
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Richard White
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 28 August 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1058
Posted: 24 March 2013 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, which I'm thoroughly enjoying.
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Sean Watson
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 24 June 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 608
Posted: 24 March 2013 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Just finished Dragons of Autumn twilight and have started on Dragons of Winter Night. So far I am really enjoying these books. Weis and Hickman, I have heard are a good team and so far I agree. Looking for some good old fashion fantasy I recommend this series.
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15726
Posted: 24 March 2013 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Re-reading Dracula. It's been over about 23 years since I read it, so high time to revisit Harker, Seward, Holmwood et al.

The more I read about this Count Dracula, the less I care for him. He's no damn good. At one point he gives a baby to his vampire women-folk! The chap has no redeeming features, barring his ability to quickly lay a table when his guest is out of the room.


Edited by Peter Martin on 24 March 2013 at 7:12pm
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Derek Cavin
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 03 June 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2403
Posted: 27 March 2013 at 4:18am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

ICON - Frederick Forsyth
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Ed Love
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 05 October 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2712
Posted: 27 March 2013 at 7:33am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

The Murder Room - by P.D. James. Never read any of James' work. For some reason my wife thought I had and bought the book at a consignment store. It's good, but there is some inconsistency in storytelling that's dictated by the story. She spends several chapters, each going into the backgrounds of the principle suspects and victim and getting into their heads. However, one of the big characters, her chapter is done as viewed by a tertiary character so you don't get into her head like the others. I thought it an odd choice when I read her chapter and it became apparent in the third act of the book with what is supposed to be the shocking revelation.

On the whole, enjoyable. But, I might have to read another by her to make final judgment. Her getting into the heads of the various characters was interesting, but they were all very much alike in a way I'm not sure I'd want to make her part of my regular reading if that holds true across her books.
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132131
Posted: 27 March 2013 at 10:12am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Continuing with THE GODFATHER, and starting to notice some points on which the movies deviated. The novel has what amounts to a completely superfluous chapter about Lucy Mancini, Sonny's mistress. Thing is, the tale told there is contradicted entirely by the character's presence in GODFATHER Part III.
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DW Zomberg
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 12 June 2012
Posts: 444
Posted: 27 March 2013 at 10:46am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

HORNS, by Joe Hill, Stephen King's son. Not so much a horror story but a supernatural murder mystery with some piercing black comedy and religious overtones. He notes in the afterword he read Bart Ehrman's GOD'S PROBLEM late in writing the novel, and that if he'd read it earlier, HORNS would have been a very different tale.

So far so good, but let's hope he doesn't resort to the "Organized religion's a joke but God and Jesus are pretty good guys" schtick that sometimes infects his pappy's work.

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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9842
Posted: 27 March 2013 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

98) "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" by Tom Standage

The story of human development, from pre-history to modern times, through the lens of 6 drinks: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola.

Fun little book, packed with trivia about history, governments, and done very concisely: each drink takes only about 40 pages.
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Rich Marzullo
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 13 January 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 2693
Posted: 28 March 2013 at 9:05am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Took a break from the series while I was going to school, and now I want to finish it up. I've seen all the movies a few times each, so it's probably about time.
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