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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133318
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| Posted: 22 November 2011 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | 1
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Passed the halfway mark in my rereading of David Halberstam's THE FIFTIES, and have decided I'm going to reread THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST when I am done.
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Michael Tortorice
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 November 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 2903
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| Posted: 22 November 2011 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | 2
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Turns out I ended up reading both THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH and the Andre Norton (never read any Norton before). TOLLBOOTH is still relevant and enlightening even to a cagey veteran like me.
And SEA SIEGE dispels the fallacy that science fiction is all space, lasers, and Robots. It's set on an island in the West Indies and deals with never-before-seen species of "sea monsters," something it seems we're encountering on almost a daily basis lately, in real life. Truth is truly stranger than fiction.
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Ryan Maxwell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12954
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| Posted: 22 November 2011 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | 3
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Rereading Saberhagen's Swords series. In the middle of the second trilogy. After reading all of the detailed and gore-heavy Ice and Fire books back to back, this is light and refreshing.
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Paulo Pereira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 April 2006
Posts: 15539
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 9:29am | IP Logged | 4
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THE HUNGER GAMES, though it's more accurate to say I just finished it. Not sure what the hype is all about. The books in this trilogy were built up as amazing by a couple of friends of mine; that along with and the endorsement b Stephen King was enough to get me to try it (borrowing my friends' copy).
I just don't get it.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133318
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 11:10am | IP Logged | 5
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Just started rereading THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST, by David Halberstam. Seemed a natural follow-up to my recently completed rereading of THE FIFTIES.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 35941
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 11:46am | IP Logged | 6
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Perhaps it's what I call "the Ghostbusters effect". The summer it was released I heard from absolutely everyone how great the movie was. When I finally got around to watching it for myself at the end of the summer, I thought it was just OK. I've grown to really enjoy it, but at the time it couldn't possibly live up to the hype.
To the books themselves, I read them before they were hyped beyond all belief and thoroughly enjoyed them. The first is my favorite, but I really like all three.
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Paulo Pereira
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Joined: 24 April 2006
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | 7
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Matt wrote:
| To the books themselves, I read them before they were hyped beyond all belief and thoroughly enjoyed them. The first is my favorite, but I really like all three. |
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When I heard the premise, I thought it would be an interesting look at how the various characters would react to the moral dilemma, but there seems little enough of that from even the main character. That's just one of the flaws I perceived.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 1:24pm | IP Logged | 8
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Perhaps it's what I call "the Ghostbusters effect". The summer it was released I heard from absolutely everyone how great the movie was. When I finally got around to watching it for myself at the end of the summer, I thought it was just OK. I've grown to really enjoy it, but at the time it couldn't possibly live up to the hype.•• Around the Marvel offices, there were people who would have gladly sacrificed children or body parts for the chance to work on a GHOSTBUSTERS comic -- preferably set in the Marvel Universe. ("Imagine the Ghostbusters vs Galactus!" I head. To which I responded "But. . . ") When I finally saw the movie, I suppose there was no way I could have avoided being disappointed.
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11295
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 1:26pm | IP Logged | 9
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Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn about U.K. serial killer couple Fred and Rose West,it is taking me twice as long to read it as i keep having to re-read paragraphs because their deviancy and depravity is hard to believe.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 35941
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | 10
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Paulo Pereira wrote:
| I thought it would be an interesting look at how the various characters would react to the moral dilemma, but there seems little enough of that from even the main character. |
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Oh I don't think that's true at all. Katniss does wrestle with the morality of the situation all the time, but when push comes to shove (in this case being the sole provider for her family vs being killed), she's got to do what the game forces her to do. And even then she changes how it's played in the first book and definitely works to do the same in the other books.
As far as how the other characters look at it, I think we do get a glimpse of that (we definitely see the toll it's taken on Haymitch, her mentor) but it's not their story. It's her story told from her POV.
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Paulo Pereira
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | 11
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Matt wrote:
| Oh I don't think that's true at all. Katniss does wrestle with the morality of the situation all the time, but when push comes to shove (in this case being the sole provider for her family vs being killed), she's got to do what the game forces her to do. |
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INVISO TEXT (Click or highlight to reveal):
| She is spared the fate of having to kill her friend, Rue, whose death is presented as being very sad and tragic when, really, it exempts Katniss from a huge dilemma. If Rue survived and it came down to just Katniss and Peeta and she, what would Katniss have done? We'll never know because Rue is neatly taken out of the picture, thus avoiding any tricky conflict for the lead character. Katniss is spared from having to kill Peeta, too. Of her actual kills: she kills one out of retribution; she drops a wasp's nest on another (or two, maybe) and one is a mercy killing. It all just seems very convenient and contrived. |
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QUOTE:
| As far as how the other characters look at it, I think we do get a glimpse of that (we definitely see the toll it's taken on Haymitch, her mentor) but it's not their story. It's her story told from her POV. |
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Which is, I think, another weakness of the book in that: 1) that it's a first-person narrative and 2) that it's told in the present tense; both aspects basically rob the work of any suspense (imo).
Anyway, I think I'll give BATTLE ROYALE (the work Collins has been accused of copying) a try.
Edited by Paulo Pereira on 16 December 2011 at 5:16pm
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 16 December 2011 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | 12
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Eh, we'll have to agree to disagree. You didn't like it. I did. So be it!
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