I'm currently reading Micah. Not Micah from this site. Micah from the old testament in the Bible. Nahum next. Nearly finished the old testament again.
By Red Rabbit, I had tired of Clancy. That and Without Remorse were my two least favorite of his books. I didn't even bother with anything after that. Executive Orders, though, was pretty good. If you like Clancy, I would suggest Vince Flynn - kind of similar, but a lot more CIA/black ops meets Jack Bauer of "24." Not exactly going to be a deep book, but I enjoy his books for the entertainment value. I just finished all of them. I love the Dune series - I have read all the original 6 twice, and I have read the prequels (except for the new Paul of Dune series) and the 2 "conclusions" written by his son and Kevin Anderson. The newer ones are okay - they sacrifice the deep philosophy for lots of action, and when they do get philosophical, it seems much more contrived than when Frank wrote - clearly not their forte. Frank had action in his, but they were usually "off screen" in that you usually were just told the events immediately preceding, and then the aftermath. He didn't fill his books with pages of detailed battles. Still, the others are decent enough as stand-alone books. I'm not so convinced that the conclusion books they wrote up were based on Frank's actual notes. They seemed way to clean cut for Frank's style. I would predict he would have ended it much more open - kind of like the ending of The Sopranos. Anyways, I just finished the Vince Flynn novels and enjoyed them. Now I have 3 books I am working on. The first two are volumes 2 and 3 of Simon Schama's history of Britain. I enjoyed the first one, and wanted to finish the series. I had been wanting for a long time to learn more of the history of Great Britain. The third book is The Federalist Papers, because I decided it had been long enough for me to go without actually reading these through. I'm only a little ways into it, but am surprised at how much I am enjoying them. I may also have to get a copy of the Anti-federalist papers afterwards to see what the counter-argument of the time looked like.
My two personal favorite verses from Micah are 1:8 for it's surreal value, when taken out of context... and 7:7. I find that one to be a truely inspiring verse.
Tried one Destroyer novel never liked it much. Mack Bolan and company keep me well entertained though. Started another new one the other day Outlands #49 - Shadow Box by Rik Hoskin http://www.jamesaxler.com/TheBooks/tabid/55/ctl/ViewBook/mid/374/BookID/179/Default.aspx The collapse of the hybrid-ruled baronies offers a glimmer of hope for an Earth free from the shackles of the alien race that has subjugated humankind since the dawn of time. But the Annunaki Threat remains ominous. For the Cerberus rebels, safeguarding the future of the human race remains daunting... and deadly.
Blind Man's Bluff. I read this one awhile ago, but felt it was worth mentioning. It's the true story about submarine espioage and surveillance during the cold war. Awsome read. Aaron
Might have to check that Dune series out...little before my time. I too am reading and re-reading The Federalists Paper. Also, starting into Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto Favorite Fiction Authors: Crichton, Grisham, Sanford, Connelly, Patterson, Kellerman. (Love the Crime dramas) Favorite Conspiracy Author: Jim Marrs
Ordered two new ones today: Know Your Mass by Fr. Demetrius Manousos The Latin Mass Explained by George Moorman and R. Michael Schmitz
The Dune saga is, IMHO, the best sci-fi saga out there - as long as you just consider those books written directly by Frank Herbert, excluding the prequels and sequels written by his son and Kevin Anderson. Those ones aren't bad, but not on the same level. The first book - Dune - is incredible. After that, they get a little trickier to read. It's not necessarily always page-turning excitement, but just the vastness of the entire story, and how it all fits together, is incredible. It will probably take a couple readings to start understanding. I haven't read Levin's books yet, but might have to pick one up from my local library - I read books too fast, and my wife no longer lets me buy as many as I used to, otherwise we would be broke. Books were my original acquisition disorder.
I agree. The original Dune series is a great SF saga. I have tried other Kevin Anderson books and I do not like his work. It saddens me that he was allowed to contribute to the Dune saga- but then, to be honest, I think they should have let the originals stand alone. The easy solution to that problem is that I haven't read any of the new stuff.
Couple of things I was editing on my previous post before my 'puter crashed. For some reason, I can't get going on reading right now, too much TV...bad, bad Also, have John Sanford's Phantom Prey sitting on the night stand. Big fan of Lucas Davenport in the Prey series. Favorite Authors - Crichton, Grisham Love the crime series dramas -- Sanford's (Lucas Davenport), Connely's (Bosch), Patterson (Alex Cross), Kellerman's (Alex Delaware) Best conspiracy author -- Jim Marrs Mine too...where I live we have a chain called Half Price Books which buys and sells used books
Oh ho ho! They have those in the Madison/ Milwaukee region of Wisconsin, too. I had a friend who managed one, and every now and then he'd give me his card so I could get the employee discount. I love Half Price books!
Have any of you guys read the Gormenghast trilogy? I've only managed to get my hands on a copy of Titus Groan. It took me forever to get through, but man was it engaging. Talk about going into intense detail... Mervyn Peake goes into great explanations for each little element of all the complex rituals that the people play out in this fantasy epic. Worth checking out if you like a good "heavy" read now and again.
How come Frank Herbert's son does not have dad's last name? I quite agree I liked the dune chronicles. In fact when I was in high school I had an assignment where I had to read one book from a list of major book subjects including: action, mystery, sc-fi and fantasy and I had to do a book report on each. When it came time to pick up a sci-fi I asked my mom to help pick the most famous of the sci-fi and she picked out frank herbert. **my opinion** In my opinion grisham has lost his touch he seems to lost his ability to focus on one character and make the tale liniar. He seems to jump about to much. **My opinion***
Herbert's son does have his last name - the extraneous Dune novels we are talking about were co-written by both Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. If you take them out of the context of Dune, they make for decent enough sci-fi reading - a bit long-winded, and they suffer from trying to sound as cerebral as Frank's work but never quite making it, substituting verbosity for depth. In addition, where they have tried to generate plausible histories for so many components of the Dune universe, some come off as very laughable. Admittedly Frank had some rather outlandish components as well - I don't want to reveal too much, but just as Hitler discovered, not even untold millenia are sufficient to eradicate the tribe of Judah. But still, Frank's most outlandish components of the series do not have the feel of being overly contrived, nor introduced to simply make it more mass-market friendly. I have read some of Grisham's work, but often come away unsatisfied, and feel as if I have been lectured to. I don't mind politics in books, and have frequently even enjoyed books that offer opposing viewpoints to my own, but these seem like lectures on how I should properly feel on certain issues. One of the few cases where I have found the movies more exciting and interesting than the books.
Frank Herbert's novels always felt like they began with an idea- a grand what if moment- and then grew outward in an organic fashion. There's no good way to replicate that process. It's unique to an individual. I like the works of Philip K. Dick and Larry Niven for the same reason. Sometimes the plots can be a bit silly because the ideas just don't work. But these authors enjoyed asking what if and exploring the various scenarios in loving detail. The new Dune novels could be a continuation of that what if process, but the reviews I've read indicate otherwise. And even if they are genuine continuations, there's no way to do it the way Frank Herbert did it. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have to ask their own what ifs and come to their own conclusions, which will naturally differ from Frank's. Okay... I've rambled enough now.
Wow. I find it difficult to sit through a whole Grisham movie, I can't imagine how the books must be. Keep in mind, I sat through "Time Barbarians" and "Two Idiots In Hollywood."
