Current Events > Reading Thread Again

(+) Yeah! (+)

I only have the last two books of the Dark Tower to finish, but I cant find a paperback of Song of Susannah for whatever reason so its just come to a halt.

I wanted to start the last book in the sprawl series after the Dark Tower but I think Im just gonna jump into that.

21 pages remain in The Mystery of the Flying Saucers. I am at a three-page section about Tibet, the final section about Tibet in the novel. Tibet translates the message from the cosmos

18 pages remain in The Mystery of the Flying Saucers. There are only two locations remaining in the novel: Australia and New York City

cuh posted...

Random but why isnt Zatch Bell on the Viz manga app? How would one read it (legally) digitally?

https://www.mangaupdates.com/series/si96nc9/konjiki-no-gash
According to the manga database, Viz stopped their publication at vol. 25 and no-one holds the license in English at the moment.
Digital reading options:
Archive.org has some but at a glance not all of it and there's gaps between volumes.

The legally grey option is Mangadex; again at a glance they have Viz's volumes scanned, and their deal basically boils down to "we host fan TLs and official translations that no-one has rights to/comply with take down requests if someone steps forward". Viz hasn't tried to take down their scans of Zatch Bell so...

I finished Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov today. A fantastic book from the concept and structure all the way down to the diction and flow of individual sentences.

I finished The Mystery of the Flying Saucers. The ending was satisfactory.

I began Star A Sends Help by Karl-Herbert Scheer, a German science fiction novel from the year 1952. I am on Page 6, in which a spaceship launches from the Earth to the Moon. The spaceship shall find something on the Moon, other than rocks. I like this novel more than Scheer's second novel, Pirates in between Mars and Earth.

cuh posted...

^^^thank you!! Insightful as always!

Always glad to help, my friend :D

Page Fifteen of Star A Sends Help by Karl-Herbert Scheer. The spaceship is going to try to land on the Moon. Since this novel was written before the year 1969, this spaceship is going to be the first to successfully land on the Moon, not the USA's NASA with astronaut Neil Armstrong. The funny part is that this flight was not conceived of going as far as landing on the Moon. These astronauts are more ambitious than their supervisors on Earth.

Since landing on the Moon was not in the mission plan, there are no television cameras or recording devices. The landing is going to come as a surprise to the people on Earth. Additionally, the astronauts are going to have an unexpected encounter on the Moon, so look forward to some wacky hijinks ahead

Another issue of Usagi came out so I gave that a read
Apparently gonna have to update my list entry every time a new one drops, lol
hexa posted...

These astronauts are more ambitious than their supervisors on Earth.

Sorry boss, taking the rocket for a joy ride <_< >_> <_<

Page Seventeen of Star A Sends Help. The astronauts are walking on the Moon. The astronauts are excited about the success of their mission. However, the good times will not last forever. Not everything goes according to plan. The novel is going to become a thriller on the Moon, for a while

Page Twenty of Star A Sends Help. The antagonists of the novel have taken something from the protagonist. And the antagonists have escaped from the protagonist. Now it is a chase!

Well, the novel has become an action thriller. Whereas the previous novel that I translated, The Mystery of the Flying Saucers, had much to say about mankind and philosophical issues, Star A Sends Help has nothing to say about mankind or philosophical issues, being a shallow action thriller, which may hit the reader as a disappointment at Page Twenty. However, if you adjust your expectations that it is merely an action thriller, then Star A Sends Help can still be an enjoyable novel

Page 21 of Star A Sends Help. I have more poor news to report. The behavior of the antagonists is not logical. If the antagonists were interested in humans, then why did they go to the Moon rather than directly to Earth? The antagonists have the resources to mount direct missions to Earth.

The author, Karl-Herbert Scheer, didn't give much thought to the motivations and behaviors of the antagonists. Nevertheless, the novel is still entertaining

hexa posted...

Page Seventeen of Star A Sends Help. The astronauts are walking on the Moon. The astronauts are excited about the success of their mission. However, the good times will not last forever. Not everything goes according to plan. The novel is going to become a thriller on the Moon, for a while

Oh I wanted to ask. Does the Moon have atmosphere in this or are they suited up?

Juhanor posted...

Does the Moon have atmosphere in this or are they suited up?

They are suited up. After the Moon, they go to a spaceship of robots, and that doesn't have atmosphere either. Robots don't need oxygen. There as well, the humans require spacesuits

Read an article on Colonial Williamsburg, regret
Started Godland, Scioli art is good.

hexa posted...

They are suited up. After the Moon, they go to a spaceship of robots, and that doesn't have atmosphere either. Robots don't need oxygen. There as well, the humans require spacesuits

I like the sound of those spoilers very much

Questionmarktarius posted...

I'd strongly recommend the James Herriot books.
They were written in the 1970s, by a veterinarian in the 1930s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot

It's available at my library, gonna give it a go

Finished Open City, by Teju Cole today. I remember telling my girlfriend as I was about ~80 pages in that I was feeling underwhelmed by it, but it really packs a punch in the end. Everything in the book is carrying the weight of history and the past and the effect of it all is quite something.

@MabusIncarnate

Humble has a massive comic collection up from Humanoids, 102 books for 25$
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/incal-to-twilight-man-humanoids-books

Going through Master of the Senate again from Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Still likely the best biographical series there is, but the later half of this book about LBJ's 1960 bid is not as interesting as his work in the senate.

Juhanor posted...

@MabusIncarnate

Humble has a massive comic collection up from Humanoids, 102 books for 25$
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/incal-to-twilight-man-humanoids-books

Whoa thank you, I'll buy this for sure. That's less than a quarter a book.

Planet A Sends Help by Karl-Herbert Scheer. Page Forty. Russia is spying on the leader of Mongolia. Russia is going to discover that extraterrestials exist. It turns out that Russia does not want to be conquered by extraterrestials. Russia is going to muster defenses for the planet Earth

However, before we get into interplanetary war, there is going to be some mundane espionage between Russia and Mongolia, so try to be patient

Planet A Sends Help. Page 44. The chapter about Russia and Mongolia is over, for now. On Page 44, the American astronauts are going to talk to a robot

MabusIncarnate posted...

Whoa thank you, I'll buy this for sure. That's less than a quarter a book.

No problem, I've been checking the site every so often to see if they had any comic stuff after our discussion. Gonna grab it too, really great deal.

Planet A Sends Help. Page 47. Humans meet robots on Planet A. The meeting is not entirely hostile. The humans are going to negotiate with the robots. One of my previous posts was incorrect, in that there shall not be interplanetary war

Planet A Sends Help. Page 51. An artificial intelligence has rebelled against its creator. Considering that this novel was written in the year 1948, it is pretty cool that the author has thought through the dangers of artificial intelligence, but this discussion is only going to last for a page or two, and then there's going to be communication between the robot and humans

hexa posted...

Planet A Sends Help. Page 51. An artificial intelligence has rebelled against its creator. Considering that this novel was written in the year 1948, it is pretty cool that the author has thought through the dangers of artificial intelligence, but this discussion is only going to last for a page or two, and then there's going to be communication between the robot and humans

Very cool, love it when old sci fi predicts stuff like that.

Planet A Sends Help. Page 52 details the plot for the rest of the novel. It turns out that somebody is plotting a terrorist attack on Planet Earth. I thought that Chapter 2 was about Russian espionage in Mongolia, but it was actually setting up the characters and relationships for the terrorists. Like in Karl-Herbert Scheer's second novel, Pirates in between Mars and Earth, there is terrorism in China and Mongolia.

The inhabitants of Planet A have discovered the terrorist plot somehow, and they actually want to help planet Earth stop the terrorism. That is why the novel is titled, "Planet A Sends Help." Planet A is going to send help to Earth, as counter-terrorism. This book is going to be like a Tom Clancy novel, with some outer space action added in

However, the inhabitants of Planet A are not benevolent geniuses. They do dumb things, selfish things, and arrogant things. The A'ers are not really heroes in the traditional sense of the word -- more like anti-heroes. I suspect that everything is not going to go according to plan. There are going to be some missteps, frustrations, and perhaps even black comedy. It's going to be like L. Ron Hubbard's novels, Mission Earth. It is going to be entertaining, but not a heartwarming feel-good novel

I accidentally downloaded some right wing book thinking it was an interesting piece of nonfiction lol. Anyway now I'm reading something called Myth America where historians debunk myths.

I finished that Terry Pratchett/Stephen Baxter series, Long Earth I think.

Some really interesting, thought provoking concepts, but ultimately a bit of a wet fart.

Planet A Sends Help. Page 57. An astronaut examines the planet Saturn's largest moon. Saturn's largest moon is named Titan. The astronaut is going to land on Titan. Fortunately for him, in this novel Titan has a breathable atmosphere, as well as food and water. He is going to be on Titan for weeks. And Titan has inhabitants

I think it was a recommendation from here, but not this specific topic, but I'm on the last book of the Foundryside trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett and I've really been enjoying it.

The "magic" system of semi-sentient every day objects that just need to be convinced that their reality can be altered is a lot of fun and gets really mind bending in the later books. Great characters too.

Read a little more Godland, just sort of middling at this point. I think Scioli works better alone tbh.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

You might want to check out Bungo Stray Dogs--it's a trip of a show and the authors are portrayed in a very odd, completely fictional but interesting way (I'll never forget the giant whale airship). When you said friends of a 7th grader are watching it, I was little concerned as it's pretty dark--the main character is over-the-top suicidal, like on the verge of it being a fetish.

Planet A Sends Help. Page 62. A Mongolian thief describes how he stole an artifact. That doesn't sound extraordinary, but in this chapter we are going to meet the antagonists of the novel, who plan a terrorist attack on Planet Earth

Only a few issues of Godland left
Unexpected cameo from Jack and Stan in the last one

Planet A Sends Help. Page 69. A Chinese man is talking about nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the author of this novel, named Karl-Herbert Scheer, believed that the future would be mostly about nuclear weapons, which didn't turn out to be the case

The silver lining is that this chapter, the chapter that introduces the antagonist and his plans, shall end in 15 pages, and then we have all sorts of fun adventures on the moon of Saturn, named Titan.

Planet A Sends Help. Page 73. The Mongolian antagonist has finished his briefing about his evil plan. Nobody has any further questions. The Russian is happy that the briefing is over

So ends the most painful section of the novel. Good times are ahead!

Finished Godland, it was alright
The colors would have been better in the usual Scioli but that NINE page spread under the spoilers was wild
https://i.vgy.me/XnQpmX.jpg

Planet A Sends Help. Page 75. The remaining eight pages of this chapter do not involve the antagonist, but merely the Russian. This is good news for me. It turns out that the Russian has an audio recording of the antagonist's plan. The Russian is going to take the recording back to Russia. So Russia shall know everything about the antagonist's plan

So, we can infer that the antagonist won't have a cakewalk on planet Earth. The only question that remains in the novel is what kind of adventures there will be around the planet Saturn before the humans return to Earth

Planet A Sends Help. Page 78. The Russian has begun the first phase of his operation to escape Mongolia, but it is not as easy as he expected

Finally gonna start Bleach, my buddy is reading it too so it'll be interesting to see his take on things.