Hell is a World Without You--Novel by Jason Kirk, who runs in the Spencer Hall group of football writers but was also a really strict Southern Baptist when he was young, so this is basically a fictionalized version of his high school years. Really good. Actually made the effort to make all the characters have some depth to them rather than 2 dimensional tropes.
I read a fictionalized version of balls high school years once. It was called “No longer a virgin”
I read Dune. I peeped the first movie back in 2021 and had no idea what was happening.
Pretty good story. 800 pages, buy I feel the last part of the book needed more time to develop. Seemed very rushed.
If you didn't know it, I doubt you'd be able to tell it was written in the early 60's.
May continue on with the series at some point.
yeah I read the first two books back before the first movie came out, LSD was definitely involved
they're fine, they have some fun ideas/concepts but definitely has a rushed feeling as you said in the 2nd half of the first book then the second one definitely seems to go with Rian Johnson/The Last Jedi "I'm subverting expectations to subvert expectations, muahahaha"
So not only is this coming out, but I learned yesterday that the guy who wrote The Magicians series (essentially a grown up Harry Potter, maybe wolf can read it someday) is writing a new series based on the knights of the round table. Good summer for dorky books I guess. Maybe Winds of Winter will come out (lol)
I'm reading Challenger right now--it's about the Challenger explosion (so it's not just a clever name). Really good so far, but I'm a sucker for space stuff.
Challenger-- I haven't finished the epilogue yet but unless it drops some moon truths, I don't think my opinion on this one is going to change much. Just a horrifying book--the actual explosion is just kind of lurking over the whole thing and you know it's coming, but I had no idea just how predictable the explosion was. The fact that the company that designed the boosters knew for years that the O-rings were an issue, that multiple people advised not launching, etc. Kind of crazy. Not surprising that the same guy wrote the Chernobyl book that the HBO show was based on--same type of institutional failings.
I'm generally a sucker for space stuff (The Right Stuff is a Mt Rushmore book for me) but it's a solid recommendation from me. Gives some good background on the buildup to the shuttle program, the institution of the shuttle program itself, and then the accident, and then also touches upon the lives of the 7 astronauts that died. Judy Resnik liked to party
I'd be curious to see a similar expose of the Columbia disaster, but given how much they talk about the knowledge that insulation could shed off the boosters and cause damage to the shuttle in the Challenger book, my guess is that it's more of the same.
The Finisher by David Baldacci. I picked this at random because it was free and he’s one of the best in the business for action/thriller novels. If you’re not familiar, he mostly does like government/CIA/assassin type stuff, and also wrote the book that inspired the Clint Eastwood jawn Absolute Power. Based on the description, this sounded like more of the same.
Turns out it’s a bit of a genre change for him. It’s Hunger Games-esque in that it’s like a dystopian world with one community cut off from everything else, where everyone has their role and the folks in charge are rich and sketchy and you can’t tell if they actually have their people’s best interests at heart; and the protagonist is a 14 year old girl. But it ratchets up the fantasy/magic aspect beyond what’s in Hunger Games IMO.
ANYWAY… I’m like 3/4 of the way through and can’t put it down. Turns out it’s the first of a four-book series, and I’m all in for he duration. Strong rec if you’re into this sort of thing.
The Finisher by David Baldacci. I picked this at random because it was free and he’s one of the best in the business for action/thriller novels. If you’re not familiar, he mostly does like government/CIA/assassin type stuff, and also wrote the book that inspired the Clint Eastwood jawn Absolute Power. Based on the description, this sounded like more of the same.
Turns out it’s a bit of a genre change for him. It’s Hunger Games-esque in that it’s like a dystopian world with one community cut off from everything else, where everyone has their role and the folks in charge are rich and sketchy and you can’t tell if they actually have their people’s best interests at heart; and the protagonist is a 14 year old girl. But it ratchets up the fantasy/magic aspect beyond what’s in Hunger Games IMO.
ANYWAY… I’m like 3/4 of the way through and can’t put it down. Turns out it’s the first of a four-book series, and I’m all in for he duration. Strong rec if you’re into this sort of thing.
I finished this. Really enjoyed it. Just downloaded the second one; I'll report back since you all asked for an update.
Also I forgot to mention a fun FIF detail. There's this thing that can happen to characters, where they suddenly become engulfed in flames, their body floats into the air and disappears, the fire goes out, and there's no trace of them. No one really knows if they're dead or if they magically teleported to some other realm or what. It doesn't matter; the important thing is that they call it "having an Event" and it makes me chuckle every time I read it. I have fun.
The Finisher by David Baldacci. I picked this at random because it was free and he’s one of the best in the business for action/thriller novels. If you’re not familiar, he mostly does like government/CIA/assassin type stuff, and also wrote the book that inspired the Clint Eastwood jawn Absolute Power. Based on the description, this sounded like more of the same.
Turns out it’s a bit of a genre change for him. It’s Hunger Games-esque in that it’s like a dystopian world with one community cut off from everything else, where everyone has their role and the folks in charge are rich and sketchy and you can’t tell if they actually have their people’s best interests at heart; and the protagonist is a 14 year old girl. But it ratchets up the fantasy/magic aspect beyond what’s in Hunger Games IMO.
ANYWAY… I’m like 3/4 of the way through and can’t put it down. Turns out it’s the first of a four-book series, and I’m all in for he duration. Strong rec if you’re into this sort of thing.
I finished this. Really enjoyed it. Just downloaded the second one; I'll report back since you all asked for an update.
Also I forgot to mention a fun FIF detail. There's this thing that can happen to characters, where they suddenly become engulfed in flames, their body floats into the air and disappears, the fire goes out, and there's no trace of them. No one really knows if they're dead or if they magically teleported to some other realm or what. It doesn't matter; the important thing is that they call it "having an Event" and it makes me chuckle every time I read it. I have fun.
This one is on my list. I didn't realize Baldacci wrote stuff other than legal thrillers. I remember thinking Absolute Power was solid.
I read The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, speaking of dystopian novels. He wrote The Passage and its sequels about a decade ago, solid vampire/apocalypse series kind of like The Stand.. This one was a good read, I was able to figure out the generalities of the mystery pretty quickly but the specifics were solid and unexpected at the end. Would recommend.
I've got that Baldacci book, Shea Serrano's new Werewolf Lawyer "book" and The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman (King Arthur story by the dude who wrote The Magicians series) next in some order. On a pretty long waiting list at the library for The Expanse guy's new one as well.
