@ThinkDonald Very good thus far. I've just got to the aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. It's not a heavyweight read by any stretch of the imagination - I was a little bit worried that it might get bogged down in the scientific side of things (for which I have little understanding) but it's firmly rooted in the man's personality and politics.
@Cordyceps Just looked up "In the Miso soup" and that one seems to be right up my alley! Added it to the top of my reading list where it will battle it out with Richard Matheson's "Stir of Echoes" for my next read. Thanks for the tip!
@MightyDemon82 Boy were you right about the second book of Cixin Liu's "Remembrance of Earth's Past" series being better than the first one! Whereas I (lightly) considered quitting the series after "The Three-Body Problem", there were times when I simply could not put "The Dark Forest" down. It was simply packed to the gills with fascinating concepts and great characters that I just had to find out more about. Luo Ji's journey. The Wallfacers and Wallbreakers. The encounter with the Trisolaran probe. And, of course, the return of the unflappable Da Shi, which I noticed will be played by Benedict Wong in the Netflix series and that is almost a perfect match of my mental image of the character. Just brilliant stuff and it was an easy five stars in my Goodreads review.
Before I continue on with the third book in the trilogy, I will check out Ryu Murakami's "In the Miso soup", which was brought to my attention by @Cordyceps in this very thread. Looks very interesting and it's been a while since I read a thriller/horror novel, so should be a nice little palate cleanser
@FuriousMachine Glad you enjoyed The Dark Forest, after your initial disappointment with The Three Body Problem. Certainly has some fascinating concepts and that carries through to the final book. I'm currently reading Japan Story by Christopher Harding, detailing the nations history from 1850, to the present day.
@Cordyceps will check out this book thanks for bringing it to our attention.
@MightyDemon82 Thank the heavens that I almost exclusively read ebooks these days, or that fate could definitely have befallen me
Japan Story sounds interesting. I'm interested in quite a few areas of history, but find that too many books on the subject gets too dry and bogged down in dates. As a result I typically embrace historical fiction like Ken Follet's novels instead. I think my mind needs a central storyline to hang on to, otherwise it gets confused Will definitely try this one. though
So, that was quick Finished "In the Miso soup" by Ryu Murakami.
A brisk but, at times, uncomfortable read. I would compare it a bit to Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho" in that it is quite a fascinating character study with some highly graphic violence thrown in. There was also some interesting social commentary on late 20th century Japan that kept me interested throughout, but, when it comes down to it, the overall feel was a bit too cold and clinical for me. I gave it 3.5 stars in my Goodreads review. I will check out more of this author's work, though (and I'm also reminded that I need to read more of that "other" Murakami, as well )
Now it's on to "Death's End", the final book in Cixin Liu's "Remembrance of Earth's Past" saga
Recently finished Japan Story by Christopher Harding and just this minute finished The Japanese Myths by Joshusa Frydman. Next up to finish this unofficial trilogy on Japan is Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley. After that I'll either read a few smaller books or jump back into Sci-Fi & Fantasy territory!
Finished Cixin Liu's "Remembrance of Earth's Past" series, and while I felt the first book was somewhat lacking, the second and third books were nothing short of epic. In fact, I would submit that "epic" is almost too small a word to describe this series. Highly recommended for fans of somewhat weighty sci-fi. I gave it 5 stars in my Goodreads review.
Also read the short novella "The Thing Under Your Bed" by Stephen Kozeniewski, which was a fun little story about a shrewd little girl and her stuffed bunny vs The Thing under her bed. A perfect bedtime story to read to your kids. As a non-parent myself, I can't be sure that traumatizing kids is something parents are looking to do, but this would be a decent way to do it, I guess.
Keeping it relatively short with my next book as well: "Stir of Echoes" by Richard Matheson is up next
@FuriousMachine Glad you stuck with it and finished the trilogy.
As an uncle I love to traumatize the kids when they stay. Taking their phones off them will always be the number one way to do that though, over any story.
@FuriousMachine Your comment about The thing under the bed, reminded me of a great picture book story "The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed" It is more of an adult read than for kids. It has a great twist and some visual ques when you reread it. It is by my favorite author Patrick Rothfuss.
@MightyDemon82 Yeah, I'm glad I did, too, and you should have some credit for that. I did want to finish the series even before you encouraged me by informing me of the quality uptick in book 2 and 3, but it's not entirely implausible that I would have postponed them and bumped up other books until I one day found myself watching the Netflix show and then just dropping them entirely. I think that would have been the poorer scenario of the two I'm still carrying Cixin Liu's universe in my head and that is rare these days (The Expanse was the last sci-fi series to have that effect on me).
And, taking their phones away? Isn't that considered child abuse in this day and age?
@Elodin Funny you should say that, because, as I was reading it, I was thinking it would have been cool with a couple children's book style illustrations added to the book, especially the gory bits
I do hope nobody here actually winds up reading it to small kids, though.
After seeing the really great looking Wukong trailer, I went down a rabbit hole about Journey to the West. I didn’t realize so much Chinese folk iconography is based on that book/tale. I always wondered why there was so many of the Chinese based media with monkey characters. 😅 I just thought it was like a cultural thing, like Japan and cats or America and bald eagles. Somehow I played Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and it never registered with me, but I can be dense sometimes.
Anyways, has anyone read any of the English adaptations of the book(s)? I’m wondering if they make much sense or if it’s like trying to read The Iliad and we’re just better off simply knowing the basic lore from the source material.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I've just recently finished reading about Japanese Myths and Legends. Here is a link for the Chinese one, which I'll probably end up getting soon.
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