SmooveP
Well-Known Member
I ride that trail often on the gravel bike with a buddy who's an amateur historian of sorts. He knows a ton about the more recent history - Tocks Island Dam, Walpack, etc.
what do you read?
- Thread starter bonefishjake
- Start date
Cole
Well-Known Member
Did you read Red Lotus?
Red Mosquito
Formerly RLB the Scrapple Boy
No but it sounds interesting. I'll add to my future list.
Better or worse than The Flight Attendant?
Cole
Well-Known Member
I don't really remember the flight attendant. I was just asking Dave, because there's a lot of rat talk in that book.
Since I wanted to grab another book to read but had no idea where to even start, I figured I'd go on a blind date. Only a few chapters in. Want to try to get into the habit of reading a couple of chapters each night before bed.
EDIT: I guess I should add the last few books I read:
The Greatest Beer Run Ever
The Body In The Library
How to Survive Camping
EDIT: I guess I should add the last few books I read:
The Greatest Beer Run Ever
The Body In The Library
How to Survive Camping
This was a great movie.
Finished the book. I purposely did not look up any reviews on it until I finished so that my "blind date" wouldn't be tarnished by other people's opinions.
I really liked it. And I definitely will look up other stuff by this author. But the bad part: there's another book in the series which isn't out yet so I have to wait and lose momentum. Same deal with the "camping" book I mentioned. That's also the first in a series that hasn't all been published yet. 😕
Red Mosquito
Formerly RLB the Scrapple Boy
I just finished it last night and agree it's a 5 star book. Aside from a few short pieces it was a very engaging story even at 1000 pages. There were a small handful of plot pieces that I felt could have been explored more, but I guess you need to draw the line somewhere with a book of this magnitude. I'll likely grab the next book too.
Ok it took a while for me to reply, but I got here.
The biggest problem I had with this book, and it wasn't a huge one but it was real for sure, is the almost 1980's-like movies bad guy schemes that cropped up like every chapter. The "good guys" would spend 40 pages engineering a solution to something adverse, then in 2 sentences the "bad guys" would throw out some offhand idea that would put the good guys in an impossible spot yet again. While the book was 5 stars for sure, and like you I will read the 2nd (already bought it), the author here was lazy in coming up with the bad guy narrative I felt.
Otherwise it was a great book. A good part of me thinks it will be impossible for the next one to come close. But I guess we'll see.
Otherwise it was a great book. A good part of me thinks it will be impossible for the next one to come close. But I guess we'll see.
Red Mosquito
Formerly RLB the Scrapple Boy
Super spoiler reply
Well it was written in the '80s after all. I agree to a certain extent that the writing was a bit lazy and predictable at times. The cathedral collapse and the sacking of the fleece Fair were things that you could see coming from a mile away.
After a bit more thinking I could be persuaded to call it misplaced effort rather than lazy writing. There was a good piece of plot around the takedown of Hamleigh, but it did seem to come fast and out of nowhere. I don't think it was necessary to go through his pseudo rise again to sheriff, it would have been more satisfying if Richard had just killed him after taking over the castle. That extra writing energy would have better served a more complex unraveling of Waleran. There was a bit of a mismatch between Waleran being this consistent evil presence for the whole book, yet his undoing was an accusation or perjury by someone considered a witch by the local clergy.
I don't often put a lot of stock in a title, but I did also spend a bit of time thinking about about what the pillars are supposed to represent. The main thing that came to me was perseverance because it seemed like no matter what, the have-nots did not give up. And of course I'm not a medieval scholar but I'm pretty sure life was hell for the have-nots so maybe that was really the point he was trying to get across with the persistent villains.
I'll follow this up with the fact that I am about 100 pages into the second book and maybe I'll flip my entire opinion and agree that its just lazy writing. And that's because we've already repeated one of the disasters that came about in the first book.
After a bit more thinking I could be persuaded to call it misplaced effort rather than lazy writing. There was a good piece of plot around the takedown of Hamleigh, but it did seem to come fast and out of nowhere. I don't think it was necessary to go through his pseudo rise again to sheriff, it would have been more satisfying if Richard had just killed him after taking over the castle. That extra writing energy would have better served a more complex unraveling of Waleran. There was a bit of a mismatch between Waleran being this consistent evil presence for the whole book, yet his undoing was an accusation or perjury by someone considered a witch by the local clergy.
I don't often put a lot of stock in a title, but I did also spend a bit of time thinking about about what the pillars are supposed to represent. The main thing that came to me was perseverance because it seemed like no matter what, the have-nots did not give up. And of course I'm not a medieval scholar but I'm pretty sure life was hell for the have-nots so maybe that was really the point he was trying to get across with the persistent villains.
I'll follow this up with the fact that I am about 100 pages into the second book and maybe I'll flip my entire opinion and agree that its just lazy writing. And that's because we've already repeated one of the disasters that came about in the first book.