# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' Thread - September 2015 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572 "2015-09-01T02:51:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/41 "2015-09-04T23:55:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’;s been a few years since I read _The War in the Air_, but I don’t recall anything about radio distress calls in it. The brief description on Wikipedia doesn’t mention any, either > > [The War in the Air - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_in_the_Air) The main character is on a German airship that gets marooned in Labrador, and they have to set up a wireless telegraphy tower to call for help: > [@](#): > > Slowly, tediously, the great mast was rigged and hoisted foot by foot into place. The electricians had contrived a catchment pool and a wheel in the torrent close at hand–for the little Mulhausen dynamo with its turbinal volute used by the telegraphists was quite adaptable to water driving, and on the sixth day in the evening the apparatus was in working order and the Prince was calling–weakly, indeed, but calling–to his air-fleet across the empty spaces of the world. For a time he called unheeded. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/42 "2015-09-05T01:36:59Z")
I finished **The Redbreast** by Jo Nesbo. Like the first book, it suffered from pacing issues. There was such a wealth of backstory, subplots and shenanigans that the book often ground to a virtual halt as info was dumped on the reader. Still it was a good book and well worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/43 "2015-09-05T22:23:45Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I recommend “Killer of Men”. Will do, hopefully the library has it. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/44 "2015-09-05T23:57:39Z")
I read **The Eyes of the Killer Robot** , the fifth Johnny Dixon book, I remember the first time I read it, back in about 1987, at the tender age of 22; I had to turn on extra lights in the apartment and go sit on the bed, where my boyfriend was sleeping, to finish it. Age makes us jaded I suppose 😃 i do feel he did a rather good job of ratcheting up the suspense so the book is a page turner if not terribly scary anymore. Next up is **Vicious Circle** , the second Felix Castor book. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/45 "2015-09-06T22:06:02Z")
I’m reading **Bird by Bird** , by Anne Lamott. I haven’t enjoyed a book about writing so much since Stephen King’s _On Writing_. Inspiring, wise and, at times, very funny. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/46 "2015-09-07T00:59:17Z")
I just put aside Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan (which is funny if you are fan of his. It’s about parenting and his family) so I could start Star Wars: Aftermath. One of the bridge novels that spans from Return of the Jedi to The Force Awakens. Very early in and I like it but it is written in present tense which I find a little off putting for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/47 "2015-09-07T04:03:13Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I just put aside Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan (which is funny if you are fan of his. It’s about parenting and his family) so I could start Star Wars: Aftermath. One of the bridge novels that spans from Return of the Jedi to The Force Awakens. Very early in and I like it but it is written in present tense which I find a little off putting for some reason. Is it, or will it be, considered “canon” once the new movie comes out? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/48 "2015-09-08T01:27:46Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Is it, or will it be, considered “canon” once the new movie comes out? I believe it is considered cannon. The front of the book lists the “official” timeline which includes the six movies, Clone Wars and Rebels (TV Shows) and few novels including this one. Just found it online [here](http://io9.com/this-is-your-new-star-wars-canon-so-far-1694117482). ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/49 "2015-09-08T02:18:43Z")
**The Shepard’s Crown** and **Dragon’s at Crumbling Castle** both by Terry Pratchett arrived today. I have mixed feelings, on the one I’m excited for another Tiffany book, on the other, this is it, kids… But I ave two library books to get through first anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/50 "2015-09-08T12:08:42Z")
Every time I pull _Cloud Atlas_ off my shelf part of me expects that I’ll end up putting it in the used bookstore pile, but it always ends up back on the shelf. I don’t want to like it as much as I do. Mitchell spends so much of the last half of the book jumping up and down yelling “Look at me! Aren’t I so clever for how I’ve been playing with structure?” that it gets on my nerves. And then there’s the depressing Serious Literature endings for Sonmi and Frobisher, not to mention the uphill trek that is Sloosha’s Crossin’\*, but somehow every time I reach the end of the book I don’t quite hate it enough to get rid of it. But I don’t like it enough not to question its place on my shelf. \*Mitchell should have read _Bird by Bird_, specifically the part where Anne Lamott says not to write in dialect. Unless you’re Mark Twain and he’s been dead for a century. David Mitchell is \*\*not \*\*Mark Twain reincarnated. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/51 "2015-09-08T13:53:21Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I believe it is considered cannon. The front of the book lists the “official” timeline which includes the six movies, Clone Wars and Rebels (TV Shows) and few novels including this one. > > Just found it online [here](http://io9.com/this-is-your-new-star-wars-canon-so-far-1694117482). Cool - thanks! > [@Catamount](#): > > Every time I pull _Cloud Atlas_ off my shelf part of me expects that I’ll end up putting it in the used bookstore pile, but it always ends up back on the shelf. I don’t want to like it as much as I do… I liked both the book and the movie very much. Crazily ambitious in scope, but by and large I think both succeed. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/52 "2015-09-08T14:16:44Z")
I’ve been on an SF/light reading kick lately. I tried Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell a couple of weeks ago, which everybody recommended (including Neil Gaiman) but which left me cold. I got tired of waiting for something — _anything_ — to happen and put it aside for now. I’m a good chunk through it, so it’s not like I didn’t give it a fair shot. Might not be in the mood, might have lost what little taste I had for comedies of manners. I ripped through [This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It](http://www.amazon.com/This-Book-Full-Spiders-Seriously-ebook/dp/B007KJHGNI/), which is a worthy sequel to [John Dies at the End](http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong-ebook/dp/B002Q7H7JC/) (The title is totally not a spoiler, dude, he explains this shit in, like, the first chapter, all right). Most recently, I read [Nexus](http://www.amazon.com/Nexus-Trilogy-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00TOZI7FM/) series by Ramez Naam. Not 100% groundbreaking, but fun reads. The strong point was exploring the impact of brain upgrades on a society that’s virtually identical to our current level of development. Pretty much nails the paranoid political response and open-source hackfest that would probably ensue. In the end notes, he points out current experiments that are pushing the boundaries of brain-technology interfaces to show that some of what seems really fantastical in his fiction is actually just an extrapolation of what’s already being done. Some earlier work I’ve read in the same vein: [“Blood Music”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music_(novel)) came out in the 80s, and Greg Bear has written quite a few other things about transhuman and posthuman societies. Some events in Raam’s books felt a bit like [Darwin’s Radio](http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Radio-Greg-Bear-ebook/dp/B000FA675M/), in fact. Vernor Vinge often talks about both artificial intelligence and the concept of technological singularity (which has been pushed to [IMO] dingbat “it goes to 11” levels by Kurzweil). “Bookworm, Run!” and “True Names” are both very early treatments of these concepts; “Bookworm” may actually have been the first computer-brain interface depicted in print: the original story was published [in 1966](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookworm,_Run)(!) “True Names” was also a groundbreaking work. I read both of these stories in a collection, [True Names, and Other Dangers](http://www.amazon.com/Names-Other-Dangers-Vernor-Vinge/dp/0671653636/). Bruce Stirling also tackled some of the same themes with stories about two cultures that split into favoring either cybernetic or biologic enhancement. [Schismatrix](http://www.amazon.com/Schismatrix-Plus-Bruce-Sterling-ebook/dp/B00PDDKVW6/) looks like it’s got all of those stories; probably more than I’ve actually read. The late Iain Banks’ [Culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series) novels extensively explore what happens in a post-scarcity society with basically godlike artificial intelligences and human(ish) people who have heavily integrated enhancement technologies. Fellow Scot, Charles Stross, has also written a bit on upgraded humans in a few short stories, most notably those in [Accelerando](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html) (available there for free), and two novels: Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise. In the same vein, I’m a few chapters into William Gibson’s latest, [The Peripheral](http://www.amazon.com/Peripheral-William-Gibson-ebook/dp/B00INIXKV2/), and looking at my Kindle reading history reminds me that Peter Watts has written some seriously trippy stuff. I recently read a novelette of his, [The Colonel](http://www.tor.com/2014/07/29/the-colonel-peter-watts/), and I first encountered him through his “talk” on [Vampire Domestication](http://www.rifters.com/real/progress.htm), which tied in with [Blindsight](http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/53 "2015-09-08T14:58:02Z")
I just read Gene Wolfe’s latest - _The Land Across_. Very good. I’m a huge Wolfe fan, like a lot of people here, but have lost touch with him a bit as I’ve found his recent stuff to be a bit thin. It’s not like he has anything to prove to anyone, but stuff like _An Evil Guest_ was borderline bad. So I really enjoyed this one, felt way more fleshed out as a novel. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/54 "2015-09-08T16:27:47Z")
> [@Sleel](#): > > I tried Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell a couple of weeks ago, which everybody recommended (including Neil Gaiman) but which left me cold. I got tired of waiting for something — _anything_ — to happen and put it aside for now. I’m a good chunk through it, so it’s not like I didn’t give it a fair shot. Might not be in the mood, might have lost what little taste I had for comedies of manners. I never managed to finish that one. I also have half of the BBC (or is it BBCAmerica) tv adaptation stacked up on my DVR. It’s not keeping my interest in much the same way that I remember the book not keeping my interest. Maybe someday I’ll go back to one or the other. Currently reading [Infinite Home](http://kathleenalcott.com/) by Kathleen Alcott - so far it’s a group of character sketches and is interesting enough. Also, reading mostly unremarkable romance novels. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/55 "2015-09-08T19:04:44Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > \*Mitchell should have read _Bird by Bird_, specifically the part where Anne Lamott says not to write in dialect. Unless you’re Mark Twain and he’s been dead for a century. David Mitchell is \*\*not \*\*Mark Twain reincarnated. Ha! David Mitchell is exactly who I thought of when I read that bit. ---
**Author:** ![TexCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/texcat/32/9041_2.png) [@TexCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexCat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/56 "2015-09-08T20:23:45Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Just “X”? Not “X is for something that begins with X”? Man, she’s really phoning it in now 🙂 I did seem to like the earlier books more than the later ones, but I’m number 29 on the hold list for _X_. It is starting to seem strange that Kinsey is stuck in the 80’s without access to any modern technology. I’ve finished [Midnight Riot](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004C43F70) and [Moon over Soho](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EBT6WE) by Ben Aaronovitch about the police constable, and now wizard-in-training. I enjoy his struggles with mastering wizard skills. Also read another Kurt Wallander, [The Troubled Man](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EWFV9K) and a China Bayles mystery, [Mourning Gloria](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049U4IPK) by Susan Wittig Albert. I do like the way that both of these characters have developed and changed over the years. Although this Wallander book was more than a little sad and depressing. Next up is the latest Maisie Dobbs, [A Dangerous Place](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LSRBY9A). ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/57 "2015-09-08T22:17:00Z")
I’m going to have to buy **Moon over Soho** since my library doesn’t have a copy of it… though it isn’t as if I have NOTHING to read stacked all over every surface in this room ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/58 "2015-09-09T03:24:35Z")
I finished the second volume of Michel Verne’s **The Barsac Mission** (entitled _The City in the Sahara_), and it has something else in it besides what has been claimed to be the first fictional radio call for help\*. It has an uncannily accurate description of weapons-bearing drones. > [@](#): > > …a strange-looking implement at once emerged and moved away from the base of the tower. It was some sort of vertical cylinder, the end facing the ground expanded to form a large cone. > > At the other end four screws, one horizontal and three vertical, spun with dazzling speed. This strange contrivance soared into the air, moving away from the anterior wall. When it was several yards high, its course became horizontal, and it rigorously followed the Factory boundary. > > Bat already, following this first contrivance, had come a second, then a third, then others. Camaret’s guests could count twenty which, at regular intervals, left the tower like birds leaving the nest and in turn completed the same maneuver. > > “Those are my _wasps_,” said Marcel Camaret, slightly stressing the possessive pronoun. “I’ll explain later how they are steered. For the time being, just watch them at work.” > > … > > … > > Suddenly an explosion sounded from one of the _wasps_, and a hail like machine-gun bullets covered the ground, over a circle about a hundred yards across. Camaret’s Wasps are remote-controlled and use broadcast power, so they don’t need batteries. Some fire aerial missiles. The thing that strikes me is that they can hover, move vertically and horizontally, all using three propellors with their axes vertical. It’s almost exactly like our current civilian drones (except for the one horizontal propeller, which he must have felt was needed for horizontal propulsion), but with the lethal weaponry of military drones. This might be a case of only temporary agreement – drones will evolve, and soon might not look like the current ones and like Verne’s description, just the way Asimov’s “pocket calculator” in the \*Foundation[/I series briefly resembled the pocket calculators in use in the early 1970s, about the same size and with glowing red numbers. Within a few years calculators were smaller, and used Liquid CRystal displays with gray numbers. But it’s still a striking similarity. \*THe first actual radio distress call dates from March 1899, with several uses in subsequent years. See here: [The Telegraph Office -- A Tribute to Morse Telegraphy and Resource for Wire and Wireless Telegraph Historians and Collectors](http://telegraph-office.com/pages/arc2-2.html) But The Barsac Mission goes into such detail in describing the process – unusual for something that had already been used in several rescues and the subject of so many international conferences – that I have to wonder if this part of the book (published in 1914) might not be one of the parts based on Jules Verne’s earlier notes. Otherwise it seems curiously out of place ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/59 "2015-09-09T03:30:40Z")
By the way, I’m now reading James Branch Cabell’s _The Cream of the Jest_, which I’ve finally found a copy of. On audio I’m finishing up Elaione Isaac’s **Elisha Barber** (written under the pen-name E.C. Ambrose). It’s much, much better than I’d expected, a fine fantasy with relatively few fantasy elements in a 14th century world of Hard Knocks, kind of like _Game of THrones_ without the frequent deaths of semimajor characters (although she does seriously physically and mentally abuse her hero). Worth the read. There are two more novels in the series so far, and some short stories as well. I’m also audio-reading Christopher Moore’s latest, **Secondhand Souls** , the sequel to 2006’s **A Dirty Job**. It’s already exceptionally weird and bawdily hilarious. Read “A Dirty Job” before you read this one, though, or you’ll be hopelessly lost. ---
**Author:** ![Grrlbrarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrlbrarian/32/4048_2.png) [@Grrlbrarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrlbrarian)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572/60 "2015-09-10T15:24:32Z")
> [@TexCat](#): > > I’ve finished [Midnight Riot](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004C43F70) and [Moon over Soho](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EBT6WE) by Ben Aaronovitch about the police constable, and now wizard-in-training. I enjoy his struggles with mastering wizard skills. > > Next up is the latest Maisie Dobbs, [A Dangerous Place](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LSRBY9A). Do review the Dobbs, **TexCat**. I read it too and will be interested in what you think, especially as compared to the others in the Dobbs series. Aaronovitch: I enjoy those books SO MUCH. 😃 Arguably my favorite urban fantasy going, largely due to Peter Grant’s missteps and humor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-september-2015-edition/729572.md?page=4)