You've told us what you're playing. Now it's time to share what is next to your recliner, on the end table next to your bed, or even in the basket next to your porcelain throne.

This listing will be longer than normal because the book is so strange to me.

As for me, I just finished Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett P. Serviss. It is sort of, kind of a sequel to War of the Worlds. But not exactly. It's actually a sequel to Fighters from Mars. According to wikipedia:



In any event, "Conquest" was an entertaining read. Being written in 1898, the author obviously didn't know what we know today about Mars and the moon. The idea is that after our bacteria killed the Martian invaders, we decide it's best to take the fight to the Martians since there are obviously more of them left on Mars. And they'll probably be a bit upset over how their invasion turned out.

Thomas Edison uses Martian technology to invent weapons and space vehicles. The counter invasion heads out for Mars, stopping off at the moon along the way. On the moon, they discover signs that the moon once had water, an atmosphere, and the ruins of an ancient civilization.

On Mars we have combat and we even have love as the expedition discovers a captured Earth girl. We even see a 60' tall woman who turns out to be from the asteroid belt Ceres, home of the mortal enemies of the Martians.

Over all it was an entertaining read. "Conquest" being written at the end of the 19th Century adds a certain flavour to the book. Ignorance of the moon and Mars meant that contemporary theories were sprinkled throughout the book as fact.

I've decided to read something a little more current this time. I just "picked up" Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro from the Baen Free Library. It's classified as romantic science fiction and it's off to a good start.

Till next time!

((And you don't have to go into this much detail. I was just so surprised that a War of the Worlds sequel wasn't a War of the Worlds sequel.))

Death by Black Hole: and Other Cosmic Quandries

It's quite an interesting read if you ask me, though if one is more into astronomy, then they'll more then likely apprecate it more.

Raptor by Gary Jennings

Madison:
I agree. I'm not very savvy astronomy wise. He writes about some celestial objects that I don't know about. I was also impressed with Monsieur Serviss's accomplishments. He was one of the first to write on Einstein's new Theory of Relativity.

Stormy:
That's an intriguing book from a intriguing author. I must look into it sometime. (Who knows? My goal to spend an hour a day reading may lead me to one of his works sooner now. )

Alta by Mercedes Lackey

The Journeyer by the same author is in my top ten all time reads. I have high hopes for this one.

The legend of Drizzt (Not Drizzit, Drizzt) by R. A. Salvatore

Just thinking, it would be interesting to see top ten lists for such as books, music, movies.

I'll have to see if I can find the energy to get it started, unless someone else is faster off the mark.

I'm currently in the middle of reading two books:

Entice by Carrie Jones (I had to take a short break from this one because it's a young adult book and I was in serious need of a grown up book at the moment.)


Now I'm more focused on:

Spell of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning (Because sometimes you just need a steaming romance novel with a hunky, usually shirtless Highlander. Plus, KMM is a great writer. I really love her non-romance Fever Series.)

I've finished two since I last reported. Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro and Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi.

Sunrise Alley involves intrigue, betrayal, love, and questions if a human mind placed inside a biomechanical body is human or property. It has a Bourne feel as our heroic duo plunge from one trap to the next. Escaping several captures in a frenetic race. The growing love story is wonderful too.

Agent to the Stars revolves around John Stein, an agent who's just closed the biggest deal of his life. Now he has a new client, an entire alien race of blobs who talk by farting that wants him to arrange their premier so they don't freak out the humans. The book is actually a test novel written by Scalzi merely to see if he could write a full length novel. Since he never intended for anyone else to read it, let alone publish it, I think he wrote without fear. Mostly a humor novel, I still shed a tear or two.

Now I have to decide what to read next.

After years of prodding, mostly from my dad, I have finally read my first Heinlein juvenile. I finished The Rolling Stones this weekend. I can see how it would be an enjoyable read to a teenager, especially a teenage boy.

One of the things I enjoy about older science fiction is comparing the "future" technology to technology today. This edition of the book does the same as part of the afterward written by Steve A. Hughes in '08.

Overall a very entertaining read from an author who I've always wanted to explore. It's piqued my interest and I'll be reading more Heinlein in... THE FUTURE!!!

The Girl in a Swing by Richard Adams

Never did get on with any of his other books but I'm re-reading this for about the third time while waiting for some new ones to arrive.

Heinlein grates on me with quite a few of his better known books which all seem to feature an aged, but wise mentor type who gets to shag young women. Seems rather too much wish-fulfillment to me. Glory Road is quite fun though.

Currentally going though "Medium Raw" by Anthony Bordein.

Pretty interesting book.

If anyone was actually interested, I would be shamefully gratified, heh. I am not reading, but am creating a self-made booklet that contains my research - done for my own amusement, not for anyone else's education or correction -- on the history of phallic female sexual aids all the way back to ones made from antlers well prior to the Tool Age. Presumably, the men were off spending half the day bickering and arguing on the correct way t0 rub the sticks together to appease the Gods so they would use their vast mystical powers to somehow make the sticks catch fire. There was no cooking, clothing, or washing. The woman had to damn do something to pass the time.

So Heinlein started reading manga and watching anime way back then? Or were those young women older than 14-16 year old girls? =P

I finished a very, very short book called Four Play by Alessia Brio. It is a basic introduction to Euchre, with an erotic twist. ("Each player is dealt five cards and the remaining four cards form the pussy – I mean, kitty. The dealer places the kitty face down in the center of the table (Mmm!) and exposes the top card." )

"Sex is like cards: If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand." - Mae West

Currently reading a nonfiction book and a dystopian book. NaNo for the New and the Insane by Lazette Gifford and Phantom Universe Summer Chronicles Book One by Laura Kreitzer.

NaNo "offers ideas, hints, tricks, and thoughts on how to make it through" National Novel Writing Month. I hope to participate this year (finally!) and this book has been helpful so far. (I'm about a quarter of the way through.) The true test will come once I've succumbed to the madness of NaNoWriMo. The author scares me a bit though since she typically writes around 300,000 words in three to six books during NaNoWriMo.

Phantom Universe tells the story of Summer, sold into slavery to pirates. The author says that when she began to research her story, she discovered that the USA is reported to be host to two million slaves. And not the weekend, "honey, put on your slave collar and I'll put on my dominatrix outfit" slaves. But actual, human trafficking variety slaves. I just started and it seems quite intense so far.