Feb 2019 book deals and book chat

@f00l

I think:
Anyone who has a Kindle Fire tablet less than 5 years old prob has Alexa capacity on the Fire tablet (if the OS is up to date) and thus can take advantage of this and similar “Alexa only” offers and various Alexa features.

In case someone wants to use Alexa features without having “always listening” devices around.

Does the same apply to the new Kindle Oasis and Kindle Paperwhite with audio capacities? So they also have Alexa capacities?

No idea. Anyone know?

@f00l That is a good deal. I’ll have to think about it. I’m pretty sure the new Kindles don’t have Alexa, just audiobooks in the library.

BTW I got my Tap working in the car and it’s perfect for playing Audible- as long as you have unlimited data.

@f00l Is this good?

@sammydog01

It’s William Gibson. He is always worth the read.

Certainly one of the most important cyperpunk writers. And also a damned good storyteller.

My take: "read everything he’s ever published*.

It’s not stuff where you have to suffer through it because “literature”. It’s just good.

@f00l Aw damn it, I would have picked this up if I’d seen it! Love Gibson!

I had an argument with a friend in high school who recommended him to me. When one of my reactions was “it seems like he likes Steely Dan,” the guy got really mad and was like “Why do you say that?” And I said, “I don’t know.” But the reason was because in the title story in Burning Chrome the narrator and his friend Automatic Jack go to meet a girl named Rikki at a bar called The Gentleman Loser. Because William Gibson is a MASSIVE Steely Dan fan. And my friend kind of sucked.

@mossygreen

That’s a good story.

@f00l Well, it’s a true story, anyway. And pretty short.
http://www.beamsandstruts.com/bits-a-pieces/item/951-saturday-night-jukebox-william-gibson-on-steely-dan

@mossygreen
I assumed it was true.

@ruouttaurmind
Sorry to hear

/giphy jump the shark

@ruouttaurmind

Just avoid bad serials.
And avoid unfinished serials!
(If the writer is unreliable)

I was amazed by the quality of GRRM’s SOFAI from the first pages of Game Of Thrones.

A Dance With Dragons was published in 2011. So 8 years and counting now.

And I fear that will be GRRM’s final completed and published book. (tho he has lots of free times for conventions)

Bummer.
I suppose the HBO series version will wind up being the canonical one.

Btw thx for rec.

@f00l The only serial I’ve stuck with was the pulp series I mentioned here the other day. 23 books in the series, with #24 anticipated this spring. I’m only on #9, but the storyline I was complaining about pretty much killed my desire to continue. I only wish I didn’t already buy 10 though 14.

Otherwise I’ve been sticking with series which have already concluded so I know in advance I won’t be left swinging in the breeze waiting for the next book. I also only choose those with only a few installments. The Sorrow Falls series was ideal, with only 2 books.

@ruouttaurmind

At least Robert Jordan arranged for the Wheel Of Time series to reach a conclusion in within books of up-to-the-series-standard good quality.

If Jordan had lived, I wonder if he would have been able to do that - conclude the series … It seems to me that he could not bear to stick to the main storyline … He seemed compelled in his later books to keep complicating things and expanding his universe, getting further and further from resolution.

@f00l

keep complicating things and expanding his universe, getting further and further from resolution.

Publisher pressure to continue a commercially successful series maybe? Publishers can be slippery souls.

I’m curious to see what Amazon does with the Prime Video series. Though the last press release I read still hasn’t pinned a premier date. And I can’t help but to think Netflix might be able to do a better job of it.

@ruouttaurmind
Perhaps the future of sprawling megabook fiction series will include routine dedicated humorous or hypercritical fan discussions about which authors have lost control of their fictional universes and will never be able to conclude the series.

Perhaps fanfic writers will take over and provide alternative series wrap-ups.

Some writers/genres don’t seem to have this problem.

Mystery/thriller series usually include books that are mostly self-contained, with only light book-to-book story-arc links.

And with some writers (JK Rowling comes to mind) there’s no doubt that the series will pull together and conclude without engendering the sense that the writer got lost and never found their way back.

Potential spoiler here, so if you hate those, read no further.

Suddenly the title of the book makes sense. The plot seems to have embraced Nietzsche’s Eternal Return theory, hence the book title “Doughnut”.

Trying to wrap my head around quantum theories always gives me fits.

Wow. They said “hundreds” but looking more like thousands to me.

The sale includes two versions of The Godfather. Narration by Joe Mantegna an another with a full cast production.

@f00l You’re very welcome. I heard about him from a friend, Dan is very engaging.

@ruouttaurmind
Thx.

@f00l (Psst- it’s March.)

@f00l @sammydog01 @f00l marches to the beat of a different drummer.

@Barney @sammydog01

I was too tired to open a new topic

@Barney @f00l @sammydog01 Pssst, over here.