Sunday Morning Book Thread - 2-23-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (zombie mice not included). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...(reminds me to phone home once in a while).

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

It's hard to believe, but I've been doing this Sunday Morning Book Thread thing for three full years now. That's over 150 threads! By the time I reach 200 threads, I might finally know what I'm doing. Today's image was created courtesy of Adobe Firefly, a free AI image generator. I told it to create an image of a squirrel in a library reading a book. On the squirrel's head he should be wearing a birthday hat and a birthday cake with three candles should be in front of him. Firefly will provide four initial drafts, but you can input more data to refine the image.

Thank you for all of your support over the past three years! Your active engagement in the Sunday Morning Book Thread is much appreciated!

THE DANGER IN WRITING A BOOK SERIES

The YouTuber above uses back-of-the-envelope calculations to demonstration why writing a book series is not a good idea, especially for newer authors. The dark reality is that the VAST majority of books only sell a few hundred to a few thousand copies. There are so many books being published these days, both from traditional publishing houses and by independent authors, that keeping a reader's interest so that they will be inclined to wait for the next book in a series to be released is a daunting challenge.

When I look back through my own library, I can see that many of my favorite authors did release standalone books *before* tackling the challenge of writing a multi-volume series. For instance, Terry Brooks wrote The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara as three standalone novels, though they are connected through three generations of Ohmsfords who answer the call to adventure, and the events of one novel do have some influence on successive novels. But it's not necessary to read them in a given order to fully enjoy those stories. His sequel series, The Scions of Shannara, is a proper multi-volume story where all of the books are intimately connected to one another and you do need to read them in order to fully understand the story.

There are exceptions, of course. John Gwynne, author of the four-volume series The Faithful and the Fallen, seems to have found commercial success by focusing on writing series of books rather than standalone novels. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman were commissioned by TSR, Inc. to write the original Dragonlance Chronicles and have also tended to focus on writing series of books rather than standalone novels. Tad Williams only had one standalone novel (Tailchaser's Song) before writing Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.

Many authors will write a standalone novel, and if they experience success, they will continue to write stories about those characters as part of an open-ended series, so that readers don't have to worry about waiting for the next novel to arrive. If it does, great! If the author takes time off to work on other projects, the readers aren't left in limbo until the author decides to return to their series. Both Jim Butcher and Larry Correia fit into this category somewhat. Butcher has taken time off from writing his Dresden Files to focus on other projects. Correia has a pretty big cliffhanger in his most recent Monster Hunter novel, but now that he's finished The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, I'm sure he'll get back to that story eventually.

(HT: mindful webworker)

AMAZON KINDLE SCREWING OVER READERS!

A number of videos like the one above have popped into my YouTube feed recently. The premise behind these videos is that Amazon Kindle is about to deny readers the ability to download their books onto their own devices/computers, as of February 26, 2025. In other words, you can only access your books in the cloud, so you WILL need to have internet connectivity or something in order to read the books. Or something like that. As of now, it's still possible to download books from Kindle, strip them of digital rights management using anothre app, and thus have a personal copy of the book that can exist independent of the internet. We'll see how this affects Kindle's business model, I suppose. I know people are paranoid about digital content being changed without notice--with some justification because this DOES happen. And of course, we all like to believe that if we paid for content, we OWN it. I OWN all my physical copies of books. I don't pay taxes on them (other than the initial sales tax, of course) and I don't have to pay any recurring license fees to keep them.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Save Our Souls by Matthew Pearl is the true story of the wreck of the shark-fishing ship Wandering Minstrel on the coral reefs of Midway Island in 1887. Captain Walker, his wife, their three sons, and surviving members of the crew managed to scrabble to shore in the storm.

When the castaways awoke the next morning they discovered the island had one inhabitant already, a giant Dane named Hans, who quickly took them under his wing and helped them survive on the island's meager resources.

But Hans was no mere hard luck castaway. He was a murderer whose crew mates stranded him and left him to fend for himself. And now Hans plotted the death of the captain and sons and to abscond with a repaired boat, bent on getting revenge on the people who marooned him.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at February 16, 2025 09:56 AM (kpS4V)

Comment: Sounds like a fascinating story. In fact, when I read the blurb above, I could swear I've read variations of this story elsewhere. Perhaps they were inspired by this tale. I find it interesting that instead of workign *with* the marooned family to escape, Hans conspired *against* the family for his own selfish ends. Clearly NOT a good guy.

Currently I'm reading The Graveyard Apartment, a horror story set in 1980s Tokyo. The novel, by one Mariko Koike, was translated from the Japanese, and the person did a fine job. The characters are very likable by Western standards and speak very much like Westerners (though I have no idea how real modern Japanese speak among themselves). A young couple moves into a high-rise apartment building that is situated by a graveyard and an abandoned Buddhist temple, and strange things begin to happen to the people who live there.

As the cover blurb says, you'll never be comfortable in an elevator or a basement again.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 16, 2025 10:00 AM (omVj0)

Comment: That cover blurb quote is a bit curious since I don't find either elevators or basements particularly comfortable. OK, I am quite comfortable in my office in the basement of the campus library, but I've also been in some *very* dark and creepy basements in my time. Elevators are also not known for "comfort." In a high-rise building, we tend to forget that an elevator may be suspended hundreds of feet above the ground, with nothing to stop it falling other than cables and safety brakes. Damaged elevators often serve as tense moments in movies...

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

• First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks -- I'm a completionist. It's the only Shannara book I didn't have.
• Star Wars - Corellian Trilogy Book 1 - Ambush at Corellia by Roger MacBride Allen -- We get to meet Han Solo's extended family in the form of a power-hungry cousin seeking to dominate the five habitable worlds of the Corellian system.
• Star Wars - Corellian Trilogy Book 2 - Assault at Selonia by Roger MacBride Allen
• Star Wars - Corellian Trilogy Book 3 - Showdown at Centerpoint by Roger MacBride Allen

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Star Wars - New Jedi Order - Force Heretic I - Remnant by Sean Williams & Shane Dix

The Force Heretic subseries takes a break from the main action of the Yuuzhan Vong war. Luke, his wife Mara, and their nephew Jacen Solo begin a magical mystery tour of the Unknown Regions of the galaxy in search of the enigmatic wandering planet Zonama Sekot, which may be connected to the Yuuzhan Vong. Meanwhile, Han, Leia, and their daughter Jaina begin their own magical mystery tour of the known galaxy to re-establish communication channels among the remote regions. The Yuuzhan Vong have disrupted communications to the point that no one really knows what allies, if any, remain. On the planet formerly known as Coruscant--now renamed "Yuuzhan-tar"--the disgraced Yuuzhan Vong executor and infiltrator sparks a rebellion among the Shamed Ones, the lowest caste of Yuuzhan Vong, who believe the Jeedi are their greatest hope of reclaiming their rightful place among their oppressors.

Star Wars - New Jedi Order - Force Heretic II - Refugee by Sean Williams & Shane Dix

Han and Leia are sucked into a conflict among the Bakurans, as the nearby Ssi-Ruuk Imperium seeks to conquer the planet again through their vile "entechment," where the souls of their victims power their technology. This is a callback to one of the earliest Star Wars novels, A Truce at Bakura. In their own way, the Ssi-Ruuk are very nearly as despicable as the Yuuzhan Vong. Treacherous and violent in the extreme. Meanwhile, Luke and his family continue to search for Zonama Sekot by exploring the library of the Chiss Ascendancy. They are surprised to find out the Chiss use actual BOOKS instead of computer terminals like a proper library. They, too, are beset with treachery from within as not all Chiss are on board with joining the Galactic Alliance against the overwhelming threat of the Yuuzhan Vong. Although the Chiss are capable of repelling minor incursions, they are no match for the full might of a Yuuzhan Vong fleet.

Star Wars - New Jedi Order - Force Heretic III - Reunion by Sean Williams & Shane Dix

Luke, Mara, and Jacen discover--or perhaps RE-discover--the sentient planet Zonama Sekot. Luke's father Anakin Skywalker found it decades ago, while traveling with his master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now Luke must convince an intelligent planet that's deeply connected to the Force to ally itself with the Jedi. However, Zonama Sekot fled into the Unknown Regions to avoid the pain and suffering it found in the known areas of the galaxy. Now it wants to be left alone. Han and Leia have connected with a new communication channel, one consisting of the most overlooked people in galaxy. They've also convinced the Imperial Remnant to join the Galactic Alliance as an equal partner. Like the Chiss, the Imperial Remnant may be able to fend off isolated attacks, but they are outmatched and outgunned by a serious Yuuzhan Vong incursion.

Star Wars - New Jedi Order - The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes

The Yuuzhan Vong "Prophet" Nom Anor attempted to destroy the sentient planet of Zonama Sekot, but failed. Instead of dying, the planet leapt into hyperspace, journeying towards the Known Regions of the galaxy. Luke succeeds in convincing the wandering planet to rejoin the galaxy it left behind, especially now that they better understand the key role the planet plays in the Force and its relationship with the Yuuzhan Vong. The Galactic Alliance starts to gather its own forces for one final push to recapture Coruscant, the jewel of the galaxy, now the new homeworld of the Yuuzhan Vong, where Supreme Overlord has grown his throne.

Star Wars - New Jedi Order - The Unifying Force by James Luceno

This is it--the final chapter in The New Jedi Order series. Everything converges on Coruscant. Zonama Sekot warps into the system, inspiring hope among the Shamed Ones, and terror among the elite caste of the Yuuzhan Vong, as they now believe their gods are angry with them. The Galactic Alliance has unleashed a terrifying weapon on one of the Vong-conquered worlds that threatens to obliterate not only the Yuuzhan Vong, but could turn against the many varied species of the galaxy as well. The Jedi, always striving for peace, seek a resolution whereby the Yuuzhan Vong can be made to see where they went wrong as a species/culture, instead of being extinguished. As the title of this book indicates, deeper truths about the Force will also be revealed and made manifest.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 2-16-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. This Sunday Morning Book Thread will self destruct in five seconds.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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