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Pick and Mix 2015
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-11-27 7:46 AM (#11940 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Oddly enough, the only Silverberg I've read* was Lord Valentine's Castle, and it kind of put me off reading anything else by him. Hopefully I'll redress the balance a bit with the Definitive challenges. There wasn't anything especially wrong with it, I guess, it just didn't do much for me.

*Actually, I'm not sure that's true. I also have Sailing to Byzantium, which I think I've read.

Edited by DrNefario 2015-11-27 7:48 AM
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Mervi2012
Posted 2015-12-05 11:16 AM (#12068 - in reply to #9182)
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My final Pick&Mix book was Linda Nagata's Memory. I haven't read anything else from her. I liked it. It's a stand-alone SF book.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-12-06 7:02 AM (#12079 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Well done ,Mervi. You joined very late in the year,so its great to see you finishing the challenge!
Staus of the challenge - 18 participants,329 books read,an amazing 191 reviews written. Not bad in a challenge which doesnt ask for reviews! lol
7 people have completed the challenge - Dusty,Daxxh,Devilinlaw,Mervi,Spectru,Spoltz,and Weesam. And if Tantara removed one book and adjusted her reading level to 20,we could count her too
ScoLgo is half way through his last book,Pizzakarin has two to finish and Paul James has one left,so hopefully we will add to our score.
Many thanks to all who have participated,and also it is gratifying to see we have had almost 5800 views of this thread. Good to know.
Please feel free,Pick n' Mixers, to add on any interesting reads even if you have finished the challenge. And anyone,whether doing the challenge or not, is always free to comment on books or anything about WWEnd. I look upon this as an open house really,everyone welcome.

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dustydigger
Posted 2015-12-07 4:27 AM (#12090 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Thoroughly enjoyed my reread of Roger Zelazny's Jack of Shadows.. Jack,magician extraordinaire who can drain magical power from any shadow,is executed by enemies. When he is resurrected ( frequent occurence in his magical world) his burning mission is to get revenge on his enemies,including the woman he had loved,but is now the lover of his chief enemy. Jack is a thief,immoral,ruthless, crue,l selfish and vengeful,but the early chapters about his sufferings to return to the world cleverly make us root for this anti-hero,and we watch as he ruthlessly takes his revenge. He also goes on a mission to the depths of the earth where a huge magical machine has halted the planet's rotation,creating two worlds,one on the lightside where science rules,and life is pretty much like our world,and the dark side,where Jack and a myriad of creatures,vampires and dragons included, live in a dark world suffused in magic. All this in 180 pages. Fantastic story,intriguing world setting,and the stunning anti-hero Jack make this a great read. Highly recommended for those who like fantasy blended in with their SF.
Still attempting to read Silverberg's A Time of Changes but its slow going. Five sessions so far to read 50 pages.Much more enjoyable is Clifford D Simak's A Choice of Gods I read 50 pages straight off the belt when I started it last night! I had never read any Simak,(not one of his books in the library),but this year I got Way Station through the Open Library and loved it. I hope to read much more of him in the future :0)
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devilinlaw
Posted 2015-12-08 3:40 PM (#12113 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Las Vegas, NV		I may have to check out Open Library for those books I just can't find through my 2 local library districts. I've never used Open Library before but am very familiar with Hoopla and Overdrive. Is Open Library any good?
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-12-09 4:28 AM (#12121 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Well frankly,I use it as a place of last resort,as it scans actual copies of old books,brown paper,tiny print,food stains and all! lol.But I'd rather read that than fork out a lot of money! It does have a useful feature of listing particular libraries that have physical copies ,starting with libraries nearest. Once I have recovered from my TKR in the summer I hope to take advantage of this by visiting the libraries.I have library cards for my county,and no less than four city systems! Four or five years ago I did it regularly in the summer,making a sort of excursion of it,enjoying the scenery,strolling round the town,and having fun browsing the town library. You always find something interesting! I just love libraries,any libraries - even a friend's one shelf collection stuck in a corner!

Edited by dustydigger 2015-12-09 4:31 AM
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pauljames
Posted 2015-12-24 4:03 AM (#12183 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: scotland		Just finished Red Mars which completes this challenge for me. Though I only read 9 books.

Red Mars is a strange-ish sort of book I think. Easily the longest sci-fi I have read and there is two more after. Most scifi I have read is between 200-300 pages. I expected it to be mostly about terraforming but it was more in the way of colonization though I have read more terraforming occurs in the second so looking forward to this. At times the book seemed almost boring with some of the science and geology and landscape descriptions going on. However in all this I found myself zipping through it - strange.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-12-24 6:02 AM (#12184 - in reply to #12183)
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Location: UK		Paul,I was very disappointed in Red Mars.I too was hoping for some terraforming,and got very little.Instead it was standard boring conspiracies,political manouverings etc. It annoyed me that we learned right near the beginning that the only really likeable character was going to be killed off,and then we spent large chunks of the book following him,knowing the outcome for him.I found lots of it very hard to swallow. Sadly,since I am working my way through the Hugos and Nebulas,at some point I will have to read Blue Mars and Green Mars....sigh....not my cup of tea at all
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-12-24 6:05 AM (#12185 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		May I wish all the Pick N'Mixers a Merry Xmas. Have a great festive season,and I hope I see you all back here for the 2016 edition of the challenge! Hope you all get some good books for Xmas!
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spectru
Posted 2016-01-05 7:47 PM (#12296 - in reply to #11928)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA

dustydigger - 2015-11-26 4:10 PM Wow! Just finished Robert Silverberg's fantastic Downwards to the Earth for the 70s Defining Books challenge and I loved it! Great writing,lofty themes,a really great world setting and interesting aliens. Highly recommended. Another Silverberg up next,A Time of Changes. Then a nostalgic guilty pleasure reread,Roger Zelazny's Jack of Shadows. I am also halfway through Joe Hill's first Locke and Key book,Welcome to Lovecraft,very dark and downbeat to say the least. I probably wont continue the series,just read it for my graphic novel/manga thread over on my Shelfari challenge.Only half a dozen books to finish there,then I can concentrate fully on the 70s Defining Books challenge.

 

I read Downward to the Earth.  Really liked it.  Silverberg has become a favorite author.

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dustydigger
Posted 2016-01-06 1:20 PM (#12301 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		@Spectru -Yes,I liked it a lot.What did you think of A Time of Changes? I was disappointed in A Time of Changes which I read it lately. I found it dry and slowgoing,and had no empathy with the protagonist at all!Obviously popular in the 70s when drugs was a hot topic,but it wasnt my sort of thing. I didnt find the religious side of it convincing at all,and just never connected with the whole thing at all.
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spectru
Posted 2016-01-06 3:40 PM (#12306 - in reply to #12301)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA

dustydigger - 2016-01-06 2:20 PM @Spectru -Yes,I liked it a lot.What did you think of A Time of Changes? I was disappointed in A Time of Changes which I read it lately. I found it dry and slowgoing,and had no empathy with the protagonist at all!Obviously popular in the 70s when drugs was a hot topic,but it wasnt my sort of thing. I didnt find the religious side of it convincing at all,and just never connected with the whole thing at all.

 

I read A Time for Changes some time back, and it has grown a bit dim in my memory, but my reaction to it was similar to yours.  It did not recommend Silverberg to me, but the few other of his novels that I've read are quite good.

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