Reading

 So I have been casting about recently trying to find a new book to read that grabs ne the way The Deathworlders did.

I tried an anthology of stores that were inspired by Lovecraft, but not of the Mythos.  It was kind of "meh."

Then I came across a book that was co-written by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville called The Book of Elsewhere.

And I tried, I honestly tried to read it.

The thing that struck me was that it seemed like after each chapter was written someone went through and chose a word, looked it up in a big thesaurus, and replaced the original word with the most obscure and esoteric sounding replacement.

I gave up after the first chapter.

Quotes - Part Twenty

276.                   I loved her, not for the way she danced with my angels… But for the way the sounds of her name could silence my demons.

--Raul Julia as Gomez Addams in “Addams Family Values”

277.                   It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. In fact, some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it is that it is unquestionably correct

--Michio Kaku

278.                   I’m not the first person to make this point, but ladies, if they’re going to put you in jail for an abortion, you might as well kill your rapist, and get a 2 for 1.

--@kamiroart

279.                   If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we’ve solved it.

--Kasspe

280.                   Dreams save us.  Dreams lift us up an transform us.  And on my soul I swear… until my dream of a world where dignity, honor, and justice becomes the reality we all share… I’ll never stop fighting. Ever.

--Joe Kelly, said by Superman in Action Comics #775

281.                   Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams.

--Mary Kelly

282.                   I love that Dr. Strange didn’t get a superhero name when he got his powers.  He was like, “I went to medical school and this magic thing is a hobby.”

--Ryan Ken

283.                   I’m amazed by people who lose weight with exercise.  When I exercise, nothing happens because my DNA still thinks I’m a European peasant.  So, it’s like, Oh! Ae running from the English again, lass?  Dinnae ye worry: we’ll keep ye plump as a partridge to outlast the murderous bastards.”

--Jamie Kenney

284.                   A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

--John F. Kennedy

285.               Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

--John F. Kennedy

286.               Moving in together with a man is like buying something you have long admired in a shop window. You’re exalted when you bring it home, but you soon discover that it doesn’t match the rest of the furniture.

--Jean Kerr

287.               Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

--John Maynard Keynes

288.               Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers.

--Nikita Khrushchev

289.               I can’t think of anything worse after a night of drinking than waking up next to someone and not being able to remember their name, or how you met, or why they’re dead.

--Laura Kightlinger

290.               Some people say that I must be a horrible person, but that’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy… in a jar on my desk.

--Stephen King, March 8, 1990

291.               When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, “Why god? Why me?” and the thundering voice of God answered, “There’s just something about you that pisses me off.”

---Stephen King

292.               It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

--Fletcher Knebel

293.               The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language.

--D. E. Knuth, 1967

294.               I would love to speak a foreign language but I can’t. So I grew hair under my arms instead.

--Sue Kolinsky

295.               In the beginning the world was without form, and void. And God said “Let there be light.” And God separated the light from the dark. And did two loads of laundry.

--Kevin Krisciunas

296.               Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions; it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

--Irving Kristol

297.               My favorite novelization was “The Passion of the Christ”, except it had a lot of exposition about some people who weren’t even in the movie, and it was a bit preachy, but otherwise, A+ material.

--kthejoker, on Everything²

298.               How can you NOT know that Big Macs are fattening? The Big Mac is the international unit of measuring unhealthy food. Whenever they discover something is bad for you, they tell you how many Big Macs it’s worth.

--Cole Richards, in PvP by Scott Kurtz

299.               I found this job that I get to watch strippers a lot, but it pays negative 20 bucks an hour

                       --Greg Lavery, The Perfect Dark Elite

300.                   I’ve never liked backwards ideas. It always sounds like you’ve run out of forwards ideas.

--Gilson Lavis, former drummer with Squeeze

Quotes - Part Nineteen

251.                   In elementary school, in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file line from smallest to tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower?

--Warren Hutcherson

252.                   The film “Capricorn One” was filmed entirely on a studio lot on the moon.

--Armando Ianucci

253.                   Friends come and go like waves of the ocean, but the true ones stick, like an octopus on your face.

--The Idealist

254.                   The next step will be for the colonists on Mars to throw off the hand of the United States. There will be this wonderful historical irony. When the people on Mars write a declaration of independence saying, “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”, the US will be rather pissed off.

--Eric Idle

255.                   When a human dies, there is a bridge they must cross to enter into heaven.  At the head of the bridge waits every animal that human encountered during their lifetime.  The animals, based on what they know of this person, decide which humans may cross the bridge… and which humans are turned away

--Indian legend

256.                   If you look at the top 10 grossing movies of all time, six of them are sci-fi (and the others have pirates, hobbits, and ogres… and, yes, a boat).

--io9

257.                   Physics has various space programs. Biology, when low-tech, is all about swimming with the dolphins, and when high-tech is about edging ever-closer to cloning something really cool, like a giant kangaroo. Soft sciences like sociology and psychology are just good excuses to study sex all the time. Chemistry is like cooking without ever being able to lick the bowl.

--io9

258.                   I make records so I can buy art.

--Jimmy Iovine to Jim Kerr after hearing lyrics to a new Simple Minds song.

259.                   If you don't understand the science, everything looks like magic.

--“The Irrational”

260.               No car chases in books, are there?

--Eddie Izzard, in his standup routine “Unrepeatable”

261.               THE MEEK: THEY WANT IT ALL

--Eddie Izzard, in his standup routine “Circle”

262.               So computers? I hear they basically break down to a bunch of ones and zeroes. I don’t know how that means I can see naked women on my screen, but God bless you people.

--Kevin James

263.               A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

--William James

264.               There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

–The Jedi Code

265.               You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend.

--Rich Jeni on going to war over religion

266.               It’s very hard to maintain mental health, because so many coping strategies are based on the idea that your anxiety is unwarranted, and right now needs more of an, “Okay, extremely warranted, but you still gotta water the plant, or you’ll have fascism AND dead plants.”

--Cliff Jerrison

267.               A lady came up to me on the street and pointed at my suede jacket. “You know a cow was murdered for that jacket?” she sneered. I replied in a psychotic tone, “I didn’t know there were any witnesses. Now I’ll have to kill you too.”

--Jake Johansen

268.               If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: PRESIDENT CAN’T SWIM

--Lyndon B. Johnson

269.               Needs are a function of what other people have.

--Jones’ Principle

270.               Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

--F. P. Jones

271.               I like being alone.  I have control over my own space.  Therefore, in order to win me over, your presence has to be better than my solitude.  You’re not competing with another person, you are competing with my comfort zone.

--Horacio Jones

272.               Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Give him a religion, and he’ll starve to death while praying for a fish.

--Timothy Jones

273.               Dracula is never rebooted, merely revamped.

–J.P. Jordan

274.               May you shelter in the palm of the Creator’s hand. The last embrace of the mother welcome you home.

--Borderland last rites, The Great Hunt, by Robert Jordan

275.               Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder’s eye on the Last Day.

--Aiel saying, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

The Deathworlders

So I found The Deathworlders by Hambone HFY (aka Phillip R. Jackson) online, but I can't remember where.  It may have been Geeks Are Sexy, but I can't find it in my history.  It may be that my history doesn't go back far enough.

I just want to put that out there at the beginning; this is a commitment to read at approximately 8,400 pages.  This book took me four months to read, and according to my Kindle approximately 280 hours total reading time.

I would not trade any of that time for something else.  This book was a ride from the start.

There are 97 parts to this saga which would be equivalent in length to novellas.  Sometimes.  Some are longer than others, but very few are the epic size of a Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson.

At the end, looking back at the characters who have been lost, and those that have changed and grown over the course of the book makes you realize the completeness of this writing.  And I just want to read more by him. As he says in the end, The Deathworlders could benefit from professional editing; however, that is only for clean-up and maybe pacing.

What makes the book even more fun, is that it doesn't pretend to exist in a world without present and past pop culture.  There is probably as much reference to things as can be done without taking over other author's materials.  And yet the parts that are mesh perfectly.

I want this to be published.  I want each race to be drawn by Wayne Douglas Barlowe.  I want movies either live action or animated.

One last thing, I want to add.  There is a character who leads the special operations crew in their workouts. I have taken to imagining him with me when I'm working out or riding my bike.  If I feel like I'm lagging or don't want to do another set, I just think, "Would Adam let me stop here?  Or would he make me do more?"

Quotes - Part Eighteen

 

221.                   If you and a same sex friend are eating out, and request just one check, and the waitress sets it down in front you, she decided you’re the top.

--Roweland Fox

222.                   He had this van that was painted all around, you know, with large Feynman diagrams. And you know, most people would look at those diagrams, of course, and they would look like some squiggly lines and they would mean nothing. But every so often, obviously, someone would see them and say, “Why do you have Feynman diagrams on your van?” And he would say, “Because I’m Richard Feynman.”

--Edward Fredkin, physicist

223.                   What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.

--Sigmund Freud

224.                   If you are physically bullied, the best thing to say is, “No, no no, don’t do that, you’ll give me an erection.”

--Stephen Fry

225.                   This is the point. One technology doesn’t replace another, it complements. Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.

--Stephen Fry

226.                   I’d have her attack you with the ferocity of a maenad in AA.

–K. Fuhr, “Friendly Hostility”

227.                   The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

--Mahatma Gandhi

228.                   I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

--Galileo Galilei

229.                   The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

--Galileo Galilei

230.               To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of use always give the devil his due.

--Hob in Sandman #22 by Neil Gaiman

231.               Woman on the train just clutches her Whole Foods baguette so tightly when I sat down next to her you’d think I was Jean Valjean.

--Taylor Garron

232.               640K ought to be enough for anybody.

--Bill Gates, 1981

233.               Notice they are not called “God-worshiping people”, they are called “God-fearing people”. So why are churches called “houses of worship” and not “houses of fear”?

--David Gerrold

234.               The Roman Empire died from an overdose of taxes, lawyers, and Christians. But we’re much too smart to make that mistake again.

--David Gerrold

235.               Yes, Mother Nature is a bitch. But she’s not your bitch.

--David Gerrold

236.               I’ve always felt that you shouldn’t criticize a man though, until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. That way when you do criticize him, you’re a mile away. And you’ve got his shoes.

--David Gerrold

237.               You have the right to free speech. You do not have the right to an audience.

--David Gerrold

238.               The only winner of the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky.

--David Gerrold

239.               A gentleman is one who doesn’t require a lady to prove that she is.

--David Gerrold

240.               I’m from a little place called England… We used to run the world before you.

--Ricky Gervais

241.               The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.

--William Gibson

242.               The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

--John Gilmore

243.               If it weren’t for electricity we’d all be watching television by candlelight.

--George Gobel

244.               I don’t care how holy somebody claims to be. If a person tells you it’s My will that they kill someone, they’re wrong. Got it? I don’t care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in My name or anyone else’s, ever again.

--God, The Onion

245.               Godwin’s First Law: As a discussion on the Internet grow longer, the likelihood of a person/s being compared to Hitler or another Nazi, increases.

--Mike Godwin

246.               Godwin’s Second Law: Drawing Bayesian inferences after extensive sampling, I’ve determined that it is 99-percent certain that anyone who uses “woke” as a pejorative will turn out to be a fuckhead.  Please don’t blame me for pointing this out – it’s just science.

–Mike Godwin

247.               Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them, they translate it into their own language, and forthwith it means something entirely different.

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

248.               If you ever see me getting beaten by the police, put down the video camera and come help me.

--Bobcat Goldthwait

249.                   Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer.

--Bruce Graham

250                   It would be very discouraging if somewhere down the line you could ask a computer if the Riemann hypothesis is correct, and it said, “Yes, it is true, but you won’t be able to understand the proof.”

--Ronald Graham