It's getting pretty crowded up there isn't it ! I'll be looking to acquire more soon. My credit card comes with loyalty vouchers and this is the time of year that I look to turn in those accumulated vouchers. We'll see. I'm still not recovered yet from the bugs and it feels like letting the foot off the throttle after breaking up from work has led to a general ugh where my energy levels have collapsed.
Books today ?
Robert E. Howard was the original creator of Conan, which is a character that's been super popular in tales like the Dungeons and Dragons. Perhaps a much better setting than settings like Middle Earth or those D&D worlds.
The original Conan was a tough nut but far smarter than the Conan we see in the Arnie movies. However, I do love the Arnie movies as well. I think I own the Conan Exiles game too via a Humble Bundle offer but I've never played it.
Good stories to build on and that movie was fantastic, from the story, the characters and that sublime Ennio Morricone music.
Next up is another Mars book. I just thought, I should have run a feature where all of the books for the day were different Mars books ! Today it's Mars by Ben Bova, which is another book I enjoyed hugely when it first came out. I may well have been a big Ben Bova fan.
After Red Mars, which saw a new permanent settlement on Mars and The Martian, which was a rescue book, this one is more akin to the setting of the Martian. Jamie the Indian is part of a multinational expedition to be the first to live on Mars. For a while at least, they have a few months to explore and evaluate whether further expeditions are worth undertaking.
There are events, accidents and a slow burning disaster that creeps up on the expedition members. A good read at the time, although that slow burning disaster is a little too slow if I remember right.
One curiosity about the 3 Mars books is the technology in use for survival.
Red Mars has the colonists in very light heated pressure suits. Kinda like a high tech onesie.
The Martian uses conventional space suits and EVA work suits.
Mars uses something more like Powered Armour.
Very curious how the different authors approached the problem of surviving on the surface.
Last one today is non fiction for a change. It's Black Hawk Down from Mark Bowden.
This one follows the film quite closely (or the other way around). There is almost certainly a fair bit of artistic licence introduced here where the dialogue won't match what was actually said and events happening differently etc but .... it's an exceptional tale of what of how things can go wrong in the military environment and it's a visceral tale of what confronts the people on the ground when it does go wrong.
It's from a while ago but I'd heavily recommend both film and book.
I think that's all I got energy for today ! Time to chill out to the videos, a Fuzzy stream and maybe it's time to pull Expanse book 7 out again.
Later !
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