Dodger

[John S. Wilkins]

I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?

--
John S. Wilkins, Associate, Philosophy, University of Sydney
http://evolvingthoughts.net
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre

[Larry Moore]

On 2012-10-16, John S. Wilkins <jo...@wilkins.id.au> wrote:
> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
>

Finished it and will reread it when I finish the latest Fforde.
I had planned to read Dodger over three bedtime-reading sessions
but there didn't seem to be anywhere it wanted to be put down,
so I got to sleep late.

--
“All acts are caused by the natures of the entities acting, but some
acts are appropriately unconstrained by external coercion.”
John Wilkins

[GaryN]

jo...@wilkins.id.au (John S. Wilkins) wrote in news:1ks2wcx.1rdts2310wee6nN%
jo...@wilkins.id.au:

> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
>

Well I liked it.

Standard hero meets heroine format with a PTerry twist. Vaguely
historically accurate for a blind sniper (deliberately for the story).

gary

--
Snake was just plain ugly,
Where he came from no-one knew.
Reckon Rambo would have shit himself if Snakey told him to.

Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson.
"The Front Bar Featherbrain Championship"

[RuneMaster]

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:13:29 +0100, John S. Wilkins <jo...@wilkins.id.au>
wrote:

> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
>

Got one of the "special" versions at Ely for the official launch :-)

(It was previewed at DWCon with some video from what is now the Narrativa
production company [1] as well as being the Bedtime Story)

The book is a very good read, especially if you are slightly (or better)
familiar with, for example, the book of Oliver Twist, not the film and
CERTAINLY NOT the musical, and the "early" Sherlock Holmes canon as far as
it relates to that period.

I did like it on the first reading, and will certainly get more out of it
next time - very soon.





s
p
o
i
l
e
r
s
p
a
c
e
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
a
n
d
a
b
i
t
m
o
r
e

The ending is very much a cliff-hanger is as much as it seriously begs a
sequel. Whether Pterry's autobiography sort of overtakes that remains to
be seen - and of course the TV production of "The Watch" series (a.k.a.
CSI Ankh-Morpork) and - may all the gods smile on it - Good Omens.


[1] Props. include Pterry and Rhianna

--
Veistu hve rísta skal? Veistu hve ráða skal?
Veistu hve fáa skal? Veistu hve freista skal?
Veistu hve biðja skal? Veistu hve blóta skal?
Veistu hve senda skal? Veistu hve sóa skal?

Hávamál, Stanza 144

[ppint. at pplay]

- hi; in article,
<b-idnXI5UKkr2-DN...@wightman.ca>,
sshirley...@gmail.com "Larry Moore" assured:

> John S. Wilkins <jo...@wilkins.id.au> wrote:
>>I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
>
>Finished it and will reread it when I finish the latest Fforde.
>I had planned to read Dodger over three bedtime-reading sessions
>but there didn't seem to be anywhere it wanted to be put down,
>so I got to sleep late.

- keeping it - if i can keep up the willpower - for when i
get back from hospital (no date yet, but at the assessment
the admin said there's no waiting-list, so within the next
three months; i'm guessing it'll prob'ly be christmas-time,
and wreck normal arrangements for xmas, birthday & new year).

- there're four novels, a collection and an anthology in the
strategic fiction reserve atm; i'm hoping to add at least
another "must read" novel and some non-fiction to it before
the dread day arrives - it'll be my first hospital sojourn
since the vegetablisation, and i'm not anticipating having
to learn to read again, this time around, so much absorbing
interesting and enjoyable reading is required.

- love, a ppint. who can't sensibly try to dodge this one...
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"the life of a vegetable is of no interest whatsoever,
and this includes, to the vegetable in question
- i speak from experience."
- yr hmbl srppnt, c. autumn 1990

[Reader in Invisible Writings]

On 16/10/2012 12:13, John S. Wilkins wrote:
> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
>

Same as the others. I have read it and enjoyed it. I found it a similar
feel to Nation but without the alternate reality twist. Some hand-shakes
to the world of Discworld, but more to the Dickensian one. Not set for
an immediate re-read but I will do so probably before Christmas.

--
Reader in Invisible Writings
Something to Ponder on!

[Lizzy Taylor]

On 16/10/2012 12:13, John S. Wilkins wrote:

> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
>

3 out of 4 of our household have read it and we all agreed that it was a
good romp. The story is well paced, the plot line well thought out and
all backed up with plausible interactions with historical figures.

Well worth shelling out for.

Lizzy

--
http://lizzyastro.etsy.com
http://www.instructables.com/member/lizzyastro/

[John S. Wilkins]

Lizzy Taylor <li...@thetaylorfamily.org.uk> wrote:

> On 16/10/2012 12:13, John S. Wilkins wrote:
> > I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
> >
>
> 3 out of 4 of our household have read it and we all agreed that it was a
> good romp. The story is well paced, the plot line well thought out and
> all backed up with plausible interactions with historical figures.
>
> Well worth shelling out for.
>
> Lizzy

Just as soon as I have finished writing my book and a book review.

[Dom]

John S. Wilkins wrote:
> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?

I'm waiting to see if someone will buy it for me for christmas
or my birthday (which are 2 weeks apart)

--
Dom

[GaryN]

v$af$pp...@i-m-t.demon.co.uk ("ppint. at pplay") wrote in
news:20121016.125...@i-m-t.demon.co.uk:

> - hi; in article,
> <b-idnXI5UKkr2-DN...@wightman.ca>,
> sshirley...@gmail.com "Larry Moore" assured:
>> John S. Wilkins <jo...@wilkins.id.au> wrote:
>>>I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it?
>>>Thoughts?
>>
>>Finished it and will reread it when I finish the latest Fforde.
>>I had planned to read Dodger over three bedtime-reading sessions
>>but there didn't seem to be anywhere it wanted to be put down,
>>so I got to sleep late.
>
> - keeping it - if i can keep up the willpower - for when i
> get back from hospital (no date yet, but at the assessment
> the admin said there's no waiting-list, so within the next
> three months; i'm guessing it'll prob'ly be christmas-time,
> and wreck normal arrangements for xmas, birthday & new year).
>
> - there're four novels, a collection and an anthology in the
> strategic fiction reserve atm; i'm hoping to add at least
> another "must read" novel and some non-fiction to it before
> the dread day arrives - it'll be my first hospital sojourn
> since the vegetablisation, and i'm not anticipating having
> to learn to read again, this time around, so much absorbing
> interesting and enjoyable reading is required.
>
> - love, a ppint. who can't sensibly try to dodge this one...
> [drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]

Hope it all works out well. I got through the whole of Peter F.
Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy last time I was in! For a 'must
read' perhaps "The Hydrogen Sonata" by Banks if you're into his stuff.

All the Best,

[Lesley Weston]

On 10-16-12 5:57 AM, ppint. at pplay wrote:
> - hi; in article,
> <b-idnXI5UKkr2-DN...@wightman.ca>,
> sshirley...@gmail.com "Larry Moore" assured:
>> John S. Wilkins <jo...@wilkins.id.au> wrote:
>>> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it? Thoughts?
>>
>> Finished it and will reread it when I finish the latest Fforde.
>> I had planned to read Dodger over three bedtime-reading sessions
>> but there didn't seem to be anywhere it wanted to be put down,
>> so I got to sleep late.
>
> - keeping it - if i can keep up the willpower - for when i
> get back from hospital (no date yet, but at the assessment
> the admin said there's no waiting-list, so within the next
> three months; i'm guessing it'll prob'ly be christmas-time,
> and wreck normal arrangements for xmas, birthday & new year).
>
> - there're four novels, a collection and an anthology in the
> strategic fiction reserve atm; i'm hoping to add at least
> another "must read" novel and some non-fiction to it before
> the dread day arrives - it'll be my first hospital sojourn
> since the vegetablisation, and i'm not anticipating having
> to learn to read again, this time around, so much absorbing
> interesting and enjoyable reading is required.

I'm sorry to hear you're not well. I hope it all goes as you would like
it to, and that the effects are not as drastic as you fear.

Lesley.

--
This address is real, but to reach me use leswes att shaw dott ca

[ppint. at pplay]

- hi; in article, <k5mcnr$2n6o$1...@mud.stack.nl>,
brightly_co...@yahoo.co.uk "Lesley Weston" wrote:
[snip all unnec./irrel. requotn.]

>> the dread day arrives - it'll be my first hospital sojourn
>> since the vegetablisation, and i'm not anticipating having
>> to learn to read again, this time around, so much absorbing
>> interesting and enjoyable reading is required.
>
>I'm sorry to hear you're not well. I hope it all goes as you would like
>it to, and that the effects are not as drastic as you fear.

- i hate needles, am scared of gas (historic bad reaction),
and have a revulsion to tubes being threaded through mouth
or nose via throat to my innards. i've been warned to ex-
pect any, or any combination of two, of the above, but not
yet told which will actually be employed.

- to add to which, the rli's reputation is not excessively
encouraging - search morecambe bay health authority or some
reasonably close facsimile thereof, for recent information.

- "i'm not anticipating having to learn to read again, this
time around" - i'm even hopeful that all will go well - in
which case i'll be convalescing, trying not to move whilst
also trying to find a comfortable position - or, least un-
comfortable position - hence building a strategic book re-
erve in advance [a] - but mistakes have been known...

- none of which, sfsaiaa, has aught to do with _Dodger_.

- love, a ppint. reflecting that if they were only to take
part of it by mistake, losing some of my stomach might do
me some good - but i'd sooner that not occur, all the same.

[a] - and attempting to tidy "my room" - or, at least, trying
to sort it out a bit - enough to put up some shelving &
clear enough space on my bed for a comfortable position
to be a theoretical possibility

[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--

"...and then, because she's blonde, i thought, "we'll kill her.""
- lindsay davis, "book club"
on radio4, 16:20 bst 8/6/06 (6/8/06 for merkins)

[ppint. at pplay]

- hi; in article,
<XnsA0EF950BB4064...@216.196.109.145>,

webm...@oxtoyrun.org.uk "GaryN" wrote:
>
>> - there're four novels, a collection and an anthology in the
>> strategic fiction reserve atm; i'm hoping to add at least
>> another "must read" novel and some non-fiction to it before
>> the dread day arrives - it'll be my first hospital sojourn
>> since the vegetablisation, and i'm not anticipating having
>> to learn to read again, this time around, so much absorbing
>> interesting and enjoyable reading is required.
>>
>> - love, a ppint. who can't sensibly try to dodge this one...
>

>Hope it all works out well. I got through the whole of Peter F.
>Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy last time I was in! For a 'must
>read' perhaps "The Hydrogen Sonata" by Banks if you're into his stuff.
>
>All the Best,

- thanks. about 3-5,000 of my books are currently in storage,
so i'm "restricted" to what's in here & gettable-at, for the
most part; without an income, buying books (and music) has to
be kept under control. there's a banks new to me in the pile,
_Stonemouth_, from the libr^W "local links"; he's a fine writer
(but a very dangerous drinking-companion), though i've greatly
disliked some of his books. and the four-volume illustrated
english social history (trevelyan) should help keep me quiet,
off the streets and out of trouble.

- love, a ppint. who'll prob'ly also be slowed down by the vinge
(and, if i get around to plumbing-in the ex-charity shop dvd-
player, there's *m*a*s*h* and babylon 5 to look forward to)

[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]

--
"Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet.
He is behind me. You are in front of me.
If you value your lives, be somewhere else"
- delenn, babylon 5

[Lesley Weston]

Best of luck with it all!

[GaryN]

v$af$pp...@i-m-t.demon.co.uk ("ppint. at pplay") wrote in

news:20121018.003...@i-m-t.demon.co.uk:

> - hi; in article,
> <XnsA0EF950BB4064...@216.196.109.145>,
> webm...@oxtoyrun.org.uk "GaryN" wrote:

<snip>

>>All the Best,
>
> - thanks. about 3-5,000 of my books are currently in storage,
> so i'm "restricted" to what's in here & gettable-at, for the
> most part; without an income, buying books (and music) has to
> be kept under control. there's a banks new to me in the pile,
> _Stonemouth_, from the libr^W "local links"; he's a fine writer
> (but a very dangerous drinking-companion),

Tell me about it - I think I still have the hangover 5 years later!

> though i've greatly
> disliked some of his books.

Couldn't be doing with "A Song Of Stone" myself, just didn't work for
me.

Ian Rankin is equally dangerous for 'A quiet pint' - we were blathering
about his (IMO best) book "Watchman". Then it was time to go and the
fresh air hit me...

[Clare]

I really enjoyed Dodger. I think that recently there has been more of a sense of how PTerry is feeling when he wrote the books, and this time it feels as if he is pretty darned happy. Perhaps now he has got into the swing of his dictation software and the initial furore over his health has piped down, he feels freer to write again.

As an example, I found that a lot of Snuff was about people recognising Vimes for his fame, and that this was hog-tying his work. Was this how PTerry felt when he was trying to write a book and get Alzheimer's/chosing to die into the public debate? It started to get on my nerves - as if Vimes was constantly saying "Don't you know who I AM?" but sort of in reverse...

Dodger is simultaneously a hefty nod to Dickens and a bit of a gentle history lesson on Victorian London. PTerry admits at the end that some people and events got squashed together that were not so in RL, but I didn't mind. Most people wouldn't have a clue anyway.

I think this will be a perfect post-operative recovery book for ppint, though I did find that I stayed up far too late for at least four nights to read, because I got stuck in the plot. I read it until my eyes were so tired that some of the words were going red...

[Daibhid Ceanaideach]

On 16 Oct 2012, RuneMaster <runem...@runes-online.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:13:29 +0100, John S. Wilkins
> <jo...@wilkins.id.au> wrote:
>
>> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it?
>> Thought
> s?
>>
>
> Got one of the "special" versions at Ely for the official launch :-)
>
> (It was previewed at DWCon with some video from what is now the
> Narrativa production company [1] as well as being the Bedtime Story)
>
> The book is a very good read, especially if you are slightly (or
> better) familiar with, for example, the book of Oliver Twist, not the
> film and CERTAINLY NOT the musical, and the "early" Sherlock Holmes
> canon as far as it relates to that period.

Although if you don't know the musical, you'll miss the "sprocket or two"
gag.


--
Dave
The problems in this world are not caused by those who love.
They're caused by those who hate.
--Arthur, King of Time and Space.

[GaryN]

Daibhid Ceanaideach <daibhidc...@aol.com> wrote in
news:XnsA10095A1363C7da...@130.133.4.11:

> On 16 Oct 2012, RuneMaster <runem...@runes-online.com> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:13:29 +0100, John S. Wilkins
>> <jo...@wilkins.id.au> wrote:
>>
>>> I've heard nothing about this book so far. Has anyone read it?
>>> Thought
>> s?
>>>
>>
>> Got one of the "special" versions at Ely for the official launch :-)
>>
>> (It was previewed at DWCon with some video from what is now the
>> Narrativa production company [1] as well as being the Bedtime Story)
>>
>> The book is a very good read, especially if you are slightly (or
>> better) familiar with, for example, the book of Oliver Twist, not
>> the film and CERTAINLY NOT the musical, and the "early" Sherlock
>> Holmes canon as far as it relates to that period.
>
> Although if you don't know the musical, you'll miss the "sprocket or
> two" gag.

I remember the joke made during the miners strike in the Thatcher <spit>
years.

1st Copper: "At least we're making plenty of overtime"
2nd Copper: "How's that then?"
1st Copper: "You've got to sock a picket or two"

gary

--
"The British government has ministers for Northern Ireland, Wales and
Scotland - but no minister for England.

Constitutionally, in fact,England does not even exist"

Paul Kingsnorth "Real England"

[Bri Tze]

Just reread it. Apart from the obvious Charles noting book titles. I wondered if the clerk who got Dodgers autograph (page 151) was called Drumknot?
Bri Tze