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What are you reading?


Shane

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11 hours ago, J.T. said:

Finally made it all the way through Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.  I have finally climbed the Sprawl Trilogy mountain.

It amuses me that people these days embrace Cyberpunk as an aspiration when it was meant to be a warning.

It used to be a dystopian genre.  ?

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Tried reading The Dark Tower.  I got to Jake and kind of just...meh.

Started reading La Belle Sauvage instead.  I doubt this will be as good as I felt HDM was, but, if nothing else, I can stick with it a little easier, and reading a chapter a night before bed is helping me sleep.

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Finished a Congregation of Jackals by S. Craig Zahler, which was outstanding.  Followed up by watching Bone Tomahawk, his movie, which, while a very well made film that I mostly enjoyed, I probably would not recommend.  You know why. 

Started Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, which has had some good world building, but the plot hasn't quite kicked in and I'm halfway through the damn book. 

New dilemma - Laird Barron started following me on Twitter -- I've never read any Laird Barron.  I went to www.wordbookstores.com and quickly grabbed The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, but I don't know which is the Laird Barron book to read.  Suggestions? 

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On 6/10/2020 at 9:23 AM, J.T. said:

It still is a dystopian genre.  High tech, low life.  This concept evades most people today.

"The street finds its own uses for technology!" William Gibson to Tim Powers, James P. Blaylock and myself at Norwescon 9 many, many years ago.

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On 6/14/2020 at 11:29 PM, Lawful Metal said:

Finished a Congregation of Jackals by S. Craig Zahler, which was outstanding.  Followed up by watching Bone Tomahawk, his movie, which, while a very well made film that I mostly enjoyed, I probably would not recommend.  You know why. 

Started Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, which has had some good world building, but the plot hasn't quite kicked in and I'm halfway through the damn book. 

New dilemma - Laird Barron started following me on Twitter -- I've never read any Laird Barron.  I went to www.wordbookstores.com and quickly grabbed The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, but I don't know which is the Laird Barron book to read.  Suggestions? 

Laird Barron is my bro! Tell him I said "Hey!" and read every fucking thing that you can by him. There aren't too many writers that I will say are hands down better at EVERYTHING than I am, but Laird is one. Get all his collections, you won't be a bit sorry. And as long as I'm depleting the wallets of wealthy attorneys... Grab yourself some Glen Hirschberg too!

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3 hours ago, OSJ said:

And as long as I'm depleting the wallets of wealthy attorneys... Grab yourself some Glen Hirschberg too!

Wealthy attorney lol

the fastest way to become a millionaire in criminal defense is to start with 2 million.

Ordered a Laird Barron collection from wordbookstores.com. It’ll take a while but it’ll be here soon.

bought my dad The Great Carnivorous Sky by John Langan for Father’s Day. It’ll end up on my shelf eventually.

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On 6/20/2020 at 10:19 PM, Lawful Metal said:

Wealthy attorney lol

the fastest way to become a millionaire in criminal defense is to start with 2 million.

Ordered a Laird Barron collection from wordbookstores.com. It’ll take a while but it’ll be here soon.

bought my dad The Great Carnivorous Sky by John Langan for Father’s Day. It’ll end up on my shelf eventually.

Langan is yet another member of our group that gets tagged as "the New Weird", if you like Laird's or my stuff you'll like his. Scott Nicolay is someone else you ought to check out. 

Tell you what, when issue #11 of The Weird Fiction Review comes out, send me $20 and I'll shoot you a copy, it's a tradepaper-size book-a-zine edited by yours truly that contains over 300 pages of new stories, articles and suchlike ranging from literature to film. I expect to have new stories by Langan and the remarkable Kaaron Warren for issue #11.  Visit Centipedepress.com to score a deal on back issues and for tons of cool books.

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Finished Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.  Interesting concept, but probably took too long to get to where it was going, and it was resolved entirely too fast.  I remember being halfway through with it waiting for something to happen, and nothing really did.  Last few chapters were nuts, but felt too little too late.  First one since I've been back on my reading kick that I was disappointed by. 

Next up, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron.  Might revisit You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann, since they made it into a movie that looks like it took zero appreciation for the source material.  I mean, it looks like it's straight up ripping of House of Leaves to the point Mark Z. Danielewski was tweeting on it. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/29/2020 at 10:46 AM, Lawful Metal said:

Finished Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.  Interesting concept, but probably took too long to get to where it was going, and it was resolved entirely too fast.  I remember being halfway through with it waiting for something to happen, and nothing really did.  Last few chapters were nuts, but felt too little too late.  First one since I've been back on my reading kick that I was disappointed by. 

Next up, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron.  Might revisit You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann, since they made it into a movie that looks like it took zero appreciation for the source material.  I mean, it looks like it's straight up ripping of House of Leaves to the point Mark Z. Danielewski was tweeting on it. 

 

Uhh, Mark... Before getting all indignant about people swiping scenes from your book it might be wise to consider that a large number of people who have read House of Leaves have also read The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. Just sayin...

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Just finished Peace Talks; it's kind of a return to form for the Dresden series, as it's a little more like the books prior to Changes than the books since.  It's also clearly setting the table for the endgame of the whole series, as the real players have begun to emerge.  Battle Ground is probably going to be the craziest thing he's written so far.  I wondered why he'd put 2 books out in such rapid succession, but it's pretty clear why now.

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8 hours ago, Contentious C said:

Just finished Peace Talks; it's kind of a return to form for the Dresden series, as it's a little more like the books prior to Changes than the books since.  It's also clearly setting the table for the endgame of the whole series, as the real players have begun to emerge.  Battle Ground is probably going to be the craziest thing he's written so far.  I wondered why he'd put 2 books out in such rapid succession, but it's pretty clear why now.

I’m rereading Skin Game because I remember nothing. 

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On 7/14/2020 at 4:58 PM, Control said:

I am reading Moby Dick and learning a lot about 19Th century whaling practices and outdated cetology.

One thing that stuck with me from reading that is that being in a small boat and throwing a harpoon at a whale is pretty far down the list of things that I'd like to try. For one, whales never did anything to me and (two) they are a lot bigger than I am and I'd just as soon stay on their good side.

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  • 1 month later...

I recently saw an ad for a novel called "Thicker Than Blood" by Mike Omer which is apparently the third in a series. I picked up the first two books "A Killer's Mind" and "In the Darkness" and enjoyed both of them immensely. I'm holding off for a bit on reading the third one though, because after the first I was dying to get into the second, and had the same feeling after finishing the second. And if I have it again, I'll have to wait who knows how long this time around.

 

The books revolve an FBI profiler, an FBI agent, and them trying to track down serial killers. So, if that sort of thing is up your alley, I highly recommend at least checking out the first two.

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  • 2 weeks later...

An old friend of mine got published by TOR and it just came out:

https://www.amazon.com/Architects-Memory-Karen-Osborne/dp/1250215471

I'm halfway through right now and I can safely say it's worth a look for people who are into harder-than-it-could-be sci fi with a fairly strong corporate debt society underpinning, the idea of citizenship as a source of healthcare, terminal illness, desperation, space salvage lesbians, and a mysterious alien race with a mysterious weapon. It's a little bit of a lot of things but fairly enjoyable. A lot of the same themes as The Expanse but maybe breezier and pulpier and more personal. 

If any of that sounds interesting to you, give it a shot.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been trying to get back into reading. It's been a year, hasn't it?

Anyways, I found that I could install Hoopla on my new iPhone, so I've been using that to read some comics and ebooks. I can highly, highly recommend Saladin Ahmed's Abbot series. And now I'm working my way through Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, but sometimes I have to put it down because holy shit she saw 2020 happen and it's scary.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got a text from a friend yesterday."Hey found a box full of comics at the thrift. Is 5 bucks a good deal for about 40 comics?" Told them yea. Then met up with them last night to get it.

MARVEL

Classic X-men #20
Elfquest #28,29,32
Hercules Prince of Power #2
Marvel 2 in 1 #66
The Punisher #88,89,90,91 Annual 5,6
The Punisher Armory #9
The Punisher War Journal #64
The Punsiher War Zone #18,20,21,22,23,25(2 copies of this one),26,27,28
Strange Combat Tales #1
Thor #300
Vision and Scarlet Witch #3

DC
Atari Force Special #1
Batman and the Outsiders #32
Death The Time of your Life #3
New Teen Titans #2(2 copies of this one),8,9,19,21,25,31,33,39,
Sword of the Atom #3
Vertigo Jam

INDIE

Captain Confederacy Special Edition #1
Dragonlance Fifth Age
Elfquest 16,17,18,19,20,21-Warp Graphics
Paul the Samurai #3
Robotech II The Sentinels Book 2 #19
The Rocky Horror Picture Show #1
TMNT/Flaming Carrot #2
The Tick (figure most of these are later printings,have looked at them close yet) 1(2 copies each with a different cover),2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12(2 copies)
The Chroma Tick #3
TOXIC! #4,5
TOXIC! Presents Marshal Law Kingdom of the Blind

OTHER
Comic Shop News #425
Crescent City Con #5

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Read The Secret Commonwealth after re-reading His Dark Materials and realizing how much of it I'd forgotten.  Pullman is...not a spy thriller writer, but that's how the most recent book tries to feel.  I'll probably buy the third one, but I doubt it will be a satisfying conclusion.  I'd say if you haven't started this and like HDM, probably best to leave your nostalgia alone.

Started The Martian and I suppose I should have expected it to be super-wonky.  But MAN is it wonky.  It probably wouldn't work at all except that it's also pretty darn funny.

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17 hours ago, JLSigman said:

Holy shit those ElfQuest and TMNT ones could get you some good money on Ebay.

Already sold one of the New Teen Titans #2 to a local friend. He has been wanting a first appearance of Deathstroke for a bit. But all the local shops want way too much for them. I told him since it was a reader copy he could have one for $5.

 

 

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been reading Detective comics from Rebirth to current. I'm at the point where Tim Drake is back with the team and let me say it's really anti-climatic. I mean he was thought to be dead for months and he comes back and it's as though he never left, no emotion or anything really so far. The Lonely Place for Living story really fell flat for me and I am a huge Drake fan. 

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Currently reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, as I noted in the About Me section of my profile, but apparently I could have just thrown it up here, as well. Finally got around to reading Handmaid's Tale last year, so unlike for many readers, my wait was not 30 some years. For the record, I have not watched the series, aside from one random episode from season 1.

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