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What are you reading?


Shane

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8 minutes ago, OSJ said:

Not a huge fan of the Gunslinger stuff, but that's just me. Funny thing about King who is best-known as a novelist, the area that he really excels at is in short fiction, where he has to control himself and not over-write things to death. A few years back just for laughs I put together two imaginary collections of King's best short fiction. One genre, one mainstream; both books would have clocked in with over two-dozen stories each and around 500 pages. That's a pretty awesome output.

Yeah, I know I should really investigate his shorts and novellas, Gunslinger is just an easy start point because the Dark Tower film (which is apparently shit on toast) has all my friends who read them talking over my head about it.

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Trying to read more. I may be sabotaging myself by picking only things >500 pages, tho. ;-)

Read The Crimson Campaign and The Autumn Republic, parts 2 and 3 of the Powder Mage Trilogy by Brian McClellan. I'd read the first one when it came out in 2013 and liked it just enough to want to read more. A really neat magic system, lots of political intrigue, and the usual father/son stuff you see in books like this. A little lacking on women (there's, like, 3, really), but he seemed to take criticism of the first book and improved his craft.

Also read The Dreamblood duology by N. K. Jemisin, and I cannot say enough good things about her writing. Just perfect world building and characters and everything.

And now I'm starting The Witchwood Crown, the first book in The Last King of Osten Ard trilogy by Tad Williams. Just reading the jacket cover's plot preview had me worried about my poor Seoman and Miriamele, and the first couple chapters prove that Tad is a mean, mean person.

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Lately I've read City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Fun little fantasy which almost would have been better if it wasn't a fantasy at all and instead explored the repercussions of an empire thoroughly conquered by one of its vassals hundreds of years down the line).

We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Movie coming soon. Very unique anti-social story that would have spoke to me a lot more twenty years ago I think. Lots of semicolons and unreliable narration). 

and

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (Speaking of things I should have ready 20 years ago. Surprisingly readable bridge between pulp and modern sci fi. A bit too gimmicky at the end. Lots of young author doing things because he could, not because he should. I'm looking forward to the other Culture books where the level of writing is supposed to increase dramatically).

I'm toying with Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, but it feels a bit like work instead of enjoyment. 

 

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What you guys want to do with Stapledon is set the table by reading Odd John. Odd John is pretty much the X-Men set in England thirty years earlier. Okay, while there is no direct connection between Odd John and Last and First Men, Stapledon is first and foremost a philosopher, which means everything is connected in one way or another.  So you read Odd John, for Stapledon it's short, punchy and very effective; probably the most overtly commercial of his books and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. So now you're ready to take on Last and First Men. As far as it being a chore to wade through, yeah, it is. But just like with Pavic who we were discussing some time back, the pay-off is worth it.

Now here's where you get a chance to just blow your mind for a few days, weeks, years, whatever... Upon completion of L&FM, most readers go straight into Last Men in London (often published in the same volume as L&FM ) the usual progression here is to Star Maker, which is to the Universe what L&FM is to Earth. However, here's the mind-blowing part of our reading experience... Put Star Maker down, it's not quite time, we have another book to read by a different author. Said author is also British, but unlike Mr. Stapledon, he has a wonderful command of the English language and his work, either fiction or non-fiction is always a joy to read. The gentleman's name is Sir Arthur C. Clarke, and the book you're going to read before Star Maker is titled Childhood's End. Here's another view of the maturation and evolution of humanity. The reading of both books in such proximity will leave you feeling triumphant and exhausted (in a good way). Now you're ready for Star Maker and it's all good. Enjoy!

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7 hours ago, Matt D said:

Lately I've read City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (Fun little fantasy which almost would have been better if it wasn't a fantasy at all and instead explored the repercussions of an empire thoroughly conquered by one of its vassals hundreds of years down the line).

We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Movie coming soon. Very unique anti-social story that would have spoke to me a lot more twenty years ago I think. Lots of semicolons and unreliable narration). 

and

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (Speaking of things I should have ready 20 years ago. Surprisingly readable bridge between pulp and modern sci fi. A bit too gimmicky at the end. Lots of young author doing things because he could, not because he should. I'm looking forward to the other Culture books where the level of writing is supposed to increase dramatically).

A fairly random post as it is one of the few times every book mentioned are ones I either have read or at least own. Really enjoyed City of Stairs, loved the darkness of We Have Always Lived In The Castle, and own Consider Phlebas but have never got around to reading it yet.

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Got an Amazon card from a customer, and I got paid for my time off, so I got more money than I'd budgeted for, so I went on a spree. Finally got around to picking up the first 3 Discworld books & Gaiman & Pratchett's Good Omens for kindle, picked up Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy,
furiously-happy.jpg?w=327&h=496

since I enjoy her blog and her first book. Picked up the second Blood Red Turns Dollar Green book, but don't feel like reading it right now. Started and am now halfway through Al Franken, Giant of the Senate,,
giantofthesenate.png

which is decent. Typical Franken written humor, which I enjoy.

 

 

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On August 9, 2017 at 3:55 PM, Liam said:

Anyone read The Passage by Justin Cronin?

I have.  I enjoyed the first book and thought the trilogy had a lot of promise.  In the second book, THE TWELVE, Cronin seemed to realize he'd created a concept too big for a trilogy and pulled a Reverse GRRM - rather than expand the scope of the series, he took a bunch of shortcuts so he could tidy it up in 3 books anyway, and boy is it not satisfying.

I picked up the 3rd book, but I don't think I made it more than 100 or so pages before I fell out of it.

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11 hours ago, EVA said:

I have.  I enjoyed the first book and thought the trilogy had a lot of promise.  In the second book, THE TWELVE, Cronin seemed to realize he'd created a concept too big for a trilogy and pulled a Reverse GRRM - rather than expand the scope of the series, he took a bunch of shortcuts so he could tidy it up in 3 books anyway, and boy is it not satisfying.

I picked up the 3rd book, but I don't think I made it more than 100 or so pages before I fell out of it.

Hmm, not sure whether to pick it up if I'm only going to be let down in the long run.

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On 8/7/2017 at 5:04 PM, Ace said:

Got an Amazon card from a customer, and I got paid for my time off, so I got more money than I'd budgeted for, so I went on a spree. Finally got around to picking up the first 3 Discworld books & Gaiman & Pratchett's Good Omens for kindle, picked up Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy,
furiously-happy.jpg?w=327&h=496

since I enjoy her blog and her first book. Picked up the second Blood Red Turns Dollar Green book, but don't feel like reading it right now. Started and am now halfway through Al Franken, Giant of the Senate,,
giantofthesenate.png

which is decent. Typical Franken written humor, which I enjoy.

 

 

Good choices. Good Omens may be my favorite novel, ever. Its probably the only novel I've read multiple times as an adult. Warning though, the first few discworld novels are a bit dry. Rincewind isn't my favorite character, but its good solid stuff. The best early Discworld novels involve the witches(wyrd sisters, etc) and DEATH.

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Oh, I've read the entire Discworld (& Good Omens). I'm just getting them digitally now. I do agree on Rincewind, though. My preference is City Watch - Witches/Tiffany - Moist - Death/Susan - One-shots - Rincewind

 

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On 8/14/2017 at 7:44 AM, Liam said:

Hmm, not sure whether to pick it up if I'm only going to be let down in the long run.

I've read all three books, and while the first is clearly the best of the series, I don't think the last two are bad.  The world building in the first book is masterful.  It builds a world that is simultaneously massive and personal.  The characters also feel fully fleshed out and grounded in a way that fits perfectly in the world they inhabit.  The issue with the next two books is that the world is built, and the characters are already established.  You don't get the sense of discovery that you get in the first book.  You are less discovering a new world, than exploring a world that has already been made.  I liked the books, but the follow ups feel different than the original.

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I noped out of the 3rd book in the middle of that super long flashback into Zero's past.  I keep saying I'll go back to it, but I also keep finding books I'd rather read, and it's been like 2 years now, so I'm thinking it's getting less and less likely.

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On 7/13/2017 at 4:08 PM, Marty Sugar said:

Glorious (2014) by Jeff Guinn.

Guinn is more well-known for writing non-fiction about Charles Manson and the Old West; this time he tries a novel about a potential silver rush in the Arizona Territory that leads to murder and treachery. The book is kind of a whodunnit but they give away the who pretty early...the rest of the book is you waiting for the characters to catch up to what you already know. Finish of the book is rushed, as it was to set up an eventual sequel. The main character, Cash McClendon, is an interesting anti-hero character trying to become a better person...although probably not for the right reasons. The supporting cast are an interesting lot, to say the least.

The sequel, Buffalo Trail (2015), ended better and was solid throughout. It is the store of the The Battle Of Adobe Walls, based on a real battle between several unified Native American tribes who attack a settlement set up by buffalo hunters in the "forbidden Indian Territory in the Texas Panhandle." Almost every single person our hero meets in this one is a real person, from Doc Halladay, to Billy Dixon, to Comanche chief, Quannah Parker. Fun read if you're into stories of the Old West and historical fiction. 

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Got a bonus from my now-former boss, as they sold the company when I was in the hospital. As a result, grabbed a half-dozen more Discworld books, realized I didn't have Princess Bride and the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy, so go those, and picked up Josh Gross's book: Ali vs. Inoki

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  • 5 weeks later...

I just finished Wild Cards II: Electric Boogaloo (okay, fine, Aces High), and I really enjoyed it. It takes a lot of the characters from the first Wild Cards collection and fleshes them out, plus it has a much more cohesive narrative between all the writers to encompass one primary story. Lots of fun.

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As often happens, reading for work turns into reading for pleasure. This Masters of SF series will kick some serious ass once we get some more titles out there, but for now, we're in the planning stages on about a dozen titles. So,  part of my deal is to get guest introducers for each series entry, that way I can write an afterword about how the book was put together and that sort of thing. So for the Jack Dann collection, we invite George Zebrowski, his long-time friend and frequent collaborator. I also have another motive, I'd like to do a collection of George's stuff as part of the series as well. So I've been reading quite a bit of George's short fiction, especially dipping into his horror/sf collection Black Pockets. Tremendous stuff and as it was published by Golden Gryphon, currently half-price (about twelve bucks for a nice hardcover). For some reason, the collectors haven't really glommed on to George, you can find very inexpensive copies of all of his books on eBay, and I suggest that you do so. The guy has been flying under the radar for forty years now, time he gets the appreciation that he deserves. 

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So apparently the original Ernest Tidyman Shaft novel is back in print after like 30 years or so. I'm digging it. Its quick paced yet totally gets over that "This is the 70s. This how people in the 70s talk" vibe. Word is the other books are supposed to get back in print and I really want to read Shaft Among The Jews and The Last Shaft (where our boy John Shaft dies a violent random death to get over how violent the 70s were)

James

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22 hours ago, J.H. said:

So apparently the original Ernest Tidyman Shaft novel is back in print after like 30 years or so. I'm digging it. Its quick paced yet totally gets over that "This is the 70s. This how people in the 70s talk" vibe. Word is the other books are supposed to get back in print and I really want to read Shaft Among The Jews and The Last Shaft (where our boy John Shaft dies a violent random death to get over how violent the 70s were)

James

I think that the original has been in-print as recently as 2002 from Bloomsbury, but the other novels are pretty tough to find. As good as Shaft was, I preferred Ralph Dennis' Hardman series, which ran for a dozen volumes.  You don't get more hard-boiled than Pimp for the Dead. The 1970s were just great for this kind of stuff as you had a whole generation of guys that had grown up reading the likes of Jim Thompson and David Goodis in Gold Medal and Lion Library books and were now ready to put their own spin on the genre along with a few elder statesmen like John D. MacDonlad, Gil Brewer and Peter Rabe who were still active; but the new guys (who included Dan Marlowe, Donald Westlake, and Robert Parker to name but a few), had all learned from Chester Himes who was as real as it got when it came to depicting the bleakness and violence of the city. 

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