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What are you reading?


Shane

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5 hours ago, J.H. said:

I love it when I mention what I'm reading and OSJ immediately has so many other recommendations in the same genre.Time to check Amazon and Rbay for some of these Authors.

James

*Bows* It's a damn shame that there isn't a master source of info like the ISFDB (which does a wonderful job of covering sf and fantasy) for crime/suspense/mystery. We all know that Wikipedia is shite for accurate information and sites like GoodReads are even worse. Yesterday Goodreads is telling me about the eight -book Hardman series by Ralph Dennis as I'm looking at book #12 in the series.

Then I decide just for shits and giggles that I should make a concerted effort to finish the saga of Sailor and Lula which began in Wild at Heart. Barry Gifford's (the author) wiki lists several sequels, strikes me as odd as you'd have thought I'd have noticed one or two of the books being released... Oh well, at least there's some thumbnail discussion of the series and the plots of the sequels... HOLY SHIT!!!! One of the sequels features human sacrifice in a bastardized Santeria ritual followed by Aztec-like ritual cannibalism... Okay, I need this book NOW!!! I go to abebooks.com and then Amazon and plug in the titles and get nothing.  Now this isn't an instant best-seller like Stephen King, on the other hand, Barry Gifford is hardly some small-press darling whose books are published in 50-copy editions printed on parchment and bound in Nigerian goat leather, Gifford is a very reliable mid-list modern lit guy that places like Barnes & Noble try to ensure that they always have one of everything he has in print on their shelves. So why the disconnect? Turns out that most all of these sequels are novellas or novelettes, too short to be their own book, but too long to find in a collection of short stories. After a couple of hours of digging around, I'm able to piece together a useful bibliography to guide a reader through the series. Now if the equivalent of the ISFDB existed for crime and suspense, I'd have a place to post this info where it might be helpful, but no...Nowhere to put it. Okay, rant over...

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10 hours ago, J.H. said:

I love it when I mention what I'm reading and OSJ immediately has so many other recommendations in the same genre.Time to check Amazon and Rbay for some of these Authors.

James

Damn windstorm, duplicate post...  Maybe I should start a hard-boiled/noir list that we can all add stuff to...

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10 hours ago, J.H. said:

I love it when I mention what I'm reading and OSJ immediately has so many other recommendations in the same genre.Time to check Amazon and Rbay for some of these Authors.

James

Why, when the windstorms screw with my internet does it always cause triple posts, never double or quad, but always with the the triple? Anyway, making a list of some hardboiled series and non-series characters sounds like a lot more fun than signing these 1200 pages that are sitting here. (Again with the threes, the publisher could have sent me three packages, 500 each in two of them and 200 in the other, that seems easy to manage, from experience I know that I can get 500 pages signed over two hours of NJPW and 200 can be done during an episode of Lucha Underground. But 1200? I don't even want to open the box, but I will as there's a really good possibility that there's a check inside... ;-)

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I also just finished Andy Hyland's first Malachi English book A Mage's Gambit. I liek it enough to get the second book as free DL on Amazon for The Wife's Kindle. The world needs a lot more fleshing out because there is so much backstory for the supporting cast that needs to be firmed up. If anythign my only complaint is that Malachi is the least interesting character in the whole thing (I want to know more about characters like Arabella and even poor Becky).

 

I'll see how the second book reads. I do see why people compare this to Dresden BUT the Dresden books have a much more dynamic lead character who gives much more a look at how things work in his world.

James

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Since there isn't really any other place for this....

Just got an e-mail notice that Andy Weir's follow up to The Martian will be released on Nov 14 entitled Artemis

Weir indicated that if the book sales well there will be more stories that come from the location he created for the book.

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I'm 4/5th through Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan. It's very much a poor man's Sanderson, with slightly different strengths (a bit more military). The appeal is that it's "gunpoweder punk," with, for instance, Sharpe's, as a clear influence. As a novelty, it's fun with some engaging characters, but the magic system feels a little cobbled together and the pacing is all sorts of uneven. I'm getting into some of the big reveals and hoping they tie everything together. I'd suggest it to someone who loved Mistborn and was looking for something else or someone who enjoys both fantasy and things set in and around the Napoleonic Era. 

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Just finished up original publish of The Bachman Books which I found for an incredibly reasonable price at a local indie clothing/arts shop connected to a local indie record store. I read The Long Walk as a kid so I skipped it (and I think I would die from depression if I read all FOUR of these fucking things in a row). Rage (which King won't republish) actually felt like the softest one to me. The nihilism seemed to mount with each book. Roadwork was a mean then-modern portrait of the subservient individual crushed under the wheels of "progress", and striking back. Then The Running Man was WAAAAAAY off the mark of what came out from Hollywood. It might be one of the nastiest revenge stories I've read in awhile, and hit the mark in a more political than social fashion. All four books are really personal in both the focus of their protagonists and something lurking underneath, that I think King was afraid to put out there under his own name as an author. They feel like him taking a great high shit on humanity and flushing the toilet. I... I like that. 

I would also suggest that all of these be filmed at some point chronologically. Even animated, at that. 

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1 hour ago, J.H. said:

Still making my way through ElfQuest but also making my way through the volume of Valerian & Laureline which is remarkably fun and quirky

James

Now there's a title I haven't thought about in a while. Is this the new ElfQuest that is (was?) being released recently, or older stuff?

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On 11/4/2017 at 11:38 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Just finished up original publish of The Bachman Books which I found for an incredibly reasonable price at a local indie clothing/arts shop connected to a local indie record store. I read The Long Walk as a kid so I skipped it (and I think I would die from depression if I read all FOUR of these fucking things in a row). Rage (which King won't republish) actually felt like the softest one to me. The nihilism seemed to mount with each book. Roadwork was a mean then-modern portrait of the subservient individual crushed under the wheels of "progress", and striking back. Then The Running Man was WAAAAAAY off the mark of what came out from Hollywood. It might be one of the nastiest revenge stories I've read in awhile, and hit the mark in a more political than social fashion. All four books are really personal in both the focus of their protagonists and something lurking underneath, that I think King was afraid to put out there under his own name as an author. They feel like him taking a great high shit on humanity and flushing the toilet. I... I like that. 

I would also suggest that all of these be filmed at some point chronologically. Even animated, at that. 

Got 2 copies of the Bachmann books in paperback. One is my old copy I bought not long after it came out. The other I got when the local used bookstore was closing and had a 5 bucks a bag sale.

 

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I bought 49 Elmore Leonard books for $50 on Ebay, and just got them in the mail today. I've only read two of his, City Primevel and Split images, and liked them both so I figured what the hell. I have to finish a book on King Leopold of Belgium and the Congo(about 100 pages left), then I'm going to dive in. . . .

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On 11/6/2017 at 11:08 AM, J.H. said:

This is the first volume of Dark Horse B&W reprints. It collects the entire original quest in a hefty 720 pages. 

James

I had the collection from the mid 1980's, when they collected and colored them the first time. I collected the next couple of story arcs (Siege at Blue Mountain and something something Broken Wheel), but quit in the late 1990's due to money and their lack of focus. Enjoy!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Folks: You can get this from Amazon for under $21.00, and it's worth every penny. Tim's been my bud since before I turned pro so I'm a little biased, but the general consensus is that he's our greatest living fantasist not named Gene Wolfe. Product Details

You know, I'm doing this book a dis-service by just saying go buy it as my own career is a part of the story... Get ready for a long one.

I met Tim Powers back in 1984 at a convention, we were both 20-something, drunken fans, except he'd managed to have three books published, two okay ones by Laser Books, and one really good one by Ballantine, The Drawing of the Dark, which remains the greatest title ever when you realize that it's a pun and the "dark" referred to is a beer. Anyway, we both worked mundane jobs to make ends meet and tried to collect books. We both got most of our cool Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith stuff from a Glendale, CA . dealer named Roy Squires, who felt sorry for us and would sell us off-condition Arkham House 1sts for real cheap. 

Anyway, a friendship blossomed over morning cocktails and discussions of what constituted a perfect "breakfast drink", ignoring the fact that if you're having a drink for breakfast you likely have a fucking problem. Then there were episodes of getting past hotel corkage fees by smuggling booze in and so on, and  generally good time was had by all. By 1986 I was ready to take a stab at publishing, my project of choice was the collected stories of Weird Tales writer Nictzin Dyhalis. I had the thing half keyed-in, but still a long way to go when Norwescon 7 rolled around. Another friend (the printer I was going to use for the book) did a couple of cool little chapbooks, which Tim and I both bought. As we sat there in the bar, Tim with his disgusting Coors and me with my bourbon & water, I pointed out  "You've written four novels and only one short story, we could do something like this and call it "the complete short fiction of Tim Powers"! Tim, Jim Blaylock, Greg Bear and I forget who else was at the table all got a big chuckle... 

However, I was semi-serious... Tim called me about a month later and asked "How serious were you about doing a chapbook?" Realizing that a chapbook would be a whole hell of a lot cheaper than the huge tome I was working on I quickly said "Dead serious, why you want me to do "Where they are Hid"? Tim said "No, I've got another story here, Asimov's rejected it because they thought it could be construed as an anti-abortion story, but it isn't. I think it's pretty good, I'll send it to you and if you agree, let's do something with it!" 

Well folks, the story was "Night Moves" which I published as the first Axolotl Press book and it remains Tim's first American hardcover edition and without realizing it, my life changed forever. Both of us have been sober a long time now and those drunken mornings are far in the past, but the love of fantastic fiction has stayed with us both and while he has my ass kicked in novels published, at least I got my short story collection out first. But buy Tim's he's better and I don't give that shit up easily.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As usual I'm reading something for work and something for pleasure, (though as it turns out, the something for work is also a pleasure). Anyway, the something for work is several volumes of short fiction by Pamela Sargent, who is just an incredible writer. It's a funny chain of events that led me to her work, it started with my asking Jack Dann to write the introduction for the two volume Kate Wilhelm "Masters of Science Fiction" that's coming early next year. I got to thinking, there hasn't been a major collection of Jack's material in years, so we ended up offering him a contract and we put a book together. When he started writing he did a lot of collaborations with George Zebrowski, so it seemed fitting to ask George to do the intro for Jack's book. One thing led to another and I ended up putting a George Zebrowski collection together. During my conversations with George the subject of his wife's (Pamela Sargent) came up and I realized that my copy of Best of Pamela Sargent came out in 1980!!! Yeah, 37 years ago and she's written a ton of stuff since then, so I'm currently reading a lot of her short stories and novellas and damn, she's good. I'm thinking her entry in "Masters of Science Fiction" is going to have to be two volumes, there's just that much good material out there. 

Now for pleasure... Thor Omnibus by Walter Simonson

And I am halfway through this, started two days ago, but going slowly to savor the artwork.  Might just be the best $100 I've ever spent on comics/ graphic novels.  See, I missed the whole Simonson run on Thor, so this is like brand-new material to me and I am LOVING it!  Yeah, I go back to when the book still had Journey into Mystery on the masthead and Jack Kirby was doing the art, I kept up through most of the Buscema years and then dropped comics for a few years. Thanks to the Masterworks and DC Archives, I've completely rebuilt the collection and added to it, but I've got to say, Walter Simonson manages to eclipse Kirby and that's not an easy feat. Oh, and Beta Ray Bill is just the coolest creation ever.

Yeah, Simonson's the goods, he actually makes Fandral, Hogun, and Volstag into fully rounded characters as he does with Sif, Balder and  Karnilla. I'm going to have to say that he's the best creator to ever work on Thor and that includes Lee/KIrby. Just fantastic stuff. The price seems high until you break it down, assuming that you bought all the issues reprinted herein and paid a couple of bucks each, your cost would come out to right around $100. So for the  same money you get a beautiful hardcover book that even has some extra bells and whistles included. Did I mention that Simonson not only writes the book, he also does the pencils, 

 

 

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I received my annual email from Goodreads with my year in review stats. Might as well share my 4 and 5 star rated books. I'd love if others shared their top reads of the year.

*****

The Goshawk by T.H. White - Easily my favourite book I've read in a long time. After reading about falconry, White promptly buys a goshawk and spends months alone trying to break it in, resulting in a volatile relationship between the man and the bird. The current bestseller H is for Hawk is heavily influenced by this book. It's on my shelf waiting to be read, but apparently is nowhere near as good as this.

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household - I'd been turned on to this book by Robert Macfarlane who is a big fan of it and mentions it quite often. A tale of survival set in the 1930s, a British man in an unnamed European country has an unnamed European dictator in the sights of his sniper rifle but is caught by security forces. He is beaten and tortured, but escapes and eventually makes his way back to England where he is still further chased through the English countryside.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie - A reread from my childhood years. Still a great read and a clever mystery.

The Fox and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson - A bit of a cheat here, as I'm rating this more out of nostalgia than anything. I was helping my son tidy up his room a few months ago when he pulled this book out and asked me to read it to him again. I used to read it to him as a toddler. It's a sweet story about a young fox who believes a tree is sick when it starts losing its leaves.

****

The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carre - I'm a big fan of his work. This is autobiographical, but rather than just a straightforward account of his life, it's more a collection of interesting stories and experiences from his life.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - This is a great story, and it's a real pity that we all know the mystery already, because I suspect this would've been even more chilling for original readers.

The Spanish Cave by Geoffrey Household - This is an adventure story for 12 year old boys, but as with all good juvenile fiction, it can be enjoyed by adults too. Written by the author of the aforementioned Rogue Male it's about an English boy living in Spain who becomes intrigued by the possibility of an ancient sea creature living in a nearby cave.

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates by David Cordingly - I went to Jamaica on vacation this year and wanted to read something with some ties to the island (A Brief History of Seven Killings seemed a bit too heavy for a beachside read) This is an engaging and in depth look at the history of piracy in the Caribbean.

Adolphe by Benjamin Constant - In truth, I don't remember a great deal about this book. It's the story of a young man's tempestous affair with an older woman, and I remember being struck by how the 19th Century protagonist's feelings mirrored my own at various times in my life almost 200 years later.

Glaxo by Hernan Ronsino - A short Argentinian book about a betrayal between a group of friends and which jumps back and forth in time to reveal what actually happened and how it has affected these men in the present.

Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol by Tony Scherman and David Dalton - I knew next to nothing about Warhol and wanted to know more, so this was the better of the two books I read this year. It's practically a diary of his most productive and successful years (61-68) and very informative.

Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus - Been reading a few of the Greek tragedies this year. This was the best of the bunch.

Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey - Another kind of cheat here as I actually listened to a theatrical version of this on a vinyl record I found in a thrift shop. I had read it before, but this brought it much more to life.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit - Kind of a mixed bag of ruminations on life, loss and nature, but the good greatly outweighs the bad here.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - This was a beautifully told story of forbidden lust in a highly mannered New York society. I don't remember the Scorsese film all that well, so a rewatch is warranted now.

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