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Whats everyone reading?

Started by Paul faplad Finch, 30 March, 2009, 10:04:36 PM

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NapalmKev

Quote from: Mardroid on 08 November, 2018, 03:20:09 PM
Currently reading Stephen King's latest book, Elevation*. I haven't finished it yet, but so far it's quite a sweet endearing story with a curious premise. (The main character is losing weight at a phenomenal rate, yet he looks and feels the same. i.e this is not Thinner where the guy actually does get thin and weak.) The scales also show the same weight regardless of what he is carrying or wearing. There is also an interesting thread concerning a married lesbian couple who are the main protagonist's neighbours, and how they deal with prejudism, etc.

I read this yesterday afternoon. It's a very pleasant story which is more curious than it is Horror. Worth a read and a lot better than...

...Doctor Sleep - which starts well and finishes very poorly, IMO. The initial exploration of Danny Torrances' character and his [spoiler]Struggle with Alcohol addiction (just like good 'ol Dad)[/spoiler] is interesting enough but the Enemies of the piece [spoiler](Nomadic Steam* drinkers)[/spoiler] just seemed silly more than anything. Very disappointing and not as good as...

...11/22/63 - which is about a guy trying to prevent the assassination of JFK by travelling through a magic door. It's better than I make it sound and has a beautiful ending.

Cheers

*[spoiler]The Shine[/spoiler]
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

Dandontdare

Quote from: Mike Carroll on 09 November, 2018, 12:31:36 AM
Quote from: Dandontdare on 08 November, 2018, 07:46:01 PM
Can anyone identity this book - a long shot 'cos I remember virtually nothing about it - may have been Heinlein or Clarke (or maybe another). All I can remember is that it featured a family spaceship crew - a man, his son and daughter in law. I gave up after a multi page discussion about who should be the next captain and the chain of command and ship protocol.

That sounds like it might be The Number of the Beast by Heinlein, though as I recall, the main characters are a man, his girlfriend and her father (and his girlfriend), all of whom are deliberate allusions to characters in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books. It's been almost forty years since I read it, but I'd been a huge Heinlein fan and then this one came along and it was just ponderous, incomprehensible, self-indulgent waffle. One of those books where you go, "Yeah... he's lost it."
-- Mike

Cheers Mike, I just looked that up and I think you're right - interesting wiki article about it and all the self-referential in-jokes. Seems to be regarded as universally awful, even by his biggest fans:

QuoteHeinlein buff David Potter explained on alt.fan.heinlein, in a posting reprinted on the Heinlein Society, that the entire book is actually "one of the greatest textbooks on narrative fiction ever produced, with a truly magnificent set of examples of HOW NOT TO DO IT right there in the foreground, and constant explanations of how to do it right, with literary references to people and books that DID do it right, in the background." He noted that "every single time there's a boring lecture or tedious character interaction going on in the foreground, there's an example of how to do it RIGHT in the background."

Apestrife

Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus vol 1
Great stuff. Fun and big on action, with an amazingly big story slowly building. My favorite about it is Bruce constantly undoing himself in his pursuit of becoming better. Only thing holding it back for me are some of the violence. There's torture with power drills among other things. While not all of it shows up on the page I didn't feel it had much impact elsewhere either. Feels too causal. Perhaps I've not read enough modern Batman, but I wish it had more of an impact on the characters in the book. I wouldn't have minded more silver age stuff, especially with the story being kneedeep in that. But it's only a nit pick compared to the whole. The omnibus as a whole I think is brilliant. The new story pages which sums up the Ra's stuff Morrison didn't write was very effective and welcome. Big nice thick pages. Every page brewing with inventive crazy Batman stuff. Well written and illustrated. For me, this is my favorite Batman outside Miller's DK. I think both takes Batman places, and aren't afraid to take him too far, in order to show what can make the character so inspiring as well as scary.

Trooper McFad

Currently re-reading all the Dredd annuals - the best bits are the quizzes and profiles (droids & characters) contained in them. For nostalgic reasons I still prefer the hardback annual rather than the floppy ones of the 90s.
After Xmas I'll start the 2000AD ones 😀
Citizens are Perps who haven't been caught ... yet!

Tjm86

I've been looking for a copy of King and Straub's "Talisman" for a while and finally tracked one down.  Part of this desire to re-read it was inspired by parts of Dark Tower that I'd watched and then given up on.  The idea of cross-dimensional travel ...

I still rate this as one of King's best works.  I find his writing fascinating and can see how he influenced the likes of Gaiman.  There is a very fine line between Horror and Fantasy and he manages it exquisitely.  Two worlds melded effortlessly; pain, anguish, fear all so close to the surface. 

Orson Scott Card once talked about the idea of 'dread', of something so close to what we fear that is has a palpable presence.  This is where King operates.  His worlds, his characters all struggle for survival in that space.  Threat looms insanely large.  it threatens to overwhelm protagonists.  It disturbs us on a visceral level.

Arguably the closest Tooth has come to this is Cradlegrave.  That blending of the ordinary, the mundane, the everyday with the disturbing.

Theblazeuk

I felt very lukewarm about Talisman when I read it, but then I feel the same way about The Dark Tower after the Gunslinger.

Personally I just read Case Files 32 - Rico mk2 was already part of the canon when I began to collect 2000AD proper and it's nice to see his introduction! Probably my favourite part of the book. Feel like we're catching up to my personal collection and then I check and it turns out we're at least 7 or 8 years off, give or take. There's just *so much* prog, it's brilliant.

Never really noticed before this edition but this one says its covering the year 2122 to 2123. Have to admire Tharg's quixotic dedication to an actual timeline!


Otherwise read Elevation by Stephen King, a good little bit of low key weirdness in small town America, perhaps a little less than nuanced in its character development and politics but not really any the worse for it.

Mardroid

Reading Mazeworld by Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson

While Grant has proven to be a prolific writer in the past, I think this is the first time I've read something based on a world and characters he has actually created. I like much of his stuff, but it does seem to be mainly stories based on characters written by other people. I don't intend that as a criticism. This book shows he has quite an imagination.

I've just read the first part so far. The high fantasy Maze-world is a strange place to be. The main character isn't  particularly likeable but by the end he shows promise, [spoiler]albeit his heroism is rather forced upon him.[/spoiler]

The story itself is rather formulaic and simple, but I have the feeling there's something deeper and a bit more complex below the surface. And it is just the introductory chapter, so I'm interested to see where it goes.  I wasn't sure of it to start with, but on finishing it, I find it a worthwhile introduction to that world, and I look forward to reading more.

Ranson's art is highly detailed and gorgeous as always.

Apestrife

The ballad of Halo Jones The new coloured version. Never read the story before. Got floored by it. Absolutely amazing in every way. Just wow. So happy I gave Halo a go  :D

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Apestrife on 13 January, 2019, 08:21:38 AM
The ballad of Halo Jones The new coloured version. Never read the story before. Got floored by it. Absolutely amazing in every way. Just wow. So happy I gave Halo a go  :D

Wow its a surprise and delight to realise that some 2000ad fans haven't read Halo Jones yet. So much like with Fox on Spacespinner is lovely to have more folks drawn to its wonder.

broodblik

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 13 January, 2019, 08:33:23 AM
Quote from: Apestrife on 13 January, 2019, 08:21:38 AM
The ballad of Halo Jones The new coloured version. Never read the story before. Got floored by it. Absolutely amazing in every way. Just wow. So happy I gave Halo a go  :D

Wow its a surprise and delight to realise that some 2000ad fans haven't read Halo Jones yet. So much like with Fox on Spacespinner is lovely to have more folks drawn to its wonder.

I read Halo Jones when it was first released in the prog and with the new coloured version the story felt completely new. I can requirement this to any one who was a fan. You can still purchase the original version as well.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Apestrife

#6445
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 13 January, 2019, 08:33:23 AM
Quote from: Apestrife on 13 January, 2019, 08:21:38 AM
The ballad of Halo Jones The new coloured version. Never read the story before. Got floored by it. Absolutely amazing in every way. Just wow. So happy I gave Halo a go  :D

Wow its a surprise and delight to realise that some 2000ad fans haven't read Halo Jones yet. So much like with Fox on Spacespinner is lovely to have more folks drawn to its wonder.

Easy to imagine that. For me much of it had to with hearing that they never finished the story. But it didn't bother me one bit finally reading it, especially not since I think it ended perfectly. So happy the book proved me wrong :)

I'm listening to space spinners now. Never listened to them before. Nice talk :)

Quote from: broodblik on 13 January, 2019, 09:02:25 AM
I read Halo Jones when it was first released in the prog and with the new coloured version the story felt completely new. I can requirement this to any one who was a fan. You can still purchase the original version as well.

Nosenzo did a great job!

Bolt-01

I'm about halfway through EMBERS OF WAR by Gareth Powell (Titan) which I picked up from the really nice book stall folk at Lawgiver (that's how far back my reading list stretches, shameful) and I'm really enjoying it.

I doubt there is much here that is new to many folk but the plot is rattling along and the characters are a nice mix of the bonkers and the expected.

wedgeski

I've just started Revelation Space after trying it out, wow, 15 years ago and not liking it. Enjoying it much more this time around.

Bolt-01

I've read a lot of Reynolds- Revelation Space is really good, but for me- Pushing Ice was much better. Think my fave work of his though is diamond dogs; a real body horror Sci-Fi tale with a superb core concept.

Theblazeuk

Chasm City is my favourite of the Revelation Space series (or the setting, at least.)

His short stories are always great, and Diamond Dogs is top among them.

But I agree, Pushing Ice is probably my favourite, alongside House of Suns. That said I enjoy all of the books, probably the Prefect series is my lowest ranked but still good reads.

My last book was Rosewater, a Nigeria-set sci-fi where an alien lifeform has seeded the Earth with both xenofauna and xenofungi, leading to the birth of all kinds of weirdness. Rosewater is the city which formed around the bit of the lifeform that sticks out of the Earth's crust. The lead character works for the secret police, and is also a bit of a dick. Lots of great ideas and some horrible implications amidst a refreshingly different setting for an SF work.