Whats everyone reading?

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

My wife bought me Blood Meridian last Christmas, after I had been mainlining Richard Matheson's western stories for about a month. I still havent gotten around to reading it, but it is always "the book after the one I'm.currently reading"... sadly, after discovering the Foundation series and that there were three Ari Thor novels I hadn't read, that is always getting pushed back. I genuinely can't wait to read BM, and fear my continual evasion may just be a nervousness that it can't possibly live up to my expectations.

SBT

[JayzusB.Christ]

Well, to be honest I started reading it around the beginning of the pandemic - I got about a third of the way through then stopped.  Partly because I'd got out of the habit of reading, and partly because my age was catching up with my eyesight.  But I got stuck back into it recently and found myself re-reading some of the earlier bits I'd forgotten.  An absolute splatterfest, full of ugliness and horror, but told in a beautifully haunting way.  You don't really get into the character's heads, but that's intentional - the scenery does the job for you.
When I see Orion in the sky now, I always think of the 'great electric kite' that McCarthy describes. 

[kev67]

My wife bought me Blood Meridian last Christmas, after I had been mainlining Richard Matheson's western stories for about a month. I still havent gotten around to reading it, but it is always "the book after the one I'm.currently reading"... sadly, after discovering the Foundation series and that there were three Ari Thor novels I hadn't read, that is always getting pushed back. I genuinely can't wait to read BM, and fear my continual evasion may just be a nervousness that it can't possibly live up to my expectations.

SBT

I would like to read some more westerns. It is a curious thing that there are not many of them in the bookshops any more. There is the Lonesome Dove series, True Grit, and Cormac McCarthy, and that's about it. The last book I read that I thought was a western turned out to be some western/sci-fi/horror mash up. I want to read Blood Meridian, although I hear it is not a bundle of laughs. It's strange. I think westerns were a victim of their own success. If anyone wrote a half decent western it was instantly turned into a film, and people only heard about the film. I dare say you can find more books in bookshops about Romans or sea warfare from the age of sail than westerns.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I didn't really think of Blood Meridian as a Western when I read it, even though it clearly is one.  Apparently it has, like a decent Watchmen adaptation*, been attempted as a movie but then abandoned as unfilmable.  I would still love to see the likes of Glanton and the Judge on the big screen though - I suspect the Cohens could do a half-decent job of it; the epic landscapes of O Brother Where Art Thou without the comedy and a bit of No Country For Old Men-style horror and misery thrown in would probably work for me.

The Road was a decent adaptation, but at the risk of sounding like everyone else who has ever watched a film of a novel they liked, it didn't live up to the book.  For me, three of the most important elements of the book were the protective masks, the landscape of ash and the huge cannibal army, and none of them were present. 


*I know, I know. 

[ming]

I've just started the final book in Alastair Reynolds' Revenger trilogy - really enjoying these so far and the blurb 'Pirates of the Caribbean meets Firefly' is reasonably accurate.  Add a dash of Black Sails (although not for the pace or the tits) and you're getting there.

[wedgeski]

I've just started the final book in Alastair Reynolds' Revenger trilogy - really enjoying these so far and the blurb 'Pirates of the Caribbean meets Firefly' is reasonably accurate.  Add a dash of Black Sails (although not for the pace or the tits) and you're getting there.

I greatly enjoyed those as well. I read mostly sci-fi and fantasy, finishing dozen-or-so novels in each genre before flipping back to the other, and my last sci-fi binge consisted almost entirely of Reynolds. It was AURORA RISING and ELYSIUM FIRE that I enjoyed the most, being a perfect distillation of all the things he does best.

[Jade Falcon]

Philip Kerrs last ever Bernie Gunther book, Metropolis written just before he died.  This one is a bit of a prequel to the others so Bernie is a bit more fresh faced, less cynical and world weary.

If you want historical crime/thriller, I recommend these books.

[BPP]

Recently purchased the Henry flint run of Omega Men comics from D.C. (2006-07)

The last time I bought a big 2 floppy was McCarthy's Spider-Man series. I've honestly no idea how people read monthlies - on this D.C. book every other page is an advert - one page comic, one page some garish advert. It's near impossible to read, certainly impossible to immerse yourself into. Regardless of all other reasons sales might be low (price, distribution etc) this screams fatal mistake to me. Do those of you who buy monthlies not get the rage from this formatting?

Thank god for 200ad's lack of adverts.

[Colin YNWA]

Regardless of all other reasons sales might be low (price, distribution etc) this screams fatal mistake to me. Do those of you who buy monthlies not get the rage from this formatting?

Have to be honest don't really notice them anymore. Might just be you get so used to it?

[broodblik]

Recently purchased the Henry flint run of Omega Men comics from D.C. (2006-07)

Did not know he had a stab at the DC-verse will look out for this then

[ming]

Recently purchased the Henry flint run of Omega Men comics from D.C. (2006-07)

The last time I bought a big 2 floppy was McCarthy's Spider-Man series. I've honestly no idea how people read monthlies - on this D.C. book every other page is an advert - one page comic, one page some garish advert. It's near impossible to read, certainly impossible to immerse yourself into. Regardless of all other reasons sales might be low (price, distribution etc) this screams fatal mistake to me. Do those of you who buy monthlies not get the rage from this formatting?

Thank god for 200ad's lack of adverts.

Was it Milligan, McCarthy & Ewins's Strange Days that managed to get an agreement to have all the adverts grouped together at the back of each issue?  I could go and check the shelf but I can't be arsed right now.

[CalHab]

Recently purchased the Henry flint run of Omega Men comics from D.C. (2006-07)

The last time I bought a big 2 floppy was McCarthy's Spider-Man series. I've honestly no idea how people read monthlies - on this D.C. book every other page is an advert - one page comic, one page some garish advert. It's near impossible to read, certainly impossible to immerse yourself into. Regardless of all other reasons sales might be low (price, distribution etc) this screams fatal mistake to me. Do those of you who buy monthlies not get the rage from this formatting?

Thank god for 200ad's lack of adverts.

The worst are the adverts done as comic pages. I can skip over a normal advert but those ones cause my brain to jar, processing it as part of the story until I work out what it is. They completely destroy immersion in the story.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I love adverts in my monthly comics, and equate them.with the title/ company being financially healthy. Hasn't it always been thus? I've been reading US monthlies for decades, and adverts have always been part of the package.
I honestly worry when comics don't attract ad space- or use it just to advertise product from the parent company. Though, given 2000AD is still with us and- according to Mr Kingsley elsewhere- in fine form financially, I'm absolutely sure that all is well on that front.

I'd still like to see a few more adverts for bubblegum and model kits on the back cover, just for reassurance.

SBT

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

But yes, those 'comic page' ads for Snickers running in DC titles are just about the worst thing I've ever seen between the covers of an American comic. The only thing that could possibly make them worse is if they were drawn by Rob Leifeld.

SBT

[Sean SD]

currently reading 'Trail of the Catwoman' by Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker.
Have read a fair bit of Brubaker but first book for me by Cooke.
They work well as a team, did they work on any other books together?