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Whats everyone reading?

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

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Colin YNWA

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 14 October, 2021, 10:58:04 AM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 13 October, 2021, 09:10:11 PM
Just finshed Last Driver by Shaky Kane and Chris Baker...

Picked this up on the basis of this post Colin!

Gosh - hope you like it then!

Tjm86

Cujo, one of King's earlier works.  Working slowly through his collection and surprisingly this is one that I never read back in the day.

It is fascinating how the core of the story, Cujo, seems to be so peripheral in many respects.  It's almost like the two families, the Trentons and the Cambers, are actually the heart of the novel.  All of the ugliness of their lives seems to fester like Cujo's rabies until it all explodes.

Monsters seem to be a recurring theme throughout the novel.  Frank Dodd the psycho, the creature in Tad's closet, Cujo, Kemp, Joe Camber ... it's one thing that King seems to return to time and time again in his work.  They are so ordinary and prosaic yet their reach is so devastating.

King's America is a fascinating place to my mind.  It's a seedy, run-down place filled with characters that are always scratching by.  This novel seems to really foreground that.  It's almost as if the real monster is that dark underbelly of the American dream.

Anyway, finishing off Baxter's Space is next on the list then Pet Cemetery and Salem's Lot - one re-read and one first blush.

Colin YNWA

The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln

I love Scott McCloud, Zot! is one of my favourite comics and I really enjoyed his comic theory books and man his is a new classic (to me at least). Well once you get over the very 90s computer illustrations... oh and if you thought Scott McCloud had a fine eye for the future in Reinventing Comics, boy of boy this one is so prophetic.

See the [spoiler]alien invasion assisting Benedict Arnold[/spoiler]* pretending to be Abraham Lincoln - the false one that is - is basically Trump. The idea of turning symbols into the power, rather than their meaning is America now. Heck he even has Trump Lincoln shout about 'Making America Great Again' - I guess others have to be fair - but when you see the way false Ab manipulates the masses and the truth its all quite breathtaking.

Its an astonishing comic - I mean batshit crazy, but astonishing!

*One peak under the  spoiler  hag swill tell you how gloriously crazy this comic is.

Jade Falcon

Continuing my reread of Feists works, I'm onto the Serpentwar saga.  I know some people think there was a decline in quality round about then, but I always liked this series and particularly liked Rise of A Merchant Prince with Roo Avery's rise in status.  I do feel that later Midkemia books made Pug and later Miranda very standoffish unlikeable characters.  I can see why, that Pug doesn't want to be ultimately beholden to one Kingdom and used as a magical WMD but still.
When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies. - Valery Legasov

ming

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 13 October, 2021, 09:10:11 PMit really shouldn't be it such gosh damn fun. I mean Shaky Kane's wonderful art holds it all together, it a Big Mac of a comic book, but you know sometimes to fancy chomping down a Big Mac.

I need to get hold of Last Driver; Bulletproof Coffin is great and Monster Truck is also a lot of fun!

I'm currently reading Adam Roberts' The Thing Itself - about 120 pages in and so far I love it (and 2000AD gets a mention early on).

Barrington Boots

I enjoyed Last Driver, nice one Colin!
You're a dark horse, Boots.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 21 October, 2021, 12:47:37 PM
I enjoyed Last Driver, nice one Colin!

Phew!

Quote from: ming on 19 October, 2021, 08:59:41 AM
... Bulletproof Coffin is great and Monster Truck is also a lot of fun!

Just re-read all of them - bit of a Shaky Kane spell at the moment and adore Bulletproof Coffin (both books and the one off). I admire Monster Truck as an inventive piece of work rather than actually enjoy it though.

Barrington Boots

Whilst awaiting a delayed train this morning I finally finished the Horus Heresy. That's a whopping 54 books (I know the series morphs into The Siege of Terra at this point, but I need a break to read other things so that'd where I'm stopping)

I thought this would be a fun challenge at the start of lockdown last March to read them all - obviously I failed at getting them all done during lockdown, but I could have got a lot closer had I not stopped for a few breaks due to it becoming such a relentless slog, at one point pausing to read six Harry Harrison books. In fairness the series isn't meant to be read back to back, but it does highlight the flaws in the series - overlong, stuffed with bland characters and needless descriptions of fighting and some very dubious plotting. The main failing is simply the quality of writing: of the 54 books I'd say about a third were good, a third average and the remainder a mix of lacklustre to outright dreadful.

That said the 40k lore is really good, and the overall arc is a good one. The characters of the Primarchs have this pseudo-Shakesperean setup where they're super awesome but possessed of a fatal flaw that brings them down, giving the series as a whole the feel of tragedy, just one a bit ineptly handled. In the downside, almost everyone is the series is a truly terrible person, so it's pretty unrelenting stuff.

I'd liken the experience to eating one of those man vs food style meal challenges where you get a certificate or a prize at the end: at the start it looks fun and full of delicious stuff you enjoy, but the reality of it is one monster slog of unenjoyment and at the end you feel tired and bloated and sluggish from it all.

Anyway, I'm off to read something that doesn't have any chainswords in it.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

The Mind of Wolfie Smith

i'm also trudging through the horus heresy books in order (being a dreadful virgo, i've started so i have to finish) - and i concur entirely with the above comments.
what's most depressing is that every time a character or an interaction or a ritual or a sense of wonder becomes intriguing or interesting, the writers chicken out (even dan) to give us endless chapters of generic blood and guts.
and sometimes the overriding creed of violence starts to exert some kind of emotional heft and consequence. but it stops there. it's like the writers are scared to venture into the truly dark places of consciousness and loss in the 40k universe, and instead revert to mere slaughter - which becomes less and less impressive and more and more inconsequential by repetition as the trudge continues.
there are some classics in there, within the overly viscid cocoon of mere muscle and blood. but i'm just probably the wrong reader ... and i'm perfectly prepared and happy to have a few books like this. but not a hundred of them.

Barrington Boots

Top man Wolfie and good luck! Great summary there that sums things up far better than I could. There's a lot of terrible things happen in these books, but very little emotional impact or depth, to the point where very few things have much impact or depth. How far have you got?
I too am a Virgo btw.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

pictsy

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 23 November, 2021, 11:27:50 AM
Whilst awaiting a delayed train this morning I finally finished the Horus Heresy.

Wow.  I congratulate you!

I have only read seven books from the series in the last eight years.  From what I've read I'd agree with your combined assessments on them.  I haven't even got to the dregs, yet.  That being said, The First Heretic can't be particularly good if I keep forgetting I read it.  The melodrama manages the accomplishment of being simultaneously weak and over-blown.  They are all over-written and bloated.  Most of the ones I read should have been books the third of the length.  There seemed to be a theme of pointless tangents that go on forever.  Frankly, if I wasn't a fan of the setting I wouldn't bother with them.

I intend on reading the Eisenhorn books at some point as I've heard they are the best 40K books.

wedgeski

I'm enjoying my first dip into Peter F. Hamilton's sci-fi, starting with Pandora's Star. It's a long read but stuffed with great ideas. Enjoying it so far.

Barrington Boots

Quote from: pictsy on 23 November, 2021, 08:55:49 PM


Wow.  I congratulate you!

I have only read seven books from the series in the last eight years.  From what I've read I'd agree with your combined assessments on them.  I haven't even got to the dregs, yet.  That being said, The First Heretic can't be particularly good if I keep forgetting I read it.  The melodrama manages the accomplishment of being simultaneously weak and over-blown.  They are all over-written and bloated.  Most of the ones I read should have been books the third of the length.  There seemed to be a theme of pointless tangents that go on forever.  Frankly, if I wasn't a fan of the setting I wouldn't bother with them.

I intend on reading the Eisenhorn books at some point as I've heard they are the best 40K books.

Cheers Pictsy! I'm afraid First Heretic is edging towards being one of the better books in the series imo - at least in that Aaron Dembski-Bowden can write a decent story. You're 100% right in that it is a bloated book though and that the melodrama doesn't work at all.
The Eisenhorn books are alright - they don't suffer from the need to cram in a load of bland stoic space marines - but the bar isn't set very high!
You're a dark horse, Boots.

pictsy

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 24 November, 2021, 09:28:28 AM
The Eisenhorn books are alright - they don't suffer from the need to cram in a load of bland stoic space marines - but the bar isn't set very high!

Yeah, it's all relative and my expectations are managed when it comes to 40K stuff.

Dandontdare

a copy of DC's Steel #1 from 1994 without it's cover that I found on the street outside my flat. Not a good comic, but I'm dying to know where it came from - which of my neighbours is likely to have vintage DC comics? I want to meet them!

Also, Dastardley & Muttley by Garth Ennis & Mauricet. Very odd little book - a rogue drone full of Unstabilium (sic) blows up a reactor in Unliklistan (sic again) and starts gradually turning people into cartoons