Whats everyone reading?

[ghostpockets]

any recommdations?

I haven't read much of his stuff myself to be honest but this one is really winnng me over. Here's a list of his other comics http://tennapel.com/comics.html which all sound great. Ethan Nicolle (Axe Cop) was bigging him up on his blog a while back and particularly recommended Creature Tech.

[Keef Monkey]

Just finished "The Death of Bunny Munro" this minute, and it was a pretty strange experience. He's such a horrible character, and being in his mind for a couple of hundred pages made me feel a bit dirty (and concerned for Nick Cave at points). I'm surprised to say it actually shocked me on several occasions, just in how candid and constant the sexual content was.

The downward spiral structure makes it easy to get lost in and tough to put down, and despite all that I found at times it was incredibly touching. Bunny's son is so sweetly observed and brilliantly written, and the parts from his point of view are such a contrast that its really disarmingly heart-wrenching, and ultimately I found it a pretty powerful read. I did wonder if it could have achieved the same effect without quite as much depravity, as that stuff will likely put off a lot of readers who otherwise would get a lot from it. Then again it might be that contrast that makes it work.

Overall a brilliant read, but probably not one I'll pass on to my girlfriend's mum, despite her liking the blurb on the back.

[Albion]

I enjoyed Bunny Munro too but I prefered And the ass saw the angel. I hope he writes more. I loved The Proposition movie too. I believe Bunny was supposed to be a film also but I'm not sure what's happening with that now.
Everytime I see a Dudman's lorry driving around I instantly think of Nick Cave now. 
I'm a big fan of Nick Cave and I am looking forward to seeing Grinderman next month.

[Keef Monkey]

I enjoyed Bunny Munro too but I prefered And the ass saw the angel. I hope he writes more. I loved The Proposition movie too. I believe Bunny was supposed to be a film also but I'm not sure what's happening with that now.
Everytime I see a Dudman's lorry driving around I instantly think of Nick Cave now.  
I'm a big fan of Nick Cave and I am looking forward to seeing Grinderman next month.

That reminds me, I still haven't bought Grinderman 2! Enjoy the gig! Funnily enough there were points in Bunny Munro where I thought it would work great as a movie, a lot of the more intense internal stuff would obviously be missing but you'd be left with something a bit more commercial and probably a very touching and funny black comedy/drama. It might have a shot at doing really well in that form.

edit: After a little googling I found John Hillcoat saying they're trying to get it turned into a mini-series for BBC2 or C4. Nice.

[Albion]

After a little googling I found John Hillcoat saying they're trying to get it turned into a mini-series for BBC2 or C4. Nice.

That's interesting.
I think the Bunny Munro movie was originally put on hold because John Hillcoat was doing another movie first. I believe Ray Winstone was going to play Bunny.

[chris_askham]

I've been meaning to pick up Bunny Munro for months now, but haven't got round to it for one reason or another. Really should get my act together. Off to see Grinderman on saturday. Can't wait - never seen Nick Cave live before.

[RJMooreII]

I'm reading the old Strontium Dog stories from Starlord right now.

[Keef Monkey]

I've been meaning to pick up Bunny Munro for months now, but haven't got round to it for one reason or another. Really should get my act together. Off to see Grinderman on saturday. Can't wait - never seen Nick Cave live before.

He's goooooooooood, should be a stormer. He was also responsible for one of my favorite gig moments ever...

Audience member: (indecipherable screaming continuously for about 5 songs)
Nick Cave: Sorry, what's that? You keep shouting at me but I can't understand what you're saying.
Audience member: STAGGER LEE! STAGGER LEE!
Nick Cave: Oh, I see, I understand now, but you're still a c*nt.

[noodles]

Just started Ben Goldacre's Bad Science.

That is an awesome read -I had to read some bits involving the stats twice (I'm not a numbers person) but it is truly a shocking expose. I'd thoroughly recommend the Saturday Guardian Bad Science Strip too.

Just finished 'Life of Pi' -absolutely magical and sacked Arthur Koestler's 'Darkness at Noon'in favour of it. Now going onto 'Captain Correlli's Mandolin' and then back onto some Cormac McCarty action.

Mignola's 'Baltimore' release is managing not to step into well-worn vampire cliche.

Crossed Family Values iss.3 -!!!

[radiator]

Just finishing up a compendium of Boy and Going Solo by Roald Dahl - two books I've wanted to read since I was young but never got round to. I've always greatly admired Dahl for his children's books but from what I've read so far, he was also quite a remarkable person in real life too. An absolute joy to read.

Don't know if it counts, but I'm also just finishing the audiobooks of the His Dark Materials trilogy, which I listen to whilst jogging or on the train. I read the books many years ago and it's been nice to revisit them in this way. If anything I enjoyed Northern Lights and The Subtle Knife even more this time round (love the bits with Grumman/Jopari, who for some reason I imagine as looking identical to Alan Moore!).

The Amber Spyglass is pretty hard going - I remember it being quite a slog before, but man it's even more of a mess than I recall. Some wonderful, imaginative ideas, but too preachy and longwinded.

[HOO-HAA]

Radiator, it's only now that I can see such a steampunk vibe to the HDM trilogy.

The Amber Spyglass is pretty hard going - I remember it being quite a slog before, but man it's even more of a mess than I recall. Some wonderful, imaginative ideas, but too preachy and longwinded.

.... and I agree with that completely. In fact, I can't remember finishing TAS! 

[Mardroid]

I recently read Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Dynasty.  It was nice to see how it all started, and it was a good volume all in all. (The Full Dante though? Dear me!) He used to come out with some majorly tacky one-liners in those days though didn't he? Not so much innuendo as... well... filth. Heh. Some funny stuff there though. I find the romance (if you can call it that in the early books) is a bit cringe-worthy (latter books included) but that's okay as it's not the part of the story that most interests me anyway.

Great to learn more about how the weapons-crests work and that a certain assumption I had was actually incorrect. I thought that each crest gives a person a specific ability/power. While that's true, it seems they're actually determined more by the person's personality and natural abilities than anything specific to the crest. I.e. I had an idea that Dante's crest specifically gave bio-blades, Lulu's critters, Konstantin- fusion powers, etc when in fact it's their personalities that caused the crest to provide those powers. Hence if Dante got Lulu's crest he'd probably still be sprouting swords rather than bugs... if you get what I mean.

The Huntsman 5000 was interesting too, although I found it's use against the White Army Reiver thing a bit contradictory. I.e. it's supposed to provide a bullet that will kill the designated target.... yet the Reiver (possibly misspelt) is able to adapt itself to combat this. Now the only way I can see that really working is if the Reiver somehow altered itself after the bullet had left the barrel but had yet arrived on target. Once it's hit, surely that would be too late, if the aimer was a good shot? It seemed clear that it was hit and suffered damage.... before regenerating. (Maybe it's because she missed the head? Incidentally I remember that the other White Army characters in a recent(ish) story died when hit, but I assume that's because they were a different kind and the reivers are special. The others retained their humanoid form, for one thing.)

I'm probably over-thinking it though, and generally speaking it was all a cracking read.

I'm also reading Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic and I just finished the last issue of the Dark Tower comic series: The Gunslinger- The Journey Begins. Not a bad read actually, although it could have been better.

[Colin YNWA]

Just finished 'Life of Pi' -absolutely magical... Now going onto 'Captain Correlli's Mandolin'

Thats some fine reading right there. 'Life of Pi' is possibly my favourite book ever.

[radiator]

.... and I agree with that completely. In fact, I can't remember finishing TAS!

I just don't like the way the story goes, really. After the dramatic finale of the second book - it feels as if it's building towards an exciting and action-packed final book, and then.... it just... gets really boring. The whole thing gets really side tracked with the meandering and ponderous [spoiler]'land of the dead' and 'mulefa'[/spoiler] sections, which tonally seem to have been lifted from a different book, and it becomes clear by the end that Pullman is just completely making it up as he goes.

Characters and their motivations just abruptly change to suit the story ([spoiler]the rehabilitation of Asriel and Coulter[/spoiler] is particularly irksome) and the plot gets very, very contrived. It's a shame as there are plenty of glimpses of brilliant invention and a few exciting moments that are reminiscent of the previous two books.

For example, the [spoiler]Gallivespian spies[/spoiler] are wonderful addition, a really cool idea - it's just a shame they are given so little to do!

One thing that I've really wondered this time round : how on Earth did anyone ever seriously think this series could be made into a successful live action film trilogy?!?! The themes and complexities present in Northern Lights are a tough sell cinematically - and it's no wonder that the film adaptation doesn't work at all - but books two and three? Even the best production team in the world would struggle to make a coherent movie out of that lot!

[TordelBack]

Agree entirely with Radiator on TAS.  I did enjoy it, but it's hard to see it as a coherent development from Northern Lights and Subtle Knife, and is ultimately disappointing as a result.

Blimey, reading a hillock of free SF books isn't as easy as it first appeared.  

Finally finished The Eternity Artifact, and while the story was okay if unoriginal, and the setting mildly interesting, the writing was a complete embarrassment and the central 'romance' utterly toe-curling.  The climactic 'revelation' was repeated no less than four times, each time built up to be this incredible secret that once known would change the universe forever... and then the exact same dull guff was trotted out, on two occasions  by the same character. Repetition, deviation and hesitation, gah! That was my first and last L. E. Modessit Jr book - he blatantly doesn't care, and nor does his publisher (Tor).  

Next up from the mound came "a Ray Hammond omnibus" of Extinction and The Cloud (you can see my father-in-law is a creature of habit - that's another apocalypse and another alien signal, for those keeping score).  Wary after my recent mauling at Leland's hands, I read a few random sample chapters from each before committing.  No, and no.  The former features characters called Nick Negromonte and Dr. Emilia Knight and the line "the Geiger's song shot into the treble".  Life is too short, back into the pile with those two.

So I'm onto hopefully safer ground with  Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star.  I like Hamilton, but feel his setups are better than his resolutions, and he does have a habit of sending vast casts wandering about for ages to get there.  Still, it's 1200 pages and the first few chapters have grabbed me.  A wormhole network navigated by trains, I like.