Whats everyone reading?

[Roger Godpleton]

Dan Simmons is perhaps the clearest example of genre bods who marry exciting ideas to lousy writing.

[SmallBlueThing]

Ive been looking at that batman: black mirror book for a while now, and wondering... I quite like scott snyder- while i dont think he's a particularly interesting wordsmith, like moore or smith, or even an ingenious plotter like abnett or wagner, there's something about where his mind seems to go that makes him massively readable, and despite initially being unimpressed with both his take on swampy and american vampire, i find myself now looking forward to both greatly. When i find black mirror cheap (or paperback) i may well pick up, despite not being interested in batman in the slightest.

SBT

[Frank]

I'm currently reading Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus: History. Magick. Psychedelia. Ufology. Early days yet but I'm already finding useful material, it is starting to fill up with scraps of paper marking occult trivia to mine in the future.

But when stuttering fans nervously grab the mic at conventions to ask you 'where do you get your ideas from?', you're obliged to trot out the same line as every other writer: reading the papers, overheard conversations on public transport, drugs, travelling ...

[PreacherCain]

Ive been looking at that batman: black mirror book for a while now, and wondering... I quite like scott snyder- while i dont think he's a particularly interesting wordsmith, like moore or smith, or even an ingenious plotter like abnett or wagner, there's something about where his mind seems to go that makes him massively readable, and despite initially being unimpressed with both his take on swampy and american vampire, i find myself now looking forward to both greatly. When i find black mirror cheap (or paperback) i may well pick up, despite not being interested in batman in the slightest.

SBT

Black Mirror is quite good, particularly the second half. Snyder's co-written Image series Severed is also worth a look.

[Link Prime]

Ive been looking at that batman: black mirror book for a while now, and wondering... I quite like scott snyder- while i dont think he's a particularly interesting wordsmith, like moore or smith, or even an ingenious plotter like abnett or wagner, there's something about where his mind seems to go that makes him massively readable, and despite initially being unimpressed with both his take on swampy and american vampire, i find myself now looking forward to both greatly. When i find black mirror cheap (or paperback) i may well pick up, despite not being interested in batman in the slightest.

SBT

I'll second that thumbs up.
I found Snyder's run on Detective Comics to be a something of a companion piece to Year one.
Great, great stuff.

Black Mirror is quite good, particularly the second half. Snyder's co-written Image series Severed is also worth a look.

[I, Cosh]

This year I have found myself mostly rereading shitty science fantasy series that I enjoyed when I was a lad. Some are still enjoyable, some not. I seem to have gotten over that now and actually read some new books in the past week.

Embedded is light and breezy sci-fi from Dan Abnett of this parish. A war correspondent covering what appears to be an escalating struggle over resources on a frontier planet finds his only way to get close enough to the action is to be implanted into the mind of a front line soldier. This allows for the Generation Kill character arc of initial revulsion to bonding and respect to play out within a single body. As ever with Abnett there is wordplay to spare, although the frequent target of deliberately dissociative military terminology is rather an easy one.
The one thing that hampers the flow of the book is an overabundance of military hardware fetishism. Having never read one, I assume this is a feature of his WH40K novels and is included here as something familiar for any stray fans of those who should happen along.

Michel Houllebecq's Atomised is altogether more French. It contains a number of characters who are there solely to represent certain ideological or philosophical positions the author wishes to attack, significantly more public masturbation than I expected and a rather daft ending. It's also laugh out loud funny in places, in others quite touching on the subject of mortality and enjoyably aggravating throughout. I am keen to read another.
The translation seemed excellent too, managing to retain a deceptive simplicity to the prose.

[Syne]

I'm currently reading Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus: History. Magick. Psychedelia. Ufology. Early days yet but I'm already finding useful material, it is starting to fill up with scraps of paper marking occult trivia to mine in the future.

Have you read his Hagliography?

[Emperor]

I'm currently reading Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus: History. Magick. Psychedelia. Ufology. Early days yet but I'm already finding useful material, it is starting to fill up with scraps of paper marking occult trivia to mine in the future.

But when stuttering fans nervously grab the mic at conventions to ask you 'where do you get your ideas from?', you're obliged to trot out the same line as every other writer: reading the papers, overheard conversations on public transport, drugs, travelling ...

Pfft. I'll answer "books, films and shit" as I do all my best thinking on the throne, while reading a book and having watched a film.

I'm currently reading Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus: History. Magick. Psychedelia. Ufology. Early days yet but I'm already finding useful material, it is starting to fill up with scraps of paper marking occult trivia to mine in the future.

Have you read his Hagliography?

Nope and a Google doesn't help. Got a link?

[Syne]

Nope and a Google doesn't help. Got a link?

My mistake: correct title is "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography." He's a fun writer, though of course you never know how far his tongue is stuck in his cheek (or other orifice). Lots of mountain climbing, adventuring in the Far East, and of course a bit of the old hocus-pocus.

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Confessions-Aleister-Crowley-Autohagiography/dp/0140191895

[Zarjazzer]

Planetoid, Star Wars Ghost Prison and Baltimore Dr Leskovar's remedy. All pretty good art and story wise. Baltimore just wins by having an incredibly creepy last panel. Planetoid was also extremely good a guy crash lands on a planet of junk with dangerous AI beasties.

[hoops]

Just finished The Hills Have Eyes - The Beginning, which was very cool.

Reading Moon the Loon by Dougal Butler, and Roadshow: Landscape With Drums: a Concert Tour by Motorcycle by Neil Peart.

[Professor Bear]

After I read Smile by Raina Telgemeier, I went shopping and the bookshelves in Tesco were heaving with YA books about teens who were werewolves or vampires or spies or wizards, and I picked one up at random and snidely guffawed at the huge font size and low page count, so I'm still a smug jerk and must simply conclude that Smile is a good book and happy drugs weren't what made me have such a good impression of it and the upbeat message it conveys.
It's a tale of first world problems, admittedly, but unlike something like that thing where Magneto got his cock out and cried because he was having too much sex and had more money than he could spend, a child with social anxiety and body issues is always a sad thing in my eyes, a bit like seeing a limping dog or a shivering cat.  There's no twists in the tale and no sci-fi, it's just a look at the drama of going through your school years with no front teeth and random bouts with dental surgery of varying degrees of success and competence on the part of staff, though there's also major earthquakes and 8 bit Nintendo games along the way to comment upon.
A lovely little book with that not-seen-often-enough message that things are gonna be okay and a wonderful antidote to the pseudo-miserableness of Before Watchmen: The Comedian.

[HdE]

My copy of 'Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye - volume 1' arrived in the post today.

Now, you may sniff. But this is a BLOODY good comic. Bags of character and energy to it. There's a neat lien of sci-fi, humour and action in this. Very much worthy of a peep if any of you guys are even remotely curious.

[shaolin_monkey]

After discussing Iain M Banks a few pages ago I decided to start 'Player of Games' again.  I'm halfway through, and it's as brilliant as I remember it.  He really captures the feel of how a game can completely involve you to the exclusion of all other senses, and how your brain starts operating on a multitude of levels to solve a series of problems and possibilities.  That used to happen to me a lot when I used to play 12 man Risk.

[TordelBack]

After the slightly disappointing end to the otherwise good Duma Key, I've moved on to some comfort re-reading of autobiographies of some of my favourite people, with the sublime Alec: The Years Have Pants by one of my comics idols Eddie Campbell and Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman by one of my science idols Richard Feynman.  With their disjointed anecdotal structures, these work surprisingly well as companion pieces.