Whats everyone reading?

[radiator]

My girlfriend got me the Complete Calvin and Hobbes box-set recently (something I'd had my eye on for years), so I've been reading through that. It's a stunning set of books, but each volume weighs an absolute tonne! It's lovely to be able to dig into every single strip in chronological order, and presented in such a lavish way, and it's amazing how few of them I remember.

Overall, C&H seems a bit more twee than I remember from reading them as a kid and the strips have less edge and bite to them than I recall, but I'm still only halfway through book 1, so it's still early days for the strip. I guess it gets more sophisticated as it goes as Watterson grows in confidence and ability. I remember some of the 'snowman' episodes as being especially dark...

Still, perfect bedtime reading...

[HOO-HAA]

My fondest memory of the book was of the fondue cauldron at the Swiss orgies, and the forfeits for losing your piece of bread. We were getting some Asterix books from the library and I insisted we look for this one in particular.

Ah, you're bringing me back now - remind me of the forfeit?

Other than Cujo, i dont think ive ever read a king novl or short story that hasn't left me in a state of admiration for the man's ability. But yes, i started reading them at school with Night Shift and have read all of them as published, so my opinions probably differ from yours.

My absolute favourite is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon- which i found so engrossing, so unpleasant and so creepy that i missed my station, glanced up an hour later and then had a three hour journey home.
SBT

The interesting thing about King is that he offers something for everyone. Even amongst his fans. Me? I loved Cujo! And - believe it or not - I placed The Girl who loved Tom Gordon back on the shelf, recently, in favour of lifting Bag of Bones.

I tend to favour King's earlier novels, which tend to be shorter - he can get a little too verbose at times, I feel - however, Duma Key is one of my all-time favs of his. As is Cell. Cell in particular was a real page-turner.

I used to be a big King fan until I got to Insomnia and Rose Madder which were just plain awful.

He talks of both of those books being his own least favourites in On Writing. Personally, I really enjoyed Rose Madder (with the exception of the trippy Narnia bit at the end).

I'm the same, and have hardbacks of duma key, lisey's story, under the dome (and soon full dark no stars) to read when i can commit the time.

Aiming to get onto them once ive finished hungry hearts, empire of salt and autumn.
SBT

SBT, Autumn is a powerful read. Good choice.

I too plan on reading FDNS once I finish Bag of Bones and Dark Half (which I just added to the pile today). I always find when I'm writing a lot, the most comfortable and non-intrusive thing to read is King. Got myself a deadline for Xmas, so my reading's all about Stevie-Boy up until then at the very least.

[House of Usher]

Ah, you're bringing me back now - remind me of the forfeit?

Lose a piece of bread in the cauldron and you get beaten 5 times with a stick. Lose a second piece of bread and you get 20 lashes with the whip. Lose a third piece of bread and you get thrown in the lake with weights tied to your feet!

[Colin YNWA]

My girlfriend got me the Complete Calvin and Hobbes box-set recently (something I'd had my eye on for years), so I've been reading through that. It's a stunning set of books, but each volume weighs an absolute tonne! It's lovely to be able to dig into every single strip in chronological order, and presented in such a lavish way, and it's amazing how few of them I remember.

I'm incredibly jealous of you. I'd love to own these. Have all the strips in the various individual volumes and have re-read them all recently as my bathroom reading, glorious fun. Man though if ever there was a strip that deserved a lavish product like this its Calvin and Hobbes.

That last strip still brings a lump to my throat every time.

[leebrown1990]

Those Calvin & Hobbes collections are gorgeous.

Anyway; finally got round to reading The Marvels Project. I think it treads on the feet of Marvels a little too much, especially since it's narrated in a style I wouldn't associate with Brubaker. But obviously given the creative team there are some very cool moments, beautifully illustrated.

It does make me crave for Twelve to be finished though! And I can't help but think another Chris Weston super hero story would work work in the Prog. I know we have a no super hero policy (Unless we are ripping the piss out of them,) but I think a very british take on super heroes during WW2 could make for an ARSOM read.

Either that or they should just let Weston finish The Twelve, the guy has already proved he can write it with the Spearhead One Shot.

Cheers,
Lee

[Albion]

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card.
The sequel to Ender's Game and another fine read, I'm really enjoying this.

[Mardroid]

I recently finished Wheel of Time: The Towers of Midnight, and a great read it was too.

I have just started, Dracula: The Undead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt.  It's described as being 'The Official Sequel'. Apparently Dacre Stoker is a descendant of Bram Stoker, as the Surname suggests.

Although I've only just started, I have already noticed a slight contradiction with the first book though, mainly in a changing of rules. In the original book, Dracula could walk during the day without harm, although he does lose some of his power during that period.  In fact there is a scene where Jonathan Harker sees him walking on a London street during the day, and another when a group of them confront him in a house.

In this book they're going with the 'sun destroys vampires' rule that most vampire stories seem to follow. (Interestingly, I think it first appeared in the original Nosferatu, which was loosely based on Dracula.)

I don't mind the sun destruction rule, but I can't help thinking that if this is an official sequel, shouldn't they stick with the rules of the first book?

Anyway, I've only read a couple of chapters so far, and I'm liking it a lot. Apart from the Prologue, which is a letter from Mina Harker to her son Quincey giving the reader an overview of what happens in the first book*, the book is written in a more contemporary third person style, rather than being made up of diary entries and articles like the original novel. I thought the style of the original was very interesting, but I think I prefer the ordinary style as you get more detail, as if you're there with them rather than a diary account afterwards which feels a little like an overview.

I've already encountered a scene which was rather disturbing and grim and rather raunchy. And I've noticed a little error. [spoiler]A young lady has her clothes cut off and her crucifix is cut off by a vampire, leaving a prick of blood at the base of her throat from the knife. She is then strung up upside down and the book mentions that the blood flowed down to her chest. Now unless they're following the rule of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula, where you see liquids dripping up to the ceiling....[/spoiler]

Oh, and interestingly, it would appear one of the main vampires of this story is in fact [spoiler]Countess Elizabeth Bathory[/spoiler]! Whether the main man has made a return from the dead, I've yet to see.

*[spoiler]Although she claims it was the light of the setting sun which caused Dracula to crumple into dust. To be fair, I think she was mainly out of it during that period.[/spoiler]

[Richmond Clements]

I'm reading Stephen King's BAG OF BONES. Great so far.

I love Bag of Bones.
I live his use of repetition to lull the reader into a false sense of security and the most audacious thing about the book, of course, is MAJOR SPOILER- [spoiler]that the title gives away the ending![/spoiler]

Also like the cameos from Ralph and Joe from Insomnia.

[HOO-HAA]

I'm reading Stephen King's BAG OF BONES. Great so far.

I love Bag of Bones.
I live his use of repetition to lull the reader into a false sense of security and the most audacious thing about the book, of course, is MAJOR SPOILER- [spoiler]that the title gives away the ending![/spoiler]

Also like the cameos from Ralph and Joe from Insomnia.

Yeah, I love it when King references other titles in his books. ROSE MADDER had a character reading a book written by Paul Sheldon.

[Rog69]

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card.
The sequel to Ender's Game and another fine read, I'm really enjoying this.

It's a superb novel I enjoyed it even more than Enders. It's a shame that Xenocide, the next book in the series is such a mess.

[TordelBack]

After many distractions and delays, I finally finished Hamilton's Pandora's Star at about 12.30am last night.  And had to immediately start the second part Judas Unchained (cleverly acquired from the library last week, just in case), which I read until 2am.  Absolutely brilliant, an endless chain of throwaway novelworthy ideas and successful misdirection, and it features an actual bona fide cliffhanger, even if it is one cogged from The Colour of Magic.  Terrific book(s).

Somewhere over the past month I also read Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union, which I wasn't even aware was a proper SF book until I was several chapters in - I'd thought it was a Lake-Wobegone-Days-with-Jews-instead-of-Norwegians style thing (which it sort of is).  On finishing what was probably the best book I've read this year I ran about telling everyone who'd listen how I'd discovered this amazing unrecognised SF masterpiece, only to discover that it had won just about every SF and Fantasy award for two years either side of its publication...  That said, if you haven't read it, do so now.

[Colin YNWA]

Just finished the final 'Jack Kirby's Fourth World' omnibus this weekend. And ok so volume 4 isn't up to the standard of the previous three but still the whole collection is an absolute masterpiece.

Where is that 'Must read comics' thread?

Oh and Tordelback is certainly right about Michael Chabon's 'Yiddish Policeman's Union' great stuff. Need I mention how good 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'is as well?

[Zarjazzer]

After a recommendation on this 'ere forum I finally got Mass effect Retribution-novel, pretty good so far. Also Star Wars Knight Errant comic 1&2 good art, okay story.

[Mikey]

I finally finished Hamilton's Pandora's Star at about 12.30am last night.  And had to immediately start the second part Judas Unchained

Somewhere over the past month I also read Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union...  That said, if you haven't read it, do so now.

Nice to see ye back Tordels!

I was feeling a bit of a hankering for some space opera just last week, sounds like a plan then...I kind of went off Hamilton after the Nights Dawn Trilogy (it was a lot of reading!), but he's responsible for one of my absolute favourite short stories - 'Sonny's Edge' - set in the same universe as Night's Dawn. And I bought 'Yiddish Policeman's Union' for Mrs Mikey a few years ago and neither of us has read it yet...

I've just finished 'Flood' by Stephen Baxter, after getting 'Ark' and finding it was the second in the series. I like Baxter a lot, but this seemed a bit straightforward or lacking in the big ideas department(apart from the premise of course) and I couldn't quite reason as to why some of the main characters were hostages at the start. It didn't seem to have much bearing on them in the book beyond knowing each other. I also found some of the writing a bit 'info dump', leading to stuttering conversations that jarred and a lack of characterisation. And that's from someone who enjoyed his Mammoth trilogy! It's certainly a bleak read at time, overall I'd give it an OK and I'll still read Ark.

Moved swiftly on to 'Stories', a collection compiled and edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio. I've read the first few yarns and it's looking like a great collection - the opener 'Blood' by Roddy Doyle was a pleasant surprise as I don't think I've read any of his stuff before and it was excellent! Beyond that I've read the Joyce Carol Oates, Joanne Harris (both new to me and both good, esp Oates) and Gaiman entries. The Gaiman one, 'The Truth is in a Cave in the Black Mountains', is typically Gaiman - whether that's good or not is down to your opinion of him.

M.

[I, Cosh]

I had always thought Stevie Smith was old, American and black. Imagine my surprise to discover she was in fact young (at least when she wrote thisl; she'd be old now if she wasn't dead), white and English. At least I knew she was a woman. Started reading her Novel on Yellow Paper last night and it's a lot of fun. It's full of witty wordplay and little recurring phrases that pull you breathlessly along on the amusngly in-yer-face stream of consciousness. Then there's a page of bewildering anti-semitism sitting unremarked in the middle of it which makes me somewhat wary of what's to come.

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card.
The sequel to Ender's Game and another fine read, I'm really enjoying this.

It's a superb novel I enjoyed it even more than Enders. It's a shame that Xenocide, the next book in the series is such a mess.

Agree on all points, but why do the aliens have to be called Buggers?