Whats everyone reading?

[Barrington Boots]

I haven't read Cujo for years, I really should go back to it after Tjm's cool words about it.

The Doc is right re. Dark Tower in my opinion. A good start, followed by a descent into rot and then an ending that'll have you casting the book away from you in frustration.

[Fortnight]

I haven't read a Stephen King novel in years, and not read the Dark Tower ones at all. I've read a great many older ones though. My favourite is probably the Langoliers, from Four Past Midnight. I don't remember the other stories in that volume, but I've read that one lots.

The biggest issue I have with King is his tendency to go off into multi-chapter-long flashbacks, remembrances, or some other sort of aside, and leave the "main" narrative hanging for an excessive amount of reading-time. It's a common technique, I know, but he does it to a degree that's beyond just irritating, and it actually puts me off re-reading the longer books, or reading newer ones at all.

Meanwhile, Lost Treasures from Hibernia has just plopped on my doormat (figurative - I don't have a doormat), so I'll be reading that!

[JayzusB.Christ]

The exception that proves the rule being Revival. Brrrr.

OK, I've read Revival now.
Our Stevie's still got it.

I've finished The Stand and made a nice dent into Revival on your recommendation.  My god, I'd forgotten how Stephen King could turn down-home folksy chuckles into vicious brain-drippimg horror so quickly.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Batgirl Vol. 1: Beyond Burnside by Hope Larson, Rafael Albuquerque - This is from the 2017 Rebirth timeline, though I don't really keep up with DC anymore so don't know if this was any different before. It's also a little weak, Barbara's either a teenager or in her early twenties, comments that she used to be in a wheelchair but isn't any more, and then she's buggering about in Japan and there's way too much telling and not enough showing with a lot of the dialogue explaining things over and over again. It's a shame as I like the set up and the art's decent enough, but the poor script really lets it down. 2.5/5

The Authority: Revolution Book 1 and 2 by Ed Brubaker and Dustin Nguyen - I've read various Authority series in the past including the Ellis run, but this somehow passed me by. The first volume's not bad either as Brubaker explores what it'd be like if the team took control of The White House, but the second reads like Brubaker is Mark Millar's number one fan and jesus it's embarrassing. Obviously Brubaker's responsible for some classic series (Gotham Central being my favourite of his though I've only read the first Criminal trade) but the dialogue is full of sexual threats (including one involving skull ****ing that is deeply unpleasant) and I found myself wincing petty much constantly throughout the final three issues. 1.5/5

[PsychoGoatee]

Uncanny X-Men: From the Ashes (starts with issue 168), great stuff! What a run. Taking me years, but fun chipping away at this epic saga.

Also reading Archie Mega Man, Kelly Deadpool, Usagi Yojimbo, Mirage TMNT, lots of stuff to get back to.

[Tjm86]

Just finished Susan Cooper's Silver on the Tree and the full Dark is Rising Sequence.  A fascinating collection that follows that tradition of merging English folklore with Arthurian Legend.  One of those books that I'd always looked at down through the years but for some reason never got around to reading. 

For my money it leaves Rowling's Harry Potter in the dust.  The quality of writing is an order of magnitude better than those books.  Even though it's a fairly standard tale of good versus evil, it is far more original and lacks the over-dramatisation of that more popular series.

It's fair to say that Cooper's work deserves its status as a classic of British literature even if it is criminally under-appreciated.