What are you reading? - 2019, and beyond.

[stonetoflesh]

The Ghost Pirates & Other Revenants of the Sea, a Night Shade Books' collection of tales by William Hope Hodgson.

[Deleted]

Jonathan Maberry's, "The Wolfman", novel to the 2010 movie. For a movie novelization, actually a pretty good book. There's no real "Dracula" to Werewolf fiction, but this one could one day be regarded a classic, I think --- despite the movie being a bit of a drag.

[tkdco2]

I'm currently reading Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forester.

[Otto Harkaman]

I was spoiled by Alexander Kent's "Bolitho" series and could never get into Forester's "Hornblower"

[Deleted]

No books, but I am watching "The Wire" tonight, for the first time.

Seems it is as amazing as people say it is.

(Clip below contains mildly NSFW language, though.)

[Deleted]

The new Penguin collection of Ligotti stories.

[geoffrey]

Sept 1, 2016 18:26:50 GMT -6 @sirravd said:

The new Penguin collection of Ligotti stories.

Thomas Ligotti and Charles Saunders (author of the Imaro stories) are the only two living weird fiction authors that I can think of that I like.

[Deleted]

Sept 2, 2016 8:57:49 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

Sept 1, 2016 18:26:50 GMT -6 @sirravd said:

The new Penguin collection of Ligotti stories.

Thomas Ligotti and Charles Saunders (author of the Imaro stories) are the only two living weird fiction authors that I can think of that I like.

Not weird fiction, for the most part, but have you tried Gene Wolfe?

[bigjackbrass]

Thought I might try some game related fiction, so I'm reading Rose of Stormgaard by Ken St Andre, the creator of Tunnels and Trolls.

[Deleted]

On Robert Service's collected poems, tonight. Hands down, my favorite *light* poet in the English language.

[geoffrey]

Sept 2, 2016 14:13:03 GMT -6 @sirravd said:

Sept 2, 2016 8:57:49 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

Thomas Ligotti and Charles Saunders (author of the Imaro stories) are the only two living weird fiction authors that I can think of that I like.

Not weird fiction, for the most part, but have you tried Gene Wolfe?

I picked-up one of his novels, but I put it down after a few pages. Perhaps I just wasn't in the zone for it at the time. I'll have to give him another try.

[Finarvyn]

Inspired by a thread on DF I just started re-reading the HORSECLANS books by Robert Adams. Grim and gory post-apocalyptic fiction from the 1970's. (Plus, I hunted around and found my GURPS Horseclans book on my shelves to use as a reference for maps and such.)

[Deleted]

Sept 3, 2016 16:59:24 GMT -6 @rafael said:

On Robert Service's collected poems, tonight. Hands down, my favorite *light* poet in the English language.

I have tremendous admiration for good authors of that sort of light verse –– strongly formal, tongue-in-cheek balladish stuff. My favorites are Kipling and Pushkin-via-Falen. A sadly extinct form.
That being said, the only Service poem I know is "Cremation" (and "Eskimo Nell", although the attribution has been contested). I should read more of his stuff.

[Deleted]

Not to plug my project every godd**n time I write a post, but Service's Land of Beyond, in particular, has practically become the hymn to my D&D. It was the epitaph to the Last Fantasy Campaign, and it is a recurring theme in The Coward's Blade, as Service's poetry, in general, is: I am not an English native speaker, so I copy speech patterns when I describe things; and the more descriptive an author is, like Service, the more I tend to use him.

The Land of Beyond

Have you ever heard of the Land of Beyond,
That dream at the gates of the day?
Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,
And ever so far away;
Alluring it calls: O ye yoke of galls,
And ye of the trails overfond,
With saddle and pack, by paddle and track,
Let’s go to the Land of Beyond!

Have ever you stood where the silences brood,
And vast the horizons begin,
At the dawn of the day to behold far away
The goal you would strive for and win?
Yet ah! in the night when you gain to the height,
With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned,
Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream,
Still mocks you the Land of Beyond.

Thank God! there is always the Land of Beyond
For us who are true to the trail;
A vision to seek, a beckoning peak,
A fairness that never will fail;
A proud in our soul that mocks at a goal,
A manhood that irks at a bond,
And try how we will, unattainable still,
Behold it, our Land of Beyond!

Safe to say, though, I am a poetry guy; more modern stuff, of course, but I like the light-hearted, optimistic style the most. If I want to be gloomy and edgy, I watch the news; endless affirmations that life is dookie, I need not. Even if you yankees really were onto something, with that Mr Poe.

[Deleted]

Reading two very different books today: "Fool", by Christopher Moore, which is one of the very, very, very best comedic novels I've ever read. And "Ben Hur", because I was so impressed after watching the, wait for it, 2016 movie. Of course that one is being measured against the Charlton Heston piece, and has some *really bad* scenes, but I liked the idea of the story as a family drama.

[bigjackbrass]

I'll be interested to know what you think of Ben Hur, which was written in a fairly old-fashioned style even for its day and is a very Christian story.

[Deleted]

First impression is, frankly, better than I thought. Reminds me a bit of Walter Scott, as far as a foreigner like me can understand this kind of difference of language.

Now, I read the ending first, and for my own taste, it turns into the terrible terrible. Now, it *is* a story about Jesus' life and environment from the late 19th century, this was to be expected. Not terrible enough to scare me away, though. I am particularly interested in how the novel handles Messala, who according to Wikipedia, actually survives the coliseum race.

[Deleted]

Sept 5, 2016 10:04:40 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Inspired by a thread on DF I just started re-reading the HORSECLANS books by Robert Adams. Grim and gory post-apocalyptic fiction from the 1970's. (Plus, I hunted around and found my GURPS Horseclans book on my shelves to use as a reference for maps and such.)

...While I am on it, what do you think about this one, Fin? To be frank, I read the first one or two in this series years ago, and I thought they were pretty bad. - Which is quite the statement, coming from me, given that Robert Adams' Ithkar series is probably among my the most beloved fantasy books. (That I read as an adult.)

[stevemitchell]

Hanging Woman Creek by Louis L’Amour. Rustlers and vigilantes are rampaging across Montana, and the protagonists get caught right in the middle. Another good western from this deservedly popular writer.

The Glare of the Gorgon by Kenneth Robeson (Will Murray). Over 80 years since the first Doc Savage novel was published, the Man of Bronze is still going strong. Doc and the gang head to Chicago to solve the mystery of the Gorgon Murders, where men die with their brains turned to stone!

Seeds of Life by John Taine. A laboratory accident creates a mutant superman who plans—well, some very bad things for the rest of the human race. SF from the 1930s, but still very readable.

Marion Fay by Anthony Trollope. The nobleman’s son wants to marry a common-born Quaker girl. The nobleman’s daughter wants to marry a common-born Civil Service clerk. Several hundred pages of hand-wringing about aristocrats marrying beneath their station ensue. I suppose this was pretty gripping stuff back in 1882, but it seems rather dated now. Besides, Trollope had already beaten this particular horse to death in an earlier novel, Lady Anna.

Religion and the Rebel by Colin Wilson. The second book in Wilson’s “Outsider” series, with studies of Jacob Boehme, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Soren Kierkegaard, and other religious mystics and thinkers.

Saucers of Fire by Gray Barker and others. Essays on UFOlogical themes, with an emphasis on the “Inner World” connection to UFO lore.

[Deleted]

Just thinking... Guys, would you like to start a book-club like thread, where we spend a month talking about (and supposedly reading) the same book, together?

[Starbeard]

Sept 14, 2016 3:49:53 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Just thinking... Guys, would you like to start a book-club like thread, where we spend a month talking about (and supposedly reading) the same book, together?

I would enjoy that. If it gets underway, my first vote would be Ready Player One. It's been sitting on my shelf since it first came out and I haven't picked it up yet.

[Deleted]

Happy as a fish, that I am, because I just learned that one of my single favorite fantasy novels, David Gemmell's "Knights of Dark Renown", has a sequel, called "Morningstar". ...And serves as a de-facto prequel to the "Drenai" novels, which I am probably going to read only because of the connection to "Knights".

So, "Morningstar" will be my next read. Yayay.

[Deleted]

Sept 18, 2016 15:01:26 GMT -6 Starbeard said:

Sept 14, 2016 3:49:53 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Just thinking... Guys, would you like to start a book-club like thread, where we spend a month talking about (and supposedly reading) the same book, together?

I would enjoy that. If it gets underway, my first vote would be Ready Player One. It's been sitting on my shelf since it first came out and I haven't picked it up yet.

If we get three more, I am game for this!

[Starbeard]

Sept 21, 2016 13:53:08 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Sept 18, 2016 15:01:26 GMT -6 Starbeard said:

I would enjoy that. If it gets underway, my first vote would be Ready Player One. It's been sitting on my shelf since it first came out and I haven't picked it up yet.

If we get three more, I am game for this!

Volunteers needed, folks!

Last year I decided to start reading through some of the post-Appendix N classics, since I was never really into high epic fantasy sagas. I've finished the first couple of Wheel of Times and found them hit and miss. Jordan's travel writing and broad narratives were so much better than I expected, but the set piece scenes, and the dialogue in general, were even worse than I expected. Despite the bad scene writing, I found the sweeping narrations to be compelling enough that I'd be happy to read more.

Right now I'm reading through the first Shannara book, and that's giving me a much more difficult time. I do like the good old-fashioned future fantasy in it, but I find each character's socio-political awareness to be really anachronistic and unconvincing for the setting. Like Jordan, I like Brooks' writing style in between scenes well enough, but as soon as the story zooms into a scene it all falls apart for me. Overall, I enjoyed WoT more. It's still early days, but I don't see myself feeling left out if I never picked up the second Shannara book.

Beyond that, I'm also cycling through a few books of random genre: I'm pecking my way through a few old Perry Mason novels, which I'm really enjoying; the second book in Andrew Offutt's War of the Gods on Earth, which I'm not enjoying as much as I did the first book; and The Sisters Brothers, which I think is great.

[makofan]

Elf-stones of Shannara is way better than Swords

[tkdco2]

Sept 25, 2016 14:48:32 GMT -6 makofan said:

Elf-stones of Shannara is way better than Swords

Agreed, but the ending really upset me for some reason.

[Starbeard]

Sept 25, 2016 20:53:57 GMT -6 tkdco2 said:

Sept 25, 2016 14:48:32 GMT -6 makofan said:

Elf-stones of Shannara is way better than Swords

Agreed, but the ending really upset me for some reason.

Well, I guess that settles it, I'll have to add that to the list after all.

I'm not wholly disappointed with Sword of Shannara. I don't care for much of the writing itself, but I find it an interesting read, especially as an historical artefact. I don't mind the parallels with Lord of the Rings, and the setting and mood in general was unexpected. For the book that's said to have invented the Extruded Fantasy Product, it's still got one foot firmly grounded in pulpy science fantasy from the '60s-'70s. I was expecting something more like Dragonlance or Wheel of Time in tone, and instead found a bizarre, attempted mixing Tolkien and Howard, and scenes straight out a Gamma World adventure.

[Deleted]

Sept 25, 2016 20:53:57 GMT -6 tkdco2 said:

Sept 25, 2016 14:48:32 GMT -6 makofan said:

Elf-stones of Shannara is way better than Swords

Agreed, but the ending really upset me for some reason.

Then again, it's one of the very, very few times chaste love between two people is depicted in a non-weird, charming way. And the two last pages of the novel - the farewell scenes - are excellently written. Some of the best of the sort I've ever read. In- and outside of the genre.

Sept 26, 2016 0:24:47 GMT -6 Starbeard said:

Well, I guess that settles it, I'll have to add that to the list after all.

I'm not wholly disappointed with Sword of Shannara. I don't care for much of the writing itself, but I find it an interesting read, especially as an historical artefact. I don't mind the parallels with Lord of the Rings, and the setting and mood in general was unexpected. For the book that's said to have invented the Extruded Fantasy Product, it's still got one foot firmly grounded in pulpy science fantasy from the '60s-'70s. I was expecting something more like Dragonlance or Wheel of Time in tone, and instead found a bizarre, attempted mixing Tolkien and Howard, and scenes straight out a Gamma World adventure.

I am happy that you want to give them a shot. I am a big fan of the series, if only because the Shannara books were the first fantasy series I ever read. At the tender age of 10, "The Sword of Shannara" was just the right book at the right time, together with movies like "The Last of the Mohicans", and "Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves". Without them, I'd never have bothered to read more of the genre.

Now, just yesterday, I explained the appeal of the Shannara novels to a good friend, who also happens to be a bit into fantasy. More or less, I did it like this:

The strength of the series, at least of the first couple of books is that Brooks constructs a very conventional, and, frankly, boring fantasy world - until, in the second series, he reverses the premise, and turns the table on all the tropes he previously introduced. You start reading the books believing that you're reading a children's novel by Lloyd Alexander, and, at some point, you realize you're in the Snopes trilogy by William Faulkner. Especially the dualism between the first trilogy, (Sword, Elfstones, Wishsong), and the second series, the "Heritage" quartet, is, if not tremendously creative, then tremendously interesting to read, because Brooks tells the same stories again - but one, the first few, as a faerie-tale, and the second and as a gritty postmodern story full of angst.

Lamentably, starting with "The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara", the series becomes increasingly repetitive and unfocused. After that, it's pretty standard YA fantasy, and... Nobody past 15 years of age might really enjoy that.

Even so, two books among the Shannara saga are among my favorite fantasy books of all time:

"The Druid of Shannara", second book of the Heritage series - here, things get really dark, and because of the light and (usually) upbeat tone of the earlier books, it's really effective. And "The First King of Shannara" - because it's a fantasy novel that doesn't spend any time on exposition: It's the book you read after you're through with ALL the other books (until "Talismans"). The setting of the Shannara books is extremely artificial - but in that last novel, Brooks makes you forget it.

For my part, "Shannara" is - okay. It's not very modern, and if you go into it expecting some of the high-concept fantasy novels á la Scott Lynch, Django Weixler, Joe Abercrombie, etc, you are going to be disappointed. But, for itself, as a YA novel series that essentially grew up with its readers, it's pretty good. Not brilliant, but good. It probably can't stand a chance against the George Martins of this world, but it can against the works of Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, and whoever else roamed the early 90s' bookshelves...



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Myself, at the moment, reading the second Cormoran Strike novel, by Harry Potter writer JK Rowling. Short version is, a terrible book. That one, truly, simply cannot write.

[ritt]

BleakWarrior by Alistair Rennie. Psychotic gonzo assassins hunt and kill each other across the mean streets of a decadent Lankhmar-esque fantasy world. If this novel was bad, I still would enjoy it as a guilty pleasure just for the wonderfully weird characters and gory fight scenes... but...but... it's really not bad at all. In fact, it's surprisingly cerebral, well-crafted, and deep. I'm about halfway through it and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes. The first non-seventies or non-thirties fantasy novel I've gotten excited about since China Mieville's The Scar.

www.amazon.com/BleakWarrior-Alistair-Rennie/dp/1940250234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475370766&sr=8-1&keywords=bleakwarrior

EDIT: Finished it. It's really good. And quite weird. Good and weird.

[Deleted]

www.amazon.com/My-Father-Pornographer-Chris-Offutt/dp/1501112465

Starting this one, right away today: A biography of fantasy writer Andrew Offutt, who, as the creator of Thieves' World's "Shadowspawn", became one of my favorite genre authors.

Now, what few people know is that Offutt, apart from his fantasy work, wrote hundreds of penny dreadful erotica novels, which is what explains the book's title.