I was supposed to post this last week, but got delayed because of Thanksgiving. Hope you all had a fun time.
I finished The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths. It was an okay read, not bad, but thinking about getting into another crime series with more action / mystery and less relationship stuff. But I have got the next 5-6 books so will read them.
Read the next Dresden Files novel, Blood Rites by Jim Butcher. I feel the quality of writing has improved a lot since the first couple of novels. This one felt a bit less intense than the last one, but liked the character developments.
Read Jujitsu Kaisen, Vol 4, not much to say about it. More action, more silliness.
Currently reading The Black Company by Glen Cook. I have the omnibus (Chronicles of the Black Company) which has first three books, so may end up reading all three as one book. The writing style is a bit weird, but I think I have gotten used to it.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening? Or have read and listened in last 2-3 weeks?
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Been listening to Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and so far it’s fantastic. I’ve been asking my GPT4 for recommendations that might match a certain set of criteria. It recommended this one as something vaguely similar to the Bobiverse series be Dennis E Taylor, which I really like.
Ooh I didn’t think of asking a bot for recommendations! Thanks
Remember it’s like a maliciously mainstream genie, you have to be really specific in your wishes so it doesn’t mess with you.
One of my favorite, second is different but also good and the third of the series just came out afaik.
I’m reading Children of Time now. It is very good. And today I was reading some news about how scientists are trying to translate spider language. Check this out: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-translated-spiderwebs-into-music-and-its-absoutely-stunning
Picked up a nice hardcover edition of the first five John Carter books.
Nice. I just read those for the first time this year. Couldn’t find any copy locally so just got the epubs from Project Gunteberg. I have only read first three yet. Let me know what you think about them after reading them.
- Finished Finnegans Wake - which I had been reading across the year. The group this year allowed for a period of summing up at the end, so we have completed it already. Although the book as a whole was consistently just on the edge - mostly over the edge - of comprehension, the final section still conveyed a haunting degree of completion, ending and loss which, given that the whole book is circular and ends mid-sentence - resuming that sentence one the first page - was rather unexpected.
- Currently reading Sense and Sensibility - and enjoying Austen’s dry wit.
- Currently reading Return of the Living Dad - another of the Virgin New Adventures Doctor Who novels from the ‘wilderness years’ of the '90s. A slow start to this one has picked up now that the crew have found Benny’s long-lost father and his underground railway for aliens.
- Currently reading Historical Lovecraft - an anthology of Lovecraftian tales set at various points of history. A very mixed bag with only a couple of tales that stand out so far - and the editors’ view of what constitutes ‘Lovecraftian’ seems extremely broad. Some interesting settings though, so I will persist.
- Currently reeading The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan - a history focusing the influence of climate and environmental factors on the development of our species and cultures. At times very informative, I’m finding that it does frequently digress, to give other examples or form parallels, to the point where the central argument of the section is almost lost. Extremely interesting as long as one can cope with that though.
The Earth Transformed sounds interesting, but I am not sure I’ll enjoy the author digressing so much. Would love to hear what you think about it once you have completed it.
What are your favourite Lovecraftian books?
I think that on average I have probably learned - or seen from a new and interesting perspective - around one new idea per chapter from The Earth Transformed - which is pretty good overall. Still only a third of the way through so far though.
They often say that there has never been a really good Lovecraftian movie yet, and I do wonder whether the same is true of Lovecraftian books by other authors sometimes. I tend to prefer short stories rather than novels for horror of any kind. I have read quite a few not-very-good Lovecraftian shorts over the years. There really aren’t that many that have stuck with me that ARE good though.
There are some of the classics: Blackwood’s The Willows (and, to some extent T Kingfisher’s semi-sequel The Hollow Places), and Hope Hodgeson’s The House on the Borderlands, and some of Derleth’s tales, but I’d struggle to recommend a particular book really.
One of the best Lovecraft fictions in any media that I know of is the BBC The Lovecraft Investigations podcast - which is a modern take on some of his tales but with some other layers to them.
I’m reading “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells and I must say, I love his writing style! This is my second book by him. If anyone has any recommendations for something similar, I’m all ears!
Give Olaf Stapledon a try. Another English SF writer who wrote a few decades after Wells.
Some of his work:
Last and First Men.
Sirius
Starmaker.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve already read Star Maker. Out of the two, I’m actually enjoying H.G. Wells more. But I’ll probably give Olaf Stapledon another shot.
The last couple of month I listened to the Stormlight Archive series but recently took a break.
I started Reamde from Neal Stephenson again. Funny thing is that its normally not my genre. Computer yes but I am more into hard sci-fi (Hamilton or Tchaikovsky i.e.) or epic fantasy like Sanderson.
But this book totally took me away out of my comfort zone. Thats why I started it a second time. Last was 2 years ago. I am desperate looking for another out of the loop for me but couldn’t find any, yet.
Where are you in Stormlight Archive? I have read the first three, thinking about going to re-read the whole series before the fifth book releases next year, instead of just going ahead and reading four. Will probably start a re-read sometimes next year.
I have been looking at interesting sci-fi to read. While I consider myself a fantasy and sci-fi fan, most of my reading have leaned towards fantasy than sci-fi. Would like to hear your favourites.
I am at book 2 second half . Its in german and they split 1 english book in two german audiobooks. So it is book 4 in germany.
My favourites
Peter F. Hamilton
- The dreaming void trilogy
- Without telling to much it is two sections of a story part fantasy part sci-fi basically.
And if you like his style
- The Night’s Dawn Trilogy
- A massive trilogy that if you stick to it has so many ideas, side stories and places in it you could make several spin off`s out of the lore. It has nothing to do with the void universe.
Adrian Tchaikovski
- Children of Time
- Also sci-fi about humankind coming to a new “eden” 😉
The Dresden Files audiobooks are so good. They’re read by James Marsters of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and he just hits every tone and sigh of Dresden perfectly.
I’m actually finishing up The Olympian Affair, book 2 of Jim Butcher’s new series Cinder Spires. It’s steampunky magic with political intrigue, airships, and tribes of cats with their own language. The first book was a little meandering but the second one has been very interesting and more dynamic so far
lol, I am not an audiobook fan, but listening to James Marsters reading Dresden Files might be worth a try.
Just picked up a copy of Debt: The First 5000 Years
Oh nice, have you read any of his other books? I keep meaning to get around to reading Bullshit Jobs.
I haven’t, and didn’t realize it was the same author! Bullshit Jobs is also on my list
On the bus reading is Howard’s Collected Conan works. Great to read in short sessions and the lack of story arcs makes it perfect to put down for periods of time. There is Conan doing Conan stuff and “other characters”.
Table stand book is Prof. David Thurfjell’s “En lockton i ödemarken : om människans förmåga att besjäla världen” (A call in the wild: about mankind’s capability to animate (??) the world)(rough free translation). It is about modern, often secular, Scandinavians (mostly I think) draw towards finding spirituality in the wild. Have but started it, picked it up after watching an interview with Thurfjell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnCB5oywM7g
The Book of Dave by Will Self - I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by him, most recently, prior to this, was Umbrella.
Land of the Lustrous by Haruko Ichikawa for something light. First manga I’ve read, and very glad I picked it up, though gets expensive as the volumes add up.
Next up I have a couple things by Graham Greene.
I tried listening to Book of Dave as an audiobook,it was bloody impossible 😂
Will definitely get round to the Epub some day
Yeah, buying mangas can become expensive very soon. That is why I am going very slowly with them.
Never read Will Self before, will check him out.
I’m reading Hard Reset by Django Wexler on Audible. It’s a small little guilty pleasure sci-fi about a pilot and an archeologist repairing a warbot on a post-apocalyptic earth. The performance is very good. After I’m done with that I’m gonna read Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. I always like to theme a book around the holidays.
On Kindle, I’m reading How To by Randal Monroe. I’m not sure about it currently, I’m bouncing off some of the humor, even though I love XKCD. I’m also reading Dragons of Crumbling castle to my son who is 3 months old. I’m almost done, so after that, maybe the Hobbit? My wife is reading him Roald Dahl’s The Witches. When I’m done with How To, I’m moving onto Carpe Jugulum in my second reading through of Discworld.
Then, on MoonReader I’ve got a PDF of Dan Abnett’s Legion from an old Humble Bundle. I don’t know about it, I think he put in too much jargon. Usually I love his writing, ever since I read his run on Guardians of the Galaxy, and I’m a Chaos Space Marine fan. Hell, I also love conmen and tricksters, so the Alpha Legion book for the Horus Heresy should be right up my alley, but I’m getting lost in the weeds with it. When I’m done with this one, I’ll move onto the next book in the Horus Heresy novels. I should have it since I alway get the Warhammer Humble Bundles.
Have you read Django Wexler’s Shadow Campaign series? I really enjoyed them and the audiobooks are very good
No, but I’ll look into them!
Humble book bundles are great, but I am always torn between wanting physical books vs getting so many books for such a price.
I’m a suckered for library building, and digital helps keep my footprint down, though I do love the feel of a book
I understand that. I have switched to digital for all other media, but for books I enjoy them a lot more with physical ones. So, still sticking with them.
I mean, Dresden would have to stick to paper books anyway, so that works.
I’ve been reading through a short story collection of Edgar Allan Poe and really liking it. The variety of genres he wrote in is really impressive and I can definitely see how a lot of later novels were inspired by his works! I also never knew just how old they were (1800s!).
I read Poe when I was pretty young, and didn’t really get most of his work. I think I need to revisit it now.
Oh I highly recommend it. As a kid I read a lot of his work and my favorites were the Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-tale Heart. I still love those ones but I feel like I can appreciate the poetry and other stories now.
Another series I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of revisiting was Calvin and Hobbes funny enough.
Heh, that’s interesting. I read Calvin and Hobbes a while ago too, want to own actual comics collection.
I just finished reading “The Fall of the House of Usher” after watching the Netflix show. It’s a great read, and the atmosphere is really eerie, just like I was hoping for.
The show is why I picked it up actually, except I wanted to read it first before watching. I did the same with The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw (Haunting of Bly Manor, also still need to watch that one). I tend to enjoy the original books more anyways.
Currently reading Van Diemen’s Land by James Boyce, covering the early history of Tasmania (as a European colony). About a quarter of the way through and interesting so far.
Before that I went through:
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A LitRPG series called Apocalypse Tamer by Maxime Durand - standard LitRPG stuff with people gaining game like powers and the end of the world approaching. Wouldn’t say it really stands out but easy reading and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
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Un Lun Dun by China Mieville, a young adult aimed urban fantasy story about saving an alternate London from a self aware cloud of pollution. Plays around amusingly with various chosen one and saving the world tropes, pretty quick read.
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Reread Brass Man by Neal Asher - part of his Agent Cormac series in his Polity sci-fi universe. Interstelllar agent tracking down a criminal who has gained various powers, along with a few side stories. I find the Polity universe interesting, albeit somewhat grim for sci fi universes.
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Through the Storm by John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer - another one aimed more at young adults, a continuation of a near future sci fi series about teenagers playing a augmented reality game that is turning out to secretly have real world implications. I like the premise but it did seem like this book focused more than the first on inter character drama rather than action or progressing the behind the scenes story.
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Reread a few Discworld books, they’re basically all worth a re read every now and then.
Only thing I know about Tasmania, is the Devil…
Nice list of books. Adding Un Lun Dun and Polity series to my wish list.
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I am currently listening to vampired hunter D 1. I have been curious about the D books for a while and I finally I decided to listen to them.
Just finishing up The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
All the Pretty Horses by McCarthy. Enjoyable though the lack of quotation marks both annoys and somewhat speeds up reading.
No quotations marks for when people are speaking?
Correct, it’s apparently his thing
That’s pretty interesting. I should go and read one of his books.
Thanks for the link!
All the Pretty Horses is the one recommended for easing into him, but if you want to be extra, grab Blood Meridian. Alternately, you could go for something like The Road or No Country for Old Men to see how they’re different from the movies.
