Finished The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Book 2 of The Passage trilogy! Finally!
It was interesting read, but too long. Too much back story and details that could have been condensed quite a bit. As it is, I didn’t like the fist quarter, second quarter was okay, third was interesting, and really enjoyed the last one.
Still one book remaining in the trilogy, but need a break, will come back to after a little while.
Read some more stories from The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.
Now reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).
It’s my first Drizzt, and first D&D novel and has been on my wishlist for a very long time. Just started it so can’t really say much about it, but enjoying it so far.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
A regular reminder about our Book Bingo, and it’s Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.
I am working my way through the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. I’m on The State of the Art which is an anthology. All of the books up to this point have been EXCELLENT, especially Use of Weapons which is one of the best science fiction books I’ve ever read. Usually with the space opera genre and perhaps sci-fi in general, you land somewhere on a sliding scale between imaginative concepts and good writing, but Banks is one of the few that hits top marks in both areas.
Just finished Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, and haven’t picked out what I’m reading next.
I think this is one of those I should have dropped rather than power through. I liked the story, but the writing style just wasn’t for me: poetic, but verbose verging on purple, imo. Is all his work like this? I vaguely remember reading “There Will Come Soft Rains” a long time ago, but I don’t remember how it was written. Also, I thought this was going to be Halloween-related, but it really isn’t.
Bingo squares: Older Than You Are (1962), Family Drama, (maybe) Plays With Words, Bookception (hard), Now a Major Motion Picture, It’s About Time, (alt) A Change in Perspective.
Yeah, sometimes it’s better to just drop the book rather than force it. Life is too short for bad books.
That first Passage book starts out so strong, and then just changes to a completely different (and far less interesting) book about 1/3 of the way in. It’s bizarre. I’m surprised you decided to read the sequel. Book one just felt like the publisher pushed Cronin to write a lame walking dead rip off.
Haha, agreed, that was bit jarring when it happened, but then I got used to the characters. I will probably read the third book too, but I don’t think I am going to recommend the series to anyone else. At least if I like them 😀
Do RPG and skirmish games rulebooks count? If so, I’m currently spending time with Basic Role Playing and Runequest 6ed (planning a hack/homebrew/adaptation of Elder Scrolls), plus Moonstone (Goblin King Games), Conquest (Parabellum) and Warsurge on the skirmish front.
So many rulebooks! Which RPG is your favourite? I have always wanted to play them but was never able to convince enough people.
I personally prefer using Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay when it comes to medieval-ish fantasy, because it’s gritty and dirty, so to speak, also more “realistic” than DnD, mainly because combat is brutal, armor simply reduces damage, all kinds of shit can get someone insane and magic is dangerous.
The last time I narrated WFRP one of the characters died in a spectacular way that I never imagined would happen
The player had a dwarf with a large ram for a mount. During one combat inside a mayor’s mansion, a group of bandits attacked the ram and lethally wounded it. The player wanted to save the ram at any cost. Every character has some Fate points, which they can burn to escape certain death. I made a deal with the player, “you spend that fate point and the ram lives, BUT- I will roll this dice to determine who saves it”. I made it clear that there was a risk an unwanted force could be the one responsible for keeping it alive.
Dice rolls. I smirk and describe a blue-hued raven landing atop the ram and asking the dwarf if he truly wants to save his ram. The deal is made, the raven enters the wound, which closes, but the ram’s eyes give an eerie purple glow and it laughs at him. The next day, he finds out the ram started eating small critters like bunnies and squirrels. The rest of the group starts considering leaving the ram wherever.
Some time later, the ram is attracted to a profane totem and refuses to move. The dwarf tries everything to get the animal back on track and gets headbutted. Once he threatens to destroy the totem, he’s attacked for real. Second round of combat, the ram charges. On the damage roll, it was a double critical (criticals only happen in damage rolls in WFRP, a 10 on the dice allows you to roll again) and the total damage was twice his total health.
In a single charge, one of the ram’s horns went under his chin, piercing his cranium with such force that the head was ripped out of the body, with blood gushing from the now lifeless body. The impaled head remained as a souvenir on the horn. The rest of the group turned tail and fled, then came back later to loot the gold that was with the dwarf.
As to getting people to play with, some places you can look for players are local game stores (if there are any around where you live) or colleges. You can also try playing online via discord, it’s much easier to find people looking for groups there. Getting along with everyone outside the game is definitely one of the more important aspects of keeping a group alive and going
lol, that’s a bad way to die. Poor Dwarf trying to save his ram!
We are legion (we are bob)
That’s an interesting concept. Though they synopsis just reminded me of a horror-ish short story I read about similar topic, so not happy about that.
There’s a black Mirror episode where they make a cookie and the make it into the brain of a smart home / assistant of their real self. Don’t remember the episode, but a horrific concept considering how they make the cookie comply by essentially torturing it.
Oh yeah, that was horrific too.
I just finished Lessons in Chemistry. It started of a little dark but quickly turns into a roller coaster slice of life novel that secretly weaves a series of plot points before coming to a heartwarming end. I am starting Meditations by Marcus Aurelius with annotations for context.
I’ll probably also read a second lighter book in-between sections of Meditation cuz it’s a dense book.I’m reading the Silmarillion, so I can be madder at Rings of Power
How do you keep all the name straight? I have tried couple of times but that’s where I got lost. Have been planning to start again, and make a relationship / characters chart as I go along, so that I can remember who’s who.
Full disclosure I’m actually listening to the audiobook version read by Martin Shaw. Mostly I’ve just been going with it, important characters are repeated over and over, less important ones are not. The hard part is not googling names and reading spoilers haha
Heh. Nice!
The Twisted Ones.
Not a huge fan of how this author writes, but I think it’s an interesting enough mystery so far.
I had similar issues with The Hollow Places, and it put me off reading any more of her horror titles. I do like T. Kingfisher’s fairy tale-inspired stuff, however; that kind of voice meshes a lot better with that genre, imo.
I may have to give that a try after this one. Thanks for the heads up, 👍🏾
Just started with Scalzi’s Starter Villain. No opinion yet. But it’s short, so I should have one soon.
Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. The book that inspired the game. All the characters are so, so wordy, but I’m enjoying it.
It’s on my wishlist, didn’t like the game much, but the lore seemed interesting specially near the end of first game and in second game. Though having straight up Nazis didn’t feel very creative, but maybe they make more sense in the books.
There’s a kind of ‘repeating the mistakes of the past’ theme.
Yeah, I guess that makes sense.
Just started Blindsight by Peter Watts. Haven’t gotten far yet, but so far it seems interesting
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Infinite Series by Jeremy Robinson. It is a masterwork of scifi, spanning several scifi sub-genres. Each book (that I’ve read so far) is only loosely connected to the other books - it reminds me a bit of early Marvel movies where at the end Nick Fury shows up. I had read Infinite, not knowing that it was the beginning of a series, and then when I found out I decided I would read the next book, but make no commitments to continue the series. I’ve not stopped and each book just keeps getting better.
I randomly stumbled across the dark which is much later in the series and really enjoyed it. I’ve now gone back and started from the beginning with infinite and will be continuing in order. I’m looking forward to it!
“Across the Dark”, D for Dark, D for Death. Yeah, makes sense that’s the one you stumbled upon. 😀
Haven’t read the series, but apparently you get crossovers in last few books.
I’m still using reading mostly as a means to fall asleep but I finished Slow Horses on the weekend. Even after watching the TV series the books are very enjoyable.
On to the next one!
Heh, using it as falling sleep doesn’t match with you finding it very enjoyable. 😀
It’s not boring me to sleep. I just mean that I’m only reading before bed now to help me relax and get to sleep.
My apologies, I was trying to be funny. Didn’t really work out.
Night time reading is a pretty good way to unwind and relax, away from the screens.
Not currently reading anything but just finished The Fisherman by John Langan. I’m just here hoping someone can recommend some good horror from the last few years
I’m not sure if these will exactly fit the bill for horror for you, but they scratched a similar genre itch for me:
- The Terror - Dan Simmons
- Plain Bad Heroines - Emily M Danforth
I watched The Terror tv series and loved it, although I know the book is a bit different. Have you read The Hunger by Alma Katsu? Apparatus she wrote it as basically a spiritual followup, also being historical horror
I really loathed the fisherman. It felt like a bait and switch, and the framing device felt like I was being asked to accept an insane proposition. Why would they just sit there in that diner for what must have been hours listening to that guy exposit in anachronistic old-timey waffle?
I am baffled by its popularity.
Edit: conversely, and so I’m not being a negative Nancy, The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch was fun and weird and kept me interested.
I read a lot of horror! Here are some of my recent faves:
- Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
- I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
- Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
- The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
- Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman
What did you think of Ghost Eaters? I found it a bit boring by the end. I finished it and I wouldn’t say it was bad but it was a bit of a slog for me by the end.
It’s been over a year now since I’ve read it, so I don’t remember a lot of the details, but I did quite like it overall. There were some parts that I thought were a bit overdone, I think it’s always a fine line with horror and people have different thresholds as well, but overall I enjoyed the weird creepy things that kept piling up by the end.
Just finished King’s Fairy Tale. Almost started the dark tower series, but then remembered that I needed to read Moby-Dick. So, that’s what I’m reading now.
I hope you like in depth descriptions of whales
Hmmm, not interested in that. Lol
Is the book fantasy? Like does the whale talk or something? Or is he just talking about going whale hunting(if that’s the word).There’s a chapter where Ishmael gets mad that all the whales are named wrong. He spends a while renaming them better.
It’s a very odd book. I quite liked it, but it’s definitely in the recommend with caution group.
Don’t forget how he asserts that whales are actually fish and he doesn’t care what scientists say because he spoke to whalemen
Mammals are supposed to have hair. Don’t try to pretend you’ve seen a whale with a bob or braids. Ishmael was 100% right here.
😆
Well, I’m glad I mentioned it here to get some feedback. Phew, it would have been a very long read, especially for me. lol
Most of the book is descriptions of whales, whaling boats, whale skeletons etc. Some of it can be interesting from a historical perspective. I’m sure it was more interesting when people didn’t have access to pictures, but it wasn’t what I was expecting, that’s for sure.
Well, I can’t say anything but thank you for saving me a possible week or two of reading something I really have no interest in. I genuinely thought the whale would end up speaking and some fantasy stuff would occur.
Hugo’s Hunchback is much the same. There is genuinely a good story, with the gypsy, the priest, Quasimodo himself, and then a good half the center of the book is just a complete history of the Notre Dame cathedral.
I actually have a habit of skipping what I call “stuffing” when I sense it’s just stuff I really don’t care to know. Saves me some good number of pages. Alexandre Dumas does this a lot in his books. When I read “The count of Monte Cristo”, I skipped all the parts where he described landscapes and ocean and all that lovey shit. Lol
Fairy Tale was great! Talisman is another great book in that vein.
I liked it. It was a fun book. I switched gears to the lotr trilogy now. My son has been wanting to watch the movies with me, but I wanted to read the books first. Little man will have to wait a bit. Lol
