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WarpDogs posted:Maybe it's because I read the 'modernized' version of The Night Land by James Stoddard, but I really loved prologue and framing device. Post-solar humanity is resigned to just sit around waiting for the magical light nobody understands to finally wink out and for them to all die. Even the greatest of scientists have forgotten their own history and now spend their days measuring the precise angle of an eldritch horror's nose and how it changes over the centuries As a concept it's fine, it's Hodgson's execution of it that makes people vomit uncontrollably and chuck the book out the window before they get to the cool monsters and horror. Read it online and see what you think: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10662/pg10662.html
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Sep 15, 2023 22:06
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A couple months ago I leant my buddy The Traitor Baru Cormorant. He finally got around the reading it. His texts last night: In the final pages now HOLY MOTHERFUCKING gently caress Still have like 10’pages to go Fuuuuuuuck me I am not happy But I was wondering how did they continue this after ….. and then HOLY poo poo I’m still in shock And then today HOLY MUTHER loving gently caress THAT THING loving ENDING I HATE THAT BOOK I should have stopped reading on episode 29 Those last two chapters hosed me up Thanks for the rec He’s keeping the book so his partner can read it too. So uh, it was a hit.
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Sep 15, 2023 22:15
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Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees - $0.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1W7PBRC/ The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DV1Y7D0/
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Sep 15, 2023 22:48
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pradmer posted:Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees - $0.99
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Sep 15, 2023 23:45
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Jordan7hm posted:A couple months ago I leant my buddy The Traitor Baru Cormorant. He finally got around the reading it. His texts last night: I just finished that today. For a book about traitors it sure had a lot more treason than I expected at the end
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Sep 16, 2023 00:04
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Jordan7hm posted:A couple months ago I leant my buddy The Traitor Baru Cormorant. He finally got around the reading it. His texts last night: it's reactions like this to books I love that give me strength
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Sep 16, 2023 00:10
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FuturePastNow posted:I just finished that today. For a book about traitors it sure had a lot more treason than I expected at the end yeah you really need a cw like 'contains descriptions of traitors, treachery' on the cover
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Sep 16, 2023 00:18
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anilEhilated posted:Isn't this public domain? Lud-in-the-Mist is another of the fantasy novels that is like nothing but itself. It's similar to "Leaf By Niggle", a little, but that's in mood rather than in content. I'm fuzzy-headed and I wish I could do the book justice. It's weird and interesting.
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Sep 16, 2023 00:46
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zoux posted:Looking for some good occult fiction, everyone recommends "The Devil Rides Out" as a classic of the genre, but it's #6 in a series and you know I like to start at the beginning. So I picked up The Prisoner in the Mask and I've read 300 pages of French political history during the Third Republic at the turn of the century. And I am loving it. No magic or curses yet tho. As it happens, I read The Devil Rides Out earlier this year and it stands perfectly well on its own. It's a pretty fun little adventure story if you can look past the fact that all the bad guys are foreign, disabled, or both. At least it isn't quite as xenophobic as Sax Rohmer. Anyway, for good occult fiction, I'd recommend James Blish's Black Easter and The Day After Judgement or Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John books -- the short stories, collected in Who Fears the Devil?, are the best, but the novels are decent too. Selachian fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Sep 16, 2023 |
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Sep 16, 2023 00:56
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Here's a passage from Into The Riverlands, the second book. I love those books, but Into the Riverlands is the third one.
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Sep 16, 2023 00:58
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pradmer posted:
Picked this up. I read the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation several years ago and enjoyed it. How does this one (Ginsburg) compare?
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Sep 16, 2023 01:17
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Google translate is likely better than P&V
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Sep 16, 2023 01:18
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If you want a fancy ebook edition of Lud in the Mist and don't want to pay for it, go here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/hope-mirrlees/lud-in-the-mist This website takes public domain works and makes them look pretty. It's great and I highly recommend it!
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Sep 16, 2023 01:36
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Gaius Marius posted:Google translate is likely better than P&V Wow that's damning. Can you elaborate?
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Sep 16, 2023 01:37
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fritz posted:I love those books, but Into the Riverlands is the third one. Headpiece filled with straw, alas.
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Sep 16, 2023 01:57
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Jordan7hm posted:A couple months ago I leant my buddy The Traitor Baru Cormorant. He finally got around the reading it. His texts last night: One of us! One of us! One of us! I hope he's getting straight into The Monster Baru Cormorant and The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. Giggy posted:Have many here read the Elderlings/Farseer books? I loved the first book and liked the second but am having some trouble getting excited about continuing. I don't care for the wolf stuff and from my understanding the rest of the series is going to heavily revolve around the Fool - a character I'm not really interested in. Giggy posted:Is Liveship Traders good? Im looking forward to it as a break I suppose. I've read Farseer and Liveship Traders. Both are worth reading in full, imo, if you like the character focus and if you're a little tired of the focus on Fitz and Fool in Farseer, you'll like the wider spread of POVs in Liveship. mewse posted:The side trilogies in the same universe (Liveship Traders, Rain Wild Chronicles) do not feature fitz or the fool. mewse posted:What I found draining in Hobb's books was that Fitz seemed to get the poo poo kicked out of him by life and it doesn't really let up. It's a different type of bleak than GRRM or Abercrombie grimdark. "Yes, there are people that care deeply about you, but you will be sad forever" Giggy posted:And also was wondering if anyone has recommendations for books with similar focus on character relationships preferably with good, well-written characters. I just finished reading Legacy of the Brightwash which is marketed as "grimdark romance" which I think is accurate. There is a central mystery introduced in the opening chapter (dead body of a mutilated child washes up on a river bank) followed by a romance plot in the second chapter which is given equal prominence to the mystery plot plus an overarching political intrigue/rebellion plot that ties everything together. The first 25-35% is an extreme slow-burn set up of the characters and how they all feel about each other and various issues, and while the book overall is multi-POV, the first part of it follows romance convention with dual POVs which means the romance features more heavily relative to the other plot lines. Book and characters are well written, but it's hilarious how difficult a time I had reading the first third/half of the book because the romance heavy* stuff is mashed in so prominently with the grimdark epic fantasy. I've actually had an easier time reading a pure steamy romance when I KNOW there isn't anything else other than the romance so I just kinda settle in but when there's like 3 different storylines I care about far more than the romance I'm just like, okay I get it, can you two please just do whatever to hit the next beat in your tortured relationship arc so I can stop reading paras of angst and get back to reading about the other plot lines which I find way more interesting. Things pick up around the midpoint though and book sticks the landing so I'll be continuing with the series. * feeling like I should qualify that I do not read romance as a genre and so it's "heavy" for me but probably it's not very heavy relative to something that's romance first and fantasy second.
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Sep 16, 2023 02:34
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My uncle gifted me a box full of Philip K Dick novels. It’s not every single one of them, but it’s a lot. I’m new to PKD, other than all the movie adaptations. I started reading Radio Free Albemuth and it feels like a sequel to something else. Or at least is meta enough that it’s probably not the one to start with. Should I read Valis first? Or another one?
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Sep 16, 2023 03:26
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StrixNebulosa posted:Wow that's damning. Can you elaborate? https://www.commentary.org/articles/gary-morson/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/ https://classicsbookclub.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/socks-by-janet-malcolm-ny-review-of-books-june-23-2016.pdf Gaius Marius fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Sep 16, 2023 |
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Sep 16, 2023 03:40
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StrixNebulosa posted:If you want a fancy ebook edition of Lud in the Mist and don't want to pay for it, go here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/hope-mirrlees/lud-in-the-mist Good resource, thanks!
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Sep 16, 2023 04:03
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Leng posted:I've actually had an easier time reading a pure steamy romance when I KNOW there isn't anything else other than the romance so I just kinda settle in but when there's like 3 different storylines I care about far more than the romance I'm just like, okay I get it, can you two please just do whatever to hit the next beat in your tortured relationship arc so I can stop reading paras of angst and get back to reading about the other plot lines which I find way more interesting.
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Sep 16, 2023 04:11
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:My uncle gifted me a box full of Philip K Dick novels. It’s not every single one of them, but it’s a lot. Galactic pot healer
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Sep 16, 2023 04:44
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Gaius Marius posted:https://www.commentary.org/articles/gary-morson/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/ This guy sounds kind of like the guy who complains that the localizations of FromSoft games are "wrong".
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Sep 16, 2023 04:55
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Any recommendations on stuff to read after Hyperion, other than Endymion? I really enjoyed it. I don’t need the literary references, but curious what else might be out there.
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Sep 16, 2023 05:49
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Gaius Marius posted:https://www.commentary.org/articles/gary-morson/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/ Someone posted like 2 weeks ago a link to a discussion of the various translations that concluded that P&V was the best one, or perfectly acceptable at least, so in conclusion it seems like there isn’t really a firm answer.
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Sep 16, 2023 06:12
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buffalo all day posted:Someone posted like 2 weeks ago a link to a discussion of the various translations that concluded that P&V was the best one, or perfectly acceptable at least, so in conclusion it seems like there isn’t really a firm answer. Pretty sure the Burgin/O'Connor one was the one that won, partly because that's the one sitting in my to-read pile ATM.
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Sep 16, 2023 07:16
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:My uncle gifted me a box full of Philip K Dick novels. It’s not every single one of them, but it’s a lot.
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Sep 16, 2023 09:32
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:My uncle gifted me a box full of Philip K Dick novels. It’s not every single one of them, but it’s a lot. PKD's short stories are generally better than his novels. Many of the novels are expanded from his short stories and suffer for it. You can ignore anything after Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said as Philip was having a schizophrenic breakdown that lasts for the rest of his life - unless you want to get inside the head of someone suffering a serious break from reality. My favourites are Vulcan's Hammer and The Man in the High Castle.
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Sep 16, 2023 09:44
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:My uncle gifted me a box full of Philip K Dick novels. It’s not every single one of them, but it’s a lot. They're all pretty much the same: 1000 words of interesting concept surrounded by 60,000 words of TCC posting. My maxim has ever been that an SF&F collection is like lesbian porn - much better when there's no Dick in it.
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Sep 16, 2023 10:47
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:My uncle gifted me a box full of Philip K Dick novels. It’s not every single one of them, but it’s a lot. As others already said, Flow my Tears is amazing, as is Man in the High Castle. I really loved A Maze of Death, it's very trippy but one of my favorites of his.
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Sep 16, 2023 11:19
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having just finished Our Friends From Frolix 8 I did not really consciously realize how often PKD had older dudes getting their lives totally derailed by teenage girls in his books until now is that autobiographical or was he just Heinlein but better
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Sep 16, 2023 11:46
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DACK FAYDEN posted:having just finished Our Friends From Frolix 8 I did not really consciously realize how often PKD had older dudes getting their lives totally derailed by teenage girls in his books until now lol that’s the one of the first things that happens on Albemuth, and that’s just the first of these books I’m reading
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Sep 16, 2023 11:52
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I assume that it is autobiographical, because it's also the literal first thing that happens in VALIS which was very much him writing a self-insert about that religious experience (or, you know, stroke) that he had but also ewwww
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Sep 16, 2023 11:54
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DACK FAYDEN posted:having just finished Our Friends From Frolix 8 I did not really consciously realize how often PKD had older dudes getting their lives totally derailed by teenage girls in his books until now You can tell by his writing, especially his non-sci fi stuff, that he does not really like or understand women.
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Sep 16, 2023 12:27
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Nghi Vo's latest Mammoths at the Gates now means there are four awesome stories in this series. They're like 100 page shiny jewels that pop up every so often and I drop everything to read them because they're all so drat good. This one is slightly less myths and legends than some of the previous ones, instead just being a drat good story about grief. It's no worse for it.
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Sep 16, 2023 12:36
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Peace Talks (Dresden Files #16) by Jim Butcher - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082S1N87S/
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Sep 16, 2023 18:22
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Nigmaetcetera posted:Robert Bevan’s kindle direct account was reinstated, if anyone is interested in vulgar and juvenile isekai/LitRPG stories like I am. 
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Sep 16, 2023 21:49
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I just finished A Marvelous Light, which I think was recommended ITT. I really enjoyed it. The English-society-drama-but-there’s-magic, plus some smutty gay scenes? Very fun. Some parts of the magic system don’t exactly make sense to me, but over all enjoyable.
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Sep 16, 2023 22:22
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Awkward Davies posted:I just finished A Marvelous Light, which I think was recommended ITT. I really enjoyed it. The English-society-drama-but-there’s-magic, plus some smutty gay scenes? Very fun. If you want something similar, I recommend Witchmark by C.L. Polk!
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Sep 17, 2023 04:33
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tildes posted:Any recommendations on stuff to read after Hyperion, other than Endymion? I really enjoyed it. I don’t need the literary references, but curious what else might be out there. Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota (particularly the last two books) reminded me in good ways of reading the first two Hyperion books. For Simmons himself, Endymion and Rise are optional, his historical books are fairly good (The Terror is the best of them.) I've never gotten into his horror, his mysteries are okay I guess. Avoid his other SF.
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Sep 17, 2023 09:33
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shrike82 posted:re-reading the gateway series by frederik pohl - still love the central idea of a asteroid full of ships which go to unknown preset destinations. the writing's pretty forward in some ways for the 1970s (pretty diverse set of characters - a japanese amputee, a prospector family from singapore etc.) and not in others (talk of calcutta, the female characters being props for the protagonist) A while ago I found some of the sequels second-hand (looking it up now, there are a lot more than I remember) but I’ve never been compelled to actually read them. Maybe it’s that Gateway stands on its own so well; maybe it’s the exploitation-y cover of one where a mostly-naked woman is hooked up to some sort of machine. Are they worth reading, besides that?
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