What are you reading right now?

[ScurvyRat]

I've just finished the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. It's a fine book. It's a bit slow but fine. I dig the premise.

Now, I'm going to re-read Dan Simmons' Hyperion-Endymion cantos. The entire series is a banger. In my opinion, the Hyperion cantos are a bit better than Endymion, but both are pretty solid.

After that, I'm gonna read Metro 2023 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. I've listened to the audiobook, but nothing beats actually reading it.

If you could suggest any books like these, I'd very much appreciate it!

Sounds like you have good taste.
Check out The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
should be right up your alley.

I have noticed that too. The end of the book seemed a bit encyclopedical to me and all those iunuti names and terms are indeed hard to get especially when you get them all concentrated and at one place.

It was so incredibly unnecessary. Who the fuck cares about the lore behind the thing that just killed everyone? Book is over. None of this matters anymore.
It only exists as a way for Simmons to stroke his worldbuilding cock and he does it with EVERY SINGLE BOOK HE WRITES
I think its more egregious in the Hyperion Cantos, where

Spoiler

the big technomind at the end of book 2 literally LIES to the Keats clone and then he uses another exposition dump at the end of book 4 to correct the INTENTIONALLY INCORRECT INFORMATION HE PREVIOUSLY DUMPED ABOUT

I seethe

 

[Turtle O'Carolan]

I really need to finish Robert Remini's 3-volume Andrew Jackson biography. My neighbor loaned it to me coming on a year ago and it's getting embarrassing.
I'm also re-reading Parshall & Tully's Shattered Sword, because I really like it.

 

[cold comfort]

The Trial was gut. Kafka never even finished it and it still manages a better last line than most books: “Like a dog!” he said; it seemed as though the shame was to outlive him.

After that I read the excellent Twice Lost by Phyllis Paul. It's a mystery about the disappearance of a little girl in a small English town. Very well-written and character-driven, with multiple pov's, a dry sense of humor, and no clear answers. This one actually also had a memorable last line: But as she had never wanted the truth, but only comfort, so she had not now found it.

Now I'm reading The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper. It's about a policewoman investigating the murders of several plant/animal geneticists. One day she comes home to find an odd weed growing through a crack in her stoop. I'm just under half way through and it's extremely fun so far. Has a few different mysteries to solve, two plot threads to alternate between, lots of connections and realizations to make, it's mostly companionable but occasionally grim.

 

[glass_houses]

Idly rereading The End of Alice by A. M. Homes. I'm tossing up buying Appendix A, which as best as I can tell from reviews, is a cross between an expansion of The End of Alice and a record of Homes' own creative progress. Alice is a remarkable book and I'm certain that I've mentioned it before. I would like very much to read Appendix A, but it's difficult to find an affordable copy and most reviews pan it. I found it on my to read list, and I'm contemplating whether to buy it this fortnight, or just get another book off of the list.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I finished Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier and I'm disappointed. I didn't like it. Cold Mountain was okay. I had heard my parents hype it up for two decades or more and it is the exact sort of subject matter as what I would like, but his writing style just doesn't appeal to me. It's simultaneously plain (not very poetic to me, not very pretty) and verbose, and that is, granted, kind of consistent with the era, but I have seen much better. (Like Lonesome Dove.) At least in Cold Mountain the short stories about the minor characters were very interesting, Ada was interesting. It was Inman (the whole point of the thing) that I had trouble with, maybe because although the man has a very good real world reason for being such a sadsack, he was just so dull most of the time. But still, Frazier could frequently pull out very memorable lines and scenes, and in both books he has a knack for coming out with these profundities. Comes across as someone that has a rich soul and is wise in real life.

I think if it was a book I had stumbled across by myself, didn't know its reputation, I would have liked it a lot more.

Thirteen Moons, on the other hand, just didn't work. You've got a historical figure, Colonel William Holland Thomas, who was taken in by Cherokees as a boy (his family sent him off to run a trading post by himself, basically abandon him), ultimately saved the Eastern Band's territory through land acquisition (a tenth of the Nation evaded Removal by living on property outside of national borders) and then commanded the Legion of Indians and Highlanders that scalped Yankees and fought the last battle of the Civil War.

It is a very interesting person during all of the main significant events of the Eastern Band. But Frazier seems more interested in a made-up romance plot about a woman, and the romance just isn't interesting. I won't say they don't have personalities, but they don't have fun personalities. The woman is just kind of there to be there. It all just feels aimless and the drama of these events is sucked out by his style of presentation where it's like the guy just reminisces about in among how many times he fucked this squaw.

I'm disappointed because I should like him. He also writes on the exact type of subject matter (Antebellum South, Indian South), with an encyclopedic/academic level of understanding of it, that I think I would like to, so, somewhat of a model. But I'd rather be a Larry McMurtry of it. I'm too lazy anyways. I just feel tired all of the time anymore when I'm not working.

 

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

Thirteen Moons, on the other hand, just didn't work.

Sounds like a very interesting point in history, shame the execution was rather poor. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Sounds like a very interesting point in history, shame the execution was rather poor. Thanks for the heads up.

If you liked Cold Mountain you might still like it. It has near perfect reviews on Amazon.

For me, whereas books like Cold Mountain and Gone With the Wind were appealing in large part for how much of the Antebellum world I recognized, this one feels like something that's going to be more interesting to someone who doesn't already know about the subject matter (like someone who would be startled by the idea of Scottish Indians, or plantation owner Indians, etc.).

 

[cold comfort]

I would like very much to read Appendix A, but it's difficult to find an affordable copy and most reviews pan it. I found it on my to read list, and I'm contemplating whether to buy it this fortnight, or just get another book off of the list.

There's a pdf on Anna's Archive you could use. Looks like it's real short, 20-something pages of actual text.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Gaddis' treatment of the Cold War was interesting. I suspect he was a bit idealistic about it's end; which he treated as partially the product of humanitarian thinkers (Pope John Paul II, etc.) and the encouragement of identity and resistance in Eastern Europe. Though perhaps I can get a better grasp on that when I get around to reading a complete history.

Currently reading some works by Zbigniew Brzezinski, as well as taking notes on Herman Kahn's "On Escalation" for a project I want to do. On Escalation has been fascinating, and I'd recommend the first chapter alone if you want to understand the thinking behind escalation and limitation.

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

The Forever War. I read the comic version by Marvano ages ago and decided to read the book proper. At the part where Mandela and Marygay are back on Earth. It's scary how much Haldeman got right for his 2024 predictions, especially with globolhomo and gender ideology, as well as the '20's being shit in general.

 

[glass_houses]

There's a pdf on Anna's Archive you could use. Looks like it's real short, 20-something pages of actual text.

Thank you for this. I read the pdf and I have to say that it deserves the poor reviews. The material could have easily been incorporated into a new edition of The End of Alice, or as a short story in one of the author's multiple volumes of short stories, or as bonus content on her website...

But as a separate book, retailing for top dollar, it's a complete and utter rip off. I wonder if she thought of herself as a 'serious' Nick Bantock, but whatever she was aiming for, ultimately it reads like a shameless cash grab.

 

[Commander X]

ZLONK! ZOK! ZOWIE! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman '66 - Season One
BIFF! BAM! EEE-YOW! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman '66 - Season Two
OOOFF! BOFF! SPLATT! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman '66 - Season Three, all edited by JIm Beard, a trilogy of collections of essays devoted to each season of ABC's Batman tv series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Sort of follow-ups to his collection of essays from various people on the Batman series in general Gotham City 14 Miles.

A variety of authors, including comics writers like Barbara Kessel, as well as novelists, cartoonists, etc. dissect various aspects of the show, including episodes, characters, the whole Batmania that gripped American pop culture for a couple of seasons, and it's influence on the Bat-franchise and more. As Beard muses in his introduction in the final book, the thing about Batman's last batch of twenty episodes was that the feeling that "The fad, the craze, the mania is over and not a moment too soon". The premise was being stretched thin, the budget was slashed, more corners cut,' the sets became sparser and cheaper - and yet nobody who contributed to the concluding volume could say they hated it.

As for the final volume, topics covered include the introduction of Yvonne Craig as Batgirl to the show. The return of Frank Gorshin as The Riddler (who'd been a very minor villain in the comics before the show), asides on producer William Dozier's battles with ABC and how a popular show ended up at the edge of cancellation in less than a year (YIKES!), Eartha Kitt as Catwoman, how the show declined from deliberate camp delivered with a cheeky nod to the audience to just plain old workmanlike "broad" comedy. Kevin DiCandido's article on the final episode, written as if it were conversation between two fans, musing on how it was emblematic of how shoddy the show had gotten, yet in the end, it wasn't that bad of a sendoff.

"This is Ed Wood-level stuff."
"Or Dark Shadows, yeah."
"Well, that's not fair; Dark Shadows was a daily soap opera on an insane schedule. This was the last episode of a weekly show that had time to do reshoots. They just didn't give a damn."
"At this point, they really didn't."

It concludes with editor Beard's "what if" ideas for episodes making up a fourth season that could have been...and how NBC had expressed interest in the bringing Batman to them for a fourth season, but took too long to decide, by which point ABC had already bulldozed all of the sets and the NBC people decided it would not be worth the cost to build a whole new Batcave and Wayne Manor and all.

 

[cold comfort]

The Family Tree (Tepper) was a blast all the way through, really fun ok-just-one-more-chapter-and-I'll-go-to-sleep nineties sci-fi. There's a few times where a character gets on their high horse about something but there's always a counterpoint offered, either directly by another character or elsewhere in the narrative. There's some twists and turns, with enough hints scattered around to let you figure things out yourself.

I then read a graphic novel collection by Steve Moore, Tales of Telguuth. I picked it up because it was inspired by Clark Ashton Smith's writing but I found it pretty disappointing. Sometimes it was like this

Spoiler

but other times it was like this

Spoiler

Ok to be fair that was the absolute worst bit. Most of the stories play out the exact same way too so after a while they become pretty predictable.

Another disappointment was Sisyphean by Torishima Dempow. I had high hopes for this one, but I couldn't even bring myself to finish the first chapter. It's like Kafkaesque peepee poopoo biopunk. I've heard it compared (loosely) to Moderan by David R. Bunch. I'm sure it is/will be a cult classic so even though it made my eyes glaze over now I might try again at some point.

Spoiler: sample

Hurriedly, he slid his hands into a pair of skingloves ridged with stillvein cords. Experiencing an odd sensation like joining hands with some total stranger, he opened his toolbox and laid out the needler, the tube-shaped reflex mirror, and the other implements he would need.

The worker jabbed his needler into a cross-section of slimecake and injected the guidejuice. The president held out his thick fingers, and keeping them perfectly motionless, forced from their tips waybugs about the size of rice grains. At any given time, about five hundred waybugs were being nourished amid the currents of the president’s body, receiving training according to their specialized functions. No sooner had the waybugs fallen onto the slimecake than they sought out the needle marks and burrowed in, expelling silver thread from their anuses as they tunneled along either vertically or horizontally, each in its turn raising a little ridge in the surface as it went. At last the waybugs emerged from the cut faces at fixed distances from one another, and the worker touched each with a pair of red-hot tongs. Their shells split open with brittle sounds, and their bodily fluids sizzled as they vaporized. [...]

He laid the molds down on a tray where a great deal of powdered dogshell had been sprinkled and turned them over. This step was to prevent them from taking root in the slimecake too quickly.

When he first started here, he had worked barehanded and had once let a neurofungus adhere to his fingertip. That had ended with him on the floor, writhing in white-hot agony. But now he was able to braid neurofungi into spiral cords with nimble, experienced hands.

It was a simple matter to tie the ends of these spiral-shaped cords to the waybug threads left inside the holes in the slimecake slices, and—applying a steady rhythm from the holes on the opposite sides—tug them on through. The spirals would resist with all of their might, though, so it was necessary to pull and stretch that carpet of meat as he threaded the fungi into the tunnels. Whenever it looked like one was about to get tangled, he would loosen it using crochet needles inserted into adjacent tunnels.

TAPUVuu—the president expelled air from a vacuole, breaking the worker’s concentration. When he returned his attention to the task at hand, he saw that the last remaining thread had snapped. He pushed his crochet needles into the web of tunnels to hunt for the broken end, and the president pointed out the correct position with a fat finger. That finger, however, blocked the worker’s line of sight and brought with it an unpleasant sensation, like having his eye socket covered by it. The feeling gradually spread from his eye until at last he was assaulted by the feeling that his entire body was being sealed up inside that of the president.

 

[timewave0]

Continuing my reading of Gene Wolfe, I finished Fifth Head of Cerberus and moved onto Book of the Long Sun. I didn’t care for Fifth Head so much, especially compared to Book of the New Sun which I regard as a true masterpiece, but it was pretty short and held my interest well enough. Like BotNS, I’m sure it gets better on a reread.

Book of the Long Sun is part of Wolfe’s Solar Cycle series that began with BotNS. I’ve just started the second book, and so far I haven’t picked up on any clear connection to BotNS in terms of plot, though there are some thematic connections for sure. Maybe it will become clearer later.

I have to once again suggest that you all check out Book of the New Sun if you haven’t read it. It’s a remarkable, if at times challenging, work of fiction.

 

[The Cheese Aisle]

I started The Witcher Series with The Blood of Elves (idrc about the prequels yet), because the show was disappointing. So far it’s just OK. There have been a couple of long exposition dumps in the form of a dialogue scene, which is clunky and breaks immersion. I usually like reading fantasy in winter, so I hopped over to The Stormlight Archives/The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson on a high recommendation, but the setting wasn't the vibe I’m looking for rn (medieval high fantasy, soz Brando). Gonna give the Witcher another shot but if another NPC does an exposition dump disguised as a conversation I’m out

 

[del_toid]

I started The Witcher Series with The Blood of Elves (idrc about the prequels yet), because the show was disappointing. So far it’s just OK. There have been a couple of long exposition dumps in the form of a dialogue scene, which is clunky and breaks immersion. I usually like reading fantasy in winter, so I hopped over to The Stormlight Archives/The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson on a high recommendation, but the setting wasn't the vibe I’m looking for rn (medieval high fantasy, soz Brando). Gonna give the Witcher another shot but if another NPC does an exposition dump disguised as a conversation I’m out

I loved both series, but I agree with your complaints about Witcher; there are tons of lenghthy dialogue scenes. Once I realized that and adjusted to it I liked the books more, as they're more about the characters talking about what's going on the world than the action itself.

Stormlight is God-tier and I definitely reccomend you give it a shot.

Tax- I'm reading All You Want to Know About Hell: Three Christian Views of Gods Final Solution to the Problem of Sin by Steve Gregg.

the title explains it- it's about the different interpretations of Hell in Christianity.

Very interesting as western Christians are inculcated in the "eternal fire and brimstone" idea of hell, but there are other equally supported interpretations that don't condemn souls to an eternity of torture.

+ I've been reading Sherlock Holmes in-between main reads. It's cozy.

 

[The Cheese Aisle]

I loved both series, but I agree with your complaints about Witcher; there are tons of lenghthy dialogue scenes. Once I realized that and adjusted to it I liked the books more, as they're more about the characters talking about what's going on the world than the action itself.

Stormlight is God-tier and I definitely reccomend you give it a shot.

Tax- I'm reading All You Want to Know About Hell: Three Christian Views of Gods Final Solution to the Problem of Sin by Steve Gregg.

the title explains it- it's about the different interpretations of Hell in Christianity.

Very interesting as western Christians are inculcated in the "eternal fire and brimstone" idea of hell, but there are other equally supported interpretations that don't condemn souls to an eternity of torture.

+ I've been reading Sherlock Holmes in-between main reads. It's cozy.

I’d heard amazing things about Stormlight, especially the world building, which is why I started on it. For now I’m chalking it up to the fact that I’m kind of a novice to fantasy, mostly being exposed to medieval high fantasy, so I think I kind of went in with an unconscious bias and got a bit jarred

 

[ScurvyRat]

I started The Witcher Series with The Blood of Elves (idrc about the prequels yet), because the show was disappointing. So far it’s just OK. There have been a couple of long exposition dumps in the form of a dialogue scene, which is clunky and breaks immersion. I usually like reading fantasy in winter, so I hopped over to The Stormlight Archives/The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson on a high recommendation, but the setting wasn't the vibe I’m looking for rn (medieval high fantasy, soz Brando). Gonna give the Witcher another shot but if another NPC does an exposition dump disguised as a conversation I’m out

I found the Witcher books to be mediocre at best and boring at worst. Perhaps it is the translation, but the prose is..... not great. I like to think it's better in original polish but I just found myself taken aback at the style of writing being under-descriptive at times.
It couldn't hook me. I read a fair bit of the Blood of Elves but it was entirely forgettable.
I just finished up book 3 of the Gentleman Bastards series, The Republic of Theives, and found it to be very, very good. Scott Lynch has this fantastic talent to use and abuse cursing in his books to hilarious effect.
It's the only series I've read to be proper "low fantasy"
Sure, there's magic, but its not common and it only affects the plot in the most significant ways, as magic should.

Stormlight is God-tier and I definitely reccomend you give it a shot.

2nding this sentiment. Stormlight Archive is the greatest fantasy I have ever read, bar none. And I read A LOT of fantasy. The expanded universe, The Cosmere, is also brilliantly planned and executed.
If anyone in this thread has not read the Mistborn Trilogy, get on that shit. Now.

 

[salvuserit]

I'm reading through Luke's Gospel right now. It's really interesting comparing it to the others because it was written for a gentile. There's context included that's usually only found in footnotes of the others.

 

[The Cheese Aisle]

I found the Witcher books to be mediocre at best and boring at worst. Perhaps it is the translation, but the prose is..... not great. I like to think it's better in original polish but I just found myself taken aback at the style of writing being under-descriptive at times.

Apparently Andrej Sapkowski doesn’t give a fuck about translations, and while I don’t know how much control an author has on their works being published in other languages, you might be in to something about translation quality. I actually tried to find the complaint about the Danusia Stock translations that I read a while back in passing and the complaints seem to mirror mine, a lot of the nuance is lost and some of the chapters are even condensed. Maybe I’ll try a different translator (I think the UK version) or even a fan translation.