What are you reading right now?

[Makov]

Right now, I am reading History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours. Indeed, Gregory was one of the most virtuous people in 6th-century Gaul. I tried pirating it online, but that didn't work.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Really all six are good. There was no real descent in quality, fairly rare for trilogies, much less double trilogies.

I'm just surprised that the whole Elric Saga, let alone the fucking Eternal Champion multiverse series, is all considered readable.

 

[LordOfZhbagva]

I was also fascinated by his Eternal Champion motif that goes through Elric and the Corum books and most of his SF/Fantasy output,

I really like his Chaos-Order dichotomy. It is probably the most interesting aspect of his works to me, especially that bit that covers the creation of a new human kingdom from the realm of chaos by a human champion that conquers his fears.

 

[sarna]

Really all six are good. There was no real descent in quality, fairly rare for trilogies, much less double trilogies.

I think it helps that it wasn't really produced in the way a lot of your present day doorstopper fantasy sagas are, where the author hammers the whole thing out in sequence. He wrote an Elric story when he wanted to and had an idea for one. It doesn't feel like ever got caught in the trap where he had to keep cranking out the Popular Thing.

Shout out to my personal favorite minor Moorcock, The War Hound and the World's Pain, interesting little fantasy set during the Thirty Years War.

 

[AnOminous]

Shout out to my personal favorite minor Moorcock, The War Hound and the World's Pain, interesting little fantasy set during the Thirty Years War.

I've read this, too.

The Oswald Bastable books are also among his underrated.

I think I've read almost all of Moorcock's writings, much like Phil Dick, so I have the dubious distinction of being both a Dickhead and a Cockhead.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I think it helps that it wasn't really produced in the way a lot of your present day doorstopper fantasy sagas are, where the author hammers the whole thing out in sequence. He wrote an Elric story when he wanted to and had an idea for one. It doesn't feel like ever got caught in the trap where he had to keep cranking out the Popular Thing.

Shout out to my personal favorite minor Moorcock, The War Hound and the World's Pain, interesting little fantasy set during the Thirty Years War.

I mean, considering we're apparently getting an End to the Eternal Champion somewhat soon, it's gotta be a contender for the longest running series.

 

[Commander Shepard]

Haven't posted here in awhile.

Currently working through all of the Aubrey-Maturin books (Master and Commander books) by by Patrick O'Brian.

Whether you're a fan of naval warfare, history, or just want a snapshot of the Napoleonic Wars time period from a few different POVs, then you'll probably enjoy it. Don't be turned off by all the naval vernacular as most of it is explained and the rest isn't necessary to enjoy the story. I'm currently on Book 15: The Truelove and I'm slowing down a little as I near the end mostly because I believe O'Brian passed away before he could finish the series.

I especially enjoy the sheer wealth of examples of positive, male companionship and friendship. That sort of thing seems either lacking in modern novels or forcefully inserted in an obviously homoerotic way for reasons.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

How'd Herbert call this so many years ahead of his time?

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I'm enjoying James Blish's Surface Tension. Looking forward to getting to Case for Conscience and Cities in Flight someday. He seems underrated.

 

[AnOminous]

I'm enjoying James Blish's Surface Tension. Looking forward to getting to Case for Conscience and Cities in Flight someday. He seems underrated.

It's a rare SF novel that contrasts Catholic beliefs with a species without religion who nevertheless act morally almost as if by instinct. I can't think of many SF novels that explicitly address Catholicism other than Walter M. Miller, Jr. in A Canticle for Leibowitz.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

It's a rare SF novel that contrasts Catholic beliefs with a species without religion who nevertheless act morally almost as if by instinct. I can't think of many SF novels that explicitly address Catholicism other than Walter M. Miller, Jr. in A Canticle for Leibowitz.

add on a Quest for Saint Aquin by Anthony Boucher. It's a short story, but it does kinda have Catholic beliefs in it that get addressed.

Anyways my copy of Williamson's Darker than You Think came today, been waiting to snatch it for a reasonably cheap price. Also got Vol. 1 of the Seabury Quinn Jules de Grandin stories.

 

[argopilled]

Almost done with serotonin by houellebecq (it's been a slog to get through), 80% of the way through haunting of hill house, 75% of the way through metro 2033. I'm hoping to finish all 3 this month since I'm not letting myself buy anything else until I finish atleast 2.

Regardless, I've been interested in reading a non-PR'd account of the AIDS crisis and am debating between "faggots" by Larry kramer or "and the band played on" if anyone has read either I'd love to hear about it.

 

[Pomniman]

Just started The Pale King. I've heard this is supposedly his best book (already read the other ones years ago, wouldn't call myself a fan but I didn't hate them either) despite being unfinished and dug up after he killed himself. While I do find it amusing for what it is so far, there's a kind of hokeyness to how much reverence the typical neurotic washed up David Foster Wallace quasi self-insert character has for the IRS that makes it impossible to take seriously. Besides the botched attempt at quitting antidepressants I can see why he killed himself if this is what all his ideas about "new sincerity" amounted to near the end.

 

[Biggie Smalls' Taint]

To conmemorate the Internet Archive's defeat at the hands of some publishers, I will torture myself by reading a Chuck Wendig novel. Chuck was the massive, quivering faggot who started this whole mess because he thought his precious works were being pirated off IA, and he wasn't getting his cut of the pie.

Well, I'm going to read Star Wars Empire End Aftermath. I got a copy from a sadistic anon over at /lit/ a few years ago. I have read a few pages here and there, and it is genuinely some of the worst writing I have ever seen. This time, I will read it cover to cover. Why? Because fuck Chuck, I must sneed, and I like a good hate-read.

Thoughts so far: It's written in present tense, so for that alone I want to throw bricks at Chuck. If you think it would be better to read Cuck's original work instead of this (to get the full force of The Chuckster) let me know and I'll get on it.

Edit: "Imperial currency has crashed hard, cratering with meteoric impact."
I sighed as the elevator began to shake, vibrating with motion. That imperial currency line is a crime, it's a horrible, filthy crime on language and Chuck is a word-terrorist.

 

[glass_houses]

I've got five to ten half read books lying around at any one time, it's been difficult for me to scrape up the interest to finish anything for a long time now. So anything that grabs my attention and holds it is something of a rarity.

The latest rarity is an 80s pulp horror by Graham Masterton, called Mirror. It's far from fine literature but I'm enjoying it immensely. It's about a Z tier screenwriter who develops an extremely creepy obsession with a seven year old child film star, murdered by his grandmother in the 1930s. The screenwriter writes a musical about the child- named 'Boofuls' swear to god- and is shocked, shocked I tell you! when his various contacts tell him that his musical is career cyanide. He buys an antique mirror that hung in the room where Boofuls was murdered, and discovers (rather predictability) that the mirror is a haunted portal to the spirit realm that contains the ghost of a very angry little boy. So far the kill count is only two cats, but the screenwriter appears to be gearing up to feed his landlord's very young grandson to the mirror, and I'm looking forward to it.

It's awful. I love it. It's been a long time since I enjoyed reading something this much. I might even finish it.

 

[Hweeks]

Finished two Sherlock Holmes novels and now I'm reading All Creatures Great and Small. The Sherlock novels were good, but followed the same pattern. I don't think I want to read any more after those two.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

To conmemorate the Internet Archive's defeat at the hands of some publishers, I will torture myself by reading a Chuck Wendig novel. Chuck was the massive, quivering faggot who started this whole mess because he thought his precious works were being pirated off IA, and he wasn't getting his cut of the pie.

Well, I'm going to read Star Wars Empire End Aftermath. I got a copy from a sadistic anon over at /lit/ a few years ago. I have read a few pages here and there, and it is genuinely some of the worst writing I have ever seen. This time, I will read it cover to cover. Why? Because fuck Chuck, I must sneed, and I like a good hate-read.

Thoughts so far: It's written in present tense, so for that alone I want to throw bricks at Chuck. If you think it would be better to read Cuck's original work instead of this (to get the full force of The Chuckster) let me know and I'll get on it.

Edit: "Imperial currency has crashed hard, cratering with meteoric impact."
I sighed as the elevator began to shake, vibrating with motion. That imperial currency line is a crime, it's a horrible, filthy crime on language and Chuck is a word-terrorist.

Wendig sounds like a brainlet. He never used IA, right?

Also, christ, did he have a dad who owned a publishing company? This writing is horrible.

I've got five to ten half read books lying around at any one time, it's been difficult for me to scrape up the interest to finish anything for a long time now. So anything that grabs my attention and holds it is something of a rarity.

The latest rarity is an 80s pulp horror by Graham Masterton, called Mirror. It's far from fine literature but I'm enjoying it immensely. It's about a Z tier screenwriter who develops an extremely creepy obsession with a seven year old child film star, murdered by his grandmother in the 1930s. The screenwriter writes a musical about the child- named 'Boofuls' swear to god- and is shocked, shocked I tell you! when his various contacts tell him that his musical is career cyanide. He buys an antique mirror that hung in the room where Boofuls was murdered, and discovers (rather predictability) that the mirror is a haunted portal to the spirit realm that contains the ghost of a very angry little boy. So far the kill count is only two cats, but the screenwriter appears to be gearing up to feed his landlord's very young grandson to the mirror, and I'm looking forward to it.

It's awful. I love it. It's been a long time since I enjoyed reading something this much. I might even finish it.

Sounds fun. If you want more pulpy weird fiction/horror, there's always the Weird Tales magazine writers like Seabury Quinn or Robert Bloch.

Finished two Sherlock Holmes novels and now I'm reading All Creatures Great and Small. The Sherlock novels were good, but followed the same pattern. I don't think I want to read any more after those two.

aren't there only like 2 novels, but a shitload of short fiction.

 

[not william stenchever]

I read the first book of the next series that the guys who wrote The Expanse put out called The Mercy of the Gods. Premise is that hyper-expansionist aliens find a lost colony of humanity that doesn't remember where they even came from and enact their usual policy of murdering an eighth of their population from orbit and then stealing all the people who are leaders in their field from the conquered world and bringing them back to the core worlds to be tested for their utility. I am excited to see where this series is going.

 

[Hweeks]

Good point - to clarify I have a collection of the novels and something like 40 short stories.

 

[Jewthulhu]

I've been trying to read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" but it's kind of been a slog. I like science, but I'm 300 pages in and it's still going over the history of the basic science behind fission, before WWII even kicked off.

Debating shelving it for a bit and ordering a few books to read instead.