What are you reading right now?

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Just finished Spark, by John Twelve Hawks. About a near future hit man who thinks he is dead after suffering a near fatal accident, a psychological condition called Cotard's Syndrome. The protagonist has this whole nutty psychological system where defines something similar to a soul as his "spark," with his body being his "shell." Since he can't feel fear or much of anything really, he doesn't set off sensors available in the story that would indicate him as a threat through involuntary things like inceases in pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperature.

I liked it, in a four stars out of five way, but I can see why a lot of readers would consider it pretentious, silly and at points incoherent. Some excellent action scenes, particularly at the beginning through the first half. Biggest issues being a rushed ending and a sense that the author seems to think he is a great deal smarter and knowledgeable than he actually is with the pages and pages of philosophical navel gazing.

The author is also kinda of eyerolling with his claims about living completely "off-grid" and being anonymous. Yeah, I'm sure Doubleday is giving him his royalties in nonsequential tens and twenties in brown paper bags at highway rest areas. Still, might give his earlier series, The Traveler, a re-read now. Spark at least managed to pique my interest, something very little fiction has managed to this year, sadly.
 
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Wodanaz said:
Lord of the Rings is definitely up there but the Dune books are my favorite if sci fi counts as fantasy to you.
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I've never read LOTR, I should, though. I've also never read the Dune books. I've seen both the movies, though. I really liked the first one, and I thought the second one was good but nothing special, I don't understand why people act like it's the second coming of Christ.
 
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Bigfootstinker said:
I have picrel. I'm excited to read it, eventually.
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The thing is, not all of the Conan stories are public domain, so I don't know what is and isn't in that one. But any R.E.H. is worthwhile.

Bigfootstinker said:
I've never read LOTR, I should, though. I've also never read the Dune books. I've seen both the movies, though. I really liked the first one, and I thought the second one was good but nothing special, I don't understand why people act like it's the second coming of Christ.
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I think Dune's one of those things that's transcended beyond just being a genre book and, unfortunately, redditors and normies got interested in it and treat it like the greatest SF book they've ever read. It's on my TBR list, but I do understand it's one of the most important SF books of all time. From what I've heard, Herbert's abilities as an SF writer are locked to Dune. He did other SF, but I don't hear a lot about The White Plague, Hellstrom's Hive, The Dragon and the Sea, etc.

Who knows, maybe they're fine reading. I know normies went up to read PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Man in the High Castle due to pop culture relevancy. Foundation, Ender's Game, Neuromancer, and some others are also part of this list of things that normies look into because they hear it being adapted. I'll add in Starship Troopers, I Robot, I am Legend, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with this. I'm all for normies finding out about this stuff. I love it all and seeing more people try it out is neat. Hope Simmons gets that Hyperion show running before he dies.
 
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Wodanaz said:
Lord of the Rings is definitely up there but the Dune books are my favorite if sci fi counts as fantasy to you.
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The Dune books are IMHO the best books out there for sci fi. I've read the entire series. Herbert's son isn't as good a writer as Herbert was but he followed the outline his father left so at least the story ends how it should.
 
Alexander Thaut said:
I don't know what is and isn't in that one.
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It contains all the stories that were publishes while Howard was still alive, and they're in chronological order instead of publication order so it makes more sense while reading it, at least that's what the book claims.

"It really doesn't make much sense to read a story where Conan is king and then to read about he being a pirate and never even dreamed of being king one day." Says the book.
 
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Bigfootstinker said:
I've never read LOTR, I should, though. I've also never read the Dune books. I've seen both the movies, though. I really liked the first one, and I thought the second one was good but nothing special, I don't understand why people act like it's the second coming of Christ.
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I could sperg endlessly about how the first movie is inoffensive as far as adaptations go, but the cracks really start to show in the second movie. Basically everything is changed for the worse. The most blindingly obvious thing if you read the books, is how much internal monologuing happens for every single character of note, and how it's all 100% totally absent from the film. For instance when Paul duels Jamis to prove himself to the Fremen, his mother Jessica basically narrates the whole fight in her head. At first she's concerned because Paul might not be ready, but then realizes how overpowered he is compared to this random desert rat. It's great and gives so much depth to every character. This isn't even a visual medium thing, since there are things like Death Note and Dexter which use internal monologuing to great effect.
I can only imagine how badly Villeneuve will butcher Messiah if he's serious about continuing. And of course if you go that far, it only makes sense to go all the way up to God Emperor. You can have the first book stand as its own story, but the following ones are basically just a big buildup to the fourth.
Bigfootstinker said:
What more can you really ask for?
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I can ask him not to work with a star wars fanfiction writer and churn out 20 prequels like some kind of deranged george lucas who never got the hint.
 
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Alexander Thaut said:
Yeah I've been just looking for copies as I drift through used bookstores of varying degrees. Got a copy of Earth Abides and Alas Babylon. On the Beach currently eludes me. It's one of those books that's stepped above just being "genre fiction" to "proper lit" so it's an inevitability, like 1984.


I feel like both volumes are historically interesting. Dipped into the first volume but stopped at the Farmer story. It a rough read and I felt tired. I'll definitely finish them, however.
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I remember the Farmer story. Riders of the Purple Wage. As much as a slog that was to get through, it's nothing compared to the story I skipped in ADV-With The Bentfin Boomer Boys On Little Old New Alabama. I was wrong about how long it is, it's over a hundred pages and broken up into several concurrent plotlines, one of which is the bizarre schizoid rambling I mentioned. It's unreadable. The rest of it was easier to follow and read. I knew there would be cultural references and slang and idioms that would be lost on me, the books being compiled years before I was born, but I just got impatient with the stream-of-consciousness-on-uppers approach and decided to go to the final DV book. Might return and properly finish ADV in the future but that won't be for awhile, if ever.
 
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DoomsdayElite said:
I remember the Farmer story. Riders of the Purple Wage. As much as a slog that was to get through, it's nothing compared to the story I skipped in ADV-With The Bentfin Boomer Boys On Little Old New Alabama. I was wrong about how long it is, it's over a hundred pages and broken up into several concurrent plotlines, one of which is the bizarre schizoid rambling I mentioned. It's unreadable. The rest of it was easier to follow and read. I knew there would be cultural references and slang and idioms that would be lost on me, the books being compiled years before I was born, but I just got impatient with the stream-of-consciousness-on-uppers approach and decided to go to the final DV book. Might return and properly finish ADV in the future but that won't be for awhile, if ever.
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oh yeah I just don't like the weird fucking stream of consciousness shit. It's just not fun.
 
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Bigfootstinker said:
What's your favourite fantasy book? I own a few but I've never really read much. The first one that I'm gonna read is Between Two Fires.
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Between Two Fires is fantastic and I recommend it to fantasy and horror fans alike.

My favorite fantasy novel is Deerskin by Robin McKinley. Low, dark fantasy and kind of slow-moving so might not be your thing. It's a take on the Donkeyskin fairy tale. One of the main plot elements is
the protagonist being violently raped by her father after he beats her dog nearly to death, her miscarriage, and her PTSD-induced amnesia
so I'm not sure if a man would like it (don't know any men who have read it, personally).

I loved The Golem and the Jinni. It's historical fiction/fantasy/romance about a golem and a jinni who cross paths in 1899 New York and fall in love. There's a sequel but I haven't gotten around to it. Also might not be your thing.

Also loved His Majesty's Dragon. It's a series but I've only read the first two. Historical fiction/fantasy. Dragons are real and implemented into different countries' militaries. A French Captain during the Napoleonic Wars has a rare dragon hatch for him and gets forced into the dragon Aerial Corps (high mortality rate and low pay so it sucks). This rare dragon is unusually intelligent so they form a bond and I'll be honest, I don't remember a ton about the broader plot because it's been like 10 years. But I remember really liking it.
 
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Bigfootstinker said:
This sounds pretty interesting. I watched all the How to Train your Dragon movies with my brother (we are both in our 20s) the other week, so I've got a bit of a dragon itch that needs scratching. Thanks for telling me about it.
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Do report back if you give it a read. The author is the co-founder of AO3 and is a prolific writer herself on there, which surprised me as Her Majesty's Dragon didn't read particularly fanfic-y to me.
 
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The Lottery and Other Short Stories by Shirley Jackson
These were nicely written, though a lot of them felt like character sketches and practice pieces for her later novels. I really came to appreciate her knack for writing a certain type of characters: timid, anxious, and insecure women with or without a cruel, passive-aggressive streak. It's not something you see much of in the modern day, where "permitted" female archetypes are very limited, and it's a strongly feminine set of flaws. If you want Cluster Bs you read Gillian Flynn, if you want Cluster Cs you read Shirley Jackson.

I Am A Cat by Natsume Soseki
I'm about halfway through this one. I only know this guy by reputation so this book has been much more comedic than I expected. Even when the subject turns morbid he keeps a dry sense of humor. It's odd but I can definitely see how modern Japanese pop culture descended from books like this. If you're watching something like Lucky Star or listening to a radio show, you get the same vibe of being an outside character listening to a bunch of friends shoot the breeze.

Wodanaz said:
I could sperg endlessly about how the first movie is inoffensive as far as adaptations go, but the cracks really start to show in the second movie. Basically everything is changed for the worse
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The changes they made to Chani really pissed me off (also cutting Harah). In the books it was good worldbuilding to show she's a product of her culture and largely unbothered by polygyny, and the Paul-Chani-Irulan dynamic was really interesting to watch evolve; in the movies she gets replaced by a generic Strong Female Character pod person. Not to mention those cringe atheist lines when the guy literally demonstrates psychic powers.
 
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Bigfootstinker said:
I see that it's got some sequels, what are those like? Any good?
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If memory serves, I found Throne of Jade to be very slow. Not bad, but slow. I have the third book but haven't gotten around to it yet because at the time I was in grad school and had to focus on my studies, and then I just kept forgetting to return to the series. I definitely recommend the first book, and give the sequel a shot if you enjoyed the first. If you thought the first was ehh, then don't continue.

Greedy Fly said:
I Am A Cat by Natsume Soseki
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Haven't read that yet but it is one of my favorite fountain pen inks.

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Forgot to address this:

Greedy Fly said:
The Lottery and Other Short Stories by Shirley Jackson
These were nicely written, though a lot of them felt like character sketches and practice pieces for her later novels. I really came to appreciate her knack for writing a certain type of characters: timid, anxious, and insecure women with or without a cruel, passive-aggressive streak. It's not something you see much of in the modern day, where "permitted" female archetypes are very limited, and it's a strongly feminine set of flaws. If you want Cluster Bs you read Gillian Flynn, if you want Cluster Cs you read Shirley Jackson.
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If you like timid, insecure female protagonists, try Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
 
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Wodanaz said:
I can only imagine how badly Villeneuve will butcher Messiah if he's serious about continuing. And of course if you go that far, it only makes sense to go all the way up to God Emperor. You can have the first book stand as its own story, but the following ones are basically just a big buildup to the fourth.
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I almost think it'd be better to skip to Heretics and reference God Emperor rather than do a standalone film. Heretics is such a total change of pace compared to GEoD, it's definitely the fastest-paced novel in the series with a ton of action.

The hard part is explaining the huge jump in technological advancement and use of computers in Heretics/Chapterhouse without God Emperor.
 
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