What are you reading right now?

[Meat Target]

Promise of Blood, the first book of Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy. Friends were raving about it, so I had to check it out.

Spoiler: Synopsis

It's a flintlock fantasy series about a general who is reforming society after deposing a Louis XVI-tier piece of shit king, while also keeping the late king's foreign and domestic allies at bay. Meanwhile, a retired police inspector is investigating rumors of an ancient "broken promise" supposedly made by this universe's equivalent of Jesus.

McClellan studied under Brandon Sanderson and Orson Scott Card, and it shows, with the pseudo-Napoleonic setting, the unusual magic system, and the autistic worldbuilding details.

 

[One_True_Yuri]

After finishing Manslayer, a friend recommended to me the Xeelee Sequence after telling me it was the most grimdark scifi setting in fiction.
From what I understand.... mmmm the only close comparison is warhammer 40k in terms of setting but thats nowhere near close or in type of grimdark

The best way to describe it is Warhammer 40k is grimdark Warcraft in Space then the Xeelee Sequence is extremelly dark Fallout Old World Blues in space
An example of this, and Im drawing a comparison to the book City of Ember to contrast here, in City of Ember there is a scene where a child who has never seen a blue sky and has only known a black sky with flood lights is coloring a picture of her city and she has no black crayon, so he finds a blue one and uses that to color the sky and thinks that a blue sky looks weird but right
In the book Xeelee Sequence Raft, a man working on a big... nebula station thing around a long dead and solidified iron core of a star, remembers he was once told by his parents that there are places out there where the sky is blue and not a rust red, so he tries to imagine a blue sky, but cant. He cant because he has never in his life ever seen the color blue and has to conjour up imagery of what blue may be like.

 

[Hweeks]

The Hunt for Red October - never read it or saw the movie and it looks interesting.

 

[Shakira Flabbergasted]

Just started Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It's about an adult retard who undergoes experimental brain surgery and quickly becomes as intelligent as normal people. I went in blind and the only thing I know is the premise. Supposedly it's a classic. No spoilers, please!

I'm late but I love that book. There's one passage that stuck with me, about how the language for mental retardation keeps changing because the old terms become politically incorrect. Tell us what you think when you finish.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

I'm late but I love that book. There's one passage that stuck with me, about how the language for mental retardation keeps changing because the old terms become politically incorrect. Tell us what you think when you finish.

I liked the whole deal where

Spoiler: spoilers

Charley, at the peak of his IQ, still has leftover resentment and self-esteem issues because he's aware of what he was. I found the entire second half where he's on the decline to be fucking heartbreaking.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

I was chatting with an older Latin American woman recently and mentioned having read and enjoyed Mario Vargas Llosa's Captain Pantoja and the Special Service but hating The War of the End of the World. She encouraged me to give MVL another shot and recommended Feast of the Goat, and it is indeed much better.

Edit: I've also been slowly working through Psychic Dictatorship in the USA. A slow read for sure, and less schizo than the title suggests (though still pretty out there).

 

[YourFriendlyLurker 2.0]

Quick synopsis of what I read recently:

Non-fiction

1) Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity by Dodson & Ikram - a fundamental book for anyone interested in Egyptian mummies. Rich descriptions, has pics.
2) The complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Wilkinson - a descriptive catalogue of what the title says. Again, if you wanna know something of Egyptian religion, the book is a must.
3) Satan by Burton & Russel - early Christian views on Satan. Would not recommend, if one has poor knowledge of early Christianity. Otherwise, interesting.
4) Very Important People by Mears - how the promoting industry functions and why looks matter regardless of what Plebbit says

Fiction

1) Migrations by McConaghy - an odd one. It is decently written (by modern standards) and the whole premise feels alright, however eventually you end up quite puzzled (to put it lightly) by the MC which, I suppose, is a part of a goal. In short, if you look for "likable characters" (personally, I don't), DNI. Otherwise, if you look for something moody and odd, might give it a shot.
2) Du hattest gehen sollen by Kielman - very much typical "damned estate" horror
3) Short Stories by Proulx - good old southern gothic. Some very good (Brokenback Mountain) some more mediocre but all beautifully written. I enjoyed the prose.
4) Solaris and Eden by Lem - 1) there are ZERO good adaptations of Solaris existing. The book is great 2) Eden - this book fucked me up especially the ending. A way to be blackpilled on civilization and humanity.
5) Into the Drowning Deep by Grant - YA horror about mermaids with SCI-FI flavor. EXTREMLY overwritten to the extent that the author brackets extra text. 3/10.
6) The Luminous Dead by Starling - YA horror about caves. Great premise and promising start but bland overall. Also, overwritten.

 

[Head Muggle]

Quick synopsis of what I read recently:

Non-fiction

1) Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity by Dodson & Ikram - a fundamental book for anyone interested in Egyptian mummies. Rich descriptions, has pics.
2) The complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Wilkinson - a descriptive catalogue of what the title says. Again, if you wanna know something of Egyptian religion, the book is a must.
3) Satan by Burton & Russel - early Christian views on Satan. Would not recommend, if one has poor knowledge of early Christianity. Otherwise, interesting.
4) Very Important People by Mears - how the promoting industry functions and why looks matter regardless of what Plebbit says

Fiction

1) Migrations by McConaghy - an odd one. It is decently written (by modern standards) and the whole premise feels alright, however eventually you end up quite puzzled (to put it lightly) by the MC which, I suppose, is a part of a goal. In short, if you look for "likable characters" (personally, I don't), DNI. Otherwise, if you look for something moody and odd, might give it a shot.
2) Du hattest gehen sollen by Kielman - very much typical "damned estate" horror
3) Short Stories by Proulx - good old southern gothic. Some very good (Brokenback Mountain) some more mediocre but all beautifully written. I enjoyed the prose.
4) Solaris and Eden by Lem - 1) there are ZERO good adaptations of Solaris existing. The book is great 2) Eden - this book fucked me up especially the ending. A way to be blackpilled on civilization and humanity.
5) Into the Drowning Deep by Grant - YA horror about mermaids with SCI-FI flavor. EXTREMLY overwritten to the extent that the author brackets extra text. 3/10.
6) The Luminous Dead by Starling - YA horror about caves. Great premise and promising start but bland overall. Also, overwritten.

I didn't know Kehlmann wrote Horror. I'm checking this out asap.

 

[Foxymophandlemama]

The Collector by John Fowles

I am enjoying it so far. I have roughly 50 pages left.

 

[Head Muggle]

I finished Lords of Silence today. An excellent read. My favorite Warhammer-book of the few I read (only this, the AdMech book in the Horus Heresy and the first Ciaphas Cain anthology).

It follows Chaos Space Marines who follow Nurgle. The plot is less important than showing awesome space fighting and how freaky yet devotional the followers of Nurgle are. Their Siegemaster Vorx is deeply religious and fully believes in the utopia of sickness Nurgle promises. His actions are motivated by his religion or by the orders of his Primarch Mortarion who is just as deeply devout.

‘What do you want, siegemaster?’ Dragan asks.
For a moment, the question floors him. He has not been asked it for a long time, but now he feels that it lurks everywhere, on everyone’s lips. The universe has long since been a place where wants are never indulged – it has been needs for millennia, the endless grind of survival, plunder, the harrying run from bolthole to bolthole.
But Dragan is right. There are choices now. A tyranny of them. They demand better answers, new answers, ones that may not issue from the mouths of primarchs.
‘I want the games to end,’ Vorx says, almost to himself. ‘I want the struggle to cease. I want the truth to be recognised.’
‘But the games have no end. All there is, is the game.’
That is the orthodoxy, spun out of a lifetime in the Eye’s endless churn. There will always be four gods, it is said, balanced against one another in perpetual contest, toying with the mortal plane and raging with the immortal. That is why Dragan envies the Despoiler’s hordes. He envies the Word Bearers and their undivided allegiance. He does not yet fully understand Vorx’s true belief, the reason why he has never taken an order from anyone but Mortarion.

Some characterization goes missing in favor of a plot twist but who cares? It's over the top sci fi slop. In the grim Darkness of the far future, the happiest bunch are a bunch of semi-conscious moldy corpses.

I'll be reading something else next and when I get back to Warhammer I'll check out the Word Bearers. They made an appearance in this novel too.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

Finished the first volume of Black Company after putting it down for a month. The last couple of chapters are excellent. I didn't think I was that into it before but at the end I want to see where the story goes in volume 2. I'll pick it up at some point.

I'm into the first couple chapters of Blood Meridian. I was never that big into westerns but the absolute grime of everything makes the book interesting. Looking forward to getting further into it.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

Leigh Brackett's Sword of Rhiannon (also known as Sea-Kings of Mars) is a hell of a fast-paced and rather tightly written novel. This is a Sword & Planet story, a "planetary romance". The world-building is carefully done. We see the various races, the politics, the history, and everything else all introduced to us rather organically. In all honesty, there's not much else I can say about this. The action's solid, the characters are fairly vividly realized, and the twists and turns are all in good fun. I will say that, for a good portion, the Martian sea kept getting described as akin to a white flame.

There's a lot to learn about writing from Leigh Brackett. Everything is concise, sharp, and it all keeps a sense of momentum. She manages to paint quite vivid and descriptive scenery, characters, and action that all comes in such a crystal clear manner. Yet, it's done with this careful economy of prose. Nothing's wasted.

Easily a banger of a story and it seems there's a lot more with her "Solar System" setting. It's a damned shame the Haffner Press stuff's the only physical collection of all her planetary romances. I mean, Baen did whip up all her Solar System stuff into ebooks. I'm also aware of the Fantasy Masterworks volume of Brackett (I'd have to be terribly lucky to find that) and the Paizo Planet Stories reprint. I read the mass market paperback with the hooded reptilian on the cover.

Brackett's a writer that I 100% will return to. I do have the Books of Skaith and "Best of Leigh Brackett" books the SFBC put out in the '70s. Although, it seems getting all of her "Solar System" stuff in physical editions will require some absurd luck. I'd love to get Sword of Rhiannon and Secret of Sinharat in the Paizo edition, but it seems I'll have to be lucky. Man, if only Haffner Press wasn't so fucking limited.

 

[Rustle]

Reading Norwegian Wood, very good.

Have you all seen this awful article? https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/against-high-brodernism/

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

Reading Norwegian Wood, very good.

Have you all seen this awful article? https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/against-high-brodernism/

what on earth is this article, sheesh. It's pretentious.

Read some of the Saberhagen Berserker stories from the first collection. It's neat. You can tell Saberhagen has some neat ideas and understands his limitations as a writer. "Goodlife" has a really beautifully tragic idea in it, but Saberhagen's not quite up to executing it that well, so it seems he just tried to tell a fun tale while keeping the idea there. Definitely want to read more of him.

Also read some H. Beam Piper. Fun writer.

 

[Neodanthril]

the aubury maturin can be subtitled as follows
book 1: the best Napoleonic naval combat historical fiction ever put to paper
book 2: what good pussy does to a MFer, the book.
books 3-5: oscillating between the topics of the first two books
books 5-whichever one i stopped reading: increasingly zany setups to get the main characters into the right place for the next historical battles, and maturin being the libtardest of libtards in the early 1800s.

been listening to the ciaphas cain audiobooks again, and they are probably the books i have reread/relistened to the most at this point. tried to start some new ones but i have learned the hard way that my media server program is not up to the task for audiobooks and will start them up again after i have made the switch.

 

[LordOfZhbagva]

Finished Downbelow station, almost great, still quite an enjoyable book, I can give it a reserved recommendation. It almost fits into grimdark, but luckily avoids it and manages to feel surprisingly real for a sci-fi book. Signy Mallory is great, Mazian is great, Azov is great, the Constantines are great, Josh is great, yet the story never hits a real high for me. I'll eventually continue reading works by C.J. Cherryh.

I've also tried reading Land between the rivers by Bartle Bull. I did not finish it. I got to the part after Alexander the Great finishes his conquests and his generals start fragmenting his realm and realized this book isn't about Iraqi history, but is instead about cool moments the author liked in Iraqi history, not connected by any historical explanations and that it didn't provide adequate (or frankly, any new) information for me about Iraqi history (even with my extremely limited knowledge about it) and that it was a very disappointing read as of that point, so I simply stopped reading it. I do not recommend it at all. I'll check the A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani next.

Finished the first volume of Black Company after putting it down for a month. The last couple of chapters are excellent. I didn't think I was that into it before but at the end I want to see where the story goes in volume 2. I'll pick it up at some point.

The Black Company probably has the worst first half of any book I suffered to read through. It's incomplete, unsatisfactorily described, disorienting and frankly, boring, but grows on you after a while.

 

[Angel by Massive Attack]

I just started Der Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. It's probably my favorite work of his so far; Harry Haller reminds me of a lot of people I've met and a bit of myself. I'm not very far into it, but it feels almost like a foil or deconstruction of his previous more "coming-of-age" centered works.

 

[Lovely Kin]

Just finished "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" The ending is still as chilling as I remember it.

 

[glass_houses]

I just started The Day of the Locust and tripped over

Spoiler: this individual

Unexpected.

 

[Bob Faget]

Just finished blood meridian, never felt the urge to read in my life, but i kept hearing so much good things about this book(as well as seeing redditors cope and sneed over violcence and the use of slurs) that i decided to pick it up. And goddamn, its fucking incredible, hard to get through sometimes but its so worth it. Has given me and urge to start reading as a hobby. Im going to start fight club next, loved the movie and ive heard the book is great too. If not better in ways.