What are you reading right now?

[Commander X]

Having read some of this series out of order, I finally got around to reading Little Elvises, the second of Timothy Hallinan's series about Junior Bender, a professional thief who has gained an unwanted reputation as an unofficial PI for underworld types. In Elvises, Bender has problems by the score, his ex-wife that he still has some feelings for has a new boyfriend, and his 13-year old daughter Rina has gotten her first boyfriend and he does not approve. Bender, who lives out of hotels for usually no longer than a month at a time, has been asked by his current landlady, manager of an old Santa-and-his-Reindeer-themed hotel, to help locate her daughter, who's run off with a cad who may be more dangerous than he appears. Plus, one Lt. DiGaudio of the L.A.P.D. threatens to frame Junior for a home invasion at a judge’s house - even though violent home invasions aren't Bender's style - unless Junior finds a way to get the cop’s elderly uncle out of a murder rap.

Vinnie DiGaudio was a music producer in Philadelphia back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He got rich by recruiting a bunch of no-talent pretty boys, fixing their hair and teaching them how to imitate Elvis Presley (similar to such real life "rock stars" of the time like Len Barry, Johnny Caswell or Johnny Madara). Most of them had very short-lived music careers. Now, sleazy tabloid reporter Derek Bigelow is dead, murdered and Vinnie, who had threatened the man publicly, looks very good for it, but he insists someone else beat him to it.

Partly complicating the cases, Bigelow was found dead on the Walk of Fame star belonging to "Giorgio". As Rina, who was writing a school paper on these "Little Elvises" informs her dad, Giorgio was the "most pathetic" of DiGaudio's stable, a man-child possessed of exceptional beauty but not talent and was absolutely terrified every time he stepped in front of a camera.

It wasn’t that he was tone-deaf. It was more like what he heard in his head was music in whole new keys, keys that had never been played on earthly instruments. It was like the music of the spheres, if the spheres were large, wavering, formless, gelatinous globs of anti-music. And poor Giorgio knew it. His acting was awful, but when he was singing, you could actually feel the kid’s pain. He knew exactly how terrible he was. I felt like I was looking at a dancing bear that had been forced to watch Fred Astaire movies just before he got shoved onstage.

Giorgio had a brief career on TV and film, then suddenly quit while shooting a movie in Hawaii, and then died in a house fire in 1963. But all that and any of the shady dealings in DiGaudio's scene, including those of the Mob, were decades ago, no one would be interested or invested in any of that now, surely...

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I've been recommended Gordon R. Dickson. Any thoughts on him?

 

[ScurvyRat]

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Enjoying it quite a bit. Equal parts disgusting and sad. Takes getting dissolved by sperm whale stomach acid like a chad.

This one has been on my list for a minute.

 

[Sergeant Major Buzzkill]

Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” is demanding my attention for a second read. It’s been a comfort to me since I’ve been adjusting to uni life.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I’m keeping up the trend of reading books by people who famously had high I.Q.’s in history. The next one is by the man who was reported to have an I.Q. between 250 and 300, William James Sidis:



The book reportedly was about his musings surrounding subjects tackling cosmology, physics and astronomy, just to name a few.

 

[A pig by Jove!]

I read Butcher's Crossing recently. The most enjoyable parts for me where those set in the valley. I have a soft spot for stories that are about surviving in a harsh environment. On the other hand, I felt somewhat disappointed that it wasn't more similar to Blood Meridian, but by my own fault, I shouldn't have read a book wanting it to be something else.

I haven't read Stoner yet, now I want to.

If you're checking out John Williams' output and are in any way interested in historical fiction I highly recommend Augustus. Everyone's too busy jerking off Stoner to talk about it, but in my opinion it's his best novel. Easily one of the most beautiful epilogues I've ever read.

 

[Hinttitroniikka]

I'm beta-reading the first draft of my friend's new horror novel. It's not the kind of thing I'd usually read, and it has a child sacrifice element I shy away from. But it's a good friend and I think he's a pretty good writer, and the timing is great because my irl bookclub recently dissolved so I have nowhere else to analyse books. This first draft is a real fuckin stinker, tbh, and I can't wait to tell him how much I hate half of it and love the other half. I'm excited to see the end result.

 

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Finished reading The Abyss, by Jere Cunningham. a 1981 horror novel that recently got reprinted in the Paperbacks From Hell line.

It's set in a small Tennessee town, and it's about the reopening of a mineshaft that's been abandoned for decades. Locals enjoy the jobs and money it brings, but it turns out that if they dig too deep, all Hell will be unleashed on Earth.

The book is just kinda okay.

It's not as schlocky as the cover makes it look. It's actually pretty slow paced, and when demonic creatures actually do appear, they aren't described in great detail.

A problem was that I didn't really care much about any of the characters. Many of them are sad, broken rednecks with big character flaws just drifting through life, working jobs they hate to keep food on the table, while blowing the rest on beer and whores. It's a bummer.

It picks up a lot towards the end. Hell is indeed unleashed, and the way it's all described is pretty interesting and psychedelic. So yeah, Hell is unleashed, and everybody dies. I think the very end implies that the group of characters we've been following are going to Heaven/being raptured, so I guess it's not a COMPLETELY unhappy ending.

But there's important plot stuff that I wish was explored in more detail, but isn't.

I give it a 5 outta 10.

 

[Biggie Smalls' Taint]

I'm beta-reading the first draft of my friend's new horror novel. It's not the kind of thing I'd usually read, and it has a child sacrifice element I shy away from. But it's a good friend and I think he's a pretty good writer, and the timing is great because my irl bookclub recently dissolved so I have nowhere else to analyse books. This first draft is a real fuckin stinker, tbh, and I can't wait to tell him how much I hate half of it and love the other half. I'm excited to see the end result.

I would like to read it. Don't worry, I won't call your friend a niggerfaggot.

I've been on a horror kick lately. Read The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker and Lakehouse Infernal by Christie Morgan.

Hellbound heart is a novella where a guy solves a puzzle box to get supernatural pleasure from beyond but ends up getting sucked so hard he gets locked in the pain dimension. It's very interesting, well written, spooky and with some great plot twists and a thrilling final act.

Lakehouse Infernal is about the events that happen around a lake in Florida that gets swapped with a lake from hell, turning the area into a fetid, bloody wasteland and mutating everything. It's shlocky, gorey, disgusting and fast-paced. Some of the characters were props to get killed, and it ends when it gets really interesting, setting up an obvious sequel, but it was a fun read. The final scene was pretty revolting. Imagine someone twirling pasta with a fork, and you'll get an idea of what happens.

 

[Hinttitroniikka]

I would like to read it. Don't worry, I won't call your friend a niggerfaggot.

He uses his real name for writing, and is a very small-time deal, so it would feel like dox if I shared his first book here (this second one won't be out for a while). I'll ask him later what he thinks. Your Hellbound Heart thing sounds a lot like Hellraiser, is it the same universe?

 

[Biggie Smalls' Taint]

He uses his real name for writing, and is a very small-time deal, so it would feel like dox if I shared his first book here (this second one won't be out for a while). I'll ask him later what he thinks. Your Hellbound Heart thing sounds a lot like Hellraiser, is it the same universe?

It's the story that Hellraiser was based on. He wrote it then turned it into a movie franchise (Clive Barker himself directed the first one, not sure about the other 10). I thought he had written other books in that universe but apparently that turned into a movie only thing, with the next real Hellraiser book coming out in 2015.

You could PM me the link to the book, but I would understand of you're not comfortable doing that.

 

[Gaear Grimsrud]

I also read Spiderman: Hostile Takeover. The prequel to the 2018 Insomniac game.

The plot concerns Spiderman joining forces with cop Yuri Watanabe to find the dirt that will bring down the Kingpin. Spiderman also has to deal with villains Echo and Blood Spider, who are connected to Fisk.

This is just okay too. You're definitely not missing anything vital by not reading it.

The tedious aspect of it is Mary Jane. She and Peter just seem to be continually having this argument that goes-

"Mary Jane, you gotta stop putting yourself in harms way to get the big scoop!"

"I'm a strong, independent woman, Peter! I gotta do this!"

It gets old.

And It's kinda awkward how they keep writing around Otto Octavius. He never actually appears, and Peter just refers to him as "The Boss". I guess because they weren't advertising that he was in the game.

A small nitpick I have is the "Spider Cop" thing from the game. The game treats it like a long running gag between Spiderman and Yuri, but it never comes up in the novel, and the novel spans their first meeting, to the very beginning of the game. Happened off-page, I guess.

 

[LatinasAreTheFuture]

I’m working on Dampier’s A History of Science and its relation to Philosophy and Religion. I’m about halfway done, it’s pretty good though it flies through subjects rather quickly but that’s to be expected out of a single volume text

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Am reading Super Mario Bros 3: Brick By Brick by Bob Chipman. It's both a really funny unintentional comedy (MovieBob is great at accidental build up to a joke) but also is a genuine expression of past youth in the 80s and 90s. It's also a window into Moviebob's self centered insanity especially in the later pages. It's worth the read even if you don't care about the lolcow and if you feel bad about your own writing, this book will make you feel better as you can see all the non proof read mistakes.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Finished Zelazny's Lord of Light, Heinlein's Double Star, and Leinster's First Contact. Solid stuff. Next SF book in this anthology is Bester's The Stars, My Destination. Might take a break to go read the second Elric book or maybe Swords and Deviltry.

 

[cold comfort]

Flee - Evan Dara: I loved his (? Dara is anonymous and writes under a pseudonym) first book, The Lost Scrapbook. Unfortunately this one, a postmodern fragmented story about the economic collapse of 2008, was quite similar in style and theme but worse in every way. I’ll still try his other books but expectations will be adjusted.

The Inverted World - Christopher Priest: Excellent fun. Loved the sci-fi mystery combo and the trickle of information you get. Part of it isn’t that hard to figure out but I still found it gripping to the end. I just wish I hadn’t read the blurb, it gives away too much of the set-up. Really I would have liked to go in completely blind, like not even knowing that the city is on rails.

The Cuckoo's Calling - J.K. Rowling: Engaging to read clue and pacing-wise but I couldn’t get over how much I didn’t like the characters. Most of them were drug/alcohol addicts, homeless people, smokers, adulterers, wannabe actors, vapid skanks, abusive husbands, etc. I found it all a bit miserable.

To Each This World - Julie E. Czerneda: Recent sci-fi novel about the people of New Earth who are in an alliance with an alien species. But when a probe from another human colony arrives it turns out both parties don’t understand each other as well as they thought. I enjoyed this a lot. Again there’s an element of mystery, and I liked the way it all got resolved. It extols curiosity, empathy, and cooperation as well as realism, resoluteness, and self-sacrifice.

 

[AnOminous]

Might take a break to go read the second Elric book or maybe Swords and Deviltry.

You might think he's a Communist faggot (he is) but he could bring some mean sword and sorcery. He was also one of the better New Wave skiffy writers.

Some of his more mature and literary work is excellent, too. Mother London is a standout.

I was also fascinated by his Eternal Champion motif that goes through Elric and the Corum books and most of his SF/Fantasy output, to the point I adopted it in my RPG campaigns, having archetype characters (sometimes with the same name) showing up in any campaign in any genre. My favorite was actually an Eternal Accountant, an NPC I'd put with most parties to handle boring money stuff so the players didn't have to spend time on that, but who was also a badass in his own right.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

You might think he's a Communist faggot (he is) but he could bring some mean sword and sorcery. He was also one of the better New Wave skiffy writers.

Some of his more mature and literary work is excellent, too. Mother London is a standout.

I was also fascinated by his Eternal Champion motif that goes through Elric and the Corum books and most of his SF/Fantasy output, to the point I adopted it in my RPG campaigns, having archetype characters (sometimes with the same name) showing up in any campaign in any genre. My favorite was actually an Eternal Accountant, an NPC I'd put with most parties to handle boring money stuff so the players didn't have to spend time on that, but who was also a badass in his own right.

Man I liked Elric's first book. It was tight. I got the first 2 volumes of the Saga Press anthologies and look forward to reading them. Also got the Nomad of the Time Stream collection because I wanted to read what was apparently the first major "steampunk" stories as we know them.

 

[AnOminous]

Man I liked Elric's first book. It was tight. I got the first 2 volumes of the Saga Press anthologies and look forward to reading them. Also got the Nomad of the Time Stream collection because I wanted to read what was apparently the first major "steampunk" stories as we know them.

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

 

[Donut Coma]

To Each This World - Julie E. Czerneda: Recent sci-fi novel about the people of New Earth who are in an alliance with an alien species. But when a probe from another human colony arrives it turns out both parties don’t understand each other as well as they thought. I enjoyed this a lot. Again there’s an element of mystery, and I liked the way it all got resolved. It extols curiosity, empathy, and cooperation as well as realism, resoluteness, and self-sacrifice.

I love Czerneda. The Species Imperative trilogy is one of my favorites. Haven't finished all the Web Shifters series yet...well, I'm 2 books in out of 7. I almost wish Beholder's Eye was a standalone instead because it was complete and satisfying. But I'll work my way through unless the series tanks.