What are you reading right now?

ipoopbuttholes said:
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
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I loved The Way of Kings, but I thought Words of Radiance was barely passable. As for The Witcher, I'd only recommend the two short story collections. The rest of the main series is competent, but doesn't have anything worth reading for.

I've been reading through The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie; I'm currently on Last Argument of Kings and have been completely enamored with every page.
 
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if the light takes us said:
I loved The Way of Kings, but I thought Words of Radiance was barely passable. As for The Witcher, I'd only recommend the two short story collections. The rest of the main series is competent, but doesn't have anything worth reading for.

I've been reading through The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie; I'm currently on Last Argument of Kings and have been completely enamored with every page.
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Words of Radiance is by far the weakest entry in the series. However the part where "honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do" absolutely fucking POGS. Best moment in the series surrounded by the least compelling entry. The next book, Oathbringer, is amazing and you get a ton of Dalinar and his backstory.


Just started The Blade Itself on audiobook. Will report back with my thoughts.
 
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bird.up said:
Get me off Your Fucking Mailing List by David Mazières and Eddie Kohler
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I can kind of see what they were going for here, but the whole paper really suffered from the authors beating around the bush and not being at all specific. The diagrams were very unclear and it was often hard to work through the needlessly complex prose and convoluted reasoning. Honestly, the authors needed to put down their well thumbed thesaurus and get to the bloody point.
 
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Gay Baby Jailer said:
Blood Meridian-liked
Neuromancer-mostly liked, but molly kind of acts like the authors fanfiction if you ask me
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Part way thru Blood Meridian and loving it. The description of the moon and the sun creating a cosmic bore really stuck with me. Beautiful prose, compelling plot, and gruesome violence. Seriously 10/10
Neuromancer I love so much I think I've read it 3 times. I guess there are sequels, but I haven't touched them

gorgoroth7134 said:
I'm gonna regret posting this but The Horus Heresy. I started playing Darktide and now my friends are unironically making me get into 40k.
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The first couple are good, but I dropped that shit when I got to Fulgrim.
Sorry, I don't want to hear about how an artist is using her fecal matter and viscera from those she has killed for a painting. Ew. Gross. All my homies hate Slaanesh.
I'm an Ork player myself. If you're getting into the hobby just understand that like 90% of the people you are going to interact with are actual mouth breathing retards. Stick with your friends and be careful branching out. There are some truly unhinged sub-humans who will raise hell for you at the slightest indiscretion.
Also, read Brutal Kunnin. The best 40k books are the ork books (I'm not biased, this is objectively true)
 
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I’ve been on a Robert E Howard kick recently, and reading both Dark Agnes stories got me wondering- How did Howard, a man who wrote cheap stories aimed primarily at men, do a “feminist” protagonist right that modern Hollywood isn’t doing? Mind, Howard is a great author. But he’s the last person I think of when I think of women protagonists I would recommend to a woman (though I’ve only read a Solomon Kane compilation, a couple of the earlier Conan stories, the Dark Agnes duology, and Shadow of the Vulture, so I could be wrong on that).
 
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Finished Medea, that was really cool and I can understand why so many adaptions and retellings happened, it is truly a human story about humanity. Revenge versus love.

And the thing is: when the contest happened, this play was the dead last. All other that were in the competition are lost nowadays. But this one somehow was kept intact since the 431 BCE.

Now the last one in this book is by Aristófanes.
 
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Gingervitis said:
How did Howard, a man who wrote cheap stories aimed primarily at men, do a “feminist” protagonist right that modern Hollywood isn’t doing?
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Because Howard was a professional and a man dedicated to his craft, not some hack. Hollywood isn't interested in telling a good story with a likable hero, Hollywood is interested in preaching to you and getting paid to do so.

Tax: Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov

A collection of fictional tales based on Shalamov's fourteen year stay in Uncle Stalin's gulag camps in the far east region of Kolyma. I have several thoughts on the tales, namely the Soviets were bastards (as all communists are), bread is life and surprisingly despite the grim nature of the gulag and the freezing tundra, these are rather heart-warming tales. Maybe heart warming is the wrong phrase, maybe "hope giving" is a better phrase. I don't feel depressed reading these tales. Maybe that's just me though.
 
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Registration said:
Finished Medea, that was really cool and I can understand why so many adaptions and retellings happened, it is truly a human story about humanity. Revenge versus love.

And the thing is: when the contest happened, this play was the dead last. All other that were in the competition are lost nowadays. But this one somehow was kept intact since the 431 BCE.

Now the last one in this book is by Aristófanes.
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I had no idea Tyler Perry lived in Ancient Greece.

Thread tax: Maybe it’s just my zoomer brain. I feel like I enjoy shorter stories more than full length novels. Is this normal, is it just me getting old, or is this just a consequence of being a zellenial?
 
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Gingervitis said:
I had no idea Tyler Perry lived in Ancient Greece.

Thread tax: Maybe it’s just my zoomer brain. I feel like I enjoy shorter stories more than full length novels. Is this normal, is it just me getting old, or is this just a consequence of being a zellenial?
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It's just preference. I think constraints on storywriting, like length, can force some really interesting things to come out. My favourite things to write and to read are short stories. I don't know the term for poetry that tells a short story, but I like that too.

Tax: I've started Sylvie and Bruno, by Lewis Carroll, and I have no idea what's going on, but in a fun way.
 
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The Algebraist read by Peter Kenny is coming to Audible. He’s a great match for Iain Banks’ writing style, his Culture narrations are top notch audio books, so I’m really looking forward to this one. The Algebraist is itself not part of the Culture, so it’s the perfect book for someone who wants to try Banks for the first time.

In short, Algebraist is about an academic whose work is to dive down into a gas giant to interact with and learn from the super-old alien race that lives down there. He’s conscripted into the Mercatoria, a sort of loose interstellar empire, due to a looming threat of invasion, and is sent into the gas giant to learn the locations of a secret wormhole network that could be used to send reinforcements.
 
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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire because Gibbon is based
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Gay Baby Jailer said:
Blood Meridian-liked
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One of my most fav books ever. I love McCarthy and that book in particular because he is a true master of "subverting expectations" not in a shitty hollywood way but in a way that gives you chills. Likable character? Nah. Maybe some heroic character? Nah. A character driven by purpose? Nah. Some cheesy morale about greater good? Nah. Happy end? Lmao.
NvII iS 8ulLt f0R 88C said:
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire because Gibbon is based
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I still don't know what to think about him blaming Christianity. It had been maybe 10 years since I read it and for me that question is still not settled lol.

I have read The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker, and I feel like it is one of those books that actually stays with you for a life. The work is an example of rare intelectual honesty and what I loved especially, it doesn't pretend to give you any recepies of how to live your life or deal with your problems. In some sense it is an opposite of a self-help book. The text overall is not written for "broader audiences" however it is not overly complicated either. Also, it is advisable to be at least aquinted with guys like Freud and Jung before venturing to read it.
 
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