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Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

Started by Thurnez Isa, December 03, 2006, 04:11:35 PM

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Cainad (dec.)

Quote from: Cain on July 03, 2014, 03:36:12 PM
I read some of the speculation on the Second Apocalypse forums...and I was lost on the references in many cases.  I think I may have read parts of The White-Luck Warrior too quickly, because I don't remember pieces at all.  So this time I've been taking notes. 

I may start a thread to discuss the bits I've picked out, a sort of scrapbook/book club thing, if anyone else wants to join in.  I've not gotten any amazing insights thus far, though I'm only half way through The Warrior-Prophet, but I did notice Kellhus basically makes a mention of the Judging-Eye even that far back (though not by name).

Oh shit. Three times and that still slipped by me.

There's a lot to be gained from the Atrocity Tales on the website, I recall. There's only one mention of the Inverse Fire I can recall in the first trilogy, and it seems to be central to why the Consult exist. It is explained a little more in one of the Atrocity Tales.

Cain

Also, OMGWTFLOLBBQ VAMPIRES!!1212! 

Remember, Bob Howard.  Silver, fire and decapitation.  Preferably all three.  Trust me, I've killed at least a hundred vampires in Skyrim, and these are the scary mod-improved ones, who are probably similar to eldiritch-abombination created ones.

Actually, I've felt the latest novel was moving a little too quickly, so the twist about a third of the way in wasn't as huge a surprise as it probably could've been.  I'm glad it was there, because I was starting to think "well, this is moving to the end-game pretty fast".  Not much on the Sleeper in the Pyramid or similar thus far, aside from possibly in the first chapter (I suspect that breach was a deliberate probe), but since Mo's been on another wetwork op, we might get something nasty following her home again.

Cain

Quote from: Cainad (dec.) on July 03, 2014, 03:48:41 PM
Quote from: Cain on July 03, 2014, 03:36:12 PM
I read some of the speculation on the Second Apocalypse forums...and I was lost on the references in many cases.  I think I may have read parts of The White-Luck Warrior too quickly, because I don't remember pieces at all.  So this time I've been taking notes. 

I may start a thread to discuss the bits I've picked out, a sort of scrapbook/book club thing, if anyone else wants to join in.  I've not gotten any amazing insights thus far, though I'm only half way through The Warrior-Prophet, but I did notice Kellhus basically makes a mention of the Judging-Eye even that far back (though not by name).

Oh shit. Three times and that still slipped by me.

There's a lot to be gained from the Atrocity Tales on the website, I recall. There's only one mention of the Inverse Fire I can recall in the first trilogy, and it seems to be central to why the Consult exist. It is explained a little more in one of the Atrocity Tales.

I think it was, anyway.  I'm just checking my highlights now...

I can't find it, but I'm pretty sure it was around the part he talked about witnessing, with the soldier :

Quote"Guilt and shame wrack you by day," Kellhus said, "the feeling that you've committed some mortal crime. Nightmares wrack you by night . . . She speaks to you."

The man's nod was almost comical in its desperation. He hadn't, Achamian realized, the nerve for war.

"But why?" he cried. "I mean, how many dead have we seen?"

"But not all seeing," Kellhus replied, "is witness."

"I don't understand . . ."

"Witness is the seeing that testifies, that judges so that it may be judged. You saw, and you judged. A trespass had been committed, an innocent had been murdered. You saw this."

"Yes!" the man hissed. "A little girl. A little girl!"

"And now you suffer."

"But why?" he cried. "Why should I suffer? She's not mine. She was heathen!"

"Everywhere . . . Everywhere we're surrounded by the blessed and the cursed, the sacred and the profane. But our hearts are like hands, they grow callous to the world. And yet, like our hands even the most callous heart will blister if overworked or chafed by something new. For some time we may feel the pinch, but we ignore it because we have so much work to do." Kellhus had looked down into his right hand. Suddenly he balled it into a fist, raised it high. "And then one strike, with a hammer or a sword, and the blister breaks, our heart is torn. And then we suffer, for we feel the ache for the blessed, the sting of the cursed. We no longer see, we witness . . ."

I think it's a strong hint in that direction, at least.

And yeah, I really need to read the Atrocity Tales again. 

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Just finishing up Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks, and starting Paul Glimcher's Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


BadBeast

#2599
I've just finished "Skinner" by Neal Asher. (re-read) Man, this is what "Science fiction" is really about. I've always been a bit . . . . . yanno, reluctant (?) to invest my time in "Science fiction", purely because so many people have got away with the most abominable shite under the genre, "Science/speculative fiction"  but this transcends genre in the way that all good fiction does. It's quite a beefy read, but once you get a couple of chapters in, it's effortless, flowing, and easy to digest. And on the re-read, there's a whole other subtext that makes it almost like a completely different book. Asher really knows how to lay a subtext, in the manner of Gene Wolfe (but not so stodgy) and the underlying dynamic (as in all good fiction) is redemption. The thing that makes it stand out from other good fiction is the fact that the redemption in question, is worked into a peripheral character, rather than the main protagonist. It also just opens a whole new set of different questions to each of the main characters.

There are a couple of sequels to this book, but I haven't read them yet. I'm almost reluctant to read them, because I've been too let down (I know, *sobs) by other good first novels, that rapidly descend into a pile of titwank, so if any of you have read the sequels, please let me know whether it's worth risking another shoplifting charge at W.H.Smiths :evil:.     
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Bu🤠ns

Quote from: Bu☆ns on July 03, 2014, 01:08:22 PM
Quote from: Cain on July 03, 2014, 11:06:27 AM
The Rheusus Chart has been released today. 

If you're not already reading The Laundry Files series, WAYSA?  It's got everything you need, the British Civil Service, techno-geekery and eldiritch horrors from dimensions with recurved space and backwards time invading our reality.

And if you're still not convinced, you can read the first chapter here.

This  seems rather interesting.  I will check out the first book in the series.

Okay this is fucking WONDERFUL.  It's cheeky too! I was disenchanted with occult detective/horror after reading the first Dresden files but this is just great.

Rococo Modem Basilisk

Quote from: Bu☆ns on July 15, 2014, 02:14:18 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on July 03, 2014, 01:08:22 PM
Quote from: Cain on July 03, 2014, 11:06:27 AM
The Rheusus Chart has been released today. 

If you're not already reading The Laundry Files series, WAYSA?  It's got everything you need, the British Civil Service, techno-geekery and eldiritch horrors from dimensions with recurved space and backwards time invading our reality.

And if you're still not convinced, you can read the first chapter here.

This  seems rather interesting.  I will check out the first book in the series.

Okay this is fucking Mildly Decent.  It's cheeky too! I was disenchanted with occult detective/horror after reading the first Dresden files but this is just great.
Finished this the other day, and it really did wonders for my disenfranchisement with the series. I've historically liked the Laundry series the least out of Stross's books because it has historically had so much reliance on tired/uninspired techie jokes for humor and because of how repetitive the prose was -- the narrator can make exactly the same lame joke referencing some now out of date technical/nerd thing six times in the same book (mostly about apple, microsoft, or everquest), and the complicated and rewarding plot is the only thing keeping me interested. In this book, he put away the techie humour and basically just make all the shit go down at once in a wonderful clusterfuck, and what gags there were were essentially buried in the plot structurally rather than being quips made by the narrator. It seems like this is more representative of how the rest of the series will go, and that (furthermore) Bob is going to stop being the narrator pretty soon.

I've been reading Dennet's Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, which is both useful and entertaining. It feels like a cross between You Are Not So Smart and the BIP, but focused on distinguishing good rhetorical/metaphorical devices (intuition pumps) from shitty ones (boom crutches).


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

Cain

#2602
Read Assail.  Was bitterly disappointed at the "secret" of the Crimson Guard.  I mean, they were hardly subtle about it.  I'm pretty sure I figured that out the moment I realised that a) Avowed cannot die except by direct decapitation, and b) the Crimson Guard made a Vow, capital letters included.  You don't need a deep understanding of the lore to see how that exactly mirrors the T'lan Imass Vow.

Was also rather disappointed that the 4th Crimson Guard Company got their arses handed to them by just some group of mages, and that Assail is mostly dangerous because it's really, really cold and really hard to get to, rather than, because, say, Forkrul Assail still live there, and the T'lan Imass/Jaghut war/ongoing genocide hasn't apparently heard about the ceasefire on Genabackis.

Not impressed, I'm sorry to say.

Edit: However, Fall of Light should be out come....the end of next year.  Urgh.  That should sate some need for decent Malazan-based novels.  Still, Erikson is a better writer, so long as he keeps the long, omniscient rambling speeches in check.  Which he did with the first book. 

In fact, The Forge of Darkness was pretty damn good full stop.  It did a wonderful job of showing how all of these ancient and mysterious people and powers, the Titse Andii, the Jaghut, the Azathani...were all just people once upon a time as well.  People who lived in cities, schemed against each other and didn't know as much about the world as they thought.  I mean, Anomander Rake, who is a titan of a figure in the main series, he's still recognizably Anomander...but less so. 

Gothos, Hood and Draconus also have some significant roles to play, which is nice to see. 

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Just finished Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain (it was terrible BTW), currently reading Dog Sense, finishing up Silas Marner, and just started American Gods.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Bu🤠ns

I enjoyed American Gods.  It was on to-read list for a while and I finally got around to it last year.  I wasn't disappointed.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Yeah, I bought it years ago on recommendation, possibly from someone here, and just never got around to it until  my boyfriend was like "WHAT? This has been sitting on your nightstand for how long and you  haven't read it?? It's amazing!"

So far it seems good. I get a lot of book recommendations from people who insist that I will just love something, and after I read it I find myself wondering who they think I am. I'm hoping that doesn't turn out to be the case with this.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cain

American Gods is very worthwhile.  I don't actually think I've met anyone who has read it and was disappointed, and felt like their time was wasted.

Certainly not on PD, anyway.  I know I got the recommendation to read it from here.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

So far, so good... I am enjoying it. I'll probably take it to the beach today. I do need to finish the last few pages of Silas Marner but I have a feeling I'll cry, so I've been avoiding reading it in public.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cain

I just went on a small fantasy binge on the Kindle.

Got Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives 2...even though I can barely remember the first book.  That's OK though - Sanderson's a top notch writer, IMO truly underappreciated even after rescuing the trainwreck of a series The Wheel of Time had become.  I'll remember it in time, and if I don't...well, it just means reading more Sanderson.  Which is hardly a terrible thing, as he is such an easy writer to read.

Also picked up Daniel Polansky's Lowtown novel sequels.  The original Lowtown was my kind of story - the fantasy setting was window-dressing for something much closer to noir or a hardboiled detective novel.  If you like Joe Abercrombie, you'll probably like Polansky.

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Cain on August 19, 2014, 05:41:58 PM
I just went on a small fantasy binge on the Kindle.

Got Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives 2...even though I can barely remember the first book.  That's OK though - Sanderson's a top notch writer, IMO truly underappreciated even after rescuing the trainwreck of a series The Wheel of Time had become.  I'll remember it in time, and if I don't...well, it just means reading more Sanderson.  Which is hardly a terrible thing, as he is such an easy writer to read.

Also picked up Daniel Polansky's Lowtown novel sequels.  The original Lowtown was my kind of story - the fantasy setting was window-dressing for something much closer to noir or a hardboiled detective novel.  If you like Joe Abercrombie, you'll probably like Polansky.
Alright, I'll keep an eye out for Polansky then. :D
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