[HiddenOne]

Finished "Wind through the Keyhole" by S. King over the weekend. It was kind of cool to get back into the Dark Tower world for a change of pace.

Also reading "Starliner" by Drake, very meh - free stuff is getting thin, need fodder for the e-reader. Maybe it's time to switch genres or go non-fiction or literature or something

Also re-reading "Side Jobs" The contrast between some of the older stories is more noticeable since I just finished "Cold Days"

[Abyss]

Finished EX PURGATORY by Peter Clines. It was awesome. More in the ded-thread.

Finished THE HUNGER GAMES audiobooks. As something to listen to while driving or otherwise engaged in mundanity, it was fine. Managed to surprise me a few times and irritate the living fuck out of me a few others, but overall not bad. I can see where the mass appeal came from. I suspect that if i had read it as opposed to audio'd, i may have skilled large chunks.


Started DEAD PIG COLLECTOR by Warren Eliis. Because Warren Ellis.

On audio started THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin. Having read any number of 'government project goes wrong, vampires rise, hilarity ensues' type books, this hasn't wowed me with its novelty just yet. That said Cronin is a solid writer who manages to hold my attention even with relatively uninteresting bits like the whole first section about a fairly boring stereotypical single mom... it's a remarkably ballsy way to start a sf novel and he just keeps it moving barely enuf to keep me around for the only slightly but steadily more interesting next bits...

[Ukjent]

Done with Steelheart, it was ok, but nothing more then that.

[QuickTidal]

About 40 pages into MASTER AND COMMANDER by O'Brian. Enjoyable so far, but it's like a nautical term fiesta! Crazyness! I'm pushing through that density though, as Aubrey and Maturin are so enjoyable to read about, and O'Brian's command (pun intended) of both the prose and the time period are unequaled...and I've heard tell that with one under my belt, the rest of the books can be devoured faster.

EDIT: 100 pages in now and the nautical mumbo jumbo is outweighing my enjoyment. I seriously don't know a quarter of WTF just happened in the last 60 pages. I'm giving it a little longer to decide if I'll dump it.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 20 January 2014 - 07:04 PM

[Rictus]

 HiddenOne, on 20 January 2014 - 03:29 PM, said:

Also reading "Starliner" by Drake, very meh - free stuff is getting thin, need fodder for the e-reader. Maybe it's time to switch genres or go non-fiction or literature or something

You could take a look at Project Gutenberg if you haven't already or are really desperate.

[Aptorian]

 Abyss, on 20 January 2014 - 03:35 PM, said:

Started DEAD PIG COLLECTOR by Warren Eliis. Because Warren Ellis.

Saw your post, looked it up on Amazon and saw it was 99 cents. Downloaded it, read it, done and done.

That short story was a lot more straight forward than I expected.

By the way I looked up Ellis Wikipedia page. I wasn't aware he'd written RED. Considering they just made a second movie based on those comics, Ellis must be rolling in dough. Good for him.

[polishgenius]

 Maybe Apt, on 20 January 2014 - 05:16 PM, said:

By the way I looked up Ellis Wikipedia page. I wasn't aware he'd written RED. Considering they just made a second movie based on those comics, Ellis must be rolling in dough. Good for him.

Adorably, he sold the film rights in order to buy his daughter a pony.

[Abyss]

 polishgenius, on 20 January 2014 - 05:21 PM, said:

 Maybe Apt, on 20 January 2014 - 05:16 PM, said:

By the way I looked up Ellis Wikipedia page. I wasn't aware he'd written RED. Considering they just made a second movie based on those comics, Ellis must be rolling in dough. Good for him.

Adorably, he sold the film rights in order to buy his daughter a pony.

Yep.

He has noted more than once that he doesn't make massive dollars from that. He got a decent cheque, yes, but that was for the rights and concepts. He doesn't get a slice of the profit.
I'm sure his agent got him another cheque for the sequel, but again, % is unlikely.

[Aptorian]

Why on earth would he not have a clause that asked for just 1% of the profits?! That sounds bizarre that an author wouldn't protect himself better in this day and age.

[polishgenius]

One of two explanations (or perhaps a mixture), I reckon:

Ellis isn't really a big enough name to the general public to be able to dictate terms to a filmmaker. 1% might seem like a tiny amount to ask for, but when you consider the hundreds of people involved in making it and producing it, and the fact that as an ensemble cast with some truly heavy hitters quite a large chunk will already be going on actors, it suddenly looks a lot bigger.


Asking for a percentage is inevitably going to result in a reduction, at the least, of the up-front guaranteed fee, and a film like RED was never a sure shot to make money. Combine that with the fabled Hollywood Accounting used to diddle people owed money from profits out of their share, and you can see why someone might not want to risk it.

[Abyss]

 polishgenius, on 20 January 2014 - 07:11 PM, said:

...
Asking for a percentage is inevitably going to result in a reduction, at the least, of the up-front guaranteed fee, and a film like RED was never a sure shot to make money. Combine that with the fabled Hollywood Accounting used to diddle people owed money from profits out of their share, and you can see why someone might not want to risk it.

This.
And percentages can be risky... don't forget that the movie RED - which did well internationally but was pretty middling on opening - aside from character names and a few very base concepts, had sfa resemblance to the comic Ellis wrote. I can see an author reading the script, saying 'pay me and then leave me the fuck out of this mess' and taking his cheque to the bank.

Just making up numbers, but $200k up front and another $50k for a sequel four years later is better than $275k stretched out over the same four years (unless you're a tax lawyer).

[Serenity]

 QuickTidal, on 20 January 2014 - 05:06 PM, said:

About 40 pages into MASTER AND COMMANDER by O'Brian. Enjoyable so far, but it's like a nautical term fiesta! Crazyness! I'm pushing through that density though, as Aubrey and Maturin are so enjoyable to read about, and O'Brian's command (pun intended) of both the prose and the time period are unequaled...and I've heard tell that with one under my belt, the rest of the books can be devoured faster.

EDIT: 100 pages in now and the nautical mumbo jumbo is outweighing my enjoyment. I seriously don't know a quarter of WTF just happened in the last 60 pages. I'm giving it a little longer to decide if I'll dump it.

Ah, I didn't get a chance to reply to your earlier post before this. As I said in my post upthread, I really struggled with Master & Commander, too. My advice would have been (very helpful now, I know!) to jump in at Post Captain or HMS Surprise instead. If it's any help, the second half of Master & Commander improves dramatically. I reviewed it on another forum and said:

"Well for me this was definitely a book of two halves. Beginning in Minorca with an elbow in the ribs, as Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin meet for the very first time at a music-room recital (Maturin isn't very happy with Aubrey's enthusiasm for the music), the story gets off to a decent, humourous start. Once it sets sail, however, there is page after page after page riddled with nautical terms. Seeing as I don't know my leeward from my larboard or my main topgallant from my stuns'l, at times I found this was like reading a foreign language. O'Brian casts Maturin as a lubber, and has various members of the Sophie's crew explain this and that to him, but I definitely found my mind drifting in those parts. To add to my confusion, the vessel upon which the characters serve in this book is a sloop, the aforementioned Sophie, which has two masts, yet the diagram at the start of the novel, which tries to explain masts and sails, has three! I also found, as battle was joined, invariably there would be so many ships named in so short a time that I lost track of which one belonged to which side.

Perhaps I should have concentrated harder, but I persevered, and I'm very glad that I did.

About halfway through, this aspect of the novel suddenly drops away, the pace picks up, and suddenly I was into the book that I'd expected to find from the start, full of exciting sea chases and battles and characters who have very quietly become fully rounded individuals, and it's really fun to read. In fact, I actually found myself fearing for the characters, as the sloop goes up against far greater forces, as cannonballs rip through hulls and rigging, and as the crew board other ships to fight hand-to-hand. I almost forgot how much I struggled with the first half.

<spoilers snipped>

So, for the first half of the book I'd probably give a 6, but for the second it ramps up to a 9."


Don't know if it'll have the same result for you, QT, but I've found the subsequent books fantastic.



In other news, I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I really enjoyed, and am now about 150 pages into Bernard Cornwell's Sword Song.

[QuickTidal]

 Serenity, on 21 January 2014 - 10:15 AM, said:

Don't know if it'll have the same result for you, QT, but I've found the subsequent books fantastic.

No worries, thanks for the reply. I've merely put it down, not gotten rid of it. I'll probably pick it back up down the road when I'm feeling brave and keep going.

[Aptorian]

I am reading Neal Stephensons - Snow Crash.

I wish I'd read this book 10 years ago, I might have been more intrigued by it. As it stands the book is pretty anachronistic. Cyberpunk was more fun in the 90s when everything digital seemed new and improbable, now it just seems a bit hoaky. Like reading a sci-fi book by Asimov or hell, even Jules Verne.

[JPK]

I just finished up an interesting little book called God is Disappointed in You by Mark Russell. It was a very condensed retelling of the bible done book by book. At points the book seemed completely irreverent with very off the wall jokes about how absurd the source material was, while during most of it it seemed to me that he was trying to be faithful to the underlying theme of the bible and make it more or less understandable. As a man who is very open with his religious beliefs (in other words - I don't have any) I found this a very interesting read, though anyone who takes their faith very seriously may end up offended several times throughout the book.


As far as the next book, I'm not sure yet. I've a couple things I'm waiting for the mailman to bring me, but most of those are regular shipping and who knows when they'll get here. If it shows up today, I'll probably start In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 by Claudio Sanchez. It's the graphic novel that accompanies the album of the same name by Coheed and Cambria. If it doesn't, I'll likely start Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami since it's short.

**Edited cause I named the wrong Murakami book, and also cause I can't spell.

This post has been edited by The Incredible Kitsu: 21 January 2014 - 09:26 PM

[Imperial Historian]

Read a few things recently:
100 years of solitude and the general in his labyrinth, both by gabriel Garcia Martinez. Enjoyed both of them a lot.

Guy Gabriel Kay's fionavar trilogy, serviceable lotr style fantasy, but not a patch on Kay's later stuff.

14 and ex-purgatory By peter clines. Both good, but I really enjoyed 14. Has promoted clines firmly into buy on release. Have downloaded junkie quatrain his only book I haven't read, will report back.

[dietl]

Just started GOTM for my first reread. Yeah

[Serenity]

250 pages into Bernard Cornwell's Sword Song. It's a cracking read, as usual.

[Baco Xtath]

Just started Calde of the Long Sun. Been a while since I read Lake so I'm still trying to refresh my memory. Still reading Bookman; putting in a whopping 15 - 20 min. a night.

Audio: Almost done with Judging Eye - good stuff. Not sure if I'll continue with White-Luck or wait until a release date for Unholy Consult is announced. Also almost done listening to 14 - fun, light read/listen. Next up, Emperor's Blades, Nine Prices in Amber, and.......need something similar to 14 for my workouts (the better it is, the more I workout).

[Studlock]

Just finished Finch, and I was come to expect from Jeff VanderMeer, it was highly enjoyable. The voice of Finch was probably my favourite thing about it, the quick sentence fragments made for a quick, fast paced read. I also enjoyed the style, something I've really liked with JV, is his ability to write in highly different styles and make them work: from the historical to memoir to straight up fiction, it's all been well written across the board.

And for those who have read all three of Ambergris books I have a question:

Spoiler

So who is Bless? I kind have a feeling we have seen him before, and I have an feeling he is Sirin...or Samuel the monk