[Mentalist]

400-odd pages into "The Blackest Heart" (went on a bit of a binge yest).

It's really annoying when one PoV keeps offhandedly repeating that "oh yeah, X and Y are totes evil", and then you've got pages upon pages upon pages from multiple other PoV characters (in other parts of the world) chilling and questing, and/or falling for with X or Y, blissfully unaware an enormous backstab (s?) is/are coming.

Still like the set-up, and especially the background, with there being like 5 different "Holy Texts" with diff interpretations of the backstory; but most of the characters seems to have been beaten with the stoopid stick, and that is.... frustrating.

[Aptorian]

What's the series like otherwise? It's discounted on Kindle.

[Aptorian]

Finished Mick Foley's auto-biography, Have a nice day. It was fine. Like he himself stated, he'd never written anything before and it was written in a matter of weeks. It's filled with purile jokes and a weird sort of narrative voice but Foley's likability really comes to the fore in his recollection.

Reading about his years wrestling in small venues and working the independent scene, really makes you wonder why anyone becomes a wrestler. Unless you're sponsored by rich parents or have a family connection it seems like the most ungrateful existence - I guess that says a lot about the people who made it over the years.

It's legitimately heartwarming though and has some stories that had me crying with laughter.

Also love some of his digs at other wrestlers. As the book ends, it covers his first retirement in a bonus chapter set in 1999. He completely burries the Rock during the last ten pages, makes him seem like a prima donna who was more interested in going over than learning. But Cactus Jack and The Rock are also two different generations and very different wrestlers.

[Chance]

Currently about 3/4 into Light of the Jedi, while it is interesting I think it is trying to do too much in too few pages. It feels like it is missing a lot of descriptions and more like the bare basics of a comic, something which has a visual medium to compliment it. It is interesting but I think a more focused story would have been more interesting also a tip to the writer if your technically illiterate or uninterested don't write space battles not even in star wars. Still even so I think they are pointing Star Wars in a very interesting direction in an age where there is obviously several different paths for the jedi not the mono-culture of the prequels. I might not go for more books unless they get amazing rave reviews but I have hopes for tv or big screen stuff in the high republic that could get amazing.

Aptorian, on 10 January 2021 - 09:04 PM, said:

What's the series like otherwise? It's discounted on Kindle.

The second book is stronger than the first, but not by much. They are filled with really mustache twirling villains, darwin award stupidity from the main cast and quite a dose of teenage moping about.

This post has been edited by Chance: 10 January 2021 - 09:36 PM

[Aptorian]

That's a hard nope from me then.

[End of Disc One]

Mentalist, on 10 January 2021 - 08:40 PM, said:

400-odd pages into "The Blackest Heart" (went on a bit of a binge yest).

It's really annoying when one PoV keeps offhandedly repeating that "oh yeah, X and Y are totes evil", and then you've got pages upon pages upon pages from multiple other PoV characters (in other parts of the world) chilling and questing, and/or falling for with X or Y, blissfully unaware an enormous backstab (s?) is/are coming.

Still like the set-up, and especially the background, with there being like 5 different "Holy Texts" with diff interpretations of the backstory; but most of the characters seems to have been beaten with the stoopid stick, and that is.... frustrating.

This series in on my radar. I saw that the author shortened it to a trilogy, but the last book will be like To Green Angel Tower length (I make the comparison because the author is a huge Tad fan).

I think I have a higher tolerance for "stupidity" in characters than most do. People complain about it in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, but it doesn't bother me and I understand why the characters make the bad decisions they do.

[Aptorian]

I'm a hundred pages into Borne by Jeff Vandemeer.

It's a story about a scavenger, in a biotechnological post apacalyse, that comese upon a weird creature and befriends it. The story also has a gigantic flying bioengineered grizzly bear that randomly destroys parts of the city and eats people.

Having also read the Southern Reach books I can only conclude that Vandemeer is an author that writes weird stories about weird things.

[RACHEL]

I loved Borne

[amphibian]

Borne is amazing. I have the Dead Astronauts side-quel in a special edition version. It's so trippy.

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Untamed Shore the other night. A great thriller that feels like I'm doing it a disservice by calling it "a thriller". Really good book.

Now I'm reading a collection of her older short stories called Love and Other Poisons (love that title.) I'm actually a little disappointed so far, given how much I've loved everything else she's written. I guess it should be expected her older stories are rougher, and I'm only like two stories in, so I'm still optimistic.

[polishgenius]

amphibian, on 11 January 2021 - 10:17 PM, said:

Borne is amazing. I have the Dead Astronauts side-quel in a special edition version. It's so trippy.

Dead Astronauts makes everything else VanderMeer has written seem sane and normal. Need to get back to it actually but it's so weird.

[Morgoth]

I love everything Vandermeer writes, but City of Saints and Madmen holds a special place in my heart.

[Aptorian]

I finished Borne. It's a good book but I wasn't thrilled with it for two reasons.

1. I feel like it lacked something. The book seemed more focused on the mystery of what Borne is or will become and the ever present danger of the warring factions of the city, than the purpose of the characters. There was no real goal or mission to the characters and their story, other than surviving another day. Which was understandable I guess given the setting but that leans into my other issue.

2. I'm just not that into bleak apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic settings. I need some glimmer of hope, some better future you can fight for or believe in, a turning point. There's something sort of like that towards the end but you know everything will continue to be fucked.

I already borrowed Dead Astronauts so I'll jump right into it but it doesn't feel like a must read at the outset. Though I see it revolves around the sneaky mutant foxes so that might be cool.

Edit: 30 pages into Dead Astronauts and this approach is much more my style. These characters fight back.

Also the story remains weird.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 12 January 2021 - 03:32 PM

[Aptorian]

100 pages into Dead Astronauts. This is close to what I'd describe as surrealism in a litterary form.

Pretty cool to see the elements mentioned in passing in the last book gaining new meaning in this book as it iterates and iterates.

[Aptorian]

Okay, Dead Astronauts wore me out, so I thought I'd read something less weird.

I borrowed This book is full of spiders by David Wong last month but apparently it's the second in a series, so instead I'm reading John dies at the end. This book is not less weird but it is hilarious.

Quote

She bounded to the top of the stairs and disappeared through the doorway. We kicked through the slithering things and stomped up after the dog, just as the stairwell door banged shut on its own.

I reached for the knob. At the same moment it began to melt and transform, turning pink and finally taking the shape of a flaccid penis. It flopped softly against the door, like a man was cramming it through the knob hole from the other side.

I turned back to John and said, “That door cannot be opened.” We stumbled back down the stairs,

I'm pretty sure I've seen a movie adaptation of this but I don't remember a damn thing about it.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 12 January 2021 - 09:15 PM

[Macros]

Started The New Silk Roads, follow up to the silk roads, by Peter Frankopan.

Engaging so far, but a little scattered in itself

[Aptorian]

200 pages into Dead Astronauts. I think I'm done with this book.

It's a fascinating narrative experiment but I just suffered through about 50 pages of a sea monsters mussings and the delusions of a schizophrenic girl, the stuff before that didn't make much more sense. Flipping through the last parts I can see it continues like this interspersed with some more meaningful passages but I honestly don't care.

I'd recommended doing some LSD or shrooms before reading this book. If you're brave enough.

Think I'll read Jennifer Bell's first Uncommons book next alongside John Dies at the End.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 13 January 2021 - 12:35 PM

[QuickTidal]

MALICE by John Gwynne. This is my first try at Gwynne, and I'm only 100 pages in, but I'm already hyper-engaged in the story. Feels like a hidden treasure, this series.

[Macros]

I was the total opposite on Malice and Gwynne as an author.

Ill have to search back and see what exactly I thought of it but I know I dropped the series because I really didn't like his style

[Macros]

Dropped Valour (book 2) a few chapters in it would seem.

I was of the opinion the Gwynne was trying too hard to be GRRM.

I called Malice a solid debut, which is surprising given how unfondly I remember the book, only one plot line actually caught me though