[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Maark Abbott, on 26 March 2021 - 08:51 AM, said:

Everyone be like 'Golgotha' and my mind sees Golgotterath from Bakker's latest and that place was very far from wholesome fun times.

My mind keeps telling me it is time to reread "Live from Golgotha."

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 26 March 2021 - 07:41 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 26 March 2021 - 08:51 AM, said:

Everyone be like 'Golgotha' and my mind sees Golgotterath from Bakker's latest and that place was very far from wholesome fun times.

Tbf (1) despite being fun the Golgotha series also has some pretty grim bits (I just re-read the second book, I had forgotten quite how much actually), but also (2) Golgotha the real one isn't exactly associated with happy fun time either is it.

No doubt, when these books go dark, they go pretty ugly. I was actually amazed at some of the stuff written in 2 was left in considering the tone of the series.

[worry]

RIP to both Beverly Cleary and Larry McMurtry

[worry]

I'm reading The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem. Never read anything by him before, but so far so good. I'd describe it as light post-apocalypse, if that makes any sense. It's not glib, just not anywhere near as dark as The Road etc., and not meant to be. Any fans? I thought he was a literary fic dude, but I guess he's more of a genre bender?

[stone monkey]

I read Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude many years back. It's a love letter to comic book reading, among other things. Lit fic writers have always liked to dabble in genre fiction, to one degree of success or another (do not read Paul Theroux's O-Zone, it's very bad), but many of the generations of lit fic writers that started writing from the 90s onward have been more steeped in what we might call Nerd Culture, and it shows. Lethem wrote a limited series of the comic Omega the Unknown for Marvel in 2007, which is pretty wild.

[Aptorian]

Read the first 30-35 pages or so of Daniel B. Green, the Book YouTuber's, new novella. Breach of Peace. It's his first published work I believe so I guess one shouldn't expect the world from him but I am still surprised at how mediocre the product is.

The start of the story is too abrupt, the story lingers too long at the first setting, the characters aren't strong enough and their characterization and dialogue needs more work.

I don't really feel a need to read more at this point. It's just not good enough to warrant the time investment. Hopefully he grows in the process but right now I'm underwhelmed.

[Abyss]

Midway into Nikki Drayden's PREY OF THE GODS.

This came to my attention fairly randomly in a twitter thread asking new BIPOC authors to promote their work. Bought it on a whim based on her response. Am very enjoying it. The cast is wide and interesting, a peculiar girl from a rural village, a teen from Capetown, a struggling pop star, a politician / drag queen / musician, a fading goddess / nail technician with a diabolical master plan, an awakening AI... each has their own storyline. The author does an excellent ... exceptional even... job of weaving the different stories together. It's really quite fun to read an event and see it matter pages later... and not a different pov on the same event... two characters meet in one storyline, that meeting has real consequences later in a different storyline.


It's more sci fantasy or urban fantasy than sci fi, set in near'ish future South Africa and digs in nicely, very much not North American in setting, culture, etc. There are neat elements of African myths worked in, adapted and classic. Overall the fantastical elements are nicely original.

The earbook narrator sets the tone beautifully w voices and accents.

At the halfway mark, it's building nicely. All the characters have already evolved and continue to. If this book can stick the landing i will be looking for more from this author.

[QuickTidal]

Over the halfway mark of Michelle West's HOUSE NAME (book 3 in the House War series, and technically book 5 of longer overall the Essailyan series)...and holy crap does this series fit into the "I almost gave up in book 1, but persevered and was really rewarded" category that can very much fit Malazan.

Just a stunning book so far, took everything that I liked about Book 2, ditched stuff I didn't like from both books 1 and 2, and set everything in a completely novel setting (comparably anyways, the first two books take place in the slums of a massive city, and this one moves the action to the Isle by the city where the rich people live) and expanded a bunch of the smaller characters.

I've not read something this long, but this engrossing in a long time. I'm not even partway through the overall Essailieyan series yet (currently it's 16 novels with a few short stories, and a final series is coming), but I'm already willing to place it next to Malazan as "You might bounce off this to begin with, but once you settle in it's HARD to put down".

--------

I'm also re-reading JADE CITY by Fonda Lee to prep to read JADE WAR, and the re-read of this first book is even more rewarding. Lee is a force to be reckoned with, and now I can't wait to see what the TV adaptation (at NBC's Peacock streaming service) of this will look like because the story seems to lend itself very well to that format.

BK I feel like this series would be up your alley. It's like NOBLE HOUSE with jade-based magic powers, and ruling family mafia stuff, set in a sort of 1970's fantasy Hong Kong equivalent (with no Colonialism/British Empire mind you). The cast is really well realized, and it's pacey as HELL for a novel of this length. I liked it enough in eBook (got it on a sale originally) to buy both the first and second book in hardback and let it be on my forever shelf. And Fonda Lee is really cool, I watched her do a YouTube Zoom session with some Booktubers on the weekend and she was genial, and pretty awesome...but then she's Canadian so I feel like I might be biased.

[Cyphon]

Encouraging to hear good stuff about PREY, JADE CITY and MICHELLE WEST'S series as they're all on my to read/bought pile.

Rereading FORGE OF DARKNESS and its all set up at the moment. So the bits that make me reflect on the bigger series to come I guess.

Finished NEMESIS GAMES on earbook which was excellent, perhaps one of the best of the series. Really liked how all the roci characters had their own individual arcs and it all fitted with the wider narrative. Situation FUBAR now, and I've started listening to BABYLON'S ASHES.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 01 April 2021 - 05:22 PM, said:

Over the halfway mark of Michelle West's HOUSE NAME (book 3 in the House War series, and technically book 5 of longer overall the Essailyan series)...and holy crap does this series fit into the "I almost gave up in book 1, but persevered and was really rewarded" category that can very much fit Malazan. ... I'm already willing to place it next to Malazan as "You might bounce off this to begin with, but once you settle in it's HARD to put down".

Them is some biiIIIIIiiiig words there QT.
I may wait til it's done tho, seeing as it's been going for like 25 years already and i have a loose rule about series that may outlive me.

Quote

I'm also re-reading JADE CITY by Fonda Lee to prep to read JADE WAR, and the re-read of this first book is even more rewarding. Lee is a force to be reckoned with, and now I can't wait to see what the TV adaptation (at NBC's Peacock streaming service) of this will look like because the story seems to lend itself very well to that format.

BK I feel like this series would be up your alley. It's like NOBLE HOUSE with jade-based magic powers, and ruling family mafia stuff, set in a sort of 1970's fantasy Hong Kong equivalent (with no Colonialism/British Empire mind you). The cast is really well realized, and it's pacey as HELL for a novel of this length. I liked it enough in eBook (got it on a sale originally) to buy both the first and second book in hardback and let it be on my forever shelf. And Fonda Lee is really cool, I watched her do a YouTube Zoom session with some Booktubers on the weekend and she was genial, and pretty awesome...but then she's Canadian so I feel like I might be biased.

I have CITY and WAR in the TLP. Started CITY, liked but was not in the right brainspace, decided to wait til i had the whole trilo for a complete list.

Quote

she was genial, and pretty awesome.. but then she's Canadian so I feel like I might be biased.

Laughing because this applies to both the above authors in my twitperience. Lee is definitely more active, West is very pleasant when i've seen her engage.

[Macros]

Might pick up prey of the gods. The SA setting sounds fun to me, and if it's not spot on the lady can tear it apart

[worry]

stone monkey, on 01 April 2021 - 09:41 AM, said:

I read Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude many years back. It's a love letter to comic book reading, among other things. Lit fic writers have always liked to dabble in genre fiction, to one degree of success or another (do not read Paul Theroux's O-Zone, it's very bad), but many of the generations of lit fic writers that started writing from the 90s onward have been more steeped in what we might call Nerd Culture, and it shows. Lethem wrote a limited series of the comic Omega the Unknown for Marvel in 2007, which is pretty wild.

Yah, that makes perfect sense. Kavalier & Clay and all that. My assumption was pretty thin anyway: built solely on the fact that Lethem has a novel called Motherless Brooklyn that was adapted by Edward Norton, so I figured he must be pretty self-serious. Shows what I know!

On that note, I finished The Arrest yesterday and thought it was pretty good, if essentially a light novella even at 300 pages. This is no Stephen King apocalypse. Quick in and out, no particular emotional heft to it, just a pretty narrow (and somewhat metafictional, though not too heady) focus on a movie industry has-been and his old partner, in a post-apocalypse way more mundane than they imagined back in their screenwriting days. Not a must-read, but it succeeds at its modest aims more or less and has a pretty nifty ending. I'd read more from Lethem, especially if "love letter" = tapping into more emotionally resonant territory.

What I'm reading now is book 2 in the Wildwood Chronicles, the kids books written by -- and don't make fun of me for this -- Colin Meloy, the main dude from The Decemberists. I got the boxed set for Xmas and the first one was decent. Compared to Narnia or Redwall etc., these things are doorstoppers at 500+ pages each. You're not going to earn many Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizzas reading these if Book It goes by total books instead of page count. But I can see Junior Book Nerds appreciating these cuz you get to spend a lot more time in this world. Plus they all have genuinely cool cover art for kids books.

[Aptorian]

I'm reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff.

Nothing out right supernatural has popped up yet but who worries about eldritch horror when the setting of 1950s America is already a complete nightmare for the black protagonists.

I'm so very glad I was born as a white man in the late 20th century.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 02 April 2021 - 04:58 PM

[Abyss]

Macros, on 01 April 2021 - 07:32 PM, said:

Might pick up prey of the gods. The SA setting sounds fun to me, and if it's not spot on the lady can tear it apart

Not having been, I can't say but iirc the author herself is from there, and accurate or not for a near future story, it certainly feels genuine.

[worry]

Is Chappie in it? That's how we'll know if it's authentic or not.

[Aptorian]

Read the first story in Lovecraft Country.

This is a fun take on Lovecraft. Instead of your typical stuffy scholar or weak willed aristocrat, the protagonists are sharp and untrusting of everything. And thoroughly read up on Sci-fi and horror. Making it satisfying when they break the tropes of these kinds of horror stories.

[Malankazooie]

Putting this here because I think it might capture the interest of those who frequent this thread more then the TV thread.

So Earnest Hemingway is getting the Ken Burns documentary treatment. If you aren't familiar with Ken Burns' work, well, to say his examination of a subject is comprehensive is an understatement. Anyway, it's going to be daunting but I'm going to try and give this three night, six hour (no commercials) Hemingway documentary a go. It starts here in the U.S. tonight on PBS.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's 'Hemingway' Dissects Complicated Life and Myth of Iconic Writer: TV Review

*link is to variety.com

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 03 April 2021 - 04:56 AM, said:

Macros, on 01 April 2021 - 07:32 PM, said:

Might pick up prey of the gods. The SA setting sounds fun to me, and if it's not spot on the lady can tear it apart

Not having been, I can't say but iirc the author herself is from there, and accurate or not for a near future story, it certainly feels genuine.

worry, on 03 April 2021 - 05:13 AM, said:

Is Chappie in it? That's how we'll know if it's authentic or not.

Actually yes.



Only, he's called something else. And looks different. And may be a completely different character.

[Abyss]

Hey did anyone else know Richard Morgan had a sequel to THIN AIR coming out this month?

Now i acknowledge i was more or less the only person here aside from Wert who read THIN AIR and the only one who mostly liked it, and i further acknowledge RKM stepped into the gender identity debate whirlpool and got heavily slammed but all that aside HEY NEW RICHARD MORGAN BOOK .

[amphibian]

I'd give Thin Air a 6.5 out of 10 Total Recalls. It's definitely not one of his best books and he is unrepentantly a doo doo head about trans people despite writing the Kovacs series which was definitely friendlier to body change than his real life positions.

I am deeply hesitant to buy his book for the above reasons.