[Abyss]

Also also neglected to include Just Finished THE LAST ACTION HEROES: THE TRIUMPHS, FLOPS, AND FEUDS OF HOLLYWOOD'S KINGS OF CARNAGE, by Nick de Semlyen.

Another Spotify freebie that was reco'd bcs i read the Airplane retrospective... and if that was a fun deep dive, this was a crazy one... Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Norris, Van Damme, Ludgren, Chan, Willis, Segal... the book basically covers the late 70s thru early 90s period where these guys were churning out Big Hollywood actioners that were making bazillions of dollars (except when they weren't).

It more or less starts w Stallone's ROCKY and works its way to the EXPENDABLES movies, w profiles and history pieces on each of the action stars and some fairly in depth looks at how their careers crossed over, WAY more than i ever knew... like there were little things i was aware of like the Stallone-Ahnald rivalry or how Norris intro'd Van Damme, but details about how VD jumped Norris' home fence, begged to work out w him and almost died, how Stallone brought Chan back to America which still did not take to him, Ludgren's incredibly up/down/downer career (He-Man!), how Willis almost accidentally ended up in DIE HARD, or just how bugnuts insane Segal actually was fairly early on... it's a fun read that really captures the era. Worth a look/listen.

[Tiste Simeon]

 Abyss, on 16 September 2025 - 03:22 PM, said:

 Tiste Simeon, on 05 September 2025 - 05:14 PM, said:

I'm listening to Stone and Sky, the latest Rivers of London book and it's great! I know someone up thread was a little put out by the change in narrative as it flicks between Peter and Abigail, but after the first POV shift that is admittedly a little disjointed, I like it.

Abigail is a fun character with a great POV and is having a unique but linked adventure to what Peter is doing and I like the way they're tying together. The voice actor for Abigail is great, if not at the standard of Kobna Holdbrook Smith, but then I don't think anyone is so that's no great negative thing to my mind.

And on a personal note, having twin toddlers myself (though crikey they're nearly 4 so a bit older than those in the story) I found a lot of that side of things painfully, hilariously relatable!

In retrospect i should have moved to these ahead of Art of Legend to break up the 'young male chosen one' run. Am very looking fwd to reading this.

I finished it and it was fantastic. Kobna Holdbrook Smith is the GOAT