[Mentalist]

Into Part II of "Drawing of the Three".
It's quite something.

[QuickTidal]

Crazypants islamaphobe Dan Simmons died.

His legacy would be so much better if he hadn't been so entirely destroyed mentally by 9/11 and the anti-islam propaganda that followed in its wake, never mind the traumatic brain injury he got in 2014 that made things infinitely worse as he became a hardcore trumper.

[amphibian]

If you look at his work prior to that 2001 date, the racism and bigotry was there in smaller doses.

He focused it heavily on Muslim after 2001, but this was a person ready to be that guy for a long while.

Good riddance to him even if he wrote a truly great novel (The Terror).

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 02 March 2026 - 12:53 PM, said:

If you look at his work prior to that 2001 date, the racism and bigotry was there in smaller doses.

He focused it heavily on Muslim after 2001, but this was a person ready to be that guy for a long while.

Good riddance to him even if he wrote a truly great novel (The Terror).

Ah, I'd not read his early stuff. good to know. And I agree about The Terror. But yeah, this man was not a nice human.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

After seeing an article about Michael Morpurgo releasing an "updated" version of Black Beauty (we'll not get into my feelings about Anna Sewell's name being NOWHERE on the cover of said updated version), it inspired me to reread it. It's a book I reread so much as a child and really loved.

I got a beautiful Chiltern Publishing hardback copy - anyone who likes a pretty book, they release gorgeous versions of various classics. Enjoy never having money again

So, starting Black Beauty tonight.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 02 March 2026 - 04:03 PM

[QuickTidal]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 02 March 2026 - 04:02 PM, said:

I got a beautiful Chiltern Publishing hardback copy - anyone who likes a pretty book, they release gorgeous versions of various classics. Enjoy never having money again

Oh, of course the first titles that pop up on that link are Austen books...BECAUSE I NEED MORE COPIES OF THOSE....LOL, I JUST spent $30 to finally get a Cranford Classic copy of EMMA....goddamit my wallet hates me.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 02 March 2026 - 12:56 PM, said:

amphibian, on 02 March 2026 - 12:53 PM, said:

If you look at his work prior to that 2001 date, the racism and bigotry was there in smaller doses.

He focused it heavily on Muslim after 2001, but this was a person ready to be that guy for a long while.

Good riddance to him even if he wrote a truly great novel (The Terror).

Ah, I'd not read his early stuff. good to know. And I agree about The Terror. But yeah, this man was not a nice human.

I vaguely recall that I knew this but Simmons has been so utterly off my radar since Endymion that it didn't stick. A tiny bit surprising given his writing for Kassad in the Hyperion books.

[polishgenius]

Read A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher. It's my second book by Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon), this one's a little more 'serious' than A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, in that, well, it's not about defensive baking, but it's still a joy, a dark fairytale (ie a fairytale) about a deliciously evil sorceress trying to marry into money and the efforts of her daughter and others to prevent that.

Definitely gonna be reading more by her soon. I've got my eye on her Saint of Steel series, but wondering if it makes sense to read her other, earlier books in the same 'verse first. I don't think it's required.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 02 March 2026 - 08:42 PM, said:

Read A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher. It's my second book by Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon), this one's a little more 'serious' than A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, in that, well, it's not about defensive baking, but it's still a joy, a dark fairytale (ie a fairytale) about a deliciously evil sorceress trying to marry into money and the efforts of her daughter and others to prevent that.

Definitely gonna be reading more by her soon. I've got my eye on her Saint of Steel series, but wondering if it makes sense to read her other, earlier books in the same 'verse first. I don't think it's required.

She's a great author. I read her CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE and enjoyed both immensely.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 03 March 2026 - 12:25 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 02 March 2026 - 08:42 PM, said:

Read A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher. It's my second book by Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon), this one's a little more 'serious' than A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, in that, well, it's not about defensive baking, but it's still a joy, a dark fairytale (ie a fairytale) about a deliciously evil sorceress trying to marry into money and the efforts of her daughter and others to prevent that.

Definitely gonna be reading more by her soon. I've got my eye on her Saint of Steel series, but wondering if it makes sense to read her other, earlier books in the same 'verse first. I don't think it's required.

She's a great author. I read her CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE and enjoyed both immensely.

She's been in my TRP for a while and i haven't quite gotten there, i need to move on that i think.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 03 March 2026 - 12:25 PM, said:

She's a great author. I read her CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE and enjoyed both immensely.

Those are the previous pair in the shared universe I was referring to, so that's good to know.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is in my wishlist thing (it's a link Waterstones website let you keep). I have it because Mr NAB kept buying me books as a surprise only to find out I'd already bought them before he could give them to me, so now books go on that list and I'm not allowed to buy them

[Abyss]

I seem to be on a DNF run, i picked up MECH: AGE OF STEEL anthology (on sale) solely because Peter Clines has a story in it. Except, his story isn't in the earbook version. So i gave three stories a try, more or less forced mysef to finish one, and bailed.

Thus irritated...

Abyss, on 03 March 2026 - 03:15 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 03 March 2026 - 12:25 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 02 March 2026 - 08:42 PM, said:

Read A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher. It's my second book by Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon), this one's a little more 'serious' than A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, in that, well, it's not about defensive baking, but it's still a joy, a dark fairytale (ie a fairytale) about a deliciously evil sorceress trying to marry into money and the efforts of her daughter and others to prevent that.

Definitely gonna be reading more by her soon. I've got my eye on her Saint of Steel series, but wondering if it makes sense to read her other, earlier books in the same 'verse first. I don't think it's required.

She's a great author. I read her CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE and enjoyed both immensely.

She's been in my TRP for a while and i haven't quite gotten there, i need to move on that i think.

polishgenius, on 03 March 2026 - 11:04 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 03 March 2026 - 12:25 PM, said:

She's a great author. I read her CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE and enjoyed both immensely.

Those are the previous pair in the shared universe I was referring to, so that's good to know.

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 04 March 2026 - 09:23 AM, said:

Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is in my wishlist thing (it's a link Waterstones website let you keep). I have it because Mr NAB kept buying me books as a surprise only to find out I'd already bought them before he could give them to me, so now books go on that list and I'm not allowed to buy them

...which prompted me to start CLOCKWORK BOYS, aaaaaaaand i'm in. The vibe (very similar to Abercrombie's recent THE DEVILS in a good way) pulled me right into the story. I like Slade, I'm intrigued by what's up w Sir Caliban. Tnx for the reco peoples!

[Tiste Simeon]

Gee thanks guys looks like I'm buying more books now...

The Seventh Bride is currently £1 on Kindle so I guess I'm starting with that one!

[worry]

You should buy double the books to make up for the year you weren't buying any books.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 04 March 2026 - 02:54 PM, said:

Gee thanks guys looks like I'm buying more books now...

The Seventh Bride is currently £1 on Kindle so I guess I'm starting with that one!

To be fair, Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher is a wonderful writer, and lovely to her fans, so you could be worse off.

[Tiste Simeon]

worry, on 04 March 2026 - 04:36 PM, said:

You should buy double the books to make up for the year you weren't buying any books.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from buying even more books"

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 04 March 2026 - 02:37 PM, said:

...which prompted me to start CLOCKWORK BOYS, aaaaaaaand i'm in. The vibe (very similar to Abercrombie's recent THE DEVILS in a good way) pulled me right into the story. I like Slade, I'm intrigued by what's up w Sir Caliban. Tnx for the reco peoples!

Also just bought The Clockwork Boys, albeit not started it yet, because first I read There Is No Antimemetics Division, a recent novelisation of what was previously a web-story related to the SCP wiki. The book takes out all the SCP references and, I think, tightens a few things up. It's excellent, anyway.



Previous to that, I read The House on the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Clune. Heartfelt, heartwarming, partly-satirical story about an inspector of orphanages for magical children, sent to a particularly particular house, where he learns many life lessons and becomes himself. Really good, I'll read the sequel and look out for more by Klune, who, much like T. Kingfisher, is an author who seems to have quietly become very popular indeed without really generating any big hype in my nerd circles. He's been writing for years but I think it was Wolfsong in 2016 that put him on the map and Cerulean Sea, in 2020, that really broke him out.




And I've started The Conductors, a novel set in post-Civil War America, where a couple of former conductors on the Underground Railroad now solve magical crimes in Philadelphia. Couple of chapters in, it's very sharply written and I like the lead a great deal already.

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 06 March 2026 - 06:44 PM, said:

Abyss, on 04 March 2026 - 02:37 PM, said:

...which prompted me to start CLOCKWORK BOYS, aaaaaaaand i'm in. The vibe (very similar to Abercrombie's recent THE DEVILS in a good way) pulled me right into the story. I like Slade, I'm intrigued by what's up w Sir Caliban. Tnx for the reco peoples!

Also just bought The Clockwork Boys, albeit not started it yet...

...

More or less halfway in, very enjoying this. It's somewhat lighter fantasy in the ELI MONPRESS / 13th PALADIN vein but still more adult with occssional dark turns that are very well written. The author takes it right up to the edge of grimdark but doesn't quite go over, and the interaction between the characters if very well written.

[amphibian]

I'm done with the last book of Christopher Ruocchio's Sun Eater series.

The series starts off promising, goes to some decent and interesting places, but the inability to keep the story out of rather intense Christianity used to wrap a Jesus nearly turned Mary Sue in sci fi (and some level of anti abortion-ism even if it's mostly kept at a distance) and general authorial indulgence sinks the series as a whole to a "this isn't worth it" level.

I don't actually mind the attempts to write differently from previous books, but the constant going back and forth in the beginning third between times and characters doesn't get executed well and doesn't lead to a good result story wise.

The women characters are written strangely in that they are not really their own characters - always reflections or add ons of the main character.

The reliance on Kharn Sagara as a catalyst for the entire story gets old. The pop culture references don't particularly glitter - even though there is at least one Malazan book referred to. The attempts to incorporate WH40k ethos don't have enough of the "this is based on being a grunt in an uncaring corporate world" feeling that lets 40k move from dumb to dumb/great.

There's a usage of "Chinese whispers", sporadic focuses on hermaphrodites as always being deviant, and an odd emphasis on a Jewish doctor that has the whiff of bigotry and warped fascination.

Gene Wolfe's Solar cycle this is not. There isn't a depth to the story that Wolfe told in Marlowe's constant talk of whether there's a good purpose and excuses for bad actions because the God of the author is assumed to have a plan that works. There isn't the fun or the reworking of myth that Wolfe creates in his worlds. The grimness now seems touristy at times instead of a mechanism for growth or a deep point to be made, which it was earlier in the series. The establishment of the universe as a thing to be fast forwarded through to find a certain heaven makes for less tension and the driving force of the beginning falls away. And the god talks are boring.

Those who abandoned ship, perhaps at the Jordan Peterson stuff early on, probably saved a bunch of hassle and annoyance.