[Morgoth]

Alternative Goose, on 02 February 2018 - 06:18 AM, said:

Finished Annihilation yesterday. Bit of a disappointing ending but it wasn't much different than I expected. There shouldn't really be true answers but:

Spoiler

I felt there was some revelation missing at the end. Coming face to face with the crawler was not enough. I wanted to know what was behind the door of light.

What I was really hoping for was something like ending of "Rats in the Walls". The stairs of the tower would opened up into a vast cave or something similar and what the Biologist then saw should have driven her mad. Old Lovecraft style.

But eh, I just started reading Authority and I think we're getting something else.

I do wonder about this maker of words crawler thing. What the hell was it doing? Fortune telling? Reprogamming Area X? So strange.

This really did feel like reading an overly long Lovecraft story. Are there any other authors out there that have this successfully recreated Lovecrafts themes and atmosphere?

Vandermeer is the master of weird horror. Did you ever read his first trilogy? City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch?

[Aptorian]

I'd never heard of Vandermeer before I discovered the Southern Reach books, so that's a no. I'll put the rest of his books on a check out eventually list. Truth be told I don't like horror, so they're not a priority, but Lovecraftian stuff does fascinate me.

[Morgoth]

Alternative Goose, on 02 February 2018 - 08:27 AM, said:

I'd never heard of Vandermeer before I discovered the Southern Reach books, so that's a no. I'll put the rest of his books on a check out eventually list. Truth be told I don't like horror, so they're not a priority, but Lovecraftian stuff does fascinate me.

It's definitly that, more than anything. I love City of Saints and Madmen. It's one of my favourites, so go read it!

[QuickTidal]

Alternative Goose, on 02 February 2018 - 06:18 AM, said:

Finished Annihilation yesterday. Bit of a disappointing ending but it wasn't much different than I expected. There shouldn't really be true answers but:

Spoiler

I felt there was some revelation missing at the end. Coming face to face with the crawler was not enough. I wanted to know what was behind the door of light.

What I was really hoping for was something like ending of "Rats in the Walls". The stairs of the tower would opened up into a vast cave or something similar and what the Biologist then saw should have driven her mad. Old Lovecraft style.

But eh, I just started reading Authority and I think we're getting something else.

I do wonder about this maker of words crawler thing. What the hell was it doing? Fortune telling? Reprogamming Area X? So strange.

This really did feel like reading an overly long Lovecraft story. Are there any other authors out there that have this successfully recreated Lovecrafts themes and atmosphere?

The book is only act one. It was split up into three volumes...but it acts like one. The revelation comes in act 3

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 02 February 2018 - 11:17 AM

[Andorion]

QuickTidal, on 02 February 2018 - 11:17 AM, said:

Alternative Goose, on 02 February 2018 - 06:18 AM, said:

Finished Annihilation yesterday. Bit of a disappointing ending but it wasn't much different than I expected. There shouldn't really be true answers but:

Spoiler

I felt there was some revelation missing at the end. Coming face to face with the crawler was not enough. I wanted to know what was behind the door of light.

What I was really hoping for was something like ending of "Rats in the Walls". The stairs of the tower would opened up into a vast cave or something similar and what the Biologist then saw should have driven her mad. Old Lovecraft style.

But eh, I just started reading Authority and I think we're getting something else.

I do wonder about this maker of words crawler thing. What the hell was it doing? Fortune telling? Reprogamming Area X? So strange.

This really did feel like reading an overly long Lovecraft story. Are there any other authors out there that have this successfully recreated Lovecrafts themes and atmosphere?

The book is only act one. It was split up into three volumes...but it acts like one. The revelation comes in act 3

I am going to have to finish this trilogy soon.

Reading Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. Funny book. Written a bit differently and I think that the author is trying to merge a little bit of Pratchettian humour with a pretty grim story. So far its interesting.

[Mentalist]

Finished Magic Binds That didn't go how I expected, but still fun.

Need new commute read. Since it's payday, I'll probably hit up kindle for some e-books from the very bottom of my Goodreads TRP.

right now that's "Heroes Die" and "Farlander". So Stover will probably be the next commute read.

[JPK]

Mentalist, on 03 February 2018 - 12:11 AM, said:

right now that's "Heroes Die" and "Farlander". So Stover will probably be the next commute read.

This is the right fucking decision and you already know how all of us were going to fucking react to this. It's about damn time.

[Abyss]

Mentalist, on 03 February 2018 - 12:11 AM, said:

Finished Magic Binds That didn't go how I expected, but still fun.

Need new commute read. Since it's payday, I'll probably hit up kindle for some e-books from the very bottom of my Goodreads TRP.

right now that's "Heroes Die" and "Farlander". So Stover will probably be the next commute read.

Briar King, on 03 February 2018 - 12:15 AM, said:

Heroes Fucking Die.

JPK, on 03 February 2018 - 12:53 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 03 February 2018 - 12:11 AM, said:

right now that's "Heroes Die" and "Farlander". So Stover will probably be the next commute read.

This is the right fucking decision and you already know how all of us were going to fucking react to this. It's about damn time.

Thirfuckingded.

[worry]

Whenever anyone says Farlander I think they're talking about Runelords, by David Farland. Nobody ever talks about Runelords, even nostalgically. Where the Runeheads around here?

[Salt-Man Z]

worry, on 03 February 2018 - 02:10 AM, said:

Whenever anyone says Farlander I think they're talking about Runelords, by David Farland. Nobody ever talks about Runelords, even nostalgically. Where the Runeheads around here?

I liked the first book quite a bit! Read the next three, and they slowly seemed to lose their focus/quality with each installment. I own the next three or so as well, but have no real desire to get back into them.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 03 February 2018 - 03:10 AM

[Mentalist]

Briar King, on 03 February 2018 - 03:16 AM, said:

Bk 1 was the best. 2-4 decline with each entry. Bk 5 however was fun. I have bk 6 but would need to reread all. I have no plans to do so anytime in the next few yrs.

\I don't think I ever made it through 5. Don't remember why anymore.

5 was the start of the new arc, after the initial series, iirc, right?

[Abyss]

worry, on 03 February 2018 - 02:10 AM, said:

Whenever anyone says Farlander I think they're talking about Runelords, by David Farland. Nobody ever talks about Runelords, even nostalgically. Where the Runeheads around here?

FARLANDER was actually a good book and a solid series.
RUNELORDS had great ideas and boring to just bad story, imnsho. Very dissappointing series I quit half way thru book 2 or 3.

[Maark Abbott]

JPK, on 03 February 2018 - 12:53 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 03 February 2018 - 12:11 AM, said:

right now that's "Heroes Die" and "Farlander". So Stover will probably be the next commute read.

This is the right fucking decision and you already know how all of us were going to fucking react to this. It's about damn time.

Why does fucking everyone fucking swear about these fucking books?

[Aptorian]

It's a fucking meme because Stover's characters swear like a bunch of fucking sailors who stubbed their motherfucking toes.

Really, Stover is amazing at stringing together cool dialogue laced with profanity. Fuck.

[Mentalist]

Briar King, on 03 February 2018 - 03:33 AM, said:

Yep. Kind of a fresh start.

My recollection is VERY spotty, but I think it was just like "the big good has a son. The big bads who were supposed to be defeated see him as a chance to strike back" type stuff story, and I really don't want more straight-up good vs evil at that time.

[Aptorian]

I'm about half way into the second Southern Reach book: Authority.

Quite the departure from the weirdness of Area X but also a cool new perspective. It's like night and day when reading about Southern Reach's facilities and the personnel compared to book 1, and yet, there's something going on I think. The protagonist control keeps remarking on little details that suggest something is amiss at the facility. More than just the morale and the funding of the site.

I suspect that more than one of the staff are somehow compromised. That Whitby guy is fishy.

I am also curious about residual effects or leaking contamination in the area surrounding the border. The amount of deatil Vandermeer is putting into describing Control's neigboughood suggests to me that every fucking one in a hundred miles might be slowly changing in small ways.

Or maybe I am just paranoid. I say nuke the place from orbit.

[Mentalist]

I think we should just wait for Apt to RAFO without commenting at this point,

[Abyss]

Maark Abbott, on 03 February 2018 - 04:44 PM, said:

JPK, on 03 February 2018 - 12:53 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 03 February 2018 - 12:11 AM, said:

right now that's "Heroes Die" and "Farlander". So Stover will probably be the next commute read.

This is the right fucking decision and you already know how all of us were going to fucking react to this. It's about damn time.

Why does fucking everyone fucking swear about these fucking books?

Because “fuck me like a chicken pot pie” is awesome.

[JPK]

Maark Abbott, on 03 February 2018 - 04:44 PM, said:

JPK, on 03 February 2018 - 12:53 AM, said:

Mentalist, on 03 February 2018 - 12:11 AM, said:

right now that's "Heroes Die" and "Farlander". So Stover will probably be the next commute read.

This is the right fucking decision and you already know how all of us were going to fucking react to this. It's about damn time.

Why does fucking everyone fucking swear about these fucking books?

Wait a minute here. Have you not fucking read Stover's Acts of Caine books? Maark, these need to jump straight to the top of your trp. You, in particular, are going to fucking love these books.

[Aptorian]

Finished Sandman Slim. I was very entertained by this book but I think the plot and world building of this book was utter shit. I don't think I've ever read anything this disjointed and rushed before.

It's a smart new take on the anti-hero/loveable rogue in your typical dark and gritty Urban fantasy genre, but I think it stumbles over its own feet trying to recreate what Jim Butcher did with the Dresden Files. The problem is that in book 1, Kadrey is introducing, fighting and discarding baddies and secrets that something like Dresden Files didn't start getting to before around book 6-10.

This book gets so far ahead of itself that I have no idea how you build to a higher crescendo in the next apparently 8 books he's written. There's no subtlety or art to how he's just shovelling Urban Fantasy tropes into this book. There's no pacing or manageable scope to it.

Spoiler

Seriously, you go from just out of hell looking for revenge to saving the world from a third type of angelic threat that is threatening to end the world and oh by the way you are a Nephilim! I feel like Kadrey prematurely ejaculated all over the last page.

ALso, boy am I tired of stories about Angels and Demons, that are ultra powerful, but only this random hero can save the day. Rrrrreally? I've never liked these stories where Angels are just sitting on their hands and not lifting a finger to stop the apocalypse.

Still. As dumb as I think this book was, I've already ordered the second book.