[Macros]

Book two of Vindolandia is just as solid as the first.
Thanks RTB, will pick up book 3 once I get a bit of shogun down

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Macros, on 19 January 2022 - 10:05 PM, said:

Book two of Vindolandia is just as solid as the first.
Thanks RTB, will pick up book 3 once I get a bit of shogun down

You're welcome - and I'm falling behind! Queuing book 2 up next!

[Abyss]

BLACKTONGUE THIEF ... Just Finished... NAILS the landing.
Great great fantasy book, completely satisfying ending. You all should read this.
The earbook is fantastic, narrated by the author and he nails it. More in the ded-thread.


Now... QUANTUM OF NIGHTMARE, the next book in Stross' LAUNDRY spinoff series.

[JPK]

I just finished THE ONE KINGDOM by Sean Russell. I started this as it had been sitting in my trp for 15 years or so and had survived all of the purges.

I'd give it a 3.5/5. There was a lot of promise in the blurb that this would be a lot more of a political book about a generational bloodfeud between two families that each had claim to an ancient throne. Unfortunately, while there's a touch of that is very much pushed to the background. It more closely follows a trio of young adults going from the far countryside to sell off goods they picked up on an ancient battleground. These three are very reminiscent of the main male trio of The Wheel of Time in several ways and are fairly cliche to their archetypes as well.

Now the bad is out of the way, I can talk a bit about the good. I liked the magic system. It's there but it's rare and the source of it is interesting. For a lot of the book the main trio and a +1 are traveling downstream on a river with a reputation for getting weird and it doesn't take long for it to mess with them and start making them land in "hidden places" that don't appear on the map. It's not quite like stepping into the world of the fey however I can see how it was likely inspired by that. The +1 is a character that while clearly based around a gypsy stereotype which I could have lived without, but has a sort of magic that allows him to sense the hidden stories of places he visits for a time. The longer he stays in a place, the more is revealed to him. This could be history, myth, religion, ect... I really liked that bit.

I don't think I'd recommend it in a "this is so good! You've got to read this!!!1!" sense but I would recommend it if one were in a mood to read something that feels classic and comfortable but has a couple twists to make it unique.

This post has been edited by JPK: 22 January 2022 - 06:08 AM

[Aptorian]

I'm reading "I am not a Serial Killer" by Dan Wells. It opens up with a teenager, the protagonist, helping embalm an old lady at a mortuary - And it made me think.

Why the hell do Americans get embalmed? Is it a practice in all the states? Do people get embalmed in other countries? I tried googling Danish funeral practices and all I could find about embalming or "Balsamering" is that it's a law to embalm people who are entombed above ground.

A grey area of the practice is that it also overlaps with keeping corpses presentable for open casket viewing at a funeral. But other than that I don't get it. Why spend all those ressources on somebody who's going in the ground or the oven anyway.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Aptorian, on 22 January 2022 - 02:59 PM, said:

I'm reading "I am not a Serial Killer" by Dan Wells. It opens up with a teenager, the protagonist, helping embalm an old lady at a mortuary - And it made me think.

Why the hell do Americans get embalmed? Is it a practice in all the states? Do people get embalmed in other countries? I tried googling Danish funeral practices and all I could find about embalming or "Balsamering" is that it's a law to embalm people who are entombed above ground.

A grey area of the practice is that it also overlaps with keeping corpses presentable for open casket viewing at a funeral. But other than that I don't get it. Why spend all those ressources on somebody who's going in the ground or the oven anyway.

'embalming is a common practice in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Ireland, while it is much less frequent in many parts of Europe'

'Embalming became more common in the United States during the American Civil War, when servicemen often died far from home. The wish of families for their remains to be returned home for local burial and lengthy transport from the battlefield meant it became common in the United States. [...]

[...] The passage of Abraham Lincoln's body home for burial was made possible by embalming, and it brought the possibilities and potential of embalming to wider public notice.'

'A successful viewing of the body is considered to be helpful in the grieving process. [...] This beneficial perception of the viewing of a properly embalmed deceased person has been challenged, however, by authors such as Jessica Mitford, who point out that there is no general consensus that viewing an embalmed corpse is somehow "therapeutic" to the bereaved, and that terms such as "memory picture" were invented by the undertakers themselves, who have a financial interest in selling the costly process of embalming to the public.'

https://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Embalming

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 22 January 2022 - 02:59 PM, said:

I'm reading "I am not a Serial Killer" by Dan Wells. It opens up with a teenager, the protagonist, helping embalm an old lady at a mortuary - And it made me think.

Why the hell do Americans get embalmed? Is it a practice in all the states? Do people get embalmed in other countries? I tried googling Danish funeral practices and all I could find about embalming or "Balsamering" is that it's a law to embalm people who are entombed above ground.

A grey area of the practice is that it also overlaps with keeping corpses presentable for open casket viewing at a funeral. But other than that I don't get it. Why spend all those ressources on somebody who's going in the ground or the oven anyway.

Americans are too weak to burn their dead on big pyres like your Viking ancestors.

[Aptorian]

That's for the peasants. I plan on having all my possessions loaded on to a long ship and set on fire in Østersøen.

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 22 January 2022 - 05:38 PM, said:

That's for the peasants. I plan on having all my possessions loaded on to a long ship and set on fire in Østersøen.

I can’t imagine it any other way.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 22 January 2022 - 06:01 PM, said:

Aptorian, on 22 January 2022 - 05:38 PM, said:

That's for the peasants. I plan on having all my possessions loaded on to a long ship and set on fire in Østersøen.

I can't imagine it any other way.

What, vivesection and being spread out on a mountaintop for scavenger birds was too much work?

[Aptorian]

That would be preferable but alas there are no mountains in Denmark. Best you can hope for is a pigeon picking at your corpse on a train station.

[Abyss]

Are they angry pigeons or just somewhat disgruntled?

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 24 January 2022 - 05:40 PM, said:

Are they angry pigeons or just somewhat disgruntled?

Somewhat Disgruntled Pigeons is my progressive rock band name.

[Macros]

They're evil pigeons

[Abyss]

With or without lasers?

[Macros]

Sitting down to Shogun

[Macros]

Abyss, on 24 January 2022 - 06:49 PM, said:

With or without lasers?

With fricking laser beams

[Macros]

Starting A Practical Guide to Conquering the World, by KJ Parker as well as Shogun.

I enjoyed the first two of the series so looking forward to this

[Aptorian]

Read I am not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells.

This is the first book in a while that I've read, that I not just didn't like but started to loath as the story unfolded. Started out great, turned into shit.

The premise is a story about a teenager who's in therapy for exhibiting the trademarks of a sociopath. He's fascinated by serial killers and believes he's destined to become one. Then an actual monstrous serial killer starts attacking people in town and he tries to stop the killer.

That is the premise. The book claims to be a horror suspense novel. It's not. It's Young adult bullshit.

What starts out as an interesting story about a fucked up kid, up against something supernatural, turns out to just be a "Young protagonist overcomes adversity" story. What should have been two monsters competing, just flounders. Completely giving up on the concept of what a teenage sociopath should/would be like. I was expecting something fucked up, instead I just got teenage angst. I feel like I've been lied to.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 25 January 2022 - 08:44 PM

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 25 January 2022 - 08:43 PM, said:

Read I am not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells.

This is the first book in a while that I've read, that I not just didn't like but started to loath as the story unfolded. Started out great, turned into shit.

The premise is a story about a teenager who's in therapy for exhibiting the trademarks of a sociopath. He's fascinated by serial killers and believes he's destined to become one. Then an actual monstrous serial killer starts attacking people in town and he tries to stop the killer.

That is the premise. The book claims to be a horror suspense novel. It's not. It's Young adult bullshit.

What starts out as an interesting story about a fucked up kid, up against something supernatural, turns out to just be a "Young protagonist overcomes adversity" story. What should have been two monsters competing, just flounders. Completely giving up on the concept of what a teenage sociopath should/would be like. I was expecting something fucked up, instead I just got teenage angst. I feel like I've been lied to.

It's a six book series so clearly someone's enjoying it but one short google later i can only ask... why, Apt, why? It sounds like Dexter written by the Riverdale writers room with a much lower budget and no actual teens involved but someone there watched Buffy a decade ago.