[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

[Macros]

Don't get the love for Dan Brown, managed to finish the DaVinci code, just about crap book, the entire read felt like a smug 'I know things bullshit shtick from the author, an, at best, average thriller mystery with a bucket of smug mis understood history

[amphibian]

That damn camerlengo...

[Abyss]

Macros, on 17 September 2025 - 07:54 PM, said:

Don't get the love for Dan Brown, managed to finish the DaVinci code, just about crap book, the entire read felt like a smug 'I know things bullshit shtick from the author, an, at best, average thriller mystery with a bucket of smug mis understood history

He did an exceptionally effective job working some very basic but not widely known history lessons into a by the numbers thriller plot, turning it into a fast read that made people feel smarter for having read it. Marketing did the rest.

amphibian, on 17 September 2025 - 09:23 PM, said:

That damn camerlengo...

I dunno, you have to admire the guy for

Spoiler

basically trying to pass himself off as the modern bang-able Christ. It would have worked if Langdon wasn't a natural hang-gliding prodigy.

.

I enjoyed DA VINCI. I enjoyed ANGELS AND DEMONS more. I went back into his biblio and had a very uneven read, and nothing he wrote in the Langdon series after Da Vinci worked for me. Everyone i know who liked Brown has fallen out of love, more or less since THE LOST SYMBOL, i don't know many who hung around for INFERNO. I did almost enjoy the tv series but that fell apart badly about halfway through. Apparently Brown and Carlton Cruse have been hired to adapt SECRET as a tv series.


Over in actual reading ART OF LEGEND is just moving from strength to strength... Chu writes exceptional action scenes.


On the audiodrama front MIDNIGHT BURGER, about the accidental crew/staff/employees of a roadside diner that jumps between worlds and timelines is back, and after the way they ended last season along with spin-off WELCOME TO THE HORIZON i was VERY curious to see how they opened... spoiler... they nail it. Hard. Funny, heartfelt, tense, setting some absolutely glorious hooks for the rest of the season, the voice cast and fx are next level.

It's this perfect blend of DR WHO and SLIDERS and RED DWARF and CHEERS with the occasional dose of STAR TREK and also tacos, sentient plants, android ex-girlfriend assassins, and a pack of wolves in the pocket-world freezer, i cannot possibly recommend it highly enough esp. Three seasons plus two spinoffs (one self contained, one ongoing) that amount to roughly 100 hours of content for free, it's worth a try.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 18 September 2025 - 02:17 PM, said:

...
Over in actual reading ART OF LEGEND is just moving from strength to strength... Chu writes exceptional action scenes.

...

Just Finished. Greaaaaaaat book, very much enjoyed it, Chu sticks the landing nicely, gives the readers the massive martial arts finale they want and need and more that they didn't know they needed. The entire wide cast gets firm endings to their arcs, and while there's what to go back to if he ever wanted, no major hooks or danglers.


Overall, THE WAR ARTS is a fun, well planned and executed trilogy, and totally worth the money and time. Earbook narrator is fantastic, absolutely nails the voices.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 23 September 2025 - 04:21 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 September 2025 - 02:17 PM, said:

...
Over in actual reading ART OF LEGEND is just moving from strength to strength... Chu writes exceptional action scenes.

...

Just Finished. Greaaaaaaat book, very much enjoyed it, Chu sticks the landing nicely, gives the readers the massive martial arts finale they want and need and more that they didn't know they needed. The entire wide cast gets firm endings to their arcs, and while there's what to go back to if he ever wanted, no major hooks or danglers.


Overall, THE WAR ARTS is a fun, well planned and executed trilogy, and totally worth the money and time. Earbook narrator is fantastic, absolutely nails the voices.

Most recent info on the 2021-announced TV series from Jason Ning claims it's in limbo. Although the fact that he's also doing a Crouching Tiger tv series feels like cross purposes and might interfere with each other, so maybe the focus is more on that (which doesn't upset me, I loved CTHD).

EDIT: Also full asian cast of GTFO.

EDIT 2: Really I just want a new Wuxia TV show to watch...

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 23 September 2025 - 04:39 PM

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 23 September 2025 - 04:38 PM, said:

Abyss, on 23 September 2025 - 04:21 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 September 2025 - 02:17 PM, said:

...
Over in actual reading ART OF LEGEND is just moving from strength to strength... Chu writes exceptional action scenes.

...

Just Finished. Greaaaaaaat book, very much enjoyed it, Chu sticks the landing nicely, gives the readers the massive martial arts finale they want and need and more that they didn't know they needed. The entire wide cast gets firm endings to their arcs, and while there's what to go back to if he ever wanted, no major hooks or danglers.


Overall, THE WAR ARTS is a fun, well planned and executed trilogy, and totally worth the money and time. Earbook narrator is fantastic, absolutely nails the voices.

Most recent info on the 2021-announced TV series from Jason Ning claims it's in limbo. Although the fact that he's also doing a Crouching Tiger tv series feels like cross purposes and might interfere with each other, so maybe the focus is more on that (which doesn't upset me, I loved CTHD).

EDIT: Also full asian cast of GTFO.

EDIT 2: Really I just want a new Wuxia TV show to watch...

It's not that WAR ARTS couldn't be adapted for tv, it's just that i'm 90% certain any tv production would do a terrible job of it with anything less than a GoT level budget.

[amphibian]

The Grass Sea seems impossible to depict in terms of being a physical set. Taishi's home is also extremely tough.

This works best as an animated show if it goes the strict adaptation route.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Macros, on 17 September 2025 - 07:54 PM, said:

Don't get the love for Dan Brown, managed to finish the DaVinci code, just about crap book, the entire read felt like a smug 'I know things bullshit shtick from the author, an, at best, average thriller mystery with a bucket of smug mis understood history

I felt very similarly when I tried the Da Vinci Code many years ago.

Finished the First Law trilogy - I definitely want to read more Abercrombie, but having a break for a few lighter things first. Nearly finished A Short History of the World in 50 Failures which has been an amusing read.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 24 September 2025 - 12:03 PM

[QuickTidal]

Started the buzzy buzzy book ALCHEMISED by SenLinYu....which began life as a Harry Potter Fan Fiction that became such a hit that movie studios had a bidding war over it, and asked the author to re-write it without any of the copyrighted Harry Potter stuff in it...

Thus the jumping off point for this story (if it were still Harry Potter) is that The Order of the Phoenix lost the war, Harry Potter is dead, and Voldemort not only rules the world, but used necromancy to raise the dead Order members after they were killed and used them against the remaining ones, he has started a eugenics program to repopulate the world with people of his magical type, and resorts to torture and whatnot to make sure everyone under him stays in line...into this is flung a war-broken Hermoine who has a deliberately placed magical mental block so she can't recall the last 14 months of the war, and is captured and tortured until the Voldemort stand-in (The High Necromancer) realizes that she might be more valuable for whatever information is in her head behind those blocks that no one can penetrate...and she is sent to the High Reeve (Draco Malfoy) for safe keeping until they can find out how....

So...that's fucking dark as hell. I only started it last night, but I'm already on page 60 and it reads really well and pacey.

[Tsundoku]

So ... if 50 Shades of Shit was fan fic Twishite cleansed of the obvious Twishite refs, does this then follow similarly ... ?

[HoosierDaddy]

QuickTidal, on 24 September 2025 - 12:02 PM, said:

Started the buzzy buzzy book ALCHEMISED by SenLinYu....which began life as a Harry Potter Fan Fiction that became such a hit that movie studios had a bidding war over it, and asked the author to re-write it without any of the copyrighted Harry Potter stuff in it...

Thus the jumping off point for this story (if it were still Harry Potter) is that The Order of the Phoenix lost the war, Harry Potter is dead, and Voldemort not only rules the world, but used necromancy to raise the dead Order members after they were killed and used them against the remaining ones, he has started a eugenics program to repopulate the world with people of his magical type, and resorts to torture and whatnot to make sure everyone under him stays in line...into this is flung a war-broken Hermoine who has a deliberately placed magical mental block so she can't recall the last 14 months of the war, and is captured and tortured until the Voldemort stand-in (The High Necromancer) realizes that she might be more valuable for whatever information is in her head behind those blocks that no one can penetrate...and she is sent to the High Reeve (Draco Malfoy) for safe keeping until they can find out how....

So...that's fucking dark as hell. I only started it last night, but I'm already on page 60 and it reads really well and pacey.

I think I remember this during the heyday of fanfic. Good old Dramione fanfiction.

[Tiste Simeon]

I mean I'm sold!

[QuickTidal]

Tsundoku, on 24 September 2025 - 12:18 PM, said:

So ... if 50 Shades of Shit was fan fic Twishite cleansed of the obvious Twishite refs, does this then follow similarly ... ?

I'm not even sure I understand this sentence...

LOL

HoosierDaddy, on 24 September 2025 - 12:24 PM, said:

I think I remember this during the heyday of fanfic. Good old Dramione fanfiction.

Pretty much, but so far this reads like a straight dark fantasy VS romantasy or spicy stuff...

Tiste Simeon, on 24 September 2025 - 01:01 PM, said:

I mean I'm sold!

I was fascinated by the concept of a "What If the good side lost?" stories, so that's what pulled me in.

[Abyss]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 24 September 2025 - 11:52 AM, said:

...

Finished the First Law trilogy - I definitely want to read more Abercrombie, ...

You're in for a treat, his writing - which was fine in TFL - just gets better and better from there.

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 24 September 2025 - 01:57 PM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 24 September 2025 - 11:52 AM, said:

...

Finished the First Law trilogy - I definitely want to read more Abercrombie, ...

You're in for a treat, his writing - which was fine in TFL - just gets better and better from there.

This reminds me that I have The Devils queued up on Audible and I should get around to listening to it. Maybe after Stonewielder...

[worry]

QuickTidal, on 24 September 2025 - 01:07 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 24 September 2025 - 01:01 PM, said:

I mean I'm sold!

I was fascinated by the concept of a "What If the good side lost?" stories, so that's what pulled me in.

Just read the newspaper!

[QuickTidal]

worry, on 24 September 2025 - 02:46 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 24 September 2025 - 01:07 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 24 September 2025 - 01:01 PM, said:

I mean I'm sold!

I was fascinated by the concept of a "What If the good side lost?" stories, so that's what pulled me in.

Just read the newspaper!

Goddamit take my upvote.

[JPK]

Tiste Simeon, on 24 September 2025 - 02:41 PM, said:

Abyss, on 24 September 2025 - 01:57 PM, said:

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 24 September 2025 - 11:52 AM, said:

...

Finished the First Law trilogy - I definitely want to read more Abercrombie, ...

You're in for a treat, his writing - which was fine in TFL - just gets better and better from there.

This reminds me that I have The Devils queued up on Audible and I should get around to listening to it. Maybe after Stonewielder...

Yes. You should. Maybe even before Stonewielder.