• General

  • What have you read recently?

Yeah, it surprised me too. Did not expect that direction.

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett. Nice follow up to Foundryside. Not groundbreaking, but book 2s are usually middlefodder. The magic system in the series is well thought out though.

The Companions by Katie M. Flynn. It garnered mediocre reviews (some especially bonkers I-hated-it’s on Goodreads. PS: even as a reader, never read Goodreads reviews, some people are just being cunts for cunt’s sake). I liked it, even though it gave me the creeps. Kinda reminded me of Philip K. Dick’s stories, but also reminiscent of the movie A.I. (just less technicolor).

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Decent epic fantasy novel, even if a bit traditional.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. I’m gonna go against a lot of those bitchy Goodreads people on this one too– I thought it was fantastic. It’s 64-65 years before the events of The Hunger Games… did those twits really think the games would have been all the glamour and spectacle that they became? It’s gritty, dirty, and makes Coriolanus Snow seem far more human than who he became. And yeah, I’d read another Hunger Games prequel if Ms. Collins dared so. I kinda want to see Snow’s rise to power.

a month later

Lovecraft Country starts on HBO next week, and instead of buying it I bought a collection of all the classics from the horrible racist himself. Read through 3 stories last night, and it took me about half an hour. Most of them are not long. I was worried about the style, and whether they would seem silly, but I am happy to report that it’s ok, and they are more disturbing then silly still. I’ve last read any of them as a teenager, and now the amount of influence he’s had is amazing to notice.

Reading Rave On by Matthew Collin at the moment. Picked it up at the Design Museum electronic exhibition. Very good so far. Read the Berlin and Ibiza chapters so far. Now on to Vegas

    I’ve just started on liberation through hearing about the history of XL records by Richard Russell. Would love to know anyone’s thoughts who’ve read it.

    JonQPublik finished Children of ruin too. Also great. Tchaikovsky announced there’s a third one planned at some point. 👍🏻

    Started on ‘Dark Matter’ by Blake Crouch. Good so far.

      22 days later

      He is going to kill us all in the end you know!

      Dark matter was good but could have been so much better if it hadn’t been contorted into a sappy love story (you can practicaly hear the author yelling ‘hello movie producers!’) and actually explored the ability to traverse the multiverse in a bit more detail. 7 multiverse travelling cubes / 10

      Read books 1 to 4 of the murderbot diaries. Entertaining enough but nothing special. Nae idea why it’s as successful as it is. The author consistently misses the rich potential of the wider implications of the set up (slavery, classism, definition of humanity etc) to just have a misanthrope robot that likes to watch tv instead. 7 episodes of Santuary Moon / 10.

        Wally I’ve got the Murderbot Diaries in my TBR stack. Have read the first a few years ago, but will reread it to refresh my memory. They’re short, so no big whoop.

            JonQPublik yeah, read all four in a week or so. 1 & 4 are the best ones. Hoping 5&6, the full novels are better but am taking a break from them to read something else for now.

              21 days later

              First Blood. Again. I like the first Rambo-movie, but it really doesn’t do the book justice. Then again Rambo killing 13 cops might not have been filmable in 1980.

              • Dan replied to this.

                Homegrove The irony with those films by Sly is that he weaselled out of the draft due to a student deferment and later a medical deferment.

                  Currently reading ’Death’s end’ by Cixin Liu which is also very good so far. The last of the three body problem trilogy.

                  Not sure what’s next - ‘A memory called empire’ by Arkady Martine probably - one of this year’s HUGO nominees.

                    Am currently reading Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

                    Obviously resonates with the super athletes like me.

                      Just started reading The secret Dj then onto The school of Life by Alain De Botton

                      Wally Death’s End was bizarre. Left me with weird questions.

                      A Memory Called Empire was ok iirc. It didn’t bore me completely.

                      Currently trudging through A Declaration of The Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry. IDK, this brand of historical fantasy just isn’t hitting the right buttons. Though I do think the story would be better serviced visually.

                      Finished the Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation series from Vaseem Khan. Indian crime fiction? Yep. Enjoyable enough the whole series even if a bit ‘cute’ occasionally, but book 5 was snoozy.

                      Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was… fine. But not a good kind of fine. As a plus, it wasn’t predictable– yet the gothicness was nothing new; the reveal however, was just <wth?!>.

                      Also occasionally reading a book in the Donovan series by W. Michael Gear. It’s generally a strange blend of familiar things… 80s flicks like Commando and Predator, some of those spaghetti westerns and pioneer films of the 70s. Super macho, but there’s also a strong feminist vein running throughout. Or maybe it’s solely an excess of confidence. Pulpy, but different.

                        Finally finished up All The Pieces Matter, think it was Jonatton who recommended it in the old board. Loved it. Picked up The Soprano Sessions for a follow up.