Finished The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Book 2 of The Passage trilogy! Finally!
It was interesting read, but too long. Too much back story and details that could have been condensed quite a bit. As it is, I didn’t like the fist quarter, second quarter was okay, third was interesting, and really enjoyed the last one.
Still one book remaining in the trilogy, but need a break, will come back to after a little while.
Read some more stories from The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.
Now reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).
It’s my first Drizzt, and first D&D novel and has been on my wishlist for a very long time. Just started it so can’t really say much about it, but enjoying it so far.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
A regular reminder about our Book Bingo, and it’s Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.
You must log in or # to comment.
Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. The book that inspired the game. All the characters are so, so wordy, but I’m enjoying it.
It’s on my wishlist, didn’t like the game much, but the lore seemed interesting specially near the end of first game and in second game. Though having straight up Nazis didn’t feel very creative, but maybe they make more sense in the books.
There’s a kind of ‘repeating the mistakes of the past’ theme.
Yeah, I guess that makes sense.
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Infinite Series by Jeremy Robinson. It is a masterwork of scifi, spanning several scifi sub-genres. Each book (that I’ve read so far) is only loosely connected to the other books - it reminds me a bit of early Marvel movies where at the end Nick Fury shows up. I had read Infinite, not knowing that it was the beginning of a series, and then when I found out I decided I would read the next book, but make no commitments to continue the series. I’ve not stopped and each book just keeps getting better.
I randomly stumbled across the dark which is much later in the series and really enjoyed it. I’ve now gone back and started from the beginning with infinite and will be continuing in order. I’m looking forward to it!
“Across the Dark”, D for Dark, D for Death. Yeah, makes sense that’s the one you stumbled upon. 😀
Haven’t read the series, but apparently you get crossovers in last few books.
Not currently reading anything but just finished The Fisherman by John Langan. I’m just here hoping someone can recommend some good horror from the last few years
I read a lot of horror! Here are some of my recent faves:
- Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
- I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
- Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
- The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
- Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman
What did you think of Ghost Eaters? I found it a bit boring by the end. I finished it and I wouldn’t say it was bad but it was a bit of a slog for me by the end.
It’s been over a year now since I’ve read it, so I don’t remember a lot of the details, but I did quite like it overall. There were some parts that I thought were a bit overdone, I think it’s always a fine line with horror and people have different thresholds as well, but overall I enjoyed the weird creepy things that kept piling up by the end.
I really loathed the fisherman. It felt like a bait and switch, and the framing device felt like I was being asked to accept an insane proposition. Why would they just sit there in that diner for what must have been hours listening to that guy exposit in anachronistic old-timey waffle?
I am baffled by its popularity.
Edit: conversely, and so I’m not being a negative Nancy, The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch was fun and weird and kept me interested.
I’m not sure if these will exactly fit the bill for horror for you, but they scratched a similar genre itch for me:
- The Terror - Dan Simmons
- Plain Bad Heroines - Emily M Danforth
I watched The Terror tv series and loved it, although I know the book is a bit different. Have you read The Hunger by Alma Katsu? Apparatus she wrote it as basically a spiritual followup, also being historical horror
I’m reading the Silmarillion, so I can be madder at Rings of Power
How do you keep all the name straight? I have tried couple of times but that’s where I got lost. Have been planning to start again, and make a relationship / characters chart as I go along, so that I can remember who’s who.
Full disclosure I’m actually listening to the audiobook version read by Martin Shaw. Mostly I’ve just been going with it, important characters are repeated over and over, less important ones are not. The hard part is not googling names and reading spoilers haha
Heh. Nice!
I’m still using reading mostly as a means to fall asleep but I finished Slow Horses on the weekend. Even after watching the TV series the books are very enjoyable.
On to the next one!
Heh, using it as falling sleep doesn’t match with you finding it very enjoyable. 😀
It’s not boring me to sleep. I just mean that I’m only reading before bed now to help me relax and get to sleep.
My apologies, I was trying to be funny. Didn’t really work out.
Night time reading is a pretty good way to unwind and relax, away from the screens.
Just started with Scalzi’s Starter Villain. No opinion yet. But it’s short, so I should have one soon.
Not my usual thing, I’m admittedly a trashy action thriller person, but Yellowface is very much keeping my attention at the moment. It’s very well written
R. F. Kaung comes up often, should read something from him.
I think his name’s Rebecca :)
Oops. My bad. Just looked her up, she is just 28, that’s pretty impressive.
Thanks for the correction!
I am working my way through the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. I’m on The State of the Art which is an anthology. All of the books up to this point have been EXCELLENT, especially Use of Weapons which is one of the best science fiction books I’ve ever read. Usually with the space opera genre and perhaps sci-fi in general, you land somewhere on a sliding scale between imaginative concepts and good writing, but Banks is one of the few that hits top marks in both areas.
Just finished Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, and haven’t picked out what I’m reading next.
I think this is one of those I should have dropped rather than power through. I liked the story, but the writing style just wasn’t for me: poetic, but verbose verging on purple, imo. Is all his work like this? I vaguely remember reading “There Will Come Soft Rains” a long time ago, but I don’t remember how it was written. Also, I thought this was going to be Halloween-related, but it really isn’t.
Bingo squares: Older Than You Are (1962), Family Drama, (maybe) Plays With Words, Bookception (hard), Now a Major Motion Picture, It’s About Time, (alt) A Change in Perspective.
Yeah, sometimes it’s better to just drop the book rather than force it. Life is too short for bad books.
Working my way through book 5 of He Who Fights With Monsters.
Tap for spoiler
Jason has just been diverted from Japan to Indonesia as shit is fucked up.
I am slowly going through The Wandering Inn. Without spoiling things I’m loving the utility of a door.
Really enjoying this series, too. (wanderinginn.com) Amazing amount of output from the author, and while there’s no way you can enjoy every plot thread (I just don’t care for Flos), it’s amazing how often I get excited when a new chapter starts from a new perspective.
Personally, I’m also working on “When the Clock Broke” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790601-when-the-clock-broke and “This America of Ours” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58311951-this-america-of-ours
Both are interesting reads, but “America” is definitely largely lighter material …(wild, given it’s about McCarthy-era politics)
Nice saved your recommendations. Thanks!
Those are two non-fiction books about American politics. Very different from Innworld…
I just finished Lessons in Chemistry. It started of a little dark but quickly turns into a roller coaster slice of life novel that secretly weaves a series of plot points before coming to a heartwarming end. I am starting Meditations by Marcus Aurelius with annotations for context.
I’ll probably also read a second lighter book in-between sections of Meditation cuz it’s a dense book.Just finished King’s Fairy Tale. Almost started the dark tower series, but then remembered that I needed to read Moby-Dick. So, that’s what I’m reading now.
I hope you like in depth descriptions of whales
Hmmm, not interested in that. Lol
Is the book fantasy? Like does the whale talk or something? Or is he just talking about going whale hunting(if that’s the word).Most of the book is descriptions of whales, whaling boats, whale skeletons etc. Some of it can be interesting from a historical perspective. I’m sure it was more interesting when people didn’t have access to pictures, but it wasn’t what I was expecting, that’s for sure.
Well, I can’t say anything but thank you for saving me a possible week or two of reading something I really have no interest in. I genuinely thought the whale would end up speaking and some fantasy stuff would occur.
Hugo’s Hunchback is much the same. There is genuinely a good story, with the gypsy, the priest, Quasimodo himself, and then a good half the center of the book is just a complete history of the Notre Dame cathedral.
I actually have a habit of skipping what I call “stuffing” when I sense it’s just stuff I really don’t care to know. Saves me some good number of pages. Alexandre Dumas does this a lot in his books. When I read “The count of Monte Cristo”, I skipped all the parts where he described landscapes and ocean and all that lovey shit. Lol
There’s a chapter where Ishmael gets mad that all the whales are named wrong. He spends a while renaming them better.
It’s a very odd book. I quite liked it, but it’s definitely in the recommend with caution group.
Don’t forget how he asserts that whales are actually fish and he doesn’t care what scientists say because he spoke to whalemen
Mammals are supposed to have hair. Don’t try to pretend you’ve seen a whale with a bob or braids. Ishmael was 100% right here.
😆
Well, I’m glad I mentioned it here to get some feedback. Phew, it would have been a very long read, especially for me. lol
Fairy Tale was great! Talisman is another great book in that vein.
I liked it. It was a fun book. I switched gears to the lotr trilogy now. My son has been wanting to watch the movies with me, but I wanted to read the books first. Little man will have to wait a bit. Lol
Just started Blindsight by Peter Watts. Haven’t gotten far yet, but so far it seems interesting
That first Passage book starts out so strong, and then just changes to a completely different (and far less interesting) book about 1/3 of the way in. It’s bizarre. I’m surprised you decided to read the sequel. Book one just felt like the publisher pushed Cronin to write a lame walking dead rip off.
Haha, agreed, that was bit jarring when it happened, but then I got used to the characters. I will probably read the third book too, but I don’t think I am going to recommend the series to anyone else. At least if I like them 😀
