The Books/Reading Thread

[Slayed Necros]

The Black Company was the first fantasy series I read. Made it through seven books before getting bored. Can't remember a whole lot but the first trilogy was definitely the best. I'm now on the seventh book of the Malazan series and it's clear Erikson was massively influenced by Cook, even if I think the former is a better writer overall.

 

[no country for old wainds]

most of the soldier/mercenary-related stuff in erikson is pure cook really, albeit recontextualised into something a lot grander obviously. cook is an erikson fan too which is cool. i bet cook is familiar with elmore leonard tbh, i know he loves mystery/detective novels as much as fantasy and always cites guys like raymond chandler as influences. i'm sure he reads all those hard ass military autobiographies as well, he was in the navy just before 'nam iirc and you can tell.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

i'm sure he reads all those hard ass military autobiographies as well, he was in the navy just before 'nam iirc and you can tell.

The guy wrote Wheel of Time also ahas a pretty interesting background. He was some badass chopper gunner or something if remember correctly.

I haven't read much crime or mystery, but isnt Elmore Leonard considered the godfather of that genre or something? I've heard plenty of people, articles, etc referring to him as one of the all time greats.

 

[Einherjar86]

I finished reading V. yesterday, I will copy some random notes here:

The spy novel-like chapter taking place in Cairo and Alexandria, which is mostly a revised story from the Slow Learner which I've read, albeit in czech: The great thing about the rewrite is that the story of Porpentine and Goodfellow in V. is laid down from the perspective of various locals. It might omit some details from the original but it definitely showcases the writing abilities of Pynchon at that point. In Slow Learner it's "just a spy story", one that Pynchon himself is critical of, in V. it's something more. I think that instead of inserting his own characters into a place from a baedeker, he gave the locals their own histories to give the place a soul. It does make it a more demanding read though.

The Mondaugen's story from German South-West Africa was the most difficult for me to read, it was morbid, depressive, and psychedelic. Oh the other side, at least I know something about that period now that I was forced to google it, because honestly I had no idea about which were the German colonies in Africa and shit like that.

The whole Malta thing on the other hand kept reminding me of my short stay there on the Island (I was on Gozo specifically), I just had to reminisce about that. It's really a very poetic and mystical place. Gotta share some pictures later.

The trouble with this book is really the amount of characters and that I couldn't really emotionally connect to any. Profane's useless existence seemed fun, but I missed that one character that I could really connect with, V. is more like a mythical description of the world using a net of people who are all connected somehow. You have to let it flow and take you along. There was couple of times when I thought I will have to return to some of the passages to better understand, thinking I might have missed something, but in the end it all kind of clicked.

You correctly called it a "wide ride". I shall continue with Gravity's Rainbow now.

Yeah, it's insane. If you disliked some of the characterization (or lack thereof), you won't find much better in Gravity's Rainbow. Pynchon is often criticized for being shallow on character. I've never been particularly partial to character development, which I think is one of the reasons I'm drawn to his work.

My absolute favorite chapters in V. are "She Hangs on the Western Wall" and "Confessions of Fausto Maijstral." I go back and re-read just those chapters. They're so good.

 

[Einherjar86]

Just started reading Iain Reid's I'm Thinking of Ending Things. It's part psychological thriller, part horror--twenty pages in, and it's already deeply unsettling.

Haven't posted an update in a while, so here goes:

I burned through Iain Reid's I'm Thinking of Ending Things. It's a taut, well-written, intelligent, and utterly creepy book. I couldn't put it down. Characters behave strangely, which I'm always a fan of; and the setting and circumstances only serve to heighten the atmosphere. I'm usually not one for reading "thrillers," but Reid draws on horror tropes and conventions in an artful way. There are two things in the book I didn't care for, one being the anonymous dialogue interspersed through the narrative (felt heavy-handed) and the other being the conclusion (which felt unearned). That being said, the ending doesn't ruin the enjoyment of the page-turner. I wasn't reading with the hopes of a massive payoff anyway, so the ending wasn't a big letdown. Reading a book isn't always about finishing after all; sometimes it's about enjoying the ride.

I recently picked up a copy of Reid's second novel, Foe. We'll see how the sophomore effort fares.

I have a trip coming up, so in addition to Foe I'll also be diving into DeLillo's Mao II, VanderMeer's Borne (finally), and maybe this new collection I just purchased:

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

war of the spider-queen was awesome

 

[TageRyche]

I finished reading advance copies of the C.J. Box thriller The Bitterroots and Ellen Hart's Twisted At The Root. I liked both books and will be writing reviews of them for Mystery Scene magazine.

 

[CiG]

 

[TageRyche]

I finished the Maddie Day mystery Strangled Eggs and Ham. I loved it. And the author loved and shared my review of the book.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

i actually like the old-school detective novel trope where the surprise twist ending of the story is revealing that 2 of the characters were actually just 2 separate chroniclings of the actions of one person

@TageRyche
do any detective novels use this trope anymore??
it's actually a pretty awesome trope if it's well-done


surprisingly the most recent example of this that I've personally seen
was actually in a movie
the movie was Detective Picachu
this movie was clearly a "detective" movie and somehow actually managed to contain the trope i described above

Spoiler

the movie had Ryan Reynolds voicing Picachu the entire fucking movie and then the last second shows Ryan actually walking around as a human

the movie was not nearly as horrible as i thought a pokemon movie was going to be
and the content of the spoiler was actually amazingly really well-done

 

[TageRyche]

i actually like the old-school detective novel trope where the surprise twist ending of the story is revealing that 2 of the characters were actually just 2 separate chroniclings of the actions of one person

@TageRyche
do any detective novels use this trope anymore??
it's actually a pretty awesome trope if it's well-done

I can't think of any that I've read off the top of my head. The closest thing I can think of is the unreliable narrator. Where the reader isn't quite certain of the person narrating the story. It's a trend in the mystery fiction world as of late.

For me, I prefer my stories told in a linear fashion instead of all the game playing.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

@TageRyche @Einherjar86 @Dak @CiG

the thing i was describing was done in a lot of books where the villain is a serial killer or serial rapist
where we see descriptions of the murders/rapes
and then the surprise twist ending is that the killer/rapist turns out to be a character that's had a lot of text describing their non-villainous behavior

i don't know how else to describe this
IIRC i think this trope was popular in the "detective" books that were published in the 1920s and 30s

 

[CiG]

IDGAF.

 

[Einherjar86]

i think this trope was popular in the "detective" books that were published in the 1920s and 30s

I think you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

IIRC i think this trope was popular in the "detective" books that were published in the 1920s and 30s

it was also used in one of the sword-of-truth novels
and a bunch of books written right before caller-ID was invented

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

did everyone just stop reading books??

 

[CiG]

 

[Einherjar86]

surprisingly the most recent example of this that I've personally seen
was actually in a movie
the movie was Detective Picachu
this movie was clearly a "detective" movie and somehow actually managed to contain the trope i described above

Spoiler

the movie had Ryan Reynolds voicing Picachu the entire fucking movie and then the last second shows Ryan actually walking around as a human

the movie was not nearly as horrible as i thought a pokemon movie was going to be
and the content of the spoiler was actually amazingly really well-done

and a bunch of books written right before caller-ID was invented

did everyone just stop reading books??

Yeah, that’s why no one’s responding to this slipstream of bullshit.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

i just really love this page