The Books/Reading Thread

[no country for old wainds]

this next! i devoured this in a couple of days when it first came out back in '06, i remember it being an absolute page turner. my memory starts to get hazy from this point on which is kind of exciting tbh.

finished it. it might be my favourite of the lot now. because all the disparate strands are starting to converge into a central storyline for the first time, it's a little less self-contained than the previous books and he has to juggle a lot, but it's still honed with some incredible extended set pieces even before it builds to the most epic and emotional climax since memories of ice. helps that it follows a high percentage of favourite characters, from the various bridgeburners to mappo/icarium to karsa to trull/onrack to tavore/ganoes paran. i also think reading night of knives beforehand this time enrichened it more than i anticipated due to a greater familiarity with the two main locations, some central lore and certain peripheral characters.

anyway, good to be reminded that these books are still my favourite thing in the world. reaper's gale next.

 

[Slayed Necros]

Reminds me that I need to pick Toll the Hounds back up. The Bonehunters was my immediate favourite after finishing it and probably the best fantasy novel I've read. The massive Y'Ghatan chapter is particularly intense and memorable.

 

[no country for old wainds]

yeah, even compared to the chain of dogs that shit is fucking brutal. i love his handling of soldiers and armies, other writers would just focus on a couple of extraordinary characters but he actually manages to create a sense of an entire army with his huge cast, and that chapter you're talking about is the definitive example of that. i also love all the gallows humour, the unspoken moral codes, the games they play to keep themselves sane, the mythologising of soldiers who do great things (and the plotting against the cunty/incompetent ones), etc. and then you're reminded what a mean, resilient, crazy bunch of fucks they are when an engagement comes.

 

[Somethingface]

I still haven't read any Erikson (even though you told me to like 15 years ago haha). Would you suggest starting with the Malazan series?

Reading Tristram Shandy at the moment though, so not sure how long that will take...

 

[no country for old wainds]

yeah, you kind of have to start with gardens of the moon. it isn’t as good as its successors but it’s still good.

 

[Somethingface]

I guess I should also get around to Donaldson as well since he is a major influence. Would it make sense to read the Thomas Convenant stuff first?

 

[no country for old wainds]

not really, they’re admirers of one another’s work and there’s definitely some overlap in themes and general unpleasantness, but they’re very different series, i’d say read erikson first but i’m biased. actually, as far as erikson mutual admirers go, i’d recommend scott bakker’s prince of nothing series over thomas covenant as well. cook’s black company is good as well (the erikson i’ve just started is dedicated to him, and cook has all but orgasmed over erikson in the past) and the easiest read of the four.

 

[Einherjar86]

Bakker's series is excellent, but a slog. It's also very self-congratulatory at times. He's a philosophy PhD (or nearly, can't recall if he finished), so... yeah.

I still need to finish The Black Company. Read the first book ages ago and liked it, never read the next two (I have the Chronicles omnibus edition).

 

[Vegard Pompey]

The first three Black Company books form a pretty amazing, self-contained trilogy with a satisfying ending. I highly recommend reading at least those three.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Bakker's series is excellent, but a slog. It's also very self-congratulatory at times. He's a philosophy PhD (or nearly, can't recall if he finished), so... yeah.

yeah, it's an incredibly original series conceptually and tonally though, i suppose a bit of pretentiousness comes with the territory. erikson also philosophises pretty hard particularly from midnight tides onwards, but his worldview really speaks to me, whereas bakker is rather perverse and alienating by comparison, which i don't mean as an insult at all but it can be more difficult to read at times. that said, so much of it is absolutely seared into my head in a similar way to something like blood meridian, and some of those characters are absolutely singular.

i'm sure i've asked this before but where did you get up to with erikson in the end ein?

 

[Einherjar86]

yeah, it's an incredibly original series conceptually and tonally though, i suppose a bit of pretentiousness comes with the territory. erikson also philosophises pretty hard particularly from midnight tides onwards, but his worldview really speaks to me, whereas bakker is rather perverse and alienating by comparison, which i don't mean as an insult at all but it can be more difficult to read at times. that said, so much of it is absolutely seared into my head in a similar way to something like blood meridian, and some of those characters are absolutely singular.

Agreed. Not sure if you’ve read the second series, but the Unholy Consult was pretty epic I thought, despite poor reviews. You finally make it inside Golgotterath...

i'm sure i've asked this before but where did you get up to with erikson in the end ein?

Yeah we’ve talked about this, I need to revisit it. I’ve read the first two books. The ending of Deadhouse kinda lost me, but I might have a totally different reaction now.

 

[TageRyche]

I finished reading an advance copy of the Kyle Mills thriller Total Power.

 

[Bloopy]

I started reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. It's so fucked already, some of the funniest moments I've ever read in a novel.

 

[CiG]

Damn this one has allusions to stuff like Scanners and Altered States, really loving the way it describes dreamscapes and dream manipulation.

 

[Sirjack]

I started reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. It's so fucked already, some of the funniest moments I've ever read in a novel.

great debut novel. wait til the end

 

[TageRyche]

I finished reading the Sherry Harris mystery novel From Beer To Eternity

 

[TageRyche]

I finished reading the Lorna Barrett mystery Handbook for Homicide.

 

[Einherjar86]

Excited to dig into this. Probably assign some of it for my course this fall.

 

[CiG]

The Outcast Dead was fucking amazing. Onto the next one...

 

[Einherjar86]

Just finished Paul Tremblay's The Cabin at the End of the World--gut-wrenching home invasion thriller that borders on horror but doesn't quite get there (or maybe it does...?).

Didn't enjoy this one as much as Head Full of Ghosts, but it was still a page-turner. Thinking about getting either Tremblay's most recent, Survivor Song, next, or his 2016 book Disappearance at Devil's Rock. Really like his writing style, he makes something mildly fun out of sheer horror (although Cabin was pretty heart-breaking).