Brother by Ania Ahlborn. Man oh man this book is good. I CANNOT put it down!!!!
Brother by Ania Ahlborn. Man oh man this book is good. I CANNOT put it down!!!!
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Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
I've been hearing a lot about her recently. I need to check out some of her books.
Currently reading The Silence by Tim Lebbon. About 2/3 thru and loving it. I wanted to read it before the movie came out, which I thought was soon, but now I can't seem to find any info on a US release date. Does anyone know anything about the film, and when it might be released?
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
I'm about three quarters of the way through the book adaptation of The Shape of Water and, holy moly, I'm really digging this book.
I'm curious as to why you think The Strain sucks?
Just finished Brother. Hands down my favourite book in years. SO YOURSELF a favour and read this book. Fast read and a solid wild ride. I kind of wish King had wrote this to be honest.
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Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
Just finished Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James, more about which you can read in my initial post: http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...=1#post1128411
I fear that my comments here will come across as unduly negative, when the truth is that I would recommend this to anyone interested in horror from the past (the stories were written roughly from 1895 - 1930).
My main issue is that the stories are so similar: virtually every story involves an academic of some kind researching church/religious etc. historical things, leading to situations/places/objects better left alone. Now, you might think this type of impression is something you risk when you read a collection of someone's lifetime body of work at one go, but A) this didn't happen when I immersed myself in Poe and Lovecraft, and B) the person who wrote the introduction agrees, writing "…James’s stories…are also generic works, variations on a successful template: this is what James’s Christmas audiences expected to hear. In the typical James story, a bachelor don or antiquarian scholar discovers a lost manuscript or artefact which unleashes supernatural forces, often causing him to rethink his comfortable assumptions about the nature of reality." To be fair to MRJ, I must point out that writing fiction was far from being his life's work; he was a prominent academic at the University of Cambridge, King's College, and Eton College, and medievalist scholar who wrote extensively within that field.
Another issue is the complete absence of a sense of dread (as you might find with any horror); the feeling here is more of “something odd happened; what do you make of this?” Not bad, just not horror as I’ve come to know it.
An interesting trait: MRJ often tells the reader directly that something happened that he will not show; for example:
- “Useless to imagine the talk which this story set going. It is not remembered.”
- “We will take as read the sentences about my surprise.”
There is the occasional humor (some at the expense of those who enjoy the game of golf):
“…a discussion which golfing persons can imagine for themselves, but which the conscientious writer has no right to inflict upon any non-golfing persons.”
“…words with which we have no concern were freely bandied across the table—merely golfing words, I would hasten to explain."
“The incidents which the ‘enclosed photograph’ recalled were productive of a severe shock to Mrs. Anstruther. It was decided that she must spend the winter abroad.” (My, how the other half lived).
“…the farther off from you, my dear, the better. There, don’t think it necessary to beat me; accept my apologies.”
...and an exchange between a simple country man and a Lord Chief Justice that accidentally devolved into a discussion of their respective teeth.
I will always be indebted to MRJ for introducing me to Piccadilly weepers (seriously, Google it).
For anyone who has read this far and not been totally discouraged from ever sampling MRJ's wares, I can recommend these as my favorites:
- Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book
- Count Magnus
- Casting The Runes
...but to be honest, if you enjoy these, you'll enjoy just about everything in this collection (and have I mentioned the cool cover)?
You can't be aloof until you advertise.
Just started Dickens' The Haunted Man, the last of his five "Christmas books" (the first and foremost of which is, of course, A Christmas Carol), and my second favorite of them (behind ACC).
I've read this before (in early 2017) and although I don't re-read it annually (as I do with ACC), it felt like a good time to revisit it.
I'm enjoying it (I like the story and I love Dickens' writing), but man, I have to say, since early September (with a brief 2-week break for some John Bellairs) I've read mostly older works (Arthur Conan Doyle, Poe, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and now Dickens), and I am REALLY ready for something more modern. I had planned to read a load of Dickens' Christmas stories after this (not to be confused with the 5 books), but those are going to have to wait until next year.
You can't be aloof until you advertise.
Just finished Dickens' The Haunted Man.
As I neared the end, I had to select the next book to read. I decided to pull out a few contenders, read the opening bits to see if anything grabbed me, and go from there.
Our contestants:
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
This is on my general TBR list because I haven't read it, it's considered a classic so I might as well see what the fuss was about, and a copy is close at hand (my daughter has it).
It's a possibility right now because it's sure to be very different from what I've been reading, and it's short (if I don't like it, I'm in and out quick).
The Making Of The Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
I own this because I'm interested in all things nuke, basically, and considering it now because some non-fiction sounds good.
The Keep by F. Paul Wilson
I quite enjoyed a short story of his many years ago (titled Empathy if memory serves, which it often doesn't) and picked up some paperbacks to see what else he has to say for himself.
The winner...
You can't be aloof until you advertise.
I am reading Horns and LOVE IT. Shocked I never did before! Looking for a few books for the XMas break.. what are a few favs you all have? I LOVE a good end of the world book but think I have seen them all with Bird Box being the last on my list. I was also thinking of the series that you all talk about by Patrick Rothfuss... Thanks in advance all!!
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Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
I'm about to finish collected PKD Vol 4 and start what will be the last book of the year, Foe by Iain Reid.
Finished Foe in just under four hours. A reading slump breaker for sure. I picked it randomly from the library and was blown away by how addicting it was.
I started The Handmaid's Tale last night because it's been on my shelf for a while and I'm trying to make myself read what I already own for now instead of buying more books.
If I'm being honest, I was unsure of whether or not I'd like it at all before I picked it up. But, I am enjoying it a lot. For now.
...The Keep by F. Paul Wilson (started this morning). Has anyone out there read this (or anything else by FPW)?
As with many of the books I read, behind it is a long, dull story of interest only to me:
After reading Empathy, I looked around to see what else he had, and discovered he had a series that looked interesting, so I thought I'd give that a try, but things got weird (and stupid).
First, the series may be called the Adversary Series or the Repairman Jack series. I don't know for sure (and am afraid to research too deeply on things like Wikipedia for fear of spoilers), but these titles may be synonymous, or possibly one of these entities includes the other in a larger universe of works. However it went down, at some point I determined that there was generally a 6-book series that I wanted to read.
First dumb thing:
Instead of simply buying the first book, I decided to pick up all the paperbacks (I don't know why I did this).
Second dumb thing:
Somehow I bought two copies of one of the later books in the series, and neglected to buy the first freakin' one - which I needed to get the whole thing off the ground (what a meatball).
I'm not sure when this all happened, but I'm going to guess mid to late 90s, when my spare time for reading dwindled down to nothing (not to mention cash), so things like finding the missing book were forgotten.
A few years ago, now with enough time to read (who said train commutes are a bad thing?) and $5 for a paperback, I decided to do something about it, and started hunting down the books I already had; it turned out one of the books I originally had could not be found, and I was now two books short. At some point, on a birthday or Christmas, I received the two I needed, and the series has been waiting for me since then. And last night, when I read the first bit of the first book, I thought "yeah...this is the stuff."
You can't be aloof until you advertise.
Memo From Turner by Tim Willocks.
You will not be disappointed.
Going to finally pick up these, cannot wait to dive in!
Has anyone read the Broken Earth series?
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Insomnia #459
ANY S/L #459
Currently reading Artemis by Andy Weir. Really liking it as it is a good story and fast paced. I really liked The Martian by him also.
I recently finished The Keep by F. Paul Wilson.
In my post above, I mentioned that I was confused about the series of which The Keep is a part. I've done a bit more research, and it boils down to:
-FPW connected a shitload of his books to each other
-The Adversary Cycle and the Repairman Jack series aren't synonymous, but do overlap
-The second book of the Adversary Cycle is the first book of the Repairman Jack series
-The final book in the 6-book Adversary Cycle is also the final book in the Repairman Jack series (which technically includes several books (10 or more) and several short pieces)
-The second and third books of the Adversary Cycle (and perhaps more) appear to have no surface connection to The Keep
My initial plan of reading the 6-book Adversary Cycle now has been blown up, because:
- if I like what I see of Repairman Jack in the next AC book (which is the first RJ book), I won't want to read the final RJ book and already know the end of his story before reading the rest of his story
- events at the end of The Keep have dampened my enthusiasm for continuing the series (which I still plan to do, but it's no longer a priority); something which had made me think "yeah! give me 5 more books of this please!"
Spoiler:
...kind of faded when
Spoiler:
I was left thinking "whaaaa...now what am I supposed to do?"
The biggest factor is the writing itself - FPW overexplains absolutely everything. For example, this paragraph:
- “Magda shook her head in an attempt to clear it. This was becoming more incredible every minute!”
…could probably have been shortened to:
- “Magda shook her head.”
Keep in mind, I'm not one of these people who believes that within The Stand or It lurked a lean and mean 350-page masterpiece that King was too lazy or indulgent to edit; I do not believe in cutting just so you can say you did (this post is evidence of this fact). The fact is, FPW has no subtlety at all when describing the most simple things, and overdoes it every time.
Overall, his writing turns the potentially extraordinary into the merely interesting. Revelations feel very matter-of-fact, and the more impressive or meaningful a detail, the more I thought “Rothfuss would’ve made that mind-blowing.” To be fair to FPW, there were several spots where I could've thought "King would have given that one away well in advance - nice work keeping a lid on it, FPW."
So why do I plan to continue the series at some point, as negative as my comments have been? Well, FPW spins a decent yarn (and that counts for something):
- Mysterious deaths of Nazis at a castle in a remote mountainous region of Europe during early WWII? Count me in.
- There were at least a few times when I thought I knew what the villain was up to and was dead wrong.
- A hidden cache of forbidden Lovecraftian books? Hell yeah baby!
I read books for what they successfully give me, and it makes no sense to worry about what another author could've done with the same story (there's only one Rothfuss, one King, one Dickens etc.).
The Keep was interesting and intriguing - I was not blown away, but I was entertained. It was a breeze to read, which was important, as my reading of the last few months had left me feeling mentally constipated (sorry for that image) - I badly needed something that would just flow, and The Keep did.
You can't be aloof until you advertise.