What are you currently reading?

[St. Troy]

...and where the hell was I when CD announced their edition of The Damnation Game (which I only discovered a few days ago) a few years ago? It's like I've been asleep for years.

[St. Troy]

...and this was Barker's first novel - sweet baby Jesus of Nazareth...

[St. Troy]

Just finished In The Flesh by Clive Barker.

ITF is Barker's fifth Book of Blood, and includes 4 short stories: In The Flesh, The Forbidden (the basis of the 1992 movie Candyman), The Madonna, and Babel's Children. Overall, a good collection. I probably preferred the first two stories, but they each did something different and worthwhile.

I've owned this for a long time, but going into this read I had no idea if I'd read it before or not. Parts of Babel's Children rang bells, so it's likely that I did.

In The Flesh (the short story) had a more traditional horror set-up, did some interesting things, including something small that could be considered optimistic (if questionable) in its conclusion. Early in The Forbidden, I built expectations that it would go quite a bit deeper than it did (semiotics - what a perfectly fertile ground for mystery and intrigue, and perfect for a short - or not so short - novel), but that was my fault for forgetting how short it was (maybe 55 small pages). The Madonna was somewhat Lovecraftian, although rendered in thoroughly Barker fashion, and showcased interesting contrasts of peace and violence, acceptance and rejection, and (as always) how people treat each other. Babel's Children was much shorter and less complex than the other pieces, but did a nice job placing the head-scratchingly strange right next to the ordinary, with a fair amount of punchy drama in a small space.

[webstar1000]

Has anyone read the other Fynn Novels? I LOVED Gone Girl...

[Ricky]

Sharp Objects was excellent. I loved it. I haven't read Dark Places, though.

[Heather19]

I loved Sharp Objects as well. Didn't care for Dark Places.

[Aremag]

Just finished The Three-Body Problem and all I can say is WOW! and why did I wait so long to read Cixin Liu. I need to order the other two books in the trilogy. In the meantime, due to the discussion of Lisey's Story in a couple of threads and me not remembering anything about the book, I am starting to read it instead of Devolution by Max Brooks which I will read next.

[burgerhicks80]

Currently reading Night Shift for the book club in my Stephen King discord

https://discord.gg/P7bVXQ9

[Garrell]

So I am done with Lisey’s Story.
It is not the worst King story ever, FAB8 still gets to keep the title. It was a close smucking run though. There was just enough bad gunky on Booya Moon in the last half of the book to turn the corner and semi save this story. It could make an interesting TV series and I will watch it when it comes out, Julianne Moore can save it I believe.
On to Bird Box in anticipation for Malorie.

[Kraken]

Recently read Replay by Ken Grimwood because of some comments on these boards.
Big shout of thank you to you all. Brilliant book. One of the best I’ve read this year.

[kingfan2323]

Recently read Replay by Ken Grimwood because of some comments on these boards.
Big shout of thank you to you all. Brilliant book. One of the best I’ve read this year.

I put it on my list for the sake reason. Another endorsement. Looking forward to checking it out.

seeking: anything DT related #246

[Kraken]

Recently read Replay by Ken Grimwood because of some comments on these boards.
Big shout of thank you to you all. Brilliant book. One of the best I’ve read this year.

I put it on my list for the sake reason. Another endorsement. Looking forward to checking it out.

seeking: anything DT related #246

You should bump it up the list

[Garrell]

Just finished Bird Box. Wow. Slightly better than the movie. Great fun an tense story. I am excited for the sequel, Malorie, at the end of the month.
Next is a Robert McCammon. Either Mr. Slaughter, Mine, or Boy’s Life.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

I am currently reading the WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING? thread on Palaver.

[Hunchback Jack]

I am currently reading the WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING? thread on Palaver.

NICE! I am too. Don't spoil the ending for me.

HBJ

[fernandito]

I am currently reading the WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING? thread on Palaver.

NICE! I am too. Don't spoil the ending for me.

HBJ

Holy shit you guys... Me too! Wtf?!

Ka.

[Aremag]

I am currently reading the WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING? thread on Palaver.

NICE! I am too. Don't spoil the ending for me.

HBJ

I hear the ending didn't live up to smucking expectations.

[Aremag]

Just finished Lisey's Story and I think I read it when it was originally released as some of the writing seemed familiar. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. I might have enjoyed it more if I didn't have to read smuck, and variations of it, a thousand times. That word along with bad-gunky and bool was making me a little nuts. I'm starting Devolution by Max Brooks and hoping for the same enjoyment I have gotten from his other works.

[Garrell]

So no blood bools?

[Aremag]

So no blood bools?

Only if Holly Gibney is in Lisey's Story 2: The Smuckening.

[Aremag]

Just finished Devolution and I loved it. Better than World War Z in my opinion. Looking forward to what Max writes in the future. Going to start Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay and all I hear is Jeff pronouncing Tremblay right now.

[St. Troy]

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading four short stories appended to my edition of Cabal by Clive Barker: The Life Of Death, How Spoilers Bleed, Twilight At The Towers, and The Last Illusion. Together, these comprise 4/5 of the 6th Book of Blood (the missing 5th from BoB 6 is On Jerusalem Street (a postscript)).

The first two were fine, but the reading experience suffered from the fact that what little I remembered about the first two stories was spoilerish enough to kill the suspense (although the first, for the most part, remained different from what I'd remembered most of the way, then clicked into place at the end). The Life Of Death struck me as an alternate way to tackle a story that Lovecraft might have wanted to tell (which is not to say it reads at all like Lovecraft) with alternate characters and motivations. How Spoilers Bleed was a decent, and decently told, story, but might telegraph where it was going even to those who hadn't read it before.

Twilight At The Towers - now there's an evocative title, eh? Too bad the story was none of the almost limitless number of intriguing things that might have warranted it. The interesting thing about this one is that, while many readers likely relished the story's transition from the ordinary to the extraordinary, I actually felt it was doing the opposite:

Spoiler:

It went from ordinary human spies to werewolves, which, in the overall world of fiction, is a move in the direction of the unusual, but given that this is horror, for me, it was merely a regression to a trope - what began as a taut, intriguing struggle amidst statecraft and violence degenerated into Fright Night hackery (not that the writing is hackery, of course).

The main drawback of The Last Illusion is that it left me needing to know more about certain things, and I suppose that's a positive, not a negative. Interesting here is that this is Barker's version of the hard-boiled detective cliche, and while occasional bits are delivered with the stereotypical booze-soured wink or smirk, the writing (of course) is not the hackneyed mess that most detective fiction strikes me as (apologies to the "this dame had eyes you could stare into for days" crowd).

Overall, I enjoyed these, but I'm eagerly awaiting my return to Barker with Weaveworld (either late this month or early August).

[St. Troy]

I recently finished Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

I've seen the movie (excellent!) at least a few times, and since I've read a bit of Gaiman and would like a bit more, this seemed like a natural choice. Equal parts fun, serious, intriguing and dark, a nice little (160 pages) read. Gaiman's ability to keep the humanity very real despite overall unreality imbues his work with real weight and quality.

[DoctorZaius]

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading four short stories appended to my edition of Cabal by Clive Barker: The Life Of Death, How Spoilers Bleed, Twilight At The Towers, and The Last Illusion. Together, these comprise 4/5 of the 6th Book of Blood (the missing 5th from BoB 6 is On Jerusalem Street (a postscript)).

The first two were fine, but the reading experience suffered from the fact that what little I remembered about the first two stories was spoilerish enough to kill the suspense (although the first, for the most part, remained different from what I'd remembered most of the way, then clicked into place at the end). The Life Of Death struck me as an alternate way to tackle a story that Lovecraft might have wanted to tell (which is not to say it reads at all like Lovecraft) with alternate characters and motivations. How Spoilers Bleed was a decent, and decently told, story, but might telegraph where it was going even to those who hadn't read it before.

Twilight At The Towers - now there's an evocative title, eh? Too bad the story was none of the almost limitless number of intriguing things that might have warranted it. The interesting thing about this one is that, while many readers likely relished the story's transition from the ordinary to the extraordinary, I actually felt it was doing the opposite:

Spoiler:

It went from ordinary human spies to werewolves, which, in the overall world of fiction, is a move in the direction of the unusual, but given that this is horror, for me, it was merely a regression to a trope - what began as a taut, intriguing struggle amidst statecraft and violence degenerated into Fright Night hackery (not that the writing is hackery, of course).

The main drawback of The Last Illusion is that it left me needing to know more about certain things, and I suppose that's a positive, not a negative. Interesting here is that this is Barker's version of the hard-boiled detective cliche, and while occasional bits are delivered with the stereotypical booze-soured wink or smirk, the writing (of course) is not the hackneyed mess that most detective fiction strikes me as (apologies to the "this dame had eyes you could stare into for days" crowd).

Overall, I enjoyed these, but I'm eagerly awaiting my return to Barker with Weaveworld (either late this month or early August).

If you have never read Weaveworld you are in for a treat!

[St. Troy]

I recently began a re-read of The Shining. This is at least my fourth read, and possibly my fifth.

This time, I'm going with the Cemetery Dance edition; it's my first time cracking these covers for real (I flipped through to examine things when I bought it, but that's about it). I may have read part of Before The Play before (I think part was published in TV Guide when the miniseries - the only true adaptation - first aired), but I didn't recall any and quite enjoyed reading this.

I'm a bit past halfway through, and there have been two pleasant surprises this time around (that unfortunately take a bit of explanation):

- I found my last re-read (in 2012) pretty tedious. While those who don't re-read (or don't read, period) might say all re-reads must be tedious given that the reader already knows where things are going, I've always gotten a lot out of re-reads, but even to me, this (2012) re-read didn't work much for me. The Shining's plot has always struck me as a fragile teacup with visible cracks - you know precisely what will fall apart, and how, once stress is applied - but then, to be fair, given that this was at least my third read, I assumed that was just how it was hitting my (apparently) Shining-weary eyes. The pleasant surprise (the point!): I'm experiencing none of that this time around; it's the same small cast-driven, claustrophobic tension fest it's always been. (It looks like I can safely chalk my 2012 experience up to the fact that I was unable to enjoy reading much of anything at that time; for details you didn't ask for, see my post: https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver...=1#post1204518)

- Although horror means creepy/scary etc., I'm not one of those people who has trouble turning out the lights at night while reading something like King (with something like The Exorcist, or involving aliens, sure, I'll be up all night), but a few nights ago, I went to bed about 20 minutes after reading the scene where Danny first sees the woman in the tub. (A bit about this scene in particular: if I listed my top-20 most creepy moments in a King novel, this wouldn't be on the list. I know it's considered a classic, I get it, and it is a good scene, but it just has never scared me). So, I go into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and in this bathroom there is a tub with a shower curtain. The curtain is mostly closed, but there's an opening of a few inches through which I can see - and as I move deeper into the bathroom, I see some thing on the bottom of the tub while thinking "that's supposed to be empty." Of course, it wasn't supposed to be empty - the things belong to my grandson, and they are usually there - but for a split second (and for the first time in my life), I was in "oh fuck, she's in the tub!" territory along with millions of other readers, and that was pretty cool indeed.