What are we reading?

A Dabble Of Thelonius

I just trudged through Ready Player One. It was horrid.

A Dabble Of Thelonius

I just trudged through Ready Player One. It was horrid.

initiatefailure

So how are the dune books not written by Frank herbert? I grabbed butlerian jihad (prequels) and hunters of dune (continuation after chapterhouse apparently) but wasn't sure what the deal with the house books where. EIther way they where $2 at the borders near me since their stock is down to about one book case of every genre but I'm hoping they turn out to be decent companions to the original books. Is there a reading order? I know the house books where written first but I don't know how essential they are to the overall plot. They seemed like more standalone stories.

initiatefailure

God damn double post.

chiasaur11

There was a penny arcade on the subject.

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/215480403_bc9zA-L-2.jpg

It seemed to have firm opinions.

initiatefailure

oh, well... that seems to be a pretty clear review.

vamen

Yeah, I read the whole Butlerian Jihad and it makes this mysterious time that causes thinking machines to be outlawed go from being something fantastical in your imagination to something awful and defined by Brian Herbert's desire to write a book about giant robots.

The actual event that causes the Jihad, imo, is the highlight of the whole series and pretty awesome, as are the few characters involved in it, but everything else about it; The Titans/cymeks, Ominus, even down to the discover of the Holtzman effect (though I liked a lot of that part of the book more than the others)...It's best to leave them to the imagination. It feels like they tried to stuff EVERY single aspect you know about Dune - which as we know takes place over THOUSANDS of years in the books - and fit them into a generation. As if every important thing that is important to us in the Dune books were likely happen in such a timeframe. The Great Purge, the discovery of melange, the founding of the Bene Gesserit, the creation of the Spacing Guild, the development of space travel in general, the Landsraad, on and on and on.

I haven't read - well, finished - books 7 and 8 that Brian did, but I know he used 7 at least to shoehorn some of his bad ideas from the prequels into the 'current' Dune timeline. Aside from that, what I've read of book 7 I enjoyed and it felt quite mostly on track for where the series was going. He did a few things that made me die inside, but mostly I enjoyed the half I've read so far. But then again, I'm one of the rare people who liked Dune more as it got further into the series, with the first 'Dune' being one of my least favorites of the original six.

If you DO read them, the other is:
Prequels: Butlerian Jihad, Machine Crusade, Battle of Corrin.
Sequels: Hunters of Dune, Sandstorms of Dune.

That is both the writing and reading order. The prequels introduce ideas and characters that you later see in the sequels.
All of the other books like "Paul of Dune" and that crap that Brian writes to milk the franchise, I have no idea on, I've never read nor plan to read any. He did recently-ish release one that took place between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, which I found blasphemous! =p

initiatefailure

yeah heretics and chapterhouse where my favorite books so I was interested in concept for the continuations that he wrote. I guess I'll see how it goes. Worst case, it was only $4 and a couple days of my time.

initiatefailure

double

vamen

Has anyone read the new Black Company story "Smelling Danger" in the "Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2" book that came out recently? http://www.amazon.com/Subterranean-Tales-Dark-Fantasy-2/dp/1596063688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302795067&sr=8-1

The book is too pricey for me to buy right now considering I don't know any of the other author's work. I'm just curious where in the timeline the BC story takes place.

EDIT - and does anyone have any suggestions for a good horror book? I never really read the genre but I've been wanting to read a good horror but lately for some reason. I've never liked stuff I've read by King or any of those type writers (except I did enjoy The Shining). I've heard suggestions for The Ruins, The Terror and The Descent but I've not looked into them really. Any others that people can really get behind? Are there any MUST reads of horror, like Lord of the Ring and Dune are for fantasy and sci-fi?

initiatefailure

my first step into horror was buying a collection of Lovecraft stories. Some are very frightening. Others not so much scary as tense. But really it's good stuff. Beyond that I don't know too much about horror.
I do know the ring can be pretty scary but it's two follow-ups take the story in much MUCH different directions than the movies do, with the last one being almost a sci-fi book.
All I've read by King is about half the dark tower series but everyone always recommends It to me as one of his best.

There's a thread in debate and discourse about reading recommendations that has a little section for horror in the OP. I'll try to find it.

Edit: this is the list they have in the horror section. Obviously there's more out there worth reading.

Weaveworld by Clive Barker
World War Z by Max Brooks
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
It by Stephen King
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Demons by John Shirley
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

Straygatsby

Lovecraft is a must for horror. Just keep in mind that reading it is like being used to gobbling up mass media fantasy paperbacks and then reading LOTR for the first time; there's a curve to the prose. Clive Barker is great stuff. His books of "The Art" (only two so far with an infuriatingly long wait for the third which may never happen) are fantastically mind-bending. He's pretty mainstreamy (he gets compared to a commercial copy of King a lot), but I've always liked Dean Koontz for a good paperback read.

vamen

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I'll have to check out that other thread to check the OP for other book types.

Dan Simmons seems to be a name I hear a lot when it comes to horror. I have his books Hyperion and The Terror but have not read them yet. I have a compulsive book buying problem).

I've never really read anything by Barker except the book Abarat when it first came out, which I really loved, but never looked into any of his other works, nor the sequels when they finally came out. I HAVE read a little Lovecraft, but which ones I couldn't tell you. I think the main one everyone has read. I also read a book Tidus Crow I believe that was based on the world which I enjoyed quite a bit back when I read it, up until some of the ridiculous parts (relating to the clock, which will tell anyone who has read the book what I mean) at the end.

Reading about Weaveworld doesn't make it sound at all like a horror book, at least from the reviews I've seen, but it does make me want to read it because it sounds excellent. That and Song of Kali sound like they might be a good time, I think I'll go for those first.

vamen

Ack triple post!

vamen

Ack double post.

VanityPants

Finished reading You Suck by Christopher Moore last night. It's the first Moore book I've read and I'll definitely be going back for... more. Laughed a lot, loved the quirky story.

Starting on The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding, now!

Tevin

Dan Simmons seems to be a name I hear a lot when it comes to horror. I have his books Hyperion

Stop what you're doing and go read Hyperion. Do it! Don't feel compelled to read all four the Hyperion books, but at least the first one and probably almost certainly the second. Really, really good stuff. Hyperion isn't horror, but it's phenomenal science fiction.

ElJeffe

vamen wrote:

Reading about Weaveworld doesn't make it sound at all like a horror book, at least from the reviews I've seen, but it does make me want to read it because it sounds excellent. That and Song of Kali sound like they might be a good time, I think I'll go for those first.

It's been about 20 years since I read Weaveworld but I recall it being about as horror-y as something like The Talisman or The Dark Tower. It's less horrific than darkly fantastical. I recall I went through a Clive Barker phase and I liked his books, though I can't remember much about any of them. I do remember there was one with some serial killer who talked a lot about his raging boner every time he killed someone.

I read probably half a dozen Barker books and that's the one thing I took away. There is probably something wrong with me.

vamen

VanityPants (awesome name btw) - I only recently read my first Moore book "Lamb" and I had a similar experience reading that as you seemed to have had with "You Suck". Moore may better books, I don't know, but I certainly would recommend "Lamb"

Tevin - My friend who recommended Hyperion told me pretty much the same anytime he asks if I've read it yet and I reply negatively. Maybe I'll start that after I finish the book I'm on now since it seems to get so much praise =)

ElJeffe - I won't comment on your vivid memory about the murdering boner guy =p

Straygatsby

ElJeffe wrote:

I do remember there was one with some serial killer who talked a lot about his raging boner every time he killed someone. I read probably half a dozen Barker books and that's the one thing I took away. There is probably something wrong with me.

Actually, you're ok. That's probably statistically normal with Barker. Aside from his recent dip into young adult stuff, Barker's work has always been rife with everything from screaming vaginas vomiting blood to shopping malls full of malformed people having sex with pruning shears while watching television. And lots of piercing, both of the figurative and literal, lots of it. Seriously. If you're not a little scarred after you're done with him, you may need to seek help.

I think they invented the term physical horror just for him.

TLH

VanityPants wrote:

Finished reading You Suck by Christopher Moore last night. It's the first Moore book I've read and I'll definitely be going back for... more. Laughed a lot, loved the quirky story.

Starting on The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding, now!

I really liked Lamb: The Gospel of Biff. It's probably my top pick of his, though I've only skimmed 3 of his others. At least I know Lamb is good. So I will recommend it.

A Dabble Of Thelonius

Lamb is probably Moore's best work. I would put Fool and A Dirty Job as my second and third picks.

Also I am re-reading Of Rice and Men. This is the fifth time. It's officially an addiction.

vamen

I started Hyperion as suggested and I usually do not care for sci-fi, but something about it is rubbing me EXACTLY the right way. I'm barely into it and I'm already really drawn into it, which is impressive, especially lately since I've had so much trouble getting into new books for some reason.

Bogart

Barker started out as a horror writer (though an unusually original one) and then moved more into a genre that combined fantasy and horror and tons of other stuff as well. His Books of Blood and his first novel, The Damnation Game, are more overtly horror than his stuff from Weaveworld onwards. Weaveworld is an excellent novel, as are two of the books he wrote in the next few years (The Great And Secret Show and Imajica). His other stuff is less triffic, but still often good (Sacrament is pretty nifty). He's also slowed down in the last decade, and the Abarat books seem to be taking an age to write.

Other excellent horor writers not on your list: Ramsay Campbell (The Darkest Part Of The Woods and practically any of his short story collections are where I'd advise you to start with him), MR James (he makes the description of a blanket unnerving) and of course Poe.

Lovecraft is an incredibly important writer to the genre, and retains a weird power in his fiction despite the obvious fact that he's kind of a terrible writer.

azith28

So when did the Xanth series turn into bad softcore porn?

The first dozen novels in the series were one of my first reading interests back in 6th grade or so...they started to get less interesting as i got older but i found a more recent one "Two to the Fifth" in a borders at 90% off so i decided to see how they held up, even as a childrens book.

Mostly the writing is just bad. He goes out of his way to introduce scenes that are nothing but vehicles to do another pun joke and it always goes to far. The pun thing was a minor quirk in the older books which could evoke a smile or groan occasionally but now it seems to be the main reason for him writing another xanth novel.

Next the writing mechanics have massively degraded. its like someone is taking the story of say snow white and the 7 dwarves and reducing it down to 'this girl went here. She saw dwarves. She fell asleep. She was kissed and woke up. The end'.

Not to mention every problem has a solution that is just around the corner completely solvable through what they pretend to call random chance but is really just massively lazy writing. 'we need to cross this bridge' "oh what luck, there is a bridge crossing snake nearby'.

and the sex.....its not so much as hardcore depiction but these characters are so obsessed with having sex and flashing nudity its like the land is filled with nothing but sluts.

This really has become a bad joke of a series.

chiasaur11

So, while we're talking Borders grabs, got Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of "The Outfit".

Man, it is pretty.

Bogart

Fuck's sake. Every time I edit something it creates a new post.

Bogart

Double post.

Tevin

vamen wrote:

I started Hyperion as suggested and I usually do not care for sci-fi, but something about it is rubbing me EXACTLY the right way. I'm barely into it and I'm already really drawn into it, which is impressive, especially lately since I've had so much trouble getting into new books for some reason.

Maybe I just squealed like a little girl hearing that you like Hyperion. I can neither confirm nor deny.

For me, when they started talking about farcasters, I was hooked.

VanityPants

I'm definitely going to pick up Lamb, now. In addition, I realized You Suck was a sort-of sequel? Yikes. I better go back and pick up the first book to that, too!

Anyway, I just finished reading The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding. It was even better than the first book, Retribution Falls. Anyone who enjoys Firefly, sci-fi swashbuckling or action and fun really needs to check these books out.

The Princess Bride is next up on my plate. Can't believe I've made it this long without reading the book.

azith28

don't read the princess bride.

If you loved the movie for what it was, dont read the book. More specifically dont read the last few pages.

vamen

azith28 wrote:

don't read the princess bride.

If you loved the movie for what it was, dont read the book. More specifically dont read the last few pages.

Will it destroy your soul and good memories of the movie like reading the Roger Rabbit book does?

vamen

azith28 wrote:

don't read the princess bride.

If you loved the movie for what it was, dont read the book. More specifically dont read the last few pages.

Will it destroy your soul and good memories of the movie like reading the Roger Rabbit book does?

VanityPants

That is the first negative opinion I've heard of the book, honestly.

I'm about a quarter of the way through now and I'm really enjoying it, soo.

azith28

It's not that the book is bad, or that the movie isnt a good translation....its like the last few pages of the book that didnt make it into the movie that changes everything about it.

azith28

sigh. board keeps going like this we will need a delete post option.

bobsbarricades

I just finished reading the short story collection by Gaiman and Sarantonio "stories"
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-All-New-Tales-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061230928

Loved it in the beginning but there definitely turned out to be a recurrence of ideas between the authors. A definite push towards post-modern thinking. Chaos for chaos' sake. Lots of great stuff though! Highly recommend.

chiasaur11

Finished Zero History.

Good book, and it did tie into the prior two nicely.

Apparently, I got a book club edition, complete with mildly inane questions in the back.

Considering Confederacy of Dunces next. Anyone here read?

initiatefailure

Confederacy of Dunces is a great book. It starts off hard to get in to and the main character does his best to make you hate him but somewhere along the line you realize you can't put it down

VanityPants

Finished up The Princess Bride! Didn't have any complaints about the last few pages, it was all around great.

I'm reading The Black Prism by Brent Weeks, now.