Must choose between two books that I recently received as gifts:
1) Herbert Aptheker's American Negro Slave Revolts (from Mr. Comrade)
2) Michael Moorcock's The Whispering Swarm (from The Black Goblin)
Didn't really expect to receive a gift from The Black Goblin. His birthday is next week, and I bought him Patrick Rothfuss's The Slow Regard of Silent Things.
His birthday is next week, and I bought him Patrick Rothfuss's The Slow Regard of Silent Things.
Lucky Black Goblin!
I've been reading a couple of very different collections of urban fantasy recently. First and more recently published, was Down These Strange Streets, which in its introduction, mentioned that urban fantasy has moved quite a bit into horror in the last twenty years or so, as opposed to when it first emerged, when it was all about "elves on motorcycles." It was very similar in tone to when you hear a TTRPG player say "when I first started playing at 13, I was all about hack n' slash dungeon crawls, but now...
Now I'm reading through Return to Bordertown, which is urban fantasy involving, you guessed it, elves on motorcycles (and other tropes of that sort).
I don't know. I've enjoyed both collections. Just like the differing styles of TTRPG play, each scratches a different itch.
Must choose between two books that I recently received as gifts:
1) Herbert Aptheker's American Negro Slave Revolts (from Mr. Comrade)[/url]
One more for the list. I was going to express my astonishment that one could publish a book with that title at a reputable house in 1983, but then I discovered it was a reprint from forty years prior and it all made sense.
Also, that "reputable" house is the Communist Party USA's publishing company.
Also, that "reputable" house is the Communist Party USA's publishing company.
You know, I looked and honestly misread it as a university press. Must be spending too much time on dodgy newspaper scans. :)
Still quite a bit better than plenty I could mention, though.
A Gown of Shadow and Flame by A.E. Marling.
Instead of either of those, am re-reading The New Jim Crow again as part of a reader's circle of Lowell activists.
Last one ended with me getting drunk for free and group hugs. Activism is fun!
I have a hand-me-down Kindle that I finally registered with my Amazon account. The end result is that I can check out books from the library to the Kindle e-reader and not have to read them at my PC, which is a huge pain.
Currently reading Atonement by Ian somebody. So far, kinda snoozy.
Speaking of festivals, I need to book things for Hay on Wye... today, really...
Anyway, I have finished 'Before They Are Hanged', which was reasonable, 'Raiders of Gor', which was as krutty as I expected, and also did 'The Couch of Silistra' by Janet E. Morris over the weekend, which was odd. I didn't really get it on the first read through. I am presently reading 'Ecclesiastical History of The English People' by Bede and re-reading George Silver's 'Paradoxes of Defence' and 'Elric of Melnibone'
That's one venerable book, that.
|
Anyway, I have finished 'Before They Are Hanged', which was reasonable, '
What did you think of the ending?
I liked seeing something new, yet this was a bit of a downer, so I was left with mixed feelings.
Currently reading Atonement by Ian somebody. So far, kinda snoozy.
I quite liked that.
"I want to kiss your [redacted]."
Anyway, I have finished 'Before They Are Hanged', which was reasonable, 'What did you think of the ending?
** spoiler omitted **
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ain't that the truth!
Darn it. I got the McEwan quote wrong.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Atonement was OK. Now on to Gibson's Neuromancer, courtesy of that damned communist/socialist institution, the Public Library. Digging Neuromancer so far, with its cyberpunk, Blade-Runneresque feel.
Finished the Powder Mage Chronicles last night with the final book, The Autumn Republic. Very satisfied with the ending, but would definitely not be opposed to more things happening in this world.
Now restarting Kim Harrison's The Hollows series while I wait for the various books I've pre-ordered to come out over the summer.
Got bored with James Blaylock's St. Ives stuff, so I started Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Cold Town.
|
|
Atonement was OK. Now on to Gibson's Neuromancer, courtesy of that damned communist/socialist institution, the Public Library. Digging Neuromancer so far, with its cyberpunk, Blade-Runneresque feel.
I love the opening sentence: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
True story: I first tried reading Neuromancer as a freshman in high school and just could not get into it. I wasn't mature enough for it yet/not big into sci-fi in HS. But then I read it a few years out of college and really enjoyed it. There are some very memorable moments and very little of it is jarring to read in the 21st century (unlike, say Pohl's Gateway). I recall only a few outdated conceptions about the future of computing from the '80s.
I don't know who that is, but, yay!!!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
That's one venerable book, that.
Sometimes, when things get a bit dull, I follow up on '1066 and all that' and call him Venomous Bleed, which would be a very good name for a black metal singer, assuming it isn't already.
I don't know who that is, but, yay!!!
Celebrated short story writer and translator who's made the move into novel writing with the book Zeugma got signed. For a (slightly atypical) sample of his work, hete's an audio version of his short story The MSG Golem, where we see one of those famous mysterious ways.
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie.
A bit of a dark and funny take on the Count of Monte Cristo so far, which, as a fan of Dumas who enjoys dark and funny, I'm happily lapping up.
(Seriously, why does so few reviews of Abercrombie's stuff bring up that in amongst the grimdark there's loads of humour as well?
The Count of Monte Cristo is a no-brainer, I guess, but I was constantly reminded of the old Britflick Kind Hearts and Coronets.
|
|
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie.
A bit of a dark and funny take on the Count of Monte Cristo so far, which, as a fan of Dumas who enjoys dark and funny, I'm happily lapping up.
(Seriously, why does so few reviews of Abercrombie's stuff bring up that in amongst the grimdark there's loads of humour as well?
I'm with you on that one. Abercrombie does this amazing thing where I'm reading about terrible people doing terrible things to each other for the wrong reasons... and smiling all the way through.
Still on Neuromancer, but I found one of those top 100 lists that I actually like. If you're looking for a new book to be currently reading (see? topical!), you could do worse than use This List from the Guardian as a guide. I've read (and loved) quite a few and now have some new books like Three Men in a Boat to check out.
Abercrombie fans: Best Served Cold is not in my library's collection, but they have Half a King and Half the World. Are those good books with which to start on Abercrombie?
--Neuromancer is the shiznit.
--I remember that list.
--Three Men in a Boat was wicked funny.
--I haven't read those two, but I thought I heard they weren't set in the same world as all his previous books? Which has nothing to with whether they're any good, of course.
--I liked the sex scene in Before They Are Hanged, too, but, then again, I usually like sex scenes. I'm a bit of a pervert.
--I liked the sex scene in Before They Are Hanged, too, but, then again, I usually like sex scenes. I'm a bit of a pervert.
Which one?
Were there more than one?
I assumed Lord Snow was talking about the fumble-porn one between the big, burly dude and the lithe desert chick.
I enjoyed it.
Oh, I forgot: I also read Around the World in Eighty Days in there, and am now reading The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.
(I read free Gutenberg books on my Nook and free library books on the Kindle.)
I liked the sex scene in Before They Are Hanged, too, but, then again, I usually like sex scenes. I'm a bit of a pervert.
Were there more than one?
I assumed Lord Snow was talking about the fumble-porn one between the big, burly dude and the lithe desert chick.
I enjoyed it.
That one, and there was one between Dogman and the girl who got rescued from the prison camp, too, with Colonel West gazing at them from the shadows. Blink (did I mean blink? Yes. Yes I did) and you'll miss it, though
Also, don't let naughty Treppa steer you away from the Path of Virtue, comrade, her and her sinful links. You don't want free Victorian porn!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Click it. You know you want to.
|
|
Were there more than one?
I assumed Lord Snow was talking about the fumble-porn one between the big, burly dude and the lithe desert chick.
I enjoyed it.
** spoiler omitted **
Also, don't let naughty Treppa steer you away from the Path of Virtue, comrade, her and her sinful links. You don't want free Victorian porn!
Yeah, I was talking about the more detailed one of the two. I wanted to hug both those people just from reading that. Erm, after they were done and fully clothed, of course.
[Limey spoiler]
Oh yeah, I remember that one now.
Speaking of porn, haven't made a terrible amount of progress on Leaves of Grass, but it's still pretty hawt.
Turned Mr. Comrade on to Whitman, which is fittingly homoerotic.
Speaking of more homoeroticism, two stories to go and done with The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Non-porn, The Thirty-Nine Steps was pretty fun, too, and if you like it, I highly recommend the Alfred Hitchcock adaptaion.
(Madeleine Carroll in handcuffs, mmmm, okay, maybe a little more porn.)
Although, IIRC, there isn't even a love interest in the book.
The Alchemist in the Shadows by Pierre Pevel.
A random sneak peak revealed that making a cameo to agree with his superior officer that, "Yes, that is [one of the book's heroes]," is a certain Lieutenant in the King's Musketeers by the name of d'Artagnan. (So it's clearly set between the end of The Four Musketeers and Twenty Years After.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
* Adds a new Musketeer-era novel to her To Read list. Squeeee! *
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's the second in a trilogy - start with The Cardinal's Blades.
Also, it has dragons in it.
[Sobs]
Holmes and Moriarty just tumbled over the Reichenbach Falls.
Which leaves me, again, trying to decide between Aptheker and Moorcock...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Click it. You know you want to.
*collapses sweating into a pile of used tissues*
I...I clicked on it!
Reading the first book of the Doom of Gotrek Gurnisson.
Will the most unkillable dwarf in any fantasy ever finally meet his end?
I am intrigued.
Robopacalypse by Daniel Wilson.
Which leaves me, again, trying to decide between Aptheker and Moorcock...
Can one ever get enough c... OH LOOK OVER THERE!
Venomous Bleed is actually pretty boring. If I hear about one more nun who was cured of a runny nose by being stroked with a blade of grass that the saintly Bishop Ronan once walked past, I'm going to travel back in time and strangle him. That's what celibacy does to you, clearly.
I chose Moorcock. Cuz, who can ever get enough...
Anyway, autobiographical, growing up post-war, hanging out in Swinging London with Alexis Korner and Mervyn Peake, about to meet the White Friars.
Like it so far.