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Author Topic: The Book Thread  (Read 37137 times)

One Horse Town

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The Book Thread
« on: February 27, 2011, 08:15:45 PM »
I thought it might be nice to have a consolidated thread where we discuss books we're reading, maybe a little potted synopsis and recommendations etc.

I recently finished Ghost Story by Peter Straub.

A nice little horror very much in the vein of IT by Stephen King IMO (this came out earlier) - complete with chopping time-frames and a dreamlike quality.

I found the build-up to be very effective, although the conclusion was ever-so-sightly less so.

Overall, a thumbs up if you prefer atmosphere and ratcheting tension to balls-out viscera (although there is some of that).

danbuter

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The Book Thread
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2011, 08:23:12 PM »
I just finished reading Territory by Emma Bull. It's a western with magic, set in Tombstone during the build-up to the OK Corral. It's a very good book, though the ending was a minor let-down. I still recommend it to anyone who loves Deadlands.
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arminius

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The Book Thread
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2011, 09:09:04 PM »
Recently finished City of the Chasch, the first book of Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series. I'd describe it roughly as Vance's take on classic Burroughs, with the omnicompetent Earthman hero making his way on a barbaric planet, accompanied by his faithful native companions, the exotic princess, etc. Overall a good read, but it doesn't have quite as much humorous dialog and portrayal of absurd situations as I'd hoped, based on some of his other works. I'm proceeding with the next book in the series, Servants of the Wankh. (Vance later insisted on renaming the Wankh, a race of aliens, as "the Wannek", in reprinted editions and in the GURPS Planet of Adventure sourcebook.)

Tommy Brownell

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The Book Thread
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2011, 03:33:50 AM »
So far this year I read The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster about a divorced retired man who moves back to Brooklyn to die, and winds up reconnecting with his favorite nephew (and finding reasons to live).

I followed that up with Triggerfish Twist by Tim Dorsey, which was freaking hilarious and more than a little insane. A hapless family move to Tampa after a typo in a magazine makes their crime rate appear to be DRAMATICALLY less than it really is, while they cross paths with a straight edge, sociopath history buff and his sidekicks: his crackwhore girlfriend and his Every Drug Available friend.

Next was Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow...a supernatural urban action book that was VERY hard to read...a "Hunter" having to stop a "Hellbreed" and a rogue "Were"...I don't mind books that don't have anything NEW to say in their genre, but there were some inconsistencies with the internal logic (or at least things that weren't explained very well), and the protagonist was completely unlikable...an unlikable protagonist is great, if you can pull it off.

I read House of Dark Shadows in about two days...it is the first book in the Dreamhouse Kings series. Though the entire book is basically a prologue for the series, I plan on getting book two to see where it's all going. Basically, in the beginning, this big dude kidnaps a woman living in said house...but takes her away somewhere inside the house...and they are never found. Years later, The Kings move to this house and creepy stuff starts happening all over again...

I just started Bubba and the Dead Woman, which has been pretty funny so far...set in a small Texas town and Bubba Snoddy comes home from pulling an all-nighter at work (after everyone else quits, leaves early or refuses to answer their phone) to find a dead woman in his front yard...and he's the prime suspect, since it's his ex-fiancee.
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hanszurcher

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The Book Thread
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2011, 02:40:28 PM »
Just re-read Cellars by John Shirley (1982).

A visceral novel that foreshadows Shirley's later dark fiction. Definitely one of his bleaker works.

William Gibson (Neuromancer) said, "It reads like Lovecraft on PCP." I have to agree.

*****

An ancient evil deep beneath New York City turns subway stations into bloody altars for ritual sacrifice. Carl Lanyard, a skeptical journalist for a trashy occult tabloid, is called upon to assist the police in solving a rash of horrible cult mutilation murders.
*****


Good stuff. One of my favorite books.

Cellars was partially rewritten and republished in 2006.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2011, 02:47:48 PM by hanszurcher »
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jeff37923

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The Book Thread
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2011, 03:53:38 PM »
I picked up The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LeVay and am giving it a read. LeVayan Satanism isn't nearly as bizarro as I thought it might be. A lot of it makes pretty good sense.
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hanszurcher

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The Book Thread
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2011, 04:34:41 PM »
Quote from: jeff37923;442943
I picked up The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LeVay and am giving it a read. LeVayan Satanism isn't nearly as bizarro as I thought it might be. A lot of it makes pretty good sense.


Have not read that one since I was a teenager. I remember it being a very sensible personal philosophy, until you get to the mumbo-jumbo magick bits. I have heard it described as Ayn Randism in the Devil's red pajamas.:)
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Silverlion

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The Book Thread
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2011, 04:45:50 PM »
I recently finished "Dream of the Dragon Pool." Suggested as wuxia, while it is fantastic and uses China as a setting, it misses out some of the wuxia themes I've been gathering. Not a bad read though.

Before that I read "The Book and the Sword," which was awesome wuxia novel.


Right now I'm reading "Journey into the West."
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jeff37923

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The Book Thread
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2011, 05:05:49 PM »
Quote from: hanszurcher;442950
Have not read that one since I was a teenager. I remember it being a very sensible personal philosophy, until you get to the mumbo-jumbo magick bits. I have heard it described as Ayn Randism in the Devil's red pajamas.:)


Well, the mumbo-jumbo magick bits are even described as mumbo-jumbo by the author so it becomes much more palatable. I've had all the fluffy bunny crystal hugging wiccanisms that I can stand.


Not a big fan of Ayn Rand. Read Anthem and found it pretty good, but when an ex-girlfriend gave me a copy of Atlas Shrugged to read, I thought she was trying to get me to commit suicide. I found the book that tedious of a read.
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tellius

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The Book Thread
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2011, 05:26:57 PM »
I picked up Threshold by Sara Douglass at a secondhand book fair for the princely sum of $0.50 AUD last week. The only reason I picked it up was that I had read other books by Sara Douglass before and I thought I'd give this one a go.

This is a very good fantasy novel that is set in a pseudo medieval middle-eastern world revolving around mathematical Magi and their worship of the number One and their desire to build a bridge to Infinity (via the semi sentient malevolent pyramid, Threshold).

In any event, the story was good enough for me to consume in a couple days, something I haven't done for a couple years now.

IceBlinkLuck

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The Book Thread
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2011, 12:00:42 AM »
I've just gotten the omnibus edition of Barry Hughhart's Master Li and Number Ten Ox novels. The three novels are "Bridge of Birds," "The Story of the Stone," and "Eight Skilled Gentlemen." I'm really happy that they collected the novels because the second one is very hard to find on its own.

The books are set in mythic China. Master Li is a great scholar who has fallen on hard times and Number Ten Ox is his good-natured, strong traveling companion. They get tangled up in mysteries which are related to the supernatural world of ancient China. It's not really wuxia (there's not a lot of combat gymnastics and crazy weapon-play), but the adventures are a lot of fun to read and full of ideas for a GM to riff off of. There is a sly sense of humor at play throughout the books. My one complaint with this edition is that it suffers from poor editing. There are some silly spelling errors which seem to indicate that the book was primarily spell-checked by computer software.
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Aos

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The Book Thread
« Reply #11 on: March 01, 2011, 01:37:27 AM »
I just finished EE Smith's Spacehounds of the IPC fairly enjoyable, and very imaginative. However it suffers from what I have come to think of as the Heinlein Problem (although I'm fairly sure it's frequent occurrence in Heinlein's work is a result of Smith being one of his influences).  Anyway the Heinlein Problem is when the entire cast is made up of the beautiful people. For example the main characters of this novel are both not not only geniuses (the male lead is one of the three smartest people in the solar system) but also world class athletes. I can take some of this in limited doses, but it gets old pretty quick. I'd rather run with uglier sorts, like good old Gully Foyle.
Anyway, I cracked open another Smith novel this evening The Galaxy Primes and there they are again, more beautiful people. I'm going to leave it for a year or two and read something else, I think.
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Silverlion

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The Book Thread
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2011, 08:29:53 AM »
Quote from: Aos;443032
The Galaxy Primes and there they are again, more beautiful people. I'm going to leave it for a year or two and read something else, I think.


I'd say behold the power of genetic engineering, but it was a bit early for that in SF. I generally agree.
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hanszurcher

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The Book Thread
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2011, 08:58:30 AM »
My favorite book from childhood: The House With a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs.

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Orphaned Lewis Barnavelt comes to live with his Uncle Jonathan and quickly learns that both his uncle and his next-door neighbor are witches on a quest to discover the terrifying clock ticking within the walls of Jonathan's house.
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This book scared the pants of me when I was 8. I still give it a read every now and then.

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« Last Edit: March 03, 2011, 10:21:26 PM by hanszurcher »
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hanszurcher

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The Book Thread
« Reply #14 on: March 01, 2011, 09:04:53 AM »
Quote from: jeff37923;442958
Well, the mumbo-jumbo magick bits are even described as mumbo-jumbo by the author so it becomes much more palatable. I've had all the fluffy bunny crystal hugging wiccanisms that I can stand.
...


I read something somewhere, maybe one of the LaVey biographies, that he had never intended to include magick in the book. It was his publisher that insisted...it was what people expected and what sells books.
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May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house. ~George Carlin