What Are You Reading?

[muskrat]

Move Underground, Nick Mamatas.

From half the team that brought you the half-enjoyable The Damned Highway tries the same trick with Kerouac. Ti Jean vs. Cthulhu, aided by Cassady and a pistol packin Burroughs. Kinda sucks. Poorly written fan fiction from a fan who just doesn't get Jack.

I'm thinking Brian Keene is what made The DAMNED Highway readable. Every other chapter sucked, and I now suspect those were written by Mamatas.

 

[Dana Jean]

Move Underground, Nick Mamatas.

From half the team that brought you the half-enjoyable The Damned Highway tries the same trick with Kerouac. Ti Jean vs. Cthulhu, aided by Cassady and a pistol packin Burroughs. Kinda sucks. Poorly written fan fiction from a fan who just doesn't get Jack.

I'm thinking Brian Keene is what made The DAMNED Highway readable. Every other chapter sucked, and I now suspect those were written by Mamatas.

Nick is tough to read.

 

[muskrat]

Nick is tough to read.

Oh, he reads easy enough, he just gets Kerouac all wrong--trying to write like him, but using regular punctuation instead of the 'dash' (which, at this supposed point of Jack's career, right after the events of Big Sur, he was still very much using). And one scene, right at the start of the book, has Jack swing his rucksack into someone's face, busting their teeth out. No...no, sir, Kerouac was the LAMB, and would never have done something like that.

But it's my own fault, buying this kinda junk. Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies; Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter; Kerouac verses Cthulu...bah, half-baked silliness. What next? A mash up of Steinbeck and Portnoy's Complaint? All about Tom Joad's secret masterbatory fantasies during the trip to Californy, call it The Grapes of Roth.

 

[muskrat]

Oh, and dang it, was gonna tell yez:

Spent much of the weekend over on Comicbookplus AGAIN, glutting myself on pre-code horror comics. Free and legal, cats. All those great comics I always wanted to read but couldn't afford and no one reprinted. Went on an early, pre-Marvel Steve Ditko horror pig-out. Stuff like Charlton's The Thing and Strange Suspense Stories. Man, Ditko's genius is astounding, especially when he's given free range to get as gory as he wants...wow. His stuff brings to mind Goya, or Brugel. Talent like this was wasted on code-approved superhero fluff.

But...he was damn good at that stuff, too. Read up all those great issues of CAPTAIN ATOM and BLUE BEETLE (luckily Charlton never bothered with proper copyright), and man...it was like reading WATCHMEN again. Steve Ditko is GOD!

 

[Kurben]

I've liked Boy's Life the best so far, and Gone South has the same level of character building that made Boy's Life memorable. I finished it last night and still didn't like what he did with the bounty hunters--it was pretty juvenile and pointless. Other than that, I think it's my second favorite of his.

I started Divergent when I woke up very early this morning & couldn't get back to sleep, and it's pretty good so far for a YA book. Decent world building, and not as Twilight-inspired as many that came out about that time.

It is far better than twilight or Beautiful creatures series. I think it got its inspiration either from Hunger Games or from a similar source. John Christopher once wrote a YA-novel called The Guardians (though it wasn't called YA then) that has similarities.

Myself i'm on Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. The final in his centennial trilogy. Starts about 1961 with the building of the Berlin wall, The Cuban Crisis and goes on to ca 1990. Central characters are the Kennedys, Cjrustchev and Martin Luther King. I'm on page 600 now and King has just been shot. 400 more pages to go so i guess he doesn't describe the 70ties and 80ties in as much detail as the 60ties. I like it. It is not great but a good, well done historical novel about the cold war era seen from characters living in the States, East and West germany, Sovjet and Britain.

 

[skimom2]

It is far better than twilight or Beautiful creatures series. I think it got its inspiration either from Hunger Games or from a similar source. John Christopher once wrote a YA-novel called The Guardians (though it wasn't called YA then) that has similarities.

Myself i'm on Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. The final in his centennial trilogy. Starts about 1961 with the building of the Berlin wall, The Cuban Crisis and goes on to ca 1990. Central characters are the Kennedys, Cjrustchev and Martin Luther King. I'm on page 600 now and King has just been shot. 400 more pages to go so i guess he doesn't describe the 70ties and 80ties in as much detail as the 60ties. I like it. It is not great but a good, well done historical novel about the cold war era seen from characters living in the States, East and West germany, Sovjet and Britain.

My favorite Follett so far was Eye of the Needle. Fast moving, sharp story! I haven't read him in a while--might be time to look him up again

 

[Kurben]

My favorite Follett so far was Eye of the Needle. Fast moving, sharp story! I haven't read him in a while--might be time to look him up again

I Must say i prefer his historical novels before his spystuff, like Eye of the Needle. He wrote Pillars of the Earth and World without End that takes place in the middle age in Britain. Centers round the building of a cathedral in the first book and the different families diverging destinies. His later trilogy about the 20tieth century, Fall of Giants, Winter of the World and Edge of Eternity are also good. Quite different really from Eye of the Needle and his others more thrillerbased novels.

 

[fljoe0]

The Cypress House - Michael Koryta

 

[EMARX]

I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N K Jemisin. What a fresh new voice in the fantasy arena. The title implies a huge canvas but it's an intimate little story with gods and mortals entangled in an interesting way. And plenty of humour.

I'm also reading Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. I've not seen any of the adaptations and knew nothing of the plot, but the voice of Charles Ryder had me hooked from the opening paragraph.

Plus, The Curable Romantic, by Joseph Skibell.

 

[Haunted]

The Cypress House - Michael Koryta

Are you a fan? I see his name a lot but have not come across any of his books.

 

[Haunted]

I am back to the Blackwater series, I can't believe what happened to poor John Robert!

 

[fljoe0]

Are you a fan? I see his name a lot but have not come across any of his books.

This is my first one. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and like it. I've heard good things about him and a couple of days ago, Amazon had some of his books for $1.99, so I got a couple of them.

 

[staropeace]

I Must say i prefer his historical novels before his spystuff, like Eye of the Needle. He wrote Pillars of the Earth and World without End that takes place in the middle age in Britain. Centers round the building of a cathedral in the first book and the different families diverging destinies. His later trilogy about the 20tieth century, Fall of Giants, Winter of the World and Edge of Eternity are also good. Quite different really from Eye of the Needle and his others more thrillerbased novels.

I love Pillars!

 

[kingricefan]

I am back to the Blackwater series, I can't believe what happened to poor John Robert!

*shhhhhhhh*

 

[kingricefan]

I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N K Jemisin. What a fresh new voice in the fantasy arena. The title implies a huge canvas but it's an intimate little story with gods and mortals entangled in an interesting way. And plenty of humour.

I'm also reading Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. I've not seen any of the adaptations and knew nothing of the plot, but the voice of Charles Ryder had me hooked from the opening paragraph.

Plus, The Curable Romantic, by Joseph Skibell.

If you ever come across the BBC adaption from the '80's you really should watch it! It is amazing! It's one of the most beautiful adaptions of a novel I've seen. Stars Anthony Andrews and a young Jeremy Irons. Even the music is outstanding! This is what gave way to Downton Abbey! I saw the series years before I read the book. I thought the book was rather dry. You pick up so much more when you see it.

 

[carrie's younger brother]

Started a reread of The Gunslinger. I don't do rereads much anymore; just not my preference. But this one... wow. I loved it when I first read it back in 1982 and then again in 2003 when it was revised. I am sure I read it at least one other time in between those years. But this time, after a number of years, it is just even better. SK's prose in this one is outstanding. May be his best in my opinion. The rhythm of the words, the descriptions of the stark environments and the characterizations are all first rate. I know many others have trouble with this one, but it is really one of my favorite SK books and my favorite of all the DK series. I wish the rest of them were written like this one.

 

[skimom2]

Because I'm a goose, I picked up my daughter's book and started reading Daughter of Smoke & Bone. I really like it! Now I have too many series of the same genre (in this case, dystopian YA) started at once. I'll have to put either this one or the Divergent series aside and finish the other before I go back to the set aside series--lol. I also checked out David Morrell's latest, Inspector of the Dead. The first in his Victorian mystery series was FABULOUS, so I'm looking forward to this one.

 

[Kurben]

Because I'm a goose, I picked up my daughter's book and started reading Daughter of Smoke & Bone. I really like it! Now I have too many series of the same genre (in this case, dystopian YA) started at once. I'll have to put either this one or the Divergent series aside and finish the other before I go back to the set aside series--lol. I also checked out David Morrell's latest, Inspector of the Dead. The first in his Victorian mystery series was FABULOUS, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Now you have me confused.... Re Morrell isn't Murder is a Fine Art the first? Or is it a case of different titles in UK and US?

I have started a reread of Dreamcatcher. It was a long time ago since i read that one.. All this talk about Ufos and ETs made think why not try it again.

 

[carrie's younger brother]

Now you have me confused.... Re Morrell isn't Murder is a Fine Art the first? Or is it a case of different titles in UK and US?

I have started a reread of Dreamcatcher. It was a long time ago since i read that one.. All this talk about Ufos and ETs made think why not try it again.

Dreamcatcher is the only SK novel I have never finished, despite 3 attempts. I have read every other one, multiple times. Maybe your reread will inspire me Kurben.

 

[fljoe0]

Extinction Age - Nicholas Sanbury Smith

The 3rd book of the Extinction Cycle Series. This series (so far) is just one novel. So far, each book has picked up right where the last one left off. The first two are called Extinction Horizon and Extinction Edge. If you want to read any of this series, start from the beginning. If you like post-apocalyptic fiction with mutants, you should like this.