I still get random spasms of hate at the word

Spoiler

Regal

 

I just finished Gravity's Rainbow yesterday. I'm sure everyone who has an opinion has a strong one. I found it more compelling than Pynchon's other work, and I don't think it's quite as inaccessible as people make it out to be, but you do have to be a reader who doesn't mind not reading for plot. Many readers seem to think Pynchon is deliberately trying to be pretentious or obscurantist, but after slogging through the whole thing I'm not so sure.
At a certain point the book broke me. When I came back I was Not The Same. Maybe that was The Whole Point.
I would love to hear what late real-estate mogul Inverarity had to think about it, if he deigned to descend to this sphere.

 

Not sufre if this is the right place, but I just finished Scott's Snyder's 'Wytches Volume 1")." I went un blind and perhaps that is the reason I liked it so much. I give it a solid 4/5.

Now, obviously, the book is about witches. It is a horror book, something you'll notice in the first few pages. I haven't read much horror but the first issue captured and frightened me equally. Not in a 'sleep-with-the-lights-on' kind of way but more so in the 'is-there-something-in-the-wood?' way.

It is a page turner and 'dI advice to go with as less prior knowledge you can have of it. It is a horror comic with wytches, a family that just moved to town, creepy concepts and outstanding visuals.

 

Not sure if this has come up before or not, but The Iron King by Maurice Druon caught my eye a few weeks ago and I finished it up recently.

My thoughts now are that

Spoiler

it was a softer Game of Thrones. I could see some of the influences that GRR took from it and there was a measure of viciousness between certain characters, and plotting of course between others, displays of violence here and there, but on the whole it did not live up to the expectation I held going in. The first segment held the most intrigue for me and I'd say my interest only really weaned in the final thirty or so pages.

That said I've got the second book in the series and plan to start reading once I'm done with the Gunslinger again.

 

I've been meaning to read this for a while. Should I read some of Pynchon's other stuff or is this as good an entry point as any other. Also I've heard it's a pretty difficult read is that true or just hearsay?

 

Having read On Writing by Stephen King again, I can say it's been as much of a blast as last time. The book is split in two parts, one being a memoir to show which incidents made him the writer he is today. (Also interesting to see is which moments of his real life made it as ideas into his books.) The second part contains writing advice he found for himself during his career; the part is aptly titled "Toolbox."

Both parts are equally interesting, and as a writer one could do worse than read them. Throughout the narration, King builds a connection with the reader - always funny, gripping, but also humble, which isn't a given with people making millions. At the end of the second part are four pages of a 1st draft, then the same of a 2nd draft to see the changes he made, as well as an explanation on why he made them.

Most educational read I had in quite a while, and though there might be things I would disagree on (few as they are), the money for this book is damn well spent.

A lot of the things he wrote ring true (and there are a lot of quotable lines in the book), but the following struck me the hardest, mostly because it's parsed 1-1 of what I sometimes feel when writing. That's probably what he meant with books being portable magic and having telepathic abilities.

5/5​

 

Just finished reading 'The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair', and I can't recommend it enough. Harry Quebert is a famous novelist, who has just been charged with the murder of 15 year old Nola Kerrigen, who disappeared 33 years previously. The only person who believes Harry might be innocent is Marcus Goldman, Harry's old pupil and rising star on the literary scene himself. 'The Truth...' is presented as Marcus' book about solving the case.

It's really well written, the story is engaging and keeps you guessing right up until the last page, and given the various discussions on the nature of writing and writers I'm sure it will have extra appeal to a lot of the board members. Fantastic book.

 

Anyone who enjoys the 40K universe, I heartily recommend the Ciaphas Cain series.

Cain is a commissar (polictical officer). Normally, these BLAM-happy chaps kill anyone and everyone who displays any individual thought, cowardice, or a scruffy uniform.

Our 'hero' on the other hand, prefers sleeping around and staying alive. And has found that staying alive is a lot simpler when you can be pretty sure that 'friendly' fire won't hit you in the back.

The stories (there's about nine in book format, 1-3 and 4-6 in omnibus) are not in any chronological order, although book 1 is before the majority of the others. Either way, it doesn't really matter, as the author was kind enough to ensure that we get Cain's first meeting with each deployment written before any others with them.

They're relatively light-hearted, with Cain appearing as similarish to Edmund Blackadder and (apparently) Flashman.

The author manages to get the majority of details about the 40k universe as correct, too. I've read some others where it's obvious the writer didn't know a thing about the setting, but the Cain series suffers none of that.

Definitely would rec.

 

I've just read 'The Three-Body Problem' by Cixin Liu. Its apparently the best chinese science fiction book, basically ever, and I enjoyed it immensely.
With roots in the cultural revolution on 60s China, a modern day scientist is contacted by his government in order to investigate a series of suicides among elite scientists. Along the way he encounters a society of scientists pushing the boundaries of the physical world, a game which reveals much about existence, and a secret that threatens to dwarf our very planet.

Its a hard science book which has a very unique style that I attribute to being written by and largely for chinese audiences. I've yet to read the sequels but im looking for them right now.

I rate it 4/5 because at some points it was a bit slow, and I didnt understand all of the jargon, but I still really recommend this book.

 

Seconded, but I'd also add that, like Dan Abnett, Sandy Mitchell has the knack of writing good expanded universe fiction that works even if you aren't familiar with the franchise; the Ciaphus Cain books are great fun even if you're not a 40k fan.

 

Half of these books I've never heard of, but I might have to give them a try. Anyways, me, being the nerd that I am, found a book about chemistry. Admittedly, some of it's pretty far-fetched but apparently they are legitimate scientific theories.

Half the book is explosions, too, so that's pretty compelling.

It's called Itch, by Simon Mayo, and it was fun to read and I found myself smirking like 'yep, I understand what they're talking about'. It's gripping, in a way that kidnappings and explosions and intelligent, cunning, and brave solutions can be. And explosions.

Did I mention explosions?

 

'The Thousandfold Thought' by Scott Baker is a great book. It is apart of a series and is something different in the thought of fantasy, especially sexuality wise.

 

Massive amounts of rape is the only notable thing I can remember about sexuality in regards to that. Unless you're talking about Skiötha and Moënghus's relationship. That wasn't a relationship. It was just Moënghus manipulating him so he could escape captivity.

Anyway that's not a good reason to read the series, the reasons are the complex plotting and prose I'd say. The various magic systems are very well thought out as well, I personally loved the Mandate Schoolmen. It's pretty engrossing, I powered through the first trilogy in a week, and these are thick books.

 

So The Dread Wyrm (The third book in the Traitor Son cycle) is finally out and I have spent the last few hours reading it.I love this series and thus had pretty high expectations when I started this and I am happy to say that Cameron has managed to fulfil most of them. The action and combat scenes are better than ever and the plot, while very different from I expected, is well thought out and full of great surprises. I found that PoV switches worked a bit better this time, probably because the cast is already established and the action a bit more concentrated. The only negative points I have are the use of some strange/new (or more correctly old) words that haven`t appeared in the first few books and thus confused me a bit as well a certain romance element that wasn`t exactly to my tastes (or more accurately didn`t go as I hoped it would).
That said this is still the best book I have read all year and well worth your time if you have any interest in medieval fantasy.

 

I have to agree here. I've had a copy for the last six years and I read it at the very least every few months.

 

Sanderson's latest mistborn novel was a great read. I'd give it a 8.5/10. The start is a little disjointed from the rest and 'the set' storyline hasn't really progressed but the rest is excellent. I loved the cliffhanger ending too.

 

I have been binge reading books by Daniel Abraham lately, primarily rereading the Dagger and Coin series. I had forgotten how much fun it is reading about the renaissance banking that plays a big role in the story. The Characters develop and change a great deal making for pretty compelling reading.

I also read through the Expanse Series that Abraham has ben writting as well and i have to say that it is one of my favorite Sci-Fi series with incredible changes happening from book to book alongside incredible world building and great characters. one thing i find a bit problematic is that some of the villains of the story are a bit one-dimensional at times.

 

Yeah it's not easy but I think the difficulty is a bit over-hyped. Some people talk about it as though it were literally, metaphysically incomprehensible. Which is ridiculous, there is a narrative there, it's just incredibly non-conventional. You probably do want to start with his other stuff though.

 

One of my personal favorites is Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. It's a Chinese epic - half historical, half mythical - based on a period of history where three kingdoms fought for domination of China. The book has 120 chapters, hundreds of Chinese locations and characters, and a grand total of 800k words. Despite its monstrous size, however, it was one of the most enjoyable literary works I have ever read, and I consider every minute I spent reading worth it. To those who enjoy reading about war and battle strategies, this is a must-read.

Instead of trying to write a pathetic review that is not worthy of this masterpiece, I'll just go ahead and link to the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms a critically acclaimed classic that is one of the most beloved literary works in East Asia. I highly recommend this to everybody who has the time to read it.

 

I finished JKR's "Career of Evil" the other day. I liked it, but wasn't super crazy about it. An enjoyable read, and definitely compelling, but no masterpiece. She's definitely going for Pulp though with this series, and I'd say she succeeds within that genre. I do think I'll read it again, to better appreciate how she did the mystery, so that's a mark in its favor.