What Book Are You Reading?

[Space Cop]

Sounds cool. I'll put it on my wish list.

[myuserid]

[Hypo]

Finished:

Originally Posted by Hypo

Trying to decide what to read next.

[myuserid]

Noticed this on my bookshelf the other day and haven't read it in a while.

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by myuserid

Noticed this on my bookshelf the other day and haven't read it in a while...

I need to read that again some day. I read the original version before the extended came out and although I picked up the extended at a library sale or something, I haven't read it yet. Since the original is one of my favorite novels (certainly of modern pop lit), I'd probably dig that.

[myuserid]

I've never read the original version. Only the uncut.

[Hypo]

Finished:







Currently reading:

[Lantern of Gallifrey]

Rereading actually.

[Agent Purple]

That's the copy I have. God, I love that artwork.

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by Agent Purple

...God, I love that artwork.

It is cool. Is it Howe?

[myuserid]

[Hypo]

Finished:

Originally Posted by Hypo

Currently reading:

[Hypo]

Been on a Joe Hill short story kick, finished:

Originally Posted by Hypo

Of the three Twittering From The Circus Of The Dead was easily my favorite, the approach of writing the entire story as tweets worked really well, just enough description to allow your imagination to run wild with it.

[Lantern of Gallifrey]

[Lantern of Gallifrey]

This guy (lol) helped edit the Silmarillion.

[Hypo]

Finished:

















Reading:

[Agent Purple]

Master of Death (Josh Reynolds)

The vampire necromancer W'soran wages a centuries-long war against his former friend and ally, the Lord of Masks, Ushoran, to create a empire of death and a world of order to forever scar the planet. Unfortunately, in spite of every carefully-laid plan and all the power he amasses, the terrifying shadow of Mourkain's former ruler, Nagash the Undying King, only grows stronger...


Going in, I knew nothing of the story (Neferata is the first book in this trilogy, though you don't actually need to read it), and very little of the Warhammer franchise made by Games Workshop. Essentially, Warhammer can be described as Lord of the Rings on a massive coke-bender, with Warhammer 40,000 as Star Wars/Trek on an even bigger ultra-coke-bender. I knew from the outset that it was dark and violent as hell, and I was not disappointed.

Virtually every single character is a vampire, and many of them practice very dark magic (necromancy, raising the dead). The descriptions of things, from battle to the handmade books the dark mages all use, can be pretty grisly, with those same books commonly made from flesh and hair and written in blood. There are more zombies here than in all the Romero flicks put together, and these ones are dangerous as hell. Bone-giants, wights, spectral ghosts made out of blood-mists, ghouls, all kinds of monsters are within these pages.

The main character, W'soran, is a total and remorseless asshole. He is every bit the definition of "villain" as you can imagine. His insults are scathing, he trusts nobody, he disposes of anyone who isn't useful to him, and the ways in which he kills just about everyone he encounters can't even be described as "going medieval." It's hard to feel sorry when he gets in over his head, but at the same time, a lot of his enemies are pretty nasty people just like him. Everyone's a villain in this story.

Of course, Nagash is the worst. No matter how vicious W'soran looks, Nagash is literally a hundred times worse. It's like comparing a schoolyard bully to Satan himself. Every time W'soran encounters his old leader, he basically curls into a ball, cries, and runs away. Dude is goddamn scary.

The only other character who's as intimidating as Nagash (but a very distant second) is Abhorash. He's this warrior vampire, with a sense of honor about him that utterly perplexes W'soran. He is literally regarded as the greatest warrior in the world, and when you see what he does at the end of the book, you realize why he's no one to fuck with.

The writing style is back and forth in terms of the timeline. It gets a little confusing, looking at the past and then the present, or what's closer to the present, but it doesn't impede greatly on the enjoyment factor.

Overall, while the novel is very dreary and gruesome, it is well-written and tells a good story about one man's war for power at any cost. The protagonist is smart and powerful but he makes mistakes and loses fights, so he's no Gary Stu or Superman or whatever.

I look forward to seeing the series' climax in the next volume.

[Tazer]

Yo.

some news a few of ya'll might find useful: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon...161539822.html

Amazon book feud sparks Walmart fire sale

Tazer

[Jeff]

Wow, I went back to my last post in this thread and realized it has been quite some time and many books have been read. I won't bother with pics, just titles and authors.

So, we left off with Dead Sea by Tim Curran, a very long but interesting book. After that (in reading order):

Sharc by Paul Rudd
Beaneath the Dark Ice by Greig Beck
Fangtooth by Shaun Jeffrey
Clickers Vs. Zombies by J.F. Gonzalez and Brian Keene
This Green Hell by Greig Beck
Black Mountain by Greig Beck
Dark Rising by Greig Beck
Swamp Monster Massacre by Hunter Shea
Night of the Wendigo by William Meikle
Chaos by David Meyer
Ice Storm by David Meyer
Mega by Jake Bible
Transformers Retribution by David J. Williams and Mark S. Williams
Thaw by Bryan Dunn
Leviathan by James Byron Huggins
Snapper by Felicia Zekauskas and Peter Maloney
The Shark by Craig Ferreira
Empire of the Dinosaurs by Robert Turnbull Jr.
Beneath the Deep by J.T. Cross
Live Specimens by Kelli Own
The Ice Gorilla by Michael Esola and Wesley Jones
Blood Tide by Edward Parker
Torrent by David Meyer
Flood Plains by Mark Wheaton
Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Kronos Rising by Max Hawthorne
Dead Lake by Murphy Edwards
Snapped (Dead Lake II) by Murphy Edwards
Mega 2: Baja Blood by Jake Bible
Titanoboa by Victor Methos
The Specimen by Pete Kahle

and now I'm in the middle of The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft.

[Space Cop]

Geezum Crow, it would probably take me two years to read that many books. Then again, sometimes I'm on a roll. Now (with my 800-page Roosevelt biography) is not one of those times.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Space Cop

Geezum Crow, it would probably take me two years to read that many books. Then again, sometimes I'm on a roll. Now (with my 800-page Roosevelt biography) is not one of those times.

I have a need to keep my thoughts busy. Very busy.

So, since the last, I finished up The Shadow over Innsmouth. Good read; quite a fishy turn of events at the end. Har Har Har

Next up was Bloodletting by Michael McBride, an author who I give huge props to. Haven't been let down once by any of his books.

After that, it was The Coyote, which was a bit of a change (it was an FBI-catching-serial-killer tale with quite a few twists) also by McBride.

Today, I just started Mortal Eclipse by David Brookover.

[Space Cop]

Originally Posted by DOOM

I have a need to keep my thoughts busy. Very busy.

Well, since that post I did finally finish The Rise of Theodor Roosevelt. [Actually, it was unusual for me because I read 111 pages of it yesterday and I usually only read that much--especially when it's this dense--when I'm on vacation and away from distractions like XBox and the internet.] It was pretty good but I came to see despite some of his unorthodoxy, Teddy was still very much a career politician with all the crap that entails.

I'll probably pick up a Star Trek novel in a couple days, but I should do some more periodical and trade reading to catch up first.

Originally Posted by DOOM

So, since the last, I finished up The Shadow over Innsmouth. Good read; quite a fishy turn of events at the end. Har Har Har

Definitely one of Lovecraft's best. Now, there is an author who I have read probably over 90% of what's available in print from him.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Space Cop

Definitely one of Lovecraft's best. Now, there is an author who I have read probably over 90% of what's available in print from him.

I was impressed with the build-up and twist of the ending, but I still hold out for Call of Cthulhu. WAAAAAAAAY back in the day, when I hung out with the "darker side of reality" club in high school (Before Emos and Goths), I tried reading Lovecraft and it was just too complexly written for my limited intelligence. I really didn't have the patience for it. That experience always bothered me because all these other kids were telling me how great he was, and every time between then and now, when I heard mention of Lovecraft, I always felt....not smart enough and it was unfinished business.

Today I am happy to say I am quite enamored with Lovecraft on many levels, and I finally defeated the dumbass teenager inside me who couldn't understand him at one time. I have a couple anthologies of his that I have slowly made my way through; The Rats in the Walls was very good as well.

[Space Cop]

"Rats" was a good example of a pure Gothic story from him-no elder gods or any aliens, which is cool since he admired Poe above all.

My story is somewhat similar. In college, a sci-fi/horror friend kept recommending Lovecraft but my tastes weren't as extreme and he sounded too dark for me (which he probably was). When I started my last job (by now a horror hound), my supervisor was a big fan and edged me into it and I took off with his eldritch stories and gibbous moons.

[Space Cop]

And back to some Trek reading...