Monkeys Fist 38768 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 re. Fantasy stuff, The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is top notch. It’s a piss take of Fantasy novels, set on a flat earth, and has various recurring characters, including DEATH and shit wizards, and night watchmen etc. (I tried some of the proper stuff and couldn’t get away with it, either. ) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meenzer 14055 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 And it all works because of denpressure. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blastronaut 1236 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 I loved a lot of the Tolkien stuff back in early high school, think went down the Discworld rabbithile around the time I was struggling with The Silmarillion. Mort was a standout if memory serves but it's years since even thought about that series, let alone read them. Lost interest in fantasy novels until GoT got popular and thought I'd give the books a go. Managed the first two (I think) before getting a bit fucked off with all the padding. Quite often seeing six straight really long paragraphs describing a single piece of chainmail in intricate detail and eventually just thought "bollocks to this, these sections are worse when the Tolkien books would burst into song for a few pages". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeys Fist 38768 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 7 minutes ago, Meenzer said: And it all works because of denpressure. Don’t diss the power of magick!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Carr's Gloves 3205 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 27 minutes ago, Monkeys Fist said: re. Fantasy stuff, The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is top notch. It’s a piss take of Fantasy novels, set on a flat earth, and has various recurring characters, including DEATH and shit wizards, and night watchmen etc. (I tried some of the proper stuff and couldn’t get away with it, either. ) I always think of the discworld as satire rather than straight up fantasy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeys Fist 38768 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 Just now, Kevin Carr's Gloves said: I always think of the discworld as satire rather than straight up fantasy Absolutely- he’s a supreme piss-taker, but drops a few very salient comments on society in amongst the laughs. I also love the way The Librarian only ever says “Ook”, but is very clearly the most sarcastic bugger in the entire series. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blastronaut 1236 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 14 minutes ago, Kevin Carr's Gloves said: I always think of the discworld as satire rather than straight up fantasy Aye. And on top of that his character naming conventions were straight from the old Asterix playbook. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex 30414 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 Ive recently thought about trying to read some of the many Philip K Dick works I never got round to. Despite having read a lot of his stuff there’s even more I haven’t yet. That sort of postmodern exploration of illusory alternative realities, monolithic all-seeing corporations and paranoid, hallucinatory descents into never ending madness might be a bit too much like real life in 2023 though. What a writer though. The mad fucker. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blastronaut 1236 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 30 minutes ago, Alex said: Ive recently thought about trying to read some of the many Philip K Dick works I never got round to. Despite having read a lot of his stuff there’s even more I haven’t yet. That sort of postmodern exploration of illusory alternative realities, monolithic all-seeing corporations and paranoid, hallucinatory descents into never ending madness might be a bit too much like real life in 2023 though. What a writer though. The mad fucker. You've just reminded me I stilI haven't got round to reading A Scanner Darkly. A good friend of mines dropped off a copy when I was just out of hospital after a major lung op and still out my face on (prescribed) opioids and insisted I read it. I noped out and opted to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern instead. Night Circus was a really good read tbf and weird memories of it still pop up in the occasional fever dream, but that's all likely skewed a bit by the opiates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex 30414 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 5 minutes ago, Blastronaut said: You've just reminded me I stilI haven't got round to reading A Scanner Darkly. A good friend of mines dropped off a copy when I was just out of hospital after a major lung op and still out my face on (prescribed) opioids and insisted I read it. I noped out and opted to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern instead. Night Circus was a really good read tbf and weird memories of it still pop up in the occasional fever dream, but that's all likely skewed a bit by the opiates. It’s s good one. Definitely worth the effort. The rotoscope film adaptation was good too. Although it was never going to be able to match the paranoia of the novel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawb 3659 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 29 minutes ago, Blastronaut said: You've just reminded me I stilI haven't got round to reading A Scanner Darkly. A good friend of mines dropped off a copy when I was just out of hospital after a major lung op and still out my face on (prescribed) opioids and insisted I read it. I noped out and opted to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern instead. Night Circus was a really good read tbf and weird memories of it still pop up in the occasional fever dream, but that's all likely skewed a bit by the opiates. Night circus was a great book tbf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blastronaut 1236 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 14 minutes ago, Alex said: It’s s good one. Definitely worth the effort. The rotoscope film adaptation was good too. Although it was never going to be able to match the paranoia of the novel I haven't even seen the film adaptation. I think I might have missed a trick by not taking my mates recommendation and reading it back when I had few responsibilities and was (legitimately) strung out on opiates. I'm still an anxious mess after the shitstorm that 2023 has been so far, so it'll have to wait but it's definitely back on the list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex 30414 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 He actually wrote a few non-sci fi novels that were really good too. I think he stopped at about 4 simply because he couldn’t get anyone to publish them during his lifetime. It was apparently a constant source of disappointment despite his success as a writer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 5911 Posted August 24, 2023 Share Posted August 24, 2023 Garth Marenghi's terror tome. Im up to the bit where the lead character gets bummed off his magic typewriter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 34464 Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 On 23/08/2023 at 15:58, Gemmill said: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby I'm two thirds of the way through this now (I'm an excellent reader) and it's good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeys Fist 38768 Posted August 25, 2023 Share Posted August 25, 2023 5 minutes ago, Gemmill said: I'm an excellent reader Alreet Babbitt. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeAdmirer 925 Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 On 24/08/2023 at 20:46, strawb said: Joe Abercrombie - Everything he writes is good, pretty dark Mark Lawrence - Book of the Ancestor, Prince of Thorns, The Req Queens War TC Edge - The Bladeborn Saga Glen Cook - Chronicles of the black company Ed McDonald - The Ravens Mark Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora Terry Brooks - Shannara Series Anthony Ryan - Ravens Shadow Those are all series of books with multiple stories in Finished the The Blade Itself over the weekend, cracked open Before They Are Hanged today. Jezal could use a good slap so far, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wykikitoon 16653 Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Thought you would be more of a Catherine Cookson sort of reader tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 34464 Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 That second book I mentioned to AH, Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor is quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeAdmirer 925 Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 13 minutes ago, wykikitoon said: Thought you would be more of a Catherine Cookson sort of reader tbh reported 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewerk 26348 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 On 24/08/2023 at 14:48, Alex said: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is another good one. Excellent read, not quite what I was expecting but a good ending to it. I also discovered The Tailor of Panama on my shelf so will hopefully get through that too before the flight home. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wykikitoon 16653 Posted Tuesday at 06:25 Share Posted Tuesday at 06:25 Just finished this; Utopia for Realists. Excellent read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gloom 19825 Posted Tuesday at 09:24 Share Posted Tuesday at 09:24 just finished jarvis cocker's memoir, good pop, bad pop, which was an enjoyable enough easy read. also just read tunnel 29, a harrowing story about people in west berlin building tunnels under the wall to free people from the brutal regime in the east. it's a fascinating story, based on true events, which shone a light on a terrifying piece of history i wasn't familiar with. other books i've enjoyed this year include yellowface and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wykikitoon 16653 Posted Tuesday at 09:32 Share Posted Tuesday at 09:32 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a great read Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeys Fist 38768 Posted Tuesday at 13:00 Share Posted Tuesday at 13:00 3 hours ago, wykikitoon said: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a great read Has this on my “to read” list for a while, but I keep putting it off… 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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