what are you reading?

[TFO]

Reading The Last Dark by Stephen Donaldson - the final final part of the Thomas Covenant serieses.

This is great for me because I have been reading these for the best part of 30 years and have seen how much the character development element of his writing has changed.
Whereas at the start there was very much a black and white struggle (literally at times), all the characters now come in multi-hued grey. Much more interesting - although the motivation and drives behind the characters sometimes become lost.
Also his writing and use of language has developed considerably over this time - maybe to the point of losing many readers with the complexity and structure of his words. Still, the sentences often have a wonderful lyrical kind of rhythm.

Haven't finished it yet, so not sure how he wraps it all up (and actually I thought the ending of the second series did that very well all that time ago).
Entertaining, but bloody hard work.

[Mat]

Ech, I gave up on Donaldson with the second book in this final series.
While I enjoyed him as an angsty teenager, I found that while I've grown up, his writing hasn't.

Wot I'm reading at the moment after the awesome "John Dies at the End" is the sequel "This Book is Full of Spiders" by David Wong, and it's just as good, if not better so far.
It's more gonzo horror comedy a la Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim, but I'd say it holds up better, as it's not all about saving the world, and he doesn't go out of his way trying to explain how the weird shit works.

I'm interested to see the film of "John Dies at the End" now to see how much of the outright weirdness they managed to capture.

Highly recommended, and genuinely laugh-out-loud funny.

And once I've finished that and DMQZ, I've got the rather wonderful Hyperbole and a Half book by Allie Brosh. There's a lot of stuff from the website in there, but at first glimpse also a lot of new stuff.
If you've never read the Hyperbole and a Half blog, do yourself a favour and correct that NOW.

[F-ZeroOne]

Charles Stross and his "Laundry" novelette, "Equoid". I would suggest "My Little Pony" fans avoid.

[Darkflame]

Excellent stuff, like anything Unwritten related.

Simultaneously a story, and a story about a story being written. Sort-of a prequel, sort of spin-off, sort of origin story to the Unwritten main series.

[nyarla]

Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles.. I'd read them once long ago but forgotten how much I like them! Up to the second book now.

[zip accident]

A couple recently, first this:



http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0586 ... UTF8&psc=1

Not available new, which is a shame. I first read it from a library in the late '60s or very early '70s. Very short, and even so there are a couple of other stories in the book. It was memorable enough that I had to have it.

Secondly this:



http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0712 ... UTF8&psc=1

Which is a tome. It looks more or less standard paper back size in the image, it's not, it's just over two inches thick, over six inches wide and over nine inches deep too, with lots of black and white photos in eight bunches. I suppose I've only begun it so far, but there's a lot to think about.

[supermario]

If you want to be entertained by quality adventure romps regarding Historical issues and conspiracies, cinematically described with just about the resolute amount of gore I recommend anything by Andy McDermott; Just finished reading "Covenant of Genesis"

[zip accident]

the resolute amount of gore

What? I can't work out what that's supposed to be. I sort of assume it should be "ultimate" or "absolute" or something, rather than "resolute", but I can't see how you'd get from the one to the other via a typo. Or maybe resolute has another meaning I don't know about.

[Firefox]

the resolute amount of gore

What? I can't work out what that's supposed to be. I sort of assume it should be "ultimate" or "absolute" or something, rather than "resolute", but I can't see how you'd get from the one to the other via a typo. Or maybe resolute has another meaning I don't know about.

"Requisite"?

[Deckard]

Just finished The Ocean at the the end of the lane - absolutely loved it and one of my books of the last year - creepy and charming and an epic scope with one of my fave lines "I remember when the moon was made"

[supermario]

the resolute amount of gore

What? I can't work out what that's supposed to be. I sort of assume it should be "ultimate" or "absolute" or something, rather than "resolute", but I can't see how you'd get from the one to the other via a typo. Or maybe resolute has another meaning I don't know about.

"Requisite"?

Yeah that's a better word - Cheers FF.

[F-ZeroOne]

"Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files" vols 20 - 21, which would have been published originally sometime after I stopped buying "2000AD" (back then you were actually supposed to grow out of comic books... ). It was interesting to see that Dredd has somehow got even grumpier, which is quite a feat for a man who once effectively got another Judge to commit suicide - because Dredd didn't like his moustache... ("The Judge Child").

[Portland]

Castles of Steel - WWI conflict at sea

Th.e Virgin Suicides

Both Kindle cheapies ofc

[F-ZeroOne]

Ta for pointing out "Castles of Steel" - looked at that a couple of times!

[Portland]

Ta for pointing out "Castles of Steel" - looked at that a couple of times!

It's not a thrilling page turner, but does seem to be pretty comprehensive with accounts and analysis of the entire conflict (so far) I find myself reading a lot of it and there's always more. Must have if it hits cheapie status again, especially if you like your ships lobbing stuff at each other, now with added Zeppelins