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Post by Vandelay on Aug 9, 2022 8:35:52 GMT
I guess the highlighting of it as a spoiler is what makes it a spoiler. If you didn't know, it wouldn't have sounded as literal as it is and more in line with other examples mentioned from King's work.
The next book for me (book 6) is where that seems to all happen. It is what I alluded to as the bit at the end of book 5 that had me hyped for the next one, but I know others would likely dislike it.
Personally find that sort of thing fun, but I can understand why it might be considered indulgent.
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mikeck
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Post by mikeck on Aug 17, 2022 6:31:04 GMT
I finally finished Tarantino's novel version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and I'm torn (I love the movie, all his movies in fact), some of the writing moves the story along well and is interesting, but some of it gets very self-indulgent (and a bit fan-fictiony). As usual his dialogue can be very good, but also lose its way, and often that dialogue jars with the way he writes. It is very inconsistent in quality.
It adds some flavour around the movie, and is told in a different order, so some events happen in more detail, some only fleetingly mentioned and some not at all. I did like it, but it took a long time to read as it didn't grab me enough, a great book can only take me a few evenings to read, this didn't compel me to pick it up every night.
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mikeck
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Post by mikeck on Aug 17, 2022 6:35:32 GMT
I've been reading The Dark Tower for the first time myself. Finished book 5 a couple of weeks ago. I've been enjoying them quite a bit, although I would say that the hand of the editor could be more present in a couple of the books. Wizard and the Glass I thought was just OK. I think the main reason I didn't get quite so into it is because it felt like a bit of a distraction from the main story. I got more into it as it went on though and the final acts were really good. The second book has probably been my favourite. I really enjoyed the way that was structured and the introduction of the two members of Roland's ka-tet is very enjoyable. Roland himself also becomes a more interesting character than the already interesting figure he is in the first book. Also really liked the first half of book 3, but felt it tailed off a bit in the second half. The train at the end was cool though. Book 5, Wolves of Calla, really went places and the ending I could see people groaning a bit at, but I loved it. Has me really interested to see just how mad it is going to go in the next book. I loved Wizard and Glass, I totally understand where you're coming from but I was very into the background story. I'm due a reread of the series actually, so bloody good (the graphic novels are fantastic too, and illustrated by one of my favourite artists)! The ending will always stay with me, he stuck it very well.
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Post by Chopper on Sept 2, 2022 10:12:30 GMT
Been a while but I read the Dagger and Coin series (5 books) by one half of The Expanse writer, Daniel Abraham. Pretty good high fantasy (I think) with some notable drawbacks. The series is written in that style that follows a different character each chapter and some of the characters (most of them, actually) are deadly boring, so responding with dismay to a new chapter as the character switched was a regular occurrence.
But.... the whole thing, over 5 books, adds up to something pretty good, and I'm glad I read it. Kind of a, 'society tries to pull itself out of the Dark Ages while undergoing a genocidal war' vibe. 👀 Would recommend if you can grab the whole thing for cheap from somewhere, like I did.
Also read Canoeing the Congo: The First Source-to-Sea Descent of the Congo River by Phil Harwood, an outdoorsy Londoner. Written in a jokey style, it was fairly typical of the genre but also a really good yarn. I enjoyed following along with the maps provided and google/bing maps.
At the moment I'm reading the Cradle series of books by Will Wight, the first 9 or so of which were given away last year. Anybody read these? My god, the first book was deathly dull for its first third, then it started galloping and hasn't let up since (I'm starting the 5th or sixth book in a row). Major problems with the books - they describe a society populated almost 100% by assholes, all of whom only exist to move up the ladder (they are all magicians) so that they can treat everyone on the rungs below them like shit. The books are page-turners, but the mechanism for this is very exposed to the reader - basically ramp up the action, introduce a massive threat, resolve that threat in the following chapter and introduce a bigger threat, and so on. Bang bang bang. It's like reading a video game, and the motivation of every single character is basically to level up. That's it, that's the books.
Shouldn't really work, but it does.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Sept 2, 2022 13:29:47 GMT
Kindle unlimited novels seem to be 90% crummy Twilight fan fiction, but I actually found one that I enjoyed! Call me Dragon by Marc Secchia has the most generic name and generic cover art, none of which really reflect what it is at all. What it is is weird, and probably not good, but I rather liked it. It's basically a comedy / parody / serious fantasy story about a sassy princess who gets kidnapped by a grumpy short-sighted dragon but they hit it off and it becomes basically a buddy-movie about the 2 of them having dramatic adventures, while also constantly snarky bantering and telling bad puns. But other than the main 2 characters, everything else is presented reasonably seriously, and there's a fair amount of world building and epic battles. Oh, and a baddass female ninja dragon. Shouldn't really work, but it does. (mostly, although a few of the dialogues have so many snarky off-hand comments that it's hard to actually follow the core of the dialogue) Mainly down to the relationship between the 2 main characters. basically ramp up the action, introduce a massive threat, resolve that threat in the following chapter and introduce a bigger threat, and so on. Bang bang bang. It's like reading a video game, and the motivation of every single character is basically to level up. That's it, that's the books. So it's Dragonball The Book?
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Post by Chopper on Sept 3, 2022 8:04:35 GMT
So it's Dragonball The Book? Possibly! It is very video-gamey and (I just finished book 5) has got to the point now where there's no tension at all as you know they're just going to defeat bigger and bigger enemies. They're trying to mix it up a bit by introducing new (and more powerful!) characters. That said, I've read 5 books in about 6 days (after taking 3 weeks for the first third of Book 1). I believe they are all on Kindle Unlimited (in the UK Store anyway) so check them out! The first book gets good at literally 33% on your kindle tracker
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2022 8:25:50 GMT
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
Probably the most "normal" book of his that I've read. It's good but I miss the surrealism.
7/10
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 3, 2022 8:30:18 GMT
Isn't it good? Norwegian Wood, I mean.
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Post by dfunked on Sept 26, 2022 10:13:33 GMT
Stephen King - Fairy Tale Well worth a read if you like his other fantasy works. Spends so long building everything up in the real world that I had to double check that it actually was a fantasy at one point.
Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Seems to be a polarising one... Like Marmite you'll either love it or hate it. I thought it was alright.
Kōtarō Isaka - Bullet Train Absolutely perfect beach/sunbed fodder. Can't wait to see the film now.
Alex Garland - The Coma Interesting little short story with illustrations by his dad.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Sept 26, 2022 14:29:41 GMT
The Bone Doll's Twin - Lynn Flewelling
(Preface note: I occasionally just buy random English books off that I've never heard of from Amazon Japan because they happen to be dirt cheap and most English books here are expensive).
This is a really weird Fantasy book, though the cover quote by GRRM apparenyl really likes it.
You know how many fantasy books (and Star Wars) start with some random kid growing up on a farm and then suddenly finding out that he's actually a chosen one who was hidden there by a mage who has been watching over him? This book is that, except almost the entire 525 pages is taken up with the chosen one's life on the farm, and the reveal bit that usually happens at the end of the first chapter doesn't happen until the end of the book.
Other than the first and last chapter, very little really happens, and you can't help but feel that the entire middle section of the book could have been cut down to 1 or 2 chapters without losing much. It doesn't even do much world building as 90% of it takes place in one small isolated location. As such, it took me about 6 months to finish, because I drifted off and read about 4 other books in the middle.
But it does have some unusual takes on the situation. Its politics, intentional or not, are weird.
The country is usually run by women, but someone usurps the throne and starts Putin-ing any women close to the throne, so the heroic mages so some magic to turn the baby princess into a boy. Magic that involves the death of her twin brother, and her/him being haunted by the ghost of that brother, and basically lots of bad shit happening to the family.
So it's nominally feminist, but pretty much all the cast are male. Then there are issues with gender that read a bit weird in the current climate, but it was written in 2001 so I have no idea if they're intentional.
On the one hand I'm kinda intrigued to see where it goes, and if the princess who doesn't want to be a girl and their platonic male bedmate and ghost brother can somehow raise an army and win a kingdom... but on the other hand if the next book takes 500 pages for anything to happen...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2022 14:52:36 GMT
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood Probably the most "normal" book of his that I've read. It's good but I miss the surrealism. 7/10 I know that I've read this as it's in my kindle library. I also remember enjoying it.
I cannot however, for the life of me, remember a fucking thing about it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2022 14:53:51 GMT
Stephen King - Fairy Tale Well worth a read if you like his other fantasy works. Spends so long building everything up in the real world that I had to double check that it actually was a fantasy at one point. Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Seems to be a polarising one... Like Marmite you'll either love it or hate it. I thought it was alright. Kōtarō Isaka - Bullet Train Absolutely perfect beach/sunbed fodder. Can't wait to see the film now. Alex Garland - The Coma Interesting little short story with illustrations by his dad. I grabbed the audio book of Fairy Tale as I'm still physically reading the Dark Tower stuff and I listen to my audio books out for my runs and walking to work. Going to start it after the snooze fest of The Two Towers.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2022 14:57:15 GMT
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood Probably the most "normal" book of his that I've read. It's good but I miss the surrealism. 7/10 I know that I've read this as it's in my kindle library. I also remember enjoying it.
I cannot however, for the life of me, remember a fucking thing about it.
That's almost certainly in no small part because it's extremely difficult to say that any of Murakami's books are "about" anything. But in this case, it's "about" a young man who develops a strange relationship with two women - one of them was the girlfriend of his best friend, who killed himself, and who subsequently struggles with a profound ennui; and the second is someone he goes to university with. I wouldn't say that it has a plot as such.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2022 15:09:10 GMT
Ah yeah, that rings a bell. It's set in the sixties or something isn't it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2022 15:11:46 GMT
Aye that's the one.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 26, 2022 22:43:49 GMT
I know that I've read this as it's in my kindle library. I also remember enjoying it.
I cannot however, for the life of me, remember a fucking thing about it.
That's almost certainly in no small part because it's extremely difficult to say that any of Murakami's books are "about" anything. But in this case, it's "about" a young man who develops a strange relationship with two women - one of them was the girlfriend of his best friend, who killed himself, and who subsequently struggles with a profound ennui; and the second is someone he goes to university with. I wouldn't say that it has a plot as such. But isn't it good? Norwegian Wood.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2022 7:18:52 GMT
Think I'm going to start the Dark Tower books, are they actually any good? I kind of hate westerns if that has any relevance.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 27, 2022 7:25:09 GMT
Think I'm going to start the Dark Tower books, are they actually any good? I kind of hate westerns if that has any relevance. They're closer to fantasy than western, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that. I like them a lot, personally, though the earlier books are less... messy than the latter ones. And it helps if you're a bit of a King-head (as I am), because there's a whole lot of connections between it and his other books. I'd give the first two a try, because they're relatively short. See how that goes.
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Post by dfunked on Sept 27, 2022 7:28:45 GMT
The first book is probably the closest to a western it gets, but is very different to the rest and a pretty quick read. Just get stuck in!
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Post by Dougs on Sept 27, 2022 7:42:16 GMT
I never gelled with the Dark Tower series. I've read most King from those days but it was too much fantasy for me (not my genre really). Magie Murders - 8/10. Clever crime thriller by Anthony Horowitz, which borrows a lot from Agatha Christie but changes tack halfway through and becomes something of a book within a book . Started the sequel immediately.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2022 8:52:23 GMT
I'm stalling a bit on Wizard and Glass if I'm being honest. It's here that I gave up last time. I keep re-reading the first part of Roland's story where we are introduced to Susan Delgado and the old woman and just can't really get my head around what's happening. Now she's met some guy and they are travelling somewhere but I keep falling asleep and forgetting where I am.
Need to just make a concerted effort to push on I think.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2022 14:54:58 GMT
That's almost certainly in no small part because it's extremely difficult to say that any of Murakami's books are "about" anything. But in this case, it's "about" a young man who develops a strange relationship with two women - one of them was the girlfriend of his best friend, who killed himself, and who subsequently struggles with a profound ennui; and the second is someone he goes to university with. I wouldn't say that it has a plot as such. But isn't it good? Norwegian Wood. I'd give it 7/10.
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Post by dfunked on Sept 27, 2022 16:55:42 GMT
Poor Molar just wants someone to get his joke.
It got a chuckle out of me.
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rhaegyr
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Post by rhaegyr on Sept 27, 2022 17:13:39 GMT
I've started reading Junji Ito's stuff since a mate recommended it to me - some of the short stories are really good!
Can anyone recommend anything (or anyone) similar? I've little to no experience of horror or manga in general.
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Post by Chopper on Oct 3, 2022 9:01:16 GMT
I'd started the Cradle series of books by Will Wight last time I posted - the first nine were given away on Amazon or Tor or somewhere last year. Despite my issues with them (it is basically Videogame - the Book) I blew through all nine and even bought the subsequent two at full price. Which was probably a mistake as it coincided with me running out of steam with them. If anybody has Kindle Unlimited, do check them out as they are worth a look, warts and all.
Since read:
Empire State by Henry Porter - a thriller written and set after 9/11, dealing with tensions in the Secret Services about the Americans' embrace of torture and extraordinary rendition for information gathering. A lot of thrillers seem to rely on unlikely coincidences and revelations to power the plot and this one, while it's not the worst offender, plays it a little loose.
Under Occupation by Alan Furst - a spy thriller set in the Parisian Resistance in 1942. Furst is someone I'm getting into because he's generally a bit more subtle and human; the writing is good and the settings memorable. This one is a bit odd though, no real overarching plot, but rather a series of escapades while living under occupation. Not his best, I assume, but enjoyable.
The Midnight Line by Lee Child - my first Jack Reacher book! An ex-military sociopath hitchhikes across America, solving mysteries as he goes. Well written and definitely a step well above what you'd expect from the genre. I'll definitely check more of these out.
The Vanishing Kind by Lavie Tidhar - a novella I picked up in a bundle, I think. Best line in the book was in the opening paragraph, rest was ok. It was short.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Oct 11, 2022 18:33:32 GMT
The Hellbound Heart
I have to say that Clive Barker's writing style is pretty impressive, but I also think some of the changes in the Hellraiser movie were ultimately for the better. There are very few characters here, and half of them are blank slates, whereas the movie gives them a bit more of a personality. Also, I'd say the the imagery is actually gorier in Hellraiser.
7/10
Still a fun read for a couple afternoons (it's quite short), and made me curious about his other books. Anything in particular worth reading?
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nazo
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Post by nazo on Oct 18, 2022 8:29:18 GMT
How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie
A bit of a literary cliche but I really enjoyed it. Mostly it's pretty obvious stuff that largely amounts to "be nice to people" but there's some pretty good insight backed up with lots of examples. It's a bit overlong and felt like it was labouring the point a bit by the end.
8/10
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Post by Honk If You're Horny? on Oct 19, 2022 9:30:39 GMT
I finished Dark Matter the other day. It definitely tapped into my primary fear, a weird sort of combination of Capgras delusion and paranoia. (I blame tv shows like Dr Who, fucking Autons and Twilight Zones Stopover in a Quiet Town for filling my head with this fear)
Anyway it's an enjoyable read and I found it compelling enough to get through in a few days. Maybe a little pulpy in parts but has some interesting ideas and kept me engaged right to the end.
I see it's being turned into a 10 part TV show for Apple which I think will work really well.
I'd recommend it if you're looking for some light Sci Fi.
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Post by Chopper on Oct 22, 2022 9:26:17 GMT
I read Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. Not really what I was expecting - a large part of it is set in various classrooms discussing the moral values of an authoritarian future earth where the only people allowed to vote are military veterans. These sections were pretty dull to me, though the whole thing probably merits a bit more thought than I gave it. The core idea of the book is that only those who have proven to act in a selfless way, and always for the greater good of the group (i.e. those who have served in the military) should be entrusted with the right to vote.
Lots of moralising and very little action. I haven't seen the movie but I assumed it was much more gung-ho. I wasn't super keen on this book but I did buy The Moon is a Harsh Mistress immediately after.
Also, The Moving Toyshop (A Gervase Fen Mystery) by Edmund Crispin. This was on my Amazon wishlist and I must have got its name from some list of the 'Top 100 Mystery Novels' or something, I don't remember. It's a kind of closed room murder mystery, with a lot of farcical elements as an amateur detective and his straight man sidekick try and solve a murder in Oxford. By farcical elements, I mean: the finale is a shootout which takes place on a fairground roundabout which is gaining more and more speed due to the brakeman being accidentally shot by the villain. Naked Gun-type stuff. Not bad for something written in 1946.
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Post by Bill in the rain on Oct 22, 2022 10:44:01 GMT
I haven't seen the movie but I assumed it was much more gung-ho. I wasn't super keen on this book but I did buy The Moon is a Harsh Mistress immediately after. You should watch the movie.
It is mainly action, and also satire of the book's fascist ideals I guess.
Lots of fun though.
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