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Post by The Doctor on Mar 4, 2024 15:56:50 GMT
Next up in my reading queue is QUINT, an unnofficial Jaws sequel which I am unable to resist.
Got in from the library though. Wasn't paying for it!!!
"BEFORE THERE WAS 'JAWS' THERE WAS...QUINT." screams the cover.
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Mar 4, 2024 18:46:35 GMT
You paid your taxes. You paid for it.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 4, 2024 19:44:06 GMT
Shuuuuush.
I got a Spider-Man book out the same time as cover.
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 8, 2024 12:23:44 GMT
Next up in my reading queue is QUINT, an unnofficial Jaws sequel which I am unable to resist. Got in from the library though. Wasn't paying for it!!! "BEFORE THERE WAS 'JAWS' THERE WAS...QUINT." screams the cover. -Ralph Shockingly, I must report it is awful beyond rational belief. Who could have possibly guessed this would be the case? The author has read 'Pinnochio' and *really* wants you to know this. *weeps* -Ralph |
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 14, 2024 14:38:00 GMT
You had me at newsprint! Copy ordered. -Ralph I like the paper stock and b&w format but the quality of printing is piss-poor. Lots of those sort of white scratchy blobs that you get with nth generation bad photocopies. I expect better for a $7 title in 2024. Seen plenty of indies printed better. The strips also look like colour ones desaturated rather than proper b&w. Not an appealing looking publication. I won't be back. -Ralph |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Mar 14, 2024 18:07:06 GMT
I have been making an effort to do less phone (endless browsing, some games, Twitter, etc) and read more this year.
Going like the clappers now through many books and piles of comics and magazines that have built up since N was born.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 20, 2024 12:33:25 GMT
You had me at newsprint! Copy ordered. -Ralph I like the paper stock and b&w format but the quality of printing is piss-poor. Lots of those sort of white scratchy blobs that you get with nth generation bad photocopies. I expect better for a $7 title in 2024. Seen plenty of indies printed better. The strips also look like colour ones desaturated rather than proper b&w. Not an appealing looking publication. I won't be back. -Ralph The worst quality I have seen from a mainstream publisher, absolute dogturd. |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 20, 2024 15:44:57 GMT
King of the Rocketmen - a graphic novel adaption of the old serial broadcast on BBC2 back in the day from the long defunct Innnovation Comics. Fully painted, and a trip roaring tale, reminding me I wish more comics remembered the joys of serial storytelling.
It only cost me £1.00 as well.
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Post by legios on Mar 20, 2024 17:53:40 GMT
I had no idea that they had done such a thing! I remember watching King of the Rocketmen back in the day, but wasn't aware of a comic adaptation!
Karl
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 20, 2024 18:56:57 GMT
I had no idea that they had done such a thing! I remember watching King of the Rocketmen back in the day, but wasn't aware of a comic adaptation! Karl Me neither, so when I saw it at Colin Maxwell's table at GCAF I had to pick it up. |
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Rich
Protoform
Posts: 880
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Post by Rich on Apr 8, 2024 12:44:53 GMT
TW Reference to child abuse (no specific detail). Discussion of the impact on a reader of belated awareness of a writer's criminality or prejudices. I'm a huge fan of epic fantasy fiction. I know it is far from highbrow but it feels like home to me. I have currently been re-reading a lot of David Eddings, I find his writing style quite basic and frankly infuriatingly repeated at times but I just like to complete a universe by reading everything written about it. Then I found out about his year in prison for Child Abuse (Non-Sexual, not that it helps). I was planning on reading Marion Zimmer Bradley but her crimes are even worse. In better news I have finished the Shadowmarch Trilogy (4 books in the end) by Tad Williams which was excellent and I think I may read The Lone Wolf novels next I wish I'd seen this post at the time. David Eddings' books have been a big part of my life because they (alongside other writers of fantasy like Dhal and Lewis, who I had already had cause to question, though not perhaps critically enough) had a huge catalytic effect on my love of literature... A love of literature which has quite literally been the foundation of twenty years of employment where I've tried to encourage this love of literature in young people. I've re-read Eddings' books multiple times over the years and, while noticing their flaws, have generally been able to enjoy them in the comforting balm of nostalgia. Hell, one of the tables at my wedding was even named after a location from his books. I was reading one today and, struck by something innocuous, went to check the writer's biography, which I thought I'd known fairly well and then discovered the crimes referred to above. Although Eddings' and his wife's crimes were apparently widely reported in the 60s before they were famous, they were forgotten until relatively recently and I had not been aware of them until today. I've torn, and will recycle, copies of his books in my house, and look forward to doing the same to the copies at my parents' house. A small (mostly unsatisfying) act of catharsis. Right now, I'm questioning so much about literature and art (aware of the risk of over-reacting) but for me the consequences inherent in letting yourself into the mind of another human being have never seemed more real and my responsibilities to my children more profound. There is something magical about enjoying literature innocently. Of course, I've long since been aware that doing so is not really possible for an adult but those books that allowed me to remember that feeling have always been a comfort. I'm starting to wonder, though, if it's ever a good idea? And, if it isn't, then what happens to the love of literature? There are so many books that I might like to have shared (and some I already have) with my sons that I can't read without at least a twinge of misgiving. And what of music and TV and film? I guess it's one of those lessons of parenthood that you can do all you can to protect your children from harm and disappointment but most of life is completely out of your control. It's a sad, sad state of affairs though. Apologies if this is not a good place for this discussion or if it's made you feel a bit glum, but I really felt the need to record my thoughts somewhere. |
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Post by The Doctor on May 12, 2024 10:44:29 GMT
Started on THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM. Quite enjoying it so far. It's clever
Not bothering with the Netflix version unless it is confirmed as continuing to do the whole story. Been burned too many times by Big Hype streaming shows that get canned mid-story.
-Ralph
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Post by Sidero on May 12, 2024 19:35:00 GMT
I recently got into Indrajit and Fix, a neat sword-and-sorcery series by D.J. Butler. It's very reminiscent of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, following two rogues and sellswords doing jobs in a huge fantasy city, but it's set on a very far future Earth, so there's a lot of strange evolutionary offshoots of humanity. They're not the best books of all time, but they do fulfil my need for sword fights broken up with friendly banter.
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on May 28, 2024 16:50:41 GMT
Impulse-bought a nice two-volume hardback set of 'The Way of Kings' by Brandon Sanderson. About 350 pages into it and enjoying it very much. Meanwhile I'm keeping 'The Man in the High Castle' in my office locker for the odd long lunch break - about two thirds of the way through.
Martin
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Post by legios on May 28, 2024 18:53:57 GMT
I really should go back and give The Man in the High Castle another read one of these days. It's been a decade or so since I read it, but I remember coming away with a vague sense of it being another case of PKD's novels being not quite up to the bar his short stories set. It was an interesting book, with an engaging philosophical question rattling around in it. But somehow it never quite landed with me. ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was the same for me - there were some fascinating ideas in there, but the book feels like it never quite gells.)
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on May 28, 2024 21:35:06 GMT
It's pish.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jun 2, 2024 18:15:21 GMT
Some nice Calvin and Hobbes collections have been released. There are to be seven books in the series, and books to 4 are already out. 2 books each in a nice little slipcase. Well worth a purchase.
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 15, 2024 13:27:08 GMT
Started on THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM. Quite enjoying it so far. It's clever Not bothering with the Netflix version unless it is confirmed as continuing to do the whole story. Been burned too many times by Big Hype streaming shows that get canned mid-story. -Ralph Half-way through the second book (THE DARK FOREST). You feel the change with the different translator but the premise introduced here is amazing. -Ralph |
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 16, 2024 23:23:32 GMT
That was absolutely fucking amazing!!!
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 18, 2024 8:43:57 GMT
153 pages into the last book (DEATH'S END). Book 2 had felt like an ending to things but this takes those events and turns them on their head in unexpected yet logical ways. This is an amazing series.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Jun 18, 2024 21:33:59 GMT
How do you read so faaaast?!
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 18, 2024 22:20:14 GMT
On page 307 of 721. This is great stuff. I would have finished it by now if not for pesky things like work.
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 18, 2024 22:21:35 GMT
How do you read so faaaast?! Pinwig: I am your Wallbreaker. -Ralph |
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Post by Pinwig on Jun 19, 2024 19:53:38 GMT
I... Don't know what that means. Please don't break the walls, I've only just had most of them built.
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 19, 2024 22:00:28 GMT
On page 307 of 721. This is great stuff. I would have finished it by now if not for pesky things like work. -Ralph Finished it now. A mindblowing piece of work. Mindblowing. I highly recommend THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM/THE DARK FOREST/DEATH'S END. The amount of imagination on dislpay is staggering. -Ralph |
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 19, 2024 22:01:00 GMT
I... Don't know what that means. Please don't break the walls, I've only just had most of them built. Be careful, lest you attract a dark forest strike! -Ralph |
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Post by Pinwig on Jun 20, 2024 20:17:14 GMT
Is that elves demanding a pay rise?
I have concluded Ralph is Superman. There is no other explanation for the reading speed.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jun 20, 2024 20:26:56 GMT
Don't be ridiculous. He is a pre-Data Soong type android. His reading speed also made the colonists nervous and they asked for him to be dismantled.
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Post by Pinwig on Jun 20, 2024 20:44:12 GMT
That might explain the electric testicles actually...
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 20, 2024 20:52:47 GMT
Is that elves demanding a pay rise? I have concluded Ralph is Superman. There is no other explanation for the reading speed. This was slow for me. -Ralph |
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