There's two book threads....ok

Reading book two of the southern reach trilogy, Authority by jeff vander meer

....oh wait i have to explain...just google it

I'm currently reading, "Can Such Things Be?..." by Ambrose Bierce. It is a collection of short horror stories written in the 1850-1870 time frame. There are around 10 stories, I'm sorry that I cannot remember the nimber of stories. It is currently in my room and I just don't feel like going and getting it. So far I have only read two of the stories and just haven't read a whole lot lately as I have been busy doing other things.

I do think that it is interesting to read horror stories that have taken place 150 - 200 years ago. So far the two stories that I have read have both taken place outside, deep in the woods. I like the perspective because at that time the woods and the dark were really scary and people could really believe that there were interesting and scary creatures living there. I just get a kick out of it. We shall see how it turns out. I just hope that I finally get around to reading the rest of it.

Written by MetCanMeshAnt on 22.02.2015 at 05:12



I do think that it is interesting to read horror stories that have taken place 150 - 200 years ago. So far the two stories that I have read have both taken place outside, deep in the woods. I like the perspective because at that time the woods and the dark were really scary and people could really believe that there were interesting and scary creatures living there. I just get a kick out of it. We shall see how it turns out. I just hope that I finally get around to reading the rest of it.

yeah i love horror story's set in the olden days, saves for cliche characters, also love story's set in the woods

Written by deadone on 17.06.2015 at 05:32


It was bizarre and scary that I actually found myself agreeing with some of the sentiments expressed in the book (ie the misanthropic ones) and yet found some of the rationales behind them idiotic and juvenile.

Good read overall.

Time to bust out the corpse paint and purchase some norweigian second wave

In lack of thread I'll post this here:

Anyone knows a book or books (preferably with more than 100 pages) which is entirely made by dialogue?

Written by Karlabos on 27.06.2015 at 22:00

In lack of thread I'll post this here:

Anyone knows a book or books (preferably with more than 100 pages) which is entirely made by dialogue?

You want modern fiction? Dialogue was a classical form of literature, so you can pick up some Plato or Cicero. Also, plays, though most of them are shorter. I don't think there are any (many) novels without any narration.

Written by IronAngel on 28.06.2015 at 11:06

Written by Karlabos on 27.06.2015 at 22:00

In lack of thread I'll post this here:

Anyone knows a book or books (preferably with more than 100 pages) which is entirely made by dialogue?

You want modern fiction? Dialogue was a classical form of literature, so you can pick up some Plato or Cicero. Also, plays, though most of them are shorter. I don't think there are any (many) novels without any narration.

Modern would be great. You know, something easier to read >.<
Yeah, that's too bad, I couldn't find any either

Written by Karlabos on 28.06.2015 at 16:32

Modern would be great. You know, something easier to read >.<

Though plays aren't quite the same as an experimental dialogue novel (of which I'm sure a few exist, I just don't know any), but they can be good stuff to read, too. Shakespeare, of course, is essential. But for something more modern, Anton Chekhov is worth trying out. You can probably pick up a translation of The Seagull, Uncle Vanya or the Cherry Orchard at any library.

I found this Goodreads list for contemporary stuff. I can't vouch for any of the items, but you'll get plenty of reviews and information from their respective pages: Best Contemporary Plays

As for myself, I'm reading Jane Austen's Emma and Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus at the moment, I'll come back with comments later. I imagine I'll take a few months with the Mann, though. He's one of, if not the favorite author of mine, but he is dense and takes time.

The Lord of the Rings for the 16th time since I am writing my own analysis of it. I have been reading it at least once a year since school and the only annoying thing is it has ruined most other fantasy books I read because none of them compare. Tried A Song of Ice and Fire and gave up at the end of Clash of Kings...

Written by Karlabos on 27.06.2015 at 22:00

In lack of thread I'll post this here:

Anyone knows a book or books (preferably with more than 100 pages) which is entirely made by dialogue?

Plays is what comes to mind. Therefore, try Aristophanes or Aeschylus maybe ?

At the moment i'm reading The Forest Hours by Kerstin Ekman, a kind of bizarre book about a trolls life, a troll who lives for hundreds of years learning to live in the human world, very folk tale-ish.

Was reading The Martian by Andy Weir, but had to stop after about 1/3. It's a cool premise and Weir knows his shit, but it left me utterly unmoved.

First off, it's filled with scientific mumbo jumbo that's probably all really accurate. In fact, it's really interesting if you're a fan of space/NASA/etc, but it seems the writer forgot to put all that technical knowledge into a compelling story. Most of what you get are long, boring, technical descriptions of how the main character solved this problem, how he solved that problem, how he got water, how he made food, blahblahblah. It's all really well explained and relatively easy to follow, even for a guy like me, who doesn't know all that much about space-travel (except for what I learned in Mass Effect and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which probably equates to less than nothing) and how to make water from hydrazine and O2 (or something,) but I'm reading a novel here, not a textbook on chemistry. A great writer would have worked this (admittedly impressive) knowledge into the book without sacrificing the story or characters.

Next, whenever our protagonist isn't explaining some complicated scientific process, you get bombarded by 'witty' one-liners and stuff that teenagers would write in their blogs ("I made water (yay!) but I'm gonna die (boo!)") There's no descent into madness because of his isolation, the main character seems to be pretty cool about everything and always has a snappy one-liner ready for every traumatic experience. You don't get to know the character, you don't see him struggling to survive, he seems to be pretty okay with being trapped alone for a very long time. The whole isolation thing seems to have very little effect on the guy's mind.

For a book that's trying really hard to portray survival on Mars in a realistic way, it forgets to add believable characters that we might care about. Not to mention the book is written in an extremely predictable manner. First there's a disaster, the protagonist panics, then he remembers he's a genius and finds some incredible way to solve the crisis, then he's all happy about being really smart. This is usually where the chapter ends, only for the next one to begin with some new unforeseen crisis. All of this results in zero tension and zero reasons to care about any of this.

Andy Weir had a good idea for a novel here, but he probably should have cooperated with a real novelist to make his project come to life. That said, I'm very optimistic for the movie since that had a different writer working on this same story, maybe making it more engaging, and hopefully giving the characters more depth. Also, it could very well work a lot better visually.

EDIT: well I didn't expect this to be that long. Title says "post your critics" though, by which I guess it means critiques.

Written by Zap on 01.10.2015 at 18:43

Was reading The Martian by Andy Weir, but had to stop after about 1/3. It's a cool premise and Weir knows his shit, but it left me utterly unmoved.

First off, it's filled with scientific mumbo jumbo that's probably all really accurate. In fact, it's really interesting if you're a fan of space/NASA/etc, but it seems the writer forgot to put all that technical knowledge into a compelling story. Most of what you get are long, boring, technical descriptions of how the main character solved this problem, how he solved that problem, how he got water, how he made food, blahblahblah. It's all really well explained and relatively easy to follow, even for a guy like me, who doesn't know all that much about space-travel (except for what I learned in Mass Effect and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which probably equates to less than nothing) and how to make water from hydrazine and O2 (or something,) but I'm reading a novel here, not a textbook on chemistry. A great writer would have worked this (admittedly impressive) knowledge into the book without sacrificing the story or characters.

Next, whenever our protagonist isn't explaining some complicated scientific process, you get bombarded by 'witty' one-liners and stuff that teenagers would write in their blogs ("I made water (yay!) but I'm gonna die (boo!)") There's no descent into madness because of his isolation, the main character seems to be pretty cool about everything and always has a snappy one-liner ready for every traumatic experience. You don't get to know the character, you don't see him struggling to survive, he seems to be pretty okay with being trapped alone for a very long time. The whole isolation thing seems to have very little effect on the guy's mind.

For a book that's trying really hard to portray survival on Mars in a realistic way, it forgets to add believable characters that we might care about. Not to mention the book is written in an extremely predictable manner. First there's a disaster, the protagonist panics, then he remembers he's a genius and finds some incredible way to solve the crisis, then he's all happy about being really smart. This is usually where the chapter ends, only for the next one to begin with some new unforeseen crisis. All of this results in zero tension and zero reasons to care about any of this.

Andy Weir had a good idea for a novel here, but he probably should have cooperated with a real novelist to make his project come to life. That said, I'm very optimistic for the movie since that had a different writer working on this same story, maybe making it more engaging, and hopefully giving the characters more depth. Also, it could very well work a lot better visually.

EDIT: well I didn't expect this to be that long. Title says "post your critics" though, by which I guess it means critiques.

Well i'm definitely not reading it now,and to think it won sci-fi of the year on good reads. Saying that though apart from the main character sounding like a teenager, i think my wife would like this....but she's a science nerd.

A Divine Revelation of Hell by Mary K. Baxter. I find it interesting.

Neuromancer.

Seems like I've been missing out on a whole subgenre of sci-fi my whole life. (well, I was aware of it but never really interested) First 100 pages were awesome, even if hard to follow at times.

H.p Lovecraft - The Eldritch tales

Lovecrafts always a fun read, i skip most poems though.

Written by Zap on 03.11.2015 at 19:18

Neuromancer.

Seems like I've been missing out on a whole subgenre of sci-fi my whole life. (well, I was aware of it but never really interested) First 100 pages were awesome, even if hard to follow at times.

Ah, good. bought it 5...years ago - it's still sitting on a shelf. I tried to read it but the first 5 pages put me off incredibly.. good that you mentioned it now, I might give it another shot

Neuromancer is a pretty entertaining story and would make a great film or something. The writing, though, I found a bit crude and immature. Some parts were downright confusing, not because the story was too complex but because it wasn't presented clearly, there was a lot of cyberpunk jargon that sets the tone of the world but felt a bit lazy and repetitive, and the characters had no psychological depth. A fun sci-fi romp with action and cool visions for the future, but not exactly high literature.

It is a very early work, though. I'm told Gibson has improved with experience. And sci-fi is almost never well-written (Asimov lol), so it's not a very major criticism.

Written by ylside on 09.11.2015 at 01:20

Ah, good. bought it 5...years ago - it's still sitting on a shelf. I tried to read it but the first 5 pages put me off incredibly.. good that you mentioned it now, I might give it another shot

That's why I always do the "look inside" thing on Amazon... and then buy it somewhere else.

But yeah, I can see why it would turn some people off. It's definitely not for everyone, and I will probably enjoy it more on a re-read (finished it only yesterday btw.)

My wifes reading the martian at the moment and reckons it's really good, haven't heard good things about the movie so far though

Just started going through Stephen King's classic books and started with It, I'm on page 50 or so and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
FUCKING clowns though :S

Written by InnerSelf on 11.11.2015 at 20:37

Just started going through Stephen King's classic books and started with It, I'm on page 50 or so and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
FUCKING clowns though :S

Another Stephen King fan here! Currently reading Desperation. It's probably the most unsettling one thus far (haven't read "It" yet though). What I most like about King is his vast imagination. You never know what you are going to get when you open one of his books. Although they have some similarities: They most often start out completely normal. You get to know the characters well, they are often very believable, and you really don't want anything bad to happen to them. But sooner or later things start to go horribly wrong..., often in the most unexpected ways. Another thing that is really cool is that most of the books seem to be tied together by the mythology of the Dark Tower series. In addition, King references seem to show up in metal every now and again. The most striking example may be Demons & Wizards: Touched by the Crimson King, which is almost entirely dedicated to the Dark Tower.

Written by IntestinalCrypt on 13.11.2015 at 21:59

The most striking example may be Demons & Wizards: Touched by the Crimson King, which is almost entirely dedicated to the Dark Tower.

I would say Among The Living by Anthrax. The cover art alone is pure dedication to The Stand as is the album title.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 13.11.2015 at 22:13

Written by IntestinalCrypt on 13.11.2015 at 21:59

The most striking example may be Demons & Wizards: Touched by the Crimson King, which is almost entirely dedicated to the Dark Tower.

I would say Among The Living by Anthrax. The cover art alone is pure dedication to The Stand as is the album title.

Time to get into Anthrax

Written by IntestinalCrypt on 13.11.2015 at 21:59

Another Stephen King fan here! Currently reading Desperation. It's probably the most unsettling one thus far (haven't read "It" yet though). What I most like about King is his vast imagination. You never know what you are going to get when you open one of his books. Although they have some similarities: They most often start out completely normal. You get to know the characters well, they are often very believable, and you really don't want anything bad to happen to them. But sooner or later things start to go horribly wrong..., often in the most unexpected ways. Another thing that is really cool is that most of the books seem to be tied together by the mythology of the Dark Tower series. In addition, King references seem to show up in metal every now and again. The most striking example may be Demons & Wizards: Touched by the Crimson King, which is almost entirely dedicated to the Dark Tower.

Yes. The character aspect is completely on point.
I have The Dark Tower on my to-read list ... will hopefully get to it soon.

Written by IronAngel on 09.11.2015 at 13:13

Neuromancer is a pretty entertaining story and would make a great film or something. The writing, though, I found a bit crude and immature. Some parts were downright confusing, not because the story was too complex but because it wasn't presented clearly, there was a lot of cyberpunk jargon that sets the tone of the world but felt a bit lazy and repetitive, and the characters had no psychological depth. A fun sci-fi romp with action and cool visions for the future, but not exactly high literature.

It is a very early work, though. I'm told Gibson has improved with experience. And sci-fi is almost never well-written (Asimov lol), so it's not a very major criticism.

Exactly, you described what put me off, the writing style and heavy slang use. Neuromancer is so far the only sci-fi I want to read, not being interested in the genre that much. (and in fiction that is... as time passes by, I am less and less inclined to read fiction.. history, politics, biographies etc seem much more appealing to me now)

Talking about later Gibson works, in 2007 I saw a jazz-band called "Mona Lisa Overdrive", they weren't bad at all. (although I guess that's the only link with Gibson, the band name, being instrumental etc)

N0S4R2 - JOE HILL

Pretty good so far, i find Joe writes a lot like his dad, who bores me these days. Joes characters are much more darker than Stephen Kings more cheesey american stereotypes though, which makes it a lot more entertaining.

Thud! by Terry Pratchett. Probably my 2nd favorite of the Discworld books.

Written by [user id=142921] on 20.01.2016 at 16:00

Lovecraft anthology.

Fascinating stuff but not an easy read for me. I find myself googling definitions at least once per page on average and his sentences are extremely meaty and quite archaic in their structure. The constant googling kinda breaks the immersion but not much one can do. He wrote The Beast in the Cave at 15 years old and it astonishes me how exposition-heavy and flowery his writing was at that age. I'm up to Polaris. So far it's pretty tame stuff but intriguing. I can't wait to reach the cosmic themed/'outside the box' stories.

Yeah his super old school wording can get annoying sometimes, but then it kind of gives it a dark atmosphere at the same time. It also starts to get annoying how short the story's are, especially when they have such a descriptive in depth build up.

Written by [user id=136611] on 20.01.2016 at 19:18


Yeah his super old school wording can get annoying sometimes, but then it kind of gives it a dark atmosphere at the same time. It also starts to get annoying how short the story's are, especially when they have such a descriptive in depth build up.

Lovecraft wrote for pulp magazines so that's why the length is short.