OMG BOOKS! ... for people who read books

[sin]

I just finished R.A. Salvatore's "The Last Threshold" and holy BALLS what a BULLSHIT way to end a 29 novel series (or 20, depending on how you count them).  I was starting to think that Salvatore had finally gotten back into his groove and then he blows it all in a horribly tacked-on unsatisfying climax.  I don't know if I've ever been more unsatisfied with a book.

[chimera]

rynne - are you reading Laird Barron?  You need to be reading him.

[rynne]

He's on my radar, but I haven't read more than a few stories in anthologies.  Would you recommend The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All as a good starting point? Also, any thoughts on Nathan Ballingrud?

Right now I'm going though Ligotti's Noctuary and Death Poems, then my Christmas present books: Michael Cisco's Member and Thomas Pynchon's Bleeding Edge. (Thank you so much for recommending Cisco a few years back---he's quickly become one of my favorite contemporary authors.)

Plus the more my birding hobby progresses, the more books on that subject I need to obtain and read as well. As my dad has told me, becoming a birder is equivalent to becoming a field guide collector.

[chimera]

I would recommend any of the three short story collections as something you should read before considering reading either The Croning or The Light Is The Darkness, which are his longer works.  Ballingrud is okay, he just doesn't dazzle me like Laird does.  Also, on the more traditional tip, W.H. Pugmire's collection The Strange Dark One  - when you get praise from S.T. Joshi, you know you're doing something right.

[rynne]

Been reading Jeffrey Ford's A Natural History of Hell , which is a snazzy collection of short weird fiction. On-deck is Michael Cisco's The Knife Dances.

And then, when I'm super ambitious, my brother got me a signed copy of Alan Moore's Jerusalem for Christmas. I haven't felt this intimidated to start a book since Against the Day.

[chimera]

And then, when I'm super ambitious, my brother got me a signed copy of Alan Moore's Jerusalem for Christmas. I haven't felt this intimidated to start a book since Against the Day.

Or even Mason & Dixon - amirite?!  That's a helluva pressie tho, I'm so jealous!

My question for you is: are you reading Blake Butler?

[Naylzie]

So I've been doing a lot less reading lately, sadly, because my income these days is as a freelance audiobook proofer.  One of the ones I absolutely ADORED working on was Rhys Ford's Ink & Shadows.  The current Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse live in modern day San Francisco, and they've recently gotten a new Pestilence.  They're actually the heroes of the story though.  I really enjoyed Ford's characterization (and, for the audio, Tremblay's Death and War were just perfect) and the story was quite good, as well.

Airship 27's new Sherlock Holmes series isn't bad...  very predictable if you actually pay attention, but not being a Holmes enthusiast myself, I can't say if they're more simplistic than Conan Doyle's or if they follow a proud tradition of laying out enough clues that a reader can solve alongside the Great Detective.

The coolest thing by far that has happened was having a successor to a story I'd picked up on a whim on my nook show up in my queue.  Fiona Hardingham does a lovely job with the Lady of Devices series, which is a fun little steampunk vehicle with a female lead navigating both the engineering world and that of the expectations of ladies in society.  While raising a pack of street orphans.  The first one was quite enjoyable, as were the ones I proofed, but I missed something like 6 stories in between.

Mostly fluff, but it's got its place.

[chimera]

The book I feel I should be reading is It Can't Happen Here.

[Naylzie]

Yeah, I should get my hands on that one, too.  And find the energy to read it.

[rynne]

Or even Mason & Dixon - amirite?!  That's a helluva pressie tho, I'm so jealous!

My question for you is: are you reading Blake Butler?

Oh god, yeah, I was not expecting that at all. He definitely got an employee discount on it, but that doesn't make it any less impressive.

I can honestly say I'm unfamiliar with Blake Butler. Who is he, and what would you recommend?

The book I feel I should be reading is It Can't Happen Here.

If you want a nonfiction perspective, I strenuously recommend They Thought They Were Free.

[chimera]

It's really difficult for me to describe his style other than, say, High Weirdness.  But I think - knowing your tastes as I do - that you would "get" him.  I would say start with Scorch Atlas.

[Dust]

When Goose separates threads into other subsections of the forum, doesn't it feel a little like George Orwell's dystopian classic, 1984 ?!?!

PS - Three ? makes .  I can't tell if it's a prevention method, so that we don't overload our question mark limit, or if we've all agreed that the symbol for three ? Is .

Riddles in the .

PPS - Sorry for drunkenly derailing the subject, Goose is doing a great job.  Funny ha-ha.

PPPS - I love the edit button.

[Goose]

Deal wit it.

[Dust]

Oh, I have!  I wasn't trying to be insulting, but sometimes I can't help myself.

[rynne]

It's really difficult for me to describe his style other than, say, High Weirdness.  But I think - knowing your tastes as I do - that you would "get" him.  I would say start with Scorch Atlas.

Sounds v. interesting. I will have to check him out.

I know you aren't too enamored with Nathan Ballingrud, but I got his novella(?) The Visible Filth for Christmas and liked it quite a bit. I think what I like about his stories are that the *weird* elements are less important than his protagonists' very human responses to them. In my mind, he's more similar to Caitlin R. Kiernan or Elizabeth Hand than, by contrast, someone like Laird Barron or Mark Samuels.

Which isn't to say I don't appreciate both styles for their own merits.