What are you reading

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

I've really been taken by Christopher Buehlman's work. I'm not an avid reader, but when I find something I like, I kind of focus on that one author and work through their catalog. Since last year I've been delving into Buehlman's work which is an eclectic mix of historical fiction, horror, sometimes fantasy, and always an element of supernatural.

Between Two Fires was my first book and it takes place in France during the 14th-century plague. The tale of a disgraced knight who happens across a little girl and decides to protect and guide her through a harrowing journey. Demons from hell have found an absence in God and disruption among the angel's so they decide to wreak havoc on man. There are some very vivid and horrific scenes that unfold, especially when they arrive from the French countryside into the city of Paris.

I think my favorite book so far was his take on fantasy with The Blacktongue Thief. I'm not often one for fantasy novels, but this was so easy to read and a world well developed without the usual overwhelming and tedious world-building. The main character, a thief with some magical abilities, ends up on the wrong end of a battle with a warrior/knight and they team up on a quest. There is an excellent chapter in which they seek the assistance from a witch known as "Dead Legs" in her upside-down castle and the use of magic throughout the book is really fun.

All of the books have been entertaining so far and I really like the author's writing style. I just hope we get some sequels to these titles in the near future! I think there is a prequel already in the works for Blacktongue Thief.

Read:
Between Two Fires
Those Across The River
The Blacktongue Thief
The Necromancer's House

Up Next:
The Lesser Dead
The Suicide Motor Club

[cr]

Just read Audrey Szasz - Destroy Everything You Touch. - Short but really good!
"Tears Of A Komsomol Girl" is next, looking forward to it.

[Balor/SS1535]

Just read Audrey Szasz - Destroy Everything You Touch. - Short but really good!
"Tears Of A Komsomol Girl" is next, looking forward to it.

I really wanted to order Destroy Everything You Touch, but it is some steep shipping for such a small book!

[BlackCavendish]

Magic: A History: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present by Chris Gosden
An interesting (a bit academic sometimes) account, from an anthopological and archeological point of view, of the history of magic (often compared to science and religion).

The Shadow of the Gloomy East: A Moral History of the Russian People by Ferdinand Ossendowski
Tales, legends and myths from early 20th century Russia, before the rise of the communist regime.

Hyperion saga by Dan Simmons
A classic of modern sci-fi. I've gone through the first book which some sort of Canterbury Tales in space (every characater tells his story).

[Atrophist]

Hyperion saga by Dan Simmons
A classic of modern sci-fi. I've gone through the first book which some sort of Canterbury Tales in space (every characater tells his story).

Takes a major nosedive after the second book. First one is a classic, second one okay, the 3rd and 4th ones forgettable. Simmons can be a very frustrating author that way — he has more ideas than ability to carey them out.

[BlackCavendish]

Hyperion saga by Dan Simmons
A classic of modern sci-fi. I've gone through the first book which some sort of Canterbury Tales in space (every characater tells his story).

Takes a major nosedive after the second book. First one is a classic, second one okay, the 3rd and 4th ones forgettable. Simmons can be a very frustrating author that way — he has more ideas than ability to carey them out.

Yeah, already got this feedback from a friend. Halfway through the second book and it seems that sometimes he just likes the idea of writing for the sake of writing.
Declining quality is a recurring "problem" in all modern fantasy/sci-fi sagas (Frank Herbert's Dune could be a valid example).

[absurdexposition]

Hyperion saga by Dan Simmons
A classic of modern sci-fi. I've gone through the first book which some sort of Canterbury Tales in space (every characater tells his story).

Takes a major nosedive after the second book. First one is a classic, second one okay, the 3rd and 4th ones forgettable. Simmons can be a very frustrating author that way — he has more ideas than ability to carey them out.

Yeah, already got this feedback from a friend. Halfway through the second book and it seems that sometimes he just like the idea of writing for the sake of writing.
Declining quality is a recurring "problem" in all modern fantasy/sci-fi sagas (Frank Herbert's Dune could be a valid example).

Asimov's Foundation completely dries up halfway through the second book as well.

[mag-maa]

Gary Allen: None Dare Call It Conspiracy

slowly reading this, it´s in pdf, and have to read from phone screen

[Atrophist]

Yeah, already got this feedback from a friend. Halfway through the second book and it seems that sometimes he just likes the idea of writing for the sake of writing.
Declining quality is a recurring "problem" in all modern fantasy/sci-fi sagas (Frank Herbert's Dune could be a valid example).

Are you familiar with the Welsh author Alastair Reynolds and his Inhibitor Trilogy?

https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Inhibitor_trilogy

Dark Gothic Space opera, not hard scifi by any means, but Reynolds being an astronomer means he can insert some scientific cred into the proceedings. Each novel is better than the previous one, imo.

Reynolds is a very prolific author and in recent years the quality of his output has began to wobble a little. Up until The House for Suns (2008) everything he wrote was great. After that, by all means proceed but with caution.

[Into_The_Void]

Mishima "Thirst for Love" great portrait of the Japanese post-war society painted around the weird feelings of the main character Etsuko. Beautiful and elegant as all the Mishima books I read, just quite difficult in some parts for me as I'm not reading it in my native language.

[BlackCavendish]

Are you familiar with the Welsh author Alastair Reynolds and his Inhibitor Trilogy?

https://revelationspace.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Inhibitor_trilogy

Dark Gothic Space opera, not hard scifi by any means, but Reynolds being an astronomer means he can insert some scientific cred into the proceedings. Each novel is better than the previous one, imo.

Reynolds is a very prolific author and in recent years the quality of his output has began to wobble a little. Up until The House for Suns (2008) everything he wrote was great. After that, by all means proceed but with caution.

Never head of him but I see now his first 3 books have been pubished in italian. Gotta look for them, thanks for the tip.
I'm not a nerd science, so no big deal if the book lacks scientific details. For example I like Jack Vance just because he is good at telling stories.
On the other side I have very fond memories of Hal Clement's "Mission of Gravity" which instead was classic hard sci-fi.

[Atrophist]

On the other side I have very fond memories of Hal Clement's "Mission of Gravity" which instead was classic hard sci-fi.

Hmmm I found that this is available at my local library system, put a hold on it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Blindsight by Peter Watts is probably the best science fiction novel published this millennium. There's been quite a bit of debate whether it constitutes hard sci-fi or not. But it does explore more ideas in one book than most authors would in an entire multibook series, such as virtual reality and transhumanism, the nature of consciousness, exobiology, and .... erm, vampires. No, really. I'd recommend it to anyone in our milieu.

"I brought her flowers one dusky Tuesday evening when the light was perfect. I pointed out the irony of that romantic old tradition— the severed genitalia of another species, offered as a precopulatory bribe—and then I recited my story just as we were about to fuck.

To this day, I still don't know what went wrong."
― Peter Watts, Blindsight

[BlackCavendish]

Hmmm I found that this is available at my local library system, put a hold on it. Thanks for the suggestion!

According to wiki: The story is "noteworthy not only as an impressive piece of planet-building, but as the first SF novel built on actual observational data involving another possible solar system", making it an early and often-praised example of macrocosmic worldbuilding hard science fiction.

Been years since I read it but I remember it had that classic "sense of wonder" tipical of the sci-fi novels of the '50s/'60s

transhumanism

This is a topic i'm very interested in. Recently I stumbled across some russian sci-fi authors (recently reprinted in italian), especially Aleksandr Bogdanov, and through him I started looking into the Russian Cosmism that partially deals with the above mentioned topic (from the perspective of an early 20th century scientist)... Received today this one:

The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers by George M. Young

Sounds promising.

[Atrophist]

I enjoy rock biographies, even if the bands in question aren't even my cup of tea.

Recently I leafed through Good Pop, Bad Pop, by Jarvis Cocker. Not really a biography as such, it's just him emptying out an old closet full of junk and telling a pretty inane story about each item. The whole concept in pretty contrived and to be honest the guy's writing isn't that interesting. I doubt that I'll finish it. If I was a huge Pulp fan I'd probably feel different.

Next is Hit So Hard, by Patty Schemel, the former drummer of Hole. Another band I don't really have much time for. But hopefully there'll be some juicy gossip about Courtney Love and generally some heroin-fueled grunge stupidity/misery.

[Commander15]

Two at the moment:

Meinander, Henrik - Suomi 1944
Ortega Y Gasset, Jose - The Revolt of the Masses

Meinander's book offers an pretty fantastic overall view to the year 1944 in Finland. Meinander handles many different aspects of this significant war year in Finland, like mental state of the nation, culture, homefront, foreign and domestic policies etc. One could view this book as an companion piece to the classic wartime diary Synkkä Yksinpuhelu, written by Olavi Paavolainen .