What are you currently reading?

[JKL2000]

I’ve started reading small-press original horror, which seems to be a mixed bag (the book I just started doesn’t seem so great), but the one I just finished, “The Exorcist’s House,” by Nick Roberts, was a lot of fun. Not great writing, but good enough, and somewhat over-the-top but in a good way.

These small presses seem a bit too Kindle-centric, IMO, but I guess they’re giving their audience what they want, and most of the books do seem to get paperback releases too. I think, though, that standards can be a little low when most of the money is made from people who only spend a few dollars for an ebook.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Now up: Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. The story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos (up to the time the book was sent to press, I suppose. It's a 2018 book).

[markwoll]

Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer by Philip Watson
Pretty good read so far. Insights into Frisell's early years. Very cool in that as I am not a musician and the process and work is foreign to me.
The book is divided into his early years and career and then is a series of interviews with other musicians about Frisell's albums.
A different narrative form for me. So far so good.

Also picked up How Music Works by David Byrne. That should be a little interesting when I get into it.

[rapidfirerob]

When It Was Our War: A Soldier’s Wife On The Home Front- Stella Suberman


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JKL2000]

Just finished "The Cabin at the End of the World" by someone Tremblay. A very intriguing "home invasion" horror/suspense novel that eventually got a bit bogged-down by the writer's "preciousness" (changing POV constantly, dwelling on the same events ad nauseum, etc.) and raised more questions than it provided answers, but it was still worth reading and pretty interesting. I'd be surprised if this isn't or wasn't already made into a movie.

[interbellum]

Started reading John Harris' The Dark Side Of The Moon : The Making Of The Pink Floyd Masterpiece (edition 2006).
Of course the author starts with the birth of the Pink Floyd Sound and the story of Syd Barrett; when you're read more books on PF and/or Syd you know that makes the picture complete.

[Lopez]

Just finished "The Cabin at the End of the World" by someone Tremblay. A very intriguing "home invasion" horror/suspense novel that eventually got a bit bogged-down by the writer's "preciousness" (changing POV constantly, dwelling on the same events ad nauseum, etc.) and raised more questions than it provided answers, but it was still worth reading and pretty interesting. I'd be surprised if this isn't or wasn't already made into a movie.

Hi Jed,
The author is Paul Tremblay. I've not read this one, but I have heard it's good.

Looks like you had the same thoughts about "The Cabin at the End of the World" as I had about one of his other books, "A Head Full of Ghosts." It is a novel about a girl being possessed. I found it rather confusing and I lost the train of it after a while. I kept saying, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, where'd that come from?" I really should give him one more try, and it'll be the one you read.

[Lopez]

Joe Lansdale's second collection of Hap and Leonard stories, Born for Trouble. So far, I've read the two longest stories in the set. Kind of same old, same old, but I love Hap and Leonard and Joe's comparisons, for example, "The way she walked in that dress looked like two dogs fighting under a sheet."

[per anporth]

Maror by Lavie Tidhar.

Stylistically, it evokes American Tabloid era Ellroy, but set in Tel Aviv.

[Rarebird]

Now up: Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. The story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos (up to the time the book was sent to press, I suppose. It's a 2018 book).

Read the Dutch translation of that and wrote a review. Fascinating book, to say the least.

[BobM]

Tried to read the Malazon Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson ... because so many people say it's the best fantasy series they have read. But I'm in chapter 3 of the first book and hate the writing style, have no idea who and what is going on and just plain don't want to waste any more time on it. I know, I know, it gets better, but I feel like I'm just plowing through and daydraming as I read, not paying attention, not caring who is talking and unless I'm about to take notes on a legal pad, the story line is meaningless.

What say you, fellow readers?

[Jerjo]

Tried to read the Malazon Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson ... because so many people say it's the best fantasy series they have read. But I'm in chapter 3 of the first book and hate the writing style, have no idea who and what is going on and just plain don't want to waste any more time on it. I know, I know, it gets better, but I feel like I'm just plowing through and daydraming as I read, not paying attention, not caring who is talking and unless I'm about to take notes on a legal pad, the story line is meaningless.

What say you, fellow readers?

The first book is a total mess. You're dropped in media res, the middle of the narrative, and nothing makes sense. The time line in this series gets convoluted and in many cases there was no straightening it out. I read the whole series and while I loved some of it, there were some things that drove me insane. Gardens of the Moon doesn't really get cooking until the middle of the book, which doesn't help. Erikson's books usually have several plot lines going and "generally" there's a big confluence/conflagration at the end that is often quite satisfying. Book two takes place on an entirely different continent with different characters. The third book is a favorite of many and that returns to the continent that Gardens of the Moon is on. Erikson kinda lost his punch after book 5 but if you are stout of heart, books 9 and 10 stick the landing. But man, it's a long journey and it can be irritating.

[hippypants]

Re: Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer by Philip Watson, sounds interesting. I've been listening to his first ECM album, In Line, and it's really wonderful.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Tried to read the Malazon Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson ... because so many people say it's the best fantasy series they have read. But I'm in chapter 3 of the first book and hate the writing style, have no idea who and what is going on and just plain don't want to waste any more time on it. I know, I know, it gets better, but I feel like I'm just plowing through and daydraming as I read, not paying attention, not caring who is talking and unless I'm about to take notes on a legal pad, the story line is meaningless.

What say you, fellow readers?

I would not call it "the best fantasy series," by a long shot, but it is (to my mind) everything Martin's ASoFaI should have been (including finished!).

Things I liked about, some of which seem to bother you:
- Being thrown into the situation with no explanation, just figure it out as you go along. I hate being spoon-fed.
- The huge cast of characters, all of whom have a reason for being there.
- The depth of "lore," which I can only compare to Tolkien's deep history of Middle-earth (or Martin's).
- The unpredictability of the plot. Things happen that are so unexpected and upfucked that I had to stop and breathe when I first read them.
- The style. It's plain and utilitarian, but it never gets in the way of the story.
- The scale. We're talking, here, about a story that takes place across multiple continents and centuries.
- The way the stories don't come in chronological order. (Some entire books are, effectively, flashbacks.)

It rewards patience. But if it isn't for you, it isn't. Disgustibus non deputandem.

[JKL2000]

^ What do you consider the best fantasy series? (Just curious is all!)

[SteveSly]

Now up: Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. The story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos (up to the time the book was sent to press, I suppose. It's a 2018 book).

I read that a while back and it is a very interesting book. I am convinced that Holmes has some serious mental issues. The fact that she thought she could get away with what she tried to do boggles the mind.

[Jerjo]

^ What do you consider the best fantasy series? (Just curious is all!)

About two-thirds down this page, I posted two lists of supposedly the best fantasy and science fiction books. And the debate began, but without the garment-rending drama of any Yes thread.

https://www.progressiveears.org/foru...dations/page13

Tolkien was the gateway drug for most of us duffers. That series is kind of the elephant in the room, though by the 90s the genre got considerably stranger and darker.

[Rarebird]

^ What do you consider the best fantasy series? (Just curious is all!)

After Lord of the rings, I found a lot of fantasy a bit to much of an imitation. I liked the works of Maryson (don't know if they are translated in English) and the Discworld series.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

^ What do you consider the best fantasy series? (Just curious is all!)

I would not for a thousand dollars (a million maybe) name a "best" fantasy series. I don't believe in rating and ranking art of any sort.

To me, a book falls into one of several categories: this is magnificent, this is really good, this is good, this is okay, this is meh, this is lousy, this is really bad, and oops, I dented the wall again. Beyond that sort-of ranking, I cannot go.

Is The Lord of the Rings "better" than, say, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series? How could I say yes or no? They are both masterpieces, but their visions, their characters, and their writing style are so different not only in form but in intent that it would be meaningless (to me) to say that.

So. A few series that I think are magnificent.

Beside the already-mentioned LotR and ]Earthsea, I would name:

Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, or at least the first two books (I have not read the restored version of the third; it may be much better than the originally-published version).

N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy.

T.H. White's The Once and Future King (source material for both Camelot and Disney's Sword in the Stone, but much better than either of those).

E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros and his Zimiamvian trilogy.

Tim Powers's "Fault Lines" trilogy.

Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" graphic novel series.

James Branch Cabell's "Biography of the Life of Manuel," an eighteen-book series covering centuries and moving from Europe to America, which is tremendously funny in places and tragic in others. It was writtin in the 1910s and 20s, so the style is a bit dated; but one of the book (Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice) won an obscenity case that probably cleared the way for Ulysses to win its case a few years later.

Finally, I'm going to throw in Gene Wolfe's Solar cycle, which may be science fiction masquarding as fantasy masqurading as science fiction, or else the other way around.

(You'll notice that I did not include Erikson in there. I think he's very good, and if I ever get around to rereading that massive series I may decide it's great, but I haven't so far.)

There are also a metric shit-ton of individual fantasy novels that I might include, but this post is too long already.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

After Lord of the rings, I found a lot of fantasy a bit to much of an imitation. I liked the works of Maryson (don't know if they are translated in English) and the Discworld series.

You are so right, starting in 1977 with The Sword of Shanarra, there has been a lot of what I call GEFP -- Generic Extruded Fantasy Product. Please don't get me started about that.

You are also right about the late Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It starts off as a mediocre-to-pretty-good parody of sword'n'sorcery stories, but grows out of that by around the third (Equal Rites) or fourth (Mort) book it becomes something wonderful of its own. I should have included it in the list above, but I didn't think of it...

[BobM]

Best Fantasy series ... OK, I'll bite. I will try and list things that are unlike each other but still fantasy, to my mind. They won't all be sword and dagger stuff or quests either. No particular order.

The Hobbit/Lord Of The Rings - yeah, we all cut our teeth on this, so it holds a special place.
Game of Thrones - just masterful, now if it could only be finished.
The Name of The Wind - a very different take on a fantasy land, exceptional writing, but also unfinished
Dune - at least the first 2 books are so damn different. Sci-fi meets fantasy in the future
Harry Potter - yeah, kids books, but they are all gems of stories, with wizard magic
The Jhereg series - by Steven Brust. Often forgotten in fantasy lists, these short novels are so much damn fun, written from a thiefs perspective
Gentlemen Bastard series - just brutal, from he thief's perspective
The Chronicles of Amber - Zelazny is a master at worldbuilding, very surprising magic stuff
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - such an ambitious plotline
The Dresden files - wizard detective iN chicago. funny, engrossing, most get the next book soon

Thats it for now. Plenty of others but these immeduiately come to mind.

[interbellum]

One of the few fantasy series I read after The Hobbit/Lord Of The Rings was Christopher Paolini's Inheritence (the first book was made into the movie Eragon).

I read the first three Maryson-books, but found it too Tolkien-like. Nice though that Wim Stolk (=Maryson) also made some fine albums based on the books.
One title was translated in English: The Towers of Romander

Not translated is the series Kroniek Van Oderan from Peter Swart, a musician who also released one album based on the series: https://www.peterswart.nl/

Finally I have the first two books in the series Arabat by Clive Barker - the third one wasn't translated, while the fourth and fifth book aren't published yet so it seems.

[JKL2000]

Thanks for the answers so far! Sorry to pose my question in such a crude manner. “Best” is such an overrated word!

No mentions of Moorcock or Burroughs yet! I never had the endurance to read most series’ of longer novels, but I devoured several of their series’ of shorter books, especially Moorcock’s Elric, Corum, etc. Now those are some I could reread! They’re also great for turning on new readers - better for that purpose than Harry Potter, IMHO. The magnificent cover art helps, too!

[BobM]

OK - best single book reads ... hmmm. There may be follow-ups but you won;t need to read them because these books stand completely by themselves.

Interview With a Vampire - Ann Rice - not your typical vampire book
Jonothan Strange and Mr Norrell - a big book, but worth the read
The Magicians - kids in college playing with magic
ANYTHING by Guy Gavriel Kay - a master world builder, my favorite was Tigana
American Gods - gods of the past trying to stay alive in the present
The Stand - maybe you aren't a Steven King fan (I'm not) but this book is different and not his usual crap

[spellbound]

Joe Lansdale's second collection of Hap and Leonard stories, Born for Trouble. So far, I've read the two longest stories in the set. Kind of same old, same old, but I love Hap and Leonard and Joe's comparisons, for example, "The way she walked in that dress looked like two dogs fighting under a sheet."

Is that a collection of already-released novels, or does it contain new Hap & Leonard stories? I ask, because I have read all the novels.