Monster, Naoki Urasawa. A manga about a young Japanese brain surgeon working in Germany, and it does the jarring “foreign country through Japanese eyes but it’s really Japan underneath” thing, which is always odd. It never works properly, but I presume it functions 100% for the Japanese. Probably unusual for being a thriller without a lot of action at times, leaving you with just the characters for periods of time that could be unbearable if they fail to hold your interest. A brain surgeon doing odd medical jobs while in hiding and hunting a killer sounds crackers, quite frankly, and it is, especially with a young boy in tow, but the central mystery is interesting enough.
1 Like
One of his better works. I read it a couple of years ago, but currently rewatching the Anime version of it. As always chuckling at the Japanese trying to battle their way around German words but otherwise a decent anime.
But his masterpiece is still 20th Century Boys, one of the best if not the best Manga I’ve read in over 2,5 decades since I started that hobby.
…too bad they didn’t turn that into an anime as well (yea - that is coming from a “manga or book is always better” person, but in this case it may have garnered more interest and maybe more localized works which are always good…and in Urasawa’s case would be great (gimme a localized Master Keaton darnit…))
1 Like
Children of Time, Tchaikovsky. An epic scifi novel of terraforming, civilisations, and etc. The scope is vast, although the effect is rather neutered by no presented timeline, and in some ways it’s a terribly limited novel which allows only for snapshots of certain individuals at certain important points in the developments of their civilisations. There’s a neat narrative cheat in using the same name for different individuals (not without justification) of certain species over great spans of time; this is more effective at keeping you involved but it is a little bit cheeky. It’s concisely chaptered, and the succession of nibbles of story you get are good but never quite enough. It’s like scope and scale blinds people to the sacrifice of depth you make by necessity, otherwise the work will become a dense, sprawling horror.
I just finished Bad Blood, the book by John Carreyrou about the entire Theranos fiasco. I usually don’t read “business” books, but I have to admit I was fascinated by the entire thing and couldn’t put it down. Finished it in two nights.
Probably has something to do with my CLS background (I used to be a bench scientist (microbiology, chemistry, and hematology) before I got my engineering creds) and reading about shit they were pulling off in the laboratory was still fascinating to me, in a horrifying kind of way.
3 Likes
I’d argue that GRRM’s Dunk and Egg stories are his best in the Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones world. Takes place 100 years before the main books. They are novellas and the writing is tighter and he sticks to the point
2 Likes
I can’t even explain how much I read… more than playing games.
I recommend to everyone to read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This crowd probably already has. Then I’d recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Barring that …
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark.
1 Like
Some works are easy to sum up. The Gone World, by Tom Sweterlitsch, is not one of them. Mankind has discovered the Terminus via time travel, the end of anything we would call life, which is apparently growing closer in time to the present. This is merely background to a horrific set of murders and the resulting investigation, which is both limited and enabled by time travel. Properly headbending stuff.
1 Like
The Rise and Fall of the British Nation, David Edgerton. I’m a bit of a fan. Edgerton is a great one for taking popular narratives and fucking shredding them to pieces. The man’s never met a declinist narrative he hasn’t kicked in the balls, and it’s a delight to see him tackle a bigger subject (as if industrial production in WWII wasn’t big enough). Up there with the likes of Adam Tooze, Richard Overy, and Daniel Todman.
The Machine, James Smythe. What happens when you use a machine to wipe someone’s bad memories? Nothing good. What happens if you use that machine to restore those memories? You can probably guess. A fairly straightforward rehash of Frankenstein, and despite some good writing, it never moves beyond tribute band status.
Blood Standard, Laird Barron. Abandoning his usual extremely creepy horror for a noir crime tale, Barron takes some of the melodrama too far, and made me laugh at the wrong times as a result. Not a bad book, but not his best by a long way.
Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay. This is an awful little story of an unwilling ambush of a family at a holiday cottage, and it’s not an easy read for me, and I don’t have kids. Horror through and through.
The Grey Bastards, Jonathan French. It wouldn’t be wrong to call this Sons of Anarchy fan fiction, and I don’t mean that as an insult. It’s probably better than the immature mess SoA is, involving gangs of half-orcs ruling over a borderland, complete with roving bands of centaurs, elves, and good old fashioned cavalry. Not exactly brilliantly written, it still has a sharper plot than most, and it is enjoyable in a basic guts and manly men doing man stuff fashion.
Wolf Hall. I’ve no interest in the subject, but Mark Rylance was reason enough to watch the TV show, and it’s been long enough since I watched it that it was mostly new to me again. A few too many characters, many with the same names, for optimal comprehension, but I knew that going in. What I liked about it (other than the opportunity to hear Cromwell’s voice in Rylancian tones in my head) was mostly the small moments that give these historical figures character. Looking at presumably somewhat spotty history and telling a plausible story about the unreported experiences and character traits which might have shaped and explained those recorded acts seems to me a fairly interesting piece of human guesswork. So I guess I’d describe it as the best book I’ve read which I wouldn’t really recommend.
1 Like
Has anyone read any of the posthumous “Tom Clancy” novels? Clancy was a master but I’m a little wary of people writing under his name.
No, but now I wanna use the pen name Cam Tloncy to write Bread Storm Rising.
3 Likes
TLAM Clancy.
2 Likes
The Wanted, Crais. Wisecracking PI takes case, solves case. Formulaic, entertaining, zero surprises.
The People in the Trees, Yanagihara. Scientist who discovers a secret to longevity ends up in prison for rape, writes memoirs. The opposite.
The traditional view of Britain’s 20th century history goes a little something like this: Unlike Europe, Britain had a relatively stable 20th century, never invaded, few major constitutional upheavals, no waves of nationalism, reluctantly militaristic (unlike the Hun). Despite all this Britain suffered a steady economic decline until the 1980s came and Britain painfully began to get its house in order. Never European and always slightly apart from developments on the continent, even Britain’s welfare state developed differently, waiting for the 1940s to be established unlike the Bismarkian model of the continent. Always a global power, but also one which stood alone against totalitarianism in 1940. Of course, all of this is false.
I’m in the middle (about 1/3 through) of Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson because it had been recommended to me as a truly scary book. I’m halfway in and nothing’s happened yet, but I’m still intrigued because Eleanor Vance and her seeming complete lack of self-esteem is written very well.
Considering this was written nearly 60 years ago and is considered a “classic” of the horror genre, I’m assuming many of you have read this at one point or another. Was my referring friend selling me a false bill of goods or does the book manage to, eventually, sell some scares?
I’ll probably finish it either way, but I’m just curious.
1 Like
To piggyback on that question, are there any books that are genuinely scary? I’m not an avid horror reader, but I have yet to find one. Joe Hill’s “Heart Shaped Box” underwhelmed and Peter Straub’s “Ghost Story” didn’t scare me much. I know horror/fear are subjective, but I’d love a book that could make me not want to put it down and turn off the lights.
Just read Fellside, by the same author as The Girl With All the Gifts. I liked it conditionally, and I’m not sure I’ll ever know whether the condition is satisfied. The trouble is, it’s largely about interactions within a women’s prison, and I’ve no idea how plausible they are. Seems like a fabulously ambitious topic for a dude, but I don’t have a sense for whether he pulled it off or just put the pieces together well enough that I, in my profound ignorance, don’t know the difference.
It’s a deserved classic. It doesn’t actually do very much, compared to modern horror. Quite understated. There are no scenes of ghosts exploding out of the walls or anything. I got a lot of creeping dread out of it.
@Mirefox Try Dan Simmons, Carrion Comfort.
1 Like
I prefer creeping dread to exploding ghosts, so that’s good to hear.
Will try Dan Simmons as well.
1 Like