Books / Lit What you reading thread?

[Quagmire]

Always been curious about that. May need to add it to the list.

Really good, much more of a page turner than I expected. It scratches the itch that Pentiment left on me.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Outside of my usual comic book intake, I'm reading The Last Town by Blake Crouch, the last book of the Wayward Pines Trilogy.

I picked up the first book on a lark one day just because the description on the back reminded me of Twin Peaks (maybe my favorite media of all time) and I have found the series pretty enjoyable (obviously, or I wouldn't be on the last book). Turns out the author was a massive Twin Peaks fan and this was kind of his homage to it.

It's fast-paced easy to breeze through mystery/thriller fare with a heavy sci-fi bent. Great junk food reading, if that makes sense.

There's a TV adaptation of it, I learned. I watched a bit of it...its okay. As usual, books are better.

I've since heard good things about a couple of his other books so I'll probably head that way next.

 

[Quagmire]

Outside of my usual comic book intake, I'm reading The Last Town by Blake Crouch, the last book of the Wayward Pines Trilogy.

I picked up the first book on a lark one day just because the description on the back reminded me of Twin Peaks (maybe my favorite media of all time) and I have found the series pretty enjoyable (obviously, or I wouldn't be on the last book). Turns out the author was a massive Twin Peaks fan and this was kind of his homage to it.

It's fast-paced easy to breeze through mystery/thriller fare with a heavy sci-fi bent. Great junk food reading, if that makes sense.

There's a TV adaptation of it, I learned. I watched a bit of it...its okay. As usual, books are better.

I've since heard good things about a couple of his other books so I'll probably head that way next.

Add another book to my TBR

 

[Crazy Jamie]

Outside of my usual comic book intake, I'm reading The Last Town by Blake Crouch, the last book of the Wayward Pines Trilogy.

I picked up the first book on a lark one day just because the description on the back reminded me of Twin Peaks (maybe my favorite media of all time) and I have found the series pretty enjoyable (obviously, or I wouldn't be on the last book). Turns out the author was a massive Twin Peaks fan and this was kind of his homage to it.

It's fast-paced easy to breeze through mystery/thriller fare with a heavy sci-fi bent. Great junk food reading, if that makes sense.

There's a TV adaptation of it, I learned. I watched a bit of it...its okay. As usual, books are better.

I've since heard good things about a couple of his other books so I'll probably head that way next.

I read this trilogy a little while ago and completely agree with this.

Blake Crouch has probably become my favourite one shot sci fi author since then. I like John Marrs too, but he's a little more dystopia. Black Crouch is closer to present day sci-fi, but I still class it as sci-fi rather than dystopia for the most part.

There are three books by Blake Crouch that I'd recommend; Dark Matter (which is the source material for the Apple TV series of the same name), Upgrade and Recursion. I actually enjoyed Recursion the most even though Dark Matter is seen as his best. But they're all fast paced sci-fi thrillers. A little more sophisticated than the Wayward Pines trilogy, but they scratch the same itch.

For John Marrs, start with The One (which is a Netflix series) and basically just read the books from the same world in order (they're called the Dark Future series). The One is the best, but they're all dystopian thrillers based on an aspect of our society that isn't real but very well could be. The One is a new dating app, The Marriage Act is harsh new laws being passed around marriage, The Family Experiment is reality television and Passengers is self driving cars. Again, they all scratch that same itch. You can read them in any order, but if you read them in order there are little Easter Eggs that refer back to previous books, which is a nice touch.

 

[Quagmire]

Outside of my usual comic book intake, I'm reading The Last Town by Blake Crouch, the last book of the Wayward Pines Trilogy.

Just realized he also wrote Dark Matter which I loved!

 

[rktaker]

started reading the Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides definitely a slow burn and of course I’m already wrong on a couple of things lol so we’ll see where this goes

 

[Crazy Jamie]

So, I finished Failed State before I went on holiday. It's basically an examination of why the public sector/government in the UK is so shit. The author (Sam Freedman) is very good, but if you don't have an interest in British politics you won't know him, nor will you be interested in reading the book.

Always try to get some books read on holiday, and I went for the Radiant Emperor Duology by Shelly Parker-Chan. I've finished the first one, which is She Who Became The Sun, and am just over half way through He Who Drowned The World. It's basically Game of Thrones lite set in medieval China during the period when the Mongols ruled over half of it. I'm really enjoying it. When I say it's GoT lite that's not a criticism. It's much better written than GoT, and I think both the violence and sex is generally much better done (it's not nearly as graphically violent), but it's two books and 900 pages total so is necessarily not as complex. There is virtually nothing by way of a magic system, just some very basic supernatural ish elements and one magic ish element that could be just as easily attributed to religion and/or a lack of understanding of science. It's mostly more of a historical fantasy. Either way, I'd absolutely recommend it for anyone who reads any type of fantasy, but particularly the GoT and Joe Abercrombie type books that are more historical than magical.

 

[Quagmire]

DNFed half way through The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

This hurts, I had such high expectations. Even listening to Steven Pacey narrate couldnt save this. It is very shallow. Characters are very 1D, there are too many of them, too many jokes low effort jokes and the major plot moves so slow. Stuff happens, but it's a variation of the same thing every time. This is a popcorn book with none of the substance of his previous works. There is nothing wrong fun popcorn books, but the book is too long for that. This book needs to be cut and then it would be much more enjoyable.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

DNFed half way through The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

This hurts, I had such high expectations. Even listening to Steven Pacey narrate couldnt save this. It is very shallow. Characters are very 1D, there are too many of them, too many jokes low effort jokes and the major plot moves so slow. Stuff happens, but it's a variation of the same thing every time. This is a popcorn book with none of the substance of his previous works. There is nothing wrong fun popcorn books, but the book is too long for that. This book needs to be cut and then it would be much more enjoyable.

This is extremely disappointing. I haven't seen a single thing about it, but I hold Abercrombie in much higher regard than this.

So, I'm back off holiday. Already mentioned that I read the Radiant Emperor duology. I then went for two shorter books. First, Run by Blake Crouch. It's not very good. I finished it in three days so can't say that isn't a page turner on some level, but it's an end of the world thriller with a wafer thin premise and backstory that just jumps from one generic set piece to the next. I actually felt like I could write it, which is not a good thing. The rest of his books are very good and are worth reading. But this is not worth your time.

Then, Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. Obviously the book that the recent Mickey 17 film is based on. It's the shortest sci fi book I've ever read by a distance, which did give me some concern given that you normally need a certain amount of time for world building and detail in sci fi books. But I needn't have worried, because it's great. Quick moving, charming, funny and has more than enough sci fi intrigue to keep things going. It doesn't have the depth of even an average sci fi book and has one or two plot holes by the end, but I don't think you can realistically expect anything else in a 300 page sci fi book. Still, it's great and I'd recommend it if a shorter sci fi book feels like something you need at any point.

 

[Quagmire]

This is extremely disappointing. I haven't seen a single thing about it, but I hold Abercrombie in much higher regard than this.

Same, now a lot of people still loved it, it is highly rated and some Abercrombie fans like it, but I think in the more hard core circles maybe there are some mixed opinions on it. It's not bad, but it's bad for him and the length IMO

Then, Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. Obviously the book that the recent Mickey 17 film is based on. It's the shortest sci fi book I've ever read by a distance,

There are some great short sci fi books, thinking about Foundation, Childhood's End, or some of the Robot books off top of my mind

which did give me some concern given that you normally need a certain amount of time for world building and detail in sci fi books. But I needn't have worried, because it's great. Quick moving, charming, funny and has more than enough sci fi intrigue to keep things going. It doesn't have the depth of even an average sci fi book and has one or two plot holes by the end, but I don't think you can realistically expect anything else in a 300 page sci fi book. Still, it's great and I'd recommend it if a shorter sci fi book feels like something you need at any point.

I also liked it for what it was, I think I liked the movie more just because it overall is shorter than the book.

 

[Crazy Jamie]

There are some great short sci fi books, thinking about Foundation, Childhood's End, or some of the Robot books off top of my mind

Clearly I had a mind block because I have read Foundation and Childhood's End, and the latter in particular is superb. I was more thinking modern rather than classic sci fi. There are some very good shorter sci fi novels.

 

[Quagmire]

This is extremely disappointing. I haven't seen a single thing about it, but I hold Abercrombie in much higher regard than this.

If you do end up reading it check out this podcast episode on it (two parts)

They dissect it well, and some of them like it and some don't, so it's balanced listen

Episode 249: The Devils Part 1

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

pca.st

 

[Crazy Jamie]

Just finished two books in quick succession. The Last by Hannah Jameson is a book that I've had my eye on since it came out a few years ago. It's billed as an end of the world murder mystery set in a hotel. It's not quite what I thought it would be going in (I'd describe it just as a book set at the beginning of the end of the world that follows a group of survivors in a hotel), but I really enjoyed it. Decent characters, decent plot, kept the pages turning, ended pretty well with a moderate but not earth shattering twist. A solid 4/5 for me.

The other was Unlawful Killings by HHJ Wendy Joseph. Basically an account of a range of trials at the Old Bailey (famous criminal court in London dealing mostly with murders). The cases and the people/lawyers involved in them are not real, but all incorporate details and individuals from actual cases she's done. So it's fiction very much based in reality. And it's fantastic. Actual more tense than a lot of thrillers I've read, as the real world can sometimes be. She's also a phenomenal writer and throws in some balanced and wise observations of penal policy and criminal justice generally. Well worth a read.

 

[Spiner202]

This morning I finished Careless People. It's a book that came out this year from a former Facebook/Meta employee where she details a lot of the terrible things that happened in her tenure there. The book is extremely interesting, and I'd definitely recommend everyone give it a read. I knew many of the broad strokes of the things that Facebook was doing, but she goes into much more detail. There are some criticisms about the author's naivety/lack of ownership regarding the fact that she is culpable in these issues, and I agree with those criticisms, but that shouldn't preclude her from bringing them to light.

The more surprising thing about the book, to me at least, is the fact that there appear to be exact quotes, memos, or emails from her time there. I might have missed her commenting on this elsewhere in the book, but I don't understand how a significant portion of this book was legal. Presumably, she was under some kind of NDA regarding the internal workings of Facebook, but even if not, she wasn't an employee when it was written, so if she still had those emails, she probably broke policy by transferring them to a personal device. In any case, I wouldn't let that dissuade you from reading it, because even if some of the content is exaggerated, it's still a fascinating read.