Current reading - Page 71

3/4's of the way through LAMB, and Im burning through it. Mindblowingly good so far.


Beat The Reaper up next.

Lamb is awesome. I've never checked out any of Moore's books. Which ones should I get next?

None of them. Lamb sets up unrealistic expectations. Though others will disagree.

I'm not really expecting something as great, but I heard he writes good stuff. A Dirty Job sounds good.

I just finished the book, and I liked it alot I have to say. I'm kind of shocked that I did find it to be pretty damn creepy. With Vampires being the stuff of pulpy t.v shows like True Blood (which I like actually) and shit like Twilight, I think it's safe to say they may have lost some of their ....bite! Get it??

....


But you get my meaning, I guess I'm not used to Vampires actually being scary, but this book was pretty damn spooky. It's impressive when you think about that the word Vampire isn't even mentioned for quite a while. It starts fairly slowly and builds the tension very deliberately.

Spoilers below-

I was surprised how fucking dark it was too, I think I was expecting some kind of happy ending, at least until Susan Norton was turned, really surprised King killed her off. All of the King books I've read seem to shy away from that kind of darkness, although I was planning on reading Pet Sematary and I've heard it doesn't have a happy ending.


Also, I checked out wikipedia for info on the expanded edition. Just from looking at the list of changes, I'm glad Dr. Cody was not eaten alive by rats, that seems a little bit excessive, to say the least. But maybe I'll check it out.

A Dirty Job is the closest he gets to genius after Lamb. Coyote Blue and Blood-Sucking Fiends are also very good.

King rarely has an outright "happy" ending in his novels. The Talisman is the only one that comes to mind immediately.

Spoilers-

Happy wasn't the right word, I was just surprised that he killed off the female love interest, and relatively early in the book at that.

S P O I L E R S ...

In my opinion, one of the things that makes "Salem's Lot" so fascinating is that it's such a simple concept. King simply takes "Dracula" and inverts it. Whereas "Dracula" is very Victorian in that it's about the scientific method overcoming the supernatural and irrational, "Salem's Lot" pushes that concept to its extreme. In Jerusalem's Lot, science has become so prevalent that our heroes are incapable of recognizing the supernatural and irrational until it has overwhelmed the town. So simple, so awesome.

As for "Pet Sematary", I did a re-read last summer. I think it is King's best attempt at establishing dread early and ongoing. Even as things seem fine for the Creed family, you feel that the poison is seaping in.

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
Another modern lit book that owes a lot to sci-fi and comic books. I'm really enjoying this trend.

Nice. I really liked "Then We Came To The End", so I'll definitely check this one out.

Pet Sematary has some great moments of building dread. The walk through the woods with the giant wendigo being spotted still gives me chills

PS IMHO Jerusalem's Lot > Salem's Lot, by a factor of 10.

PPS: After I finish UNDER THE DOME I plan on reading either BLOOD'S A ROVER or rereading THE SEARCH FOR DELICIOUS.

Hey, I know that guy. He's a buddy of mine's brother.



I'm about to begin Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. Was a gift.

Bloodsucking Fiends ain't bad at all. But you must avoid the sequels, for they are bowel rot.

Timequake is pretty good. Not one of his best of course, but still a good read.

It's also (and I'm sure that people have pointed this out), an awesome look at how insular and downright evil small towns can be. It's a kick that King is often on, but the way things play out in 'Salems Lot still frightens me, especially those little sections about the town itself where we see glimpses of people's lives.

But everyone in this thread is right, it's a book that doesn't get near enough love, and one of the only books that has actively freaked me out. The scene where one of the boys goes missing and the chapter ends with, "what followed was unspeakable" is so god damn good precisely because it's so simple. If any other author wrote that line, it'd brush it off as lazy, but somehow, in context, it works like god damn gangbusters.

Also, make sure you get your hands on the short story, I think it's called "Jerusalem's Lot". There's some Lovecraftian shit going down in there that, when taken in conjuction with the novel, really plays up the idea that the whole place is, and always has been, fucked; just waiting for the final element to finish it off.

There's also another short story, and the name is escaping me now, about a car that breaks down outside of 'Salems Lot, set after the events of the novel, that ties the whole thing up nicely.

Not to have this go on for too long, but King has another excellent, and genuinely scary novel, Pet Semetary. As Kate has noted, the Wendigo scene is fantastic and literally gave me nightmares; the whole novel is so dark and terrible that it's a work of art - precisely because it plays up so many of our shared fears and anxieties.

Damn it, now I want to reread both of these books. But in the meantime, I'm enjoying One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash, and Road Dogs by Leonard.

That's a good rule for Moore. If he returns to a world or story, they're generally shit. I dread him ever doing a sequel to Lamb.

"One For The Road". It's also in Night Shift.

S P O I L E R S


Bendrix had the more elegant answer, I think. I'll simply add two things: she DID age. She was 13 when she returned to Fillory for the second time and Quentin describes her as being older than himself. Additionally, she did have the time travel pocket watch, so it's possible that Quentin wasn't meeting her sequentially along her own timeline (where she would be, like, 100 years old), but a younger time-jumping version of herself.

MORE SPOILERS FOR THE MAGICIANS

Wait--was Martin's sister the Watcher Woman? Don't remember WW being 13. It's only been since fall, but it already feels like forever since I read it.

S P O I L E R S




The Watcher Woman isn't 13. She's an aged Jane Chatwin (again, older than Quentin). The "Fillory and Further" books make it appear that Jane, as the youngest Chatwin, only visited Fillory once. In reality, as Quentin discovers, she returned to Fillory when she turned 13 in order to search for Martin. The dwarfs made her a time machine that she then spent decades using to try and destroy the Beast.

Thank you. Completely forgot that part of it.

Based off the recommendations in this thread, today I picked up Beat the Reaper and The Mystic Arts of Erasing all Signs of Death, and I have to say, I am really, really excited for both of these. Now, to finish Road Dogs!

Just started the TH White classic The Once and Future King, and it is the first book I've read about King Arthur. First impression is that I'm really surprised how loyal the Disney Sword in the Stone is to this book. It's even got a wacky talking owl sidekick named Archimedes.

Yeah, I think White more than anyone codified the way we think of King Arthur (and Merlin) today. You'll notice that Camelot draws heavily from him as well.

Took a small break from UNDER THE DOME but I plan to resume reading it tonight. I have only three discs left!

Currently reading "The Late Shift" by Bill Carter, getting ready for the sequel in September.

Trying to finish Savage Detectives. It's coming along easier than it did when I first started!

EDIT: I am a retard. I meant 2666.

Keeper of the Light and Dust by Natasha Mostert. It's a fictional story about the London underground world of martial arts fighting, with slight supernatural undertones. So far at least.
I'm enjoying it.

Also I downloaded The City and the City by China Mieville from the library, and I have three weeks to read that.

Finally wrapped up In Search of the Third Man today, and now I'm going to start Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.

You should also check out "Desperate Networks," which functions as half a sequel to Late Shift, because it goes into the first stage of the Leno-Conan war (negotiating for him to leave in 2004) and also describes how NBC fell flat on its face, mostly due to the efforts of Jeff Zucker, the very definition of failing upwards.

I got the Pixarpedia checked out from the library.

I love Desperate Networks. The stuff about Marc Cherry and Desperate Housewives is great.

Finally got around to reading John Connolly's 'The Lovers', mainly so I can go straight into his new one, 'The Whisperers'. Forgot how good a writer he is - no reliance on twists, or gimmicky plotting, just good, old-fashioned storytelling.

Not my reading but a weird and funny story. I've been trying to get my mother into reading forever. And what finally did it? Lee Child's Reacher novels. She can't stop reading them. Any similar suggestions? It's not really my area of expertise and I'd really like to keep a momentum going.

I'm a fan of the Reacher novels. Not great literature, but tough as hell and Child knows how to stage a good violent setpiece.

Your mum will probably like Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels. Pitt's not a loner like Reacher but he has a similar sense of justice.

And I know far too much about this stuff for my own good.

If all else fails, tie her up and force her to read KILLING ROMMEL.

Pressfield is one of my favorites so he was among my first attempts. Sadly it didn't work. I'm gonna try some Cussler.

And don't get my wrong. I'm not trying to disparage Reacher. These books are tons of fun and I love how Child has finally made Reacher into some Kwai Chang Kaine/ Man With No Name hybrid, just walking the earth getting into people's business and breaking bones.

He really got into some people's business with GONE TOMORROW. One of his best. If only this season of 24 had used New York as well as it.

Having finished a re-read of "The Prestige" and a first read of "The Magicians", it's high time for some non-fiction reading. Thus, I'm about 200 pages into Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln". So far, so fascinating.

Just started Brimstone by Preston and Child. I like it so far, but I keep hearing this book is where the Pendergast series goes off the rails. Hope not.

I'm slowly working my way through Kael's "I Lost It At The Movies".

Up next, debating whether to go on a Stephen Hunter or Walter Mosley kick. Been a while on both.

Don Winslow.

Michael Crow - the first 2 Luther Ewing novels, pass on the third.

She might also like the Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connolly.

Finished up UTD and I'm moving on to THE SEARCH FOR DELICIOUS

I've been reading Brad Thor's series with Scot Havarth after seeing the blurb that the books were like 24 in print. Yes. Yes, they are.

But twice as dumb and ten times more racist.

Yes. Yes, it is.

Actually, I may not be far enough into tbe series to see the racism. The baddies in the first book are an elite, secret team of Swiss mercs and a bunch of white American co-conspirators. The second book had a militant Muslim woman as the villain who was far more educated and sophisticated than anyone else in the book. Just started book three and it's the old Soviets running amock.

Vince Flynn, whose success basically let Thor have an audience, is actually worse and much scarier in his politics. Fuck, early Tom Clancy is better than both.

Read Barry Eisler instead. All the thrills, actually a good writer, none of the racism.

Just finished Pet Sematary recently, I have mixed feelings...

Spoilers below


The book was absolutely creepy, no doubt about that. I totally agree with what was said on the previous page about the building dread, and how even in the beginning of the book things never felt right for the Creed family. Even when things were going fine for them, I seemed to always have a pit in my stomach. It established a kind of a subdued sense of dread pretty much from the start, so no complaints there.

What I didn't like at all was how it basically turned from a story on grief and loss, into a story about an invisible, magical Indian force that somehow has the power to cause people to miss planes and stall new cars.

I was really digging it until about 3/4 of the way through, when King stopped hinting that some kind of weird power was responsible for these happenings and just started flat out saying it, and saying it about every other page at that. I'm sure people will disagree, but for me it kind of cheapens the whole story if Louis is not in control, (or as much control as someone could be who just lost a child) when he is contemplating what to do with Gage, and ultimately makes his decision. It was no longer a story of how far grief could take a person, and turned into a story about some near omnipotent spooky.. whatever it was, force or entity or thing. I didn't like the idea of something possessing or even just influencing Louis's decision making process, because it just kind of takes away from the act when he finally does dig up his son.


Other thoughts;

This book is really fucking bleak, and I appreciate the balls of the ending

Jud Crandall really manages to do pretty much everything wrong, and every time he was in the story, I couldn't stop thinking about the South Park spoof, "You Don't wanna go down thaat Road.."


Actually, now that I mention it though, I don't think he actually says that line in the book.