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PhilosophicalFrog
The Hypercube

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 12:40 pm 
 

Ah! Dragon's Egg was so much fun it was ridiculous. What an awesome book.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:06 pm 
 

Azmodes wrote:
Yeah, fsm is correct. If you've read the first one there's much better stuff out there to read instead of finishing the series. The next two books aren't that good either. Hyperion works perfectly well on its own too.

Honestly I think the one of the main problems was the change in format. When they were telling each other stories in the first book, each had its own distinct style, tone, etc., and rather than switching back and forth between each story every chapter, the stories were told in full one after the other. This was one of its main strengths, and one of the main things that set it apart from its peers. Rather than the same plot being told from multiple POVs as with a typical novel, each story was almost a standalone, only converging with the others right at the end. Then the second book gave up that uniqueness by changing to a normal format for multiple POVs, rotating between the cast as the plot proceeds chronologically. The richness of the different styles and tones was lost, as the book was relating objective events rather than the characters themselves telling their stories to the others.

Add to that the fact that practically every mystery set up by the first book is resolved unsatisfactorily, and that the plot twist at the end is terribly stupid (Space Jesus? Really?), and you're left with a sequel that was a letdown on almost every level.
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corpsewithoutsoul
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2013 11:07 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 4:19 am 
 

I'm reading a big chunk of non-fiction right now. 'The Secret Teachings of All Ages' by Manly P. Hall.
I suppose it could be described as an esoteric encyclopaedia. An interesting read if you're into that sort of thing.
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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 8:24 am 
 

150 pages until I'm finished with The Citadel of the Autarch. What a journey it's been!
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Tempered_Steel
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:23 pm 
 

Just finished Phillip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly. I am really starting to appreciate sci-fi through this mans brilliant works.

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Daysbetween
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:10 pm
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Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 4:41 pm 
 

Currently re-reading Faerie Tale by Raymond E Feist. Not read this since the 80's when it was released and it stands up well after all these years and still sets a creepy atmosphere and I almost believe it :-)

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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:34 am 
 

God damn you, Gene Wolfe. Now I have to find The Urth of the New Sun if I ever hope to figure out what the fuck you're doing with this story. I was kind of looking forward to freeing myself from the maze.
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 16, 2013 9:59 am 
 

Is it not perhaps sweeter to remain ensnared? ;) When I finished The Book of the New Sun I wasn't even sure I wanted to move on to Urth because I so loved the way it ended.

Ever read any Eco or Borges, Nahsil? I know you've probably gone over this in the past at some point or other with failsafe, but figured I'd ask again for convenience' sake.

About 70 pages into Epiphany of the Long Sun right now, and this series just keeps getting more interesting. Like in some of Gene Wolfe's other works, I'm not sure I feel quite comfortable with the way he seems to (subconsciously?) portray women, but it's no deal breaker, and may very well be an intentional device.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 16, 2013 9:56 pm 
 

I love them both! Two of my favorite writers. Foucault's Pendulum is probably going to be the next novel I read.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 16, 2013 10:38 pm 
 

Nahsil wrote:
God damn you, Gene Wolfe. Now I have to find The Urth of the New Sun if I ever hope to figure out what the fuck you're doing with this story. I was kind of looking forward to freeing myself from the maze.

It's really integral to the story, and I'm kind of pissed that they don't seem to sell it omnibussed with the others. It's integral to the entire story arc; how can you end with the Citadel of the Autarch when there isn't a goddamn new sun yet??
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Under_Starmere
Abhorrent Fish-Man

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 12:30 am 
 

@Nahsil: Ah, as I suspected! Very nice. Definitely have to delve further into both of them myself. Ever read Baudolino?

@failsafe: Yeah, doesn't that Severian of the Guild omnibus just leave out Urth entirely? Nonsense... I mean, first off, why would you publish a full omnibus volume of The Book of the New Sun and call it anything but The Book of the New Sun? And moreover why would you not include Urth if you're telling the complete story of Severian of the Guild? SOMEONE FUCKED UP SOMEWHERE

It bugs me a lot that they don't have a newer edition of Urth that matches the publishing style of the volumes of the tetralogy more closely. Moving from the Tor volumes of BotNS, with their perfectly sized, perfectly fonted design, to that of Urth felt really jarring. Horrible design choices. I felt like I had to keep holding the book far away from my eyes to properly concentrate on it. No idea what they were thinking there, it's like they decided the book wasn't thick enough with an actually good type size so they upped the point count to pad the pages or something. Dumb. I demand a reissue.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:03 am 
 

I think these choices are made by people who just don't understand the story, really. It does make some sense to break them up a little, given the conceit is that the first four books are what Severian actually wrote down about these events, and Urth is what he wrote later. In Urth he even shoots the Book of the New Sun out into space like a message in a bottle, if I remember right. They're meant to be two separate documents written at separate times by the same person - but Severian's story doesn't end until the New Sun issue is resolved, of course. Also it explains a lot of stuff that was just a flat-out mystery before, like the part where he sees his doppelganger.

Really what I'd love to see is some sort of large volume with brief in-character introductions, one for the first four and one for Urth, explaining how the documents were "found", what condition they were in, how they were discovered to be related, etc. I know the story takes place in the far future, but there's so much time travel by the end that I think it's not too much of a stretch, and I think Gene Wolfe meant to imply that they were "found" in the modern day anyway. Of course it almost certainly won't ever happen, but it'd be neat!
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:26 am 
 

Yeah! Sounds good by me. Wouldn't be very far off from the way the Latro books were introduced, and that worked pretty well. I'm sure Gene Wolfe could write that sort of preface in the space of a few hours (because he is of inhuman skill and I fear him).

Speaking more of Wolfe, though, I have to say I have zero interest in anything that he might write that has anything to do with our everyday modern world. I tried reading There Are Doors a few years ago and stopped immediately, the atmosphere just felt fucking wrong. Even in the context of a fantastical story, him even approaching images of modern-day USA... I don't know, I didn't buy a word of it. There's something about Gene Wolfe's voice that works absolutely marvelously for that sort of "A long, long time ago and/or in a galaxy far, far away" setting, but I'm not sure if he's very well suited to many other scenarios.
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Dandelo
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:59 pm 
 

Tempered_Steel wrote:
Just finished Phillip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly. I am really starting to appreciate sci-fi through this mans brilliant works.


I didn't like that book, Dick is a strange beast for me. I absolutely loved Ubik for example. That is a great big, head fuck of a novel.

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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:01 pm 
 

Only Dick I've read is Man in the High Castle. I have a copy of Androids, it's short, should probably read that before anything else.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 12:49 am 
 

Under_Starmere wrote:
Yeah! Sounds good by me. Wouldn't be very far off from the way the Latro books were introduced, and that worked pretty well. I'm sure Gene Wolfe could write that sort of preface in the space of a few hours (because he is of inhuman skill and I fear him).

Speaking more of Wolfe, though, I have to say I have zero interest in anything that he might write that has anything to do with our everyday modern world. I tried reading There Are Doors a few years ago and stopped immediately, the atmosphere just felt fucking wrong. Even in the context of a fantastical story, him even approaching images of modern-day USA... I don't know, I didn't buy a word of it. There's something about Gene Wolfe's voice that works absolutely marvelously for that sort of "A long, long time ago and/or in a galaxy far, far away" setting, but I'm not sure if he's very well suited to many other scenarios.

Eh, I really liked There Are Doors. And Free Live Free. And Peace. And The Sorcerer's House. All set in the modern day. Hell, Peace is widely considered one of his best books, and I don't disagree. I think you're just too used to his more fantasy-oriented stuff and really ought to give Doors another shot. It's not as weighty as some of his other works but it's still really good. Classic unreliable narrator (though for much different reasons than usual), weird mysteries & characters, surreal occurrences, etc. make it very much Gene Wolfe. If you don't want to read anything set in modern-day America, you're basically denying yourself at least half of Wolfe's oeuvre.
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:33 am 
 

Weird though it feels to say it, I'm probably okay with that ;). I tend to read really slowly and it takes me forever to get around to reading even the stuff that's at the top of my list, so anything beyond the top-shelf picks I've got at any given time are bound to go unread anyway. There are so many fantastic books out there, can't spend all my time on Wolfe ;) Though I would make time to... ahem... ...give Peace a chance...

Ever read The Book of the Short Sun, fsm? I probably would've picked the volumes up a long time ago if it weren't for the goddamn cover art. Speaking of which, ever lay an eye on the original art for the individual BotNS paperbacks? Laughable shite, it's no wonder they didn't become better known. I know they say to never judge a book by its cover, but goddamnit I'M ONLY HUMAN.
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katatonia47
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 5:47 pm 
 

I've just finished The Road, and I read American Psycho before that. The Road is excellent, and it paints a really disturbing picture throughout the whole book. I don't think I've ever reacted to a book the same way I reacted to reading about an infant being put on a spit.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:44 pm 
 

Under_Starmere wrote:
Ever read The Book of the Short Sun, fsm? I probably would've picked the volumes up a long time ago if it weren't for the goddamn cover art.

I actually haven't, I got bogged down around halfway through the Book of the Long Sun, since it was just getting really damn long-winded and the books were due back at the library. I think it was around the time they go to the robot factory and they're just droning on and on about how the robots are constructed.
Spoiler: show
I liked some things about the series very, very much (notably the setting, I'm glad they gave the two-headed dictator from New Sun more to do), but other things were just stupid, like the Outsider (i.e. Space God).
I know Gene Wolfe is a devout Catholic, but usually he keeps away from overt references to his religion - and even when he doesn't, they're usually still fairly tasteful, like the cosmology in the Wizard Knight. Angels coexist with Odin, Thor, Dragons, etc. and aren't necessarily THE ONE TRUE GOD bla bla. Some of his stories do get a little preachy, but they're easy enough to skip. No author has a 100% track record with short stories anyway, and Wolfe's is still better than most other good authors in terms of success rate.

Under_Starmere wrote:
Speaking of which, ever lay an eye on the original art for the individual BotNS paperbacks? Laughable shite, it's no wonder they didn't become better known. I know they say to never judge a book by its cover, but goddamnit I'M ONLY HUMAN.

I'm not quite sure which art you're referring to. If you're talking this, I may have to fight you. Those are classics, and the Citadel of the Autarch's cover even makes a guest appearance as the cover of Turbo's Last Warrior.
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:00 pm 
 

Gah! Dude, watch the spoilers... had to stop reading halfway through that paragraph. :P
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:24 pm 
 

Wait, you've read Book of the Short Sun but not Book of the Long Sun? You realize BotLS comes first, right? Well, I spoiler tagged it for you.
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:16 am 
 

What? ;) No, I said I'm halfway through BotLS. I don't even own BotSS yet. Gah!
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:38 am 
 

Oh, way back there. What the fuck, dude? How could I have spoiled anything when you've read further than I have?
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Necroticism174
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:03 am 
 

Hey failsafeman, I recall you speaking fondly of Ramsey Campbell. Dude has a lot of books, which should I check out first? I've been suffering a drought of good horror fiction for far too long.
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Scorntyrant
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 9:18 am 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
Hey failsafeman, I recall you speaking fondly of Ramsey Campbell. Dude has a lot of books, which should I check out first? I've been suffering a drought of good horror fiction for far too long.



I rate his short story compilation "Cold print" very highly - very dark and not-at-all toungue in cheek Mythos stories. Otherwise, The hungry moon is good, as is the doll who ate his mother.

anyhoo, reading Neil Young's recent book "Waging heavy peace". I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the bloke and it's an entertaining (if fairly light) read. Aside from music, he's working on building a biofuel/electric car and on the successor format to mp3. Plus he has a barn full of model train layouts haha.
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ralfikk123
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:04 pm 
 

So I'm guessing this is the suitable place to ask. Are there any websites like Discogs that let you buy/sell and also make a library of the books that you own?
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Necroticism174
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:59 am 
 

Thanks mate (Scorntyrant) I'll definitely check one of those out.
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FlaPack
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 11:15 am 
 

ralfikk123 wrote:
So I'm guessing this is the suitable place to ask. Are there any websites like Discogs that let you buy/sell and also make a library of the books that you own?


Try http://www.librarything.com for cataloging. They also have an active discussion group for BookMooch which is a book trading/sharing community.

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Azmodes
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:05 pm 
 

Only the first 200 books entered are free, though. The rest requires a small fee.
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Necroticism174
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 7:33 pm 
 

So Thomas Ligotti's stuff isn't in stores here and the local library doesn't have it either. I'm going to have to order one of his books. The problem is, I have no idea which one.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:35 am 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
Hey failsafeman, I recall you speaking fondly of Ramsey Campbell. Dude has a lot of books, which should I check out first? I've been suffering a drought of good horror fiction for far too long.

Try The Grin of the Dark, I read it recently and found it quite good. Also the collection "Alone with the Horrors" is good too, if you prefer short stories. As for Ligotti, Teatro Grottesco is the best.
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Scorntyrant
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 5:43 am 
 

ralfikk123 wrote:
So I'm guessing this is the suitable place to ask. Are there any websites like Discogs that let you buy/sell and also make a library of the books that you own?


I use goodreads.com to keep track of what I'm reading. I dont think it has a buy/sell/swap feature though.

Necroticism174 wrote:
So Thomas Ligotti's stuff isn't in stores here and the local library doesn't have it either. I'm going to have to order one of his books. The problem is, I have no idea which one.


Unless you are patient or have deep pockets, I'd suggest "Teatro Grotesco". Everything else is OOP and hard to get your paws on.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:35 pm 
 

So the library doesn't have Urth of the New Sun but they do have Litany of the Long Sun. That one worth getting into?

I'll have to buy Urth.

edit: nevermind, a different library has it. Hurrah!
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:52 pm 
 

Hooray! And yes, The Book of the Long Sun is definitely worth reading, based on my experience so far. Just be prepared for a bit of a change in tone and a switch from first person to third person narrative. Might do well to take a bit of a break from the BotNS world between the two tetralogies, after you finish up with Urth. I'd imagine jumping directly from the first to the next might feel a bit uncomfortable.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:10 am 
 

Yeah I very likely will. I want to read some other stuff. I wish I could find my copy of Foucault's Pendulum, no idea where I put it when I moved.
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Empyreal
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:19 am 
 

Reading a few great things for my last semester of classes...last week it was Lolita, which was great, great, great. I didn't know what to expect, but this was just a devilish good time and the writing was immaculately good. It was even sort of epic what with the America road-trip plot in several parts. One of the little quotes on the back of my copy calls it "the only convincing love story of our time," and in a fucked up way I'd agree with that. The book portrays a man ridden by obsession and insanity over this girl, who he initially just wants on a purely physical level but it becomes much more than that. Really well portrayed characters and relationship, made all the more gleefully diabolical by the fact that, well, it's a pedophilic one. Great book. Subversive, funny and dramatic.

And also Faulkner's As I Lay Dying now, which I'm not done with...the way he portrays people is just great to me though; totally the kind of thing I'd love to achieve in my own writing.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:08 pm 
 

Scorntyrant wrote:
Necroticism174 wrote:
So Thomas Ligotti's stuff isn't in stores here and the local library doesn't have it either. I'm going to have to order one of his books. The problem is, I have no idea which one.


Unless you are patient or have deep pockets, I'd suggest "Teatro Grotesco". Everything else is OOP and hard to get your paws on.

No, there's still My Work Is Not Yet Done, which is very much in print and also worth getting. Teatro is a better starting point, however. The problem with Ligotti collections (and I have a number of the OOP ones) is that there is a lot of overlap, and as with all horror collections, there is some hit-and-miss. It's kind of frustrating to buy a collection and find that, of the 5 stories you haven't already read in another collection, only 2 or 3 are actually that good. Still, I have discovered quite a few great ones that I wouldn't have been able to read at all without delving into the OOP books. What they really need to do is just release a single definitive Ligotti omnibus that collects everything, but that probably won't happen until long after he's dead.
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So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.

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Maniac Matis
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:49 am
Posts: 452
Location: A Portal To Nowhere
PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:58 pm 
 

I finished reading Dracula (Bram Stoker) about a month ago. That's the only note-worthy book I've read in the past month, with the exception of about a billion science articles and national geographic type stuff. I will adamantly say, though, that I LOVE horror fiction. Love it. Anybody that is a fan of it should check out http://www.dagonbytes.com. They have tons of free stuff to read on there, including H.P. Lovecraft stories.
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lurkist
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon May 07, 2007 7:11 pm
Posts: 223
PostPosted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:06 pm 
 

Scanning the last few pages, I'd like to add my appreciation for Hyperion, and like others was less impressed with the sequels. Dan Simmons, despite his award-winning SF, is essentially a horror writer and in my opinion his best work (and possibly the best contemporary horror novel ever) is Carrion Comfort.

Greg Bear's Eon is superb, and in case people don't know is part of a trilogy of sorts also comprising Eternity (pretty good) and Legacy (very good).

Noticed a mention of Ramsey Campbell, he is one of the very few writers I simply cannot stomach. His style and technique are atrocious, virtually unreadable. I feel similarly about James Herbert. It's very rare that I give up on a book part way - I usually battle on to the end - but in both these writer's cases, I simply had better things to do.

I recently taught myself a new skill - book binding. I successfully repaired my first paperback last week, it was Aku-Aku by Thor Heyerdahl. You may know him for the Kon-Tiki expedition, but trust me, the guy has had numerous equally fascinating adventures, and is like a real-life Indiana Jones in a way. Aku-Aku is no exception. He took a team to the most remote place on the planet inhabited by humans - Easter Island. It was the first time in generations that Westerners had been there, and needless to say all manner of hell breaks loose!
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failsafeman
Digital Dictator

Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:45 am
Posts: 11852
Location: In the Arena
PostPosted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:18 pm 
 

lurkist wrote:
Noticed a mention of Ramsey Campbell, he is one of the very few writers I simply cannot stomach. His style and technique are atrocious, virtually unreadable. I feel similarly about James Herbert. It's very rare that I give up on a book part way - I usually battle on to the end - but in both these writer's cases, I simply had better things to do.

Care to elaborate? I've noticed him overusing some similes and dropping commas where they ought to be, but nothing I would ever remotely consider unreadable.
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MorbidBlood wrote:
So the winner is Destruction and Infernal Overkill is the motherfucking skullcrushing poserkilling satan-worshiping 666 FUCK YOU greatest german thrash record.

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