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StarTopic Books |ST| Now You're Reading with POWER

I’m early into Gideon the Ninth right now and it’s wild - space fantasy about necromancers? Really intriguing so far. I also have the last of the Books of Babel series to start before long.

After that I think I might dig into a reread of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, probably my favorite fantasy series of all time. It’s massive and will take me a while, but it’s one of the most rewarding re-reads I know of, I’m sure I’ll pick up tons of stuff I missed the first time around.
 
I was also fond of dian wei, but the Silmarillion remains impenetrable to me. I can get through an amazing amount of schlock, dryness, old fashioned grammar, etc, but that one is on my dnf list in a glass case marked “break in case of insomnia“, next to Euclid.
 
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I'm reading the Junji Ito adaptation of No Longer Human and it is fantastic.

I'm not much of a manga reader but I'm a sucker for Ito and NLH is one of my all timers.
 
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This is good to keep up with Romance of the Three Kingdoms.




Highly recommend Romance of the Three Kingdoms (that, and the video).
 
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Super excited for Emily St. John Mandel's (Station Eleven) next, Sea of Tranquility. It comes out next week and has a lot of buzz. And the synopsis is just wild.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.


Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land was one of my favorites of 2021 so I am here for more weird meta century-spanning multiple-viewpoints-all-tied-together-by-a-book books.
 
Super excited for Emily St. John Mandel's (Station Eleven) next, Sea of Tranquility. It comes out next week and has a lot of buzz. And the synopsis is just wild.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.


Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land was one of my favorites of 2021 so I am here for more weird meta century-spanning multiple-viewpoints-all-tied-together-by-a-book books.
I heard good things about Emily St. John Mandel, but I have a hard time reading standalone novels; the idea of it not being a series kinda unnerves me.

...I really should fight against that, I think.
 
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Almost finished with Zhuangzi!

What other Daoist text should I read next?

(I've already read Daodejing.)
 
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Read that first, it was fun.
Never really could get into the classics... is what I say as I'm reading and enjoying Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
It's a common misconception that "the classics," or any of those old works, are innately dry and stodgy; this, however, is evidently untrue. There's such a variety that something, somewhere will be easy to read, regardless of one's personal inclinations. And it could be that a disliked text, one considered boring, for instance, might require only a shift in perspective.

How many people know of Pride and Prejudice, for instance, but have no idea of its wit and humor in how it tackles the society of the day (or, perhaps more pertinent to the topic at hand, the Gothic satire of Northanger Abbey?).

The Castle of Otranto is definitely a ride, itself, and -- I find -- eminently readable. Its perfect opening is a showcase of this, and fascinating on how it reads like a comment on modern society.

For those interested, The Castle of Otranto is regarded as the first example of Gothic literature. Following that, The Monk was especially influential as well, it's infamy fueled by controversy.
 
Finished the 6th Narnia, only one more to go! I do not like these very much lol.
You're still reading them, though. Just feel like they're something you should finish?
Regardless, those, as with anything, are definitely not going to be for everyone.
I know you mentioned The Horse and His Boy, but we're there any other elements in particular fueling your dislike?

D&D!?

"So we kinda forgot..."
Really?

Nobody wants to reply to my one-billionth D&D joke for the one-billionth time?

Come on, everyone...
You had to roll for persuasion, and they, for perception.
 
It's a common misconception that "the classics," or any of those old works, are innately dry and stodgy; this, however, is evidently untrue. There's such a variety that something, somewhere will be easy to read, regardless of one's personal inclinations. And it could be that a disliked text, one considered boring, for instance, might require only a shift in perspective.

How many people know of Pride and Prejudice, for instance, but have no idea of its wit and humor in how it tackles the society of the day (or, perhaps more pertinent to the topic at hand, the Gothic satire of Northanger Abbey?).

The Castle of Otranto is definitely a ride, itself, and -- I find -- eminently readable. Its perfect opening is a showcase of this, and fascinating on how it reads like a comment on modern society.

For those interested, The Castle of Otranto is regarded as the first example of Gothic literature. Following that, The Monk was especially influential as well, it's infamy fueled by controversy.
Well, part of the problem (as others have pointed out) is that you're kinda forced to read 'em throughout high school and generally college.

Another problem (kinda related to the one above) is that you actually have to be interested in the era itself; that has generally helped me.
 
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The last one is the worst of all lol. While I do enjoy the Narnia books for what they are, what they are includes a bunch of racism which confused me as a child.

This fuels me, I will read it soon. Taking a quick break to read the first Umbrella Academy Vol.
 
...Anyone here?
I am here. I continue to advance slightly in a bunch of my longer reads, all at once, and polish off a few library books in between.

Started Fonda Lee’s green bone saga and the first book isn’t compelling me. I will probably get through it before the due date. Probably.
 
In between Narnias I read the first Umbrella Academy volume. Great art, generally intriguing premise where you want to know more than they tell you.
 
I am here. I continue to advance slightly in a bunch of my longer reads, all at once, and polish off a few library books in between.

Started Fonda Lee’s green bone saga and the first book isn’t compelling me. I will probably get through it before the due date. Probably.
I too bounced off of Jade City. I'd heard nothing but good things about it, but while the characters are really well-written, pretty much nothing else about the book interested me, especially the plot and lack of much of any mystery or intrigue. I guess I just greatly prefer mysteries and the unknown, which it was lacking at least IMO.
Just starting Guards! Guards!

First Discworld book. Great so far.
Guards! Guards! is really good, but honestly the 'Watch' books just get better and better from there. Men at Arms and Feet of Clay are both in my top 5 discworld books, and Night Watch is much more serious but is really special.

As for what I'm reading:

I ended up taking a break for a while due to time and the intro parts not grabbing me right away, but I'm nearly finished with Gideon the Ninth now and it is WILD. It did take me a bit to get into it but once I did it's gripped me hard; it's just so... I guess the best way I can describe it is that it's just one of the most unique fantasy (and scifi?) novels I've ever read. I've never read or even heard of anything quite like it. Apparently it's a 4-book series so I'm eager to read more.

That said, I also have the final Books of Babel (Josiah Bancroft) novel and the latest Brandon Sanderson (Cytonic) waiting for me on my shelf, so I'll probably read those next.
 
Perhaps this thread might be livened up through some discussion on the undead, in this case a novella: The Night Library of Sternendach: A Vampire Opera in Verse by Jessica Lévai.

The story follows young Kunigunde Heller, next in line after her draconian Oma to lead in her family's vampire hunting tradition, but hunts are not the point of the story and are never shown, as Kinge instead is drawn to the Graf, the vampire with whom her family made a tenuous pact long before. A forbidden romance ensues beneath the starry canopy, one which will test and be tested by the shackles of the past, the bonds of duty, and, perhaps, the very nature of the lovers themselves.

The story of Sternendach unfolds through Pushkin sonnets, a constraint essential to the overall fairytale tone, as the world and characters are quickly established and the plot moves forward, though it pause for an aside now and again; I did think a bit more could be done given some characters, but that might have ended up to the detriment of the overall flow.

The Night Library of Sternendach is a quick read in somewhat unconventional form.
 
Just finished reading Dathan Auerbach’s Penpal - which I know, Reddit author, but I actually found it to be a really enjoyable and captivating read. Left me feeling completely creeped out. I’m usually really into having big twists, but this book didn’t need any. (Although it still had a few) I liked that most of the stuff was predictable at some point in the chapter, and that the sense of dread came not from the unknown, but from so badly not wanting it to occur or be true.

I mean, does it still read like creepypasta? Yeah. But the format absolutely worked here.
 
I need another book with characters like Stannis Baratheon and Davos Seaworth but they're so different from anything I've ever read or seen.
 
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Just finished Moorcock's Stormbringer. Best fantasy novel I've ever read, kicks so much ass.
I need to actually read some Moorcock at some point, it's a big hole in my classic fantasy list. Come to think of it I've never read Eddings, either. I'm sure much of that era feels rather dated, but it would still be interesting to pick up sometime as a comparison point and to get a feel for older fantasy since most of the fantasy I've read is 90s or later, often 2000s or later even.
 
I need to actually read some Moorcock at some point, it's a big hole in my classic fantasy list. Come to think of it I've never read Eddings, either. I'm sure much of that era feels rather dated, but it would still be interesting to pick up sometime as a comparison point and to get a feel for older fantasy since most of the fantasy I've read is 90s or later, often 2000s or later even.
I've been main lining moorcock recently, and would also highly recommend the Corum, Hawkmoon, and Von Bek books. Jerry Cornelius too if you want some psychedelic spy nonsense. Most of Moorcocks books are under 300 pages, but have enough ideas to fill a 700 page book
 
Read the first 11 books. Fantastic series. As I understand it the next one will finish off the series, really looking forward to it. Hopefully out early 2023, but who knows.

Now to find something else to read.
Would you recommend it?
 
Just finished The Luminous Dead and Sorrowland - LOVED The Luminous Dead, only complaint is that sometimes the dialogue could veer into that kinda cheesy therapy-talk, but the genuine stakes and the refusal of both characters to actually relent kept it interesting and I loved the author's focus on second to second upkeep, it really hones in on how dangerous every minute in a cave can be.

Sorrowland is definitely Solomon's best book so far, having read their other two. I liked The Deep perfectly well, but I feel like Sorrowland was a return to form with a lot of fantastic ideas. Sometimes it was hard to gel the magic with the grounded reality, but it really pushes you to consider what's actually that strange. With things like Jonestown and Tulsa and Waco - what's so hard to believe about Cainland, aside from the magic fungus? Also Vern is one of my favorite protagonists ever and I feel like her slightly cringe baby names make perfect sense for an alienated 16 year old mother.
 
Just finished The Luminous Dead and Sorrowland - LOVED The Luminous Dead, only complaint is that sometimes the dialogue could veer into that kinda cheesy therapy-talk, but the genuine stakes and the refusal of both characters to actually relent kept it interesting and I loved the author's focus on second to second upkeep, it really hones in on how dangerous every minute in a cave can be.

Sorrowland is definitely Solomon's best book so far, having read their other two. I liked The Deep perfectly well, but I feel like Sorrowland was a return to form with a lot of fantastic ideas. Sometimes it was hard to gel the magic with the grounded reality, but it really pushes you to consider what's actually that strange. With things like Jonestown and Tulsa and Waco - what's so hard to believe about Cainland, aside from the magic fungus? Also Vern is one of my favorite protagonists ever and I feel like her slightly cringe baby names make perfect sense for an alienated 16 year old mother.
Might read The Luminous Dead next, but it seems there's, like, a million books for me to read next lmao
 
Might read The Luminous Dead next, but it seems there's, like, a million books for me to read next lmao
Tell me about it. 😭 My to-read is like, six years worth of books. The Luminous Dead is pretty gripping, though, definitely a page turner! I honestly also want to give something like Romance of the Three Kingdoms a try, but I always feel like I need an entire class for the context I would want.
 
Tell me about it. 😭 My to-read is like, six years worth of books. The Luminous Dead is pretty gripping, though, definitely a page turner! I honestly also want to give something like Romance of the Three Kingdoms a try, but I always feel like I need an entire class for the context I would want.
I stopped at a certain point in the first volume (one of the newer translations) for Romance of the Three Kingdoms myself. It's great! I stopped because I got distracted by an event at the time, but I would recommend it.
 
I stopped at a certain point in the first volume (one of the newer translations) for Romance of the Three Kingdoms myself. It's great! I stopped because I got distracted by an event at the time, but I would recommend it.
Same here. It's really fun and has a lotta hell yeah moments. Need to get back to it.
 
I'm finally doing my A Song of Ice and Fire re-read.

Anyone want to join me?

We can form a group and make ridiculous fan theories together!

I haven't read this series since I was 12. Now I'm in my late 20s.
 
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I honestly also want to give something like Romance of the Three Kingdoms a try, but I always feel like I need an entire class for the context I would want.
Having read the first volume a few years ago on my own, yes, yes you do.

You can either familiarize yourself with the characters and follow the story properly, or just give up trying to remember names and just enjoy the moment to moment “guy rips arrow out of his eye, eats his own eye, then lights on fire because he’s so angry” action (which is actually not a huge portion iirc).
 
This is actually a nice article:


Would recommend.
 
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