My nonfiction rec: The Devil in the White City. The authors name eludes me at the moment and I can't be arsed to do a google search right now, but it's a great read that feels more like fiction than nonfiction due to the writing style and the general 'this is so bizarre you can't make this shit up' factor of a lot of it. It follows two men during the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893, architect Daniel Burnham and serial killer H.H. Holmes. Burnham builds the Worlds Fair (I don't give a shit about architecture but I still greatly enjoyed his parts) and Holmes lures people into his life so that he can kill them in his FUCKING MURDER CASTLE (real shit). Fascinating stuff and just absolutely flies by. It's being made into a movie to be directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leo DiCaprio.

Erik Larson is the author. My non-fiction recommendation would actually be another book of his, "In the Garden of Beasts," but either one is a good choice for non-fiction. If you're curious, "In the Garden of Beasts" is a look at Nazi Germany circa 1933-1934 as seen through the eyes of America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany and also through the eyes of that ambassador's daughter. Really fascinating to see the day-to-day intrigue and happenings. It's also amazing how many early warning signs there were that Hitler was not a normal person, and how many of which are glossed over or forgotten by typical history books (though some of these warning signs were somewhat secret at the time).

Oh, and perhaps this will pique your interest: the American ambassador's daughter probably slept with the Gestapo's first director. She also had a lover who was a Soviet spy.

You should definitely try Simon Garfield's book then. It's amazing how far we've come and how we take maps for granted. Even us older folks who remember a pre-Google Maps time, we were still greatly privileged to have access to such accurate and detailed maps compared to our ancestors and how much of an impact they've had on civilization.

For non-fiction one of my recent favorites is Dispatches by Michael Herr, a front line journalist in Vietnam. Some of the best New Journalism I've ever read and just really awesome. Parts of the book was used as a basis for characters in Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now too.

I'm about 100 pages into Jeff Sharlet's "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power". There's an actual Christian cult (no need to sugar-coat it) that holds private "meetings" with powerful people in the U.S. government, then bounces between various world dictators while claiming to be "helping them find Jesus". The leaders of this "organization" are so openly totalitarian it's almost funny; they circle-jerk at the thought of "having a covenant, just like Jesus and Hitler" (yes, they seriously idolize the "loyalty" between Hitler and his key players, as well as among other fascist and totalitarian regimes). They frequently boast that their organization is structured like the original Mafia, in that everything is kept a secret and it generally excludes people from the outside.

Tl;Dr Everyone should read this book.

Sounds legit.

It is, though.

NPR article about it.

I have that book and it is indeed legit, though I think the author overstates the influence of the organization (the "Family") within the United States. Then again, I didn't finish it, perhaps he really cinches his point better late on.

For non-fiction I highly recommend Hidden Agendas by John Pilger. It's a bit dated and it's really left-wing, but it's still an interesting account of a number of globally important news stories that are unpalatable for mainstream media. Pilger is a serious journalist (it's not infowars-like tabloid conspiracies or anything) but he's largely beholden to nothing but the truth. The section about the Burmese military government and the way mainstream media and political figureheads glossed over their heinous human rights abuses is particularly chilling.

I can't comment on that book in particular but Pilger is not a "serious journalist." It's not a matter of left or right with him, but rather of fact versus propaganda. He belongs to that same sect of deliberate misinformers as Glenn Greenwald, which is to say he openly states that the intent behind his reporting is to cause political and material damage to Western liberalism. Pilger described Putin as a messianic anti-fascist and casts the likes of Castro as proponents of personal freedom. I'll avoid, thanks.

How is Glenn Greenwald is misinformer? He's one of the ballsiest journalists out there right now, imo.

If by "ballsy" you mean licking comrade Putin's balls and knowingly layering every semi-journalistic enterprise with a healthy dose of misdirection and whataboutism, then yes he is certainly ballsy. His response to the Charlie Hebdo massacre was especially revealing.

I used to read Greenwald regularly from 2007-2010, mostly his Salon material, which impressed me as a civil libertarian. His arguments were often hyperbolic (he always approached writing as a defense lawyer would, stretching facts to make his case) but not necessarily inaccurate because of it. It's amazing how much his disdain for the West has warped his writing.

David Weber's On Basilisk Station was enjoyable. The best part imo was how well-developed the characters seemed. The action/battle stuff was kinda boring. Seems like an inversion of the typical for this kind of military space opera whathaveyou. I'd read the next one.

Frank Herbert's Dune was really fucking good. Finally got myself to read after starting maybe five times, only to stop because I'd come across something I wanted to read more. The world building was great, the characters all distinct and it was pretty funny to me to see just how much Robert Jordan aped this book. Probably won't bother with anything else in the series though, as I've heard too much about them that sounds shitty. And I learned my lesson with The Fall of Hyperion on reading polarizing sf sequels.

At least get through (what was supposed to be) the originally trilogy, IE Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. And honestly I'd say God Emperor of Dune was pretty good too; it wasn't until Heretics of Dune that things started getting nonsensical (I still have no idea what that book was even about.)

^ Don't listen to that. God Emperor of Dune is garbage, Heretics and Chapterhouse at least had stuff happening in them... xD

The combination of widely-condemned sequels after book 3 and the fact he died before he was able to finish the series has kept me away from the Dune series altogether so far.


Honestly, if I was set on becoming a writer I would probably have trouble publishing anything purely because I would insist on any long-form novel series being 100% written before the first book even got signed. The risk of a series being left unfinished due to unfortunate circumstances would just be too horrible a thought to me. Of course, that impulse can lead to other problems as well. Rush jobs just to get it out of the door might mean an inferior work (see books 5-6 of King's Dark Tower).


In other news, I'm on Exodus from the Long Sun and already bought the three books in the Short Sun series. I was really disappointed there isn't an omnibus edition still in print, but oh well.

Ian McDonald - Luna: New Moon
Intrigue and power struggles on a libertarian Moon (no, I've never read any Heinlein) basically controlled by five dynastic families in the somewhat near future. I really liked this one's descriptions of lunar society and the mores, systems and necessities that evolved from humanity dwelling in this environment. Enough background fed through the main plot to keep a good balance (the backstory of the head of the POV dynasty was particularly great). McDonald's writing style is very direct, intimate; often short bursts of sentences, pew pew pew, often very verbal as opposed to literal, but that works (nevermind the absurdly high amount of typos in my copy, who proofread this?). Cool storytelling and characters, can't wait for the next book, out in a few months. Apparently there's also a TV series in the works.

Brian Catling - The Vorrh
Well, I finally finished this. Took me almost a year, for various reasons. First and foremost, though, because it's a real dense chore to read. Man, I just don't know, it's obviously intended as a goddamn weird book, but for 500 pages you need something larger than the sum of its parts to hold it together. You can't just stick together a number of surreal stories, fable-like encounters and real historical characters conducting unreal, borderline ineffable business, drop it all into this almost-real life, blurring, immensely dark, pseudo-science fantasy world and expect the result to be "easily the current century’s first landmark work of fantasy". That quoted part was claimed by the introduction to the book written by Alan Moore and it seems pretty silly. Catling obviously knows how to write (although some of the verbosity comes across as meaningless literary peacocking the longer you read), but I don't know what the bigger picture was for this dishevelled book. Apparently it's the first of a trilogy, but I'm not really sure what the sequels would be about, as I'm not really sure what this one was about either. Truth be told, it's not outright bad; there are a lot of intriguing parts, stuff that catches the mind on its own merit and I love the concept of the titular forest (even though its nature and exploration remain too murky for my taste, as do many of the characters and their motives), not to mention that Catling does manage to conjure up a really twisted, dreamlike, savage and yet sophisticated atmosphere, like some carnal fairytale or extrapolated mythology. But as I got to the end of the book, I noticed that a lot of the narrative threads seemed to dissolve into confusion or strangely anti-climactic conclusions, some eventually turning out to be utterly disconnected from and essentially irrelevant to the others (like Muybridge's story; but hey, maybe the sequel clears that up). Very taxing reading experience, in a sometimes good, but often and ultimately frustrating way. One of those works that feel more like a writing exercise where any dramatic coherence is purely emergent than an attempt to tell a story or share a fictional world.

In more positive news, I finally acquired a copy of Barlowe's Inferno.

Scan dat shit


Dude, see everything after book 1. I really enjoyed book 1, and tried to get into book 2, but holy fucking shit does King's trademark logorrhea take over HARD. I wrote a lot more about it a page or two back. Not to mention LOBSTROSITIES. How did a fucking adult man write that in an ostensibly serious book?





LOBSTROSITIES!!!!!!

I thought Book III / The Wastelands was great, probably my favorite of the series - it really gave you an idea of how utterly bizarre Roland's reality was, being a combination of a supernatural apocalypse and natural/manmade one. Some great action scenes and genuinely creepy moments like that one in the generator cave.

Damn, I been sitting on a copy of Luna: New Moon for damn near a year now. May have to finally give it a try here shortly.

Yep, that was the idea. Fingers crossed it gets here before Christmas.

So this was super easy and convenient to find:



However, some of my other favourite authors it seems to be a bitch finding a decent convenient collection of works that is readily available. Like I'm trying to find a complete works of Jules Verne but Amazon is full of Kindle editions and in between it's collections that are a whole bunch of separate books that I'd need to get one by one, fuck that.


P.S. On the cover I keep thinking Cthulhu is giving me the middle finger...

Been re-reading some old Iain M. Banks sci-fi paperbacks as I have had no spare cash for new books. Getting a kobo reader for xmas so hope to get lots of new e-books soon since they are a lot cheaper than paperbacks. Currently reading 'Feersum Endjinn'.

Iain M. Banks rules, but I simply could not stomach the stupid phonetic English in Feersum Endjinn.

Awesome!

Just finished The Brothers Karamazov. Gotta say it was easily one of the most jaw-droppingly epic books I've ever read. It's so clever and funny and detailed but there's this ultimate message of evil and redemption all through the whole thing.

Ivan and Smerdyakov's conversation towards the end gave me chills.

Just finished the latest paperback Rebus novel by Ian Rankin 'Even Dogs in the Wild'. More gritty crime sent in Edinburgh with Rebus working as a consultant for the CID this time rather on a cold case. Has some current elements such as forced foreign prostitutes and child abuse in homes to keep it relevant but really more of the same and if you like Rebus it is recommended and a quick read also.

Picked me up some Hesse at a used booksale, got me Steppenwolf to reread (which captured my feelings dealing with depression and alienation better than any other book I've ever read) and Demian to read through christmas break. I was hoping to pick up Siddhartha but they didn't have it.

I've put it off for a long time but I'm finally reading through The Lord of the Rings to completion, as I typically read shorter weird fiction/horror.

Almost finished with Return of the King, but oh man did The Fellowship of the Ring move at a near glacial pace. It felt like so little happened in 300 pages. I am really enjoying it now though that Tolkien is acting upon what he has built up.

After I finish the trilogy, I plan on reading either Moorcock's Elric or Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Steppenwolf is such a great book. By far my favourite by Hesse. For me what captured my imagination the most was the connections to easter metaphysics that are woven into the story.

Never really been able to get into this, really gotta give it another read at some point. I absolutely loved Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and Notes From Underground, I love a lot of Tolstoy and Chekhov etc... so it's a bit odd that The Kara bros leaves me so cold as I have a bit of a hard on for 19th century russian stuff in general.

The Russians are fascinating.

I just loved TBK because of how intense it was. So many different aspects of humainty in its basest and most essential forms are captured in that book, from spite and hatred to complete, unyielding love for god and man.

it's kinda slow in places but the episodic nature of the chapters and parts means that exciting action is never too far away. And the whole last part had me on the edge of my seat. Bruh, that last part with Alyosha talking to the children, what a beautiful way to wrap up such a depressing book.

I probably sound like a bit of a pretentious tool but man I just really loved that book. <3

Self-awareness is a good thing!

I actually finished Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination a while ago, and honestly I have really mixed feelings about it. It's obviously a classic for a reason, and invented a lot of things that would become tropes 30 years later in the cyberpunk era (wired reflexes ftw), but for every incredibly awesome scene or idea, there would be a lame one or a big gap where he left something out. They weren't plot holes exactly, more that Bester was sometimes just too lazy to put in the work to properly build attachment to some characters, or groundwork to make plot twists have the impact they should've had.


SPOILERS FROM NOW ON!!!


For example: Olivia had essentially zero character building and almost no interaction with Gully Foyle, yet we're meant to believe that he falls for her SO HARD basically at first sight that he's willing to completely abandon his vengeance after barely a paragraph of inner turmoil. And Olivia's motivation for being a villain was really weakly developed as well. Another weakness of the book that's highlighted by that scene is that the characters have a really bad habit of simply narrating their feelings out loud, like cheesy 80s cartoon characters did for action they were too cheap to animate. "Trap...tightening! Must...reach...lever!"

On the other hand, it had some totally amazing scenes and fascinating twists, like the buildup to and revelation of what the Vorga was really up to. That shit was chilling, and the chef's assistant guy having terrible PTSD related to piles of dirty clothing was a great touch. Also, the part on Mars where he kidnaps the telepath and breaks into the weird monastery of comatose people was amazing as well.

The Burning Man on the other hand was a great idea, and added a lot to the scenes that first feature him, but he had a fucking lame explanation - in fact, the whole time jaunting/space jaunting thing was stupid and came totally out of left field, and the ending itself was just bad and dumb and abrupt. I've read that a lot of people were "dazzled" by the synesthesia part, and maybe in the 50s that was dazzling, but I was unimpressed. Also the change from him to remorseless brute to altruistic savior of mankind seemed ludicrous to me.

As a whole, the first part of the book was much better than the second - Gully Foyle was coolest when he was a brute, doing brutish things and speaking in that great gutter dialect Bester came up with. "I find you, 'Vorga'. I find you, I kill you, 'Vorga'. I kill you filthy." The farther we got from that, the more uneven the ride got. Luckily, the book was briskly paced and short enough that I never felt like putting it down, but I was definitely somewhat disappointed, due to its classic status and long list of admirers.

Hah, that's a coincidence, I'm just about to start The Stars My Destination myself as a book of choice for my school English over the holidays. It was either that or Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, the latter of whose humour I am currently enjoying the hell out of, but, due to the rather near due date, I ended up having to go with Bester.

You could certainly do worse. I was a bit harsh on it, but as far as 50s sci-fi classics go, it's probably held up better than the vast majority. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, etc. all have huge flaws as well. Christ, try to get through The Gods Themselves, I dare you...

(yes, I know it was technically written in 1972, but in spirit everything Asimov ever wrote was written in the 50s)

It's really a trip, isn't it. It really spoke to me at the time I was reading it, and the final act is just incredible.

Had a 20+ hour flight so I finished Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. It was a page-turner, but I'm not always into things that are page turners because of the sparse/utilitarian-ish language. Still a good story with good characters, she's clearly talented. I haven't decided if I want to continue with the 2nd book though. Nice dark and desperate post-apocalyptic stuff, but yeah, I want some fancy language!

Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Definitely one of the better McCarthy books I've read. Blood Meridian, Suttree and possibly All the Pretty Horses are better, but this was fantastic. It's bleak and has some exceedingly fucked up things happen like you'd expect from him, but I'm pretty sure this is his only book (that I've read so far, anyway), that really gives off any hope. The writing is still very good, but this is probably his most accessible. A very touching, if not impossibly bleak story and I'd highly recommend it.


Cormac McCarthy - Child of God
It's not as good as Blood Meridian, but it's probably as fucked up. It's good and written very well, but this one really isn't for the faint of heart. It's short - I read it in one sitting, but very memorable. I had a lit prof in university who was obsessed with incest and necrophilia and I half feel like emailing him to tell him about this book. There's no redemption or hope to be found, just the gritty, violent and depraved underbelly of Appalachia.

Neil Gaiman - Stardust
Reading a fantasy novel of my own volition is something that would probably never happen, but my girfriend insisted I read this, and fuck it, I found it pretty enjoyable. The writing is pretty simple, but has a way of drawing you in. I found the ending a tad cheesy, but overall a really fun book. I'll have to watch the movie again (same with The Road, haven't seen Child of God yet but apparently James Franco ruined it), it's been a while.

Wellll I have a new job with absolutely ludicrous amounts of downtime and coworkers who are mostly too busy to chat, so I've been reading a whole lot again.

Finally finished Wolfe's Wizard/Knight...I still think I like the first book a lot more than the second, as it ends in just a ludicrously badass way while the second wasn't as cool. To be totally honest though, this is the least excellent Wolfe stuff I've read yet. He's shooting for more a typical fantasy story (present-day kid gets sucked into a fantasy realm and becomes a total badass hero) done in a Wolfe-ian manner, and while it sometimes succeeds, other times it just sorta falls flat. Lots of the supporting characters just aren't really interesting enough for there to be so many of them. Toug and Svon, Uns, Pouk and Vil...lots of overlap between those characters, I felt. Sometimes the matter-of-fact way Wolfe writes does the story great service, like Gylf's short comments or Able's sometimes snarky comments, but other times it just felt really flat because there's nowhere near as much confusion and intrigue here as in his other works. Sure, there's some weirdness, such as the time and cultural differences between the various realm-layers, but the actual dynamics of the story just aren't super strong I don't think. Still worth reading for sure, but for me it's far behind stuff like Book of the New Sun.

I also tore through Han Kang's The Vegetarian in just a couple of days. This thing won an award for best translated work in 2016. I thought it would be more surreal and Kafka-like, but it was more grounded in reality than that. It was pretty bleak, as well, basically just a super depressing book about the dullness of life in Korea and how the culture just oppresses anything that moves outside of the accepted norms. The way the narrative unfolds,
was also a really interesting way to handle the story. Really quick read, too.

I dunno man, I think it depends on what you want out of Wolfe. Obviously he set out to write a more typical, less ridiculously complex novel than he's written in the past, and the focus is more on awesome scenes and imagery and worldbuilding. And the second book definitely had plenty of that - I mean ffs, that scene at the tournament where Sir Able's army of sword-spirits fights the army of undead - that's just fucking cool. And there still is plenty of complexity - such as who actually killed the king and why, what Able's status is in the second book, why exactly he stays in prison, who the dragon guys at the end are...there's still a ton going on, even if it's not as much compared to the Book of the New Sun.

I just have to disagree about the side characters, too - I liked all of them, and it made sense that Sir Able would be surrounded by hangers-on, being a giant heroic badass and all. Uns and Pouk, OK, there was some overlap there in terms of "low-class but loyal follower," but otherwise I just can't see your complaint. I mean, Svon was basically a huge dickbag and a bad squire for most of of the story and only started trying to be cool later on. Toug is an actual good squire who's sort of the successor to Sir Able (and I mean come on, wielding a giant's knife as a bastard sword...COOL). It's not a novel of startling complex and incredibly varied characters, no, but there was variety for sure. Not saying "you just don't GET it, maaan," but I don't think it helped that you read the second book over the course of what, a year and a half? I'd have trouble remembering side characters in anything over that long a period.

Personally, while I can definitely say BotNS is the objectively superior work and absolutely a masterpiece, I probably loved The Wizard Knight more, and have certainly re-read it more times. BotNS is a lot of things, but fun isn't exactly one of them. If you prefer complexity, try Peace or the Latro series.