Finally reading AKIRA. About to start Vol 3 tonight. Man, it is so good. It's really awesome to compare to the movie because "abbreviated" is an understatement and some of the stuff is even told out of order or taken apart and details spread around, but it's (again) really awesome that basically the same story can be told in different ways. This is because Otomo is a good story teller. It's one of the most engrossing reads I can remember. I told the guy who loaned it to me that I just picked up one of the volumes, opened to a random page, saw characters I had never seen before in a place I didn't recognize and five minutes later I realized I had gotten completely sucked in. He smiled, "Was something exploding? Chances are that that something was exploding." He was right. The characters talked for a page or two and then something exploded. With so many things exploding, it would have been difficult for him to be wrong.

Finished Daniel Abraham's The King's Blood a few days ago. Basically everything about the first book was improved upon. Really, really dope stuff, and totally worth a look if you love Martin and/or Abercrombie.

Have you read his Long Price Quartet series? I'm currently trying to get into the first book. It's been kinda slow so far, albeit with an interesting concept in the shape of the Andat. I didn't find the writing to be as page-turner-y, fluid and natural as with The Expanse, so maybe that's Ty Franck missing (or the fact that it precedes Abraham's work as James S. A. Corey). But solid and the stage is still being set.

I haven't. I saw at the end of The Dragon's Path in that interview Orbit books always have that he tried to make that a fantasy series without much action or whathaveyou.

I can tell he loves character-driven stuff, too. Stick with it. If not, The Dagger & The Coin feels a good bit Expanse-like.

I'm about 1/3rd of the way through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Needless to say I'm finding it quite boring, although she has a clear and forceful way of presenting her arguments and I agree with most of them. All people want to live well and prosper, but most don't have the intelligence and drive to succeed, which creates a hell of a lot of bitterness and resentment throughout society. This resentment finds a voice in left-wing movements which seek to punish the able for the suffering they've caused the less able (the fact that happy, successful people exist causes most people a lot of suffering, as their own minor achievements and personal qualities seem trivial in comparison). Over time the political centre begins to see the left as having some credibility and thus more and more government intervention is allowed to meddle in the economy (as 'moderation' is always a good thing, apparently).

As a brit, I've only recently discovered her work online (she is virtually unknown in this country), through various randroids I've seen popping up on forums and the like. As dogmatic as they are, these randroids impressed me with their constant demand that every argument be backed up by reason and evidence - they seemed the complete opposite of the collectivist second handers who are more than happy to take on the views spouted by 'respectable' intellectuals, regardless of whether or not these views happen to be true.

I haven't read actually Rand's writings themselves, this seems hypocritical and ironic. These randroids clearly aren't substantially more intellectually honest just by using Rand's so-called reason and evidence as theirs, when they spout their dogmatic Randist agenda.

Rand is an hypocrite, she relied on government assistance for the last few years of her life. Not to mention her ideology is not remotely evidence-based and her novels are just full of straw-versions of her ideological opponents. Randroids really are fucking idiots.

I recently finished reading "Big Trouble" by Dave Barry. That book is funny beyond words, Barry's ability to keep four stories going on within the same main plot made the book seem like a movie with different scenes and sub-plots. I recommend it to anyone who thinks that they can handle more than a lifetime's worth of laughing.

I'm currently reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

It's a topic that's intrigued me for a long time -- that is, the concept of the duality/split-nature of man; the ability of someone to be merely one conscious of many fighting for control of the same shell. Pretty neat. (The book also holds sentimental value for me. I read and dissected it with a friend last year, and as he took his own life a few months ago, something has finally spurred me to read it again.)

Stevenson makes some interesting points throughout the novella as well. Among them are: to what extent should man restrain himself? How does one go about moderation in a world of extremes? Are good and evil absolutes or do they leak into one another, some convoluted, mixed sense of morality being created?

Anyways, I rather like the book.

Oh, I meant to respond to this and forgot. I read Akira some years back and concur, I really enjoyed it. After reading the manga you can tell why the movie made zero fucking sense - it condenses hundreds of pages, many of them very dialog-heavy, into less than two hours. The entire bit at the end where Tetsuo's psychic minions take over Tokyo and turn it into their kingdom is completely cut out, and it's one of the best parts of the whole manga. Also, the metaphysical parts make way more sense. It's a lot clearer exactly what happens at the end, and why.

If you liked Akira, you should definitely read Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, the manga based on the movie of the same name. It's also by Miyazaki, but the story told by the movie is just one small part of the sprawling epic story that encompasses the fate of multiple nations and the entire world. The sheer number of amazing, weird ideas reminds me a lot of Gene Wolfe. It's a must-read, imo.

Also, you might try 20th Century Boys. It shares some themes with Akira - childhood friends growing apart, weird powers disrupting society - but the handling is very different. Basically a normal guy who works in a corner store discovers that this weird, secretive, possibly dangerous cult (think more Scientology or Jim Jones than anything occult) is using symbols and phrases he and his childhood friends came up with for their secret club and make-believe adventures when they were in elementary school - the guy knows it has to be someone from his childhood, and without much going on in his life, he decides to figure out who is behind it.

Where it gets really interesting is in the exploration of memory, specifically childhood memory. As the guy tracks down more and more of his friends from that time, they gradually piece together their fragmentary memories, filling out a picture that starts out very simple - the one childish perspective seen in black and white - and gradually becomes more and more complex. If you've ever talked to your childhood friends or siblings about things that happened when you were very young, you know that often there are huge gaps in memory, or you remember things completely wrong, or had a completely wrong interpretation of events.

What makes 20th Century Boys especially good is the characters. Every one of them is extremely memorable, and even the villains are fleshed out and made human, in the way Miyazaki often does. Since the progression from childhood to adulthood is explored in such depth, and how the events that affect us as children shape us into the adults we later become, the series goes into great detail about why the "good guys" become good, and why the "bad guys" become bad. It's long, but worth it.

Rad. I was hesitant to even put AKIRA in here since it's not really lit, but figured it's worthy .. up there with Watchmen. I'm basically astounded by the scale of this story. It's fucking massive. I'm really glad it doesn't take too many subplot tangents. So far it's a pretty linear story that just keeps extending and intensifying. Ach the illustration is so fucking good. I'm really glad that the movie doesn't just pale. It's not as broad, of course, or as deep necessarily, but I did enjoy the kind of abstract bent the animation took as a result. The story is of course told a lot more clearly in the manga, and as I go, in a more satisfying way. Really outstanding on all levels. (Had to kind of jump over the end of that first paragraph, though, since I'm not to that part yet, Tetsuo only just gained clown leadership and took all their drugs. Now that I think about it, I'm really pleased by how big a role drugs play in that story.)

I remember watching the movie of Nausicaa, and being really intrigued by the imagination of it. I've only seen it once, and have meant to get back to it. Had completely overlooked the fact that it was a manga on its own. That sounds really interesting. Miyazaki's inventiveness is really something else. He always does such interesting and unexpected things with seemingly simple ease. A very deft and poignant story teller. He's really an "all ages" kind of writer.

I'll see what I can do about getting those other recs. Might be able to rustle them up at a library or ask around to friends.

Also, I've been meaning to say your memory kind of stuns me. You know tons of shit.

Oh, my bad, I thought you'd finished it. And yeah, when you think about it, it's kind of a no-brainer - drugs work primarily on mental processes, and psychic powers are of course a mental process, and given how deeply drugs can affect your mental processes, they'd undoubtedly have some sort of profound effect on each other. Yet I can't think of another significant instance of these two things being mixed like that - I guess psychic powers are usually dealt with in a "higher" tone, with spirituality and meditation or fake science jargon, while drugs are usually "lower" tone stuff.


Unfortunately, that good memory mostly just applies to fiction - movies, prose, comics - anything that tells some sort of story. I'm terrible at remembering people's names, and can put my glasses down and forget where they are in the time it takes me to change a shirt.

I'm like that with my apparently overwhelming sum of two beanies. I can't fucking keep track of those things. My apartment isn't even that big! Not so many cushions! The fuck!?

Yeah, you're right. Psychic/heightened mental power is treated as this rarified, elevated thing. Or similar to inexplicable magic. Maybe only in the case of the spice from your favorite author are the two combined in a similar way.

Another thing I enjoy about the story is that we're basically just dropped into it and it's already at a full run. There's virtually no ramp up before something happens. I'm also really pleased that character development and plot development are basically the same thing, or rather the characters have to basically sprint to keep up with unfolding events. I really hate narrative hand holding. Just build the world and let it run the show. People don't really control shit when it comes to macroscopic events, and I love it when stories use that as the plot engine instead of contrived drama.

Has anyone here ever read any of the Sagas of Icelanders? The prose is not exactly evocative, but it's still kinda neat to read about 10th and 11th century Norse culture and exploits. It seems feuding was a popular activity at the time.

http://sagadb.org/

That's the same page I used to visit when I was reading that stuff. As a sort of historical source it's pretty great, a good mix of history and myth. Skallagrim rules btw.

Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgenson.

This is one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. Not quite finished it, but holy fark it's impossibly amazing he's even alive. Lemmy's White Line Fever (also great) is soooo tame in comparison.

Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice was pretty cool. Had a bit of a rough go at first figuring out what the hell was going on and when, as there's some flashbacks but I really liked it. Extremely well written, too.

Brandon Sanderson's The Hero of Ages was very good. Read this one in chunks as I kept picking it up, reading maybe 100 or so pages before finding something else I'd rather read. The best book in the initial Mistborn trilogy, even if the ending seemed a bit abrupt. Looking forward to reading the next stuff since he said they'll be shorter, more concise stories. Can't wait til the space opera trilogy!

I thought it dragged a bit sometimes, but she's a solid writer and the concept's neat. It's indeed a complex novel and not the easiest thing to get into, but definitely worth reading. There's two sequels by now. Might check them out at some point, even though I didn't feel especially keen on continuing after reading the first. Reviews have been positive, at least.

Yeah, I remember a chapter or two where nothing happened at all, really. But I guess after my exposure to Tad Williams and Robert Jordan I have a higher tolerance for a story that isn't always moving forward.

About two thirds of the way through Blood Meridian. I like it quite a bit - the way the desert and all these images are described is so haunting and evocative, and I love the way it contorts these landscapes into something alien and nightmareish when really it's just the old West. The Judge is a whackjob and I never know what he is going to do next. The sort of aimless feel, just over and over wandering through the desert killing people, just adds to the nihilism, and it's different because you expect there to be some moral compass or normal arc, but there hasn't been yet.

Blood Meridian is definitely one of my favourite books. His landscape descriptions are impeccable and the way he describes violence is deeply unsettling to say the least. The judge is an absolutely great character and it will only get better from there. The book is like 90% just landscape descriptions and scenes of horrific violence, but man does ever do it well. Currently reading another McCarthy book, Suttree. I'll post more about it when I've finished.

Based on that description, I think I'll read Blood Meridian next. I tried to read Riders of the Purple Sage, but it turned out to actually be a sneaky romance novel disguised as a western. There was practically no violence at all, and while there were lots of descriptions of the scenery, it was more about the narrator describing people's feelings in overblown language than anything I associate with the western genre.

Can't say say I'm anything near to being an export on that genre, but if you like the general style of McCarthy's prose - disregarding his talent for painting bleak narratives and landscapes like in Blood Meridian or The Road for a moment - then it might be worth to take shot at Charles Portis.

Admittedly I became aware of him through the Coen brothers making a film based on his novel True Grit (so I'm biased in judging that book), but I really enjoyed his writing in Norwood. His laconic style bears a lot of similarity, and the occasional dry wit you can find in McCarthy's writing is more pronounced in Portis' writing. Judging from those two books, at least.

Yes, you mentioned Charles Portis to me last page. I haven't forgotten! I just already own Blood Meridian.

The Road was effective, but honestly I don't need to read it again ever I don't think. It was too effective in that way. Just depressing more than anything. Blood Meridian I actually do like quite a lot. Horrific imagery, some of the most violent shit I've read, but the atmosphere is soul sucking and the nihilism in it is kind of poetic due to how good of a writer McCarthy is. I can't imagine you'd have a problem with it, FSM.

I have read all McCarths stuff several times, man this guy is awesome. As I say every time someone mentions Blood Meridian, it's my favorite book. Suttree is really good too, hope you enjoy it, dystopia4.

For cool westerns, I can't come with many recommendations. "Warlock" by Oakley Hall is pretty cool, much more a classic Western than Blood Meridian which is basically an anti-Western mixed with road movie "structure", landscape descriptions and oh, just so much violence.

This. Blood Meridian's the best book imaginable, but Suttree's almost as good in quite a different way. I've really loved every McCarthy book I've read, which is most. I really hope he has at least one more novel in him.



So I did indeed end up getting through this one and unfortunately I'd have to say I'm part of the camp who considers it one of Lovecraft's weaker stories. It's got some cool passages and potent imagery typical of him, but it's incredibly long-winded and overwrought, and not in a good or exciting way. And at 140 pages it just wasn't nearly as memorable as some of his way shorter stories. The collection it was in had some other stories which I hadn't read like The White Ship, The Strange House in the High Mist, The Silver Key, and its sequel, Through the Gates of the Silver Key, all of which I enjoyed a lot more.

I quite like The Dream Quest, though it's some time since I read it. It's much more mellow, if that's the right word, than most of his other stuff, but for me it's still just weird in a good way. Just be prepared for something different than Lovecraft's more well known stuff.

I'm now desperately awaiting my mail-order copy of Blood Meridian because of you guys. I've wanted to check it out for a long time, but now I've been hit by the hype train.

Just spreading around the good word. Enjoy.

I just thought to myself: I really want a McCarthy book with a female lead.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but isn't his upcoming novel supposed to feature a female lead? I've also read All the Pretty Horses by him and it was quite good. Same sort of vibes as Blood Meridian but much more accessible. Have the whole Border Trilogy in one book, will definitely have to read the other two as well.

I haven't heard anything about a female lead, now I'm intrigued.

Edit: You're right: http://www.newsweek.com/cormac-mccarthy-new-book-363027

Do yourself a favor and go through the other two books in the Border Trilogy. All of them are great, but they're amazing together. The third one ties the first two (which can be read as stand alone novels) together.

The Border Trilogy definitely benefits from being read back-to-back in its entirety, but they're all good books in their own right. I think they get better as they go along actually, at least they get darker and more fucked up. They're not McCarthy at his best, though. It's actually kind of strange to me that he wrote the Western to end all Westerns (Blood Meridian) and then went on to write three fairly straightforward but very good Western stories with the Border Trilogy. Eh, McCarthy can do whatever the hell he wants.

Ooops!

To distract a bit from the western theme, anyone can recommend something akin to Nabokov? I re-read some passages from Pale Fire, and despite his obsession with overly exact literary expression (I did not have to look up that many words in The Whale even) I find it captivating and even funny; framing the narration through the perspective of The Great Beaver and his megalomaniac tendencies (and utter social repulsiveness) definitely helps with that.

Anything similar coming to mind? Should I finally get around to reading Lolita, or Pnin?

Lolita is the only Nabakov I've read, but I loved it. Really captivating from the very first sentence. I'd definitely recommend that if you're looking for more Nabakov, or something like him.

I have been meaning to reread Lolita. Sometime soon - it's a delightfully twisted, dark, fucked up trip, and the writing is magnificent.

Blood Meridian - I can't get it out of my head. dystopia, man, you weren't fucking around when you said it gets worse. The last 30 pages or so, fucking hell. A huge, dark, bizarre experience.

Another great Western novel is The Son by Phillip Meyer. It's very different from Blood Meridian, more character focused and aimed at a large historical narrative, but it's a magnificent book and hits at a lot of very American ideals of greed and pride and what not, as well as the very dark primal urge of violence, which is where the Blood Meridian comparison comes in - though really not much, just a similar feel and theme, it's much easier to read and a different story overall. It's about a young boy who gets taken by Comanche indians and raised by them for years, then escapes back to white society. The way all the characters interact and their flaws and faults play out over generations is great. It's an amazing book, one of the next great American novels. Tremendous drama.

It never will get out of your head. I think The Judge has to be one of the most enduring characters in literature.

This monologue of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIQynsWpBpQ

Alright, Blood Meridian-icks, I want some insights and inputs to one of the, in my eyes, (admittedly, many) defining quotes of BM's central themes and arguments and a glorious example of McCarthy's opaque and 'biblical' language:

"Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world’s turnings will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man’s will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay."

What do you think this means, all of it?

Have I raved about Clark Ashton Smith here yet? I just got my hands on a small collection of short stories and I'm floored. He's so special. I read The Black Eidolon last night and loved every word of it. The way he writes such macabre things with such flowery language...it's beautiful. Other favorites so far are The Black Abbot of Puthuum which has a real Howard on acid vibe, and The Gardens of Adompha which is morbid and perverse.

Both of the stories that center around Maal Dweb have been fantastic as well. All of it has really. I know I'm way late to the party here, and yes I know about the website with all his stuff.