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iamntbatman
Chaos Breed

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:08 pm 
 

Uhhh. I'd say it sits squarely between the two, maybe slightly leaning toward sci-fi, but it contains strong elements of both.
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~Guest 21181
The Great Fearmonger

Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 3:44 am
Posts: 3987
PostPosted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:43 pm 
 

Shouldn't be an issue for someone who hasn't read much sci-fi then? Cool.

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Under_Starmere
Abhorrent Fish-Man

Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:00 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:20 am 
 

It's sci-fa.
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~Guest 21181
The Great Fearmonger

Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 3:44 am
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:49 am 
 

Think I will probably get part I tomorrow then. Been a long time since I started from scratch with a fiction author, kind of exciting. :)

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TheHumanMachine
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:04 am
Posts: 43
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 11:32 am 
 

iamntbatman wrote:
So, I've found a new a bottomless pit of the internet: Goodreads comments. Due to the very nature of the subject, these read like the exact antithesis of YouTube comments; it's a never-ending cesspool of intellectual oneupsmanship with layer upon layer of people trying to have the most academic yet iconoclastic, edgy opinions on, well, everything.

Here's a wonderful sample: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1459299


I like how the author of that comment spends the entire review talking about how the overarching plot of the series is bloated and subject to cheap cliché, then mentions at the veeerry end that they didn't even finish the first book. :lol:
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 11:42 am 
 

This is the most wrong thing I can think of in regards to writing:

Quote:
your story is always a fiction, and any time you ignore that fact and treat it as if it were real, you are working against your own writing.


Jesus this is misinformed and pretentious. What a load. Obviously a fictional novel isn't real. But when you put care and precision into writing it, you should get sucked into it as if the characters and story were happening right next to you. That kind of passion should be a driving force.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:50 pm 
 

TheHumanMachine wrote:
I like how the author of that comment spends the entire review talking about how the overarching plot of the series is bloated and subject to cheap cliché, then mentions at the veeerry end that they didn't even finish the first book. :lol:


I know, it's quite glorious.

The comments on the review are well worth a quick skim, since this super-pretentious, oh-so-edgy guy has himself quite the cult following apparently, and of course there are detractors. For a while I was considering spending time looking for a book club on that site with people who share my interests in books, but...I think I'll just stick to this thread, haha.
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MARSDUDE
Shitposter

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:23 pm 
 

Anyone read Stephen King's 'Cell'?

Started this bitch the other day. Power went out last night so I was reading by candle-light. Pretty decent so far. It certainly starts right at the action, and I'm enjoying his descriptions of these cellphone-zombies. And on another note, why do Stephen King's more recent main characters seem to be artists? It's such an easy analogue to the writer, but I'd rather read about writers in crazy situations... lol
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Windom Earle
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:21 pm
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 11:29 pm 
 

can anyone recommend novels with characters in their early 30's - I would like to read a book about someone my age, just once.

thanks

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MARSDUDE
Shitposter

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 1:20 am 
 

Windom Earle wrote:
can anyone recommend novels with characters in their early 30's - I would like to read a book about someone my age, just once.

thanks


'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' by Hunter S. Thompson. I hope you do a lot of drugs.
'The Damnation Game' by Clive Barker. I believe Marty Strauss (one of the leads) is in his early 30s.
'Roadwork' by Stephen King. Watch a man go crazy from all that damn construction.
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Body_Hammer
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 2:36 am 
 

MARSDUDE wrote:
Anyone read Stephen King's 'Cell'?

Started this bitch the other day. Power went out last night so I was reading by candle-light. Pretty decent so far. It certainly starts right at the action, and I'm enjoying his descriptions of these cellphone-zombies. And on another note, why do Stephen King's more recent main characters seem to be artists? It's such an easy analogue to the writer, but I'd rather read about writers in crazy situations... lol


I enjoyed Cell to start with but it got weird and disappointing by the end. It was touted at Stephen King's return to "full-on, balls-to-the-wall horror", but by the latter half of the book that was really not the case.

Allow me to recommend King's "Full Dark, No Stars", though. Best thing that man has done in years.
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ClaymanOnFire
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 3:13 am 
 

Is this the right place to ask for poetry recommendations? I like minimalist tendencies and darker tones. I've read laughably little, so I can't really provide authors I already like. As far as literature goes, I adore John Steinbeck (hope that helps).

More on topic, I decided to read Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, at night, while listening to the Angelic Process. Holy crap. I tried some of his other short stories, but none of them equalled that horrifying little thing.
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andersbang
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:41 am 
 

I can't help you with the poetry, but I'd just like to agree with you that yes, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is awesome. If you want to read another short story with, I think, a similar feel or aesthetic, check out Vrolyck by Mark Samuels: http://freepages.pavilion.net/tartarus/vrolyck.pdf

It is not as vivid as IHNMAIMS, but about just as unsettling.

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Goodly Hah
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 4:46 am
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Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 8:32 pm 
 

Man, nothin' beats being a literature student, does it? The professors are assigning us to read literature that is representative of a period in literature perfectly, without necessarily being something well-known and acknowledged as classic. Nice aim, but what that amounts to is having to read Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton. Ugh. There's some interesting social analysis of the lives of the working-class poor, but that's about it. Bland protagonist, disconnect between the political and romantic themes, overwrought romance, anvilicious morals (yeah, we get it, life for the working class sucks), and a whole heap of ridiculous melodrama (heroine rejects someone's marriage proposal, thus making her realize that she is in love with him - WTF?!). I'm gonna go reread the First Law trilogy again now.
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shouvince
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 20, 2013 1:26 am 
 

I just finished Neverwhere and it was very engaging, almost unputdownable. Thanks for recommendation, grauer. I loved the fantastic realm created around the normal city of London. Each of the characters were interesting to say the least and the story had its fair share of twists. I wish I had read this a decade earlier. Never too late to restart a dormant reading habit, I suppose.

Queuing 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov next, only because goodreads says it's awesome. I'll take this one slow coz I got some studying to do.

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failsafeman
Digital Dictator

Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:45 am
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 20, 2013 2:24 am 
 

ClaymanOnFire wrote:
More on topic, I decided to read Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, at night, while listening to the Angelic Process. Holy crap. I tried some of his other short stories, but none of them equalled that horrifying little thing.

Yeah I had the same reaction, honestly. I haven't read enough of his stuff to write him off entirely, but right now I'm basically of the opinion that he's pretty boring and hugely overrated, except for that one classic short story. He wrote his most famous stuff during an incredibly fertile period of sci-fi's history, and there's just tons of authors from the 60s that I greatly prefer.
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andersbang
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 20, 2013 8:46 am 
 

shouvince wrote:
Queuing 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov next, only because goodreads says it's awesome. I'll take this one slow coz I got some studying to do.


Love this one. The social commentary about Communist Sovjet is a tad thick sometimes, but the antics of Satan and his retinue, the chaotic love between the Master and Margarita and the stories of The Fifth Prefect Pontius Pilate and Yoshua Ha-Nosri (Jesus) are amazing.

I'm finishing up another Russian, Gogols Dead Souls, which I had heard a lot of praise about, but the caricature and social commentary (this time Czarist Russia) was really way too much for my tastes. Still have 10 or so pages to go. After that I'll read The House of Hunger by Marchera, my first stab at African literature I think? After that; The Andromeda Strain.

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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 2:21 am 
 

Almost fell off the page!

Earlier I finished Faulkner's Old Man, which is about a convict in Mississippi who's sent on a rescue mission on the Mississippi River during a huge flood. Lots of really fantastic, colorful descriptions of the river and the destructive power of the flood.

I also finished up Titus Groan recently and will start Gormenghast this weekend. Totally phenomenal. More things start to really happen by the end of the book but basically nothing much happens during the entire first half, but the ludicrous descriptions of the castle and especially the characters is brilliant. I actually read the whole passage describing the poet who looks out the window and is observed by Steerpike like five times because it was so amazingly outlandish. I can't wait for the next book.
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Thumbman
Big Cube

Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:47 pm
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 3:19 am 
 

Since I have a lot of spare time over the holiday break, I think I'll finish The Count of Monte Cristo. Got halfway through a year or two ago and stopped because the school year started. 600 pages down, 600 to go!
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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 8:08 am 
 

I stopped reading Monte Cristo 10-20 pages before it ended. No idea why. This was like 9 years ago.
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Scorntyrant
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 10:44 pm 
 

So, I finished the 4 "Book of the Long Sun" books the other day. Much less of a headfuck than New Sun, although there are still a lot of strange allusions and hidden references throughout. Patera Silk is a much more immediately likeable protagonist than Severian was, and the 3rd person narration makes it easier to follow, without always second-guessing the narrators motives....until the very end, when you realise you are reading Horn's account of events. Which carries over into "On Blue's waters", which I'm around halfway through now.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 2:13 am 
 

Did you just spoil them? I'll kill you. :P

So I've been on a major non-fiction kick for a long time now, psychology and Buddhism and philosophy and evolutionary biology and other stuff. I think I need to get back to fiction. It's got a beauty that non-fiction can't really rival, although both have their pros. I think I need more fiction in my life right now. Dammit, why can't I find my copy of Eco's Foucault's Pendulum!?!?!?! I suppose I could finish Urth of the New Sun!
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Scorntyrant
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 8:14 pm 
 

Nahsil wrote:
Did you just spoil them? I'll kill you. :P
I suppose I could finish Urth of the New Sun!


Prepare to have your brain melt out your ears if you do.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 10:48 pm 
 

The Thanksgiving season screwed up my reading habit, but I'm back on the train. Took a huge chunk out of Gormenghast today and I'll probably finish it in the next couple of days, and will knock out Titus Alone hopefully by next week. Then it's on to Urth of the New Sun for me, too.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 12:13 am 
 

I haven't gotten too far in Urth. Some assassination attempts, some weird cyborg type creatures, acrobatics on these sailing cord things, seeing crazy stuff outside the ship and throwing his book into the...void...? or whatever?

It's been a little out there so far, not that I'm complaining.
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Scorntyrant
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 12:16 am 
 

You might find this useful when you get a bit further:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesod

There's a LOT of Kabalistic theory in Urth
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Marag
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 11:09 pm 
 

What is the best starting point for Schopenhauer?

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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 12:28 am 
 

Finished Gormenghast earlier today. I've read a bunch of neat books since I've been hitting the books hard recently, and Titus Groan was certainly a wonderful book, but holy shit. Gormenghast is *that good*. I honestly haven't been able to get it out of my mind...the book wasn't just profound, it struck a really personal chord with me. It's weird being a guy in his late 20's who thinks of himself as a grizzled old man who simultaneously laughs when younger people say things like, "this changed my life" yet yearns for a time when something could leave so deep an impression, but I think Gormenghast may have done that for me.

I liked Titus Groan and the first half of Gormenghast because Peake does such a fucking phenomenal job of bringing characters and Gormenghast itself to life with some of the most gripping prose I've ever read, but the second half of Gormenghast essentially shifts gears on you; place, ritual, mood and the cast are all established to the point where you feel nothing but comfort with the ebb and flow of tradition. Even if nothing ever really happened you could just get lost in the splendor, decadence and decay of Gormenghast forever. But then, almost suddenly, Titus becomes a human being and his emergence brings out the humanity in other central characters in a way I wasn't really expecting. I thought the flowery prose of Gormenghast *was* Peake, but he was just setting the stage for a tale much more grand.

I'm both eager and scared to move on to Titus Alone, with all of the baggage of the series' state of incompletion looming ever closer.
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MARSDUDE
Shitposter

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:40 am 
 

Started up on my first Dean Koontz book today-- 'Odd Thomas'. I've been recommended him enough times where I finally feel as though I have to pay attention. The book is rather enjoyable so far.
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inhumanist
Metal freak

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 5:24 am 
 

Marag wrote:
What is the best starting point for Schopenhauer?

Kant. :-P
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 11:36 am 
 

My therapist suggested I read something fluffy. I was like "well, I'm reading Gene Wolfe! That's sort of ligh--...well, the vocabulary is nuts and the narrator is unreliable and there's insane complex philosophical and theological themes...maybe not."

Friend of mine is about to finish Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I've never gotten around to, maybe I should borrow that. Something light(er) does sound kind of appealing.
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MARSDUDE
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:28 pm 
 

Nahsil wrote:
My therapist suggested I read something fluffy. I was like "well, I'm reading Gene Wolfe! That's sort of ligh--...well, the vocabulary is nuts and the narrator is unreliable and there's insane complex philosophical and theological themes...maybe not."

Friend of mine is about to finish Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I've never gotten around to, maybe I should borrow that. Something light(er) does sound kind of appealing.


You ever read Discworld? A friend of mine keeps going on about that, so I'm gonna jump in to that world soon. I've read some random page-snippets she sent with her camera and even those were very funny.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:29 pm 
 

Discworld is hilarious, yeah. If I had some Discworld books here I might read those, but they're all at my mom's house.
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MARSDUDE
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:07 pm 
 

So I read James M. Cain's 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' yesterday. I've been meaning to check it out, since it was a book I had to buy for university (but I never stayed long enough to even read the thing for the class). I liked it. It was bloody good fun, and based off the content, I'm not at all surprised by the Boston banning (once upon a time).

Anyway, it's about a guy (Frank Chambers) who's drifting throughout California, stopping for a bite to eat at a diner. He ends up getting a job there, after hitting it off with the owner-- 'The Greek', Nick Papadakis. Frank also has an instant attraction for Nick's wife, Cora, someone who he can immediately tell is quite unhappy with her marriage. He hits on her and the two end up exchanging a passionate kiss (with biting; even drawing blood), thus triggering their sadomasochistic affair. They begin to plot the perfect murder.
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Acidgobblin
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 4:02 am 
 

I'm re-reading Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King. I've loved this book when reading it previously, but have found myself a bit stuck with the realism of some of the dialogue. The second story, populated by at times incredibly deep, philosophical 18 year olds who never seem to be stuck for a good comeback or meaningful declaration of almost fully formed beliefs. Damn, at that age, I could barely think ;) Still, this book is very moving, despite some epic corn and was my first introduction to the Dark Tower, so must pay some homage...

Still looking really forward to reading Dr Sleep- apparently a Christmas present on my way...I sense an epic Stephen King marathon approaching. I have read all his novels at least once, with books like It and The Stand being multi-reads, and feel like he has created a really (and oddly) comfortable world to slip into from time to time.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 4:37 pm 
 

Got to the Isle/Examination in Urth, wtfffffffff is going onnnnnnnnn. Part of me thinks "further reading will help to explain" and then I check myself and think "oh yeah this is Wolfe, probably not."

Really enjoyable and interesting either way.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 4:52 pm 
 

Can't wait to start Urth. Next on my list.

I finished Titus Alone the other day and it was pretty good. I can't really say I liked it as much as Titus Groan or Gormenghast, but it still had a lot going on. Despite sporting the same sort of writing style Peake used throughout the second book, the change of physical setting (along with the seemingly out-of-place shift in time period), the very un-Gormenghast characters and the somewhat jarring shifts in character in Titus himself (he's still got some of his bratty boyish Earl of Groan stuff going on, but has an added layer of awkward post-adolescent womanizing) make for a sort of hazy, unsettling read. I can't help but feel that that's exactly the point, though, as Titus begins to long more and more for the familiarity of Gormenghast as his adventures take him further and further from it both physically and experientially (Firefox tells me this ain't a word, but fuck that!). The final scene was heart-wrenching but probably totally necessary as a send-off to further adventures which unfortunately never came to be, but knowing that they're out there in some alternate universe renders the ending of the book into a fitting conclusion anyway, I think.
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Abominatrix
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 5:28 pm 
 

Totally happy about all your Gormenghast love. It's a tome one never forgets and can always come back to, reading certain passages. I actually read the whole trilogy aloud to my ex some years back and we had a hugely great time with it. I love how every character has his own eccentricity and yet they all become so very human the deeper we go.

As for Titus Alone, it feels like a fever dream to me. It is pretty unnerving because it's easy to imagine Peake's own state of mind when he wrote the thing. But in fact, I really, really like it. And as a conclusion to Titus's own arc, it doesn't serve too badly, though I too wish for other adventures penned by Peake himself.

The story "A Boy in Darkness" is pretty interesting. It's about Titus leaving Gormenghast for a short time as a younger lad and having a very odd and rather horrific adventure....although maybe he only imagined leaving the place?
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Windom Earle
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:02 pm 
 

I'm half way through The Stand - it's pretty awesome. I'm probably going to read a few more King books after this - any recommendations? I'm thinking Salems Lot or Duma Key maybe.

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iamntbatman
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Location: Tyrn Gorthad
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:04 pm 
 

Fever dream is exactly right. Cheeta's "party" for Titus at the end of the book is the perfect way to put a cap on the book, too. I do like the book a lot but Gormenghast was just...man, so fucking excellent!

Edit: I can't stand The Stand. A couple of really cool ideas that, by the end of the book, it becomes apparent that King had no fucking clue what to do with whatsoever. I also read that extended version or whatever that was revised in the 90's I believe with updated cultural references and stuff, but it still felt horribly dated in a really uncomfortable way (like describing crowds of black people in New York hanging around listening to jazz on street corners). Probably would've been much, much better just left alone, but still wouldn't have been great by any means.
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