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What'cha Reading?

Octopus Prime

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
TIL: There's a Alien tie-in novel that is just a straight up epic fantasy novel that happens to have friggin' Xenomorphs in it for some reason (Alien: Phalanx)

So naturally I bought that sucker immediately

As per Wikipedia:
The #1 New York Times best-selling author of Infected delivers medieval carnage as a pre-industrial society fights extinction at the hands of a massive infestation of Xenomorphs.

Ataegina was an isolated world of medieval castles, varied cultures, and conquests, vibrant until the demons rose and spread relentless destruction. Swarms of lethal creatures with black husks, murderous claws, barbed tails and dreaded "tooth-tongues" raged through the lowlands, killing ninety percent of the planet's population. Terrified survivors fled to hidden mountain keeps where they eke out a meager existence. When a trio of young warriors discovers a new weapon, they see a chance to end this curse. To save humanity, the trio must fight their way to the tunnels of Black Smoke Mountain--the lair of the mythical Demon Mother.
Click to expand...
 
FelixSH

FelixSH

(He/Him)
Started to reread Animal Farm, after way too many years. I'm just at the start, where the animals threw out the farmer, and Napoleon is already shown to be up to something.

Need to take a bit of a break from reading right now, but I should be done very soon. Excellent book.
 
masterthes

masterthes

Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. I really haven't read/completed anything big so far this year. I'm already 100 pages in so far and enjoying it. I think I managed 30 pages or so a while back and was just not in the mood for it at the time. Now, I think I am
 
FelixSH

FelixSH

(He/Him)
And done with Animal Farm. It is a fascinating case of being really funny at times, but also really grim. Similar to Kafka, I never found the humour when I was younger. But now, it is so obvious, how basically every sentence is full of cynisicm and sarcasm. There is a scene, where the pigs find some alcohol. Next day, they tell the animals that Napoleon, their leader, is dying. Next day, they forbid any alcohol to be drunk, ever. Some days later, they order some beer. It's deeply depressing, and totally hilarious. Well done, Orwell.

Also, it's not quite structured like I would expect a book to be, but maybe that's more my modern sensibilities and expectations. Especially when you know how it ends, you know immediately that Napoleon is up to no good, taking the milk and the puppies away. But even when reading for the first time, you probably know that something is up, when the pigs take the apples for themselves, and Squealer tells the other animals how totally important it is for pigs to eat apples and drink milk, even if they don't like them. Also, the pigs immediately take on the role of manager, and don't do the physical labour with the others. They take on the role of the humans from the word go. I would expect this to be more of a twist in the middle, with more care being taken, so that people would assume the pigs mean well. But maybe it was always clear what this book was about, and, again, modern sensibilities - I guess people weren't as obsessed with twists, as we are now.

But damn, what a depressing book. With every piece of hope being taken, twisted and used against the ones who hoped, just to end worse than it started.

One question, though. It actually feels like a harsh critisicm against the workers, who supported the revolution, trusting their lives would get better. But the animals are so dumb, always believing every lie, and never stopping to believe in Napoleon. If this is a warning, I kind of get it - don't believe in communism, you have seen where it leads. But I do hope it wasn't targeted against he people of Russia, back in the day.
 
masterthes

masterthes

Some updates:
I recently finished 80 Years of Superman, which was fantastic. It was pretty neat getting to read some of the old Superman comics and see how he evolved, and I finished today Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 6, which was okay, but the quality dipped big time from the last one (but it's kind of hard to top Dark Phoenix and Days of Future, Past,

Going back to fiction to read Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau. I've heard good things. I've had it on hold for a while, so I'm hoping it's worth it
 
masterthes

masterthes

If you're a Ray Bradbury fan, I highly recommend that book.

Switching back to historical with Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
 
masterthes

masterthes

It's back to Sci-Fi September and I'm currently reading Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill and I am enjoying it immensely. It is so good
 
Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
I've been reading David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, his account of the beginning of the Vietnam War. All the missteps, all the lies, how the Red Scare of the decade earlier effectively removed from the State and Defense Dept any actual experts on China or Vietnam. How there seemed to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what was happening in Vietnam, coupled with a fundamental refusal to actual learn.

What a depressing read and what a depressing experience seeing so many similarities in it and the Forever War.
 
masterthes

masterthes

Yeah, Sea of Rust was excellent. Now for some sci-fi horror with The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.D. Hudspeth
 
Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Anyone here pick up Rabbits by Terry Miles?

Or listen to any of his podcasts? (Black Tapes, Tanis, Rabbits)
 
shivam

shivam

commander damage
(he/hiim)
in preparation for an interview with Seanan McGuire, i started reading her October Daye series, and it's pretty good for urban fantasy
 
Positronic Brain

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
shivam said:
in preparation for an interview with Seanan McGuire, i started reading her October Daye series, and it's pretty good for urban fantasy
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You're interviewing her? That's cool, she's one of my favorite authors.

I bounced off October Daye, though (a bit too, dunno, urban and faye for me) but the InCryptid series is urban too and I enjoyed it a lot more. Her best work has to be the Wayward Children series, though - Every Heart A Doorway is a great red.

(I also like her Spider-Gwen)
 
shivam

shivam

commander damage
(he/hiim)
yeah, i'm not into urban or faerie stuff, but the narrator voice is delightful, and the story takes place in my city, so i'm more keen on it than i'd be otherwise =)
 
masterthes

masterthes

It's October, which means time for some horror/spooky books, starting off with some new fiction: Tidepool by Nicole Willson
 
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