Me But No!
#236 posted by Spirit on 2012/12/08 11:13:22
Silly EFF chart: https://www.eff.org/pages/reader-privacy-chart-2012
Without a cellular modem you should be pretty safe against remote backdoors like Amazon uses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S43YqAfpXQU is a long review video. PDF reading seems not so great, no reflow or column snapping. Damn.
HORROR.
#237 posted by Shambler on 2013/11/09 11:43:44
Anyone got any good recommendations for modern horror??
Particularly stuff where the environment / scenario / world-view is dark, fucked up and evil.
I do NOT like stuff where it all boils down to someone vaguely humanoid offing people in a cliched serial killer type way. I don't like vintage / classic horror with archaic writing.
Must have good, clear, snappy writing. NOT Stephen King (dull as fuck) nor Dean Koontz (lightweight as fuck) style.
Here's a few I've read recently with varying degrees of enjoyment:
Adam Nevill - Last Days - probably the best I've read, first 2/3 is great and genuinely creepy, last 1/3 both a bit long-winded and Hollywood-y but still good overall.
Dan Simmons - The Terror - lengthy but still quite gripping, gruelling setting and intriguing mythology.
FG Cottam - Dark Echo - can't remember much but it was spooky and the obsession of the characters in the mystery was good.
Michelle Paver - Dark Matter - great setting and initially intruiging although fades out at end.
Adam Nevill - The Ritual - pretty good, classic lost in the woods style to start and then goes into odder and less rewarding territory.
Dean Koontz - Phantoms - cliched characters and interactions but quite a good set-up.
Stephen Laws - Chasm - ditto! cool set-up but the epic potential a bit wasted with bland interactions.
Joe Hill - Horns - interesting idea but didn't really capitalise on it.
Dean Koontz - Hideaway - the Radio 1 of horror, yes that bland and lightweight.
#238 posted by Drew on 2013/11/12 03:08:13
Have you read The Terror by Dan Simmons? You'd like it. Historical metafiction with a blatant, shameless lovecraft/poe influence.
Its not a modern masterpiece but its very good enjoyable, page turning horror.
Laird Barron
#239 posted by Tronyn on 2013/11/12 05:38:12
I read a story of his in an anthology of Lovecraft-influenced stuff - normally I don't buy those, but this one was edited by S. T. Joshi, and I'll buy basically any book with his name on it. Anyway, Barron had a story in there called "The Broadsword" which I thought was really creepy, a few times I was thinking "just what the fuck!!" Anyway, apparently he came out with a book a while ago called "The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All." I'm planning to check it out when I get a chance, probably over christmas.
Drew.
#240 posted by Shambler on 2013/11/12 12:44:04
Did you read my post?
#241 posted by Spirit on 2013/11/12 12:55:31
Re the e-book reader discussion above, I got myself a 250� chinese 10 inch 1920x1080 tablet and am very happy with it for reading.
Hahaha
#242 posted by Drew on 2013/11/12 16:07:39
shit.
I Usually Hate This Kind Of Announcement
#243 posted by mfx on 2013/11/28 08:56:38
but these look quite neat.
The Video Game Bundle 2.0
Does anyone know a book out of these?
Books...
#244 posted by Shambler on 2014/07/07 21:04:17
Andy Weir - The Martian
Very nice book this. Basically "Gravity, on Mars, written by a droll blogger" - easy to read, witty in places, and grounded with lots of logic and scientific procedure - probably enough to satisfy even the most boring pedant who prefers nit-picking the science rather than enjoying the fiction. Well recommended.
Other than that I have been reading a lot of Robert Charles Wilson recently, Blind Lake and The Harvest being highlights, almost as good as Darwinia and The Chronoliths.
#245 posted by Joel B on 2014/07/07 23:07:29
Welp I just bought The Martian for reading-on-train purposes. Looks like a good fit for that!
I finished _The City and The City_ by China Mieville a couple of days ago. Very satisfying. It's a completely odd premise but the prose and the plot built on it are grounded... not what I expected from Mieville, but it works for what is essentially a noir police procedural. It's made me interested in picking up some more recent Mieville stuff.
The City And The City.
#246 posted by Shambler on 2014/07/08 00:10:57
Brilliant book, was my favourite book of whichever year it came out. I should get it digitally, it's one I'd just like to have in my collection.
I then read his Kraken after it which was relatively bollox.
#247 posted by Joel B on 2014/07/08 01:43:53
Have you read Embassytown or Railsea? I'm eyeing both of those.
Railsea Was Okay.
#248 posted by Shambler on 2014/07/08 11:39:51
Quite Young Adult but more entertaining than Kraken. Didn't try Embassytown.
Great Author, Great Speech
#249 posted by bal on 2014/11/21 12:37:49
Some Recent Stuff
#250 posted by ionous on 2014/11/21 19:48:10
Joe Hill - NOS4A2
Quick-paced epic about a woman's life-long conflict with a soul-destroying child kidnapper. Grotesque imagery abound, chilling villains, and even if it does somewhat run out of steam at the end, the journey itself is more than worth it.
Patrick Rothfuss - The Slow Regard of Silent Things
As much as I appreciate the author's attempt to do something that defies conventional description...man was this a fucking slog to get through. It has the strange effect of making my eyelids unbearably heavy each time I opened the book. Get back to 'The Doors of Stone', please.
Joe Hill.
#251 posted by Shambler on 2014/11/21 22:02:13
Horns - didn't inspire me to read much more of his stuff.
Southern Reach
#252 posted by bal on 2014/11/21 23:20:36
Southern Reach trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer, you should all go read it before Hollywood makes a shitty movie adaptation!
It's got some nice weird Lovecraft-ish stuff even, kind of.
Ionous
#253 posted by Spirit on 2014/11/22 00:38:02
Give the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson a try. The second book of the Kingkiller series was such rubbish I gave up on it. :(
Joe Hill...
#254 posted by ionous on 2014/11/22 00:47:46
I cannot get enough of, though to be fair, I thought Horns was the least of his works. If you have the chance to check out 'Heart-Shaped Box', give it a try. One of my favorite ghost stories ever written.
Lovecraft stuff! I'm sold
I am searching for new reading material right now (once I finish Stephen King's 'Revival'), so maybe the Stormlight Archive is for me.
I love 'The Wise Man's Fear' with an unhealthy intensity. I appreciate it's meandering sections, as it delves into the tedium and non-glorious parts that lie between the reality of legend. I was having this exact debate with someone on facebook just yesterday. Not to mention one of the 'villains' introduced in the latter part of the books is one of the coolest ideas for an antagonist I've seen.
It even inspired me to try to write my own version of Book Three. Only got 30k words into it before stopping, though...maybe I'll pick it up again someday.
Stephen King's 'Revival'
#255 posted by ionous on 2014/11/27 19:36:13
Just finished Stephen King's 'Revival'. Never has King's admiration for Lovecraft been on more obvious display; it almost feels like a love letter to H.P. Not that this is a negative; rather, it works wonderfully, a slow-burn that builds up to one the more chilling and unnerving climaxes in his bibliography.
Not to mention quotes of pure gold such as this one:
"There's no proof of these after-life destinations; no backbone of science; there is only the bald assurance, coupled with out powerful need to believe that it all makes sense. But as I stood in the back room of Peabody's and looked down at the mangled remains of my boy, who wanted to go to Disneyland much more than he wanted to go to heaven, I had a revelation. Religion is the theological equivalent of a quick-buck insurance scam, where you pay in your premium year after year, and then, when you need the benefits you paid so - pardon the pun - so religiously, you discover the company that took your money does not, in fact, exist."
Sounds Just As Turgid...
#256 posted by Shambler on 2014/11/27 20:15:30
...as any other King novel I've had the misfortune to dip in briefly before realising that he is a terrible writer.
I Liked IT
#257 posted by RickyT33 on 2014/11/27 20:34:41
and Pet Cemetery
Meh
#258 posted by Drew on 2014/11/27 20:49:59
I have a soft spot for King's good stuff, which is indeed good.
his book on writing - 'on writing' -is fucking awesome.
2nd "On Writing"
#259 posted by Zwiffle on 2014/11/27 22:29:58
Very good book.
#260 posted by czg on 2014/11/28 15:59:45
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