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Read anything good lately?

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Gorgunsun
Dreamer
Posts: 72
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:14 am
Character Name(s): Gorgunsun, Gromnir
Location: Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States

Read anything good lately?

Post by Gorgunsun »

I try and devour as many books as I can to keep my brain from being too fidgety. Last few books I knocked out:
The King in Yellow
The Disaster Artist
Distrust that Particular Flavor

Anything neat on the other side?
Pheasant
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Posts: 118
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:24 am

Re: Read anything good lately?

Post by Pheasant »

I'm the dark, morbid, depressing, tragic sort.
I'll read anything by r.h. Sin. (With the exception of a few of his poems that touch on some sensitive political issues...)

Also, this one may look and sound like a kid's book, but it's not. "everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too" by Jomny Sun

"Chasers of the Light: Poems from The Typewriter Series" by Tyler Knott Gregson

I used to read Stephen King novels, but got bored... But now I'm looking forward to reading "Sleeping Beauties".

Aaaand that's about it.
DONE
Richard Shru
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Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2017 6:24 pm

Re: Read anything good lately?

Post by Richard Shru »

You ever read a book you really enjoyed, only to go back and realize it was incredibly flawed and ridiculous in retrospect, and you're almost embarrassed that you enjoyed it before? That's been my experience lately with After the Downfall by Harry Turtledove. And to be clear, its already a bit of a ridiculous premise that drew me into it initially...its all about a 1944 Wehrmacht Officer sitting on a throne in the Berlin Museum as the Soviet's advance into the heart of the city, and suddenly being transported to a fantasy High Medieval universe, where he immediately gets laid by a goddess and joins a blond-hair blue eyed invaders who provide him with a unicorn that he rides into battle against the fantasy Slavic natives. Already a rather odd read to begin with, but honestly not that ridiculous as far as some fantasy/alt history reads go.

The problem is that the internal monologues of the main character, Officer Haso, is unbelievably ridiculous. As in I literally don't believe him. The story sets up as a 'change of heart', 'dances with Russians' situation, which is interesting to me! But the entire internal conflict lasts from the time it takes for him to go from Berlin to Fantasy Planet X. He literally lands and immediately starts undermining his own beliefs and acting somewhat oddly, despite an entire culture around him that mirrors his ostensible belief system from before, and normalizing it. Yet he's going to act like a modern liberal. The story itself is interesting, if rather odd since he obviously does switch sides. And the writing itself is competent, if again somewhat odd at times. But out of all the weird elements of this story, the one that I just can't get behind is how this character thinks, and its unfortunate since the story itself could have worked out well if only Turtledove would commit to the decision to write a redemption arc.

....not sure what possessed me to write a full review of this, but for some reason it just felt wrong to say "After the End" and press submit.
Gorgunsun
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Posts: 72
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:14 am
Character Name(s): Gorgunsun, Gromnir
Location: Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States

Re: Read anything good lately?

Post by Gorgunsun »

Well obviously you enjoyed it enough to come back and do an autopsy on it.
Just finished up Requiem for a Dream, what a bright lil ray of sunshine. After this I'm gonna go mop up some more Cormac Mcarthy. So far I've done "Blood Meridian" and "No Country for Old Men" by him.... both are awesome.
Gorgunsun
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Posts: 72
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:14 am
Character Name(s): Gorgunsun, Gromnir
Location: Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States

Re: Read anything good lately?

Post by Gorgunsun »

Oh and Hael.......... every few months I re-read Cycle of the Werewolf. I still have a copy of that and the illustrations haunted me in the 80s and still stand out. I think the guy did alot of issues of Swamp Thing too. Another Stephen King fave.
Tary
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Posts: 264
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:09 am

Re: Read anything good lately?

Post by Tary »

Richard Shru wrote:You ever read a book you really enjoyed, only to go back and realize it was incredibly flawed and ridiculous in retrospect, and you're almost embarrassed that you enjoyed it before? That's been my experience lately with After the Downfall by Harry Turtledove. And to be clear, its already a bit of a ridiculous premise that drew me into it initially...its all about a 1944 Wehrmacht Officer sitting on a throne in the Berlin Museum as the Soviet's advance into the heart of the city, and suddenly being transported to a fantasy High Medieval universe, where he immediately gets laid by a goddess and joins a blond-hair blue eyed invaders who provide him with a unicorn that he rides into battle against the fantasy Slavic natives. Already a rather odd read to begin with, but honestly not that ridiculous as far as some fantasy/alt history reads go.

The problem is that the internal monologues of the main character, Officer Haso, is unbelievably ridiculous. As in I literally don't believe him. The story sets up as a 'change of heart', 'dances with Russians' situation, which is interesting to me! But the entire internal conflict lasts from the time it takes for him to go from Berlin to Fantasy Planet X. He literally lands and immediately starts undermining his own beliefs and acting somewhat oddly, despite an entire culture around him that mirrors his ostensible belief system from before, and normalizing it. Yet he's going to act like a modern liberal. The story itself is interesting, if rather odd since he obviously does switch sides. And the writing itself is competent, if again somewhat odd at times. But out of all the weird elements of this story, the one that I just can't get behind is how this character thinks, and its unfortunate since the story itself could have worked out well if only Turtledove would commit to the decision to write a redemption arc.

....not sure what possessed me to write a full review of this, but for some reason it just felt wrong to say "After the End" and press submit.
Is that the same book that requires you to suspend your disbelief at the ability for some random soldier to concoct gunpowder and bullets in an agrarian fantasy universe? If so I read that book. The concept was interesting but honestly I hated it.
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