read any good books lately... |
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Barbu
Forum Senior Member Joined: October 09 2005 Location: infinity Status: Offline Points: 30845 |
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Edited by Barbu - May 22 2017 at 12:10 |
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Barbu
Forum Senior Member Joined: October 09 2005 Location: infinity Status: Offline Points: 30845 |
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20468 |
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Currently reading some good sci-fi pulp.....Dr DOA by Simon Green.
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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UselessPassion
Forum Newbie Joined: May 06 2017 Location: US Status: Offline Points: 38 |
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K.J Bishop's surreal fantasy novel The Etched City. Following a gunslinger and a physician on the run after being on the losing side of a war, the story takes us to a strange and horrifying city called Ashamoil where our broken hero and heroine search for meaning. It's an acquired taste, but if you're willing to endure a bit of obscurity and flowery prose, it's an intelligent and well constructed novel about art, identity, rationality and spirituality, all wrapped up in a dark, dreamlike world. Reminiscent of a western with supernatural elements. It's also filled with monologues. Lots and lots of dramatic monologues. Two little moments I was fond of:
“When I came to this city, I would have agreed with anyone who said there was little mystery left in the world. But in you, madam, first in your image, then in your living self, I saw the allure of something far away and as secret as the stars. As I reached towards this unknown, I began to feel like a man who has ridden through a vast desert, never knowing anything but the sand around him and the dry road under him, then comes upon the mirage of a garden and a city, and finds that the mirage is real, and that it is bigger than the desert; that the desert was, after all his walking, only a small part of the mirage.” “It occurred to Raule that all children were monsters in the world and were instinctively aware of it. They were reminded of their anomalous nature by adults, whom they failed to resemble, and with whose habitations and tools their bodies were at odds. This was surely why the little girl played with the sequins so solemnly and with such intense concentration. She was doing nothing less than conjuring, out of pattern and colour, a world that conformed to her desires and obeyed her will. The boy, on the other hand, showed with the whole attitude of his being that he knew there was only the one world and he would kill it if he could.” https://www.amazon.com/Etched-City-K-J-Bishop/dp/0553382918/ref=cm_rdp_product Highly recommended for fans of dark fantasy or 'new weird' authors like China Mievelle. It's not for everyone, but if it clicks, it will click.
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[Hyperreflective paradigm breaking profundity goes here]
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Online Points: 64351 |
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Kepler62
Forum Senior Member Joined: February 09 2017 Location: Fort Erie Status: Offline Points: 501 |
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Larkstongue41
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"Larks' tongues. Wrens' livers. Chaffinch brains. Jaguars' earlobes. Wolf nipple chips. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Dromedary pretzels, only half a denar."
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Vompatti
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An abridged translation of J. H. Fabre's Souvenirs entomologiques.
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ExittheLemming
Forum Senior Member Joined: October 19 2007 Location: Penal Colony Status: Offline Points: 11415 |
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I bought this purely because I wanted some background to the Hell/Verlaine relationship in the formative stages of one of my favourite bands (Television). Similar to the testimony of 2nd guitarist Richard Lloyd, Verlaine is portrayed as a rather cold, conservative and aloof character who believes himself superior to every other creature on the planet. There must be something in the NYC water supply that makes anyone recollecting the nascent Punk/CBGB scene in the late 70's come across like a bitchy little powder room fag. For what it's worth, Hell is a gifted and honest writer but it's hard to think of him as anything more than a commentator on contemporary fads i.e. his own contribution to culture is his only famous song Blank Generation which he filched wholesale from Bob McFadden & Rod McKuen's 'The Beat Generation' (1959), a frankly dubious claim to have invented anomie, spiky hair, ripped clothes and Punk Rock, and the crap proto-crap band 'The Voidoids' (although the lyrics are excellent on their two released albums) Hell is happily apolitical throughout and that maybe demarcates the US and the UK when it comes to the Punk mindset. Like all enfant terribles and theater ponces who pretend they can't read, Hell ended up becoming the thing he professed to despise i.e. a literary intellectual in his 70's reminiscing about the '70's. As far as what he deems to be the only authentic rock'n'roll, the usual durable luvvies are trotted out: NY Dolls, Stooges, Velvet Underground, Suicide, Reed/Bowie, Heartbreakers et al. Don't let my rabid prejudices put you off, this is an unflinching and sincere memoir centering around a time of great musical upheaval during the late 70's. Edited by ExittheLemming - May 29 2017 at 01:07 |
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BrufordFreak
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I've been a little consumed by the drafting, editing and re-writing of a trilogy of visionary fiction novels that I wrote over the winter. Called The Osiris Plan trilogy, it's set in an all-boys prep school in Switzerland. The books are based on the apocalyptic premise that near-term human extinction is happening (in a combination of forms) and that there are metaphysical/spiritual reasons for the occurrence of this event, and that the youth "in the know" will want to take some action. I hope to see the first of the trilogy, Brig-Wallis Preparatory School for Boys, reach the printable stage by September, with the the second, The Heirs of Osiris to follow some three to six months later.
Wish me luck!
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Drew Fisher
https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Online Points: 64351 |
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Best of luck, Drew, a well-finished bit of write is forever satisfying.
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Prog Snob
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I'm almost finished with American Gods. It was a slow start but as the book continued on it became so much more intriguing. The first chapter with him on the tree is brilliantly written.
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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I'll bet it is. I have lots of ideas in my head but just don't seem to have the discipline to do much in the way of writing. It seems like a lot of work. I have a good friend who has written two science fiction novels(both are on amazon). Maybe I should pick his brain a bit more.
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Atavachron
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^ It's hard to start, but some effort and some rewriting and before you know it you have 50,000 words .
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Cosmiclawnmower
Forum Senior Member Joined: August 09 2010 Location: West Country,UK Status: Offline Points: 3041 |
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Just started after re-visiting the Gormenghast trlogy (which i have loved since a child)
Just finished: And have on my list for (re-reading the umpteenth time) With this on the side: |
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Vompatti
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Halfway through SSOTBME.
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Vompatti
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: October 22 2005 Location: elsewhere Status: Offline Points: 67381 |
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^ Finished. This was a very very good book, I'm surprised that the author isn't more talked about and that I only discovered him now.
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ALotOfBottle
Prog Reviewer Joined: February 17 2016 Location: Lublin, Poland Status: Offline Points: 1990 |
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Just finnished Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and I'm quite underwhelmed. It's a good book, but, for a story with a title of a "classic," it's nothing special. I feel like it's just another well-written 50's dystopian SF. For me, it's exactly what Vonnegut was making fun of mentioning thousands of similar books Kilgore Trout wrote in Breakfast of Champions. Speaking of Vonnegut, Player Piano and Farenheit 451 are surprisingly pretty similar in plot, form, and concept, though I prefer the former.
Edited by ALotOfBottle - June 28 2017 at 03:38 |
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Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden - step out of the space provided.
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Cosmiclawnmower
Forum Senior Member Joined: August 09 2010 Location: West Country,UK Status: Offline Points: 3041 |
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RIP Michael Bond; re-reading this to the grandchildren
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Cosmiclawnmower
Forum Senior Member Joined: August 09 2010 Location: West Country,UK Status: Offline Points: 3041 |
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One of the first Ray Bradbury books I read was 'Golden Apples of the sun' when I was about 11.. I have always felt that his style is deliberately simplistic, child-like and in a way that is what is so charming about them. I think it puts people off too because they expect 'big Sci-Fi language'. Its the concepts and the subtle ways in which they are expressed which has made me a life-long Bradbury fan. But it is in the short story that he excels.. less words and more left to your own imagination.
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