Fantasy / Horror Reading in October 2015

Ropie & BarefootExile: When you finish reading those, there's this thread called "SFFWorld Countdown to Halloween" ...

Just sayin'.

For me, I've been rereading a fair number of short ghost stories -- "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken, "Caterpillars" by E. F. Benson, "Fishhead" by Irvin Cobb. Right now I'm reading a novella, "The Beckoning Fair One" by E. F. Benson, one of the great 20th century ghost stories.

Randy M.
 
I've started Discount Armaggedon by Seanan McGuire. It's fun so far, but I'm not sure yet whether it'll distinguish itself from most other UF. Good narrator for the audio, though, except for some scattered mispronunciations.
 
I am reading The Witcher: The Time of Contempt and listening to Under the Dome and enjoying them both.
 
A lot of King books coming up on the forum lately.... Someone else mentioned 'Eyes of the dragon' in another thread, which I've never read. 'Under the dome' was, for me, one of his best novels in recent years. Probably because it felt more like the King of old. The detective novels just don't appeal to me. Got to read 'Doctor Sleep' too.
 
Under the Dome has been great. I'm about 90% done and it feels a lot like The Stand which is probably in my top 10-20 books of all time.
 
Whenever I'm reading a book, I'm also trying to choose the next book I'll read afterwards. This comes from being a slower reader, with a vast appetite for books.

Up to now I've eschewed most fantasies with medieval settings, but suddenly I have a burning desire to read Name of the Wind, which has been sitting on my shelf since it came out. And because I'm sure that it's popular here on SFFWorld, I feel compelled to announce this decision here and make other book-evangelists happy that one more person will be reading it for the first time. It may take me months to finish, so you'll know why I'm MIA in the what-are-you-reading threads. (Plus I need to finish my current book first!)
 
I've been working through the free stuff on Kindle. It's hit or miss but there are some gems in there that might have future potential. Though I'm tempted to say they're all good because I want to give budding writers a leg up, the truth is I'm glad it's free because I put a lot of the stuff down after a few pages.
 
I'm going to be starting Seán Betzer's wonderfully titled Halloween Book 2. I'm only trying to read the first six chapters (in my edition this is up to page 90). I've only read an intro by this author before, so it should be informative to see how he handles things, but I've been warned this is "YA" and I can already see how much it relies on dialogue and short paragraphs just from scanning thru it.
 
Sopranos Fan said:
Under the Dome has been great. I'm about 90% done and it feels a lot like The Stand which is probably in my top 10-20 books of all time.
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Slight counterview here, for what it's worth. I like/sometimes love Stephen King's books and have read most of them. I loved The Stand but hated Under the Dome. To me it was such a disappointment - I had hoped it would be up there with The Stand but it seemed cliched, histrionic and increasingly divorced from rationality as I read, with the characters increasingly becoming something unrealistic and doing stupid things. My feeling at the end was that this was an author who seemed happy rewriting what he had done before, but less well, in my opinion. I was so disappointed I nearly gave up reading SK's books, but then I found that 11.22.63 was so much better.

Just shows how tastes can vary, I guess.
 
intensityxx said:
Whenever I'm reading a book, I'm also trying to choose the next book I'll read afterwards. This comes from being a slower reader, with a vast appetite for books.

Up to now I've eschewed most fantasies with medieval settings, but suddenly I have a burning desire to read Name of the Wind, which has been sitting on my shelf since it came out. And because I'm sure that it's popular here on SFFWorld, I feel compelled to announce this decision here and make other book-evangelists happy that one more person will be reading it for the first time. It may take me months to finish, so you'll know why I'm MIA in the what-are-you-reading threads. (Plus I need to finish my current book first!)
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Enjoy, it was a great book for me the first and second times I read it, unfortunately I can't say the same about book two which for me seemed to lose its way.:)
 
Hobbit said:
Slight counterview here, for what it's worth. I like/sometimes love Stephen King's books and have read most of them. I loved The Stand but hated Under the Dome. To me it was such a disappointment - I had hoped it would be up there with The Stand but it seemed cliched, histrionic and increasingly divorced from rationality as I read, with the characters increasingly becoming something unrealistic and doing stupid things. My feeling at the end was that this was an author who seemed happy rewriting what he had done before, but less well, in my opinion. I was so disappointed I nearly gave up reading SK's books, but then I found that 11.22.63 was so much better.

Just shows how tastes can vary, I guess.
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I can see that. I have always felt that when Kings characters escape rationality is when he is at his best. I like the fact that he explores what we would do if society's norms no longer apply and how easy it is, with just a little nudge to turn normal people abnormal. I don't think it is up with his best like The Stand, Talisman, or Dark Tower but I would put it in his second tier.
 
Sopranos Fan said:
like the fact that he explores what we would do if society's norms no longer apply and how easy it is, with just a little nudge to turn normal people abnormal.
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I do get that - From The Dead Zone to The Shining and even 11 22 63 that little nudge into abnormality is in there. I just think he's done it better elsewhere than Under the Dome.

In the end, everything about it annoyed me - including the nickname "Barbie" for a bloke! When it gets to that point, I guess that it's time to admit defeat. :)

Sopranos Fan said:
I don't think it is up with his best like The Stand, Talisman, or Dark Tower but I would put it in his second tier.
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You know, you've just reminded me that I still haven't finished The Talisman. I've lost count of the number of times I've started it but never finished it. Still not sure why.
 
Finally finished Deadhouse Gates. Boy, the Malazan will be more challenging than WoT for me...

I liked it, but I still can't say I "liked it a lot". Just too many and too separated characters for my taste. In other big series like ASoIaF, WoT, etc, that have lots of characters, they are at least connected to a big extend. Heck, the whole first half of GoT was from the pov of just one family, until the reader gets invested in the world and the plot. Here - everything and everyone is everywhere, doing everything and I'm having difficulties connecting to most of the characters. The world-building is bloody amazing tho, and most of the plots are interesting. The tone is also really cool, so yeah - I liked it.

I'm going to start The Alloy of Law now, to change the tone a bit. :)
 
YordanZh said:
Finally finished Deadhouse Gates. Boy, the Malazan will be more challenging than WoT for me...

I liked it, but I still can't say I "liked it a lot". Just too many and too separated characters for my taste. In other big series like ASoIaF, WoT, etc, that have lots of characters, they are at least connected to a big extend. Heck, the whole first half of GoT was from the pov of just one family, until the reader gets invested in the world and the plot. Here - everything and everyone is everywhere, doing everything and I'm having difficulties connecting to most of the characters. The world-building is bloody amazing tho, and most of the plots are interesting. The tone is also really cool, so yeah - I liked it.

I'm going to start The Alloy of Law now, to change the tone a bit. :)
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I think I would be lost when it comes to the Malazan books except for the Tor.com Malazan Re-read of the Fallen... It's excellent for keeping track. I alternate on the Malazan books too, mostly.
 
Namanari said:
I think I would be lost when it comes to the Malazan books except for the Tor.com Malazan Re-read of the Fallen... It's excellent for keeping track. I alternate on the Malazan books too, mostly.
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Yeah, I'll definitely consult with it. :)
 
I finished Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant yesterday. Not as much angst as I usually like in my UF, but snappy and fun, and with worldbuilding and backstory that will allow for a lot of expansion. I am just SO impressed that this author can put out such a high volume of books -- and they're actually good!

I'm a bit disturbed that, unlike most UF, the series switches to a different protagonist after only 2 books. I like to see a hero develop over a series. OTOH, the new protagonist is a veterinarian in a zoo, which naturally appeals to me -- ;) -- so I'm sure I'll real the next two books at least, eventually.

As for the narrator -- she had the perfect attitude and delivery for the book. Unfortunately, she also mispronounced a lot of words (for instance, "curare" was "cure-air", blech!), her accents were terrible, and for some inexplicable reason she gave the love interest -- a recent immigrant from Italy -- a lousy British accent, for heaven's sake. So a mixed bag there.
 
Dangit -- I erased my own post by accident, and then sffworld erased my second attempt. Trying again!

Ahem. As I was trying to say --

I started Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop yesterday, but I gave up on it at less than 2 hours in. It seemed to have lots of good potential for an angst addict like me, but it also seemed to belong to the kitchen-sink school of worldbuilding -- throw in everything you can think of and call it a day. I finally started rolling my eyes and gave up. I may go back to it eventually -- We Shall See.

Instead I moved over to The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells, the second in her Books of the Raksura. They aren't classics by any means, but the first book in the series was a good yarn. I'm hoping this one is as entertaining.
 
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