200 replies to this topic

[Ulf Imwiehe]

I’m currently reading The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. A clinical psychologist, Dr. Martha Stout sheds a light on the everyday manifestations of sociopathy and the role of conscience (and the pathological lack thereof) in human interaction. It’s fascinating but a bit brief considering the hefty subject matter. Stout’s writing style is a bit on the grandmotherly, innocent Walton’s Mountain side but that’s ok I guess.

[Christian U]

Finished Altered Carbon, which was a lot of fun though it ran out of steam a bit towards the end, idea-wise. Very nice cyberpunk noir kind of thing, though.

Am now halfway through "Einsamkeit und Sex und Mitleid" ("Loneliness and Sex and Pity") by Helmut Krausser.



Krausser is a current mainstream novelist and playwright, and he's quite funny.

[brucegray666]

Finished one of my Xmas gifts, the Kinky Friedman novel Kill Two Birds & Get Stoned.



This is his only non-detective work I've read - aside from The Texas Guide To Etiquette. Enjoyed it and there were plenty of amusing turns of phrase, etc in it but I think the characters lack the charm of the fictionalised versions of himself and his friends that populate the afore mentioned detective books.

[Ulf Imwiehe]

Am now halfway through "Einsamkeit und Sex und Mitleid" ("Loneliness and Sex and Pity") by Helmut Krausser.

Krausser is a current mainstream novelist and playwright, and he's quite funny.

Krausser is great! I think my favorite of his is still Fette Welt although I love all three parts of his Hagen Trinker trilogy dearly. The movie adaptation starring Jürgen Vogel was pretty damn neat as well.

[Christian U]

Yep, that was very good. My favourite is his play "Haltestelle.Geister" (staged it with a group of pupils a few years back).

[Rory Abel]

Finished Altered Carbon, which was a lot of fun though it ran out of steam a bit towards the end, idea-wise. Very nice cyberpunk noir kind of thing, though.

I really liked Altered Carbon but still find that one of the major plot points is so obvious from the very beginning that I still can't buy that someone as specialized as Kovac doesn't guess it immediately (I mean I did and I'm not nearly as smart as he's supposed to be). The sequels are interesting and vastly different, which I thought was pretty daring.

Currently working my way through another Felix Castor novel, Thicker Than Water. These are definitely getting darker as they go and I'm loving it.

[Christian U]

I really liked Altered Carbon but still find that one of the major plot points is so obvious from the very beginning that I still can't buy that someone as specialized as Kovac doesn't guess it immediately (I mean I did and I'm not nearly as smart as he's supposed to be). The sequels are interesting and vastly different, which I thought was pretty daring.

That's good to know, I wasn't sure if I'd read them because I was afraid they'd be more of the same.

[Ulf Imwiehe]

Yep, that was very good. My favourite is his play "Haltestelle.Geister" (staged it with a group of pupils a few years back).

I had to write an essay about that play (and Ein paar Leute suchen das Glück und lachen sich tot by Sibylle Berg ) when I applied for UdK Berlin back in the day. Sad to say I was found wanting…

[Rory Abel]

That's good to know, I wasn't sure if I'd read them because I was afraid they'd be more of the same.

He basically dumps the hard-boiled noir element and mixes it with different genres for each of the other two. I don't think either are quite as good as Altered Carbon, but then again I don't think anything else he's written is as good as Altered Carbon either, but they are interesting.

Edited by Rory Abel, 22 March 2012 - 07:00 PM.

[Christian U]

Awesome! Well, not that you weren't accepted to the UdK, obviously. I assume that was less awesome than writing an essay about those.

[Ulf Imwiehe]

Currently working my way through another Felix Castor novel, Thicker Than Water. These are definitely getting darker as they go and I'm loving it.

Other than John Constantine, Felix Castor is my favorite paranormal investigator. The series is getting better and better (yes, and darker and darker) as it progresses. Rumor has it that Mike Carey is working on the sixth novel which can’t hit soon enough as far as I’m concerned.

Having finished Martha Stout’s The Sociopath Next Door (a rather syrupy and overall disappointing affair, regrettably), I’m about to get started on Robert Low’s The Whale Road, the first in his four-part Oathsworn series. Being a sucker for Viking stories I bought all four books so I sure hope the story lives up to its promise.

[Rory Abel]

Other than John Constantine, Felix Castor is my favorite paranormal investigator. The series is getting better and better (yes, and darker and darker) as it progresses. Rumor has it that Mike Carey is working on the sixth novel which can’t hit soon enough as far as I’m concerned.

Yeah I've saw mention of an untitled 6th book a couple times now when I was trying to figure out what the next book in the series I needed to buy was.

I feel like right now is a really good time to be reading dark urban fantasy. The Joe Chill, Sandman Slim and Felix Castor series are all really great books that I can't wait to read more of (well, except Joe Chill since that's over now).

[Ulf Imwiehe]

Yeah I've saw mention of an untitled 6th book a couple times now when I was trying to figure out what the next book in the series I needed to buy was.

I feel like right now is a really good time to be reading dark urban fantasy. The Joe Chill, Sandman Slim and Felix Castor series are all really great books that I can't wait to read more of (well, except Joe Chill since that's over now).

Joe Chill? Do you mean Joe Pitt? That’s a great series as well. Charlie Huston writes the best dialogue. Have you read his Henry Thompson trilogy? It’s crime fiction rather than urban horror but it’s just plain awesome!

[Rory Abel]

Joe Chill? Do you mean Joe Pitt? That’s a great series as well. Charlie Huston writes the best dialogue. Have you read his Henry Thompson trilogy? It’s crime fiction rather than urban horror but it’s just plain awesome!

Yes, I meant Pitt, internet brain fart. I haven't read his Thompson series but I love the Joe Pitt case files and The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is one of my favorite crime novels in ages (still sad it never made it past the pilot phase on HBO) so I'll probably be getting to this other series soon.

[Arjan Dirkse]

Reading through a book about the Upanishads while listening to Pink Floyd.

I'm trying very hard to be a 21st century hippie.

[Ulf Imwiehe]

I’m on the final pages of The Whale Road and I’m pleasantly surprised by Robert Low’s authentic portrayal of life in the Viking age – the dirt, the hunger, the terrible hardships, but also the devil-may-care exhilaration of living on the edge as a raider and explorer. The Oathsworn are a bunch of wicked bastards and more than once I found myself ambivalent about whether to root for these rogues at all.

My favorite parts are the discussions of religion and faith among the main characters. The books are set in the time of the Christianization of Scandinavia when some of the Norsemen have already converted to Christianity while the majority still clings to the old ways or just prays to whatever deity seems more useful at the moment. A time of spiritual and cultural change and very nicely evoked by Low.

One minor quibble: the novel is a heist story in essence and Low makes the common mistake of overcomplicating things which muddles the plot here and there. On the other hand one of the major themes is the complexity of the web of fate the Norns weave for every mortal so I guess it all makes sense in the end.

Anyway, good stuff and I’m very much looking forward to reading the next of the four Oathsworn adventures, The Wolf Sea.

[Christian U]

Reading through a book about the Upanishads while listening to Pink Floyd.

I'm trying very hard to be a 21st century hippie.

Good luck with that! You should have no problem acquiring drugs, at least, being in the Netherlands and all

[David Meadows]

I just finished the last of the ten James Bond books I got cheap last year -- You Only Live Twice. I didn't think it was one of the best, with the first two-thirds of the book being quite plodding exposition (it may have worked better if I had read it in the 60s when Japanese culture was still mysterious to us), but it had the best ending. This was written the year Flemming died I think, so I guess it was the last one he wrote. If so, that ending is a good way for Bond to go out.

From Russia With Love is still my favourite. Dr No is probably the weakest, with Goldfinger a close runner up (starts well but the execution of the central plot is completely preposterous).

[Ogul]

I just finished Brent Week's Night Angel Trilogy (The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge, Beyond Shadows). I very much enjoyed it, but it's a very mixed sensation. It was much darker than a lot of the stuff I enjoy reading, he doesn't shy away from the depravity and horror that humans are capable of, but he also embraces the hope and joy that humans are capable of, and that balances the work out over it's course.

The story begins very tightly, with a street urchin living under horrible conditions, dreaming of a better life, who is taken in by an old assassin. The setting is a pastiche of medieval cultures, some European, many Asian, none of them exactly one thing or another but sort of blending traits, so for example one culture might combine elements of English and South Asian cultures, another Japanese, Polynesian, and Mediterranean cultures, while another might combine elements of Indian, Mongolian, and Vikings. Each has a strong definition to it that is much better than the typical "these guys are the Germans, these guys are the French, etc." faux countries, or the boring "everyone's British". While the story begins on a fairly mundane level, magic is slowly weaved into the story to the point of epic showdowns with gods and monsters, as the story spills out from a single rundown city to encompass the known world, and the cast of one grows to a core cast of dozens.

I think that the characters are all very well explored, and each of them is given a roller coaster of circumstances to deal with, full of great victories and crushing defeats. The magical systems within the series are also a lot of fun to play with, and the way the plot is handled, everything has a role to play and a time to play it, nothing comes out of left field, but plenty of it is a surprise until right before it happens. I would love to see them do a Game of Thrones style TV adaptation of this one, and at least the first two books wouldn't be all that hard for them, and the sex and violence quotient would be right up Showtime's alley without any need for embellishment.

[Rory Abel]

I just finished the last of the ten James Bond books I got cheap last year -- You Only Live Twice. I didn't think it was one of the best, with the first two-thirds of the book being quite plodding exposition (it may have worked better if I had read it in the 60s when Japanese culture was still mysterious to us), but it had the best ending. This was written the year Flemming died I think, so I guess it was the last one he wrote. If so, that ending is a good way for Bond to go out.

From Russia With Love is still my favourite. Dr No is probably the weakest, with Goldfinger a close runner up (starts well but the execution of the central plot is completely preposterous).

If i remember right Man With The Golden Gun is the last Bond book written by Fleming and i believes picks up almost immediately after You Only Live Twice. Its decent, the idea of M sending Bond on a suicide mission to prove he's still loyal (and if he's not he's still dead) is a good one.