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Post by Alatariel on Mar 7, 2024 12:38:41 GMT -6
Oh wow. PUtting this one on my wish list. Short story collections are so under-appreciated these days that it's kinda hard to find them. And this is a theme I've been pondering for a while now, so it'll be interesting to see how someone competently expresses it. Yes, it's a shame short story collections aren't more popular. A good short story's hard to find, and hard to beat. Fantastic suggestion. I've been wanting to read more short stories. I was thinking of subscribing to Uncanny and Apex magazines since they are the top of the market right now. |
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Post by Alatariel on Mar 7, 2024 12:43:42 GMT -6
Title: What Moves the Dead
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genre: Light Horror?
What do you think?
This is a novella and a quick read, it's based on The Fall of the House of Usher but features a non-binary character and gives us more of an explanation as to why these things are happening. I definitely recommend it, the main character has this dry wit that just makes the story really engaging. Plus- mycology.
Recommend it?
Totally! Especially since it's short and not scary, just a bit creepy like Poe's work.
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Post by Alatariel on Mar 7, 2024 12:55:19 GMT -6
Title: Chain-Gang All-Stars
Author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Genre: Uh...dystopian? Literary sci-fi dystopia?
What do you think?
I AM SPEECHLESS.
This book will be living in my thoughts for the rest of my life.
It's brutal, visceral, painful, beautiful, heart-breaking, stunning...an absolute masterpiece.
It's written in 3rd person omniscient and hops between characters on every single page and yet I wasn't confused or mad about it. It helped give me the feeling of observer, spectator, like someone watching at all times. And since this is about a deadly reality show/sporting event thats broadcasted 24/7, that choice of POV is perfect.
This book brings up a lot of complex questions about our society, media consumption, the brutality of the penal system and how we speak about Black bodies/athletes. This book offers no answers, lets it all just hang there for us to decide. There are footnotes about the characters, actual laws from our current legal system, and facts/statistics about corporal punishment.
What if prisoners were gladiators who fought to the death in televised events? What if they could be freed if they survived for three years in this environment? What if there were corporate sponsors and the prisoners became celebrities? What if people justified it because these were "bad people" who "deserved it"? Would that make the brutality okay? More
palatable? Enjoyable, even?
The story centers around Loretta Thurwar who is a Grand Colossal and two weeks away from becoming High Freed and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker who is her lover and competition. Both have complex histories, they aren't perfect people, they are in this system for a reason (both have murdered someone and been sentenced to 25+ years before being offered a contract in Chain-Gang). Their stories and perspectives brought me to tears. There are many POVs but theirs were my favorite. I also loved Hendrix "The Scorpion Singer" Young and Randy Mac and so many others.
Recommend it?
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.
Read content/trigger warnings first.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Apr 1, 2024 9:01:09 GMT -6
Title: Project Hail Mary
Author: Andy Weir
Genre: Science Fiction
What do I think?
So far its really enjoyable. One quarter of the way in and its pivoting between two timelines, making things connect in a neat manner. The MC has a great laid back personality. He kinda has to laugh at minor things to keep himself from going nuts and dying in space.
Do I recommend?
I do. I've never read Weir before. I loved Ridley Scott's adaptation of The Martian, and I wanted a new sci fi book to try out.
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Dalski
Smoke
Posts: 4 
Preferred Pronouns: he/him
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Post by Dalski on Apr 9, 2024 0:18:25 GMT -6
Title: Beartown (#1) / Us Against You (#2) / The Winners (#3)
Author: Fredrik Backman
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
What do you think of it?
Beartown by Fredrik Backman is at its heart about the inhabitants of a small town in Sweden and how they interact with each other. The story can get very oppressive and depressing and dark at times (I'm sure it checks off several trigger warning boxes, so please beware before reading), but there are just as many amazing characters and beautiful moments to balance it out. I'm from a small town and sometimes this book feels almost TOO realistic in some senses. Beartown is a hockey town, but the book itself isn't really about hockey. It's about the players, their families, and how each of them react when the status quo of their town topples down.
From Goodreads:
Recommend it?
100%. If you like character driven stories, or if you've read anything else by Backman (A Man Called Ove, Anxious People, etc), you will definitely like this one!
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Post by RAVENEYE on Apr 9, 2024 12:03:42 GMT -6
Title: Beartown (#1) / Us Against You (#2) / The Winners (#3) Author: Fredrik Backman Genre: Contemporary Fiction What do you think of it?Beartown by Fredrik Backman is at its heart about the inhabitants of a small town in Sweden and how they interact with each other. The story can get very oppressive and depressing and dark at times (I'm sure it checks off several trigger warning boxes, so please beware before reading), but there are just as many amazing characters and beautiful moments to balance it out. I'm from a small town and sometimes this book feels almost TOO realistic in some senses. Beartown is a hockey town, but the book itself isn't really about hockey. It's about the players, their families, and how each of them react when the status quo of their town topples down. From Goodreads: Recommend it?100%. If you like character driven stories, or if you've read anything else by Backman (A Man Called Ove, Anxious People, etc), you will definitely like this one! Hi, Dalski! Great to see you! I read Backman's My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry some years ago, and his complex interplay of complex characters was just unforgettable. Simple story, complex people who made the plot way deeper than it otherwise might've been. Really brilliant. I'll add Beartown to my to-read list. |
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Post by havekrillwhaletravel on May 11, 2024 8:07:21 GMT -6
Title: The Snow Leopard Author: Peter Matthiessen Genre: Travel Writing
Rereading this book has shot it up to one of my all-time favourites. After the death of his wife, Matthiessen travels to Tibet, hoping to put into practice the precepts of Zen Buddhism. Matthiessen deftly weaves together nature writing, Zen Buddhism and spirituality, ideas of impermanence to create a hypnotic book. And his writing just bowls you over. The prose startles with its clarity and mystical beauty:
One ... caveat? Matthiessen's writing/treatment about the locals is condescending and exploitative. My eyes cramped from rolling so hard after a passage where Matthiessen and his friend congratulate each other for braving the adventure by themselves, totally glossing over the team of porters who they pay essentially pennies to do most of their heavy lifting and cooking and translating ...
But this book was such a balm from the monotony of work. After spending nine hours behind a desk, I wanted nothing more than to come home and sink into this book. Highly recommend this if you're in the mood for a travelogue or just gorgeous nature writing.
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Post by ScintillaMyntan on May 11, 2024 20:17:17 GMT -6
This book sounds like something I might like.
I slightly got a similar feeling when reading Stasiuk's "On the Road to Babadag." Maybe it's just me, because I know he's very pro-worker and he's trying to celebrate the working class, but it sometimes came off as being this wise, educated person observing everyday people going to work from his lofty vantage point. But then, come to think of it, I don't know how you'd celebrate the working class from outside without doing that. I do see the point.
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Post by havekrillwhaletravel on May 17, 2024 22:10:40 GMT -6
This book sounds like something I might like.
I slightly got a similar feeling when reading Stasiuk's "On the Road to Babadag." Maybe it's just me, because I know he's very pro-worker and he's trying to celebrate the working class, but it sometimes came off as being this wise, educated person observing everyday people going to work from his lofty vantage point. But then, come to think of it, I don't know how you'd celebrate the working class from outside without doing that. I do see the point.
On the Road ... sounds interesting. I'm on a non-fiction kick recently, so I'll put that on the pile of books to check out.
Hmm, I get what you're trying to say. A writer observes, interprets, comments, which I don't think you can do unless you place some distance between yourself and the group you're writing on. Is it possible for a writer to not seem like an aloof outsider? Even if you're writing about a group that you're part of, I think the act of writing indicates that you are different from the group.
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Post by havekrillwhaletravel on Jun 17, 2024 2:26:14 GMT -6
Title: In Patagonia Author: Bruce Chatwin Genre: Travel writing
Another reread for me. I didn't enjoy this much when I first read it, so I'm pleasantly surprised that I liked it so much more this time around. Like Matthiessen, Chatwin tries to blend the physical landscape with greater, overarching ideas. Whereas Matthiessen was concerned with mysticism and impermanence, Chatwin focuses on the idea of transience; on how Patagonia appears to be a magnet for a certain type of personality; and how the reality of the place affects those living in it.
Chatwin's prose is unadorned and austere. The book is broken down into short chapters, which function more like vignettes, a snapshot into the lives of Patagonia's residents. He does a wonderful job capturing the restlessness, dreams, longing and frustration of the people he encounters. And it is the people that Chatwin seems much more interested in.
There's nothing wrong with that, but it often made me feel like Patagonia was less of a place and more just a collection of houses and villages. The short vignette format also meant that Chatwin doesn't spend much time writing about how he gets to places, and I never really got the feeling of travel/movement. The vignettes themselves don't really seem to build into a progression. Many of them honestly feel interchangeable, adding to this sense of staticity - which I guess might be a point that Chatwin is trying to make. This isn't helped by a sailing portion of the book, which I found dull and never seemed to end. So I liked this book and found parts of it hypnotizing. But just like the dreamers attracted to Patagonia, there were times when I found myself more enamoured with the idea of the book than its actual reality.
Title: A Different Darkness and Other Abominations Author: Luigi Musolino (translated by James D. Jenkins)
Genre: Horror
(CW: This collection features descriptions of domestic abuse and violence towards children)
This was a surprise. I think it'd be easier to get the negatives out of the way first. Two of the stories in the initial half of the book were duds. The writing can feel stiff and clunky. I'm not sure whether it's something found in the original Italian, or if this is a translation issue, but I thought it was especially egregious in those two stories. They also don't pull off what I think Musolino does so well for the rest of the book. They fall flat and seem rather cookie-cutter.
The rest of the collection is amazing. At his best, Musolino's writing reaches a feverish intensity: throwing out senses, images, metaphors in quick succession. He's not a writer afraid to describe things, and that's what I found so surprising about this collection. Musolino doesn't seem interested in mystery or ambiguity. The stories here don't derive their horror from the unknown. The horror here is reached by the feeling of being powerless in suffering, of experiencing a suffering that stretches into infinity. In most of the stories here, Musolino explicitly spells out exactly what the supernatural thing is. But it doesn't matter. Knowledge isn't power. It doesn't save the characters here just one bit. They remain hopelessly trapped and seem to remain so for a very, very long time. I felt a queasy, cold dread reading this book. These stories feel like being at the peak of a rollercoaster and seeing just how far you'll plunge.
Also, placing the last story last is really clever. The last story deals with a couple reeling after the disappearance of their child and discovering a bottomless pit in their basement. I was expecting an answer, having been conditioned by the rest of the collection. Which was a gutpunch when an explanation is teased but never given. Cruel and fitting in a story about disappearance. If you're looking for horror, I recommend this. A read both gross and engrossing, with some clever tricks up its sleeve.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Jul 7, 2024 23:43:06 GMT -6
Title: Tress of the Emerald Sea
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale.
What do you think of it?
This one was on my TBR list for many months. Maybe over a year. I finally found the opportunity to read it this summer. It's the first time I have read a Sanderson novel all the way through.
It's good!
It's got a mix of serious goals, humor, excessively whimsical characters, and honesty. Tress herself is pretty compelling. An eighteen year old window washer, shes in love with a boy who lives on her island, the Duke's son. But he sails off to get married...and disappears. So she makes a plan to go save him. Doesn't sound like a funny story. However, it's got a range of characters. They make you chuckle, or roll your eyes and smile, or wish were a little more... human.
Recommend it?
I do. 7/10.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Aug 18, 2024 2:32:29 GMT -6
Title: Save the Cat! The Last book on Screenwriting you'll ever need. Author: Blake Snyder Genre: How-to-Write/Screenwriting I was recommended to read this from a professional videogame writer. Him and I were informationally interviewing each other (me to him), and he said that in cinematic games, the studio producers reference this. Its about pitching concepts for screenwriting, and character archetypes, and structuring your script, all of which big cinematic videogames often use. And that is a field I want to break into. So yeah, I read it.  Its pretty useful for any screenwriting project.
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Oct 16, 2024 20:26:15 GMT -6
Title: Golden Son
Author: Pierce Brown
Genre: YA Dystopia.
This is the sequel to Red Rising, a popular YA science fiction novel from several years back. He is supposed to be writing a seventh and final novel.
I could not get into the first book. All the melodrama, hormonal teenagers yelling battle cries every other page... it was over the top for me. I didn't mind the violence; It's quite bloody. Pierce Brown's writing style has a dreamy quality that kinda works. Practically cinematic. That part I enjoyed.
This second book is getting good. Im past halfway and like seeing a variety of situations happening. In addition to the melodrama, which is still eye-rolling. Sometimes funny. Sometimes grandiose. But it is the characters that are truly making it engaging.
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Post by Mazulla on Oct 24, 2024 17:15:40 GMT -6
Title: One Dark Window Author: Rachel Gillig Genre: Fantasy It has been a long time since a book really hooked me. I read this within a week or so and I've just started the sequal (no opinion yet - on chapter 3). The magic system is unique and interesting. It seems to be based on tarot cards. A "Chalice" card makes others tell the truth; a "Scythe" card commands others to do your bidding, even if it harms you in the process; the "Maiden" card changes your appearance; etc. But the common theme is that all magic has a price. (One causes pain; one causes heartlessness; one causes nightmares; and so on, the longer and more frequently you use it) It focuses on Elspeth, who is a (hidden) outcast due to a magic disease she was afflicted by as a child. Most don't survive, but those that do, gain a magical ability. The cost is "degeneration" and typically death at a young age. She doesn't (seem to) exhibit an ability. The kingdom's goal, meanwhile, is to collect all 13 cards and lift a curse that's been on the kingdom for 500 years; partly the cause for the disease, but also the cause of a mist that surrounds the kingdom and it continually encroaches more each year. The plot itself is somewhat predictable, but I don't mind and I still find myself engaged. There is a little romance peppered in as well. The writing is really beautiful at parts, but simple in others. Not "simple" like "bad," just it's a fairly easy read. There is some repitition, like "s/he bit back" or "If they saw it, then they didn't let on that they did" (this sort of sentence structure). It seems less prevalent in the 2nd book, at least so far. Anyway, I enjoyed it and I hope the sequal holds up too. |
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Post by HDSimplicityy on Oct 24, 2024 20:01:35 GMT -6
Title: Golden Son Author: Pierce Brown Genre: YA Dystopia. This is the sequel to Red Rising, a popular YA science fiction novel from several years back. He is supposed to be writing a seventh and final novel. I could not get into the first book. All the melodrama, hormonal teenagers yelling battle cries every other page... it was over the top for me. I didn't mind the violence; It's quite bloody. Pierce Brown's writing style has a dreamy quality that kinda works. Practically cinematic. That part I enjoyed. This second book is getting good. Im past halfway and like seeing a variety of situations happening. In addition to the melodrama, which is still eye-rolling. Sometimes funny. Sometimes grandiose. But it is the characters that are truly making it engaging. Woah that was pretty good. It gets super intense towards the end. I REALLY want to share how, BUUT thats a spoiler. Despite the slow first chunk, its a 6/10 maybe 7/10. Learning on 7, because it does get good. The battles, the characters' dreams, the politics... its a wild ride! |
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Its pretty useful for any screenwriting project.
You add them to your profile as you do them around the forum.
Oct 29, 2024 13:05:44 GMT -6
You add them to your profile as you do them around the forum.
Oct 29, 2024 13:05:44 GMT -6
Nov 2, 2024 23:16:12 GMT -6
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