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Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. This was the Broken Binding edition was was pretty nice compared to some of their other offerings. Signed by the author and some decently cool artwork.

This is the only Abercrombie I've ever read so had no idea what to expect going into the book. Did not want to pick up his First Law series straightaway and this seemed like as good a place as any since it is currently standalone (although more potential for later). I actually really enjoyed it. It isn't fancy prose or hugely philosophical and heavy with exposition or ultra descriptive language. It kind of just bounces from Fight > Story > Fight > Story. The dialogue is easy and feels like mostly quips and one-liners, but there are moments of feeling (just not a lot). The fights are done well, and he has a good grasp of the characters and how to write them to each be unique. That was probably the high point. And the ending not falling completely flat like a couple of other recent reads. Not sure if it is representative of his other books but given this one novel, I'll likely try out The Blade Itself sometime in the future.
 
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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

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Arbitrary said:
View attachment 594905

John (Jack) Russo was co-writer for the original Night of the Living Dead. It was written in 1977 and although it only shares the title with the film "Return of the Living Dead" he does have some story/writing credits for that movie. I was pretty hopeful about it but it's shit. The story takes place ten years after the events of Night. The zombie outbreak was short-lived and for zero reasons given begins again. The bones of the plot are alright as a "this also happened that day" kind of companion story but barely any characters seem to exist in a world where the dead once rose from their graves. What really holds it back is the amateurish and shabby quality of the writing. Dialogue is infrequent with the reader just being told everything. It has several scenes the equivalent of Ben being shot in the face at the end of Night all sprinkled throughout. The book cover for it on Amazon is a spoiler (zombie baby telegraphed so far away it can't even be thought of as a twist).
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Is it a screenplay or a novel?
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Finished Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay about a week ago. I ended up liking it a whole lot more than expected and was pretty critical of it at the start. It had a nice balance to me of descriptive language and easy prose to get through for a fantasy novel. Ended up reading it fairly quickly by my pace standards. A really good blend of politics and fantasy. Magic is at the core driving the story but isn't front and center in every encounter or conflict. The characters were well written and felt like everyone had a personality, history, motivation for their actions, even going so far as making a sympathetic antagonist.

Pleasantly surprised by having low expectations going in and really having them exceeded. Was going to give another book a shot by same author but decided to swap to Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb because I've never read it. Would like to read some more from Kay though and see how it holds up or how the writing has changed since 1990 when this was published.

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Arbitrary

Arbitrary

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Gave Red Storm (edit) Rising a shot having never read a Tom Clancy novel before. It was good!

I just started Rambo by David Morrell. I'd heard the book was bananas. The audiobook begins with an introduction from the author where he starts talking about the inspiration (whatever), how it became a movie (who cares) and then how the film and the book differ spoiling major plot points. This isn't the first time an introduction has done this. It's typically something I come across on a new recording or anniversary reissue.

Anyone that does this is a fucking imbecile and any editor or publisher that then puts it at the start of the book rather than the end is a double imbecile. No, everyone isn't already familiar with the book and the movie to have you explaining character motivations and major plot developments. I don't like to try and skip ahead as it's often a bit of a pain and I did the general differences going in but goddamn this fucking recording spends fifteen goddamn minutes with the author blabbing on before the actual story starts.

edit - Rambo starting pretty strong, pleasantly surprised
 
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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

Silver Knight of the Realm
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Arbitrary said:
Gave Red Son Rising a shot having never read a Tom Clancy novel before. It was good!

I just started Rambo by David Morrell. I'd heard the book was bananas. The audiobook begins with an introduction from the author where he starts talking about the inspiration (whatever), how it became a movie (who cares) and then how the film and the book differ spoiling major plot points. This isn't the first time an introduction has done this. It's typically something I come across on a new recording or anniversary reissue.

Anyone that does this is a fucking imbecile and any editor or publisher that then puts it at the start of the book rather than the end is a double imbecile. No, everyone isn't already familiar with the book and the movie to have you explaining character motivations and major plot developments. I don't like to try and skip ahead as it's often a bit of a pain and I did the general differences going in but goddamn this fucking recording spends fifteen goddamn minutes with the author blabbing on before the actual story starts.
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Do you mean red storm rising? Currently reading it and it’s a bit of drag. First chapter hits hard but not as good as some of his other works like rainbow six and without remorse.

i always skip author notes or author introductions, tbh.
 
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Regime

Regime

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Just finished my 3rd read through. Gets better every time like the finest of Red 🩸Wines…

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“A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.”


- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
 
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Arbitrary

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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS said:
i always skip author notes or author introductions, tbh.
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I fucking should but I don't. Some stupid gotta be completionist autism at play. Most of the time it's a short little thing and we're on to the story. The last time I hit one that was awful was I think an anniversary edition of Earth Abides. Something about anniversary rereleases gets the author and the publisher to conspire to fill page after page of shit that assumes I'm some long term fan and have already read the story.
 
INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

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Regime said:
Just finished my 3rd read through. Gets better every time like the finest of Red 🩸Wines…

View attachment 600137



“A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.”


- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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McCarthy is one of my favorite authors. BM and TR are haunting. In my first novel, I have a navy destroyer named after him.
 
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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

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Arbitrary said:
I fucking should but I don't. Some stupid gotta be completionist autism at play. Most of the time it's a short little thing and we're on to the story. The last time I hit one that was awful was I think an anniversary edition of Earth Abides. Something about anniversary rereleases gets the author and the publisher to conspire to fill page after page of shit that assumes I'm some long term fan and have already read the story.
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I tried recently to read the foreword note by Frank Herbert’s son when I read Chapterhouse Dune and got maybe 1 page into it. I feel your pain but especially if the author note isn’t written by the author.
Albeit, I did like Tolkien’s foreword introductory in the Hobbit when I read that this summer.
 
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Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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Regime said:
Just finished my 3rd read through. Gets better every time like the finest of Red 🩸Wines…

View attachment 600137



“A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.”


- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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Tried 2-3 times, I just cannot get into that book. If you are thinking 'wtf is wrong with that guy' well join the club cuz so am I.
 
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Kajiimagi

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I'm reading the Frank Herbert Dune books , this is re-read # hell I cannot remember. I usually do it yearly but realized I have not read them since the brain tumor in '23. Time to get cracking! I'm mid book 2 now.
 
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Regime

Regime

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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS said:
Oh I don’t consider those canons. Just knocking through Dune - Chapterhouse on an annual basis is wild
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I don’t have the hate that some do for those books. I enjoy them knowing some of the books were from the notes but definitely don’t look at those as canon.
 
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lurkingdirk

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I've just read the Marcie R. Rendon books about Cash Blackbear. There are four book in the series. Not serious literature or anything, but an interesting read in the sense that it is written by a First Nations person about a First Nations community. The realities are very striking. It's a good read.
 
INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

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Regime said:
I enjoy them knowing some of the books were from the notes but definitely don’t look at those as canon.
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I haven’t even read them. I know they tried to retcon the Butlerian Jihad from a cultural shift away from thinking machines / algorithms to straight up matrix/terminator war.

I don’t think Brian Herbert has the notes from his father. At least not any that merit substance. He has never released them to the public. If he did, it may have been very vague and it’s entire meaning was lost in his intention.

now his notes could have been “write more about Butlerian jihad” or something, but then he completely tried to retcon it with his fan fiction. I haven’t even given them a bother tbh.

most movies I love usually die out when they lose their original screen player writer. Robo cop 3, Alien 3, Terminator 3, etc. the studio may own the IP but the heart and soul of the original creation is gone. Same with Dune. Hell, even Dune Part 2 was garbage. Dune Part 1 was amazing. Albeit my favorite is Children of Dune.

it would be interesting to see them make an authentic GEOD just to see the liberal media melt down at well any of Leto’s monologues
 
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Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.

In preparation for the Conversation Tree Press edition, I re-read the original translation from 1970 from Kilmartin and Cox. That version was not a direct from Polish effort and was instead translated from a French edition of Solaris. So, it was a double translation. It was the original version I read back 20 years ago or whenever.

This new edition from CTP is the first print edition of the Polish-to-English translation. The differences between the two are pretty significant. The 1970 translation was almost difficult to read and very flat whereas you can tell the updated translation just "feels" closer to what Lem was intending. It was really great to read them back-to-back and see the differences.

It also really helped to put the movies' differences vs. the books' differences in a totally new light. The start difference between the Tarkovsky film and the Soderbergh film really makes sense, and I really love both of them for different reasons. They are really complimentary the more I think about it and not conflicting in my view.

The books and movies are some of my favorite fiction and I'm torn about selling one of my editions. The Collectors is a gorgeous book. The artwork and colors really pop and go so nicely with the imagery in the story. The Deluxe edition though just feels like it is on another level when holding. The full leather binding feels amazing. Each one is hand marbled, so every book has a different wave pattern that is unique. Both Collectors and Deluxe were printed on the same 140gsm paper, each edition has all 16 full color illustrations, and both are very similar Carbon look slipcases.

More information to nerd out about them is here on CTP's site: Solaris by Stanisław Lem

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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS

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Intrinsic said:
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.

In preparation for the Conversation Tree Press edition, I re-read the original translation from 1970 from Kilmartin and Cox. That version was not a direct from Polish effort and was instead translated from a French edition of Solaris. So, it was a double translation. It was the original version I read back 20 years ago or whenever.

This new edition from CTP is the first print edition of the Polish-to-English translation. The differences between the two are pretty significant. The 1970 translation was almost difficult to read and very flat whereas you can tell the updated translation just "feels" closer to what Lem was intending. It was really great to read them back-to-back and see the differences.

It also really helped to put the movies' differences vs. the books' differences in a totally new light. The start difference between the Tarkovsky film and the Soderbergh film really makes sense, and I really love both of them for different reasons. They are really complimentary the more I think about it and not conflicting in my view.

The books and movies are some of my favorite fiction and I'm torn about selling one of my editions. The Collectors is a gorgeous book. The artwork and colors really pop and go so nicely with the imagery in the story. The Deluxe edition though just feels like it is on another level when holding. The full leather binding feels amazing. Each one is hand marbled, so every book has a different wave pattern that is unique. Both Collectors and Deluxe were printed on the same 140gsm paper, each edition has all 16 full color illustrations, and both are very similar Carbon look slipcases.

More information to nerd out about them is here on CTP's site: Solaris by Stanisław Lem

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What did you like about the book? I haven’t seen the movie (nor plan to). But I am always up for new Scifi novel suggestions
 
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