Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you READING?

I'm currently reading Morrissey's autobiography, clevely titled "Autobiography." As someone already steeped in Moz-lore, I find it highly entertaining -- especially the score-settling with the other ex-members of the Smiths -- but I think this book is too insular to win him any converts, which is a shame. I'd still recommend it to any self-respecting Morrissey fan, loyal, lapsed, or otherwise.

Barnes & Noble published a list of 15 recommended sci-fi books of 2013.

Finished "Filth", the ending was satisfying, though I ultimately could have done with about 100 pages less of how rotten the main character was and still got the point. I was a little disappointed that the one character I thought would escape his manipulation, didn't. But equally surprised at the revelations about what I thought was the book's weakest character. A well set up twist.


(Geez that all sounds pretty vague, but it's the kind of book where the end makes everything a potential spoiler).

I was in a rush and just picked the first book form the pile. Le Carre's The Looking Glass War.

It's a very good representation of an organisation that has long since lost it's function. It gets credit through a single resource, but has lost the organisational battle in every other area. When they try and rekindle old areas of expertise, it's a series of bureaucratical blunders, carelessness and incompetence. Perhaps the world has moved on. Perhaps they were always as bad, but in such details were lost in wartime.

But what is pushing the buttons in the background? Who is taking advantage of the situation? What's really going on?

Short, with some excellent characterisation. A nice step away form Le Carre's protagonist having the same semi-autobiographical aspects.

"Doc" by Mary Doria Russell.

Sitting around bored and having just learned the wonders of borrowing downloadable books from the local library, I thought of an old favorite of mine, "The Sparrow." That and Russell's follow-up are two of my favorite "first contact" books so I thought to look if she had followed them up.

Both big hits, strangely she hasn't even revisted Sci-Fi and has only written five books total. Her latest is "Doc."

It's about Doc Holiday, which has been done to death but she really seems to try to bring a real history to the characters. It's kind of neat reading about all these western characters I idolized as a boy but now from a real, non-superhero perspective. A couple chapters in, its be real interesting and reading off the computer hasn't been quite the eye challenge I thought it's be as the font is larger but the brightness is a problem, leaving me with blind spots as if I'd looked into the sun.

Tried "Inferno" by Dan Brown but I felt like I was reading the same book for the third time...

Been meaning to reading "The Panther" by Nelson DeMille -- for the longest time my favorite author -- but his last few books were terrible...

Last new thing was by Glen Cook. Wicked Bronze Ambition. Seemed kinda light on story considering what I am used to with the first books, but still a fun read. Seemed like a lot of threads were dropped in the middle of the book. Deadman, Garrett's lack of focus... Just wasn't up to the usual standards as far as I was concerned.

A William Gibson book, Zero History. While I'm not terribly attached to recurring characters generally, Gibson's stuff is still so immerse you know as much about the buttons on someone's jacket as you do about the plot.

Ever since I discovered BookBub, I've been reading a ton of books on my mini-tablet. I love it!

I've particularly enjoyed the I Bring the Fire series (I'm currently starting Book 3) which involves Norse mythology brought to modern day and a retelling of more classic mythology with spins on the various characters. I find it quite interesting. Loki's really the star and he does not understand the Thor films at all, which makes me laugh and... yeah. I just dig 'em. I'm a bit mythology nerd about all kinds of myths, and I love turning things on their head. Plus the writer has a way of drawing you in that I love.

I've also been enjoying renewed use of a library and have read Help Thanks Wow, the Hunger Games trilogy and am now onto The Help, so that's been fun! I enjoy having and holding books, you know? Although being able to read in the dark with my tablet is pretty nice, too.

Got Skin Games two weeks ago by Butcher. Don't remember who here told me about him, but thank you. Right now, waiting for Kevin Hearne's Shattered and Larry Correia's MHI: Nemesis.


While I'm waiting, I reading Secret Histories books by Simon Greene

I'm trying to remember where I left off on all I've been reading, as I've been more of an avid reader in the last few months than ever before. Having the train commute every day has become kind of relaxing and pleasant when I've got a plethora of good books to read.

Working backwards, I just finished The Brothers Karamazov, which I've read at long last. It's really as brilliant as they say and I'm left kind of speechless on how I would describe it other than I think its something everyone should read eventually. I've been on a 19th Century Russian romance novel kick--a major hobby of mine back in college--and since this, along with War & Peace, are considered two of the pinnacles of the movement, it was a long overdue read.

What really got me back on the 19th Century Russian romance books was A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, which is one of my favorite books of all time. This was the third time I'd reread it, which is something I almost never do as I'm not big on reading things more than once. But the prose is so biting and poignant, and the lead protagonist, Pechorin is so fascinating, that I can't help but become mesmerized again and again.

Prior to these, I read the non-fiction book Flash Boys about the new breed of Wall Street traders who utilize incredibly fast technology to make trades faster than can even be recorded--usually within a fraction of a fraction of a second. These high speed traders have, like so many times in the past with Wall Street, figured out a way to manipulate the markets and rip off people on levels that are unimaginable. Yet, most people hardly even understand what they're doing, including most of the rest of Wall Street. The book is by Michael Lewis who has done a lot of other great work, including "Money Ball", and its a really well written book that does its best to help you understand exactly what is going on with the financial markets in the last few years. Essential reading for anyone interested in global economics.

A few months back I also finally read Stephen King's It at long last, and was just honestly floored by how amazingly good it was. It was just good; it was fucking great. As a big time King fan, I can say I consider this to be among his best books and a contender for his very best (which I usually claim to be Dolores Claiborne) and a contender for my favorite (which I have always felt was Salem's Lot). There is simply no other author alive in the last 40 years who understands people as well as Stephen King. He can reach into the deepest, darkest parts of a character's soul and reveal things about them that you recognize in yourself which make you cringe and feel nauseous, yet then find things within these characters that show how they overcome their hang-ups and fears through bravery they never knew they had. It was just powerful stuff. And the ending--the final chapter, not the battle with It--is among the greatest endings I've ever read; I was in tears…literal tears, running down my cheeks. It takes a LOT for that to happen.

Before It, I could have sworn there was another book or two but I’m forgetting. I know at the start of the year I read the 10 trades of Scalped which were mind-blowingly good and I spoke about those in Gym’lls in the Vertigo thread. I also read From Hell, which I reviewed in Gym’lls, which may be the best comic book related thing I’ve read in the last few years…it was that good. Also the latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen trade novella is perfect reading for a train ride (and as expected, was awesome).

Up next, I think I’m going to read War & Peace. My sister is also reading several Dostoyevsky books so she might pass them on to me while I’m on this kick, and I also want to read Schiller’s “The Robbers” which influenced the whole second half of the 19th Century literary movement and was a huge inspiration for Dostoyevsky.

Last I heard you were (maddeningly!) short the final trade. Did you get it and read it? If so, post on the Vertigo thread so we can talk!

Just read the first book in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, and it was pretty good. He's all famous for that Dresden Files business, but, despite having seen the few episodes of it that showed up on TV, I haven't actually read any of them yet!

Codex Alera's protagonist is the traditional medieval orphan kid who probably has some secret heritage, but that doesn't show up in the first book. Seems to be hoary old tradition, at this point, the fantasy novel orphan is *always* secretly the child of a tyrant prophecied to die at his son's hand or the last princess of Tir-Ahs-Lee or whatever. Yawn.

(Magician, by Raymond Feist, in addition to being one of the best fantasy novels of all time, IMO, has an orphan boy who goes through multiple books worth of adventure, and, spoiler alert!, his parentage is never addressed or even a factor. What a twist! A total red herring, and Chekov's gun just sits there on the mantle, completely unfired!)

Lardy, I did indeed find it--almost right after our conversation--and then read it! I can't believe I never posted about it! I can say I did not see the last arc going the way it did, though the ending was the noirish ending the series had to have.

Good! I was afraid you'd wait 'til, like, another year which is typically the frequency of your trade binges!

I actually just put in my big annual order of trades! I'm picking them up in Sept, which I kinda do to "make up for" not taking part of the DC event.

I put all 5 trades of Alan Moore's Promethea on there which I can't wait to read (among other things).

I've been picking up 1980s DC back issues, with the pennies that would have gone on DCNu had they been any good. Who knew Vibe broke free of the JLA shackles to shine in Blue Devil 13?

Just finished the first book in the third series by Kylie Chan. It's a pretty simple and it's like a Chinese god version of Twilight but for some reason I can't get enough of it. It has martial arts, Chinese demons and gods, and a pretty good pace. It’s really a lot like reading a comic. In fact I think it would make a great comic.

Eryk, what were your thoughts? This is on my radar as I've been on a 19th century kick.

I'm actually taking a quick break from that kick to read 11/22/63 by Stephen King, and am about 1/4 into it. So far it's phenomenal.

Fun, though I don't think I liked it quite as well as The Count of Monte Cristo. I'll probably get around to reading the sequels eventually, though it seems like a huge investment of time.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding And The Meaning Of Things. By Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee.

The title pretty much explains it. I hope hoarding is one of those issues that a person likely doesn't have if she often worries about having it.

Well-written, but some of the cases were hard to read. Especially the animal hoarding chapter. So sad.

Want a sharpie?

So I finished up the latest novel I've been reading, Charles Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities. As I believe I've mentioned before, I loved it in high school and picked up a new copy a few years ago, where it sat until two weeks ago when I remembered I had it, and wanted to include it in my ongoing "read great stuff on the train" lifestyle.

Long story short, it's even better than I remember. The novel is clearly a masterpiece and there's a very clear reason why it's been so beloved since publication. It is one of the greats, and while I haven't read Dickens extensively, it's certainly his best of what I have read.

Dickens does so much good here that it's hard to describe it all. He created deep, memorable characters who you can't help but invest in. His prose is colorful and memorable, even (for me) when it's digressing. The plot is brilliant from end to end, effortlessly blending the various characters together to raise tension and suspense, and make each forward motion more emotional. And on top of all that, there is an plethora of historical insight into the French Revolution (as well as general English and French life at the time).

The ending remains an amazing piece of literature, and I did indeed find myself shedding a tear. Knowing what was going to happen reflects on another important thing: Dickens "borrowed" the ending as it was a fairly stock trope of French Revolution fiction at the time, but it doesn't make it any less effective. As a master writer, it's all about how he presents the plot, characters and prose, echoing the notion that there may not be many new ideas but there are always new ways to tell them. And one way in which he does that is have Carton interact with another meek prisoner, having the two lend each other strength, which just emphasized for me how powerful the subsequent sequence is.

I find Sydney Carton to be a wonderful character, but I forgot how little he is in the book. More than that, I found myself enthralled by Mr. Lorry and Dr. Manette, the latter especially at the final third part of the book. Meanwhile, Dickens presents colorful, unique characters throughout that are anything but stock characters in the form of Jerry Cruncher, Ms. Pross, the spies and so many others. The Marquis and his brother are vile, horrible villains that do a great job at showing why the Revolution was inevitable and partially justified. But of course, of all the characters, the one that is perhaps singularly the most memorable is Madame Defarge, whose thirst for revenge is terrifying and oh so realistic. She is perhaps one of the great villains in literature, and that is amplified by the fact that I find my usage of the word “villain” to be perhaps too harsh and not fair. Her husband, too, is wonderfully complex.

Like any masterful piece of work that is regularly discussed in academia, the novel has its fair share of critics (as evidenced by something in the back of the book for more copy). To that I say: BAH! I dare anyone—critic or otherwise—to write a better novel and then I’ll I might consider criticism worthy of my attention. Dickens makes a ton of odd choices in the novel, with whole chapters veering off into different directions and the two main central characters, Lucy & Charles, being less developed and nuanced than the others. But that is what makes so unique and so very, very Dickens.

I’ve read a ton of books in the last 12 months, and most of them were books that I flat out LOVED (not just liked). This one fits right in there and may be at the top.

I've always loved a Tale of Two Cities, but I burned out a bit on it when I chose it for intensive study topic in University. Enough time has passed that I should re-visit it and re-kindle that relationship.

One thing to keep in mind with your "Digressions", is that novels at the time were published sequentially a chapter at a time (like comics!), so when the story took Dickens in to different places, he didn't have the luxury to post-edit these more organically into the novel, but the fact that he does tie it all in is even more impressive. Talk about working without a net!

Similarly, I think Carton evolved significantly from the early part of the book to the later. There are certainly personality traits shown and hinted at early that are abandoned later on, but that's a very minor quibble.