Book Recommendations?

Robear wrote:

I miss Bill. Lost his email address in a computer upgrade a while back. He and I were writers at Gone Gold and often corresponded, for a while. Good times.

Never did find out what happened to Rich. He was amazing. I expect he's passed by now.

I didn't realize this site had a connection to Rich and Bill (I came here from Evil Avatar). Gone Gold was a great site and the community was great too. I never knew what happened to Rich.

I know a bit but not the whole story, nor the ending. And that's as it should be, the man is entitled to his privacy.

Shifter wrote:
Robear wrote:

I miss Bill. Lost his email address in a computer upgrade a while back. He and I were writers at Gone Gold and often corresponded, for a while. Good times.

Never did find out what happened to Rich. He was amazing. I expect he's passed by now.

I didn't realize this site had a connection to Rich and Bill (I came here from Evil Avatar). Gone Gold was a great site and the community was great too. I never knew what happened to Rich.

Not to derail, but I stumbled in here from Evil Avatar, too. IIRC, the head of that website went insane with frothing war-fever in 2003 and soon after I relocated.

I too was a Gone-Golder. When Bill started up his blog Dubious Quality, I started reading. He mentioned GWJ one blog post and that was how I found my way here.

Boy, that was all a long time ago...

Read my first book that I loved of the year. A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys. Hopeful, queer, Jewish, solarpunk, first-contact story. Like a lot of its relatives and progenitors (Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series, Becky Chambers' stuff) the plotting felt a bit weak, but the world-building and tone and character of it was more than enough to compensate. Really a delightful read!

Since I posted about Bill, let me just say if there are folks who are interested in getting in touch with him, I am happy to facilitate but would ask that you DM me your real name or a user name by which he might recognize you, and if he says "yes", I will DM you his email address.

For the record, I -- too -- found my way to GWJ via Bill, and he and I remain in touch to this day. Lovely bloke.

Feels like I missed out on something, having no idea what Gone Gold was back in the day

I finished Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Tied with Best Served Cold as my favorites in the First Law series. Despite being part of a trilogy of standalones, Red Country still felt like the end of the overall trilogy, given the fates of several of its characters that carried through all three books. It leaves me even more excited to continue the series.

I'll think it over, Edgar, thanks.

4dSwissCheese wrote:

Read my first book that I loved of the year. A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys. Hopeful, queer, Jewish, solarpunk, first-contact story. Like a lot of its relatives and progenitors (Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series, Becky Chambers' stuff) the plotting felt a bit weak, but the world-building and tone and character of it was more than enough to compensate. Really a delightful read!

+1 - i think i gave a very similar recommendation when I read it last year

I just finished Max Barry's Jennifer Government and loved it. Immediatly started Lexicon and that first chapter is a nail biter.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

I just finished Max Barry's Jennifer Government and loved it. Immediatly started Lexicon and that first chapter is a nail biter.

There's an online game based on the Jennifer Government.

https://www.nationstates.net

18 years ago we had some fun with it.

https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

Quintin_Stone wrote:

[

18 years ago we had some fun with it.

https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

Damn we're old

Nuh uh!

4dSwissCheese wrote:

Read my first book that I loved of the year. A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys. Hopeful, queer, Jewish, solarpunk, first-contact story. Like a lot of its relatives and progenitors (Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series, Becky Chambers' stuff) the plotting felt a bit weak, but the world-building and tone and character of it was more than enough to compensate. Really a delightful read!

You had me at Becky Chambers but the rest sounds great too! Added to the pile

The latest in the Agent Pendergast series The Cabinet of Dr. Leng just recently released.

I almost dropped it early because it just dives deeper into the crazy pool that was part of the last book, but I always like the way Preston/Child weave a story together and stuck through it and ended up enjoying it till it just... ended... like WTF... They're obviously doing another one and the epilogue had them apologizing for the abrupt ending, but still it was a bit of a shock

Bill Watterson, elusive creator of Calvin and Hobbes, is releasing an adult graphic novel later this year. The Mysteries.

From Bill Watterson, bestselling creator of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, and John Kascht, one of America’s most renowned caricaturists, comes a mysterious and beautifully illustrated fable about what lies beyond human understanding.

In a fable for grown-ups by cartoonist Bill Watterson, a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities. Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns.

For the book's illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right.

Brilliant! I usually use Bookshop.org, but they don't seem to have it in stock.

I just found out this exists and reserved it from my local library. Has anyone read it?

Steve & Me

IMAGE(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xsof2rWgL.jpg)

Just finished Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson and greatly enjoyed it. This is the first of the four books from his famously successful kickstarter campaign and was known as only as Secret Project #1 until earlier this year.

Sanderson himself said that The Princess Bride was an inspiration, and I think that's a good comparison. Of course throw in a Sanderson Magic System (tm) too.

If you weren't enough of a fan to fund the Kickstarter, I believe it's available currently on eBook and audio platforms, with mass market physical copies coming out later this year. The premium Kickstarter edition is really, really nice, though.

And my library even has copies on order - I do love libraries

https://search.icpl.org/Record/1777347

Work has kept me a bit busy of late but thought I would check back in to say how much I enjoyed the original novel of the Shining. Despite having watched the film countless times it lodged its own imagery in my head very quickly and had one of the most genuinely frightening passages I have ever read when

Spoiler:

Danny is trapped in playground

I can see why King dislikes the Kubrick version now but I am personally glad that both things exist, it really is an excellent example of how one idea can produce two very different but great pieces of art. I will be moving onto some of the other King recommendations from earlier in the thread soon.

I have for now though finally cracked and moved onto the 9th and final expanse book, ill be sorry to see the series go and really hope they can stick the landing.

It is. Got my e-book a few weeks back but have not started it yet.

farley3k wrote:

And my library even has copies on order - I do love libraries

https://search.icpl.org/Record/1777347

Wonder when the audiobook will hit libraries. His "Dark One" book he co-authored is there. Downloaded it a week ago, but haven't started.

The Tress hardback is really lovely, yes. It's sat on my shelf next to 8 Sanderson leatherbounds and US Stormlight hardcovers (which I regard as far superior to the UK editions). He's had a lot of my money. I didn't get the swag box pledge of the kickstarter though - the 400 pound delivery charge was too much even for me.

I don't understand why publishers don't try to get in on this kind of thing - I am willing to pay proper money for really nice versions of my most beloved books. Even if they do happen, they are on incredibly limited runs.

bbk1980 wrote:

Work has kept me a bit busy of late but thought I would check back in to say how much I enjoyed the original novel of the Shining.

Interesting! I also saw the film before reading the book, and came away with an almost Fight Club-level of "the movie was so much better" reaction.

The certainty that supernatural stuff was actually happening, rather than being something where you aren't quite sure the level to which it's just delusions as the story unfolds, just wasn't as cool. I thought it was a solid book but a phenomenal movie, and that the changes made were all for the better. King famously disagreed.

So I'm halfway through my first re-read of NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, and yup, it's still head and shoulders above the rest of the pack for GOAT Trilogy.

So good, and I'm really enjoying it with the benefit of mostly knowing what's coming (though it's been 5 years since I first read it, and I don't tend to hold onto the fine details of novels). But hot damn if she isn't amazing at dropping subtle hints that I entirely missed the first time around.

MannishBoy wrote:
farley3k wrote:

And my library even has copies on order - I do love libraries

https://search.icpl.org/Record/1777347

Wonder when the audiobook will hit libraries. His "Dark One" book he co-authored is there. Downloaded it a week ago, but haven't started.

Curious as well since he's making a stand against Audible and putting it out on other sources

ranalin wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
farley3k wrote:

And my library even has copies on order - I do love libraries

https://search.icpl.org/Record/1777347

Wonder when the audiobook will hit libraries. His "Dark One" book he co-authored is there. Downloaded it a week ago, but haven't started.

Curious as well since he's making a stand against Audible and putting it out on other sources

You can find it elsewhere, just not Overdrive yet. Google Play, Chirp, etc from a quick search.

Mr Crinkle wrote:
bbk1980 wrote:

Work has kept me a bit busy of late but thought I would check back in to say how much I enjoyed the original novel of the Shining.

Interesting! I also saw the film before reading the book, and came away with an almost Fight Club-level of "the movie was so much better" reaction.

The certainty that supernatural stuff was actually happening, rather than being something where you aren't quite sure the level to which it's just delusions as the story unfolds, just wasn't as cool. I thought it was a solid book but a phenomenal movie, and that the changes made were all for the better. King famously disagreed.

Thanks for the view! I found the book to be a much more human and tragic story, Kubrick is a fantastic director but connecting with human elements was never his forte. The space taken to connect with familial history’s of abuse made for a different take on Jack in the novel. That said I can see why you would prefer the film.