What are you currently reading?

[sholloman81]

Finished The Girl With All the Gifts last night.

Really liked this one.

Carey took the old zombie story line and did something completely different with it.

It had me guessing throughout where the story was going.

Started a three story chap this morning by Michael Marshall Smith, This Is Now.

All the stories are rereads for me, but two stories in and I am really enjoying it.

The stories are interesting, dark, and thought provoking, and well worth revisiting.

B

If you enjoyed The Girl with All the Gifts, you should definitely check out the (pre)sequel The Boy on the Bridge as it's a pretty good read as well.

[brlesh]

Finished The Girl With All the Gifts last night.

Really liked this one.

Carey took the old zombie story line and did something completely different with it.

It had me guessing throughout where the story was going.

Started a three story chap this morning by Michael Marshall Smith, This Is Now.

All the stories are rereads for me, but two stories in and I am really enjoying it.

The stories are interesting, dark, and thought provoking, and well worth revisiting.

B

[mhatchett]

Just finished reading the Midworld LE of Christopher Buehlman's "The Blacktongue Theif", a first time read for me. This was actually my first Buehlman read at all, and I will definitely be back for more. This book was so freaking good! Fantasy/Adventure is not my go-to, but every now and then, I'll be in the mood, and this one was everything I was hoping for and more. The characterization in this book was amazing. The main character Kinch will definitely be kicking around in my head for a while. He had such a unique voice. The worldbuilding was also unique and vast. Lots of cool people, cryptids, and faraway lands. Loved the magic system that was established, and the thief's guild and its rules was all kinds of cool and horrible. I was so bummed when I hit the final page as I did not want this story to end. Luckily, I believe this will be, at the least, a trilogy; so, with any luck, I'll get to spend more time in this world soon. I would give this an A grade for sure and am super happy that I took the chance on this book!

I will be reading Stephen King's "Holly" next. Even though I have a gigantic TRB stack, I just can't resist moving this to the top. Having new King to read always makes me so happy!

I really enjoyed Buehlman's The Suicide Motor Club. It was a very different Vampire story!

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Midworld LE of Christopher Buehlman's "The Blacktongue Theif", a first time read for me. This was actually my first Buehlman read at all, and I will definitely be back for more. This book was so freaking good! Fantasy/Adventure is not my go-to, but every now and then, I'll be in the mood, and this one was everything I was hoping for and more. The characterization in this book was amazing. The main character Kinch will definitely be kicking around in my head for a while. He had such a unique voice. The worldbuilding was also unique and vast. Lots of cool people, cryptids, and faraway lands. Loved the magic system that was established, and the thief's guild and its rules was all kinds of cool and horrible. I was so bummed when I hit the final page as I did not want this story to end. Luckily, I believe this will be, at the least, a trilogy; so, with any luck, I'll get to spend more time in this world soon. I would give this an A grade for sure and am super happy that I took the chance on this book!

I will be reading Stephen King's "Holly" next. Even though I have a gigantic TRB stack, I just can't resist moving this to the top. Having new King to read always makes me so happy!

[brlesh]

Finished up Horrors of War by Tim Curran.

If you’re looking for some gory, fast paced action, few do it better than Curran.

I noticed with Horrors of War, as with Bone Marrow Stew when I read it a couple of years ago, some of the stories do tend to get repetitive.

After Horrors of War, started The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey.

100 pages in and really enjoying TGWATG so far.

B

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the SST LE of Josh Malerman's "Unbury Carol". This was a reread for me, and I liked it much better this time around. Lots of fun and quirky characters and a really unique story. I've always enjoyed westerns, especially weird westerns and this one fits the bill for sure. This book truly deserves to be turned into a film. If I had one complaint, I do wish the supernatural element would have been given more of an explanation or been left out completely. While it was very creepy, the book could have stood fine on its own without it. Overall, to me, while not top Malerman, it was still a very unique and worthwhile read, and I would give it a solid C+ to B- rating.

Think I will be reading the Midworld LE of Christopher Buehlman's "The Blacktongue Theif" next, a first time read for me. I'm in the mood for something different, and I have heard great things about this book and author.

[brlesh]

Finished The Exorcism of Winchester House.

The over-the-top second half did not maintain my interest like the first half did.

Finishing up the last story I have to read in Horrors of War by Tim Curran.

1867: The Skull Eater Campaign is a reread, as it was originally published by CD in Four Rode Out about 10 years ago.

I remember liking it the first time I read it, though I remember little else about the story.

At over 80 pages, it is the longest story in the collection.

Half way through and really enjoying this bloody good story about the Indian war.

B

[brlesh]

Finished Classic Monsters Unleashed.

The second half was not as good as the first half.

Started The Exorcism of Winchester House by Douglas Wynne.

A third of the way through and liking it so far.

B

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the SST LE of Josh Malerman's "Inspection". This was technically a re-read for me, but I hardly remembered the plot beforehand and had jumbled elements from it with Stephen King's "Inspection" which I had read around the same time. This time around Malerman's "Inspection" left a much deeper mark. For some reason, the characters seemed to resonate more with me, and the letter names for characters didn't seem as bothersome. Perhaps the book just caught me at a better time as a reader. I also think that this story would make a wonderful limited TV series, saw it in my head as I was reading. On a side note, while the SST production is nice, I do wish they had used different art and had included some extra features beyond that, but at the $60 price point, it still feels like a steal! Overall, I would give this book a solid B to maybe B+ rating.

Not sure, but I think I will be reading the SST LE of Josh Malerman's "Unbury Carol" next, another re-read that I hardly remember.

[brlesh]

Finished The Dog Stars by Peter Heller a few days ago.

Great book!

A different kind of post apocalyptic story.

While most post apocalyptic stories tend to have a long and sprawling story line with a huge cast of characters, TDS was a very intimate, character driven story with a rather simple plot; society has gone to shit, do what you need to do to stay alive.

I thought Heller did a good job of presenting a realistic apocalypse scenario, no zombies, no supernatural deities, just two men trying to survive on a daily basis, which was enough for one but not the other.

A lot of bad things happen in TDS, though most of action takes place “off screen”.

I also liked that Heller didn’t sugar coat his two protagonists.

While you’re sympathetic to the two main characters (more so Hig; less so with Bangley), they do awful things to stay alive and preserve their safe haven.

Definitely a different kind of read.

Highly recommended, especially if you are looking for something outside the normal horror / sci-fi reading genre.

B

As Brian James Freeman mentioned somewhere on the boards, Heller’s writing style for this story was not traditional.

He doesn’t use quotation marks and very little punctuation.

The story is told from the mind of main character, so there’s a lot of sentence fragments and sharp breaks, but it was a style that I as a reader quickly adapted to, and if any thing I think it helped to speed the story along.

Take it from someone who usually hates any kind of experimental writing, I found The Dogs Stars to be an easy read.

B

[brlesh]

After TDS, started Classic Monsters Unleashed, edited by James Aquilone.

Half way through and it’s been an entertaining, if unmemorable, anthology to this point.

None of the stories have been great (though a couple, IMO, could have been with better endings) and none have been awful.

B

[brlesh]

Finished The Dog Stars by Peter Heller a few days ago.

Great book!

A different kind of post apocalyptic story.

While most post apocalyptic stories tend to have a long and sprawling story line with a huge cast of characters, TDS was a very intimate, character driven story with a rather simple plot; society has gone to shit, do what you need to do to stay alive.

I thought Heller did a good job of presenting a realistic apocalypse scenario, no zombies, no supernatural deities, just two men trying to survive on a daily basis, which was enough for one but not the other.

A lot of bad things happen in TDS, though most of action takes place “off screen”.

I also liked that Heller didn’t sugar coat his two protagonists.

While you’re sympathetic to the two main characters (more so Hig; less so with Bangley), they do awful things to stay alive and preserve their safe haven.

Definitely a different kind of read.

Highly recommended, especially if you are looking for something outside the normal horror / sci-fi reading genre.

B

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the SST LE of Stephen Graham Jones' "Demon Theory", a first time read for me. Really enjoyed it as I have all of SGJ's stuff. This one was definitely more of an interesting & fun read rather than being particularly scary. You could tell that the author was having loads of fun playing with the characters and formatting of each section of the book. I also really enjoyed how the author played with and subverted a lot of the typical horror story/movie conventions (horror in the woods, hospital, Xmas, etc.). This edition was also the author's preferred text which made a difference in that this book had way fewer footnotes than the standard edition. The level of footnotes in the standard edition always put me off on wanting to read it. Overall, I'm glad that I finally got around to reading this book and would give it a B- to C+ grade.

Am now reading the SST LE of Josh Malerman's "Inspection".

[sholloman81]

Oh - here are some pictures of tonight's event.

Daniel Kraus is touring his new book Whalefall. Sadie Hartmann turned me onto this book (it's about a diver who gets swallowed by a whale - hits lots of checkboxes for sure!) Stephen Graham Jones was there as a moderator/interviewer. I've seen SGJ at two official events, and one unofficial when I saw him in line as a fan at a recent convention in Denver, so tonight was my third time meeting him.

It was a great talk - I'm not familiar with Kraus as an author, but Whalefall is going to move to the upper portion of my TBR pile.

Got my copy signed (and stamped) and I had SGJ sign my SST edition of Demon Theory. Yeah, I know some collectors are going to freak that I had an LE personalized to me, but I'm not ever going to part with this, plus double signed now! The inscription is pretty cool tool. (This was also the only SGJ book I had handy since all of my books are currently in storage.)

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Wow, am even more jealous now! That event looks bonkers!

[Sock Monkey]

Sounds like a great time. And that additional signature and especially that inscription, on the limited edition is very cool! Congratulations!