What are you currently reading?

[Martin]

For the most part, I enjoyed King Sorrow, but I also struggled to find the characters likeable.

Current read is Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

I think I've seen the man in person more than the number of books I've read by him. His writing has always proven challenging to me - something about the cadence it seems. But the man is an amazing speaker. Probably why I keep going to his events - plus the fact he's local to me helps out a bit.

Only about 100 pages in so far, and I am enjoying it. Took a bit to get into, but now I have the taste and am looking forward to reading more. My wife is interested in this one too so it'll depend on what I think of it before I'd recommend it to her.

I attempted to read one Stephen Graham Jones novel, do not even remember the title but I had a visceral response to the writing style and I bailed. The only other writer that I had that type of response to was Ann Rice. I tried several of her books and could never get more than halfway through any of them. That experience has kept me from trying again. The outline of The Buffalo Hunter intrigues me, but I am fairly certain I would not be able to finish it. Glad he as having great success but clearly not for me. Hope it works for you and your wife!

[TacomaDiver]

For the most part, I enjoyed King Sorrow, but I also struggled to find the characters likeable.

Current read is Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

I think I've seen the man in person more than the number of books I've read by him. His writing has always proven challenging to me - something about the cadence it seems. But the man is an amazing speaker. Probably why I keep going to his events - plus the fact he's local to me helps out a bit.

Only about 100 pages in so far, and I am enjoying it. Took a bit to get into, but now I have the taste and am looking forward to reading more. My wife is interested in this one too so it'll depend on what I think of it before I'd recommend it to her.

[Martin]

Glad to see at least one sort of positive review in the forum! Haven't purchased this one yet but had planned to do so sometime soon. All of these lukewarm reviews are giving me pause but I can't imagine myself not giving a Joe Hill book a try.

Be honest, if this were to be released as a limited, how many of you would still purchase it, even with the lukewarm reviews, if only to maintain your Joe Hill LE collection?

For me it was worth the read but does not compare with his shorter novels. Will I buy the limited, yes if it is not cost prohibitive or from a publisher I avoid.

[sholloman81]

Overall

I generally liked King Sorrow, but understand your points. The italics were not an issue for me as I do not have a problem reading them and I understood the reason for them. Every aspect of the story, section names, characters, etc. are a large nod to his family and friends. In a few cases it caught me by surprise and there are probably some I missed. That also did not bug me that much. Overall, I put this one place higher than The Fireman, which is the only Joe Hill Novel I really did not care for. The good news is that Mr. Hill stated that this would be his last long novel in a while as he has embarked on a goal of a book a year for a decade. He also stated that his 2026 release "The Hunger" was turned given the publisher before this one hit stores. I am hoping he is able to strike gold like he did with "Heart Shaped Box" and "Horns" again!

Glad to see at least one sort of positive review in the forum! Haven't purchased this one yet but had planned to do so sometime soon. All of these lukewarm reviews are giving me pause but I can't imagine myself not giving a Joe Hill book a try.

Be honest, if this were to be released as a limited, how many of you would still purchase it, even with the lukewarm reviews, if only to maintain your Joe Hill LE collection?

[Martin]

Okay, so some thoughts on Joe Hill's KING SORROW, a book that has received a great deal of praise from critics and fans, but one that I find myself struggling to connect with:

I'm 200 pages in, and am taking the next day or two to reevaluate if I continue on. It's an odd place to be, since -- with the notable exception of THE FIREMAN -- I've been a big Joe Hill fan ince day one. But at 200 pages, I'm faced with a cast of characters that aren't particularly likeable or interesting, one that feels a bit Young Adult horror in which attitude and scrappiness substitute for personality. There is a semi-auto pistol scene that has three significant errors in it...I'm surprised that scene got through a cast of proofreaders and editors...you'd think someone, anyone who's actually fired a gun, would catch these glaring issues. Then there are pages upon pages of italics...any scene where the characters "see" through the eyes of King Sorrow when he hunts prey are italicized, so three, four, etc. subsequent pages of italicized print in multiple scenes. This has always been a particular pet peeve of mine, I've always really, really disliked this hard-to-read, stylistic design choice, and typically just set a book back on the store shelf when I see its prevalent use when flipping through it. Then he namedrops a bunch of side characters with names of his author friends -- Bracken MacLeod, Catriona Ward, Sarah Pinborough, et al. Between this and the italics and whatnot, it feels like Hill's authorial self-indulgence is a bit too apparent. So with all of these things inherently kicking me out of the story, reminding me that these are simply words on a page and keeping me from really submerging myself into the tale, I'm struggling with staying engaged. Perhaps I'm being overly critical and small annoyances are keeping me from seeing the bigger picture that many others seem to see and enjoy, so I'm going to give it a break for a day or two and see if it calls my name again...but at the moment, it's not looking particularly good.

Overall

I generally liked King Sorrow, but understand your points. The italics were not an issue for me as I do not have a problem reading them and I understood the reason for them. Every aspect of the story, section names, characters, etc. are a large nod to his family and friends. In a few cases it caught me by surprise and there are probably some I missed. That also did not bug me that much. Overall, I put this one place higher than The Fireman, which is the only Joe Hill Novel I really did not care for. The good news is that Mr. Hill stated that this would be his last long novel in a while as he has embarked on a goal of a book a year for a decade. He also stated that his 2026 release "The Hunger" was turned given the publisher before this one hit stores. I am hoping he is able to strike gold like he did with "Heart Shaped Box" and "Horns" again!

[RonClinton]

If you don't like the book by now, that's probably not going to change. I ended up giving it a good review, but I didn't feel it was among his best work.

That's the thing...it's juuusst good enough to -- so far -- keep me coming back for more rather than DNFing it, so I suppose, if pressed, I'd also give it a positive review. If it were a shorter work I'd just go ahead and plow through and rank it a bit above THE FIREMAN and just as quickly put it out of mind and move on...but at nearly 900 pages, I don't know if I have the patience or commitment to follow through the rest of this saga, based on what I've read thus far and for the reasons mentioned earlier (and, it sounds, like more of those similar annoyances to come). Truth to be told, my mind has already moved on to anticipating my next read, which is never a good sign for the book at hand.

[dannyboy121070]

Okay, so some thoughts on Joe Hill's KING SORROW, a book that has received a great deal of praise from critics and fans, but one that I find myself struggling to connect with:

I'm 200 pages in, and am taking the next day or two to reevaluate if I continue on. It's an odd place to be, since -- with the notable exception of THE FIREMAN -- I've been a big Joe Hill fan since day one. But at 200 pages, I'm faced with a cast of characters that aren't particularly likeable or interesting, one that feels a bit Young Adult horror in which attitude and scrappiness substitute for personality. There is a semi-auto pistol scene that has three significant errors in it...I'm surprised that scene got through a cast of proofreaders and editors...you'd think someone, anyone who's actually fired a gun, would catch these glaring issues. Then there are pages upon pages of italics...any scene where the characters "see" through the eyes of King Sorrow when he hunts prey are italicized, so three, four, etc. subsequent pages of italicized print in multiple scenes. This has always been a particular pet peeve of mine, I've always really, really disliked this hard-to-read, stylistic design choice, and typically just set a book back on the store shelf when I see its prevalent use when flipping through it. Then he namedrops a bunch of side characters with names of his author friends -- Bracken MacLeod, Catriona Ward, Sarah Pinborough, et al. Between this and the italics and whatnot, it feels like Hill's authorial self-indulgence is a bit too apparent. So with all of these things inherently kicking me out of the story, reminding me that these are simply words on a page and keeping me from really submerging myself into the tale, I'm struggling with staying engaged. Perhaps I'm being overly critical and small annoyances are keeping me from seeing the bigger picture that many others seem to see and enjoy, so I'm going to give it a break for a day or two and see if it calls my name again...but at the moment, it's not looking particularly good.

I had a lot of the same issues. The looooong scene on the airplane, where Hill constantly uses the phrase "Dragonedy O'Clock" made me put the book down for a few days, out of sheer annoyance.

If you don't like the book by now, that's probably not going to change. I ended up giving it a good review, but I didn't feel it was among his best work.

[RonClinton]

Okay, so some thoughts on Joe Hill's KING SORROW, a book that has received a great deal of praise from critics and fans, but one that I find myself struggling to connect with:

I'm 200 pages in, and am taking the next day or two to reevaluate if I continue on. It's an odd place to be, since -- with the notable exception of THE FIREMAN -- I've been a big Joe Hill fan since day one. But at 200 pages, I'm faced with a cast of characters that aren't particularly likeable or interesting, one that feels a bit Young Adult horror in which attitude and scrappiness substitute for personality. There is a semi-auto pistol scene that has three significant errors in it...I'm surprised that scene got through a cast of proofreaders and editors...you'd think someone, anyone who's actually fired a gun, would catch these glaring issues. Then there are pages upon pages of italics...any scene where the characters "see" through the eyes of King Sorrow when he hunts prey are italicized, so three, four, etc. subsequent pages of italicized print in multiple scenes. This has always been a particular pet peeve of mine, I've always really, really disliked this hard-to-read, stylistic design choice, and typically just set a book back on the store shelf when I see its prevalent use when flipping through it. Then he namedrops a bunch of side characters with names of his author friends -- Bracken MacLeod, Catriona Ward, Sarah Pinborough, et al. Between this and the italics and whatnot, it feels like Hill's authorial self-indulgence is a bit too apparent. So with all of these things inherently kicking me out of the story, reminding me that these are simply words on a page and keeping me from really submerging myself into the tale, I'm struggling with staying engaged. Perhaps I'm being overly critical and small annoyances are keeping me from seeing the bigger picture that many others seem to see and enjoy, so I'm going to give it a break for a day or two and see if it calls my name again...but at the moment, it's not looking particularly good.

[brlesh]

Finished up Black-Winged Angels, by Angela Slatter, which I liked a lot. A collection of reworked fairy tales from early in her career.

Up next, starting Itch! by Gemma Amor.

B

[brlesh]

Had my first DNF of the year as I tapped out on Metropolis at about the half way point. The story was starting to come together at this point, but I just no longer cared. Von Harbou’s writing style was just so wordy and redundant that it made the reading experience a complete drag.

After Metropolis I started Black-Winged Angels, a collection of dark, fairy tale influenced stories by Angela Slatter.

At the halfway point and really enjoying this collection of her earliest stories, most written & published while she was still in school.

B

[sholloman81]

Overall, I liked it.

It was an interesting story and she has a very readable style.

My one criticism would be I thought the ending was a little flat. Not bad, was just expecting more.

Have her first novel Haven on my TBR, and looking forward to her mermaid (??) story from Earthling.

B

Very glad to hear this! Still need to check Haven out as well. I'm slowly working my way through her short novel, Vanilla. So far, so good! I also have the Earthling book on pre-order and looking forward to it very much.

[dannyboy121070]

I finished the Kenzie Jennings collection, which I really enjoyed. Finally a new-to-me author that I want to read more from! There were two stories that I just did not get, but overall, a solid collection. So many typos and repeated sentences...I wish publishers would take more care in proofing their books.

In keeping with my short story mania, I just started the Subterranean Charles Beaumont collection THE CARNIVAL.

[brlesh]

Finished up Alakazam by Mia Dalia, which I liked quite a bit.

Next up, started Metropolis by Thea von Harbou, a novelization of her screenplay of the famous sci-fi dystopian movie directed by her (at the time) husband Fritz Lang.

Only about 20 pages in, liking it so far. Can definitely see that this was an influence on George Orwell. Getting strong 1984 vibes from the opening chapters.

B

[brlesh]

I was just looking at Alakazam the other day. Let us know what you think when done as I may pick it up! Am just getting ready to start her recent collection of novellas from Thunderstorm.

Overall, I liked it.

It was an interesting story and she has a very readable style.

My one criticism would be I thought the ending was a little flat. Not bad, was just expecting more.

Have her first novel Haven on my TBR, and looking forward to her mermaid (??) story from Earthling.

B

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading Kristopher Triana's "Pure Evil", a collection of his most extreme short stories. There were some misses, as there are with most collections; however, a lot of these stories were top notch examples of extreme and splatter horror and would make Ed Lee blush. In fact, his story "The Bitch" from this collection might be the most disturbing splatter/extreme story that I have read. It was truly tough to get through. Overall, a good collection of extreme stories, but definitely not for those who need trigger warnings as this book will offend everyone!

Am now reading the Thunderstorm LE of Mona Kabbini's "They're Already Here", a collection of three novellas.