What are you currently reading?

[brlesh]

Finished up The Darkest Night, which was an OK anthology.

Up next, starting The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany.

I don’t read a lot of fantasy, so I’m kind of interested to see how this classic fantasy novel hits for me.

B

Finished up The King of Elfland’s Daughter, which was a lot of flowery prose and not a whole lot of story.

Next up, Christmas at Wheeldale Inn by Gemma Amor.

B

[brlesh]

Finished up The Darkest Night, which was an OK anthology.

Up next, starting The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany.

I don’t read a lot of fantasy, so I’m kind of interested to see how this classic fantasy novel hits for me.

B

[sholloman81]

I thought it was great.

It follows McBride’s creature feature MO to the T. If you’re a fan of his, you’ll like Extant. I thought it was a lot of fun, but he’s not doing anything in Extant that he hasn’t done before.

The first half was all setup. There’s enough science to make the story seem realistic and plausible.

At about the half way point, the shit hits the fan (along with a lot of body parts) and it’s just accelerator to the floor until the end of the story.

Classic McBride!

B

Thanks for the review! Now I definitely have to consider January's announcement!

[brlesh]

Let us know what you think of Extant. I'm still on the fence about the Thunderstorm pre-order for the hardcover in January..

I thought it was great.

It follows McBride’s creature feature MO to the T. If you’re a fan of his, you’ll like Extant. I thought it was a lot of fun, but he’s not doing anything in Extant that he hasn’t done before.

The first half was all setup. There’s enough science to make the story seem realistic and plausible.

At about the half way point, the shit hits the fan (along with a lot of body parts) and it’s just accelerator to the floor until the end of the story.

Classic McBride!

B

[sholloman81]

Taking a break from The Darkest Night to read Extant by Michael McBride.

It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by McBride, and Extant sounds like a classic McBride story, so I have high hopes for this one.

B

Let us know what you think of Extant. I'm still on the fence about the Thunderstorm pre-order for the hardcover in January..

[brlesh]

Taking a break from The Darkest Night to read Extant by Michael McBride.

It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by McBride, and Extant sounds like a classic McBride story, so I have high hopes for this one.

B

[brlesh]

Finished up Horror of the Blood Devils by Tim Curran.

Good creature feature fun from Curran, this one was a blast.

Up next, starting The Darkest Night, an anthology of winter horror stories edited by Lindy Ryan.

B

[dannyboy121070]

Finished up Inspection by Josh Malerman. I jumped off the Malerman bandwagon a couple of years ago, and this read did nothing towards getting me to jump back on.

B

Malerman has been more miss than hit for me...His recentish novella collection was absolutely dreadful. I did enjoy INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE very much, although the end was kind of a letdown.

[brlesh]

Finished up Inspection by Josh Malerman. I jumped off the Malerman bandwagon a couple of years ago, and this read did nothing towards getting me to jump back on.

After Inspection, I finished up a short story collection that I’ve reading off and on for a couple of weeks, Home From the Sea by William Meikle. A Lovecraftian / creature feature collection that was a lot of fun.

Up next, starting Horror of the Blood Devils by Tim Curran.

B

[sholloman81]

There seems to be unsurprisingly a divergence of opinion on 11/22/63, though the lion's share is positive. I'm definitely in the lion's club...I thought 11/22/63 was fantastic. Sure, it lagged some in the middle third when it focused hard on the Kennedy assassination aspect...and I get it, that's what the plot device is, and that's what the book is titled after, and so on. But for me, this book was at its best when it was a character-driven saga, not a plot-driven one, so I didn't find that assassination research portion as compelling as the build-up and resolution. Either way, though, it's a great read, IMO King's best since his classic days of the '70s and '80s, though I really did enjoy JOYLAND as well (caveat: there's a lot of modern King that I haven't read, so take my "best" qualifier with a grain of salt).

I'm about a quarter of the way through. I haven't read this one since it was first released over a decade ago but also remember it being a divisive book for a lot of SK fans. Much like yourself, I remember loving this one which is why I opted for the PS version when it was available. I tend to agree that there are parts of the book that are a bit of a slog, and the page count should probably have been reduced, but when this one is firing on all cylinders, I tend to feel that it's as good a read as any of King's other beloved stories.

[RonClinton]

Just finished reading the Cemetery Dance Deluxe Special Edition of "The Stand". Took me close to 3 weeks and enjoyed it every step of the way. Has been a while since I read this book and it was like visiting with old friends. Also, after all of these years, I can't believe that I still get choked up when King kills off Nick or when the group leaves Stu behind after breaking his leg. Just really good writing from King. Overall, glad to finally have read ( and received) this version of the Stand!

Am now reading the PS LE of Stephen King's 11/22/63. Has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while. Figured I would do King reads for the holiday and also catch up said pile!

There seems to be unsurprisingly a divergence of opinion on 11/22/63, though the lion's share is positive. I'm definitely in the lion's club...I thought 11/22/63 was fantastic. Sure, it lagged some in the middle third when it focused hard on the Kennedy assassination aspect...and I get it, that's what the plot device is, and that's what the book is titled after, and so on. But for me, this book was at its best when it was a character-driven saga, not a plot-driven one, so I didn't find that assassination research portion as compelling as the build-up and resolution. Either way, though, it's a great read, IMO King's best since his classic days of the '70s and '80s, though I really did enjoy JOYLAND as well (caveat: there's a lot of modern King that I haven't read, so take my "best" qualifier with a grain of salt).

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Cemetery Dance Deluxe Special Edition of "The Stand". Took me close to 3 weeks and enjoyed it every step of the way. Has been a while since I read this book and it was like visiting with old friends. Also, after all of these years, I can't believe that I still get choked up when King kills off Nick or when the group leaves Stu behind after breaking his leg. Just really good writing from King. Overall, glad to finally have read ( and received) this version of the Stand!

Am now reading the PS LE of Stephen King's 11/22/63. Has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while. Figured I would do King reads for the holiday and also catch up said pile!

[dannyboy121070]

I've been reading the entire Corbett series this year. I think I had only previously read the first four books and figured I should reread those and finish the series up.

I'm probably about 20% of the way through Leviathan. I took a detour between the short short collection and this one to read another book. Also feel the need to toss some other things in-between books, especially after The King of Shadows which was such a slog. Worst one of the series IMHO.

Right before Leviathan, I read The Whyte Python World Tour by Travis Kennedy. THIS BOOK WAS A BLAST! Right up my alley - 80's hair metal with a touch of cold war espionage.

Hoping to finish Leviathan in the next week or two, and then probably I'll read some random comics before starting The Expanse series for my 2026 goal.

Curious to hear your thoughts on LEVIATHAN when you're finished. I had very strong opinions about it, lol.

[TacomaDiver]

Just finished reading the Lividian LE of Robert McCammon's "Leviathan". What a bittersweet feeling! This is one of my favorite authors and has been one of my favorite series of books for the last quarter century. Was Leviathan the best book in the series, no, but it was an extremely good read and a very fitting end to the series. As always, McCammon's writing is top-notch, and pretty much everything worked for me within the story. Also, I truly loved the ending. McCammon found a way to make it both bittersweet and also very fun and unexpected. I know it will probably never happen due to the author wanting to retire in the near future, but boy would I like to see where he could go if he were to continue on with the ending of this book. Truly going to miss this series of books as I feel like I could read Matthew Corbett stories forever.

I've been reading the entire Corbett series this year. I think I had only previously read the first four books and figured I should reread those and finish the series up.

I'm probably about 20% of the way through Leviathan. I took a detour between the short short collection and this one to read another book. Also feel the need to toss some other things in-between books, especially after The King of Shadows which was such a slog. Worst one of the series IMHO.

Right before Leviathan, I read The Whyte Python World Tour by Travis Kennedy. THIS BOOK WAS A BLAST! Right up my alley - 80's hair metal with a touch of cold war espionage.

Hoping to finish Leviathan in the next week or two, and then probably I'll read some random comics before starting The Expanse series for my 2026 goal.

[brlesh]

Finished up Enter Boogeyman, which was a decent anthology of boogeyman related stories.

Tonight going to start Noctuidae by Scott Nicolay.

In the past I’ve found Nicolay to be more miss than hit for me, but the premise for this story just sounded too interesting to pass up.

Plus, at only about 80 pages, it’s not too much of an investment if the story doesn’t pan out.

B

So Noctuidae was a big miss for me.

An interesting premise that completely missed the mark.

Nicolay’s annoying writing style didn’t help things (he’s another writer that feels he’s above using quotation marks to delineate dialogue; it makes for difficult reading as he often embeds dialogue in longer descriptive paragraphs).

Why editors or publishers are OK with this practice is beyond me.

Next up, starting Inspection by Josh Malerman, another author that’s been more miss than hit for me over the years.

B