What Are You Reading 2023
11-15-23, 02:50 PM
#226
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading 2023
Cloak of Darkness by Helen MacInnes. An excellent book. I think that MacInnes was tired of writing novels to the template and was trying something different. This book has a lot of sparkle that was missing before. Instead of yet another novel about a civilian who gets involved in espionage and who is helped by a professional, this book is about the professional.
It has stuff that I haven't seen in potboilers:
It has stuff that I haven't seen in potboilers:
- The beautiful young wife is menaced by a villain. Instead of being captured and needing rescue, security instantly picks up the baddie.
- A character gets his arm slashed by a knife in the first act. He is all macho and keeps going. A week later, he almost dies because he didn't take care of it.
- The competent local police inspector who helps the good guys angrily tells the main character that this disaster would have been prevented if you guys had shared more information.
Last edited by Nick Danger; 11-19-23 at 01:19 PM.
11-15-23, 04:08 PM
#227
DVD Talk Reviewer/Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Formerly known as Kurt D - On a cloud of Judgement
Posts: 13,916
Received 1,628 Likes
on
1,114 Posts
Re: What Are You Reading 2023
Recently finished The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias, brutal new wave horror/noir), and Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story fun look at the making of the movie starting with the creation of the National Lampoon magazine.
Still reading Murder, INC. which reads like the dialog from a bad gangster movie, but is fun nonetheless.
Still reading Murder, INC. which reads like the dialog from a bad gangster movie, but is fun nonetheless.
Last edited by L. Ron zyzzle; 11-16-23 at 10:53 PM.
The following 2 users liked this post by Geofferson:
GoldenJCJ (11-22-23),
L. Ron zyzzle (11-22-23)
12-03-23, 10:59 PM
#234
DVD Talk Reviewer/Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Formerly known as Kurt D - On a cloud of Judgement
Posts: 13,916
Received 1,628 Likes
on
1,114 Posts
Re: What Are You Reading 2023
STILL READING MURDER INC. But in the meantime finished Rant by Chuck Pahlaniuk and started Haunted by Chuck Pahlaniuk
12-06-23, 12:37 PM
#235
Re: What Are You Reading 2023
Finished:
With Halloween over, I'm taking a break from horror books for a while. I rarely reread books, but just started a reread of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy.
Tad Williams was one of my favorite authors starting in the late 80's. Though I lost track of him around 2010 when he starting writing in genres I don't generally read (young adult and detective thrillers). But he's gotten back into fantasy with several books that follow-up Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. But it's been 30 years since I've read them, and pretty much can't remember a thing about them. Other that the main character was a castle kitchen boy who gets swept up in a gigantic world-spanning adventure, the "big bad" was some kind of ancient elf demon, and a twist where:
I remember really getting swept up in the books though. It'll be interesting to see how it aged, since the series was highly influential on later fantasy ... so maybe in retrospect it'll seem more derivative then it felt when they were new.
With Halloween over, I'm taking a break from horror books for a while. I rarely reread books, but just started a reread of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy.
Tad Williams was one of my favorite authors starting in the late 80's. Though I lost track of him around 2010 when he starting writing in genres I don't generally read (young adult and detective thrillers). But he's gotten back into fantasy with several books that follow-up Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. But it's been 30 years since I've read them, and pretty much can't remember a thing about them. Other that the main character was a castle kitchen boy who gets swept up in a gigantic world-spanning adventure, the "big bad" was some kind of ancient elf demon, and a twist where:
Spoiler:
I remember really getting swept up in the books though. It'll be interesting to see how it aged, since the series was highly influential on later fantasy ... so maybe in retrospect it'll seem more derivative then it felt when they were new.
Still very good. Williams is especially good at world building and creating characters that feel like real people (and getting you to care about them). To be sure, there are a number of well-worn fantasy tropes: a "nobody" young person who is secretly a "chosen one", a world spanning hunt for magical MacGuffins (in this case, three swords) to defeat the Big Bad. And Stone of Farewell has a strong case of "middle book syndrome" (the whole thing is setting up pieces for the last book). But the characters and settings still make them easy books to get swept up in, especially for fantasy fans. You can really see how this series was a bridge between Tolkein and D&D fantasy to more mature modern fantasy like Game of Thrones (and GRRM has stated this series was a big direct influence).
I'm taking some time off before the last book in the series, To Green Angel Tower, which is monstrously long (over 1500 pages in paperback). I really appreciate how Williams includes brief synopses of earlier books at the start of each later book in the series. I know there's the internet now (which wasn't around when these were first published), but I wish more writers would do this.
