Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 332577 times)

PirateLawyer

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #270 on: September 12, 2016, 05:11:14 PM »
Swords v. Cthulhu, new release by Stoneskin Press and follow-up to their anthology Shotguns v. Cthulhu.

Twisting H

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #271 on: September 19, 2016, 06:55:01 AM »
Swords v. Cthulhu, new release by Stoneskin Press and follow-up to their anthology Shotguns v. Cthulhu.

Is it good?

Twisting H

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #272 on: September 19, 2016, 06:57:51 AM »
Comics, online and otherwise

Monstress by Image comics

https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/monstress-1


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstress_(comic_book)
Quote
Monstress is an epic fantasy comics series written by Marjorie Liu and drawn by Sana Takeda, published since 2015 by the American publisher Image Comics.

The series is set in a matriarchal "alternate Asia"[1] riven by war between the Arcanics, magical creatures who sometimes can pass for human, and the Cumea, an order of sorceresses who consume Arcanics to fuel their power. The main character, Maika, is an Arcanic who is set on learning more about, and avenging, her dead mother. According to Liu, among the series's themes are the inner strength required to withstand constant dehumanization, as well as the power of friendship among women.[1]



Yeah yeah whatever. They are missing the real story.  What Monstress does right is creating a sense of cosmic horror in an epic fantasy world.  I haven't seen a good example of this outside a meager few Conan stories, until now. 

Also if you ever wanted to know how to handle new WW2 esque new warfare in a fantasy world; Monstress, Eberron, and Perdido Street Station are the only examples I can think of.



Art is great. Setting is super adult. World is brimming with details. Check it out.




--------------


Another find that has restored (temporarily) my interest in comics is Kill Six Billion Demons.
http://killsixbilliondemons.com/



I'm betting most of you already know this. But for you gents late to the party like myself, sincerely this was worth reading.  It is a mystical world-building fever dream at it's finest. William S. Burroughs would nod approvingly then grab whatever the writer is smoking.



Public transit blows no matter what dimension you are in.



When angels go bad (?) they get awesome. You can hear the guitar riff coming off of this image.



Along with jaw dropping visuals and kaleidoscopic creativity is a serious and deep re-inventing of Indian and Asian religious myths.

http://killsixbilliondemons.wikia.com/wiki/Kill_Six_Billion_Demons

Quote
Kill Six Billion Demons draws inspiration from Hindu mythology, Lovecraft, video games, fiction, and ancient Greek gnosticism. For example YISUN's appearance is distinctly Hindu, his teachings reflect the 36 Lessons of Vivec from the Elder Scrolls series of games, while the concept of demiurges comes from gnostic tradition. Abbadon has listed Moebius, Geof Darrow, James Stokoe, Sheldon Vella, and Noriyoshi Ohrai as his top five influences.

« Last Edit: September 19, 2016, 07:00:08 AM by Twisting H »

PirateLawyer

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #273 on: September 19, 2016, 12:28:25 PM »
Swords v. Cthulhu, new release by Stoneskin Press and follow-up to their anthology Shotguns v. Cthulhu.

Is it good?

Yes.

Twisting H

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #274 on: October 02, 2016, 11:24:59 AM »

Mike Minnis

The exceptional modern Mythos writer whom time forgot.

Sometime in the late 90s, a German gentleman by the name of Mike Minnis took pen to paper. What flowed was a heady distillate of cosmic horror in the architecture of a fictional craftsman.  He published 40-odd short stories hither and yon about the burgeoning internet, mostly at small congregations of weird fiction devotees with names like “thousandyoung.net”, “netherreal.de” and “nightscapes”. 

Unfortunately the internet does what it is wont to do.  These sites collapsed and disappeared somewhere in the mid 2000s.  I had searched for them a decade ago, and could not find hide nor hair.   I read a rumor that Minnis was a casualty of the Iraq war (untrue).  Perhaps there was a conspiracy against the Lovecraftian sites then?  Well no, unless you consider the economics of the dot-com bust a Majestic 12 invention. 

However we all know the dread couplet. That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons, even death may die.

I found a post on good old Ligotti's forums.    Thanks to those fans of weird fiction and the Internet Wayback Machine I was able to recover the full text of ten of his stories.  I have copied them to pdf, and for the sake of convenience I have posted them to a file sharing service for download. As a disclaimer, I am not benefiting financially from this in any way.  I have simply consolidated the pdfs so that more fans of weird fiction can discover and enjoy this great author’s work.

Let Him Rise

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/t6792v35951vg/Mike_Minnis_Wayback_Machine_Archive

What will you encounter therein? A range of times and fictional voices fitting the pervasive scope of Lovecraft's Mythos. I Walk the World's Black Rim is a Beowulf retelling.  Knuckerhole a story of England during the blitz and good neighbors. After all, the Whateley came from somewhere. Bones of a Toad brings the harshness of Medieval life to the center stage.

One caveat friend, as I stay thy hand from the dread tome: read Shadow Over InnsmouthThe Dunwitch Horror and The Thing on the Doorstep first.  Necessary? No, but enlightening along the path in the dark.

If you like  Mike Minnis' work, just give the man $2 for the kindle edition of Your Poisoned Dreams, a collection of ten Mythos short stories.  At that price it is an absurd steal.   Right now it's even cheaper than that because of an Amazon sale.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Poisoned-Dreams-Horror-Stories-ebook/dp/B00JPBN0DO


When the above was posted on Something Awful, here was a response:

Quote from: 'Better Fred Than Dead'

Thanks for this. "I walk the world's black rim "fucking ruled. I don't think the spoiler is really a spoiler since its what actually pushed me to read it. Awesome stuff.
...
The question of who is the true monster, I'm spoiling now : I walk the black rim is a retelling of beowulf, is a similar question raised in John Gardners 1984 Grendel. It's a first person, very contemporary take on beowulf from grendels perspective and while not horror, I highly recommend
...
I also wanna reiterate, dumbass Mike is literally only earning 69 cents per purchase on that kindle collection cause the mother fucker is selling below the 70% 2.99 threshold


Enjoy, dear reader.

And if you like it, for the love of the Old Ones leave an Amazon review.  I can't imagine how an author of this caliber felt after walking away from his 40 odd stories.  He deserves a return from essential salts.

Twisting H

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #275 on: October 04, 2016, 07:33:22 PM »
Speaking of reading, what subreddits do you guys recommend for Cosmic / Weird fiction and Cthulhu games?

I've found:
- callofcthulhu
- cosmichorror
- cosmichorrorfiction
- cthulhu
- deltagreenrpg
- horrorlit
- lovecraft

clockworkjoe

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #276 on: October 04, 2016, 09:25:01 PM »
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/

they have compilations in ebook format available of their best stories.

Twisting H

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #277 on: October 06, 2016, 01:04:21 AM »
That's a fantastic idea. /tg/ should do that. Thanks for the recommendation Ross!

Voodooman43

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #278 on: November 19, 2016, 12:25:41 PM »
Havn't had a bunch of time to read as of late due to school and work, but recently borrowed Blood Meridian from a friend and I find it excellent. The maelstrom of violence in the book coupled with McCarthy's amazing use of imagery really captures the imagination in a dark way.

trinite

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #279 on: November 19, 2016, 01:03:32 PM »
Havn't had a bunch of time to read as of late due to school and work, but recently borrowed Blood Meridian from a friend and I find it excellent. The maelstrom of violence in the book coupled with McCarthy's amazing use of imagery really captures the imagination in a dark way.

Blood Meridian is super good. It still baffles me that people keep trying to film it.
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Adam_Autist

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #280 on: November 19, 2016, 08:19:31 PM »
Picked up the new fancy printing of the BLAME manga. Great inspiration for cyberpunk and SF stuff. Takes a while to get used to the limited dialogue.

clockworkjoe

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #281 on: November 28, 2016, 02:30:27 AM »
Just finished Invisible Cities. Excellent! I will have to read it again next year.

Picked up 14 by Peter Cline. Architectural spookiness!

trinite

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #282 on: November 28, 2016, 05:25:48 PM »
Reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. A copy of the original 1845 first edition, courtesy of our library archives. Frederick Douglass himself could have held this book in his hands.
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Gorkamorka

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #283 on: December 05, 2016, 04:03:38 AM »
I'm reading The Hanging Tree.  The 6th book in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.

It's Harry Dresden (Dresden files) if it was a British police procedural.  These are fucking fantastic.  Full of British humor, magic, crime and good old blowing stuff up.  Can't recommend them enough.
Gorkamorka (Fridrik)

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #284 on: December 05, 2016, 11:54:51 AM »
I didn't think I could be more freaked out by puppets but I was wrong. Which is to say I've read the first couple and should really get round to reading the rest of them.