What are you reading?

[Morbid]

I just finished reading Planetary.  I was able to get the giant omnibus edition from the library.  It was pretty great.  I'd heard high praise for it in the past and I think it lived up to the hype.  There are a lot of great ideas in it, especially on how to weave existing pulp and superhero stories into a larger narrative.  While I'm sure that I didn't catch them all, the various comic easter eggs throughout were a lot of fun.

I'm trying to finish up Delta Green: Denied to the Enemy now (it's a pretty quick read) and just started Summerland by Michael Chabon.  I was skeptical because of its strong focus on baseball, which I'm not crazy about, but the writing is already pulling me in.

[Henry Hankovitch]

I'm most of the way through Seveneves.  I'm a pretty big Neal Stephenson fan, but I'll admit this isn't among my favorites.  It's definitely on the crunchier end of sci-fi, and very oppressive.  (Because, y'know, everyone on Earth is gonna die.  No spoilers.  It's on the fucking jacket blurb.)

I kind of put it in the same category as The Diamond Age.  Probably one of the biggest issues is just how most of the tech digressions tend to be about explaining orbital mechanics...AGAIN...or explaining the layout of a space vessel...AGAIN.  And the protagonists aren't as engaging as in most Stephenson books.  I mean, it's a grim story about the end of the world, so it kind of makes sense that you don't have any Shaftoes or whatever. 

Oh.  And the story is (partly) about humanity surviving the end of the Earth on a bunch of slapdash small ships all floating in orbit in a loose cluster.  Kind of a...swarm, you might say.

[FlexyCarlos]

I just started reading Leviathan Wakes.  Pretty fast start.  Liking it so far. 

[CADmonkey]

Just picked up J. G. Ballard's memoir: Miracles of Life.  I discovered Ballard in highschool, with the RE/Search volume on him, and between 1992 and 1995, I think I read everything that he had written up to that point.  When I saw this volume in a used book shop, I realized that I've read very little of his since then, and it's been over ten years since I've read anything of Ballard's.  Given that this is the last book Ballard wrote, before dying of cancer shortly after my own father passed away, this will probably be a bittersweet read.

[clockworkjoe]

I need to read more Ballard. I've read some of his short stories and High Rise but clearly I need to read more.

[PirateLawyer]

Tigerman by Nick Harkaway.

This is a great novel and confirms the bravura accomplishment of Angelmaker was no fluke.

Both books are very inspirational for gaming purposes.

When you consider that Harkaway is the son of John Le Carre, this latest book is even more intriguing as it has a very interesting take on the spy genre for which Le Carre was so popular.

As well, The Jaguar's Children by John Vaillant. An award-winning writer of non-fiction, this first novel tackles the subject of illegal immigrants from Mexico. It's a stunning literary accomplishment with a lot of horrific element as it tackles a big social issue with considerable rigour and nuance. And it begs to be used to help craft a cracker of a Delta Green scenario.

[Teuthic]

Oh, there's a new Harkaway novel?  I preferred The Goneaway World to Angelmaker, but they're both really good. I'm currently reading the works of Tim Powers: I really dug Last Call and On Stranger Tides.

[clockworkjoe]

Catching up on Delta Green fiction - Strange Authorities was okayish, but Through a Glass Darkly is damn good even halfway through.

[PirateLawyer]

Catching up on Delta Green fiction - Strange Authorities was okayish, but Through a Glass Darkly is damn good even halfway through.

Interesting take - I've always felt Tynes is a much more accomplished prose stylist than Detwiller: I really enjoyed Strange Authorities and I think The Rules of Engagement is excellent. But I like TAGD plenty too.

[pigsinspaces]

My reading has slowed down lately (having a third kid will do that to you) but I've been working on Tim Powers "The Stress of Her Regard" which is good ... Though I really enjoyed On Stranger Tides, Declare & Last Call more.

Also just finished Hellblazer Original Sins 1 for a little old school comics action (though maybe that belongs in a different thread).

I am poised to dig into Northrop Frye's "Anatomy of Criticism" and "Foxglove Summer" by Ben Aaronovitch (the latest in his Rivers of London sequence, which I highly recommend).

[The Lost Carol]

After finishing The Westing Game (still holds up, and it's wonderful to realize what you don't see as a kid; I knew there were some morally grey people, but a lot of the characters are selfish assholes and there's some good old fashioned (lampoon-able) racism and classism), I was looking for my next book in my stack. While deciding, I read the complete Parker graphic Novels by Darwyn Cooke (digital copies, thanks IDW / Top Shelf Humble Bundle! The Parkers! The Complete Locke and Key! Both Volumes of March! Etc!); The Hunter, The Outfit, The Score, and Slayground. So good! If you love heist movies / literature they're the shit (the good the shit, not the bad the shit). Can't wait for Volume 5!

Part of the problem of deciding is I've made the mistake of realizing that Amazon has frequent Kindle book sales: a few days ago I picked up The Martian by Andy Weir, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, and Dead Wake by Erik Larson for $6.36. Total! So, naturally I decided to not read any of those, or any of the other books I mentioned, and instead elected to read Dark Tide, by Stephen Puleo. This is about the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, which is a very gameable, very real event where a tanker of molasses blew and flooded downtown Boston, killing and injuring many people. I've only gotten to the forward, but it's an interesting read thus far.

I'm also going to try to read The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football, by John J. Miller. ...kinda says what it is on the tin; TR was a fan of football, but what with the whole no helmets and no understanding of head trauma and other injuries deaths on the field were frequent. His fandom helped save the sport... for better or worse, as can be debatable (better for me, personally.)

BTW, If you wish to join me in the insanity, there's still more books to be cheaply had with a sale 'til September 20th, 2015. Kindle highlights include; This Books is Full of Spiders, by David Wong (recommended by Thad) for $2.99, and several Peter Clines Novels (recommended by D6xD6 - Chris; Ex-Purgatory, Ex-Communication, and Ex-Patriots for $1.99 each. The one he recommended, Ex-Heroes, is only $7.99.)... and, as always, varying degrees of potential diamonds in the rough to average to shit. YMMV.

[Twisting H]

So the latest RPPR episode features the Wild Hunt myth.  http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2015/09/genre/superheroes/base-raiders-the-wild-hunt/

I had recently been listening to the Nightmare Magazine Podcast that features Laird Barron's take on the Wild Hunt, Frontier Death Song.

Barron is mostly known (well justified imo) as the heir apparent to Lovecraft's weird throne, but this story is more Jack London writes about Satanic cosmic forces.  More sneering Nyarlathotep than alien Colour out of Space. Very good.

Nightmare Magazine Podcast: http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/podcasting/

Frontier Death Song: http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/frontier-death-song/

Edit: IT'S FREE!

[D6xD6 - Chris]

Part of the problem of deciding is I've made the mistake of realizing that Amazon has frequent Kindle book sales: a few days ago I picked up The Martian by Andy Weir, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, and Dead Wake by Erik Larson for $6.36. Total! So, naturally I decided to not read any of those. . .

This is why I both love and hate my Kindle.  Cheap books, yay!  How many actually get read?  Errr. . .yeah

[Henry Hankovitch]

I realized that I didn't have compilation 2 of IDW's Dungeons and Dragons comic.  So I fixed that.  So good.  So very good!  It's the D&D party you wish you could have at your table.

[clockworkjoe]

I'm reading the entire DG canon of fiction...for reasons. So far, I've read Strange Authorities, Through a Glass Darkly, Tales from Failed Anatomies, and Denied to the Enemy.