What are you reading?

[Joe Chip]

I recently visited the Bookstore, had to buy some books for our upcoming trip.
I stumbled across Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee.
I've always been fascinated by the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table so i bought it.
I really enjoy this book, its a fun read, think of it as a darker Good Omens, with stories about the Knights of old Britain.

 

[TheItCrOw]

I've just finished reading the Claymore manga. The setting and atmosphere reminded me a lot of Berserk, and I had a blast reading it. The art style is something I had to get used to (especially the humanoid faces), and due to the nature of the story, many of the main characters were sometimes really hard to differentiate visually. All in all, a recommendation, especially in a Berserk forum.

 

[Lawliet]

I picked up Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, after getting several recommendations. It will be my first McCarthy book ever, and I heard that it's his magnum opus. I got it as part of a box set that also features the Road and No Country for Old Men, which I will proceed to if I like the book. Not particularly looking forward to the former, though, as it sounds profoundly depressing (), but it is the 'famous one' so I may as well.

 

[Scott Rugeles]

I've just finished reading the Claymore manga. The setting and atmosphere reminded me a lot of Berserk, and I had a blast reading it. The art style is something I had to get used to (especially the humanoid faces), and due to the nature of the story, many of the main characters were sometimes really hard to differentiate visually. All in all, a recommendation, especially in a Berserk forum.

I read it back in the day too, and while my sentiment was similar to yours, I got really disappointed from the ending and felt there was no closure to the overarching plot. Cool manga in general though.

 

[TheItCrOw]

I read it back in the day too, and while my sentiment was similar to yours, I got really disappointed from the ending and felt there was no closure to the overarching plot. Cool manga in general though.

Indeed, it left room for a continuation, maybe one where the Claymores would have to defend their island due to the opposing party winning the war and finding out about the potential of the experiments conducted on their island (possibly through Rubel, who was left alive by the Claymores?). I felt as though the story with Clare, Teresa, Priscilla and the organization as a whole was properly finished. I would have wished for one more chapter though to give the aftermath and epilogue more room. The ending felt sudden.

 

[djpor2000]

I picked up Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, after getting several recommendations. It will be my first McCarthy book ever, and I heard that it's his magnum opus. I got it as part of a box set that also features the Road and No Country for Old Men, which I will proceed to if I like the book. Not particularly looking forward to the former, though, as it sounds profoundly depressing (), but it is the 'famous one' so I may as well.

McCarthy is amazing! I heartily recommend his Border Trilogy (I haven't finished the third book yet but the first two were top notch). He writes prose like no one else and I love when his characters go on long monologues philosophizing about anything and everything. The Road and Blood Meridian are both really great too.

 

[Walter]

I picked up Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, after getting several recommendations. It will be my first McCarthy book ever, and I heard that it's his magnum opus. I got it as part of a box set that also features the Road and No Country for Old Men, which I will proceed to if I like the book. Not particularly looking forward to the former, though, as it sounds profoundly depressing (), but it is the 'famous one' so I may as well.

It probably is his magnum opus, but that doesn't make it a particularly fun read. Blood Meridian was also my first McCarthy book, because of the same reasons you're diving into it (it's very highly regarded). It's a very fine book! And McCarthy is my favorite American writer after Gene Wolfe. But like I said last year around this time:

It's too late for you, but I think All the Pretty Horses is a fantastic entry point for McCarthy, whereas Blood Meridian is like having a Thanksgiving feast for your first date. When all is said and done, they're quite similar in many ways. Horses is just more fun to get through, in my opinion.

So, if Blood Meridian is too dense to get into, try Pretty Horses. It's more accessible.

I've read quite a bit this summer.

• (re-reads) Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight, Short Sun trilogy
• Two short story collections by Wolfe
• The Devil in a Forest, by Gene Wolfe—one of his earlier books, and I absolutely loved it. I think I had skipped over it for years because of the shitty title.
• The Book of Knights, by Yves Meynard, which was an inspiration for Wolfe in writing The Wizard Knight (apparently, given the introduction and dedication to Meynard)
• (re-read) Stardust by Neil Gaiman—after his recent scandal, I had forgotten about his quite traditional '90s fantasy book, which I had read in high school but wanted to revisit to see if there was something worth exploring. Surprise: There's not!. In my teens, Gaiman was one of my favorite writers, which to me now indicates I simply hadn't read enough yet. There are so many "tricks" that Gaiman pulls that feel like pale imitations of people that came before him. I've had that sensation quite a bit, but never with Berserk. It just improves as I've gotten older.
• Licanius Trilogy by James Islington. I liked Will of the Many, so I peeked in at his earlier books, but bounced after Book 1 of this after it felt too Robert Jordanny for me... Honestly, trash tier generic fantasy that I can't believe I stuck with as long as I did. Sorry, James!
• Black Dahlia and Big Nowhere, by James Ellroy, which I picked up after @guuuuuuuuts mentioned them a few months back. I quite liked Dahlia, though it felt like a very strange, punching-up book by a younger Ellroy. By contrast, the Underworld books feel very buttoned up, professional, but with less heart.
• Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang
• Room to Dream, David Lynch's memoir. Nowhere near as insightful as I was hoping. It's a book of anecdotes about his early life. Sometimes amusing, sometimes WTF. Guess I should have seen that one coming..?

This doesn't seem like everything, but it's all that my Kindle is telling me. I'm currently reading Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks from recommendations I've read. It's more standard sci-fi fare than I traditionally go for, but so far so good. Also getting through some short stories by R.A. Lafferty, another Gene Wolfe contemporary that he had recommended to his fans.

 

[Gambler]

Just finished Monster, and I just loved it

Johan, the antagonist, is such a complex character that it reminds me of Griffith. The ending was also perfect for me, and pretty much unexpected

The conflict between "every human being are equal" and "humans are only equal in death" is brutally explored through the series

 

[Lawliet]

The books finally arrived:

It probably is his magnum opus, but that doesn't make it a particularly fun read. Blood Meridian was also my first McCarthy book, because of the same reasons you're diving into it (it's very highly regarded). It's a very fine book! And McCarthy is my favorite American writer after Gene Wolfe...

You weren't kidding, Walter. I had to re-read several parts of the first chapter to understand what was going on. I'm used to dense writing, having read (and hated) philosophy and other not-so-fun stuff, but even then I didn't have an easy time haha. Hope I get accustomed to McCarthy's style quickly, as I'm very intrigued by the premise of the book.

So, if Blood Meridian is too dense to get into, try Pretty Horses. It's more accessible.

I went ahead and picked it up. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Vampire_Hunter_Bob]

You weren't kidding, Walter. I had to re-read several parts of the first chapter to understand what was going on. I'm used to dense writing, having read (and hated) philosophy and other not-so-fun stuff, but even then I didn't have an easy time haha. Hope I get accustomed to McCarthy's style quickly, as I'm very intrigued by the premise of the book.

My only advice is to pay attention to the outlines provided at the beginning of each chapter.

 

[Lawliet]

My only advice is to pay attention to the outlines provided at the beginning of each chapter.

I was wondering why these outlines were provided in the first place. I don't know if the purpose was to help with understanding the events, but they do help, true, even if they are kind of spoiler-y. I'm at chapter 4, reading one chapter per day and savoring it all. I'm having a much easier time now.

I'm amazed how easily things escalate to deadly violence in those circumstances (often involving bars and alcohol). Poor Earl...

I'm also surprised by the usage of certain offensive slurs in the text. I get that it is reflective of the time period, but that doesn't stop some people from outrage anyway (I'm reminded of the movie Django Unchained, and the drama it caused with its usage of the same words). I wonder if the novel garnered any controversy at the time of its publication or now even.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing where the Kid's journey takes him next!

 

[Vampire_Hunter_Bob]

I'm amazed how easily things escalate to deadly violence in those circumstances (often involving bars and alcohol). Poor Earl...

That's a reoccurring theme for McCarthy. The man does not like alcohol, the few interviews he has done he makes that clear. If Suttree is biographical of his life, you can easily see why. Also amazing book but way harder to read since it doesn't include the outlines.

I'm also surprised by the usage of certain offensive slurs in the text. I get that it is reflective of the time period, but that doesn't stop some people from outrage anyway (I'm reminded of the movie Django Unchained, and the drama it caused with its usage of the same words). I wonder if the novel garnered any controversy at the time of its publication or now even.

Yeah, I had a similar response to reading Child of God (my second McCarthy book). That's a good question, I can't quickly find an answer to it but I would be interested to see how it was received at the time.

I can't remember the Border Trilogy specifically but I think by then McCarthy dropped the use of racial slurs (thank God!) from his books because I don't remember it in those three books, No Country for Old Men, or the Road (still haven't finished his final two books).

 

[Lawliet]

Spoiler: A legion of horribles

“A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.”​

Good God, what have I just read?! That's not a passage I'll ever forget, safe to say!

One personal rule I have for writing sentences is this: if you can't read a sentence out loud in one breath, it's too long. So my initial reaction to the above quote was annoyance. But it dawned on me how a run-on sentence like that reflects what is being said: just as the poor bastards about to get murdered are overwhelmed by this sight, you are overwhelmed by description after description. The passage describing the slaughter that follows was similarly structured, with unceasing violence that makes you ask when it will all end, as no doubt anyone in this situation would think. Like an unending nightmare.

How brilliant!

That's a reoccurring theme for McCarthy. The man does not like alcohol, the few interviews he has done he makes that clear. If Suttree is biographical of his life, you can easily see why. Also amazing book but way harder to read since it doesn't include the outlines.

Can't say I disagree. I'll look up this book, as I'm curious to know more about the man himself.

Yeah, I had a similar response to reading Child of God (my second McCarthy book). That's a good question, I can't quickly find an answer to it but I would be interested to see how it was received at the time.

I couldn't either. I asked ChatGPT about it and got the usual generic answer ("the novel provoked strong reactions, both positive and negative, etc") lol

I can't remember the Border Trilogy specifically but I think by then McCarthy dropped the use of racial slurs (thank God!) from his books because I don't remember it in those three books, No Country for Old Men, or the Road (still haven't finished his final two books).

I'm looking forward to seeing how his other books read compared to Blood Meridian, but that's good to know, as I'd rather not have these terms crop up in every book of his I read haha.