What are you reading in 2024?

[Autumnal]

Finished Raft by Stephen Baxter, and loved it. It follows descents of a starship which had this misfortune to slide into a universe with gravity a billion times stronger than here. Lots of physical details, and also excellent characters and plot. This was his novel, and shows a lot the strengths he’s shown throughout his career.

Now reading Diving Into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Look, you show me a mysterious derelict starship and people who are gonna explore it, and I am there. I’m have a strong tropism for such things and always have. It’s off to a great start, as I expect from Rusch. (This is the novella version, in a bundle of six Diving Universe novellas. Novel is here, too.)

Fascinating thing from the introduction: she likes to write novellas instead of typical settling bibles. They serve that place in her series development.

 

[overgeeked]

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Her and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, are both fantastic writers. I absolutely love a lot of their stuff.

 

[prabe]

Fascinating thing from the introduction: she likes to write novellas instead of typical settling bibles. They serve that place in her series development.

Dan Simmons has turned a handful of his novellas into novels. I can think of at least four (and a fifth that might have arisen from a short story).

Spoiler: For anyone who cares about that:

"Carrion Comfort" became Carrion Comfort
"Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams" became The Hollow Man
"Entropy's Bed at Midnight" became (more or less--this one's maybe iffy) Darwin's Blade
"Sleeping with Teeth Woman" became Black Hills
"Flashback" became Flashback

 

[Mad_Jack]

I have not, but I'll definitely check it out once I've finished my current podcast (the first season of Crime Town, covering corruption in Providence, Rhode Island during the 70s and 80s — weird little fact, Gerry Tillinghast, one of the enforcers in the Patriarca family, came out of prison interested in D&D; the podcast touches on it briefly).

There's a rather good tv show called Brotherhood, about a Providence politician whose brother is involved in organized crime, if you haven't seen it. It's even better if you're extremely familiar with Providence.

 

[prabe]

Last three books: One Fatal Mistake by Tom Hunt, a fingerpainted thriller, all bad stupid people dong varying degrees of bad things for various bad reasons with varying degrees of stupidity with remarkably little consequence, in thick smeary stick-figure prose; Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks, a novel that looks to be Horror but is actually playing in something like Magical Realism, seemed more interested in making points (mostly about letting the past go, I think) than in telling a story; Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby, a novel of crime and pain in rural Virginia, more about the difference between who the characters think they are and who they are than anything else, brutal and violent and very worth reading.

 

[Menevvra]

I wonder if Jack has ever heard of the term "creampie"? It's one of my favorite categories and I know he will love it too. Oh, and let's not forget about "threesomes" and "anal" – we have always talked about how hot those are and now we can finally watch them in crisp HD quality.

 

[Nellisir]

I'd also suggest looking at Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories, both the English translation of the original 18th century Cases of Judge Dee (or Di, if you prefer) and his numerous self-written sequels to it. While he obviously wasn't Chinese, van Gulik is respectful of the historical culture he's drawing upon and pastiches the style of historical novel pretty effectively while adapting the writing style and plot structure to be more accessible to "modern" (ie 1960s, so almost 70 years ago - this stuff isn't perfectly PC, obviously) English readers. Interesting albeit fictionalized look at Tang Dynasty China and the Confucian justice system, if nothing else. Just don't go into it expecting a supernatural SFX show like the modern movies you may have seen. None of that to be found here.

Second this. I also thought the Dee books were almost all extremely suitable to be translated into D&D adventures.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Second this. I also thought the Dee books were almost all extremely suitable to be translated into D&D adventures.

I agree. There's certainly some roleplaying potential to many of the mystery plots, and Dee and his assistants would make quite plausible patrons or even PCs. Also surprising how being often being competent at swordplay while investigating crimes is, although the action aspect is still much less of a focus (and more realistic) than the films.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading REH’s The Incredible Adventures of Dennis Dorgan. It was a lot of fun and very different from REH’s fantasy and horror tales. For all the violence, it has a cartoonish feel. Conan, Solomon Kane, Kull, Bran Mak Morn can all be brooding protagonists. Dennis Dorgan…is not that.

Now I'm reading Lord Dunsany's Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

It was a lot of fun and very different from REH’s fantasy and horror tales.

REH actually wrote more humorous stuff than S&S and weird horror over the years, and did a pretty good job of it too. Dorgan's a prime example, although I think I like Breckenridge Elkins slightly better. Pugilist sailors are cool but hillbillies are even cooler, and they're both nigh-indestructible lunkheads. Reminds of the Tick a bit, honestly.

Which is funny, given the way many people who haven't read Conan assume he's a lot dumber than he actually is. Tarzan Syndrome all over again.

"Me Tarzan, you Jane? Sir, I taught myself to read English as young child and speak a multitude of languages, both African and European. I suggest you hire someone to revise this script before I'm consumed by red rage and call my agent. And I'll thank you to call me Lord Greystoke when I'm not on set, if you please."