What are you Reading? Agleam April 2019 edition

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 11, 2019

Money absolutely has much to do with this. Heck, it goes back to even the Penny Dreadfuls. The publishers are probably putting no small amount of pressure on the writers to write these sprawling series. Which probably just makes things even worse as they choke on writing that next volume.

But these 6-10 book series of 600+ page books invariably suffer for it, I think. Even the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which is a favorite of mine, and actually finished, saw some of its quality slipping as it shuddered under its own weight and fast turnaround in the twelve years it took to finish.

Anyway, I finished re-reading Myth Directions. It's been fun revisiting these childhood favorites. One thing I didn't realize back when I first read it, was the whole Jahk = Jock joke. But in my defense, I was nine or ten at the time!

I started reading Seth Skorkowsky's Mountain of Daggers short story collection. He has some great gaming advice videos on YouTube (though my favorite is probably the Scott Brown Incident), but this one is starting to lose me after reading three "ample bosoms" in about five pages.

Kramodlog said:
Charles Stross has an explaination for series on his blog. Money. If the two first novels of a series reach a certain amount of sale, the series can go on indefinately as there will be people who buy any book that comes out in the series. Stand alone novels are thus less profitable. Stross basically says he canned three series (Eschaton, Freyaverse, halthing state) after the first two novels of the series didn't reach critical sales.

Blue · Apr 12, 2019

Kramodlog said:
Charles Stross has an explaination for series on his blog. Money. If the two first novels of a series reach a certain amount of sale, the series can go on indefinately as there will be people who buy any book that comes out in the series. Stand alone novels are thus less profitable. Stross basically says he canned three series (Eschaton, Freyaverse, halthing state) after the first two novels of the series didn't reach critical sales.

*guiltily hides the Charles Stross series he's reading because he buys all of the Laundry series*

Blue · Apr 12, 2019

Ralif Redhammer said:
Anyway, I finished re-reading Myth Directions. It's been fun revisiting these childhood favorites. One thing I didn't realize back when I first read it, was the whole Jahk = Jock joke. But in my defense, I was nine or ten at the time!

The first time I read those, i was too young to realize that Tanda was short for "T and A", though I did give a snicker at female Trolls being called Trollops.

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 12, 2019

Same and same. There's a lot of whoosh-over-the-head humor in those books, of varying stripes. Like all the Julius Caesar references in the second book (Big Julie, the Brute, etc.).

Blue said:
The first time I read those, i was too young to realize that Tanda was short for "T and A", though I did give a snicker at female Trolls being called Trollops.

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 17, 2019

I just finished Jason Schreier’s Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. After reading it, I can say that as much as I enjoy playing videogames, I would never want to work in that industry.

Next up I’m reading Jonathan French’s The Grey Bastards.

Blue · Apr 18, 2019

Finished Charles Stross' The Nightmare Stacks, and lept right into the next book of that Laundry series, The Delirium Brief.

I have to say, I had not expected the series as a whole to mature as it is. The protagonist move up the buerocratic ladder some and gain more power just so that they could be messed with in new and interesting (and funny) ways, sure. But the last few books have changed the world, and everything is more than a little bit topsy turvey. In a great way.

So Nightmare Stacks primary PoV character was not Bob Howard. I didn't have as much connection and empathy for Alex when it started, but by the end I liked him a lot. He had that blend of nieve geek and unusual competency that worked well for Bob, as well as sharing a flare for the improv. In the end, I liked him just fine though ti may have been as a "younger Bob proxy", for the type of story that would have had different reactions with now-more-matured-and-experienced Bob.

All in all, quite enjoyed it, especially for advancing the setting.