What are you reading in 2024?

[overgeeked]

That was actually true about a lot of Chandler's Marlowe novels, apparently.

Makes sense. Pound out a pulp story for Black Mask magazine (or similar), then slap two or more novellas together and you've got a novel.

 

[Cadence]

Finished reading the last two Inspector Alleyn novels by Ngaio Marsh and her short story collection.

On to "The Third Plantagenet" by John Ashdown-Hill.

 

[Nellisir]

I might be wrong, as it's been ages since I've read it/read about it, but I seem to recall that it's two Black Mask stories that Chandler jammed together to make a novel.

As others have noted, he did that frequently. And no, plotting wasn't a thing he cared about. But my gods, the writing. The little vignettes. The way he turned a phrase or set a scene. The detail he could lay in.

Apparently Poodle Springs, his last, unfinished work, was a hot mess of WTF and "why?". Robert B. Parker finished it; I've had it for years but haven't read it.

 

[Nellisir]

I didn't read anything for a few weeks because I'm still finding it hard to get into reading anything "new". That said, I picked up Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead, by KJ Parker, last week and blew through it, so I grabbed the rest of the trilogy, read those, and then Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, by Kim Newman.

I didn't realize KJ Parker was Tom Holt until I was in the bookstore. I have only a passing familiarity with him, but between the two names he's got quite a large body of work, so I figured if it's good I'll be able to find more to read. I enjoyed Saevus. It was very much a "clever boy" character, and Lies of Locke Lamora did it better, but still enjoyable in the same fashion as reading a cozy fireside mystery, I guess. Solid 3/5, I guess - the last book was weaker than the first. Apparently he writes those sorts of characters a lot.

Anno Dracula 1999 was also solid. Kim Newman writes well. 4/5? 7/10? I've got to dig around my boxes and find the other ones I have, and then get the missing ones. The whole series would make an excellent tv show on streaming, doing a book/era a season.

 

[Zaukrie]

Old 3.5 edition articles for no good reason

 

[Nellisir]

Old 3.5 edition articles for no good reason

Honestly, 90% of my actual reading these days is old D&D stuff. This past year or so has been...stressful for me mentally (just an accumulation of stuff, and I'm fortunate in that I've been able to almost literally step away from it in the past month or so without burning down bridges, though I did move out of my place for the winter) and I find the old stuff comforting, interesting, and idea-sparking. I'm trying to get back to writing more material for my game, so it's refresher reading. And I find "new" stuff.

(I have an awful suspicion that, DMing in the 90's, I somehow totally missed that 2e elementals required a +2 magic weapon or better to hit, and were just immune to non-magical creatures under 4HD. Bye-bye orc horde!)

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Just finished The Big Con by David Maurer. It's good but very much of its time. I can see why he sued the writer of The Sting. You could almost read along with the movie in some spots. The chapters on the three big cons are fantastic and gripping. But towards the end, it gets a little flimsy, and the glossary would have been more interesting at the front of the novel or embedded within chapters. It was kind of useless to me on Kindle, especially as I didn't know there was one until I got to it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished re-reading Moon's Sheepfarmer's Daughter. It holds up well, all these years later. It's got a bit of The Black Company in its DNA, though it's much more low magic, not as grim and gritty.

Now I'm reading Michael Moorcock's The Oak and The Ram.

 

[Parmandur]

I finished re-reading Moon's Sheepfarmer's Daughter. It holds up well, all these years later. It's got a bit of The Black Company in its DNA, though it's much more low magic, not as grim and gritty.

Isn't that one basically T1?

So, I have now read The Sunlit Man and The Emperor's Soul by Sanderson: dude can write a plot and action. Think I have a grip on the metaphysics of the Cosmere magic now, which is making Way of Kings make more sense as I listen to it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Isn't that one basically T1?

I seem to recall that it was inspired by a Greyhawk campaign, but I wouldn't say any part of it felt like the Village of Hommlet specifically.