What are you reading in 2025?

[overgeeked]

Thinking about this and some G K Chesterton quotes (e.g. “the poor object to being governed badly; the rich object to being governed at all”) I think that not only do we live in the most financially unequal times in recorded history which are getting more so every day, we live in a time when our richest benefit from the highest levels of stability, opportunity, mobility, and protection.

Sure, you average feudal lord had a level of power over life and death over his peasants that few people have now, but he was also basically a mafia boss (as was everyone he knew) and his position was fairly precarious.

I would argue that the power over life and death remains, it's just obscured slightly.

 

[Parmandur]

Ha, I didn’t realise that William Morris, of Arts and Crafts fame, is reckoned one of the first fantasy writers in English! Thanks for telling us about that. I knew about News from Nowhere (early utopian fiction). I see The Wood Beyond the World is considered quite influential on C S Lewis, too.

Yeah, he invented secondary world fiction

 

[gnarlygninja]

The thing about My Heart Is a Chainsaw is that there are two books that come after it. Most of what I've seen from Jones is Horror, except for some of his very early stuff, which is barely readable. Lansdale is awesome, whatever genre he's writing in.

I will point out that I enjoyed the heck out of I Was a Teenage Slasher, in spite of not liking slasher movies, and in spite of not liking most of the music the book's characters live for. On the other hand, I seem to enjoy reading Horror much more than you do, in general, so that probably explains most of the difference.

I may need to revise my thoughts about horror novels, my cat reminded me (by trying to eat them) that I actually like T. Kingfisher's horror books. Although even with those I do usually like the build up more than when the monsters are actually running around.

 

[Hriston]

Ha, I didn’t realise that William Morris, of Arts and Crafts fame, is reckoned one of the first fantasy writers in English! Thanks for telling us about that. I knew about News from Nowhere (early utopian fiction). I see The Wood Beyond the World is considered quite influential on C S Lewis, too.

I missed posting this the first time, but
another point of interest for fans of Tolkien is the colophon at the end of the Project Gutenberg EBook version I was reading (emphasis added):

CHISWICK PRESS:---C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.​

​

I've edited my post to include this.

​

 

[Clint_L]

My wife and I have started in on the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. We’re currently reading Carl’s Doomsday Scenario.

That series is the definition of the novel as popcorn entertainment.

I grabbed the first one on a whim, and my immediate reaction was that it was kind of dumb and obvious...and then I kept compulsively turning pages. So what does that say about me? Now I am impatiently waiting for book 8 to come out, dammit. (May 12, BTW).

 

[Autumnal]

There’s good and bad popcorn, and cotton candy, whipped Jello, whatever. Very nearly anything can be done well or badly, and writing really good junk food escapism takes as much work as writing anything else really well, I think.

 

[overgeeked]

I may need to revise my thoughts about horror novels, my cat reminded me (by trying to eat them) that I actually like T. Kingfisher's horror books. Although even with those I do usually like the build up more than when the monsters are actually running around.

Horror is also an incredibly broad genre. It’s not all gore or gross out. You also have thrills, psychological horror, gothic, zombies, werewolves, vampires, etc. Not liking slashers, for example, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t eat up zombie apocalypse books or gothic horror or supernatural horror.

But I absolutely agree about the build up of tension being generally more fun. Once you have the reveal, it’s generally down hill from there.

There’s good and bad popcorn, and cotton candy, whipped Jello, whatever. Very nearly anything can be done well or badly, and writing really good junk food escapism takes as much work as writing anything else really well, I think.

Sturgeon’s Law. 90% of everything is crap. I’ve always been a fan of what most other people consider trash. Love comic books and sci-fi. Horror and pulps. As long as it entertains, I’m in.

 

[prabe]

I may need to revise my thoughts about horror novels, my cat reminded me (by trying to eat them) that I actually like T. Kingfisher's horror books. Although even with those I do usually like the build up more than when the monsters are actually running around.

It's not wildly unusual, in Horror, for the stories to get less interesting when the monsters explicitly show up.

 

[Autumnal]

David Hartwell argued that horror isn’t a genre, but a mode in which you can write any gene. Thus mysteries that are horror and mysteries that aren’t, sf that’s horror and sf that isn’t, and so on. Works for me.

I finished two books today. Sometimes things line up that way.

Gods and Monsters: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology by Adrienne Mayor is just what it sounds like. Mayor has a talent for finding things in ancient myths and histories that others have overlooked or misunderstood. She’s at it again. This was fun, even though I’m the early chapters she sometimes works too hard to find parallels with modern industry and speculation. She corrects herself later on. You could build a monster manual out of this book. Mayor provides the audiobook narration herself, and is really good.

The Gracefield Patient by Caitlin Starling is a horror novel about a young woman with a very rare autoimmune disorder chosen to be part of a very experimental trial of a possible treatment. Things go badly. What’s a particular pleasure is that neither the pharmaceutical company nor the doctors, nurses, and staff are villains. This is emotionally very intense: Starling’s mother died of AIDS, and she’s had multiple miscarriages and other complications. She knows the patient’s life, and conveys it very clearly. The mystery is fascinating and rings some fresh changes in old horror motifs; the climax is surprising but satisfying. Highly recommended.

 

[prabe]

David Hartwell argued that horror isn’t a genre, but a mode in which you can write any gene. Thus mysteries that are horror and mysteries that aren’t, sf that’s horror and sf that isn’t, and so on. Works for me.

I have in my head that there are genres of setting and genres of story. Hartwell's point, as you describe it, seems like a different way to express that idea. Hartwell was an excellent anthologist, as well as a superb critic (not reviewer, critic) and I'm happy to have somehow had a thought consistent with his.