The Literature Thread

[Rex Kramer]

I'm not sure how Lovecraftian it could be described as given I've not read a huge amount of Lovecraft but I'd recommend Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

[Squinty]

Reading All Quiet on the Western Front after getting finished with Bedlam (about Bethlem asylum).

Trying to read more historical stuff at present.

[ITSMILNER]

Started reading Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology this evening, after just playing through God of War this seemed a good time to start it

[shy guy 64]

So anything anyone would recommend to a fan of Douglas Addams and terry prachett

[Moggy]

I've just found out that ITV are adapting Bernard Cornwall's Warlord chronicles.

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-winter ... t-kingdom/

No doubt ITV will strawberry float it up, but if anybody wants to read a "realistic" story about (king) Arthur, then I highly recommend the books.

[Squinty]

Finished The Wasp Factory by Iain M Banks. Weird book. Went in a direction that I never would have considered at the end.

[Tomous]

Finished The Wasp Factory by Iain M Banks. Weird book. Went in a direction that I never would have considered at the end.

I've just started The Player of Games by Iain M Banks. I've never read his stuff before but wanted something scifi and saw a lot of recommendations for his Culture series.

[Squinty]

Finished The Wasp Factory by Iain M Banks. Weird book. Went in a direction that I never would have considered at the end.

I've just started The Player of Games by Iain M Banks. I've never read his stuff before but wanted something scifi and saw a lot of recommendations for his Culture series.

Yeah, the first three books are great, Use of Weapons is probably my favourite one. I haven't read any of the other ones.

[Xeno]

I recommend them all tbh. Against a dark background is not part of the culture series but has one of the best weapons I have ever read about. State of the art is a compilation of short stories.

[Tomous]

I recommend them all tbh. Against a dark background is not part of the culture series but has one of the best weapons I have ever read about. State of the art is a compilation of short stories.

Is there an order you'd recommend? I've release order isn't the best way to go, I was recommended The Player of Games so started there.

[Xeno]

There is no real order per se. I would recommend Excession then Use of weapons.

Excession is a galactic war.
Use of weapons is dark.

If you would like a romp around a star system filled with daring do (kinda), and some interesting characters then Against a dark background.

I just remembered Feersum Endjinn which is not a culture book, but has a character Bascule who writes phonetically which is surprisingly easy to read after a page or two.

[dmin]

I just remembered Feersum Endjinn which is not a culture book, but has a character Bascule who writes phonetically which is surprisingly easy to read after a page or two.

Second that, it's a fun read.

[Tomous]

There is no real order per se. I would recommend Excession then Use of weapons.

Excession is a galactic war.
Use of weapons is dark.

If you would like a romp around a star system filled with daring do (kinda), and some interesting characters then Against a dark background.

I just remembered Feersum Endjinn which is not a culture book, but has a character Bascule who writes phonetically which is surprisingly easy to read after a page or two.

Thanks I'll give this a go next.

[ITSMILNER]

Picked up a few books recently

Storyland - Amy Jeff’s
Witchfinder - Malcolm Gaskell
Song of Ice and Fire Book 1 (Never watched GoT but I thought I’d give the first book a go. Don’t tend to read a lot of fantasy so we’ll see)

Currently reading Peter Crouch’s How to be a Footballer, been a few funny bits in that

[Dowbocop]

Finished The Wasp Factory by Iain M Banks. Weird book. Went in a direction that I never would have considered at the end.

I've just started The Player of Games by Iain M Banks. I've never read his stuff before but wanted something scifi and saw a lot of recommendations for his Culture series.

Yeah, the first three books are great, Use of Weapons is probably my favourite one. I haven't read any of the other ones.

I've read a few of the Culture series, they're great. TPOG is the one I started with as well - it was free for World Book Night a few years ago and I stumbled upon a copy. You're a chess player aren't you (GR tourney )? I wasn't at the time but still enjoyed TPOG. What's good about TPOG as opposed to some of the other Culture novels is it's short - some of the other ones routinely weigh in at 500 pages or more. They are worth it, but it is grand sci-fi - the first 80-100 pages are often utter gibberish until you're onto page 200 and it all starts to make sense. I've enjoyed all the ones I've read - he does a very good job of maintaining human, an in particular mortal, stakes in a transhuman universe. The last hard sci-fi I read was Diaspora by Greg Egan and I really struggled to give a toss after page 100, because there was technology that meant they couldn't really die so there were precisely zero stakes. Banks explores similar themes in Surface Detail, but does so in a much more elegant and accomplished way, so that I probably read the entire length of Diaspora in Surface Detail aware of the technology available and remained invested in the story.

I've never read his regular fiction but my sister has it on her bookshelf and I think liked it. If you weren't aware Iain Banks is his fiction nom-de-plume and Iain M. Banks is his sci-fi nom-de-plume - this may help you navigate his works.

I get absolutely no time to read at the moment but recently finished Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett (over the last 13 months ). This didn't really grab me - hence me not making the time to finish it sooner - but the last 100 pages were good fun.

[Squinty]

I'm the opposite, I have a little too much time on my hands these days.

Finished a few books recently. The Troop, I am Ozzy and Exit Stage Left. All of them were good. The Troop in particular is great if you like trashy, Garth Marenghi style horror.

[Zilnad]

Speaking of Garth Marenghi, I'm currently listening to his Terrortome audiobook. It's definitely funny but I might need to take breaks between each story as his sense of humour is better in small doses and I felt like the first story ended in a bit of a lull.

[Squinty]

I wondered what that book was like.

[Lex-Man]

So anything anyone would recommend to a fan of Douglas Addams and terry prachett

Have you read the Brentford trilogy by Robert Rankin?

Just finished reading Brutal Kunnin' a 40k book. I really enjoyed it. It gets a good balance between the Ork's happy hooligan attitude and the arrogant human's who underestimate them.

Probably one of my favourite 40k book.

[shy guy 64]

So anything anyone would recommend to a fan of Douglas Addams and terry prachett

Have you read the Brentford trilogy by Robert Rankin?

First I’ve heard of it