The Literature Thread

[Frank]

Good, because I can't stand the show most of the time

[Poser]

Huge Dark Tower spoiler below. Do not click it if you have any intention of reading the series.

Just reached a moment in the fourth Dark Tower book when they find a newspaper cutting about Captain Trips, and suddenly we realise they are in the post-The Stand 'when'.

strawberry floating beautifully done.

[Moggy]

Huge Dark Tower spoiler below. Do not click it if you have any intention of reading the series.

Just reached a moment in the fourth Dark Tower book when they find a newspaper cutting about Captain Trips, and suddenly we realise they are in the post-The Stand 'when'.

strawberry floating beautifully done.

It's awesome isn't it!

[Errkal]

I loved all the series, really awesome read.

They were the first kind series I read, I am now working though his other stuff which is awesome as you see links the other way round and between the books in them all.

[Memento Mori]

Huge Dark Tower spoiler below. Do not click it if you have any intention of reading the series.

Just reached a moment in the fourth Dark Tower book when they find a newspaper cutting about Captain Trips, and suddenly we realise they are in the post-The Stand 'when'.

strawberry floating beautifully done.

Aren't you glad you read The Stand first? This why that big extended Dark Tower reading list is so good.

[Rex Kramer]

I was pottering along with The Gunslinger and not quite getting along with it/understanding all the fuss. Then I read the death of Jake Chambers . I might have to continue with it now.

[Errkal]

I was pottering along with The Gunslinger and not quite getting along with it/understanding all the fuss. Then I read the death of Jake Chambers . I might have to continue with it now.

The first one is a little slow, but it picks up a lot through the others.

[Tragic Magic]

I got a Kindle for Christmas so I've downloaded loads of free books and have started reading Moby Dick. I don't know why it's taken me this long to get one as it's a brilliant little piece of kit.

So book recommendations... I absolutely love the game Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines and I was wondering if there are any books that have the same kind of atmosphere as that game. You know, a modern city setting with unseen darkness lurking in every shadow. Something maybe similar to Interview with the Vampire. Something like Buffy but more serious in tone.

[Errkal]

You could go through the rest of the interview with a vampire series.

[Captain Kinopio]

Reading The World After Us which I got for Christmas, can only do it in small junks because it's very dry but it's really interesting. Makes me want to watch loads of to about a world without humans and play post apocalyptic games like The Last of Us as well.

Can't wait for Horizon Zero Dawn.

[Ironhide]

Just started the first book in the Expanse series and it's been great so far, probably up to roughly the end of first episode of the TV adaptation and must say the book is so much better, the worldbuilding is better and obviously the show can't really do justice to the odd physiology of the people permanently living in low gravity.

Got the 2nd book ready and waiting as I managed to get it for 75p (+ £1 ebook tax - aka VAT).

[PCCD]

I got a Kindle for Christmas so I've downloaded loads of free books and have started reading Moby Dick. I don't know why it's taken me this long to get one as it's a brilliant little piece of kit.

So book recommendations... I absolutely love the game Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines and I was wondering if there are any books that have the same kind of atmosphere as that game. You know, a modern city setting with unseen darkness lurking in every shadow. Something maybe similar to Interview with the Vampire. Something like Buffy but more serious in tone.

Could look at Skarlet.

[Ironhide]

Leviathan wakes (Expanse book 1) has suddenly become even more brilliant, it's got a serious Dead Space/The Thing vibe to it and I love it.

Hopefully the TV series doesn't stray too far from the source material.

This gooseberry fool needs its own thread.

[Tragic Magic]

Any good zombie books out there that aren't by Max Brooks?

[Rex Kramer]

I got a Kindle for Christmas so I've downloaded loads of free books and have started reading Moby Dick. I don't know why it's taken me this long to get one as it's a brilliant little piece of kit.

So book recommendations... I absolutely love the game Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines and I was wondering if there are any books that have the same kind of atmosphere as that game. You know, a modern city setting with unseen darkness lurking in every shadow. Something maybe similar to Interview with the Vampire. Something like Buffy but more serious in tone.

I'd definitely recommend the Justin Cronin Passage Trilogy (though only 2 have been released up until now). It doesn't exactly fit your requirement but they are a real rollercoaster of a read.

[BTB]

Just finished reading Michel Houellebecq's Submission.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submission_(novel)

The novel, a political satire, imagines a situation in which a Muslim party upholding traditionalist and patriarchal values leads the 2022 vote in France and is able to form a government with the support of France's Islamo-Leftist Socialist Party. The book drew an unusual amount of attention because, by a macabre coincidence, it was released on the day of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.[7]

It's a good read, if short, with some fantastic writing, but it's also quite wordy and at times almost comically pretentious. What makes it interesting is the tone - not especially judgmental, not particularly political. There's a curious and attractive melancholy and a quietly doomed sense of inevitability about the whole thing. It's an imagined (near) future in which France becomes the first EU nation to be led by a muslim government. One might imagine this could lead to all sorts of cliched stereotyping, but Houellebecq holds back - his little observations are all the more impactful for their subtlety (and wit). Is it a warning?

Well worth a read, especially in the light of the Paris shootings.

Embarrassing fact: I didn't realise until halfway through the novel that the title 'Submission' is a literal meaning of the word 'Islam'.

Sounds interesting! Added it to my kindle 'wishlist'.

Planning on reading a lot more this year, as I really didn't read that much in my teens, or when I did it was all very similar.

Currently reading the Great Gatsby which I've been going through pretty quickly. Haven't seen the film which I think is good. Built up a strong list of things to read during the Christmas break, next is Slaughterhouse Five.

[Memento Mori]

Any good zombie books out there that aren't by Max Brooks?

Technically A Song of Ice and Fire.

[Yoshimi]

Any good zombie books out there that aren't by Max Brooks?

This book was awesome....

[Rex Kramer]

Any good zombie books out there that aren't by Max Brooks?

This book was awesome....

Tempted by that, might give it a whirl when I've finished my current read.

[Tragic Magic]

Thanks for the recommendations guys. Wasn't expecting too much but you've done me a service.