Books: What have you been reading?

[Michael24]

Just finished The Pretender: Saving Luke, the second in a series of novels rebooting/continuing The Pretender, which ran on NBC from 1996-2000. Now that the creators have regained control of the rights, they've finally been able to bring the property back for the fans, and I'm so glad.

[Deathstroke]

I finished reading the C.J. Box novel Cold Wind today. Heck of read.

[JediMindTrick]

What are your impressions of Steel Heart? I've been holding off getting a copy. I'm also hoping to get his Mistborn series at some point.

Steelheart is good but Mistborn is great. Mistborn is essentially a superhero trilogy set in a fantasy world. I'd definitely go Mistborn before Steelheart, especially since Mistborn is a completed trilogy. And literally it is a superhero novel. You have people who have the mutant ability to gain superpowers when they ingest metals. Each metal gives them a different superpower and last until they've metabolized the metal. Some get superstrength, some supersenses, some telekinetic like abilities, etc. The only thing really setting it apart from a novelized superhero comic is the backdrop which is a medieval like world where evil won about 1000 years ago.

[danmar85]

Steelheart is good but Mistborn is great. Mistborn is essentially a superhero trilogy set in a fantasy world. I'd definitely go Mistborn before Steelheart, especially since Mistborn is a completed trilogy. And literally it is a superhero novel. You have people who have the mutant ability to gain superpowers when they ingest metals. Each metal gives them a different superpower and last until they've metabolized the metal. Some get superstrength, some supersenses, some telekinetic like abilities, etc. The only thing really setting it apart from a novelized superhero comic is the backdrop which is a medieval like world where evil won about 1000 years ago.

Thanks for the response. It gives me a totally different impression from what I originally had of the series. Looking forward to getting it.

[Surtur]

Anyone read the latest Dresden Files book yet? It's called "Skin Game". Just finished it the other day..it's interesting, now Harry technically spoilers:

has two children, not one, I predict Bob will totally be trying to hook up with Harry's spirit of intellect daughter

end of spoilers.

[Gordon]

Boy, I haven't posted in this thread in a bit. I'm about to start reading the Necromancer's House, by Christopher Buehlman. I glanced at this title in a local Chapters', and it grabbed my attention instantly. The premise seems quite novel-a warlock who uses film to summon the dead. I'm really looking forward to it.

[Deathstroke]

I finished the C.J. Box novel Force of Nature today.

[Don C]

My Dresden Files Quest has begun again. After a brief break, I just finished Proven Guilty last night and will probably start White Night later on today. My plan is to get caught up with the series over the summer.

[saul_on_the_road_to_damascus]

Read two more john green novels. Looking for alaska and an abundance of katherines.

17 books so far this year.

[t hedge coke]

I can't recommend Making and Remaking Horror in the 1970s and 2000s enough. It's not worth, really, it's very high cover price (sixty some dollars), but it's a wonderful piece of extended criticism, both in terms of comparing and contrasting the decades' cache of movies and moviemaking atmosphere, but also looking critically to specific filmmakers and actors, and actively critiquing critics themselves, both professional and armchair/messageboard types. It's driving me to rewatch many movies, but more, to rethink a lot of what I've already seen or previously understood in a different way.

I don't always agree, aesthetically (he dislikes cheap gotcha! scares) or in terms of interpretation-of-intent (any time he mentions a low angle shot of someone's back, what I saw onscreen was a low angle shot of a nice butt) with the author, David Roche, but he's not demanding agreement. It's an incredibly non-preachy book, which is rare for more enthusiastic/fannish works, and while this is very much an academic work, it is incredibly fannish. This isn't simply about how a decade's movies might reflect politics or social anxieties, it's not about the cinematography, the scripts, the casting decisions, acting, who's an auteur and who's a hack, how important a presold title is vs material the filmmakers "earnestly" want to work on, it's about all of it. This is clearly a guy for whom movies are a total effect, an experience, not dissolute elements.

His considerations on how casting in terms of race has changed between the 70s and 00s, with brief but poignant mention of the very dumb remake of Assault on Precinct 13 that takes out all of its frustrated-by-sexism and frustrated-by-racism energy, and his ruminations on the "hypercontinuity" bug of contemporary cinema, whereby movies are judged on how much scenes move the narrative along and make it a singular narrative, not by how emotionally, psychologically, and novelly they affect the audience, is absorbing, and simultaneous make me love movies so much more, and make me sad for the failings of too many movies and their makers.

Anyhow, good stuff.

[Pinsir]

I'm trying to read the Quran right now...so far it is pretty dry.

[Beacon]

My Dresden Files Quest has begun again. After a brief break, I just finished Proven Guilty last night and will probably start White Night later on today. My plan is to get caught up with the series over the summer.

I look forward to you reaction to Changes.

[Motown Rage]

About to start Dawn of the Jedi Into the Void

[Custodes]

Then it's on to Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves.

Probably Asimovs' greatest sci-fi book. Not an easy read. Be alert ....drink your coffee. Brilliant.

Apprently I need feats for the rumbles League, So I get to read the entire Chronicles of Amber by Wednesday.

Such a good series. So much fun.

Just finished- Lovecraft's New York Circle, The KALEM Club, 1924-1927. Good read. Essays and letters and poems by some interesting folks in the early 20th century.

[ExcelsiorPrime]

Donna Tartt The Goldfinch