TFARCHIVE FORUMS

Star Wars Shadow Fall: An Alphabet Squadron Novel - Bought from local retail.

GHOSTBUSTERS: The Ultimate Visual Guide - Let's hear it for Christmas gifts from coworkers. It details the production(with notes taped into the book) of both movies, The Real Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters, and the Ghostbusters Video game.

Fire & Blood & A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - Both books are pre- A Song Of Ice And Fire in-universe books.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Kylo Ren.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Vol. 9 - Bought during Amazons Boxing Day sale.

Been listening to the audiobook of A Headful of Ghosts, and that's a great, fun and still spooky deconstruction of the genre.

I mostly read Lovecraft and Stephen King, but I don't have enough for more than 2 books a month.

Bought 21 volumes of The Walking Dead as well as The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks from (which wasn't listed by the buyer) fairly cheaply off eBay.

Star Wars volume 2: Showdown On Smugglers Moon and Star Wars From A Certain Point Of View: The Empire Strikes Back.

RogerRonnalds wrote: ↑Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:35 pmI mostly read Lovecraft and Stephen King, but I don't have enough for more than 2 books a month.

I tried reading Lovecraft a few years ago, but couldn't get into it. I heard there was a "mythos", and found a complete works collection at a reasonable price. So, I bought that, figuring I'd read all the stories in the order they were written in to understand the continuity.

That appears to have been a mistake. Apparently, the mythos was mostly a result of other writers taking what Lovecraft wrote and running with it, and the original stories were pretty much stand-alones. Plus, as with any skill, you get better as you go, so those early stories were pretty rough. By the time his writing improved, I was sick of his style. You can only read something described as "unfathomable" or "beyond explanation" so many times before you start thinking the problem's on the writers' end.

I got as far as "Mountains of Madness", which is one of his most well regarded works. I thought it was OK, but not at all scary. I'm reading about these mysterious passages inscribed with ancient runes, filled with horrific creatures and thinking, "I want to play this Zelda level".

I did like one short story, about William Randolph Carter, or something like that.


I'm currently reading Rise of Kyoshi, a prequel novel to Avatar: the Last Airbender. I bought that and it's sequel Shadow of Kyoshi last week. I thought about only buying one to make sure I like it before dropping another $20 on the second. But, I figured I'd rather risk the money than take another trip. Fortunately, I'm liking the first book enough that I'd've definitely bought the sequel. Still 100 pages or so to go.

Tantrum wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:21 pm I tried reading Lovecraft a few years ago, but couldn't get into it. I heard there was a "mythos", and found a complete works collection at a reasonable price. So, I bought that, figuring I'd read all the stories in the order they were written in to understand the continuity.

That appears to have been a mistake. Apparently, the mythos was mostly a result of other writers taking what Lovecraft wrote and running with it, and the original stories were pretty much stand-alones. Plus, as with any skill, you get better as you go, so those early stories were pretty rough. By the time his writing improved, I was sick of his style. You can only read something described as "unfathomable" or "beyond explanation" so many times before you start thinking the problem's on the writers' end.

I got as far as "Mountains of Madness", which is one of his most well regarded works. I thought it was OK, but not at all scary. I'm reading about these mysterious passages inscribed with ancient runes, filled with horrific creatures and thinking, "I want to play this Zelda level".

I did like one short story, about William Randolph Carter, or something like that.

Yeah, mythos is a misnomer. In Lovecraft's own stories, the creatures of one story will at most cameo in another, and usually just get a mention in passing. It's also important to remember that Lovecraft's stories are more about creating a mood or atmosphere than they are about being tightly plotted or character driven. His typical narrative device is the narrator, of varying degrees of reliability, recounting strange events to lead up to some kind of warning when obviously in reality you'd lead with the warning. In the case of At The Mountains of Madness, Dyer should start with, "hey, stay out of the antarctic, there's an ancient city with alien monsters that seeded all life on earth there," but that of course spoils the mood.

I should say that I know most of Lovecraft's stuff through audiobooks and narration. A voiceover narrator can make or break a verbal reading, but Conrad Feineger, Wayne June, and Gordon Gould are all quite good. (Here's Feineger reading ATMOM) I actually have most of his stuff downloaded this way and have been using it as sleeping ambience for the past seven or eight years. I enjoy the timbre of the recordings along with the stories themselves.

At The Mountains Of Madness is one of my favorite stories, actually. I gave a conference presentation on the thematic similarities between it and Paradise Lost a few years ago and managed an impromptu recording of it. Here's a link if you're interested. I can't argue for or against personal taste averting you from his writing style, but the themes in Lovecraft's stories usually have quite a bit of depth.

Also Lovecraft was a massive racist so his definition of "unfathomable horror" probably starts at "a light tan"

HotdogDivebomb 2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 6:15 pm Also Lovecraft was a massive racist so his definition of "unfathomable horror" probably starts at "a light tan"

Oh, he was an absolute **** about people, yeah. I think my conference presentation the next year was titled, "Revisionist Horror: turning Lovecraft's racism on its head to find a teachable moment," and mostly used The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I still mean to clean up/streamline that essay for a little 5 to 10 minute video, but procrastination and inaction commonly wins for me.

Anne McCaffrey bitches! (see Valentine's shitposting)

You may only use fonts up to size 200.

Clay wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 6:10 pmIt's also important to remember that Lovecraft's stories are more about creating a mood or atmosphere than they are about being tightly plotted or character driven. His typical narrative device is the narrator, of varying degrees of reliability, recounting strange events to lead up to some kind of warning...

HotdogDivebomb 2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 6:15 pmAlso Lovecraft was a massive racist so his definition of "unfathomable horror" probably starts at "a light tan"

So, an old-timey Q-anon, then?

Lovecraft's always been better as concepts than trying to read his actual material, you can see why it didn't take off in his lifetime.

Sades wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:09 pm Anne McCaffrey bitches!

Any good? I think I tried as a kid and went back to TSR novels.

Denyer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:02 pm

Any good? I think I tried as a kid and went back to TSR novels.

Not sure how it'll stand up to a re-read tbh but I remember loving the series as a kid and I'm really looking forward to giving it a look.

(Goodreads link)

I'm currently reading Harry Potter to the kiddo in the evening and I might wait with this one so we can go through it together, or I might buy the Harper Hall trilogy (which was my original introduction to the series) and go through that with her first. Haven't decided.

Never realised it was science fiction / future set, or that it was written that far back (having said that Dragonlance is almost as ancient now). Have snagged a paperback.

If you read magical school genre, Kim Newman's alright at it;
https://www.goodreads.com/series/230213 ... iff-grange

It keys into his other novels such as the Diogenes Club series, but not closely.

Star Wars: Vader Down - I bought this from Robinsons book store as a special order.

I got as a gift 6 novelizations of Doctor Who. I haven't read them yet but am surprised by just how short they are considering the 4 to 6 episode length of most Doctor Who serials. It makes me wonder how compressed these stories are after adaptation.

Target adaptations? Some of them add a fair bit of depth (which is partly why people kept a higher opinion of the old series, as they were remembering from the books rather than TV that hadn't been shown in years). It'll probably make you notice more how padded the episodes are.