What are you reading... Now...

[Hannurdock]

Prince Lestat

[pennydreadful]

Originally Posted by Hannurdock

Prince Lestat

Let me know how that turns out; I've heard... not good things. That being said, I've been po'ed at Anne Rice for a looong time. I still have a grudge over Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle.

[Hannurdock]

Originally Posted by pennydreadful

Let me know how that turns out; I've heard... not good things. That being said, I've been po'ed at Anne Rice for a looong time. I still have a grudge over Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle.

Did you enjoy Queen of the Damned?

If you did, it might be worth checking out.

[snake]

Stern's run on Amazing Spiderman.

[Leo656]

As in Roger Stern? I never read that, that I can recall, but I'm a big fan of his. He had an amaaaaazing run on Action Comics in the early-90s and wrote a couple DC novelizations. His "Death and Life of Superman" novelization was f*cking terrific. Little different from the comics as it omitted a couple things for the sake of brevity/simplification, but it's honestly just absolutely amazing. Definitely check that out if you can find it.

[pennydreadful]

Originally Posted by Hannurdock

Did you enjoy Queen of the Damned?

If you did, it might be worth checking out.

I loved Queen of the Damned and The Vampire Lestat; for me they were the best books in the series.

[blindturtle02]

Getting ready to start Star Wars: Tarkin. Hope it will be charming to the last.

[discordiatookie]

Originally Posted by blindturtle02

Hey DT, don't forget about that new King novel due out in Nov. Revival, isn't it? Wait, you were the one who brought that to our attention, I think. Yeah, I remember reading No Stars when it was first released.

Yeah, looking forward to it, but probably gonna have to wait until Christmas for it, money being tight and all.

[snake]

Originally Posted by blindturtle02

Getting ready to start Star Wars: Tarkin. Hope it will be charming to the last.

I can't wait to get my hands on that book. Hopefully this week.

Originally Posted by Leo656

As in Roger Stern? I never read that, that I can recall, but I'm a big fan of his. He had an amaaaaazing run on Action Comics in the early-90s and wrote a couple DC novelizations. His "Death and Life of Superman" novelization was f*cking terrific. Little different from the comics as it omitted a couple things for the sake of brevity/simplification, but it's honestly just absolutely amazing. Definitely check that out if you can find it.

Yup, Roger Stern. I'll have to check out his Action Comics. Speaking of Action Comics, does anyone else find Morrisons New 52 run confusing?

[BubblyShell22]

Re-reading the Twilight series. Just finished Eclipse and am about to start Breaking Dawn, though I may have to wait until this headache clears up. In too much pain to even read so you know it's a bad one if I can't even read a book.

[Prowler]

Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Originally Posted by Hannurdock

Prince Lestat

Didn't know she had a new one out. What is it about? (As if the title doesn't seem obvious, but....)

Originally Posted by pennydreadful

Let me know how that turns out; I've heard... not good things. That being said, I've been po'ed at Anne Rice for a looong time. I still have a grudge over Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle.

Any particular reason? I liked Blackwood Farm, though I haven't read Blood Canticle.


I just finished reading a book called "Heroes in the Night": Inside the Real Life Superhero Movement". It's a fascinating read about the people who don capes, tights, and masks to go out and fight crime as real-life superheroes. And they're not as nutty as one might think. Some do it out of frustration with ineffective law enforcement, some do it as a "neighborhood watch" to prevent crimes, some even do it as a form of charity and helping homeless, victims of abuse, and others who have fallen through the cracks. It was a real eye-opener about how/why these folks do this stuff. And the author spent several years tracking down and gaining the confidence of a number of these people, and following them around as they do their thing. And it's not just nerdy, nutjobs imitating their favorite heroes, either. Some of them are everyday businesspeople, moms, dads, blue and white-collar workers of all kinds, and most don't actually believe they have any powers, they just want to make the world a better place, and do it without being identified. If you've ever been even a little curious about guys like The Eye, Vancouver's Thanatos(his story is particularly interesting and touching) or New York's superhero "team", the New York Initiative, this book is a GREAT read! (And the author even got his own persona for a short time, to fully understand what it's like.)

[Hannurdock]

Wolves of Midwinter, Anne Rice. Sequel to The Wolf Gift. It's okay so far.

[Ninjinister]

Hmmm... ambiguous wording on that there title. But I'm going to assume what it means.

I found a bookstore a few blocks from me flat yesterday that I'd never seen before, and picked up a copy of The Qur'an (or as it says on the book proper, "The Koran"). Not very far in due to getting a massive headache this morning and being unable to focus on it during lunch. Hopefully tomorrow'll be more fruitful.

[blindturtle02]

Revival by Stephen King, and Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic I: Remnant.

[pennydreadful]

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

Any particular reason? I liked Blackwood Farm, though I haven't read Blood Canticle.

Sorry it took me a while to answer this one; must have missed seeing it!

I'll put this under a spoiler tag, not because it has spoilers but because I don't want to upset anybody who does enjoy Rice's work still (fair warning, I get kinda negative):

Spoiler:

I think Anne Rice's writing suffers in large part because of her no-edit clause -- problems that had been bothering me as far back as the Memnoch and Armand novels just got progressively worse and worse and I've found every book after Queen of the Damned increasingly disappointing.

There's also a personal element in that Rice is totally unable to handle criticism, lashes out publicly at her critics and I've always found her stance on fanfiction with her characters to be draconian and unappreciative. TVC series is one of those things where it has so much potential but book after book, it just flounders deeper into the trench that Rice's ego has dug.

I hated that the Mayfair Witches and The Vampire Chronicles series ended up getting combined. I don't feel that the books have the same tone as the first three. She keeps creating these overly twee characters and not doing enough with existing fan faves. We're at the stage now where Lestat is too powerful. I don't like the way she keeps shoehorning in her religious views (Lestat meeting the Pope? I mean, come on). Every book, Lestat falls in love with another dull mortal woman. Too much author intrusion, too much use of Lestat as a mouthpiece/self-insert for the authors' pomposity. Too much monotonous, redundant dialogue about things the author deems important and not enough actual plot advancement. Continuity problems and characters' personalities changing from book to book - it just feels like it's too much hard work to commit to the word-vomit when there's minimal pay-off involved.

Like I said, I think the series has just lost the sensuality and gothic romanticism that it had in the first three novels, and that bugs me.

I dunno, the series just really lost its magic for me - I'm glad there are people who still enjoy it though.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by snake

Yup, Roger Stern. I'll have to check out his Action Comics. Speaking of Action Comics, does anyone else find Morrisons New 52 run confusing?

Morrison is confusing in anything he writes. He tries to be philosophical and bring in symbolism that only he understands. At the same time he likes to incorporate fun and the history of the character in a serious way. Take a look at his run on the main Batman title and you will see what I mean.


R.I.P. The Spook, my favorite nobody villain.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Originally Posted by pennydreadful

Sorry it took me a while to answer this one; must have missed seeing it!

I'll put this under a spoiler tag, not because it has spoilers but because I don't want to upset anybody who does enjoy Rice's work still (fair warning, I get kinda negative):

Spoiler:

I think Anne Rice's writing suffers in large part because of her no-edit clause -- problems that had been bothering me as far back as the Memnoch and Armand novels just got progressively worse and worse and I've found every book after Queen of the Damned increasingly disappointing.

There's also a personal element in that Rice is totally unable to handle criticism, lashes out publicly at her critics and I've always found her stance on fanfiction with her characters to be draconian and unappreciative. TVC series is one of those things where it has so much potential but book after book, it just flounders deeper into the trench that Rice's ego has dug.

I hated that the Mayfair Witches and The Vampire Chronicles series ended up getting combined. I don't feel that the books have the same tone as the first three. She keeps creating these overly twee characters and not doing enough with existing fan faves. We're at the stage now where Lestat is too powerful. I don't like the way she keeps shoehorning in her religious views (Lestat meeting the Pope? I mean, come on). Every book, Lestat falls in love with another dull mortal woman. Too much author intrusion, too much use of Lestat as a mouthpiece/self-insert for the authors' pomposity. Too much monotonous, redundant dialogue about things the author deems important and not enough actual plot advancement. Continuity problems and characters' personalities changing from book to book - it just feels like it's too much hard work to commit to the word-vomit when there's minimal pay-off involved.

Like I said, I think the series has just lost the sensuality and gothic romanticism that it had in the first three novels, and that bugs me.

I dunno, the series just really lost its magic for me - I'm glad there are people who still enjoy it though.

That's cool. I was just curious. I really liked Blackwood, Though I'll admit to similar feelings as you regarding some of the previous books. Pandora, Armand, and some of the others just seemed kind of "there" for me, too. Parts of Memnoch were good, but like you said, it seemed to get mired in a lot of religious and philosophical drivel.

[pennydreadful]

Could just be that my tastes have changed as I've gotten older as well - I mean, there are plenty of folks out there who still like her work.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Yeah, that's true for me, too. I used to be a huge fan of the TVC books, but that sort of waned a bit after Memnoch, but then again, I was a HUGE fan of vampire novels in general back in high school and for a few years after. I have a nice collection (nearly 80!) that contains everything from Dracula and (most of) Anne Rice's vamp books, to some steamy vamp romances, P.N. Elrod's two vamp series, The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause (of Blood and Chocolate fame- and also my very favorite vampire tale BTW) and horror tales like The Summoning, Salem's Lot, and even a few anthologies.

Right now, besides the RLSH book, I'm also reading "The Wisdom of the Confucians", "Dictionary of Ancient Deities", Frommer's Japan 9th ed., and a book on Shinto. All research for my fics, of course, LOL!