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[Stormbringer]

I've read all the Books of Blood, but that's about it for my reading of Barker.

I read the first tale, The Midnight Meat Train, which I enjoyed, but I got bogged down in the next one and never continued.

Ha, The Yattering And Jack is one of my favorite of his shorts! As for the sex, if it’s not his YA he’s going to squeeze some deviancy in there :p

I recall (and this is going back two decades) that it was the description of the demons that put me off 'The Yattering...'

While they fit perfectly well with the style of illustrations by Louis Le Breton, found in the Dictionnaire Infernal, I did not appreciate that aspect at the time! I just thought it was TOO SILLY!

[Snowy]

I recently re-read Imagica by Clive Barker - well, about two thirds before I drifted away from it. There was some fairly explicit stuff in there too. I am not a prude, far from it, but find sitting reading page after page of erotica, erm, tedious tbh. My brain says "Yeah I get it, they are fucking, can we move on now?"

[Sly Boots]

Am finding it hard to plough through the second Bill Hodges book by Stephen King (Finders Keepers). It's... fine, just a slightly bizarre decision imo to relegate the previous main character to the periphery to such an extent he barely appears in it until the halfway point, and even after then incredibly sparingly.

I persisted as long as I have largely because I hoped at some point the backstory would end and he'd take over the narrative once it was established, but I'm 80% completed now and starting to lose faith that will happen

I've heard the third book is the worst in the trilogy as well, so I might not even bother.

[Alan]

I quite enjoyed 2 but I do remember being a little annoyed at how much backstory there is, yeah. I think you may have a hard time with 3 but who knows, you might end up liking it!

I recently re-read Imagica by Clive Barker - well, about two thirds before I drifted away from it. There was some fairly explicit stuff in there too. I am not a prude, far from it, but find sitting reading page after page of erotica, erm, tedious tbh. My brain says "Yeah I get it, they are fucking, can we move on now?"

I think of Barkers explicit stuff much like over the top violence and gore, it makes me giggle. I have no idea what his intention is but it’s generally so ridiculous that you just have to laugh. I’m sure somewhere there’s someone loving the descriptions of manually breeding horses but surely the minority He is best known for BDSM demons that chain you up when you’re naughty so you have to expect it -_- That said I do recall a scene or two in Imagica being overly long and not really adding anything.

I think Coldheart Canyon is maybe the most egregious but again it made me laugh a bunch. Was the peacock with human male genitalia spaffing on a rotund lady’s stomach while in full plumage supposed to be horrifying or titillating? Fucked if I know! Is Barker laughing while writing it or rubbing his sweaty palms on his thighs? Some things are better left unknown…

[Stormbringer]

If I recall correctly, there's a passage in Galilee about a man being gang-raped by a group of men with "purple-headed cocks" and I was thinking "This is not what I expected..."

It was my first Barker book.

[Tommy]

About to start Endurance by Alfred Lansing. It's not something I'd ordinarily read (I know what happens, for one...) it's been forced upon me, but it's been introduced as "the best thing he's ever read"...

I'm also reading Fall of Cilivsations, the book of the podcast. It's weird, when I went through college, university whatever, I always thought I was far more interested in modern history and had little to no interest in culture and that sort of thing (basically, war only). Maybe that's an age thing, but now I'm a bit older the cultural and economical history of ancient civlisations seems far more interesting.

[Snowy]

If I recall correctly, there's a passage in Galilee about a man being gang-raped by a group of men with "purple-headed cocks" and I was thinking "This is not what I expected... "

It was my first Barker book.

There was a fairly lengthy section in Imagica dealing with the character Godolphin's bizarrely shaped gentleman sausage. Unfortunately all I could think of throughout was the description of Trump's mushroom member - let's face it that's gonna put you off the read!

[Sly Boots]

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but if anyone is looking for an interesting new fantasy series to get into, I've been greatly enjoying the series Shadow of the Leviathan by Robert Jackson Bennett.

The second book just came out last month, and it's the first one in a while I snapped up on release day for full-whack, and proceeded to devour over the space of a week.

The premise is pretty interesting, it's based on a loosely East-Asian-inspired fictional island nation (it's never overtly stated, but reading it I often feel like Japanese culture is at least a partial influence), which gets assaulted every year by kaiju-sized monsters, and have had to assemble not only suitable defences but an entire culture based around holding them off, while also harvesting their bodies for useful, deadly and bizarre materials that help shape their society.

The technology is interesting too - the society is feudal in nature and time period, but they've learned to harness the leviathan materals to give chosen individuals enhanced abilities (that come at a severe cost to their health and life expectancy), and craft and shape plants to do almost anything they want. The author calls it bio-punk, and that seems like a good term for it.

The nature of the story also ties in perfectly with my interests - it's basically a Holmes & Watson style murder mystery set in this bizarre, almost alien, culture, with a fun dynamic between the detective character and their assistant (our protagonist) who basically does all the legwork. I don't know how many books the author has planned for the series, but each one so far has been its own case - I'd recommend starting with the first though to get a proper grounding in the world and characters.

[Snowy]

Thanks Sly, always on the lookout for good new Fantasy tales. Got the new Abercrombie ready to go once I finish my current trilogy, but will look at these after.

[Sly Boots]

Thanks Sly, always on the lookout for good new Fantasy tales. Got the new Abercrombie ready to go once I finish my current trilogy, but will look at these after.

Haha, yeah, bought his new one as soon as I finished with the above, should start on it tonight!

[Hatredsheart]

Also have The Devils, if it's up to his usual standard I'll be well pleased.

[Snowy]

Also have The Devils, if it's up to his usual standard I'll be well pleased.

I thought his last trilogy was his weakest to date, so will be keen to see if The Devils is a return to form. It is set in 'our' world, which will be a refreshing change.

[Alan]

I really liked the Madness trilogy, Shatered Sea trilogy was his weakest for me but still very enjoyable. Good shout, didn’t know there was a new book and now I have it, thread works! Vatican demons, he timed that well!


Other shite I’ve recently read spoiler’d as not to derail the current thread -_-

Spoiler

Just finished the new Sayaka Murata book, The Vanishing World and though I think it’s probably her weakest it’s still a great off the wall read that makes me laugh and I’m not always sure it was intended that way or if it’s something that’s become amusing in the translation. Either way it works for me, love that lass’ writing.

Also read a few Chuck Wendig over the last few months and when he’s at his best he’s very King-lite in that even though the premise may be dumb the character writing brings you into it. I enjoyed The Wanderers and Black River Orchid, on the other hand Zeroes was so bad I couldn’t finish it and Wayward (the sequel to Wanderers) was really quite bad too but I persevered because I liked the first one. I shouldn’t have, it wasn’t good and it wasn’t short! He also injects his politics in a way that I find forced and unnatural. I’m reasonably sure I agree with him on said politics but it’s really annoying when it’s not in service to the story.

[Snowy]

OK I am really enjoying The Devils.

Not all that far in, but his writing is on a whole new level. The absolute glee with which he keeps you laughing at some of his descriptions has always shone through, but having just read the introduction to Viggo (chapter "The good meat"), the way he thrashes his prose, making it reel back and forth following the character's staccato train of thought, insanity and sheer rage... Well it made me go back to the start of the section and read it again, aloud, as though I was narrating the audiobook.

And then, as I get a free audiobook each month on my Prime sub, I snagged it in audiobook form and let the superb Stephen Pacey take me through it again.

Loving the premise, the cast, the storytelling, high hopes for this one.

[Sly Boots]

Yeah, it started a bit slow for me but once I hit about the 20% mark it had grabbed me, really enjoying it. And Vigga's great, after her introduction she becomes a regular part of the main group and is often hilarious.