The books and comics thread

VikingBoyBilly · Post by **VikingBoyBilly** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 21:26

Right now I'm reading through the Bone comics and it does not disappoint. Superficially, it appears to be cartoonish and child-like, immature and only meant for kids, but it quickly becomes dark and serious. It's pretty gruesome with blood and everything! But it still retains touches of light-hearted humor.

Some books I'm reading are The Mote in God's Eye/The Gripping Hand (finished the first, working on the second), the Softwire (waiting for the final installment this February

), and Shogun (I attempted to read through this a year ago. I stopped at page 2XX in a 1000+ page novel but I intend to pick it up at some point!).

I want to read more of H.P. Lovecraft's stories, but I honestly don't think I'll live to read all of them. I was really looking forward to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book that picks up where the online book left off, as opposed to those first three that just re-told it, but it was quite underwhelming. Not a whole lot happened in it and the jokes weren't as funny. Plus, a lot of the material from the original was copied and pasted into it! Sure, I can understand that those parts might not have made it into the other 3 books, but it was like experiencing a bad time paradox.

I haven't checked up on The Noob in a while, I should remember to do that soon, as I usually just read what's new between big, 3-6 month chunks rather than checking in on it every week, and the due time is drawing near.

TerminILL · Post by **TerminILL** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 22:04

I've been reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (must get some more of them), Asimov's Foundation series (interesting, but by god do they plod along slowly), and Dinosaur Comics (also briefly looked at Not Qwantz by CK Guy, which was quite true to its name).

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 0:42

Draik wrote:which was quite true to its name

Haha, I'm taking this to be a bad thing. If so, you don't need to respond.

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:25

Finished "North! Or Be Eaten", sequel to "At The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness". Both are fantasy dramas with humor thrown in, suitable for children but interesting for the rest of us as well. Amazon reviews on the second one tend to run along the lines of "it's too dark for kids", and though it is rather dark for a story with children in mind I don't think it's so dark they shouldn't read it at all.

Post by **KeenRush** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:50

Speaking of comics -- a long ago, somewhere far away I read the few first issues of a comic which was very well drawn, set in the future and the main character was some sort of journalist. It began with this guy sitting in some remote cabin at the mountains and then cutting his long beard and hair and returning back to work. I've been trying to find it (admittedly, the effort has been quite light-hearted) ever since but haven't managed to... Does anyone maybe recognize what I'm talking 'bout?

Other than that, I haven't touched comics for years. And I've never been much into them. If I happen to see a newspaper I'll check the Garfield and Zits but that's it.

TerminILL · Post by **TerminILL** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 7:03

CK Guy wrote:
Draik wrote:which was quite true to its name
Haha, I'm taking this to be a bad thing. If so, you don't need to respond.

Not really a bad thing. It does manage to distance itself enough to not just be a Dinosaur Comics "ripoff". Just not quite to my tastes.

Post by **Ceilick** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:42

Just finished reading "The Dark World" by henry Kuttner, a short science fantasy. I enjoyed it a lot, and parts of it were hilariously dated (it was written in 1946). The 'forest people' were fighting so that one day they could clear the forests and build themself a great city. You just don't read 'forest people' with that kind of attitude anymore

I want to read more of H.P. Lovecraft's stories

Me too. Almost started reading the Call of Cthulhu collection yesterday, but opted to start reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Princess of Mars" instead. Been a pretty fun read so far, great classic adventure, has its amusing outdated moments as well.

Post by **tulip** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 13:42

I didn't read too many comics. Mostly short ones like Garfield, Calvin & Hobbes or Gary Larson (and of course Mort's Keen comic).
The longer ones were Futurama and Sam & Max.

I also read some Discworld novels (Eric was probably the best), these aside I read Armageddon the Musical which is far out and in some parts even funnier than Pratchett, but also with a lot more violence and sex involved.
Right now i'm reading the Picture of Dorian Gray, which is boring me more than I'd thought (I really enjoyed Dracula and Frankenstein so I figured I might enjoy another gothic novel).

VikingBoyBilly · Post by **VikingBoyBilly** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:59

I just finished Bone. It was absolutely epic. I can't believe it's something that started in 1991

lemm · Post by **lemm** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:53

Read Masters of Doom last week.

Good story, but it could use some heavy editing.

ZidaneA · Post by **ZidaneA** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:23

I'm not that much into books unless I think they're really good.

I recently read LÃ¥t Den RÃ¤tte Komma In, Hanteringen av OdÃ¶da and MÃ¤nniskohamn.

Right now I'm reading Welcome to Promise City. When I'm finished, I'll be reading Promises Broken!

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 21:39

I've been reading Ian Irvine's series, The Three Worlds, for probably four years or so. Read the middle quartet years ago, and have been making my way through the first very, very gradually since near the end of 2008. Earlier this year I decided to start reading the more recent trilogy of which two entries have been released. I highly recommend this series to anyone who appreciates combined sci-fi/fantasy.

Along with that, I was lent a copy of On A Pale Horse. I was expecting to be bored by this, as not a lot of novels really grab me. But this has turned out to be quite a satisfactorily surreal story, also of a sci-fi/fantasy nature. The basic premise is similar to Dead Like Me in many ways (predating it by 20-odd years), but with a very different take on the idea.

Post by **Ceilick** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 0:03

Finished 'A Princess of Mars'. It was interesting to read one of the first sci-fi books to explore alien culture and such, and the travelogue style was cool, but the romance side of things was completely cracked out/cheesy. Also, for what's apparently supposed to be a classic adventure recognized for violence and battles and such, something that appeared to be one of the climaxes of the novel ammounted to, and I quote, "The combat was soon over". Kind of lame, but I enjoyed the book, especially the Tharkian martians.

Started H.P. Lovecrafts stuff, really enjoying them so far, read 'Dagon' and 'The statement of Randalf Carter', both excellent.

TerminILL · Post by **TerminILL** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:45

Since I have made the assumption that webcomics count, I have begun reading MS Paint Adventures. It is good. It is quirky. It is humourous. It is LONG. It is an epic saga (or rather, several epic sagas). I will be reading this for a while.

Post by **tulip** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:57

Has anyone read Robert Sheckley? I've read some of his older short stories, some of which were the greatest I ever read.