Current Events > Reading Thread Again

(+) Yeah! (+)

Signals from Mars, by Wolf Detlef Rohr. Page 83. A signal from Mars has been received

First book from the stack down, Best of EC Artisan Edition
Mfw reading their horror selection:
https://i.vgy.me/b7nuj1.jpg

"In Gratitude..." was fantastic, I'd say on par with "By George!!" and "Judgment Day!"

Listening to The Brothers Karamazov. Its not a particularly difficult listen and flows quite well but it clocks in at 42 hours!

I do hate that from time to time the names of the characters change such as Alexi and Alyosha interchangeably without much notification from the narrator. I literally had to turn to my wife and say wtf is Alyosha at one point.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


lmao I honestly didnt expect a response to that post let alone so quickly. Youre awesome thank you. Im going to save those photos

Anyone here read the Riverworld series of books?

Premise is everyone ever born awakens on a mysterious planet which has a seemingly infinite in length massive river running through it surrounded on all sides by impassible mountain ranges.

The book spends a lot of time on how vastly different people interact with each other. You have the likes of Mark Twain interacting with Goebbels etc. How different societies etc pop up along the river. How do the old earth religions deal with this new resurrection and afterlife and what new religions pop up.

The rest of the book is discovering how did the people come to live on this strange planet? Why are they there? What is the purpose and more importantly as the book goes onwhat is at the source of the river?

Its a fantastic series. And well worth a read / listen.

I've got about a couple hours left in the Cassidy Hutchinson's Enough

Hellish Venus, by Wolf Detlef Rohr. Page 54. All of the crew is in radio contact with each other, although some of them cannot broadcast, only receive. Everybody now knows the location of the captain in the jungle. This bodes well for the prospect of everybody re-uniting, and completing the mission. However, a foe is also present in the jungle

Just finished Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson. Not sure which audiobook I'm gonna listen to next

Happy 2024 to everybody ITT! Whatever you read this new year, I hope brings happiness to your hearts, peace to your souls, and wonder to your minds.

IIRC last year I did a round up of what I read in 2022, I'll do one for 2023 tomorrow morning. Definitely not as much quantity wise, but I did read some excellent stuff this year.

cuh posted...

omg silly we want to see the other side!!

LOL! Since I already started I'll have to drop the titles and covers as I go along.

2023 Roundup - Total Read - 66
Manga - 7, Stars - 0
Comics - 40, Stars - 4
Strips - 10, Stars - 0
Books - 6, Stars - 2
Artbooks - 1, Stars - 0
Euro Comics - 2, Stars - 0

Star Qualifications:
-Ending makes me tear up
-Text or art pulls at my soul

Book Highlights
First - Old Gods and New about Jack Kirby's creation of Fourth World, finished on 1/6. Really interesting book, though I didn't appreciate the spoilers for the slightly more obscure "part three."

Starred - East of Eden and The Dying Earth; EoE was amazing, perfect ending, and Dying Earth was just great sci-fi.

Last - The Dying Earth again, finished on 10/27.

Comics Highlights
First - Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, aka that obscure "part three." Unfortunately cut too short, only 14 issues IIRC. Finished on 1/8, and still a firm believer that Kirby is "King."

Starred - A Rose for Ecclesiastes from Heavy Metal; Judgment Day!, By George!!, and In Gratitude... from EC Comics. Rose is technically a short story but had accompanying art in HM, which I think was really gorgeous and effective; and the EC stories were just solid social commentary/sci fi/fantastic. Al Williamson could really draw it all, good-looking guys and gals as well as great monsters and vistas.

Last - My World by Wood, 12/29. Not my favorite of his work, but certainly a striking piece--definitely earned its praise.

Manga Highlights
First - Baron, finished on 3/21. Genuinely one of the craziest manga plots I've ever read and one of the least focused on the title character to boot. The artwork makes me think "dependable."

Starred - Surprisingly nothing really blew my mind last year!

Last - Bleach, 15 volumes or so done as of late November/early December. The redraws/censorship/funny TL kind of annoys me but it's all for the sake of friendship--I think my buddy is on v18, probably wait until he hits 20 to catch up again.

Strip Highlights
First - Krazy Kat 1916-1918, finished 1/30. Still holds up, lots of beautiful pages. I should read the next three years soon...

Starred - Zilch, strips are usually solid in consistency but nothing mind-blowing or tear-jerking.

Last - Popeye v2, finished early December. Pretty good strip, he's fun to read but I liked him a little better as a sailor full of grit vs comically overpowered.

Artbook Highlights
First and Last - Kirby Art and Style, 3/23. Too many promotional images, artwork too small! It didn't turn me off artbooks per se but it sure looks that way from my list, lol.

European Comic Highlights
First - Megalex on 6/19. I dunno, I vaguely recall lots of weird futuristic body "horror" stuff...some guy grew wings...maybe a sex scene...the cover is the most memorable thing, lol.

Starred - Nothing!

Last - Latah on 6/20. I think this one was alright, some kind of Vietnam War/jungle warfare mixed with "something is stalking the squad!" and a twist ending.

In Conclusion
Oh I dunno, not sure what I'll start 2024 with. I want to re-read Hitman again this year but I'm waiting for the first omnibus in the summer. More Heavy Metal would be nice, I'd like to check out Astro City, some more strips, European comics, get through my stack a bit...
I do have another Kirby book sitting on the stack, maybe that for symmetry... :)

In 2023, by the author Wolf Deltef Rohr: 1. The Transparent City 2. Invasion from the Cosmos (two volumes). 3. In the Ghost Towns of Mercury 4. Signals from Mars 5. Hellish Venus (currently reading)

by Karl-Herbert Scheer: 1. Planet A Sends Help 2. Perry Rhodan 0003: The Radiant Dome

by Walter Ernsting: 1. the biography of Walter Ernsting 2. Perry Rhodan 0004: Twilight of the Gods -- I only had to translate half of it, because I found a digital version of Wendy Ackerman's translation

Utopia magazine large issue #3, The Planetoid Peril. Utopia special issue #2 from 1956

failed to acquire in 2023: Bridges into Outer Space by Wolf Detlef Rohr. This shipment was delayed because of the holiday season. I may receive it in January

planned for the year 2024: 1. Doomsday 1986? by Wolf Detlef Rohr 2. Focal point Venus by Karl-Herbert Scheer

Read a few sections of The Lost Jack Kirby Stories; paraphrasing one stand out passage, Orion was going to go on a killing spree at the end of the unpublished issue 12 of New Gods...WTF!!! And apparently it saw print in Absolute Fourth World?! I'm gonna read a strip next but yeah the re-read of Fourth World has definitely moved up on my list.

DuranOfForcena posted... I'm not sure if this is helpful but after a quick search:
"Weve temporarily disabled reading progress updates on our homepage due to a high volume of traffic to Goodreads. You can still update your reading progress by visiting any book page, scrolling down to My Activity, and updating your page number or percentage next to Progress. Please visit Goodreads Help for more information."

Finally finished the third James Herriott novel.
Five to go.

Doomsday 1986? by Wolf Detlef Rohr. I am glad to take a break from the Sugar Pearson series about traveling to planets.

Doomsday 1986? is about a prophecy of doomsday in the year 1986. Characters must make a choice about where they will go before doomsday strikes. It has some Atlantis mythology thrown in, which I am not looking forward to. It looks like mostly a character development novel, "What would each character do?"

I don't expect it to be as good as Invasion from the Cosmos, but at least it will be very different from the author's previous novels.

hexa posted...

Doomsday 1986? by Wolf Detlef Rohr.

Wow, that's a really catching title! I wonder if the doomsday will go through or if it'll be averted.

Juhanor posted...

I wonder if the doomsday will go through or if it'll be averted.

the front cover of the book shows famous monuments being destroyed and wrecked

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/35d2741f.jpg

Doomsday 1986? by Wolf Detlef Rohr. Page 11. The travelers have arrived in the Brazilian jungle. In a few pages, they shall meet native jungle people, and then be taken to the prophet. The prophet is a man that knows about an Atlantis prophecy of a doomsday in a week's time. Then each individual traveler shall decide how he responds to the prophecy

This book reminds me of The Langoliers by Stephen King, and also of the movie Knowing, starring the actor Nicholas Cage. I like both of those. This book is cool beans so far

Another from the Great Unread Stack, The Complete Comic Strips of Rodolphe Tpffer, with translations by David Kunzle.
The father of the comic strip begins with M. Jabot, a sort of farce about a middle class fellow pretending to be upper crust and eventually making his way into high society. It was pretty hilarious. Interesting art and punchy text.
https://i.vgy.me/7JbBKN.jpg

Doomsday 1986? by Wolf Detlef Rohr. Page 35. The bad news is that the travelers haven't brought their luggage to the city yet, so they don't have much clothes available, to change clothes. The good news is that it is meal time, the first meal of the book. As the travelers eat food, the prophet shall talk to them about the doomsday

However, the doomsday is still seven months away, and I don't like the idea of spending seven months in this city. I don't like this book anymore

cuh posted...

that is so freaking cool
your posts are always sending me down a new rabbit hole

Aw, that makes me so happy lol :D
Since I started keeping my list and making these threads, I've encountered so much variety in my reading thanks to everyone's different tastes and trying to pursue different avenues of interest. It really is like a book club lol.

ImAMarvel posted...

Reading Far Sector, by N. K. Jemisin. First time ever reading her work but this is some really fucking good stuff. I love good sci-fi like this and Green Lantern is probably one of the potentially best sci-fi properties between the Big 2.

Far Sector looks dope, that's a bad ass GL design.

hexa posted...

However, the doomsday is still seven months away, and I don't like the idea of spending seven months in this city. I don't like this book anymore

Uh oh...if it doesn't pick up it sounds like it'll be a real drag...

Duran here, main's suspended.

about 2/3s of the way through The Dark Forest now. i stayed up more than an hour past my bedtime last night just reading in bed because i literally couldn't put it down. i had to force myself to stop reading and just get to sleep. i've gotten to a very engaging and interesting point in the narrative.

i got to the end of the section "The Spell", where Luo Ji goes into hibernation and the eventual fates of a lot of the minor characters are briefly recounted, and into the next section where Luo Ji is brought out of hibernation nearly 200 years later, and everything is different. a lot of crazy stuff has been happening so far, and i'm not even that far into this section yet. i think the rest of the book is going to go rather quickly.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

nice. i'm not really into graphic novels tbh, but i have Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy on my to-read list, after watching a Youtube video about it from the playlist i posted earlier, Worlds of Speculative Fiction. apparently she drew some inspiration for it and how mages work in it from the Dragon Age games, which is awesome. and looking at her other works, she's written a Mass Effect tie-in novel. i like this woman.

DoesntMatter posted...

Duran here, main's suspended

I wouldn't expect a DToast decision until Monday

Finally read Frankenstein. It was enjoyable.

I think I read like 10 books last year, up from 1 or 2 in 2022, which was up from 1 every few years prior to that. It was such a crazy year for me and reading didn't seem that important but I wish I had read more. I'm going to try for 20 books this year.

Read the next Tpffer, M. Crepin
https://i.vgy.me/8f73Oe.jpg
https://i.vgy.me/8yZpf5.jpg
https://i.vgy.me/iuuHJw.jpg
He's already sizing you up bro...
cuh posted... Aw yeah, good deal!!

Doomsday 1986? by Wolf Detlef Rohr. Page 65. Two of the visitors plan to escape into the jungle

God damn it, what did DuranOfForcena do this time? He's in purgatory AGAIN. :V

spanky1 posted...

God damn it, what did DuranOfForcena do this time? He's in purgatory AGAIN. :V

i'm here on my alt, lol.

got too rude in calling out a Trumper for their counterfactual statements.

only got a 7-day purg for it, which is nice.

DoesntMatter posted...

i'm here on my alt, lol.

got too rude in calling out a Trumper for their counterfactual statements.

only got a 7-day purg for it, which is nice.

lol okay well that's good at least.

Okay, REALLY late to this party, but why did NO ONE tell me that Kingdom Come's artwork was done by Alex Ross???

Looking over the ebook preview pages and it's probably the closest I've ever come to being truly in awe by one's talent (genius).

I mean I've seen Ross' work before. But looking at Kingdom Come, something clicked. I don't know.

Probably stupid, and not even doing a lot of the reading of Mark Waid's book, lmao. Just dumbstruck by the art of it all.

haven't read any The Dark Forest in a couple days cuz i've been too distracted by having started up Langrisser I&II Remaster, but the trailer for the Netflix adaptation of 3 Body Problem just dropped today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mogSbMD6EcY

EyeWontBeFooled posted... Oh yeah, he's always solid, but KC he was firing on all cylinders.
https://i.vgy.me/yEiuZ0.jpg

Juhanor posted...

Oh yeah, he's always solid, but KC he was firing on all cylinders.
https://i.vgy.me/yEiuZ0.jpg

I'm with Supes on this one.

Again looking over that fucking artwork, man. I don't think I'm being too hyperbolic when I say I'm getting these feelings when I look at it. Like, truly we are but mortals living in His realm!

One day we will look upon his works, and Despair.

Maybe it's one of those times I've actually felt that whole 'high art, behold a master class by a genius' type of emotion :)

I finished Edgedancer, which is my first book finished in 2024. I don't remember when I started this last year, but I guess I had burned myself out on reading so much in 2023 in a short period of time. I want to read 10 books this year and my only resolution was to read more, so one book(albeit rather short) in the first ten days of the year is a nice enough start.

Next on the list is either Mistborn or The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm(which I was supposed to finish last year before the newest Inheritance Cycle book released in November, so oops).

MJOLNRVII posted...

I finished Edgedancer, which is my first book finished in 2024. I don't remember when I started this last year, but I guess I had burned myself out on reading so much in 2023 in a short period of time. I want to read 10 books this year and my only resolution was to read more, so one book(albeit rather short) in the first ten days of the year is a nice enough start.

oh, how'd you like it? Lift really grated on me at first tbqh, but i eventually grew to think she wasn't all that bad.

i still need to go back and finish Rhythm of War......

DoesntMatter posted...

oh, how'd you like it? Lift really grated on me at first tbqh, but i eventually grew to think she wasn't all that bad.

She annoyed me more in Oathbringer than here, because by the time I started Edgedancer I guess I was already used to her? I mean she's like 13 or something but she wasn't like too annoying when it comes to young characters in other media. I actually thought she was great by the end of the book and I look forward to whenever she gets more screentime in the future.
DoesntMatter posted...

i still need to go back and finish Rhythm of War......

I need to start and finish that before book 5 later this year, also Dawnshard.