Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Welcome to spooky month.

I have been reading Strange Detective Mysteries. It's 1902 and someone has gathered HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Bat Masterson, and Nicola Tesla together to attempt to solve the murder of Edgar Allen Poe. What starts as an interesting historical crime graphic novel, quickly develops beyond that with the introduction of androids and time travellers.

I finished off end of September with my first book of Spooky Season, Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon. It's folk horror from 1973. The MC, his wife, and teen daughter have moved from New York city to a quaint and isolated New England village called Cornwall Coombe. They moved to escape the city pollution, crime, and stressful jobs to instead pursue artistic hobbies and get back to nature. It's written a lot like a pastoral novel portraying a sleepy, idyllic farming community, but with increasing hints of darkness and violence. It felt a lot like a retelling or tribute to a particular ancient myth (won't say which to avoid spoilers). Reminded me of Growth of the Soil in the themes in explores, and Naomi's Room with the mix of slowburn pacing with shocks of violence.

Just started a few pages of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia as my next spooky read. I'm super excited for a couple other spooky books this month, but I've decided to save them for a little later.

After finishing Strange Detective Mysteries, which was fun, but had some flaws in both the writing and art. I have started another graphic novel - Sherlock Holmes: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes.

I'm still working through A Lion Among Men so can't start my spooky novels yet, but I can start a Lovecraft inspired graphic novel - Randolph Carter T01: La Ville sans nom by Simon Treins

And if anyone is looking for spooky reads, GR put up this list, and apparently you get a bonus reading achievement if you tackle one of them by the end of the year :)

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/3...

Mexican Gothic is there so NekroRider made a good pick. I had that one and Dracul on my potential to-read this month.

That's a good list, Andrea! Thanks for sharing.

Finished the two volumes of Randolph Carter, this is a new series so I don't get to find out how it ends yet. Pretty decently weaves the Lovecraftian mythos around Randolph Carter, who is a character of Lovecraft's, but fills in some of his history as a member of the French Foreign Legion and the weird stuff he runs into while abroad.

Ok, I couldn't resist, the library had Bunnicula Strikes Again! by James Howe. I have fond memories of the earlier books in the series and since its spooky month thought this would be a fun, quick trip down memory lane.

Trying to finally finish The Blade Itself. love it, just been distracted. Finish Memories of Ice 3rd reread. Vamphyri by Brian Lumley, Between Two Fires Christopher Buelman, Couple of Conan pastiche, and something new to me

Next up is the graphic novel version of Fevre Dream. Finally getting into some real vampire territory.

Finished A Lion Among Men, I still haven't quite decided if I like these books or not :) Definitely don't read if you don't like reading about pitiful characters leading depressing lives.

Next book should be a quickie, continuing the Cirque du Freak series - Hunters of the Dusk by Darren Shan

Work was too busy to allow me to finish Trouble With Lichen before flying to Thailand. Fortunately, it's a slim paperback, so it wasn't a problem to bring it with me. I did finish Europa Universalis IV: What If? The Anthology of Alternate History. Like most anthologies, it had some good stories and some not-so-good stories.

It fills the anthology slot in my Bingo.

I finished Exodus by Peter Hamilton. I had mixed feelings while reading that book. It is very long, at 900 pages on my tablet. Many people are raving about it. I found it a bit overcomplex, and I did not much like the type of societies it depicts. Still, I did enjoy many parts of it and I will be looking forward to the second book in that Exodus series.
I am now starting The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey.

I read The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral . I really enjoyed this novella!It was just creepy enough but not enough to give me nightmares!

The Book of Doors and The Haunting of Asylum 49: Chilling Tales of Aggressive Spirits, Phantom Doctors, and the Secret of Room 666. I was not purposely following a spooky theme.

After only reading Solaris, I finally dove into another of Stanislaw Lem's books The Invincible and was impressed.

This was a cool and quick read about a planetary recovery mission that gave me feelings of The Thing at first before transforming into something different entirely. Very entertaining and felt way ahead of its time.

Now I'm buckling into the October theme with Books of Blood: Volume One

The Book of Doors was great.

I finished The Archivist by Ti Mikkel


Nice idea, badly executed: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

There are lots of SF books about time travel. This one is very peculiar.

Finished Hunters of the Dark, moving on to Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer

Reason I picked that is twofold. First, I was checking what vampire series I hadn't completed reading yet and this series just had this one book left. Also...it might be interesting to swap the gender roles, was kinda curious how that would go. As Meyer wrote, people complained that Bella was kind of helpless, useless, damsel in distress, but Meyer wanted to show how it wasn't because she was a girl, but because she was a human surrounded by supernatural beings and a guy would have as much trouble dealing.

I doubt having a female vampire spying on an unsuspecting sleeping male human will be any less creepy though...

Oh, I'm also reading Woe: A Housecat's Story of Despair 'cause I have a cat and its fun to see all their quirks laid out.

I have finally finished Trouble With Lichen. It's a thoughtful science fiction novel without the apocalyptic themes of his better known works such as The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos. It's also remarkable for a novel written in 1960, by a male author, to have such a strong female protagonist.

I have also read the short stories The Big Tomorrow by Paul Lohrman, The Four-Faced Visitors of Ezekiel by Arthur Orton, and The Happy Man by Gerald Page. The first two were ok, The Happy Man was excellent.

I have started reading The Daughter of The Ice, which will fill the translated slot in my Bingo, being originally written in Portuguese.

NekroRider wrote: "I finished off end of September with my first book of Spooky Season, Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon. It's folk horror from 1973. The MC, his wife, and teen daughter have moved from New ..."
please post your opinion of Mexican Gothic when you do try it as its on my TBR also. I went a bit nuts looking for suspense/ spooky books that could be plausible as in like sci fi and my list is full up ha ha.

I read part of a suspense book years ago and wanted to read the series this year so the book recs corner helped me find it The Hatching and the political / end of the world vibes caused by spiders seems perfect for October. Lots of POV characters. Not usually scared of spiders but had one crawl on me in the shower after reading this all weekend, boy did i shriek :).
also found this promising title on amazon for when im done Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy seems right up my alley but unfortunately is not on kindle unlimited and is otherwise kind of pricey considering that i don't generally re read books

Oh Rachel!!! I would've shrieked ANY time a spider got on me, but especially in the shower! (shades of Arachnaphobia!) Thanks for the rec. It looks good!

Rachel, oh my gosh, ewww! I would have shrieked as well!!

Rachel wrote: "Not usually scared of spiders but had one crawl on me in the shower after reading this all weekend, boy did i shriek :)."

Wow, I've had spiders lurking in the top corners of the shower, and I've had spiders crawl across me plenty of times - you kind of get used to it in Australia - but I've never had a spider join me actually in the shower. I don't think I would react well 😝

The Hatching series looks interesting - the blurb gives the vibe of 1950s monster movies. Many years ago I read an Australian horror novel called Funnelweb - Australia's most venomous spider is mutated to giant size by radiation and the giant funnel-webs take over Sydney. Unfortunately, it was pretty trashy, and not in a good way, although there are plenty of reviewers who liked it.

I've also read Eight, which has a somewhat similar premise of a previously unknown, intelligent spider species being discovered in the Amazon. There is now a sequel - The Alpha Species, although I haven't read it.

Ugh, I had that once, and when I take my glasses off I can't see much but this thing was big enough that I couldn't miss it. Ick!

Andrea wrote: "Ugh, I had that once, and when I take my glasses off I can't see much but this thing was big enough that I couldn't miss it. Ick!"

That must have been your scream I heard then, Andrea 😂

Tony wrote: "The Hatching series looks interesting - the blurb gives the vibe of 1950s monster movies. Many years ago I read an Australian horror novel called Funnelweb - Australia's most venomou..."
you are "not" supposed to give me more books for the tbr oh well it was cheap but i will finish this series first and then try that spore book you mentioned a few months ago

hey if anyone is looking for a good suspense series this used to be a short story series on youtube "Accounts From a Lonely Broadcast Station" by Wendingus read by Autumn Ivy sometimes the creepy pastas have good long form suspense series and i like to listen every so often seasons 1 AND 2 are here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wacUO...
its like 5 hours for both and is now a published book if you prefer. i saw more seasons last year but its like creepy monster amalgamation in the woods ( like a windigo sort of) in the middle of nowhere town and the narrators are basically stranded in a radio station. they protect the town from this thing but they don't know that when they sign up for the job. its still popular because the writing is good and the monster is creepy/ weird so sorry if you know it already

50% done with 'The Tainted Cup' and so far it is really very good...🙂

Rachel that sounds good!

I just read Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again . I was surprised at how much I liked it! And the afterword really explains it all very well,and helped me understand why I liked it so much!

I finished The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands, and wow that was a snoozefest.

Starting Ghost Station (author of Dead Silence) and Hemlock & Silver.

Audrey wrote: "I finished The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands, and wow that was a snoozefest."

Well, it was the "cautious" and not "adventurous" traveller, so guessing it might have been a little slow ;)

Waiting on Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October from the library. I have been on the wait list for more than a minute so it is going to be a squeeze to read it before Halloween!

In non-SFF, I just finished Rubicon. Holy Roman Emperor, Batman... that book is essential reading.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And for pure candy, I just demolished The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. Fan-freaking-tastic.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Dean wrote: "Waiting on Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October from the library. I have been on the wait list for more than a minute so it is going to be a squeeze to read it before Halloween"

Aww, that's too bad since the best way to read it is a chapter a day :) Won't be as much fun squashing it all into a week, even if you get it in time. You can always read it one chapter a day in November I suppose, with two chapters on the last day.

I'm about a third of the way through The Daughter of The Ice and quite enjoying it. Slow going 'cause work is getting in the way - which is especially annoying as I'm theoretically on holiday so I'm working from my hotel in Thailand. Getting up for a 10am meeting in Sydney - which is 6am here - is not the best way to enjoy a holiday 😒

The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks

In this comedic vampire novel, the sickly vampires of Sydney, Australia form a support group where they can gripe. Then one of them gets a stake in the heart.....and the adventure starts.

Fun take on vampires. 3 stars

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished The Mercy of Gods: another disappointment. Most people rave about it, so I am in the minority who doesn't find it so great. I admit that I am becoming hard to please.
I am starting The Deep Man (1) by Michael Mersault.

Andrea wrote: "Audrey wrote: "I finished The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands, and wow that was a snoozefest."

Well, it was the "cautious" and not "adventurous" traveller, so guessin..."

Totally.

Pierre wrote: "I finished The Mercy of Gods: another disappointment. Most people rave about it, so I am in the minority who doesn't find it so great. I admit that I am becoming hard to please.
I ..."

I really didn't like The Expanse, so I have bailed on this writing team. Welcome to the club.

Ghost Station was not bad but also a little slow. I've been re-reading The Crown Tower, which is always a guaranteed enjoyable experience.

Audrey wrote: "(...) I really didn't like The Expanse, so I have bailed on this writing team. Welcome to the club."

In my case, I liked The Expanse, except perhaps the last book in the series that I found a bit weak. So I had expectations about The Mercy of Gods. That book failed to deliver on them on many counts.

Finished Life and Death. It was an interesting exercise, swapping the genders of all the characters while maintaining everything else almost word for word. Except where of course you couldn't like, Bella riding piggyback on Edward raises no eyebrows, most guys are bigger than girls so there's no awkwardness. But Beau riding on Edythe's back is kind of hilarious, he's so much bigger than she is, "like a gorilla on a greyhound" so it had to be pointed out in the text.

But that was the point Meyer wanted to make, the vampires are so much stronger than the humans, even a guy will be a "damsel in distress" in comparison to them, it wasn't because Bella was a helpless girl. She was just a human in a world of vampires, gender didn't matter.

Up next something quick and fun Undead and Unpopular by MaryJanice Davidson. Clearly I'm not going to finish the entire series by the end of the year seeing as this is only book 5 (so much for that plan) but wanted to get one more in for Halloween!

Agh, have not had much reading time the last few weeks as life has been pretty crazy. Since my last post, I continued with my spooky season reads and finished Mexican Gothic, which I personally enjoyed a fair bit. It definitely took a ton of influence from specific gothic/horror classics and wore them on its sleeve. But I do think if you're a fan of the genre it's part of what makes it enjoyable (even if it can be pretty on the nose).

I also finished The Haar by David Sodergren. It's a short indie horror novel that took me ages to read because I had no reading time. Definitely worth it in the end, and the ending was a riot. I'd describe it as very gory cosmic horror/comedy. The main character is an 84-year-old Scottish woman, Muriel McAuley, who is fighting for her home and memories, as an American billionaire tries to turn her community into a golf course. If this were a movie, it would be one of those horror/comedies that grosses you out and makes you laugh hard at the same time.

I haven't started it yet, but I'm now moving on to Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi.

"Rachel wrote: "please post your opinion of Mexican Gothic when you do try it as its on my TBR also. I went a bit nuts looking for suspense/ spooky books that could be plausible as in like sci fi and my list is full up ha ha.."

It was a pretty decent book! It wasn't amazingly earthshattering or anything like that, but I was entertained. I also didn't find it especially scary, but it was a suspenseful page-turner imo and still a good fit for spooky season. I think it works best as a kind of pastiche of older gothic/horror classics re-envisioned...at the same time, because of one influence specifically, it does break the usual mold. I also didn't know much about Mexican history before reading it, so I also learned some things!

It also depends on what you find spooky and what you're looking for. Would you say you're more into "creature feature" books when it comes to horror?

Robin wrote: "50% done with 'The Tainted Cup' and so far it is really very good...🙂"

Loved this book so, so much! Such cool worldbuilding and a high fantasy mystery is something I need more of in my life. I haven't read the second one yet (waiting for it to come out in paperback), but already I hope he decides to write more than three books with these characters/in that world.

Audrey wrote: "Ghost Station was not bad but also a little slow. I've been re-reading The Crown Tower, which is always a guaranteed enjoyable experience."

I reread that series every couple of years and still enjoy it each time.

I’m reading “Sarah” by Orson Scott Card. It’s a fictional account of the biblical matriarch. It’s actually a pretty good read.

NekroRider wrote: "Agh, have not had much reading time the last few weeks as life has been pretty crazy. Since my last post, I continued with my spooky season reads and finished Mexican Gothic, which ..."
yes creature feature or like haunted house with weird extra dimensions no murder and gore just for the sake of it

Rachel wrote: "NekroRider wrote: "Agh, have not had much reading time the last few weeks as life has been pretty crazy. Since my last post, I continued with my spooky season reads and finished [book:Mexican Gothi..."

In that case, Mexican Gothic might be a good one for you to try for the latter reason. Its a haunted house story that does end up twisting away a bit from the more common narratives.