Last Book You Read

Written by no one on 05.07.2025 at 04:08

Dune - Frank Herbert

After around 180 pages i put this book down as it was too slow and the writing style annoyed me, a few months later I picked it up again and found that's about where the story starts to get interesting.

The writing still annoyed the fuck out of me but i'm glad I pushed through. I can see how this story would have been groundbreaking in the scifi genre when it first came out. Looking forward to watching the movie now.

I put down the book a long time ago for the same reason - found the writing style really annoying. I don't think I'll pick it up anytime soon though and will just check the story on wiki or something.
Movies were allright, but I understand the appeal of the story

Fire & Hemlock - Diana Wynne Jones

It's a children's book and it is more mystery than fantasy. In some sections, very little seems to happen and that very little is described in great detail, and still it's interesting to read. In other sections, it feels as if she is using the bare minimum of words to describe the scene and lets the reader's mind fill in the details.

The plot is inspired by Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer, excerpts of which are quoted at the beginning of each chapter. A lot of other books and some bands are explicitly mentioned, as if one of the points of writing this book was to get out a recommended reading list. (Which gave me the nudge to finally start with The Three Musketeers.) The narrative plays with tropes and references to other stories, and among others, it reminded me of Coronet in the Weeds, Lolita and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, even though the latter hadn't been published at the time.

All of this sounds as if it would be boring or lame, but it isn't. I kept wanting to find out what happens next, and so many scenes felt real and came alive while reading. The atmosphere is a mix of light and dark (how unusual), and in retrospect the darker bits stand out, especially the ones that were almost not mentioned and are all from the real world.

I found it a very compelling book.

Diana Wynne Jones is one of the best fantasy authors out there, IMO. I don't think she writes children's book so much as she uses fairytales and children's stories as material for her own unique, timeless tone. Somehow she simultaneously uses the hell out of fantasy and fairy tale clichés but the end result seems to transcend typical genre fiction.

Fire & Hemlock is one of the more YA books hers, in terms of themes and the protagonist. As you said, it is quite dark. The Flying Castle trilogy is certainly more suitable for all ages, but I read it as an adult.

Not the last book I read, but I recently listened to J.J. Anselmi's Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge and Post-Metal. It was like reading someone's MS list with expanded commentary. I expected some historical context, but it was basically a seires of Wikipedia-like snippets about bands and track-by-track commentary about some of their albums. Several factual errors, weird choices, clumsy critical writing ("That shit's fucking heavy", and describing albums as imagined narratives from Tolkien's world when the lyrics make no such reference), and it's heavily biased towards US bands and sludge. Not recommeneded, but it was nice to get a few listening recommendations. Pretty sure I knew every band covered before the 2000s sludge chapters, though.

Written by IronAngel on 19.08.2025 at 15:04

Diana Wynne Jones is one of the best fantasy authors out there, IMO.

Completely agree, even if you chose to dispense with the "fantasy" qualifier.

Written by IronAngel on 19.08.2025 at 15:04

I don't think she writes children's book so much as she uses fairytales and children's stories as material for her own unique, timeless tone. Somehow she simultaneously uses the hell out of fantasy and fairy tale clichés but the end result seems to transcend typical genre fiction.

Yes and yes. I discovered her only a year ago via The Dark Lord of Derkholm, which I love.
Most of her books are labeled as children and YA, so I went with that.



Re "Doomed to Fail" - a non-recommendation is as useful as a recommendation. Nice book title, though.

Miracles of Our Own Making
by Liz Williams

This is the best book I've read on pagan history though I haven't read Ronald huttons Triumph of the Moon which is supposed to be the holy grail.

Liz takes us from the first writings about the gauls and druids through to now. Alister Crowley and Gerald Gardner weren't even the most interesting characters, there were so many crazy occultist that helped formed paganism to what it is today. Cunning folk, the golden dawn, freemason's, wicca, voodoo, shamanism etc nothings missed.

Paganism really Interesting in that it's a religion gathered from bits and pieces of and abundance of different cultures and occultist throughout time. Nothing is written down from the original religion only bits and pieces from there colonizers. All the rituals, practices and rules seem to be entirely made up or borrowed hundreds of years later, yet the religion seems to be strong and growing more and more

Dune 2

I enjoyed reading this one a bit more than the first, not sure why as the story line wasn't that great and nowhere near as good as the first. I think it just gave me like a tripped out 70s scifi feel or something.

I finished Until The End of Time by Brian Greene

I've already read his previous edition "The Hidden Reality" and he mostly throws an intriguing insights on cosmic universe and its complexities. This time he weaves consciousness, life, and mortality into a sweeping exploration of the universe.