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Welcome earthlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month 2011: January: John Keats, Endymion Febuary/March: Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote April: Laurell K. Hamilton, Obsidian Butterfly May: Richard A. Knaak - Diablo #1: Legacy of Blood June: Pamela Britton - On The Move July: Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep August: Louis L'Amour - Bendigo Shafter September: Ian Fleming - Moonraker October: Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes November: John Ringo - Ghost December: James Branch Cabell - Jurgen 2012: January: G.K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday Febuary: M. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage March: Joseph Heller - Catch-22 April: Zack Parsons - Liminal States May: Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood June: James Joyce - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man July: William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch August: William Faulkner - The Sound & The Fury September/October: Leo Tolstoy - War & Peace November: David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas December: Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night 2013 January: Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Liebowitz Febuary: Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination March: Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains Of The Day April: Don Delillo - White Noise May: Anton LeVey - The Satanic Bible June/July: Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell August: Michael Swanwick - Stations of the Tide September: John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids October: Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House November: Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory December: Roderick Thorp - Nothing Lasts Forever 2014: January: Ursula K. LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness February: Mikhail Bulgalov - Master & Margarita March: Richard P. Feynman -- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! April: James Joyce -- Dubliners May: Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- 100 Years of Solitude June: Howard Zinn -- A People's History of the United States July: Mary Renault -- The Last of the Wine August: Barbara Tuchtman -- The Guns of August September: Jane Austen -- Pride and Prejudice Current: Roger Zelazny: A Night in the Lonesome October  You can find it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Lonesome-October-Roger-Zelazny/dp/1935138294 quote:I am a watchdog. My name is Snuff. I live with my master Jack outside of London now. I like Soho very much at night with its smelly fogs and dark streets. It is silent then and we go for long walks. Jack is under a curse from a long time ago and must do much of his work at night to keep worse things from happening. I keep watch while he is about it. If someone comes, I howl. That's the opening paragraph of this book. It's perfect. It's fun and it tells you everything you really need to know about what we're getting into. The book is thirty-one chapters long, one for every day in the month of October. Jack is exactly who you think he is, but in a way he's also the protagonist and hero; this will be explained. This is a pastiche novel, and other characters will include The Great Detective, the Mad Monk, The Count, the Good Doctor, and several more. Snuff narrates. It's a fun book and a personal favorite of mine and it's light and silly Halloween fun. It's excellently written and perfectly unserious. It was one of Zelazny's last novels, the Master just jazzing around and playing with literary and fantasy conventions. I'm sure we can all use a break. Let's have fun with this one. About the Author quote:Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995) was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series. He won the Nebula award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965; subsequently published under the title This Immortal, 1966) and then the novel Lord of Light (1967).[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny Zelazny is probably my favorite SF writer. While he has common themes that run through most of his work, just about every book he wrote was an experiment, sometimes with genre, sometimes with form, sometimes with style. (The only real exception is with his Amber books, which I'm convinced were deliberate potboilers written for cash, and aren't on the same level as his other work). Discussion, Questions & Themes: This is fun month. Speak as thou wilt is the whole of the law! (all forum rules still apply). Seriously though I'm just going to leave discussion wide open. Say what you like or hate or don't or whatever, what the book reminded you of that happened that one time, or anything that relates in any way to any of the pastiche characters in this book or, for that matter, hell, any of Zelazny's other works too. Further Resources: No need to do outside reading this month unless you want to. Neil Gaiman did write a "sequel" to this novel set in the same world, "Only the End of the World Again," but I haven't read it. Pacing Some people like to read a chapter a day. You can if you want to. Maybe use spoiler tags if you're talking about events in the book in a later chapter than the day -- i.e., since today is the 2nd, no tags required for Chapters 1&2, but spoiler any big plot revelations in chapters after that. When we hit Day 20, only need to spoiler chapters 21& up. So forth. Final Note: If you have any suggestions to change, improve or assess the book club generally, please PM or email me -- i.e., keep it out of this thread -- at least until into the last five days of the month, just so we don't derail discussion of the current book with meta-discussion. I do want to hear new ideas though, seriously, so please do actually PM or email me or whatever, or if you can't do either of those things, just hold that thought till the last five days of the month before posting it in this thread. Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book! Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Oct 2, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2014 15:38
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This is one of my favorite books by Zelazny, and I'm a huge nerd for his work, so I'm drat excited for this. My favorite bit is that it was written as part of a bet by Zelazny. Apocryphally, someone said he couldn't write a novel where Jack the Ripper was the protagonist, so he figured out a way to do it. And like many of his other weird novels, he wanted to make the whole thing hinge on a pun. I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks of this. It's my go-to book for recommending Zelazny's non-traditional/"serious" novels to people, and the sole book by him that my wife really likes, outside of bits from Creatures of Light and Darkness. I'll have to dig out my beaten-to-hell copy and read along this month.
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Oct 4, 2014 06:52
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No ebook version? 
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Oct 7, 2014 13:47
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Ms. Happiness posted:No ebook version? Arg! I apologize! I didn't think to check this month, and after some googling around it seems that there aren't any legal ebook copies of his works available and most of his stuff is out of print period, apparently because the rights got confused after his death and he also falls into that void where's he's just forgotten enough to be not worth reviving yet still recent enough to have not dropped out of copyright. There is a downloadable audiobook here, read by Zelazny himself: http://speakingvolumes.mybigcommerce.com/a-night-in-the-lonesome-october-by-roger-zelazny-mp3-audiobook-download/
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Oct 7, 2014 14:30
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Sadly, the audiobook is pretty bad, because it turns out Zelazny was exactly as clumsy at narrating as he was good at writing.
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Oct 7, 2014 17:11
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Rand Brittain posted:Sadly, the audiobook is pretty bad, because it turns out Zelazny was exactly as clumsy at narrating as he was good at writing. "He sounds like an accountant" is the way my wife put it when we tried to use the Amber audiobooks to make it through a long car ride. Dude can write a great turn of phrase, but has the voice of a heavily-smoking bureaucrat.
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Oct 7, 2014 17:47
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Hedningen posted:"He sounds like an accountant" is the way my wife put it when we tried to use the Amber audiobooks to make it through a long car ride. Dude can write a great turn of phrase, but has the voice of a heavily-smoking bureaucrat. That's surprisingly accurate. Zelazny worked for the social security administration before he quit his day job. I've read a rumour that Creatures of Light and Darkness was loosely inspired by feuding departments.
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Oct 7, 2014 18:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:That's surprisingly accurate. Zelazny worked for the social security administration before he quit his day job. I've read a rumour that Creatures of Light and Darkness was loosely inspired by feuding departments. That makes sense. My Name Is Legion was definitely inspired by the experience; the protagonist was "involved in the creation of a global computer network designed to give ultimate economic control by keeping track of all human activity," but deleted himself from the system before it went live... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Legion_(Zelazny_collection)
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Oct 7, 2014 19:21
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Hedningen posted:"He sounds like an accountant" is the way my wife put it when we tried to use the Amber audiobooks to make it through a long car ride. Dude can write a great turn of phrase, but has the voice of a heavily-smoking bureaucrat. Mostly he just doesn't emote or differentiate voices at all. This book features a cat, a dog, a snake, an owl, an American werewolf, and Sherlock Holmes, and they all sound the same. Ah, well, I suppose nobody can be mega-talented at everything.
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Oct 7, 2014 19:47
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Arg! I apologize! I didn't think to check this month, and after some googling around it seems that there aren't any legal ebook copies of his works available and most of his stuff is out of print period, apparently because the rights got confused after his death and he also falls into that void where's he's just forgotten enough to be not worth reviving yet still recent enough to have not dropped out of copyright. I just checked my library (should have done that first, derp) AND THEY HAVE A COPY!  I'll join in probably by the end of this week. I've never read any of Zelazny's stuff so I'm excited.
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Oct 8, 2014 00:31
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Ms. Happiness posted:I've never read any of Zelazny's stuff so I'm excited. A Night in the Lonesome October is very different from Lord of Light or Amber or Jack of Shadows, as an FYI.
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Oct 8, 2014 02:40
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I'm looking forward to reading this, I should get it in the next couple of days. I also bought Night in the Lonesome October since it's our theme and it was cheap.
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Oct 8, 2014 10:07
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Just started the book today. So does Snuff narrate the entire book? If so, I already love it.
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Oct 8, 2014 17:14
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Ms. Happiness posted:So does Snuff narrate the entire book? He does, indeed.
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Oct 8, 2014 17:33
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ulmont posted:A Night in the Lonesome October is very different from Lord of Light or Amber or Jack of Shadows, as an FYI. Yeah, I really can't emphasize that enough -- all of Zelazny's best works are very different from each other. Lord of Light is narrated in a sort of quasi-biblical, quasi-buddhist style that's heavily influenced by Indian religious texts, while in Creatures of Light and Darkness almost every other chapter is written in a different genre and format (epic poem, lyric poem, religious service, play, etc.). I do recommend trying his other stuff (especially Lord of Light and The Isle of the Dead) but he never wrote anything else quite like the one we're reading now, it's a one-off masterpiece. Shame, really. I wish he'd lived longer and written a board game version. It'd be amazing.
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Oct 8, 2014 19:07
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I've read this book many times, but there are still things I never noticed. For example, Snuff meets Needle in chapter 3, but doesn't tell the others about him in chapter 5. Sneaky. Or the author just forgot.
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Oct 8, 2014 19:33
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Also, I should've known this right off, but the title is a Poe quotation:quote:
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/ulalume While I was trying to track down the source of the title I also ran across this: quote:I got the idea for that story in May of 1979. I didn't know what it was going to be; I just thought it would be neat to write something about Jack the Ripper's dog, and ask Gahan Wilson to illustrate it, partly because of the fact that a dog is such an unusual person. No matter who owns a dog, if that person is nice to the animal, the dog is going to love him. I thought at the time, if you take a really despicable person, a serial killer or someone like that, and tell a story from his dog's point of view it would make him look pretty good. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny
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Oct 8, 2014 19:40
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Shame, really. I wish he'd lived longer and written a board game version. It'd be amazing. I say the same thing every October, then dredge up my notes for it and try to make something non-lovely. It's such a wonderful narrative for a game, and it seems like there's little hints here and there. On a similar note, I ran a LARP/ARG hybrid of this in October of last year. It went decently, although I'm hoping to have it in decent form/non-horrible playtest murder mystery for 2020, so that it can be all thematic and fit the time. Also, because I'n reading this again, one of the dogs at the shelter I volunteer at has been named Snuff after he was turned in sans tags or chip. Nice little guy.
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Oct 8, 2014 21:22
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So the Players are based on literary characters, right? I got Jack being Jack the Ripper. Mad monk is Nostradamus. The Count is Dracula. Good Doctor is Frankenstein. Who is the witch, the vicar, and Larry Talbot supposed to be?
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Oct 12, 2014 22:49
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Don't read these spoilers if you haven't finished the book! Well, with Larry Talbot, think about it: He's an American, he's a Werewolf, and he's in London. Alternatively, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Talbot. The Mad Monk is probably more closely modeled on Rasputin. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 23:17
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Ms. Happiness posted:No ebook version? If enough people click this link (a direct link to the "request this title in a Kindle Edition!" link on amazon for this book), it may happen.
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Oct 14, 2014 17:03
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Oh hell yes. I got my first copy as a library discard, mainly because "illustrations by Gahan Wilson", and straight-up enjoyed the hell out of it. As I come across copies at thrift shops and used bookstores, I usually snatch them up as gifts. ("Read this!"  ) Ebook would be awesome, but it really deserves to end up as an animated feature (or miniseries) by Wilson or at least in his style.
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Oct 15, 2014 16:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Shame, really. I wish he'd lived longer and written a board game version. It'd be amazing. This was one of my favorite books in high school to the point that I made an entire GURPS module for it, with elaborate rules about opening and closing. I think you're wrong about the Amber books cuz they rule, but A Night in the Lonesome October is my favorite too.
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Oct 18, 2014 01:04
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Zopotantor posted:I've read this book many times, but there are still things I never noticed. For example, Snuff meets Needle in chapter 3, but doesn't tell the others about him in chapter 5. Sneaky. Or the author just forgot. It's definitely him being sneaky.
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Oct 18, 2014 01:05
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Zamboni Apocalypse posted:Oh hell yes. I got my first copy as a library discard, mainly because "illustrations by Gahan Wilson", Yeah the illustrations are also great.
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Oct 18, 2014 01:06
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One of the things I really liked about this book the other times I read it is it felt like there were no stupid players. Everybody is playing the game as craftily as they can and nobody ever makes a move that strains credulity. It's been quite a while though so maybe I'll feel differently this time.
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Oct 18, 2014 01:11
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dogcrash truther posted:This was one of my favorite books in high school to the point that I made an entire GURPS module for it, with elaborate rules about opening and closing Fiasco by Bullypulpit Games would be a perfect medium for this book.
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Oct 18, 2014 01:18
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Really digging the illustrations, esp. the ones of Needle and Bubo.
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Oct 18, 2014 02:55
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Here are some interesting discussion pages and articles on this book. They contain pretty significant spoilers so only read them if you've finished: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/07/humorous-exposition-roger-zelaznys-a-night-in-the-lonesome-october http://www.unwinnable.com/2012/10/29/roger-zelaznys-a-night-in-the-lonesome-october/ This one especially has some really subtle details (some of which may be a bit of a stretch): http://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/i...opher-s-kovacs/ Somebody did try to do a game it looks like but it seems incredibly cumbersome: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct....77648437,d.cWc The way to do it would be as a board game with a card deck for relics and items of power, everyone gets a face-down card only they see that tells them what team they're on, and a catan-style shuffleable gameboard.
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Oct 20, 2014 15:38
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Just finished the book today and I really enjoyed it. It was like Welcome to Nightvale with a British humor slant to it. There were parts in it like Snuff nearly getting vivisectioned that were a bit disconcerting, though.
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Oct 21, 2014 05:04
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Ms. Happiness posted:Just finished the book today and I really enjoyed it. But... but it's only the twenty-first! 
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Oct 21, 2014 19:49
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Zopotantor posted:But... but it's only the twenty-first! It's cool. I killed all the other Players and am gonna Close. I got this.
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Oct 22, 2014 04:31
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This is probably my favorite Zelazny book, but I think you give short shrift to the first Amber book, Nine Princes in Amber. The writing style was exceptional... I don't think the later books keep it up quite as well, although I enjoy the whole Corwin cycle.
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Oct 24, 2014 06:05
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Oh! Time for suggestions for next month's BotM. I'm completely out of ideas.
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Oct 24, 2014 13:00
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Somebody mentioned American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I wouldn't mind reading that again.
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Oct 24, 2014 14:47
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Ms. Happiness posted:Somebody mentioned American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I wouldn't mind reading that again. I'm hesitant to select American Gods because it's very popular modern genre fantasy and thus something that most people on this forum have probably read already. I want the BotM to go at least slightly off the beaten path. Plus, we just did archetype-based fantasy by a white male author this month. Gaiman's work is really heavily influenced by Zelazny's and two months in a row of that seems like a rut.
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Oct 24, 2014 20:02
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Oh! Time for suggestions for next month's BotM. I'm completely out of ideas. I just read Ficciones by Borges and it was the best book I read in a very long time. Crazy good stories and his influence on other writers is very noticeable. It's a real classic that not that many people have read, which is a shame.
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Oct 24, 2014 20:48
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'm hesitant to select American Gods because it's very popular modern genre fantasy and thus something that most people on this forum have probably read already. I want the BotM to go at least slightly off the beaten path. That makes sense. How about The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera?
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Oct 24, 2014 20:59
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Oh! Time for suggestions for next month's BotM. I'm completely out of ideas. How about some Chinua Achebe, such as Things Fall Apart or No Longer at Ease? Or The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, since it just won the Booker Prize. Walh Hara posted:I just read Ficciones by Borges and it was the best book I read in a very long time. Crazy good stories and his influence on other writers is very noticeable. It's a real classic that not that many people have read, which is a shame. That was BotM October 2010. e: Though there's precedent for repeating it - Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman has been BotM twice. Crashbee fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Oct 25, 2014 |
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Oct 25, 2014 00:26
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Crashbee posted:
Hahaha, what? Seriously? And nobody pointed that out? When? Sharp as tacks I am! :P Normally I'm not going to want to repeat things but I guess if nobody even realizes we're repeating then it's not that big a deal.
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Oct 25, 2014 01:35
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