Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
fauna
Dec 6, 2018


Caught between two worlds...
i just got sacked again and i am feeling at my most ligottish, and when i am feeling ligottish i think about my father and his nonsense

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Koburn
Oct 8, 2004

FIND THE JUDGE CHILD OR YOUR CITY DIES
Grimey Drawer
what if I do the same thing again, maybe the results will be different this time.

seems you would have more luck in having your dad 'discover' a book you think he would like rather than gifting it to him.

Relevant Tangent
Nov 18, 2016

Tangentially Relevant

Cyberdud posted:

I had a weird streak where i was interested in the concept of copying one's mind into another body after playing a specific video game a while ago (I assume you'll figure out which one at the end of this post). So i went looking for books that tackle this concept in different ways.

One of those books were "Six Wakes" by Mur Lafferty, where a spaceship is in transit for a multiple generations voyage from earth to a new planet to colonize. Everybody on board is in cryosleep so the ship is being maintained by a skeleton crew of cloned criminals that are brought back to life at the prime age of 21 in peak physical shape each time they die with their cumulative memory up to that point (from the latest daily backup). Things seem to go wrong when they all wake up in new clones to find their previous corpses and no recollection of the 25 years that have elapsed since the trip began. So they must find who among them is the culprit and why they were brought back without the latest backup. That cloning technology being widespread in the world comes with some terrifying concepts and solutions but speaking about it too much would ruin the story.

Have just read the book thanks to your recommendation. Felt more like a mystery than horror, the clones were all at peace and basically avoided any body horror, even the dude who wasn't a clone. Book owned, thanks for mentioning it.

fauna
Dec 6, 2018


Caught between two worlds...

Koburn posted:

what if I do the same thing again, maybe the results will be different this time.

seems you would have more luck in having your dad 'discover' a book you think he would like rather than gifting it to him.
dammit i believe in the power of love

dad has always gifted me books so i just want to return the favour :( whenever my brother and i went to his house for summer holidays, he would give me a "christmas" present of a retired library book from the library where he worked, and would encourage me to read it as quickly as possible so he could take it back and then give it as a "christmas" present to my brother. that's how i developed my incredible speed-reading skills, trying to read while dad hovered around the door going "are you done yet? are you done yet? are you done yet??" taught me to churn through a medium-length novel in like an hour

Skyscraper
Oct 1, 2004

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming



fauna posted:

dammit i believe in the power of love

dad has always gifted me books so i just want to return the favour :( whenever my brother and i went to his house for summer holidays, he would give me a "christmas" present of a retired library book from the library where he worked, and would encourage me to read it as quickly as possible so he could take it back and then give it as a "christmas" present to my brother. that's how i developed my incredible speed-reading skills, trying to read while dad hovered around the door going "are you done yet? are you done yet? are you done yet??" taught me to churn through a medium-length novel in like an hour

A horrifying short story, right in this very thread!

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

fauna posted:

dammit i believe in the power of love

dad has always gifted me books so i just want to return the favour :( whenever my brother and i went to his house for summer holidays, he would give me a "christmas" present of a retired library book from the library where he worked, and would encourage me to read it as quickly as possible so he could take it back and then give it as a "christmas" present to my brother. that's how i developed my incredible speed-reading skills, trying to read while dad hovered around the door going "are you done yet? are you done yet? are you done yet??" taught me to churn through a medium-length novel in like an hour

Skyscraper posted:

A horrifying short story, right in this very thread!

yeah uh, that doesn't sound like a gift to me, that sounds like hell

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?

fauna posted:

dammit i believe in the power of love

dad has always gifted me books so i just want to return the favour :( whenever my brother and i went to his house for summer holidays, he would give me a "christmas" present of a retired library book from the library where he worked, and would encourage me to read it as quickly as possible so he could take it back and then give it as a "christmas" present to my brother. that's how i developed my incredible speed-reading skills, trying to read while dad hovered around the door going "are you done yet? are you done yet? are you done yet??" taught me to churn through a medium-length novel in like an hour

Does your dad like Something Wicked this way Comes?

alf_pogs
Feb 15, 2012


fauna posted:

dammit i believe in the power of love

dad has always gifted me books so i just want to return the favour :( whenever my brother and i went to his house for summer holidays, he would give me a "christmas" present of a retired library book from the library where he worked, and would encourage me to read it as quickly as possible so he could take it back and then give it as a "christmas" present to my brother. that's how i developed my incredible speed-reading skills, trying to read while dad hovered around the door going "are you done yet? are you done yet? are you done yet??" taught me to churn through a medium-length novel in like an hour

you developed a good skill but an even better one might have been learning to say "gently caress off dad"

fauna
Dec 6, 2018


Caught between two worlds...
you're all mad, my dad is a pristine beautiful creature

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


Limited edition hardcovers are the new author mill/vanity publishing. You get a small press author nobody reads and do a limited edition of 200 copies, sell 20 to their friends and family and you already broke even, the rest is profit.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

ravenkult posted:

Limited edition hardcovers are the new author mill/vanity publishing. You get a small press author nobody reads and do a limited edition of 200 copies, sell 20 to their friends and family and you already broke even, the rest is profit.

You're about fifteen years late with this take.

I mean the first part still happens, but those presses don't make a profit and disappear, often with a bunch of customers' money.

Edit: What you're seeing more of now are people interested in owning an extremely fine edition of a given book and deciding the best way to do that is to make it themselves, and end up starting a press to get it done. That's basically what Paul Suntup is doing, for example. He's been clear that he's publishing books that interest him, which is why he's jumping from The Road to a bunch of HG Wells books to The Bridges of Madison County. I find it hilarious that there's a subset of collectors that are going to shell out hundreds to thousands of dollars for a fine edition of The Bridges of Madison County just to retain their number/letter for the next book.

Ornamented Death fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Dec 21, 2019

WHY BONER NOW
Mar 6, 2016

Pillbug
I don't think I've ever read a Latinx horror book, so I asked Google and decided on The Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enriquez, an Argentine writer. I've only read the first story, but so far it seems to have a North American Lake Monsters vibe; the horror is inserted into a depiction of the cultural/social situation (and it ain't cheery).

The first story, The Dirty Kid, is available as an excerpt on the Amazon page:
https://www.amazon.com/Things-We-Lo...77120303&sr=8-4

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


Ornamented Death posted:

You're about fifteen years late with this take.


It's not a take if it's true

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


I there anything that is like "evocative of Magnus Archive and kinda like creepypasta but good"? I guess the keywords would be contemporary, potentially technological, grody and evoking dread.

The last horror I read was House of Leaves, loved it.

Slamhound
Mar 27, 2010

Black Griffon posted:

I there anything that is like "evocative of Magnus Archive and kinda like creepypasta but good"? I guess the keywords would be contemporary, potentially technological, grody and evoking dread.

The last horror I read was House of Leaves, loved it.

The Southern Reach Trilogy.

chernobyl kinsman
Mar 18, 2007

a friend of the friendly atom

Soiled Meat

Black Griffon posted:

I there anything that is like "evocative of Magnus Archive and kinda like creepypasta but good"? I guess the keywords would be contemporary, potentially technological, grody and evoking dread.

The last horror I read was House of Leaves, loved it.

the raw shark texts, also play Control

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


Played Control, GOTY contender 100%. I've wanted to check out Southern Reach after watching Annihilation, and I'll check out Raw Shark. Thanks!

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva
I'll always associate raw shark and gone away world with house of leaves for some reason

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord
What are the best stories to look forward to in North American Lake Monsters? The first story was a great little spook, but "SS" just felt like some slice of life story in a Nazi gang? Was there a monster I missed, or horror at all?

Or am I a dummy and those characters are revisited in a later story?

chernobyl kinsman
Mar 18, 2007

a friend of the friendly atom

Soiled Meat

SniperWoreConverse posted:

I'll always associate raw shark and gone away world with house of leaves for some reason

same with the former, haven't read the latter

fauna
Dec 6, 2018


Caught between two worlds...

COOL CORN posted:

but "SS" just felt like some slice of life story
um

what is your home life like

chernobyl kinsman
Mar 18, 2007

a friend of the friendly atom

Soiled Meat

COOL CORN posted:

What are the best stories to look forward to in North American Lake Monsters? The first story was a great little spook, but "SS" just felt like some slice of life story in a Nazi gang? Was there a monster I missed, or horror at all?

you got that the mom was a cannibal right

fauna
Dec 6, 2018


Caught between two worlds...

chernobyl kinsman posted:

you got that the mom was a cannibal right
i remember that episode of friends

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


COOL CORN posted:

What are the best stories to look forward to in North American Lake Monsters? The first story was a great little spook, but "SS" just felt like some slice of life story in a Nazi gang? Was there a monster I missed, or horror at all?

Or am I a dummy and those characters are revisited in a later story?
This post.

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


Raw Shark Texts work on a kindle? I would never ever read House of Leaves on anything other than paper, but I get the impression Raw Shark might not be quite as, uh, experimental.

SniperWoreConverse
Mar 20, 2010



Gun Saliva
it's not as nuts as HoL and would probably work fine but I got the actual book way back and haven't been able to crack it open in a while. There's nothing that I really remember that makes it weirdly unnavigable or anything, at least if you have a modern kindle. The only one I have is the old e-ink kind and I'm not about to fire that bad boy up and try to check this. No real idea where I left it, probably the same box that has the physical book right next to it.

I think on that one it could potentially be super weird and some pages would have to be rendered as images, and some could come out malformed if you have odd or extremely small or huge text size settings or something. An example is this screenshot I grabbed from the kindle preview:

looks fine on pc but i could see those olden e-ink ones making a few places indecipherable. In the book this is one page and at least in the preview on amazon it looks like an infinite scroll type situation. There's a few pages where the actual turning of the page is part of the effect iirc and scrolling it might not exactly feel the same, idk.

Most of it is a regular book.


One thing is supposedly there are extra chapters in some editions, for every chapter of the normal edition there's supposed to be a hidden complementary one somewhere in the world or online and I guess the book you pick up is only like half of the "real" book. I dunno how true this is and it sort of seems like bullshit to me.

I would have to reread it to really be able to recommend it or not but I remember it as being pretty alright and interesting at the time.

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord

chernobyl kinsman posted:

you got that the mom was a cannibal right

Ah. I did not. I mean, I sort of did?

Anyway I get it, it's me that's the dummy. But the more I think about it, the more I appreciate it. It's definitely Stephen King-esque where the horror is a backdrop to the interpersonal drama.

Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Dec 27, 2019

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord
Okay I just finished "The Crevasse" and I'm hooked the gently caress back in. Wow.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer
I need to re-read North American Lake Monsters; it's been enough time.

Wild Acre, Sunbleached and The Monsters of Heaven have stayed with me the most. Especially The Monsters of Heaven. Some of the imagery is seared into my memory.

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


I don't have a paperwhite, but I have a 10gen kindle bought this Christmas so I assume it's still modern. Still, I'd like to make sure before I take the chance on digital instead of print, so if anyone else knows, shout out.

I did buy North American Lake Monsters though, because anything that sears itself into one's mind is totally my poo poo, I think.

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord

Franchescanado posted:

Especially The Monsters of Heaven.

I just finished this one (work is slow today).

Wow. I can't remember reading something during the daylight hours that made me shiver with discomfort before, but that was expertly written. The way Ballingrud tangles together social status, sexuality, loss, grief, and animal-like violence is just... wow.

edit-- even if I do just picture this in my mind:

Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Dec 27, 2019

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Black Griffon posted:

I don't have a paperwhite, but I have a 10gen kindle bought this Christmas so I assume it's still modern. Still, I'd like to make sure before I take the chance on digital instead of print, so if anyone else knows, shout out.

Do you live near a library? If so, just put a hold on their website and go pick it up for free sometime.


COOL CORN posted:

Wow. I can't remember reading something during the daylight hours that made me shiver with discomfort before, but that was expertly written. The way Ballingrud tangles together social status, sexuality, loss, grief, and animal-like violence is just... wow.

Yeah, it rules. The desperation is palpable.

I need to pick up Ballingrud's new collection sometime. Still haven't read it.

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


Franchescanado posted:

Do you live near a library? If so, just put a hold on their website and go pick it up for free sometime.

I live in Norway, so while we have good rear end libraries, original language English niche fiction isn't always guaranteed.

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord
Ah gently caress, "Sunbleached" was heartbreaking. I can't tell if Joshua died at the end or not though, like - burnt up in the sun, I mean

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord
And now I've finished the book. Honestly, I regret saying bad things about it earlier. "S.S." was a low point for me, but everything else was just outstanding.

I had to take a walk outside after "The Good Husband" because I was very close to breaking down into sobs throughout the whole thing. It just was so real and genuine and heartbreaking. I can't believe how consistently good this whole book was.

But also:

https://twitter.com/NBallingrud/status/1192901455826575366

I'm so excited for this now, but how in the HELL are they going to adapt "The Way Station"?

Section 9
Mar 24, 2003

Hair Elf

SniperWoreConverse posted:

it's not as nuts as HoL and would probably work fine but I got the actual book way back and haven't been able to crack it open in a while. There's nothing that I really remember that makes it weirdly unnavigable or anything, at least if you have a modern kindle. The only one I have is the old e-ink kind and I'm not about to fire that bad boy up and try to check this. No real idea where I left it, probably the same box that has the physical book right next to it.

I think on that one it could potentially be super weird and some pages would have to be rendered as images, and some could come out malformed if you have odd or extremely small or huge text size settings or something. An example is this screenshot I grabbed from the kindle preview:

looks fine on pc but i could see those olden e-ink ones making a few places indecipherable. In the book this is one page and at least in the preview on amazon it looks like an infinite scroll type situation. There's a few pages where the actual turning of the page is part of the effect iirc and scrolling it might not exactly feel the same, idk.

I just finished it on Kindle last night. The way they handle those formatted sections seems to be images of the text so the formatting stays. I have the Kindle app on my iPad set with the black background and white text so all the text-as-images show up as white squares with black text. I haven't seen the paper version so I don't know how if the paging and scrolling on Kindle mucks that up at all, but there were a couple pages where it was obviously supposed to give the impression of an image moving over several pages, but instead was a couple white boxes of text on a screen.

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


Library only has the Norwegian translation of Raw Shark and I'm not even giving that a chance. Oh well, can't have enough print books!

chernobyl kinsman
Mar 18, 2007

a friend of the friendly atom

Soiled Meat

SniperWoreConverse posted:

One thing is supposedly there are extra chapters in some editions, for every chapter of the normal edition there's supposed to be a hidden complementary one somewhere in the world or online and I guess the book you pick up is only like half of the "real" book. I dunno how true this is and it sort of seems like bullshit to me.

it's true and the extra chapters were easily findable online last i checked, although not all of them were ever discovered. most are from other editions or translations, but one was like left in a USB stick under a bench in a park

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


Not trying to clown on you or anything COOL CORN, but S.S. was really, really good. I can't even really place the feeling it gave me, but after finishing it I felt like had to... breathe out.

Rather, if that was a low point, I'm really excited to get to the rest of the stories.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord

Black Griffon posted:

Not trying to clown on you or anything COOL CORN, but S.S. was really, really good. I can't even really place the feeling it gave me, but after finishing it I felt like had to... breathe out.

Rather, if that was a low point, I'm really excited to get to the rest of the stories.

Hey, different strokes, it's all good! I'm glad you liked it, and the bottom line is the collection is one of my favorite books now so, yeah enjoy it.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply