Name Forthcoming: July Book Haul

Alright, I'm late again with the monthly Book Haul post, a few days too much, into the next month even but I guess it doesn't really matter.

As you might've noticed I've been out of sorts lately, at least blogging-wise. There's not been much new going on here. This is down to a few things, some of those are private and won't be talked about.

But, some of the writing itself has been slow-going too. Mostly it is the Grendel Fantasy Masterworks post which is proving very hard to figure out. But it's nonetheless slowly progressing, despite there not being any real information around to back up my write-up of the novel.

Something else that has stopped me from blogging is the reading itself: I've been reading quite alot. I've been making my way through the Witcher's Ciri saga, and I am finding it really quite abyssmal. More on that in a next post. Because I do need to talk about it, if only to pin-point why I dislike it so much. I think it warrants that, at the very least, because I liked the 2 short story collections so much.

Anyway, on to what you're all here for; the Books!

Ghost dog picture. Saffy is doing extremely well, thank you for asking.

Ahem. Let's try this again.

Now then, on to the books!

First up: Vastarien's first issue of the second year.

I am still enjoying the Vastarien magazine. The stories, though usually pretty short, tend to be memorably dark and horrific. This one had a few pretty disturbing tales, and special mention goes out to The Curse of the Three Biblical Magi, which was a lovely mix of historical fiction, mythology building, Body Horror and philosophizing. Which one of those last two sounds more horrible to you?

It also had a truly bewildering ending. This might be a plus depending on your preferences.

I was also hugely into the Horror Religiosus essay by David Peak. Religion and horror is my bag so I'll be keeping this one's references in mind for future reads.

The essays in the magazine are always worth the time so don't just skip them.

By the way, here's my current 'read Ligottian fiction collection'.

I haven't read much Ligotti, actually, which is always a little disconcerting when I realize it.

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Here are two special ones that I've had my eye on for a while.

2 books by one of my favourite authors; Mathew Woodring Stover.

Iron dawn is book 1, Jericho Moon, its sequel.

Heart of Bronze is actually the Hardback omnibus collecting these two novels into one handsome package.

I had to get these second hand because the books themselves are out of print. It's bizarre but Stover is not that well know. Despite actually being one of the best and most engaging writers out there. When I've read these two I'll have read practically everything by him, barring his Star Wars, which I don't touch on principle, because fuck Star Wars. I've never liked that series by the way, this isn't a recent development. Imagine watching the Phantom Menace, being absolutely smitten by it, then watching the originals and finding them really quite old, and then being ridiculed and mocked for actually liking the prequels. I swiftly got turned off on the whole thing. Fandoms are always toxic. Entitlement and Expectation work hand in hand to destroy the appreciation of any work of art.

Anyway, I got off on a little tangent there. I actually just wanted to say that I might end up hunting down Stover's Star Wars books anyway. He really is that good. But I'm just waiting until I've read absolutely EVERYTHING ELSE the man has to offer.

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Orbit's Trade Paperback of the latest Witcher novel.

I'm really hoping this'll be better than the Ciri Saga. More The Last Wish and less Lady of the Lake please. I'm also wondering whether this one will be taking place before the Ciri saga. People don't talk much about this, but didn't the ending to the Lady of the Lake kind of preclude maybe any more Witcher sequels. The possibility for the interpretation is there, but you could just as well pretend otherwise.

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Mythos Books' publication of Matt Cardin's Dark Awakenings short story collection.

Matt Cardin is a writer who's very much into religious horror so this one's very much my bag. I've only read the 'Gods and Monsters, Worms and Fire: A horrific reading of Isaiah' essay, so far, which was fascinating, though a little dense, and I confess to feeling slightly (very slightly) out of my depth.

It's clear Cardin has done extensive research into the material, and any interpretation of God as an absolute fucking monster gets a big thumbs up from me.

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Because I was so disappointed by my Witcher read, I had the realization that I really SHOULD just be buying the books that I know will be up my alley, rather than go chasing popular opinion.

To whit: some novels by K.J. Parker.

I've heard he's and exacting writer, and I've really wanted to read more of him ever I finished reading his The Devil You Know novella. It was a tad disappointing but I nonetheless had a lot of fun during the write-up, which can be found somewhere on my blog.

This trilogy seemed to focus a little on mythological elements, and there was some mention of 'Gods' so even though I forgot all the reasons why I wanted to pick these up I nonetheless went ahead and bought them. I did have to find Memory second hand though, and as a result its condition is less than perfect, though you can't really see it on the picture.

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The ones I'm reading right now, as the post goes out.

My favourite Newman novel and the Silver Nails short stories, on which I'm already doing some extensive writing.

There'll be a seperate post on the reading order for those interested.

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The chiltern edition of Sun Tzu's Art of War, which pictures really can't do justice.

On the outside it's an incredibly beautiful gold-foil covered edition, with embossing and refflective finish (which you can just barely make out in the red parts).

However, the inside is gauche to the extreme, and as such I can not recommend you to actually buy this edition. There's seven books in the Chilltern Classics, and though they look gorgeous, as they are each just a small part of a distinguished writer's oeuvre, I would just be annoyed at the incompleteness of it all.

Take a look at these beauties though. I'm tempted every time I look at them.

Chilltern Classics

I would also dread there to be illustrations like this throughout the book. It's unlikely, I'll concede, as the Art of War merits some padding, as it really is quite a short little treatise, which I blew through in just a little while.

I found it mostly to be just a collection of observations, that'll make you say 'well duh' a lot. Though I admit I would struggle to think even a few up like this.

The two last chapters I did find genuinely fascinating and revealing though.

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Lastly, the Limited Edition of the Lost and the Damned novel, published by the Black Library.

Last time I gave this one its own post, but I would just be rehashing my comments I think.

It's a beautiful edition, blah blah blah.

Though, the World Eater icon here is simply Gorgeous. And, as I'm a World Eater myself (my psn-name is still Worldeater_5) this one cuts to the very heart of me. I would love some actual merch like this.