What book(s) are you reading?

[VomKriege]

Guess it will tingle benji and Karakand only, but I will been reading Raymon Aron's Essay on Imaginary Marxisms, from one holy family to another (Translation my own, unaware if it has been published in english). I'll be honest and say that half of the time it was hard to parse through some of the text (ontology, dialectic, etc...) for me, but it was still an interesting read. It's a text for its time (May 1968 and whereabout), and the controversies looks for as futile as they are (and were) but it was amusing to read how Aron pointed out in a thesis confirmation how the decline in the rate of profit that is so vital to Marx and its scientificity had never been really calculated in a century despite the horde of rigid adherents to the doctrine.

I should also read in an indetermined future Aron's two volumes on Clausewitzian theory, which I believe would be a little more meaty. I'd like to introduce myself to some philosophy at one point, any advice on where to begin ? Apart from the greeko-roman classics... Hobbes ?

Otherwise I finished the Peloponnesian War and am currently through the Gallic ones with César and will branch out on Alistair Horne and the Sleepwalkers by Clark.

[Narolf]

[jakefromstatefarm]

am currently through the Gallic ones with César

you reading the Commentaries? I've seen some historians handle the late republic pretty well but they can't quite immerse you like the primaries can

[Kara]

Guess it will tingle benji and Karakand only, but I will been reading Raymon Aron's Essay on Imaginary Marxisms, from one holy family to another (Translation my own, unaware if it has been published in english). I'll be honest and say that half of the time it was hard to parse through some of the text (ontology, dialectic, etc...) for me, but it was still an interesting read. It's a text for its time (May 1968 and whereabout), and the controversies looks for as futile as they are (and were) but it was amusing to read how Aron pointed out in a thesis confirmation how the decline in the rate of profit that is so vital to Marx and its scientificity had never been really calculated in a century despite the horde of rigid adherents to the doctrine.

I wish I had the time and resources to go through the stuff Nobuo Okishio wrote that's been translated into English.

[VomKriege]

am currently through the Gallic ones with César

you reading the Commentaries? I've seen some historians handle the late republic pretty well but they can't quite immerse you like the primaries can

Yes the Commentaries. I love how César speaks in the third person and uses "our men / our troops ", You would believe you're reading the report of a sergeant. The way he is framing the Helveti intervention (and pretty much any of the further pretexts to attack Gaul tribes) is interesting: The manipulation is obvious (Helveti wants to conquer all of Gaul, then next chapter it is labeled a conspiracy by their leader) but you can see how it could pass as genuine to his public back in the day.

[studyguy]

I tried reading Lock In by Scalzi and gave up.
I can't stand his uppity af characters. All of them have this incredible pompousness about them where they carry themselves with their nose sky high, protag and antagonists alike. Fuck those dudes and fuck that writer.




Moved on to the third in the Lightbringer series.
What's the western/tolkin/d&d version of this shit?

Cause that's basically what my reading habits consist of half the time.

[benjipwns]

This is the same book as The Great Deformation. Well, not literally as it's 1/3rd the size and replaces the extended history of the financial system with a bunch of Michelle Bachmann's craziest statements.

The amusing thing is that Stockman was part of the Reagan Administration AND the financial industry and he has a whole chapter calling Greenspan an asshole. And Taibbi is really progressive writer for the Rolling Stone (which they assure me is still in print) and he has a whole chapter literally calling Greenspan an asshole including in the title of it.  And for the same reasons. Even though Stockman sets up Greenspan's former free-market past as a good thing and Taibbi uses it to rant about Atlas Shrugged they both savage him for the same reasons.

About the only thing they seem to disagree on is that Stockman believes that there wouldn't have been a horrific end of the world Great Depression because only the large financial powers were on the hook initially and were taking themselves down and mainly themselves without contagion into the sound parts of the banking and financial industry and that Bernanke freaked out because of his past and the rest had entirely personal reasons to push the narrative. Taibbi does seem to think there was some of that potential but agrees on the latter point.

Taibbi only mentions a few examples, while Stockman goes on at length about the specifics of some clearly bad financial deals that should have combined to be indicators of the bubble. Taibbi only mentions it a little, but Stockman because of the more historical focus (and his age) points to LTCM as essentially the original indicator of everything that came to pass over the next decade. Stockman focuses much more on the boom, and Taibbi on the bust. As is likely their ideological wont. Stockman takes shots at Cramer, Taibbi at Kudlow, so together they get both parts of that show. And they've got shots at Larry Summers. Taibbi's got more reporting on the recent politics, Stockman has a longer range take.

Even more fun is that they have the same exact note about their sources at the end of the book. This is a polemic about epic bullshittery, fuck any kind of objectivity, look up the damn sources yourself.

Worst part? They both write this polemic and express how Wall Street has captured the government to loot everyone else for the benefit of the elite. And then go on to suggest greater government involvement in the financial industry, only like...better. Stockman through tougher Fed limits and oversight, Taibbi through more Elizabeth Warren. Though they agree that most importantly, GLASS-STEAGALL. Stockman even wants SUPER GLASS-STEAGALL. Even if the provisions that got repealed didn't apply to most all of the fuck up companies.

Oh, and Stockman spends time on GM at length because he has auto industry experience.

And now you don't need to read the books I suppose. So here have some of those amazing Michelle Bachmann quotes:

"[N]ow we have the federal government taking over ownership or control of 51 percent of the American economy. This is stunning. Prior to September of 2008, 100 percent of the private economy was private."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bachmann-bill-dont-replace-the-dollar/

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has introduced a resolution in the House "that would bar the dollar from being replaced by any foreign currency."

...

Contacted by Greg Sargent, Bachmann's spokesperson said the representative understands the situation and is "talking about the United States."

"This legislation would ensure that the U.S. dollar remain the currency of the United States," added the spokesperson.

[I'm a Puppy!]

So I decided to re-pick up The Count of Monte Cristo (love me some Dumas)

And I am starkly reminded how little I know about French history.
Any good books/podcasts on the subject?

[Kara]

SUPER GLASS-STEAGALL

[Steve Contra]

I'm about done with the Southern Reach Trilogy.  Definitely a must read for Lovecraft fans.

[Madrun Badrun]

Gardens of the moon is a lot easier to read the second time around. 

[jakefromstatefarm]

So I decided to re-pick up The Count of Monte Cristo (love me some Dumas)

And I am starkly reminded how little I know about French history.
Any good books/podcasts on the subject?

what direction/tone do you want?

Peasants into Frenchmen is a classic and applicable not just to western Europe but modern state centralization as well. Really anything by Eugen Weber and Le Roy Ladurie you should be golden.

This is a decent list:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1403l7/askhistorians_master_book_list_ii/c78t1q0

[VomKriege]

So I decided to re-pick up The Count of Monte Cristo (love me some Dumas)

And I am starkly reminded how little I know about French history.
Any good books/podcasts on the subject?

I suppose in English.
Not that I will be of great help but who knows...

General histories or specific eras ?

[benjipwns]

SUPER GLASS-STEAGALL

Yes, you're welcome for me choosing this source: https://larouchepac.com/20150214/stockman-super-glass-steagall-or-else

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Drink every time he says SUPER GLASS-STEAGALL:
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/58w3md/exclusive---david-stockman-extended-interview-pt--1
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/obco3b/exclusive---david-stockman-extended-interview-pt--2
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/uylj73/exclusive---david-stockman-extended-interview-pt--3

[close]

[Dickie Dee]

So I decided to re-pick up The Count of Monte Cristo (love me some Dumas)

And I am starkly reminded how little I know about French history.
Any good books/podcasts on the subject?

The Revolutions podcast is currently doing The French Revolution. He's 35 episodes in. French revolution ones are numbered 3.X (i.e. latest is 3.35)

(before that was the American Revoluation which were numbered 2.X, first was the English Revolution which were numbered 1.X)

[Dickie Dee]

Picked up the Culture series again after a long hiatus. Just finished Use of Weapons

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Was really not expecting that twist ending 

A bit unsure whether the novel even needed it, or if it added anything, which might be why I didn't see it coming

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

Clive Barker's sequel/follow-up/whatever to The Hellbound Heart/Hellraiser is out.

[Dennis]

[recursivelyenumerable]

Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse - this is pretty amazing

[tiesto]

Got like 40 more pages left on this:

[Kara]

Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse - this is pretty amazing

ya it's rly gud

[Steve Contra]

Underworld, then stop.

I'll just leave this here:

[chronovore]

(Image removed from quote.)

Clive Barker's sequel/follow-up/whatever to The Hellbound Heart/Hellraiser is out.

It's also got the detective from Lord of Illusions in it.

I'm interested in some nerdy fantasy shit. I'm a big Michael Moorcock fanboy so what I haven't read is in my backlog, so no recs on that. What I was wondering about were stories about that Drizzt guy, specifically the Icewind Dales stuff. Worth it?

I read a collection of short stories about/surrounding him, and was surprised how much I liked it.

[VomKriege]

Just finished a digest on the Punic Wars which compiles text from Polybe, Tite-Live & Appien, one author per war. Pretty good, I think I like how the classics spice up operation reports by turning them into Moral Tales of Great Men (or Great Cities) which may of course alters authenticity. Loved the tale of the Mercenary War, the desert meeting between Hannibal and Scipio or the Stalingradesque final stand of Carthage.

Also started Verdun, the price of glory by A.Horne and I love the first few pages.

[Yulwei]

His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem

also known as "Lem treats his readers to a 30+ page opening monologue by a mathematician about his life."

It's about as exciting as it sounds, but I will carry on because Solaris was amazing and I need more Stanislaw Lem in my life.

[VomKriege]

Finished Verdun, the Price of Glory at a quite steady pace. Alistair Horne is a master of acute portraits and synthesis. It is a quite densely packed book (it's pretty short) but never to the detriment of the writing style. There's some oild mannerisms in the whole thing, one would object on how Horne use photos and faces as a basis for psychological facets, but it didn't bother me. Can't wait to read his book on the Commune.

Started the Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark, seems a mammoth.

1900's Europe 

[Kara]

He wrote a book on the Commune?

[benjipwns]

Started the Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark, seems a mammoth.

I read that as mentioned in this thread, it's a tough build up because he establishes so many players, especially obscure Serbian and Austrian politicians. They all blur together at one point. Then the crisis goes Europe-wide and the pace goes up.

It's nothing like Margaret MacMillan's books where she spends paragraphs describing people's lunches though.

Since I'm posting in this thread might as well lay out the latest haul which is more of a collection of stuff I've seen sitting on the shelves and decided to bite on along with a few new things I plucked, especially since I can read outside now.
The Greatest Comeback - Pat Buchanan; about how Nixon outplayed Romney, Rockefeller and Reagan and made himself inevitable for 1968. Also, how a drunk Nixon walked out into the middle of Fifth Avenue to hail Buchanan a cab.

The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the myth of the Scandinavian Utopia - Michael Booth; seems to be a travelogue where he heads to the countries and interviews people instead of random stats/political claims. I really liked when P.J. O'Rourke did that in Africa and Europe. Also he writes for Monocle magazine, how could I not.

Unintended Consequences: Why everything you've been told about the economy is wrong - Edward Conrad; a former director of Bain Capital aping Bastiat for his title, how could I not. Number of references to Bastiat or Henry Haziltt in his book: zero.

Know What Makes Them Tick: How to successfully negotiate almost any situtation - Max Siegel; I have an interview for a new job coming up so I saw it and thought, I should not read this book but pretend like I will for that. Also these kind of books are funny. And it's endorsed by Bob Johnson, former owner of the Charlotte Bobcats!

This Town: Two parties and a funeral - plus plenty of valet parking! - in America's Gilded Capital - Mark Leibovich; saw this for a while and figured I'd bite the bullet, it starts with "Tim Russert is dead." So that's promising.

The Big Short - Michael Lewis; never read it, and after reading Griftopia (which was awesome) figured I'd read the less angry companion everyone loves, plus I liked Moneyball.

The Innovators: How a group of hackers, geniuses, and geeks created the digital revolution - Walter Isaacson; another book with The [X] as its title, how could I not. Plus on the cover it has a picture of Ada Lovelace among Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, which is sweet brehs

Once Upon A Time in Russia: The rise of the oligarchs, a true story of ambition, wealth, betrayal, and murder - Ben Mezrich; sounds like a feel good book about post-Soviet Russia to me.

The American Vice Presidency - From Irrelevance to Power - Jules Witcover; one of those guilty pleasure tomes of questionable value. Plus how many books released in the last five years have an entire chapter devoted to Dan Quayle?

[VomKriege]

He wrote a book on the Commune?

The Fall of Paris covers the Prussian siege of the capital then the Commune.

[jakefromstatefarm]

Once Upon A Time in Russia: The rise of the oligarchs, a true story of ambition, wealth, betrayal, and murder - Ben Mezrich; sounds like a feel good book about post-Soviet Russia to me.

I've never looked up the lit on New Russia. I wanna believe it's just an excuse to spend pages detailing Yeltsin's alcoholism

[Kara]

Post-Soviet fiction can be pretty interesting but you really can't read it without some Russian lit background. (So basically it's like all of Russian lit. -ed.) Be a culture of readers brehs.

[Kara]

http://www.sovlit.net/honestcitizen/

I love Zoshchenko.

[benjipwns]

This Buchanan reminiscence was worth it just for the drunk Nixon stories. In fact, now I want an entire compendium of drunk Nixon stories.

Latest one was about how they had stopped for refueling the plane and Buchanan and some other dude were sent inside to get some snacks, and they were coming back when suddenly there was a smiling Nixon wandering down the corridor at them, he had decided he also wanted some chili. So then when they got to Miami at 2am they went looking for an all-night chili place.

[benjipwns]

Also, Hunter S. Thompson almost killed them all on another occasion by smoking while standing near and flicking his cigarette in the direction of the refueling guy. And with the time given him directly with Nixon they spent the entire thing talking about football.

And Hunter showed up to Buchanan's first date with his later wife during a small gathering with some other reporters with half a gallon of Wild Turkey and he and Thompson drank it while having a heated argument about the Soviet Union into the morning.

Him and Buchanan became good friends apparently.

[Mr. Nobody]

Well after a hiatus of some months, I'm finally going to continue Storm of Swords 

"Bran"

 

[Kara]

In the book I'm reading on the can atm there was a Caldari court case where a child that was a citizen of one corporation was tried in another corporation's court, benji.

[benjipwns]

In honor of the Danish Libertarian Moment, and mostly for my friend Kara, from the Scandinavian book I listed above (which is much more inquisitive and interesting than I thought it would be, but then again the author self-identifies as a cynical misanthrope) in the Denmark section:

But I am afraid to say that over the years I have come to detest hygge somewhat. It wasn’t the cheap, fizzy beer (how did they ever have the nerve to claim it was ‘probably the best’? It’s like claiming Sunblest is the best bread), the curried herring or the communal singing in which the Danes inevitably indulge when more than two of them gather together and which can drag out a formal Danish dinner to interminable lengths, that ultimately turned me against hygge; it was more hygge’s tyrannical, relentless drive towards middle-ground consensus; its insistence on the avoidance of any potentially controversial topics of conversation; its need to keep things light and breezy – the whole comfortable, self-congratulatory, petit bourgeois smugness of it all.

British anthropologist Richard Jenkins has described hygge as ‘normative to the point of coercive’.

And bonus content free with pre-order:

It was only as I walked back down the street and looked again at the names of the shops that I noticed something curious. My heart sang! The shop names! They were quite extraordinarily prosaic, almost aggressively mundane or, as the Danes would say, tilbageholdende (back-holding, or ‘reserved’), devoid of even the slightest suggestion of promotion or branding.

The hairdresser’s was called, baldly, ‘Hair’. The pub was called ‘The Pub’. The shop that sold clothes and shoes ventured to grab the attention of passers-by with the razzle-dazzle name ‘Clothes and Shoes’; the bookshop was Bog Handler or ‘Book Dealer’. Clearly affronted by its neighbours’ shameless self-promotion, one retailer had simply taken to naming itself ‘No. 16’; another, clearly wary of accusations of hubris, had plumped simply for Shoppen, or ‘The Shop’. These retailers were not merely lacking in marketing skills, they defiantly renounced all conventional notions of salesmanship.

Only one shop dared to break free from the herd and boldly proclaim the eponymity of its owner and risk standing out from the Nykřbing retail crowd: ‘Bettina’s Shoes’.

‘Watch out, Bettina,’ I thought to myself, as I carried on down the high street. ‘They aren’t much for that kind of showboating in these parts.’

In Danish, the word for tax (skat) also means ‘treasure’ and ‘darling’. Meanwhile, the word for poison (gift) also means ‘married’. After all these years, I still do not really know what to make of this.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Count of Monte Cristo Finished this. I know it's important to say you like some big stuffy book to be your favorite books, something either hamfisted or incredibly esoteric. I have to admit though that the Count of Monte Cristo really is one of my favorite books.

Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Finished this too. It was ok.

Under the Banner of Heaven In the middle of this one. After so many former mormons telling me I had to read it I finally got to it. I can see why so many mormons are terrified of this book.

[Kara]

I recently found out Frankenstein was written under the influence of absinthe. I had no idea M-Shell was so cool.

[Mr. Gundam]

I've got The Martian and The Orphan Master's Son for the Europe trip.

[chronovore]

Count of Monte Cristo Finished this. I know it's important to say you like some big stuffy book to be your favorite books, something either hamfisted or incredibly esoteric. I have to admit though that the Count of Monte Cristo really is one of my favorite books.

Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Finished this too. It was ok.

Under the Banner of Heaven In the middle of this one. After so many former mormons telling me I had to read it I finally got to it. I can see why so many mormons are terrified of this book.

I've had that Mormon book on my shelf for a while now, and have been meaning to read it. One of my uncles is a lapsed Mormon, and the other is a current Mormon. I cannot remember which one is which, so I never bring up the the topic for fear of committing an epic famial faux pas.

[I'm a Puppy!]

But do you have two uncles one that's a lapsed mormon and another that's current? What about those?

[chronovore]

Oh, jeez. I’ve been having weird input problems for a bit. Sorry about that.

[Kara]

Started reading Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter today. Absolutely sublime so far--the sardonic laughs, the superfluous man, c'est haute Russe mon amis.

The more I get off the beaten path of Russian literature the more I'm astonished at how truly special Tsarist literary culture was. Everything else might have been backward, but I'm really at a loss for a comparable epoch in European writing.

benji, that awful sci-fi book I was reading ended with a Caldari corporation's private army fighting a protracted battle against the military of the Caldari's principal interstellar ally (the Amarr). The Amarr supreme commander was like "How come they're shooting at us, aren't we friends? " Ah the surprises to be had when the state enjoys no monopoly on violence.

[VomKriege]

A friend of mine, an avid reader, assured me that the Captain's Daughter was the blueprint for the rest of Russian literature. My grasp of it is to this day too superficial for me to really comment on that although I guess that it has all the major tropes you would expect (a deep and dignified love that conquers all, the bitter rivalries of the elite youth embodied in politics, an ambivalent description of a Russia torn between autocracy and systemic poverty on one hand, and enlightenement and soon to come industrialization...) but within a simpler, more straightforward story than the epic novels that followed. It's hard to put into words what makes those books so great (I liked every one I read, with the exception of a Tolstoi one that bored me silly, but that was years ago) but an interesting experience in this regard was to read Under Western Eyes.

It's basically Joseph Conrad doing an homage to Russian literature (chiefly Crime & Punishment, as far as I can tell). It's a good book and a good riff, but it's more heavy-handed and not as subtle as the real deal. Partly because Conrad is very aware that while technicallt born Russian, he is an outsider.

On another note : Vularai, have you by chance read some Drieu la Rochelle ? I suspect that would be right down your alley...

[VomKriege]

So I finished the Sleepwalkers, how Europe went to war in 1914 by Cristopher Clark, which as you may or may not know is an actual worldwide bestseller while being a real history book. It's not too difficult to see why, as it is rather masterfully written and structured for what it is, with a gripping introduction telling the death of King Alexander of Serbia in 1903 followed by an intricate depiction of the evolution of Serbian politics at that time. One of the two goals of Clark is to put back Serbia, Austria-Hungary and the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand back in the center of the July crisis and his second objective is not to speak of "why" but "how" the war broke out, not to be mired in the whodunit question.

Overall I found the book to be a page turner and a valuable addition to my knowledge on WWI, but it has its shortcomings : In the end Clark focuses almost exclusively on diplomats. Most of the time he will only speak of public opinion as a part of the virtual landscape of politicians's perceptions, for instance, and there's nothing there about social issues or economics. In a sense Clark doesn't hide his parti-pris but in a study that sometimes feel as a mammoth overview, one wonders if he did not reproduce the mistake of 1914 by viewing everything through the lens of the great game of diplomacy. Having sandwiched it between two Horne books highlighted it for me, as Horne is a much more adept synthetizer of the times with broader brushes. His description of the late Second Empire in The fall of Paris is just 

[Dickie Dee]

I really liked Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August.

Prelude-to-WWI history never fails if only because of all the anecdotes about what a clownboat Kaiser Wilhelm was .

[chronovore]

Just finished Sheffield's Summertide; it was surprisingly uninspired. It felt like a mystery novel that even the author didn't feel like unraveling the mystery for a final reveal. It probably was just me going in with fixed expectations of hard SF, such as: there will be a point to all of this.

[tiesto]

About 1/3 of the way into Ready Player One, after no less than 5 people recommended it to me. It's good so far, the writing is a bit basic but the 80's nostalgia mashed up with early 90's internet culture is enough to win me over.

[team filler]

I recently found out Frankenstein was written under the influence of absinthe. I had no idea M-Shell was so cool.

your absinthe sempai 

[Great Rumbler]

Finished the first part today and it's pretty good. It's different from how I thought it would be, since it focuses heavily on the remnants of the Catholic church and their rituals, rather than the things that you'd normally associate with the post-apocalyptic genre. Still, it's easy to see lines of influences from this to late works in the genre from the the 70's and 80's.

It does have cannibalistic mutants, though.

[VomKriege]

Torn for next book to read after finishing The fall of Paris. Kipling or Marai ?

[chronovore]

Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels, a sequel of sorts to The Hellhound Heart/Hellraiser and The Last Illusion (movie). It features the cenobite commonly called "Pinhead" and Harry d'Amour, a private eye who appeared in the under appreciated Last Illusion movie, which was creepy as hell.

I'm a fan of the first two Hellraiser movies and the Scott Bakula movie (the same-titled short story has little to do with the movie), but the book is a weird mismatch to them. There is an oddly constant gallows-humor which seems out of place for the kind of situation in which the characters find themselves. To a degree, private detective Harry d'Amour's group resembles nothing else so much as an adventuring party in a dungeon delve, cracking wise as they make their descent into The Temple of Elemental Evil.

I'm disappointed, but hope Barker can pull it out of the fire, so to speak, by its end.

[Great Rumbler]

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast

Dedicate their entire waking life to their career, even to the exclusion of their wife/husband and kids. There, I saved you 300 pages.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

At my job, the senior executives work 16 hours a day six days a week at a minimum.  They will make and answer calls and send out e-mails in the early morning (as in 12 AM to 6 AM).  They have no real life outside of work and are aging horribly, probably due to little or no sleep.  Hardly seems worth it to me.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I find that business leadership books are a waste of time.
If you have to read a book about how to be a leader, you're not a leader.
It's something that cannot be taught, only learned.

[Joe Molotov]

Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels, a sequel of sorts to The Hellhound Heart/Hellraiser and The Last Illusion (movie). It features the cenobite commonly called "Pinhead" and Harry d'Amour, a private eye who appeared in the under appreciated Last Illusion movie, which was creepy as hell.

I'm a fan of the first two Hellraiser movies and the Scott Bakula movie (the same-titled short story has little to do with the movie), but the book is a weird mismatch to them. There is an oddly constant gallows-humor which seems out of place for the kind of situation in which the characters find themselves. To a degree, private detective Harry d'Amour's group resembles nothing else so much as an adventuring party in a dungeon delve, cracking wise as they make their descent into The Temple of Elemental Evil.

I'm disappointed, but hope Barker can pull it out of the fire, so to speak, by its end.

I meant to post about this after I finished it, but yeah....it wasn't good. Parts of it were good, but overall, it was just a mess. I was excited about this book because Clive Barker was like "Hey, all those sequels were shitty, but I'm taking it back, and making it right" but instead it just took a dump on the mythology of the original more than some of the sequels did (certainly the 2nd one, which did the most to establish the mythology of the series). I thought there would be more backstory to the Cenobites and Pinhead, but instead we got basically nothing about them, and most of the focus on Hell itself

spoiler (click to show/hide)

which turns out to be the Judeo-Christian Hell, a point that was kept ambiguous in the original and even the shitty sequels, but no let's take all the mystery away there but leave other things, like the origins of the Cenobite order just totally unaddressed.

[close]

The ending tho, oh man, the ending. If you think some D&D-tier shit is going down, wait until you get to the end.
(Don't read this yet, Chrono)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pinhead goes to Satan's fortress to either meet Satan and learn from him, or it find what knowledge he left behind (because the other demons aren't even sure if Satan is still alive, he sealed himself in his fortress thousands of years ago and hasn't been heard from since). What he discovered is that Satan committed suicide because he was so gay for God-senpai, that he couldn't bear to live without him. Pinhead goes on a rager, and mutilates Satan's corpse and then steals his sweet-ass golden armor that was hand-crafted by Yahweh himself and wields mjolnirwears it and basically becomes Superman. The the other demons show up and are like "Yo Pinhead, get rekt, m8" and he was like "no u" and then went Pre-Crisis Superman on their asses and wiped out a couple of legions of the demon army, as well as the boss of hell. Then he's all like "Who runs Bartertown? Pinhead runs Bartertown!" d'Amour and his crew are just kinda chilling over in a corner, watching all this happen.

Then Satan wakes up, and he's PISSED!  Turns out he was only TEMPORARILY DEAD, as the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY has cursed him with immortality, so he'd be forced to forever live with his sins. After a few thousand years of studying dark majicks, Satan built this magical machine that would keep him in a permanent state of death as long as he was in the machine. But Pinhead busted the machine, so the spell was broken and Satan is alive again and not happy. At first Pinhead is like "Oh Satan-senpai, this is such a great privilege for you to have noticed me!" but Satan is all like "Yeah, and who the fuck are you? I'm tryin' get some damn peace and quite around here, and also why am I naked?"  Pinhead decides that Satan is kind of a pussy and now that he's got the God Armor, he doesn't have to put up with this shit. So Satan and Pinhead go at it like Superman vs. Doomsday for a bit, until a battered Pinhead finally gains the upper hand and rips Satan to shreds.

d'Amour, still kinda chilling over in a corner is like "Okay, then. So. Is that it? We good? Can I go now? I got a thing" and Pinhead is like "Uh wait...hold up hold up. I...um...I got some other sights to show you, I swear  it's gonna be sick, just don't leave yet." While he's momentarily distracted, the mangled corpse of Satan crawls up to him, and Pinhead's like "wtf breh, how are you even still alive?" and Satan's like "Immortality dude, I swear I just told you that not 2 minutes ago." and then pulls himself back together and pushes Pinhead's shit in and rips the God Armor off him. After seeing this, Henry is all "Okay, I'm leaving for real this time, deuces" and he peaces out and goes back to the Hell portal, which they figured out through some means that didn't even really seem to make sense to me , but I was beyond even caring at that point.

THEN! THEN! Oh you thought it was over, it's not over. Satan, I shit you not, just flat out punches a underwater dragon so hard that it crashes into the ceiling of Hell and shatters it, literally causing the sky to fall. You might think THAT was the end. Well, it's still not. While Satan was wilding out, Pinhead managed to escape alive, and he finds Henry and the old blind voodoo lady that Henry came to Hell to rescue and HE RAPES HER TO DEATH. There's dick moves and then there's dick moves. Then makes Henry blind, just for funsies.

EPILOGUE! Henry escapes from hell with his crew, blind and sans an alive old lady, and are deposited in the middle of Nevada. They try to hitchhike a ride (with the dead lady corpse) and are finally picked up by an evangelical preacher. And they're like "Hey, so why would you pick up a bunch of weirdos like us and a dead body, preacher man?" and he's like "So I could save your souls from eternal hellfire, you sad bunch of homos." and they're like "LOL, we just got back from Hell and that shit was wrecked, you're gonna have to get a new religion now haw haw, stupid evangelical!" and they all had a sensible chuckle while they kicked him out and stole his car. And then Marine Todd punched them (I wish) THE END.

Wait, EPILOGUE 2! Pinhead walks around Hell for a bit and then falls down some stairs and dies (not even exaggerating for lulz, this happened).

[close]

Jesus wept.

[team filler]

how do i become a better reader? i used to be really good about reading for hours and even staying up all night to finish a good book. now i can't do more than read for a few minutes while i shit.

[chronovore]

Jesus wept.
(Image removed from quote.)

I'll save the second of your spoilers for when I'm finished, but did you read the other D'Amour novel? (I didn't realize it featured him, so I haven't read it yet.)

[Joe Molotov]

Jesus wept.
(Image removed from quote.)

I'll save the second of your spoilers for when I'm finished, but did you read the other D'Amour novel? (I didn't realize it featured him, so I haven't read it yet.)

I read the short story that he was in from Books of Blood (the one Barker made into Lord of Illusions).