Book Mace Some ideas about what to read next

Gene Michael Stover

created Wednesday, 2022 January 5

This file is https://cybertiggyr.com/whmni.html.

Context

Here are some ideas for what to read next.
More accurately, it's some ideas for where to get ideas for what to read next.
That said, it contains a few ideas for what to read next.

List

novels you'd like to read but are intimidating
Issue from a magazine
Horror
True crime
Read again

Intimidating

When I read & discuss the books with you guys, I get more out of them. If you are the same, then maybe we should look at our bucket lists of novels you'd like to read but are intimidating. For me, those novels might be...

Frankenstein (sort of sci-fi, not sure whether must be sci-fi is a requirement or just what we've done so far)
Wuthering Heights (not sci-fi)
Monunculus by James P. Blaylock (1986).[22]
The Castle of Otranto by Walpole (1764). First Gothic horror novel? I heard it as an audiobook & mostly liked it, but it's weird & confusing, so I've thought about reading it again, actually reading it.

Issue from a magazine

If we can't decide on a novel, how about an issue from a sci-fi, fantasy or horror magazine? Maybe Asimov's, Analog, or a horror zine?

Horror

I haven't read much horror. I would like to, but I think I'm both picky & afraid of being actually horrified.[00] I'm picky about horror in that I think what I like is exploration: Exploring the haunted house, abandoned factory, ghost town — basically Scooby-Doo for adults. From what I've seen of horror, that's hard to find.[11]

True crime

We might also try true crime if you guys are interested in it.

Read again

Finally, seems that many of the books have been ones that one of us read & wanted to read again. (Heck, it's how we started.) If we go that route, I might suggest...

Ship of Fools (2001) by Russo. I've read it twice, loved it both times, want to read it again. It's about an interstellar generation ship that finds an alien dreadnought (or whatever it is) & explores it. Good characters, & the story is mostly about “What the heck is this thing, & why would anyone, even aliens, make it?”.
Blindsigh by Peter Watts (2006). It's about a space exploration task force (which sounds so 1950s, but it's not 1950s at all) who are sent to study an alien structure in space. Has a really interesting setting for sci-fi: For example, vampires exist, & one character has intentionally had a medical procedure to make her insane because it's useful to her career. Scratches the same itch as Ship of Fools, though the environment is weirder & the question is “How does this alien intelligence think?” (instead of what aliens would have created the artifact).

And of course if someone else has ideas or requests, let's discuss them! My main point here was a few categories of where to look for ideas, not so much the specific books I'm suggesting.

Notes

00. actually horrified: There's an anthology called Parasyte or Parasite. A single author wrote all of the stories. I forget the author. The book is still in my Amazon Kindle library.
The first couple of stories were disturbing, unsettlingly so (though not necessarily unenjoyably so).
About the third story was disturbing. I put the book down. The author gets a 110% approval as far as “I picked up these horror stories because I wanted to be horrified” goes, but it was also more horrified than I ever want to be again. I read it almost 10 years ago, & I still have the occasional (once a year) nightmare about it.
So I don't want to read horror that disturbs me that much or in that particular way.
11. exploration horror is hard to find: If someone tells me that exploration horror isn't horror & suggests another label, I'm fine with that. The other label might be “creepy” or maybe “possibly supernatural kind of mystery”. If so, then I'm not really suggesting horror but am suggesting a “creepy” novel.
22. Homunculus in 1986...: According to the forward, introduction, or preface in a steampunk anthology I have, the genre of steampunk has been with us since the 1800s, though not with that label. Blaylock's Homunculus novel helped generate interest in the genre in the late 20th century, & the “steampunk” was applied around that time, too.

Change Log

when	who	what
2022-01-05	gene	play

cybertiggyr.com