The Ape's Wife and Other Stories by Caitlin Kiernan (Humble Bundle Subterranean Press Books)

[Maxine Marsh]

I'm starting a thread for the Humble Bundle Subterranean Book package. It features work by Clive Barker, Caitlin Kiernan, Robert McCammon, Joe Lansdale, and many others! You offer your own donation amount for a good cause and get several great books! https://www.humblebundle.com/books


Tortured Souls : The Legend of Primordium by Clive Barker (88 pages)
Brayan's Gold by Peter Brett (94 pages)
The Ape's Wife and Other Stories by Caitlin Kiernan (14 stories-279 pages)
Jacaranda by Cherie Priest (139 pages)
Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons (105 pages)
Inside Job by Connie Willis (99 pages)
The Jack Vance Treasury by Jack Vance (18 novellas/short stories-633 pages)
Amityville Horrible by Kelley Armstrong (120 pages)
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang (60 pages)
The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley (176 pages)
The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart (3 novels-645 pages)
Nobody's Home by Tim Powers (80 pages)
The Mallet of Loving Correction by John Scalzi (488 pages of collected blogs)
Black Hat Jack by Joe R. Lansdale (128 pages)
The Hunter from the Woods by Robert McCammon (328 pages-stories related to the character from The Wolf's Hour)
Academic Exercises by K.J. Parker (13 stories-536 pages)
Bleeding Shadows by Joe R. Lansdale (488 pages-massive short story anthology)
I Travel by Night by Robert McCammon (152 pages)
Salvage and Demolition by Tim Powers (155 pages)
New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bera (272 pages)
The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein by Thomas Ligotti (50 pages)
The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison by Harlan Ellison (536 page short story anthology)

Currently Reading:

The Ape's Wife and Other Stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan...

Maxine
Andy
Kate
Mallory Heart

[Andy]

Author’s Introduction
The Steam Dancer (1896)
The Maltese Unicorn
One Tree Hill
The Collier’s Venus (1898)
Galápagos
Tall Bodies
As Red As Red
Hydraguros
Slouching Towards the House of Glass Coffins
Tidal Forces
The Sea Troll’s Daughter
Random Notes Before a Fatal Crash
The Ape’s Wife

[Maxine Marsh]

There you are!

[Andy]

There are four new books added to the collection:

The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales
Salvage and Demolition
New Amsterdam
I Travel by Night (I might have missed downloading this one the first time)

[Maxine Marsh]

There's also Bleeding Shadows!

[Kate]

I'd like to join in on this one as well. :)

[Maxine Marsh]

Yay, Kate!

[Maxine Marsh]

Mallory Heart is supposed to be making her way over here as well...

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

I'm slow but I'm here! (iPad wouldn't connect earlier:(

[Andy]

When do we start?

[Maxine Marsh]

March 1st or so? This upcoming week?

The read is 88 pages, so lets think read it this week, discuss, maybe move onto anther HB novella next week or the end of the week?

[Kate]

Sounds like a plan.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

Good for me too

[Andy]

Anyone having trouble loading these books onto your kindle? This has been a major pain in the ass. The email directly to kindle only worked for like 1/3 of the books and I can't open the ones I loaded directly onto the kindle.

[Andy]

Finally! After like an hour of jerking around, I finally deleted and re-downloaded all the books. That works.

Sheesh

[Maxine Marsh]

Oh man, you're right they're all corrupt. Okay, going to delete and reload them...

Update: Sending them through email to the kindle worked out fine

[Andy]

Hmm. I think humblebundle has had some issues with mobi files. There was a thread on reddit from an earlier bundle mentioning the same issues I had.

All's well that ends well. I hope...

[Andy]

Lots of new reads starting today. Is anyone gonna crack this one right away?

[Kate]

Mines have worked fine. I downloaded them to my computer and sent them to my kindle through the ammy app.
If you have issues their support team are really good and will sort it out pronto.

[Kate]

Andy wrote: "Lots of new reads starting today. Is anyone gonna crack this one right away?"

I read the first chapter last night. Very tasty. :)

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

I'm reading it right now, different, but quite enjoyable. Really like the Agonistes theme.

[Maxine Marsh]

I just got through this one last night, it went much faster than expected. I really liked it, want to hear what you guys think. It seemed like it could have made a good longer book as well. I liked the drawings peppered throughout.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

I read it on Sunday. Unexpectedly I liked it very much--felt as if I were taking a Classics course at Uni:) extreme, graphic, well-written, very enjoyable!

[Andy]

I'm about 1/4 through and plan to finish tonight. I am really enjoying it so far. The mythology of the story is very skillfully constructed.

[Kate]

I have to finish up a netgalley read today but am hoping to get to this tomorrow and finish it.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

What title are you reading for NG, Kate?

[Andy]

Who wants to pick the next book?

I say we should rotate and pace ourselves based on the page lengths of each book.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

Sounds good, Andy. So, a longer this time?

[Kate]

Mallory Heart wrote: "What title are you reading for NG, Kate?"

Masters of Blood and Bone, i have to get my review up today for.the Darkfuse NG group. Plus The Cutting Room: Dark Reflections of the Silver Screen, Within These Walls, Decoration Day, ClownFellas: Tales of the Bozo Family and Winterworld Book 1: The Mechanic's Song.
Netgalley is way too addictive. :S

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

Thanks!! Yes, Like 360/day Christmas!!

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

I propose The Ape's Wife and Other Stories


I do love Caitlin Kiernan

[Andy]

I've only ever read The Drowning Girl, which was outstanding, so I'm game.

[Maxine Marsh]

Ape's Wife sounds good! I've been happy reading some anthologies lately.

[Andy]

I finished Tortured Souls last night and liked it a lot.

Was anyone else surprised when at about 40% all of a sudden there were cars and guns in the story? Because of the pseudo-biblical, mythological feel of the first few chapters, I had the setting pegged as pre-technology, if not ancient times.

[Maxine Marsh]

Yes that was interesting. My take was that this was similar to the Tower of Babel scenario where man had created a great civilization and eventually was struck down and all was lost.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

Andy, please try Pickman's Other Model! My introduction to CK, and really, my Lovecraftian reawakening

[Maxine Marsh]

I saw everyone finished the novella. Good work! I've changed to thread to our next buddy read, The Ape's Wife and Other Stories. Everyone let me know what kind of schedule you want to be on, I've got a ton of group and buddy reads going and more besides that, so I'll probably try to read a story every two or three days. What do you think?

[Kate]

I really enjoyed the Barker read. So grotesque yet so beautiful at the same time, his writing is amazing.

I don't know how I'm going to keep up with the rest of the reads as I really need to get my NG review pile down but I'll try.
I haven't read anything by Kiernan as yet so I hope this one is a good introduction.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime]

A story every 2-3 days works fine for me!

[Andy]

Nice and slow with a story every 2-3 days is perfect. I'm already reading 5 books this month.

[Maxine Marsh]

Kate wrote: "I really enjoyed the Barker read. So grotesque yet so beautiful at the same time, his writing is amazing.

I don't know how I'm going to keep up with the rest of the reads as I really need to get m..."

I know what you mean Kate. I need to read Dark Screams: Volume Two, Mercy House, Winterworld Book 1: The Mechanic's Song, ClownFellas: Tales of the Bozo Family, 8 other books on my NG shelf and like 12 graphic novels. And yet I can't seem to stop joining buddy reads...

[Kate]

I have over 40 books still to read and review for NG. Eeek

[Andy]

How about if we start Ape's Wife on Monday?

[Maxine Marsh]

Andy wrote: "How about if we start Ape's Wife on Monday?"

Sounds good Andy, I'm trying to make progress on some others reads as well.

[Andy]

I posted a story list at the top of the page (entry 2).

I plan to read the Author's Intro and The Steam Dancer today.

[Maxine Marsh]

Good list! I read Steam Dancer yesterday, interested to see about the other stories.

[Maxine Marsh]

I may try to get the second and third stories read this weekend while I'm off on vacation. No kids, just me and Mr. Marsh by the beach.

[Kate]

Maxine wrote: "I may try to get the second and third stories read this weekend while I'm off on vacation. No kids, just me and Mr. Marsh by the beach."

Have a great time, Maxine.:)
I haven't read the first story yet, what did you think of it?

[Maxine Marsh]

I thought it was good, but basically just a short piece to start the collection. I'm expecting the rest to be more 'substantive' as far as storyline goes, but the first one wasn't bad. More steampunk in genre.

[Andy]

I'm behind, too, but have spring break coming up. As a teacher and student, the time off just might allow me to reach my lofty reading goals for this month.

I will try to read the first three this weekend to ketchup.