Euan > Recent Status Updates

Wasn't really feeling anything was reading, so decided to go with something that won't count for next Bingo. Good so far

In the Hills, the Cities by Clive Barker (1984)- Reread. I remember only thinking this was okay when I first read it several years ago, but I didn't that was the case at all this time. This was great and horrific. Doesn't perhaps fit "the weirdest thing I've ever read" which I feel I've heard about it, but excellent.

Tainaron by Leena Krohn (1985)- Skipped, because I read this last year. It's a favourite though.

Bloodchild by Octavia Butler (1984)- Butler wrote this as a way of overcoming her fear of botflies? I mean it was great. But it was horrific.

Part 3. This is simultaneously good, and feels like a chore to read.

The Discovery of Telenapota by Premendra Mitra (1984)- The story of finding a ruined shell of a city, interestingly told in second person future perfect.

Soft by F. Paul Wilson (1984)- The story of a plague which causes the bones of its victims to liquify, and two partial victims surviving in NYC. Gross and scary.

My god, this book has breaks? It was a solid wall of text up until this point. Good story, but the formatting choices leave a lot to be desired.

*sigh* We're only 1/3 of the way in, this bitch isn't going to stay dead is he?

Also, if they're talking about Louis and Lestat, everyone who tagged this "romance" needs help.

How weird and emo and overwrought. Fun though

The New Rays by M. John Harrison (1982)- A story about a woman undergoing an unspecified, experimental treatment by being irradiated by New Rays in a shoddy, sketchy clinic, which also seems to create or involve blue homunculi of the patients, and this strange treatment's effect on her

Egnaro by M. John Harrison (1981)- This was a strange one. It seems to be almost about an antimeme, an idea of a secret that everyone knows but you, infecting a used bookstore owner and his accountant's lives. Slipper and hard to grasp.

The Dirty Little Girl by Joanna Russ- A story of a woman who encounters an oddly intelligent little girl, who she begins to take care of in small ways, who may be a ghost, or herself

It's a much shorter poem than you might think. Here ends the poem; the rest is Bible excerpts, religious essays Milton wrote, others' essays ABOUT the poem... I'm just reading the poem.

"...the rest, far greater part/
Will deem in outward rites and specious forms/
Religion satisfied; Truth shall retire/
Bestuck with sland'rous darts, and works of faith/
Rarely be found."

Well, good thing Michael/Milton warned us of that, and we avoided false faith and "Christians" in name only...

[Of Earth] "Terrestrial heav'n, danced round by other heav'n/ ... With what delight I could have walked thee round/ If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange/ of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains/ Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crowned/ Rocks, dens, and caves; but I in none of these/ Find place or refuge; and the more I see/ Pleasures about me, so much the more I feel/ Torment within me..."

The Autopsy by Michael Shea (1980)- A story about a doctor called to autopsy of men killed in a mine explosion, one of whom may be a cannibal, and finds something sinister when one of the corpses isn't quite as dead as it should be. Really good.

The Belonging Kind by William Gibson/John Shirley (1981)- A man finds a fluid human mimic at a bar and become obsessed with them and their transformations.

Were this a story, you would have the rebelling side of the fallen angels at least be able to put up a fight, if not appear close to winning before ultimately losing. But as it is, where the lowest ranks of faithful angels are able beat Satan's closest lieutenants (because Heaven's side cannot even be seen to struggle, I assume), it feels so one-sided as to be barely worth calling a "war."

"Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess /
Free, and to none accountable, preferring /
Hard liberty before the easy yoke /
Of servile pomp."

I mean, you can't say the devils sound unreasonable.

*guy who only reads fantasy voice* "Hmm... Getting a lot of Silmarillion vibes from this..."