What are you reading in 2024?

[prabe]

I'm back in something like my rhythm for reading. Last three books: Secret Identity by Alex Segura, a neatly noirish mystery, set in the comics industry in NYC in 1975, when both NYC and the comics industry looked as though they were circling the drain, laden with queerness and feminism and stacked with love for comics; Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, a noirish crime novel set in 1920s Cahokia, in an alt-history where Cahokia is still a going thing, a jazzy symphony of research and writing, theme and story, pain and beauty; Moon Lake by Joe R. Lansdale, a master working in his grimy East Texas crime wheelhouse, noirsh and gothic with elements that hint at but do not insist on the supernatural, and an earned and honest bittersweet ending.

 

[Cadence]

About 1/3 of the way through The Big Book of the Continental Op. So far still being a fun read. I now see why Stout liked Hammett.

 

[overgeeked]

Just finished Mushoku Tensei #22. The author is mostly moving pieces around the chess board for the finale despite it being 3-4 books away. It’s nice that there’s some movement and action starting up again, even if it’s mostly set up at this point.

Despite reading a lot of pulp stuff, I’m not a fan of cliffhanger endings. There’s been 2-3 in the last 3-4 books. I also want a complete story in one book even if it’s short. Most of the earlier books in the series were mostly self-contained despite being part of an on-going, building narrative. The last few have slipped more and more into pure serial fiction.

At times it reminds me of the better comic book writing that wove A, B, and C stories in and out issue after issue. The A plot is resolved in this issue, but the B or C plot would become the A plot in the next issue…only for a new B or C plot to come in. Constantly shuffling plots and subplots.

If the writer keeps evolving and refining his skills, I’ll definitely auto-buy whatever he does going forward.