Sunday Morning Book Thread - 4-6-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

THE POWER OF NAMES

Book-adjacent thought: the Vatican archives are an object of endless speculation, but I have to wonder if there is a Big Book of Demons in there. Diary of an American Exorcist and the Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare note that one of the power exorcists have (and a vital first step) is demanding the demon name itself. IRRC, in "The Exorcist" the demon in question was documented in ancient times.

I mean think about it - we're dealing with creatures made before the world was finished.

Presumably, these incidents recorded and then sent to Rome, where it is added into the tally. Wouldn't it be fascinating to have those incidences mapped out? Surely such knowledge would be Lovecraftian insofar as those unprepared for it would go stark raving mad when they read it.

Could be a book in there somewhere.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 30, 2025 10:11 AM (ZOv7s)

I find this comment fascinating. The power of naming things is a staple of fantasy literature, showing up all the time, particularly among necromancers and warlocks who engage with entities best left undisturbed.

There are legends that King Solomon of the Bible was given a magical ring that allowed him to command demons by name. Jesus Christ famously commanded a demon to speak its name ("My name is Legion") and then the demons were driven out of a man into a herd of pigs that drowned themselves (Mark 5:1-11).

In Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga, Elric's magic works by conjuring an elemental spirit by name to do his bidding. In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter franchise, people are terrified of He That Shall Not Be Named (Lord Voldemort) because they fear that naming him would draw his attention down upon themselves.

The Devil--a.k.a. Satan, a.k.a. Lucifer--goes by many different nicknames (Old Scratch, Evil One, Accuser, The Serpent, etc.) because naming the Devil was thought to attract his attention. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series uses this trope extensively, as naming the True Name of the Dark One *definitely* causes a reaction from Shai'tan, so different cultures have a variety of colorful nicknames for the Dark One--Dark Lord of the Grave, Great Lord of the Dark (favored name by Darkfriends), Old Grim, Leafblighter, Grassburner, Heartfang, etc. This also works in the heroes favor as when Rand officially accepts he's now the Dragon Reborn, his own world changes as the Pattern adjusts itself to him, eliminating any rival False Dragons who might be out there.

In F. Paul Wilson's Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack series, the antagonist is cursed with being unable to fully disguise his name, so all of his aliases are an anagram of his True Name (Rasalom), making it relatively easy to identify him once his enemies know that fact. He's still a treacherous, duplicitous, slippery little bastard, though.

H.P. Lovecraft leans *hard* into the idea that names have power...but also cause insanity. Many of the entities in his works have tongue-twisting names like Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, and Hastur. Shub-Niggurath is often referred to as the Black Goat of a Thousand Young. Nyarlathotep is the Crawling Chaos or the Mighty Messenger, herald of the Great Old Ones. Calling upon them can cause them to appear, but we're not responsible for any consequences. Just learning the name of a book that contains one of these names is guaranteed to cause loss of at least one point of sanity...You've been warned!

ULTIMATE BOOK LIST (HT: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper)

I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper posted a link to the Ultimate Booklist earlier this week. I looked at the list and was immediately turned off by it, but that's just me. Why should I care what books celebrities and politicians are reading?

I'm much more interested in what YOU are reading!

I'd say the overall quality of reading by the Moron Horde is at least on par with what the folks on the Ultimate Book List are reading, if not a level or two above their recommendations.

In the interest of fairness, I did browse through a few folks' selections and saw some surprising recommendations. I did not know Barack Obama was a fan of science fiction, as he recommends Neal Stephenson's Seveneves and Ted Chiang's Exhalation. People like Donald Trump and Bill Gates have almost no fiction recommendations, as their reading tastes tend to focus on business-related works. Elon Musk, however, does have some fiction recommendations like Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat Returns and Christopher Rowley's Starhammer. I tried reading the latter book, but it wasn't great.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

For fans of the Sherlock Holmes stories and Doyle's writing in general check out On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda. It is a celebration of why Holmes stores remain so popular. It won my heart when he described his first reading of Hound of the Baskervilles which was almost identical to mine: grade school, a stormy night, even snacks to enjoy while reading. Perfect.

Posted by: JTB at March 30, 2025 10:12 AM (yTvNw)

Comment: There's a lot to be said when reading a story whose mood matches the outside weather. When reading a story like Hound of the Baskervilles, you almost *want* the weather to be gloomy and dark, misty and mysterious...Hound has a distinct horror feel overlaying the mystery at the heart of the story.

Finished reading a graphic novel since last I posted here: Tex: Relentless. It's a black-and-white cowboy comic by some Italians. It features fictional Texas Ranger Tex Willer (he was named for the job!) and fictionalized-real-person Kit Carson as they track down a murderer who escaped from prison and left most of the town's law-enforcement dead in the process. It is, hands down, the best of the Tex comics that I've read.

One minor complaint, though, this story was created specifically as a graphic novel, and not initially published as individual issues. Which means there are no natural official chapter breaks. Scene changes will often correspond with a page-turn, but there are no announced chapter breaks. 200 pages of material, and not a single officially-sanctioned pausing-point. Imagine trying to read a novel that was structured like that; the whole story as single wall of text, with nothing more than a couple of carriage returns to change a scene...

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 30, 2025 09:31 AM (Lhaco)

Comment: The first time I encountered a novel without chapters, I was a bit confused. I kept expecting chapter headings to show up *eventually.* That was Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, the first Discworld novel I ever read. Then I quickly got used to the lack of chapters as I read more Terry Pratchett. Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim novels also don't have any chapters--just section breaks between scenes. The book I read this week (see below) had lengthy chapters with multiple section breaks within each chapter. I really would have liked more chapter breaks as that makes it easier for me to break up my reading. If there's just section breaks, I tend to feel compelled to keep reading...which is probably the author's intention.

MORE MORON RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE: AoSHQ - Book Thread Recommendations

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

1. A Drop of Corruption: An Ana and Din Mystery by Robert Jackson Bennett - This is the second in a series of Sherlock Holmes-style mysteries set in a very strange world.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

I finally finished this classic work! Overall, I really enjoyed the experience, even more than I thought I would. Although Poe may have invented the analytical detective story, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took the idea to the next level with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. These stories are highly recommended!

Greatwinter Book 1 - Souls in the Great Machine Sean McMullen

Thousands of years in the future, humanity has been reduced to 19th-century technology, though they are only able to harness animal, human, and wind-power for most energy needs. Although steampower and electrical power are both known, the former is proscribed due to religious edict and the latter no longer works reliably due to remnants of the old world that suppress electromagnetic forces. Now the world plunges back into chaos as a new Greatwinter is imminent and one woman strives to prevent the destruction of the world all over again. Meanwhile, her chief rival seeks to conquer the known world. Oh, and humans have become components in a computer-like system known as a "calculor."

I find this story fascinating in how humans perform the essential operations of a computer, instead of a mechanical system. Basically, humans performs simple calculations like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. More sophisticated calculations based on those foundational operations are performed by humans who grasp more advanced mathematics. Thousands of humans work in the largest Calculor in Libris. Smaller calculors can be used in warfare as "battle computers." Humans are also struggling to reinvent rocketry so that they can take out the orbiting battlestations that have deliberately stagnated human society and culture for thousands of years.

All the action takes place in Australia...The next book takes us to America, which has a very different technology level.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 3-30-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Will the real Huggy Squirrel please stand up?

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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