[seankenny]

Stalker is great. Have you seen Solaris, by the same director?

[slab_happy]

Yes! That's my favourite Tarkovsky.

[seankenny]

I was lucky enough to see Andrei Rublev in the cinema. On paper, it’s a tough sell: a two and a half hour black and white film about a 15th century Russian icon painter. But it’s totally amazing - as other worldly as Solaris in its own way. I’d watch either film again without hesitation.

[Falling Down]

One of my favourite films.  Watching it in the cinema is a totally different and almost transformative experience compared to watching at home. I’ve had dreams about scenes and the characters.

Roadside Picnic sounds ace.  Will give that a read.

[Plattsy]

The Mosfilm Youtube channel has a Tarkovsky playlist of full films with subtitles...
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7EqAsBxqGgjarBzACNmCNDdr0y0iFu8U&si=Y2V3MTOxmFSd5rvv

[andy popp]

I'm on an Armenian roll right now. We were going to go to Armenia this summer to visit an old friend who lives in Yerevan, but trouble in the region has scuppered that. I'm gutted to be honest.

But I'd bought books in anticipation. I've read An Armenian Sketchbook by the great Russian novelist and reporter Vassily Grossman - a kind of travelogue, beautiful, sad, and funny - and am now about a quarter way into Franz Werfel's monumental The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, set during the Armenian genocide of 1915.

[jwi]

Grossman was a Ukrainian writer, or Soviet writer, if you want.

[andy popp]

You're right, of course! Apologies. Anyway, the book is excellent.

[jwi]

It was quite a disappointment to learn that Natalia Grossman is likely not related to Vassily.

[fatneck]

I've mainly been on a fantasy reading spree for the last few years starting with the Wheel of Time which is the best series of books I've read of any genre (and yes that includes LoTR).

I then read some China Mieville starting with The City and the City which was interesting but only ok, and then moved onto the Bas Lag trilogy, the first of which, Perdido Street Station, was disturbing but excellent and significantly (shockingly?) different to TC&TC! All of the books in this series were excellent.

I'm now approaching the end of the The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant having read the first three. I have found them challenging, particularly the first one and in almost every book I find myself getting frustrated with the main character but aways, without fail, by the time I get to the end, I'm quickly onto the next!

Will probably read the Last Chronicles next but am after recommendations on a similar vein for what to read next! Ideally by different authors to those listed above... Thanks!

[fatneck]

Or, to be fair, any of Meiville's other work that someone would highly recommend!

[Rocksteady]

I've mainly been on a fantasy reading spree for the last few years starting with the Wheel of Time which is the best series of books I've read of any genre (and yes that includes LoTR).

I then read some China Mieville starting with The City and the City which was interesting but only ok, and then moved onto the Bas Lag trilogy, the first of which, Perdido Street Station, was disturbing but excellent and significantly (shockingly?) different to TC&TC! All of the books in this series were excellent.

I'm now approaching the end of the The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant having read the first three. I have found them challenging, particularly the first one and in almost every book I find myself getting frustrated with the main character but aways, without fail, by the time I get to the end, I'm quickly onto the next!

Will probably read the Last Chronicles next but am after recommendations on a similar vein for what to read next! Ideally by different authors to those listed above... Thanks!

I love Wheel of Time too, deeply flawed but somehow still just amazing, I have re-read them multiple times and still like them.

Have you read The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson? Usually liked by people who like WoT. Very dark and complex and extremely epic fantasy.
Have you read any Guy Gavriel Kay? Tigana and The Lions of Al Rassan are both incredible reads.
I'll plug my own fantasy novel too The Hand of Fire which was very inspired by WoT and other fantasy classics 

On a different tip, I picked up reading Larry McMurtry again, with his Streets of Laredo following reading Lonesome Dove a few years ago. Wow. Unputdownably good. So bleak but with threads of hope, sometimes hard to follow the headhopping between characters which he doesn't signal that well, but all in an incredible author.

I enjoyed The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin, would read more of this series.

And I've been really enjoying Ross Macdonald's hard-boiled detective series - can't get enough of them really, trying to ration my reading so I don't use them all up too quickly.

Non-fiction I've recently read Empireland and Mary's Beard's Emperor of Rome, both of which I felt were a bit meh. Topics that I would have thought I would find more interesting if treated in a more interesting way, both felt a little superficial. 

[jwi]

The Traitor Son cycle by Miles Cameron might be interesting for readers who enjoy medivial-based high fantasty? Written by a former navy officer and historian, so expect a lot of descriptions of the logistic issues with moving a small army.

[TobyD]

Moscow X by David McCloskey is an excellent spy thriller. Recommended if you like those.

[moose]

I thought his last one, Damascus Station, was really good.  I read an interview show with former heads of MI5 and MI6 and one of them said it was the best depiction of running operations in a hostile environment they'd read. Definitely worth a read for anyone who likes lots of "trade craft" in their spy novels.

[Rocksteady]

Or, to be fair, any of Meiville's other work that someone would highly recommend!

My favourite one of his was Kraken, this was really good.

Was trying to think of who writes in any way similar, I think Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is the closest I can think of. For some reason I feel that Josiah Bancroft's Senlin Ascends has similarity to Mieville, maybe in the sort of literary style, maybe in the element of alien cityscape.

Re: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant I always struggled with how utterly unlikeable the protagonist is, very difficult to forgive his behaviour. In subject matter Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry is similar. If you like a really horrible protagonist, then grimdark is for you - Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns springs to mind as the highest quality example of the subgenre.

[fatneck]

Thanks everyone, plenty to go at there!

Re liking a horrible protagonist, I'm not sure I do! I think I'm sticking with the Covenant books because the world building is so good and also Giants...

[TobyD]

I thought his last one, Damascus Station, was really good.  I read an interview show with former heads of MI5 and MI6 and one of them said it was the best depiction of running operations in a hostile environment they'd read. Definitely worth a read for anyone who likes lots of "trade craft" in their spy novels.

Moscow X is every bit as good as his first novel. If the depiction of the current Russian regime is remotely close to reality, it's very, very frightening.

[Duma]

Roadside Picnic

Dead good, worth a read!

Thanks for the reminder Wellsy, really enjoyed this.

[Wellsy]

Yeah it's good isn't it, and very readable. I think it's also an interesting counterpart to the sci-fi themes of the time that were often about unique geniuses who could master anything they encountered through reason and moral fortitude. This is about very ordinary, if at times impressively competent, people encountering things that are very unknowable and I thought that was cool.