Liberty's Crusade by Jeff Grubb.
Reading up on my Star Craft novels in anticipation of the sequel.
The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade Volume 1.
My first Warhammer fiction book. It is impressing me enough that I intend to pick up Volume 2. I like the take on the dark elf culture - I think it will make a nice fit into my Darklands Golarion campaign.
Finished Barker's Man of Gold last night. I highly recommend it, in spite of a somewhat jarring disjunction in the narrative of the last couple of chapters.
Finished The Deed of Paksenarrion. Wow, that must have been the fastest 1024 pages I have ever read! Great stuff, would like to thank the readers on this board for suggesting it or else I would have missed this one completely. Definitely one of the best fantasy books I have ever read. Some great nods to D&D; (besides the obvious paladin stuff) a little bit of Hommlet, Lloth, drow, druids, St. Cuthbert and even a baelnorn. Page turning delight!
Currently reading R Scott Bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before. The first three or four chapters were a bit stilting trying to nail all the terms and names down but it morphed into a page turner after that. Glad I stuck with it.
"The Fuller Memorandum "(Laundry 3)
BY Charles Stross. Cultist want to accelerate "Case Nightmare Green". The Laundry - not so much.
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Finished Feists's At the Gates of Darkness. I'm pretty sure this was a publisher's money grab because it could have been part of it's predecessor Rides A Dread Legion. There was no need to turn this story into a whole new book.
Just started Diana Pharoah Francis' Bitter Night. Urban fantasy centered around witches.
Yesterday I finished My Life by Leon Trotsky. Woo! From exiled revolutionary to #2 in the first dictatorship of the proletariat back to exiled revolutionary.
This book gave me a lot of ideas for my Galtic raconteur!
Today I'm going to start The Demon of Scattery by Poul Anderson and Mildred Downey Broxon. I loved Three Hearts and Three Lions, so I'm excited about this!
Just finished The Picts and the Martyrs and have now started Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe.
Currently reading Dark Flame on my Kindle DX.
Finished The Darkness That Comes Before. Some good qualities like worldbuilding and a great chase scene but the author's background in philosophy bogs down the book, imo. Has it's ups and downs but not really a fan of Bakker. Might finish the series regardless to see if it gets better in the second one like Abercrombie's did.
Started Fool Moon by Jim Butcher and Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolfe.
Just finished "The Help" by Katherine Stockett on the recomendation of my parents. Fascinating, finished in 2 days.
Now reading "The Passage" by Justin Cronin about 100 pages in, interesting so far.
Next will be "Shadow Queen" and "Shalador's Lady" by Anne Bishop
I just finished the seventh book of Stephen King's The Dark Tower. I got to find out if the gunslinger made it to the top of the tower to see what there was to see.
I am now starting the ever so popular Girl with a Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I have never read Swedish fiction before.
I am now starting the ever so popular Girl with a Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I have never read Swedish fiction before.
And yet the first half of your user-name is quite common in my grand-parents' generation. So I guess it should be coming back pretty soon.
FOr the record, I'm possibly the only non-blind Swede in existence who's not read Stieg Larsson - yet, so I can't tell whether you're in for a treat or not, but if you want to read more Swedish stuff I can recommend Henning Mankell's Wallander novels.
"Iron angel" by Alan Campbell. Hell is rising!
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20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill (Stephen King's youngest son).
It's really very good. Hill has this habit of abrupt endings. I wonder if it's his application of a lesson learned watching his father write himself into scenes of insurmountable rising action unworthy of any possible conclusion?
On top of that, he consistently writes that something or other is "in underneath," a pet phrase of mine that my parents constantly chided me over as a kid.
His writing is similar to his dad's, but much tighter, much more focused, and in its own way, much better.
Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I read more than most people I know. Many of the books I read have had co-workers or people on the bus look at them. This was the first book, in a long while, that many people were either aware of or had read before me.
I’m currently switching back and forth between a number of different books:
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
Population: 485 by Michael Perry
Don Quixote by Cervantes
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Debatable Space by Philip Palmer
"The Redemption of Alexander Seaton" by Shona Maclean and the sequel;
"A Game of Sorrows".
Historical mysteries set in Scotland and Ireland during the 1620's.
"The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde.
The thinning border between literature and reality is guarded by Thursday Next, Literary Detective!
Finished "The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins where I ran into thylacines!
Today started "The Travels of Marco Polo" where I could run into anything!
Rereading Jacqueline Carey's second Kushiel-trilogy (the slightly less sexy one), as well as reading biography on Gandhi called Mahatma! Or the art of turning the world upside down by a Swedish writer with the fabulous name Zac O'Yeah (which I'm guessing isn't what his parents named him).
Finished Kraken (crazy s$@%, what an imagination) by Mieville and Under Heaven by Kay.
Just finished Leiber's Swords vs Ice Magic, and thus the F&GM books. I could start Template, but I might just wait for Dave Gross' books, arriving any day now, to open the gates of Pf fiction unto me.
Okay, starting reading Prince of Wolves at bedtime. Blew through the first four chapters, but was kind of confused by the first scene. Think I'll reread it.
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Finished up Diana Pharoah Francis' Bitter Night last week. Interesting take on urbanized witches. It's going to be a series so we'll see where she takes it.
In the middle of Medalon. The first book in Jennifer Fallon's Hythrun Chronicles. From what I understand she's a legend in her home country of Australia. I'm about 175 pages in and I've seen nothing particularly innovative. Child of a prophecy under oppressive regime stuff so far.
I'm currently reading The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. One thing I can tell you - turning invisible also turns you into a complete a-hole!
I plan to read War of the Worlds by Wells when I'm done.
Having finished Prince of Wolves today, I highly recommend it!
Reading The Name of the Wind and The Coming of Conan of Cimmeria again. Talk about two different poles of fantasy! Both are great though.
Took time out from Brave Story to read Mister Monday and Boneshaker while at Gen Con. I recommend both—and particularly recommend Boneshaker to people familiar with Seattle geography, though its last few pages fell down a bit.
Now I'm back into Brave Story, and it's suddenly gotten WAY darker.
Reading Moon Dance by S.P. Somtow which is set in the 1880's in what is now Dakota. It is about a group of European werewolves who try to move to the American West only to find out that there are already Native American werewolves there. It is about two very different ways of looking at werewolves and the culture clash that follows. Really good stuff.
This is kind of a follow up to having reread Little Big Man and its sequal Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger.
Reading Moon Dance by S.P. Somtow which is set in the 1880's in what is now Dakota. It is about a group of European werewolves who try to move to the American West only to find out that there are already Native American werewolves there. It is about two very different ways of looking at werewolves and the culture clash that follows. Really good stuff.
This is kind of a follow up to having reread Little Big Man and its sequal Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger.
HUGE OWoD Werewolf fan here. Will be picking this book up asap.
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner (featuring the awesomely titled musical "Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad")
I couldn't get into Kraken at all, so I dropped it. I'm falling out of the Mieville fan club.
Read The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell, which was okay. Another zombie centered novel, but the zombies are sort of beside the point. Fell apart for me at the end, but up until that it was pretty good with flashes of real inspiration and a moment or two that were really contrived.
Now I'm working on Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, which I'm enjoying.
Reading Thongor and the Wizards of Lemuria by Lin Carter.
I am about one and a half chapters into 'The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone'
This book takes and Epidemiological approach to identifying the causes of social issues. The conclusion, more equal societies have fewer social issues, from mental health, to murder, from physicial health, to rates of teen pregnacy, the more equal a society the less it is plagued by such issues. It is a very interesting read, and one I cannot recommend enough, based on what I have read so far.
Currently reading...
Revelation Space - Alistair Reynolds.
I'm re-reading Storm Front while the library orders the rest of his book series. Jim Butcher-awesome.
I'm re-reading Storm Front while the library orders the rest of his book series. Jim Butcher-awesome.
Just started the Codex Alera. Enjoyable read for sure. Maybe biased for being happy that butcher gets to tell his fantasy story after years of Dresden. But yes, I love Dresden. One of the few series (along with Discworld) that actually gets better as the series goes along!
Muscle by Jon Hotten - an inside look at the lifestyles and the competition of Mr. Olympia level bodybuilders. It's friggin crazy the drugs these guys pump into themselves. Very good book.
McMafia by Misha Glenny- the globalization of organized crime, concentrating mostly in the first few chapters on the impact of the crumbling of the USSR. Have to read this one in small bursts it's so stark. Good but scary.
The Crusader by Michael Alexander Eisner - great historical fiction,#2 on my HF list, place it right after Lawhead's Byzantium and before Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose.
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher - Best of the three Dresden books I have read so far. Demons, ghosts, vampires, nightmare invasions, knights with holy swords, ghost worlds and huge sorcerous explosions. The series is getting better.
The Halls of Stormweather - a nifty little WOTC book with seven short stories set in Sembia. A little gem and a real surprise given the WOTC heading.
I'm almost done with Andre Norton's Quag Keep. Talk about a blast from the past!
Just got S.M. Stirling's new Emberverse novel, The High King of Montival on Saturday.
I'm reading Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton), Magic the Gathering: Eventide (Scott McGough, Cory J. Herndon), Warhammer 40.000 The Founding (a Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus written by Dan Abnett) and War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells) at interchanging intervals because I can't stick with one book until it'S finished due to my ever-shifting fields of interest.
I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, or why i can never finish any larger project I start.