Finally got myself copies of Glen Cook's Black Company books. Finished the first and anxiously diving into the next!Great series! Really enjoyed reading those books. I need to look at his other books. I can't imagine they won't be up to the same high standards.You should also check out the dread empire.
The Garrett PI series is good - lighter in tone than the Black Company.
Read Garrett PI years ago, fun stuff. And definitely lighter than the Black Company books. Although I'm loving the subtle and not-so-subtle humor of the Black Company!
Will pick up Dread Empire. Just depends on how fast I get through Black Company. Just started Shadow Games this week. Of course The Heroes (Joe Abercrombie) comes out next month, the new Malazan is due in March, and the new Dresden is coming out in April.
Lots to read!!
Oh, my. How could I forget The Republic of Thieves?!?
Was getting all prepped to read Zero History, the new one by William Gibson, but then I got distracted by problems with my teeth, Christmas overtime and the Dragonlance Legends trilogy, which I finally finished yesterday.
Re: Legends, meh. It's always disappointing to revisit something you loved as a child, but, in all fairness the books are pedestrian rather than bad.
The other book that I read during this time period was The Greek Myths by Robert Graves. He compiles all of the myths and then has his explanations for them which almost always include either a tripartite Moon Goddess or the ritual murder of a seasonal king. I got all excited and thought that I had finally stumbled upon some real mythographical gems, but then I looked him up on-line and it says that most of his work is not supported by academics. :(
Although the literary quality of the retelling of the myths is superb and you have to admire his dismissal of his critics, something along the lines of: You're academics, what do you know about poetry?
"Room" by Emma Donoghue , read it in one sitting.
"Blue at the Mizzen" by Patrick O'Brian:)
Started "The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better". Interesting idea supported by statistics.
Finished Tim Severin's Viking series. It was progressively worse as the trilogy went on to the point where I absolutely loved the first book to being unable to finish the last one.
Finished Castles by Marc Morris. Started off well until it began telling the personal history of a select few castles about 3/4 of the way through. Lost it's readability somewhat. Still some interesting facts about the UK's age of castles.
Putting the final touches on Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold. Not nearly as enjoyable as the First Law Trilogy; a revenge story with flat characters and a suspenseless plot. A pity.
Reading Swords and Dark Magic: short stories about Sword and Sorcery from some big names as Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Gene Wolfe and Glen Cook. A few good tales; about halfway through.
Peter Straub's Koko is next.
Finished William Gibson's Zero History which I thoroughly enjoyed even though it's mostly about fashion.
Am now reading Plato's The Republic and, to leaven the mood, Michael Moorcock's The Jewel in the Skull. I wonder who would win in a fight, Socrates or Bowgentle?
"The Year of Our War" by Steph Swainston. Immortals fighing bugs, and doing drugs.
"Changes" by Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden to the rescue!
pawn of prophecy by david eddings. sixty pages in and can't decide if i like it or not...
pawn of prophecy by david eddings. sixty pages in and can't decide if i like it or not...
It gets better once they get off the damned farm. I first read it as a teenager and thought it was fine, but came back as an adult and wanted to firebomb the place.
Also: just started John Dies at the End by David Wong.
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie... about 3/4 ways through... brutually excellent as per expected.
Just started Kuttner's The Dark World.
Ripped through The Jewel in the Skull and am now into The Mad God's Amulet. I must admit that sometimes while reading fiction, my mind wanders, and my eye begins to skim over some paragraphs, especially if they're landscape descriptions. When reading prime Moorcock, you really shouldn't do this as almost every paragraph is wondrously worded or describing something really imaginative.
Plato's The Republic, on the other hand, I gave up after Book V, because I decided that, frankly, I don't care what Plato thinks. "Allegory of the cave" blah blah blah; everyone should only do one thing so that they can do it well, blah blah blah.
Instead I picked up Blowback by Chalmers Johnson.
Plato's The Republic, on the other hand, I gave up after Book V, because, frankly, I don't care what Plato thinks. "Allegory of the cave" blah blah blah; everyone should only do one thing so that they can do it well, blah blah blah.
I begin to understand the reason for your simplistic political views -- sheer disinterest.
Plato's The Republic, on the other hand, I gave up after Book V, because, frankly, I don't care what Plato thinks. "Allegory of the cave" blah blah blah; everyone should only do one thing so that they can do it well, blah blah blah.I begin to understand the reason for your simplistic political views -- sheer disinterest.
Hey! My political views are far from simple! EDIT: Jeez, you disagree with a guy about the meaning of the word "muckraker" and see what happens!
Anyway, I understand the historical importance of Plato, but if you can point to one thing you learned from The Republic that you didn't already know, I'll finish reading the stupid book.
Anyway, I understand the historical importance of Plato, but if you can point to one thing you learned from The Republic that you didn't already know, I'll finish reading the stupid book.
Mostly I hadn't known how much of what we consider recent political thought had already been hashed out in great detail in ancient Greece. I just wish he and John Locke and Thomas Hobbes could have all gotten together.
Anyway, I understand the historical importance of Plato, but if you can point to one thing you learned from The Republic that you didn't already know, I'll finish reading the stupid book.Mostly I hadn't known how much of what we consider recent political thought had already been hashed out in great detail in ancient Greece. I just wish he and John Locke and Thomas Hobbes could have all gotten together.
Fair enough. I was aware of the importance of The Republic for all later political theory, but since I asked for one thing YOU hadn't known, I am now compelled to finish the book.
(Sigh, I'd rather be reading Moorcock)
EDIT: Ha, ha! I lean heavily towards CG and therefore feel no compulsion to honor my deals! Sweet Yisselda, here I come!
Sweet Yisselda, here I come!
I've read that series like four times. Just be sure to save your sanity and stop after the original series -- the 3-part "follow-up" (postwar) books were terrible.
Sweet Yisselda, here I come!I've read that series like four times. Just be sure to save your sanity and stop after the original series -- the 3-part "follow-up" (postwar) books were terrible.
This is my second go-round with The History of the Runestaff. If I ran into the next three at a used book store, I'd probably snap them up in a heartbeat, despite your warning. (Not that I don't believe you, but I have a bit of a completist complex.)
The Moorcock CV is quite vast and I've only read the first 4 Hawkmoon books and the first 5 Elric ones. I've read that he gets self-admittedly hacky later with some of his books later on, but everything that I've read has been amazingly good.
The Moorcock CV is quite vast and I've only read the first 4 Hawkmoon books and the first 5 Elric ones. I've read that he gets self-admittedly hacky later with some of his books later on, but everything that I've read has been amazingly good.
His really early Mars titles (available from Paizo's "Planet Stories" line) were awful. The original Elric series was excellent, and both Corum series are worth a read, and the History of the Runestaff; and the John Daker trilogy (especially if you can get past the heavy-handed "white guilt" theme of The Eternal Champion -- Phoenix in Obsidian was better) -- all of these have the same kind of "high fantasy" feel. The Ice Schooner also reminds me of PhiOb.
The Jerry Cornelius series is of course billed as "the original cyberpunk."
The End of Time series is a bit mawkish for my taste -- if you don't have an abiding love of all things quaint and oh-so-British, it sort of falls flat. I also for some reason don't enjoy his alternative history works: the Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy, Gloriana, etc., nor any of the Von Beck stuff (including the later Elric crossovers) -- and I'd put the postwar Hawkmoon books (except maybe the last one) as similar to the von Beck stuff, with alternate time streams to boot.
That of course still leaves a fair volume of work I've missed, but hopefully it gives you a starting point.
Just finished Mark Sehestedt's The Fall of the Highwatch, the first of the Chosen of Nendawen series. I had to do a double take on this to make sure it was a WOTC book. Great novel; plenty of gore, exciting scenes, even multilayering. The author gets bogged down with description in the middle somewhat, but otherwise a fast paced, imaginative novel. The best from WOTC since The Crystal Shard and Dragonlance Chronicle days.
Currently reading The Seer King by Chris Bunch. Very good, enjoying it. Reminds me somewhat of Publius Varrus reminiscing in Jack Whyte's Dream of Eagles series, only with some magic thrown in for good measure. Hope it holds up.
Against the Gods
Good to Great
Black Swan
In service,
Rich
www.drgames.org
I'm reading Julie E. Czerneda's A Thousand Words for Stranger. Not bad but the characters often seem to act in completely arbitrary manners that don't seem to be adequately resolved.
Well, I read a lot back during the Great Sickness of '11, and I didn't post them. So...
READ: Lyonesse books I & II by Jack Vance; Cygnet books by Patricia McKillip; Sojan the Swordsman + Under the Warrior Star, The Best of Leigh Brackett; Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
READING: Best Fantasy & Horror 8; Mammoth Book of Fantasy (rereading selected stories); Dragons, Elves & Heroes (ed. Lin Carter)
LISTENING: Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
When I get done, I'll go back and reread Cunningham. By the time I got back to Drayen's post, it was too late -- but I haven't forgotten!
I definitely look forward to getting hold of the third Lyonesse book and Johnson's Fudoki.
I just started Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. I really loved the First Law Trilogy, and it seems he hasn't lost a step at all. So far (about 75 pages in) it's absolutely great!
I just started Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. I really loved the First Law Trilogy, and it seems he hasn't lost a step at all. So far (about 75 pages in) it's absolutely great!
And just gets better and better....
AND you've got The Heroes to look forward to [his best yet]
just reread Virgil's Aeneid and used it to do a comparative study with Dante's Inferno which I also read; just for fun in my spare time as I dont have anything to read currently until the next Dresden Files book comes out; but am intrigues by this Joe Abercrombie talk; were would I start?
Valegrim: He-man reader.
Just finished Kuttner's The Dark World -- can definitely see the influence on Zelazny there, but otherwise it was basically a lame "remake" of the far superior Dwellers in the Mirage that Abraham Merritt wrote 14 years prior.
On the other hand, I finally picked up Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird the other day and was instantly enthralled.
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Just finished Kuttner's The Dark World -- can definitely see the influence on Zelazny there, but otherwise it was basically a lame "remake" of the far superior Dwellers in the Mirage that Abraham Merritt wrote 14 years prior.
You noticed that too, eh? I said as much to Erik Mona when he first mentioned getting the rights to The Dark World. (That led into a discussion about Merritt, which was no bad thing.) IMHO, Kuttner improved quite a bit after that--less derivative and less florid, even in thematically similar Lost World-type stories like Valley of the Flame.
"The Heroes" by Joe Abercrombie, a fantasy version of "Battle of Gettysburg"
"The Towers of Midnight" by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I feel slightly dirty...
More Merrit in the Planet Stories, please.
I just started Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. I really loved the First Law Trilogy, and it seems he hasn't lost a step at all. So far (about 75 pages in) it's absolutely great!And just gets better and better....
AND you've got The Heroes to look forward to [his best yet]
The Heroes is next on my list to read - glad to hear it's good. Even better to hear you think it's his best - I'm presuming based on nothing in particular that you're a fan :)
Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold.
It's probably the fourth or fifth time I've read it, but I love it.
I do that with my mercedes lackey books all the time.
On the other hand, I finally picked up Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird the other day and was instantly enthralled.
I hated it, but I had to dig down a few levels to figure out what exactly rubbed me so intensely wrong.
just reread Virgil's Aeneid and used it to do a comparative study with Dante's Inferno which I also read; just for fun in my spare time as I dont have anything to read currently until the next Dresden Files book comes out; but am intrigues by this Joe Abercrombie talk; were would I start?
Well, I read Best Served Cold first and it was completely understandable, but some of the world details went right over my head until I read The First Law Trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, The Last Argument of Kings).
I'll refrain from saying anything plotwise, but as far as the writing goes: He's a pretty good writer (imho), but I find the constant gore occasionally gets a little mind-numbing. Not that I am opposed to gore, but there's a real lot of it and I found, once or twice, my eye skipping down the page.
For my money his best characters are Glotka the torturer and Cosca the mercenary. Oh yeah, and he can be really funny, too!
But what did a comparative study of Dante and Virgil reveal?
Hehe Moorluck; me to.
I was comparing the hellgate entrance and the elements of who is met in both stories. Dante used much of Virgil to create the environment of Hell itself; but changed the locality into Christian viewpoints; so whereas Virgil used ancient Greek values; so for example; the first group of dead mortal Aeneaus sees are the multitudes of the dead who cannot board Charons vessel to cross over into hell proper; why, because they are the unburied and without a proper burial; you dont get into the afterlife; your eternally stuck; so Aeneaus meets his helmsman who tells him where his body is and please go bury it. But Dante; who does he meet as the first group of dead mortals; but the undecided; those who cannot choose; endlessly chasing after this or that flag or new idea or cause endlessly stung by insects. The big difference between the two stories are that the realm of hades has pleasant places in Virgil for the heroes and dead who earned a reward; but in Dante, Hell is for punishment only. It is quite interesting that both meet so many people they know in Hell; hehe; ah; the gate to hell is wide and its jaws endlessly hungery. Each is a critique on their societies values and judgements.
Virgil of course is writing the Epic of the Birth of Rome, Dante is not so lofty as he is mostly writing a jibe at corruption of his time; but Dante paves the work for Milton's Paradise lost; which if read should really not be read until you have AT LEAST read the Aeneid and the Divine commedy; as Milton refers to many other past literary works in PL and a reader would miss it.
I was also looking for other stories of literary characters from the period entering hell; and Charon the Boatman in the Aeneid mentions six of them; so I wrote them down to check their entrance stories so Virgil knew of them before he wrote his work.
Want a good laugh; read Miltons "Parlement of Fowls" where he give as the groups in government leadership birdlike values; hehe is a hoot and I am certain you can just change the names and fill in your own birds from our government.
Thanks Doodlebug for the input; I too would probably weary from a lot of gore; but if the story is good it should be no issue.
Okay, Samnell, you've made me curious.
On the other hand, I finally picked up Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird the other day and was instantly enthralled.I hated it, but I had to dig down a few levels to figure out what exactly rubbed me so intensely wrong.
And what was your conclusion?
I just started Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. I really loved the First Law Trilogy, and it seems he hasn't lost a step at all. So far (about 75 pages in) it's absolutely great!And just gets better and better....
AND you've got The Heroes to look forward to [his best yet]
The Heroes is next on my list to read - glad to hear it's good. Even better to hear you think it's his best - I'm presuming based on nothing in particular that you're a fan :)
Guilty as charged.
Love the brutal shades of grey of Abercrombie's world. As a unnecessary but enjoyable prelude to The Heroes I'd try and read his short story "The Fool Jobs" in the Swords & Dark Magic fantasy anthology. Its probably the best tale in the book, introduces a new Northmen crew who play a decent role in the Heroes, but its probably not worth buying just for Abercrombie's part.
Valegrim: I'd start with the First Law trilogy and take it from there... The Blade Itself is the first book and will give you a pretty decent indicator if Joe Abercrombie is your cup of tea or not. The violence is pretty harsh but not glorified - he doesn't pull any punches... but his characters are bold and colourful.
Received a review copy of LEVIATHAN WAKES, the first in a space opera series called THE EXPANSE. It's written by James SA Corey, a pen-name for Daniel Abraham, one of the best spec fic writers working today, and newcomer Ty Franck, who created THE EXPANSE's SF setting for a roleplaying game.
This is easily one of the best space operas I've read in a long, long time, since at least Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton's early space opera work. Tremendous fun, with a nice cross-genre mix of space opera, noir thriller and horror. Look out for it in June, it should be huge (Abraham also has a new solo fantasy novel, THE DRAGON'S PATH, out around the same time which is also picking up great notices; this could be his year in a big way).
Oh, my. How could I forget The Republic of Thieves?!?
I guess you saw the February release date? Sadly, it was untrue. The publishers were hoping to hit it but things FUBARED and their computer system refused to update (should be done now).
The current earliest release date is November 2011 and even that is not set in stone :-(
Okay, Samnell, you've made me curious.
And what was your conclusion?On the other hand, I finally picked up Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird the other day and was instantly enthralled.I hated it, but I had to dig down a few levels to figure out what exactly rubbed me so intensely wrong.
The book was largely sold to me, both times it was taught, as an anti-racist story about a good, upstanding lawyer who transcends the prejudices of his culture. In its own way, it's supposed to be like Huck Finn. Atticus Finch is so excruciatingly good all through the book that he's more a statue than a character, but in all of that Lee either misses, does not acknowledge, or does not believe that she isn't showing an extremely dark side of the same man. She's described the novel as something like a father-daughter love story, told from the daughter's POV, so I'm guessing she doesn't see it.
To be sure, Finch is not a lyncher. He goes down to the jail to stop those guys. I don't mean to deny his good elements. But his defense of the falsely-accused rapist is anything but transcending his social milieu. His case is weak. His jury is white. It's Alabama in the Thirties. It would be a minor miracle for him to try to appeal to that crowd and come out clean, and he does not. Rather he does what I've learned a lot of lawyers defending falsely-accused black men of raping white women did in those days: he tried to convince the jury not to set aside their prejudice against the accused but rather to instead apply their pseudo-racial class prejudices instead. The Ewells are, and my mother's family is in the same demographic here, poor white trash. So Atticus's defense amounts to granting that black people are inferior to whites, but these whites are even worse than those black people. It's pragmatic but it's ugly.
In addition Atticus goes out of his way to defend the character of the leader of the lynch mob. The mans' racism is treated as a minor character flaw, like having a bad temper. He insists we believe, and the narrative makes sure we know Atticus is always right, that a homicidal hatred of black people is just an unfortunate personal quirk. For all his perfection, Atticus does not really rise above his society's ills. He does not challenge them. It's not a socially progressive work at all.
Harper Lee is no Mark Twain. Maybe she wasn't trying to be, but that's not how the book was presented to me.
Right at this moment I'm only reading books for school, so accounting and another one on strategic planning (if only it was as interesting as it sounds!) In a D&D mindset, I've got 1 for counting loot and keeping track of it, and another for sacking the dragon's hoarde so as not to get killed.
I just started Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. I really loved the First Law Trilogy, and it seems he hasn't lost a step at all. So far (about 75 pages in) it's absolutely great!And just gets better and better....
AND you've got The Heroes to look forward to [his best yet]
The Heroes is next on my list to read - glad to hear it's good. Even better to hear you think it's his best - I'm presuming based on nothing in particular that you're a fan :)
Guilty as charged.
Love the brutal shades of grey of Abercrombie's world. As a unnecessary but enjoyable prelude to The Heroes I'd try and read his short story "The Fool Jobs" in the Swords & Dark Magic fantasy anthology. Its probably the best tale in the book, introduces a new Northmen crew who play a decent role in the Heroes, but its probably not worth buying just for Abercrombie's part.
The shades of grey are what I love about it too. That, and it is really funny in parts. The clever plotting and 3 dimensional characters don't hurt either (I also really liked the end/resolution for each character's arc - each was interesting, somewhat unexpected, but at the same time felt true to who they were).
Thanks for the tip on The Fool Jobs - I hadn't heard of it.
Rather he does what I've learned a lot of lawyers defending falsely-accused black men of raping white women did in those days: he tried to convince the jury not to set aside their prejudice against the accused but rather to instead apply their pseudo-racial class prejudices instead. The Ewells are, and my mother's family is in the same demographic here, poor white trash. So Atticus's defense amounts to granting that black people are inferior to whites, but these whites are even worse than those black people. It's pragmatic but it's ugly.
My goodness.
You know, I disliked that book myself, but for completely different reasons. I read that New Yorker article you linked to, and it contains only one point that I can agree with:
...it’s not exactly clear why a strong right-handed man can’t hit a much smaller woman on the right side of her face. Couldn’t she have turned her head? Couldn’t he have hit her with a backhanded motion?
(I tried to make a similar argument in my high school English class, but failed to do so eloquently.)
My interpretation of the book was completely different. I'll readily admit that I've lived a very sheltered life, and that I know nothing about law, nor about the realities of racism in nineteen-thirties Alabama. But for what it's worth (which is to say, nothing,) this is what *I* read into Finch's defense: Tom Robinson might have raped Mayella. Or her father might have. There was reasonable doubt, and the accused must be assumed innocent until proven guilty. Finch tried to imply that Mayella was not giving honest testimony because her father was pressuring her not to. Finch certainly DID say that blacks are equal to whites. His closing argument said that all men are equal, in the eyes of the law. (I don't have the book with me, so I can't quote it, but that was the gist of it.)
You say that Harper Lee was no Mark Twain. I must say that when I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I thought that Mark Twain had a long way to go in the way of recognizing racial equality, especially when Huck reflected "he was white inside." Yeah, that's great. Like being "white inside" is a compliment. So if you get to know a black person, THEN you can decide whether he's fit to associate with whites. Until then, he's nothing but a nigger. Give me a break!
You know, I don't know why I'm writing this. I'm not expecting to win this debate. I admitted that I don't really know what I'm talking about. When I started posting on this website, I made it a rule not to discuss any controversial issues, and here I am writing about racism. I guess I just wanted to make the point that there's more than one way to interpret a book.