Last month, on this thread, I related that I had borrowed dozens of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels. I read numbers 2 and 3 (and one "Junior" novel). I tried to read numbers 4 and 5, but couldn't get through them, finding them too slow.
Recently, I found myself in the mood - as I am from time to time - to read a military science fiction novel, with faster-than-light travel, many intelligent space-faring races, and the usual cliches. I considered several options. Then I thought "Hey, I still have those Deep Space Nine novels I borrowed. Those fit the bill!"
So I started on #6, Betrayal by Lois Tilton. I'm about 70% through it, which already puts it above the previous two novels by showing that it's entertained me so far. I'd say the book is... competently written, although it lacks frills. By that I mean that it does what a Deep Space Nine novel ought to do, but it's given me no big surprises so far.
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I've never heard of it. I just jotted down the title and author for future reference. Thank you.@Aaron
You mention here, in part, "For years, I've been seeking out stories - mostly novels - told from a nonhuman point of view. And I mean REAL animals, behaving as animals do; I don't mean anthropomorphic animals communicating with each other in complex sentences."Have you tried Hollow Kingdom?
Written from exactly the POV you describe liking. My cousin's wife has been trying to get me to read this for a few years.
I'm sure this author has been mentioned before, perhaps in this very thread, or by one you in particular (such is the rubbish that is my A) memory and B) ability to use this site's search function reliably), but Adrian Tchaikovsky [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky]
has some great stuff from animal-ish perspectives.The series starting with Children of Time is one of the better ones, but the series starting with the Tiger and the Wolf, and the trilogy starting with Dogs of War are also good.
Thank you. I was afraid to mention it, but I started to read Hollow Kingdom, only to find that the animals were too anthropomorphic, knowing things that no nonhumans could possibly know. Actually, I HAVE been interested in "zombie apocalypse" stories, and got 50 pages or so into the book for that reason, but then lost interest.
I just looked into those three Adrian Tchaikovsky suggestions, and I'm afraid that human shapeshifters and uplifted, genetically engineered human-animal hybrids aren't what I had in mind either. But thank you for bringing Tchaikovsky to my attention.
And by the way, last week - just four posts up, in fact - I mentioned that Betrayal was well-written, but gave me no surprises. When I finished the book, I should have added that although it still had no surprises, it had the most satisfying ending of any Star Trek book I've yet finished.
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My odyssey through the Pathfinder Tales line has reached City of the Fallen Sky, by Tim Pratt.
Many players (myself included) dread any scenario involving Numeria or the Technic League. This book's main antagonist a great example of why.
I should probably ask friends not to get me ANY books for Christmas, since I still have ~30 Pathfinders Tales novels to read, LOL.
I'll be taking a break from those in late January, when a friend's second published novel comes out: The Twice-Wanted Witch, by Katie Hallahan. It's a modern-day "witches and demons" queer fantasy romance story, and a sequel to her first book, The Twice-Sold Soul. (Her author page on Amazon is here.)
There was a time when I thought I would never re-read any Greyhawk novel. I was wrong.
I remember back in the 2000s, when I was at one of the high points in my Dungeons & Dragons campaign-running life, I took an interest in the Greyhawk campaign setting. I bought and read many books about it, including several novels. And without a doubt, my favorite Greyhawk novel was - and still is - White Plume Mountain by Paul Kidd. That book could be funny while keeping the story feeling serious and exciting, and I've never forgotten the four main characters.
Paul Kidd continued the adventures of those characters in Descent into the Depths of the Earth. I enjoyed the beginning of that book, but by the end, I disliked it. I forget exactly why. I vaguely recall that some of the premises - particularly those to do with the faerie court - seemed too nonsensical, even by D&D standards, but I feel like there was more to my dislike than that. Whatever my reasons, I never pursued Kidd's Queen of the Demonweb Pits, except to read an online preview for free.
I remember Aberzombie bringing up two of those Paul Kidd characters back in 2010. I responded in this post.
Later that year, someone else mentioned liking the first two books, and I responded to THAT in this post.
In 2013, W E Ray commented "Yet sadly there are no GH novels worth using for anything save kindling." In this post, I responded "Well... none of them were worth reading twice. But when I read the first two Paul Kidd Greyhawk novels (mentioned by Lincoln Hills above) I thought they were amusing enough to keep me reading, and the main characters were memorable..."
As late as 2018, I still remembered that White Plume Mountain novel, as evidenced when I quoted it in this post.)
This month, I reflected that I should eat my words about none of the novels being worth reading twice, as I finished my second reading of White Plume Mountain. And I wondered: what exactly was my beef with the last part of Descent into the Depths of the Earth?
So this week, I picked up that sequel, and... I don't see what I ever could have liked about even the beginning of it. I'm over 60 pages in, and the book hasn't made me laugh once yet. The attempts at humor are forced. More generally, the writing seems stilted. I'm starting to think that - even during my first reading back in the 2000s - maybe I liked the beginning only because I was curious to see what would happen to the characters after the first book ended. I might never finish re-reading that sequel to find out how it got worse.
The Gygax Greyhawk novels are pongers, though I still end up re-reading them occasionally for unknown reasons.
I'm reading Simon Armitage's version of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', and 'King Solomon's Mines' by H. Rider Haggard at the moment.
I have just finished Liane Merciel's Nightglass. It's a fascinating book, with a deep dive into what life in Nidal is like. The second half explores the conflict between humans and strix in western Cheliax. (I found the parts about the strix particularly interesting, because I recently started playing one in PF2.)
I do feel compelled to give a content warning. The first half, in Nidal, tells the story of a young shadowcaller's apprenticeship, so there are depictions of torture and abuse, often directed towards children, and some grotesque body horror. And the second half is not without a certain amount of graphic violence during battle scenes.
I had previously read this author's Hellknight, so was expecting a well-told story that didn't shrink away from the more uncomfortable parts of Golarion. And that's what I got (and then some).
The Gygax Greyhawk novels are pongers, though I still end up re-reading them occasionally for unknown reasons.
Then you're a much bigger fan than I am. The only Gygax novel I ever tried to read was Saga of Old City, which I couldn't get through.
I returned to the old "Shannara" books by Terry Brooks.
I remember back in 1985-86 when I first read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I slowly struggled through some parts of it, and the end of it left me feeling like I knew so little about Middle-Earth. That's not how I'd like to feel when finishing a big reading project. I felt dissatisfied with the story.
In 1988-89, I read Terry Brooks' first three books, The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara, which impressed me at the time. Here was a shameless imitation of Lord of the Rings, but it was so easy to read! This was just plain fun. I went on to write and run a Dungeons and Dragons adventure based on Sword of Shannara, which I never did with Tolkien.
In the 1990s and 2000s, I re-read a lot of books I had read in the 1980s, paying much more attention to detail than I had done the first time around. Among other things, I read Lord of the Rings a second and third time, and now that series - put together with The Hobbit - ranks at #8 on the list of my 10 favorite novel series' of all time.
But Shannara was a very different matter. I felt curious about the books that came after those that I had read, but it had been over a decade since I had finished the first three books. I had forgotten so much about the first three, I was afraid that might diminish my understanding of books 4 and up. So I re-read the first three, and... ugh! Paying more attention to detail made me realize how bad some of those details were. Some things just didn't add up. Sometimes, Brooks would contradict himself about how a given kind of magic worked and what it could do. Sometimes he worked those contradictory remarks into the SAME PAGE. He wrote a lot of the characters, places and things in a way that made it seem like they existed for the purpose of the story, rather than like real people, places and things that were involved in many matters. I mean... I guess I can accept that in role-playing games, in which that's sometimes necessary to make the game work, but a novel is capable of much greater realism than that. And even during my first reading in the 1980s, I kind of ridiculed the books for being too predictable, and I felt that much of the dialog was awkward, and probably could have been fixed with a little editing.
So I almost quit before finishing that re-reading. But then I thought: the secret to enjoying the Shannara books is by turning off certain parts of my brain and glossing over the little details. I just had to breeze through the books and avoid too much analysis. When I did that, the books made for fun reading. So I got through the first three, and proceeded to enjoy The Scions of Shannara, The Druid of Shannara, The Elf Queen of Shannara, The Talismans of Shannara, and The First King of Shannara.
I never seriously considered reading the "Landover" novels, nor the "Running with the Demon" novels, which struck me as very different kinds of stories that didn't interest me. And I couldn't finish Ilse Witch. That book was too slow, and the cheesiness of the story grew too obvious for me to ignore any longer.
But in recent years, I happened to read a Sword of Shannara quote in a Dungeon magazine, and got nostalgic. But I hesitated. Over 20 years after my re-reading of the first three books, I didn't remember them so well. But did I want to read those a THIRD time, when I had read the next 5 books only once each? It seemed unbalanced. On the other hand, the later books referred to the early ones, so my poor memory of the early ones would impair my understanding.
Then I thought: Ah, what the heck. I'm not supposed to think too deeply about details in these books anyway.
So I went on to read The Scions of Shannara a second time. Then, last week, I started on The Druid of Shannara. Sometimes I would think "These books describe events which don't quite jive with the early books... but maybe I'm wrong." Well, do I really want to find out? If they DON'T jive with the early books, that would ruin my enjoyment. Trying to cross-reference can be fun in SOME fantasy series'. For instance, I spent years doing heavy research to appreciate certain "Conan" comics, as I described in this thread. But Shannara is meant for quick, mindless, breezy reading. So I should just read and enjoy, without worrying about details.
And I've been doing that. These books have some really fun parts, which I don't remember at all from when I first covered those books 20 years ago. The whole high-fantasy-world-at-war cliche works so well because it can set the stage for some cool scenes. And the subplots that focus on one character - Morgan Leah - are NOT predictable; they often surprise me, and even after I re-read them, I have no memory of reading those scenes 20 years ago. So it's like I'm reading something new, and it looks like I'm kind of hooked.
I have just finished Robin D. Laws's Blood of the City. It's a mix of caper story and political intrigue, heavy on betrayal and revenge. And of course, it is both tightly plotted and character-driven, as I've come to expect from Laws.
I received some new books for Christmas, despite not really needing any for a good long while. I will probably read one of them next: Dan Brown's new Robert Langdon novel, The Secret of Secrets.
I also received Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy, which I know nothing about yet. I plan to save that at least until after reading my friend's new novel (see a couple posts back), which releases in a few weeks. That will take priority as soon as my copy arrives.
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My wife got me 'The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation' as a gift, so I've been reading that.
My wife got me 'The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation' as a gift, so I've been reading that.
As a professional (sort of? aspiring? - still a student, really), I think everyone should, but is it ever depressing. :)
Recently got through Artemidorus' Oneirocritica in translation, mostly just for gleaning some oddments of social and religious history. The broad context is accessible for anyone who's spent some time with the Second Sophistic, but there are more amusing ways of getting there than jumping into the deep end of weirdo diviners.
Just starting Barton's oldish ('90s) intro to ancient astrology; still looking for something light from my piles of things to read.
I have finished Dan Brown's The Secret of Secrets. It's a thriller very much in the vein of his previous Langdon novels, this time set in Prague and mixing noetic science (the study of consciousness), high tech espionage, and the Golem myth. I enjoyed it, despite Brown's overuse of ending chapters with "and then he saw something that changed everything" teasers. Though he does change up his usual formula a bit by having dedicated bachelor Langdon begin the book already romantically involved.
Next up, I'm planning to read the next Pathfinder Tales novel, Queen of Thorns by Dave Gross.
My wife got me 'The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation' as a gift, so I've been reading that.As a professional (sort of? aspiring? - still a student, really), I think everyone should, but is it ever depressing. :)
Especially if you're a cat, or a hoopoe...
I've finished Queen of Thorns. It's full of interesting Kyonin lore, and finally gives some solid answers to questions about Radovan's origin.
I'll be taking a break from [Pathfinder Tales novels] in late January, when a friend's second published novel comes out: The Twice-Wanted Witch, by Katie Hallahan. It's a modern-day "witches and demons" queer fantasy romance story, and a sequel to her first book, The Twice-Sold Soul. (Her author page on Amazon is here.)
The sequel is out (I got my copy Tuesday, on launch day) but I need to finish rereading the first book before I can dive into that (I'm about halfway there).
I finished rereading The Twice-Sold Soul over the weekend, and started in on The Twice-Wanted Witch last night. I'm enjoying it a great deal so far, and am feeling very proud that I get to game regularly with a creative of her caliber.
I'm looking forward to getting a copy of Probability Zero by Vox Day and read an account of the mathematical impossibility of evolution by natural selection.
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I finished with The Hedge Knight, but will save the other two Dunk and Egg stories for later.
Instead, I started working my way through Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. For some unfathomable reason, I have never read it. I picked it up, along with a copy of Fahrenheit 451, from the new Barnes and Noble which recently opened not too far from my home.
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Instead, I started working my way through Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. For some unfathomable reason, I have never read it.
I read a ton of Bradbury in middle school (my school actually had a decent SF section for its size in the '80s) but never that one. Though I did finally get around to watching the movie this past Halloween season.
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I have finished The Twice-Wanted Witch, and enjoyed it immensely.
I started Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn today, but am only a couple chapters in. I was gifted the Mistborn Trilogy by my wife, who has not read them but had them recommended to her by a trusted friend. OTOH, one of my co-workers adores Sanderson, and is excited that I'm trying him out.
read fourth wing. Twilight with dragons. Too much twilight. Not enough dragons.
I forgot to mention that the book also includes a bunch of superstitions from Norwegian fishermen. Some are general supersitions, some what what we call 'kjerringråd' (old woman's advice/solution), i.e. little cures for minor issues. Most are pretty much what you would expect from local superstitions, like how to kill a fish properly and do a few ritual things with its blood to ensure a good catch in the future.
Others are more...well... a cure listed for both muteness and stuttering is smacking the afflicted person in the mouth with a live fish. Doesn't say what kind of fish but I'd love to lead trials to test this out.
I suspect the logic is as follows: the urge to loudly and clearly say "stop smacking me in the mouth with a live fish" would be some incentive to stop stuttering.
Is there anything involving stones which naturally have a hole in?
'The Persian Expedition', by Xenophon and the first collected volume of Malus Darkblade novels.
I have finished Mistborn, and have yet to decide if I want to immediately go on to the second book of the trilogy, or take a break to read whatever is next in my TBR stack of Pathfinder Tales.
I did enjoy Mistborn a great deal. It had some intriguing world-building (particularly in how magic works), and the POV characters were well-written, but it was also long and (like most fantasy novels have to be) rather heavy on exposition in places.