They didn't even include The Book of Enoch, and that's the fun one!
(And, as you know from my statements on the Tolkien-Derivative-Work thread, I don't believe in the awesome/trash divide.)
Yeah, not so much the "is this good literature?" angle, but I can't tell whether all this crazy sexual violence, incest, and your-own-children-making-you-nauseous stuff is brilliantly original or stock pre-women's libs romance novel fodder.
[Shrugs]
Just a quick note - I've found a website which hosts a huge amount of stuff by, and about, Clark Ashton Smith: eldritchdark.com
Pretty coolioolio, even though I've never read him.
In other news, will anyone be surprised to learn that I can't find my copy of Atlan?
I wonder what Atlan was doing in a bag of groceries in my refrigerator, huh?
Probably just taking it cool.
Lords of night by Thom Brannan-Just started. Reminds me so far of a mix colonial marines from aliens, Chthulu, zombies and maybe 1 guy has minor superpowers. If you liked the Necroscope novels it might be worth it. This is about the first 5 pages so i'm not spoiling much and its only 99 cents on kindle
Finished Atlan today and was frickin' blown away!!! Alas, I don't have the next one, and it's not available through my library. Neither have either of my requested books shown up yet. I think this means I am stuck with the Book of Nehemiah.
Got the following from the library the other day:
The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, a blend of steam punk and sword & sorcery.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.
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Got the following from the library the other day:
The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, a blend of steam punk and sword & sorcery.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.
Hmmm. Horns of Ruin sounds like a lot of fun. I'll have to check it out. In both senses.
Whitechapel Gods (steampunk) by S.M. Peters came out several years ago, but I still think it's awesome.
The Book of Nehemiah was pretty blah, but then I looked it up on wikipedia and discovered there's a lot more to it (and Ezra) in Jewish tradition than what made it into the Christian Bible. Also, was fascinated to discover that some scholars think Nehemiah was a eunuch, not a cup-bearer.
Then went ahead and read a great big chunk of Live from Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal, which I haven't read in, oh, 20 years. I spent quite a lot of my youth campaigning (unsuccessfully) for his freedom.
I'm still reading The Hole Behind Midnight. It is still weird, and getting werder. The main character is telling the story to you. Sometimes is seem as though he is telling it to you as it happens. Sometimes he reacts to what you are thinking (or supposed to be thinking, I guess). I think the idea might be that you are hearing his own internal monologue or getting the story telepathically.
Either way, it works and the story is hilarious. He is continually just barely surviving what is happening to him. He's a pawn on the board with some much bigger players than himself, but he's not powerless either.
I would recommend it to others.
-Aaron
Pretty coolioolio, even though I've never read him.
Well, get on it then, man! Stories like "The Colossus of Ylourgne" and so on are foundational to the game! (You'd probably especially enjoy "A Rendezvous in Averoigne.")
[Adds to list]
Got the following from the library the other day:
The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, a blend of steam punk and sword & sorcery.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.
Hmmm. Horns of Ruin sounds like a lot of fun. I'll have to check it out. In both senses.
Whitechapel Gods (steampunk) by S.M. Peters came out several years ago, but I still think it's awesome.
Whitechapel Gods isn't in my library system :-(
About 3/4 of the way through Ammonite by Nicola Griffith. It has all the things I love: winter journeys, homesteading, mysterious plagues, complex female characters, casual inclusion of queer characters, post-apocalyptic landscapes, looming disasters...
I am having a little trouble with
Finished Crazyladies of Pearl Street and started Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. Also re-reading Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key, in honor of being forced by certain Communist goblins to admit that it's my all-time favorite novel (Hammett's Red Harvest is a close second).
P.S. Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity was, IMHO, an excellent novel (even Mrs Gersen loved it!), later made into a stoooopid movie that bore no resemblance to the book. The Supremacy/Ultimatum sequels were useless potboilers; Ludlum tapped out his literary reserves on the first one.
I went to my favourite secondhand bookshop today, as I had a day off, and bought:
The Serpent and The Dragon, following Doodlebug's successful Gaskell-ite propagandising
A few ripe-looking non REH Conan adventures
Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton
The first 'Thieves World' book
And volume one in Frank Frazetta's 'Death Dealer' series. It's called 'Prisoner of the Horned Helmet'. Maybe I'll get the shock of my life and it's turn out to be a lost fantasy classic.
In non-fiction, The Plot Against Pepys. I never knew he was arrested for treason, but apparently so.
Finally finished The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England. Nothing at all wrong with the prose, though the epilogue got a bit gushy. Just haven't had time. Very frustrating.
Now doing some actual fiction. I picked back up The Laundry books (Lovecraft meets James Bond by way of office politics.) and burned through a short story last night, then hit a novella I wasn't awake enough for. I think I'll proceed until I finish the next novel, then wear a cup and go back into Freehling.
That reminds me - they also had a book in there called 'The South Was Right!' by two brothers called Kennedy, which I didn't buy as it was £15 and looked like some sort of paleoconservative pro-Confederacy screed. Have you ever come across them, Samnell?
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Finished Crazyladies of Pearl Street and started Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. Also re-reading Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key, in honor of being forced by certain Communist goblins to admit that it's my all-time favorite novel (Hammett's Red Harvest is a close second).
P.S. Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity was, IMHO, an excellent novel (even Mrs Gersen loved it!), later made into a stoooopid movie that bore no resemblance to the book. The Supremacy/Ultimatum sequels were useless potboilers; Ludlum tapped out his literary reserves on the first one.
Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I think, though, that you can guess why I said it; hope you don't mind taking one for the team--even if you don't like Tolkien.
The Serpent and The Dragon, following Doodlebug's successful Gaskell-ite propagandising
Now if I could only get you to read some Trotsky!
More Tolkien thread spillover:
Didn't quite get the Billy Bunter reference in the Edmund Wilson essay, but, I found Oh, Mr. Porter! on youtube, looked up some of the actors on wikipedia, and, in one of those moments of synergistic weirdiosity, now I do.
Finally finished The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England. Nothing at all wrong with the prose, though the epilogue got a bit gushy. Just haven't had time. Very frustrating.
Now doing some actual fiction. I picked back up The Laundry books (Lovecraft meets James Bond by way of office politics.) and burned through a short story last night, then hit a novella I wasn't awake enough for. I think I'll proceed until I finish the next novel, then wear a cup and go back into Freehling.
Hi, Sam!
Hi, Sam!
Im n ur thread, readin' ur postz. :)
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The Serpent and The Dragon, following Doodlebug's successful Gaskell-ite propagandisingNow if I could only get you to read some Trotsky!
Ha ha, I'm immune to the lures of the 4th International, from frequent exposure to more of the 57 Varieties than you could shake a Staff of Permanent Revolution at ;) I've still got his autobiography on my shelves, though, next to the Collected Works of Swinburne, so there's hope for me yet.
Dude, spoiler alert, please, some of us didn't know how long the Hundred Years War lasted!
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Whitechapel Gods isn't in my library system :-(Got the following from the library the other day:
The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, a blend of steam punk and sword & sorcery.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.
Hmmm. Horns of Ruin sounds like a lot of fun. I'll have to check it out. In both senses.
Whitechapel Gods (steampunk) by S.M. Peters came out several years ago, but I still think it's awesome.
I can and will mail you my DTF copy if you want. I also have it on my Kindle, so it's no big deal.
I can and will mail you my DTF copy if you want. I also have it on my Kindle, so it's no big deal.Whitechapel Gods isn't in my library system :-(Got the following from the library the other day:
The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, a blend of steam punk and sword & sorcery.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.
Hmmm. Horns of Ruin sounds like a lot of fun. I'll have to check it out. In both senses.
Whitechapel Gods (steampunk) by S.M. Peters came out several years ago, but I still think it's awesome.
Thanks! I can probably just ILL it, but I'll definitely take you up on that offer if I can't ILL it.
Thanks! I can probably just ILL it, but I'll definitely take you up on that offer if I can't ILL it.I can and will mail you my DTF copy if you want. I also have it on my Kindle, so it's no big deal.Whitechapel Gods isn't in my library system :-(Got the following from the library the other day:
The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, a blend of steam punk and sword & sorcery.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed.
Hmmm. Horns of Ruin sounds like a lot of fun. I'll have to check it out. In both senses.
Whitechapel Gods (steampunk) by S.M. Peters came out several years ago, but I still think it's awesome.
PM me your addy if you want it.
Ha ha, I'm immune to the lures of the 4th International, from frequent exposure to more of the 57 Varieties than you could shake a Staff of Permanent Revolution at ;) I've still got his autobiography on my shelves, though, next to the Collected Works of Swinburne, so there's hope for me yet.The Serpent and The Dragon, following Doodlebug's successful Gaskell-ite propagandisingNow if I could only get you to read some Trotsky!
Man, I need a staff of permanent revolution...
Man, I need a staff of permanent revolution...Ha ha, I'm immune to the lures of the 4th International, from frequent exposure to more of the 57 Varieties than you could shake a Staff of Permanent Revolution at ;) I've still got his autobiography on my shelves, though, next to the Collected Works of Swinburne, so there's hope for me yet.The Serpent and The Dragon, following Doodlebug's successful Gaskell-ite propagandisingNow if I could only get you to read some Trotsky!
Does it come with the girl?
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Nah, she has a to go to the gym for a spinning session.
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. Actually I'm listening to it, which is even better.
I got into a Halloweenish mood, so I had to go dig out my copy of The Stress of Her Regard. Well, my second copy. The first got read thoroughly to undeath.
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. Actually I'm listening to it, which is even better.
Who's reading it? I may have to find that version.
Read The Book of Esther yesterday which was a charming tale of patriarchal privilege, ethnic cleansing and mass murder.
Moved on to a re-read of Swords Against Wizardry and am nearing the end of Abu-Jamal's collection of essays.
Just finished Daniel O'Malley's The Rook and am about to start Tim Aker's The Horns of Ruin, a steampunky sword & sorcery tale about Eva, the last paladin of the dead god Morgan.
Finished a pair of short stories and dove into Charles Stross' The Fuller Memorandum. Fun so far.
Just finished Daniel O'Malley's The Rook and am about to start Tim Aker's The Horns of Ruin, a steampunky sword & sorcery tale about Eva, the last paladin of the dead god Morgan.
It's good. I've gotten through a couple of chapters, and I like it.
I just finished The Hole Behind Midnight by Clinton Boomer. It was very good and very "R" rated. It's a gritty modern fantasy and had me chuckling the whole way through. Even though it's also NOT a comedy.
Anyway, now I'm started Crooked by Richard Pett.
-Aaron
Finished a pair of short stories and dove into Charles Stross' The Fuller Memorandum. Fun so far.
And done. That was really good.
Just finished Daniel O'Malley's The Rook and am about to start Tim Aker's The Horns of Ruin, a steampunky sword & sorcery tale about Eva, the last paladin of the dead god Morgan.It's good. I've gotten through a couple of chapters, and I like it.
I like how the Paladin is more like a magus, or maybe 3.5 martial adepts from the Book of Nine Swords.
Started reading Dizzy Gillespie's autobiography, but then found 'How to Find A Man - & Make Him Keep You', a manual for the late '70s woman thinking about becoming somebody's mistress.
What is the 'Forbidden Dried Fruit of Paradise' ?
Sounds like very informative reading.