I wish I had checked in an hour ago!
Got into the "blasphemous" part of The Satanic Verses and, although the book is still excellent, I wish I had a firmer grounding in Islamic history/theology.
"Naamah's Blessing" by Jacqueline Carey. Her 9th novel set in Terre d'Ange. So far, so good.
currently on book three of the harry potter series and enjoying it immensely. it deserves all the praise it gets. i wish every fantasy author wrote as well as rowling.
I like Harry Potter, too. Actually, I don't really like Harry, but I liked the books.
In other news: Interesting stuff about the irl Satanic verses of Muhammad.
Got into a frenzy to read the wheel of time books again. went back and forth on wether to start with book one, or book 6, but, i decided to be a purist and start from page i, prologue, book one, the eye of the world.
I figure, with my time available to me for reading, i should be able to be finishing Towers of Midnight when A memory of Light hits the shelves. i think a chapter a day will get me there.
Got into a frenzy to read the wheel of time books again. went back and forth on wether to start with book one, or book 6, but, i decided to be a purist and start from page i, prologue, book one, the eye of the world.
I figure, with my time available to me for reading, i should be able to be finishing Towers of Midnight when A memory of Light hits the shelves. i think a chapter a day will get me there.
I did this two months ago, and stalled out in book 8. Jordan was starting to annoy me with inaction and bickering between the genders. So I jumped forward and did Towers of Midnight. Didn't regret it, and I may just re-read ToM before aMoL comes out.
I did this two months ago, and stalled out in book 8. Jordan was starting to annoy me with inaction and bickering between the genders. So I jumped forward and did Towers of Midnight. Didn't regret it, and I may just re-read ToM before aMoL comes out.Got into a frenzy to read the wheel of time books again. went back and forth on wether to start with book one, or book 6, but, i decided to be a purist and start from page i, prologue, book one, the eye of the world.
I figure, with my time available to me for reading, i should be able to be finishing Towers of Midnight when A memory of Light hits the shelves. i think a chapter a day will get me there.
sad fact: With the way the books are released so far apart, i usually forget about when it is coming out and am suprised when i do think about it, to find the book has been out for a few days or weeks. This has happened with ToM. i thought "hmmm, has the next book come out?" and yes it had, 2 weeks before. annoying...but the real annoyance is that i still have to purchase the book.
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For the past several months I have been reading the Shannara novels.
I started with the Demon series. Have read all the new ones. The the First King of Shannara, then the first Shannara trilogy. And now Scions of Shannara.
After I complete this series of four I may leave Shannara for a time as I read the next two trilogies only a couple of years ago.
For the past several months I have been reading the Shannara novels.
I'm sorry.
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Just finished The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Great tale and a quick read. The text illustration crossover for storytelling was incredible.
Also finished The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding based off a recommendation on these boards. Excellent read, especially if you are looking for the Firefly type of feel.
Just starter on The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. Very interesting read so far (about 2/3 of the way through).
My new favorite character name is Saladin Chumchuwalla!
This book (The Satanic Verses) is awesome: Saladin and Gabreel Farishtu are two Indians who survive the explosion of a hijacked plane over London. One of them transforms into the archangel Gabriel and the other transforms into a (the?) devil (or, as Rushdie prefers, Shaitan). Hijinks ensue.
There's actually quite a bit of D&D-esque stuff in this Ayatollah Khomeini-approved novel. I don't think I've ever seen the word "manticore" used so many times in any book, even a TSR novel!
EDIT: I didn't know any of this, but you guys probably all did: Manticore
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My new favorite character name is Saladin Chumchuwalla!
This book (The Satanic Verses) is awesome: Saladin and Gabreel Farishtu are two Indians who survive the explosion of a hijacked plane over London. One of them transforms into the archangel Gabriel and the other transforms into a (the?) devil (or, as Rushdie prefers, Shaitan). Hijinks ensue.
There's actually quite a bit of D&D-esque stuff in this Ayatollah Khomeini-approved novel. I don't think I've ever seen the word "manticore" used so many times in any book, even a TSR novel!
EDIT: I didn't know any of this, but you guys probably all did: Manticore
Um the Ayatollah issued a Fatwa to have Rushdie assassinated, and Salman was in hiding in London for YEARS...'
Unless you were being sarcastic, then, um, ok. ;-)
Oops, my bad.
This book sucks!
Even if it does have manticores in it...
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EDIT: I didn't know any of this, but you guys probably all did: Manticore
I first learned about the manticore in class in grammar school. They're awesome. With the legends around the manticore, that's why the art in the 1e Monster Manual was so good to see.
Looks like Rushdie is a friend of a friend on Facebook.
Hope no one views that as an excuse to assassinate me.
Facebook friend name-dropper.
Facebook friend name-dropper.
When you only have like ten of them, you have to get as much mileage as possible out of every one! My wife has like six thousand friends, so given the Kevin Bacon effect, she's got the whole world covered. But on my lonely and barren page, everyone needs to pull overtime duty or I feel like a nobody! I'd probably cry about it if I weren't such a manly bastard.
--
P.S. I have no idea if Rushdie or even the Ayatollah is actually a friend of a friend. I just assume that on Facebook, just about everyone else is friends with everyone else. I mean, it's not like you have to actually know anyone.
P.P.S. I check my page maybe once a month, if that, so any loneliness is becuase of disuse and neglect. Sometimes Facebook sends me emails scolding me for not logging on.
I first learned about the manticore in class in grammar school. They're awesome. With the legends around the manticore, that's why the art in the 1e Monster Manual was so good to see.
I always assumed it was from real mythology--most of the monsters with human heads tend to be.
I much prefer the Pathfinder art to the 1st edition Monster Manual which I always thought was silly, although it turns out to be more historically accurate.
@Kirth--I was only kidding, man.
I got wrapped up in Greyhawk nostalgia and neglected Rushdie in favor of Gary Gygax's Saga of Old City.
When I was about 10, I read this and loved it. I lent it to a kid who lived down the street, and his foster mother looked through it and threw it away! I tried to get my parents to do something about it, but they were/are pretty meek, mild people and they just let it go.
Years later, I learned that his older brother had fished it out of the trash and kept it with all of his other "dirty" (!) books (the whole family was pretty strict and socially conservative). By that time I was no longer interested in D&D and fantasy so I let him keep it, but thinking about the whole situation still makes me mad after all these years.
Throw my book away, Mrs. Rawnsley? I will be revenged!
Just started, and so far deriving a tremendous amount of enjoyment from, Karpyshyn's newest Star Wars book: "Revan".
I am really, really enjoying the time the book is spending between the two KoTOR games. Additionally,
Mr. Karpyshyn may generally be regarded as an arrogant toolbag, but I've not read a book he's written that I haven't liked.
Finally finished Yarn by Jon Armstrong. It was billed as 'fashionpunk' and it really was. I can't really say much else except you really got a sense that it was the future, and that people might act like this in a few hundred years. A little too fashion oriented for my taste, but it was woven together well.
Yesterday on the way in to work I was listening to Walton & Johnson on the radio, mostly because I'd left it tuned to the Classic Rock station. For those not familiar with them, they're local radio "personalities" with different voices -- a couple of "reasonable normal guy voices;" one exaggeratedly effeminate, high-pitched voice they use to say lots of stereotypically fake-swishy things; one exaggeratedly deep-pitched African-American-sounding voice they use to say lots of stereotypically illiterate things; etc. Mostly they go on and on about how Obama is leading an evil Communist Muslim conspiracy to destroy America by using the U.N. to take away our guns, and how we brave, patriotic, Conservative heroes need to stop him, so buy lots of ammo and get ready! I leave them on because it's nice to hear what the whack-loons have to say, when people call in.
Yesterday they shocked me by saying something intelligent... they were talking about the best ways to fall asleep at night, and one of them said, "Read a book. It's that simple, and hardly any of us do it anymore." Woah!
But then they had to go on and add, "But not a Kindle or e-reader or whatever, because those aren't really books; they're just yuppie devices for bratty liberals with an overblown sense of entitlement!"
I don't know what to say. My Kindle cost $100 and I have something like 350 books in it, on which I spent NOTHING (love Project Gutenburg!). The same 350 books in print would have cost me thousands of dollars (not to mention requiring a storage unit to accommodate, costing even more). Overblown entitlement?
Yesterday they shocked me by saying something intelligent... they were talking about the best ways to fall asleep at night, and one of them said, "Read a book. It's that simple, and hardly any of us do it anymore." Woah!But then they had to go on and add, "But not a Kindle or e-reader or whatever, because those aren't really books; they're just yuppie devices for bratty liberals with an overblown sense of entitlement!"
I don't know what to say.
What happens, though, when you drool on your Kindle? It might short out and electrocute you. That'll never happen with a book!
Revan was a massive disappointment. 407 pages in the book, but the actually tale is only about 220 pages long; the rest is excerpts from other books.
The charm of this book wore off a few chapters in, and the ending was one of the most unfulfilling anticlimaxes I've ever read. Revan deserved much, much better than this book.
I had a lot of respect for Salvatore when he killed off Chewie in Vector Prime. The man had some stones to do that, but at least it took a FREAKING MOON crashing into a planet to take down the lovable wookie AND Chewie died saving Anakin Solo. Very epic, very heroic, very satisfying.
The deaths of T3-M4 and the Exile had the exact opposite effect on me. Very, very lame.
Just made it home with...
Steven King's 11/22/63
(going back in time to save JFK)
Looking forward to getting into it...
Just picked that one up too, but the Walking Dead media-tie in book The Rise of the Governor has grabbed my attention first.
[u] Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture [/u] by Marvin Harris; is fun reading and way interesting.
My Nook recommended I check out Steven Erikson's The Crippled God, but I don't like jumping into things at the end. So, I snagged the first entry in the series, Gardens of the Moon. I'm enjoying it so far - I like Erikson's style.
"Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan. Cyberpunk crime noire.
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After the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix (very good stuff) I sunk my teeth into the next Pern Novel on my list. "Dragon's Fire" was way better then its predecessor "Dragon's Kin", but still not the upper hemisphere of the first Pern novels. After that I re-read one of my defining books (Cyteen by C.J.Cherryh) to prepare myself for Regenesis. "Cyteen" was one of the few books that changed the way I look upon the world and it is still a really good book after all these years. "Regenesis" picks up right after Cyteen finishes, but it is too early to give any further information about the book.
After finishing The Vicomte de Bragelonne and Ten Years Later one right after the other, I needed a break from Dumas (Pere). I quickly re-read Lord of Light -- one of Zelzany's best-written offerings -- and am now settling in to re-read James Clavell's Tai-Pan (I just finished running an adventure I wrote for my home game that drew pretty heavily from it). This time I'm constructing a family tree as I go, and I'm hoping to finish Tai-Pan, immediately re-read Noble House, and then watch the Pierce Brosnan miniseries.
All this is to prevent myself from grabbing the copy of Lee Child's new Reacher novel, The Affair, that I bought to give as a Christmas present (I promised myself I'd stop giving pre-read books as gifts!).
(I promised myself I'd stop giving pre-read books as gifts!).
But that's just making sure you're giving away quality gifts. The receiver should be thankful if you read the book before giving it away. ;)
I have been reading Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor lately. Although it's a media tie-in novel, a trope I usually dislike, this one is not too bad. If you like the graphic novels and the TV show, it's good popcorn reading.
After the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix (very good stuff) I sunk my teeth into the next Pern Novel on my list. "Dragon's Fire" was way better then its predecessor "Dragon's Kin", but still not the upper hemisphere of the first Pern novels. After that I re-read one of my defining books (Cyteen by C.J.Cherryh) to prepare myself for Regenesis. "Cyteen" was one of the few books that changed the way I look upon the world and it is still a really good book after all these years. "Regenesis" picks up right after Cyteen finishes, but it is too early to give any further information about the book.
Cherryh is my all time favorite author! She's so good. I don't think she gets enough credit.
Any recommendations for magical realism? I've read Luis De Bernieres and Isabel Allende, but nothing else.Magical Realism you hit one of my favorites Allende look to Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I liked "A Very Old Man With Big Wings" which is a short story in the anthology No One Writes to the Colonel. Also critics say One Hundred Years of Solitude is an excelelnt example of the genre but I have yet to tackle that work
If Dragonsong is still checking this thread, I say:
Definitely check out The Satanic Verses.
I finished it yesterday and it blew me away! Although it was very interesting to note that Salman Rushdie cites Jorge Luis Borges for his desciption of the manticore, not actual mythology. And the fact that part of Salahuddin Chamchuwala's redemption takes place through participating in a Communist Party of India (Marxist) event didn't hurt my enjoyment, either.
I wish I could say similarly awesome things about Gary Gygax's Saga of Old City, but it's pretty crappy. Not to say that I'm not enjoying this Greyhawkian bildungsroman, but it's no Jack Vance, that's for certain.
Finished the Walking Dead tie-in, now ambling over to Stephen King's time travel novel. The Walking Dead book was satisfactory, although hardly Faulknerian in style. If anyone is interested I would recommend waiting for the paperback
The Walking Dead book was satisfactory, although hardly Faulknerian in style.
I'm sure Cartigan will be happy to hear this!
The Walking Dead book was satisfactory, although hardly Faulknerian in style.I'm sure Cartigan will be happy to hear this!
It was done in a very 'cinematic' style of writing, and I really got the feeling they were laying the foundation for a TV adaption. Or maybe that's what the author is used to writing, IDK.
You stateside yet?