The Infernal City, by Greg Keyes

Greg Keyes - The Briar King...Awesome novel...One of my favest ever...

The Extraordinary Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes

Elminster: The Making of a Mage, by Ed Greenwood

For the first time in a long time I found a story that grabbed me from the first page . . .

Dune.

FAWK.

I'd started reading Magician, but I've ended up abandoning it in favour of reading some Sci-Fi (I really need more of that on my Kindle, only got 6 Sci-Fi books )

So now I'm reading The Reality Dysfunction, by Peter F. Hamilton

The Strand by Stephen King

I’m reading The Ghostfence rp on the second page of Chorrol’s RP forum. It kept me up way too late last night!

The War of Houses and A Mystery Unleashed would be my additional recommendations, Grits. Well worth the read, I'd say. We current-gen RPers had absolutely NOTHING on those guys in the old days!

I'm currently not reading anything. Everytime I go to start one of my books I remember how it ends

Started reading Magician, by Raymond E. Feist again, I just never get tired of reading it

And, since I'm in an Oblivion mood, I've also started reading Old Habits Die Hard again

Just about finished reading Destiny by Elizabeth Haydon, the third book of the Rhapsody trilogy.

It's a good story, I'll give her that, but the main character, Rhapsody, is a textbook Mary Sue. Strangely it's not something I'd noticed before, but this time round it was unmistakable.

It's a shame really, because apart from that, it's a damn good trilogy.

It's funny how you notice things you missed the first time around.

It can be due to familiarity with the plot that frees us to pay attention to nuances that underlie the main story. Or it can be due to the reader bringing new experiences and lessons learned to the same story that causes the reader to see it from a different perspective.

Warhammer - The Horus Heresy, The First Heretic...By someone whose first name is quite possibly Adam...

I started reading The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote. Only on the first volume so far. He was always one of my favorites from the old History Channel show Civil War Journal. He had such a great combination of southern charm with a down-to-earth personality. It is fun just listening to him talk. Reading him is no less enjoyable. He has a real talent for painting a vivid picture with his prose. For example, here he describes Abe Lincoln:

The seamed, leathery face was becoming familiar: the mole on the right cheek, the high narrow forehead with the unruly, coarse black shock of hair above it, barely grizzled: the pale gray eyes set deep in bruised sockets, the broad mouth somewhat quizzical with a protruding lower lip, the pointed chin behind its recent growth of scraggly beard, the wry neck— a clown face ; a sad face, some observed on closer inspection, perhaps the saddest they had ever seen.

Dan Abnett; The Founding. Back into reading some Warhammer 40K books again.

Also reading Old Habits Die Hard, since I got rather sidetracked the last time I started reading it.

Awww, geez, CT! Thanks!

Great Expectations. I have to read it as it's one of the course texts, and this book is destroying my will to live. I hate it so very much.

Reading Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish

Makes me want to play the Witcher games, though I don't think the first will run on my laptop*Grumbles inarticulately about integrated graphics* so I'm probably going to end up buying the second one. Again.

*Sighs*

And no, I don't have a clue how you pronounce his first name...

Here you go! Andrzej

SickleYield's Tales From... series in FanFiction dot net. I highly recommend reading this one, guys. Its so well done.

I started reading The Walking Dead comics. It's completely different from the tv series. It's a whole lot darker, though this isn't necessarily an improvement. In fact, it gets kinda cliche with one thing in particular :/

I'm reading the first book of Lord Of The Rings

That's awesome, KoB. Enjoy!

Still trawling through the Warhammer Horus Heresy books...This one I'm on is a short story collection whose name currently escapes me...Oopsie... ...

Recently read a couple of ebook trilogies I grabbed off Amazon. The Dragonblood Collection, Books 1-3 was damn good, sort of a fantasy/steampunk thing. Great characters, good setup, pretty much good all 'round. Would have preferred to be a little longer, but they were ridiculously cheap(less than a quid for more than 700 pages!) so I can't really complain too much on that front.

The other ones really weren't much good, so I won't bother listing them.

Warhammer - The Horus Heresy, The Outcast Dead by Graham McNeill...

The Innocent Mage, by Karen Miller.

It and The Awakened Mage, the sequel, are damn good books. The two that followed them, and the one that comes before them all, were bloody terrible. Particularly the prequel. Virtually no continuity whatsoever.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

He's been at my house, - OH! Didn't mean to give away the ending! SORRY !!!

Have abandoned the Warhammer for a time...I just...Pffffft...I dunno...*Shrugs*...


Anyways, one reason for the change is that I suddenly really fancied reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy...And, being the stickler for tradition that I am, I'm starting with the first one - Red Mars...

Apparently, it's currently being developed as a T.V. Event™ by Babylon 5's J. Michael Strazynski...Which is nice... ...

Just finished The Colour of Magic, about to start The Light Fantastic

I'm sure I don't need to tell you who those are written by.

Huh...Coincidentally, (Or not ) am about to finish The Colour of Magic and start The Light Fantastic...

By that man...Y'know...Wossname... ...

That's good readin'. I remember that one holiday we spent in Portugal where I read the first 10 books in a row. Ahhh good times

WIP Terry Prachett.

His books have eluded me so far, but I plan to sit down and start working my way through them. I can't remember the one I did read over twenty (or was it thirty??) years ago, but I barely remember it. The only thing I remember about it is how it made me chuckle so many times, or even LOL.

Currently I'm reading two books: The Golden Bough by James George Frazer on my iPad, and A History of Western Architecture 2nd. ed. by David Watkin (Amazon has the 5th ed) which was given to me by a fellow church member who is a voracious reader. He's at the stage of his life now where he is slimming down his book collection, and he brought a ton of books from 20 and 30 years ago.

Anyone ever check out any Joe Abercrombie? As far as fantasy goes, it's pretty cool. I Got really into it for a while. Read the standalone novels Best Served Cold and The Heroes, then moved on to the trilogy that is actually a prequel to the other two. I dig 'em because they're super gritty and gory, and they've got a small amount of political edge like Song of Ice and Fire, except without the extreme amount of unremarkable yet still somehow important characters whose names you can never remember. There's usually a decent twist, and a lot of insanely anti-climactic resolutions you don't expect, which I like.

Outside of the fantasy realm, I'm working on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It's insanely slow to me, but I still enjoy the philosophical aspect, so I'm pushing through it, just not very quickly. My dad loves it, so I'm finally going to read it.

Yeah, my mother and step-dad used to rave on about Zen and the etc quite a bit too... ...I may have tried it once...Likely around the age of 15...

I had a drink problem by 15...The book didn't take...

...

Anyways...

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett...Kind of a riff on sexism with the whole Wizards and Witches being exclusively male and female (respectively ) in fantasy...So in Equal Rites you get the story of a young girl who gets given the power of Wizards by mistake and the consequences of, as she's growing up...It's so sooooo funny...It's been some great many years since I read this last, it really is so fantastic...Much better than the first two...

I have just started Magician (Raymond E Feist), a book I last read over 20 years ago. I am using an e reader and recently downloaded the whole 29 books in the series and plan to eventually get through the whole lot.

I was surprised to see just how many things Elder Scrolls 'borrowed' from the book.
ie Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master. And the Dark Brotherhood.

Fantasy is just ideas recycled.

Currently reading; Your Writing Coach, 2nd Edition, by Jurgen Wolff.

Got it cheap on Kindle and it seems to be pretty helpful

Reading Becoming Steve Jobs, by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli.

What can I say? *shrugs* I work for his company.

I am reading The Amazons, by Adrienne Mayor. I am only about 60 pages in, but it is excellent so far. It is an examination of both the myth and reality of Amazons - warrior women - in the Ancient World. It ranges from the Greek myths about Amazons, to the reality of Scythian/Sarmatian/Saka/Xiongnu women who lived just as men did - riding, hunting, warring, loving. All proven not just through historical documents, but of course though numerous archeological finds.

IRL these women lived in a kind of egalitarian society which a Greek or Roman man literally could not wrap his minds around. The mere idea of which was and still is of course a threat to their own Patriarchal societies. Hence the reason in the Greek stories, Amazons are always defeated and die in the end.

Still, she is a lot kinder to the Greeks than I would normally find myself being. She points out how in their myths they identified Amazons as being Scythian, which was correct. She also illuminates that in the Greek tales, the Amazons - while being the boogeymen of male-dominated society - were always described in glowing terms. They are always noble, heroic, skillful, brave. Everything a male Greek aspired to being. They even always had a heroic death - something that again the Greeks aspired to.

The latter is something that the Greek heroes themselves never were allowed. Instead of going out in a blaze of glory, they usually went out poorly, like Bellerephon, who died a crippled hermit after falling from Pegasus. Or Odysseus, who is killed by his own son with a poison stinger from a ray. Heracles, who dies from putting on a poisoned tunic. And of course Achilles, who was shot in the heel (and thusly in the back), and has gone down in history as being a sterling example of how even the greatest power always has some vulnerability. So compared to the Greek heroes, the Amazons actually come off being treated pretty well, all things considered.

I just finished Night Chills by Dean Koontz. I bought it when I was 14 and the impact on just how scary it was didn't hit me then.

It's about a scientist who works a lot with subliminal messages and has developed a drug that is able to "prime" people's subconscious to be incredibly vulnerable to mind control. (If it makes a difference, this was written during the 70s). So this person teams up with a very wealthy college associate, who brings in a military general and together they perfect this system that creates essentially mental slaves. Oh, and one is a raging misogynist. I'm sure the blanks can be filled in.

I also found a free book at school called When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago. I don't think I have ever found a book about a Latina, let alone one that was Puerto Rican. I was so hooked. It made me think of what life might have been like for my grandma and her family before they came to the US. It's a trilogy, so I'll be looking into the other two.

I should've responded sooner - I love Joe Abercrombie! I have his First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold. I've started Heroes thanks to your post - I have three other of his books in my queue. He's rough, gritty, and downright earthy - just the way I like my stories.

Currently reading Dmitry Glukhovski's Metro 2034. This is his second book set in a post apocalyptic environment set almost exclusively inside of the Russian metro lines. It's an excellent book, especially if you've played the Metro games.

E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series.

I'm not going to finish it though. That last book is just terrible in my opinion. But I like the series up to that point.

What do you mean by "the series"? He originally wrote four, was prompted by his publisher to extend it with two prequels, and then there was the sequel seventh book that wasn't really part of the series, but another story in the same context.

I've read them all (and the Skylark series, which is also fun). They're all pretty much the same plot, really with some piece of new tech making whatever the hero has obsolete, until he gets hold of it himself. It usually comes from a third party, separate from his original adversary, who he is then able to defeat. The variable bit is whether the new tech is used against him, or for a totally different purpose. There's also usually a not-quite-disastrous first attempt to use the newly acquired technology, from which an important new insight is gained.

The eighth book of the series is Harry Harrison's "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers" which should be read immediately after finishing Lensman. Sheogorath would approve of cheddite!

I didn't know that, I was just going off what it says on the back of the books.

And it turns out it's the last two that I skip. Once Kinnison's kids come into it the whole thing goes out the window. Seriously, those things aren't even human, it's ridiculous.

Of course, now I've been reminded of Harrison, I may have to read "Bill the Galactic Hero" or "The Stainless Steel Rat" again. I'd read "West of Eden", too, but I've lost that and only have the last two.

Started reading A Brief History of the Vikings, Jonathan Clements yesterday.

Terrible. I actually bailed partway through the second chapter. The first, about the mythology and religion, displayed a colossal lack of research. Between that and his obvious bias, I just couldn't keep reading. It actually read like it was written by someone who doesn't like the vikings, and isn't remotely interested in them.


So I'm reading The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. All this recent talk of The Witcher 3 lately has kicked me out of my sci-fi binge. Mostly.