Yeah, I found that page, unfortunately shipping costs to Slovenia are high whereas on the Book Depository page I ordered the complete collection from, the delivery is free worldwide.

At 0133 this morning I concluded my fifth reading of Ursula K. Le Guin's Tehanu, the Last Book of Earthsea. A most fitting companion to her The Earthsea Trilogy. The title is misleading in so far as Ms. Le Guin would eventually publish at least two further Earthsea titles. The first, Tales From Earthsea, I made it through the intro of before leaving the sofa (where I sleep these days) and turning on the computer.

And yes, I was up for the day by 0133. Groggy as heck, but unable to fall back asleep.

It has arrived!

Oooh... Been years since I read Lovecraft. Happy reading! (Is happy the right word? Erm... Enjoy the freakiness?)

The stars are right!

ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Niiiiiice!!

At 1711 yesterday, during supper, I finished my second reading of Ursula K. Le Guin's Tales of Earthsea. I've started in on Ms Le Guin's final Earthsea novel, The Other Wind.

At 2323 yesterday evening I finished Ursula K. Le Guin's The Other Wind, bringing to an end this re-reading of her Earthsea books. My only recollection of Wind and its immediate predecessor was the notion that they were not the equal of earlier Earthsea entries. I have a greater appreciation of them this time round. I feel more could have been told, carrying on where Wind leaves off, but with Ms Le Guin gone that possibility is denied us. Be that as it may, I'm glad to have been able to reacquaint myself with the series yet again.

I've begun reading John Marco's The Jackal of Nar, book one of his Tyrants and Kings, a series I do not possess in whole.

At 0303 this morning I finished my second read of John Marco's Jackal of Nar, book one of his Tyrants and Kings series. First read Feb 2001, I recalled absolutely nothing of it going in other than a vague memory of finding it rather mediocre back then. That opinion hasn't changed. As of now I doubt I'll continue on with book two, but we shall see.

Couldn't see myself continuing John Marco's Tyrants and Kings series. Decided to tackle David Eddings' Balgarid for the tenth (!!!!) time. Am now some thirty pages into book one, Pawn of Prophecy. As might be imagined, these books and I or old friends. I don't consider them amongst the "greats" of fantasy literature. But they are, for me, among the most readable. The sort of writing that brings a smile to your face. Feel-good writing. I could nitpick 'em to death, but why bother? Reading 'em is simply a heck of a lot of fun, assuming you want a light hearted tale well told, with a cast of colorful, enduring characters. I'll admit that....no, no nitpicking.

At 0312 Tuesday, 29 May, I concluded my tenth reading of David Eddings' Pawn of Prophecy, book one of The Belgariad. Looking over completion dates inside its cover I noticed each read ending in a different month, so that only Mar and Nov aren't represented. How odd as that? What are the odds my next two reads, assuming I live long enough for that, fill those gaps? Slim to none, in my estimation. I also noticed I read the two five-book series, Belgariad and Malloreon TWICE during 2001. Completion dates show I must have finished the final (tenth) book sometime near the end of July then immediately read Pawn of Prophecy again, completing it 30 Jul.

Need I say I'm already partway through book two, Queen of Sorcery?

At 1654 today, during supper, I finished my tenth reading of David Eddings' Queen of Sorcery, book two of The Belgariad. I'm now some pages into book three, Magician's Gambit.

D.Foxy’s Of Blades, Fights and Assassins in that old forum. It’s a whole different read when you’ve experienced a little bit of the martial arts yourself. In my case, it affords a new and dare I say intimate appreciation of the knowledge *freely* shared. Hats off. It is a shame he did not continue; I would have wanted to see how he covered unarmed combat and his detailed views on incorporating grappling during weapon-to-weapon fights.

At 0557 15 Jun 2018, during a power outage, I finished my tenth read of David Eddings' Magician's Gambit, book three of his The Belgariad series. I'm now partway through book four, Castle of Wizardry.

I have not been keeping up here. I read Most Wanted about a month ago. It is one of the new canon books, about Han and Qi'ra when they were street rats on Corellia. It takes a little while to feel right, because in the beginning it is mostly in scavenging in the sewers. But once they go topside things start getting interesting, and it feels like a real Star Wars story. It is a fun team story, has solid character development, and ends with Han and Qi'ra realizing just how big the galaxy is, and that they have opportunities out there. It puts them in the right frame of mind to escape Corellia, as we see at the start of Solo.

I also read Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. It is an anthology with a few Lovecraft tales, plus short stories by other writers. Most were rather poor. The one by Stephen King was the best non-Lovecraft one of the bunch.

I am about half way through Last Shot. It is a Han and Lando story. I love the Lando parts, he is one of my favorite Star Wars characters. But this one keeps jumping around through time. Too much, which makes it hard to keep track of what was going on when. It does not help that the timelines do not match up either. The present is set 2 years after Jakku. Then the past stories are 10 and 15 years earlier. But in reality I think they should be 10 and 15 years before Yavin.

It does make some fun references to Lando's cape collection, which brought a nice smile after seeing Solo.

At 2323 yesterday evening, 21 Jun 2018, reading on the couch I finished my tenth read of David Eddings' Castle of Wizardry, book four of The Belgariad. I've already started in on the fifth and concluding book in the series, Enchanters' End Game.

At 2223 last night, 3 July 2018, I concluded my tenth reading of David Eddings' Enchanters' End Game, fifth and final volume of The Belariad. I'm now several pages into book one of Eddings' followup series The Malloreon: Guardians of the West.

I have been reading Batgirl lately. I started with some of the more recent Rebirth issues where she has the blue and yellow suit. My interest got piqued, since I last remember Barbara Gordon being paralyzed and in a wheelchair (and Oracle). So I went farther back to the start of the New 52 launch (damn, how many times does DC re-launch their entire line of titles?). There I found that she regained her mobility through an experimental surgery in South America.

I know some folks are disappointed to see her out of the wheelchair again, but personally I am glad. Batman had his back broken in Knightfall, and he was walking again by the end, without the benefit of any special surgeries. Other characters die, but of course don't stay dead (yes, I am looking at you Jason Todd, not to mention countless others). But Babs has been stuck in that chair for decades. I know there have been other Batgirls, but Barbara Gordon was the only real one for me.

I find I like her new blue and yellow look a lot more than the older black and gold outfit too. The older one is way too hyper-sexualized for me. Pretty much just paint sprayed on an impossibly curved woman's body. The new suit looks like real fabric (apparently it is leather), with folds and creases, and Babs looks like a real woman in it, rather than a spank-fantasy (like pretty much all super-heroines But to be fair, male characters are drawn just as ridiculously).

I also noticed that in the older New 52 books, she had blue eyes. In the newer Rebirth titles she has green eyes (which fits more with the red hair). So maybe that is her mutant power?

At 0315 this morning, 15 Jul 2018, I concluded my tenth reading of David Eddings' Guardians of the West, book one of The Malloreon. I got only a few pages into its followup, King of the Murgos, before leaving the sofa to fire up the PC.

At 0257 this morning, already up for the day due to needing to keep the PC awake while my most recent YT TpF episode uploads, I finished my tenth read of David Eddings' King of the Murgos, book two of The Malloreon. I'll begin book three, Demon Lord of Karanda, by day's end, possibly sometime between now and breakfast.

I am currently reading the Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan). Years ago I finished the first four novels but got sidetracked by other books. I have jumped back to the start and are almost finished book 1. It is amazing how much of the plot line I have forgotten.

Other series I am considering later are Tad Williams (Dragonbone chair thingy) and S. Erikson (Malazan book of the fallen).

Has anybody read either of those two? Are they recommended?

Woot, a WoT reader! I'll be interested in your thoughts as you progress through the books. As mentioned during my recent re-read of the series, this time round I changed my opinion about certain aspects of the series as a whole. I'll not rehash that now for fear of spoiling things.

The Williams is another favorite Tolkieneseque fantasy series.

As to Malazan, I confess to having struggled through volume one and washed my hands of it. Mine seems to be a minority view. You might well enjoy the series as much as the majority of fantasy readers do.

I'm still reading book three of David Eddings' The Malloreon. The further I read the more I feel it a lesser series that its predecessor The Belgariad. Despite that it's a fun, easy read...so long as I don't try to take it too seriously. Heh

Thanks Decrepit!

I love WOT and can not get enough of Rand, Mat, Trollocs and Tar Valon! I love the series so much. Shame that he passed away before completing the series, leaving it to somebody else. Later on I will check back through the threads and have a look at your thoughts of the series now. You have me curious.

Very interesting what you have said about Malazan. I downloaded the whole ten books (8000+ pages ) and tried reading the opening page. My first thought was how heavy and ponderous the writing seemed. I was wondering if the whole book was like that? Sounds like it might be...

Good luck with Mr Eddings. Is it true he wrote the exact same story from another point of view later on in the series? At least that is what the guy and my work says.

Eddings? Yes, he did that. Twice. In his works featuring Belgarath, Belgarion, Polgara, and so on. First time he did so, with Belgarath the Sorcerer, I could see it as behind-the-scenes perspective, a telling of the "real" story behind what was portrayed in main books. He then published a followup book told from Polgara's perspective, which basically contradicted much of what was written in Belgarath and the main books. I draw the line at reading that book again. I'll go so far as to say Eddings later non Belgarath-and-Gang series feature more or less those same basic characters under other names. He definitely milked what worked so well for him in early publications. Doesn't stop me from enjoying those first few series, but can get old after that.

As to Malazan, it's been a long time since I read it. Specifics are vague. I do know little about it appealed to me, whether writing, characters or plot. Just not my thing, as we used to say.

Eddings is one of my favorites, and the Redemption of Althalus is my favorite book. Hands down.

<nods> Can't argue with ya about 'em. I'm reading the Malloreon for the tenth time for goodness sake. Lots of fun, though as mentioned I can nit-pick 'em to death should I choose. (Have to admit the section of Demon Lord of Karana I'm reading at the moment is one of my least favorite episodes of the first two series.)

Yes, that must be what my friend was talking about. He finished the whole thing but said- never again!

I am currently in the home straight on WOT book 1. The whitecloaks are causing trouble, but nothing that Lan cannot handle.

At 2243 yesterday evening, 31 Jul 2018, I concluded my tenth read of David Eddings' Demon Lord of Karanda, book three of The Malloreon. I'm now several pages into book four's prologue.

Picking up book four I noticed this will be its ninth read. I assumed I must have broken off some former read-through at this point. That seemed odd, as these books are super easy reads. Not the sort of books I'm apt to give up on. Decided to investigate. Book three gives it away. I never abandoned the series at Sorceress of Darshiva. It's one reading shy of all previous Eddings books because I didn't own a copy when I first read its predecessors. I didn't own it because it wasn't published during that initial reading. It also coincided with a military oversees assignment followed by my last two years and military service followed by acclimating myself to civilian life. Didn't get around to reading Eddings again until 1994, by which time I owned Sorceress...

I bought another political book today to go along with my other political book from Dr. Ben Carson. The book that came in is from Judge Jeannie Pirro.

At 1429 this afternoon, 8 Aug 2018, I finished my ninth read of David Eddings' Sorceress of Darshiva, book four of The Malloreon. Four down, one to go. I'll surely begin the concluding volume, The Seeress of Kell, by days end, likely during supper.

At 1917 this evening I concluded both The Seeress of Kell and its series The Malloreon. Seeress is a ninth read. Malloreon is a mixture of ninth and tenth reads. Enjoyable as always. My eyes misted several time before the end, as they always tend to do.

Haven't thought about what I'll tackle next. Can take the easy way out and begin Eddings next two-series combo. No not.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archiv...-debate/565769/

Keep forgetting to report that, having finished David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon I decided to tackle The Redemption of Althalus. I attempted it once before but gave up at page 360. (My bookmark was still in place.) I'm now on page 392, just shy of the halfway mark. (This is a long volume by Eddings standards.)

Must admit the book failed to impress me that first try. In fact I recalled nothing more than that when picking it up again earlier this month. Not one character or incident stayed in memory. Most unusual for me.

This time round I'm again not overly impressed. We shall see if that opinion changes ere the end.

The book is credited to both David and Leigh Eddings, supposedly the case with earlier novels but not officially acknowledged.

I am almost finished on 'Day of the Jackal.' The start was slow with too much tell for my liking, but is now starting to ramp up as the French police hunt for their man. It also borders on the ridiculous why the Jackal does not pull out and plan for a later hit. Oh well, I thought the gunman was a professional.

I need to plan the order that I read all my fantasy books. I do know that WOT book 2 is next.

I have been re-reading Karl Edward Wagner's Kane books for the first time in decades. I started with his three novel length stories: Bloodstone, then Darkness Weaves, and just finished up Dark Crusade.

I like how Kane ultimately works out to be a good guy in the end, but only by accident. Don't mistake me, Kane is evil plain and simple. But he tends to ally himself with even more evil creatures (The Bloodstone, Efrel, the Avatar of Sataki) in the pursuit of power. Of course he always intends on betraying and destroying them (just as they plan on doing to him). Usually Murphy's Law happens as some point, and Kane ends up wiping out the badder guys, and losing everything in the process. He is a fantastic anti-hero.

Its funny, because being Kane's enemy is not a very safe thing. But being his ally is even worse! Not many of his 'friends' survive him. Arbas and Teres are among a lucky few to still be alive after being around him.

At 1702 today, while preparing supper, I finished my first reading of David & Leigh Eddings' The Redemption of Althalus. I've tentatively started in on a second read of Robert Harris' historical fiction novel Pompeii.

Last night, I finished E.L. Doctorow's "The March", about General Sherman's march into the south near the end of the American Civil War.

I'm honestly not sure what I made of it.

It's got multiple points of view, a huge cast of characters, Doctorow himself called it his "Russian Novel" which I can kind of see. The writing is beautiful, the characters were really well drawn. Technically it might be one of the finest examples of writing I've ever read.

And yet...

It took me ages to finish, I struggled more than thirty pages at a time, there was just no urge to see what happened next. So yeah, hugely impressive in some regards, but just didn't grab me on an emotional level at all.

This happened to anyone else? I can't think of another time I've had this experience of really, truly respecting a piece of writing, but just not really enjoying it.

I sometimes get that. Tim Zahn's recent Thrawn novel did it to me. He's an excellent writer. He has solid plots and interesting and intelligent characters. But there was just no one in the novel for me to like. At the end of the day, if his protagonist was shot dead, I would not have felt sad. Instead I would have thought that the galaxy would be better off. The same with all the other characters. So it was hard for me to really enjoy the book, because I really did not care about what happened to the characters.

I suspect my most recent incident of such behavior occurred while reading Guy Gavriel Kay's most recent release to date, Children of Earth and Sky. Kay has long been my favorite fantasy author. I consider most everything he's published to be cream of the crop. Certainly I like some titles better than others, but it's all well worth reading. Yet Children didn't do much for me, comparatively speaking. I even set it aside partway through and couldn't bring myself to pick it up again and continue on until months later. The things I like about Kay are all present within its pages. Yet somehow it never hooked me, except during isolated episodes.

(My recommendation for someone new to Kay remains the two volume Sarantine Mosaic, consisting of Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors, set in a fictitious early Byzantine Empire. If you don't cotton to those I suspect you're not gotta care much for anything of Kay's.)

Probably The Golden Compass. I was all prepared to dive in and enjoy a massive "alt history" read. Reviews were extremely positive, etc.

I got about... 20 or so pages in and just could not compel myself to care.

At 1315 this afternoon I finished my second read of Robert Harris' Pompeii. Reached its end so fast (by my slow reading standards) I didn't have time to consider what to tackle next.

Bought Pompeii used less that four years ago. Read it for the first time not long afterward. The large town / small city about ten miles away once had two dedicated used book dealers and three conventional book stores, one of which also dealt in used titles. By the time I bought Pompeii the two dedicated used book stores were long gone, as was one of the three conventional stores. Nowadays there's only a Barnes & Noble, which of course doesn't carry used.

ADDENDUM:
Decided to read David Gemmell's Troy series and am forty pages into book one, Lord of the Silver Bow. Enjoyed these books quite a lot both previous readings. Not sure why I've not sought out other of Gemmell's writings.

At 1712 this afternoon, at the tail end of supper, I finished my third read of David Gemmell's Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow. I'll start in on book two, Troy: Shield of Thunder, no later than bedtime.

I just finished 'reading' HP Lovecraft's Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath on audiobook. This is the first time I finished it. I tried once before, but never got very far. Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories never did much for me. I have the same problem with it that I do with most of the DC Comics settings (Central City, Midway City, Coast City, etc...), or Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy universe. It doesn't seem real to me, so I cannot bring myself to care about what happens there. It just seems like a bunch of made-up names just thrown off the writer's cuff, with no significance, no history, no real way of fitting into a larger world.

I decided to give Dream-Quest a chance yesterday on almost a whim. I had just finished The Silver Key, which I really liked, and that put me in the mood for more Randolph Carter. This time I was armed with a map of the Dreamlands which helped me put the places in perspective.

I found I liked it. I realized that the Dreamlands were Lovecraft's way of trying to create a fantasy-like setting. It seems that when you look at the fantasy writing of that era - 20's and 30's, no one ever just created their own standalone fantasy world, called it Earth (or whatever), and wrote as if our own Real World Earth never existed. Instead people always seemed to start with our Earth as a starting point, from which their protagonists traveled to some other realm. John Carter to Mars. Through the Looking Glass, and so on. Or they set their stories far back in our Earth's past, like Conan in the Hyborian Age, or even Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Lovecraft's Dreamland is not a place of mighty thewed barbarians lopping off heads until the blade of his Atlantean sword is worn dull. But it did strike me as very similar to The Hobbit. Where the protagonist is a relatively ordinary person going on an adventure. He gets captured, escapes through his wits and help from his friends, rinse and repeat. When I looked at it through that lens, Dream-Quest was a fun romp.

The Silver Key likewise reminded me of Hook, and the grown-up Peter Pan trying to regain his childhood wonder of days with the Lost Boys. In this story Randolph Carter has been beaten down with logic and reality, forgotten how to dream, grown up and become an adult. He is The Logical Song in print. He spends the story trying to reclaim his lost youthful spirit, his love of life, his zest. No spoilers, but it has a happy ending.

Now I am starting Through the Gates of the Silver Key, which is a sequel to The Silver Key. The people left behind are puzzling over Carter's disappearance. New Dreamlands adventures beckon.

At 2316 yesterday night I finished my third reading of David Gemmell's Troy: Shield of Thunder and am already some pages into the third and final book, Troy: Fall of Kings.

I started reading The Terror, thanks to the tv series by the same name. It is good, but jumps around through time an awful lot, which can get confusing. I am really astounded by the minute attention to detail by the author. I have spent a lot of time googling things like Fast Ice, growlers, hummocky flows, the idea of the Open Polar Sea, and even things like the Preston Patent Illuminators. He went to a lot of work to make the book as authentic as possible (given that no one really knows exactly what happened to the Franklin Expedition).

An interesting coincidence is that a few months ago I saw a documentary about the Franklin Expedition - Nova: Arctic Ghost Ship, and how they had discovered the last of the two ships - the eponymous Terror. Now I might want to go back and watch that again.

At 2235 yesterday evening, shortly before falling asleep, I concluded my third reading of David Gemmell's Fall of Kings, bringing to a close his Troy series. Like Eddings' Redemption of Althalus read not long ago Fall credits both David and his wife Stella as authors. (The two earlier entries are not co-authored.)

Were I to read no more books this year Troy would be my pick for both "best overall read of the year" and "best re-read of the year." I find it very impressive and an easy recommendation. Certainly there's much sadness within volume three, but who reads a recounting of the Trojan epic expecting a happy ending?

I've not yet decided what to read next. Troy will be a tough act to follow.

Staying up until 0126 Fri morning 5 Oct finishing it, not falling asleep until circa 0230, then waking for the day at 0430 being the most likely trigger for my ongoing bout of poor health, I've not felt up to reporting my sixth read of S.P. Somtow's The Shattered Horse until now. (How's that for a screwy sentence!?!)

It is a perfect followup for David Gemmell's Troy series. Shattered Horse centers on Robert Graves' statement in The Greek Myths that "some say xxxxxxxx survived and became King of Troy after the departure of the Greeks." By sheer happenstance Gemmell's Troy ends with that character alive (though a brief epilogue shows a totally different post War existence for him.) The books are otherwise quite different. Troy is basically historic fiction with a nod to the supernatural in the form of provably actuate prophecy. With Shattered Horse supernatural elements associated with the myths are most definitely real and play a large role in the story. I think both are great reads, but give the nod to Gemmell.

Liking Gemmell's Troy as I do, I ordered three older Gemmell fantasy novels. Am reading the first of them now, Legend. My take thus far is that Gemmell's writing matured quite a bit between Legend and Troy. Nothing particularly wrong with Legend. It's your basic mid 80s fantasy of a group of "heroes" standing against seemingly insurmountable odds. Then again, much the same can be said of the more recently written Troy. The different, I think, is in the telling. At any rate I enjoy Legend enough to eventually reach its end and will likely move on to the followup.

Wanting a little change of pace while watching videos at YouTube this morning I decided to see if anything was available on Somtow's The Shattered Horse. As expected, being a "older" title (mid 80s) its presence is practically non existent. I did, however, find an excellent several minute long reading beginning at the start of chapter one. It's enough to get a decent impression of how well written and interesting the book is.

I'm still working my way through Legend and remain disappointed that the book is, imo, several notches beneath the author's latter written Troy series in pretty every respect. Readable, but as of now not something I'd recommend. Troy, on the other hand, remains a VERY solid recommendation.

At 1658 this afternoon, chewing my last bite of supper apple, I concluded my first read of David Gemmell's Legend, first book in what would become his Drenai Saga. As mentioned, for me this novel doesn't hold a candle to his later written Troy series, which I think quite highly of indeed. To its credit, I feel it improves at around page 265 and becomes a more interesting read from there until the end some eight pages later. Not perfect by any means, but good enough so that I now look forward to seeing what book two, The King beyond the Gate, offers, where before I seriously considered not continuing on.

Livy. Specifically, his entries about the Second Punic War. All because I got hooked by the Carthaginians in Rome: Total War, and when I’m hooked to something I must learn about it 120%.