Arvernian Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 Finished my re-read of The Ill Made Mute a few days ago only to find out that I don't have the 2nd book as I thought I did and not one bookstore in the city has it in stock so I had to order it. In the meantime, I started Tales Before Tolkien which is an excellent (so far) collection of stories that inspired (or in a few cases did not directly inspire) Tolkien. It's funny to read some of the stories and see the direct influence on Tolkien's work. What stories are in Tales Before Tolkien? Any Dunsany? Eddison? Howard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cen0taph Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 What stories are in Tales Before Tolkien? Any Dunsany? Eddison? Howard? Tales Before Tolkien (The Roots of Modern Fantasy) edited by Douglas A. Anderson There's a lot of stories collected here including Dunsany (no Eddison or Howard), William Morris, H. Rider Haggard, L. Frank Baum and many others. Here is a review of it: http://www.sfsite.com/02a/tt169.htm I'm only on the 7th story but it is enjoyable so far. One or two were okay stories and not all are known to have been read by Tolkien but it certainly is an informative anthology of Pre-Tolkien short fantasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas! Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 I'm reading The Warrior-Prophet by R. Scott Bakker right now. It's really good. Reminds me of Steven Erikson a bit--really flawed characters, low magic (so far) and lots of duplicity, secrecy and political manouvering. A good recipe for my kind of fantasy series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Paladin Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 Right now, I'm finishing off a re-read of Asimov's Foundation series that I started over the holidays. A quick and entertaining read, as usual from Asimov, and I'm halfway through the finale, Foundation and Earth. For Christmas, from my parents, I got a biography of Admiral Nelson, a history of the Battle of Trafalgar and another book on the Age of Sail. I'll be mixing those into the schedule over the next few months. I also got $125 in bookstore gift certificates, which I burned up a bunch of today. I picked up: Bakker's Darkness and Prophet books, and I will pick up the Thousandfold Thought when it is released later in the month. They'll be in the fiction on-deck circle. Harry Turtledove's latest alternate history where the South won (Return Engagement), in trade paperback (his work is enjoyable, but I can't rationalize paying for the hardback with his stuff anymore. The guy is prolific). Also, I finally got around to purchasing Freakanomics and the World is Flat. I took a peek at the first few pages of Freakanomics after dinner, and I am having a hard time going back to and finishing the novel I have in progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Stranger Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 I'm reading an anthropologist's take on the Middle East c. 1958 called Caravan that's quite interesting. Getting through Celine's Journey to the End of the Night and loving it, but all of my reading has recently been crippled: shitfaced the other night, I wanted some comfort reading, so guess what I picked up? thaaaaaaat's right. Jon just found the fucking puppies. this is like my 3rd reread in a year. how intellectually lazy am I?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 but all of my reading has recently been crippled: shitfaced the other night, I wanted some comfort reading, so guess what I picked up? thaaaaaaat's right. Jon just found the fucking puppies. this is like my 3rd reread in a year. how intellectually lazy am I?! I get that way, too. Some books, I swear I am on my 5th or 6th re-read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H von T Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 I'm reading Wills' Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America. Rather tedious. Reading about the rural-cemetary movement is not exactly a page turner. Thank god it's a short book and I will definitely not be reading the appendices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UberDarkLord Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller. It's a SF classic that I never read, so it was time. On p.50 or so and liking it so far. Well I finished the first story (of 3) and was so underwhelmed with the book I decided to postpone reading the other parts. My main gripes with this supposed 'classic': - while the proze was excellent, the story was dragging and overall a just too meagre, even for a hundred pages. I found myself profoundly uncaring and detached most of the time from the main character. - the whole post-apocalyptic resurgence of the Catholic Church really bothered me. Supposedly religion would flower after such a global lethal event, I concur with that, but imho there are far better candidates than the Catholic Church. I think generally Miller went to far in his Medieval setting thing, and was either to lazy or not disposed to making up a more believable post-apocalyptic world. Maybe it is that the book is fifty years (or more) old, but I certainly don't think its a classic. Maybe I have to read the two other stories, but considered the first one is widely considered the best, I for the time being leave it at this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isis Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 I read this a few years back. I was rather underwhelmed too. In fact, I struggle to recall anything except REALLY minor details about the book. :| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoodlum Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 I just read all of ASOIAF (so happy I did not start when the first one came out and have to wait five years) and now I'm starting Clan of the Cave Bear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrim Fox Cauthon Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I'm reading The Darkness that Comes Before, but with uni starting up shortly, and since I just started it, I doubt that I'll finish any itme soon. And afterwords, I will either pick up Warrior Prophet, or start reading the Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophelia Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I finally finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell last week. I'm about half way through Erikson's Gardens of the Moon which I am really getting into now. Am now considering starting again at the beginning and taking notes so I can start piecing things together before I get told stuff. I might read some more of Vance's Dying of the Light or Harrison's Viriconium first though - I have to admit too many books are calling me, and distracting me from my own writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multaniette Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Finished 'Rose Daughter' by Robin McKinley, a retelling of the Beauty & The Beast fable. Reading 'The Mountain's Call', by Caitlin Brennan - a romantic fantasy. Also read a lot of excellent short stories by the likes of Tom Reamy, Arnold Bennett, Michael Swanwick, Algernon Blackwood, Pat Murphy, Kelly Link and Neil Gaiman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfella Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Kingslayer: I agree with you on that one horrifying moment from Song of Kali. That's one that sticks with you. And I also enjoyed Instance of the Fingerpost. Currently still working my way through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Been reading it for over a month. Usually if a book takes me this long, I just get sick of it, but I really like this one and don't much mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceBannon42 Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I finished Deadhouse Gates last weekend and I was fairly iffy on it. Erickson just isnt a page turner for me. I found this one almost as difficult to get into as GotM. The writing was a bit better and the plot probably was tighter, but it still didn't hook me. Started The Warrior Prophet this weekend. Now I'm having a much easier time getting into this book than tDTCB. The names, whil I still can find some of them distracting, they dont really bother me. The plot is tight, and the prose is great. The characters continue to develop. I'm very excited to get back to the book, when I put it down. on a sad note I'm preparing to move at the end of the month, and I've begun packing up my beloved books. All the paperbacks are put away. I need to pull out a back up to have for when I finish TWP... Maybe some Sci Fi... what to choose??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterfella Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 on a sad note I'm preparing to move at the end of the month, and I've begun packing up my beloved books. All the paperbacks are put away. I need to pull out a back up to have for when I finish TWP... Maybe some Sci Fi... what to choose??? On the bright side, think of all the fun you can have reorganizing and alphebetizing the books when you get to your new place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Stark Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Just finished 69 things to do with a dead princess. Whoa... I don't mind admitting that some of it went beyond me, as my degree required limited literary criticism work, but possibly the most unique book I've ever read, for better or worse. It's mostly a literary criticism of much of the intellectual elite material coming out of W. Europe/US in the 80's and 90's...wrapped in a fictional account involving a sometimes animated ventriloquist (sp?) dummy, stonehenge and other druidic/pagan sites, a murder, and brief but explosive pornographically vivid sex between multiple partners. At one point I'm reading and I realize that the character is talking about a book with the same name ("69 things to do...") which exists in the reality I'm reading about, but in fact tells a different story than the story I'm actually reading at the time, but THAT story is being emulated in the journey that the characters in the story I'm actually reading are taking. Got it? Neither did I. Still sorta enjoyed it though...mebbe just my dirty mind getting some playtime. Rereading Vengence now after I saw Munich (the film was based off the differently-titled book.) Great insight into the modern workings of espionage and assassination, plus I'm a sucker for revenge and morally grey tales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceBannon42 Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 On the bright side, think of all the fun you can have reorganizing and alphebetizing the books when you get to your new place. Great Point WF! Plus I will have a small bedroom as a dedicated library! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobodymN Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I recently received an anthology edited by Lou Anders, Future Shocks, that has stories by some of my favorites like Paul di Filippo, Adam Roberts, Chris Roberson, Robert Charles Wilson, Paul Melko, Resnick, and Robert J Sawyer among others, and something called Changelings, a new series by Anne Mccaffery and Elizabeth Scarborough (not interested) I'm not one of those people that run out an buy a book that because an author I enjoy blurbs something positive about it, but Kelly Link was pimping a couple of books when I interviewed her and I'm figuring someone that talented as a writer, not to mention an editor/owner of a press that doesn't publish anything but quality, might know what the hell she is talking about so I scooped up these: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (which Matt Cheney was also pimping) Times Like These by Rahcel Ingalls the Melancholy of Anatomy by Shelly Jackson Something to Write Home Abou tby Rachel Ingalls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enoch Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I recently finished Tim Powers' Declare and Drawing of the Dark, and reread Last Call. I like Tim Powers SO much... I'll make a thread about his works soon, I promise! Good Lord, man! I had no idea there were actually other people who read Tim Powers. He's one of my absolute favorites, and criminally under-recognized if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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