Inkdaub Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 8 hours ago, IlyaP said: Picked up De Castell's first book in the Greatcoats series, Traitor's Blade. Read the first few pages and it's got style for miles. Looking very forward to chomping into this later today! I love the Greatcoats. I am almost done with West's Hidden City and will soon begin City of Night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 14 hours ago, Gaston de Foix said: Thanks, I'll add to the to-read list after the Mirror and the Light. Cromwell was in many ways a monster. But then, he served a monster, who was also a coward and incompetent. Which is yet another element of the Cate Blanchett Elizabeth films I find unhappy -- Elizabeth invoking Henry VIII frequently as a great, manly, king and ruler, telling her listeners that she's no less than her father. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaston de Foix Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 On 2/23/2020 at 1:46 PM, Zorral said: Cromwell was in many ways a monster. But then, he served a monster, who was also a coward and incompetent. Which is yet another element of the Cate Blanchett Elizabeth films I find unhappy -- Elizabeth invoking Henry VIII frequently as a great, manly, king and ruler, telling her listeners that she's no less than her father. This has been the political necessity of women exercising power throughout the ages: the reference to some man to whom she is connected and who can justify her rule. In Elizabeth's case, her legitimacy was in doubt and she had to emphasize her lineage. But she was by probably the best ruler England has had, far better than her monstrous father. I am halfway through the Mirror and the Light....thoughts to come. Has anyone else read False Value? Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 8 minutes ago, Gaston de Foix said: In Elizabeth's case, her legitimacy was in doubt and she had to emphasize her lineage. But she was by probably the best ruler England has had, far better than her monstrous father. All true. No chance yet to even begin Mirror and Light, alas. But I'll be happy to read what others think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 I found myself thinking about this during a wakeful period last night. Henry VII was the most insecure monarch of all (and total money-sucking monster, which then his son squandered) -- having, by the lights of the centuries' established ruling families of the Plantagenet dynasty, no right at all to the throne. Thus all that bs about King Arthur being English, and other propaganda, being the ancestors of the Tudors. Henry VIII's terror of no legitimate male heir was then even greater than the usual crowned head's. Which, then, of course, leads into Elizabeth's triple whammy of perceived illegitimacy, potential or real, depending on who was perceiving, that of marriage (Bloody Mary), line (Mary of Scotland and the old Plantagenet ruling families again) -- and then topped off with being female. None of which invalidates what you said, just underscores it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A wilding Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 15 hours ago, Gaston de Foix said: I am halfway through the Mirror and the Light....thoughts to come. I have my copy and will be starting it tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Penman released today (well, i think today, most dates say 5th march but one date i saw said January....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 On 1/14/2020 at 5:02 AM, Darth Richard II said: I really enjoyed the first Black Iron book. Had no idea the sequel was out already. Finished The Shadow Saint (Black Iron Legacy #2) by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan (Orbit) . While i really liked the first book, the second has made me love this series! It has everything i like in Epic Fantasy in short.Probably in my top 5 'new epic fantasy series' of the last few years. I can't guarantee everyone will love it, but i hope people here give the books a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaston de Foix Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 On 3/5/2020 at 1:23 PM, A wilding said: I have my copy and will be starting it tonight. Finished the Mirror and the Light. A brilliant, flawed masterpiece. I will start a spoiler thread for discussion once people have read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 I probably won't have read it when it seems a good time to start, but that doesn't matter, so don't take me into account. I know how it turns out already. I'm looking forward to your thoughts! I have read Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (and watched more than once the BBC adaptations). However, currently, I'm listening to an audio version of Bring Up the Bodies during my workouts. Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life came out last year, long after the first 2 novels came out; on this listen I'm even more impressed at how completely Mantel owns the matters of his public life (his private life and beginnings with family, not so much, according to the biography). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 A fantasy horror called Working Weekend has just been releasd; essentially a haunted house horror-con. Ebook out yesterday, paperback 2 or 3 months away I think. https://elsewhen.press/index.php/catalogue/title/working-weekend/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 For those here who have enjoyed Bill Gibson's new novel so much, here's a long-form interview, put up this week, with him on The New Yorker Radio Hour, which runs weekly on the closest version to something like the BBC Radio we've got in the states, the NYC national public radio station, WNYC. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/tnyradiohour/episodes/william-gibson-end-future-and-democratic-party-divided The New Yorker is a prestigious magazine that still publishes in print! (as well as online). https://www.newyorker.com/ WNYC, The New Yorker, The Nation, The New York Times, The Gothamist, are all part of a 'liberal', fact-based media that are among the oldest 'legacy' media and journalism around in the US. The Guardian is their UK partner. The radio station ultimately goes back to the earliest days of radio, before there was any such thing as NPR. The New York Times goes back to before the War of the Rebellion. And so on and so forth. Only the Gothamist is new, covering 'local' news in NYC and New Jersey neighborhoods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlyaP Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 6 hours ago, Zorral said: For those here who have enjoyed Bill Gibson's new novel so much, here's a long-form interview, put up this week, with him on The New Yorker Radio Hour, which runs weekly on the closest version to something like the BBC Radio we've got in the states, the NYC national public radio station, WNYC. Thank you Zorral! <3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 On 3/7/2020 at 12:46 AM, Zorral said: I probably won't have read it when it seems a good time to start, but that doesn't matter, so don't take me into account. I know how it turns out already. I'm looking forward to your thoughts! I have read Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (and watched more than once the BBC adaptations). However, currently, I'm listening to an audio version of Bring Up the Bodies during my workouts. Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life came out last year, long after the first 2 novels came out; on this listen I'm even more impressed at how completely Mantel owns the matters of his public life (his private life and beginnings with family, not so much, according to the biography). How is the audible version? I tend to get through books quicker if i whisper sync them but was wary of this in audio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 4 hours ago, red snow said: How is the audible version? This is the Macmillan >!< Audio version, downloaded via the NYPL's Overdrive program. It's very good. But then I only listen when doing my workouts, which I do at home, and play loudly through external speakers, which are in close by room to where I'm doing my workouts. I don't understand at all how people can do effective workouts with earphone / buds, whatever. 13 hours ago, IlyaP said: Thank you Zorral! <3 This interviewer inquired directly to Bill's vision of the future, and he responded in that typically Gibsonian cagey manner, (he speaks a lot more directly privately as do we all), but we know the answer is it looks damned bleak to him, since he sees the younger generations aren't future oriented at all in the way they were in the 20th century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 Sharon Kay Penman's newest historical, for which her readers have waited long. She's obsessively researched it for years, as she has all her novels. The Land Beyond The Sea is the fictionalized account of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, King Baldwin IV (the boy leper king), his sister, Sibylla, his mother, Lady Agnes, ex-queen Maria, married to the previous King of Jerusalem, Lord Balian (whom we saw utterly non-historically as Orlando Bloom a French blacksmith's son), Count Raymond of Toulouse, among other. Plus, ta-dah! Salah-al-Din! The Battle of Hattin is definitely in there. If Baldwin hadn't gotten leprosy, one wonders if things would have played out otherwise, since all the chroniclers, Christian and Muslim, say he gave every indication of becoming a great king as well as general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 5 hours ago, Zorral said: Sharon Kay Penman's newest historical, for which her readers have waited long. She's obsessively researched it for years, as she has all her novels. The Land Beyond The Sea is the fictionalized account of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, King Baldwin IV (the boy leper king), his sister, Sibylla, his mother, Lady Agnes, ex-queen Maria, married to the previous King of Jerusalem, Lord Balian (whom we saw utterly non-historically as Orlando Bloom a French blacksmith's son), Count Raymond of Toulouse, among other. Plus, ta-dah! Salah-al-Din! The Battle of Hattin is definitely in there. If Baldwin hadn't gotten leprosy, one wonders if things would have played out otherwise, since all the chroniclers, Christian and Muslim, say he gave every indication of becoming a great king as well as general. This would pair nicely with Judith Tarr's Queen of Swords, set a pair of generations earlier and featuring Baldwin IV's grandmother Queen Melisende, his uncle Baldwin III, and his father Amalric. And of course her Alamut and The Dagger and the Cross cover similar ground (I can't quite recall if Alamut features Baldwin IV, but it definitely has Saladin, and The Dagger and the Cross does feature the Horns of Hattin) with a fantasy intrusion. Pretty sure all three are available on Amazon as Kindle titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlyaP Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 On 3/10/2020 at 2:49 AM, Zorral said: I don't understand at all how people can do effective workouts with earphone / buds, whatever. No choice, I guess? Gyms being what they are, and prone to blaring music that's designed to get people moving. (No chansons for those people!) Very fortunate to have a quiet gym with nature views. A wonderfully relaxing way to work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 6 minutes ago, IlyaP said: No choice, I guess? Gyms being what they are, and prone to blaring music that's designed to get people moving. (No chansons for those people!) Very fortunate to have a quiet gym with nature views. A wonderfully relaxing way to work out. Very fortunate indeed. So envious. I dropped my health club and gym memberships in the mid-90's when I realized I was getting infected with colds and flu from the other members. Began working out work outs of various kinds I could do that included elements of cal, aerobics, dance, weights, stretch, that I could do in the confines of home. So I went from cds and radio to audio downloads over the years. But even when I still running in the days of Walkmans and so on, until my Back made that out of the question, I wouldn't shut off the world. I ran down to the shore of the Hudson River Tiderace and it was wonderful. I miss what tourism and all the rest did to that run, which also contributed to me quitting running -- though of course it really was The Back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 My new book, Lord of the Hunt (Sooty Feathers #2) is out today as ebook! Published by Elsewhen Press, the ebook is available from various platforms. Paperback launches on 25 May (viral apocalypse permitting). Book 1, Resurrection Men, has been well-reviewed. visit bit.ly/LordOfTheHunt Below is the blurb: Death rides the blood of a pale horse June 1893. Undead prowl the streets of Glasgow at night hunting for blood. They, in turn, are hunted by the formidable Lady Delaney and her apprentice Kerry Knox, whose fight against the secret society ruling Glasgow will lead them into the city’s industrial heart where the poor toil in miserable conditions. Children have been exploited in mills and factories for decades, but the Sooty Feather Society has refined its cruel disregard in service to the undead. Delaney and Knox are not the society’s only problem. The elusive demon Arakiel employs murder and necromancy in his campaign to seize control of Glasgow, avenging betrayal and reclaiming what was once his. Wilton Hunt and Tam Foley are lying low in the Highlands where Hunt’s father has recently inherited title and estate. The blue skies and clear waters of Loch Aline may seem a tranquil sanctuary to the city men, but its forbidding forests and shadowed glens conceal dark secrets pertaining to Hunt’s family, and a diabolical revelation will change Wilton’s life forever. Demons walk the crowded, cobbled streets of Glasgow, and a necromancer’s debt is called in. Knox will learn what joining this war might cost her; Hunt and Foley will learn they can’t escape it. Their diverged paths will meet again when dark magic unleashes a horror not everyone will survive… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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