My current reading list

[starwenn]

I read the "Mallorean" books in junior high. My mom and sister read them around the same time. We loved them so much, we now use some of the words as part of our daily vocabulary. (My sister still refers to oatmeal, which she hates, as "gruel," and we sometimes refer to especially potent alcoholic beverages as "Cherek ale." )

[sarahbot]

spiderdancer said:

dth said:

'Tis a shame, there ma lil' lady, don't y' know. Mr Martin be writin' som' on that dere great fantasy, ev'n if t' be a wee bit on t' dark side. Methinks t' characters die fo' good an' valid reasons, ev'n if t' be a wee bit unexpect'd, like.

Buh? Irish? Southern? I'm trying to reconcile the deep south "that dere" with "'tis a shame'" and "wee bit." Pre-statehood territorial Louisiana Creole? A strange Warcraft Troll/Dwarf hybrid, offspring of a Forbidden Love?

Souns like Newfie to me!

[DTH]

starwenn said:

I read the "Mallorean" books in junior high. My mom and sister read them around the same time. We loved them so much, we now use some of the words as part of our daily vocabulary. (My sister still refers to oatmeal, which she hates, as "gruel," and we sometimes refer to especially potent alcoholic beverages as "Cherek ale." )

heh - cool.

I read them first when I was around 13/14, so it would be that sort of time, ya. I haven't read them in years and recently picked up Polgara the Sorcereress ('cause it was cheap). Since I've been re-visiting some of my favourite authors of my teens, I thought I would say 'hi' to my best-loved Belgariad and Mallorean. They've not aged well, however, I still feel the love for them, so that's great.

Terry Brooks, however, well, let's just say that he and I have fallen out

[blinkfan]

Gerald's Game by Stephen King.

[Spiderdancer]

I know I mentioned Elric of Melnibone books before, but I just finished "Sailor on the Seas of Fate" by Michael Moorcock. These books are like popcorn. There should be far more of them than there are, given each one takes about an hour to read. Not that they're badly written - they mostly aren't - but man, they're short.

I bought a lot on ebay with six of them. Yay. Now I'll have to ration them out so they last as long as possible...

My buddy PhoenixFlame from over on ffn.net pointed out to me recently that there have been a lot more "beautiful yet evil" male characters that resemble Elric appearing in various media since the character of Sephiroth appeared in Final Fantasy. I can only say I'm very, very much in favor of this trend. We need more evil villains that are cute, because I'm fully convinced that most really cute people ARE evil.

Sorry, Kyle, we were going to find out sooner or later.

I'm also in favor of pulsing male chests as avatars, and I'm deeply sorry blinkfan thought of it before I did.

[Head Mutant]

I checked up on that author and the books... it seems like a bit of a mishmash instead of a straight series. Do you have a recommended reading list order?

[Spiderdancer]

Actually there IS a chronology:

Elric of Melnibone
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf

...are basically 1-3.

This page has the chronology down at the bottom, though some later novels are actually set earlier in the saga:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

I am currently halfway through both the third Dark Tower book and Incompetence by Rob Grant. If you've ever had to deal with any stupid people on the job or otherwise, you will like Incompetence; it takes place in a future where people can't be fired for being bad at what they do. Plus, Rob Grant is British, so the book has a very Douglas Adams-Monty Python type of humour. A winning combination!

[Spiderdancer]

It's time for another edition of Shalen's Mini Book Review!

I just finished reading -We Few- by David Weber and John Ringo.

This is book 4 in the series that started with -March Upcountry.- Sadly, it's probably the weakest entry in the series. All the favorite characters are either dead or sidelined in favor of new ones the reader doesn't care about (and there are too many of them to get developed enough to MAKE us care about them). Prince Roger isn't bad, but his character arc is over and he spends the entire book demonstrating how scary he now is instead of growing any further in any direction. This is sometimes cool, as he's reached the position of defending his bodyguards instead of vice versa, but it doesn't really bring the reader any closer to him.

Of course, there's certainly enough setup for a possible sequel or at least a continuation of this universe. I love, LOVE the Mardukans. Of course, how could I not love a reasonably biologically realistic giant green horned four-armed amphibious species?

Wait... That sounds just like Edgar Rice Burroughs' native Martians in the John Carter books... Hm.

Oh, and I'm also not soon going to forgive them for the "My Girlfriend has been kidnapped!" subplot. WAY too many books try to set up a woman as a competent combatant so she'll be cool/interesting, then have her be rendered helpless by the villains far too easily because her purpose in the story is to act as an emotional object for a male character. ...Not that I've given that way too much thought or anything.

I actually prefer the Elric/Tarzan/John Carter approach. At least women in those books aren't SUPPOSED to be able to do anything useful.

I'm still trying to find the rest of E.R. Eddison's -Worm Ouroborous- series. I'll probably have to special order it from somewhere. This is what I get for having weirdly archaic/exotic reading tastes.

[Head Mutant]

Part of my reading list stems from my wife's finds at garage sales, and she knows I like the scifi and fantasy, so she pulled a trilogy of books for me by Barb & JC Hendee, all vampire hunter novels. Not bad stuff, but definitely Buffy wanna-bes.

I also managed to get ahold of The Elric Saga Part I and II (two omnibus collections) based on your recommendation Shalen. Looking forward to those!

[blinkfan]

The Girl Who loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

[sarahbot]

That was the first Stephen King book I read. I was babysitting late one night - I must have been about 11 or 12 - and kept thinking, "Stephen King books are supposed to be scary why?" Then I got to the part where she drank the dirty water and hallucinated (I may be wrong here, I haven't read it since) and it was book-in-the-freezer time in a big way.

[Head Mutant]

I'm reading the Bible (dur), but in a different way. At the youth workers convention I just attended, I purchased a new product they had -- it's called the Bible Experience, and it's basically the entire New Testament on CD.

Nothing new, except that they went all out with dozens of professional voice actors, music, sounds and other background noises. I've been vastly enjoying listening to Matthew in the car, even if the voice of Jesus needs to lighten up a bit.

Oh, and this is the kicker -- the voice of God? Samuel L. Jackson. Seriously.

Here's a USA Today article about it, if you're interested:
www.usatoday.com/life/2006-03-28-bible_x.htm

[TheLuckyOne]

admin said:

Oh, and this is the kicker -- the voice of God? Samuel L. Jackson. Seriously.

"And you will KNOW my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!"


Sorry... had to be done.


Meanwhile, this weekend I read a book about a black-haired young British boy with glasses and a crappy home life who meets a mysterious stranger, who tells him that magic exists and he's destined to be a powerful wizard, then gives him an owl and takes him on a tour of the magical world in preparation for his entering a wizardry school.

Oh yeah, and it wasn't Harry Potter.

-D

[Head Mutant]

Been slowly dabbling in the Elric saga (read through book 1 and into part of 2) but it hasn't quite grabbed me yet, alas.

Did I mention Dusk before? I read this a while ago, and it is a truly excellent "weird fantasy" novel. The first of a series -- part 2 comes out March 2007 -- and I loved its imagination.

I've also heard good things about hard-scifi author Peter Watts, of the Rifters trilogy. He has a new book called "Blindsight" out:

"In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant's ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term."

I'm all for books that contain more than just one interesting idea!