What are you reading?

[Raistlinmc]

I do love Abercrombie, yxanthymir, no doubt about it.

 

For me, I'm finishing up Night of the Living Rez (pretty powerful stuff, honestly) and am excited to start the new Stephen King book Holly!

[cailano]

Night of the Living Rez looks super cool. Kind of a Stephen King meets Reservation Dogs vibe. I'll have to check that one out.

I picked up 11/22/63 on @Raistlinmc's recommendation, too, but I still haven't read it. Too many books, not enough time!

[RedMax]

Reading Robert E. Howard lately. Conan the Barbarian. I just read "Queen of the Black Coast" (novelette). Before that I read The People of the Black Circle, a novella. I just started The Hour of the Dragon, which is a full novel.

I really like Howard's style. The People of the Black Circle is so good, but that one I listened to as an audiobook, so maybe that played a part. I'd recommend People of the Black Circle as anyone's first Conan story. Then go to "Red Nails," the short story.

The opening to "Queen of the Black Coast" is really good. The whole thing is good, but I loved the opening the most.

Anyway, if you want an effortless introduction to Howard, there's a totally free audiobook, totally legit because it's public domain:

Link:

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-687-audiobook-readalong-the-people-of-the-black-circle-by-robert-e-howard/

PS: I'm interested in another Robert E. Howard character, named El Borak, a Texas gunslinger who roamed the wilds of Afghanistan and neighboring areas, set circa 1905 I think. He took the name El Borak but his birth name was Frances Xavier Gordon.

[cailano]

Good collection of Conan Stories, those are some of the best. I'd avoid the Vale of Lost Women.

If you can find it, there is a great movie called The Whole Wide World that is based on the last year or so of Robert. E. Howard's life. I watched it on a recommendation and really enjoyed it. Super early performance from Renee Zellweger, too.

[Raistlinmc]

I stand by that 11/22/63 stance, Cai. Even as an avid King reader and fan, I think that one stands heads and tails above his other admittedly-impressive works.

 

As for Night of the Living Rez, yeah, if you know the tv show Reservation Dogs, that's absolutely the tone and vibe of that one. Good call there.

[yxanthymir]

On 9/7/2023 at 9:32 AM, Raistlinmc said:

I do love Abercrombie, yxanthymir, no doubt about it.

 

For me, I'm finishing up Night of the Living Rez (pretty powerful stuff, honestly) and am excited to start the new Stephen King book Holly!

 

I liked all books I read from Abercrombie, but I didn't like some from Stephen King. So I am not a huge fan, but I definitively need to read more from him.

 

Started When True Night Falls by C.S. Friedman. And almost reached half of the book already.

[dystmesis]

I finally hit the halfway point of Reverend Insanity (Gu Zhen Ren) yesterday. It's (probably) a shame the book will never be finished (due to being banned by the Chinese government) but there's still plenty more for me to read. 🎃

[Gregorotto]

Reading a number of things. Three of them are advanced copies so I can give a review in my capacity as a mythology podcaster and friend, being The Impudent Edda by Rowdy Geirsson (a mythology friend) that is exactly what it sounds like if you know what an Edda is. Legends of Norse Mythology by Dr. Tom Birkett and Isabella Mazzanti is a kid's book and quite wonderful, and the last I just finished was Skate the Seeker, my friend Jeff Ayers' second novel and a good YA book. My official review is getting published today, I believe.

More for myself, I'm reading Ravenna by Judith Herrin for research for myself and my wife and rather loving it, she has an amazing voice as far as historical writing goes and as a historian I appreciate that (and the topic is just fascinating too, as someone who almost became a Byzantinist). The other, more fun book is Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans of Brimestone Angels fame in the D&D world. Still her writing style but no longer shackled by D&D constrains, my GOD I'm enjoying this one immensely. I'm listening to the audiobook of this one and absolutely loving it.

[cailano]

Seeing that it is the beginning of spooky season, I needed to find my annual spooky read. Perhaps inspired by the Stephen King talk above, I chose 'Salem's Lot, which I've somehow never read. Still in the first quarter of the book but it's good so far.

[Basil_Bottletop]

I needed something for the morning commute and I didn't have a lot of time to fall down the library rabbit hole. So I'm jumping into book six of Dresden, Blood Rites.

[Heretic Burger]

At the age of 40 I'm reading my first Brandon Sanderson book - The Final Empire.

 

I also have a silly amount of other books on my 'currently reading' pile as my attention span is pretty short at the moment.

[cailano]

5 minutes ago, Heretic Burger said:

At the age of 40 I'm reading my first Brandon Sanderson book - The Final Empire.

 

I also have a silly amount of other books on my 'currently reading' pile as my attention span is pretty short at the moment.

That was my first Sanderson novel, too. I went into a bookstore looking for The Way of Kings, but they were out, and that was the one I picked up. I ended up reading the whole trilogy back-to-back. It's borderline YA thematically, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I was around 44, I believe.

 

[Heretic Burger]

2 minutes ago, cailano said:

That was my first Sanderson novel, too. I went into a bookstore looking for The Way of Kings, but they were out, and that was the one I picked up. I ended up reading the whole trilogy back-to-back. It's borderline YA thematically, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I was around 44, I believe.

 

Ahah! So not the only one coming to a mainstay of fantasy fiction at a late age (In my defence I had devoured the 14? volume edition of Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff by 16...)

[cailano]

27 minutes ago, Heretic Burger said:

Ahah! So not the only one coming to a mainstay of fantasy fiction at a late age (In my defence I had devoured the 14? volume edition of Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff by 16...)

Oh, helllllll yeah.

[leons1701]

I had no real choice but to wait until my 40's to start reading Sanderson. Dude just refused to publish anything earlier.