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Post by tdenmark on Sept 16, 2020 10:16:07 GMT -6
I'm increasingly interested in non-fiction. I recently finished The Viking Spirit: An Introduction to Norse Mythology and Religion By Daniel McCoy The next fiction book on my queue is Damoren: Valducan, Book 1 By Seth Skorkowsky
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Post by stonetoflesh on Sept 16, 2020 13:46:33 GMT -6
Currently reading this glorious, massive Planet of the Apes graphic novel omnibus: Also re-reading Dune on my Kindle, in anticipation of the Villeneuve film.
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Post by geoffrey on Sept 16, 2020 15:00:03 GMT -6
Also re-reading Dune on my Kindle, in anticipation of the Villeneuve film. Just last night I finished the first (of three) books in the original Dune novel. I really like the concept of a far future with no computers and no robots. Give me intrepid men with slide rules!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2020 1:30:33 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2020 17:58:25 GMT -6
I finished the Eric John Stark compilation by Leigh Brackett. It was a special paperback version of three stories with illustrations by a Brazilian couple. The stories are "Queen of the Martian Catacombs", "The Enchantress of Venus" and "Black Amazon of Mars". My take away of this as my introduction to Brackett's writings is overall positive but it has a more young adult style of prose and story structure than Burroughs' Carter stories did, while being in the same genre. I'm not sure if these stories are presented in the order they were written but they do seem to be in chronological order for the protagonist, and the writing seems to be better as they go on so I suspect this reflects the maturation of the author and her finding her style.
Overall I've been quite pleased with Appendix N so far. Vance and Moorcock are currently tied as my favorites, although I really enjoyed the wonky stories of L. Sprague DeCamp. There's still over a dozen Appendix N authors I need to read or re-read before I attempt to make a definitive tier list.
Okay, moving on, I recently purchased the hardcover compilation of Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind." This is a re-read. I read an online scan years earlier, but I felt I should officially support Viz comics and own a hard copy because the story, world and protagonist are things I adore. It's been over ten years now since I first read this story, and I had Swine Flu last time so my memory is fuzzy. I remembered Nausicaa being heroic and with a strong environmental bent, and I remembered the themes of the futility of war and man trying to conquer/change nature. What I didn't remember was how graphic and explicit the violence is. Miyazaki, known for beloved child-friendly content like "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" pulls absolutely no punches when it comes to graphic depictions of violence and gore here. I have no personal issue with this, as it's appropriate for the story being told in this rough post-apocalyptic setting, but this is a great example of why manga isn't necessarily for kids. I've finished volume 1 and just began volume 2 so I'm roughly halfway through the story, which diverges from and extends far beyond the anime adaptation FYI. All I will say before the final review is that the art and story are both a solid five star experience for my preferences so far. It holds up for a story written between 1984 and 1994.
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Post by geoffrey on Sept 20, 2020 11:42:14 GMT -6
Overall I've been quite pleased with Appendix N so far. Vance and Moorcock are currently tied as my favorites... My favorites are REH's Conan stories. My second are these novels by A. Merritt: The Face in the Abyss Dwellers in the Mirage The Moon Pool
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2020 13:33:45 GMT -6
Overall I've been quite pleased with Appendix N so far. Vance and Moorcock are currently tied as my favorites... My favorites are REH's Conan stories. My second are these novels by A. Merritt: The Face in the Abyss Dwellers in the Mirage The Moon PoolMerritt's one I haven't gotten around to yet, but thanks for those suggestions. I need to re-read the Thrawn trilogy from the nineties after Nausicaa but I can throw those in there after that. Conan deserves a re-read. There's a "leatherbound classics" compilation I've been eyeballing. It's been a few years and I need to refresh myself before I rank REH. I recall enjoying his stuff a lot when I was younger but never delved deeply into it.
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Post by Falconer on Sept 20, 2020 22:23:41 GMT -6
Thrawn Trilogy from the 90s - solid choice!
I went through a huge Appendix N phase back around 2000. I want to take credit for being the first to set up an Appendix N website and read a bunch of it and post on forums about it and basically popularize it, but… eh, not 100% sure I really had an impact. Anyway, this was when the Fantasy Masterworks series was coming out, which dovetailed nicely with my goals, so I have to give Gollancz some credit, too.
Of the Appendix N works, I had previously been familiar mainly with Tolkien and the Harold Shea stories of Pratt and de Camp.
I have to say my favorites were Burroughs’ Mars series, the two Vance books listed, and the three Anderson books listed.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2020 15:10:59 GMT -6
I finished Nausicaa, for the second or third time in my life. What can I say? It's a masterpiece. It's a shame Miyazaki only ever wrote one manga. He'll go down in history as an excellent film maker but he has an exquisite art style and panel layout in this manga. Most of the themes only touched at in his films, usually clocking in at under two hours each, are fully explored down to their core essences by the end of this sprawling pencil and paper epic. The ubiquitous elements of environmental awareness, strong female protagonist(s), unconventional ways of looking at the world and solving problems and the upheaval of established social orders are there, but I think more than anything Nausicaa is a tale of hope. Bittersweet hope, but the hope is there. It's an iconic tale, presented beautifully, and I'm better off for having revisited it.
Just got Heir to the Empire in the mail today. I read the old Thrawn books once in the nineties when I was entirely too young to appreciate all their vaunted nuances. I'm sure that 36-year-old me will find nuggets of relatable and inspirational content that 12-year-old me simply didn't grasp. One of the things the current Disney canon is doing right is bringing back Zahn for a new generation of Thrawn novels, which I haven't read yet, but I hear they're on par with the quality of the Mandalorian and some of the other good Disney era content. I'll reserve those for some point in the future and enjoy the original classics for now.
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Post by doublejig2 on Sept 22, 2020 17:01:43 GMT -6
Just read Moorcock's Jewell in the Skull again. Will read Mad God's Amulet next.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2020 10:34:40 GMT -6
This might be right up your alley, friends: I'm rereading "The Boar King" by Greg Keyes, these days. Not a deep novel, and not quite original, either, but - really, really entertaining, and also, with its "Swords & Planets" background, quite compatible with D&D-ish approaches to fantasy. I've read worse books, for sure. Is Keyes an author, ugh, that people know? I see he has written quite a bit, and helmed a lot of fairly prestigious projects, but I wasn't aware of him until I started this series.
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 24, 2020 16:30:48 GMT -6
I recently found out I misplaced my copy of Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth and unsuccessfully searched for it for days. I just decided to buy myself a new copy. It arrived today, and I'm enjoying reading it again.
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Post by geoffrey on Sept 24, 2020 18:17:24 GMT -6
I recently found out I misplaced my copy of Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth and unsuccessfully searched for it for days. I just decided to buy myself a new copy. It arrived today, and I'm enjoying reading it again. You'll probably find the original copy later today. In my mother's old house, she had little shelves of books all over the place, scattered over three floors. There were at least ten places that she had books, and probably more. I looked several times, painstakingly, for this one nutrition book. After weeks of looking, I gave up and ordered a copy of the misplaced book. The first time I visited my mother after receiving my new copy of the book, I was sitting on her couch, and my gaze casually wandered to a little shelf of books by her front door. "Oh, no. Could it be...?" Yep, there it was.
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Post by stevemitchell on Sept 24, 2020 18:42:44 GMT -6
Geoffrey, I lost my first copy of Carcosa (the Lamentation of the Flame Princess version), and never could find it. I finally bought another copy. And I still haven't found the first one. I think the King in Yellow snuck in one night and made off with it.
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 24, 2020 20:43:31 GMT -6
My copy of Carcosa is protected with an Elder Sign.
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Post by dicebro on Sept 25, 2020 12:02:29 GMT -6
Tarnsman of Gor
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2020 15:17:29 GMT -6
This might be right up your alley, friends: I'm rereading "The Boar King" by Greg Keyes, these days. Not a deep novel, and not quite original, either, but - really, really entertaining, and also, with its "Swords & Planets" background, quite compatible with D&D-ish approaches to fantasy. I've read worse books, for sure. Is Keyes an author, ugh, that people know? I see he has written quite a bit, and helmed a lot of fairly prestigious projects, but I wasn't aware of him until I started this series. The only two books I've read by Greg Keyes are the two Elder Scrolls novels he wrote. "Infernal City" and "Lord of Souls". These were to whet fans of the series' appetite in the years between Oblivion and Skyrim. They were, aside from the IP they were attached to....hmmm...passable young adult fiction, leaning towards bland? For my tastes.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Sept 25, 2020 20:25:40 GMT -6
Reading Alfred Duggan's "Knight with Armour" Well finished "Knight with Armour" it was pretty long, gives a good idea of what the first Crusade was like. As realistic a historical novel about the time period as you can get. Don't volunteer to go on a crusade is the lesson I learned from this book.
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Post by Falconer on Sept 25, 2020 20:28:29 GMT -6
I recently found out I misplaced my copy of Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth and unsuccessfully searched for it for days. I just decided to buy myself a new copy. It arrived today, and I'm enjoying reading it again. Great book! I have these two editions: U.S. Mass Market PaperbackU.K. HardcoverI don’t normally buy U.K. editions of Tolkien books. Usually the U.S. Houghton Mifflin editions are reprints of the U.K. editions and therefore more or less up to the same standards. In the case of Foster, it was first printed in the U.S. in hardcover by Ballantine, and that edition is not up to the usual standards. That’s why I wanted a U.K. hardcover, because it’s lovingly typeset and bound and stands tall and beautiful right next to my Houghton Mifflin books. It also has page references to those books rather than to the paperbacks.
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 25, 2020 22:34:52 GMT -6
I consider Foster's Guide, along with Fonstad's Atlas, to be the must-have resources for every Tolkien fan.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2020 0:14:06 GMT -6
The only two books I've read by Greg Keyes are the two Elder Scrolls novels he wrote. "Infernal City" and "Lord of Souls". These were to whet fans of the series' appetite in the years between Oblivion and Skyrim. They were, aside from the IP they were attached to....hmmm...passable young adult fiction, leaning towards bland? For my tastes. Have note read those. The Boar King series isn't particularly written for a YA audience, I think - the books are more like a slightly more sci-fi-oriented "Game of Thrones", with a goofier premise, but probably better characters, and a less convoluted narrative. How does Keyes handle TES, though? - From what I understand, Bethesda tends to reinvent the setting from game to game. How did the novels handle the shift from "classic" TES to the "Dragonborn"-themed storylines?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2020 3:17:43 GMT -6
TES isn't exactly like Final Fantasy. The setting has never gotten a hard reboot. It's more like the basic setting, geography and races remain the same but some of the finer details of lore and history get fleshed out or soft retconned as time goes by. Like for instance, the term "Dragonborn" has been around since Morrowind but has meant like three different things in the past 20 years, but the presentation is vague enough they could all be true. Keyes did okay. He presented a world-threatening invasion of sorts but chose to focus on small interpersonal stories of three main protagonists, and added another couple secondary ones for depth, all approaching the same problem from different angles. One girl was a prisoner on the flying city and had to become a master chef, for instance. Her story is the most fleshed out and interesting. It's somewhat clever. It could have worked in its own setting, though. The TES setting neither adds to nor detracts from it.
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Post by arkansan on Sept 26, 2020 11:34:20 GMT -6
I have a confession folks, I'm not really enjoying Empire of the East. It just sort of feels dry somehow. I'm about six chapters in, does it pick up some?
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Post by Falconer on Sept 26, 2020 14:09:59 GMT -6
I started and didn’t get very far. I don’t remember any details of why it didn’t grab me, but obviously it didn’t. FWIW.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 26, 2020 15:07:04 GMT -6
I'm currently reading the first volume of the graphic novel (manga) series Delicious in Dungeon, which is a D&D parody and very, very strange and unsettling. Much of it is a how-to-survive in the dungeon by eating monsters, including detailed recipes. I heard of it a while back but just came across it at our local library. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_in_Dungeon
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Post by tdenmark on Sept 26, 2020 17:53:01 GMT -6
I read the Gor series in middle school. I enjoyed them, but had no idea I was reading a really bad ripoff of Burroughs until sometime later I finally read the Barsoom series.
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Post by tdenmark on Sept 26, 2020 17:56:18 GMT -6
I finished Nausicaa, for the second or third time in my life. What can I say? It's a masterpiece. Each panel is a masterpiece of composition and storytelling. And to think Miyazaki didn't want to write any more manga because he didn't think he was very good at it. I call it Miyazaki's "Lord of the Rings" because it is so epic and the only long form story he ever made. The Nausicaa movie he directed for Studio Ghibli is only a condensed fraction of the original manga. I wish the manga was printed in a larger format so my eyes could feast on the art more.
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Post by tdenmark on Sept 26, 2020 18:00:11 GMT -6
I finished the Eric John Stark compilation by Leigh Brackett. I have Black Amazon of Mars on my reading pile, I really need to get to it! You saying it has more of a Young Adult style actually makes me want to read it more. For some reason I'm finding more enjoyment out of YA books lately. Maybe because they are less pretentious? They tend to get to the point more.
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Post by stevemitchell on Sept 26, 2020 21:00:20 GMT -6
Move it to the top of the pile! And then read "Queen of the Martian Catacombs" aka "The Secret of Sinharat" and "Sea-Kings of Mars" aka "The Sword of Rhiannon."
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2020 6:59:17 GMT -6
I finished the Eric John Stark compilation by Leigh Brackett. I have Black Amazon of Mars on my reading pile, I really need to get to it! You saying it has more of a Young Adult style actually makes me want to read it more. For some reason I'm finding more enjoyment out of YA books lately. Maybe because they are less pretentious? They tend to get to the point more. Black Amazon of Mars was the best of the three I read. They're all stand alone stories and don't really reference anything you need prior knowledge to grok, so you can skip right to it if you wish.
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