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Post by geoffrey on Sept 4, 2021 18:06:44 GMT -6
I'm not gonna lie. For my tastes, Vance is the standout author from Appendix N. I know opinions widely vary but he's becoming my favorite Fiction author of all time. Every book of his I read just reinforces this opinion. I think Gary Gygax agreed with you.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2021 13:15:59 GMT -6
Finally finished Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming and found it an easy, enjoyable campaign record to read. I wouldn't use most of his mechanics but some of his ideas and philosophies are applicable to tabletop games to this day. His method of determining factors of personality and abilities for individual units a significant amount of time before and entirely independent of the Blackmoor Bunch was also a joy to read in detail.
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Sept 14, 2021 19:00:34 GMT -6
I just finished reading "Faerie Tale" by Feist. It was a good read. I know it's not much of an accomplishment for most, but my brain damage makes novels hard for me to get through. So I am quite pleased with myself.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2021 19:07:22 GMT -6
I'm reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms. (The unabridged version) It's a huge book, and sometimes I got a little lost on the Chinese names, I don't know who is who. But I do recognise some primary characters now and everything is very fun and interesting. But it's a long journey, I'm still 20% into the first volume of 3. (Yu Sumei and Ronald C. Iverson version) Some characters have a lot of personality, and some are epic and fierce warriors. There are some sorcerers as well, I didn't expected (this kind of) fantasy into it, but it was a good surprise.
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arkansan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
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Post by arkansan on Sept 15, 2021 21:39:42 GMT -6
Re-reading Poul Anderson's "The Broken Sword". Also reading Guy Halsall's "Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West 450-900".
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2021 15:38:49 GMT -6
I'm reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms. (The unabridged version) It's a huge book, and sometimes I got a little lost on the Chinese names, I don't know who is who. But I do recognise some primary characters now and everything is very fun and interesting. But it's a long journey, I'm still 20% into the first volume of 3. (Yu Sumei and Ronald C. Iverson version) Some characters have a lot of personality, and some are epic and fierce warriors. There are some sorcerers as well, I didn't expected (this kind of) fantasy into it, but it was a good surprise. I've read "ROT3K" a couple of times over the years. It's a classic. I've been meaning to read more Chinese classics, actually. Zhuge Liang is one of my favorite literary characters. I think he was the best chance in this story at restoring the glory of the Han Dynasty through Liu Bei, but alas it was not to be.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2021 10:48:40 GMT -6
I've read "ROT3K" a couple of times over the years. It's a classic. I've been meaning to read more Chinese classics, actually. Zhuge Liang is one of my favorite literary characters. I think he was the best chance in this story at restoring the glory of the Han Dynasty through Liu Bei, but alas it was not to be. I'm actually excited to progress further because some characters are really interesting and I want to understand what will happen to them. Cao Cao for instance, I'm looking forward to see what will be of him, it's interesting how I always heard of Cao Cao as a villain but he looks just like a hero to me, and probably my favourite character until now. Some stories are really amazing, so far the most cool scene was the plot about the singing girl which was really unexpected to me. I'm trying to not reveal potential spoilers but you might remember. It was just a genius move against the Dong's tyranny.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Sept 22, 2021 7:07:57 GMT -6
I've been reading a couple of Robert E. Howard's detective stories about Steven Harrison. Love these old pulp covers from the magazines. Like this one but its from the 40s and actually a different magazine Strange Detective Mysteries
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flightcommander
Level 6 Magician
"I become drunk as circumstances dictate."
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Post by flightcommander on Sept 22, 2021 21:43:47 GMT -6
"Limbo of Liquid Skeletons"? Sign me up!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2021 17:35:59 GMT -6
I've read "ROT3K" a couple of times over the years. It's a classic. I've been meaning to read more Chinese classics, actually. Zhuge Liang is one of my favorite literary characters. I think he was the best chance in this story at restoring the glory of the Han Dynasty through Liu Bei, but alas it was not to be. I'm actually excited to progress further because some characters are really interesting and I want to understand what will happen to them. Cao Cao for instance, I'm looking forward to see what will be of him, it's interesting how I always heard of Cao Cao as a villain but he looks just like a hero to me, and probably my favourite character until now. Some stories are really amazing, so far the most cool scene was the plot about the singing girl which was really unexpected to me. I'm trying to not reveal potential spoilers but you might remember. It was just a genius move against the Dong's tyranny. The author of this particular book has a very pro-Shu bent to him but Wei and Cao Cao in particular have a strong popularity in China. The 2010s tv adaptation of Three Kingdoms in particular portrays Cao Cao in a strong light. And yes, I know that scene very well. I was obsessed with this story and these characters for a few years, and still sometimes revisit them.
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Post by tdenmark on Sept 23, 2021 19:13:15 GMT -6
I took a break from the Stormbringer collection by reading some more Edgar Rice Burroughs. I got both War Chief and Apache Devil to help me in fleshing out the " On The Arizona Hills" section of the adventure I'm writing for Warriors of the Red Planet & Gunslinger: Strange Science in the Wild West (a sort of sister RPG) They were only .99 on ebook. A great deal, cheaper even then finding used copies at the local Used Book Store. As usual with ERB they are page turners, at the rate I'm going I'll be finished in a couple days. Even though he's using many funky real (ish?) Apache names his writing flows so smoothly, a pleasure to read. Though I wish he'd just call the main character Black Bear instead of Shoz-Dijiji. All the Apache terms get to be a bit much. These books are way ahead of their time, they are very sympathetic to the Apache and not so kind to the white eyes (Americans). Yet he doesn't hold back on what savage merciless warriors they were.
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Post by tdenmark on Sept 23, 2021 19:17:50 GMT -6
It got me to thinking. If ERB would have just leaned into the weird stuff even more and turned these semi-historical novels into fantastic adventures like his other books they'd probably have been more successful. At the time he probably wanted to be taken more seriously, but that ship left as soon as he wrote A Princess of Mars.
He had no way of knowing how far ahead of the times his writing was.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2021 11:57:52 GMT -6
It got me to thinking. If ERB would have just leaned into the weird stuff even more and turned these semi-historical novels into fantastic adventures like his other books they'd probably have been more successful. At the time he probably wanted to be taken more seriously, but that ship left as soon as he wrote A Princess of Mars. He had no way of knowing how far ahead of the times his writing was. But dear Thomden, you must be mistaken. Everyone knows that A Princess of Mars was written by Norman Bean.
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Post by stevemitchell on Sept 26, 2021 10:24:00 GMT -6
The Early Fears by Robert Bloch. Bloch’s first two Arkham House collections, The Opener of the Way and Pleasant Dreams, are reprinted here in this Fedogan & Bremer edition, along with three additional stories. The book shows Bloch’s evolution as a writer over a quarter century, from young Lovecraft disciple to master of psychological suspense.
Stories of Darkness and Dread by Joseph Payne Brennan. Another nice set of quietly effective horror and fantasy tales from this overlooked writer.
The Glorious Revolution by Edward Vallance. It’s 1688, and a Protestant wind is blowing. . .to take William of Orange and his wife Mary to England, where they will overthrow James II and drive him into exile. Just coincidentally, Mary is James’s daughter, and William is his son-in-law and nephew. All this goes down fairly peacefully in England, but not so much in Ireland and Scotland, with numerous battles and massacres ensuing in those countries before the Williamite succession is secured.
The Empty Land by Louis L’Amour. Cutthroats and thieves descend on a boom town in western Utah. The usual rugged L’Amour hero has to step in and clean things up.
The Mountain Valley War by Louis L’Amour. Lance Kilkenny was one of L’Amour’s earliest heroes, originally appearing in the Western pulps before graduating to his own series of novels. Here he comes to the aid of some mountain folk in Idaho who are in danger of being driven off by the local magnate and his gang of killers.
Lando by Louis L’Amour. Orlando Sackett leaves Tennessee behind to see the West. He ends up in Texas—then in a Mexican prison—before leading a search for the lost treasure of Jean Lafitte. L’Amour manages to work in a horse race, a boxing match, and a gunfight in the last 25 pages!
Draw! by James Reasoner. A collection of true stories about Old West gunfights, featuring most of the usual suspects—Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Luke Short, the Daltons, Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin, Ben Thompson, etc. A very entertaining look at Western history—I’ve read it three times now.
The Black Master, The Shadow’s Shadow, and The Death Giver by Maxwell Grant. A trio of early novels from The Shadow pulp magazine. Three evil masterminds learn, with grim finality, that crime does not pay.
Wild Bill by Tom Clavin. James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok was a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, and gunfighter—one of the first great legends of the Old West. Clavin’s biography seeks to separate the myths from the facts, but the facts that remain are still pretty impressive. A really nice book on Western history.
Ride the Dark Trail by Louis L’Amour. Drifter and sometime-outlaw Logan Sackett finds himself caught up in a struggle for land and water rights in the high country of northwestern Colorado. Another one of L’Amour’s series characters, Milo Talon, shows up to lend a hand.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 6, 2021 16:36:08 GMT -6
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Oct 10, 2021 8:35:59 GMT -6
Well just read most of the first book of Thieves World edited by Robert Lynn Asprin. I couldn't read the book straight through, started to read different stories that took my fancy by authors I like the most. Some are better written than others. I thought I had read this book and others in the series when I was much younger but I didn't remember anything that I read. I think now that I had loved the front covers but never could get into the stories. I have this strange suspicion that William Gibson modeled his bartender Ratz on bartender One Thumb at the Vulgar Unicorn.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2021 17:47:17 GMT -6
Almost done with my Greek Classics readthrough this year. One or two titles left to go through there. Took a detour to check out "Game Wizards" first, which makes the financial aspect of the "Great War" more interesting than I ever felt it had any right to be previously. I think I'll check out some of the other books from this series by MIT Press, even though they focus more on gaming in general and not necessarily tabletop. The two histories are related and often intertwined, anyway, with some of the same personalities appearing in both histories. I'll have to write that in for later. I have so many things on my "to read" list already.
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Post by stevemitchell on Nov 5, 2021 16:07:10 GMT -6
The High Graders by Louis L’Amour. A wandering cowboy returns to his home town in Nevada to find it in the grasp of a corrupt mining combine. Many bullets later, things are put aright, but I didn’t feel this particular book was quite up to Mr. L’Amour’s usual standard.
Monument Rock by Louis L’Amour. A collection of Western short stories, along with a short novel featuring L’Amour’s mysterious gunfighter Lance Kilkenny. These are previously unpublished tales by L’Amour—after his death, his son found a box full of such stories, enough to fill out three good-sized volumes.
Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. For a change, a book not just about Donald Trump, but also about Joe Biden. The authors follow, compare, and contrast the two men during the 2020 campaign and election, and then the 2021 Capitol riot and the inauguration.
No Light to Die By, I Died Yesterday, and The Other World by Kenneth Robeson. Doc Savage battles the customary evildoers, but also finds time, in the third book, to discover a subterranean world of dinosaurs. Doc, as always, is the man.
Sackett, Mojave Crossing, and The Sackett Brand by Louis L’Amour. L’Amour wrote many interconnected novels about the Sackett family (and even brought in some Chantrys and Talons). But the single character he seemed to write the most about in this series was William Tell Sacket, older brother of Orin and Tyrel from The Daybreakers. These are the first three of six novels featuring Tell. He finds a lost gold mine in Colorado, crosses the Mojave Desert to take on badmen in Los Angeles, and, in the third book, gets trapped in the high country of the Mogollon Rim by a small army of hired guns. Fortunately for Tell, the word gets out, and pretty soon every Sackett west of the Mississippi is heading that way to help him out, for the all-star Sackett crossover and reunion.
Passin’ Through by Louis L’Amour. This was one the last Westerns L’Amour wrote before he died. A nameless drifter helps a pair of women defend the ownership of a ranch—only to find out that he’s caught in a web of deception by various factions trying to keep the true owner from asserting her rights.
Controversies & Commanders by Stephen W. Sears. Ten essays dealing with various senior leaders in the Army of the Potomac. Very enjoyable; Sears is a fine writer on Civil War topics.
The Last 100 Days by John Toland. A panoramic view of the last 3 months of World War II in Europe, covering all three fronts—Western, Eastern, and Italian—from the foxhole to the supreme command level. Very readable and engaging; an excellent narrative history.
Game Wizards by Jon Peterson. Although the Dave Arneson-Gary Gygax feud is certainly a recurring theme here, the real focus in on the busines history of TSR, from its foundation in late 1973 up to Gary’s dethronement in 1985. A fascinating chronicle.
West of Dodge by Louis L’Amour. Another volume of previously unpublished western adventures. The title story features the recurring figure of Lance Kilkenny.
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Post by tdenmark on Nov 5, 2021 17:26:55 GMT -6
I didn't reread Dune like I was planning to, but I've read it so many times no big deal. I did get Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. I'm going to try and give Brian Herbert another chance. My expectations are really, really low. I mean REALLY low. I completed Edgar Rice Burroughs' War Chief. I'm reading Apache Devil now. Pretty bold of him to tell stories from the Apache's point of view in the time* he wrote these, he doesn't paint "white eyes" very favorably. Research for the Princess of the Red Planet Adventure. I'm still meandering through the Elric collection. Since they are essentially short stories or novellas I read one and then put it down for a while. I like it quite a bit, not sure I'm completely into them. Perhaps at a different point in my life they would have resonated better. Also, y'all talked me into getting Game Wizards by Jon Peterson (not that I wasn't going to, just a bit sooner than intended, lots of other books on the reading pile to get through). I couldn't resist reading a couple chapters. Good stuff, Jon has a way with making stuff entertaining to read that should be dry. It is hard for us to see now, but in that time the Apaches were perceived like Al-Qaeda and Geronimo like Bin Laden. Though Geronimo did acquire a sort of anti-hero celebrity in his day back East.
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Post by stevemitchell on Nov 5, 2021 19:10:14 GMT -6
Just last night I watched Broken Arrow, a 1950 film with James Stewart that was one of the first Westerns I can think of that attempted to portray the Apaches as more than just "murdering savages." Although they did have Cochise portrayed by the Anglo Jeff Chandler. At least by the time Walter Hill did his Geronimo movie, they were able to use a Native American in the part.
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Post by tkdco2 on Nov 8, 2021 1:06:44 GMT -6
I just started reading The Children of Hurin.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2021 17:00:03 GMT -6
I just started reading The Children of Hurin. Good choice. It's my favorite of Tolkien's First Age stories.
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aramis
Level 4 Theurgist
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Post by aramis on Nov 12, 2021 3:46:49 GMT -6
Rereading Dune. Also reading the RPG Numenara.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2021 18:15:39 GMT -6
I picked up Dune the other day but right now I am smack dab in the middle of a large hard cover Jack London compilation.
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oldskolgmr
Level 3 Conjurer
Can the Cleric heal me? What? Alright, the Clerk will have to do.
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Post by oldskolgmr on Nov 13, 2021 9:24:38 GMT -6
I'm reading several books right when they strike my fancy.
Gene Wolfe's two volume collected, The Book of the New Sun. I'm midway through Sword of The Lictor.
John Varley's Mammoth.
REH's Kull collection. I've only read one and a half stories.
I'm paused through several others because they are not grabbing me.
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Post by stonetoflesh on Dec 1, 2021 12:40:03 GMT -6
Currently midway through a reread of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany. I read it in college nearly 20 years ago and thought it was OK; glad to say I'm enjoying it a lot this time through!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2021 16:46:50 GMT -6
Currently midway through a reread of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany. I read it in college nearly 20 years ago and thought it was OK; glad to say I'm enjoying it a lot this time through! That's the Dunsany I decided to try out for my Appendix N sampler. It was pretty cool. Very different in tone from many of the other Appendix N works. Very dreamy and mythical, with a firm distinction between the real world and the world of faerie. I can see those elements in D&D, especially later on as concepts like the Feywild got fleshed out.
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Post by retrorob on Dec 1, 2021 17:12:46 GMT -6
1) Moorcock- Stormbringer. Just finished. Before that I've known only "Sleeping City", "The Bane of the Black Sword" and one of the prequels "Elric of Melniboné". I must admit that I'm not a big fan of Moorcock. Some ideas are really cool and I do realize that he was very influential (D&D owes Elric a lot), but the writing is rather poor. I got a plan to reread the first 5 stories in English. IIRC, I liked them better than the conclusion.
2) Howard - Conan stories. Rereading the whole cycle in English, using "Weird Tales" scans, in an attempt to recreate the first impression. I'm almost done, only "The Hour of the Dragon" left. My favorites: "Beyond the Black River", "Red Nails", "The Black Stranger" (original version of course), "The Tower of the Elephant", "Queen of the Black Coast".
3) Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword, unrevised edition (1954). I've read 1/3 so far.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2021 17:20:44 GMT -6
I'm deep into a Jack London hardcover compilation right now, having been sidetracked from my enjoyable Greek Classics readthrough for the year. I'll get back to that shortly. Next year I plan on reading the X-Wing books from the Star Wars EU, for starters, then maybe dipping back into some more Appendix N. I'm thinking "Hiero's Journey" for sure.
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Post by stonetoflesh on Dec 2, 2021 10:11:19 GMT -6
Currently midway through a reread of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany. I read it in college nearly 20 years ago and thought it was OK; glad to say I'm enjoying it a lot this time through! That's the Dunsany I decided to try out for my Appendix N sampler. It was pretty cool. Very different in tone from many of the other Appendix N works. Very dreamy and mythical, with a firm distinction between the real world and the world of faerie. I can see those elements in D&D, especially later on as concepts like the Feywild got fleshed out. Yes, dreamy and mythical are good descriptors! I'm not that familiar with the Feywild, but I'm a big Dolmenwood fan -- TKoED is listed among that setting's inspirations, and my reread was largely prompted by prep for my "DolmenwoOD&D" campaign that will kick off in the new year. I read some of Dunsany's other novels back in the day as well -- Don Rodriguez (Chronicles of Shadow Valley) and the Charwoman's Shadow, but don't remember much about either. His short stories are worth checking out (similarly dreamy and mythic), many of his collections are freely available via Project Gutenberg.
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