What are you reading? - 2019, and beyond.

[Greyharp]

I'm currently reading The Lord of the Rings, 50th Anniversary Edition. I realised recently that I haven't read it since before the movies came out and so I thought it was time after multiple readings in my youth.

[flightcommander]

Just finished "Bird Isle" by Jack Vance. It's a peculiar novel of his (novella really) in that it's neither sci-fi, fantasy, nor mystery. Now starting "Chapterhouse: Dune", not sure what to expect.

[geoffrey]

Yesterday I finished re-reading Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. While I enjoyed most of it, I thought the ending was ridiculously over-the-top.

[retrorob]

I've finished "The Saga of the Volsungs", translated by R.G. Finch (1965)

[Parzival]

Re-reading The Lord of the Rings, because it’s been awhile.

[oldskolgmr]

I won't lie I'm having a hard time getting into the Elric compilation. I looked over the second volume and it's more of an early fictional writings of Moorcock compilation. 

I finally broke down and read a non-fantasy book, Codex by Lev Grossman. It was pretty good, kind of reminiscent of Name of the Rose or The Rule of Four.
A book about a book. (In all honesty I couldn't finish the book Name of the Rose , but I love the movie ).
Not as good as Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour bookstore, by Robin Sloan. Which I must periodically re-read. 

Next up, I have no clue. Time to scan my shelf of to be read books. 

[plethon]

I recently read Malpertius by Jean Ray, written in 1943.

"Malpertuis is a crumbling, ancient house where a dying warlock has trapped the aging gods of Olympus inside the "skins" of ordinary Flemish citizens."

Very inspiring, I highly recommend it.

[tdenmark]

I have never read a Doc Savage novel before. Just picked up the Doc Savage Omnibus #1 to fix that. Hope it is a good place to start.

[tdenmark]

Dec 9, 2022 15:09:42 GMT -6 oldskolgmr said:

I won't lie I'm having a hard time getting into the Elric compilation. I looked over the second volume and it's more of an early fictional writings of Moorcock compilation. 

I finally broke down and read a non-fantasy book, Codex by Lev Grossman. It was pretty good, kind of reminiscent of Name of the Rose or The Rule of Four.
A book about a book. (In all honesty I couldn't finish the book Name of the Rose , but I love the movie ).
Not as good as Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour bookstore, by Robin Sloan. Which I must periodically re-read. 

Next up, I have no clue. Time to scan my shelf of to be read books. 

Some authors you pick up and can't put down till the book is done. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard, a good Stephen King (though he is really hit or miss). Other authors are really hard to read. I found GRR Martin to be a slog to get through, though his characters and ideas are great.

With Michael Moorcock I had a hard time at first, but the more of his work I read the more I got into how he writes.

[stevemitchell]

Hegel by Raymond Plant. A short introduction to the German philosopher, focusing on his views on religion and theology.

Graveyard Rats by Robert E. Howard. A collection of Howard’s strange detective and weird menace stories. Not his best work, by a long shot.

She and Allan by H. Rider Haggard. The great hunter Allan Quatermain meets the immortal Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, in this late novel by Haggard. The Zulu warrior Umslopogaas (from Nada the Lily and Allan Quatermain) and the wizard Zikali (from several of the Quatermain books) also appear. A good adventure novel, though not among the first rank of Haggard’s books.

The Roswell Legacy by Jesse Marcel Jr. and Linda Marcel. Jesse Marcel was the intelligence officer at the Roswell air base who investigated the (in)famous crash site north of the field in 1947. He brought back fragments and debris from the crash, and showed some of them to his wife and son before turning them over to the authorities. The base commander authorized the release of a news bulletin stating that these represented the remains of a flying disk—but in a few days, the story was changed—now the debris came from a crashed weather balloon. Jesse Marcel Jr., who became a doctor and a member of the armed forces, discusses all of this, and presents his reasons for disbelieving the (revised) official story. An interesting personal account of this long-running controversy.

Marie, Child of Storm, and Finished by H. Rider Haggard. Haggard covers nearly 50 years of the history of the Zulu kingdom, as told from the viewpoint of his recurring character Allan Quatermain. The wizard Zikali, who tribe was destroyed by Chaka Zulu, and whose wives and children were slain at Chaka’s command, plots a decades-long revenge scheme to destroy the house of Chaka and end the Zulu kingdom. Quatermain serves as a witness, and sometime a participant (not too willing) to these bloody events. The first two novels, I think, move along pretty briskly, although the third one slumps a bit.

Allan’s Wife by H. Rider Haggard. Haggard did not write his tales of Allan Quatermain in the chronological sequence of Quatermain’s life. In fact, the first two books about AQ, King Solomon’s Mines and Allan Quatermain—fall at the end of the great hunter’s career. Here Haggard goes back to an earlier time in AQ’s life, and introduces Stella, who becomes his wife for a short time, before meeting a tragic demise. (Still later, we would find out that AQ had another wife before Stella—the Marie mentioned above, who also died quite young.)

Caesar Dies by Talbot Mundy. Various factions plot to bring the reign of the mad emperor Commodus to an end. A short but effective historical novel. (Film fans may recall the portrayals of Commodus by Christopher Plummer and Joaquin Phoenix in The Fall of the Roman Empire and Gladiator, respectively.).

The Portal in the Picture by Henry Kuttner. A man from Earth stumbles into a parallel world that is ruled by global church based on alchemy. The protagonist (definitely not a hero) just wants to return to Earth as fast as possible, but he gets caught up in a struggle between the theocracy and a rebel faction. A good read, but not up to the level of some of Kuttner’s other novels from the same period—The Dark World, The Time Axis, etc.

Last Day by Bryan Smith. So, you learn that a giant asteroid is going to hit the Earth in 24 hours, causing an extinction-level event. What do you do in the short time you have left? Well, if you’re a character in a Bryan Smith novel, then obviously you launch into a crazed spree of murder, torture, depravity! The usual clean, wholesome fare from Mr. Smith.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and The Fairy Chessmen by Henry Kuttner. Two very imaginative short novels from Astounding Stories. Both of them, but especially The Fairy Chessmen, read as though they could have been early novels by Philip K. Dick—and yet there is no question of influence, since they appeared 5 years before Dick’s first published story. Perhaps Kuttner was a Pre-Cog? (Or perhaps Kuttner, as Dick would do later, was channeling A. E. Van Vogt to an extent.)

[terje]

Yesterday I finished The Black Maybe by Attila Veres. Impressive weird fiction collection from this hungarian author. Last time I read something as unique and strange was when I discovered Ligotti.

Started on A Different Darkness by italian author Luigi Musolino. Also reading To Rouse Leviathan by Matt Cardin, cosmic horror based in theological speculations.

[plethon]

I am about to dive into some Poul Anderson books, the last of the major Appendix N authors that I have yet to read.

I am waiting on these titles in the mail:
The Broken Sword
Three Hearts and Three Lions
A Midsummer Tempest
Operation Chaos
Roma Mater (The King of Ys, Book 1)

[krusader74]

Dec 23, 2022 15:01:23 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

I have never read a Doc Savage novel before. Just picked up the Doc Savage Omnibus #1 to fix that. Hope it is a good place to start.

During the pandemic I read a bunch of these. Couldn't get enough. If you like these, I found several other things that might interest you:

* All-New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage by Will Murray, based on the notes of Lester Dent. These were written around 2012-2013. Lester Dent wrote most of the original 181 Doc Savage pulps under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson. But he had ideas for dozens of more books he never got a chance to write. Will Murray did a great job growing these adventure seeds into full-length novels. One of the most memorable was Skull Island. The setup is: Doc Savage returns to his headquarters in the Empire State Building from his fortress of solitude in the north pole in 1933 to find King Kong dead on the streets outside the building. He recounts an earlier adventure which brought him to Skull Island where he befriended Kong.

* The Secret 6: The Complete Adventures by Robert J. Hogan. This was a short-lived series of 4 novels written starting in 1934. They are a blatant rip off of Doc Savage. The audio book versions narrated by Michael C. Gwynne are excellent.

* Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem by Gary Phillips is a neo- retro- pulp novel in the style of the Doc Savage series. It's based on the real-life Matthew Henson, the first person credited with reaching the North Pole around 1909.

* The 1989 Peter Weller film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is clearly a Doc Savage knock off. This movie bombed at the box office. But it was a movie for nerds like me way before nerd culture got mainstreamed.

* Oodles of Doc Savage comics by various publishers from 1940 to the present.

[Parzival]

Jan 3, 2023 23:50:04 GMT -6 krusader74 said:

Dec 23, 2022 15:01:23 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

I have never read a Doc Savage novel before. Just picked up the Doc Savage Omnibus #1 to fix that. Hope it is a good place to start.

During the pandemic I read a bunch of these. Couldn't get enough. If you like these, I found several other things that might interest you:

* All-New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage by Will Murray, based on the notes of Lester Dent. These were written around 2012-2013. Lester Dent wrote most of the original 181 Doc Savage pulps under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson. But he had ideas for dozens of more books he never got a chance to write. Will Murray did a great job growing these adventure seeds into full-length novels. One of the most memorable was Skull Island. The setup is: Doc Savage returns to his headquarters in the Empire State Building from his fortress of solitude in the north pole in 1933 to find King Kong dead on the streets outside the building. He recounts an earlier adventure which brought him to Skull Island where he befriended Kong.

* The Secret 6: The Complete Adventures by Robert J. Hogan. This was a short-lived series of 4 novels written starting in 1934. They are a blatant rip off of Doc Savage. The audio book versions narrated by Michael C. Gwynne are excellent.

* Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem by Gary Phillips is a neo- retro- pulp novel in the style of the Doc Savage series. It's based on the real-life Matthew Henson, the first person credited with reaching the North Pole around 1909.

* The 1989 Peter Weller film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is clearly a Doc Savage knock off. This movie bombed at the box office. But it was a movie for nerds like me way before nerd culture got mainstreamed.

* Oodles of Doc Savage comics by various publishers from 1940 to the present.

And don’t forget the delightfully (or horribly) cheesy George Pal Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze film from 1975, complete with gloriously awful animated effects, lines like “You’re a brick, Mona,” and a soundtrack of John Phillips Sousa marches (with added Doc Savage lyrics!)! I saw it at a boy’s summer camp several years later as a teen, and at that age it was a hoot. For the next two weeks, everybody went around camp doing dramatic Doc Savage poses from the movie. “Camp” was the right place for this film.
Don’t know that it would hold up for my adult viewing today, but back then I loved it.

[tdenmark]

Jan 3, 2023 23:50:04 GMT -6 krusader74 said:

* The 1989 Peter Weller film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is clearly a Doc Savage knock off. This movie bombed at the box office. But it was a movie for nerds like me way before nerd culture got mainstreamed.

I've given that movie multiple tries, but just have not been able to get into it. Maybe its because I hadn't read Doc Savage yet! I'll give it another try after reading this book.

[Finarvyn]

Currently reading the Witcher books. They feel very "Appendix N" to me so far, what with a travelling mercenary soldier who moves from town to town and gets money from the peasants for slaying monsters that terrorize the towns. No idea how they read in the original Polish, but I like the translated ones I found at B&N.

[stevemitchell]

If you like Doc Savage, you might try The Shadow, the Black Bat, the Spider, Operator #5, the Avenger, the Phantom Detective, or even some of the villain pulps like Wu Fang, Yen Sin, and Doctor Death. Lots of this stuff is available, either in hard copy or in e-book form (Kindle for me).

[stevemitchell]

And for that Appendix N feel, please take a look at the offerings from DMR Books. They have an expanding line of new and classic sword and sorcery and science fantasy titles. I'm currently reading the Swords of Steel Omnibus on my Kindle--three volumes of dark fantasy tales, mostly written by members of heavy metal bands. No enchanted unicorns or virginal chosen ones here--it's all bloody, over-the-top action and malevolent wizardry.

[Parzival]

Jan 4, 2023 14:10:48 GMT -6 stevemitchell said:

If you like Doc Savage, you might try The Shadow, the Black Bat, the Spider, Operator #5, the Avenger, the Phantom Detective, or even some of the villain pulps like Wu Fang, Yen Sin, and Doctor Death. Lots of this stuff is available, either in hard copy or in e-book form (Kindle for me).

I bought some Doc Savage and The Shadow reprints a few years ago. Great fun to read some of the original pulp stories.

I also liked The Shadow film from the ‘90s with Alec Baldwin (not my fave actor, but he handles the role well). Stylistically it’s an amazing piece of work, worth watching simply for the art direction and camera work. But the story is enjoyable, too.

[geoffrey]

Last night I finished J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fall of Numenor. It collects Tolkien's texts about the Second Age of Middle-earth and arranges them in chronological order, beginning with the 1st year of the Second Age and ending with the year 3441 of the Second Age.

While I had already read most of these texts in other contexts, having them arranged as they were gave me a clearer picture of the Second Age than I have ever had.

[Deleted]

Just got The Hobbit in the mail. Looking forward to beginning today. 

[stevemitchell]

The Unseen and The Unseen II by Bryan Smith. Allison, by her own estimation, is the world’s biggest fan of the Friday the 13th film series. Imagine her surprise when she attends a horror movie convention and is given a private screening of a Friday the 13th entry that doesn’t exist—at least, in our reality. Turns out an interdimensional demon known as the Visitor can bring such treasures to her—but of course, he wants something in return. An interesting set-up, and fairly restrained by Mr. Smith’s usual standards (only a few murders, a little torture, some light cannibalism), and with a real sting at the end.

The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy, and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream by Charles Spencer. A history of the first Norman kings of England, beginning with William the Conqueror and ending with the accession of Henry II. The main focus is on the reign of Henry I, and his struggle to secure the succession for his daughter Matilda after his only other legitimate heir, Prince Henry, died in the sinking of the White Ship. An excellent and highly readable survey of this period in English history.

To Walk the Night and The Edge of Running Water by William Sloane. Two horror novels from the 1930s—published as mainstream fiction, rather than pulp magazine serials. Both are quite good; the latter was made as a movie in 1941, under the title The Devil Commands, with Boris Karloff in the lead role.

Doomsday Eve by Robert Moore Williams. A fun SF novel from the 1950s. In the far-future world of 2020, America is battling the Asian Union. Many cities, ours and theirs, have been nuked, but the Asians are getting ready to unleash a super-bomb that will wipe out all life on the North American continent. Into this conflict step the New Men, a race of mutants hoping to preserve humanity and its future destiny on Earth.

The Wild Adventures of Cthulhu: Volume One by Will Murray. A collection of stories, mostly focusing on a group of operatives in the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO) engaged in battles with the eldritch horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. And losing more battles than not, leading to an End-Times scenario, Cthulhu-style. I enjoyed these; a good set of tales with a somewhat different slant on the Mythos.

Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones. From the late Roman Empire to the Protestant Reformation. An ambitious, thoughtful survey, and another excellent medieval history from Mr. Jones.

In Re: Sherlock Holmes by August Derleth. Sherlock Holmes’ last recorded case occurred in 1914, just before the World War started—and in 1919, just after the war ended, Mr. Solar Pons of Praed Street, London, took over the role as Britain’s leading detective. This is the first in seven volumes of the collected stories and novels featuring Solar Pons, as written by Pons’ creator, August Derleth. (Basil Copper and others have written more tales of Pons since Derleth’s death—a curious case of pastiches of pastiches!)

H. P. Lovecraft: A Short Life by S. T. Joshi. A brisk but informative introduction to Lovecraft’s life and writings. Too brisk for your taste? Well, you can always try the 1,200 page+ HPL bio I Am Providence from the same author.

They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers by Gray Barker. The paranoid classic that introduced the theme of the Men in Black to a shuddering world. Keep watching the skies!

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard. The first volume in DelRey’s three-book Conan series, with the stories published in the order that REH wrote them, and with his original texts, along with much supplemental material. And no “fill in the gap” stuff from DeCamp, Carter, or whoever—this is Conan as Howard wrote him. Definitely the best way to approach the Conan adventures.

[Parzival]

Recently finished The Owl Service by Alan Garner. 1967 Carnegie Medal winner. A contemporary (1967) fantasy novel about three young people at a country estate in Wales who get swept up in a story out of Welsh myth— a love-triangle of betrayal and death which repeats itself across the generations— and the three youths are the new vessels for the curse. Somewhat odd, but a compelling read. Did find the ending a bit abrupt and “out of thin air,” though I supposed the hints were there. Today it would probably be called “YA,” though the ages of the protagonists are unclear— older teens or very young 20s. (If you recognize the author, several of his titles are listed in Appendix N.)

[Vile Traveller]

Feb 7, 2023 20:09:33 GMT -6 Parzival said:

Recently finished The Owl Service by Alan Garner. 1967 Carnegie Medal winner. A contemporary (1967) fantasy novel about three young people at a country estate in Wales who get swept up in a story out of Welsh myth.

A Welsh story, and one as contemporary as I am (a good year, '67)! I'll have to get a copy.

[Deleted]

I haven't read the hobbit since 1972. I'm digging it. It's going to captivate my current campaign with the notion of short wonderful scenes populating a sandbox with encounter tables of course. Geoffrey, you are right to read it once a year!

[tkdco2]

Right now I'm reading The Fall of Numenor and Tales from the Perilous Realm.

[plethon]

I started reading The Penguin Book of Dragons recently and was pleased to see the dedication to Gary Gygax. It's an anthology of dragon literature organized mostly chronologically, from the ancient world to the early modern world.

I also found a very old copy of The Ingoldsby Legends at a book sale yesterday, I read "The Witches Frolic" after opening up to it randomly, a very inspiring poem about a man who meets three witches in some old ruins and then flies into town with them on broomstick to break in and feast on the food in the Vicar's cellar

[geoffrey]

I'm re-reading Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. The tale's atmosphere is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

[makofan]

Re-reading Mistress of Mistresses by ER Eddison. I usually break out the Zimiamvia books about every 5 years or so

[ochrejelly]

I’ve finally got around to the Earthsea trilogy. I just finished the second one and I’m really enjoying them!