How can it be July already? What we're reading this month...

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Still June here, but I'll play. I'm taking another crack at Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space. This time I made it past p.106 and even persevered past p.160 where it finally gets going and I think I'll finish it this time. Though if his shorter stories hadn't been so good, I wouldn't have bothered.
 
Northwest of Earth, by C. L. Moore. I'm enjoying the stories, but I am beginning to understand more and more why Shambleau and Black Thirst are the two that anthologists almost invariably choose.
 
The Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales by Robert.E Howard.

Usually im not a fan of crusade stories for natural reasons i dont like reading "noble" christian warriors claiming the so called holy land,other eastern places. I dislike stories like that movie Kingdom of Heaven. But in REH oriental historical stories the setting is The Third Crusade, Saladin,the Moslems has overpowered the Christians. The heroes of the stories are grim men that end up in the crusade for desperate reasons in their homelands. Not much heroics, more realistic grim,gritty stories.
 
Crazy! Half way thriugh the year already! soon be christmans again ;)

Part way thru Flow My Tears the Policeman Said by Philip K Dick, his best , most accessible so far!
 
Connavar said:
The Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales by Robert.E Howard.

Usually im not a fan of crusade stories for natural reasons i dont like reading "noble" christian warriors claiming the so called holy land,other eastern places. I dislike stories like that movie Kingdom of Heaven. But in REH oriental historical stories the setting is The Third Crusade, Saladin,the Moslems has overpowered the Christians. The heroes of the stories are grim men that end up in the crusade for desperate reasons in their homelands. Not much heroics, more realistic grim,gritty stories.
Click to expand...
Mind you, "Kingdom of heaven" was just rubbish anyway...
 
Fried Egg said:
Mind you, "Kingdom of heaven" was just rubbish anyway...
Click to expand...

Yeah it was rubbish just another example of what not do with stories set in that time period.

First story in the collection was set in Turkic,Chinese kingdom where the Frank Crusader hero had the unlucky timing end up in when a certain Genghis Khan and his horde started conquering kingdoms,cities after another.
 
Yes, Howard's stories of the Crusades (or, for that matter, any of his historical adventure tales) tend to be pretty grim. True, you will see some noble heroics now and again, but very seldom do they come off. You can admire the intent of such people, but they usually end up food for the wolves.

More often, his tales of this type revolve around revenge motifs, and they have much of the old revenge tragedies to them....
 
Wow, where did June go?

Just finished WINTERBIRTH by BRIAN RUCKLEY, pretty good epic fantasy with some good background stories. Liked the idea of the Black Road and the leaving of the gods, the Krynnin (sp?) just sound like elfs to me that are pale skinned in an American Idian sort of style. Loved the Inkallim or children of the hundred and look forward to seeing more from them. It was almost a little slow in parts but there was always enough to keep me interested.
Anyway, enjoyed the book and will definately pick up the next one which i think is already out.


Today i have been mostly eating...errr reading.... BEST SERVED COLD by none other than Joe Abercrombie, have been looking forward to this one for some time and by all acounts its looking good.

Now I just hope theres enough time in July to finish this one ;)
 
I'm still working my way through Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. I'm about halfway through, but it is still dragging for me. I hope to finish it soon since I have Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic waiting to be read, and I'm quite looking forward to that one.
 
Halfway through Greed Inc., sort of a philosophy book on why corporations are inherently evil and what can be done about them.

I think I'll go with The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One next. If I don't like that, I guess I'll have to find another forum ;)
 
I'm not getting much reading done lately, so I'm still on Best Served Cold and not very far into it either.
 
j. d. worthington said:
Yes, Howard's stories of the Crusades (or, for that matter, any of his historical adventure tales) tend to be pretty grim. True, you will see some noble heroics now and again, but very seldom do they come off. You can admire the intent of such people, but they usually end up food for the wolves.

More often, his tales of this type revolve around revenge motifs, and they have much of the old revenge tragedies to them....
Click to expand...

Yep the first quality crusade story in this collection is Hawks of Outremer about Cormac FitzGeoffrey is a revenge story.

In the introduction of the collection REH is quoted from a letter saying he wanted to write crusade stories about grim,selfish bastards of men. Not about heroes. Discovering REH stories of this type are so grim,gritty about selfish men,revenge is a great feeling. In the hands of REH its some great reading. Specially when you arent used to stories of his that arent S&S,horror.
 
Sookie Stackhouse novels (HBO True Blood is based on these). Read "Dead until Dark", ready to start "Living Dead in Dallas". Also working on my next novel (non- scifi, a first for me).
 
Nearly at the end of part 1 of the prince of nothing trilogy by Scott Bakker. Got into the flow of this book now and am enjoying it.
I'm liking his dealing with politics and the seperation of powers. So far a gritty realistic read, if a little worrying in some of the more er ' intimate' moments. Any 1 else know what i mean?! Some weird characters in this book!!
 
Finished Dolores Claiborne yesterday. Now I'm somewhere else with a different selection of books -- and a lot less Stephen King's. But I think I'm going to give him a break for a while anyway.

Now I will read Dracula by Bram Stoker.
 
Finished the Morris colection "The footprint and other stories" . Certainly helped me recover from the "Pastels" section of Paul Eldridge's "And the sphinx spoke" .
 
Finished Before they are Hanged and am well into An Argument of Kings

Fantastic books!
 
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