So what are you reading this year 2021?
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
I really dug this book. It felt like a missing Appendix N work, featuring both illusion and healing magic, for example.
So dang good! Harrow the Ninth is also good, but it requires patience for much of it, throwing the reader into the deep end and weaponizing that confusion until you're almost at the breaking point before resolving it. Technically brilliantly done, but tough on the reader.
I kinda concur. The language of Name of the Wind was really striking, whereas with Wise Man's Fear you get more of a feel that the series is a first-time author's effort. Still good, though.
So dang good! Harrow the Ninth is also good, but it requires patience for much of it, throwing the reader into the deep end and weaponizing that confusion until you're almost at the breaking point before resolving it. Technically brilliantly done, but tough on the reader.
I kinda concur. The language of Name of the Wind was really striking, whereas with Wise Man's Fear you get more of a feel that the series is a first-time author's effort. Still good, though.
KahlessNestor
Adventurer
Still reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow.
Still reading Night of the Hunter by R. A. Salvatore.
Still reading Emma by Jane Austen.
Still reading Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire.
Still reading The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray.
Still reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.
Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.
Still reading Tasha's Cauldron of Everything by Wizards of the Coast.
Finished reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.
Still reading Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson.
Still reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Still reading The Immortal Game: A History of Chess by David Shenk.
Still reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb.
Started reading Changes by Jim Butcher.
Started reading The Icebound Land by John Flanagan.
Still reading Night of the Hunter by R. A. Salvatore.
Still reading Emma by Jane Austen.
Still reading Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire.
Still reading The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray.
Still reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.
Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.
Still reading Tasha's Cauldron of Everything by Wizards of the Coast.
Finished reading The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.
Still reading Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson.
Still reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Still reading The Immortal Game: A History of Chess by David Shenk.
Still reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb.
Started reading Changes by Jim Butcher.
Started reading The Icebound Land by John Flanagan.
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
Finished Williamson's The Reign of Wizardry. The Bronze Age setting helps it stand out from other Appendix N reads, and it is a fast, captivating tale. The character Snish hasn't aged well, though.
Now I'm back to the World of Tiers with Philip Jose Farmer's The Lavalite World. Hopefully it's better than Behind the Walls of Terra.
Now I'm back to the World of Tiers with Philip Jose Farmer's The Lavalite World. Hopefully it's better than Behind the Walls of Terra.
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
I've been thinking about re-reading Chalker's "Well of Souls" series. I just love the idea of the multiple worlds within a huge planet. I'd love to run an RPG in that setting tbh. (I may have posted that here before...)
So I don't usually do this (I normally prefer to read one book at a time and finish it before starting another), but while I'm still reading The Big Book of the Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett, it's an oversized book (and a borrowed one at that) so I didn't feel like subjecting it to being read in airports and on planes - I've been on a business trip since Sunday. So while I brought it with me and read it in the hotel room (and as of this morning before leaving my hotel I've finished all the short stories and only have the two novels left to go), I picked up two other books to read, one on the trip there on Sunday and one on the trip home today (and during the breaks at the week-long meeting I was attending).
The first of these was Jeffery Deaver's The Goodbye Man, the second novel in the "Colter Shaw" series about a guy who makes his living earning rewards for finding missing people and the like. This one dealt with a cult (which he infiltrated), but also answered some questions about his father's death that the first novel had hinted at. It was good, with the typically excellent Deaver plot-twist swerves.
The second book was one I picked up at a library book sale because the title literally jumped out at me and demanded my attention. It's written by M. E. Harrigan and the title is "9800 Savage Road" - the address for the National Security Agency, where I worked for three years while I was still in the active duty Air Force. It's a novelization of the intelligence-gathering efforts leading up to 9-11, authored by a woman who worked at the NSA for 37 years. I'm just over halfway done with it and while I can't comment on the intelligence-gathering aspects of it - I wasn't involved in that part of NSA - the description of the NSA buildings, culture, and surrounding areas are spot on. And the fictional Director of the NSA in the novel is quite obviously patterned after General Michael Hayden, a real-life DIRNSA (and before that he was the Commander of the US Strategic Command). It's been an interesting read so far and has definitely been holding my interest.
But now I guess I need to finish 9800 Savage Road before going back to and starting the two "Continental Ops" novels, because by my own logic those are two novels I haven't started yet, even though they're in a collection with a bunch of short stories/novellas I have read.
Johnathan
The first of these was Jeffery Deaver's The Goodbye Man, the second novel in the "Colter Shaw" series about a guy who makes his living earning rewards for finding missing people and the like. This one dealt with a cult (which he infiltrated), but also answered some questions about his father's death that the first novel had hinted at. It was good, with the typically excellent Deaver plot-twist swerves.
The second book was one I picked up at a library book sale because the title literally jumped out at me and demanded my attention. It's written by M. E. Harrigan and the title is "9800 Savage Road" - the address for the National Security Agency, where I worked for three years while I was still in the active duty Air Force. It's a novelization of the intelligence-gathering efforts leading up to 9-11, authored by a woman who worked at the NSA for 37 years. I'm just over halfway done with it and while I can't comment on the intelligence-gathering aspects of it - I wasn't involved in that part of NSA - the description of the NSA buildings, culture, and surrounding areas are spot on. And the fictional Director of the NSA in the novel is quite obviously patterned after General Michael Hayden, a real-life DIRNSA (and before that he was the Commander of the US Strategic Command). It's been an interesting read so far and has definitely been holding my interest.
But now I guess I need to finish 9800 Savage Road before going back to and starting the two "Continental Ops" novels, because by my own logic those are two novels I haven't started yet, even though they're in a collection with a bunch of short stories/novellas I have read.
Johnathan
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
Finished PJ Farmer's The Lavalite World. While it's better than the last one, it's still not great - for me, I feel like the stories went downhill fast once it switched to Kickaha as the main character.
I read Nghi Vo's When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain after that. Really good stuff. Tor Books's SFF novellas continue to be real gems.
Now I'm re-reading The Sword of Shannara. It's been long years since I last touched it. I also haven't read a book longer than 400 pages in forever.
I read Nghi Vo's When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain after that. Really good stuff. Tor Books's SFF novellas continue to be real gems.
Now I'm re-reading The Sword of Shannara. It's been long years since I last touched it. I also haven't read a book longer than 400 pages in forever.
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