[October] What are you reading?

[Crothian]

Deepsix i enjoyed, I enjoyed everything I've read of McDevitt's though.

 

[Ebon Shar]

I just cracked The Electric Church by Jeff Somers. I'm also finishing Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Any opinions on the Somers book?

 

[Mark]

New month, time for a new thread.

I'm just finishing up the "Career Compendium" for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It's a tough read, but I think it will add something to my game, so that's good.

Have just started "Azincourt" by Bernard Cornwell. It's very good so far - one of his best, I'd say.

After that, I'm going to read the last few Bond novels.

How many of the Cornwell novels have you (or anyone really) read and what would you say are the best?

 

[delericho]

How many of the Cornwell novels have you (or anyone really) read and what would you say are the best?

I've read a bunch.

Cornwell is probably most famous for the Sharpe novels, which were adapted into the tv series starring Sean Bean. The series is very good at capturing the feel of the books, so if you liked that, you'll probably like his various series.

I've only actually read two of the "Sharpe" novels (of which there are about 20), plus the "Arthur" trilogy, the unrelated "Grail Quest" trilogy, the four books to date of the "Alfred" series, and now most of the stand-alone "Azincourt".

The two Sharpe's I've read are "Sharpe's Fury" and "Sharpe's Enemy" (I think). Of the two, the former was the more enjoyable - the characters just seemed stronger, and it 'felt' just like an episode of the series in novel form.

The Arthur trilogy ("The Winter King"/"The Enemy of God"/"Excalibur") are perhaps the most accessible to fantasy fans, as they have the strongest fantasy elements. I would also place them as my favourites to date. (As the name implies, they're his take on a King Arthur legend that almost could have happened.)

The Grail Quest trilogy ("Harlequin"/"Vagabond"/"Heretic") are actually set during the Hundred Years' War, and follow the adventures of an English archer, Thomas of Hookton. There's lots of action, lots of historical battles, and lots of travelling around France laying waste to the place. (At about the same time as I read these, I was regularly being sent to France by work, to most of the same places in the novels. That was fun. )

The Alfred series currently runs to four books, with another due next year, and some more beyond that. (The books so far are "The Last Kingdom", "The Pale Horseman", "Lords of the North" and "Sword Song".) This time, it's about Uthred, a Saxon lord who was captured by Norsemen as a boy, and who now serves Alfred the Great. It's another really good series, IMO, featuring lots more action, lots of historical battles, and lots of travelling around England laying waste to the place.

Finally, there's "Azincourt", which is about the battle of Agincourt. This one features Nicholas Hook, another English archer, and involves plenty of action, a few historical battles (notably Agincourt, though I haven't got to that yet), and lots of travelling around France laying waste to the place.

I haven't yet read one of his novels that I haven't enjoyed. They all have plenty of action, and are very good on historical details, but they're also strong on charactisation, and tend to have protagonists who are at least somewhat admirable.

I think the strongest ones I've read are the Arthur trilogy and "Azincourt", followed by the Alfred series, "Sharpe's Fury", the Grail Quest trilogy, and finally "Sharpe's Enemy". I think I'd probably recommend reading them in that order, too - I might be tempted to skip most of the Sharpe books, both because the series seems to capture them so well, and also because his later books do seem rather more polished.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Shamanslayer - a Gotrek & Felix WFRP novel by Nathan Long

 

[Deset Gled]

I recently started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I never read the original P+P for comparison, but it's interesting so far.

 

[Jack7]

I haven't yet read one of his novels that I haven't enjoyed. They all have plenty of action, and are very good on historical details, but they're also strong on charactisation, and tend to have protagonists who are at least somewhat admirable.

The man can just plain write. I can't say much better about any writer. He's a master. Like Patrick O'Brian. Or Bruce Alexander. Or Steven Pressfield.

 

[RangerWickett]

I am reading the War of the Burning Sky adventure path modules (for my 4e VTT game) and The Golden Age by John C. Wright.

If you missed the news on the front page a few days ago, Morrus has asked me to post a War of the Burning Sky novel, serialized as a monthly column in the blogs. He already has Ari Marmell and Erik Mona providing opinion blog posts, and now I'm adding in some fiction.

I figured folks in this thread might be interested in giving it a look: http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/rangerwickett/1970-war-burning-sky-novel.html

As for my own reading, I just finished Woken Furies, a sequel to Altered Carbon, which is this sometimes philosophical, sometimes pulpy "let's have a sex scene for no good reason" action transhumanist sci-fi. Now I think I'm going to move on to the Studs Lonigan trilogy, about an Irish immigrant, which was banned in some places in the 40s for its negative portrayal of the immigrant experience.

 

[drothgery]

Continuing my Wheel of Time re-read, about halfway through Lord of Chaos (book 6) at this point. I'll need to speed things up if I want to be done before The Gathering Storm comes out at the end of the month.

Finished LoC, now about halfway through A Crown of Swords.

 

[EricNoah]

Back from the bookstore with Jack McDevitt's Deepsix and Eric Brown's Kethani. We'll see how they go.

I did something this weekend I hadn't done in a long time - I read a book (Kethani) basically in one sitting. It was sort of a "how would normal humans react to a sci fi situation that fundamentally changes what life is about" book. A lot of relationshipy things and characters pondering the meaning of life, not a lot of action, but I found it entertaining and thought-provoking