What are you reading in 2022?

[Ulfgeir]

Just finished reading the graphic novel H.P. Lovecrafts Beauty and the Beast by Trevor Markwart. It started as a kickstartrer, but has now been collected as a full graphic novel and is available at a number fo different places. There was a kickstarter earlier for part 1 of the sequel, which is called Omorphia and the Moon Pool.

It is a pulpy story set in the early 1930's New England. Plenty of references to the Cthulhu mythos, and Lovecraft's works. The drawing style is reminiscient of old Flash Gordon and similar things. Lots of text describing things. The main character is a young woman named Omorphia, who is hunted by nightmares of evil cults. She starts studying archaeology at the Miscatonic University, and is then recruited to work for a strange man named The Beast.

It is an interesting curiosa for those that like the Cthulhu Mythos.

 

[Arilyn]

I'm currently reading "The Book Eaters" by Sunyi Dean. It's a modern dark, gothic fairy tale about Book Eaters. Their nutrition comes from eating books, not food. Occasionally, children are born who eat minds instead. Our heroine's son is one of these mind eaters and the book traces her attempts to save him. It's pretty weird but good so far.

 

[WayneLigon]

Beyond by Mercedes Lackey, Founding of Valdemar Book 1.

The Empire is so expansive that it doesn't have a name, really. It has no real rivals and it's always been there. The Duchy of Valdemar is a small little area tucked away in the western hinterlands that doesn't have much going for it except the exquisite horses bred by the Duke. The people are quiet and industrious bumpkins that pay their taxes and send their tribute and nobody pays them any attention. This is just what they want, since they are all traitors.

Kordos's grandfather saw the rot spreading at the heart of the Empire, and decided it was time to get out. But how do you leave when every move is monitored by scrying mages and Gifted? When The Emperor can swoop in at any second and, say, give all your lands to his favorite concubine and leave you in the dirt, or ship you off to the latest expansion front?

You be very, very, sneaky.

Pretty darn good book. It was a nice return to the world of Velgarth and shows how absolutely horrific a super-high-magic area can be with the wrong people in charge. It also lays the groundwork for some interesting future bits that happen in other books.

 

[WayneLigon]

Sequel to The Pariah, book Two in the Covenant of Steel series.

Love, love, love this book so far. I loved the first one and this is just as good or better.

Alwyn Scribe is one of the inner circle to the Lady Evadine Courlain, Commander of Covenant Company, Aspirant Cleric of the Covenant of Martyrs. He is continually tested in his new position, as he moves from scribe to confidante to the lady as she goes to confirm what she already knows: the she is the first Risen Martyr and so blessed by the divine.

This sits right in my comfort level of complexity - not too many plot threads, but enough that there is always some concern over one or more lines of narrative at the same time. it seems like a lot and the books seem almost Sanderson-level heavy, but the narrative flows at a brisk pace, and pulls you along with it.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

View attachment 260242

Beyond by Mercedes Lackey, Founding of Valdemar Book 1.

The Empire is so expansive that it doesn't have a name, really. It has no real rivals and it's always been there. The Duchy of Valdemar is a small little area tucked away in the western hinterlands that doesn't have much going for it except the exquisite horses bred by the Duke. The people are quiet and industrious bumpkins that pay their taxes and send their tribute and nobody pays them any attention. This is just what they want, since they are all traitors.

Kordos's grandfather saw the rot spreading at the heart of the Empire, and decided it was time to get out. But how do you leave when every move is monitored by scrying mages and Gifted? When The Emperor can swoop in at any second and, say, give all your lands to his favorite concubine and leave you in the dirt, or ship you off to the latest expansion front?

You be very, very, sneaky.

Pretty darn good book. It was a nice return to the world of Velgarth and shows how absolutely horrific a super-high-magic area can be with the wrong people in charge. It also lays the groundwork for some interesting future bits that happen in other books.

@WayneLigon - funny, the cover person's image looks a lot like your avatar

But seriously - if I was interested in Mercedes Lackey (I am), what is the best book/series with which to start? I recognize the danger as a completist that I may be launching into a massive oeuvre. But that's ok. I'm willing to try one book; and if I like, I'll keep going; but if I don't, I can stop (no really, I swear, I can stop at just one... or maybe two... definitely at three or four... well now I'm this far in, I might as well finish the whole thing!)

 

[WayneLigon]

@WayneLigon - funny, the cover person's image looks a lot like your avatar

But seriously - if I was interested in Mercedes Lackey (I am), what is the best book/series with which to start? I recognize the danger as a completist that I may be launching into a massive oeuvre. But that's ok. I'm willing to try one book; and if I like, I'll keep going; but if I don't, I can stop (no really, I swear, I can stop at just one... or maybe two... definitely at three or four... well now I'm this far in, I might as well finish the whole thing!)

I'd suggest starting with the first book series -

• Arrows of the Queen (1987)
• Arrow's Flight (1987)
• Arrow's Fall (1988)

This is an almost young-adult series, and is her book books in the entire span, so they might be a little rough in places.

Then go back in time, and things really get nailed down in the Last Herald-Mage series, that lays down the legend of Vanyel. This is really the basis of the entire canon, since it creates or codifies most of the lore and background everything else deals with. The stuff Vanyel does resonates down through the entire rest of the books.

• Magic's Pawn (1989)
• Magic's Promise (1990)
• Magic's Price (1991)

For a quick intro, I'd suggest the first Vows and Honor book, The Oathbound. This is a book of short stories concerning Tarma and Kethry, two wandering swordswomen. It mainly occurs outside Valdemar, which is where you first get the idea that inside and outside of Valdemar are like two different worlds.

The two series - like many of the others - twist and twine around each other, and come together in the stand alone book By The Sword, which is where you find out the whats and whys of the central mysteries of the entire canon.

I would say: don't try to be a completist with this series. You can read or not read each series and not know much about the others. If you absolutely need info, it's mentioned in the book you're reading.

Books by series

The Valdemar books can be broken down into different series, with some standalone novels. This is a summary of the various books and how they fall into each series chronologically, in terms of the overall storyline. The books span approximately 3000 years of history. The year after each title...

valdemar.fandom.com

 

[Zaukrie]

Finished The Hobbit. Frankly, not as great as I recalled. Also, I remembered Thorin not being great, but he's a real jerk. And the other dwarves aren't really given much personality at all, not in any detail.

Gandalf? He was lucky the hobbit found the ring, or he'd have been very wrong. And no way he knew the ring was there.....

Still a good book, but not what I recalled in terms of excellence.

 

[reelo]

Gandalf? He was lucky the hobbit found the ring, or he'd have been very wrong. And no way he knew the ring was there...

But Frodo was meant to find the ring, don't you know?

 

[Cadence]

Moving offices and ran across a library copy of the "Life and Letters of General W.H.L. Wallace", and so am taking a break from the others I'm in the middle of.

First leader of the Illinois 11th. Hero of Hornet's Nest at Shiloh where he fell.

"July 25th. Slept upon the ground where Jackson achieved his glory (8th of January, 1815), but felt none of Byron's enthusiasm upon the plains of Marathon, perhaps because I was very tired, probably because I am not Byron." -W.H.L. Wallace, July 25, 1846, outside New Orleans

 

[Mad_Jack]

Just picked up two collections of short stories set in the world of the superhero rpg Silver Age Sentinels... Path of the Just and Path of the Bold...

Authors include comic book legend John Ostrander and Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood.

Still in the middle of the first one, but so far the stories have been pretty good.