What are you reading in 2022?

[Eyes of Nine]

I enjoyed Throne of Glass, but didn't think it exceptional. My wife absolutely loves her other series, A Court of Thorns and Roses.



I finished reading Burroughs The Swords of Mars. Another fun Barsoom tail, with John Carter returning as protagonist to boot! Now I'm re-reading C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I just picked up another edition of it, this one with the iconic cover I remember as a kid:

View attachment 269036

I loved that cover - that was also the version I read as a young lad. Edmund looks like Ringo Starr and Peter looks like John Lennon. Wish I still had them.

Also as correctly identified on this cover, LW&W is Book 1 of the series, not The Magician's Nephew - no matter what Goodreads says. A hill I will gladly die on

Sheesh, continuing to look at that cover makes me want to go read the series AGAIN - would probably be 4th or 5th time through. Even the problematic depictions of Muslim/Islam in book 7 I might be able to battle through it. And I'd get to enjoy books 1-6 again.

Side topic - any RPGs that feature this type of story? "Normal" people from our world thrust out into a fantastic world?

 

[Cadence]

Just finished rereading the Silmarillion (for the large-nth time) - the new illustrated one.

Unlike my previous hardcover, I really liked the feel and look of this one (it was comfortable and pretty).

I also found myself wondering how many people who really didn't like it got derailed in the Ainulindale at the very beginning - and were turned off before making it to the Quenta Silmarillion. Except for being chock full of names, it feels like it reads at a much quicker pace than either the Hobbit or LotR. (Granted my old paperback fell apart from rereading, so I'm speaking as a big fan).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I also found myself wondering how many people who really didn't like it got derailed in the Ainulindale at the very beginning - and were turned off before making it to the Quenta Silmarillion.

Me

 

[Cadence]

Me

Which makes me sad because that first part it isn't really needed for the Quenta Silmarillion that is the main part of the book. The Valaquenta section after the Ainulindale isn't really needed either - it's just a summary of the various gods (Valar) and makes the book feel like its going to be all myth and not about the elves and men. I wonder how it would have helped if the book just had a page and a half preface like the following and jumped into the main story.

"Preface - The Quenta Silmarillion that follows is a story of what happened in the first age of the world. It summarizes (non-musically) one-strain of the history that can be pulled from the songs of the elves. The supreme being according to the elves is Eru or Illuvatar. The elves tell that before time Eru created the Ainur (akin to archangels or gods) and caused them to sing how the world would unfold - including the coming of the elves (the first born) and men (the followers). But most of the plan was not revealed to the Ainur and each only knew the impact of their individual small part of the song incompletely. Chief among these Ainur that come into the tales are [two sentences on each]. And so these Ainur came to the world, the greater among them are called the Valar (the powers of the world; Melkor or Morgoth is perhaps the mightiest but is not numbered among them) and the lesser are called the Maiar (including Sauron and the Balrogs who served Melkor, and many more who served the Valar). The world was land, water, and sky, with the things sung about not yet arrived. With the coming of the Valar and Maiar, and Morgoth and his servants, the first age began."

 

[Zaukrie]

Apparently instead of reading The Inheritance Trilogy, I have been reading How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. That title may not be an exaggeration! Looking forward to using it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've tried reading the series both ways and I think The Magician's Nephew works best at the end, to preserve the mystery of Narnia when The Pevensies first arrive.

Yeah, there's all sorts of problematic stuff in it, but for me at least, the magic still holds up.

I loved that cover - that was also the version I read as a young lad. Edmund looks like Ringo Starr and Peter looks like John Lennon. Wish I still had them.

Also as correctly identified on this cover, LW&W is Book 1 of the series, not The Magician's Nephew - no matter what Goodreads says. A hill I will gladly die on

Sheesh, continuing to look at that cover makes me want to go read the series AGAIN - would probably be 4th or 5th time through. Even the problematic depictions of Muslim/Islam in book 7 I might be able to battle through it. And I'd get to enjoy books 1-6 again.

Monte Cook's The Strange is somewhat like that. And apparently there was a Narnia RPG, albeit only published in German.

Side topic - any RPGs that feature this type of story? "Normal" people from our world thrust out into a fantastic world?

That book is a tome, but it's rarely failed me when I needed to know how to cook this or that vegetable.

Apparently instead of reading The Inheritance Trilogy, I have been reading How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. That title may not be an exaggeration! Looking forward to using it.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Monte Cook's The Strange is somewhat like that. And apparently there was a Narnia RPG, albeit only published in German.

I asked in a different forum and here are some "portal fantasy" RPGs. Note the games listed start going a bit further afield and may be stretches for some definitions of portal fantasy.

• Die RPG
• Girl Underground
• Meridian
• Through Ultan's Door (OSR type game)
• Many Oz games
• Castle Falkenstein (maybe maybe not...)
• Magical Land of Yeld
• Voidheart Symphony
• Lacuna
• Heroine
• Nest (Fate setting)
• Chuubo's Amazing Wish Engine

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Which makes me sad because that first part it isn't really needed for the Quenta Silmarillion that is the main part of the book. The Valaquenta section after the Ainulindale isn't really needed either - it's just a summary of the various gods (Valar) and makes the book feel like its going to be all myth and not about the elves and men. I wonder how it would have helped if the book just had a page and a half preface like the following and jumped into the main story.

"Preface - The Quenta Silmarillion that follows is a story of what happened in the first age of the world. It summarizes (non-musically) one-strain of the history that can be pulled from the songs of the elves. The supreme being according to the elves is Eru or Illuvatar. The elves tell that before time Eru created the Ainur (akin to archangels or gods) and caused them to sing how the world would unfold - including the coming of the elves (the first born) and men (the followers). But most of the plan was not revealed to the Ainur and each only knew the impact of their individual small part of the song incompletely. Chief among these Ainur that come into the tales are [two sentences on each]. And so these Ainur came to the world, the greater among them are called the Valar (the powers of the world; Melkor or Morgoth is perhaps the mightiest but is not numbered among them) and the lesser are called the Maiar (including Sauron and the Balrogs who served Melkor, and many more who served the Valar). The world was land, water, and sky, with the things sung about not yet arrived. With the coming of the Valar and Maiar, and Morgoth and his servants, the first age began."

the other reason I didn't get far in the Silmarillion is I have a really hard time with prequels. That's a me thing - but I don't like stories where I know "how it ends"

(for example, I'm one of the few folks who found Rogue One only mildly interesting, and don't get me started on the SW formal prequels)

Probably why I was an English major, not a History major

 

[Richards]

I'm now reading a novella by Daryl Gregory called We Are All Completely Fine. It's about a support group made up of a group of various weird survivors: one is a monster hunter; another is an old man with no hands who was the sole survivor of a group of victims eaten by cannibals; there's a woman who had the flesh surgically separated from her major bones (clavicle, femurs, and humerus) so her tormentor could etch words there like some strange scrimshaw artist (the skin has healed back up and she has no idea what messages he left there on her bones); a man who never removes his glasses because they're part of an ongoing virtual reality zombie apocalypse game (only now he's seeing things that aren't part of the game and shouldn't be part of the real world); and a quiet woman with machine-level precise etchings on her skin. The psychotherapist who gathered them all together is trying to help them all, but while some of them are just messed up from their experiences, one or more of them might actually be monsters. It's been pretty good thus far; I'm about a third of the way through it.

Johnathan

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'm now reading a novella by Daryl Gregory called We Are All Completely Fine. It's about a support group made up of a group of various weird survivors: one is a monster hunter; another is an old man with no hands who was the sole survivor of a group of victims eaten by cannibals; there's a woman who had the flesh surgically separated from her major bones (clavicle, femurs, and humerus) so her tormentor could etch words there like some strange scrimshaw artist (the skin has healed back up and she has no idea what messages he left there on her bones); a man who never removes his glasses because they're part of an ongoing virtual reality zombie apocalypse game (only now he's seeing things that aren't part of the game and shouldn't be part of the real world); and a quiet woman with machine-level precise etchings on her skin. The psychotherapist who gathered them all together is trying to help them all, but while some of them are just messed up from their experiences, one or more of them might actually be monsters. It's been pretty good thus far; I'm about a third of the way through it.

Johnathan

That totally sounds like my jam...