What are you reading in 2023?

[Ruin Explorer]

Yes please.

Honestly I actually would watch that. Smaug at least has style whereas Temeraire is absolute know-it-all jerk. He's initially endearingly childlike but by like book six he's been acting like "annoying teenager who thinks he has solved the world's problems" for like three books, and the books refuse to paint him as wrong. I think this is an example of a failure to kill your darlings.

 

[dragoner]

Morcock's the black corridor, picked it up at an estate sale years ago, probably read it then, though don't really remember.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it manages to do what The Magicians series wasn't as successful at; it balances a post-modern take on portal fantasy while still embracing the genre.

I think the Magicians novels did this quite well. I still think about the end of one book, when a character went over the edge of the world, underscoring that this wasn't Fantasy Earth.

The TV series, well, they gave a lot of attractive Canadians jobs.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think the Magicians novels did this quite well. I still think about the end of one book, when a character went over the edge of the world, underscoring that this wasn't Fantasy Earth.

The TV series, well, they gave a lot of attractive Canadians jobs.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Magicians books a lot. I just think the post-modernism undercuts the sense of wonder (i.e., mocking Narnia while trying to evoke its same sense of wonder), whereas in Wayward Children series, I think the two approaches sit together in greater harmony.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Don't get me wrong, I like the Magicians books a lot. I just think the post-modernism undercuts the sense of wonder (i.e., mocking Narnia while trying to evoke its same sense of wonder), whereas in Wayward Children series, I think the two approaches sit together in greater harmony.

Oh, I do think that Lev Grossman's reach exceeds his grasp, but I think he's giving it the old college try.

I haven't read Wayward Children, but well-done portal fantasy is a thing Neil Gaiman has tackled in a number of his books. And I'm currently reading Stephen King's most recent take on the subject, which is fine, but not amazing.

 

[Divine2021]

Almost finished the collection Appendix N put together by Peter Berbergal. Excellent collection of stories. Some major standouts for me include Black God’s Kiss by CL Moore, Tale of Hauk by Poul Anderson, Empire of the Necromancers by Clark Ashton Smith, A Hero at the Gates by Tanith Lee (this story was amazing. I’m trying to find the Cyrion collection at an affordable price, but it just ain’t happening). The best story in the collection to me was by an author I had never heard of was Tower of Darkness by David Madison, whose work apparently nearly impossible to find now a days.

This collection is, to my eyes, fantastic, and has introduced a whole new world of authors to me. I wish some of them were easier to find in print today!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Black God's Kiss blew my mind. That story should be much better known. (If the Kickstarter version of the adventure ever fulfills, maybe it will be.)

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'm about to head down the road of contract law as magic and read the last 4 novels of the Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone. Looking forward to it, as the first 2 did not disappoint, at all.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That Appendix N book looks great. It looks like it's out of print and not available digitally, though. Did your version have the blue scale map in it, @Divine1943? What is it of?

 

[Divine2021]

That Appendix N book looks great. It looks like it's out of print and not available digitally, though. Did your version have the blue scale map in it, @Divine1943? What is it of?

I picked it up at the Barnes and Noble website, where it appears to still be available for purchase. Mine does have the blue scale map in it, but I haven’t looked at it too closely so I couldn’t tell you what it is from.

Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons|Paperback

An anthology investigating the influences behind Dungeons & Dragons, the most popular modern role-playing game. Drawing upon the original list of “inspirational reading” provided by Gary Gygax in the first Dungeon Master's Guide, published in 1979, as well...

www.barnesandnoble.com