What are you reading this year 2020?

[Pawndream]

Hundred Thousand Kingdoms pushes my buttons like they're broken. And that scene? Where whats-her-face gets seriously pissed off at the thing?

Anyways, Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is a "lighter" read than Broken Earth. More traditional, but still amazingly well-written. Some authors have a gift for writing that's effortless to read; NKJ is up there. (BE gets twisted because of the shifts in narration. HTK doesn't have those shifts.)

Good to know. I just came back from the library with the 3rd book in the Broken Earth trilogy and was telling my wife that the narration shifts were part of the problem. But it's also the techno-magic babble that ops up from time to time too.

Definitely keeping my eyes out fr the Thousand Kingdoms books. Thanks!

 

[Pawndream]

Read the graphic novel, Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D: Rise of the Dungeon Master today.

Quick read. Good topical/biographical overview and homage to one of the creators of RPGs. The author also did a good job of showing D&D's connection/influence on computer games and pop culture in general. Artwork was nice and reinforced the story in creative ways.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Heh, Doom did come up a lot in my searches. But I think I found it! I decided to try searching by artists similar to Frazetta. This came up when I looked for covers by Ken Kelly:

View attachment 124240

Published in 1988 and it mostly fits the details.

So, ummm... That looks like it could be a really cool D&D (a la Barrier Peaks) setting... Please do let us know how it is.
Ah, a bit of reading reveals that it's the 2nd volume in a trilogy that never was completed due to the passing of the author.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Trying to find the book above, I came across author Jo Clayton (not to be confused with Jo Walton, which I did at first). Anyone have any feedback?

Here's her longest series.

Diadem Series by Jo Clayton

Diadem from the Stars, Lamarchos, Irsud, Maeve, Star Hunters, The Nowhere Hunt, Ghosthunt, The Snares of Ibex, Quester's Endgame, and Shadow of the Warm...

www.goodreads.com

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I will. I ordered the first volume to start, because I'm not a heathen.

So, ummm... That looks like it could be a really cool D&D (a la Barrier Peaks) setting... Please do let us know how it is.
Ah, a bit of reading reveals that it's the 2nd volume in a trilogy that never was completed due to the passing of the author.

That's a read full of charm, definitely. If you haven't already, Empire of Imagination, which is also a biographical work on Gary Gygax, is worth checking out. The point of view used takes some getting used to, but it's pretty solidly researched.

Read the graphic novel, Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D: Rise of the Dungeon Master today.

Quick read. Good topical/biographical overview and homage to one of the creators of RPGs. The author also did a good job of showing D&D's connection/influence on computer games and pop culture in general. Artwork was nice and reinforced the story in creative ways.

I finished Kyrik Warlock Warrior. It was a quick read, and serviceable. But it lacked the vitality and brawling good spirit of the Kothar tales. Next up, I'm finally getting around to reading Orwell's 1984.

 

[Richards]

I finished up Wickedly Dangerous today and am starting up the next book, Wickedly Wonderful, which features a completely different Baba Yaga (it turns out there are three of them currently assigned to the US). I thoroughly enjoyed the first book so I'm looking forward to this one, which takes place on the California beach and will involve various aquatic fantasy races, apparently. It should be interesting.

Johnathan

 

[Nellisir]

Trying to find the book above, I came across author Jo Clayton (not to be confused with Jo Walton, which I did at first). Anyone have any feedback?

Here's her longest series.

Diadem Series by Jo Clayton

Diadem from the Stars, Lamarchos, Irsud, Maeve, Star Hunters, The Nowhere Hunt, Ghosthunt, The Snares of Ibex, Quester's Endgame, and Shadow of the Warm...

www.goodreads.com

So, I actually just read a Jo Clayton book a month or two ago. In my teens & early twenties I read bits and pieces of several of her series. She tends towards SF more than fantasy, but it's SF seen through a "fantastic" filter, if you will. (Not a lot of technobabble; technology isn't distributed evenly and, while clearly technological, it's not endlessly "explained".) She's definitely one of the authors that shaped my reading.

I highly recommend Drinker of Souls if you can find it. It's unabashedly fantasy (it got turned into a trilogy later with SF flavoring, didn't care for that), and just cool in many ways. It epitomizes a certain flavor of fantasy that doesn't seem to exist anymore (I think of it as '80s-style). Not bad or dated, just not done.

 

[Cadence]

Finished re-reading books 8 and 9 of Glen Cook's Garrett Files. Maybe stronger than the first six (which are spectacular) in terms of world building, but there are about four pages worth of text scattered over a few dozen pages of books seven through nine (flirtation and pick-ups) I really wish could be re-written. Those parts were pretty bad. My memories of the next several are that I didn't like them as much, so I'm switching series for a break and am re-reading his Dread Empire series now.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Ordered and awaiting Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett.

Still reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.

Still reading The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe by Heather MacDonald.

Reading Star Wars Edge of the Empire: Far Horizons sourcebook.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finished 1984 and oof! It's the kind of book that will always feel prescient, for it understand power and the abuse of power so well.

Now I'm reading Tamsyn Muir's Harrow the Ninth. I am absolutely giddy - I've been waiting a year for it.