Kevin's Watch

Loremaster wrote:That's an interesting question!

Indeed. The arrogant and obnoxious sixteen-year-olds and those of us indistinguishable from arrogant and obnoxious sixteen-year-olds are still hashing it out.

Loremaster wrote: Just be prepared to experience a lot of pain; the main character suffers.

As you may suspect from my presence here, I'm intimately familiar with characters of that nature.

Picked up a bunch of books by Morgan Llewelyn at the used book store yesterday. Finished "Strongbow" this morning -- it's very short, and not really up to her usual stuff, or at least I didn't think so. Still to be read: "The Elementals", "Red Branch" and "Lion of Ireland".

I've only read Lion of Ireland of that bunch, and to be honest, I found it a bit of a struggle. (Although admittedly I was probably only about 14 when I read it, so it might be better than my memory suggests...)

--A

aliantha wrote:"Red Branch"

I enjoyed that a lot!! I also read the myths a couple years later, and thought he did a fantastic job fleshing it all out, while remaining true to them.

I'd previously read "Bard" and "Druid" by her and liked them both a lot. And I read "Finn MacCool" fairly recently, and liked that as well. So we'll see. It's possible that the structure of "Strongbow" just wasn't her thing -- it's told in first person from the POV of two people, Richard de Clare (aka Strongbow) and his Irish wife, Aoife. They alternate chapters. She felt compelled to put a note on the Table of Contents explaining the structure, which makes me think she wasn't particularly comfortable with it -- I mean, it wasn't that hard to figure out...

Anyhow, I'll keep you posted on the others.

Oops. Yeah, she. Heh. I was thinking it was Poul Anderson, but he did Hrolf Kraki's Saga, which is among my favorite books.

Turns out the graphic designer at my new job has excellent taste in fiction, and has lent me Reapers Gale which I'm starting right now. (It was the only one he had that I didn't...this leaves me completely messed up, since I have read Toll The Hounds, but not Bonehunters or Midnight Tides.

Screw it...sometimes you take what you can get. (He did give me a line on a place I might be able to get my missing ones though.)

--A

Heh. That would be pretty confusing, seeing as Reaper's is a direct sequel to both of those books.

Just finished Jim Butcher's Fool Moon.

If you are looking for fun and entertaining urban fantasy novels featuring a down-on-his-luck and endearing wizard, the Dresden Files are for you!

Check out the blog for the full review. . .

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

AV! That's insane. You couldn't drop me a pm?

To tell you I might have found them?

Murrin wrote:Heh. That would be pretty confusing, seeing as Reaper's is a direct sequel to both of those books.

*shrug* I'm sure I'll pick up the basics...it's annoying, but over the years it's happened to me plenty...dosn't bug me like it does some.

(The GF for example won't read a book from a series unless the complete series is immediately available to her. She was pretty angry with me for not telling her there was a 3rd Chrons until she'd finished the second. But I knew she'd never read the first 2 if she knew. )

--A

Avatar wrote: (The GF for example won't read a book from a series unless the complete series is immediately available to her. She was pretty angry with me for not telling her there was a 3rd Chrons until she'd finished the second. But I knew she'd never read the first 2 if she knew. )

--A

I can understand her thinking on this... after Jordan dying with WoT unfinished, and with GRRM dragging his feet on ASoIaF, I'm kind of leaning that way myself. The last probably 12-15 books I've purchased have been various complete series' just to avoid such a problem

True, there's so many examples of uncompleted series, it's hard to convince people that the Chronicles are actually three series... that you could read the first trilogy and be perfectly happy without reading the others (though why you wouldn't want to read the others, I don't know )

Yeah, I mean, I believe all (most?) of us thought the Chrons *were* finished with WGW. So Av's GF is just now in the position we all were when we heard the 3rd Chrons were coming out.

ooh Strongbow, eh? Must look out for that one. Most of Ireland's problems can be traced back to his time!

Just finished my first re-read of Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I had forgotten what an utterly wonderful book that is! Superlatives haven't been invented to describe it properly!

Started re-reading Robert Silverberg's Lord Valentine's Castle. Good book, but the main reason it has a place in my heart is that it's the only fantasy story I know with juggling as a main theme.

Stonemaybe wrote:Started re-reading Robert Silverberg's Lord Valentine's Castle. Good book, but the main reason it has a place in my heart is that it's the only fantasy story I know with juggling as a main theme.

Ahhh...
Majipoor
I really, really should return there soon...

Stonemaybe wrote:ooh Strongbow, eh? Must look out for that one. Most of Ireland's problems can be traced back to his time!

Yup, including the my forebears' presence on the island...

One of the most interesting things in the book was the way she showed Strongbow's state of mind: why he believed he deserved to be king of Leinster, and then of all Ireland; and also how he thought the Irish were barbarians because, among other things, they educated their women...

cast your vote - which do you suggest for me?

A Song of Ice and Fire

or

Amber

I haven't read ASoIaF, so am not really qualified to answer. However, even with as many books in the series as there are, Amber is a fairly quick read, so I would say both, starting with Amber.

Started Return of the Crimson Guard.