What are you reading?

Seeing Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles mentioned certainly brings back some memories. These were the books that really sparked my interest in the fantasy genre when I read them as a child. I certainly recommend them to anyone age 11 and up.
As for more mature fiction, has anyone read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephan Donaldson? I've heard some interesting but mixed reviews and am just deliberating whether I should give them a read.
 
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Read both sets of Covenant Chronicles many years ago. Not world-shaking, but good enough to keep me reading. Don't really remember enough about them to give a detailed review.

Finished "Trace" from Patricia Cornwell last night. Although the ending is a letdown (400 pages of buildup and the bad guy is caught in 3 pages?), the book was pretty enjoyable. There's not as much of Scarpetta wallowing in self-pity as the previous couple books in the series. There's still more of that self-hatred from all the characters than I really care for, but it's presented as incidental to the action this time around. Maybe Cornwell has her life back on track enough to stop whining thru her characters.

Started "Pawn of Prophesy" from David Eddings. It's been several years since I read the Belgariad and nothing in my book drawer was grabbing me, so I decided to try and wash the stench of the Dreamers series off the pedestal I keep for Eddings.
 
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dteowner said:
Finished "Trace" from Patricia Cornwell last night. Although the ending is a letdown (400 pages of buildup and the bad guy is caught in 3 pages?), the book was pretty enjoyable.
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My wife used to eat those up, but a couple of books ago got tired of (as she says) reading the same book over and over again ... is that still the trend?
 
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The "mystery" isn't all that much different than previous volumes, but it's more palatable without the extra helping of "woe is me" that was so prevalent. For a few books, the story was a minor sideline to all the character introspection. I don't know that I'd tell her to go buy it, though.
 
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I enjoyed Donaldson's first couple of series, then went right off him.
 
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Just finished The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory, quite a decent potboiler about Henry VII's sex life amidst the greedy and unscrupulous power brokers of Tudor England. Not excruciatingly historically accurate, yet neither is it a typical bodice-ripper.
Started The List of Seven, by Mark Frost and it's also a lot better than I expected. Well-written Victorian novel of the occult told through the persona of Conan Doyle, and presenting a Holmesian character called Jack Sparks. So many bad novels take this route that I really wouldn't have bought the book, but got it as a loan from a friend and it's surprisingly good.
 
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After I finish Golden Compass I need to go back and re-read 'Atlas Shrugged' based on the Bioshock discussion ... heck, it has been at least 20 years since I touched it ...
 
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txa1265 said:
After I finish Golden Compass I need to go back and re-read 'Atlas Shrugged' based on the Bioshock discussion ... heck, it has been at least 20 years since I touched it ...
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High school for me (40 years--EEK!) But it says a lot that I have a few rudimentary memories of it still. My last trip to the dollar book store, the proprietor and I got into a brief discussion about her as he had just bought in her whole opus, all the novels, tons of books of essays, etc. I almost bought a few, then decided, like you, that I could reread Atlas Shrugged and get the whole philosophy pretty much. Just rereading her most seminal novel would probably be more than enough of Ms Rand for me. :)
 
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Struggling with Erikson's Gardens of the Moon.

I'll see it through but its I'm not pleased with the intentionally vague dialog. There is mysterious and then there is obnoxious. Only on page 130, but the comparison to Martin is a bit of a stretch.
 
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Rolled right into "Queen of Sorcery". I usually break up series when I read them, but so far the series still renews my faith in calling Eddings my favorite author.
 
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In the last two months, I've read : Harry Potter 5 and 6 and around 140 of the 1rst Dragonlance Chronicles - Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

Started the 7th Harry Potter this week.
Am also reading The Dark Elf Trilogy (Salvatore) #1 - Homeland.
Almost done with this one. Read it around 15 years ago.

Keeping my mind active once more.

P.S. : And yes Todd, I stole your Avatar!!! ;)
 
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I finished The List of Seven and was bothered by some familiar elements in its quirky Holmes/Doyle meets Madame Blavatsky/Lovecraft storyline, but found that this was explained when I got to the bio of the author on the back cover, Mark Frost, among his credits being Twin Peaks :) A good read if somewhat silly at times.
I've recently been exploring the world of Appalachia in Sharyn McCrumb's novels of a small Tenneesee community and its inhabitants, ghostly, criminal and historical. She's quite a good writer and brings a different focus to the mystery genre. Just finished The Rosewood Casket and recommend it to anyone who likes a little history, and the occasional ghost story thrown into their detective novel.
 
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I recently finished the third installment of Robin Hobb's latest trilogy. The book was called Renegade Magic, from the Soldier Son trilogy. With the completion of this book I have read all the four trilogies written by Hobb. Although this was a good trilogy, I was not as good as the Farseer trilogy and the Tawny Man trilogy, but it was better then the Liveship Traders trilogy. A very suprising, yet satisfying ending!
 
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Yes I see my avatar has been "borrowed" LOL

I've got 100 pages or so left of Gardens of the Moon. Good enough to keep going with the series but it doesnt exactly grab me like I hoped. Has anyone else here read Erikson? Does it get better? The weakness I see is character development and too many characters. Martin certainly has too many characters but he flushes them out completely while Erikson sometimes doesnt even bother to physically describe some of them. After 100 pages he might mention a character has skin dark as night. That would have been nice to know. He fails to even describe whole races!

Erikson must really like Dune, another book that frustrates me to no end with lack of description.
 
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Since I had to move to a small apartment for a temp job I dumped most of my library at my parents place in the countryside, and I miss the collection badly. I only brought some of my dads books (he ordered a bunch from the library of military history and some of them are interesting) and am currently reading "the battle for the Falklands" by Hastings & Jenkins. It gives an interesting account of a conflict I know little about, but the translation to Swedish is VERY stilted and the insights into the Argentinian side are minimal. In all it reminds me of many of the stuffs this Anglophile country swallows whole (sports news from English-speaking countries are also filled with horrible translations of wordplays that only make sense in English)...

I loved Dune and the two books after it, as well as "Chapter house". Books 4 and 5 in the series and all the spinoffs are crap though.
 
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Completed the Belgariad last night. While not quite as good as I remember, it was still an excellent read from my favorite author. Haven't decided what's up next.
 
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Finished the last Potter at the begining of this week.
Could've been better. I preferred the Half Blood Prince.

Now, reading #2 of the Dark Elf Trilogy : EXILE.

Yes Drizzt, Kill them all!!! :mwahaha:
 
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Finally got my hands on a copy of the Shadows over Baker Street anthology mentioned a few pages back; enjoyed it enormously. If you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes and/or Lovecraft, I would highly recommend it. Gaiman's Study in Emerald is excellent, but I also enjoyed the tale of Watson and his orderly Murray and their encounter in Afghanistan with the Weeping Ones, as well as Colonel Sebastian Moran and the burning metal tiger from beyond space and time. :) Good stuff.
 
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Ha, yeah -- that one rocks. But I think you actually have to be a bit of a fan of *both* Holmes and Lovecraft to "get it" -- otherwise the references are so bizarre that they'll probably fly right past you leaving you going WTF??? in a big way.
 
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Very true--it's a blend that works well but you do have to appreciate both flavors.

Prime Junta wrote elsewhere:
Actually, I'd suggest you start with a commentary on Plato rather than the man himself. Plato's world was so different from our own that unless you're already really deep into it, you'll completely misunderstand him.
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Rather than follow Corwin's red herring any further off topic in the Witcher thread, thought I'd ask if you had any particular commentary in mind here. There's no doubt in my mind that I could easily "completely misunderstand" or just plain fail to understand Greek philosophy, so it would have to be on the primer level, I'm afraid. :)
Actually, fiction would be even better, but I don't know if any exists.
 
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