What are you reading?

I ran out of new books to explore so I picked up the first book of the Law series by Abercrombie. Probably the third or fourth time I've read this series now and still almost as great as the first time!!! Chugged through book one in three days, now about halfway through the second.
 
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I finished the second novel of the First Law series this morning, once again a stellar thing to read. Before They are Hanged does a great job of fleshing out all of the main characters, while still advancing the story at a compelling pace. Truly one of the best series of all time.
 
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I read Ghouls by Edward Lee. Pretty standard horror fare, but it was well written with good characters and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's the first of his books I've read, I'll need to keep an eye out for others.
 
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This morning I completed the First Law series, I made that third book last a few extra days just to enjoy the ride even more. What a great series, and one I know I'll be rereading again in the future!!

Next up for me will be the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. I've only ever read these once before, about twenty-five years ago, and I'm wondering if they'll stand the test of time. I'm about fifty pages into the Dragonbone Chair and so far I'm enjoying it all over again.
 
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Apart from my monthly British Prog Magazine ...

Aristotle - Rhetoric

I had begun De Re Publica by Cicero, but was driven off by its style.

Same with The Clouds by Aristophanes. Although it is a great comedy about philosophy. (If you want to have a great comedy about philosophers themselves, then read The Symposion by Lucian !)

What I can recommend, however, is Lysistrata by Aristophanes - a great comedy for grown-up men and women ! ;)
 
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Yesterday I finished the Dragonbone Chair, book one of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. I've only read this series once before, in the early nineties, and it really occurs to me that Martin took quite a number of inspirations from this series and formed them to his own. I started book two last night and I suspect it will be just as great as the first book!
 
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This morning I knocked off the Stone of Farewell, book two of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. I've nothing but compliments for this novel, it takes everything established in the prior book and ramps them all up, while also introducing some new, serious elements. Tonight or tomorrow I'll likely pick up book three to continue this epic journey.
 
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I read hundreds of litrpgs/gamelit etc. I think I've read 130 this year alone. I normally don't post here because I read so much. Here's a good one for those that like this sub-genre:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16337/zee-locked-in

This is your typical man gets transported to fantasy world and the main character is a human dual-wielding ranger with a pet eventually. The main isn't op, but he does have a hack that lets him level up faster than his eventual party members. The book throws in pop cultural references in a way that doesn't detract from the story, for a change. It's a decent book if you like gamelit or litrpgs.
 
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I knocked off the first book of the Green Tower duo, which is the final entry in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. I see why they had to break up the last book into two parts, as each is just under eight hundred pages. After the Stone of Farewell, this one takes a bit more time delving into some characters and locations that didn't get the full treatment in the prior novel. It ends on an intriguing point, which will only get me into the last book even quicker!
 
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I re-read Asimov's Pebble in the Sky recently. It was written before Currents of Space (1949) so could that book actually be the first post-apocalypse novel?
 
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I’m reading the Arthur C. Clarke award nominees. This year they are:

SEMIOSIS - SUE BURKE (HARPERVOYAGER)
REVENANT GUN - YOON HA LEE (SOLARIS)
FRANKENSTEIN IN BAGHDAD- AHMED SAADAWI (ONEWORLD)
THE ELECTRIC STATE - SIMON STÅLENHAG (SIMON AND SCHUSTER)
ROSEWATER - TADE THOMPSON (ORBIT)
THE LOOSENING SKIN - ALIYA WHITELEY (UNSUNG STORIES).

It is one of the few major fantasy and science fiction awards done by a panel, rather than by a popularity contest, sorry vote, as the Hugos and increasingly the Nebula awards are. Another good panel award are the Kitschies, http://www.thekitschies.com/
 
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I’m reading the Arthur C. Clarke award nominees. This year they are:

Any time I read the words "award nominee", "award" and "prize", a wave of uncertainty and inferiority feelings go through me. I guess I'm the direct opposite of an superhero, then.
Or … do superherozes with an inferiority complex actually exist ?

I'm currently reading "Wearing the cape : a superhero story", and it's imho excellntly written. The way only a nerd could do it. Everything looks so much planned and outlined. The level of implicite detail is amazing. There must be complete backstories in the author's drawer or box, to which mere hints are in the text. The introduction has barely closed, then one complex plot kicks in. He gives the reader just *barely* enough time to accommodate himself/herself with the female superhero (before the "drugs age" I'd write "heroine") of the story.

It is a bit astonishing that I can actually have fun with this book without my infamous inferiority complex crushing in, and that's a good thing. It speaks a lot in positive tones that the author is able to write that fluently without giving me any negative feelings. Perhaps it is because superheroes aren't "my genre" *at all* . Which means I can read the book from a good safe distance and not feel affected at all, because I'd never write about superheroes. (Or only about ones with inferiority complexes. ;) Maybe. ;) )

I haven't reached Part III of the book yet, though.

Edit : The author is male, but the author's first name "Marion" is female here in Germany.
I have theorized (nice geeky word !) that this has come from the male version of the name "Marian", which might be pronounced in English like the author's name : "Marion". The name "Marian" is considered mostly female here in Germany as well, though. Only few people actually know that it can be a male name as well, similar to the name "Nikita".
Most names ending with an "a" are considered female here. And most names ending with an "o" are considered male here. Probably Latin language heritage.
Shakespeare has in "Much ado about nothing" a female protagonist named "Hero".
 
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I finally completed the last book in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, with summer activities going on it definitely took me longer than usual to get through each novel. This is a great series, and I'll have to remind myself in the future to not let twenty-some odd years lapse between readings!!
 
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For some reason I felt compelled to re-read The Shining for....I dunno, maybe the twentieth time or so. That lasted me four days, I then picked up Doctor Sleep, which I've only read once to date, and I'm about a third of the way through. Something about summertime just makes me want to dive into a King novel. If you're a fan, and you've not read Doctor Sleep but enjoyed The Shining novel, you should really give it a go!
 
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I finished Doctor Sleep this morning, and I really enjoyed it. You have to admire someone that goes back to create a sequel to such a profound story like The Shining, and I'm speaking about the novel, not the movie. There is a clear distinction between the two, maybe more than average when a tale exists on multiple platforms. While I like and enjoy the film, the book is far above it, at least for me.

Next up for me, another King book that I've only ever read once, Revival. I'll likely start later today.
 
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