Tony’s Comments (group member since Dec 19, 2018)

Tony’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

With about an hour to go before midnight, I finished Roll For Initiative. This was a generally fun LitRPG heavily based on D&D. It's the first in a series - there are two more, but I don't know if that finishes the series - Michael Anderle, one of the co-authors, does have a number of 8-10-book series to his name, either as the author, or a co-author.

I think I would like to visit San Francisco on the Earth of the United Federation of Planets.

I've read 10, and the book I'm currently reading will be the 11th, and I also have scattered books throughout the rows and columns.

I finished Usagi Yojimbo, Vol. 1: The Ronin. This is the first of the trade paperback collections of Usagi Yojimbo (a comic series about a samurai rabbit from the 80s) and it collects all the stories published in other magazines before the series started in its own title.

Irritatingly, I didn't quite finish Marvel's Black Widow: Forever Red before I left on my holiday last Thursday - I finished the last 40 pages at the airport waiting for my flight and now it will sit in the bottom of my suitcase until I return. That aside, I enjoyed it and it provides a lot of back story for Natasha Romanoff.

I do have plenty to read on my e-reader, and I have started Roll For InitiativeI'm about a third of the way through and I have enjoyed it so far.

Liam wrote: "Rereading the Hobbit right now. Its actually very interesting rereading it all these years later as I didn't recall how little faith Tolkein had in his readers to pick up on things. There are so ma..."

I have read The Hobbit many, many times, and while I have noticed Tolkien's expositions, they never annoyed me. Also, I think the target audience he had in mind was younger kids (I think most of his children were under 10 when he wrote it), so providing some exposition is not really a bad thing.

I also read the Elric books in the 70s, and have read most of Moorcock's Eternal Champion series, although the trilogy he wrote about a Martian hero is pretty hard to find - although I think it was reprinted in an omnibus edition some years back.

I started reading Parsival: Or, A Knight's Tale, but about a dozen pages in I reakised I wasn't really in the mood for it. I have now started Marvel's Black Widow: Forever Red

I have finished The Space Trilogy: Islands of the Sky / Earthlight / The Sands of Mars, which will fill the Omnibus slot in my Bingo. These three novels by Arthur C Clarke were all written in the 1950s (pre-Sputnik), and while all of them are good examples of his early work, they all demonstrate one of the perils of writing near-future SF - authors often get the science wrong.

Michelle wrote: "Shannara is now out of print? I wonder why, because it's a classic!"

Publishers may have decided that the physical sales of the books don't justify another print run, so maybe they're only going to be available as ebooks, or perhaps because they're considering new omnibus editions. Or another option I haven't thought of 😆

I have finished The Sands of Mars, the second (and longest) of the three novels that make up The Space Trilogy: Islands of the Sky / Earthlight / The Sands of Mars.

Andrea wrote: "Up north here its getting really hot, sure its starting to get cold down south, what books are you reading at the start of a new season?"

Strangely enough, after the last three weeks of autumn in Sydney delivered temperatures equivalent to mid to late winter (overnight lows between 2 and 5 degrees C), the first 2 days of actual winter have been very autumnal, with lows of 10-12 degrees and highs in the low 20s.

I have finished The Savage Sword of Conan, Volume 15, and I have nearly finished Islands in the Sky, which is the first book in The Space Trilogy: Islands of the Sky / Earthlight / The Sands of Mars, which will be the Omnibus for my Bingo.

Mary wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I wouldn't have thought that was military sci-fi!"

Unfortunate title."

That reminds me of Bimbos of the Death Sun which, despite its title, is not SF - it's a very funny murder mystery set in a sci-fi convention.

I have finished reading Beneath the Elven Moon: Book One of the Horizon Urban Fantasy Series. I was expecting a paranormal romance, but it was really about 95% romance with just a smidge of paranormal thrown in.

I have started reading The Space Trilogy: Islands of the Sky / Earthlight / The Sands of Mars

I have read 22 of them - I daresay I had a few more read to me when I was a lot younger.

I haveBeneath the Elven Moon: Book One of the Horizon Urban Fantasy Series started reading

I have finished reading ElfQuest 1: Fire & Flight. It is an excellent collection and showcases why this comic won so many awards.

I finished Spear Of Destiny - fast-paced and an interesting premise, but the plot armour was pretty thick on the protagonists at times.

I have started ElfQuest 1: Fire & Flight, the first compilation of the ElfQuest comics, which was one of the best independent comics of the 80s.

You'd think being down with covid would give me plenty of reading time, but really, it's mostly sleeping. I'm making progress in both Vietnam At War: The History 1946-1975 and Spear Of Destiny, which is enjoyable buy way more brutal than I expect from a Daniel Easterman book.