Joseph’s Comments (group member since Oct 24, 2012)

Joseph’s comments from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.

I actually just finished Poseidonis -- those BAF paperbacks tended to be pretty reasonably sized. Probably not my last visit to a lost continent in the near future ...

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "Joseph wrote: "because it's upcoming in the Appendix N Book Club"

I think I might look into this Appendix N Book Club. I've been reading some of those already, and some discussion on them would be..."

It's another podcast, and one of my favorites:

https://appendixnbookclub.com/

One caveat (that I only just discovered myself): The Forgotten Realms books are NOT available in .mobi (Kindle) format; so I just had to spend some time using Calibre to convert them from .epub.

(The WH40K books, however, are available in .mobi as well as .epub and pdf.)

I got 50 books for 50 bucks! (Because I paid $25 each, even though the minimum level for everything was $15 each.)

Same! And this is also reminding me (through a chain of associations that I won't begin to try to unravel) of Avram Davidson's Ursus of Ultima Thule, which also belongs on my list.

A couple of Humble Bundles that I suspect will be of interest:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/wa...
(A bunch of Warhammer 40K novels, mostly first novels in assorted series.)

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/du...
(A bunch of Forgotten Realms Drow-centric books, including the first 13 Drizzt novels.)

Welcome! I'm a fan of the podcast!

Freudian slip much?

Thanks for participating, Scott! And I'll definitely be adding more books to my (infinitely expansible) TBR pile as a result of this.

And I just finished LotR yesterday (all the way through to the end of the last appendix) and yep, still my favorite book, hands down, no contest.

Getting a head start on the lost continents with Clark Ashton Smith's Poseidonis.

Oh, and it's obviously not even remotely S&S, but I read Alan Dean Foster's Alien novelization many, many times because I was, in my parents' view (and who knows? They may have been right!) entirely too young to see the movie when it came through theaters.

As it happens, getting a head start on things (because it's upcoming in the Appendix N Book Club), I started Poseidonis last night.

Brian wrote: "S.wagenaar wrote: "The novelization for Conan The Barbarian by Michael Stackpole is actually BETTER than the movie. Not a surprise, as the film was unfortunately not very good..."

Blasphemy! Take ..."

To be clear, this is a novelization of the recent Momoa film, not the original Arnold film.

I'd say the sky's the limit! Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria, Hyperborea, Valusia, Numenor …

When I was younger and more credulous, I went through a bit of an Atlantis phase (either shortly before or shortly after my Ancient Astronauts phase), and have always found it a fascinating setting, even if I had to (sadly) abandon belief in the super-advanced civilization with the airships and suchlike.

L. Sprague de Camp has actually written a couple of decent non-fiction treatments of the subject of lost continents -- Lost Continents: Atlantis Theme in History, Science and Literature (which is pretty widely available, including on Kindle) and Lands Beyond, which might be a bit harder to track down.

Krull is definitely on my short list! As is Clash of the Titans.

Yeah, the novelizations are generally not as good as the original source material, but for some of us (he said, tying an onion to his belt, as was the style at the time) there was a point where once you'd seen the movie in the theater (or if you missed the movie in the theater), the novelization was the only way to experience it again -- it was a dark time, a time before VHS tapes and Blockbuster rentals.

Myself, I read Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker so many times that now the cover is held on with Scotch tape.

And I'm finally into The Lord of the Rings and yes, this is my favorite book ever, full stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Hmmm … Technically it's far future, not distant past, but the shape of the continent has changed over the eons so yes, I'll allow it.

Especially because Clark Ashton Smith.

I've been wandering these paths for many, many years now.

Fair warning … the version in UT is, well, very unfinished and ends just as Tuor first reaches Gondolin, without going into the subsequent Fall … :)

The version in The Silmarillion is much more summarized, but at least it's complete.

And yep, on to The Hobbit, or There and Back Again -- The Fall of Gondolin was relatively short, especially when I skipped the lengthy section that had also appeared in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth.

I love this book so very, very much.