What are you currently reading? Showing 651-700 of 3,143

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

I just finished Neuromancer and started Count Zero. And now I kind of want William Gibson to write some sword & sorcery.

[Greg]

Joseph wrote: "I just finished Neuromancer and started Count Zero. And now I kind of want William Gibson to write some sword & sorcery."

LOL Cyberpunk and sorcery? Interesting idea though.


Jack wrote: "I've had Neuromancer on my to-read shelf for too long. I read your review, and I think I will have to bump the book up the list. "

I read Neuromancer back in the '90s and enjoyed it but I recall thinking back then that it was already becoming dated, with one person smuggling a mere 3 MB of data and the author's 1980s fascination with shurikens.

I need to catch up with my Gibson reading, though, and intend to remedy that this summer.

[Greg]

Dan wrote: "Just finished of and reviewed Lords of Dyscrasia: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

About to start up Imaro"

Good review Dan!

[Rich]

Currently reading:


Imaro

Haggopian And Other Stories

Darkness in the Valley: An Uncanny Dossier

Gardens of the Moon

Got Imaro and some of the stories in Haggopian representing S&S, the others fantasy in general. A few too many to finish by the end of the month, though.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Greg wrote: "I read Neuromancer back in the '90s and enjoyed it but I recall thinking back then that it was already becoming dated, with one person smuggling a mere 3 MB of data and the author's 1980s fascination with shurikens."

That's one of the reasons I think Gibson actually holds up better than a lot of his contemporaries -- he was never a tech guy, so he didn't give a lot of specific details about the impossibly fast 1GHz processors and the incredible terabyte-sized corporate data files.

[Greg]

Joseph wrote: "Greg wrote: "I read Neuromancer back in the '90s and enjoyed it but I recall thinking back then that it was already becoming dated, with one person smuggling a mere 3 MB of data and the author's 19..."

Yeah, science fiction can age quickly once the far out technology it describes is not only met but surpassed! I like Gibson's writing more for its social commentary and how technology can impact on things like privacy and surveillance (e.g. 'the Death Star' police satellite and the originally unintended use of the 'Separated at Birth' database in Virtual Light).

[Adam]

Just finished "The Name Of The Wind" Patrick Rothfuss. Great book, and a brilliant writer. The intro was just pure mastery.

Now reading "Theft Of Swords" by Micheal J. Sullivan, another great writer. Such an easy read.

[Scott]

Second Cataclysm

60% done. Three three books in this trilogy are short and cheap on Kindle. I started reading it as part of a thread books in need of reviews. It's excellent so hopefully some others give it a shot.

[Jason]

lol, thanks for the warning Jack! way to take one for the good of the group ;)

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Jack wrote: "Today I started reading Bran Mak Morn: The Last King, the full collection of Robert E. Howard's published and unpublished stories about Bran Mak Morn. I've read some of these in other..."

An excellent collection!

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Finished Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, which held up much better than a lot of other SF written 30 years ago, and am now starting something that, if not sword & sorcery, will at least contain both swords and sorcery: Camber of Culdi by Katherine Kurtz (first book in the first Deryni prequel trilogy).

[Greg]

I've reached the final story of Masques Two, which I intend to read over the next day or so. It's an average anthology with a few standout stories.

[Dan]

Adam wrote: "Just finished "The Name Of The Wind" Patrick Rothfuss. Great book, and a brilliant writer. The intro was just pure mastery.

Now reading "Theft Of Swords" by Micheal J. Sullivan, another great writ..."

The Name of the Wind was quite solid. Very engrossing.

[Peter]

Besides still a lot of Beneath Ceaseless Skies issues, I recently also read Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings, an epic fantasy novel, that I picked up after reading some rave reviews.
In the end it was not as great as I hoped, more epic due to the scope of the story than because of the characters).

Feels like it's time to dive back into some old fashioned S&S.

[S.E., Gray Mouser (Emeritus)]

Peter, your constant attention on Beneath Ceaseless Skies has been epic. Have you read all of them?

[S.wagenaar]

For some reason I've started reading Shadow Of The Wolf again. I have felt an overwhelming need for some dark, earthy, bloody barbarian chaos. This book feeds that primal appetite, in spades. When I first read it, I ripped through it rather quickly, so this time I am trying to savour it slowly. It will leave the taste of damp earth and blood in your mouth...

[Peter]

S.E. wrote: "Peter, your constant attention on Beneath Ceaseless Skies has been epic. Have you read all of them?"

I've read and reviewed about 60 issues so far. Issue 200 just was released, so I'm far from done. :)
Most issues contain just 2 short stories, about 50 pages on my ereader, so great reads for in between other books.

But for now I will switch my attention to another backlog: an uncle of mine was set on collecting all fantasy and sf books released in the Dutch language, both original and translated. He is cleaning up his collection now, because he didn't have time to read even a fraction.
I'm sifting through the books now, to see which are of interest to me. I tend to skip a lot of the translated stuff, I'd rather have the original English, but still, after years of collecting, his collection is vast, and I'm picking up quite a number of books from it.

[Greg]

S.wagenaar wrote: "For some reason I've started reading Shadow Of The Wolf again. I have felt an overwhelming need for some dark, earthy, bloody barbarian chaos. This book feeds that primal appetite, i..."

This looks good - and the late Robert Holdstock is the author! I really need to read more of his books.

[Jason]

S.wagenaar wrote: "For some reason I've started reading Shadow Of The Wolf again. I have felt an overwhelming need for some dark, earthy, bloody barbarian chaos. This book feeds that primal appetite, i..."

Interesting you should mention that. Several weeks ago I was thinking about finishing the trilogy and reading The Horned Warrior. I've been meaning to get around to it for quite a while, so maybe this is an omen that now is the time.

[Christopher]

Hello all! I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for me, (I hope this is an ok forum to ask this in). Due to me being a huge witcher fan, and im counting the days until the video games new DLC, I was wondering if someone can recommend some books to me that have some similarities to the witcher. What I would really enjoy reading would be based more on the monster hunting aspect of the witcher series, also preferably geared to a more mature audience. Pardon my excessive video game references but what would be literally perfect would be a mix of like Dark Souls monsters, with a witcher style of fighting and magic huntig them down. Now I'm sure there isn't anything perfectly matching this criteria but if anyone knows things similiar please let me know!! Thanks every one! And happy reading!!

[Dan]

I'm readingElric of Melniboné and Other Stories by Michael Moorcock When I was a teenager I loved Moorcocks books and read as many as I could find, now looking forward to reading Elric again after a gap of many years

[S.E., Gray Mouser (Emeritus)]

Christopher wrote: "Hello all! I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for me, (I hope this is an ok forum to ask this in). Due to me being a huge witcher fan, and im counting the days until the video games new..."

Christopher, Great question. I think it may be better posed in the below folders:

Witcher Group read folder:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

or click on New Topic in the general folder:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Feel welcome to copy/paste/repost in those areas.

[Christopher]

S.E. wrote: "Christopher wrote: "Hello all! I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for me, (I hope this is an ok forum to ask this in). Due to me being a huge witcher fan, and im counting the days until..."

Thanks a bunch, Ill head over there!

[Jason]

cool, Jack, look forward to hearing your thoughts. I've only read the first trilogy and The Silver Spike, but after I introduced a friend to Steven Erikson (who regularly praises Cook), my friend consumed all of Cook's Black Company and really enjoyed it.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Am now reading Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein which, no, isn't sword & sorcery, but you could probably make a six degrees of separation that went from Orphans to Metamorphosis Alpha to Gamma World to Dungeons And Dragons Basic Set Box Set to ...

[Michael]

I loved that book! I read it as a teenager and at least twice since!

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

I still have all of Dad's old Heinlein paperbacks (and his copy of Dune), which I've read repeatedly over the years.

[Michael]

You are so fortunate to have inherited those books. I grew up on that stuff. Podkayne of Mars, Green Hills of Earth, Starship Troopers, Puppet Masters, Glory Road (which could be construed as Sword and Sorcery I suppose), etc etc.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Michael wrote: "You are so fortunate to have inherited those books. I grew up on that stuff. Podkayne of Mars, Green Hills of Earth, Starship Troopers, Puppet Masters, Glory Road (which could be construed as Sword..."

Well, not so much "inherited" as "absconded with" ... :)

The thing that surprised me most (and surprised Dad too, last time we talked about it) was that many of the books were actually slightly younger than me; growing up, I had just kind of assumed that they were copies from his teenage years or something, but many of the specific copies on his shelf had actually been published a few years after I was born.

I vividly remember sitting on the front porch -- I'm pretty sure it was the summer after 2nd grade -- and reading Red Planet all in one sitting.

I do regret not snagging all of Mom's Ed McBain paperbacks.

[Michael]

LOL. No, you got the right stuff! It is not easy to find those books now at your local bookstore. Mostly books based on fantasy games.

[Greg]

Joseph wrote: "Am now reading Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein which, no, isn't sword & sorcery, but you could probably make a six degrees of separation that went from Orphans to..."

Interesting. Old Gamma World GM here.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

Greg wrote: "Interesting. Old Gamma World GM here. "

If I ever were to run a tabletop RPG, one of the top candidates would be 1st edition GW mixed liberally with 1st edition AD&D and given a decidedly Thundarr-esque vibe.

[Greg]

Joseph wrote: "Greg wrote: "Interesting. Old Gamma World GM here. "

If I ever were to run a tabletop RPG, one of the top candidates would be 1st edition GW mixed liberally with 1st edition AD&D and given a decid..."

I have both 1st and 3rd edition rulebooks. I'd say it's hard to get copies of the former now.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

I still have my 1st edition GW rulebook, and even the box. It's missing the map of post-apocalyptic North America, though. And I still have some of the original dice somewhere in my big jar o' dice.

[Greg]

Joseph wrote: "I still have my 1st edition GW rulebook, and even the box. It's missing the map of post-apocalyptic North America, though. And I still have some of the original dice somewhere in my big jar o' dice."

Oh my first edn rulebook (Gamma World for others wondering what we're talking about :P) is a somewhat battered copy without the original box, so it's cool you still have the latter. An American cousin of mine gave me the rulebook back when we were teens and he had previously been given it by friends of his. It therefore saw a bit of use.

Incidentally, I scanned the cover and uploaded it to the old Pen & Paper database - you can see the entry here on the Internet Archive. It's a real pity that resource no longer survives.

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

I got my copy of Gamma World for Christmas -- I'd asked for the original Basic D&D set, which my folks got for me, but they also got me the GW boxed set because it actually came with dice, unlike the D&D set.

[Greg]

Joseph wrote: "I got my copy of Gamma World for Christmas -- I'd asked for the original Basic D&D set, which my folks got for me, but they also got me the GW boxed set because it actually came with dice, unlike t..."

Sounds like that was a great Christmas! :)

[Michael]

Just finished "Penric's Demon" by Lois McMaster Bujold and just started "Ancillary Justice" by Ann Leckie.

[Arley]

I recently picked up the first five John Carter of Mars books compiled into one volume. I'm about half way through, and it is wonderful. Part of me laments that I didn't read this stuff sooner, but another part is grateful that there is still plenty of good material out there that I haven't read.The Collected John Carter of Mars

[Greg]

Arley wrote: "I recently picked up the first five John Carter of Mars books compiled into one volume. I'm about half way through, and it is wonderful. Part of me laments that I didn't read this stuff sooner, but..."

It's always nice to know that there's still stuff to read that you'll like! :)

[Joseph, Master Ultan]

TBH, I've always kind of preferred Burroughs, the Barsoom books in particular, to Howard. I just wish the Burroughs estate would actually release authorized eBook versions of his catalog. The closest we've come in recent years was the Disney John Carter omnibus volumes released to tie in with the film; and those were fatally flawed because they left out the prologues and introductions that were framing stories in about half of the books.

[Greg]

One could possibly apply the term 'sword and sorcery' (in a broad sense) to Bleach (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 2: Includes vols. 4, 5 & 6, a manga book which I finished reading this morning. 'Soul Reapers' use a sword as well as sorcery (based on spirit energy) to dispatch evil spirits. Started reading the novelette A Colder War which is Lovecraftian-style horror set in an alternate history Cold War.

[Paul]

Miles. An autobiography by miles Davis

[Michael]

Paul wrote: "Miles. An autobiography by miles Davis"
Very nice. I have this book but haven't read it yet. I have read several others about him and John Coltrane, Bill Evans, etc.

[Derek]

Now tackling Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse courtesy Wildside Press's new Kothar collections, now available for the princely sum of $0.99 apiece:

The First Kothar the Barbarian MEGAPACK®: 3 Sword and Sorcery Novels

The Second Kothar the Barbarian MEGAPACK®: 2 Sword and Sorcery Novels

[Paul]

Those kothar ehooks are a bargain. Kyrik next?

[Derek]

Paul wrote: "Those kothar ehooks are a bargain. Kyrik next?"

They're not listed. I can't tell if Wildside publicizes future releases...

[Greg]

I had read the humorous horror novelette, Overtime, earlier today - I'll be reading another short story written by a very distant cousin this evening. Then, I might pick something more S&S in style - not sure what though.

[Paul]

Dark crusade by karl edward wagner

[Arley]

Christopher wrote: "Hello all! I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for me, (I hope this is an ok forum to ask this in). Due to me being a huge witcher fan, and im counting the days until the video games new..."

The Gotrek and Felix series sounds like it would be right up your alley. Gotrek & Felix: The First Omnibus