Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" discussion
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What are you currently reading?
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Al
(last edited Apr 16, 2019 10:06AM)
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Apr 16, 2019 07:30AM

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I'm into Chanur's Legacy, which will be the end of my current C.J. Cherryh reread. After that, it'll probably be Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri.


SEVEN PRINCES was a good read; this one is a mess. And damn, but John has it in for every woman, from betrayal by everyone (husband, brother, bro-in-law) to betraying everyone else (father, people, self) to horribly dying and committing horrible deeds. There is no 'good' female character - they're dead or turned evil. And stupidity runs large throughout.

SEVEN PRINCES was a good read; this one is a mess. And damn, but John has it in for every woman, from betrayal by everyone (husband, brother, bro-in-law) to betraying every..."
And I just ordered the second and third books in this series. I realized that I never finished Seven Princes, so I decided a start it over and read the entire trilogy. I have read mostly positive reviews for books two and three, so I'm surprised you didn't care for Seven Kings.

Haven't finished just yet, but after finally hitting the good stuff at 333 pages in and being fairly confident in my ideas of what remains, I'm not in any hurry to find book 3. Though I did check out the reviews and it seems book 3 is the best of the trilogy. This is obviously a hold-things-together bridge between 1 and 3 that could have been hundreds of pages shorter.

I very consciously designed DARK VENTURES to be the gateway book into the re-issued series (five books originally published by Zebra Books in the 1980s), as well as a "primer" on where the entire series has been, where it's headed as I am able to continue it, and how the whole ambitious Gonji-world began in the first place. So it contains two heroic-fantasy novellas, a generous teaser of the coming origin novel, and plenty of non-fiction background discussion intended to ground the new reader. (I knew there would be marketing issues with trying to attract new readers with even a successful vintage series, which it was---all explained, in hopefully engaging depth, in the "GONJI Odyssey" essay---since it had been marketed curiously in its earlier editions.)
Keep me posted! Domo arigato!
No sorcery (I think) but plenty of swords (well, sabers for the most part) in Swords of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Four by Harold Lamb.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Then, the only time I ripped off something from Conan it was not even from a story -- it was something from a discussion of the world-building by someone else -- and I'd be mildly surprised if someone could pick out the story and very surprised if anyone could tell where -- so talk is cheap. 0:)


Prince Ombra"
I have an ancient (1980s) secondhand copy of this book - I must get around to reading it at some point! Hmm, and adding its edition to the GR database too...
[EDIT:] Actually, the edition of the book I have is already in the GR database. For some reason, I thought it had a different cover.


Prince Ombra"
I have an ancient (1980s) secondhand copy of this book - I must get around to reading it at some point! Hmm, and addin..."
I'm 100 pages in and hooked. I've read that newer editions are abridged. The older 80's editions are not.

Ohh this is good to know! :)
Read the next Conan The Barbarian (2019-) #6.
This one repeated a formula to deliver a forgettable tale. Have hopes this series will eventually deliver on the Crimson Witch conflict.
This one repeated a formula to deliver a forgettable tale. Have hopes this series will eventually deliver on the Crimson Witch conflict.

Just finished The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham and am about to start the second in the series, The King's Blood.

That looks really good, Al. Let us know what you think about it.

Richard wrote: "Al wrote: "Reading The Written by Ben Galley"
That looks really good, Al. Let us know what you think about it."

That looks really good, Al. Let us know what you think about it."
I really enjoyed it, gave it five stars as a fun S&S story. I'l have a full review out in a while as it's part of a blog tour.

Title alone makes it worth reading.


I'm a pretty slow reader too, but I've had a lot of down time in the warehouse this past week. I've been reading between filling orders. And The Chronicles of Caylen-Tor is so good, I had a hard time putting it down.


I read this book about 50 years ago. I can't remember it very well but I remember I liked it!

I enjoyed it too! Pierto is a lucky devil, but he is star-crossed with the ladies. Not an action packed book by any means. A slow burn all the way to the end.
Still blazing through Daniel Abraham's Dagger and the Coin books; now onto The Spider's War, the last in the series.
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