Reading Elsewhere

[Malaraa]

We watched a video version of All Quiet on the Western Front for history class I think it was. It's kinda fuzzy in my memory by now though :) I enjoyed 1984 also, but I think it was an optional read, I don't remember talking about it much in classes (although that was a very long time ago!). I'd like to eventually read Great Gatsby, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. We were supposed to do Julius Caesar and Beowulf but they got lost in favor of recipes from the time of the Tales, and audio recordings of someone reciting them in medieval english, and having to put on presentations of them as skits for the rest of the school, and papers on 4 of the tales, and.....well :P It's still a memorably bad year even over 2 decades later, haha!

I always liked the various bits of Shakespeare we studied. As long as you have a version that's modernized enough to be understandable, he's very fun. I like watching presentations of the bard too - Much Ado About Nothing is one of my favorites. The 1993 version with Kenneth Branagh is awesome, my father and I used to watch that a lot. The new version by Joss Whedon is really good too though. My boyfriend was able to follow and enjoy Joss's version when we saw it in theater, and he'd never read or seen the play before.

[Malaraa]

Hey Bryan, have you been watching the new season of the video show over at S&L? I went to tor's site to read some of the freebies by Rachel Swirsky after I watched that episode and they're really well done, she's got some very interesting work. Of the ones I hadn't heard of before, I'm liking her best so far. :) (Kowal and Howey I already knew about)

[Bryan]

Hey Sanasai, sorry I haven't been posting lately. I've been super busy, having just bought my first house and trying to do updates on it in between working my day job and planning my band's upcoming tour. I've barely had time to read my book (!) let alone listen to podcasts. In a month or two I'm sure my life will return to some semblance of normality.

I've been reading Little, Big for the past month or so, and really wishing that I could spend more time with it, because it's a really excellent book. It's kind of hard to describe, but it's basically about a family who lives in a big house that acts as a sort of bridge between the normal world and the realm of Faerie. Very well-written.

[Malaraa]

Nice! congrats on the house, that's exciting. :) And good luck on your tour! I'm in slow time for work, so I'm devouring random books and shows every which way while there's time. Also planning a party for International Tabletop Day, but that's about it! I think I spotted a book rating by Cole the other day in my update spam, maybe he'll be back soon.

[Cole]

Sanasai wrote: "Nice! congrats on the house, that's exciting. :) And good luck on your tour! I'm in slow time for work, so I'm devouring random books and shows every which way while there's time. Also planning a ..."

Yyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!! I am back!!! Finally, so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sorrrrrrrryyyyyyyy. I am here to stay. Been going through a really hard time in my life, haven't even read that much!!! Blasphemy!!! I miss you guys so much, I feel like I let you guys down and my self. Anyway, mail me so we can catch up!
Congrats on the house Bryan, good luck with everything else!
So glad you guys didn't forget me!!!

[Malaraa]

Yay! Of course we didn't forget you, welcome back! :)

[Cole]

Thanks! :)

[Gina's]

If I understood correctly I'm reading and

[Malaraa]

Yup! you understood perfectly, we just tend to wander off on tangents sometimes :D

[Gina's]

Sanasai wrote: "Yup! you understood perfectly, we just tend to wander off on tangents sometimes :D"

Hhahah it's okay :)

[Malaraa]

Daughter of the Forest was a delight. A taste of old Celtic times, and fairy-tale atmosphere, with some lovely prose. Then on the flip side, I started Empire State, totally different feeling, and verdict's still out on whether I'm going to like where it ends up. It's interesting, I just hope the author actually pulls off what he seems to be building up towards.

[Bryan]

For the past year or so I've been trying to read as many books as I can from the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks series and the Gollancz SF Masterworks series. I've always really liked classics and it occurred to me at some point that I owe it to myself to educate myself in the classics of my favourite genres. I've read a bunch of books from these series, and I haven't been let down yet. Everything I've read from either of these series has been entertaining or thought-provoking or both. I highly recommend them to anyone who will listen to me.

Right now I'm reading a book from the Fantasy Masterworks series by Tim Powers. It's called The Drawing of the Dark, and despite having a super weird-sounding premise, it's really good. Sort of a blend of fantasy and historical fiction, with lots of beer drinking in it (the title itself is a beer reference).

[Malaraa]

So.... I just got done with my free trial of the kindle unlimited thing. Went on a total book binge, read 50 in my 30 days - and got very little else done! :P By this point, I'm ready to stop and wait until more gets added before I pick up a paid month of it. I was running out of truly interesting options after 50 books, and also I'll be starting my busy season at work soon, so free time will be dropping fast in another month or so. But if anyone wants to discuss it or wants suggestions from my favorites of what I found, let me know!

[Cole]

Ya, what did you find!

[Malaraa]

James Alan Gardner 's League of Peoples series was definitely one of the standouts. 7 books, all fun, all sci-fi spacey goodness. :) The numbering system changed when they were recently made available as ebooks: they used to be listed as 1-5 with 2 stand-alone in there, but the newer 1-7 makes them easier to find and read along with all together.

Hungry Constellations is a collection of Mike Allan's SFF/H poetry, like any collection some appealed more than others, but there were some quite nice ones in there :)

I'd read one of Emily Gee's books before before in paperback, but found a couple newer ones on unlimited: The Laurentine Spy and The Sentinel Mage. You'd like Sentinel Mage better of the 2 I think, Cole - the mages can take on animal shapes, so right up your alley! :)

Sand Omnibus started a little slower than Wool did, but definitely lived up to my (higher) expectations once it got rolling. On the other hand, while I normally enjoy Tad Williams A Stark and Wormy Knight was uneven feeling, always a risk with short story collections, and I liked fewer of the stories than I expected.

[Malaraa]

Fluency suffered from some serious holes in the logic, and struggled (sometimes failing) to rise above cliches, but if you set your brain to "total fluff" mode it's fun, and I expect the author will improve, it has that feel to it.

There's also a lot of classics on unlimited: PKD, LeGuin, Butler, ect. Kate Elliot's Jaran series is available all together in one volume, and that's also very good.

Shadows of Asphodel and Storms of Lazarus were fun too, a little on the fluffier side, but I find it hard to resist a necromancer somehow. :)

Chasing the Star Garden and Chasing the Green Fairy were also not too bad, although personally I get overdone with too much steampunk quite quickly. But the better you like that style, the more fun those will be.

Echoes of Earth was an interesting sci-fi story, on the serious side, definitely worth a read.

Help Fund my Robot Army!!! & Other Improbable Crowdfunding Projects made me laugh - often. :) I recommend alternating reading the pitches/short stories in it with something else, because it's easy to get burnt out on the format, but it was very fun.

[Cole]

Thanks! I will look them all over.

[Malaraa]

So! It's been awhile! Who has anything new and exciting (or old & obscure) to share as a discovery? :)

Here's what I've found, partly from my library and partly from random kindle deals, that I hadn't heard of anywhere before:

Saga: A Novel of Medieval Iceland based on a real ancient saga. Very different flow and feeling, but I enjoyed it as much for what it was attempting as anything else. Good for stretching your mind in a different manner for awhile.

Radiant comes labeled sci-fi from a marketing standpoint, but I'd call it more a futuristic fantasy. It's got a clearly far-future world, but it's also got magic, and there's not a lot of high tech stuff that doesn't link right back to the magic energies. Looking forward to the rest of the series. :)

A Cast of Stones - fairly standard fantasy world, but enough different/special things about the characters and magic to make it feel refreshing. Totally NOT a mind-stretcher, but it's good, solidly written entertainment.

Also *waves book at Cole* totally got my signed copy of Stories of the Raksura, Volume 1: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud. :D :D :D The more I read in that series the better I like it all. Still waiting on the main part of that kickstarter to update, then there will be more new and exciting things!