Former Introduction Thread Showing 3,551-3,600 of 6,846

[Tanya]

Hi! I'm Tanya and an author (under several pen names) and a virtual tour coordinator for BTS Book Reviews eMag (www.btsemag.com). I enjoy connecting with authors and readers of all genres. I'm always looking for new hosts for virtual tours also. My books span multiple genres (PG-13 and not so PG-13). I'll be popping in from time to time to say hi.

[Andrea]

Hi everyone! My reading preferences are very broad, as I enjoy anything from literary fiction to mystery and historical fiction to popular science. I'm very new to sci-fi and fantasy as a reader. However, this year I've decided to explore the classic representatives of the genres and read some Piers Anthony, Roger Zelazny and Isaac Asimov for starters. I love George R.R. Martin for obvious reasons and thank him for sparking my interest in fantasy. In my ignorance I've always thought that high fantasy was all that was really available out there, and while I did enjoy some Tolkien works, I wasn't exactly "in love". I'm happy to be proved wrong.

I've been meaning to read Asimov's Robot (and Foundation) series for a while now, so I'm looking forward to discussing The Caves of Steel with you. i will also be borrowing The Black Company from the library to discuss the fantasy selection of this month.

[Enrique]

Hi i am Enrique,i am from Venezuela,south america

So i am new in the group,starting with the book of july, i decided to go with the black company, hope to talk about it with the group soon

[Derek]

Hi I'm Derek, from USA

Been using Goodreads for a while to get recommendations and catalog what i've read, and i thought i'd join a group. Um... already read Caves of Steel so i could read black company, but then i'm kind of busy with hyperion (and cross-comparing it with canterbury tales) and i'm very much dipping my toes here so maybe i'll just join discussions on caves later...

Oh, my reading preferences are frighteningly narrow to hard scifi and occasionally scifi fantasy for fun (I try to branch out occasionally and for a while had a steven king thing going). I love reading new guard stuff like peter watts, charles stross, greg egan, etc. I just yesterday finished Rx A Tale of Electronegativity and enjoyed it like juicy junkfood.

[Heidi]

Derek wrote: "i'm kind of busy with hyperion (and cross-comparing it with canterbury tales) and i'm very much dipping my toes here so maybe i'll just join discussions on caves later..."

I fell in love with Simmons while reading the Hyperion Cantos the way one falls in love with the composer of a beloved symphony. I will try out your reading list.

[Penny]

Hello and welcome all! :)

I'm thrilled to hear that so many new members are keen to get into the discussions about our monthly group reads. They are really good choices this month I think. And do remember to go vote for next months books too.

[Hillary]

Hi, all; I've been randomly posting a couple of weeks but realized I hadn't introduced myself. I'm Hillary; I read a lot, but fantasy is probably closest to my heart. Lately, I think the sci fi has been starting to edge out the fantasy a bit in my reading selections, but I'm looking forward to some interesting discussions in either genre!

[Joe]

Hi, I'm a fairly avid reader and sometime blogger. I love SciFi, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, theology, fiction, classics and a bunch of other stuff. Read on! I love Jane Austen and John Scalzi, Neil Gaiman and Dick Francis and yes, even some Stephanie Meyers. I'm looking forward to reading what other book lovers have to say about their favorites.

I'm a geek dad with 4 great children who married well above himself and who, by grace alone, loves the Lord Jesus. Loves geek gadgets all too much, yet desires mountains & no cell towers. Follows tech mavens, yet holds views most won’t share. Loves creativity and new expression given, yet is quite orthodox. A contrarian? “Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.” Lewis Carroll

My blog is joesgeekfest.wordpress.com

[Bruce]

I live in the Kansas City area, where I am a computer programmer at a public library. I'm married with one child and am in the process of adopting two more.

My favorite authors are Isaac Asimov and Orson Scott Card. I'm looking forward to joining in the discussions.

[Heidi]

Bruce wrote: "I live in the Kansas City area, where I am a computer programmer at a public library.

You have the perfect job and I am seriously jealous. Welcome to the group, I'm new here too.

[David]

I'm an author, and I blame Tolkien.

I'm the oldest of four brothers. When my youngest brother Donovan was busy in the hospital getting himself born, my father was tasked with holding down the fort at home. I was six at the time, and had just learned some riddles at school. I cajoled my dad into playing a riddle game. He ran out of riddles, went to his bookshelf, and took down The Hobbit. Gollum wouldn't have thought that fair, but I didn't mind. There were some clever riddles in that book. My dad started reading the riddles, then read the whole chapter. I made him start at the beginning of the book, and he read a little bit every night. For years.

I got my own copy of The Lord of the Rings for Christmas when I was eight, and devoured it in a matter of weeks. I started dreaming in that world, and then waking up at odd hours to write down new adventures of Middle Earth.

I've been writing ever since. When I finally got around to writing my first novel, a fantasy quest through Hell, it was heavily influenced not only by Dante's Inferno, but also by Tolkien's mines of Moria.

I don't exclusively read or write fantasy, but it's my first love, and I hope to still be reading The Lord of the Rings and its descendents for many years to come.

David

[Michelle]

Hi! I'm new to Goodreads.

I'm from Montreal, Canada. I love reading all kind of books but SF holds a special place in my hearth.

My top 3:

1 - The Foundation Trilogy
2 - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
3 - Shades of Grey (which has nothing to do with the awful 50 Shades that everyone seems to be reading right now...)

I am looking forward to the great books I will discover as part of this group!

[Baelor]

I am Baelor. I am a recent college graduate and studied Classics (Latin/Greek), but have also always enjoyed Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I currently reside near Seattle.

I would love some new recommendations, so please add me as a friend on GR!

I also enjoy Greek tragedy, philosophy and logic, and mythology (especially Greek). My favorite contemporary book along those lines is Zachary Mason's Lost Books of the Odyssey. It was life-altering.

In terms of Fantasy authors, I enjoy Tolkien and Martin the most, but I confess that I have not read as much fantasy as I would like. In terms of Science Fiction, I like Asimov, Simmons, and Le Guin a lot.

[Nathaniel]

Hello, I am Nick and new to Goodreads. I am a big SF fan, mainly military adventure but an open to any novels.

Looking to add friends to help find new books I should take a look at. Just started the Spinward series.

[Heidi]

Baelor wrote: "I am Baelor. I am a recent college graduate and studied Classics (Latin/Greek), but have also always enjoyed Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I currently reside near Seattle.

I would love some new recommendations..."

Have you read Michael Ayrton's 'Deadalus the Mazemaker' or "Tittivulus: Or, The Verbiage Collector" ?

You might be one of the few who would be able to get into Jonathan C. Wright's amazing Golden Age Trilogy. The first book, "The Golden Age" dropped me to my knees.

[Derek]

Baelor wrote: "I am Baelor. I am a recent college graduate and studied Classics (Latin/Greek), but have also always enjoyed Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I currently reside near Seattle.

I would love some new recommen..."


The Fractal Prince by hannu rajaniemi has a beauty to it similar to Simmons, and a wonderful play at reforging mythical storytelling through far future magic. Also its a universe so Human, a world literally built out of human minds, entire structures composed of millions of interacting gogal souls stolen and copied and remixed and engineered: A mix between Animism and Djinn, and just slavery. It's main character is a cut down god rediscovering his own history to regain power, through a combination of archaeology, tracking down alternate selves and old enemies, and good old fashioned thievery. centering on a city defended by ancient gods from a nanotech ocean of cacophonous programs; a place where stories can poses your body and steal away your soul for safe keeping.

whoops, wrote too much. sorry

[Tony]

Hello everyone. My name is Tony Sakalauskas and I'm from the east coast of Canada. I've written two sci-fi novels: 'No Nukes for Mars' and 'Planet Search'. They can be found on Amazon Kindle. Right now I'm working on my third sci-fi novel.

[Nicholas]

Hi, I'm Nick. I write book reviews for many genres but mostly science fiction and fantasy. I'm also a writer myself but I haven't had anything published yet. Glad I found this group. This is a pretty cool board.

[K.]

Hi, I'm Kate.

Long time SF fan. Pretty much all my childhood memories of TV involve Star Trek and Doctor Who (which scared the bejeesus out of me) and I used to read a lot of SF too.

These days I write SF & read fantasy, but I make sure I go see the cinematic blockbusters. Caught Despicable Me 2 & Man of Steel last week. Both were pretty good. DM2 had more laughs per minute though. ;)

[Heidi]

K. wrote: "Hi, I'm Kate.

"
Kate, you missed your cohort by about 2 weeks. So I'll add you to the exalted list of feline introductions.
To Cat, Kat, Katherine, and Puma we now welcome Kate! Could't bring myself to see Man of Steel but thought Iron Man3 was a blast.

[Jael]

Hi I'm... Uh... JL?
I think the first fantasy book I read was Spellfall by Katherine Roberts back when I was 8 or 9. After that I decided that I liked fantasy.

I read most of Terry Brooks' early works and remembered liking it quite a lot back then (I haven't read LotR yet at that point) until somewhere in the The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy when I realized I was heartily sick of seeing another Shannara book on the shelves.

Diana Wynne Jones was my favourite childhood fantasy author. Howl's Moving Castle, Hexwood and Fire and Hemlock were my favourites back then.

Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician Trilogy was great, Age of the Five Trilogy had a good ending. I didn't quite like The Magician's Apprentice because the characters felt too much like carbon copies of the ones in Black Magician Trilogy and by the time I got to The Traitor Spy Trilogy, I finally couldn't stand all the fluff she adds in her book anymore. She even admits on her website that her editors told her to add stuff to make the book thicker. My opinion? The editor could use some brains.

As of current, some of my favourite fantasy authors are Brent Weeks, Peter V. Brett etc.

I also like mythologies. So far, I've read Greek, Welsh, Norse and Egyptian mythologies and I love them. Don't think I enjoyed Rick Riordan's works, though.

As much as I'm ashamed to admit it, I actually kind of enjoy what people classify as YA fantasy these days such as The Raven Boys and some paranormal stuff like Uprising, Angelfall and Angel of Death: A Love Story. As long as the characters are sensible and the plot is believable, I'm sold. Also, it's getting kind of weird because a few years back, all these would have been lumped under Fantasy.

As a general rule, I give SF a good berth because a lot of the books that label themselves as such are so scientifically inaccurate that I want to gag. Otherwise, they start throwing metaphysics stuff around and bombard the readers with big words to get us confused enough to simply buy what they sell. Or, we get books like The Dragonriders of Pern that insists on labelling itself as SF but is really just fantasy.

By the way, I didn't quite like Man of Steel. Too much action and too little character and plot development, IMO.

Edit: Oh yeah... I liked the plot of Harry Potter, even if I didn't quite like his attitude (rudeness to lecturers directly in their face is something I cannot condone). Twilight was cringe-worthy and Hunger Games was overrated. I didn't quite like how Katniss made absolutely zero effort to pull herself together.

[A.L.]

Hi:)

I am a Brit who likes fantasy and some sci-fi.

I read a lot, although not as much as some here. I love Tolkein, Terry Pratchett, and quite a few Indie authors. Dragon Age, Warhammer, and Shadowrun.

I love Dune, Star Trek, and quite fond of Jules Verne.

As a writer my genre is dark adult fantasy/fantasy romance (and erotica).

[Caitlin]

Ola! I'm going to keep this short and sweet because that describes me perfectly. :)
My name is Caitlin, but a lot of people call me Cat. Currently writing novels, but can't help taking breaks to immerse myself in fantasy and sci-fi books. They have been my crutch since I was a teen. Reading has always been there for me through the good times and bad.
I am a 25 year old single mom with an almost tantrumy two year old. So that's loads of fun and keeps my hands very full. (diapers and assorted items)
I'm a goodreads author, but I'm a goodreads reader first. So If you have any book reccomends, please send 'em along!

Cat :)

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Hi all I've missed and welcome...Goodreads stopped sending me notifications, sorry.

[Bibi]

Hi,

My name is Bibi and I joined Goodreads and this group in particular to discover new books.
I am 23 years old, bulgarian but living in France.
I am reading fantasy since the age of 11 when I discovered the Lord of the Rings for the first time. After that I quickly started looking for other authors.
I have read, amongst others, David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Tolkien, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Wheel of Time (one of my personal favorites!), EarthSea by Ursula LeGuin, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, and many many others.
I love fantasy wolrds that are well built and original, with their own rules, and with magic of course. I also like books with strong female characters.

I read mostly fantasy, but I'm open to any recommandations (sci-fi, YA, others).

P.S. - Sorry if I make english mistakes, english is not my first language :)

Bibi

[Mpauli]

Bibi wrote: "Hi,

My name is Bibi and I joined Goodreads and this group in particular to discover new books.
I am 23 years old, bulgarian but living in France.

Hi Bibi and welcome! :)

I love fantasy wolrds that are well built and original, with their own rules, and with magic of course. I also like books with strong female characters.

Steven Erikson's Malazan books are really great. He has fantastic world building and a lot of great female characters.
I recently joined a group doing a Malazan read. There are very friendly people there. You might want to check the group out as well:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8...

Other books that come to my mind would be
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms or Cold Magic

[Bibi]

Thanks :)
Malazan book of the fallen is also one of my favorites, I haven't read all of the books though because I started them in bulgarian and I couldn't find the 4th book - I should re-read the first ones in english and finish the saga :)

[Rob]

Mpauli wrote: "I recently joined a group doing a Malazan read. There are very friendly people there. You might want to check the group out as well:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8..."

Shilling for group is usually my line. :P

[B.C.]

Hello everyone! My name is B. C. Minton and I am the author of Jagg: Origins part one, the first book of The Elementi Saga. It is a Fantasy & Sci-Fi novel that has been out since February of this year. For those who are interested, here is the link on Amazon, where it is also available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Jagg-Origins-El....

With that being said, if your interest is piqued and you decide to read it, I would be pleased to receive a review either on here, on Amazon, or both if at all possible. I also have a Facebook that I use for promotion purposes: www.facebook.com/jaggorigins. If you want to, you can click on "Like" to receive Jagg updates, excerpts, quotes, and news on future works or book signings.

As for more on me, I have a B.A. in English degree with the hope of getting a M.A in English degree someday. I am happily married for two years with a beautiful woman that I have been with for over 5 years. She supports and inspires me every step of the way in my writing endeavors. And that is all I can say about me! :)

[Michelle]

Hi I'm Michelle. I'm a writer and a reader. I write in several genres. This account is my erotica account, so don't click on my profile unless you want something steamy lol. I do write paranormal and fantasy, some steamy some not.

I fell in love with fantasy as a kid. Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Marion Zimmer Bradley (I wanted to be a Renunciate so bad). I crushed hard on urban fantasy thanks to Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde series. I lived in constant angst after I finished those books because no one else was writing UF at the time. When UF blossomed in the 90s I was OMG SO HAPPY!

What am I reading now? Well, I went on a shopping spree today and I have sooooo many books. I'm loading up in anticipation of a vacation reading spree.

I'm looking forward to:

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Welcome.

[Meryl]

Hello all. I've been reading SF and fantasy since before I knew it was SF and fantasy. My first SF book was The Runaway Robot, which, sadly, was NOT written by Lester Del Rey, but ghostwritten by someone else.

Patricia McKillip is my favorite living writer, and I'm very unhappy that I couldn't make it to Readercon this year, where she is guest of honor. Well, next time.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Welcome.

[Charles]

Hello everyone. I am a newbie to Goodreads, and love sci-fi and fantasy. For television and movies I love Star Trek, Firefly, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. My favorite books have to be Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I look forward to hearing from everyone.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Hi, welcome.

[Matthew]

my name is Shane, I am from Atlanta, born and raised. between caring for my wife and three children and working on the ambulance at Grady, I read mostly anything I can get my hands on, but my love is sci fi and fantasy.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Welcome.

[Steven]

Hi! I've been lurking around Goodreads for 6 months now and finally decided to jump in. I'm Steven Hardesty, un-retired to Florida and hard at work as a war novelist, so I need plenty of good sci-fi for change of pace. I can see that my being a codger on a thread where a lot of people aren't codgers means I can brag that I met (at a bar or at a convention) many of the great sci-fi writers back in their glory days. Maybe not H.G. Wells or Jules Verne (I don't go back quite that far). But Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Keith Laumer, Miriam Allen De Ford and more. I have their autographs to prove it! These are the writers I turn to when I want a good read. Much of today's sci-fi seems pale by comparison, at least to me. I've read just 16 of the 137 books the group has read, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Welcome Steven.

[Jessnuss]

Hi All! I am part of a book club that, in addition to individual book titles, also has themes.

Next month is "What's so crazy about that... or an exploration of psycho-emotional mental disorder." For the themes I usually go scifi.

Any recommendations? The Sparrow comes to mind, but I know there are a lot more out there!

[Hamza]

Hello everyone.... I'm new to goodreads and a fan of science fiction and fantasy(epic) though i don't mind a classic or a mystery thriller from time to time...
My favourite series is 'The Dark Tower' Series by Stephen King(My fav Writer btw)...And my favourite stand alone novel is 'The Stand'.

[Heidi]

Hello Jessnuss and Hamza!

Jess, take a look at the themes thread in this club - more categories than prompts but easy to create from there.

Hamza, what epics have you read?

[Hamza]

Well I have read the first book of ASOIaF and both books of the Kingkiller Chronicles(Amazing btw) and The Dark Tower Series which I considered to be epic and now want to start a new series... Any suggestions??

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Welcome.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Hi, welcome.

[Heidi]

Hamza wrote: "Well I have read the first book of ASOIaF and both books of the Kingkiller Chronicles(Amazing btw) and The Dark Tower Series which I considered to be epic and now want to start a new series... Any ..."

I am not usually a fantasy reader, but I do read epic fiction as a matter of course. Try this
Sergei Lukyaneko's World of Watches pentology. There is an architecture to the books that makes the shadow play of good and evil seem like a dance.

[Hamza]

Heidi:Thanks for the suggestion..

[David]

Hello, all:
As a new member, I’m happy to find a community of sci-fi & fantasy lovers who seem to be as passionate about and addicted to these books and authors as I am. I’ve been reading this stuff since I was (as my Georgia-born southern grandmother used to say) "knee-high to a grasshopper." I’m pretty sure I could be retired and living a life of indolent ease somewhere in the south of France with all the money I’ve invested in the books in my collection over the years, which now takes up enough room to get me a spot on “Hoarders.” But I wouldn’t trade the money for all the pleasure I’ve gotten from reading. And, after seeing the comments on this post from equally voracious readers, I feel right at home.

I’m a psychologist living in the San Francisco Bay area with my wife, daughter, and three animals that think they own the house. I’m a new author but an old reader. I enjoy mystery, adventure, psychological thrillers and historical fiction; and I’m a sucker for a good romance. But my first and most enduring love has always been sci-fi and fantasy. Like many here, I started out with writers like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Aldous Huxley, Poul Anderson and Ursula Le Guin. I eventually migrated over to fantasy, beginning with Tolkien and Andre Norton, then moving on to people like Frank Herbert, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Robert Jordan, George Martin, Mercedes Lackey, and many books in the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms series. R.A. Salvatore was a favorite author for quite some time, and Drizzt is possibly my favorite character in the genre, particularly as he appeared in the Icewind Dale and Dark Elf trilogies. Other recent interests have included Patrick Rothfus, Gail Z. Martin, Daniel Abraham, Jacqueline Carey, GJ Kelly, MR Mathias, Diana Gabaldon, David Wells, Juliet Marillier, and Daniel Arenson.

The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay and the IceWind Dale Trilogy by Salvatore are two of my most favorite series. I would, of course, have to include The Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire, but I do so with some muttering under my breath because I have truly grown old waiting to get some closure. The only author worse than them in this regard is Jean Auel, though she did finally finish the Clan saga after thirty years.

Since discovering this group, I’ve plunged into reading a lot of the comments that have been posted here over the past few years. I’m really enjoying the wide variety of perspectives, books and authors being discussed, especially some of the “oldies” that I had almost forgotten about. I particularly like the debates about the worst/most hated books, since I actually think some of them were quite good. But that, as they say, is what makes horse racing. I suspect this group is going to be a lot of fun. I look forward to getting to know you and sharing in the discussions. Please feel free to say hello.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Hi David, welcome.

I have to ask...what are the three animals? I keep picturing a goat, a cow and a horse wandering around your living room. Just wondered, dogs, cats, ferrets, grizzly bears...tribbles?

Welcome again.

[David]

Hi, Mike. Thanks for the welcome.

I got a laugh from your image of a goat, cow and horse wandering around the living room. Alas, the animals in question are not quite so remarkable. Just an aging,nearly blind maltese; a brawny pekingese we call "bat dog" because, well, that's what his face looks like when he's lying on his back and looking up; and a cat who id always eating, and insists on bringing us "gifts" of dead mice and the occasional bird. They are quite the trio

Funny you should mention tribbles. After my daughter saw the new Star Trek movie, she ordered a tribble, which brought back memories of the original "Trouble With Tribbles" episode from the TV show of decades ago. The furry little (battery-operated) thing is activated by sound and motion, so it "chatters" when you touch it or make certain noises, like clapping or even just setting something down on a table. It's become like another pet to us. (OK, I know it's not really alive, but...). It's also cheaper to feed, just a couple of AA batteries, and no vet bills.

Thanks again for the welcome.