What Are You Reading?

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Oh, now I'm excited! I think I remember the fantasy in a sci-fi setting, thanks for reminding me.
I'm really into reading older fantasy (that's not New Wave, hmph), but after the horror that was Tanith Lee's fantasy work I put it off. I've the idea that Cherryh's fantasy fiction is way better than her sci-fi, I got into Foreigner from her fantasy short stories.

What's exciting about CL Moore is that she had similar monsters as Lovecraft before that was a thing. Both published in Weird Tales so maybe it was a thing at their time.

Have you read Cherryh's Rimrunner books? They're rather excellent SF, I thought. I read the first of her Faded Sun trilogy, though, and really only just made it to the end - it drips angst and introspection, but does not balance it with much action. Re, older Fantasy: I know you've read some Jack Vance, but have you read his Lyonesse books? The first, especially, is rather wonderful. There's all the Conan tales, of course, but they can get a bit repetitive all at once. What about Clark Ashton Smith?

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Now reading Transfigurations, by Michael Bishop. (My first owned Victor Gollancz yellow jacket!)

[Major Rawne]

Knocked out the last of Soul Wars last night. On the whole there was a lot to like about it, especially as my first real foray into Age of Sigmar beyond a smattering of short stories. That being said I did feel that after an initially strong start it did seem to lose direction from which it never seemed to quite recover. I especially liked that the gods were real characters in a way there never really were in the old world.

Next up is Toxicity by Andy Remic. The start is as mad cap as I expect from one of Remic's books, so hopefully it continues in such a fashion. Once this is done I have Lords of Silence or Jain Zar glaring at me (amongst many others) to be read.


Edit: Scratch that, I lied. Soul Wars is my second foray into Age of Sigmar. How could I forget the wonderful Nagash: The Undying King also by Josh.

[Lord of the Night]

Knocked out the last of Soul Wars last night. On the whole there was a lot to like about it, especially as my first real foray into Age of Sigmar beyond a smattering of short stories. That being said I did feel that after an initially strong start it did seem to lose direction from which it never seemed to quite recover. I especially liked that the gods were real characters in a way there never really were in the old world.

What did you think of the twist regarding the Lord-Arcanum Balthas?

Spoiler: I was shocked that he was Gelt and equally surprised that I never saw that coming given that his name was Balthas Arum, he felt a connection with the Old World, wondered if he'd met Sigmar before and called his mount Quicksilver.

LotN

[Xisor]

Finished up "Call of Archaon" - a genuinely decent anthology. Some really lovely bits of prose in there too, from all the authors - I'd forgotten how powerful even little turns of phrase can be.

I'm edging my way towards Neferata: Mortarch of Blood as I have the fancy edition, but first: "The Magos" by Dan Abnett. I read the shorts earlier this year, all grand. But more than that - started the novel recently, but only now cleared time to dedicate to it.

Bloody hell. The kick-off to it is so good. Drusher as an imagination-run-wild old coot of an anxious hermit is just wonderful. Even if the rest of the novel doesn't keep that focus, the little asides are so enjoyable.

Sheer joy, so far, even if also conjuring up all sorts of other feelings of excitement and wistfulness and grief.

So nice to be back in an on-going Inquisitor story. (Very soon I'll get to John French's Incarnation too!)

And Abnett too. Even since Pariah, it feels like his writing has levelled up again.

Still early in the novel, but such. FUN.

[Rob P]

Recently finished Mort. It's ok, but I never enjoy Terry Pratchett at much as I feel I ought to.

I'm currently reading a Louis Theroux book.

[Shaggy]

Just finished "The Lords Of Silence" by Chris Wraight... absolutely excellent, thoroughly recommend it. It shines a very interesting light on the psychology of the Death Guard after 10,000 years (in realtime, anyway) of The Long War. Very impressed - Chris Wraight is getting better with every book, I think.

Now just started to re-read "Fabius Bile : Primogenitor" by Josh Reynolds, ready for diving into the sequel. A book that I never expected to like all that much because I never really thought much of the title character - I was wrong. It's a very interesting examination of the character... and Reynolds' foreword is definitely food for thought as to his motivations. Again - recommended.

[Duke_Leto]

So I decided to go back and give Resurrection another go. First time around I gave up during the first third of the book. For some reason it just didn't click with me. Cannot put my finger on why but I just didn't like it. I read it back-to-back with Chris Wraight's Carrion Throne which was awesome so perhaps that was why?

Anyhow, having seen the positive reviews of Incarnation I was determined I give John French's inquisition series another go (as on paper that was a delicious combo). So glad I did...

The first 100 pages or so of Resurrection were still hard going but after that, once you get to the scenes in the Navigators Enclave...wow what a book. The last two thirds of the book were fantastic. I loved it. Still don't know why. Certainly not that the plot seemed to pick up (and I don't mean action scenes as they actually aren't my thing) but the story and writing style just seemed to flow better.

Great book and now I have started Incarnation... Brilliant so far, loving it!

[Squiggle]

Just finished "The Lords Of Silence" by Chris Wraight... absolutely excellent, thoroughly recommend it. It shines a very interesting light on the psychology of the Death Guard after 10,000 years (in realtime, anyway) of The Long War. Very impressed - Chris Wraight is getting better with every book, I think.

Now just started to re-read "Fabius Bile : Primogenitor" by Josh Reynolds, ready for diving into the sequel. A book that I never expected to like all that much because I never really thought much of the title character - I was wrong. It's a very interesting examination of the character... and Reynolds' foreword is definitely food for thought as to his motivations. Again - recommended.

Yeah I thought Lords of Silence did a great job at capturing the character of the Death Guard.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer. Thirty plus pages in, and I can feel a slow smile spreading across my face.

[Therion]

WARHAMMER IS FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT FOR ME

[Rob P]

Interesting, Therion. One thing I recall liking about Helsreach, was that it bucked the trend of the Space Marine Battles series by not being bolter porn. Personally I like ADB's style of writing battle scenes, they tend to be personal and character driven than sweeping, tactical and technical. Going off your other reads, I take it that is what you felt was missing?

I'm currently reading Why People Believe in Spirits, God and Magic by Jack Hunter. I'm loving this sort of stuff at the moment. It's an experiential anthropological look at the paranormal.

I've also grabbed a trove of 40k books to burn an amazon card I received last Christmas. I grabbed the Andy Chamber's Dark Eldar trilogy, Annandale's Mephiston novella, Hinks' first Mephiston Novel and Straken. All had good reviews on amazon and all of interest. I've also got Gav Thorpe's Asurman to read - i've put it off for a long time as he's the generic phoenix lord (or so I've imagined) but the start of an old review/interview on the Forge the Narrative podcast made it sound awesome.

So not sure what to read next.

[Therion]

WARHAMMER IS FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT FOR ME

[Major Rawne]

I've also grabbed a trove of 40k books to burn an amazon card I received last Christmas. I grabbed the Andy Chamber's Dark Eldar trilogy, Annandale's Mephiston novella, Hinks' first Mephiston Novel and Straken. All had good reviews on amazon and all of interest. I've also got Gav Thorpe's Asurman to read - i've put it off for a long time as he's the generic phoenix lord (or so I've imagined) but the start of an old review/interview on the Forge the Narrative podcast made it sound awesome.

So not sure what to read next.

I myself would heartily recommend Asurman or the Dark Eldar trilogy.

For myself i'm still on Toxicity. It's pretty much my lunch time read so not getting through it quickly. That being said it's really good, there's one character who puts me right in mind of Zaphod Beeblebrox.

I did manage to carve out a good chunk of yesterday to get caught up on a couple of comics and a few short stories. First up was finishing the last couple of stories from BL's summer of reading, The Learning and Prologue to Nikea. The former I found to be somewhat middle of the road, I struggled somewhat from lack of knowledge on AoS and particularly the Idoneth Deepkin. The latter though I thought was a great look at the role psykers could have within the Imperium and also the role that faith in the Emperor has, all wrapped up as a neat stepping stone for later events.

The final short I read was Choke Point by Mike Brooks. Really good Imperial Guard kicking Ork butt story. The most interesting thing about this was that the main character isn't described at all, so it's left entirely up to me as to how I imagine them.

Comics wise I raced through the latest volume of The Wicked + Divine, cracking once again. Then I raced through a volume of Fables which was also brilliant stuff.

[Therion]

WARHAMMER IS FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT FOR ME

[Major Rawne]

Knocked out the last of the really quite brilliant Toxicity last night. It was the usual mad cap romp of crazy from Andy Remic.

Next up is Lords of Silence because everyone else is reading it and I feel left out .

[Rob P]

Enjoying Annandale's Mephiston novella.

No fancy prose. Simple but good plot and interesting delve into the lore and the character of Mephiston. It's an easy read aka my level

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Another well-regarded author who has mainly passed me by: Roger Zelazny's The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth.

[Rob P]

Currently reading Straken. It's written for quite a young audience (or it feels like it is). But i'm not not enjoying.

[Major Rawne]

Currently reading Straken. It's written for quite a young audience (or it feels like it is). But i'm not not enjoying.

How does does it seem for a younger audience? I ask out of curiosity as it's one book that's so far slipped the net for me, and in part because I always thought that BL's books were always written with that YA audience in mind so to speak.

I'm currently making reasonable progress with The Lords of Silence. Unless i'm mistaken it's written in present tense which is a little jarring, but i'm enjoying it so far even if I don't have a great clue of where the story is going. It probably didn't help that the book starts 10 minutes into the film and i've missed the big action opening.