At 1509 yesterday afternoon I finished my sixth reading of Thomas B. Costain's The Three Edwards, book three in his four part-History of the Plantagenets and have begun the fourth and concluding volume, The Last Plantagenets. These are histories written in an entertaining, novelesque format. As might be imagined by the number of times I've read the books, I quite like them.

Through Amazon I have two books on order, The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell and The World of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and others. I had intended to buy the Martin locally, but even with a Barnes & Noble discount coupon Amazon's price is dramatically less.

Relatedly, I am thinking to reread the Ice & Fire novels, hoping against hope that rumors of book six's publication prior to next season's HBO Game of Thrones premiere bear fruit. I'm not holding my breath but hey, miracles can happen.

This post has been edited by decrepit: Sep 9 2015, 08:53 PM

I've tried a couple of times to reread the Song of Ice and Fire books, but I can't get back into them. Books four and five are just so padded and meh that they completely killed my interest in the series. Personally, I'm of the opinion that he's written himself into a corner, and is going to cop out and let the tv series wrap things up.

I'm still working my way through Buffy the Bowgirl, finding it just as enchanting as the first time I read it. Currently about a third of the way through thread 3.

And I'm also reading my way through the Poetic Edda again.

Wow, busy reader! A warm welcome to you Decrepit. I'm so glad you've joined us.

For those who don't know, Decrepit is quite the Oblivion fixture over on the BethSoft forums. I have, for several years, thoroughly enjoyed monitoring the adventures of his old champion and young protege, Vilja.


Edit: CT, once again, my warmest appreciation for reading Buffy!

This post has been edited by Acadian: Sep 9 2015, 09:12 PM

Decrepit! A very warm welcome to you! It’s lovely to see you here.

I read the Ice and Fire books sparingly, because the characters are so vivid it can be hard to hear my own for the duration of the reading. Now would be a good time for a re-read, though, in hopes of book six.

I’m reading the Harry Potter books with my daughter. Not to her, she is a teenager, just at the same time. When I read a series that I love it brings me back a little to the person I was when I first read the books, and to the person I was when I last read them. It’s bittersweet to remember my daughter at a younger age when we last read these books together.

Yeah, that thought had crossed my mind too. But it's also possible that the two worlds (print and TV) simply diverge (quantum!) - in fact they already have to an increasing degree, so you should get the good old Butterfly Effect happening. Anyway, I'm more of a written word than TV person, so I've called a halt on the series after Season 3 until Winds of Winter comes out. (GRRM now won't even hint about when that'll happen on his blog, don't blame him after all the nagging...)

Regards reading, just finished Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. It may not be to everyone's taste - there are only two 'onscreen' deaths and one use of magic, it's more about politics and intrigue - but I couldn't put it down, it's that well-crafted. Anyway (and these are not spoilers, because you find them out very quickly), it may have some interest for Oblivion fans, seeing as how the book starts with the emperor and his three immediate heirs dead and the protagonist, Maia, suddenly finding himself emperor. (OK, not quite the same, they die in an airship crash - accident or assassination? - and Maia did actually know he was the emperor's son already.) Plus, the goblins in the title (Maia is half-goblin) are not TES goblins, but they do very closely resemble Dunmer, if not quite so dour. The mainstream elves are something like a cross between Altmer and Bosmer. And there are at least two other races, though they hardly feature. Oh, and the mages (who have a guild of sorts) all wear rather shabby blue robes.

Of course, all that is likely just a result of playing too much TES and projecting stuff on to the book; much of it's just standard fantasy fare. For a start, the 'lost heir' thing is very old, and Maia's more like Arthur than Martin Septim. But the book deliberately sets out to subvert that trope, anyway...

Think it's set up for a sequel, but I'm not at all sure that it needs it...

This post has been edited by tegeus-Cromis: Sep 11 2015, 01:06 PM

Just picked up my old copy of A.E. Van Vogt's "The Weapon Shops of Isher", which I think is the first Sci-Fi I read, way back when it came on stone tablets. I read a lot more in those days, because we didn't have TV yet.

I don't have TV now, so it's time to read it again.

Watching the Season one, Episode one of HBO Game of Thrones yesterday intensified my interest in rereading the Song of Ice and Fire books. As of today I have abandoned my reading of The Last Plantagenets and am on chapter two of Game of Thrones. I debate returning to Plantagenets, at least until I finish the entirety of HBO season one.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 12 2015, 01:32 AM

Ah, Van Vogt. Yeah, he's among the earliest I read too, especially the Null-A books, loved them. Haven't read any for years, don't know how it would come across now. I do remember that his writing had a special kind of craziness in that you could never quite guess where it was leading, some of it seemed to me more like dream sequence than conventional narrative.



The Last Plantagenets looks like my kind of thing - I just finished a bio of Henry VII, more interesting than his son in many ways, but a less salacious reign of course. With respect to GoT, I do want to get round to reading The Accursed Kings, which GRRM cites as an even stronger influence than the WotR on his books, especially since I know a lot less about that bit of history.

But I'm now on Ann Leckie's Ancillary Sword, been falling behind on the SF.

In an attempt to distract myself temporarily from modding, so I'd come back fresh, I picked up my copy of Harry Harrison's "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers". I don't remember what it was satirising at the time it was written, but it holds up well in any era.

In keeping with my Peloponnesian War theme, I am now reading The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, the first volume of Donald Kagan's four book series. I am about half way through, and have not even gotten to the actual war yet!

So far he has talked about the nature of Sparta's Peloponnesian League, and how the Spartans really dropped the ball from a leadership point of view after the Persian War. A ball which Athens gladly picked up and ran with all the way to creating their own empire of the Aegean.

He has painted a very detailed picture of Athenian politics of the 5th Century. How the city was dominated in turn by leaders such as Kimon, Ephialtes, and of course finally Pericles. Of how the Delian League morphed into the Athenian Empire. The First Peloponnesian War (which a lot of people don't think about) was a major factor in this, as it saw the Athenian expedition to Egypt be completely wiped out. At the same time Athens was fighting a major war against the Spartans and Thebes on mainland Greece. The disaster in Egypt led to the recall of Kimon (who was ostracized because he was a friend of the Spartans), which led to peace with Sparta, and eventually Kimon himself dying in a punitive expedition against the Persians on Cyprus, which also marked a final and last peace between Athens and Persia.

That final thing of course eliminated the whole reason of the Delian League existing. Afterward Athens had to redefine what the league meant to stay on top, and in the process became an empire. Kagan gives us a wonderful view into this period, where Pericles - now the virtually unchallenged ruler of Athens - strengthened Athen's rule over what were now her subject states by putting down rebellions, establishing Athenian cleruchies (settlements of Athenian citizens among the defeated rebel cities), enforcing democracies, but also lowering tributes to create incentives for them, and founding new colonies to both relive population pressure back in Athens, and to create strategic fortress cities like Amphipolis. The colonies also served to keep in good with his constituents, who were both aristocrats and commoners alike. Because they were a way Pericles could show that he was looking out for their interests. I love this look at the politics, and the way that a state can gradually go from being the defender of the many, to become their oppressor.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 22 2015, 05:07 PM

Nice to see a number of fellow history buffs amongst us. I read history almost exclusively during early adulthood, exceptions being books on various aspects of classical music and musicians. I was given a Lord of the Rings set by my parents during the mid seventies and greatly loved it, but it did not trigger a desire to pursue other novels of that ilk. Then in the mid eighties a fellow military barracks rat gave away part of his library in preparation for an upcoming change of station. The books I took included a volume from Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series. I then and there switched my primary allegiance to fantasy. For a number of years I read little else. Only comparatively recently have I returned to things historic and musical with any regularity.

As to current reading, I was decently into Game of Thrones when my Amazon book order arrived. I decided to read the first few pages of Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom then return to ASoIaF. Only, I didn't return and am now at roughly page 250 of Kingdom. It's a good novel, set in an historic period that gets little attention . . . the Danish conquest of England. I prefer Cornwell's Arthurian series but then I'm a sucker for most things Arthurian.

Also in the order was The World of Ice and Fire, an illustrated coffee-table size book that provides history for the events chronicled in A Song of Ice and Fire. Much of the artwork is very nice, and has the benefit of Martin's collaboration so that it looks reasonably like his conception more so than what is seen in the television series. I've of course looked at all the pictures but have not yet read the accompanying text.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 26 2015, 09:53 AM

You've hit on my favorite; I've always been fascinated with England's history (in any era); but King Arthur and the Knights of the round table was an indulgence that I never denied myself since my parents first brought me to see Lerner & Loewe's Camelot. My parents brought us to see every production of Shakespeare too, and from a very early age I remember seeing the plays - "A Midsummer Night’s Dream;" "The Taming of the Shrew;" etc. (and of course, "Romeo and Juliet"); etc. - which is probably what fueled my interest in the history of Great Britain in particular.





This post has been edited by mALX: Sep 26 2015, 05:11 AM

mALX, it's ironic that Shakespeare's plays should get you into English history, since many of these plays (especially the ones like MidSummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night and R&J) take place in Italy! But I think they can be reflective of English social norms of the time, which makes them all the more interesting. Some of those plays were pretty raunchy!

I'm currently reading White Jacket, by Herman Melville. Yes, the Melville of Moby Dick. I also have a couple of other books by him waiting to be read - Typee and Bartleby, the Scrivener. Don't know when I'll get around to them.

I love those old nautical novels - I've read Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, which remains one of the best nautical fiction I've read. I found it fascinating and quite the eye-opener.

It wasn't the location of the acts in his plays that mattered, they could have taken place anywhere.

It was the period in which they were written, and that came through clearly in his writing; and the fact that he was from the UK and from that era, his plays resounded with the feel of an English writer. I would say Shakespeare was well traveled throughout Europe anyway, as were many British men of that era; I think it was considered a valid part of their education back then.

At 1920 this evening I finished Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom. I don't yet know whether I'll return to The Last Plantagenets, resume A Game of Thrones, or begin something new (or old). I do not (yet?) own the follow-up novels in Cornwell's series, ruling that out as a possibility.

It was a good read, through I continue to prefer Cornwell's Arthurian trio The Warlord Chronicles.

A local library might have those follow-up books?

I'm rereading Dune for the umpteenth time (someday I'll get around to the sequels, I suppose).

I can't stop picturing it in a Hayao Miyazaki-esque anime style, especially the worm riding scenes; those big clouds of dust that Studio Ghibli does so well, the Fremen robes flapping, the sound of the wind and shifting sand pierced by the worm steersman's ululating "Haaaaiiii-yoh!"

I'm not crazy, right?

I had a deeper voice in mind

I'll have to dig through YouTube for that, lol.