I've been working through the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy for more context in between episodes VI and VII. Pretty good stuff and it was fun to read an interlude about Cobb Vanth acquiring a certain someones Mandalorian armor.

That was the Chuck Wendig trilogy right? I read that one a few years ago. It was good. But I had trouble getting used to his writing style.

Yes, yes, and YES. I had to put down the first book for a weeks because of his style. He toned it down a bit in the following two books, but that was the first time I ever had to put a book down due to writing style. So glad I stuck with it, though.

Aftermath was good, next up is Thrawn.

After watching / listening to the Guy Gavriel Kay lecture linked in my last post, I decided to reread his Sarantine Mosaic. A fourth read of book one, Sailing to Sarantium, was concluded 2111 last night, a few minutes after retiring to the sofa. Enjoyable as always, but for some reason I wasn't as emotionally affected by it as has been the case in prior readings. I think the issue might be that, up until the GGK lecture, I had planned to pick something 'lightweight' for my next read. Whatever one may say of Kay's writing, it is not lightweight.

I of course ought to continue on with book two, Lord of Emperors, and may well do so. That said, I still have a hankering for something lightweight and/or 'different'. We shall see.

Still binging on Michael Connelly- Finished "The Burning Room" and starting on "The Reversal". I probably need to go back to the beginning with the Kindle. I read the first... 8 or so Harry Bosch books in the "dead tree version" many years ago. Of course, getting even the early ones on the Kindle may be an expensive proposition.

Finished "House of Chains" by Steven Erikson. Again- a very intricate and complex book, but with moments of excellent emotional reward and humor. Started on "Midnight Tides," the fifth of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Am in the midst of a reading slump. After finishing GGK's Sailing to Sarantium, I couldn't maintain interest in the followup. DNF's several books in my initial-read TBR pile. I finally found success with Louise Cooper's Time Master Trilogy: Book I, The Initiate. Slow-going at first, past a certain point in it hooked me. I was engrossed with the tale from then until the end.

It has an obvious Moorcock vibe; a world controlled by the either Chaos or Order. The story opens with one of the two having been banished long ago. The banished use our protagonist in an attempt to regain dominance. Said protagonist wants no part of it, yet is forced to combat the land's 'protectors' when they assume he is himself 'evil'.

Finished The Initial at 2109 Wednesday, 4 Aug 2021. Not having read it since Feb 1993, I recalled absolutely nothing about it, making this latest read something of a quasi initial-read.

I'm now roughly 100 pages into Book II: The Outcast.

Finished "The Black Echo" by Michael Connelly and started "The Black Ice" as I begin getting back up to speed on the Harry Bosch series.

Also completed a re-read Eric Flint's alternate universe/space-time displacement "1632".

At 1400 this afternoon, 9 Aug 2021, I completed a third read of Louise Cooper's Time Master Trilogy: Book 2, The Outcast. As with book 1, I recalled nothing of it, thanks to a roughly 28 year gap between reads. I'm now a few pages into book 3, The Master.

In related news, I've ordered Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain off Amazon, after seeing it referred to as "the" great novel of the 20th Century more than once.

I read The Magic Mountain once, way back in the 70's. Be prepared for an enormous amount of lengthy philosophical discussions.

At 2133 yesterday evening, 12 Aug 2021, I concluded a third read of Louise Cooper's Time Master Trilogy: The Master. As with preceding volumes, particularly book one, I notice strong Moorcock influence. My biggest negative criticism of the series is that, all to often, the author moves the plot forward by chance-encounters between the books' main protagonists and their opposition, which occur at the worst possible moment for said protagonists. This sort of thing is okay in moderation, but here it becomes overly predictable. That said, my overall take is that the books are a good read.

Having finished it when I did, I've not yet decided on what to tackle next.



This is a concern for sure. Whatever else can be said for and against me, I've never been philosophically minded. However, I suspected Magic Mountain contained such tendencies prior to ordering it. Should I end up DNFing it due to that, I'll feel no great regret.

A 1648 this afternoon, during supper, I finished an initial read of Raymond Feist's King of Ashes, book one of his relatively recently begun The Firemane Saga. I am most impressed. It held my interesting from start to finish, with only a few instances where interest temporarily waned. I ordered book two. It doesn't arrive until next week. No idea what I'll read until then.

I started reading that series back in the mid 00’s. Last book I read in the series was The Burning Land earlier last decade. I like the series fine, but for whatever reason I just haven’t picked it up again. I am a BIG fan of Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord trilogy.

Forgot to mention that, in addition to Feist second Firemane Saga book, Jan Swafford's Mozart: The Reign of Love is on order. I own Swafford's Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, and consider it possibly the best Beethoven bio I've read, as well as thoroughly enjoyable as a work of literature. I doubt I'll enjoy his Mozart to quite the same degree, but then Beethoven is my musical god as well as, to me, one of history's most fascinating individuals, on par with the best fictional characters. That said, I expect to be thoroughly enlightened and entertained by Swafford's Mozart.



That's how I am with Saxon Tales too. Read the first, enjoyed it, but had no great burning desire to continue on immediately. I'll read one or a couple, take a break, resume the series, read a few more, break, and so on. Yeah, Warlord is a fine series, and my first exposure to Cornwell, excepting some TV adaptions. I've read Warlord twice now. Oddly (or not), my last two re-read attempts ended in DNFs.

At 1447 this afternoon, 2 Sep 2021, I completed an initial read of Raymond Feist's A Crown Imperiled, book two of The Chaoswar Saga. Another fine read, with a truly explosive ending. I'd call it a cliffhanger ending, except I'm not sure there's a cliff left to hang off of. Book three, Magician's End, finishes both the series and Feist's novelistic involvement with Midkemia. Midkemia and I go back a long way together, from almost the very beginnings of my fascination with the fantasy genre. I will be saddened to see it draw to a close.

I might have mentioned reading all prior Feist Midkemia novels. It dawns on me that this is not true. I have indeed read all those penned solely by Feist. I have not, however, read any of those in which Feist collaborated with another author. Of those, only his first collaboration, with Janny Wurts, has occasionally tempted me. (The Empire Trilogy.)

I suppose I'll begin Magician's End during supper, but in some ways dread it.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 2 2021, 09:34 PM

I have literally had "The Infernal City" delivered from Amazon this afternoon, so that's gonna be next on the list. I can't believe I've not picked it up before to be honest.

Thanks to what looks to be a decent sale, I took the plunge and ordered a Kindle Paperwhite 32gb off Amazon. Set me back roughly $120US including tax. Believe it or not, it'll be my first ever experience with Wi-Fi. My router is Wi-Fi capable. Its Wi-Fi light is never on, I assume because I've never attempted to connect any devices to it? I've already researched enough to find the router's Wi-Fi Network name and password, and have a general sense of where the Kindles WiFi connection controls are. It's all Greek to me for now. Hopefully the Kindle will come with easy to follow instruction. (Famous last words.)

As to current reading, I'm about three-fourths into Feist's Magician's End.

Let us know how it goes Decrepit - if you need a hand or anything...

At 1314 this afternoon, 9 Sep 2021, I concluded an initial read of Raymond Feist's The Chaoswar Saga: Magician's End. As fine an ending to Midkemia as I could hope for. My eyes misted from partway through the final chapter until the epilogue's conclusion, a sure indication that I hold a book in high regard. I'm tempted to return to the beginning and read the initial series yet again, but should probably move on and tackle more of my initial-read TBR stack. We shall see.

I have chosen to follow Magician's End with a hearing of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata in a rendition I greatly enjoy, Ronald Brautigam on fortepiano. Its third movement in particular matches the mood finishing the book puts me in.


That I will.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 9 2021, 07:38 PM

My Kindle arrived today. Much to my surprise, I was able to connect it to first my router's WiFi network, then my computer. I can both charge it via PC and transfer kindle book purchases between the two devices. (At least, I assume I can.) Were there teething issues? You bet. Most of them involved my pathetic attempts to enter needed setup info via the Kindle's touchscreen keyboard. I detest touchscreen keyboards. Especially pint-size touchscreen keyboards. I kept tapping the wrong 'key'. Or tapping the right 'key' twice. Or tapping 'keys' but nothing happened. It didn't help that I, of course, made my share of typos along the way. And I initially confused my Amazon password with my BestBuy password. I skipped the Kindle's bells-and-whistles. I'll enable those as and if and need them. The unit came partially charged. I'm now letting it charge to full.

I might not make a Kindle book purchase anytime soon, what with my initial-right TBR pile as large as its grown. I might, however, download/transfer some free books for it, to become comfortable with its controls. We shall see. I'll also investigate Bluetooth headsets with the thought of getting into audiobooks to some limited extent. Speaking of which, I've been listening to a decent YouTube audio reading of Feist's Magician: Apprentice while playing the PC game Solitile.

ADDENDUM: My Paperwhite now houses a book! Downloaded Bram Stoker's Dracula from Project Gutenberg, then transferred it to the Kindle. Gave its first two pages a test read. Text is quite readable. The edition I DL's is supposed to be illustrated. There are none at the opening, not even a cover. As all Project Gutenberg offerings are free, should no illustrations appear it's no big deal. I had to look up how to exit a book, and still haven't figured out how to totally shut down the Kindle, despite having read several articles on the subject.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Sep 10 2021, 11:39 PM