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[Decrepit]

After a few false starts I settled on Angus Wells' Wrath of Ashar, book one of his The Kingdoms series. I've owned it a good many years but never read it beyond an aborted attempt early on. It's not a page turner for me but I've made past the halfway point. I'll likely finish it, but doubt I'll seek out the rest of the series.

[Decrepit]

At 2315 yesterday evening, 15 Jan 2019, I finished my initial read of Angus Well's Wrath of Ashar. Found it okay but nothing special. Liked it just enough that if I owned further series' volumes I might continue on, though without much enthusiasm. I don't own them, and don't enjoy Wrath enough to seek them out.

No idea what I'll tackle next.

[Decrepit]

For now I've settled on reading Jack Whyte's The Lance Thrower, part of his Camulod Chronicles series. As a piece of literature it's a breath of fresh air, better in my estimation than the last some books I've read. The series is Whyte's telling of the Authurian legend in a plausibly historic setting. It begins several generations before Arthur in the twilight days of Rome's occupation of Britain. Lance Thrower is a late entry, post Arthur.

I initially began reading it yesterday evening thinking it was the series volume I abandoned partway through years ago and never returned to. Then this morning I noticed a completion date of 11 Dec 2005 inside the cover. Discovering this, I thought to begin the series at book one. But no...I've not idea where the rest of Camulod is stored. Buried at the bottom of one of my book storage boxes I'm sure. If I don't get too far tonight I might take another stab at finding them tomorrow morning when the light indoors is better.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 19 2019, 06:00 PM

[Decrepit]

Almost forgot to mention that I indeed located earlier volumes of Camulod Chronicles and am now on page 240 of book one, Skystone.

[Decrepit]

At 1448 yesterday afternoon I completed my third read of Jack Whyte's The Skystone, book one of his Camulod series. I'm now some pages into book two, The Singing Sword. The series is a telling of the Arthurian saga placed in a plausible historic setting. Book one begins several generations price to Arthur, in a still solidly Roman controlled Britain. Cracks in the Empire are beginning to show, but as yet almost no one notices them, or takes them seriously if they do. The book's main characters are among those few, and implement plans to survive and thrive once the inevitable, as they see it, occurs. Book two begins with Britain still in Roman hands, though deterioration has begun in earnest. The books are well written. I like them quite a lot. They are my go-to fiction for Arthur in a historic setting.

[Decrepit]

At 1456 this evening, at the very end of supper, I finished my third read of Jack Whyte's The Singing Sword, book two of his Camulod Chronicles, a retelling of Arthur in a plausibly historical setting. These first two books take place in Romanized Britain, though at book two's end the excrement is about to hit the fan in earnest. As was its predecessor, book two is well written and entertaining. In some sense each volume from here on out will become harder to read, as no matter how the tale is spun, it never ends well for the good guys.

Be that as it may, I will begin book three, The Eagles' Brood, by day's end.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Feb 12 2019, 09:52 PM

[Decrepit]

At 0014 this morning I finished my third read of Jack Whyte's Eagles' Brood, book three of his Camulod series. As suspected, I found it tough going at times, not due to any deficiency, but because unpleasant things occur at varied intervals throughout. I'm pausing the main tale long enough to read Uther, which parallels events in Brood, but Whyte chooses to classify as a stand-alone novel.

[SubRosa]

I have been reading a lot of comics lately. I started with the Birds of Prey. I really loved the early series from 2000 - 2006 or so. It was Black Canary, Huntress, and Oracle/Babs. I really shone because of the complex relationships between the three. I especially liked the friendship between Canary and Babs. They had some real chemistry together.

As it went on and they started adding more people I felt it lost that specialness. When it got to the New 52 era it really threw me for a loop. The stories felt disjointed, the stuff they were doing with Canary had me scratching my head, and that great friendship wasn't there. The Rebirth era thankfully rekindled all that. That was really good.

I also read the Raven mini-serieses. The one from 2008 did not do much for me, in writing or artwork. The 2017 one was better. I really liked her raven feather helmet in that one. 2018's Daughter of Darkness was excellent! Good story, good characterizations, and her best outfit yet. I really like Raven. She is my favorite character from the Teen Titans tv show (the animated one from 2005). Even though she is not as awesome in the comics as she in the show, her personality and character really shine for me, in their darkly goth way. Raven and Barbara Gordon are definitely two of my favorite comic book characters (Babs is definitely #1).

Today I read a little indie series called Sword Daughter. It is about a girl and her viking father, and their quest for revenge against the 40 Swords, and Death Cult who slaughtered their entire village in Iceland. It was nicely done, though the way it goes back and forth through time got confusing at times. It finishes pretty open-ended, so there is room for more.

[Decrepit]

At 0227 this morning, during a near sleepless night, I finished Jack Whyte's Uther, part of his Camulod Chronicles. Took a lot longer than anticipated. Not because I didn't enjoy the book. I like it very much. Thing is, I started reading it about the time I began devoting almost all my time to Transport Fever, leaving little time to read. As for Uther, it covers the same period as its immediate predecessor, which centers on Meryln. The series is an easy recommendation for those interested in a take on Arthur placed in a historically proper setting. (At the very end of these two books we finally get our first fleeting glimpse of the future King.)

I'm now a few pages into the next book, The Saxon Shore.

[Decrepit]

At 2150 yesterday evening, 2 Apr 2019. I finished my third read of Jack Whyte's The Saxon Shore, part of his Camulod Chronicles. Another fine series entry.

I'm now reading its followup, The Fort at River's Bend.

[Winter Wolf]

I have just finished 'The Lion's Game' by Nelson Demille. It was a good adventure-terrorist yarn but the book ran at 627 pages on my e-reader, and that is just plain ridiculous, when all the antagonist did was run around America and cap 5-6 people in the head. I could have told that story in less than 250 pages. Other than that it was a good read.

Sub Rosa-
I have just started Polaris Rising. It is a fun science fiction space romp with a strong female lead and is really good so far. Sounds like your kind of book!

[Decrepit]

At 1359 by the bedroom clock this afternoon, 8 April 2019. I finished my second read of Jack Whyte's The Fort at River's Bend, book five of his Camulod Chronicles. (Or book four if you read Uther as a supplement rather than placing it between The Eagles' Brood and The Saxon Shore, as I do.) Fort occurs during Arthur's boyhood, ending as he is about to enter manhood.

I'll likely begin the next series entry, The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis, during supper.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Apr 8 2019, 08:45 PM

[Decrepit]

At 1842 this evening, lying abed, i finished my second read of Jack Whyte's The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis. This volume remains focused on Merylin and his friends/companions (and enemies) until almost the very end, where we witness the emergence of Arthur as a young man, newly come into his power. The book surprised me in that rereading it triggered very few remembrances of its first read, almost all those few occurring well beyond the halfway point.

I'm now some pages into the series' penultimate entry, The Lance Thrower.

[SubRosa]

I have still been reading comics. I started The Unstoppable Wasp last week. The main character of Nadia is delightful. But the early issues felt rather juvenile and bland. Though I do like the science they weave into them all. Toward the end of the first volume Janet Van Dyne appears, and things dramatically improve. They become a lot more mature.

The second volume that I am currently reading has been simply outstanding. They just tackled the issue of bipolar disorder in Nadia. It floored me how well it was done. Not just the symptoms she was displaying, but the way that the writer kept it all grounded in Nadia's humanity. We never forget that she is the hero, even when she is suffering from a mental illness that is usually only ascribed to villains. It was fantastically well done.

[Decrepit]

At 1340 this afternoon, Easter Sunday 21 Apr 2019, I concluded my second read of Jack Whyte's The Lance Thrower, penultimate book in his Camulod Chronicles. I recalled even less of this book than its immediate predecessor. In fact the only things I remembered about it were the gist of the Prologue and an extremely vague idea of what occurred during its last several pages.

I'm now a short way into the concluding book, The Eagle. This will be its first read, though I may or may not have aborted an earlier attempted read. (I do not chronicle aborted reading attempts.)

[SubRosa]

I am half way through World War Cthulhu. As the title suggests, it is an anthology of Mythos tales that all take place during wars.

The first story was the weakest so far. With the Earth being ravaged by aliens, and the survivors deciding to call up/release Cthulhu to save them from the aliens. Obviously that is not going to end well.

The other stories were stronger. They take place all through time. There is a neat one set during the American Revolution with the Turtle, a British frigate, and Dagon on the Connecticut coast. Another one set during the Revolution is a pretty standard ghost story about a privateer who was the only one to return from a raid upon a Deep One enclave. Except instead of ghosts, there are Deep Ones.

There are a couple set in Vietnam. In one a Montagnard village is wiped out by NVA. The surviving 'Yards decided to get revenge by calling up the Dark God that lived beneath their village. It then proceeded to do what Mythos creatures do best... The nearby Green Beret firebase was shaped in an Elder Sign (deliberately, as the c.o. was in the know about the Mythos), and was able to hold it off, for a while...

One is set in Africa, where a warlord bought some mythos beings from terrorists to use on his own people. It turned out to be Dark Young of Sub Niggurath. The protagonists are a couple of commandos sent to stop him.

One seems to be a sequel to Lovecraft's The Temple, about the crewmen of the vessel sank by the U-boat in Lovecraft's tale.

A couple are set in the Trojan War. The one I just finished has the Trojans as being Deep One hybrids who worship the Great Old Ones. King Priam was known as the Tamer of Shoggoths. Paris was whisked away from his losing battle with Menelaus by Shub-Niggurath. At the end the Greeks do not leave a Trojan Horse on the beach, but a Trojan Shoggoth. I really liked how the female characters drove that one, by manipulating events from behind the scenes.

One of them starts out with "Broadsword calling Danny Boy, come in please, over.", which immediately gave me an Aleistar Maclean fangirl squee. (for those who don't recognize it, the line is from Where Eagles Dare). That story was very loose retelling of Where Eagles Dare, except with Mi-Go.

So far the best is one set in the Cold War, about a Man In Black. Except in this case the MiB aren't allied with aliens, but instead with Mythos beings. The protagonist's partner is one of the worm-beings from Lovecraft's story The Festival. It draws heavily from The Mound, with the story taking place in K'n-yan. Or what is left of it. It seems the Russians sent a team in to cause some trouble, and they loosed the Formless Spawn of Tsathaguoaa from N'kai. There are a ton of references to other Lovecraft stories, and it is a good spy yarn in its own right.

So far so good. Some really good Cthulhu stories here, with a fun slant on history.

[Decrepit]

At 0446, 28 Apr 2019, I concluded my initial read of Jack Whyte's The Eagle, final book in his Camulod Chronicles series. Going in, my mind told me I had long ago made an aborted reading attempt. If so, this reading triggered absolutely no remembrances of it. Nada. Zilch. Be that as it may, the book is as enjoyable as its predecessors. I recommend Camulod Chronicles to anyone seeking a well written, interesting take on the Arthurian mythos placed in a plausible historic setting.

I finished the above while my back still bothered me greatly. It hurt too much to allow me to drop to the floor and rummage through my fantasy library storage books. My search was thus limited to those few books housed within my bed headboard and a few other reachable locations. Ultimately, with much hesitation, I settled on Dennis L. McKiernan's Dragon Doom. In my estimation, McKiernan is nowhere near the writer Whyte is. That said, I recall thinking more highly of Dragon Doom than other McKiernan novels read in the past. I liked it well enough to read twice, first during Sep 1990, again during Sep 1995. This third reading is a bit of a struggle. The book has its moments, but too often doesn't hold my interest strongly enough to keep concentration from wandering. I'm now at page 337 (of 451, discounting appendixes) and hope to plow through to completion.

[Decrepit]

At 2223 yesterday evening, 03 May 2019, I finished my third read of Dennis McKiernan's Dragon Doom. As mentioned above, it's not a novel I think highly of. In its favor, I find its concluding chapters more enjoyable that much of what leads to them.

Finishing it as late in the day as I did, I've not yet given serious thought to what I'll read next.

[SubRosa]

I finished World War Cthulhu. There were a few meh stories, but by and large they were good ones. My favorite in the second half of the anthology was Cold War, Yellow Fever. It was set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which it turns out was just a coverup for a Mythos event. A Cuban counter-revolutionary had somehow gotten ahold of numerous copies of The King In Yellow, and smuggled them, and himself, into a Cuban city. Soon after everyone in the city was dead. Worse, the city, and everything in it, started turning yellow. Things went downhill from there.

Today I started Dracula. The original by Bram Stoker. Though when it comes to novels, I guess you don't have to specify. I have not read it in decades. So it feels really fresh again.

This time I had Google open the entire time, and used it to look things up. That helped immensely. I found Borgo Pass (it is really Tihuța Pass in the Bargau Mountains, in the north of Transylvania, near the Czech border). Google Earth was awesome when it came to Whitby in England, where the Demeter makes landfall. The harbor piers, the ruined abbey, the church with its big graveyard, the Crescent hotel where Lucy and Mina are staying, are all there, just like Stoker describes them.

I got the free version of the ebook from Project Gutenberg. But now I am tempted to maybe buy an annotated version.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I finished World War Cthulhu. There were a few meh stories, but by and large they were good ones. My favorite in the second half of the anthology was Cold War, Yellow Fever. It was set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which it turns out was just a coverup for a Mythos event. A Cuban counter-revolutionary had somehow gotten ahold of numerous copies of The King In Yellow, and smuggled them, and himself, into a Cuban city. Soon after everyone in the city was dead. Worse, the city, and everything in it, started turning yellow. Things went downhill from there.

Today I started Dracula. The original by Bram Stoker. Though when it comes to novels, I guess you don't have to specify. I have not read it in decades. So it feels really fresh again.

This time I had Google open the entire time, and used it to look things up. That helped immensely. I found Borgo Pass (it is really Tihuța Pass in the Bargau Mountains, in the north of Transylvania, near the Czech border). Google Earth was awesome when it came to Whitby in England, where the Demeter makes landfall. The harbor piers, the ruined abbey, the church with its big graveyard, the Crescent hotel where Lucy and Mina are staying, are all there, just like Stoker describes them.

I got the free version of the ebook from Project Gutenberg. But now I am tempted to maybe buy an annotated version.

Khajiit really likes Dracula by Bram Stoker!