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What are you reading? |
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Decrepit |
Nov 19 2020, 09:24 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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At 2127 yesterday evening, 18 Nov 20202, I concluded a second read of Michael Moorcock's The Ice Schooner. First published 1966 in serial form in a sci-fi magazine, mine is a 1987 paperback edition revised by the author. This is not what I planned to read. However, The Tower of Fools proved to be too heavy/cumbersome for my right wrist, constantly painful since last Tuesday's battle with a difficult to open container of Red Pepper Flakes. Another sign of the aging process I suppose. As if I need more such signs. Anyway, early as it is in the cycle, Ice Schooner ties in with Moorcock's Eternal Champion mythos well enough. I wonder if that's due to the revision, not that it matters. My decrepit mind tells me I enjoyed it more this time round than the first, though with a 28 year-plus gap between reads I take that observation with a grain of salt.
I have tentatively begun more early Moorcock, his The Eternal Champion, another 1987 printing of a story that first appeared, in part, in a science-fiction magazine.
This post has been edited by Decrepit: Nov 19 2020, 09:24 PM
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Uleni Athram |
Nov 26 2020, 11:13 AM
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Master
Joined: 19-September 11
From: From: From: From
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Bought and downloaded the following books for funsies:
1. The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns by Bezalel Bar-Kochva
2. From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire by Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kuhrt
3. Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-148 BC, Vol. 1: The Seleucid Army by Nick Sekunda
4. In the Garden of the Gods: Models of Kingship from the Sumerians to the Seleucids by Eva Anagnostou-Laotides
I’m a Seleucidophile, in case you can’t tell. Is Seleucidophile even a word? I dunno, but I just love ‘em thanks to Total War and I figured I might as well get books about them /shrug
This post has been edited by Uleni Athram: Nov 26 2020, 11:14 AM
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I wanna slap people and tell them I love them
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TheCheshireKhajiit |
Nov 26 2020, 01:28 PM
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Ancient
Joined: 28-September 16
From: Sheogorath's shrine talking to myselves!
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QUOTE(Uleni Athram @ Nov 26 2020, 04:13 AM) Bought and downloaded the following books for funsies:
1. The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns by Bezalel Bar-Kochva
2. From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire by Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kuhrt
3. Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-148 BC, Vol. 1: The Seleucid Army by Nick Sekunda
4. In the Garden of the Gods: Models of Kingship from the Sumerians to the Seleucids by Eva Anagnostou-Laotides
I’m a Seleucidophile, in case you can’t tell. Is Seleucidophile even a word? I dunno, but I just love ‘em thanks to Total War and I figured I might as well get books about them /shrug
That’s a lot of history books! Khajiit approves! That last book sounds especially interesting to me.
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"Family is an odd thing, is it not? Defined by blood, separated by blood, joined by blood. In the end, it's all just blood." -Dhaunayne Aundae
May you walk on warm sands!
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Decrepit |
Nov 26 2020, 02:08 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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QUOTE(Uleni Athram @ Nov 26 2020, 04:13 AM) Bought and downloaded the following books for funsies:
1. The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns by Bezalel Bar-Kochva
2. From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire by Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kuhrt
3. Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-148 BC, Vol. 1: The Seleucid Army by Nick Sekunda
4. In the Garden of the Gods: Models of Kingship from the Sumerians to the Seleucids by Eva Anagnostou-Laotides
I’m a Seleucidophile, in case you can’t tell. Is Seleucidophile even a word? I dunno, but I just love ‘em thanks to Total War and I figured I might as well get books about them /shrug
I was an armchair history buff long before discovering fantasy. These titles sound quite interesting. As for me, I lost interest in continuing Moorcock's Eternal Champion novels, so am in the midst of a sixth read of Ann McCaffrey's Dragonflight. I plan/hope to reread the entire initial 'trilogy', of which I consider book three, The White Dragon, the gem. We'll see if that holds through this time round. As to continuing on beyond the initial three books, I own them all, I make no commitment.
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SubRosa |
Nov 26 2020, 10:57 PM
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Ancient
Joined: 14-March 10
From: Between The Worlds
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QUOTE(Uleni Athram @ Nov 26 2020, 05:13 AM) Bought and downloaded the following books for funsies:
1. The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns by Bezalel Bar-Kochva
2. From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire by Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kuhrt
3. Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies 168-148 BC, Vol. 1: The Seleucid Army by Nick Sekunda
4. In the Garden of the Gods: Models of Kingship from the Sumerians to the Seleucids by Eva Anagnostou-Laotides
I’m a Seleucidophile, in case you can’t tell. Is Seleucidophile even a word? I dunno, but I just love ‘em thanks to Total War and I figured I might as well get books about them /shrug
Tons of fun history there. I also recommend Dividing The Spoils The War For Alexanders Empire by Robin Waterfield. It details the rise of the Successor Kingdoms after Alexander's death, focusing on that 20-40 years immediately after her died. So the rise of Seleucus, and all the trials and reverses he faced while founding the Seleucid Empire were definitely in there.
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Uleni Athram |
Nov 29 2020, 07:22 AM
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Master
Joined: 19-September 11
From: From: From: From
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@Bosslord Khajiit: I agree! Out of all the books I got, that one had the most pull, title-wise. I was actually tempted to start out with that one first but I instead went with Bar-Kochva’s book.
@Bosslord Decrepit: They are! And I’m the opposite lol, I started out with Fantasy but was drawn to history much later. And I like where I ended up! History is so fun lmao
@Sagelady SubRosa: As ever with our Wise Woman’s wise advice! Thank you for the suggestion, I went ahead and copped it alongside Paul Kosmin’s “The Land of the Elephant Kings”. (Yet another title that has a massive appeal title-wise, second only to the Garden of the Gods.)
Heheheh, you guys, by the time I’m done with all these books, I’ll probably be the resident Seleucid expert.
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I wanna slap people and tell them I love them
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Decrepit |
Dec 14 2020, 12:57 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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QUOTE(Acadian @ Dec 12 2020, 09:56 AM) Decrepit, I read Dragonflight quite some time ago and found it enjoyable.
QUOTE(SubRosa @ Dec 12 2020, 06:09 PM) I remember reading the Anne McCaffrey's dragon books back in the 90s, and I liked them a lot then.
Yeah, the Pern books were extremely popular back in the day. It's a shame fantasy is too often a genre that has little respect for its past. Too few younger readers have little interest in reading anything beyond recent releases At least that's what I gather watching BookTube videos. Speaking of Pern, at 2020 last night, 13 Dec 2020, I finished a fifth read of McCaffrey's Dragonsong, first book of her Harper Hall trilogy. I enjoyed it very much.
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Uleni Athram |
Dec 27 2020, 10:08 AM
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Master
Joined: 19-September 11
From: From: From: From
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To take a break from the head-busting complexity of my Seleucid books, I copped myself a bunch of Warhammer Age of Sigmar e-books to... refresh my mind back into something easy to digest. For those who aren’t in the know, Warhammer Age of Sigmar (AoS) is miniature wargame where you control armies and battle it out using dice and rules. You probably heard about it’s more popular cousin, Warhammer 40K. Anyway, I got the following:
The Court of the Blind King, the Sea Taketh, and The Learning, all by David Guymer. They’re not a series, mind you, but they do focus on a race called the Idoneth Deepkin, a savage subset of ocean-dwelling Aelves (that’s how elves are spelled/called in-universe lmao) whose majority population go by without souls. They go on raids to steal the spirits of the setting’s other races, because if they don’t, the afflicted would quickly wither and die.
I finished the Learning and I have to say I’m liking the way Guymer writes. Compact and straight to the point, with just enough tactical ‘oomph’ in his prose and flow to keep it fresh. If that makes sense.
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I wanna slap people and tell them I love them
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Decrepit |
Jan 2 2021, 10:58 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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At 1532 this afternoon, 2 Jan 2021, I concluded a fourth read of Anne McCaffrey's All the Weyrs of Pern, bringing to an end the storyline begun with Dragonflight. I expected to finish it days ago, making it my 46th novel-length book completed during 2020. I failed to remember between readings that sections of Weyrs are too hi-tech sci-fi for my taste, thus slow-going. The 'good parts' were as engrossing as ever. As usual, I read the close through tears, inner (but not outer) romantic that I at. (I wouldn't mind being an outer romantic, but have never had the equipment for it.)
The Pern series contains many more entries. I own a few of them. I've not yet decide whether to continue on with what I have or more on to other things.
This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 3 2021, 02:27 AM
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Burnt Sierra |
Jan 3 2021, 04:37 AM
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Two Headed cat
Joined: 27-March 05
From: UK
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QUOTE(Decrepit @ Dec 31 2020, 06:56 PM) Forty-five ain't all that bad. In fact, it's a recent high. I suspect I'll never equal it again this lifetime, let alone surpass it.
After I saw this, I just did a quick adding up of mine from the year, and I didn't even get close 26, or a book every 2 weeks, though 2020 was such a weird year I'm quite surprised I got that high to be honest. At least I have my target for this year now!
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Decrepit |
Jan 14 2021, 04:11 PM
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Master
Joined: 9-September 15
From: Mid-South USA
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QUOTE(Burnt Sierra @ Jan 2 2021, 09:37 PM) QUOTE(Decrepit @ Dec 31 2020, 06:56 PM) Forty-five ain't all that bad. In fact, it's a recent high. I suspect I'll never equal it again this lifetime, let alone surpass it.
After I saw this, I just did a quick adding up of mine from the year, and I didn't even get close 26, or a book every 2 weeks, though 2020 was such a weird year I'm quite surprised I got that high to be honest. At least I have my target for this year now! Twenty-six ain't bad at all. There are years when I don't reach that number. At 2035 last night, 13 Jan 2021, I completed a fourth read of Paul O. Williams' The Breaking of Northwall, book one of his Pelbar Cycle. It's another of those sagas set long after 'our' civilization was utterly destroyed due to nuclear conflict. Remnants of survivors exist as hostile tribes (for lack of a better term). Book one's chief protagonist belongs to a peaceful, woman-run, tribe who remain safely isolated within their several well-built fortress-cities. Through his many adventures/misadventures, he manages to instill a fledgling union with several formerly adversarial tribes, capped at book's end by those tribes coming together to defeat a new, cruel, technologically advanced enemy bend on capturing Northwall, one of the Pelbar strongholds. The book is overall well done, with an especially strong closing battle. My originally intent was to not continue the series but instead move on to something in my initial-read TBR pile. I'm reevaluating that.
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