What BOOK(s) are you reading?

I finished 1493 by Mann which I had thoroughly written off half-way through. Then he came on strong in the back half of the book, really shedding light on the nature of the slave trade in the new world and just how chaotic and uncontrollable it was. The part on China and the rubber industry was a snoozer, but the part on New World settlement was very interesting.

S.

repoman wrote: Not exactly reading but listening to the audio book of Swords Against Death, the second collection of stories featuring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Such classics as Jewel in the Forest aka Two Sought Adventure and The Bazaar of the Bizarre.

Good Lord do I love how that man wrote. The words he chooses ("sidewise"? How many authors could pull off using that word), the way he describes his fights, and the subtle irony and humor in his tales. Fantastic.

I haven't read these since I was an early teenager and have forgotten how good they are.

One notable scene is where after a fight Fafhrd and Mouser have killed a couple of nameless goons. As the adrenalin of the fight wears off Fafhrd breaks down and weeps for his dead victim while the Mouser is nauseated and sickened by what he had to do. It shocked me because in no other pulp adventures have I read such a reaction by the heroes.

These are indeed great, great stories from an inimitable author. Loved them when I read them in the past few years. The latter collections (Swords of Ice and Knight and Knave of Swords) veer into some pretty weird fucked up territory, especially the last one, not sure what he was thinking there. I'd avoid reading those.

ldsdbomber wrote: Reading the Requiem Vampire comics as touted by Michael, pretty damned awesome I have to say just coming to the end of the first part, whopping 91 pages!

In French there are 10 (so far) books of about 50 pages each.

The recent comics interest over here has inspired me. Last week I borrowed Jodorowski's Technopères (8 books) and Méta-barons (8) books from the library and read them all over the weekend. Some bits are great, others less so, but there's lots of imagination on display. For instance, this girl gets impregnated by a comet and gives birth to a human-comet hybrid?!? I think Méta-barons are translated in English.

Picked up BERLIN by our own Jason Lutes. Also re-reading some Clive Barker short stories. No libraries around here have the Books of Blood. WTF?

I am about half way through Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot. Good read that has very likeable protagonists.

I am also just starting Rabbit, Run. I have enjoyed Updike's short stories and wanted to read one of his novels. So far, so good.

repoman wrote: Not exactly reading but listening to the audio book of Swords Against Death, the second collection of stories featuring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Such classics as Jewel in the Forest aka Two Sought Adventure and The Bazaar of the Bizarre.

Good Lord do I love how that man wrote. The words he chooses ("sidewise"? How many authors could pull off using that word), the way he describes his fights, and the subtle irony and humor in his tales. Fantastic.

I haven't read these since I was an early teenager and have forgotten how good they are.

One notable scene is where after a fight Fafhrd and Mouser have killed a couple of nameless goons. As the adrenalin of the fight wears off Fafhrd breaks down and weeps for his dead victim while the Mouser is nauseated and sickened by what he had to do. It shocked me because in no other pulp adventures have I read such a reaction by the heroes.

FYI [to others interested], Baen has produced ebook versions and is selling them in a relatively inexpensive bundle of somewhere between 5-7 volumes (my kindle isn't handy and I've spaced the total #). Find 'em at baenebooks.com. Like Dair, I hadn't read 'em since I was 12--3 cheers for the AD&D "Deities & Demigods" hardcover supplement for turning me on to the characters and forcing me to hunt out the books at thrift stores and used bookstores--and they really do still stand up IMO.

I'm reading Stephen King's new Dark Tower book The Wind Through the Keyhole which is decent so far. It's very similar to Book 4: Wizard and Glass in that it's Roland telling a story of his younger self, and then in that story he tells a kid a fairytale.

Reminds me that I need to go back and catch up on the Dark Tower comics.

It's "Warhammer Week" for me. Just finished Dan Abnett's newest WH40k inqusitor novel, Pariah. He revisits both Eisenhorn and Ravenor and wraps in an Alpha Legion appearance to boot. It's book one in a new trilogy and, I suspect, will wrap up one or both of his famous Inquisition characters. It's pretty good, though, by the end of this first book, I get the feeling that Eisenhorn will be the triumphant one (though I also suspect things will end badly for him personally). Ravenor was always a stick-up-the-ass character and he's coming across as particularly unlikeable already. I kind of wonder if Abnett is now revisiting all his major characters to tie up loose ends thanks to the stroke that sidelined him a couple of years ago. I do hope he comes back to Gaunt in a more satisfying way than Salvation's Reach.

In addition, I ripped through Graham McNeill's "Angel Exterminatus," which is a Horus Heresy novel that goes a long way in developing Perturabo's (Iron Warriors Primarch) backstory while also telling the story of Fulgrim's path to apotheosis as Chaos demon prince and the final fall of his legion. I generally like McNeill's writing as he tends to focus on a single character or two and builds a pretty expansive, solid (for space opera) story around 'em. Although the driving force behind the plot, Fulgrim is kind of a sideshow; instead, Perturabo is finally presented as something other than a 2-dimensional truculent brat and general "Rogal Dorn-lite". Within the context of 40k-universe fluff, it's one of the best "portraits of the primarchs" thus far.

I also just received Chris Wraight's Horus Heresy novella "Brotherhood of the Storm." This is a pricey "autographed, hardbound, direct from Black Library-only" money-grab from GW/BL, but I'm a total sucker for 40k/Horus Heresy fluff. I'm hoping Wraight's take on the HH-era White Scars is more interesting than his WHFB "Iron Company". The character development in Iron Company was pretty good, but the pace was just glacial. I suspect I'll be done with this by this time tomorrow night.

Once that's done, I'm looking forward to digging into the Philip Kerr books Andy mentioned previously.

3 of us are currently reading Stephen King books! He must appeal to fatties

Dogmatix wrote: It's "Warhammer Week" for me. Just finished Dan Abnett's newest WH40k inqusitor novel, Pariah. He revisits both Eisenhorn and Ravenor and wraps in an Alpha Legion appearance to boot. It's book one in a new trilogy and, I suspect, will wrap up one or both of his famous Inquisition characters. It's pretty good, though, by the end of this first book, I get the feeling that Eisenhorn will be the triumphant one (though I also suspect things will end badly for him personally). Ravenor was always a stick-up-the-ass character and he's coming across as particularly unlikeable already. I kind of wonder if Abnett is now revisiting all his major characters to tie up loose ends thanks to the stroke that sidelined him a couple of years ago. I do hope he comes back to Gaunt in a more satisfying way than Salvation's Reach.

In addition, I ripped through Graham McNeill's "Angel Exterminatus," which is a Horus Heresy novel that goes a long way in developing Perturabo's (Iron Warriors Primarch) backstory while also telling the story of Fulgrim's path to apotheosis as Chaos demon prince and the final fall of his legion. I generally like McNeill's writing as he tends to focus on a single character or two and builds a pretty expansive, solid (for space opera) story around 'em. Although the driving force behind the plot, Fulgrim is kind of a sideshow; instead, Perturabo is finally presented as something other than a 2-dimensional truculent brat and general "Rogal Dorn-lite". Within the context of 40k-universe fluff, it's one of the best "portraits of the primarchs" thus far.

I also just received Chris Wraight's Horus Heresy novella "Brotherhood of the Storm." This is a pricey "autographed, hardbound, direct from Black Library-only" money-grab from GW/BL, but I'm a total sucker for 40k/Horus Heresy fluff. I'm hoping Wraight's take on the HH-era White Scars is more interesting than his WHFB "Iron Company". The character development in Iron Company was pretty good, but the pace was just glacial. I suspect I'll be done with this by this time tomorrow night.

Once that's done, I'm looking forward to digging into the Philip Kerr books Andy mentioned previously.

I always enjoyed GW fluff when I played GW games. Where would I start with the Horus heresy stuff?

Beginning? The first 3 books are all right though I feel they cheapen the mystery quite a bit. Not going to spoil it but I was disappointed with the explanation of Horus's betrayal. The fourth book is good. Fulgrim was abysmal I barely made it through but I guess if you want the whole picture you need to read it. It has few redeeming bits but overall it's the weakest of the ones I've read. I liked Descent of Angels but I'm a Dark Angels fanboy so YMMV. Legion is really good, probably the best one of the first six. I haven't read any others but Battle for the Abyss is supposed to be crap. Mechanicum gets good reviews and reveals quite a lot about Ad Mech so if you're a fluff junkie I think you won't be disappointed. Prospero Burns and A Thousand Sons are supposedly good and each tells the story of Space Wolves taking on Thousand Sons from their respective point of view. I try to read everything in order but now that I have to go through Battle of the Abyss I'm thinking of skipping it. I took me about half a year to go through Fulgrim and I'd rather not waste my time with another turd.

I on the other hand really liked Fulgrim but despised everything related to the Dark Angels. Everything relating to that legion moves at a snail's pace. (Plus, every bit of fluff I've read makes me believe the whole legion should have been sanctioned and purged. It's a case of "to each, his own" I suspect ) That said, one of the keys for me is that I really like the long back stories that focus on the Primarchs. Even the recent one covering Lorgar and the Word Bearers, which I figured would be a dog, was very readable.

As for Battle for the Abyss, it feels like a "filler episode" in an action anime series--one of things that bridges between bigger plots but doesn't really add much of anything.

The first 3 books are important to set the overall stage. Also, I *really* liked Anatheme and it's one of the books relating to the main Heresy storyline. As LB notes, Mechanicum and Legion (about the Alpha Legion and tells a *very* different story than the classic Heresy plot that's been in the 40k fluff since the very beginning. It's important because it opens up a lot of new/different avenues that are starting to get hinted at in both the HH and WH40k-proper fluff) are really quite good.

Beyond those, there are a dozen books that focus on smaller bits or individual legions/primarchs that you can kind of pick and choose from. A Thousand Sons is much better than Prospero Burns (this one was written, I believe, while Abnett was convelescing from his stroke and it kind of shows). If you're a Space Wolves fan, Prospero Burns is a must because it changes a lot of the language about the legion, though. As a general rule, books in this series written by Dan Abnett and MacNeill are worth reading; James Swallow is generally passable; and Ben Counter blows.

EDIT: And, no, Chris Wraight's Brotherhood of the Storm isn't much better than his Iron Company WHFB fluff. It's a bit overwrought and *way* too slow for a story subtitled "The Khan Rides to War."

Dogmatix wrote: Also, I *really* liked Anatheme and it's one of the books relating to the main Heresy storyline.

Which one is Anatheme?

I've read up to The Outcast Dead, which, while good (even if unarmed and unarmoured marines - even berserk World Eaters - shouldn't be any kind of a match to a fully armed Custodian), doesn't do anything to progress the story, so I classify it in the filler money grab. They're not telling a story anymore, rather the Heresy is now its own setting, just like Forgotten Realms or 40K. I'm also not falling for any of their hard cover books. I have the next 5 books waiting on the shelf.

In this optic, the following books are quite skippable: Battle for the Abyss (for the reasons mentioned by Dogmatix), Nemesis and the aforementioned The Outcast Dead. Mechanicum is half and half I'd say, it wasn't a necessary book by any means.

The Dark Angels books have received a rather lukewarm reception, but I enjoyed the aspect of the discovery of Lion'El Johnson by the Emperor and his reunion with the First Legion and would have wished to see that for every Primarch.

Legion was one of my favourites and quite an eye-opener as well.

As a big Space Wolves fan, I found Prospero Burns was kinda hard to get into, but I thought Dan Abnett did a great job with the wheels within wheels and to portray the legion into a bit of a different light than, say, Bill King.

Fulgrim was all right, if a bit heavy-handed I thought. Still tragic as hell, especially the moment when the Primarch (finally!) realizes what he's done, but by then it's way too late.

Wasn't too keen on some of the retconning in Outcast Dead, re: the timeline. Apparently it's all part of the plan, and the authors and publishers of the Heresy think they can blame everything on the vagaries of Chaos, which I find pretty cheap and easy.

So recommandations on where to start: The first three (or even 4-5) form a coherent whole, but you could also start right away with The First Heretic.

Sorry, when I said "Anatheme," I was thinking of Nemesis. Anatheme is the name of the weapon, not the book. I actually think it's a pretty good story all in all though, particularly since it gives a little bit of a window into Terra, Dorn, and the Sigilite.

You're *spot-on* about how Outcast Dead is now a "setting" book instead of a part of the overall plot. I didn't really think about it in those terms before, but it now seems obvious. I will say that the Custodes have, to use a MMORPG term, taken a bit of a nerfing in this series. They're now more like "Space Marine +1" instead of something...more.

If you liked the Lion's backstory, you should really go right into Angel Exterminatus whenever you can (it's really a follow-up to Fulgrim more than anything, so references to a few post-Dropsite Massacre battles about which you might not have read aren't all that important). McNeill does a nice job of weaving in Perturabo's backstory including the Oath of Moment exchange between Perturabo and the Emperor at the start of the Great Crusade. It's one of the more revealing 2 pages in the whole lot. I think this is actually one of McNeill's better books in his whole catalog, not just in his Black Library work.

And, I can really see how Prospero Burns would appeal over Bill King's stuff. I like the way King writes, but his Space Wolves are basically Conan charicatures. Abnett's take adds a lot more substance to the show. I just didn't care for the perspective through which the story was told (Abnett has stated that he has a hard time writing Space Marines in any interesting way, which is why most of his legion novels are usually told via a non-Astartes observer. It was hugely effective in Legion, but less so, for me anyway, in Prospero Burns.)

EDIT: Actually, there's a follow-up story that focuses on the Emperor's Children and a confrontation with Fulgrim about what he's become that would actually be a useful read before Angel Exterminatus as they make a number of references back to that story that, when taken together with Fulgrim and Angel Ex. show close to the complete story of the rise, fall, and "rebirth" of the Emperor's Children legion rather neatly. Wish I could remember which book that was....

Dogmatix wrote: Sorry, when I said "Anatheme," I was thinking of Nemesis. Anatheme is the name of the weapon, not the book. I actually think it's a pretty good story all in all though, particularly since it gives a little bit of a window into Terra, Dorn, and the Sigilite.

It WAS a good story, I just thought it didn't progress things that much. It did shed some light on the creation of the assassins' cults.

EDIT: Actually, there's a follow-up story that focuses on the Emperor's Children and a confrontation with Fulgrim about what he's become that would actually be a useful read before Angel Exterminatus as they make a number of references back to that story that, when taken together with Fulgrim and Angel Ex. show close to the complete story of the rise, fall, and "rebirth" of the Emperor's Children legion rather neatly. Wish I could remember which book that was....

Could be in The Primarchs?
Angel Exterminatus should be out in MMPB around January, so that gives me enough time to catch up between now and then.

I just finished Combat Crew: The Story of 25 Combat Missions Over Europe From the Daily Journal of a B-17 Gunner which was a great read. This was a Kindle $2.99 offer a month or two back so I jumped at it. I think it was originally published in the 80s and just came out electronically.

Just a great read on the workaday aspects of flying bombers. There's plenty of description of combat but what I found more interesting were the discussions on all of the other parts of the problem, machine parts freezing in the extreme temperatures of 25,000 feet, the modifications that individual crew members were making to the aircraft to make things work better, the protocols and failover procedures they went through to handle situations that weren't supposed to happen. Who knew that bombs don't dependably leave the airplane when you tell them to? Someone needs to climb into the racks at 60 below and 200mph winds with a screwdriver to pry them loose. You don't get that kind of stuff in the movies or the documentaries.

It also provided an interesting perspective on the see-saw nature of both sides of the war developing measures and countermeasures to handle the threats posed by the other side, this over the period of just eight months.

The guy writing the book was a gunner and the in-flight engineer and kept three hacksaw blades in his jacket "just in case." That's the entire tone of the book -- "just in case" happened aplenty, and I get the feeling I could find my way around a B-17 after reading this. If you like tinkering with things this is a great book to read.

S.


By the way -- I can loan this title to someone else's Kindle if you're interested in having a look.