Zenopus wrote:Just started "The Night of Madness" which is the seventh book in Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar series. Each is a stand alone story, but the setting is the same. The first, "The Misenchanted Sword", is the most well known - I remember the Darell Sweet cover from Waldenbooks back in the 80s. Never read it until last summer, but it's very D&D inspired (apparently the setting was originally created for RPGing in the late 70s). The only monsters are dragons and demons. The most interesting theme is the magic system: there are wizards, warlocks, witches, sorcerers, demonologists, theurgists (sort-of clerics) and more, each with their different spells/powers. Most of the stories revolve around problems created by the different types of magic. These are quick, easy reads.

Lawrence Watt-Evans has recently started writing the 11th novel in the Ethshar series. Due to lack of interest by major publishers, the previous two novels were written as reader supported serials, and then published by a smaller press after being finished. The new novel is being written in the same manner:

http://www.ethshar.com/TheFinalCalling01.html

I also started a discussion thread for this over on DF:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewt ... 11&t=43668

(I've finished the seventh book in the series, and am now reading the 8th, Ithanalin's Restoration).

Fletcher Pratt and L Sprague de Camp 'Incomplete Enchanter ' series

Lloyd Alexander "Prydain' series

James Blish 'Cities in Flight'

Steven Brust 'Taltos' series

Donald Aamodt - While I thought "A Name to Conjure With" was only fair, I found the sequel "A Troubling Along the Border" way more enjoyable

Jo Clayton "Bait of Dreams"

Glen Cook "Garrett" series

John Dechancie "Castle" series

Gordon Dickson "Dragon and the George" but not the rest of the series

Dave Duncan "Seventh Sword" trilogy

Craig Shaw Gardner "Wuntvor" , "Ebenezum", and "Other Sinbad" series

Simon Green "Hawk and Fisher" series

Barbara Hambly "Darwath" series

Robert Don Hughes "Pelman" trilogy

Sterling Lanier "Hiero's Journey"

Patricia McKillip "Riddlemaster" trilogy

Martin Scott "Thraxas" series

Brad Strickland "Moondreams" trilogy

Lampoon "Bored of the Rings" and Zelazny "Damnation Alley" - read these in school and for some reason, to this day, the only books I enjoyed enough to read twice in the same day.

1. E.R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, Mistress of Mistresses, and A Fish Dinner in Memison

2. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Book of Lost Tales and The Hobbit

3. C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia and the Ransome Trilogy

4. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mars Series

5. Robert E. Howard, Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, etc.

6. Pratt & de Camp, Harold Shea series

7. Jack Vance, Dying Earth series

8. Poul Anderson, The High Crusade and The Broken Sword

9. George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire 1-3

10. H.P. Lovecraft, all but especially Dreamlands stories

11. Clark Ashton Smith, Zothique and Hyperborea

12. Weis & Hickman, Dragonlance Chronicles & Legends, Rose of the Prophet

13. Gary Gygax, Gord the Rogue 1-4

14. Raymond Feist, Riftwar Trilogy, Empire Trilogy, others up to #3 of Serpentwar

15. L. Frank Baum, Oz series

16. Jeff Grubb, Lord Toede and Finder's Stone Trilogy

SCIENCE FICTION --

1. Dan Simmons -- The Hyperion Cantos

2. Isaac Asimov -- The Foundation Trilogy

3. Neal Stephenson --  Cryptonomicon

4. Kurt Vonnegut -- Slaughterhouse Five

5.  Robert J. Sawyer -- Calculating God

Guilty
Pleasure: Lester del Rey -- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol I

I just finished reading Robert E. Howard's Almuric on my Nook Color.  It's a nice piece of escapist fun.

I am currently reading The Well at World's End on my Nook.  It is a bit long in parts, but it is keeping me interested.  Tolkien's footprints are all over the place.  He clearly read it.

I've spent more time reading over the last few months than I have the last couple of years.  Just a few of the really memorable reads:

Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Just After Sunset, a bunch of Stephen King short stories (IMO some of his best works are of the shorter variety).
Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson.  Too bad Jordan didnt have Brandon Sanderson around to help him write all of the books.  His pace is faster and he doesnt repeat himself like Jordan did.
The Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen
The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs (probably the 5th time I've read through this one)
World War Z by Max Brooks.

Books I slogged through just to get them finished:

Luke Skywalker & The Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover.  God this was a boring read by an author I normally like.
Under the Dome by Stephen King.  Actually didnt finish it.  Got through about a third of it and put it back on the shelf.  I'll try again another day.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  Man this guy's prose is screwy.  Maybe I shouldnt have watched the movie before trying to read the book.

Getting ready to start either Joe Abercrombie's First Law series, another of Gemmell's Drenai books, or Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks.

FormCritic wrote:
How is the Howard Omnibus running on your Kindle?  I have not purchased it because Nook Color reviews warn that it runs very slow.

So far it runs fine. It is a huge file. One screen at regular text size is 8 locations on a kindle, the entire omnibus is 40k locations (I have no idea how that breaks down into bits). If you are listening to the story with the text to speech device it takes about 1 hour for it to read 500locations aloud. So to have the entire omnibus read to you would take about 80 hours.

I've been reading through it one story after another so I don't know if it is slow to search to find stories from the table of contents, or if it slows down the further you get into the file. So far it has been worth every penny of the $1.99 and then some.

NOTE:BE CAREFUL because there are other ebooks calling themselves the Howard Omnibus. The one I bought was the Halcyon Press ltd. Revised edition (may 2010) Sold by amazon digital services/

Just checked the kindle store. For $1.99 it is 3441KB here is a list of what you get.

Conan Stories


Gods of the North
Queen of the Black Coast
Shadows in the Moonlight
A Witch Shall be Born
Shadows in Zamboula
The Devil in Iron
The People of the Black Circle
Red Nails
Jewels of Gwahlur
Beyond the Black River
The Hour of the Dragon
The Hyborian Age


Boxing Stories

Alleys of Peril
Blow the Chinks Down!
Breed of Battle
Champ of the Forecastle
Circus Fists
Cupid vs. Pollux
Dark Shanghai
Fist and Fang
General Ironfist
Night of Battle
Sailors' Grudge
Sluggers on the Beach
Texas Fists
The Bull Dog Breed
The Iron Man
The Pit of the Serpent
The Sign of the Snake
The Slugger's Game
The TNT Punch
Vikings of the Gloves
Waterfront Fists
Winner Take All
Alleys of Darkness
Apparition in the Prize Ring


Detective Stories

Graveyard Rats
Fangs of Gold
Names in the Black Book
Skull-Face
The Tomb's Secret
Aha! or The Mystery of the Queen's Necklace
Halt! Who Goes There?
Unhand Me, Villain!


Fantasy Adventure Stories

Almuric
The Treasures of Tartary
The Voice of El-Lil
The Valley of the Worm
The Garden of Fear
Witch from Hell's Kitchen


Kull Stories

The Shadow Kingdom
The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune


Bran Mak Morn Stories

The Lost Race


Cormac Fitzgeoffrey Stories

Hawks of Outremer
The Blood of Belshazzar


Wild Bill Clanton Stories

She Devil
The Purple Heart of Erlik


Historical Adventure Stories

Lord of Samarcand
Gates of Empire
The Lion of Tiberias
The Shadow of the Vulture
The Sowers of the Thunder
Red Blades of Black Cathay


Horror Stories

People of the Dark
Black Canaan
Moon of Zambebwei
Black Talons
Black Vulmea's Revenge
The Cairn on the Headland
The Fearsome Touch of Death
The Haunter of the Ring
The Hyena
The Fire of Asshurbanipal


Solomon Kane Stories

Solomon Kane
Skulls in the Stars
Rattle of Bones


Western Stories

A Gent from Bear Creek
Cupid from Bear Creek
Evil Deeds at Red Cougar
Guns of the Mountains
High Horse Rampage
No Cowherders Wanted
Pilgrims to the Pecos
Pistol Politics
Sharp's Gun Serenade
Texas John Alden
The Apache Mountain War
The Conquerin' Hero of the Humbolts
The Feud Buster
The Haunted Mountain
The Riot at Cougar Paw
The Road to Bear Creek
The Scalp Hunter
War on Bear Creek
The Vultures of Whapeton
While Smoke Rolled
Boot-Hill Payoff
"Golden Hope" Christmas
Mountain Man

I recently re-read Joe Ambercrombie's First Law trilogy to read his latest book (The Heroes), since a lot of the characters appear in each book. I'd highly recommend all of his stuff (the trilogy, Best Served Cold, and The Heroes).  It's not everyone's cup of tea, his "heroes" are flawed and often barely above the villains in likability, but his writing is a dream. By the last book his overwhelming plot comes together perfectly and you realize what he's done.   Some of the evil characters prosper at the end, and some of your favorite characters don't make it.  The ending is like a punch to the gut, but it makes sense, and Joe plays fair.  You do have to read them in order, they all take place in the same "universe" and have recurring characters.  I think it's the best fantasy series written in the last 30 years but I'm sure a lot of traditionalists would disagree.

The First Law Trilogy reads like LOTR stood on it's head, cynical and grim.  Best Served Cold is a spaghetti western set in fantasy times. The Heroes is a unflinchingly realistic look at fantasy warfare with very few fantastic elements at all.  A great writer who hopefully still has a lot of writing left to go.

Mike B.

I just finished The Further Chronicles of Conan by Robert Jordan. I have not ready any other Conan in recent years, so I can't accurately compare it to previous material. Having said that, it was an enjoyable hack-and-slash romp with the big man himself, various hotties, and a host of bad guys over a span of three stories.