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The Book Thread

Started by One Horse Town, February 27, 2011, 08:15:45 PM

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jeff37923

#15
March 01, 2011, 01:22:44 PM
Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;443014I've just gotten the omnibus edition of Barry Hughhart's Master Li and Number Ten Ox novels. The three novels are "Bridge of Birds," "The Story of the Stone," and "Eight Skilled Gentlemen." I'm really happy that they collected the novels because the second one is very hard to find on its own.

The books are set in mythic China. Master Li is a great scholar who has fallen on hard times and Number Ten Ox is his good-natured, strong traveling companion. They get tangled up in mysteries which are related to the supernatural world of ancient China. It's not really wuxia (there's not a lot of combat gymnastics and crazy weapon-play), but the adventures are a lot of fun to read and full of ideas for a GM to riff off of. There is a sly sense of humor at play throughout the books. My one complaint with this edition is that it suffers from poor editing. There are some silly spelling errors which seem to indicate that the book was primarily spell-checked by computer software.
I enjoyed Bridge of Birds immensely, so I looked up this omnibus on Amazon after I read your post. Yow! The cheapest one is going for $50! Good, but a little too pricey there....

Quote from: hanszurcher;443072I read something somewhere, maybe one of the LaVey biographies, that he had never intended to include magick in the book. It was his publisher that insisted...it was what people expected and what sells books.

I've ordered his authorized biography, so I'll keep an eye out for that. Interesting...
"Meh."

Melan

#16
March 01, 2011, 04:37:25 PM Last Edit: March 01, 2011, 04:40:42 PM by Melan
Quote from: Elliot Wilen;442842Recently finished City of the Chasch, the first book of Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series. I'd describe it roughly as Vance's take on classic Burroughs, with the omnicompetent Earthman hero making his way on a barbaric planet, accompanied by his faithful native companions, the exotic princess, etc. Overall a good read, but it doesn't have quite as much humorous dialog and portrayal of absurd situations as I'd hoped, based on some of his other works.

I think this is really a series that hits its stride later, although it isn't (and doesn't try to be) the black comedy of Cugel's misadventures. The Dirdir is particularly good; just a book where Vance gets all of his notes right -- although, pretty often, he is interesting precisely because what he writes is so dysharmonic. Anyway, the second book is where the series turns from Burroughs homage to something decidedly un-Burroughsian, so carry on. :)
Now with a Zine!
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Aos

#17
March 01, 2011, 05:50:02 PM
For anyone that gives a damn, the 10th (of 11) book in Erikson's Mazlan series is available as of today.
You are posting in a troll thread.

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One Horse Town

#18
March 01, 2011, 08:16:28 PM
Quote from: Aos;443181For anyone that gives a damn, the 10th (of 11) book in Erikson's Mazlan series is available as of today.

Could never get into it. After 100 pages of chaotic mish-mash that made no sense, i put the first one away.

IceBlinkLuck

#19
March 01, 2011, 08:28:50 PM
Quote from: hanszurcher;443070My favorite book from childhood: The House With a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs.

*****
Orphaned Lewis Barnavelt comes to live with his Uncle Jonathan and quickly learns that both his uncle and his next-door neighbor are witches on a quest to discover the terrifying clock ticking within the walls of Jonathan's house.
*****

This book scared the pants of me when I was 8. I still give it a read every now and then.

I love John Bellairs. The first book I read by him was The Face in the Frost and I quickly moved on from there. I'm afraid that the two wizards from The Face in the Frost influence me heavily when I play magicians in a game.

Yeah the collected Master Li and Number Ten Ox can be pricey. I lucked into it at a used book store for $25. There's a really good one in my parents town so I check it out whenever I go over for a visit.
"No one move a muscle as the dead come home." --Shriekback

Spike

#20
March 02, 2011, 09:12:47 AM
I guess I should count myself lucky then that I had a copy of the Story of the Stone lying around the house when I was younger. I read that damn thing a dozen times...

Of course... that was (almost) two decades ago now... so its time for nostalgia to set in, and I no longer have it...

...


...


...


Damn you all.
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IMLegend

#21
March 02, 2011, 09:16:33 AM
Currently reading THE STRAIN by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Modern vampire stuff. It's a bit of a slow starter, but it's growing on me. I love most of del Toro's movies so I thought I'd give it a try.

Recently finished SIDE JOBS, the collected short stories from the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Urban fantasy is everywhere nowadays, but I put Butcher at the top of the pile. They delayed his next full length novel until July so I had to make do with the short story collection. Glad I did. It fills in lots of little bits in between books. Especially love HEOROT. I've always had a soft spot for Beowulf and Norse mythology, this takes an interesting angle involving both.
My name is Ryan Alderman. Real men shouldn\'t need to hide behind pseudonymns.

hanszurcher

#22
March 02, 2011, 09:37:49 AM
Currently reading Strange Histories by Darren Oldridge. I think this book would be of some interest to fantasy gamers/world builders. Unfortunately my reading has had to compete for time with my shiny new Roku digital video player and Netflix...so its been slow going.

*****
An accessible history of some of the more absurd sounding ideas and beliefs from the late Middle Ages to the 17th Century.

In 1438 a pig was hanged for murder in Burgundy. The French judge Henri Boguet described an apple possessed by demons in 1602. A few years later, Italian Jesuits tried to calculate the physical dimensions of hell.

Oldridge argues that the pre-modern mind was just as rational as that of the modern human, and that studying the convictions of the earlier age can also lead us to reconsider the reasonableness of our own beliefs.
*****
Amazon link

Very interesting.
Hans
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house. ~George Carlin

One Horse Town

#23
March 02, 2011, 01:34:59 PM
Quote from: hanszurcher;443281In 1438 a pig was hanged for murder in Burgundy. The French judge Henri Boguet described an apple possessed by demons in 1602. A few years later, Italian Jesuits tried to calculate the physical dimensions of hell.


In a similar vein, the film The Hour of the Pig might be of interest.

I'm on the last of the Chaotic Earth trilogy by Jonathan Wylie. I read these a good 15 years ago and dug them out recently.

Dreams of Stone, The Lightless Kingdom and The Age of Chaos.

These are what i like to call "Eddings" fantasy. Powder-puff light, nearly every character is good-humoured and banter takes up as much page space as actual plot. Nevetheless, they are a decent read, the maguffin pleasingly spans across all three books even if it also turns out to be a deux ex machina to set up the trilogy finale.

I think they also jumped on the "meekats are cute" bandwagon before there even was one. The heroine's familiar is a troupe of meerkats.

The third of the books suffers from bad pacing compared to the previous two, otherwise the series is a decent time-passer.

jeff37923

#24
March 02, 2011, 02:38:50 PM Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 02:41:18 PM by jeff37923
Quote from: hanszurcher;443281In 1438 a pig was hanged for murder in Burgundy. .

The Day They Hanged An Elephant in Tennessee.

A digression, but that statement just reminded me of this and it is too strange not to share.
"Meh."

danbuter

#25
March 02, 2011, 04:49:21 PM
Now reading Jack of Kinrowan by Charles de Lint. It's an urban fantasy set in Ottawa. It features stuff like the Wild Hunt, boggins, and other fae. I have read most of de Lint's books, and I have yet to be disappointed.
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hanszurcher

#26
March 03, 2011, 08:12:03 AM
Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;443211I love John Bellairs. The first book I read by him was The Face in the Frost and I quickly moved on from there. I'm afraid that the two wizards from The Face in the Frost influence me heavily when I play magicians in a game.
...

Many people speak very highly of The Face in the Frost. I picked up a nice hardcover copy over a year ago and I still have not read it. Making a note to get to it this month. Thanks for the reminder.
Hans
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house. ~George Carlin

Cole

#27
March 03, 2011, 09:02:20 AM
Quote from: hanszurcher;443538Many people speak very highly of The Face in the Frost. I picked up a nice hardcover copy over a year ago and I still have not read it. Making a note to get to it this month. Thanks for the reminder.

It's great; hope you enjoy it.
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Aos

#28
March 03, 2011, 11:38:04 AM
I haven't read any Bellairs; I'll put him on my list as well.
You are posting in a troll thread.

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The Butcher

#29
March 03, 2011, 06:43:38 PM
Not RPG-inspirational material, but I've just finished The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddartha Mukherjee.

As someone who works in cancer care, I'm obviously biased, but I felt it was a great, great book. My only and very minor complaint is that the author, a medical oncologist, has a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas when it comes to us surgeons. :mad:

Nonetheless, it was quite the page-turner and I finished it in a week.

Next on the reading queue, a veritable geekfest: Hawkmoon (Moorcock), The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe), Revelation Space (Reynolds), The Culture (Banks). What should I read next, o theRPGsite? I accept suggestions.
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