A Canticle for Leibowitz.

We all know the 40k background sucks and tries too hard with its GRIM DORKNESS. This book is what 40k wishes it could be.

I finally started reading Horus Rising.

Funny how many of the titles listed by others are recently familiar for me, too- I just World War Z late last year, I'm struggling through the final book of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle now, I just bought Spook Country two weekends ago, and just got Game of Thrones on Audiobook from the library last weekend.

Like others on this thread, I'm a multi-reader, so also currently in progress:
The Complete Essays of Montaigne (read selected essays for a college course, but never the whole thing before)
Gehenna scenario book (I used to play the original Vampire, and just recently picked this up to see what their vision was for the end)
Use of Weapons by Iain Banks (just started it)

I'll have to find Guns of South. I was always sort of vaguely interested in trying it out, especially after finding the World War series enjoyable fluff.

Hey Boss, you read any Rushdie other than Midnight Children? It's the only one I've read, although my wife bought Moor's Last Sigh and Ground Beneath Her Feet.

I'm finishing up a Jonathan Sacks book right now, and hoping to move onto the Golden Compass et al as my fluff reading soon. Reread "The Prophets" by Heschel recently for a class I'm teaching. I've also just completed a year-long cycle of study using Sfat Emet's "The Language of Truth".

What I SHOULD be reading is "The Purpose-Driven Church", but I'm craving some real literature. Maybe I'll check out some Pinsker plays or something...

I usually stick to the classics, I'm working my way thru Vonnegut right now. Has anyone read the Dies the Fire books?

the DEATH LANDS series the new book desert kings. the series started in the late 80's and its about how the world ended on 2001 and its a 100 years later and people are trying rebuild but one problem there is no law and there is total war rape kills and noone cares there is about 80+ books in the series there pretty good.

Pratchett's "Pyramids". ok so far, not as good as CoM or Small Gods, but better than Light Fantastic or Equal Rites (which were, in my opinion, arse gravy).

I liked Pyramids better than Small Gods. Wyrd Systers and the incomparable Reaper Man are my favorites Pratchetts.

I'm re-reading the third Lyonesse book now- Madouc. Just fantastic stuff.

Hmmm, I have Reaper Man. Looks like I'll read that one next.

Rereading "Dies the Fire" by S. M. Stirling; great series, about what happens in the Pacific Northwest when all technologies and physical/chemical reactions above a certain power stop working in a flash. It makes you think about how much normal life depends on tech, even in the most basic aspects.

Strangely enough, I read this series before reading "Island in the Sea of Time" and its 2 sequels, even though it was written before. The two series are connected; both involve an event of undetermined nature around the island of Nantucket, and a character in the first series is mentioned in passing in "Dies the Fire".

Introduction to Political Science....

OH!! You mean, like leisure reading?!

Axis, by Robert Charles Wilson. If you plan on getting into it, read his novel, "Spin" first as "Axis" is an indirect sequel to it.

In "Spin", the stars disappear. After that, it's an amazing roller coaster ride!!!!

Grand Preceptor wrote:Hey Boss, you read any Rushdie other than Midnight Children? It's the only one I've read, although my wife bought Moor's Last Sigh and Ground Beneath Her Feet.

I read Satanic Verses first, the novel that got Rushdie fatwah'd. I may prefer it to Midnight's Children, though the sentiment in MC is a little easier to follow () and that book has a lot going for it too. If you're looking for more excellent modern Indian fiction, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things is also superb.

Just started rereading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, and remembered that I should find a copy of his The Road sometime.

- Salvage

i just started re-reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series just sube rb

Lord Lankington wrote:

i just started re-reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series just sube rb

Are you rereading the original prints or the retconned ones? I
was listening to the audio version the other day and I was surprised
to hear so much new stuff I never heard before, until I realized
that STephen King had probably retconned his material so that
Roland was remembering scenes that didn't exist until the later
books.

Either that, or Stephen King had a lot of foresight...

@malfred
the new ones its impossible to get the earlier books now days.

Anyone know the titles of books or short stories that 40k is supposedly based off from? I remember someone on the previous incarnation of Dakka saying something about the golden throne based off some short story.

syr8766 wrote:
What I SHOULD be reading is "The Purpose-Driven Church", but I'm craving some real literature.

Way over rated. It's short term fad technique not genuine change of thinking.
If you want a real read check out "The Shape of Things to Come" by Michael Frost and Alan Hersch

On Legion now, though in reality I've been walking outside during my lunchbreaks instead of reading

- Salvage

I'm currently reading Aliens: Earth Hive and the Death Note manga series

The GenCon Event list

3 Books:

Sea Warfare- a book from the 70's on well, sea warfare from pre-dreadnought through to the 70's.
Very OTT with the one sided historical view in that the Germans and Japanese are always doing nefarious and never heroic actions whilst the US and British are always heroic, but defeated by bad luck or the nefarious underhandedness of their opponents.

Dan Anett's "Legion"

And for those of you who've actually been keeping track, that's 5 Horus Heresy books in a row.

Yeah, I'm a fanboi.

I'm reading the Ambassador Chronicles that was part of my
Adepticon swag. It's okay, and makes me interested in
reading more Graham McNeill. Did he do Felix and Gotrek?
I hated those stories.

Just finished IKE. It's a biography about Eisenhower. Pretty good read. He was a great politician by not being a politician.
TM1-1520-237-10 : UH-60a Black Hawk Helicopters. Technical manual - for about the 1000th time.
Wolves of the Calla; The Dark Tower V. It's taking me almost as long to read Stephen King's Magnum Opus as it took him to write it.
Old Man's War: Pretty cool concept. I actually liked this one alot
The Quest by Wilbur Smith: good old adventuring in ancient Egypt.
The Reulators by Stephen King/Richard Bachman. Man, I hate it when kids get possessed by demons.

I finally broke down and read Horus Rising. It was my first exposure to Dan Abnett, and outside of Draco from "The Inquisition War", my first 40k novel. I've heard that the Inquisition series isn't the high water mark for GW fiction, so I gave the Horus Heresy a shot, and I'm glad I did.

Horus Rising was a great pulp page turner: the characters were solidly 2 dimensional, so they never got in the way of the plot. I had heard that Abnett novels tend to rattle along for 200 pages and then finish rapidly in the last 50, and Rising did not disapoint there. The action was fast paced, the attention to detail is much appreciated, and the ability to look into the 40k universe of the great crusade is fascinating.

My question would be: should I read the rest of the series? Are there books to skip? I've heard that HR might be the high point of the series, is that true?

Polonius, personally I have enjoyed all but one of the books in the series, with fulgrim being a better book than horus rising in my (seemingly sole) opinion. The only book not worth reading is Descent of Angels, the rest I would recommend (and read them in series order as well to get more out of them).

Agree with Legoburner +1.

Descent of Angels is obviously a book written completely aside from the Horus Heresy and GW, knowing it was a dog slapped the Horus Heresy logo on it and shoved it out the door.

Poorly written, minute linkings to anything outside the Dark Angels, pathetic... most people I know who bought it (including myself) never even bothered to finish it....

Well, thanks for the heads up. I"m in no hurry, I borrowed Horus Rising from a friend and I'm not sure If I want to actually pay for these books, but I'll see if I can find the second one in the series to check out at some point.

I just finished "How Nonviolence Protects the State" by Peter Gelderloos.

I just picked up "Ivan's War" by Catherine Merridale, and have been browsing through that. A good friend also sent me "Lost Victories" by Erich von Manstein which I need to read.

Plus I'm trying to revisit "Democracy Matters" by Cornel West, and also recently bought the prequel "Race Matters."

Oh, and there's the new Tolkien book, "Children of Húrin" that I'm also slowly trying to finish.

So yeah. There's a lot on my literary plate at the moment.

Just finished Fulgrim, Lego. I have to agree with the prevailing opinion. It was teh Suk. McNeil couldn't ever decide upon the point of view the story was told from. 1st person, 2nd and 3rd sometimes in the SAME paragraph. So 1 dimensional on all the characters. And really. Apparently smelling salts is all it takes to corrupt Fulgrim. At least Horus almost died before going over.

And I have to disagree SLIGHTLY with the assesment of "Descent of Angels." If you happen to be a fan of the Dark Angels, it's a good book to explain exactly what led up to their civil war. It's more a parallel story arc to the Horus Heresy, and tells their side story. Because, really. The Dark Angels didn't play much part in the Heresy except to be coming near Terra with the Wolves, pre-empting Horus to drop his shields, blah blah blah...

Then the meat of their side story of the Horus Heresy takes off. If you aren't a fan, then you can skip it. If you ARE a fan, it's a decent read.

Fulgrim sucked though. I'll give you the readers digest version, to save you the torture. Fulgrim invades the Laer, kills them all, enters their temple, wiffs the jiff of slaanesh, takes the sword, hears the voices in his head, talks to eldrad, fights some eldar, tries to sway Ferrus, sneak attacks the Iron Hands fleet, goes to Istvaan V, kills Ferrus while decimating the Raven Guard and Salamanders, then get's possessed by a daemon. The end.