Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Flinty wrote:
I went back to Dragons of Autumn Twilight. So much deus ex machina! And the female characters seem to swing wildly between properly competent, and swooning damsels in distress. It’s a bit jarring.

They were written by two people: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

If you read their separate works they are quite different.

It doesn't help that its as game they were running transcribed as they went. Some of the characters entered late, some took a while to settle on personalities and at one point they got a TPK from a random Dragon in a well and had to rewrite it with a much younger dragon to keep them alive, where they just agreed it didnt happen in game, while keping the buildup the same.

I dont mind people being inspired by their games (The deed of paksenarrion is great!), or writing them up well, once at a distance (the all guardsmen party is good) but it does need a certain touch to get right.

Dragonlance is a potentially interesting setting, but the books are not the authors best.

I just finished Iron Gold, the 4th book of the Red Rising series. I think my most succinct thought of the first trilogy is that it's a competently executed space opera. I thought the ending was 'safe.' Not terrible by any means, but I wasn't served any surprises. Good, not great.

Iron Gold, however, almost reads like a completely different author. The change to multi-POV, a favourite of mine ever since I read Game of Thrones many years ago, was a great idea and really hooked me into the new characters. Darrow's perspective was the least interesting to read. From the opening chapters I thought Lyria was going to be my favourite story to follow, but Lysander really stole the show IMO. I was happy to see Romulus again, as he was probably my favourite part of Morning Star, and he managed to be even more interesting here.

I've already got Dark Age loaded up on my kindle. Excited to see where this goes now.

Finished Nowhere: A Novel by Allison Gunn.

A fun, pretty dark and grim Appalachian horror tale. I definitely get the “It’s like The Outsider and Mare of Easttown had a baby” comparison that one reviewer made.

8/10

Catching up on a backlog of the Megazine

Been quite a pleasant evening in my comfy chair in the library, reading comics at a leisurely pace.

Particularly taken with Rok, a football themed bit of 2000ad goodness.

Apparently I've been wrong for years and the Praetorian Guard and the Imperial Bodyguard (Germani Corporis Custodes) were two radically different organizations, even though they both had purple shields.

I'm learning way more than I thought I would reading Stephen Dando-Collins's Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion.

I'm only 144 pages in and it is possibly the easiest to comprehend book I've read on the subject.

Finally had a chance to read the sixth book of Brink by Dan Abnett and I.N.J. Culbard, which was a good read, makes me want to re-read the entire series again to connect everything together properly.

Also read Replay, a graphic novel by the man behind Prince of Persia, where he shows the lives of three generations of his family.

as is my usual, I'm co-reading 2 books.

First one is "The French Foreign Legion; A complete history of the legendary fighting force" by Douglas Porch

Second one is John Keegan's "The first World War"

Not very far into the FFL one, and it's already pretty entertaining with some of the anecdotes chosen to put in the book to illustrate the earliest years of the legion (for instance, a story about a small group who were in the depot town, awaiting their turn to go to the training grounds. Got drunk and tired of waiting, were eventually arrested when some angry official wanted them charged with desertion. Which would've stuck had someone not pointed out: none of these blokes have signed anything, they aren't /actually/ in the military yet)

Just finished Project Hail Mary. I enjoyed it. Back on the level of The Martian. I was disappointed with Artemis. Weak middle book. Not that they are connected.

I'm about to make an ass of myself, I'm sure, since I'm betting you only mean novels...




I'm rereading all of the Ultraverse comics as I've started a figure customization project and am looking for easier to make figures.

Just finished Going Postal by Terry Prachett. An absolutely fantastic read, with probably the best horse character ever written despite only featuring for about 3 pages.

Makes you want to work in the exciting, danger fraught world of the post office.

I am reading a paperback book called The First Horseman and it is written in 1997 or so.

The first 50 pages lay-out almost exactly what happened with COVID in 2020. Eerie.

Finished A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James.

It follows three siblings who are summoned home by their youngest brother, who vanished without a trace 18 years ago. Each of the 3 siblings are haunted in their own way, and they return to their creepy hometown and even creepier house in this paranormal mystery novel. Reminded me a lot of The Haunting of Hill House miniseries on Netflix, but unique enough to make me read to the finish line.

I saw the author's previous novel is set in the same town, The Sun Down Motel so despite both being standalone tales, it might have some links that'll be fun to read.

Cicero: De finibus bonorum et malorum

 Snrub wrote:
Just finished Going Postal by Terry Prachett. An absolutely fantastic read, with probably the best horse character ever written despite only featuring for about 3 pages.

Makes you want to work in the exciting, danger fraught world of the post office.

How comfortable are you wearing shorts in all weathers?

It is a fantastic book, I really like the Moist books.

Oh I'm all for shorts. I fear no dogs or other such impediments! And it has to be a pretty cold winters day before I'm forced to cover my legs.



Just finished Making Money. Not quite as strong as Going Postal, but a damn fine read. Quite enjoyed Cosmo Lavish's rapid decent into Vetinari based madness and the Inquiry scene.
I'll have to see if the local library has Raising Steam before I move on to reading anything else.

Well, I hope you’ve got your Potato.

Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 8 comes out in.......39 minutes!

I finished Night watch by Terry Pratchett. It was alright. I think I just need a break from Discworld for a bit.

Starting in on This Is How You Lose the Time War now. It's definitely different.

2000ad is now available in the USA.

It hadn't been before? What could they get?
No wonder the Dredd movies didn't do as well as they could've.

Marvel or DC ran some years ago. But not The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic itself.

As it happens, there’s a new Mega Epic Dredd tale kicking off in Prog 2483. And a QR code to a free digital story of the precursor tale.

It’s also in The Megazine Issue 492.

So now is a great time to start picking it up wherever you get your usual comics from!

 Hulksmash wrote:
Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 8 comes out in.......39 minutes!

I've been listening to the Audiobook, as I love Jeff Hayes' narration.

I'll never listen to Take on Me in the same way again!

Just started on Joe Abercrombie's latest - The Devils. Think it's kind of a fantasy-medieval Suicide Squad. Excellent - but expect nothing less from Joe Abercrombie.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
2000ad is now available in the USA.

It's been available in the US for about 20 years. My comic shop has a large backstock.

grahamdbailey wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 8 comes out in.......39 minutes!

I've been listening to the Audiobook, as I love Jeff Hayes' narration.

I'll never listen to Take on Me in the same way again!

I do both, and read the digital versions first because I can devour it faster that way, but then listen to the amazing audio after because it really does take it to a whole new level! I had the book fully consumed the day after it came out, and am now indulging in the audiobook at a much more leisurely pace.

Halfway through Dragons of Winter Night. Lets just say that my nostagila for the ZX Spectrum game Heroes of the Lance is escaping faster than flatulence. It's still a page turner but I honestly don't remember much of it from my first read of the Chronicles many years ago.

My dvd copy of The Hunt For Red October keeps pausing at certain moments and so I thought I'd pick up a copy of the book. For some reason I found the whole cold war thing annoying years ago, but I really liked Firefox down and this feels like a good follow up after finishing that a few weeks ago. I shall report back once I get going with it...

Started Intercepts: A Horror Novel by T. J. Payne

Premise: a horror novel about a government facility that uses extreme sensory deprivation to unlock psychic abilities in human subjects, who become "interceptors" that can "see" through others' eyes.

Starts off pretty gruesome. This novel rated highly on a few lists that I found, so I'm looking forward to getting into it further.

Dungeon Crawler Carl. If Booktok is the female romantasy.... DCC is BROmantasy. Love interests are only mild inconveniences of his attempts to survive the dungeon, and destroy the universe. If a 90s 'Surge' commercial had a novelization, this is it. It is punchy, fast, clever, and becomes more complicated as the series advances. Very highly recommend.