Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Wheggi wrote:At Borders this evening I was eyeballing Tales of the Dying Earth. Would this be the route you guys suggest as far as getting into Vance's writing?]

The first decision you need to make is whether to read his science fiction or his fantasy.

His best science fiction is in The Demon Princes, the opening pages of which are incredible, but I believe his fantasy works are the superior article. The exquisite humour of the Cugel volumes does not appeal to all relying on language for effect and assuming the reader finds the company of psychopaths amusing.

The Dying Earth, The Dragon Masters and The Miracle Workers will satisfy the most demanding of sober fantasists with Lyonesse more realistic and touched with the epic strain, perhaps a little earnest with its hero more than a mere protagonist.

I consider there to be *nothing better* than the two Cugel volumes in fantasy literature and think they are equalled only by Hodgson, Eddison, Tolkien, Wolfe (Shadow of the Torturer only) and recently CA Smith.

Wheggi wrote:At Borders this evening I was eyeballing Tales of the Dying Earth. Would this be the route you guys suggest as far as getting into Vance's writing?

- Wheggi

Definitely. Vance's Dying Earth cycle is great. I think Falconer is right in that reading individual books is easier because it doesn't seem like you have to plow through so much. On the other hand, the omnibus edition is, as far as I know, the only way these stories are in print now (at least in the U.S.). Used copies are probably on amazon and ebay, however.

I happen to be reading Cugel's Saga at the moment, after having read both The Dying Earth and Eyes of the Overworld. Eyes and Cugel's are the only volumes that go in chronological order. Rhialto the Marvellous is a great story and should be required reading for anyone interested in Vancian magic and how to describe interpersonal relationships between Magic-Users!

Besides that I'm also reading Hidden Moon by James Church. The second book in his Inspector O series (mystery novels set in NORTH Korea).

@Wheggi: Yes! Go get it now before someone lurking on this board does! I read no Vance until last fall, and it was that same omnibus edition. Have since read Lyonesse (slow to start but HOLY SHIT it got good)

Just finished Byzantium Endures by Michael Moorcock. Rough. But very good.
Finishing John McPhee's 'Encounters with the Archdruid' - absolutely no fantasy element at all, but McPhee is probably my favorite living author

Read Man of Gold by MAR Barker a little while ago. Kinda thought I'd hate it when I started but it was not a bad read.

Currently reading The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock (first volume in the Runestaff/Hawkmoon series) which I've had sitting unread on my shelf for literally 20 years (if not longer). Feeling a little foolish for not getting around to reading it earlier, because I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit more than I expected to, so much so that after I finish it (probably tomorrow, maybe even tonight) I'm strongly considering going straight on to read the rest of the series, which is something I rarely do (last time was with volumes 3 & 4 of Vance's "Planet of Adventure" series).

I read a lot of Moorcock when I was young and just didn't get it. Dancers at the End of Time and Cornelius Chronicles particularly. After having aged, I went back and read them and loved them. Same with a re-reading of Elric after a couple of decades - I got a lot more out of the stories as an adult.

Chainsaw wrote:I have the CAS edition Falconer recommended in the Hyperborea thread ...

Finally polished this off - great read. I love the creepy, weird and alien setting of Hyperborea (strange, yet occasionally familiar) and the grim humor, irony and juicy foreshadowing (you KNOW somebody's gonna get fucked). Not to mention, I really wanted to play D&D after reading them.

Some of the first books I read as a kid were Baum's 14 Oz books, which were themselves somewhat creepy at times (as any good fairy tale should be). I got a kick out the weird characters, strange towns and humor (sometimes whimsical, sometimes ironic, sometimes sad). For that reason, I think I had a bias to like the adventures in CAS's Hyperborea cycle and Vance's Eyes of the Overworld.

I'm sure I'm the only one on this board that hadn't read CAS's Hyerborea cycle stories yet, but just in case, I won't spoil anything with more details. I'll just say my favorites were The Tale of Satampra Zeiros, The Door to Saturn and The Seven Geases. Man, couldn't stop laughing with sadistic delight during The Seven Geases.

Really looking forward to Ghul's AS&SH product.

Edit: Paired this read with Baroness' Blue Record - the sludgey, proggy, sometimes creepy weirdness fit nicely, not unlike Mastodon's Blood Mountain fitting Eyes of the Overworld. Blood Mountain's faster, more frenetic pace matched the whimsicality well, IMHO..

Ragnorakk wrote:I read a lot of Moorcock when I was young and just didn't get it. Dancers at the End of Time and Cornelius Chronicles particularly. After having aged, I went back and read them and loved them. Same with a re-reading of Elric after a couple of decades - I got a lot more out of the stories as an adult.

There are several levels of reading in Moorcock. That's one thing I like about it. The writing is usually fairly straightforward, simple even, so anybody can read it, and yet, the actual composition is more complex than it first appears to be.

Me, I'm reading One Corpse Too Many, the Cadfael novel by Ellis Peters, right now.

Working my way through the Fantasy Masterworks collection of Leigh Brackett’s stories, entitled Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherwordly Stories. (I say “working” because I find omnibuses to be somewhat of a chore to read. It is much more satisfying to finish a slender volume and move on to another.) I really enjoy Brackett’s stories. I will say that they end up being rather repetitive, in that the protagonist invariably starts as a rogue and ends up a hero (and gets the girl). Basically, I keep reading because I enjoy the “ambience”—Brackett’s Mars is a really, really cool setting. (Her Venus I do not like nearly as much; it’s just weird.) So far my favorite story is the one that lends the collection its title: “Sea Kings of Mars.”

Swords In The Mist
For those that care, w/this cover:

and, as of its arrival yesterday DJ:Necropolis!
I've mostly just read the introduction on this, and something that gave me a warm fuzzy was reading the warning that this setting is not for beginning players. Ahhh .. the days when it was acknowledged that there were different levels of players and not just characters. I could be proven wrong, but I can't imagine any RPG company today would suggest such a thing.

As some of you may know, I have to travel a great deal for work. It usually involves long car rides. So I often do the book on CD thing. I listened to a couple of Clive Cussler books recently - Atlantis Found and Cyclops. I am not a huge fan of Cussler, and these did not help things.
I do enjoy the overall plot and the settings which often include facets of real history. But the villains are presented as some sort of supreme evil intelligence that often amass huge organizations and wealth. Then they make the most moronic decisions in combating the heroes.

bbarsh wrote:I do enjoy the overall plot and the settings which often include facets of real history. But the villains are presented as some sort of supreme evil intelligence that often amass huge organizations and wealth. Then they make the most moronic decisions in combating the heroes.

Cobraaaaaaaaa!

Dunsany's "Gods of Pegana".

I saw that the library here at the university I work at had a copy, in the reserves. i also saw that they'd send it over via campus mail. So I requested it.

When it showed up, I was surprised to find it was a first print from 1911. Yep. I'm reading a 99 year old book. It is a bit musty, so it has been sitting in the server room near a vent, basking in 58 degree 35% humidity air for a few days.

francisca wrote:Dunsany's "Gods of Pegana".

I saw that the library here at the university I work at had a copy, in the reserves. i also saw that they'd send it over via campus mail. So I requested it.

When it showed up, I was surprised to find it was a first print from 1911. Yep. I'm reading a 99 year old book. It is a bit musty, so it has been sitting in the server room near a vent, basking in 58 degree 35% humidity air for a few days.

That's more than a little awesome. Try not to spill Mountain Dew all over it

Halfway done Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt. Just finished reading two Vance short stories: The Moon Moth and Rumfuddle. Also reading the 5th Savage Sword of Conan trade paperback as re-issued by Dark Horse Comics.

At the moment, I'm reading:

• The Beyonders (Manly Wade Wellman)
• Give Me Liberty (Naomi Wolf)
• Dangerous Journeys: Mythus (Gygax & Newton)