Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Philotomy Jurament wrote:Most of the way through Thomas Woods's Nullification. It's a good book, but it turns out that I was already familiar with most of what he's presenting (which is similar to my experience with his earlier, Meltdown book), so it hasn't engaged me very thoroughly.

I think I'm going to go through my fiction stack and pick something up, from there.

Have you read any of his other books? He and I have corresponded about The Church and The Market, and I often recommend some of his other works to people when they ask for recommendations.

Other than Meltdown and Nullification, the only other books by Woods that I have read include The Church and the Market and The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. (I have We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now on my stack, but haven't read it, yet.)

Philotomy Jurament wrote:Other than Meltdown and Nullification, the only other books by Woods that I have read include The Church and the Market and The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. (I have We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now on my stack, but haven't read it, yet.)

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization is magnificent, too.

Currently reading Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley by Lord Dunsany, which I'm not enjoying quite as much as The Charwoman's Shadow, but that's an awfully high standard to be judged against. It's certainly not doing anything to shake Dunsany out of his position as one of my favorite authors (fantasy or otherwise).

Recent FLUBS find: 5 of the 7 remaining Black Company books in used-but-readable condition for a grand total of $13 (i.e. cheaper than even 1 of the big fat omnibus editions). Of course with as much unread stuff as I already have on the shelf I have no idea how soon I'll get to these, but I was happy to find them nonetheless

I decided to pick up The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, again. (In what is a frequent pattern with me, I had started it, before, and didn't finish it; I'm starting over.)

A local “Half Price Books” store had all of the Gord books in unread condition. I picked up SoOC and AoE to replace my battered copies. $2 each! They also had a lot of modules (all the D series, full color covers, I1, S1, a few others I don't remember) and unused UA and OA. (Nothing I needed, but cool.)

George MacDonald's Phantastes after comments by Geoffrey and Welleran.

Still reading Solomon Kane, but I took a break from it to read Gary Paulsen's Hatchet.

Philotomy Jurament wrote: Still reading Solomon Kane...

Which tales have you read so far? I read Skulls in the Stars, The Footfalls Within, The Moon of Skulls, The Hills of the Dead, Wings in the Night, Rattle of Bones, and Red Shadows last winter. I am thinking about picking up one of the compilations to read the remainder of the tales and fragments (Blades of the Brotherhood, The Right Hand of Doom, Death's Black Riders, The Castle of the Devil, The Children of Asshur, Hawk of Basti, as I understand it).

Matthew wrote:Which tales have you read so far?

I have the Del Rey collection. So far, I've read:

• Skulls in the Stars
• The Right Hand of Doom
• Red Shadows
• Rattle of Bones
• The Castle of the Devil
• Death's Black Riders
• The Moon of Skulls

It often takes me longer to get through a collection of short stories (or a collection of essays) than a novel or book. I guess it's because of the "bite sized" nature of the work. It seems to encourage picking it up and putting it down while reading other stuff, too (which I'm prone to do, anyway).

The remaining titles in the collection include

• The One Black Stain
• The Blue Flame of Vengeance
• The Hills of the Dead
• Hawk of Basti
• The Return of Sir Richard Grenville
• Wings in the Night
• The Footfalls Within
• The Children of Asshur
• Solomon Kane's Homecoming
• Solomon Kane's Homecoming (Variant)

I just finished Savage Tales of Solomon Kane a few weeks ago. It is well worth reading to the end (although, as with many of Howard's stories, he recycles themes and plots a lot).

Now reading El Borak and Other Desert Adventures by REH. Despite being famous for Conan, Kull and Solomon Kane, I think some of Howard's best stories are his more modern ones, like his detective stories and these El Borak tales.

I also just started The White Company as my "downstairs" book last night. So far so good.

Just started reading The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber.

And speaking of Solomon Kane, last week I picked this up. It contaisn all the back up stories of the Puritan as found in the pages of Savage Sword, Dracula Lives, Monsters Unleashed, et al.

kent wrote:George MacDonald's Phantastes after comments by Geoffrey and Welleran.

Keep in mind that George MacDonald was only a young man of 34 when Phantastes was published. His mature work (began when he was 66 years old and completed at age 71) is Lilith.

Finally reading Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers. So far it is quite entertaining. Ironically, I noticed it was written around the time I started playing D&D, in the city (San Bernardino, CA) where I did all my early D&D shopping.

Finished The Fierce Pawns and am working thru Khyber (both about the British in the Northwest Frontier in the 19th century). Just started Toyman (volume 3 in the "Dumarest of Terra" series) by E.C. Tubb.