What are you reading?

[Ghul]

Finally got around to reading Book 2 of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series: The Killing Machine. I absolutely loved book 1, which I do find in flavor to be very similar to the Planet of Adventure series.

As an aside, before Gary contracted shingles, which was a precursor to his unfortunate passing in March 2008, one day I asked him what he was reading, and he told me he was re-reading the Demon Princes series, that it was his favorite Vance work, and that this was his third time reading them.

[TRP]

Just started re-reading Downbelow Station. I read it when it was new and want to see if it still holds up 30 years later. Then Merchanter's Luck is in the queue.

[T. Foster]

I haven't read any Hornblower, but have heard good things about them since college friends recommended them.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Beat to Quarters (the first-written of the Hornblower books; 6th chronologically) and it's really good -- very fast-moving and the naval terminology isn't at all overbearing. Its influence on Star Trek (especially Wrath of Khan) is very evident.

[T. Foster]

Finally got around to reading Book 2 of Jack Vance's Demon Princes series: The Killing Machine. I absolutely loved book 1, which I do find in flavor to be very similar to the Planet of Adventure series.

As an aside, before Gary contracted shingles, which was a precursor to his unfortunate passing in March 2008, one day I asked him what he was reading, and he told me he was re-reading the Demon Princes series, that it was his favorite Vance work, and that this was his third time reading them.

The Demon Princes series starts strong and (at least IMO) keeps getting stronger and stronger, right up to the very end. It's probably my favorite SF series that I've read.

[Flambeaux]

I was a big CS Forester (Hornblower's author) fan some years back. Really enjoyed them. Couldn't get into Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin novels, though.

I've heard the original tales by Marryat that both authors based their fictional characters on are quite impressive in their own right, although I've not read them myself.

Currently reading Peter Hitchens' The Abolition of Britain, a collection of Thomas Howard's essays titled The Night is Far Spent, and (to the boys at bedtime) Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

For the younger two boys (3 and 5) this is their first trip through the Wardrobe. For our oldest boy, it's his 3rd or 4th (with one of those trips being under his own power -- the weekend he realized he could read he picked up LWW & Prince Caspian and tore through both of them).

I'll be alternating between each of the Narnia books and the tales of Beatrix Potter with the boys for the next few months. And, if he's been well-behaved during the day, I'll read him some King Arthur.

[foxroe]

I haven't read any Hornblower, but have heard good things about them since college friends recommended them.

I absolutely LOVE the Hornblower series. The O'Brien series is OK, but the language is very thick (not stupid, just very colloquial). If you can tolerate the slow reading/looking-up that is sometimes necessary to read the Aubrey/Maturin series, then I highly recommend them. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with Forester's Hornblower stories. Pure adventure!

My mother just got me Sharpe's Tiger for Christmas, so I'm hoping to tackle that one soon.

[foxroe]

...and (to the boys at bedtime) Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Good choice.

[Ghul]

Ahh yes, for bedtime reading to my 9 year old boy, my middle child, presently it is White Fang by Jack London.

[Matthew]

Finished reading the Samarkand Solution the other day, and thought it was very similar sort of fare to the Anubis Murders, though I certainly could have done without the protagonist being successfully "seduced" by the lovely young slave girl he rescues. As with the former novel, it was workmanlike and readable, if slightly less predictable than its predecessor. I found myself paging back to find the "clues" that Magister Setne Imhotep had spotted earlier and used to solve the case, but could not spot them, which left me feeling rather cheated (they might be there, I remain uncertain). After this second encounter with Gygax's magician/cleric I was left with the renewed feeling that the character is "too good" (in the sense of powerful and clever) to hold my interest over long, but he at least has similar sorts of adversaries lurking in the shadows.

In the interval, I have also enjoyed reading Arab Historians of the Crusades, which I had only before read extracts from (it is itself a book of extracts), and several Osprey texts (always interesting):

Byzantine Armies 886-1118 (1979)
Byzantine Armies 1118-1496 (1995)
Armies of Islam 7th to 11th Centuries (1982)
Saladin and the Saracens (1986)
God's Warriors (2005)

The last is a compilation of:

Hattin 1187 (1993)
Saracen Faris 1050-1250 (1994)
Knight Templar 1120-1312 (2004)

Predictably, the later and earlier volumes are sometimes in contradiction, and I thought David Nicolle put forth a surprisingly hostile portrayal of the Christian forces, but there was plenty of interesting minutia and images that are not easily found in standard historical volumes. Definitely recommended reading for medieval war gamers (especially those playing Field of Glory), and to some extent adventure gamers. Perhaps less interestingly, I am also rereading The Crusades 1095–1197 and Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England; the former is a nice and accessible overview of the period discussed, whilst the latter is probably only of specialist literary interest...

[Geoffrey]

I've been reading stories by Algernon Blackwood. I'm in the midst of his "Sand" right now.

[quatzl]

In the midst of Thomas Ligotti's The Shadow at the Bottom of the World

[grodog]

I'm taking a short break from Harry Potter (I wrapped up Order of the Phoenix again last week, to stay ahead of Ethan, who's just about done with Prisoner of Azkaban): while in CA, I picked up some used books at one of my usual haunts, including a new reissue of Tim Powers' _The Stress of Her Regard_, which is excellent. The only other Powers I've read is Last Call, which was also quite good.

[Clangador]

I haven't read any Hornblower, but have heard good things about them since college friends recommended them.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Beat to Quarters (the first-written of the Hornblower books; 6th chronologically) and it's really good -- very fast-moving and the naval terminology isn't at all overbearing. Its influence on Star Trek (especially Wrath of Khan) is very evident.

Interesting. I have read two book of that series although I don't remember which they ones they were now. Would you recommend the whole series?

[Clangador]

I'm taking a short break from Harry Potter (I wrapped up Order of the Phoenix again last week, to stay ahead of Ethan, who's just about done with Prisoner of Azkaban): while in CA, I picked up some used books at one of my usual haunts, including a new reissue of Tim Powers' _The Stress of Her Regard_, which is excellent. The only other Powers I've read is Last Call, which was also quite good.

You haven't read The Anubis Gates?

I highly recommend it.

[rogatny]

Just finished Arthur Conan Doyle's, "A Study in Scarlet," the first Sherlock Holmes story. Fantastic. I don't think I've read any Holmes stories since I was assigned "The Red Headed League" in middle school. I have the whole collection. So I'll be reading more.

By the way, Robert Downey Junior was perfectly amusing as Holmes in the recent movie, but doesn't really match the description in Doyle's story. I envision more of a young Peter O'Toole. Ironically, while I think a young O'Toole looks just like I would imagine Holmes, only his voice ever represented Holmes in the movies. IMDb says he did the voice acting or a series of animated Holmes stories in the 80s.