What are you reading?

[stumbling tiger]

I read The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope. This is a classic adventure, and it moves fast with plots and counter plots. There is a castle to invade, swordplay, and a dastardly villain. The tale has a bit of a James Bond feel without the spy gadgets. The first book has inspired half a dozen films and dozens of homages including the 1994 RPG "Castle Falkenstein!" It's a grand, gothic, swashbuckling, adventure worth reading!

Have you read Royal Flash, by George MacDonald Fraser? The same tropes as Zenda (hero impersonates minor European royalty, 19th century swashbuckling, political skulduggery) employed for comic, anti-heroic effect. Flashman (the series protagonist) is an unrepentant bully, liar, seducer, and coward who repeatedly gets mistaken for a hero. The whole series is a riot.

[grodog]

Finished reading “Ill Met in Lankhmar” with Henry last night, will start in on the _Swords Against Death_ stories next!

Allan.

[benjoshua]

I finished reading Saladin: The Sultan Who Vanquished the Crusaders and Built an Islamic Empire by John Man, and it was excellent. The history itself is fascinating and the author did a good job of adding in just enough detail. There were some real larger-than-life characters who were almost unbelievable. There were complications of war described we often overlook. The armored knights were dominant on the field of battle, for example, when they had adequate hydration, the ground was relatively flat, and their horses weren't shot out from under them. This book gave me a greater respect for Saladin; it also highlighted that the dissension currently in the Middle East has been around for centuries. A great read, and I hope to read some of this author's other books.

[JasonZavoda]

I read The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope. This is a classic adventure, and it moves fast with plots and counter plots. There is a castle to invade, swordplay, and a dastardly villain. The tale has a bit of a James Bond feel without the spy gadgets. The first book has inspired half a dozen films and dozens of homages including the 1994 RPG "Castle Falkenstein!" It's a grand, gothic, swashbuckling, adventure worth reading!

Have you read Royal Flash, by George MacDonald Fraser? The same tropes as Zenda (hero impersonates minor European royalty, 19th century swashbuckling, political skulduggery) employed for comic, anti-heroic effect. Flashman (the series protagonist) is an unrepentant bully, liar, seducer, and coward who repeatedly gets mistaken for a hero. The whole series is a riot.

Sandy Mitchell's version with Ciaphas Caine is better, but part of the enjoyment is having the 40k universe taken humerously

[benjoshua]

I read The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy by David Hoffman, and it was interesting. This book highlights the years 1980-1995. The title, The Dead Hand, refers to the Soviet creation of a system to launch nuclear missiles if the Soviet leadership was decapitated. This book won a Pulitzer Prize, and I can see why. Even though I was an adult through most of these events, I learned much I did not know. The book highlights not only the nuclear missile problems, but also problems with chemical and biological weapons. The facts were worse than the fiction. The world survived the cold war, but could have just as easily been destroyed by it.

[grodog]

I read The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy by David Hoffman, and it was interesting. [snip] The world survived the cold war, but could have just as easily been destroyed by it.

Any good stuff to mine for Delta Green in there?

Allan.

[benjoshua]

Any good stuff to mine for Delta Green in there?

Allan.

Absolutely! The book describes extensively places and goals pursued by the Soviets in biological warfare. They were trying to create pathogens that were super deadly and resistant to treatments. They were experimenting with anthrax, the plague, smallpox, and more. They even had an accident where anthrax escaped on the population. According to the book, they were more successful with creating chemical warfare, "Novichok," agents/poisons. It would not be much of a stretch to imagine a scenario where researchers were successful creating something truly horrific.

Plus, there are numerous spy stories with defectors, double agents, secret missions, and such. The book talks about how aggressive the Iranians and Iraqis were at hiring Russians and buying enriched uranium after the collapse of the USSR. We now know the Syrians were successful at buying large quantities of chemical weapons. It was sad to read how poorly the CIA performed overall during this chapter of American history. Still, the information regarding the collapse of the USSR has so much potential for intriguing scenarios. It was the wild west of researchers and research facilities going rogue and were poorly monitored by the government. Scientists were selling whatever they could just to put food on the table.

[Philotomy Jurament]

Started reading Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast.

[benjoshua]

Started reading Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast.

A great classic I read a little over a month ago! It actually should be titled, "Sailing to California and Processing Hides for Two Years."

[rogatny]

Just finished Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton. Second book I’ve read by her. I liked this one better than the time traveler sci-fi story.

Coincidently very similar themes to Blue Star which I read just before it - witch never trained to use her powers, coerced into marriage, treated with suspicion, isolated and alone, etc. I like this one better. The female lead was more proactive and the eventual bond between her and her husband felt more genuine and earned. Also a lot more fantastic, weird magical stuff.

[benjoshua]

Just finished Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton. Second book I’ve read by her. I liked this one better than the time traveler sci-fi story.

In my opinion, her best Witch World books are her earlier books, Witch World, Web of Witch World, Year of the Unicorn and Three Against Witch World.

[benjoshua]

I read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, and it was an immersive tale. It won both Hugo and Nebula Awards. It's the story of an emissary on a backward planet of hermaphrodites trying to get this world to join the greater universe of inhabited planets. The author does a great job of making this another reality with it's own culture, beliefs, languages, and practices. There's political intrigue, a prison break, and an trek across and unforgiving terrain and weather. It makes you rethink your reality assumptions.

Fans of the author call books related to this theme "The Hainish Cycle," but Le Guin herself discounted this idea since they do not form a coherent history. I am interested in reading her book, The Dispossessed, as it has also won a Nebula. I'm not as interested in A Wizard of Earthsea since it was targeted for teens, but I might read it one day. Some people consider The left Hand of Darkness to be the third best sci-fi/fantasy novel after Dune and Childhood's End. I wouldn't say it's that good, but I'm glad I read it.

[Settembrini]

I read The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy by David Hoffman, and it was interesting. This book highlights the years 1980-1995. The title, The Dead Hand, refers to the Soviet creation of a system to launch nuclear missiles if the Soviet leadership was decapitated. This book won a Pulitzer Prize, and I can see why. Even though I was an adult through most of these events, I learned much I did not know. The book highlights not only the nuclear missile problems, but also problems with chemical and biological weapons. The facts were worse than the fiction. The world survived the cold war, but could have just as easily been destroyed by it.

That is a wonderful book suggestion, thank you so much for that!

[grodog]

I'm just about done reading Damian Murphy's _Daughters of Apostacy_, which is an excellent (thus far) collection of short stories---sort of a cross between Borges (for his focus on occult revelation) and maybe CAS (for the lushness of his prose).

I finished _The Acephalic Imperial_ by Damian Murphy this evening, and he’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. This story was both more prosaic, and more fragmentary in its components, but it’s conclusion is more definite, even in its unrevealed mysteries.

Allan.

[Ratbreath]

Can anyone recommend to me good books on Charlemagne and/or Churchill?