Knights & Knaves Alehouse

I've been chugging through China Mieville's "The Scar".

Read it.

grodog wrote:I'm running out of Fox, alas. I'll print the TD short stories soon, though, which will sate me for a little while:

Dragondex wrote: Fox, Gardner "Beyond the Wizard Fog" 5(18)
"Coming Of the Sword, The" 55(24)
"Cube From Beyond, The" 36(4)
"Cup of Golden Death, The" 38(6)
"Eyes of Mavis Deval, The" 33(6)
"Lure of the Golden Godling, The" 44(6)
"Shadow Of a Demon" 2(14)
"Stolen Sacrifice, The" 13(22)
"Thing From the Tomb, The" 23(8)

Plus "Out of the Eons" from DragonTales, too.

I'm currently re-reading The Odyssey of Homer (Richard Lattimore translation). It has been over a decade since I last read it. A part of me is tempted to run an AD&D campaign set in ancient Bronze Age Greece now.

Has anyone ever read the 'War of the Gods on Earth' series by Andrew J Offutt? As far as I know if has three books: The Iron Lords, Shadows out of Hell, and The Lady of the Snowmist. One of these days I'll give them a try. On the other hand, my Paratime books by H Beam Piper are tempting me.

Cheers,
Tim

Turgenev wrote:I'm currently re-reading The Odyssey of Homer (Richard Lattimore translation).

A lot of people (teachers especially) like the Lattimore translation because of all the well-known modern translations it's the closest to the literal language of the original, but I always found it a chore to get through and greatly prefered all of the other versions I've read -- E.V. Rieu's prose translation (the Penguin Classics version for many years) and the verse translations from Robert Fitzgerald (published by Random House, IIRC) and Robert Fagles (which replaced Rieu in Penguin Classics 10 years or so ago). The latter is what I would consider the most "readable" but it also (perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not) takes probably the most liberties with Homer's language.

A lot of people (teachers especially) like the Lattimore translation because of all the well-known modern translations it's the closest to the literal language of the original, but I always found it a chore to get through and greatly prefered all of the other versions I've read -- E.V. Rieu's prose translation (the Penguin Classics version for many years) and the verse translations from Robert Fitzgerald (published by Random House, IIRC) and Robert Fagles (which replaced Rieu in Penguin Classics 10 years or so ago). The latter is what I would consider the most "readable" but it also (perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not) takes probably the most liberties with Homer's language.

My copies of The Illiad and The Odyssey are both from my university days when I was a Classics major so that explains the Lattimore editions. I have to admit, there are times when I skim some of the verses but over all - I'm rather enjoying it (even if I'm getting flashbacks to my ancient humour classes - especially the scene of the naked Odysseus trying to cover himself with a tree branch *grin*).

I was going through my boxes of books that I have stashed away (too many books and not enough shelf space) and I found my Penguin Classics copy of Beowulf (translated by Michael Alexander). I've added it to my "to read" list.

Cheers,
Tim

I generally prefer the Dryden translation of the Homeric epic poems.

Today I decided to read Transit to Scorpio by Alan Burt Akers again. I was going to skip to the second book (The Suns of Scorpio) because I had read Transit all those years ago, but I only vaguely remembered the plot so I figured it would be good to refresh my memory.

Also nearing the end of The Hobbit.

In non-Fantasy I'm reading Fleming's Live and Let Die and I think I'll pick up Dune again because I've finally completed my decade-long quest to collect all six books in hardcover! (Yes, six books... I'm not acknowledging the Brian Herbert/Ken Anderson pastiches).

Heh .. last night, I got halfway through Godzilla vs. Cthulhu in a Necronomicon Press' Cthulhu Codex. It's funny stuff, because it's played completely straight. It's even fairly creepy, and I can't wait to discover how the inevitable showdown will pan out.

We ought to rename this topic to "Books your reading, period." Because I don't read fantasy much and don't want to feel left out ^__^

Recently I've been going through my books with the intent of finally getting rid of some of my vast library. Thing is I'm not so sure which books I want to keep and which ones I want to get rid of. So I'm trying to read them. Currently the criteria is if the book holds me for 1/3rd of its total length, I'll keep it.

Recent experiments:

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum -- Tried to re-read this one again after over a year, and I just can't get into it. I remember from my first reading that the plot was like if the makers of the Final Fantasy games tried to write a Tom Clancy novel (not exactly a good combination) and I don't think this will be my thing.

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams -- I tried to read this in the past and didn't last two chapters. Today I read the first chapter again and it held me, but I'm not ready to make any commitments yet.

Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove -- Just got past the preludes and first chapter. Uhhh... I kinda don't follow the plot, but its interesting so far. This one is in the "I had it for years but didn't seriously try to read it until now" category.

I'm reading The Children of Hurin, which is the first new (to me) fantasy book I've read in a long time (I had more or less given up reading new books in the genre after reading Elric of Melnibone).

dcs wrote:I'm reading The Children of Hurin, which is the first new (to me) fantasy book I've read in a long time (I had more or less given up reading new books in the genre after reading Elric of Melnibone).

I would like to get your opinion on this book when you're done.

TheRedPriest wrote:I would like to get your opinion on this book when you're done.

Sure.

It doesn't seem to cover any new territory but there seems to be a lot of details that were omitted in the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales versions of the story. And it's told as a story rather than as a myth or legend.

The writing is a bit rough in spots (not very 'Tolkienesque').

One thing that is clear from the very beginning of this version of the story is that Turin is not just 'cursed' by Morgoth -- he makes some really bad decisions.

I read Moldvay's "Black Lotus Moon" from DragonTales tonight---a fun short story with a female protagonist (rare in the S&S genre), and somewhat reminiscent of another story that I can't quite put my finger on: perhaps a cross between Leiber's "Jewels in the Forest" and some Gardner Fox, with a dash of early Thieves World. Hmmm. The tower strikes me as very similar to another, though. Anyone who's read this have any ideas?

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.
I'm about a hundred pages in, and it's very good so far. Very quirky and unusual, not your typical fantasy novel.

Been enjoying R.E. Howard for the past 5-6 years. Started H.P. Lovecraft late last year. Been hearing great things about Saunders' Imaro books. May pick up a copy and try it on for size. I'd love to get my mits on the Elric stuff, but it's hard to find.