Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Mythmere wrote:I just ordered the Lensman series. I'm in the mood for vast armies of planet-busting spaceships in a huge space-operatic backdrop.

I just finished Triplanetary. Loads of fun.

On a whim I embarked on a reread of The Lord of the Rings.

ETA: And earlier last week I also read several Rex Stout mysteries that I hadn't read before.

Finally started reading Vance's Cugel stories, and they are much better than the The Dying Earth stories. Now I understand Vance's popularity.

Right now I'm into gaming stuff: reading Labyrinth Lord, Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Rules Compendium on and off. Just started reading Tegel Manor as well.

Currently reading my copy of the Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft.

TheRedPriest wrote:Finally started reading Vance's Cugel stories, and they are much better than the The Dying Earth stories. Now I understand Vance's popularity.

We forgive you

T. Foster wrote:

TheRedPriest wrote:Finally started reading Vance's Cugel stories, and they are much better than the The Dying Earth stories. Now I understand Vance's popularity.

We forgive you

That's okay, but I don't need the absolution as I'm not the one that wrote The Dying Earth. Thank goodness Vance also has The Eyes of the Overworld, or I'd have to write him off completely.

TheRedPriest wrote:

T. Foster wrote:

TheRedPriest wrote:Finally started reading Vance's Cugel stories, and they are much better than the The Dying Earth stories. Now I understand Vance's popularity.

We forgive you

That's okay, but I don't need the absolution as I'm not the one that wrote The Dying Earth. Thank goodness Vance also has The Eyes of the Overworld, or I'd have to write him off completely.

The Lyonesse books are good too, but some people have to skim through the first part of the first book because the action is slow.

TheRedPriest wrote:

T. Foster wrote:

TheRedPriest wrote:Finally started reading Vance's Cugel stories, and they are much better than the The Dying Earth stories. Now I understand Vance's popularity.

We forgive you

That's okay, but I don't need the absolution as I'm not the one that wrote The Dying Earth. Thank goodness Vance also has The Eyes of the Overworld, or I'd have to write him off completely.

The thing to understand is that the "Dying Earth" stories were some of the first things Vance ever wrote, almost juvenilia. I recall reading somewhere (wikipedia?) that he wrote most of them in spare moments while he was still serving in the merchant marine, and (although I don't believe he's ever been willing to confirm it) it seems he was pretty heavily under the influence of Clark Ashton Smith's "Zothique" cycle, to the point of feeling at times almost like the stories are Smith pastiches. The "Eyes of the Overworld" stories are a completely different matter -- written ~15 years later, after Vance had become a seasoned and experienced professional writer with a dozen or more published books to his credit, and -- coming in between the first set of "Demon Princes" novels (1963-65) and the "World of Adventure" cycle (1967-70) -- inarguably at the very peak of his powers.

I've just started Gotrek and Felix the first Omnibus (Warhammer world). So far its fast and enjoyable standard adventure fare.

Looks good. Got good reviews at Amazon. My friends all liked it.

The only Gotrek and Felix book I've read is Orcslayer. Not bad, not earthshaking.

Ironically, right now I'm reading The Dying Earth (grabbed it at the SoCalMiniCon book swap) and am enjoying it very much.

- Wheggi

While I agree that his later stories are better written, the tone and content of Vance's earlier Dying Earth stories do a superior job of firing up my imagination.

I'm about halfway through Merrit's _Face in the Abyss_ and am curious where the rest of the story's going to go (Graydon's prepping his journey to the caverns now, after laying the false lead for the evil immortal chick to follow).

Last night I caught up on Zenescope's "Sinbad" comic book series (previously titled The Arabian Nights, it's been Sinbad for a few issues now), which I've been enjoying.

Cugel is great in so many ways. I love the Cugel stories, the rest of Mr. Vance's work I'm not so into.

And what I'm reading right this second is 1000 pages of Stephen King, "Under the Dome", which is basically a reheated mix of characters from old stories with new names. Once this slog is done (I hate not finishing books), back to Gene Wolfe for some quality...

BTW, currently reading The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason, classic Victorian-era adventure fiction. The first half was slow (and curious in that almost all of the actual "action" takes place offstage and is related via second-hand accounts) but the interest picks up considerably in the second half. I'll probably finish this off tonight...