The Gaming Den

Ubernoob, the levels of lols this raises in me defy description, in smut or anything else.

Robert E. Howard. "The Bloody Crown of Conan"

Scott Lynch's "Lies of Locke Lamora" and sequel weren't too bad.

Reading Gaiman's "Stardust" and just read Watchmen again as well.

Also just reread Rober Lynn Asprin's "Myth" series, which weren't quite as good as I remember them being 17 years ago but held better than rereading LotR IMHO.

"Grunts" by Mary Gentle was just okay as was Stan Nicholls' "Orcs" trilogy.

Dan Simmons Illium was a great history with a serious twist, though the sequel was not as good.

Recently, I've been reading game manuals (Diablo, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms), and I just finished Free Radical ( http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/index.html ). I only knew a little about the game prior to reading it. I am now starting on a few Shadowrun novels.

Trying to read Terry Pratchett.

When I skim there's plentiful splatters of lulz but when I sit down and plod on from Chapter 1 it laaaaaaaaaaaags between the good parts.

Maybe I should read the abridged student "cheat" notes on it first.

sigma999 wrote:Trying to read Terry Pratchett.

When I skim there's plentiful splatters of lulz but when I sit down and plod on from Chapter 1 it laaaaaaaaaaaags between the good parts.

Maybe I should read the abridged student "cheat" notes on it first.

What book are you reading? There's a fair few.

Talisman wrote:I can't stand Modesitt, personally. I read The Magic of Recluce and it was...okay, although it fell prey to the usual "Law good! Chaos bad!" trap that seems to hit most Law-vs-Chaos fantasy.

Then I tried to read another of his - I forget what - and it was all in present tense and was about five times as much work as it should have been to read it. So I didn't.

---

Sorry for taking so long to get back to this. You might try picking up some of his books with the protagonist being a chaos mage. Let me look it up for you.

Also, you might try the Corean Chronicles for a different flavor. The way he uses the different factions motivations of trade and politics is one of my favorite parts of his writing.

Natural Ordermage and Mage-Guard of Hamor show a bit of how the Order side can have human failings as well. The White Order and Colors of Chaos are the books that have the Chaos mage's viewpoints.

The Terror by Dan Simmons

Just finished Eden by Stanislaw Lem, City of Bones by Martha Wells, and The House of the Stag by Kage Baker.

Currently Reading, Hidden Empire(of The Saga of Seven Suns Series) by Kevin J. Anderson, Widder Shins by Charles de Lint, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and a pair of Biographies, Constantine The Great by Michael Grant and Augustus by Anthony Everitt.

Just finished the Belgariad and Guardians of the West. Working on King of the Murgos, naturally.

Maxus wrote: What book are you reading? There's a fair few.

I missed this reply.
"Lords and Ladies"

To Light a Candle by Mercedes Lackey (and James Mallory, but like anyone ever remembers her co-writers), second book of the Obsidian Trilogy.

The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore, the current High Priest of the Church of Satan. He's trying to sound like LaVey, but he's failing. Either he just doesn't have the command of the written word or I've come far enough along to see the contradiction in caring much what someone else believes as far as satanic thought goes...

I bought those with christmas money, and also got The Prince (Machiavelli), Metamorphosis and Other Writings (Kafka), Poetics (Aristotle), a book analyzing Poetics, The third book of Lackey's Obsidian Trilogy, Selected Poem's and Tales (Poe)...

I've got a lot to read for a while...

So Uber, these romance books, how smutty are they? I've been thinking of doing what Cynic mentioned a bit ago, writing some stuff for Harlequin to make ends meet but haven't been able to get my hands on anything yet...

Try this. I take no responsibility for SAN damage, and in fact found little to laugh at.

I finished with Seeress of Kell a few days ago, and now I'm a couple-hundred pages into Belgarath the Sorceror, and a hundred pages into the Silmarillion (I realized it'd been years since I read it).

got back into "Quicksilver" by Neal Stephenson. I blame someone on the Den for reminding me of The Baroque Cycle

It just occurred to me that the theology of Dragonlance is pretty much a ripoff of the one given in the Silmarillion. I don't know if anyone's ever read the War of Souls trilogy, but the last book has an appendix written in Paladine's voice as he explained some more about the gods.

Long story short: The High God created the 22 gods to make the world and be his servants and manage the world for him. The strongest of the gods decided *he* should rule, he went around ruining things and eventually Paladine, given a boost by the High God, kicked his ass out. The Evil gods liked the idea of ruling mortals, and this kicked off a dispute between them and the seven gods who said they were there to guide and nurture and all that crap. The last seven gods sat on the fence and tended strictly to their areas of responsibility.

This kept up until the High God stepped in and gave a speech; the salient points were

1) He was happy with his children who adhered to the spirit of his commands as well as the letter

2) He was a bit put out at the ones whose obedience only went as far as what was actually said, and they'd have to take sides sooner or later

3) The Evil gods were free to do what they wanted, but anything and everything they did would be warped around to the High God's plan. They could have their illusions about independence.

4) Yea, I am the High God, and I am further above ye than ye art above mortals. I can whoop thy butts anytime I so choose, so straighten up.

And, in telling a bit of the Silmarillion to someone, it just clicked about how similar that is to the business with Melkor and Iluvatar and making the world and the war of the Valar.

It's all a rip-off of christianity.

Boolean wrote:It's all a rip-off of christianity.

Oh, I know. But, still, Tolkien had a certain flow to his version. I'm starting to remember why so many people fangasm over his stuff.

Christianity is a rip-off of a fucking rip-off which is a rip-off of etc... so blah :-P I carried that wank on by necroing humping this thread.

Anyway, I moved to NJ from texas recently due to the lack of money and now have moved my family in with my parents. Meh... that's a different story.

I got a new library card and checked a few books out for myself and my kid.

Read my two-year old an illustrated Beowulf primer called "Beowulf: A hero's tale retold"

It was a tad bit bloody for her but interesting nonetheless.

Other things picked up -

"Gilead" by Marilyn Robinson
"Mort" - Terry Pratchett
"A Chinese grandmother's primer of folktales"

I just started "The Game" by Neil Strauss. I expect to finish it by friday evening so as to mull over the technique while I sleep for my date on saturday.

A_Cynic wrote:Read my two-year old an illustrated Beowulf primer called "Beowulf: A hero's tale retold"

It was a tad bit bloody for her but interesting nonetheless.

It's Beowulf, it basically has to be bloody unless the author is making up stories about him going to the market or something. Or at the very least it has to talk about combat...

But I'm sure you're fully aware of that.

The Terror by Dan Simmons

Love and Rockets, the Palomar collections.

The Black Company, by Glen Cook.