@aussielad@Redbj@rupzzz rather than go off topic in the film thread I thought bringing in the discussion of book series into here would be good. I’m always on the look out for new epic fantasy series! My List (in some sort of order).
Malazan Book of the Fallen (Steve Erikson)
Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan)
Stormlight Archive - not finished (Brandon Sanderson)
Mistborne (Brandon Sanderson)
The Kingkiller Chronicles - not finished (Patrick Rothfuss)
I’ve tried Gardens of the Moon but didn’t get through it. It’s very confusing at the start and I didn’t persevere. Put it down and got distracted by something else. Didn’t mean to not finish it…just kind of never ended up continuing with it.
Elenium and Tamuli trilogies (David Eddings- main character is Sparhawk) as well as the Belgariad (also Eddings- 5 book series)
Dragonlance Chronicles (Weis and Hickman- probably a lot of different books now, but the one that starts with Dragons of Autumn Twilight)
Wheel of Time (Jordan)
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (Tad Williams)
Farseer Trilogy (Robin Hobbs)
Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind- I never finished the series…I think it’s a lot of books now, but read first 4 or 5 as they came out)
I’m sure there are others I am forgetting…I read a lot of high fantasy as a teenager in the 90s lol.
It’s a really hard book to get into, but totally worth it… You get to books 5 and 6 etc. And it connects a plot from book 1 that you had no idea what was going on at the time.
It’s based on D & D games the writer and his friends created/ran in the 80/90s so the character building is second to none (although you can tell who was their favourites to play!)
I’ve literally got hundreds of books that I still haven’t read and yet I still order more.
Just bought this bunch…
Anthony Beevor - The Fall of Berlin, 1945
Anthony Beevor - Stalingrad
Anthony Everitt - Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician
Hew Strachan - The First World War
Mark Urban - Rifles: Six Years with Wellington’s Legendary Sharpshooters
Robert Ferguson - The Vikings: A History
William Manchester - American Caesar, Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964
Currently finishing up on Obama’s latest book which has been a bit of a slog at times. He’s a good writer but I feel he’s pulling his punches when I want him to really start calling out wankers like Mitch McConnell.
Also love;
Matthew Reilly - The original Jack West Series is great (the 7 wonders ones).
Bernard Cromwell - Sharpe, The Last Kingdom etc.
Simon Scarrow - Eagles of the Empire
Wilbur Smith - Any as they are more standalone
Andy McNab - Same as above, prefer his stand alone ones
Bernard cornwell is great. I have read all of his stuff (except all the Sharpe novels…I have read a few of those). Also haven’t read all of the Uhtred books…just checked and there are quite a few…I’ve read maybe first 4 or 5. There seems to be a direct correlation between how far back in history he writes about and how much I enjoy the books (the further the better)
The Last Kingdom TV show based on his Uhtred books is also fantastic.
I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction stuff recently. Some of it quite heavy (How to hide an empire, some shit about Facebook being satan, Fantasyland…a book about how America became a country where idiosyncratic beliefs came to rule over empericism and rationality), but sometimes that can be a difficult way to end a day. So tonight Im starting Gaiman’s American Gods
I know how that feels like. I read some pretty heavy non-fiction books (mentioned in some posts above). I had to step away from them for a few months - read about Everest (Chomolungma) (heavy too with loss and deaths). In the last couple of months, I just read some light novels, like The Beast Player and The Beast Warrior. However, after these 2 books, I may switch back to the heavy stuff. Here are what I have lined up just to name a few:
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson
Militarized Global Apartheid by Catherine Besteman
The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan by Graeme Smith
Yeah, I’ve order the Ackerman one and feel its one that should be prioritized for right now, but feel I need something a little lighter in my life right now. Will maybe get onto that once I’ve breezed through the fun stuff.
Reading Daniel Dafoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year about the bubonic plague in London in 1665, which occurred when he was a boy.
Interesting reading. He goes into great detail, especially about how the plague was managed by the government and about people’s behavior. Enlightening to read in comparison so what’s going on now.
With the recent event at CL in Paris, the way that the Liverpool fans were being unjustly blamed, plus the broadcasting of ITV series Anne (I have yet to be mentally prepared to watch the series), I wanted to read a few books on the triumph against injustice related to the Hillsborough disaster. At the time of the disaster, I have already left the UK, and the impact to my psyche was very different from the Heysel (I was listening to the radio on the event unfolded at that time).
Hillsborough - the Truth by Phil Scraton
Hillsborough Voices: The Real Story Told by the People Themselves by Kevin Sampson & Hillsborough Justice Campaign
And the Sun Shines Now: How Hillsborough and the Premier League Changed Britain by Adrian Tempany
Read some happy books after the last post, namely:
Bring the Noise: The Jürgen Klopp Story by Raphael Honigstein
Jurgen Klopp: The Biography by Elmar Neveling
At the End of the Storm: Stories From Liverpool’s Historic Title Win by James Pearce & Oliver Kay & Simon Hughes
But now, just starting The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff. My mind is already in a dark place after reading just the Introduction.
Started a little bookswap with a friend. I definitely lent him a better book than he lent me I lent him Steven Pressifield’s Tides of War. A very good book on the Pelopennesian War with a focus on Alcibiadies. He lent me William Napier’s Attila which, unsurprisingly, is about Attila. Napier is not, imo, a very good author and Im struggling to force myself through this book.
Are books less exciting? For weeks, there’s a debate/discussion raging in the TV thread regarding Rings of Power and House of the Dragon. Would we be discussing the Lord of the Rings or the Song of Ice and Fire if they were published now?
I lent him Steven Pressifield’s Tides of War. A very good book on the Pelopennesian War with a focus on Alcibiadies. He lent me William Napier’s Attila which, unsurprisingly, is about Attila. Napier is not, imo, a very good author and Im struggling to force myself through this book.