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I've read more scifi than fantasy, unfortunately. Witcher and Nightwatch are about the only fantasy I can recommend, but they're both a thousand times more interesting than another rehash of the same DnD plot.

Tolstoy, the descendant of the more famous Tolstoy writes good fantasy

The Icewind Dale Trilogy by R. A. Salvatore. It's awesome. After giving up on the Dragonlance Chronicles halfway through, the Icewind Dale is a cool breeze compared to the stench from the Dragonlance rubbish dump.

Finished "Professional Care and Finishing of Gun Metal" by John E. Traister. Quite a good book for one interested in such things. I'm definitely building a home caustic-bluing setup soon, but first, an electroless nickel plating setup,

I've almost finished Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles: From 1946 to the Present, by Steven Zaloga. The Soviet APC and IFV designs were pretty screwy.

Just finished reading Fantasy in Death by Nora Roberts writing under the pen name J.D. Robb. It's a quite good blend of futuristic (2060s) science fiction, police proceedural, and romance novel - as is the whole In Death series.

Halfway through Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon. I want a cortical stack implant.

I'm currently reading Armour in Conflict, by Ian V. Hogg.

Einstein's Universe by Caldwell. Quite dated, having been written around the centennial of Einstein's birth, but interesting nonetheless.

Currently reading "An Imaginary Tale, The Story of Root -1" by Paul J. Nahin. I already knew a bit about imaginary numbers and how to manipulate them, but even so the author doesn't introduce them in a particularly intuitive way. Chapter 3 and 4 would have been better starting points for the book, with the mathematical history of chapters 1 and 2 coming later. Having said that, Norwegian mathematician Wessel's proof of i being perpendicular to the real axis was so short and obvious, and the author does well to highlight it for its importance.

Almost finished with Jon Meacham's American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. The book is thoroughly researched, has plenty of new material to add to the subject, and is accessible. I chose to read it because Doris Kearns Goodwin, who wrote one of my favorite history books (Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln) endorsed it.

Just read Magician from the Rift War saga, for the first time. I wasn't terribly impressed. Enjoyable paint-the-numbers fantasy.

I liked the characters more than the plot, though the characters got worse as they got older, especially Tomas. They all had a faint whiff of Mary-sue about them, but I didn't much mind them except for Tomas. I didn't like the off-stage (or at least, poorly set up) deaths either. I could almost hear Feist chuckling "HaHA! Want to find out what happened? You'll have to read the sequels! MWHAHAHAH!"

The carboard cut-out Elf queen annoyed me a great deal, considering she's such a minor character. Actually, because she's such a minor character, and acts like it. Galadriel she wasn't.

I liked the Tsuaranni. I'd read the Mistress of the Empire series beforehand whilst on holiday, and enjoyed them immensely, and as I'm not really a Japanophile (or whatever the term is) the Japan/Aztec based civilization was pleasantly different to the usual mediaeval England/Denmark set up.

Am I alone in finding Pug's (and therefore the author's) casual assertion that Tsuaranni culture is headed for doom terribly arrogant, given that he's basically dismissing Feudal Japan as a timebomb? OK it wasn't great, but was it really THAT bad?

The Cho-ja were cool, but probably because I really liked them in the Mistress of the Empire series.

I'd give the book 6, maybe 7 out of 10. Pulp fantasy, but worth a read if the genre interests you.

Dexter, catching up on the paperbacks

Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Triumph

I'm currently reading The Face of Battle, by John Keegan. It's really slow right now (just started it), but I've heard nothing but good things about the book (and Keegan in general) so I'm going to stick with it.

I'm also working my way through For All Time. You know, for a work of alternate history hosted on an internet forum, it's one of the most frightening things I've ever read. A deeply morbid work that starts out bad and just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse...

Kaiser Caesar wrote:
I'm also working my way through For All Time. You know, for a work of alternate history hosted on an internet forum, it's one of the most frightening things I've ever read. A deeply morbid work that starts out bad and just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse...

What is it all about?

ray245 wrote:

Kaiser Caesar wrote:
I'm also working my way through For All Time. You know, for a work of alternate history hosted on an internet forum, it's one of the most frightening things I've ever read. A deeply morbid work that starts out bad and just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse...

What is it all about?

A short summary (it's a really long work) is as follows:

The story starts with the assassination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt shortly after the start of WWII. The Allies still win the war, but, in the aftermath of the war, attempts at forming a NATO alliance among the Western Allies fails, and the Soviet Union undergoes a period of massive expansion in terms of satellite states and international influence. I would rather not spoil the rest of it, but let's just say things start out bad and never stop getting worse. Oh, God, does it get worse.

That's a matter of perspective, isn't it? Unless you mean the plot is contrived and forces things to go a certain way, or the Soviets are portrayed as one-dimensional villians.

Phantasee wrote:That's a matter of perspective, isn't it? Unless you mean the plot is contrived and forces things to go a certain way, or the Soviets are portrayed as one-dimensional villians.

The Soviets aren't the villains of the story. Their are some villains in their midst, but everyone has bad people.

And, yes, it is kind of railroaded, but not enough to make me hate the piece.

Currently reading Lion Resurgent.

Just finnished Monster Hunter International and I am curently working on 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber.

For All Time must have been one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read, from the uber nuke in Korea to the bullshit faux-Russian "alt history" with well-known names thrown around in anachronistic and impossible positions, just to make sure the people don't get lost. That's the problem with all alt history, but "For All Time" is notoriously bad.

Just started the Chronicles of Amber for the sixth or seventh time. I know each book back and forward, but I keep coming back over and over again. Best fantasy series I've ever read (and read, and read, and read).

I'll forever remember the day a friend of mine introduced me to Amber and it's royals. Hell, this series is what got me reading voraciously back when I was 12.

Working my way through the Dark Tower series, book 4 was hard work, Kings attempts at teenage romance are bloody awful, but at least it's nowhere near as fucking retarded as Lucas drivel.

I've sped through Pratchett's Night Watch within a week or so, I liked it as much as The Fifth Elephant, but I'm finding The Wind in the Willows tough going; the dullest book I've read in recent memory, though it's not a genuinely hateful and badly written book, it's just not to my taste and I've seen a bazillion movie and TV adaptions of it.

I've also got my hands full with history books such as Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography and John Man's Attila the Hun: A Barbarian King and the Fall of Rome, which are much funner (and informative).