Anyone have some good fantasy recommendations or mythology?
Anyone have some good fantasy recommendations or mythology?
Like, straight-up mythology? Like Greek/Roman Legends? If so
http://www.booksforthefuture.org/fil...0446607258.jpg
Any or all Mert.
Gonna sound lame because it's one of my favorite books (and it probably doesnt really classify as 'mythology' or 'fantasy') but I'd reccommend Dante's Inferno since there is a lot of historical/mythological figures in it. Specifically John Ciardi's translation, he did a good job of putting it into english tezra rima (sp).
If you can stand ye olde englishe (or find some prose or modern translation) could give the Faerie Queene a try.
This is tough on short notice.
I own a really nice edition of Dante's Inferno, which Ive read 3 times, and Ill check out the other one, thanks alot Mert.
Found some of my old Lovecraft lying around, started reading em again.
goddamn that fucker was so far ahead of his time.
Shadow out of Time, omnomnomnom
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Book_Cover.jpg
Love this book!
Just finished the Alera books. Damn fine, though reading them all back to back, the finale loses bang due to awesome fatigue.
just finished the bhagavad gita. good stuff.
I think that is a normal response. If you are in line with his rant on life/society and/or you have sympathy or angst for his characters, his tired over-stated opinions and extremely basic vocabulary become comedy gold. If you feel distanced from the characters or narrative, his writing becomes like fingernails on a chalkboard. His approach to writing means that highly critical comments can be made about him. Almost anyone holds the vocabulary that he has, and he doesn't often paint pictures with adjectives, preferring to rely on gimmicks and recurring "choruses."
Basically, for me, everything after Choke was pretty much downhill. Rant was boring, Lullaby was overdone and tired, Diary was well-written but bland in narrative and characters, and I've not picked up Pygmy, due to lack of enthusiasm...
Survivor was a great book, Choke is probably my favourite of them, Fight Club is 100% win, Invisible Monsters was agitating and far-fetched, but the societal rant was worth it.
I thought Pygmy was absolutely horrid. Now onto the Alera series.
Spoiler: show
Well, hopefully Jim will be starting his Sci-fi series after Changes is finished to fill the Alera void.
Spoiler: show
I've been reading the "Kingdom of Thorn and Bone" series by Gregory Keyes. It's one of those epic saga fantasy series but not as bogged down as "Wheel of Time" or "Song of Ice and Fire". The writing is quite good and the characters and storyline are well done. The action moves along at a nice pace. The books aren't massive 800 page books too.
The first one is "The Briar King"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rKingCover.jpg
Book two is called "The Charnel Prince". Book three is "The Blood Knight". The final volume is "The Born Queen".
It's also a bit of an alternative history for real life as well, but that's very very minor (at least in the first three books, I've not read the last yet).
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On Exile. Been years since I've read them and I'm loving it all over again.
Currently :-
Ravenor: The Omnibus
Another Warhammer 40K - Tales of the Inquisition set, by Dan Abnett
Looking forward to reading :-
The complete chronicles of Conan: Centenary edition (Hardcover)
MMmmmmmmmmmm
At-swim-two-birds by Brain O'Nolan (Flann O'Brian)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Bamp
Anywho, just finished Ellison's Invisible Man, loved it. I thought of The Stranger a bit while reading it, especially the prologue and last chapter/epilogue.
Have downtime from reading in class, getting reacquainted with my complete works of Poe anthology.