Joseph’s Comments (group member since Oct 24, 2012)

Joseph’s comments from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.

Clint wrote: "@Joseph, I’m excited this is finally happening. I think Spicy might be my next read."

They've also released Steve Harrison's Casebook and Swords of the North, with The Early Adventures of El Borak coming by the end of the month, I believe. I'm particularly looking forward to when they release the book of Westerns, and when we start getting the boxing stories.

The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press has started releasing its collections as eBooks, so I read Pirate Adventures and started Spicy Adventures.

Reading The Leopard by K.V. Johansen.

Finished the last couple of Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser books (Swords and Ice Magic and The Knight and Knave of Swords) and decided to mix things up with some SF: Alastair Reynolds's Aurora Rising.

After spending almost a month on The Pillars of the Earth, I'm preparing to ... spend almost a month on World Without End.

Dariel wrote: "How did you like the conclusion of the Vis trilogy?"

I liked it! Had Tanith Lee's other best chariot race. Having said which, the linkage to the first two books was even more tenuous -- it's set about 100 years after Anackire, so there aren't any returning characters, and it mostly takes place on a smaller scale than the previous books. But I do recommend it.

It [Children of Hurin] is grimdark AF.

Myself, I'm starting The City of Marble and Blood, which some people here might have heard of ... :)

I finished Anackire and am starting the final book in the trilogy, The White Serpent.

Continuing on with some Tanith Lee, now starting her novel The Storm Lord.

Greg wrote: "The book concerned is The Book of the Damned. Is that one you've read?."

Yes, although not for many years. It's great -- a collection of stories (novelettes? novellas?) set in a sort of alternate version of Paris at various points in its history. Very decadent and gothic.

I only vaguely heard about the name change, but I think it was because they wanted to give themselves a bit of separation from TOR the publisher (since they spend so much time on the website talking about other publishers' books).

Greg wrote: "Were you prompted by the SFWA's recently announced posthumous award to choose Lee for your current read? I have a book of hers that I've been meaning to read for years - maybe I'll start reading that shortly.."

Kind of a confluence of circumstances -- that announcement, and Holly Black name-checking the Flat Earth books in an article up on Reactormag.com (the former Tor.com).

And I love Tanith Lee and the original five Flat Earth books are somewhere in my top five favorite series of all time, so the surprising thing is why I hadn't read this one already.

Which book of hers do you have?

I finished The Book of Ile-Rien: The Element of Fire & The Death of the Necromancer and started The Earth is Flat: Tales from the Flat Earth and Elsewhere, a recent collection of Tanith Lee's heretofore uncollected Flat Earth stories.

Started The Book of Ile-Rien: The Element of Fire & The Death of the Necromancer, Martha Wells' new collection of two of her very early novels.

Started Lysbeth A Tale Of The Dutch by H. Rider Haggard.

And now for something completely different: A Winter Pilgrimage: Being an Account of Travels through Palestine, Italy, and the Island of Cyprus, accomplished in the Year 1900.

Having finished The Crippled God last week, I'm finally finished with Malazan after a mere five months.

I followed it up with a couple issues of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, and have now started Ann Leckie's Translation State

I also read New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine: Issue #1 and New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine: Issue #2 and enjoyed them both, some stories obviously more than others.

Jason M wrote: "Joseph, NBNY is on Goodreads now, but seems to be in 3 versions? Two without covers and a 3rd with. I think that's the actual Kindle one which is in pre-order, and I've shelved that one."

I just combined them so all editions should be linked now.

Oh, my, it's been a while, hasn't it? But it's a long-established tradition that we start every year by reading anthologies old & new, so: Read away!

New anthologies might include, but are certainly not limited to:

Neither Beg Nor Yield: Stories with S&S Attitude
New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine: Issue #1
Tales from the Magician's Skull #10
A Book of Blades: Rogues in the House Presents
Any of the many anthologies DMR has been putting out

As for classic anthologies, well, there are entirely too many to even scratch the surface, but I'd mention:

Flashing Swords! #1
Swords Against Darkness
Swords and Sorcery


What are you going to read? Myself, I still have about 1500 pages of Malazan in the docket, but I'm hoping to finish that in time to at least start an anthology before the end of February ...

On to Memories of Ice.