Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Cainad (dec.)]

A little over halfway through Dictionary of the Khazars, and I think I've identified what I like so much about it (other than being premium-quality High Weirdness):

It reads like a historical fantasy book written by someone who doesn't read fantasy books. Which, if you consume as much fantasy trash as I do, is incredibly refreshing.

[Chucklemaster]

Reading all sorts of stuff from the Black Wings of Cthulhu anthologies collected and edited by S.T. Joshi. Full of great weird fiction stories. Really inspiring stuff, and the little introductions by Joshi at the beginning of each book are great too.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Reading all sorts of stuff from the Black Wings of Cthulhu anthologies collected and edited by S.T. Joshi. Full of great weird fiction stories. Really inspiring stuff, and the little introductions by Joshi at the beginning of each book are great too.

I should get back to that collection, it didn't really click for me at the time I was reading it.

Joshi is a excellent Lovecraft historian though; the Penguin Classics collections of HPL's stories are LOADED with annotations that made the stories much more enjoyable for a modern reader to appreciate.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
by Susan Wise Bauer

Just now starting it, but it's engaging enough so far. I wanted a more human understanding of history and a better idea of the order of events. Right now covering a chapter about China's Yellow Emperor. There are two more of these that I know of, covering the Classical and Medieval periods. Soon I'll practically have a PhD.

[Chucklemaster]

the Penguin Classics collections of HPL's stories are LOADED with annotations that made the stories much more enjoyable for a modern reader to appreciate.

ooh, nice. I should check those out. There have always been a couple lovecraft stories I could never get fully into because, while his writing sometimes manages to transcend it, his racism gets in the way and pulls things back to mundanity, but reading it with Joshi's commentary would probably help.

[Bird Daughter]

I'm going to read Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Its about some bored editors who create a hoax conspiracy theory.

[Cain]

4 days until The Unholy Consult is released.

Given the last book ended with a nuke going off, I can't wait to see what happens in this one.  I'm expecting the kind of wham ending we saw with The Thousandfold Thought.  As to what that will be...who can say? 

[Cainad (dec.)]

4 days until The Unholy Consult is released.

Given the last book ended with a nuke going off, I can't wait to see what happens in this one.  I'm expecting the kind of wham ending we saw with The Thousandfold Thought.  As to what that will be...who can say?

SHIT I FORGOT IT'S JULY

Well I guess I know what I'm doing when I get back from vacation. I already have bookmarks in three other books that I'm dead-set on finishing soon, but some things are more important.

Huh, on Amazon it says it comes out the 25th? Happy Birthday to me, in any case.

[Cainad (dec.)]

4 days until The Unholy Consult is released.

Given the last book ended with a nuke going off, I can't wait to see what happens in this one.  I'm expecting the kind of wham ending we saw with The Thousandfold Thought.  As to what that will be...who can say?

SHIT I FORGOT IT'S JULY

Well I guess I know what I'm doing when I get back from vacation. I already have bookmarks in three other books that I'm dead-set on finishing soon, but some things are more important.

Huh, on Amazon it says it comes out the 25th? Happy Birthday to me, in any case.

BTW, have you encountered any good sum-ups or analyses of the series so far, especially including the ending of the last book? I need a refresher since I've been filling my brain with Malazan while waiting for these books to come out.

[Cain]

Maybe the Kindle edition is different?  But I'm looking at the order here, and it definitely says July 6th.  Either that or this is a rare case of the UK getting something first...oh, according to this, the publisher is Orbit.  That could make sense, Orbit are UK-based.

For a recap, /r/bakker was doing a chapter by chapter discussion of the series, but when I last checked they were only up to The Thousandfold Thought.  You could always try the official forums as well http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?board=4.0

[Cain]

Also there is the whole "What Came Before..." roundup at the start of the book.  It hits most of the major based, looking at it.

[Cain]

Speaking of which...I'm about a quarter of the way through the book already.  The whole "eating Sranc" thing has ended roughly how I suspected it would.  And the reasons for breaking Proyas have finally become clear.  Sorweel's interaction with the Nonman Amiolas has given him some much needed steel at long last, which is nice to see.  Kelomonas is still inexplicably alive, and though I'm generally opposed to child violence I would not be sad to see him fed to a Inchoroi.

No sign of Meppa yet, which makes me sad.  Meppa is without a doubt the most badass character of the second trilogy.

[Cain]

OK, so, The Unholy Consult.  Wow.  That was an ending.  And then some. 

I really can't say anything without spoilering the shit out of what happened, except I will say Meppa was nowhere to be seen.  So I can only assume he has been secreted away somewhere by Kelhus and has a role to play in the final trilogy.  And as the Last Cishaurim, with power enough to even wow Kelhus, I can't imagine his role being minor.

[Cainad (dec.)]

OK, so, The Unholy Consult.  Wow.  That was an ending.  And then some. 

I really can't say anything without spoilering the shit out of what happened, except I will say Meppa was nowhere to be seen.  So I can only assume he has been secreted away somewhere by Kelhus and has a role to play in the final trilogy.  And as the Last Cishaurim, with power enough to even wow Kelhus, I can't imagine his role being minor.

Yeah, given what Khellus intuited about the Cishaurim at the end of TTT and how the Dunyain couldn't master the Psukhe, I'd expect Meppa to be SOMEONE'S ace in the hole. Either Khellus's or someone else's.

Seeing Khellus having truly run out of Fucks To Give about the crapsack world he lives in is... well, I guess I should have seen it coming, but it's so at odds with the unstoppable force he's painted as in the first trilogy that it's hard to imagine him at the end of his rope, as he seems to be by the end of The Great Ordeal.

TUC is gonna have to wait until I'm back from China and recovered from jet lag, but I am excite.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Thanks to Cain, I have been forced to start this series from the beginning (meaning the first book of the Prince of Nothing series) and now I have a lot of reading ahead of me so I don't appreciate that and Cain should feel bad (and subsidize the cost of these books). But at least I don't have to worry about what I'm going to read next for the next eight years or so.