Metal Reviews

Well yeah, but would it be more enjoyable for me to read one before the other? Thanks to the movies, I already knew the basic outline of the trilogy, all the plot twists, the ending, among a few other things. I know that "The Silmarillion" has a section on the history of what happened in "The Children of Hurin", but I don't know how that one is going to end. I guess what I'm wondering is how much enjoyment you got from reading "The Children of Hurin", because of the section in "The Silmarillion" that is devoted to it, which would reveal the plot and how it concludes. Was it still "fun" for you, even though you pretty much knew what was going to happen?

Yes, it was, but I have a rather different attitude towards plot than most- while I never seek out spoilers (since plot without writing is not good) and am always happy to see something well done thats also new, I somewhat believe in the Greek tradition; that the originality of the story doesn't matter, so long as its written well). From that perspective, I could still enjoy Hurin, since it was more elaborately written and more detailed- 200 pages instead of 35. If you want the originality of the story, then read the Children of Hurin first; that way only 35 pages of the Silmarillion will be old ground instead of 200).

Just finished The Portable Henry Rollins. It's a collection of excerpts from all his books and it was pretty good. All of the stories about his time from Black Flag were awesome especially when he talked about beating the shit out of people. It was funny, brutal and awesome.

Brothers by Blood

coming up:

Hùrins children
Turbonegro - the saga about the denim people

Finished that one (srsly, read it if you haven't). Now reading Paul William Roberts's A River in the Desert, it's about Egypt. Egypt is teh kool.

Read 1984 over the weekend. Good, although i'm sure it would have been more frightening reading it before 1984

Finished Knife of Dreams...really good but it took me way too long to read...anyways, not sure what to read next o_0. Might pick up the next book in A Song of Ice and Fire...

The Interpretation of Murder, by Jed Rubenfeld.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Interpretation- ... 448&sr=8-1

Almost finished Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake.

finished A Clash of Kings (ASoIaF 2) last night. it kicked ass, except for all the goddamn dream sequences.

i'm starting A Storm of Swords today, i hope i'm not disappointed (i doubt i'll be).

Hhmm I remember hearing about this from somebody. Is it good? Can you give some good and some bad points ? Like who might like it and who won't.
If I'm not mistaken this is the second book from Peake. Is it a sequential trilogy that one needs to read in order ?

You will like this if:
Brilliant imagery and fantasy of manners are your thing. It is set in a place that could be real, but the things that people do are out of this world. By my definition, this is real fantasy. It is a very dense book, and very beautiful.

You will hate this if:
You require magic powers, elves, explosions and such to make books entertaining. You may have to read the book with a dictionary handy as some obscure words will be used. Everything except people's behaviour is mundane. The action is also a little slow.

Titus Groan is the first book, and you absolutely must read the books in order because Steerpike's actions are very long-term and elaborate. If you miss the first book you will not understand much of the second.

Agreed X 1000. The first two books in the least (I haven't read Titus Alone yet- I plan to, though I hear that its extremely cracked out due to Peake being mentally ill when he wrote it) are fantastic and equal to Tolkien. Steerpike is one of the greatest villains in all literature and clearly a prototype for further fantasy "villains," such as Martin's Littlefinger. The atmosphere is completely amazing, the other characters well drawn, and the books darkly hilarious and ingeniously written.

Been a while since I've updated my reading status:

Am now reading:

Flavius Josephus- The Jewish War
Mark Kishlanshky- A Monarchy Transformed
George RR Martin- Dreamsongs Volume 1 (a collection of Martin's short stories, most of which are fantastic)

Ok I'm sold. I will reserve the first book at my library tomorrow. Thinking about it now, I might have heard of this book for the first time from a comment by Brahm in the past. It's either this or it's included in the Fantasy Masterworks series which I doubt...

Roger Zelazny - The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth story collection.

Dostoyevsky - The Double

Stephen King : The Mist

I know I'll never get to see the movie until it hits DVD, so I picked up the novella this evening.

Topics About Which I Know Nothing, by Patrick Ness.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Topics-About-Wh ... 890&sr=8-1

I hate starting to read a book, thinking it's a novel, then finding out it's a short story collection. You need a completely different mindset.

Heh, I remember this one. This was the first Stephen King book I've read and the first book I've ever rented from a library with my own card. It must have been 15 years ago or so! I remember speding a few weeks at my grandparents' house, in the middle of nowhere, just reading this book and listening to Ozzy Osbourne and Iron Maiden non-stop for a week or so!
Anyway, this book impressed me greatly then. Other Stephen King books later did not have that impact on me but maybe it's because I got used to his style. But one thing it did teach me, that music is very important in setting the atmosphere while reading something. In my mind, Ozzy's "Waiting For Darkness" song will be forever attached to that book!

Just finished "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin...my thoughts are still kind of mixed on this one. It was a pretty good read and very well-written, but I don't think I would say that it's a classic like it's supposed to be. Maybe at the time it was written it was very influential...but whatever. Good, solid book...and really short.

Will now start A Feast for Crows by Martin.