Mangler's awesome book thread.

[Vaen]

Halfway through The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and digging it a lot so far. The series (The Broken Earth Trilogy) is pretty well-reviewed and I'm stoked for the second book already.

[Alaina]

Since Islington's second book won't be out until June, I went and picked up the second book of the new Michael Sullivan series "The Legends of the First Empire."

The first book Age of Myth was really good, and the second is called Age of Swords

I just keep shuffling between newer fantasy series, so it's a waiting game for the subsequent books to come out.

[Jael]

I got halfway through Feists Magician and decided it was a novel representation of his last D&D campaign. Unreadable imo.

Just started Prince of Nothing and immediately breathed a sigh of relief, even if his writing is slightly pretentious the plot line so far is far more engaging and characters seem better thought out.

I loved the first three Mistborn and was enjoying Stormlight Archive until the latest because by the end I was utterly confused as to how all the factions and competing interests interrelated to be honest lol.

[Vaen]

I got halfway through Feists Magician and decided it was a novel representation of his last D&D campaign. Unreadable imo.

The first trilogy (which gets a little better by Silverthorn) is worth getting through just to get to the Krondor's Sons duology (A Prince of the Blood and The King's Buccaneer) and the Serpentwar Saga tetralogy which Krondor's Sons sets up. That six book stretch is far and away Feist at his best. The second book in the Serpentwars (Rise of a Merchant Prince) is up there as one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. He falls off pretty quickly after the Serpentwars though.

Also, funny thing about your D&D comment -- that's almost precisely what it was, and published in 1982, it may be one of the first still-around and still-read novels to do that.

From: Raymond E. Feist
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995

In 1975 or so, I fell into a game with some friends at an apartment off campus (UCSD). It was called "D&D" but it wasn't. By the time I came aboard, they'd already tossed most of the original rules as being "dumb" and replaced them with "house rules" which we got on xeroxed sheets. If you're old enough to remember the original white box of D&D, you'll understand how incomprehensible most of the rules were. Anyway, Midkemia was original a bunch of unrelated dungeons, but by the time I came aboard, they had started running overlands from dungeon to dungeon. We got into keeping "real time" and having the DM keep the character sheets. That eliminated a character being run in multiple-dungeons at the same time (common in D&D back then) or suddenly showing up with massive treasure and weapons while still in another dungeon (also common) and other irritating stuff along those lines. Cities were begun as a place to do stuff between adventures, and became environments of their own. It was Conan LaMont who coined the name "Midkemia" and he said he had no idea what it meant--he just liked the sound. The environment has evolved for over 20 years now, with tens of thousands of hours of creation by dozens of people.

From: Stephen Abrams
Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996

The first 'true' Midkemia game/campaign started in 1976. It was mostly composed of a group of University of California, San Diego, students and graduate students. At it's most active (early to mid 80's), there were as many as 12 active GMs, each controlling and developing pieces of the world, varying from single Cities (and 'dungeons') to entire continents (like Ray's Novindus). There are a handfull of groups out there that got seeded with rules (mostly by someone leaving San Diego and starting a new group). Local role-playing has unfortuneately taken a backseat to work and raising families but we're working on a new 'adventure' as we 'speak'. I guess I could be called the 'original GM' with Jon Everson #2 (you know, Abramsev and Evdem [no, we didn't make up the names, just got pasted with them]).

[Arkan]

I loved the first three Mistborn and was enjoying Stormlight Archive until the latest because by the end I was utterly confused as to how all the factions and competing interests interrelated to be honest lol.

The fact that the last Stormlight also has appearances by people from a few other books in the cosmere is probably partly why you are thrown off. Also, even knowing all those other books well, it is easy to get confused. I've read most of Sanderson's stuff twice, so that helps, but even so, I might use google to help. It's actually pretty clear, it's just difficult to keep it all remembered and sorted in your head.

[Ragyn]

I liked the prince of nothing series a lot, though the ending left me wanting for something more, but all in all it was pretty good. Also will echo whoever mentioned Dan Simmons, best sci fi books I've ever read, really like how he draws on "real life" litterature and philosophy. Absolutely loved the whole Endymion/Hyperion/Illium(Olympus?) series.

[Arkan]

Dan Simmons has some great stuff. Just don't read anything after like 2010 He turns a little... disappointing.

[ecthus]

Some reads since last update on here:

Fossil Capital by Andreas Malm. Great history of the transition from water to coal power, and the motivations behind it (controlling labor.)

Palma Africana by Michael Taussig. Wild anthropology book about palm trees, swamps, and paramilitary violence in Colombia.

The Shape of Things to Come by H.G. Wells. A history of the future written in in the 1930s. Early part interesting, gets pretty tedious.

Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said. About connections between politics and artistic production, mostly between imperialism and fiction. Very good.

The Last Man by Mary Shelley. After her husband and all her friends died, Mary Shelley wrote a novel about a plague wiping out humanity. Good but long and less readable than Frankenstein.

Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss. Anthropology book from the 1950s, supposedly about indigenous tribes in Brazil, but has the whole world in it.

Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor. Victorian novel about a cult of murderers in India. Really good if you want to read 500 pages of murder.

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. A guy isn't special but feels like he should be, and it makes him angry.

Ice by Anna Kavan. Trippy sci-fi from the 1950s about the earth freezing over.

The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. Sequel to Three Body Problem. First time in a while I've stayed up until after 3am to finish a book.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Steampunk novel about poisonous vapors that turns Seattle into a bunch of zombies. The characters kind of drive me nuts, but I'll pick up the next book in the series.

In the Days of the Comet by H.G. Wells. A comet comes by earth and turns everyone into freaky free-love socialists.

Tono Bungay by H.G. Wells. A guy and his uncle sell quack medicine, make a lot of money, then lose it.

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard. British explorers try to find their lost brother, find a lost nation in the middle of Africa instead, overthrow the king.

[isabel]

Now do a Said-ian analysis of King Solomon's Mines!

[ecthus]

Now do a Said-ian analysis of King Solomon's Mines!

Think it's been done already

Am I the only one reading books this summer?! Some more I've finished recently.

Ecology and Socialism by Chris Williams, and This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein. Very similar books. Klein's is newer and more comprehensive, but much longer. Both deal with politics, business, and climate change--or really how capitalism is at the heart of our present an future climate catastrophes. For me, the irony is that those who are against "big government" and environmental regulations are paving the way for massive government intervention.

I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki. Classic Japanese novel narrated by a cat who hates people. Pretty fun, but kind of exhausting after 500 pages.

The Sin of Abbe Mouret by Emile Zola. Priest gets sick, loses his memory, has erotic adventures in a garden.

A few months ago I read two by Amitav Ghosh that were really good. Think I posted on here but the forum crash ate it up:

First, the Hungry Tide. Marine biologist goest to the Sundarbans in India to look for dolphins.

Second, the Great Derangement. Ghosh tries to figure out why we've done nothing about climate change in spite of knowing for a long time what's going on, and in spite of its clear and present dangers. He also tries to figure out how novels have led us to this impasse.