Amph What book are you reading right now?

Halfway through the DD audiobook. Not sure why all the hate? Is it because the story is simple? Is it because Vos is a "Jedi Duuuuude"? Is it because it's based on an unused script?

I am not sure.

 

Still going strong on my trip through Safehold. On bk 7 now. Bout 300 pgs in

 

Let me know if anything unexpected happens.

 

Will do

 

Reading God Emperor of Dune is probably the closest you can get to feeling what it was like to be part of Elvis' entourage during his final days.

It's a tricky read, and a slog at times, but there's merit and value to it as well, and I think if you've read Dune, Messiah and Children, you owe it to yourself to finish the Atreides arc.

 

Going to start the final book in John Jackson Miller's Prey series for Star Trek this evening. First two weren't bad, especially if you like Klingons.

 

Dark Force Rising by Zahn

 

I'm about to start New Jedi Order: Vector Prime

 

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places switched out with Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth (an older book examining the Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent into the Underworld)

I'll probably start going back and trying to re-read some of the older EU books after these two are done. I lost interest somewhere between COPL and that one with Waru, God Sucker of the Universe.

 

For years I've had the first three volumes of the Essential Fantastic Four but never read them. So I'm reading volume one.

 

The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. The first book by Ron Chernow, one of the best biographers working today, it traces the history of the Morgan financial firms from their foundation up to the book's publication in 1990. Chernow uses the Morgans as a vehicle to explore changes in the banking sector overall, from before the Civil War through the Gilded Age, the interwar years, and the postwar transformation of the corporate economy. He doesn't get too lost in the weeds of financial jargon, rarely pausing to explain financial concepts that don't seem immediately relevant to the narrative. This can be, at different times, both strength and weakness for a reader like me who isn't an expert in finance. Chernow, who worked on Wall Street in the eighties, has an agreeably ambiguous position; he respects Morgans' accomplishments and isn't reflexively hostile to banks, but he's willing to be critical, especially of the increasing risk-taking of the seventies and eighties. He's also a capable biographer of the big personalities of the bank's early years, sketching portraits of Pierpont and Jack Morgan and the powerful Morgan partners of the early twentieth century that are sympathetic to their appealing qualities without overlooking their flaws, and reveals them as well-meaning, often quite honorable men rather than plundering plutocrats. Chernow really gets at some layered, complex characters, and makes Jack Morgan an especially fascinating figure. It's a huge book, but continually fascinating and Chernow's writing is vivid and readable. My only major complaint is that I'd actually have liked it to be longer, as it moves through the nineteenth century quite quickly to get to the post-Pierpont material that hasn't been covered as much by Pierpont biographies.

 

Finishing; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization by Alexander Freed. Freed (Star Wars: Battlefront - Twilight Company) is a strong writer totally in his element. Here he's able to flesh out the characters more than they were in the movie and there's a stronger cohesion to the first two acts as well. If you liked the movie, but felt it a bit thin in those areas, this comes recommended. - 7/10

About to begin; The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I made a rather halfhearted attempt to read this about ten years ago, but now I feel much more in the mood for such an undertaking.

 

Juke Skywalker, have you seen the old Disney animated film The Sword in the Stone? The first volume of Once and Future King inspired the movie and reads like a kid's book IMO, but there is a great deal of more mature material in the other volumes.

 

Sarge, no I haven't. Or at least I don't recall having watched it. I've never been a big Disney fan (ironic isn't it?), and typically avoid(ed) their animated stuff as much as I could. I may have caught snatches over the years, but not the whole thing. Might give it a go when I finish the book, though.

I've heard that about the first volume, and that's my memory of it from my aborted read of it a decade or so ago. I actually toyed with the idea of starting with The Queen of Air and Darkness, but I think I owe it to the story to start at the start.

 

Reheated Cabbage by Irvine Welsh. I've always been a huge Irvine Welsh fan. Thought I'd pick this up.

 

The first book, The Sword in the Stone, is deliberately silly and lighthearted, and lacking the darker stuff the later books bring in. I enjoyed The Witch in the Wood and The Ill-Made Knight more than the first book (I've yet to read books 4&5) and recommend you don't allow yourself to be put off because book 1 feels like its aimed at children - so far I think it's one of the best retelling of the Arthurian legend I've read.

 

Slightly off t. but do we have a nucanon only book thread?

 

Have you looked in the SW Lit forum?

 

Thank you good friend Sarge. JCF is Yuge! I've only scratched the surface despite being here over a year!

 

Yeah, I've kinda steeled myself for that. It's not unlike The Hobbit in that way.

Have you read Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy (Under the banner The Warlord Chronicles; Book #1 The Winter King, #2 Enemy of God, #3 Excalibur)? Seems like I bring this trilogy up in this thread once a month, but to me it's the single best adaptation of the legend I've read or seen... Unless you count King Arthur and the Knights of Justice.

 

Yes, read them when they first came out. I enjoyed them, but they were a bit too gritty and anti-legend for me, really. I did like several aspects of them, such as the inclusion of the thirteen treasures, but I'm never too keen on sidelining Arthur, which the trilogy does in order to focus on Cornwell's own character of Derfel Cadarn.

One of my favourite novels featuring Arthur is the bizarre Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers, where an Irish mercenary in the 16 century is recruited to be a bouncer at a tavern. Lots of fencing and Arthurian lore, and a dash of horror.

The Merlin books by Mary Stewart are also very good, though obviously the focus on Merlin.

 

soitscometothis I'm usually not for the whole strip away the legend and make it "real" approach, but in this case (and in the case of David Gemmell's Troy trilogy), I thought it was exceptionally well done (and sly as well, as Cornwell never full exposes the magic as being fraudulent). I liked the idea of telling the story through the eyes of a side character, and I think Arthur works best observed rather than inhabited.

I'll have a look at those you recommended. I'm always on the lookout for suggestions.

 

Itching to pick up Cook's Black Company now. It's my next project after Safehold but I want to start it already.

 

Stormbringer, by Michael Moorcock

Listening to the audiobook of Terry Pratchett's Pyramids.

 

Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark