Finished Midnight Tides this morning. Loving the Malazan books. Have a few more on my shelf but I have a few of the novellas on order and want to read them before I move on. Until then I am going with another Hamilton book, Narcissus In Chains. Brainless vamp fantasy. Not bad but not top shelf either. Just a breather from the heavies until they show up on my doorstep. Speaking of which, Martins newest should show up today. Looking forward to that read.

Finished House of Chains and started Midnight Tides. I'll have to make a trip to the bookstore soon. Only have Bonehumters left on the shelf in the Malazan series.

I did pick up Pillars of the Earth at a library sale this weekend. Brand new copy too. Binding hasn't even been broken. Lots of people seem to have enjoyed it so I figured why not. Worst case I'm out fifty cents and a little time.

Anyway, loving the Malazan stuff so I'll stick with that for now.

 

Deadhouse Gates (Book 2) and Memories of ice (Book 3) are mind blowingly awesome. I was on the fence after Gardens of the Moon as well, but the two next books sealed the deal for me.

I agree. I am reading House of Chains now and it too is awesome. There is a huge cast of characters in this series but it comes back to a core of those in each book.

The overall storyline is vast as well. The planning that must have gone into the creation of this series is impressive.

A little warning. While Deadhouse Gates was truly epic, the cast is almost entirely defferent, as are the locations. Don't let that stop you though. Your patience will be rewarded. Memories of Ice comes back to the original cast and answers some questions from the first two books.

Do yourself a favor and read on.

Polished off Memories of Ice last night. About to start House of Chains. MoI was great. Not sure if I liked Deadhouse Gates better or MoI. Both were fantastic. Hope HoC isn't a let down.

Finished Deadhouse Gates (finally) and started Memories of Ice. DG was fantastic. Once I found the time to sit down with it I couldn't put it down. Hope MoI is the same.

So after deciding to put aside Piers Anthony's A spell for Chameleon due to readers block or whatever you want to call it I ended up finishing it. It really wasn't bad. Just very basic, shallow let's say. Kind of a fantasy kiddie pool. Nice to dangle your feet to cool off but just isn't as satisfying as diving in to the deep end. Saw in the back that the book won the August Derleth Fantasy Award(first I had heard of it)for best novel of 1977. Makes me glad we have such a fine array of fantasy lit out there now that is new and engaging.

Anyway, I have begun Deadhouse Gates. Only gotten through the prologue but daaammmnn! Gruesome scene with the dude sawing the noble head off a lady with the prisoners chains he is in and then throwing it into the crowd. Awesome! Can't wait to read more.

I just can not get into the Xanth book. Maybe some other tme. I haven't given up on a book in, well, I don't remember how long it's been. I am going to put it away and get on to The Deadhouse Gates.

 

 

Mate, do yourself a favor and keep on with Malazan Book of the Fallen.

I will return after I complete Xanth 1. Shouldn't take long. I discovered once I got into this book all I wanted to do was read more Malazan. Can't stop in the middle though.

Just finished Gardens of the Moon. Great book! I was thinking of starting The Deadhouse Gates but decided to ease off a little and started A spell For Chameleon, by Piers Anthony. I have something like a dozen of these Xanth books. Figured I'd knock a few off before continuing with Malazan.

Finished Bearers of the Black Staff(Terry Brooks). Starting Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. See the Malazan Book of the Fallen series recommended all the time, although i've seen somewhat mixed reviews. Recieved the first four for christmas and figured I'd start.

Finished The Way of Kings this morning. Loved it. Looking forward to the next chapter. 9 more books, at least. I'm in for the long hall. Next up is a new Terry Brooks book, Legends of Shannara, Bearers of the Black Staff. Looks like another subset of Shannara series that takes place after the The Genesis of Shannara trilogy(very good) and before First King of Shannara(ok stand alone). Should be a quick read.

Finished Elantris. Loved it. Thought it was original. As much as I like epics I liked that this was a one book deal. Started Way of Kings this morning. So far, so food. Like with all big stories there is a lot of initial information to absorb and a little confusion. Once that soaks in I think I will enjoy it greatly.

Finished ToM. Good book. The whole whacky timeline thing took a little getting used to but I enjoyed it greatly. On to Brandon Sandersons Elantris for now. Like it so far. Only 70 pages in.

Matt, Moiraine, Egwene, Nynaeve, Lan, Verin, Thom, Rand, Perrin, Birgitte. Honorable mention to Min, Tam, Rhuarc, and Aviendha.

Finally started Towers of Midnight. Lot of Perrin so far. Mat just escaped the Gholam. Galad is more annoyingly righteous than ever. Rand seemed very zen in his appearance at the tower. Anyway, hope to finish ToM this week and move on to WoK.

Christmas was good to me. Not sure where to start for new reads. Got TOM, WOK, first four Malazan books, and a handfull of Xanth novels. Need to finish L.K. Hamiltons Blue Moon first and then probably TOM(duh).

Currently I am reading:

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Warlord by Jennifer Fallon

The Oddysey by Homer

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin and

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

I've slimmed down the number I'm reading a bit, as you can see.

Slimmed down, . Thought you needed a break , did you?

A little embarassed by this but i've been reading Laurell K. Hamiltons Anita Blake series. Actually not too bad. Very quick reads. Fast paced with a lot of action. If christmas doesn't get here soon I'm going to end up reading them all. I really want to move on to TOM and WOK.

So finished my reread of Harry Potter. Very enjoyable. Has a satisfying finish to as well. Kind of in limbo now as far as my next reads with christmas coming. I know there will be books coming my way including Way Of Kings and Towers Of Midnight. In the meantime, I don't know what I'll be reading. Maybe some more light stuff. I have a few Brian Jaques books I have not gotten to yet. I could go a little heavier with Mists of Avalon. Been meaning to read that for quite awhile. I think I started it and got sidetracked by something else. Been tempted to give The Hobbit another go. It has been like 20 years since I read it last. Guess I'll just stare at my bookshelf until I get inspired.

I'm currently reading:

Warrior by Jennifer Fallon

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

Red Seas Under Red skies by Scott Lynch

Doctor Who - Ghost Light by Marc Platt

The Battle for Singapore by Peter Thompson

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Mark of Ran by Paul Kearney.

I know it seems a lot, but if you were reading Goodkind you'd want to have a lot of other books on the go as well, to help you deal with the pain.

MR Ares is my Hero.

 

wait until you get to The Half Blood Prince. if you think there were differences in the movie vs book for GoF, HBP will be painful. very much so

I know. I am glad I read the books before seeing the movies though. The problem is I read them once, and i've seen the movies countless times do to constant play on tv and my wifes love for watching the DVDs. So I had forgotten the differences and the film versions kind of took over in my head. Now that I am reading them again it's almost like reading them for the first time. So many things I had forgotten and were left out of the movies. Or lot's of things that were just plain different. Each book gets further from it's film as the series goes on. Won't be surprised at all when I get to HBP. OotP is a lot different too.

Have to wait for Way of Kings. The wife has started her x-mas shopping and has probably already packed it away to be wrapped. If I were to read it before then she'd murder me. So, on to Harry Potter book 5, The Order of the Phoenix. This reread of the HP series has been interesting. First, because of my familiarity with the movies at this point and the differences that I never noticed or remembered from ny first read to first viewing of the films. And second, because I find myself genuinely excited about turning the pages now. Didn't expect that. Just figured I'd do the reread to kill some time. Didn't expect to be so into it.

On to book four of the Harry Potter series, The Goblet of Fire. Noticing a lot of differences now, and I worry about the upcoming HBO Series based on the G.R.R. Martin books. How much will be cut or changed to fit production on the screen? It reminds me of the tv series based on The Sword of Truth books. I know there are a lot of haters on here but the books were sooo much better than the Legend of the Seeker show. In the Harry Potter case I'm not sure the differences really hurt but what if they screw too much with Game of Thrones? Is this series a reprodction of the written story or will it be loosely based on it instead? Just don't want to see the story ruined by producers and directors.

Waiting for ToM, rereading Harry Potter series. Light reading. Funny how ingrained the movies become. The books are different but I had forgotten how much. I've only read the series once but have seen the films numerous times. The story is the same but the details...not so much. Oh, BUMP!

Finished A feast of Crows and moved on to Dune: House Atreides for now.  Someone I work with saw I was reading a Dune book and recommended Asimov's Foundation.  Anyone else read it?  Generaly, I don't get into scifi, but this person said if I liked Dune that this would be enjoyable too.  Any thoughts?