And now for something Totally off topic :)

[Lion of High Park]

I completely agree about the MYTH series. Very clever, very enjoyable reads. I had never heard why the series stopped, but was disappointed that no more books were forthcoming.

As for other titles/authors:

Larry Niven, Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, etc.
Niven/Pournelle, Mote in God's Eyes (an absolute classic), Lucifer's Hammer, Inferno, Footfall, etc.
Kim Stanley Robinson, Red/Green/Blue Mars series, utterly brilliant
Piers Anthony, Xanth series
Arthur C Clarke, pretty well everything he's written
Stephen Donaldson, Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series,
Tolkien, of course
And, just for a fun change of pace, the original Ian Fleming Bond books (so much cooler than the movies)

Just my 0.02$

[Deathstalker]

More non-rambling science fiction/fantasy book meandering/stuff.........bump!!

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"And what the hell would you know about sanity?" demanded Beatrice. "There are depressed lemmings on the edge of cliffs who've got a better grasp on reality than you have. And more common sense."--Simon R. Green 'Deathstalker Rebellion'.

"We are all...the sum of our scars"....(paraphrased) Matt. R. Stover-'Blade of Tyshalle'.

[tesco samoa]

has anyone read the world war in the balance books by turtledove ??

I love reading books. About 1 a week. Mostly history ( military ), scifi and fantasy.

[tesco samoa]

A series I highly recommend is by
David Wingrove

the Chung Kuo series.

8 books. Would make a great movie series.

Has anyone else read it ??

[Mad_Lear]

I'm probably being a little eggheaded here, but anyone here ever read the Iliad by Homer? It's kind of neat to see where some of the heroic tradition which our culture has inherited originally comes from.
Besides, the Iliad is plain fun to read. It's like a greek Version of pro-wrestling, only with better costumes and sharp instruments.
In a good translation its also some of the best damn poetry you'll ever read (it actually manages to maintain the poetry in translation from a different language, no less... amazing when you think about it), so I'd highly recommend it.
Anyway, just another egghead moment from an idealistic english student

[Deathstalker]

I started the Iiliad once, and just like Tolkiens Simarillion I just could not get into it, but hey, that was about 8 years ago, think I might try it again( the Iiliad that is). Reading Michelle West's SunSword books right now, that and just bought the new Star Wars book, that and I have the new Robert Jordan/George R. Martin/Terry Brooks books, but havn't started them yet (really....). Have the first two Chung Kuo books but can't find the rest, will start once I have.



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"And what the hell would you know about sanity?" demanded Beatrice. "There are depressed lemmings on the edge of cliffs who've got a better grasp on reality than you have. And more common sense."--Simon R. Green 'Deathstalker Rebellion'.

"We are all...the sum of our scars"....(paraphrased) Matt. R. Stover-'Blade of Tyshalle'.

[dmm]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mad_Lear:
I'm probably being a little eggheaded here, but anyone here ever read the Iliad by Homer?

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Yep, it's pretty good. But not great. Worth reading but not worth writing a term paper on. Too formalized and unrealistic for my tastes. Homer's Favorites go around killing dozens at a time, and no one on either side has the brains/guts to gang up on them. Of course, that's a stock device in fantasy/myth stories, but authors like Tolkien do a better job of describing how the hero/villian strikes terror into the hearts of his foes, so that no one can stand before him except a comparable villain/hero. The other problem with the Iliad is that almost always the guys getting killed are described briefly (to establish that the hero isn't just killing a bunch of nobodies), and that gets tiresome after a while. It doesn't impress me after 3 or 4 millenia that the guy Achilles is about to spear is the son of some king of a dinky island in the Aegean and some tree sprite. I think it's more like a martial arts movie than pro wrestling, but poetically done. Although come to think of it, there's a lot of childish boasting and ego stuff, and fighting over women, and managers/refs (gods) fixing the matches. The fight scenes are suitably gory, but too brief. You read a whole paragraph about Leomates and then his fight with Achilles is just "brave Achilles's mighty arm shoved a broad spear into his stomach and his intestines spilled out, like thick spaghetti with chunky Ragu."
However, if you skim the boring stuff, the overall effect of the work is very moving.