TSF Book Club

pommiebastard

Cheers, doffing my cap in your directions. x

taniwharugby

[quote name='Cactus Jack']I have read Empire Of Silver . I thought it was the last of the Conqueror series , I had not heard about a fifth book but I will certainly be going out to find it at lunchtime today . Cheers Bones .[/QUOTE] 
 
Have procured me a copy of the Wolf of the Plains (appears to be book 1 of the Conquerer series) so looking forward to getting stuck into this once I finish Game of Thrones.

Crucial

[quote name='taniwharugby']Have procured me a copy of the Wolf of the Plains (appears to be book 1 of the Conquerer series) so looking forward to getting stuck into this once I finish Game of Thrones.[/QUOTE] 
 
You will want to get Book 2 lined up fairly quickly. Top series.

taniwharugby

of which one? 
 
A song of Ice and Fire or Conquerer, given both I mentioned were book 1 <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />

Nepia

Can we change the thread title to the TSF Fantasy Nerd book club please? <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> 
 
I keep coming back for recommendations and it's all fantasy, fantasy, and fantasy. Grrrr. 
 
Just finished reading Michael J Fox's semi biography (the 2nd one) mostly about Parkinsons disease, it's a good quick read and you learn some interesting stuff about the disease and how it effects the sufferers. It also has an insight into US politics around research.

Tim

Nepia, read [I]Eleven Kinds of Loneliness[/I] by Richard Yates, and [I]The Moviegoer[/I] by Walker Percy. Both were excellent and were influences on Matthew Weiner.

Nepia

[quote name='Tim']Nepia, read [I]Eleven Kinds of Loneliness[/I] by Richard Yates, and [I]The Moviegoer[/I] by Walker Percy. Both were excellent and were influences on Matthew Weiner.[/QUOTE] 
Cheers - I'm off to get Eleven Kinds of Loneliness from the library now - the library doesn't have The Moviegoer.

Tim

Cool, enjoy. [I]Builders[/I] is one of my favorite short stories.

taniwharugby

[quote name='Nepia']Can we change the thread title to the TSF Fantasy Nerd book club please? <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> 
 
I keep coming back for recommendations and it's all fantasy, fantasy, and fantasy. Grrrr. 
 
Just finished reading Michael J Fox's semi biography (the 2nd one) mostly about Parkinsons disease, it's a good quick read and you learn some interesting stuff about the disease and how it effects the sufferers[B]. It also has an insight into US politics around research[/B].[/QUOTE] 
 
isnt every book that is not fact based essentially fantasy? 
 
Now you sound like the nerd!!

Nepia

[quote name='taniwharugby']isnt every book that is not fact based essentially fantasy? 
 
Now you sound like the nerd!![/QUOTE] 
I don't dispute I'm a nerd, just not a fantasy nerd! 
 
I'm talking about fantasy as a [I]genre[/I]!

taniwharugby

I realise that, nerd! 
 
there are others mentioned not in the fantasy genre though <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />

Crucial

Nepia, the Khan and Caesar books are far closer to historical fiction than fantasy . They may take licence with events but are great stories.

Nepia

Grrr! I didn't say all were - just that there seems to be lots! Stop picking on me <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />.

Mokey

[quote name='Kehua o Jury']I don't know if this would be everyone's cup of tea, but Mrs Jury bought a book called Wulf Hall. I saw the title, picked it off the book shelf and started reading it. I thought she must have got some fantasy fiction that I hadn't heard of. Anyways, it's about Cromwell's rise to power under the Tudors. It's written from Cromwell's point of view and when Henry first meets Anne Boleyn. I really enjoyed it and I thought the writer did well because ... well, we all know how it turns out, but I give her props for writing events as they unfolded from Cromwell's point of view without letting future events cloud the work. 
 
There's going to be a sequel and I'll grab it. If you like historical fiction, this might interest you.[/QUOTE] 
 
I havent read that, but someone else recommended it so I must get onto it. Felt that way reading Alison Weir's Innocent Traitor (about Lady Jane Grey) even though you know she gets her head lopped off, utterly gripping. Love Tudor books, completely fascinating time period. 
 
Used to read heaps of Regency-era, but not so much now that I write it. Like others, find the military history stuff quite interesting, so in my first book have the hero go to France to rescue a soldier who went missing after the Battle of Bayonne in April 1814. 
 
Talking about military stuff, has anyone read Colin Peel? Written about 25 military thrillers. Met him last weekend at a writers retreat. He's similar to Bob Mayer (met him at a conference in August) in that a lot of his stuff is written from first hand knowledge. Both interesting guys.

BartMan

Colin Peel - thanks mokey - website? sounds like my sort of thing - what era?

Mokey

colindpeel.com 
 
Here's his bio: 
 
Following a career designing weapon systems in the aerospace industries of Europe and North America, and after living in four countries in twelve years, Colin Peel settled in the South Pacific where his reputation was established as a writer of high-concept thrillers for a truly international market. 
 
He is the author of more than twenty books. His work has been translated into six languages and published in ten different countries including Russia. Nearly all his books have been republished, either as paperbacks, large print editions, ebooks or as unabridged audio recordings. 
 
Although many of Peel’s books reflect his experience of working on classified defence projects, his stories range from terrorism and nuclear-testing to gun-running, the heroin business, diamond smuggling and the illegal market for plutonium. 
 
With his wife Julie, he lives on a remote peninsula in the North Island of New Zealand.

red terror

[quote name='Nepia']I tried reading The Great Gatsby and found it tedious ...[/QUOTE] 
 
Gatsby is an easy read. I've read it 5 or 6 times, like Catcher in the Rye, and it gets better with each reading. I don't look at either as anything more than pulp, and from that perspective, both are artistically fabulous.

BartMan

someone a quick synopsis of the Great Gatsby please, and catcher in the rye - two books you always hear about, but are never inclined to read now that you have finished school!!

Crucial

Catcher in the Rye = teenage angst

Nepia

[quote name='red terror']Gatsby is an easy read. I've read it 5 or 6 times, like Catcher in the Rye, and it gets better with each reading. I don't look at either as anything more than pulp, and from that perspective, both are artistically fabulous.[/QUOTE] 
My scorn for The Great Gatsby is more than doubled for Catcher in the Rye. When it first came out I can see how it may have been a good read for the youth of that time but FFS, it's awful (in my opinion), if I ever meet someone named Holden my first inclination will be to punch them square in the face. 
 
I like my pulp as much as the next man. I love Hemingway and find all his stuff easy reads. 
 
Bart: 
Catcher in the Rye: Teenager whining like a bitch for 200 odd pages. 
 
The Great Gatsby I can't help you with as it was too tedious.

The Silver Fern

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