I have it somewhere in my collection but haven't read it. I was all Shannara in the 90s and haven't touched it since. After I lost my Keyes book (we packed to move for a new job, moved 1/2 our stuff, then the job fell through so we moved back, but some of our boxes of books stayed 600 miles away until just last weekend), I took a business trip for a week and needed something to read. This Shannara book was 3-in-one, hard cover, beautiful map, and $6.50. So I snatched it up. And thus began my re-emergence into Shannara.

My brother has read them all multiple times. He loves them to death. He thinks I'm crazy b/c I'm starting in the middle of the Grianne Ohmsford storyline (I think the book is called Jaarka Ruus or something like that, but I could be wrong :D), but it had enough background to understand and enjoy.

I've picked both of these up but not read them yet. What really worries me is I've read he plans a long series a la Robert Jordan. I seriously hope he's not going to go that route.

I had read that he had thought it might be a 10 book series, but I don't see it going that route. But if it does go that route I honestly would be happy as he is a very good story teller and the two books out are on my short list of books I will read many times (both are over a thousand pages).

Yeah, it still worries me though. I can't see the story, no matter how good it is, having the steam to roll through 9000+ pages and not just becoming bloat. But, it remains to be seen. Hell, if he's really going that far with it, he'll probably die before he finishes... :P

I am afraid that will be mister George RR Martin, that man does everything but write it seems :-/

Oh, he writes... just not A Song of Ice and Fire. Seriously though, this guy does have me worried that he won't finish the series.

Me too, and I sure do want to see how it ends. The first 3 books are excellent books, but the last two were only ok. He keeps taking rabbit trails that are not needed instead of following the primary storyline. The way he writes it will be 7 or 8 books before the story is done and I fear he will not finish like Mr. Jordan didn't finish his.

Star Wars: Outbound Flight: A decent, if disturbing intro to the rest of the Star Wars EU... The disturbing part is that the rest of the entire Star Wars story turns out to be a huge mistake. Not a bad read though.

Bypass Gemini by Joseph Lallo. Decent and really fun Sci-fi. A typical hero-protagonist, a very unique AI, and a raving nutcase/genius. The interactions of them all together are great.

Unstable Prototypes also by Joseph Lallo. A sequel/extension to Bypass Gemini. Also really fun. I got these two from StoryBundle, I decided to reread them because I just picked up the next one in the series. You can guess what my next book will be!

OK Wrong. Terminal Mind by David Walton. Singularity-kinda stuff. It was OK. Maybe I'll read that sequel next!

Wrong again! The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom. It had high points and low points. The protagonist was annoyingly self-centered... but the writing was pretty good. Segments of the book were written as if interviewing several real musicians, and writing from their viewpoint. Lots of different styles in that.

Artificial Evolution Finally got to the third part of the Big Sigma series by Joseph Lallo (above). Not bad. There's another one just released too. Maybe in a bit.

Skykeep A steampunk novel by Joseph Lallo. Yeah I got a bunch of his books, so I'm reading them. It was actually pretty good, sequel to "Free-Wrench" which I believe is free on Amazon. It has some neat premises to it.

The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester. I'm not sure I liked it. It was sandwiched with some very good sci-fi, but the filling was a tedious "Count of Monte Cristo" wannabe. Except less so. Unnecessarily harsh.

Venus Prime book 1 Paul Preuss - It was not bad. Not what I was hoping for... it's a sci-fi mystery, much like Asimov's robot series. A little less clever. I found myself buried in character development a little too much. I already have the second book so I can easily give it another chance.

A little Harry Harrison to cleanse the palate, and back to the bigger novels

Deathworld by Harry Harrison. Whoa, this was great! I thought it was gonna be straight out Space Opera, pulpy stuff but it was a decent (soft) sci-fi story. A planet that seems to be engineered to kill its inhabitants, who are in a daily war against the environment. The ending was great, very balanced.

Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty - A superhero novel. The premise is that there are superheroes, but of vastly differing capabilities and usefulness to their powers. The "Third Wave" are rejects with seriously useless or questionable powers (the title character, Keepsie, when given something, can keep it against any attempt to take it, another can carry any bar tray without spilling or dropping, one can heal - but only one square inch at a time at great energy cost, one can remove and regrow his legs... and then there's Ian... "Feculent Boy"). These find themselves pitted against the real superheroes, who turn out to be incredibly corrupt, and the villains, who you *almost* side with until they turn out to be, well, villainous. A satire/parody that actually carries a little bit of weight.

Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov. I paused half way through, it's a lot of repetition of I, Robot

A Beginner's Guide to Invading Earth by Gerhard Gehrke. Eh. It had a lot of potential but couldn't decide if it was supposed to be a silly book or a real adventure. If it was shorter it would have been better.

Sugar Scars by Travis Norwood. Kinda caught me by surprise. I liked the premise - a virus wipes out most of the population of Earth, and one girl survivor is diabetic and needs to figure out how to get insulin to stay alive. There's a little bit of amateurish writing, but very high quality storytelling.

The Ethical Engineer by Harry Harrison (aka a the magazine version of "Deathworld 2". It definitely wasn't as good as the first Deathworld. Fun but shallow.

The Trouble with Aliens by Christopher Anvil - This collection of short stories was impressive! It started off rather strangely, with a whole story represented entirely in email and radio exchanges. Lots of examples of how aliens could and would be very different than us in unexpected ways. Looking forward to the sequel.

Temporal Contingency by Joseph Lallo - Ok another JL book. I admit I have a problem. Another in the Big Sigma series, with expected hijinks and comedy... but it has a more developed side to it. The characters are growing up.

Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie. I muscled my way through it. I didn't really like it that much. I was expecting something mind-blowing, but it was a pretty simple story, told with some literary gimmicks, and a fair bit too long. Also some strange mid-book obsession with tea (*I think actually at one point the protagonist interrupts her tea-drinking to go drink more tea*).

Ichor Well by Joseph Lallo - a part of his "Free Wrench" steampunk series. He started it as a NaNoWriMo project, I believe, but had to turn it into a real series because of the popularity. It's good fun!

Open Season by C J Box - the first Joe Pickett novel. Wow, what a fantastic book! The suspense was intense, and just got more intense as the book went on. I couldn't put it down.

The Other Eight another Joseph Lallo novelette. This one was about superheroes that have useless powers, and was another NaNoWriMo project. Meh, it was not great, especially when I read a much better book ("Playing for Keeps") on the same topic.

Outlaw by Edward W. Robertson. A new Storybundle space opera. Some space crewers on a ship discover that their captain has turned into a pirate... there is a significant subplot involving FTL travel. This is apparently a sequel to another series he wrote ("Breakers") and it turns out the first three are free at Amazon.

The Martian by Andy Weir - LOVED IT! I was worried that watching the movie would ruin some of the suspense... Well, it does, but it was still gripping, and a real hoot to read.

Exposure by Kathy and Brendan Reichs. Book 4 of the YA Virals series. The series goes from abysmal to entertaining, this is on the stronger side. Still not great literature but fun.

Terminal Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs. The last of the Virals series. You can really tell this is an experienced writer working with a novice. Some passages are quite good but others are incredibly amateurish. Still, a decent YA experience, with a good ending to the series.

Mhhh thank you for the recommendation, from what I've read, it does indeed looks a promising series...

7 books is the plan. And remember that books 4 and 5 weren't part of the original plan (started as a trilogy, expanded to 5 books after the 2nd was split in two so he knew he'll have too much for a single book in what was initially meant to be the 3rd as well), but as he was trying to write what should have been the 4th, set 5 years after the 3rd, he couldn't figure out how to properly integrate the important events of those 5 years, so he eventually decided to write a book to cover that span. Which of course again became two.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Found it oddly mirror's my own kind of warped humor, maybe because i grew up with it or maybe because I walk around with my head in the clouds most of the time anyway.

I wonder if Tim Burton has actually ever read alice in wonderland...

Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert
Children of Dune - Frank Herbert

I tend to get an itch to read this series every couple years, so scratching that itch again. Just started God Emperor of Dune last night after finishing Children.

Think i will actually finishing reading books this year rather than just collecting them... like collecting GOG games hahaha.

Anyways just finished reading "Redshirts" by John Scalzi. And ebook too (my first....still stuck in middle of my first audible novel The Martin :/ )/ . Redshirts is quite entertaining in a geeky way. :).

Elric: The Stealer of Souls, by Michael Moorcock. This is the first volume in a series of reprints that came out a few years ago with the intention of providing restored texts of the Elric stories in publication order, so this has two Elric books in it: The Stealer of Souls, and Stormbringer, which in story chronology are the first and last books in the series.

Stealer of Souls is really a collection of short stories. Elric goes on various adventures and while he's obviously a character designed to break the standard square-jawed hero mold, these are essentially just well-done sword-and-sorcery yarns. Stormbringer is a novel and a bit more ambitious. It has a lot of really vivid imagery, but my complaint about it is that a lot of the action hinges on Elric being a pawn of Fate and I've never been fond of stories built on concepts like that or destiny or prophecies or whatever. At one point in the story, for instance, the villain has Elric dead to rights and he walks away because even he knows Elric is supposed to live so he can continue down whatever plan Fate has laid out for him. Elric often makes "decisions" that are based on other people telling him what he's supposed to be doing because, again, FATE. It's just that kind of story.

Very influential series, though.