The Greatest Knight, by Thomas Asbridge
It's the life of William Marshal...really good.

Also read Hawkwood - Diabolical Englishman, by Frances Saunders.
It's the life of John Hawkwood, the medieval mercenary leader.

I've been reading a fair amount, but much of it hasn't been very noteworthy. A few back issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, which I get from a friend in big bags every couple of years; a bunch of bundle books which, like many bundle games, are good but not great, and they fade from memory. Some of the catch:

Salvage and Demolition, by Tim Powers - Pretty good; it's an entertaining time-travel novella. I have the sense it wants to be a movie. I'd like to read his more substantive stuff.

I Travel by Night, by Robert McCammon - Everybody's got to be a vampire these days. In this case we're in New Orleans in the late 19th century, and though bitten our hero has not gone over to human blood. *sigh* I am mostly sick of vampires. This was pleasant enough, and short - a novella, really.

Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk - Chuck Palahniuk, in my experience, writes two kinds of books: fascinating ones, and ones that make you wonder who wrote this and where Chuck Palahniuk has got to. This was the first kind, about a put-upon artist struggling through her days on Waytansea Island. Kinda. It's very strange and uncomfortable, as a Palahniuk book should be.

Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines - The first volume of the Magic Ex Libris series, it's a clever, cheeky take on the whole modern fantasy genre. The lead is a Libriomancer, a magic user who can manifest items from books (within limits), and who works with the Porters, a council of mages who keep the peace among various supernatural populations. Monsters manifest according to literary trends, in this world, and the first vampires we meet are glittery ones, of the species Sanguinarius meyerii. That's Stephanie Meyer vampires, from the Twilight series. Set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and busting with character and references, it's a smart and interesting book, and I think I may continue with the series.

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner - I saw the movie on On-Demand, and for a YA adaptation it struck me as interesting - far better than Divergent or The Giver, not as good as Hunger Games but not that far off. So I picked up the first two books - I'm in the middle of the second one now. They're good; he's not a graceful writer, but his story works, though it's a little fetishy with violence and misery. The movie had a particularly brilliant conception of the Maze, and the changes made in putting the book on screen were huge and wisely chosen. The book didn't grab me right away, but eventually it got its hooks in.

And finally, after taking a few months, I finished two books today. The first is one is'Mee met morgen' (roughly translated as 'Towards tomorrow'), a book published by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for arts and sciences, containing 50 essays by a variety of scientists, artists and other influential figures, mostly members of the aforementioned academy. It was interesting to read, but I think it will be even more interesting to reread some of the essays later on, when I have more knowledge about their subjects.

The second book, which took far too long for fiction (2 months!), was the fifth part of The Wheel of Time, The Fires of Heaven. I enjoyed it, though, and am looking forward to the next book, but first I'll read something else, because I need the rest.

List so far:
#0: What if?, Randall Munroe
#1: The Shadow Rising, Robert Jordan
#2: The Time of contempt, Andrzej Sapkowski
#]3: Mee met morgen
#4: The Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan

Finished two books recently, one that I started late last year.

All Things Considered / by G.K. Chesterton
Amusing and thought-provoking as always.

The Civilization of the Middle Ages / by Norman F. Cantor
It's an interesting period in its own right, but this book also helps to understand the time both in its own context and its continued influence in the modern world. There was a lot more change and innovation than people realize.

Full list here.

Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of The Wind (I read this EVERY year)

World War Z - Max Brooks Not bad, better than I expected; although my expectations were really low after watching the movie. It has some cool ideas and characters that the horrible movie didn't touch, even tangentially. As matter of fact, the only similarity between the movie and the book is the title.

Great book. Just thought I'd quote you, as I was about to update my list, and this is one of them. I'd not read it before, and wow, I really like Rothfuss' writing. So, yeah...

The Name of The Wind - Patrick Rothfuss. As noted above, great book and damned fine writer. Currently reading the sequel and am torn between using my free time to read or play Pillars of Eternity. So far juggling both...

Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein. Surprisingly, I'd never gotten around to reading this one before. Better than the movie, and a decent enough read, but not one of my favorites from Heinlein's catalog. Still, worth the few hours I invested in it.

Full list Here

#8 Terveiset Kutturasta by Mikko-Pekka Heikkinen

Civil war begins to rage in Finland when the North (Lapland) declares itself independent and attacks the South (Helsinki and it's urban counterparts).

Finished Work Done for Hire, by Joe Haldeman, a couple weeks back. It was definitely a different premise (a war-vet-turned-author gets an offer to write a horror novel for a movie to possibly be based on later; as the writing gets underway, he gets a non-negotiable "offer" from a mysterious person to assassinate an as-yet-unspecified individual in the near future...or else; from then on, he's juggling both of these things -- trying to do the former while avoiding doing the latter -- as well as trying to keep his girlfriend safe; also, the whole thing takes place in a vague very-near-future time period, which BARELY justifies my local library having classified it as science fiction), but was reasonably well done. Fairly short, too, which helped.

10/10. Book of the Year. =P

Colour of Magic (Discworld #1) by Terry Pratchett. I almost gave up after the first chapter, but glad I stuck it out. I really enjoyed the book and am moved on to the second book in the series. Just wish the chapters were smaller.

#1 Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others

A short SF story collection. Light on the SF, though. Like many contemporary authors, Chiang should probably be labelled "speculative" rather than "SF". Anyway, as with every short story collection I've ever read, it's a mixed bag. Ever since I began rating each and then using the average for the book score, it's always been 3, though Goodreads unfortunately doesn't differentiate between the 2.5 and 3.4 kinds of three. This one is the better kind, with a couple of really good stories (Understand, Liking What You See), with the rest ranging from good to a bit unfocused to gratuitous.

#2 Ted Chiang - The Lifecycle of Software Objects

A novella (150 pages) with a different approach to AI. Think Tamagotchi rather than godlike intelligence. Interesting concept, but definitely one of the "a bit unfocused" among Chiang's tales, with a weak ending to boot. The lesser kind of 3.

#3 Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice

Even if the book wasn't any good, it'd still be notable for winning every major SF award the year it came out. Fortunately, it's pretty good. Comparisons to Banks are justified, though its universe is no Culture, in every possible sense of that statement. The writing was decent (a few awkward phrases I had to re-read, nothing major), the gender thing was funny (I don't really care for it as a statement, either way), and the story itself engaging. It did end with a bit of an anti-climax, the last part never really capitalizing on its potential, instead opting for an "oops" jump to the great reckoning, where the excitement line falls and settles into the predictable non-ending. It's a trilogy, after all. For now. I mean, everything starts out as a trilogy and then Disney buys you or you run out of coke. Enjoyable if not mind-blowing.

The Light Fantastic (Discworld #2) by Terry Pratchett. Finished the book two days ago and I really enjoyed it. Immediately started reading the third book in the series.

I finished listening to Shard of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, an author I haven't read before, but is well known enough that I wanted to try something of hers.

The book was advertised as a love story, and it is, but it's one of the most action packed love stories I've encountered. I enjoyed it a lot, even though I didn't like the narrator's voice that much (a deep male voice for a story told from a woman's POV).

Thanks to a bit of googling when writing this post, I discovered that there's a sequel, Barrayar, and although it's read by the same narrator I think I'll buy it.

#4 J.G. Ballard - Terminal Beach

Another short story collection, also of the SF-but-not-really variety. I liked it somewhat better than the other Ballard book I've read (High-Rise), but I still wouldn't recommend anyone read the entire thing.


#6 Gene Wolfe - The Shadow of the Torturer

Ah, one of the holy cows. Well, time for minced beef. People love to harp on how well-written it is, and how Wolfe is one of the few "literary" SF / fantasy writers. Just recently there was an article calling him "a difficult genius". Egads, if you think Wolfe is difficult, what the hell have you been reading your entire life? Children's books? Anyway. The writing is decent, yes. It's not especially beautiful, and I've certainly read better written sci-fi. It's also full of awkward, cringey character introduction, most dialogue is monologue with other persons present, it's slow and filled with tedious detail, and, worst of all, it's part one of five. I hate sequelitis as is, but this one was just rude. Near the end, he's literally going "yeah, you can see the end is near, so let me waste your time with another digression" and then paf, see you next time. Nope.

Just one which is sad isn't it?


Small Gods by Pterry. Great book and while not the best I've read of the author it was very enjoyable and is definitely a recommendation.