While I really enjoyed the original trilogy, I find the later written additions to the series aren't so dated, so I am kind of enjoying them more. Isaac has also improved a lot with his writing skill.

I read all the Robot stories and novels quite a few years ago, long before I started the Foundation series, which I only started last year, and I enjoyed them immensely. I see some of the connections, but probably need to do a reread to see them all.

The White Rose - Glen Cook

3rd book of the The Black Company series, this tome sees the conclusion of a scenaristic ark, the one about the Northern Realms and the deadly menace (menaces?) that lurk there.

Speaking in details about the scenario wouldn't make any sens since you have to have read the two previous books to follow the story. But it's as good as ever, always dancing between the Light and the Darkness, between a laugh and a tear...

I really hope the series continue like that for a long time, because I'm really enjoying it a lot!

So far in 2021: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2021/post37

Swords of Steel Omnibus. This a collection of three volumes of fantasy short stories with the hook that all stories were written by members of heavy metal groups. The logic was that a lot of metal music already is inspired by hard-edged sword and sorcery and horror fiction, so what would happen if you let some of those guys give proper writing a shot? For me, I would say the answer is "not necessarily great, but mostly better than expected." Some writers fare better than others, of course.

The book is organized according to themes, such as mythical monsters, cosmic horror, and nautical stories.

Among the main standouts, I would rank Howie K. Bentley of Cauldron Born, Jason Tarpey of Eternal Champion, EC Hellwell of Manilla Road, and Geoff Blackwell of Gatekeeper.

Bentley has a lurid, sometimes downright trashy writing style, but I would say that's more in the spirit of this genre than going with something soft and dignified and his pacing is really good. I'm not really into his Thorn character but everything else was entertaining. Tarpey is a blacksmith in addition to being a musician and bases his story on a big blacksmith warrior. He's got a novel about the guy that I'll probably be checking out sometime soon. Hellwell sometimes gets caught up with a tad too much exposition but generally writes fun stories. Blackwell tilts slightly toward a more high fantasy style but I found his stories smoothly readable. But all the writers do nice, crunchy action scenes and good atmosphere. Keeping a thesaurus or dictionary handy is also advised because all the writers in the book love to show their enthusiasm for the English language over and over. If you're the type of reader that objects to "purple prose", you likely won't enjoy this book because these guys go nuts on the adjectives and adverbs. They do not fear post-modern literary criticism.

Among the other stories, I liked the one by Doomsword's Joe Minichino, Slough Feg's Michael Scalzi contributes a fun little Lovecraftian horror story inspired by his work as a philosophy professor, and Bal-Sagoth's Byron Roberts does a short novella about his pirate hero Caleb Blackthorne which is a lot like his band's music in that it's kind of cheesy but also appealingly earnest.

What didn't work so well: The Lovecraftian stories were the least of the volume aside from Scalzi's entry. Not hugely surprising since that type of writing is challenging and it's easy to face on your face with it. Scott Waldrop of Twisted Tower Dire contributes two stories in this section and both are...of a style not to my taste. They're very long-winded and expressionistic. I guess the experimental style is commendable but it didn't quite work for me. I wasn't too fond of either of the stories by Jaron Evil of Almaric, which I just found to be low quality. There's a story by Mike Browning of Nocturnus AD and publisher DM Ritzlin that was so amateurish that I keep thinking it must have been a parodic gag or something.

For the most part, though, I think the series was a success in showing that some of these have real talent. I've got the Tarpey novel to check out, and I wouldn't mind reading more by Hellwell, Blackwell, Bentley, and Roberts.

I finally finished PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION by ISAAC ASIMOV, and it was a great story.
Was it the best so far ... probably not, but it was certainly a great read, and better than some of the other novels in the series ... though all have been good.

I guessed some of the big reveal, maybe halfway through the story, and had some suspicions about the rest.

A very satisfying read, and so now onto some other great reads, and certainly many potential ones. I will probably read the seventh and last book in the series by Isaac Asimov in a few reads time, and then at some point in the future tackle the additions to the series by other authors ... though I intend to also read other related stories by Asimov first.

So many great books to read, that I already own, plus many many potential great ones amongst them, plus any new ones that come along ... but alas so little time on this mortal coil ... joy tinged with sadness.

My reading list for 2021

★☆☆ Leaders Eat Last / Simon Sinek
★☆☆ Szef, który ma czas / Andrzej Jeznach

List of all books read in 2021.

The ironclad Covenant (Sam Reilly Book 10) by Christopher Cartwright. Very intriguing book. I'm interested in reading the rest of the series.

I read it in one sitting, which was surprising to me, but I did.

Sounds good.

I've managed to get quite a few of his books in that series for free over time, via a BookBub daily email. Not read any yet, but they sound promising. If you don't know about BookBub, they are an excellent resource to subscribe to.

For those who don't know about BookBub - I limit the daily email to just a few categories and just Amazon, Kobo and Google ebooks. Each email shows discounted and free ebooks, and I mostly grab the free ones, from one of those stores, that sound interesting enough, but occasionally buy one of the others ... or a free one I enjoyed convinces me to buy more by that author.

Yes, thank you for putting the word out there!
I use Bookbub and freebooksy in blog form as compilations of some of the free books of the day, though I am only interested in certain categories. I am very glad that freebooksy sorts by categories!

So far and tracking in my GoodReads feed>

The Dark Tower Book 5 - Wolves of Calla
THe Dark Tower Book 6 - Song of Susannah
Dune

Reading>
Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson
WIndows Internals 6th Edition Part 1

If you want to add me on Goodreads please pm.

Cheers and good reading folks.

★★☆ Dick Sands the Boy Captain / Jules Verne
★☆☆ Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West / Cormac McCarthy

List of all books read in 2021.

Book 2: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halflling's Gem; The Legend of Drizzt 25th Anniversary Edition by R.A. Salvatore
I never got to read this book until recently. So I was excited to get it.
This book contains the Icewind Dale Trilogy books. The Crystal Shard is the author's first novel and it shows. Drizzt's attitude is different, and minor details are different. I have a soft spot for dwarves, so I enjoyed Streams of Silver.
Drizzt starts to make a name for himself and some people finally thinks good of him.
I found Regis the halfling thief to be a just about useless character throughout the book.

Don't know if Manga counts here, but I just finished reading all of the Berserk Manga.

I've never seen a more extreme example changing the status quo.

Guts began from the most bloodthirsty/sadistic demon slayer, to a far more somber person that needed friends to help him.

I read a very funny book, the second by an author I've only just started reading.

DAVID LUDDINGTON - THE RETURN OF THE HIPPY

It's still currently free as an ebook at the Kobo store, and last I looked not so at Amazon.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-return-of-the-hippy-2

The humor is somewhat Mr. Bean like, so very physical at times ... one disaster leading to another and another .....

Would make a great movie.

It's a bit like Mr. Bean meets Fawlty Towers ... with a stockbroker having a bit of a meltdown after the big crash and thinking he wants to return to his Hippy roots, that he never got to fully enjoy the first time around. No more ties and being a diligent employee, husband and father ... he's going to get in touch with the real him.

https://luddington.com/

I also discovered a bunch of short stories, that are a prequel to that free novel - The Return Of The Hippy.

The link below is basically to a brief description and index to what you can read online. Click the READ MORE links on that web page.

https://luddington.com/leaving-samantha/

That might give you a taste of or for his humor.

And access to those and even more online short stories by the author here - https://luddington.com/shorts/

If you join up for his newsletter, you get a free novella, that has prequel etc chapters for a few of his other books.

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Just now though, I finally got around to deciding to start reading some Detective Maigret, beginning with the first novel - PIETR THE LATVIAN by GEORGES SIMENON.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Maigret

Not read any before, and still haven't watched the four episodes I have starring Rowan Atkinson (of Mr. Bean fame).

Seems to read alright so far ... a few chapters in.

My reading list for 2021

Well I wasn't much impressed with my first Maigret story, such that I have no intention to read any more.

The story jumped all over the place, and the lead character, Maigret, really did not endear himself to me ... not a pinch on Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes or many other detectives I've read.

I've no idea why so many rave about the stories, perhaps later ones are much better.
Oh well, I've got heaps of backlog, and not caring for them means saving some money.

LOL. When I've finished reading all I've got (as if), I may try another Maigret story.

The Hunger Games book 1 and 2. Reading the actor prepares presently.