• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

What are you Reading Now?

DragonOfTheAerie

DragonOfTheAerie

Istari
Perhaps next I should start on A Natural History of Dragons, the first book of the Memoirs of Lady Trent?

It's a book about a dragon naturalist who travels about documenting dragons and also about the discrimination she faces as a female scientist in her time period. Many reviewers complained that it wasn't very interesting if you were bored by endless facts about dragons, but I love endless facts about dragons, so I bought it. :D
 
T.Allen.Smith

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
I've moved away from reading fantasy for a time. Currently, I'm reading Dennis LeHane's Mystic River and it's fantastic.

The writing is wonderful and the story chock-full of emotion. There's so much excellent craft in this book that one could apply to writing in any genre.
 
pmmg

pmmg

Mystagogue
I've been trying to catch up on many of the books I should have read way back when but did not. Most recently I finished Hero of a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell (I did not really care for it), and another book called Seven Women by Eric Metaxes, which I read for the Bio on Joan of Arc, but enjoyed all the biographies in it. Prior to those, I put Sword of Shannara in the read column. My opinion on that was that it was a complete rip of Tolkien, but you know...it was an early fantasy work. Truth is, I am not much of a reader. I rarely read for enjoyment, and read mostly for educational purposes. Currenly, I picked up Dianectics, from L Ron Hubbard, which I recall being advertised so heavily from my youth. So far, my opinion is snake oil, but I am withholding judgment.
 
C

Chessie

Istari
Cursed Hearts, by S.A. Hutchon. The lovers were brutally ripped apart in the first chapter and I'm already hooked. She has to be my new favorite author. Also, although I enjoy Grace Draven's storytelling, Radiance was a bit slow for my taste. No conflict! The lovers were amicable and didn't really have to fight for anything. Unfortunately, it went in the DNF pile. :(
 
Mythopoet

Mythopoet

Dark Lord
I've been reading old favorites lately. Dune. The Lord of the Rings. It's nice and comforting. And I've been noticing elements of style of voice that I'd never noticed before. Specific choices the author makes that I hadn't realized before. It's interesting to be able to see these things yet still maintain my immersion as a reader.
 
Lisselle

Lisselle

Master
I work in a school Library (Kindy to year 12) so I read a LOT of kids books! (I have to be able to recommend books for each child who is interested in reading) Whilst I love to read Tolkien, Asimov, Herbert, and the classic Fantasy SciFi writers, at the moment I'm mainly reading YA fiction. (The HSC is on and the teenagers need light reading to help with the stress.)

I've just finished the 'Immortal Beloved' Series, by Cate Tiernan, and 'Fairytales for Wild Girls', by Allyse Near, which I loved. (First book by an Aussie Author.)

For myself I have 'Atomised' to read, which was recommended by one of the Teachers at our school, and I can never read 'The Lord of the Rings' too many times! I'm also reading a new Fantasy called 'Six of Crows' by Leigh Bardugo, and 'The Diabolic', by SJ Kincaid, though these will take a while.
 
DragonOfTheAerie

DragonOfTheAerie

Istari
Lisselle said:
I work in a school Library (Kindy to year 12) so I read a LOT of kids books! (I have to be able to recommend books for each child who is interested in reading) Whilst I love to read Tolkien, Asimov, Herbert, and the classic Fantasy SciFi writers, at the moment I'm mainly reading YA fiction. (The HSC is on and the teenagers need light reading to help with the stress.)

I've just finished the 'Immortal Beloved' Series, by Cate Tiernan, and 'Fairytales for Wild Girls', by Allyse Near, which I loved. (First book by an Aussie Author.)

For myself I have 'Atomised' to read, which was recommended by one of the Teachers at our school, and I can never read 'The Lord of the Rings' too many times! I'm also reading a new Fantasy called 'Six of Crows' by Leigh Bardugo, and 'The Diabolic', by SJ Kincaid, though these will take a while.
Click to expand...

^Six of Crows is fantastic in my opinion.
 
Demesnedenoir

Demesnedenoir

Dark Lord
I gave up on The Name of the Wind for the time being... snooze... and switched to Red Dragon... Oh sure, it's not a fantasy, but it does have a dragon in the title, heh heh. Then I'll probably read Silence of the Lambs, seeing as I loved the movie waaaay back when.
 
Mythopoet

Mythopoet

Dark Lord
TheCrystallineEntity said:
Or, since I seem to be in the need of solace...The Tale of Beren and Luthien.
Click to expand...

You know what's particularly great when you need soothing? Listening to the audio version of The Sil. Complete and Unabridged and narrated by Martin Shaw who has the perfect voice for it, deep and resonant. I love it.
 
skip.knox

skip.knox

Staff
Moderator
Reading Senlin Ascends, by Josiah Bancroft. It's a curious book, very well written. A schoolmaster and his new wife honeymoon at the Tower of Babel. He loses her in the crowd early on, and the rest of the book is his search for her. The settings and tone are roughly Edwardian, and his turns of phrase can be downright poetic. I'm a quarter of the way through and am very much enjoying it.

The book is a great example of something traditional publishing would likely never touch, to everyone's loss.
 
Russ

Russ

Dark Lord
Demesnedenoir said:
I gave up on The Name of the Wind for the time being... snooze... and switched to Red Dragon... Oh sure, it's not a fantasy, but it does have a dragon in the title, heh heh. Then I'll probably read Silence of the Lambs, seeing as I loved the movie waaaay back when.
Click to expand...

I think Red Dragon is very underrated. And I loved the soundtrack for the movie.

I have been reading a lot of thrillers lately myself, and getting a lot out of them.
 
Demesnedenoir

Demesnedenoir

Dark Lord
I tend to use a lot of thriller aspects. In fact, if you look at the genre of my writing through a different lense, that of Coyne's Story Grid (if my memory is functioning) I write thrillers in a fantasy (epic) setting. I personally kind of saw it that way when I started, also horror aspects.

I've never seen the entire movie, which makes the read more interesting. The only trouble is that whereas it was probably more groundbreaking in 1981, the FBI BAU has been used so much and this book more or less copied so many times, it's become predictable as heck. The writing is tight and clean, not exactly my most preferred style, but strong.

Russ said:
I think Red Dragon is very underrated. And I loved the soundtrack for the movie.

I have been reading a lot of thrillers lately myself, and getting a lot out of them.
Click to expand...
 
Russ

Russ

Dark Lord
Demesnedenoir said:
I tend to use a lot of thriller aspects. In fact, if you look at the genre of my writing through a different lense, that of Coyne's Story Grid (if my memory is functioning) I write thrillers in a fantasy (epic) setting. I personally kind of saw it that way when I started, also horror aspects.

I've never seen the entire movie, which makes the read more interesting. The only trouble is that whereas it was probably more groundbreaking in 1981, the FBI BAU has been used so much and this book more or less copied so many times, it's become predictable as heck. The writing is tight and clean, not exactly my most preferred style, but strong.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, i am completely BAU'ed out at the moment.

Currently I am really enjoying Greg Isles Natchez Burning trilogy. Seriously that guy was born to write that trilogy. Best stuff of any sort I have read in a few years.

Also been enjoying some historical and WWII thrillers recently. Gross' "The One Man" really stands out.

Just finished reading "Story Engineering." Thinking Save the Cat and perhaps that Story Grid would make a worthwhile read as well.
 
Demesnedenoir

Demesnedenoir

Dark Lord
Save the Cat is a classic from my screenwriting days, and Story Grid is one of the better books I've looked at in a long time. Most books on structure are (in one way or another) just another way to look at modern 3 act structure, with bit and pieces being different. While Story Grid works within the structure, it is more of an analysis system for a finished work, to answer the questions: does this work and if not why? His take is as an editor, not a writer, which I find more interesting these days. He borrows heavily from McKee (who's focus is screenwriting) as they've worked together on projects.

I've been around too long and read too many things to say its revolutionary, but it's damned good at reminding you of things that might have slipped to the back of your mind, and gives you a process to examine your work. I can't even say I changed a single thing in the book I'll be sending around soon because of this book, but using his process of breaking down chapter (scene) by chapter and looking at the book from outside the simplistic lens of "genre: fantasy" lends another tool to see if I missed something somewhere. I take it back, I amped up one little piece of a scene, added a few lines of dialogue that I got the idea for from thinking of the book as a thriller.

The cool thing about it is not looking at the scene simply as "no, no and, yes, but" but to look at them directly as a part of the character arch... the character must have a change in their situation, emotional or physical state, threat, or whatever. It's a slightly different way of looking at the "tension" aspect of story writing that gives you +/- notation for what's going on. More to it of course, and he breaks down Silence of the Lambs, which is fun.

Russ said:
Absolutely, i am completely BAU'ed out at the moment.

Currently I am really enjoying Greg Isles Natchez Burning trilogy. Seriously that guy was born to write that trilogy. Best stuff of any sort I have read in a few years.

Also been enjoying some historical and WWII thrillers recently. Gross' "The One Man" really stands out.

Just finished reading "Story Engineering." Thinking Save the Cat and perhaps that Story Grid would make a worthwhile read as well.
Click to expand...
 
C

Chessie

Istari
Story Grid is super chewy but has been instrumental in shifting how I now view scenes. Breaking it down the way he did was awesome, a blessing. It's made pantsing my scenes that much easier. :D !

So, Russ. Read it! You won't regret it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top