What are we reading?

[BanzaiCat]

Ahem... there were two animated adaptations of LotR.  8) Bakshi had the rights through The Two Towers and covered things up through the battle at Helms' Deep; Rankin-Bass pretty much skipped the rest of TTT and dealt with Return.

(I did get a Kindle copy of Development Hell, btw.)

Yeah, duh, of course there were two...my bad.

And congrats on the book...hope you enjoy it.  8)

[Toonces]

Speaking of Tolkien, I'm about halfway through The Book of Lost Tales Vol. 1, and I'm 75% through Game of Thrones book 4.  It isn't nearly as bad as everyone has made it out to be. 

Lost Tales is a pretty tough read, though, I have to admit.

[GDS_Starfury]

used a gift card for B&N today.  I picked up House of Steel witch is a Honor Harrington background book and German Panzers of World War II.  the latter wasn't gotten for any new information but I do like how it gives you the formation information of various divisions throughout the course of the war.  great paper, good photos and graphics and it was in one the sale isles for $13.

[JasonPratt]

BC, I've heard book 4 is a lot better than the previous 2, but having given up on the series while just thumbing through book 1 I can't opine on it at all.

Star,

Okay, in my mind that translated out to you picking up an Honor Harrington background book called "House of [the?] Steel Witch", involving German Panzers of WW2, and that reminded me to ask myself why I've never gotten into that series already!

Then I read more closely, and was disappointed.  :P

[GDS_Starfury]

lol
serves me right for posting after watching the Blackhawks lose at the pub.

[MetalDog]

Speaking of Tolkien, I'm about halfway through The Book of Lost Tales Vol. 1, and I'm 75% through Game of Thrones book 4.  It isn't nearly as bad as everyone has made it out to be. 

Lost Tales is a pretty tough read, though, I have to admit.

Game of Thrones doesn't truly get tough until Book 5, Dance with Dragons.  What a boring read and waste of a perfectly good tree.  The Book of Lost Tales doesn't require having read The Silmarillion, but it doesn't hurt, either.  Plus, I find all the First and Second Age history that Tolkien wrote, was done in a style that is not at all like LotR.  So, some people are put off, thinking they are getting LotR and they don't.

[Toonces]

So I finished Book 4; I didn't realize that last 10% of the book was appendix stuff.

I read the reviews on Book 5 and it sounds like I'm going to be terribly disappointed as I'm not going to get any closure. 

So in that spirit, I'm looking for a good Viking-type book; something about Norse or northern mythology fiction or non-fiction.  I'm not even exactly sure, but something that is sort of Skyrimy that can be real or not.  If it's something that I can find in the library that is better.

[Staggerwing]

Why not read up on the myths themselves?

This is a good, easily read collection of most of the important myths distilled down mostly from the Eddas and the works of Saxo Gramaticus: The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland.
It should be available through library loan services if not already in your local library. Otherwise it's about $10 for the large trade size from Amazon.

[JasonPratt]

Salvatore's original trilogy featuring Drizzt, the Icewind Dale trilogy, isn't about the dark elf at all, but about barbarians and Nordic D&D adventures up in the 10 Towns. Quick reads.

For something completely different and kind of insane (well a different kind of insane than D&D norse barbarian adventures), if also rather pricey, you might consider Ronald Murphy's prose translation of the oldest known surviving Old Saxon poetry, The Heliand: a Gospel harmonization by an evangelical priest for the newly conquered Saxons, transmuting almost every character and most of the settings into Saxon warrior-culture tropes -- while subtly critiquing Charlemagne's aggressive (even vicious) proselytizing policies. Tolkien certainly knew the work, although if he ported any inspiration from it into his creation of Middle-Earth I don't know about it. Fr. Murphy's prose translation doesn't try to be overtly poetic, which is the main drawback to it, but he works hard to keep a lot of the stylisms of the forms of the poem; and its main attraction, aside from being an important pre-English literary curiosity, is the insight it gives (with M's commentary) on the culture and lifestyle of the early medieval Saxons. Pricey, but a standard university text (if one doesn't want to go for the full Saxon verses in a critical edition).

[MetalDog]

Salvatore's original trilogy featuring Drizzt, the Icewind Dale trilogy, isn't about the dark elf at all, but about barbarians and Nordic D&D adventures up in the 10 Towns. Quick reads.

Funny you should mention it, I am re-reading The Icewind Dales trilogy right now.  While it is not exclusively about Drizz't, he is an integral part of the story. 

[TacticalWargames]

Anyone recommend a dark fantasy book\series.

Last fantasy books I read was Raymond E Feists Magician trilogy which I really rated. That was many years ago now though.

Actually just remembered Hawkmoon and Von Bek by Moorcock. Again loved hose aswell.

[undercovergeek]

have you read the 2 patrick rothfuss ones?

[bob48]

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King - excellent stuff, and it is quite dark fantasy and not horror.

[Gusington]

Try Glen Cook The Black Company.

[MetalDog]

You finally get around to that, Gus?  And a spot on suggestion, too.  Along with Elric, by Moorcock.