2024 is Going Fast...

Between work and other life demands, this year is going by so quickly.  I aimed for a weekly posting this year, but I haven't been able to maintain that with any regularity so far. In fact, I completely missed the month of July so consider this post a bit of catch up around here. 

I finished reading The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee yesterday. I really enjoyed this epic fantasy novel.  I took a chance on this previously unread author just from his YouTube videos.  I'm ordering the next two books in the series and will continue reading. This brings my total reading for 2024 up to five out of a goal of eight, so I still have plenty of time to reach my goal. 

I started reading Night Shift by Stephen King.  It wasn't on my planned reading list for this year, but I bought it when I saw at the bookstore.  There were two main reasons for purchasing and reading this book now. First, 'Salem's Lot if probably my favorite King tale and this book has two stories related to it - one being a prequel and one being a sequel.  Second, this book is a collection of short stories, and I believe it is an underappreciated storytelling form.

I still owe several posts about the Cha'alt trilogy from the kickstarter.  I went all in, and I've found the books interesting and entertaining.  I just need to make time to post about them.  I also picked up the Dragonbane boxed set, Bestiary, and some accessories. I really dig this game, and it has served as inspiration on some of my own stuff. 

I have a few creative projects underway as well.  I've assembled some guidelines for alternate layout system for detailing characters and monsters in many of the old school style games.  It's not really hard rules but just some statistics and guidelines for use in a generic sort of way rather than tied to a specific game system. Yes, it's been done by others several - many? - times before but it's just something I wanted to experiment with and see what developed.  I'm also assembling all of my house rules and world information into my own old school style supplement.  Of course, there is no hard and fast timeline for this, but it will show up sometime.

June 2024 in a Nutshell

This month has been somewhat of a wash.  Early in the month, a tornado passed through this area.  Tornadoes are a pretty common occurrence here in Oklahoma, so it seemed like this would be a case of "another storm, another alert".  When the sirens sounded, I tried looking out of my window, but all I could see was total darkness. The nearby transformer blew, and I could hear metal dinging that I thought was a neighbor's shed flexing in the storm. We did our best to take cover in the house and ride it out until the morning.  Eventually, my son and I dozed off at some point in the night.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized how close the tornado had been.  The metal clanging I heard was a neighbor's barn scattered around my backyard.  A tree had also split and fell on the privacy fence on the west side of the lawn, so the fence came down between that and the high winds that were coming off the tornado. The craziest thing I saw was a piece of my fence that had been blown around and then forced into the ground.  I would let it stay for a few days just to see how long it would stay.  A week later, I pulled it out of the ground and a solid foot of that board had been shoved into the ground.  It wasn't easy to get out and took several minutes of pushing and pulling that board back and forth to get it out. 

We were without power that morning and remained so for the next ten days.  Most of the town was without power but it was slowly restored during this time.  We were fortunate that we had a place to stay with power after the first 3 days due to a friend on the other end of town getting their power back.  I discovered we were only 6 blocks away from the main path of the tornado, but it did zig and zag around so that's why all the damage occurred nearby.  Fortunately, our house wasn't damaged at all.  I'm very thankful for that.

I did get a little reading done this month after everything calmed down.  I'm almost 50% complete with The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.  I am confident that I will buy the other two books in this trilogy because I'm digging the story and I want to see how it ends.  More to come on that.

Something else I will cover in a future post is the Dragonbane game. I bought the boxed set and was so impressed that I went back a few days later and bought the Bestiary and the Monster Standees as well.  this game has really captured my attention and I plan on buying the supplements and expansions as they are released.  More to come on this also.  

What about you?  Have you been impacted by a tornado or some other natural disaster?  What are you playing?  What are you reading?

April 2024 Reading Progress

I caught up on some reading this month as I completed two books and I have started on a third.  

People of the Dark: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume II was the first book I completed reading in April.  I should have finished it much sooner but between work, my daughter's competitive cheer commitments, and every day demands that I wound up dragging my feet.  It certainly wasn't due to a lack of interest.  Simply put, I've never read a Howard tale that I didn't enjoy tremendously. I'm always pulled in by his storytelling and I have completed his books in a single setting back in my youth before I had other real-world commitments.  I may not be able to give a truly objective review of his work and I will no try.

Dave Arneson's True Genius by Robert J. Kuntz is the second book I read in April.  This book is a good read, but I ultimately felt like it lacked a little meat on the bone.  Don't get me wrong at all, I enjoyed it tremendously, but it was just too short and a little too light in some areas.  I'm guessing it's meant to serve as a teaser for his planned book, A New Ethos in Game Design, that I suspect will be much more detailed.  I'm waiting...

I have begun reading The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.  I'm a big fan of his YouTube book review channel.  His reviews are always entertaining, so I decided to see what he had to offer in the realm of fantasy fiction.  I've read almost 100 pages so far and I'm looking forward to reading the rest.  that has me at 3 books read out of a goal of 8 this year; 37% to be exact.  

Now that my reading is updated, what else is coming up?  I will do at least one post each about the Cha'alt trilogy. and I'm working on a post about the Cults, Sects, and Faiths of my campaign world.

March 2024 Reading Progress & General Update

March has been topsy turvy at work so I haven't been able to post as much as I would like to but here's a general post over a few subjects that will serve as an all-encompassing update.

Gaming: I still have no face-to-face group, but I am playing in two different play by post campaigns at The Ruins of Murkhill forum and blog.  The first game is an OD&D campaign ran by Halenar Frosthelm  celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons.  It's interesting because I have never actually played OD&D.  I've done Basic (many forms), Advanced, and 3E.  The second game I am playing in is the sequel campaign to the original Sunflower campaign.  I am playing the son of my character in the original campaign so it's definitely making for an interesting campaign as well.

Reading: I had planned to be finished with People of the Dark, The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume Two and well into my third book of the year by this point but that has not happened.  I am currently at 55% but that is not from lack of interest.  As stated previously, work has been so hectic the last month that I have been wiped out every day and couldn't give the book the attention it deserves.  I always find Howard interesting and the tales he weaves have always caught my attention.  

Writing: I have three projects that I'm currently working on completing as well as diving into the Cha'alt books in finer detail.  I will post on these as they are completed.

That's it for now.  Maybe April will prove to be more fruitful.

January 2024 Reading Progress

I started off 2024 by reading Murtagh by Christopher Paolini.  This is the fifth book written in the world of Alagaesia but not the fifth book of the series.  I've read and enjoyed the original four books in The Inheritance Cycle and was looking forward to reading this book as well.  My daughter bought it for me at Christmas, so I began reading it a few days after the holiday.

I enjoyed this fantasy tale quite a bit.  I welcomed the change in focus from Eragon and Saphira to Murtagh and Thorn.  I have no doubt there will be more books focused on Eragon but it's nice to see the series feature other characters.  Although Eragon and Murtagh are both Dragon Riders - and half-brothers as well - there are plenty of differences between the two.  They approach situations and obstacles differently.  Murtagh is a little bit rougher in execution and a bit of a darker hero.  Just as this book changes the central character, this book is also about change.  Murtagh and Thorn are fighting to change by overcoming their enslavement by Galbatorix and the reputation that followed.  

I find Paolini works to be a smooth read.  I don't mean that in a negative manner at all.  I mean that it's easy to follow and easy to read large chunks at one time.  There is world building and lore sprinkled throughout the book, but it's not labor intensive to keep the facts straight.  There are also several illustrations, a small section on Runes, and another brief appendix or two.

Rating: I gave the book a 5-star rating on Goodreads.  The site only allows full star ratings so that somewhat limits how accurately you can rate your experience. I definitely thought it was better than a flat 4 and somewhere closer to 5 so a 5 seemed closer than rating it lower.  I'm not a professional reviewer by any means so when I rate a book, I'm just looking at stuff such as "did I struggle with staying interested" or "would I read more books in the series" and similar topics.  

Progress: I have completed 1 out of 8 books on my planned reading list this year.

Next: My second book is People of the Dark by Robert E. Howard.  I'm ending January with completely 24% of this book.  Let's see what next month brings...

2024 Reading Plans

After the disappointing low number of books read last year, I got motivated to do better this year. I typically read 12 or more books in a year, but I set a goal of 8 for 2024 because several of these novels are epic length fantasy over 1,000 pages.  I am keeping a reading journal to help with this goal.  If I can read more, I will. Without further delay, here are the novels I plan on reading this year.

Poul Anderson (Three Hearts and Three Lions): I've always wanted to read this for two reasons. I remember it being referred to as a fantasy classic by many readers and - I hope I'm recalling correctly here - it seems that many claim this has the best representation of a Paladin. This book was read in 2023 and will be replaced by Murtagh by Christopher Paolini to keep my reading plan at 8 books for the year. 

Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles): I remember seeing this book on the shelves of my middle school library and I also caught some of the PBS television mini-series.  I've always intended to read it so 2024 will be the year I do so.

Brian Lee Durfee (The Forgetting Moon): I stumbled upon his YouTube Channel while browsing the various "booktubers" looking for reviews of fantasy novels.  This guy reads a ton of books, has an impressive home library, and has completed a trilogy of novels.  His videos are funny because he doesn't hold back about how passionate he is about books, and he doesn't take things so seriously that he does a hundred takes to "get it right".  

Frank Herbert (Heretics of Dunge and Chapterhouse Dune): I enjoyed the first four books so I'm going to complete the original six books.  Maybe I'll give the expanded Dune universe novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson at some time.

Robert E. Howard (People of the Dark): Howards' Conan tales are amazing!  I enjoyed Shadow Kingdoms so I'm sure this collection will be excellent as well.

Christopher Paolini (Murtagh): I got this as a Christmas gift from my daughter, so I added it to the list of books for 2024.  I've read the entire Inheritance Cycle so I might as well continue on.  They have always proven to be smooth reading that doesn't require a stack of notes to keep up so that's a bonus.

Brandon Sanderson (Oathbringer and Rhythm of War): I really enjoyed the first two novels in The Stormlight Archives, and I need to get caught up with the series.  The series is planned to be ten books at completion so it's a good time to not fall behind any further.

2023 Reading - UPDATED

In my original 2023 Reading post made earlier this month, I thought that I had quit reading for this year and was ready to pick it back up next year.  I found myself on Christmas break from work and I decided to get a head start on one of next year's books I planned on reading. I wound up finishing the book I selected so I am updating my 2023 Reading post.  

Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson: I have planned on reading this book for some time now and just got around to it this year.  I was really looking forward to this book because I knew it was part of Appendix N and I've always heard people say it has a great representation of a Paladin as the main character.  After reading this book, what are my thoughts? I expect some pushback on my opinion.

I gave Three Hearts and Three Lions a score of 3 stars on Goodreads. If you're not familiar with Goodreads, books can be rated on a range of 1 - 5 stars.  These ratings do not allow for partial scores such as 4.25 stars.  It's not uncommon for members to give their partial score in their written and I did that in my review.  

My actual score for Three Hearts and Three Lions was 3.25 to 3.5 stars.  I enjoyed the book and found it an easy read, but I had some issues.  I prefer fantasy works to be on the epic or grander end of the spectrum. This book definitely felt like it was more on the mundane end. I prefer reading fantasy books with much more meat on the bone from lore and backstory.  This book seemed to barely scratch the surface.  It did do a good job of representing the conflict of Law and Chaos.  I respect the fact that Three Hearts and Three Lions is a foundational work of modern fantasy, but it didn't match my personal tastes.  

2023 Reading

I usually plan to read 12 books every year, but I failed to do so in 2023.  I didn't even come close to reaching that goal. In fact, I only read 2 books this year!  I made several attempts that turned out to be false starts that I never was able to recover from and continue on with those books for one of several reasons.  I'm not going to post about any of those failures, but I will post some thoughts on the books I did complete in 2023. 

Swan Song by Robert McCammon: I stumbled on to this book while I was browsing in one of the local bookstores.  I had never heard of the book or the author, but I decided to take a chance on this one. I did watch a few YouTube reviews before reading this book and noticed it kept getting compared to The Stand by Stephen King.  I was immediately interested as that's one of my favorite books.  I wasn't disappointed at all in my decision to read this book.  It does share many similar themes with The Stand and I think if you enjoyed one then you would enjoy the other. I think it could very well come down to you getting the most enjoyment out of whichever one you read first.  I would read it again and I will definitely read more works by McCammon in the future.  

Knight of the Demon Queen by Barbra Hambly: I decided to read this book because I enjoyed the first two books - Dragonsbane and Dragonshadow - in her Winterlands series. I remember seeing the first book on the shelf several times at my high school library.  I always intended to read it back then, but I wound up checking something else out before recalling my intentions to read Dragonsbane. One of my goals as an adult it to reading those books that caught my eye earlier in my life, but I never had gotten around to it.  I found all four books in the series at a local used bookstore in very good condition and a really reasonable price, so I bought all of them. I enjoyed the first two books quite a bit and I was looking forward to reading all of them.  The third book, Knight of the Demon Queen, started off good and was consistent with the feel and tone of the previous two books but I hit a snag later in the book. At that point, part of the story takes place in a futuristic cyberpunk setting.  It felt completely out of place to me and my reading slowed to a crawl at this point. I struggled to complete the book and I was very thankful it returned to fantasy in the final chapter.  It threw me for such a loop that I'm now re-evaluating whether or not I want to continue by reading the final book in the series.