Askefise

[quote name='Tarquinus' date='10 May 2009 - 02:38 PM' timestamp='1241987933' post='30773'] Recently read: [i]Latro in the Mist[/i] and [i]Soldier of Sidon[/i] by Gene Wolfe. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and Hellenic myth! A selection of my must-reads: [list][*] [i]I, Claudius[/i], Robert Graves. Funny, learned, and fascinating.[*] [i]The Book of the New Sun[/i], Gene Wolfe. Difficult and demanding; possibly the best work of sci-fi/Fantasy I have ever read. Sent me to the dictionary hundreds of times.[*] [i]The Chronicles of Amber[/i], Roger Zelazny. Fun, fun, fun.[*] [i]The Sandman[/i], Neil Gaiman. Graphic novel (comic) format - Gaiman, an excellent writer, has yet to equal the writing he did here.[*] The Aubrey-and-Maturin books, beginning with [i]Master and Commander[/i], Patrick O'Brian. This is literature masquerading as adventure stories, or vice versa. Superb. Can be read on any level, from surface to very deep. I read them with three dictionaries (English, French, and Latin) close at hand, though it is not necessary to to understand every word or get every joke to enjoy the hell out of this series.[*] [i]A Voyage to Arcturus[/i], David Lindsay. Strange and portentous; Gnostic mythology presented as Science Fiction. Impossible to read without going a little mad.[*] [i]The Gods of Pegana[/i], Lord Dunsany. Fans of Dunsany will also like [i]The Charwoman's Shadow[/i].[*] [i]Eaters of the Dead[/i], Michael Crichton. Inspiration for the film [i]The Thirteenth Warrior[/i]; [i]Beowulf[/i] as you likely have not encountered it before.[*] Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, especially [i]Tigana[/i], [i]A Song for Arbonne[/i], [i]The Lions of Al-Rassan[/i], [i]The Sarantine Mosaic[/i], and [i]The Last Light of the Sun[/i]. Kay gets better as he goes, but [i]Tigana[/i] is absolutely marvelous.[/list] I can echo other recommendations I've seen on this thread. The [i]Dune[/i] books are quite good, though I would avoid the follow-up series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. If you don't like Harry Potter, you may not know how to have fun. If you think Tolkien is the grandmaster and R.A. Salvatore is any good at all, check out G.G. Kay, Lord Dunsany, and Roger Zelazny. [/quote] [color="#1C2837"][size="2"]Little late on this, but - I completely agree with the 'demanding' part of Gene Wolfe. That series is incredible. I couldn't get through Latro in the Mist, though. I'll have to check out some of the other books on your list![/size][/color]

Heyyyy...you forgot to add me! Did I not eat enough cake?

Knowing it was a weird phonetic puzzle would have helped a while ago, thought I was trying to enter it incorrectly But still...linocular, line occular...nothing is a real word! 4 minutes left! Fail.