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Devil's Advocate
 
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So what roughly, is it about?
If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.
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Wag
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| Central charecter is a peasant girl chosen for the priesthood in a country (almost empire) which seems to be run by the church, They believe that there are only 5 real gods- and a 5 priests are chosen by them to run things, in exchange for godlike powers and immortality. 10 years later she's chosen as the 5th, just as war seems to be brewing with a southern (heathen neighbour). As with the magician series there are lots of layers of plot and a rich culture with plenty of tensions. Can't tell much more- like I said they nicked it and I haven't picked it back up yet (but it's the weekend so who knows?)
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Devil's Advocate
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Sounds remarkably similar to her last one - young upstart women causing trouble 
Still, I loved that so may have to buy or borrow a copy once I get through what I'm reading now.
If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.
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Wag
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Heroic Knight
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Reading The First Casualty by Ben Elton. I didn't intend to go reading war stories this year, but that's how it's gone.
The story is set in WWI, during the battle of the Ypres. It's a murder mystery against the backdrop of social class and the chaos of the war. A detective is sent to the front to investigate the murder of a decorated officer.
So far quite rivetting.
T.
--
CP - Kjell Larssen, Iron Wolves
PD - The L-plate Ref
SG - JT van Horne
Bristol Vampire - Julius Linnett, Tremere
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Apprentice
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World War Z - An Oral History of the zombie war. Very good with only a teensy weensy bit of political bias thrown in.
Dakka Dakka Dakka
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Wag
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| Over the Wall by Garth Nix, great collection of his short stories- still haven't read Priestess of the White ( my daughter can't find it), but it's Christmas and I get to take time off.
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Cold Water and Brass Tacks
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| RUMO and his miraculous adventures. Walter Moers.... More briliance... I wish theyd hurry up and translate some more of his stuff.
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I do talk a good fight
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Currently reading _Forge of God_ by Greg Bear. An oldie but a goodie. Takes a while to get going, but it's really kicking off nicely now. Potentially world-destroying aliens, other aliens who only take you over in a semi-Body-Snatchers kinda way and are mostly the good guys, and a suddenly religious President who thinks the End Times are upon us as depicted in the Book of Revelations. Unfortunately I appear to have temporarily misplaced my copy. It'll turn up.
Also _Papillon_ by Henri Charriere. This is the semi-autobiographical account of life in assorted overseas French prisons (including Devil's Island) and on the run from them during the 1930s and 1940s. It inspired the 1973 movie of the same name. Great stuff, cracking adventure story fare, even if later historians have argued that Charriere didn't do most of the stuff in it -- just borrowed stories from other prisoners who really did.
Recently finished _If On A Winter's Night A Traveller_ by Italo Calvino. Again. This is my favourite book & I re-read it every few years. Would make a grand RPG if anyone could figure out how to make it work. The Reader (or sometimes You) seeks enlightenment or fulfillment via assorted novels written by different authors, but his reading is constantly interrupted by some means or another; meanwhile he pursues the female Other Reader in a variety of forms, and tries to determine just who is the real Author, if anyone. It's the literary equivalent of that weird techno track in which Bill Burroughs announces "The Old Writer has come to the end of words, to the end of what can be done with words," which was of course based on Burroughs's book "The Western Lands;" I suspect Calvino was an influence on Burroughs, but where Burroughs is a shotgun firing both barrels of 10-gauge speedball into your neck, Calvino is a hand-built one-of-a-kind sniper rifle shooting a dart laden with some kind of strange Mesoamerican drug known only to ancient Indian shamans. Recommended. Calvino's "Our Ancestors" novellas are also excellent, & are all more-or-less historical fantasies in nature; a Baron who goes into the trees as a child & lives in the treetops of a vast forest for his entire life; another nobleman who is bisected by a Turkish cannoball but somehow survives in a mentally & physically warped fashion; and that one of Charlemagne's knights who is invisible, & who therefore spends the entire work wonde | | | |