What are you reading at the moment?

[IvenBach]

Finished reading Ready Player One yesterday. It was enjoyable and worth the read.

[Redav]

Would you say this collection has enough new, worthwhile material for someone who read Unfinished Tales, Book of Lost Tales, and the Silmarillion?

I'm no authority on Tolkien but if you're asking primarily about The Children of Hurin, I'd probably lean towards a no. I read The Silmarillion (TS), then The Hobbit and tLotR primarily to see what I picked up in the second two after having just read TS, but then continued into The Children of Hurin (TCoH) and Beren and Luthien (B&L). I then re-read their chapters from TS for comparison.

TCoH is a fleshed out version of what's in TS. It was an interesting story in its own right (Alan Lee's artwork is wonderful) and while TS version is a lite version, it certainly contains all the events therein. It probably took me eight or nine days to read the book in 45 minute chunks on the train and maybe two days to read it from TS. The details improve the story which didn't jump out at me when I first read TS but does it revolutionise my thoughts of it? Probably not. I might read it again one day? The appendix didn't really add anything critical of interest.

The complete B&L story is in TS but its book contains a lot of commentary from Chris Tolkien about the evolution it underwent across the decades it took to mostly write (it was incomplete). It includes duplicates of the changed prose i.e. it started out as a poem but ended as a tale. I was happy to have read it but I think it's a one off for me.

What's are the Unfinished Tales and Book of Lost Tales like? I'm wondering whether it's worth acquiring them as well as The Fall of Gondolin.

And I've moved onto Star Wars . I've finished A New Hope (I can see why Lucas directed movies...) and am halfway through The Empire Strikes Back.

[Anderas]

Don't. The star wars books are as bad as the film's. You want space opera that's great?

I have read Star Wars, used to be a trekkie, read the Night's Dawn, the Polity, The Culture, The Commonwealth, the Expanse.

Of all of them, go binging the Expanse on Netflix, the first three books are produced as series and probably better than the books themselves. Of the others, forget Star Wars and Star Trek, they are no concurrence.

Go to Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth saga, start with Pandora's Star. That's good. Really good.

Or, a bit more modern but also more.... strange... start with the Polity of Neal Asher. I propose "Dark Intelligence " as starter. It's kind of in the middle but it starts a new story arc of three books that really got me hooked.

Warning: Those two series go to every height and low of human behaviour so if you are used to books that "behave" they might be a bit hard.

[Daedalus]

. . . What's are the Unfinished Tales and Book of Lost Tales like? I'm wondering whether it's worth acquiring them as well as The Fall of Gondolin. . . .

I haven't read them for ages . . . <bu-dum-tss>. They are both evolving compilations of the earliest drafts and their developments (or outright changes) that became the Silmarilion. Check Wikipedia to learn more. As I remember, they are the first two books that Christopher Tolkien put out in his series that include the books you've read. Both the tale of Beren and Luthien are the tales of Huron and his children can be found within.

I believe you can check them out online, or at least excerpts. If you're interested in JRR Tolkien's evolving narrative, I'd say you'd be interested in both.

[benvoliothefirst]

Also a recommendation: Watch "Cobra Kai" on Youtube Red RIGHT NOW!!!
It's literally a perfect series. As in everything works. Acting, drama, humor, story, characters.
They did the impossible and captured the magic of the original Karate Kid and made something people in 2018 would watch. It's got nostalgia and it's modern. I can't get over how great it was. A 30 years delayed continuation of the Karate Kid saga has no right being so good!
It's obvious everyone involved in the creation are huge fans (unlike "we actively try to hire people who know nothing about the franchise"-Star Wars).
The only reason you would disagree is if you for some godforsaken reason always hated Karate Kid.

Legit. I felt the same way. Couldn't believe how good it was!

[Redav]

Don't. The star wars books are as bad as the film's. You want space opera that's great?

That's okay, I'm only reading them because they exist and I wanted to see what little, extra bits within. I'm aware that SW isn't completely a great read. I've read most of the pre-New Jedi Order (no interest in these) books and many of them are fairly ordinary. I think the only ones that I'd recommend are from Zahn (basically anything about Thrawn) and Stackpole (X-Wing books) plus a few others here and there. But I'm not after space opera, it's not a genre I'm interested in. And one Trek book was enough haha

I haven't read them for ages--bu-dum-tss.

They are both evolving compilations of the earliest drafts and their developments (or outright changes) that became the Silmarilion. Check Wikipedia to learn more.

Yup, fair enough. I might let them slide then so thanks

[j_dean80]

So I finished 'Eldest' and decided to keep going and started on 'Brisingr'.

I thought overall it was better than the 1st book. Some parts drug though, like his days in the forest seemed to last soo long...

I kind of already guessed the ending was going to happen too.

[wallydubbs]

I'm currently reading "Synchronicity" by psychoanalyst Carl Jung. It took me a long time to finally obtain a copy of this book. Unfortunately I had to go through the library to get it. However the whole 2nd chapter covers marital patterns in regards to Astrology, but I wasn't able to understand half of what he was saying or his conclusion. This is a very humbling experience as it makes me feel stupid.

[Anderas]

"Against a dark background" from Iain Banks. Great story, lots of action. It would be worth a Netflix Series.
Charakters and Antagonists all have successes and mishaps and lose friends. It stays interesting right up to the end.

[SSDecontrol]

It's not out yet but I am looking forward to The Godblade by J. Christopher Tarpey:

https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2020/9/2 ... id=IwAR0sN