Dungeon, Fire, and Sword

Epinions Review

An engaging conflict centric history of the Knights Templar with a heavy focus on the Crusades and the secular Crusader factions.. It almost completely avoids the mystic trappings that are often a detriment to a good telling of the tales of the Templars. The book spares no detail in fully revealing the bravery, martial skill, dedication, as well as arrogance and poor foresight on the part of the Order. Gerard de Ridefort and Reynald de Chatillon can shoulder nearly the entirety of the blame for the eventual failure of the Crusades. Crusader brutality is described in detail and insight is given into the historical length of the divide between the Sunni and Shiite factions of Islam.

It is a condensed work and the author himself states he often only gives one of several possible viewpoints recorded by historians. I still found the book enjoyable and relevant to the modern day.

Is this a thread where we point what we are reading now?

If it is, here's my list:
-Dark Tower by Stephen King currently at 5th tome.
-S is for Space, Ray Bradbury
-modern math essays. Not ultra-high knowledge level, but still more advanced than most people can understand

Pilgrimage of The Sacred and The Profane, Vol. 6 in the Vampire Hunter D saga. (English translation.)

Kushiel's Justice. Totally love this series.

I'm presently working through a bit of memory lane with Terry Pratchett goodness.
Soul Music, Hogfather, the collab with Gaiman (Good Omens), etc.

After finishing Harry Potter I was depressed and needed a new fix of a classic fantasy novel. So once again I am attempting to read Lord of the Rings, however I usually never make it through halfway through Fellowship so we'll see.

If you're looking for a nice fantasy world - try looking into Jennifer Roberson's Cheysuli Chronicles. It's a nice carrying storyline, in a world that I found wonderful - in a way where it was believable fantasy.

Twilight Watch. Russian author, the storytelling style reminds me somewhat of Japanese, except it really does explain things in the end, while (my experience with) Japanese won't ever explain everything. They're fantasy books, but with a fairly strong hard-boiled detective thread running through them. There's a lot of "Who did what and why?"

Also read a whole lot of Linux documentation.

Attempting to read LOTR? How's that?

Well, I would suggest you to start your attempt by first reading The Silmarillion.



As for books, I myself am attempting to finally finish reading The Black Book of Freemasonry, but can't help to close the book after a few pages...

For LotR, I find they're easier to get through if you listen to them as audiobooks. They're really good either way, but they're less effort when someone else reads them for you.

As for books that you only read a few pages of, I'm trying to work my way through the Basic Works of C.G. Jung, Consciousness Explained, and Beyond Good and Evil.

Those books were awesome. I just finished them about a month ago. They have the best chance of re-reading for me.

You know what is also good to get you in the "LOTR" reading mood? Watching the animated movies (Hobbit, LOTR)! XD

After trying to find a clip of that catchy orc song over at Youtube... I actually found that you can watch the whole movies in there.


If you dare, follow the link: The Hobbit (1977)



Requiem, so you are reading or trying to read four books at about the same time? Can't ever say I've tried that. My max has always been two.

I'm just starting a sort of Harry Potter marathon, if you will. I'm gonna read through all the books 1-7 ib order, back to back.

I listened to 1-5 on audiobook to prep for 7. Six I didn't get on hold at the library soon enough, so the Pottermania swept it up before I got my hands on it. Jim Dale is win.

Currently listening to The City of Ember, quite good so far.

If you can't make it through Fellowship, probably won't make it through Silmarillion, unless you just happen to like epic mythology more than novels. Silmarillion is not written to be read the same way as LotR, and most people I've talked to find it harder to get into. I like it better than LotR, but tastes vary.

You need to at least make it half-way through Fellowship before giving up, because that's when it starts getting better. The half-way point is pretty much well-known for being the point that people rarely ever reach before giving up, but those who do make it discover the reward.

You just have to get past the godawfully boring parts in the Shire, heh.

LOTR is very worth it once you make it past the boring parts. One of my favorite fantasy books.

As for what I'm reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - Oscar Wilde and "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" - Thomas De Quincey

Why anyone would want to read The Silmarillion is beyond me. Attempting that effectively killed my desire to read any more of Tolkien's books afterward. It's dull, it's drab, and it reads like an entire book of Biblical "and he begat so-and-so" passages. Unless you're a die-hard fantasy historian, you can probably safely pass on this one.

Oddly enough, I enjoyed the Silmarillion. But then, I've always found that I have incredible patience for things that probably shouldn't be granted that much patience.

Currently reading The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene.

Is it good?

I'm currently reading "Dangerous Visions", anthology edited by Harlan Ellison. I recently finished "Ilium" and "Olympos" by Dan Simmons, they were great.

Waiting in line are: "Night Watch" by Sergey Lukyanenko and "Dark Rivers of the Heart" by Dean Koontz.

I've just ordered Gaiman's Stardust and American Gods, and D. Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle from Amazon, so I'll hopefully be able to dig into those soon.

It'll likely take a bit for them to arrive, so I'm re-reading Pratchett's Mort and Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while I wait. My online orders always seem to get lost in the mail. I suppose that's what comes of living in a house that's on the wrong lot for its given address.