What are you reading right now? (possible RotE spoilers)

['thul]

NOTE: The below text will spoil somewhat of the book series 'thul are currently reading, but only mildly, so not using spoiler tags:

'thul have found that while the story is still very excellent in the anita blake series where they have gotten (book 14) the very detailed "erotica" sections are actually beginning to be boring. Not because they are repetitive in content, but because they cover such a significant amount of pages. It is actually rare for anything to not be original in concept theirein. A fairly short timeframe, essentially the events occurring one evening in bed (out of many such evenings) takes up about 8.5 pages... Doesn't sound much? Lets just say that its not regular pocket book pages. Its 60-line PDF pages. so about 500 lines of text for that alone.

Even reading original concepts of such becomes boring after a while. Fortunately the other parts of the books are not as boring in that way, and there's still larger amounts of that than the aforementioned erotica. 'thul found it quite ok to just skip the last erotica section, as it did not appear to add anything to the real story.
Of course, the main protagonist has gained the traits of a succubus, so she is addicted to multi-daily sexual relations, but still, do the books have to describe that many of them?

[fool-ish]

Sounds quite as exhausting as that half a book I read. You think perhaps the author's running out of ideas?

['thul]

not quite. but the books do vary in length. one of them was 500+ such pages, while the next one was about 80. current one is roughly 200 pages.
But considering that the current book is #14 of 20, the later ones are either very empty, or new ideas come out. There's a clear main plot in the series, but unless the subplots work out, the books become boring.

there are some nice names for various terms that pop up here, thats for sure...
Vlad's syndrome, Mowgli syndrome, going furry... names like that. Not explained, yet obvious what they refer to.

[fool-ish]

Going furry

['thul]

lots of people do that in these books. and its not just wolves... its all sorts of animals... wolves, leopards, tigers, lions, jaguars, snakes, hyenas, rats, swans, dogs, etc. All sorts of animal forms. Its very rare for anyone to be infected with more than one form of lycanthropy, though. Once changed by a full moon, full disease immunity sets in.

[Omie]

I just read Joanne Harris's Runelight, a follow-up to Runemarks. Both are brilliant YA fantasy stories based on Norse mythology. Runelight contributes to the Runemarks world Harris created in a way that can't help but be satisfying to a detail-nerd like myself, but the book also contributes its own unique and interesting characters and conundrums. It left not only the tantalising possibility for a third book, but the slavering desire for one due to the open ending that I won't describe in detail here.

Following that, I felt compelled to read An Introduction to Viking Mythology by John Grant. I love how Norse mythology is portrayed in this book, as something both epic but silly and soap opera-esque.

[FoolishGirl]

I just read Joanne Harris's Runelight, a follow-up to Runemarks. Both are brilliant YA fantasy stories based on Norse mythology. Runelight contributes to the Runemarks world Harris created in a way that can't help but be satisfying to a detail-nerd like myself, but the book also contributes its own unique and interesting characters and conundrums. It left not only the tantalising possibility for a third book, but the slavering desire for one due to the open ending that I won't describe in detail here.

Following that, I felt compelled to read An Introduction to Viking Mythology by John Grant. I love how Norse mythology is portrayed in this book, as something both epic but silly and soap opera-esque.

Have you read the Long Ships by Bengtsson? Not mythology, but a novel about 10th C. AD Vikings. Takes a while to get used to the old fashioned novelistic style (not much dialog), but I loved it.

['thul]

As a small break and to get a bit back into the high fantasy state of mind, 'thul decided to re-read "The Redemption of Althalus". A stand-alone novel featuring a main character that is essentially a thief, braggart, and general fellow like that, and his adventures. To reveal more would be to spoil the very story for you, should you read it.

[fool-ish]

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Will share more when I'm further in to it.

['thul]

These beings have heard some good recommendations of that book series, fool-ish, so they look forward to your assessment.