Recent Readings (and other literary talk)

[Ancalagon]

Today I finished The Iron King, book 1 of The Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon. It weighs in at 327 pages with historical notes expanding it to 340 pages.

The Accursed Kings (French: Les Rois maudits) is a series of historical novels by French author Maurice Druon about the French monarchy in the 14th century. Published between 1955 and 1977, the series has been adapted as a miniseries twice for television in France.

Set during the reigns of the last five kings of the direct Capetian dynasty and the first two kings of the House of Valois, the series begins as the French King Philip the Fair, already surrounded by scandal and intrigue, brings a curse upon his family when he persecutes the Knights Templar. The succession of monarchs that follows leads France and England to the Hundred Years' War.

American author George R. R. Martin called The Accursed Kings "the original game of thrones", citing Druon's novels as an inspiration for his own series, A Song of Ice and Fire.

I enjoyed The Iron King enough to order the next book in the series, The Strangled Queen.

[Necron 99]

I mentioned prior in the thread, the works of Fred Saberhagen, specifically his Empire of the East trilogy. I started reading the first book earlier this week, I'm roughly 50 pages into it. The three books together top out around 450 so it's a bit of a read.

As of right now, though, I have to give this story thumbs up. I was not familiar with these works until the GG kickstarter came out, but I'm glad I know about them now. There is most definitely that Bakshi Wizards feel going on, melding magic and technology together. One of the coolest scenes I've read to date had to do with a small group of Free People fleeing by canoe into a small river, from a group of oncoming enemy soldiers.

One of the characters happens to be a magic-user/wizard of sorts and summons up an elemental from the muck and mud of the river bottom. As the canoe moves off, the elemental drags itself from the water and onto land where it fights against the enemy soldiers, allowing the fleeing group a chance to get away. The coolest part though, was that the summoner tells the group to paddle faster, and it's soon mentioned that the reasoning is because the elemental, now finished with the soldiers, has turned and is trailing the group in an attempt to reach the one who summoned it. Magic in this world is useful and can be somewhat powerful but isn't always as kind as "vancian" magic in that it's just there for casters to use without repercussion.

I really enjoyed the follow-up where Saberhagen describes the elemental gaining on the group, all the while, the caster is slowly moving his arms and hands, causing the magic that summoned the elemental to dissipate so that by the time the elemental gets to them, it is nothing more than a small ebb and flow of the water pushing around sides of the canoe, the magic finally gone and the elemental settled back down. It was just a really cool scene and interesting perspective on magic to read, compared to so much bog standard magic.

Really glad I went in on the kickstarter for the DCC supplement, I hope GG continues to produce cool settings based on the works from Appendix N.

[Deil the Yin]

Love me some Terry Pratchett and Discworld. I recently audio'd the City Guard series, more or less. Pratchett can write some profound social commentary, and I love his wit, not to mention the great story lines that parody our real world. My favourite, though, is his Tiffany Aching series (his version of a kids book), the first of which is "Wee Free Men". Death is pretty funny, too.

Also of note are a couple of short TV series made from Discworld books: The Colour of Magic (with Samwise Gamgee) and one of my faves Going Postal. Word on the street is that someone is trying to make Wee Free Men for TV...

Cheers,
Wesley

PS: Very apropos: "Sir Terry's daughter Rhianna Pratchett is adapting the novel for the feature film. She is an award-winning scriptwriter for videogames, comics, film and TV - and won the Women in Games Hall of Fame award in 2013." Guid on 'er! Sadly this is from 2016...

[Necron 99]

Love me some Terry Pratchett and Discworld. I recently audio'd the City Guard series, more or less. Pratchett can write some profound social commentary, and I love his wit, not to mention the great story lines that parody our real world. My favourite, though, is his Tiffany Aching series (his version of a kids book), the first of which is "Wee Free Men". Death is pretty funny, too.

Also of note are a couple of short TV series made from Discworld books: The Colour of Magic (with Samwise Gamgee) and one of my faves Going Postal. Word on the street is that someone is trying to make Wee Free Men for TV...

Cheers,
Wesley

PS: Very apropos: "Sir Terry's daughter Rhianna Pratchett is adapting the novel for the feature film. She is an award-winning scriptwriter for videogames, comics, film and TV - and won the Women in Games Hall of Fame award in 2013." Guid on 'er! Sadly this is from 2016...

I'm looking forward to listening or reading through all of TP's stuff, I really like his writing and settings. I just started the fourth book, Mort, in which Death takes on an apprentice, Mort, short for Mortimer, a young farm boy in the Discworld. So far, just as enjoyable as the prior three.

[Ancalagon]

<snip>
One of the characters happens to be a magic-user/wizard of sorts and summons up an elemental from the muck and mud of the river bottom. As the canoe moves off, the elemental drags itself from the water and onto land where it fights against the enemy soldiers, allowing the fleeing group a chance to get away. The coolest part though, was that the summoner tells the group to paddle faster, and it's soon mentioned that the reasoning is because the elemental, now finished with the soldiers, has turned and is trailing the group in an attempt to reach the one who summoned it. Magic in this world is useful and can be somewhat powerful but isn't always as kind as "vancian" magic in that it's just there for casters to use without repercussion.

I really enjoyed the follow-up where Saberhagen describes the elemental gaining on the group, all the while, the caster is slowly moving his arms and hands, causing the magic that summoned the elemental to dissipate so that by the time the elemental gets to them, it is nothing more than a small ebb and flow of the water pushing around sides of the canoe, the magic finally gone and the elemental settled back down. It was just a really cool scene and interesting perspective on magic to read, compared to so much bog standard magic.

<snip>

That's some cool stuff right there. Jus' sayin'.

[Ancalagon]

Today I finished The Iron King, book 1 of The Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon. It weighs in at 327 pages with historical notes expanding it to 340 pages.

The Accursed Kings (French: Les Rois maudits) is a series of historical novels by French author Maurice Druon about the French monarchy in the 14th century. Published between 1955 and 1977, the series has been adapted as a miniseries twice for television in France.

Set during the reigns of the last five kings of the direct Capetian dynasty and the first two kings of the House of Valois, the series begins as the French King Philip the Fair, already surrounded by scandal and intrigue, brings a curse upon his family when he persecutes the Knights Templar. The succession of monarchs that follows leads France and England to the Hundred Years' War.

American author George R. R. Martin called The Accursed Kings "the original game of thrones", citing Druon's novels as an inspiration for his own series, A Song of Ice and Fire.

I enjoyed The Iron King enough to order the next book in the series, The Strangled Queen.

Yesterday I finished The Strangled Queen, book 2 of The Accursed Kings series. It weighs in at 269 pages with historical notes expanding it to 280 pages.

From the back over of the book:

Philip IV is dead and his great kingdom is in disarray. It seems the fatal curse of the Templars is plaguing the royal house of France.

His son has been enthroned as Louis X; but with his disgraced wife Marguerite imprisoned in the Chateau Gaillard for her adultery, Louis can produce no heir with which to secure the succession. But neither can he marry again while she lives…

The web of scandal, murder and intrigue that once wove itself around the court of the Iron King continues to draw in his descendants, as the destruction of his dynasty continues apace.

So far so good. I'm enjoying the series and have already started on The Poisoned Crown.

[Ancalagon]

Today I finished The Iron King, book 1 of The Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon. It weighs in at 327 pages with historical notes expanding it to 340 pages.

The Accursed Kings (French: Les Rois maudits) is a series of historical novels by French author Maurice Druon about the French monarchy in the 14th century. Published between 1955 and 1977, the series has been adapted as a miniseries twice for television in France.

Set during the reigns of the last five kings of the direct Capetian dynasty and the first two kings of the House of Valois, the series begins as the French King Philip the Fair, already surrounded by scandal and intrigue, brings a curse upon his family when he persecutes the Knights Templar. The succession of monarchs that follows leads France and England to the Hundred Years' War.

American author George R. R. Martin called The Accursed Kings "the original game of thrones", citing Druon's novels as an inspiration for his own series, A Song of Ice and Fire.

I enjoyed The Iron King enough to order the next book in the series, The Strangled Queen.

Yesterday I finished The Strangled Queen, book 2 of The Accursed Kings series. It weighs in at 269 pages with historical notes expanding it to 280 pages.

From the back over of the book:

Philip IV is dead and his great kingdom is in disarray. It seems the fatal curse of the Templars is plaguing the royal house of France.

His son has been enthroned as Louis X; but with his disgraced wife Marguerite imprisoned in the Chateau Gaillard for her adultery, Louis can produce no heir with which to secure the succession. But neither can he marry again while she lives…

The web of scandal, murder and intrigue that once wove itself around the court of the Iron King continues to draw in his descendants, as the destruction of his dynasty continues apace.

So far so good. I'm enjoying the series and have already started on The Poisoned Crown.

A few weeks back I finished The Poisoned Crown, book 3 of The Accursed Kings series. It weighs in at 277 pages with historical notes expanding it to 294 pages. I can definitely see where GRRM got some inspiration for the Queen of Thorns in his Song of ice and Fire series.

From the back cover of the book:

After having his first wife murdered and his mistress exiled, the weak and impotent King Louis X of France becomes besotted with the lovely and pious Princess Clemence of Hungary.

Having made her his new queen, and believing the succession assured, Louis foolishly embarks upon an ill-fated war against Flanders.

The kingdom needs an Iron King. But where his father, Philip IV, was strong, Louis is feeble. Surrounded by ruthlessly ambitious nobles, including Robert of Artois and his monstrous aunt, Lahaut, Louis will find himself a lamb amongst the wolves.

I'm hooked and will finish the rest of the series.

[Ancalagon]

While waiting for book 4 of The Accursed Kings to arrive in the mail, I switched gears to read something else.

Last Friday I finished Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man by Mary l. Trump, PhD (trained clinical psychologist), the niece of the soon-to-be twice-impeached & ex-POTUS.

The book was an informative and revealing explanation of the family history and environment in which DJT grew up. I won't use the word "raised" because his parents didn't really do that with him which explains a lot about his behavior, mentality, and personality. The book weighs in at 224 pages, including the index.

From the back cover of the book:

Today, Donald is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information.

Child abuse is, in some sense, a matter of "too much" or "not enough." Donald's mother became ill when he was two and a half, suddenly depriving him of his main source of comfort and human contact. His father, Fred, became his only available parent. but Fred firmly believed that dealing with young children was not his duty, and he kept to his twelve-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week job at Trump Management, as if his children could look after themselves. From the beginning, Fred's self-interest skewed his priorities, and his care of his children reflected his own needs, not theirs. He could not empathize with Donald's plight so his son's fears and longings went unsoothed. Love meant nothing to Fred; he expected obedience, that was all. Over time, Donald became afraid that asking for comfort or attention would provoke his father's anger or indifference when Donald was most vulnerable.

That Fred would become the primary source of Donald's solace when he was much more likely to be a source of fear or rejection put Donald into an intolerable position: total dependence on a caregiver who also caused him terror. Donald suffered deprivations that would scar him for life.

[Deil the Yin]

Dang. I almost feel sorry for the little bastard. No wonder he's so f***** up...

[Ancalagon]

I pity the 2.5 yr old child who lost the much-needed maternal support.