
Are you reading anything now?

Some time in the future, a nuclear holocaust is averted by a computer named ARDNEH (Automatic Restoration Director – National Executive Headquarters), which initiates what is intended to be a temporary modification (later called "The Change") to the laws of physics to make nuclear explosions impossible. However, the enemy has a similar device, and when the two expanding wavefronts of The Change collide, the effect unexpectedly becomes permanent.
Following The Change, most technology ceases to function, while magic now works. Magical beings are also created. Demons are born from acts of violence at the time of the change; the most powerful is Orcus, a nuclear bomb caught at the exact moment of exploding. After eliminating potential rivals, it establishes and rules the evil Empire of the East. Eventually, it is tricked and overthrown by John Ominor, its human second-in-command, who then becomes Emperor of the East. However, the tyranny remains the same. Orcus is locked away in a magical dungeon by Ominor and Wood, his most powerful wizard (who goes on to become the main antagonist of the subsequent Swords series set thousands of years further in the future).
On one continent, a resistance movement fights on under the leadership of Duncan, but is gradually being ground down by the greatly superior military and magical strength of the Empire. Rolf, a peasant farmer with an untapped knack for technology, joins the resistance after his parents are killed and his sister kidnapped by soldiers of the Empire. He is contacted by Ardneh (made sentient by The Change and the actual leader of the West) and ultimately becomes the conduit for the computer's plans to bring about the West's salvation.
Written in the 1960s and 70s, the books have a significant Cold War theme and the parallels between the American perspective of the evil east and the west are obvious. The dominance of magic makes for a strong fantasy flavor, but remnants of the advanced weapons and technology of the old world appear throughout the series (the lake of life for wounded soldiers for example).
I'm sure I'll pick it up, I have pretty much everything else for ME.It has come to light on the Tolkien Collector’s Guide that Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin have plans to publish a new book titled The Nature of Middle-earth in 2021 containing previously unpublished writings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Nature of Middle-earth will comprise numerous late (c. 1959-73) and previously unpublished writings by J.R.R. Tolkien on the “nature” of Middle-earth, in both chief senses of that word: both metaphysical and natural/historical.
Having now read listened through the third book, I really like the Discworld universe, really fantastic and some interesting takes on fantasy and magic. The first three books, at least, are very well written and enjoyable, I'm looking forward to the fourth book.They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not half so bad as a lot of ignorance.
The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son.
Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check that the baby in question was a son.
Everybody knows that there’s no such thing as a female wizard. But now it’s gone and happened, there’s nothing much anyone can do about it.
Let the battle of the sexes begin…
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Equal Rites is the first book in the Witches series.