Beautiful! Reminds me of the art for Advanced Space Crusade.
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That looks really nice! Love it.
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Finished “The Devils” by Joe Abercrombie (which was very entertaining).
7 chapters into “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir and loving it so far.
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I thought about picking The Devils up but was kinda bummed when I learned it was a new series. I have an extremely low attention span and have just never gotten along with full multi-book stories. Because of that, I never read any of the First Law stuff aside from the stand alones. Did Devils do enough to make you want the 2nd book or you think 1 is enough?
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The first book completely resolves the story, so you could easily treat it as a standalone.
The book details a team of fantasy heroes?/devils? that go on missions for the church/Pope.
I enjoyed it a lot, so I will definitely be interested in any follow-on books.
P.S. The First Law series is also excellent. I recommend it highly. Joe creates amazing characters and his books are really following these characters through the events that are occurring in the story/world.
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Thanks! I dug Best Served Cold & Red Country…? I think that was the name of it, the more Western(y) one. I might try to see if my library has Devils and give it a whirl. I appreciate the heads up!
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Just finished the Joe Golem graphic novel series by Mike Mignola & all.
I was lured in by the promise of maybe like a Kolchak the Night Stalker premise… but it ended up being something very different. Part Lovecraft, part folklore, with Mignola’s Catholic mysticism tossed in. Had flavors of Hellboy to boot. It was a real melting pot. I thought 75% of it was REALLY fun and strong, but it didn’t quite stick the landing.
I’m curious if there are other Joe Golem adventures beyond the original 4 graphic solve sequence. Anyone else read this?
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Funny the mentions of The First Law, as I am just finishing up The Blade Itself as my first Ambercombie. Really enjoying the characters so far, and very curious to see where this goes.
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Just got this in the post. Very happy to add such a nice thick chunk of nostalgia to my bookshelf
Haven’t even got home with it yet, straight to the coffee shop for a flip-through
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Old Warhammer books are so great. I love my 1998 40k rules book, Warhammer Quest 95 and Advanced HeroQuest books!
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Continuing my The First Law journey, I just finished the second book: Before They Are Hanged. Really enjoyed it. While the first book felt a little disjoint until things came together at the end, this entry was off and running from the jump. Great characters, action, mysteries, and rough consequences. On to the finale…
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Nice! You think you’ll hit the next series too? I always feel like I need a break when I wrap up a story before diving right back into the same series or world.
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I decided to go back and re-read one of my favorite comix series, Criminal, after picking up The Knives.
I really adore this series in its entirety and had such a blast reading all the trades in order along with the OGNs.
I decided to pick up Jacob Phillips, the colorist for later bits and son of line artist Sean Phillips, other book, That Texas Blood.
This was written by Chris Condon, and the first trade was really solid albeit super close to Criminal - but in Texas and very enamoured by No Country For Old Men. The following two trades had diminishing returns for me. The 2nd was kinda paint by numbers Satanic Panic, and while that’s one of my favorite tropes, it was maybe too surface level with nothing new to add. That could just be me and having read so much of that jazz, so grains of salt and all that. The third revolved around a serial killer and I dug it but Condon started writing the southern dialog phonetically and I found it really jarring for it to pop up in the third book with the same characters. There’s also a verbal tic the main character has that I found kinda grating. Again, maybe reading them so close together had something to with it.
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I fell out of reading for a bit in the early 2000s - just juggling a whole bunch of stuff. The First Law Trilogy pulled me back into reading regularly; it’s a series I’ve re-read at least 3 times (I think) at this point. I absolutely love his style, the characters and how he manages to subvert fantasy. I’m jealous you’re on a new journey - enjoy!
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Finished up the first The First Law trilogy with Last Argument of Kings. Really awesome. He does some of the best character work I have read recently. Overall a satisfying conclusion to a great story.
I was tempted to keep going with the standalone books, but I have decided to take a break and read Operation Bounce House as a palette cleanser. So far it is interesting, but not sure exactly what to think of it.
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It seems like every time I go to Half Price Books, I end up with a quality haul. This time was not an exception and all for under $20.
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That’s a solid haul! Especially at that price, you made out like a bandit. I’ve never read any of the Riftwar stuff but Ol Elric is a house favorite.
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Riftwar is pretty good!
I started reading Riftwar a few months ago and have been rather surprised at how good it is - currently in book #4 of the “trilogy”. I wasn’t expecting much - thinking people were remembering it fondly as something they read as a teenager, but it’s actually pretty good. It also starts out like a bog-standard fantasy tale but I was surprised at how different it eventually became. I was also surprised at how many other more modern stories (like GoT and maybe a bit of The First Law) might have borrowed some themes (or at least have been inspired) by some of the things covered in the first 3 books.
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