Always been a sucker for Dennis McKiernan and his Mithgar realm. Sure some people say he rips off of LOTR for some of his inspiration but his books are actually much darker than Tolkien and I really enjoy his writing style. So I am starting it read through all of these books again and enjoying it.
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Dennis Mckiernan is really great at creating a strong atmosphere in his writing. I read the Mithgar books when I was 12 and recently read ‘Eye of the Hunter’ and it holds up. It was a great world to escape back into.
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Yeah his atmosphere is top notch!
Yes - It makes more sense as you progress.
I’ve also heard that the fifth book of the series - The Urth of the New Sun - recontextualizes the whole thing, but I haven’t read that yet.
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Always loved the covers of those. Classic.
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Urth of the New Sun kind of trades the grounded weirdness of the original series for something much more abstract and allegorical.
Wolfe called it a “book of answers,” but in true Wolfean fashion, those answers mostly lead to more questions. I found Book of the New Sun provided a more satisfying sense of closure.
Urth is worth reading if you’ve made it through the original and still find yourself haunted by it. It’s intellectually fascinating—just didn’t resonate with me in quite the same way.
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So, because of your discussion here I ended up beginning Shadow of the Torturer. It’s actually Shadow & Claw since they’ve combined the first two books into one. And while I’m not very far into the story yet, I’ve found it hard to put down. And having gone in mostly blind, at around 50 pages, there’s already moments of epiphany about the world. And I’m considering ways to find more time for reading during my week. 
Also, the 2021 introduction from Ada Palmer was an interesting read as well. Has anyone read her stuff? Is it any good?
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Ok… this sort of response makes me more inclined to try. I own it. It sits on my Kindle. All I have to do is… start reading it.
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Well, I can already see why people say the purpose of certain scenes or bits of information isn’t always immediately clear. And that not everything is spelled out, but requires the reader to connect the dots. And from Ada Palmer’s intro I gather that some dots won’t connect until later books, or sometimes need the reader to put in effort to ever see their purpose.
But all that said, every scene is very well written and engaging regardless of whether you can determine its full value at the time. It doesn’t feel to me like I’ve gone on any unwelcome tangents. So if you already have it, then I’d say it’s definitely worth cracking open that kindle.
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I think what I’m trying to get across is that some of the reviews of the book make you worried that it’s like picking up an unabridged Victor Hugo novel, where after trying to digest 10 pages of how trends in french architecture have altered the appearance of Parisian rooftops over time, you’re suddenly understanding why the abridged version is so common.
This is not that.
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Thank you @Not_People! I will give it a go after finishing my current read (the much lighter Legends and Lattes).
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Based on seeing it mentioned in many places including The Dungeon Dive, I’ve finally decided to read my first Clive Barker novel
Reviews online seem to suggest this book starts slow and takes a while to hook you, but I’ve found I haven’t been able to put it down pretty much from chapter 1.
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Clive Barker is great!
Swords Against Deviltry is a worthy victor, if only for the classic bro tale Ill Met in Lankhmar—equal parts swagger, tragedy, and fog-drenched rooftops.
That said, just glancing at the shelf, I think Swords in the Mist might’ve been my favourite overall collection… Lean Times in Lankhmar with old mate Isaac the Jug… but it’s been a while.
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That art is fantastic!
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Aaron J. Riley is the artist but I can’t remember where it hails from… Savage Worlds? It’s part of a collection of images I keep as a kind of mood board for the Ziggurat game I’ve been working on.
EDIT: Found it!
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Imajica is absolutely epic. It’s so weird and utterly fantastical.
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Finished Against the Horde, my first book from Gemmell and I loved it. It’s full of big heroic characters doing big heroic things, and has one of the more compelling antagonists I’ve encountered in some time.
Then moved on to the first book in Gemmell’s weird west trilogy, which has been quite good thus far.
It’s definitely a book for me with its strong religious-based themes and questing.
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