{"id":1952,"date":"2010-01-21T04:59:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T09:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2010\/01\/21\/now-reading-%e2%80%93-some-more-robert-e-howard\/"},"modified":"2010-01-21T05:00:45","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T10:00:45","slug":"now-reading-%e2%80%93-some-more-robert-e-howard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2010\/01\/21\/now-reading-%e2%80%93-some-more-robert-e-howard\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Reading \u2013 Some More Robert E. Howard"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a while since I posted a \u201cNow Reading\u201d<\/em> post, so I thought it would be a fun diversion. Back in December I finished up The Icewind Dale Trilogy<\/em><\/a> by R.A. Salvatore. It was a solid read for heroic swords and sorcery fiction based on Dungeons and Dragons; really the Forgotten Realms setting. I am not going to pretend to be a fiction critic; remember this is just a fun diversion type of post.<\/p>\n

With that said, I thought the pacing was very uneven. The trilogy started off fine, hooked me in the middle, and became too unbelievable (if I can use that adjective to describe fiction) towards the end. I don\u2019t want to give any spoilers away, but the conclusion to the dragon fight in the underdark-ish dwarf citadel was just too much. To make matters worse, I really had to slog my way through the very last bit in the astral plane (or whatever it was). Thankfully there was not too much of this nonsense; Mr. Salvatore must have realized that he was up against some sort of page count.<\/p>\n

As I said, I enjoyed The Icewind Dale Trilogy<\/em> enough to take up some of the other Drizzt books. I thought the characters were interesting, and certainly the sights and sounds of the Forgotten Realms were captivating. Well, maybe not captivating, but certainly enjoyable.<\/p>\n

I just started Robert E. Howard\u2019s Kull Exile of Atlantis<\/em><\/a>. I have read some of Howard\u2019s Conan works, but never any Kull stories. Obviously Kull came first, I have to assume that Conan and Kull are fairly interchangeable as sword and sorcery characters for all but the most diehard Robert E. Howard fans.<\/p>\n

I am only about 40 pages in, but so far am enjoying the tales. I have to admit that I can only take so much of this type of fiction in one sitting, much less over the course of a book. Last spring when I was reading The Essential Conan<\/em><\/a>, as much as I enjoyed the various Conan stories, I never made it through the last few in the book.<\/p>\n

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