What are you reading?

[Tomcat]

I just thought I'd start a discussion:

What are you reading right now?

Would you recommend it to others?

Does it have anything that might inspire new game content? (And I mean "inspire", not what can we plagiarize!)

[Tomcat]

I'm reading Michael J. Sullivan's series called Legends of the First Empire. It's set in a fantasy world called Elan, about which he has written two previous series, both set 3000 years later. This series, still being written, tells the true story behind legendary figures and events mentioned in the previous series, and the founding of what becomes the main religion of the later days (earlier works).

I love this writer! He's a fantastic storyteller. If you like fantasy, give these books a try!

The way the current series is showing how different legend and truth can be is inspiring me to start working through some ideas on the game's backstory, including The Shadow Church, Kazaul, and Elythara. We'll see if any of that ever gets into the game!

[Schmmiiirc]

The Investigator - by Michael Knox (a Customs & Excise investigator), includes an account of Richard Branson's arrest at age 20 for Purchase Tax fraud (his one permitted phone call was to his Mum - "Mummy, I'm f****ed".

and, The Corporation Wars: Emergence. by Ken Macleod

[JonLin]

Finishing my yearly reread of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. Just started book 13.

[Aulrad]

Well im reading new posts on this site!.

[Zukero]

I'm reading the Lone Wolf interactive fiction series, as put together in the "Kai Chronicles" open-source Android app.

[JonLin]

I'm reading the Lone Wolf interactive fiction series, as put together in the "Kai Chronicles" open-source Android app.

I like the Lone Wolf Saga app better.

[TheGx]

Reading now? Nothing.

Have read? Atlas Shrugged.

Inspirations? Objectivism and Libertarianism remind me already of alot of themes already in this game, so more would be even better, I like to have the choice to disobey if I want to - instead of the state/remgard suppressing the right to choose.

[Dan_W_58]

Finished reading book 2 in the Battle Of Earth (6 more books to come), the grand finale of The Horus Heresy series (about 60 books + side stories, excluding BOE) taking place around the 25th Millenium. If you like to get immersed in a universe for a year or two, this is for you.
The Horus Heresy was simply a vague reference in books of the Warhammer 40,000 series. Fans kept asking questions about it, until Games Workshop decided to commission the writing of three books to tell the story of Horus; but in no time the Horus Heresy grew to library size.
Been reading and collecting the books for two years now.
The setting is a mixture of medieval and high tech. Basically, scientific and technological knowledge has largely been lost through wars and disasters, as well as an uprising of machines against humans that happened 20,000 years earlier, and humans barely survived. So the tradition is that machine AI is prohibited, eternally. But they do have "servitors", which sre machines with discarded human brains trained for a particular job.
Thing is, nobody knows how machines work, but there are machines that can make or repair machines, so human knowledge isn't necessary. However, most of the production machines are on Mars, and the colonies of Mars, under the control of priests of the Machine God religion, who claim to know how the machines work and nobody disputes their claim. But so, that's how the cultural environment is religious and medieval, while having futusistic space travel technologies.
But since a few thousand years earlier, Earth has been ruled by a giant being, extremely wise, knowledgeable, benevolent dictator without a name... The Emperor, about 3 or 4 times the size of a normal human. And he embarks Humanity into a clensing of the Milky Way Galaxy from all xeno races, and finding splinters of humanity out there that became lost after an abortive expansion of Humanity that had happened 10 millenia earlier. But if those splinters of humanity have developed a religion, or any kind of superstitions they must give them up or be destroyed. So, this is a galactic campaign of objectivist elightenment, you might say.
And it starts very good, but then everything goes wrong...

[Schmmiiirc]

City of Thorns - Ben Rawlence.

An account of life in the world's largest refugee camp viewed from the perspective of nine people living there. It's worth a read just for the personal education about the corruption and other wrongdoings that persist in such places.

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/ ... &q&f=false

Also, finished reading recently, Long Shot - Azad Cudi. An Iranian Kurd who became a sniper in the war against Isis.

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/ ... &q&f=false