The Hobbit will arrive sometime, but what can we watch, read or listen to in the meantime? (involving heroes, swords, longbows and all that)
Well, I saw Ridley Scott's take on Robin Hood (the Director'd Cut, naturally) and enjoyed it thoroughly despite the regional meanderings of some accents. The soundtrack is fabulous (I am listening to it as I type this) and the look and feel of the film is quite gritty but invigorating. I have to complement whoever trained Russell and the other star in the longbow - they look the part! There is some humour, but nothing slapstick, and no thighs were slapped at any point (Errol Flynn spins in his grave...)
Another one I stumbled upon on IMDB was Arn - The Knight Templar. Think of it as Kingdom of Heaven but with Sweden as the home of the knight. Watchable with some good scenes.
Now for the older and possibly more patient among you, who maybe like a bit of murder-mystery, I recommend the Shardlake books by CJ Sansom. Set in England during the reign of Henry VIII, Shardlake is a lawyer who gets tangled up in some intriguing affairs of state. The writing is fabulous, the attention to authentic detail bring you into the heart of London and other places as they were at the time. And each story has one or more twists to it, and they are not all happy-ever after tales. Shardlake has only his wits and knowledge of the law to keep him safe in a time where religious strife and political uncertainty meant a terrible death could be just an accusation away...
I would love to see him do something similarly detailed, with some other leading character, set maybe in Saxon or medieval times.
I would welcome any recommendations from you guys...

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
Be warned, not for the faint hearted. He has an interesting writing style which at first feels grueling but stick with it and you get sucked in. Some concepts seem outrageous, like 300,000 year old immortal magic wielders led by an almost unstoppable nutter with a magic sword whose very touch means certain death, but it all makes sense in the books. Characters are introduced out of nowhere and details about them may not surface til books later but it doesn't detract from the story. Magic is handled in a very interesting way, totally different from your standard fantasy novel, but well thought out.
These are pretty in-depth novels, I'm talking 5-6 plots over multiple books at times, and they're not your standard good verse evil and the hero prevails at the end type fantasy novels either. He has no qualms about killing off characters.
Don't let me put you off though, they're a cracking good read but a bit like Tolkien in that you've got to stick with it for the first half of the first book until you get used to his style.

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Ash Nazg Durbatulûk, Ash Nazg Gimbatul,
Ash Nazg Thrakatulûk Agh Burzum-ishi Krimpatul.

Not a movie, or involving sword, longbows etc but I'm watching Sherlock, the programme by the BBC putting Holmes, Watson and Moriarty in the present day. But I do read fantasy like the Malloreon by David Eddings, the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist, and also the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini.

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The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day they make vacuum cleaners

I have read the Eddings books - the first 5 were really good but the second cycle started to feel way too formulaic after book 2. The Riftwar and all the attached stuff by Feist is excellent - some LotR feel but with a few nice twists which I will not reveal to spoil things for first time readers.
The BBC Sherlock series is great - I know a real Holmes nut and she reckons this has stayed true to Sir Arthur's characters even though it is set in 21st century London. I love the soundtrack (hint hint hint BBC). I also enjoyed the Robert Downey Jne/Jude Law take on the traditional Victorian Sherlock.
There are a lot of excellent Chinese films out there too - Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon is well known but Hero, the House of Flying Daggers and others are well worth watching - some of the cinematography is bewilderingly beautiful (though the 'flying' fights annoy me slightly).

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

I'm currently enjoying the series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. there are three books, and I am working on the third. It is a fantasy style book like LotR, but not as good as that.

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My WIP thread: http://one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=18247

I'm on the fifth of the 11 (+1) books of Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule".
I really love these books so far. Not all parts are keeping me interested though, now and then there's some background information, but I guess it's just the basic info you need to remind some time so you don't miss any clues.
It's got some very interesting things, original magic, creatures and stuff etc.
Everything is written very (sometime too..) detailed and gives you a nice vision in your mind of what he's telling.
The story is about a woodsman, a confessor and a wizard.. and the battle between good and evil...
I first thought when a colleague advised me these books it would be a rip off of Tolkien's work, but it's not (still inspired like most fantasy stories are)! Once I was in the flow, it was hard to stop reading. It's easy written, but still complex in it's story.
It contains a good number of magic, fighting and killing, as well as sexual (and sometimes brute) content which is all described to the smallest details.

ABC has made a TV-series about these books (3rd season now I believe (and probably final one...)?) named "Legend of the Seeker" (by the same producers as the Xena-series).
As always, the series aren't as good as the books and don't really follow the story in the book (some scenes from a later book are put in the first storyline of the TV-show etc...) but that doesn't bother much.
The series on it's own are nice as well, but it's of course always nice to read the books first before watching them on TV.

I would advise them to everyone!
I took so much of my interest that I'm already trying to sculpt some of the characters... heh...

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CMON-gallery

I've just started reading one of the David Eddings series and am currently part way through the Pawn of Prophecy. A truly great book so far

As for TV/Film, I've recently watched the film Solomon Kane which is a relatively new release and was an enjoyable watch. The new Alice in Wonderland film is also a good film, and wonderfully wierd (that's what you get when the wierdness of Tim Burton meets the wierdness of the Alice in Wonderland story). It's not the kind of film I'd usually watch, but I did thoroughly enjoy it.

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Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Jake

Wow I am surprised at you guys. You haven't even said anythings about Braveheart.

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No one sculpts Chuck Norris - Chuck Norris miniatures are created by acts of God.
~ Dagorlad

I remember those book finished the last one a while back, they are great!

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"I will take it. I will take the Ring to Mordor...though I do not know the way."
—Frodo, at the Council of Elrond

Some pretty good fantasy (and historical and sci-fi, actually) books out there from world acclaimed author Stephen Lawhead. I particularly like all the Pendragon Cycle novels that I managed to get (Taliesin, Merlin and Arthur). Still missing Pendragon, Grail and Avalon, but never managed to find them in any book stores... not the translated ones at least. Also good are the trilogies Song of Albion and The Dragon King.

On tv a couple of tv shows really caught my atention.
Pillars of the Earth, based on Ken Follet novel is ridiculously good... and its only 8 episodes.

Also really liked Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Very stylish, filmed a bit like the movie 300 (Zack Snyder is involved), and brutal. Lots of blood and sex. Most definetelly rated R. If you liked 300, if you liked Rome, and if you liked Gladiator, you will most likelly love this one too.
Next season, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena premieres this January. It will be a 6 episode prequel to the 1st season.

Now, moviewise I'm looking forward to the whole comicbook stuff that will come out this year: Thor, Cap. America: the First Avenger, X-Man: First Class, Green Lantern, Sucker Punch, Conan and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (wich will probably suck loads again). Not really the same sort of classic fantasy, but still something I look forward to.

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Tell me... Do you bleed?
You will!
Chewy, we're home!

I finished Terry Goodkind's awesome "Wizard's First Rule" series a while ago and started some other mea,while...

At the moment I'm reading 3 series of books actually...
(couldn't read on with the first since the books weren't in the library...)

I read the first two of Game Of Thrones (George RR Martin)...
First one was nice, second one started to bother me a bit... I'm not really a fan of much politics, although it could be worse. I like his (uncensored) writing-style though.

So since book 3A of Game of Thrones wasn't in the library before my holidays started, I went for 2 other series to take with me on my vacation... (in case one of them wouldn't interest me...)

First one I started was Wit'ch Fire (the banned and the banished series) of James Clemens.
I gotta say it caught me well and I'm looking forward to pick up the rest of this serie of books (5 in total). The writing-style isn't too hard at all. The story feels a bit like Lord Of The Rings, of rather The Hobbit.
The story involves many different races such as magicians, men, giants, trolls, kobolds, elves, nimphs, shape-shifters, ... etc. Really my kind of thing
It's like many fantasy series a good vs. evil story and has several nice and original pure-sang fantasy and fairytale features!

Another 6-books-series I started is written by the Dutch author W. J. Maryson (Wim Stolk) and is called "Master Magician" of which I'm reading the first book "Sperling".
I'm not sure though if these series have been translated to English partly or completely...
The author also had a music-band "Maryson" with which he released two albums inspired by the first two books.
Sadly enough he passed away earlier this year, while he planned to write music for all 6 of the books.
I've only just read 1/4th of the book so far but it keeps me interested a lot aswell
It's about a boy who starts to turn out to be a main-figure of a long forespelled prophecy and together with some friends he starts his quest to save his people.
On their way through the beautifully described landscapes they come across ghosts, an elve and probably much more soon...
So far it's another nice-to-read story imo

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CMON-gallery

These are really good books, I'm on the second at the moment. They take a little while to get into, but you can get a load out of them



These are really useful as well. I'm a Christian as well and these took a very interesting view on that as well. But they are a cracking read
Cyndra the Grey

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{aD}??? wrote:

Procrastination. A favourite pastime of mine
Exaggeration. Also another pastime.

My General WIP