Lots of reading, not much posting lately. Apart from a lot of non-fiction, I've read the following fantasy so far this month:
Now and Forever, Ray Bradbury - This collects two novellas by Bradbury, "Somewhere a Band is Playing" and "Leviathan 99". "Somewhere..." was a brilliantly written, haunting story. It captures a time and a place wonderfully, and I found the prose to be simple yet elegant. This alone was worth the price of the book, which is just as well because Leviathan 99 just didn't hit the mark for me. A retelling of Moby Dick set in space, I didn't feel like there was much to this story, and it lacked the wistful, evocative feel of the first.
Steampunk, Ann and Jeff Vandermeer (ed) - I read much of this anthology last year, and merely finished the last few outstanding stories/artices recently. I didn't feel this book was as effective in describing and exhibiting the Steampunk movement as the other Vander-thology from last year, The New Weird. I can't quite put my finger on why - perhaps because some of the stories didn't strike me as steampunk enough - in fact, one offering by Jay Lake seemed more New Weird than anything else and if I'm not mistaken shared a setting with his story from the New Weird anthology. I know there are fuzzy lines around these genres, but something just didn't quite sit right with me on this one.
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov - I'd started this one 2 or 3 times before and never made it past the fifth age or so, but when I finally got into it I really enjoyed the book. My initial attempts at reading fell flat due tro the structure of the book ( I didn't get it and thought I had a long, boring read ahead of me), and after that I was annoyed by the pompous, egotistical, obnoxious voice of the narrator. When I realised he was supposed to be that way the humour of the book shone through and I cruised through the rest.
Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld - This is a strong anthology from a year that produced many good offerings. Definitelyworth a read. The standout story for me was "
The Beacon" by Darja Maclolm-Clarke - it offers a truly fantastic setting, something we don't see enough of in fantasy fiction.
The Affirmation, Christopher Priest - I class this one as fantasy rather than science fiction. Some interesting ideas on fantasy and metaphor here, as well as some interesting use of metafiction but I feel the characters let this down a bit. Still, like most Priest, it's worth reading just to try and guess where he's going.
The White Rose, Glen Cook - And some high/epic fantasy from The Black Company to round everything out. Glen Cook has some strengths that shine through in this novel: his brevity, his imagination and the voice of his characters. He's a great example of how you can write a book about saving the world which includes interesting characters, fantastic settings and great battle/fight scenes in a short page count. Next time I'm even marginally tempted to read epic fantasy (I'm looking at you Erikson) I'll probably just read another Black Company novel instead.
