Reading in May 2009

[suciul]

None. She's pretty unique imo, certainly in the fantasy genre.

I tend to agree with some additions:

1: If there is an author KJ Parker resembles a bit in style and structure it is IM Banks - she actually acknowledged IMB in an interview but noting that she does not enjoy his books since she disagrees utterly with his outlook, but she likes how they are constructed


"Do you have any particular favourite authors who have influenced your work?

I have favourite authors, and I have authors who've influenced my work. For example, I don't much enjoy reading Iain M. Banks, simply because his world-view and mine don't coincide much; but I've learned an enormous amount from his masterful use of structure and language..."

http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/features/arc/2005/nz7805.php

2: Her books are quite sfnal and outside Fencer at the most they really do not have fantasy trappings outside of their pre/early-industrial, guild/aristocracy based society

 

[Randy M.]

Finished Fritz Leiber's Swords and Deviltry, the first in his collections of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. Good fun and even poignant in spots -- Leiber had a deft hand with tonal movement from comic to sad to dramatic to whatever. He also had a deft hand with what is often rather theatrical material; these stories seem to incorporate his theatrical background and knowledge of the staging and movement of plays from Shakespeare and his contemporaries; I expect Leiber was also familiar with Restoration comedy, given some of what goes on here.

Just started Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn and I expect I'll move from that to China Mieville's The City & The City, which will be my first reading of Mieville.

Randy M.

 

[Hobbit]

Love Fritz Leiber.

Randy, is that your first reading of Lankhmar? That does surprise me, well-read person that you are!

Bet you've read stuff like The Smoke Ghost, though.

I recently bought, for an arm and a leg, a Arkham House copy of Night's Black Agents. Really liked it....

Mark

 

[Kazz Wylde]

I tend to agree with some additions:

1: If there is an author KJ Parker resembles a bit in style and structure it is IM Banks - she actually acknowledged IMB in an interview but noting that she does not enjoy his books since she disagrees utterly with his outlook, but she likes how they are constructed


"Do you have any particular favourite authors who have influenced your work?

I have favourite authors, and I have authors who've influenced my work. For example, I don't much enjoy reading Iain M. Banks, simply because his world-view and mine don't coincide much; but I've learned an enormous amount from his masterful use of structure and language..."

http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/features/arc/2005/nz7805.php

2: Her books are quite sfnal and outside Fencer at the most they really do not have fantasy trappings outside of their pre/early-industrial, guild/aristocracy based society

Thanks for that, Liviu.
Sounds like steampunk scifi.
Sounds like she definitely has her own "voice".

 

[Randy M.]

Love Fritz Leiber.

Randy, is that your first reading of Lankhmar?

Yup.

That does surprise me, well-read person that you are!

Me, too, now you mention it. There was a long stretch when I didn't read much in genre, and then another stretch when I mostly avoided fantasy that didn't occur in contemporary times. Don't know why, but I guess that after reading LOTR, Donaldson and a few others my attention span was saturated. Probably didn't help that at a friend's urging I read Eddings and could not figure what others saw in it, and since a couple of readers I knew claimed it was some of the best fantasy around ...

Brrrrrr!!!!

Bet you've read stuff like The Smoke Ghost, though.

I recently bought, for an arm and a leg, a Arkham House copy of Night's Black Agents. Really liked it....

Mark

You betcha!

Not too long ago I mentioned to a friend that I enjoyed Leiber but had never read the Lankhmar stories. He said something along the lines of, "Well, that's like saying you like Tolkein but you've never read LOTR." That threw me; it was an hour before I found the right come-back, "Well, it would be like that if Tolkein had also written, say, Childhood's End and The Haunting of Hill House." (I mention it here only because I hate thinking of a good retort without using it and you were silly enough to give me an opening and I only need a really small opening.)

Anyway, I've read Gather, Darkness, Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness and a lot of the s.f. and horror short stories: Night's Black Agents is one of my favorite single-author story collections -- the Arkham House must be nice; I picked up a Gregg Press edition back in the early '80s -- although I never read "Adept's Gambit," saving it for when I got to the F & GM books.

Leiber isn't above criticism; some of his stories suffer from a bit too much tongue-in-cheek, or a sort of screwball-comedy tone attached to material that might have been stronger if he'd been even a little more serious. But the more I read of Leiber the more it amazes me how good he was in the three connected but rather different genres of fantasy, s.f. and horror. When he has it under control, he's powerful.

I'll probably spread my reading of the Lankhmar stories over the next few months. Don't want to overindulge and lose my taste for them, but I do want to read more.

Randy M.

 

[Rob B]

I read Warbreaker by Sanderson and posted the review yesterday. Another top notch novel from the genre's latest workhorse. A slight notch below Mistborn but still a very enthralling novel.