Reading in October 2009

[Daddy Darth]

Well I stayed up till 1 am last night to finish Watership Down. WAY past my bed time. Let me just say it was a bloody great read. Engaging from start to finish with the power to draw you into the world and make you care greatly about the characters. I was mesmerized reading the last couple of chapters.

Well now what to read. I have been considering Knife of Dreams re-read to prime the pump. Anyone else engaged in a reread of WOT? I am stoked for November.

 

[Cranky Hamster]

I'm close to the halfway point in Needful Things and simultaneously liking it more than I did yesterday while also getting more exasperated with it.

For me, reading this book is like listening to variations on Pachelbel's Canon in D for... oh, about five hours straight now. It's a good song. I like this song. It is not generally unpleasant to listen to. There are many variations and improvised twists on the song that keep it semi-surprising despite its extreme familiarity.

But at the same time omg I have been listening to repetitions of it for five hours aaaaaaggghhh the madness make it stop.

That is how I feel about this book. It is hundreds of pages of:

(a) Leland Gaunt has a pleasant-yet-creepy interaction with Random Townperson;
(b) Random Townperson buys item from evil hell shop, reflects on History and Character Development making that item meaningful, agrees to play "prank";
(c) Prank occurs, Other Random Townperson flips out, original Random Townperson feels guilty but compelled to continue;
(d) Interlude snapshot of ordinary life in the town and view into Random Townperson's history and circumstances;
(e) Go back to (a), repeat.

It is really well done and the variations are interesting and I know the structure is intentional to show the spiral of madness in which the town and all its inhabitants are mired, and yet also IT'S THE SAME CYCLE FOR HUNDREDS OF PAGES.

So it is a good book and I am enjoying the read but srsly it's getting a little Groundhog Day in here right now.

 

[Evil Agent]

I'm close to the halfway point in Needful Things and simultaneously liking it more than I did yesterday while also getting more exasperated with it.

This was the only King book I gave up on (about halfway through). I just couldn't finish it, not even on the 2nd attempt.

 

[Randy M.]

Not a book of fantasy fiction, but a book about fantasy fiction: Fantasy: the 100 Best Books by James Cawthorne and Michael Moorcock. This was published about 1989, as I recall, and ends with Tom Holt's Expecting Someone Taller.

I've dipped into this off and on for the last month and a half. Apparently, Moorcock had been commissioned to write the book, but was too committed to other projects to fulfill the contract and so brought in Cawthorne, another of the New Worlds contingent from the 1960s. Cawthorne chose the titles and wrote the summaries/comments, and Moorcock gave it all his blessing -- Moorcock probably had a say in it, but gives the impression that Cawthorne did the majority of the work.

It's interesting to me how many books Cawthorne included that I'd think of as horror rather than fantasy (The Monk; Melmoth the Wanderer; The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; Dracula; The Turn of the Screw; At the Mountains of Madness; The Case of Charles Dexter Ward; The Haunting of Hill House, among others) or as s.f. or proto-s.f. rather than fantasy (Frankenstein; Flatland;The Crystal World, etc). There are also works like Moby Dick,Wuthering Heights and Uncle Silas that need a pretty broad definition of fantasy in order to be included, which isn't really supplied, just implied.

There are also some surprising omissions, mainly from the second half of the 20th century: Something Wicked This Way Comes or The October Country, The Last Unicorn, Watership Down, Mythago Wood (Moorcock mentions his regret about this one not being included in his introduction), The Land of Laughs, and The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (although there is another book in the list by Angela Carter), to name a few that come to mind.

All that said, Cawthorne's is an entertaining and informative voice. He is not rah-rah about most of these books, and not always complimentary about choices the authors made, but his assessments seem fair for the ones I've read. I was also interested to see that the writer he favors most besides Tolkein and Mervyn Peake, is Fritz Leiber, who has a whopping four titles included; besides the almost obligatory Fahfred and the Gray Mouser title (Adept's Gambit), he lists Conjure Wife, You're All Alone and Our Lady of Darkness, all of which could also be called horror rather than fantasy, but I tend to have a broad definition of fantasy, too, so it's okay with me.

Randy M.

 

[AuntiePam]

The Gates by John Connolly, YA horror-fantasy, similar to his The Book of Lost Things, which I liked a lot.

Randy, I didn't know there was a 100 Best for fantasy. I'll grab a copy. Sounds interesting.

 

[Seegee]

Along with Abercrombie, these books are also some that I'm interested in possibly picking up... but I am slightly turned off by the fact that there will apparently be 7 books in the series, and then another series of 7 books as well. I think I'm getting a little tired of super long series... Are these possible to read as stand alones?

EA, I was initially leery of picking these up because of the 7 book series thing, but Lies is a standalone. You do want more, but all of the major plot threads are resolved. I think Lynch wrote it that way because he had no real way of knowing how a publisher would react to something that stretched over 7 books. Red Seas is less so, but again it's more of a small hill than a dirty great cliff at the end. I was forced to read them by all the marketing. Liar. I read them and reread them because they're so much damn fun! BASTARD! Sorry couldn't help myself, that's an in joke for anyone who has read Lies.

 

[Seegee]

Everybody says The Lies of Locke Lamora is a stand alone, but I have my reservations. I am going to wait and see when the seventh books is published.

You'll be waiting a long time. Scott is over a year late with handing in the manuscript for book 3. I think it'll probably get published in 2010, but it'll be later in the year, rather than earlier.

 

[NickeeCoco]

I think Lynch wrote it that way because he had no real way of knowing how a publisher would react to something that stretched over 7 books.

What is now going to be book four was the first book he wrote and was only planning on writing a trilogy. (books 4-7) But the publisher (surprisingly) said "There's a lot of backstory here, why don't we extend this?"

 

[Astra_]

You'll be waiting a long time. Scott is over a year late with handing in the manuscript for book 3. I think it'll probably get published in 2010, but it'll be later in the year, rather than earlier.

That's why I am not reading it. I hate waiting for the next book in the series. There was a subtle message in my previous post

 

[Randy M.]

The Gates by John Connolly, YA horror-fantasy, similar to his The Book of Lost Things, which I liked a lot.

Randy, I didn't know there was a 100 Best for fantasy. I'll grab a copy. Sounds interesting.

Hi, Auntie Pam.

There's also another one by David Pringle. Pringle confines his selections to the 20th century, though.


Randy M.

 

[Hobbit]

We talked about the Pringle HERE.


Whilst we're on the theme of books about books, I've been rereading Farah Mendlesohn's and Edward James' A Short History of Fantasy, which I read for errors as a beta reader before it's publication.

Still interesting.


Mark

 

[Shayna]

Since a few days ago, when i became sick with a cold, I decided to finally pick up and read Wolves of the Calla by St. King! I had forgotten how much fun it is to read his books! I am half way through and hate to put it down but must sleep and go to work!!

 

[Cranky Hamster]

Well, I finished Needful Things.

It's good, but it could be pared down a bit. After a while the repetitions I complained about in my previous post start detracting more than they add to the novel's overall creepiness. In many places, things that should be suspenseful really aren't, because they've been foreshadowed so often and so heavily that it's like Chekhov's Gun not only got mentioned, but got used in a 21-gun salute, cleaned, and put back on the shelf with a big red bow around it... and you're still supposed to be surprised when it comes into play. Granted, it's way less annoying than having random plot coupons fall out of the clear blue sky, but I would have liked a touch more subtlety (not to mention brevity) here and there.

I liked it, but I can't see keeping it for a reread. Of the Stephen King novels I've read, I'd put this one somewhere in the top 35-40% -- it's better than average but it's not really top-tier. A solid choice, pretty satisfying, probably won't blow you away.

I'll probably move on to Salem's Lot in order to end on a higher note, but for now I've got some noir and also some romance to read (and how's that for bipolar reading selections!) so it might be a while, we'll see.

 

[algernoninc]

I finished "Servant of the Empire" by Wurts and Salvatore, the second in an interesting but predictable series and on starting the final volume "Mistress of the Empire" I found that i kind of lost momentum to continue in the same mood so i picked up "The Company" by K J Parker which is a lot more interesting. I might switch between the two in the next week, as i don't want to loose the plot of the Empire books, but I got a feeling I would rather stick with Parker.

 

[BrightStar]

The Gates by John Connolly, YA horror-fantasy, similar to his The Book of Lost Things, which I liked a lot.

What did you think to The Gates? I really loved The Book of Lost Things and was sorry to see it end, but I just didn't like The Gates at all. I read about 50 pages and couldn't stand to read any more.

Just finished book seven of the Indigo series. I thought the start of it was a bit weak, but it soon picked up and was as good as always. Now at last I'm on the eighth and final book in the series. Again, it had a weaker start, but I'm at about page 50 or so now and really enjoying it.

 

[AuntiePam]

What did you think of The Gates? I really loved The Book of Lost Things and was sorry to see it end, but I just didn't like The Gates at all. I read about 50 pages and couldn't stand to read any more.

I'll finish it, but I can understand why you dumped it. It's well-written and entertaining -- even funny (love the footnotes and Nurd is a hoot!) but there's no tension. I realize it's YA, but there should be some tension.

 

[ObtusePunubiris]

I finished "Servant of the Empire" by Wurts and Salvatore...

I believe you mean Wurts and Feist, correct?

 

[AlvinFlummox]

Finished Gardens Of The Moon last night, was really enjoyable! I especially liked how Erikson managed to link all the characters' stories together. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series (and most likely a couple more at least after that)

On with Guards! Guards! by Pratchett now; I've heard good things about this one, so I hope it lives up to expectations!

 

[algernoninc]

I believe you mean Wurts and Feist, correct?

correct, i'm awfully muddled with the forgotten realms and midkernia all mixed up somehow in my head. i'm not very good with names, once i mixed k j bishop with k j parker

 

[BrightStar]

I'll finish it, but I can understand why you dumped it. It's well-written and entertaining -- even funny (love the footnotes and Nurd is a hoot!) but there's no tension. I realize it's YA, but there should be some tension.

Reading your post, I can see you liked more about the book than I did. I didn't much get on well with the footnotes (I've always found them a distraction and an intrusion in books) and I didn't warm to any of the characters. It got a bit "sciency" for me in some places too, and I couldn't help thinking "is this really relevent?"