May's Meanderings in Fabulous Fiction...

[Pyan]

Another month, another thread...

 

[j d worthington]

Have, unfortunately, not got very far with the Gautier, as I've had little time for reading this week -- mostly it's been taken up with a lot of unnecessary and frustrating poppycock involving various nuisances wanting money....

At any rate, I have managed to read the translation of "La Morte Amoureuse" (which has also been published as "Clarimonde", among other titles) in this volume, and I wish to blazes they'd listed the translator(s), as whoever it is has (so far) done a very good job, from what I can tell. (Whether they follow Gautier all that well, I'm afraid I can't judge, not knowing more than a smattering of French; but they seem to match up with what I've heard from those who do, and are, so far, rather elegantly written to boot.) I know Lafcadio Hearn did translations of much of Gautier's work, and these certainly have the delicacy and nuance, coupled with the simplicity of folklore, often seen in his work....

To Lobo: I'd definitely add this one to the list. While the first meeting with Clarimonde is a bit jarring -- the reader isn't given enough emotional preparation for it, I think -- this is more than compensated for early on, and the tale as a whole is a magnificent piece of work....

 

[chopper]

New month, new Erikson.

Toll the Hounds, courtesy of Sheffield Libraries. rather different writing style going on here, seems to have freshened it back up after the (dare i say it?) less than spectacular Reaper's Gale.

 

[Hypnos164]

Started on Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston pretty gripping stuff so far

Also listening to Something from the Nightside by Simon R Green on audiobook, which seems OK apart from the narator's annoying habit of placing extra emphasis on the phrase every time the "nightside" of the title is mentioned...

 

[soulsinging]

Started on Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston pretty gripping stuff so far

Also listening to Something from the Nightside by Simon R Green on audiobook, which seems OK apart from the narator's annoying habit of placing extra emphasis on the phrase every time the "nightside" of the title is mentioned...

I love Huston. I read that whole Hank Thompson trilogy and it is pretty intense the whole way through. I have the first book in the Joe Pitt series, but haven't started it yet.

I'm about 200 pages into Abercrombie's First Law trilogy and I'm enjoying it a lot. So far it's pretty standard fantasy fare, but very well done. And I hear in the latter half of the book it shifts gears... so if it's this good so far and only gets better... I'm looking forward to it!

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I finished Contact by Carl Sagan yesterday. He's not the best writer of prose, but I did enjoy the story. It definately gets you thinking.

Now I'm onto to something not sci-fi/fantasy, The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. I tried to read this book a few years ago because I love the movies so much, but just couldn't get into it. I'm going to give it a go again.

Also reading The Chronicles of Narnia here and there.

 

[Urien]

Reading Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson. I want to pull Linden Avery's head off (POV character), followed shortly thereafter by the author.

But it's a battle me against Donaldson's exigeous nacreous incardine puissance or some such confabulation of language and triple think, confusion, needless complexity and contrivance to stop the overly powerful characters from solving the problem with one bound.

Like a trawler in a mountainous and wild sea I push steadily on.

 

[Hypnos164]

Reading Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson. I want to pull Linden Avery's head off (POV character), followed shortly thereafter by the author.

But it's a battle me against Donaldson's exigeous nacreous incardine puissance or some such confabulation of language and triple think, confusion, needless complexity and contrivance to stop the overly powerful characters from solving the problem with one bound.

Like a trawler in a mountainous and wild sea I push steadily on.

Brilliant, made me laugh a lot ... but then i've never been able to get on with Donaldson's work for pretty much those reasons.

Also just finished Caught Stealing and trying to decide what to pick up over the bank holiday weekend - I feel it should be something chuncky to make best use of 3 free days in which to read

 

[ravenus]

I've been reading some pretty good stuff in a book of Selected Fiction by Indian writer O.V. Vijayan. His work mixes fantasy with satire / allegorical elements.

I read his novel Legends of Khasak which was a magic realism type story set in an idyllic village in southern India. People who like Marquez should give this a go.

After that I read some of the short stories included in the book. One called The Wart is about how a fellow develops a wart under his lip that keeps growing and becomes a separate entity altogether committing such dainty deeds as murdering and raping (in that order). Another story shows the emergence of a race of fetuses that commit inhuman crimes and return back their wombs. Yes, cheery stuff

 

[GOLLUM]

I read his novel Legends of Khasak which was a magic realism type story set in an idyllic village in southern India. People who like Marquez should give this a go.

Having an extensive collection of magic realists I'll look at adding this author to the fold.

 

[ktabic]

It's two days into the month and I haven't managed to finish a book yet
I have managed an Interzone, two Black Statics, a Murky Depths, half of Teatro Grottesco (Thomas Ligotti) and a quarter of Death from the Skies (Phil Plait). Soon, I might be able to make a dent in the TBR pile. Temporaily.

 

[Connavar]

I finished Swag and have started reading The Cutie by Donald Westlake. Its a Hard case crime new printing of his first book im reading for my Hard Case Crime Goodreads book club.

 

[DeepThought]

I'm re-reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Authur C. Clarke.

 

[Pyan]

The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley

Re-read - highly recommended...

 

[GOLLUM]

Never heard of it Pyan...must be good though, is it part of a series or stand-alone?

 

[Pyan]

As far as I know, there are only two written in the same setting - this one and The Hero and the Crown, by the same author, set generations earlier...

The Blue Crown won a Newbery Medal in 1985 - an honour it shares with Bridge to Terabithia, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, and The Tombs of Atuan, part II of A Wizard of Earthsea...

Lots of Google hits on it - don't look at the Wikipedia one, though, it's just a plot summary - one big spoiler...

the blue sword - Google Search

Oh, and don't be put off by the marketing as a children's book, either - it's up there with the Harry Potter and (dare I say it?) Hobbit as a generation-spanner...

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks, I'll look into it then.

Cheers and good night.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Still on Background to Danger by Eric Ambler, but getting into it and enjoying it. Just like I really enjoyed Greenmantle by Buchan last week (who also wrote SFandF I found out -- among other things. Apparently, the guy wrote about 50,000 words per week, longhand. Madness).

 

[j d worthington]

Still on Background to Danger by Eric Ambler, but getting into it and enjoying it. Just like I really enjoyed Greenmantle by Buchan last week (who also wrote SFandF I found out -- among other things. Apparently, the guy wrote about 50,000 words per week, longhand. Madness).

Yes. He also wrote some very fine supernatural fiction, a great deal of which has been collected together in a single volume:

Amazon.com: Supernatural Tales: John Buchan, James C. Greig: Books

I'd also suggest getting his Witch Wood....

Amazon.com: Witch Wood: John Buchan: Books

 

[soulsinging]

The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley

Re-read - highly recommended...

I read the Hero and the Crown YEARS ago and was just thinking about it the other week for some reason. The two are related, aren't they?