Talysia
Lady of Autumn
Still going through my Feist reread. Now up to Krondor: the Assassins.
March's Marvellous Missals, Mammoth Manuals and Miniscule Monographs
- Thread starter Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
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murphy
Well-Known Member
Now reading The First Rule by Robert Crais. It's an Elvis Cole/Joe Pike murder mystery.
dask
dark and stormy knight
THE CALL OF CTHULHU AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES edited by S.T Joshi, one of the volumes in Penguin's red-carpet treatment for H.P. Lovecraft. Beautifully executed collection of strange and terrifying tales written by HPL when he "reinvented the horror genre in the [early] twentieth century." Eighteen stories along with another eighteen pages of introductory material (which is as far as I got this morning, but that's no less fascinating and took me two cups of coffee to complete) and sixty pages of notes which, unlike some, I find greatly increases the personal value of a book), this book will not be a dust collector like a lot of classics but a glittering gem in the crown of my collection. Stunning cover cover painting: "Sadak In Search Of The Waters Of Oblivion" by John Martin (1789-1854).
dask
dark and stormy knight
And here it is.
dask
dark and stormy knight
murphy
Well-Known Member
And here it is.
Great cover!
AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
Kicking off my Clarke Odyssey with The Space Trilogy,a 2001 anthology comprising Islands in the Sky, Sands of Mars and Earthlight.
Sands I've never read and apparently it was an influence on Jimi Hendrix!
Sands I've never read and apparently it was an influence on Jimi Hendrix!
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Knivesout no more
I'm currently reading Enemies Of Promise by Cyril Connolly.
Talysia
Lady of Autumn
Managed to get a lot of reading done yesterday, and I'm now well into the final book of Feist's Krondor trilogy, with Krondor: Tear of the Gods.
Finally finished what it likely my third Masterpiece this year in the Novel category in Dino Buzzati's enigmatic The Tartare Steppe. Written just prior to WWII, this story is a nightmarish account of time's cruel tide, set against a backdrop of mankind's foibles and the terribly sorcery of dreams and desires. Possibly my first 10 star novel of 2010.
Nearing completion of Susan Hill's classic 1970s homage to the Victorian Gothic in the novel The Woman In Black (reference to Collin's Woman In White). With the apparent influences of writers such as M.R. James and Edith Wharton, this is rather better than a standard pastiche, with Hill clearly a fine novelist is her own right, displaying the capability of constructing an atmospherically unsettling tale that also poses as a rattling good yarn. Hill has been a previous recipient of several awards including the prestigious Somerset Maugham award. Veering towards a 9 star rating but I'll need to complete this mysterious tale before passing final judgement.
Nearing completion of Susan Hill's classic 1970s homage to the Victorian Gothic in the novel The Woman In Black (reference to Collin's Woman In White). With the apparent influences of writers such as M.R. James and Edith Wharton, this is rather better than a standard pastiche, with Hill clearly a fine novelist is her own right, displaying the capability of constructing an atmospherically unsettling tale that also poses as a rattling good yarn. Hill has been a previous recipient of several awards including the prestigious Somerset Maugham award. Veering towards a 9 star rating but I'll need to complete this mysterious tale before passing final judgement.
CyBeR
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- 625
I actually got interested in this Feist fella. First time Talysia mentioned him I thought it was a typo from 'Faust'...but apparently he's got quite some nice fantasy that I may be interested to read. I'll look him up once I get to the English bookshop around here...him or the next Pratchett book hehe.
I've gotten through 'The guns of Avalon' by Roger Zelazny this weekend. Having finished my excellent run through George Martin's 'Nightflyers' collection of short stories (loved 'Override' and 'A song for Lya'...both excellent works that I wouldn't mind reading something more complex than a simple novella), I turned to Amber to continue my trek there. Sadly, this was the only other book I maned to acquire sooo...I'm high and dry again.
Right now I've picked up from my bookcase 'God emperor of Dune' by the unmistakable Frank Herbert. I hope that this year I may finish my run through the classic 'Dune' books and maybe get some of the new ones (though my roommate, a great Herbert fan, wasn't all too pleased with them).
I've gotten through 'The guns of Avalon' by Roger Zelazny this weekend. Having finished my excellent run through George Martin's 'Nightflyers' collection of short stories (loved 'Override' and 'A song for Lya'...both excellent works that I wouldn't mind reading something more complex than a simple novella), I turned to Amber to continue my trek there. Sadly, this was the only other book I maned to acquire sooo...I'm high and dry again.
Right now I've picked up from my bookcase 'God emperor of Dune' by the unmistakable Frank Herbert. I hope that this year I may finish my run through the classic 'Dune' books and maybe get some of the new ones (though my roommate, a great Herbert fan, wasn't all too pleased with them).
manephelien
Transmural Feline
Continuing my Hobb re-read: Assassin's Quest.
J-WO
Author of 'Pennyblade' and 'Feral Space'
I'm a fifth of the way through Hunter Of Worlds by CJ Cherryh and I'm an inch a way from throwing in the towel. Which I find very sad, because I'd probably love this book if not for all the alien terminology. I have to visit the appendices at least twice every page which really breaks the flow as you can imagine. There's three different species all referring to their languages at any one time.
Someone will say something like- 'I cannot do this, due to my Kvver'th'tah'. And then I go look it up and it'll basically mean 'Pride'. So why not just say 'pride' in the first place? Don't get me wrong, alien words can add real exoticism to any SF/ Fantasy story, but in the final analysis it has to be the cheapest way to do so. And they're the biggest turn off to any mainstream reader dabbing their toes in genre.
As I say, a darn shame, because its refreshing to see a book with barely a human in it, and when Cherryh isn't saying Hsj'jaboo she can actually evoke authentic-feeling alien psyches.
Someone will say something like- 'I cannot do this, due to my Kvver'th'tah'. And then I go look it up and it'll basically mean 'Pride'. So why not just say 'pride' in the first place? Don't get me wrong, alien words can add real exoticism to any SF/ Fantasy story, but in the final analysis it has to be the cheapest way to do so. And they're the biggest turn off to any mainstream reader dabbing their toes in genre.
As I say, a darn shame, because its refreshing to see a book with barely a human in it, and when Cherryh isn't saying Hsj'jaboo she can actually evoke authentic-feeling alien psyches.
murphy
Well-Known Member
Start with Magician. It's the first book in the series and IMO the best.
Try the Chanur books. Only one human in sight and the books are great fun.
Rothgar
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- Mar 2, 2007
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- 389
Devoured Turn Coat. Jim Butcher returned to true form with that story. An excellent read. I've never seen anything like it before but the publisher has put a 'great read guarantee' on this book. If you don't enjoy it you mail the book to them with your receipt and they will refund your money. The only catch is the deadline is May 10th. I wonder how many copies they will get back.
Back to Hobb with Renegade's Magic to finish off the Soldier Son trilogy.
Back to Hobb with Renegade's Magic to finish off the Soldier Son trilogy.
J-WO
Author of 'Pennyblade' and 'Feral Space'
Cheers, I'll check them out. As I mentioned, in principle I'd be a big Cherryh fan if it wasn't for all that willful obscurity through language.
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Knivesout no more
The Time Patrol: Poul Anderson
A collection of 10 short stories about an organisation that polices the timelines, making sure that history is not altered by renegade time-travellers.
The good: vivid evocation of far-flung time and places, a great sense of how history works, an interesting take on time-travel paradoxes and Anderson's usual large-scale vision of past, present and future, as well as unobtrusively vivid prose and instinct for heroic pathos.
The bad: Basic plots are repetitive, so you can't read too many at one go. Too many firm-jawed manly men and winsome wenches waiting to be won; deeply antediluvian gender politics, in other words. But still not as bad as Heinlein's sexy sexism.
Enemies Of Promise: Cyril Connolly
In the first part of this book, Connolly examines the dual trends of stripped-down, vernacular storytelling and elevated, stylistically ambitious prose in early 20th-century novels. He looks at the strengths and weaknesses of both styles and proposes a synthesis. It's interesting stuff, rendered dated in its prescriptions by the fact that the dam was about burst - a vast array of styles far beyond the elitist 'mandarin' or demotic 'vernacular' of his analysis were to explode on the literary scene. And yet, the essential ebb and flow of forces of stylistic complication and simplification are still a valid way to view literary history.
In the second part, he lists the factors that can prevent a writer from realising his promise. Some of these are largely valid and others seem a bit ridiculous - try telling Shirley Jackson that a pram in the hallway is the writer's worst enemy! His analysis of the alleged limitations of a homosexual writer are ludicrous and there is a tacit assumption that the promising writer is male, despite his acknowledgment of the existence of Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes. The thing with all his enemies of promise, is that I can list writers who have realised their promise despite them, but still Connolly does provide a useful list of things that the indisciplined or simply insufficiently driven or inspired writer can use as ways to drift away from writing.
The third section is a memoir of his youth which serves as a fascinating study of the mores of a world that vanished with the world wars, an interesting study in self-analysis and a useful complement to his classmate George Orwell's memories of some of the same aspects.
A very mixed book with some streaks of totally brilliant literary analysis and writerly advise as well as much that is contentious at best. Definitely a mandarin book, style-wise!
A collection of 10 short stories about an organisation that polices the timelines, making sure that history is not altered by renegade time-travellers.
The good: vivid evocation of far-flung time and places, a great sense of how history works, an interesting take on time-travel paradoxes and Anderson's usual large-scale vision of past, present and future, as well as unobtrusively vivid prose and instinct for heroic pathos.
The bad: Basic plots are repetitive, so you can't read too many at one go. Too many firm-jawed manly men and winsome wenches waiting to be won; deeply antediluvian gender politics, in other words. But still not as bad as Heinlein's sexy sexism.
Enemies Of Promise: Cyril Connolly
In the first part of this book, Connolly examines the dual trends of stripped-down, vernacular storytelling and elevated, stylistically ambitious prose in early 20th-century novels. He looks at the strengths and weaknesses of both styles and proposes a synthesis. It's interesting stuff, rendered dated in its prescriptions by the fact that the dam was about burst - a vast array of styles far beyond the elitist 'mandarin' or demotic 'vernacular' of his analysis were to explode on the literary scene. And yet, the essential ebb and flow of forces of stylistic complication and simplification are still a valid way to view literary history.
In the second part, he lists the factors that can prevent a writer from realising his promise. Some of these are largely valid and others seem a bit ridiculous - try telling Shirley Jackson that a pram in the hallway is the writer's worst enemy! His analysis of the alleged limitations of a homosexual writer are ludicrous and there is a tacit assumption that the promising writer is male, despite his acknowledgment of the existence of Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes. The thing with all his enemies of promise, is that I can list writers who have realised their promise despite them, but still Connolly does provide a useful list of things that the indisciplined or simply insufficiently driven or inspired writer can use as ways to drift away from writing.
The third section is a memoir of his youth which serves as a fascinating study of the mores of a world that vanished with the world wars, an interesting study in self-analysis and a useful complement to his classmate George Orwell's memories of some of the same aspects.
A very mixed book with some streaks of totally brilliant literary analysis and writerly advise as well as much that is contentious at best. Definitely a mandarin book, style-wise!
I love this book, but I agree that it requires too many visits to the appendices. I have no quarrel with the alien words -- because all have shades of meaning that have no exact equivalents in English (or, I assume, any other human language), and I think those shades of meaning add richness to the story -- but why do so many of them look alike? If they didn't, it would be easier to remember what each word means, and it wouldn't be necessary to consult the glossaries nearly so often.
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