April's Aspiring Adventures Along Allegorical Avenues

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Am about 3/4 through Stephen King's Wizard and Glass, and am thoroughly impressed with the extended backstory sequence. I've always associated King with villains explained by their insanity, and there has been plenty of that so far in the series, but in the Mejis sections I've found almost all the characters incredibly well drawn and rounded, even the bad guys. In addition, the love story between Roland and Susan is deftly handled, and King uses the near-omniscient narrative voice well. I almost can't bear to read what I know is coming in the last quarter, but am unable to stop.

Haven't touched Robert Jordan's The Great Hunt, which was the other book I took on holiday. I imagine I'll leave that now until I've finished the Dark Tower.
 
Lord Soth, I'm not sure if I would agree that it is her BEST work but it is a good start to a great world. I've been thinking of doing a re-read on that series.

In the meantime, I'm almost done Republic of Thieves by Lynch. I feel like the book is taking me forever. It has gotten better as it's went along and the fact is there are really 2 books in one. It almost feels like he had a prequel planned and the new book wasn't fat enough so they jammed it in and alternated chapters. I like the prequel parts a lot better. Not sure what to think about this one but I will be glad to move on to something else.
 
Started The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman last night. Good to get back into a bit of Gaiman.
 
ratsy said:
Lord Soth, I'm not sure if I would agree that it is her BEST work but it is a good start to a great world. I've been thinking of doing a re-read on that series.

In the meantime, I'm almost done Republic of Thieves by Lynch. I feel like the book is taking me forever. It has gotten better as it's went along and the fact is there are really 2 books in one. It almost feels like he had a prequel planned and the new book wasn't fat enough so they jammed it in and alternated chapters. I like the prequel parts a lot better. Not sure what to think about this one but I will be glad to move on to something else.
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I don't think it was meant to be a prequel, as this has been Lynch's style through all three books, weaving Locke's young life in between the story of his older shenanigans. I wasn't such a fan of it in the first book but in this third one, by the last quarter of the book I was enjoying the younger sections more. But it think that's the case because this was the book where the elusive Sabetha finally made an appearance and it was more much character than plot driven -- plus setting up what seems like a massively widening storyline for the next books.

So yeah, it think this book was Lynch regrouping (especially from his own personal problems), doing some serious character fleshing, and setting up the plotlines that seem like they're going to drive the rest of the series.
 
Yeah, I guess it has just been too many years for me to remember how heavily he relied on the "flashbacks".
 
ratsy said:
Lord Soth, I'm not sure if I would agree that it is her BEST work but it is a good start to a great world. I've been thinking of doing a re-read on that series.
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Ahh right, well as I mentioned I have never read any Hobb, so if you have any better suggestions? Generally (and believe me I know I'm the poorer for it) I don't enjoy female authors - don't know why, but there are a few I can get on with and always hoping to discover another...
 
Lord Soth said:
Ahh right, well as I mentioned I have never read any Hobb, so if you have any better suggestions? Generally (and believe me I know I'm the poorer for it) I don't enjoy female authors - don't know why, but there are a few I can get on with and always hoping to discover another...
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Well, that is Hobb's first so I would go with that. All in all I loved her Farseer and Tawny man books. I actually didn't know if Robin was a man or woman when I first picked up the book and didn't really care one way or another. She does write this series from a boys point of view but I like what she did with it.

She is one of those authors that I get really excited about when I hear a new book is coming out, even though that last series fell slightly flat for me. I will forever be a Hobb reader.
 
springs said:
It is excellent. Four out of four who I know I've read it, across generations, two of whom are not fantasy lovers, adored it. :)
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That's why I started it, cos you said it was good. :) I just love the way he writes, I can get comfy in it so quickly.
 
JunkMonkey said:
I have just launched myself at The Worm Ouroboros by Eric R Eddison - is it supposed to be funny?
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and I have abandoned it: I ground to a halt. The first 50 or so pages were great fun: a mock heroic world which seemed to be gently lampooning the likes of Homer and The Eddas etc. The chronicle of a great war between the heroes of Goblinland and Witchland. But as it lumbered on and on I realised I had no idea who any of the childish interchangeable muscle-heads running around the pages were. I spent so much time trying to sort out:
Gorice (the King of Witchland), from Corinius (a warrior leader of Witchland), both of whom kept getting mixed up in my head with Duke Corsus (one of the war leaders of the armies of Witchland), and/or Lord Corund (the chief war leader of the armies of Witchland) that I kept loosing the plot. When they got into a room and started talking my head started to hurt trying to keep up.

Lord Gro (an advisor to Witchland), I could keep track of - but unfortunately in my head he looked like the hero of Despicable Me which did screw up the whole Mediaeval Epicness thing a bit.
 
I'm currently:

1. Zipping through Maggie Stiefvater's "The Raven Boys". Not a bad piece of YA though one of the characters is really grating.

2. Still slowly ploughing through Stephen King's 11/22/63. Story's good but looooooooong...

3. Starting on "The Stars of Kazan" by Eva Ibbotson. Anyone else read Eva Ibbotson?
 
The_Bluestocking said:
I'm currently:

3. Starting on "The Stars of Kazan" by Eva Ibbotson. Anyone else read Eva Ibbotson?
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I've read a few of her books to the kids: Journey to the River Sea, Monster Mission, The Secret of Platform 13 they were okay but, so far, the winner is Which Witch which made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

(Daughter Number One tells me we have also read Dial a Ghost but I have no memory of it and she's read The Beasts of Clawstone Castle and says "It's really good!")
 
j. d. worthington said:
I'm wondering what you'd think of his more straightforward boxing stories, such as "Iron Men" and the like. While I think he did very well with the Costigan stories (and, for that matter, the Breck Elkins stories, and others in the tall tales genre), I think he did a fine job with the more serious sports stories as well, often making a particular sport in which I am, to put it mildly, very seldom interested, come across as quite absorbing, and the characters very human....
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I felt the same about Iron Men which is the 7th story in the collection and only the second serious one while the other early ones are fun stories with Steve Costigan.

I just read today Iron Men i found the calm writing,storytelling to be impressive and it was very absorbing to me and heartbreaking story and Brennon became very human, very real. There has been many real boxers like him ending up worse than he did. I like the history of boxing while i dont like the sport now its too corrupt. I find the many tragic human stories behind the famous boxers very interesting. Joe Frazier dies poor, forgotten old man while he was loved by all in his prime, world famous.
 
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Connavar said:
I felt the same about Iron Men which is the 7th story in the collection and only the second serious one while the other early ones are fun stories with Steve Costigan.

I just read today Iron Men i found the calm writing,storytelling to be impressive and it was very absorbing to me and heartbreaking story and Brennon became very human, very real. There has been many real boxers like him ending up worse than he did. I like the history of boxing while i dont like the sport now its too corrupt. I find the many tragic human stories behind the famous boxers very interesting. Joe Frazier dies poor, forgotten old man while he was loved by all in his prime, world famous.
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Off topic (to some degree), but I'd suggest you look up the theatrical version of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight, with Anthony Quinn, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Gleason, and Julie Harris. (The original televised version is also well worth seeing, though there are differences.) One of my favorite films, and simply beautiful. If you liked what Howard did here, I think you'd love this film....
 
JunkMonkey said:
I've read a few of her books to the kids: Journey to the River Sea, Monster Mission, The Secret of Platform 13 they were okay but, so far, the winner is Which Witch which made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

(Daughter Number One tells me we have also read Dial a Ghost but I have no memory of it and she's read The Beasts of Clawstone Castle and says "It's really good!")
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Oooh! Thanks for sharing your feedback on her :)

I picked up The Star of Kazan, The Dragonfly Pond, and Journey To The River Sea at my local bookshop's clearance shelves. Looking forward to reading all of them and sharing them with my small niece who is 8.5 years old :D
 
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