Reviews, book thoughts and opinions of one omnivorous reader.
Archive for October 2005
If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, either the books or the movies, check this out.
I almost want to find a decent Harry Potter RPG and play a character who would do some of these things. Because it would be hillariously funny.
So, given that some of you have been with me for a while and know what I like as far as reading goes: Should I give the following authors a look-see to find out if they’re any good?
I get the Terrys confused, BTW. One of them I know I’ve heard is something of a Tolkien rip-off, which doesn’t really inspire me to great thoughts. Do you like any of these particular authors? Do you dislike any of them? Tell me why I should read their books and why I shouldn’t.
I haven’t been listing my book reading of late so I have a lot to post.
Book 32: Needful Things by Stephen King. Well-written, though not one of his better books.
Book 33: Dance upon the Air by Nora Roberts. Light and fluffy romance, kind of weak for the first book in a trilogy.
Book 34: Heaven and Earth by Nora Roberts. By far the best book in the trilogy with a wonderfully compelling hero and heroine.
Book 35: Face the Fire by Nora Roberts. Not nearly as good as the other two, because the heroine really shouldn’t have gotten her own book, given that she’d been set up as the wise mentor type.
Book 36: The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. Classic Regency romance. Extremely engaging.
Book 37: Ritual of Proof by Dara Joy. The sex scenes were hot, and some of the social issues she brings up in this futuristic romance were interesting, but overall somewhat disappointing.
Book 38: A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. Still wonderful. A Song of Ice and Fire is the best fantasy series out right now, in my opinion.
Book 39: Magic’s pawn by Mercedes Lackey. A reread. Very delightful, and my favorite book in that trilogy. One of the few books out there not published by small independent publishing companies with a gay lead character.
The first thing I thought about when I saw that there was His Dark Materials fanfic out there was: Damn, I’d hate to see the shipping debates in that fandom. My next thought was to wonder what would happen if I wrote some Lyra/Iorek fanfic. Then I remembered I don’t particularly like those books.
I also discovered that the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series also has a pretty decent fanfic-writing following, and now I have this image of a horrible crossover between English chick lit and English fantasy I didn’t particularly like.
And now the thought has occurred to me: I wonder how many Georgia Nicolson goes to Hogwarts stories there are.
I’m afraid my carefully maintained cynicism regarding some of the less, ahem, realistic aspects of any work by Mercedes Lackey has to go out the window when I encounter the Tayledras. I really wish those guys existed in real life.
That is all.
BTW, I wonder what Ms. Lackey’s stance on fanfic is? I kind of want to write some, as a pre-Nano exercise.
Luckily, I’ve got stuff to do this weekend that prevents me from writing.
OK, please don’t get me wrong. I really am enjoying dipping back into
Lackey. I’m just a cynic and I like to nitpick when things occur to me. And
also, I need a nap.
I really can’t picture a responsible adult encouraging a couple of teenage
boys to explore their hormones, encouraging one to move in with the other,
and then plotting to keep their love a secret from teh evil! Vanyel’s
father.
I realize Vanyel and Lendel are omglifebonded! But I’m really really not
sure, if I were an older, wiser crone that I’d be taking what some
seventeen-year-old boy says as the gospel truth. I mean, those two have sex
and then, OMG, they’re in lurve. After one night. Sorry, Savel. I wouldn’t
have bought it if I were you after one night.
Heh, that’s enough nit-picking for the next few minutes at any rate.
I shouldn’t have attempted a reread of Lackey’s The Last Herald-Mage series after finishing Martin’s A Clash of Kings . It’s like going from rich imported Belgian chocolate to Reece’s Peanut Butter cups. Both are good, but you notice the waxy taste of the Reece’s after you’ve had all that dark chocolate.
The last time I read anything by Lackey I was in my teens, though, and in my teens I remember feeling pity for child-Vanyel. Now I want to smmack the kid around. And I’m going to keep reading because I remember that some of the scenes between Vanyel and Tylendel (SP) were extremely cute and I’m hoping that on a second reread there’s more life to the bard guy he ends up with in the third book than I remembered.
It amuses me that Robert Silverberg put one of his own stories in the
Legends anthology he edited which contains a few short novels by some of the
contemporary writers of SF and fantasy stories. For some reason, the idea of
that seems a little presumptuous to me. After all, you shouldn’t be able to
just blythely name yourself a master storyteller.
I just finished Martin’s A Clash of Kings , and will be starting on A Storm of Swords tomorrow.
I love this epic series, and the fourth book comes out in November. I don’t know how I can weasel a copy of the audio version from a library, but I’m going to try.
It’s so nice to read any bit of genre fiction where characters act like bloody people and not just cardboard cutouts with a passing nod toward flaws. The book’s not an easy read, and there are lots of jarring plot twists.
And I also really shouldn’t have been skimming GRRM message boards. because I got spoiled for some of the stuff that happened near the end, which enabled me to laugh maniacally at certain key passages.
And on another gushing note, I love some of this man’s names. Some of the characters he mentions with the coolest names are only briefly mentioned in passing, and I find myself wanting to know why they’ve got those names. Why is there a soldier called Raff the Sweetling, for instance? And where did Lark the Sisterman get that name? Probably none of those will be answered for me, but I think it’s the mark of a good author that even throw-away characters get some intrigue.