Kevin's Watch

Eon, by Greg Bear.

I finished up reading mark Jeffrey's book, The Pocket and the Pendent. It's a young adult book, filled with all sorts of wild stuff like frozen time, UFO's, ancient Sumerians, etc. etc. It was both fast paced and entertaining.

Am now in the middle of Garth Nix's Shade's Children. A wild story set in a very weird post-apocalyptic world. It is every bit as original and wonderful and filled with great characters as his Abhorsen Trilogy.

When I finish I will take a brief break, awaiting aTOMic's book, Folly's Challenge to arrive from Amazon.

Dragonlily wrote:

Encryptic wrote:About 50 pages left to go on Ship of Destiny, then I'm going to start reading Latro In The Mist.

Hope you like LATRO as much as I did, Encryptic.

Thanks, I'm about 175 pages into it and love it so far. I might add that the recommendations of the Watch were what motivated me to buy it instead of waiting for the next library trip.

Excellent. And until Soldier of Sidon comes out, you can always pick up The Wizard Knight.

Sylvanus wrote:Excellent. And until Soldier of Sidon comes out, you can always pick up The Wizard Knight.

Wizard Knight is definitely on my list of must-haves.

Reading Daughter of Regals again. Really enjoyed Animal Lover this time round.

--A

Rereading Things that Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies by Matthew Rossi

and finished reading The Black Throne by Roger Zelazny and Fred Sagerhagen, really an intersting story using several elements of Edgar Allan Poe's works.

Hoping to get The Genizah At The House Of Shepher by Tamar Yellin next week (comes out tomorow I believe).

The Iron Council - China Mieville (one of the most overlooked writers of the genre)

The Iron Council - China Mieville (one of the most overlooked writers of the genre)

I love Mieville's work, but I'd hardly call him overlooked Perdido Street Station is widely considered an all time classic, and among the best stand alone novels ever written in fantasy. He has already garnered many more awards than many of the big names in the industry. Even if his books weren't incredible, (which they are, though Iron Council slightly less entertaining IMHO Perdido or The Scar, which means it's still better than 95% of the work published), he would be well known to for his controversial (yet hard to debate) essays regarding Tolkien. Note Iron Council is up for virtually every award even though it's widely considered his poorest Bas-lag effort. He defintely is not overlooked by the critical crowd, but I would agree defintely overlooked by the casual fan.

All that said IMHO Mieville is brightest talent to write fantasy since Moorcock in the late 60's. Mieville's talent is undeniable.

Sylvanus wrote:Excellent. And until Soldier of Sidon comes out, you can always pick up The Wizard Knight.

Arrrgh....I was about halfway through Soldier of Arete when I fell asleep one night in my chair (not because of the book, but rather I was just tired in general) and lost my place and I couldn't figure out what the last thing I read was. I shelved it for the time being and will come back to it very soon, though.

On a better note, I picked up Book of the New Sun again because I just had to re-read it and I also got a hold of The Knight to read after that.

I'm rereading Tam Lin by Pamela Dean for the umpteenth time. It's one of my "security blanket" books. Fun, and lovely, and wonderful.

I'm reading Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon.

Wow! I became a fan a few days back after reading Market Forces. Now I'm reading the novel that won the Philip K. Dick Award.

This guy is a force to be reckoned with.

If you like gritty futuristic crime tales, this author is the one for you. Very well-written and mind-bending extrapolation of future science.

Graphic, though - not for the squeamish.

Actually, I'm too busy preparing to co-Administer the Watch to read at this moment.

I was in the midst of my great Harry Potter reread, and finished up the first two books. But then we couldn't find any copies of the third book, even though we have at least two in the house.

So, looking for something that I thought would be light and fun, I started reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire. After reading the first few chapters, so far this book isn't particularly light or fun. I knew I should have read The Belgariad again. Sometimes you just need some mind candy.

I started Perdido Street Station. One chapter, and I'm already forming some impressions. The first is that Mieville's vocabulary easily rivals anything SRD has thrown at us.
The second, that his work isn't really the sort of thing I'm into, unfortunately. I get the impression he creates these strange creatures just for the sake of it, to say, paraphrasing from the interview Ainulindale posted recently, "isn't this a cool monster?"
I'll have to read more before I can judge, however.

The Belgariad... hmm.. that wouldn't be good mind candy for me, because I read it so early in my fantasy days that it represents all the stuff in fantasy that I don't really much enjoy anymore.... although maybe I'd think differently if I reread it.

I started Perdido Street Station. One chapter, and I'm already forming some impressions. The first is that Mieville's vocabulary easily rivals anything SRD has thrown at us.

That cool Murrin! IMHO I would say Mieville is on a completely different level than Donaldson in terms of command of the language, and resides at the very top of the genre. This is no slight on Donaldson, nor is it meant to say he is not extremely talented in this nature as well (he msot assuredly is) , it merely is a statement on how adept Mieville is. He has a absolute command over the language IMHO that's unrivaled by except very few that I have read reagrdless of genre. The kid has talent.

The second, that his work isn't really the sort of thing I'm into, unfortunately. I get the impression he creates these strange creatures just for the sake of it, to say, paraphrasing from the interview Ainulindale posted recently, "isn't this a cool monster?"
I'll have to read more before I can judge, however.

Many people have difficulty getting into Mieville, as he generally egts very high praise, but when one begins reading his work it is unlike really anything out, as far as traditional fantasy is concerned (I'm not inferring this is the case with you Murrin, just a general observation). On your observation of monsters I will say please read on, Mieville fleshes out every creation incredibly in the novel both as it relates on the physicality of the story and metaphorically of the setting. Wait until the Weaver!

Mieville was one of my first dives into non-traditional fantasy, and at first reading I was a bit apprehensive, but came away from the novel with a new found outlook on what really was talent, in terms of fantasy writing.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your reading Murrin


Right now I'm rereading a couple of works Steph Swainston's The Year of our War and Matt Stover's Blade of Tyshale.

That's a pretty bold thing to say about an author....

heh heh.... get it? and a bold use of bold text as well.

Just started Mirror of Her Dreams.

I just started reading AGoT by GRRM.
I'm about 1/4 of the way through.
So far, I have to say I am a bit disappointed. Is the whole series family feuds?
I am also a bit perturbed at the amount of names thrown at you all at once. I have to keep backtracking to find out which character is which. (That is one reason why I stopped reading McKillup's The Forgotten Beasts of Eld...too many names thrown at me with no development of the characters.)

That's a reason whay I continually pick up The Gap and TCTC.
Donaldson introduces characters that he takes time to develop. He easily takes you into the narrative, and avoids confusion of who is who.
You have time to get to know each character before another is introduced.

Just my humble opinion.