Kevin's Watch

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:54 pm**

Prover of Life wrote:
Encryptic wrote:Just started reading Gone With The Wind. I finally watched the movie a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, so my mother-in-law loaned me her copy of the book, which is excellent so far. After that, I'll probably borrow Scarlett from her.

I'd been meaning to watch the movie/read the book for a long time but never got around to it, so I'm glad I finally did have a chance to do so.
Great book! Wonderful movie! Enjoy.

Thanks, I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book at the moment....

Posted: **Fri Feb 18, 2005 3:00 am**

I'm currently ploughing (I think thats the right verb...) through "Seven Types of Ambiguity" by Elliot Perlman. Its a dark tale of love and obsession told in first person perspective in 7 parts, each from different character's perspectives. It walks the fine line between being literary and also being a page turner. Oh, and Perlman is an Aussie too!

And I'm loving it!

Posted: **Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:09 am**

Busy on What Am I Doing Here?, a collection of short essay's etc. by Bruce Chatwin. Not bad.

Finished DT5 the other day, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I have a nasty suspicion that King gave away the premise of the ending already in the last few pages. If I'm right, I'll be disappointed, 'cause what I suspect would be a weak ending for such an incredible series. Oh Well.

--Avatar

Posted: **Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:20 am**

Just read The Sillmarillion again.Recently read The Mote in Gods Eye,and the sequel The Gripping Hand.Runes of The Earth(duh!).I am contemplating a rereading of the second crons and am scouring the used bookstore for Dark Tower series books(the last one I read was the one where they got on Blaine at the end-The Wastelands?).

Posted: **Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:11 pm**

Not to worry, Avatar. The ending you think was hinted at in the last few pages of Wolves of the Calla is not the ending you will get at the conclusion of Dark Tower VII. I feared the same thing.

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:27 am**

Aah, thanks Roland. I'm relieved to hear it. Very relieved. At the very least, the ending I feared lacked originality. Damn, I can't wait to get my hands on the last two.

Oh yeah, Sunbaneglasses, the next one for you is Wizard and Glass, one of my favourites so far.

--Avatar

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:42 pm**

Carl Hiassen's Skinny Dip. Haven't read much yet but it appears to be his usual delightfully sick, twisted and funny!

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:43 am**

Haven't read that one yet, but have read and enjoyed most of his others, especially Native Tongue.

--A

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:40 pm**

If you haven't read Sick Puppy, run, don't walk to your nearest book store and get it!

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:06 pm**

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I'm (slowly) reading Hyperion. Also got The Anubis Gates on the go.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:26 pm**

The Anubis Gates is my all-time favorite time travel tale.

I'm almost finished with Deadhouse Gates. Are we sure Erikson wrote both this novel and Gardens of the Moon? What an improvement!!

A great read. I still don't think I would rank Erikson as high as Martin, but he's no lightweight, either. And Man, does he operate on a panoramic canvas!!! The reader gets a real sense that the narrative truly only covers one tiny part of the immense time scale that is alluded to. Ancient races, resurrected gods, millenia old feuds . . . and certain gifted or cursed humans at the crux of it all.

Thinking back on it, I believe part of my confusion with Gardens of the Moon stems from the following, which is not technically a spoiler, and might help future readers:

THE SEVEN CITIES ARE NOT THE SAME AS THE FREE CITIES. I thought they were when I read Gardens. They aren't even on the same continent. No wonder I was confused!!

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:35 pm**

Well, it did take him a decade to get Gardens of the Moon published, so there was a pretty big gap between when he wrote the two books - and I agree, Deadhouse Gates is a big improvement. And if you're enjoying the scale of the series now, just wait until you read Memories of Ice!

Posted: **Sat Feb 26, 2005 1:32 pm**

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I'm (slowly) reading Hyperion. Also got The Anubis Gates on the go.

IMHO those are two first rate, examples of speculative fiction.

I'm currently reading My Life as Emperor by Su Tong.

Posted: **Sat Feb 26, 2005 2:42 pm**

This review of MY LIFE AS EMPEROR is so well written I had to transfer it over from Amazon. Full attribution to a reviewer who deserves notice.

From Booklist
The latest offering from the author of Raise the Red Lantern (1993) and Rice (1995) is a nightmarish tale that borrows from classical Chinese history but is set in no particular time. When his father dies, Duanbai, the 14-year-old prince, becomes the emperor of the Xie Empire. A palace madman's ominous refrain that "calamity will soon befall the Xie Empire" foreshadows the harsh, childish young ruler's demise, and beginning with his surprising inauguration, Duanbai describes his brief time on the throne and the events that depose him. As in Su Tong's previous work, dark currents of inhumanity, violence, and opulent, shimmering detail flow through the story. Duanbai is an unapologetically repugnant narrator, capable of inconceivable cruelty exercised on childish whims. But the crushing repercussions of his dim-witted self-indulgence, naivete, and brutality, as well as Su Tong's mesmerizing cinematic detail, create a powerful, terrifying, dreamlike story that questions the fateful influences that shape and sustain leaders. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Posted: **Sat Feb 26, 2005 3:04 pm**

Dragonlily, I have high expectations of My Life as Emperor, as Su Tong's prior works were exceptional IMHO.

Posted: **Sat Feb 26, 2005 3:16 pm**

It certainly sounds like it. But you're braver than I am, to voluntarily read about a sadistic child allowed to run amok.

Posted: **Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:13 pm**

Finished My Life as Emperor a few Days, another fabulously well written novel by Tong. Just got The Canterbury Papers : A Novel of Suspense by Judith Healeyin the mail.

Posted: **Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:19 pm**

Thank goodness Ainulindale posted in this thread. I lost it when it moved, and couldn't find it again.

I'm reading THE HONK AND HOLLER OPENING SOON by Billie Letts, about a rundown diner in the back of beyond in Oklahoma. The people are very real and interesting. I am convinced that such a diner with just these people must exist somewhere -- well, not with the same name as this diner has. As the characters unfold and get to know themselves and each other, the whole book is like the slow opening of a Christmas present.

Posted: **Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:39 am**

Busy with Patricia Cornwell's Portrait of a Killer, written in a very scholastic vein, about using modern forensic policing methods to uncover clues about Jack the Ripper. (And claims, very plausibly, to have identified him.)

Enjoying it.

--Avatar

Posted: **Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:14 am**

Right now rereading Rhys Hughes' A New Universal History of Infamy. It's incredible, written in homage of Jorge Luis Borges’ Historia universal de la infamia.

Kevin's Watch

What are you reading in general?