Kevin's Watch

Starting Greg Bear's short story collection THE WIND FROM A BURNING WOMAN.

Greg Bear wrote:It may be remarkable that, with such views, I've come as far as I have in publishing, where large conglomerates seem to dictate over-all marketing of science fiction as if it were some piecework commodity. ("Take dragon/unicorn/spaceship, add vaguely medieval magical setting, mix well with wise old wizard/cute sidekick...") Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed stories with all those elements, but enough is enough. Science fiction is much too restless to accept the same kind of genre regimentation displayed by, for example, Westerns or hard-boiled detective novels, where one Western Town or corrupt Big City can serve as stage settings for an infinity of retold tales.

You guessed it: Children of Dune.

--A

I've just started Eric Nylund's A Game of Universe. A pretty good start, somewhat reminiscent of Tim Powers' Last Call, at least with respect to the gambling aspects. Nylund throws a lot at the reader very rapidly, but juggles it all well so far.

This may be an instance of a very good writer flying under my radar for many years. I may have made a "new author discovery" who isn't really a new author. That's always exciting.

Lucimay wrote:Encryptic writes,

Nice to see that epic fantasy can still produce work on the level of Song of Ice and Fire, among others.

haven't read it. stumbled on bakker which led me to the Three Seas forum which turned me on to Erikson. diggin Erikson so much i'm on my way back through them all while waiting for US publication of The Bonehunters. (arg) have stopped between GotM and Deadhouse Gates to read the first Gap book which a couple of friends here instisted i must read! i liked bakker alot but i have to say i LOVE Erickson. also just bought the novella Blood Follows, a lovely little first edition with a gorgeous dust cover! i understand it's about a couple of characters that appear in one of the novels, i can't remember which. i'm saving it for when i get to the end of Midnight Tides again and am jonesin for Bonehunters.

Don't judge the series by the first book.

i never do Captain.

I am planning on spending this evening curled up in bed with a huge mug of hot tea and my new copy of Martin's A Feast For Crows. My home phone will be off the hook and my cell phone will be turned off.

I have been waiting for this book for a long, long time.

I will savor my feast.

Dang it duchy! Now you're putting me in the mood to actually read more than 1/2 the first chapter of Black Jade!

Finished "The Warrior-Prophet" and started reading Tim Powers' "The Anubis Gates".

Fiinshing up Cherie Priest's excellent Four and Twenty Blackbirds, and recently finsihed Jay Lake's Rocket Science..

Working my way through A Feast for Crows,and my second reading of Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lakmora manuscipt (which is going to be on absolute fire.

Regarding above comments - Erikson and Bakker are superior craftsmen of epic fantasy - it is known.

And started reading Tim Powers' "The Anubis Gates".

Tim Powers is one of those consistently excellent authors - I find his work hard not to like.

I'm one chapter into In Viriconium, and I think it might be the best one so far.
It's also interesting seeing all the ideas Miéville got from these books.

Ainulindale wrote:Erikson and Bakker are superior craftsmen of epic fantasy - it is known.

I went looking for Bakker at Powells yesterday, but the only one on the shelves was WARRIOR-PROPHET in hardback. Not the best way to sample a new author.

I have heard nothing but good things about Bakker. His writing is said to be deep and intelligent, and he is said to be a good world builder with interesting (if not particualrly likeable) characters.

Joy, the book you saw is the middle book of a trilogy. The third book in the trilogy is due to come out in January, and that is when I hope to give him a try.

I am in the middle of so many unfinished series now, even though I have made an attempt to not start anymore unfinished series over the last couple of years, when I realized what a problem that was starting to be. (I know that is not the most grammatical of sentences, but I hope everyone understands what I meant by it). There are obvious exceptions to that, like SRD and his Final Chronicles, and possibly Erickson if I ever get caught up enough to start his books (i've heard so many good things I definately want to give him a try), but I've been pretty good about waiting lately.

That still leaves me in the middle of a lot of unfinished series, though... However, I am sure time will help take care of that, as authors begin to wrap things up. I do try to reread the previous books in a series when a new one comes out, but that has become impossible with some of them (like Wheel of Time) due to time constraints and sheer length of existing material. At least two of the series I am in the middle of only have one book left (Wheel of Time and Harry Potter). That should help.

I actually own some of the series I'm in the middle of, and I have been distracted out of them. Well of Souls, Nancy Kress's Beggar books, Sector General, The Circle Opens, Julian May's Moon series, Marion Z Bradley's Avalon books (which I've been reading out of order), and I would include the final trilogies of the Uplift series and the Galactic Milieu as the ends of series. And now I have FEAST FOR CROWS.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I feel overwhelmed. It may have something to do with the book I just finished reviewing, which I can't recommend in polite company -- and only partially in impolite company.

*goes out for fresh air*

You know, there is just so much available now that I never really had the inclination to not get into a series for the reason of it not being complete. This I think has become more apparent to me just in the last month, in which A Feast for Crows came out, - a book I have been dying to read for some years now,- and I just got around to starting it, which is a delay and a show of personal restraint I wouldn't have thought possible from myself.

In the case of Bakker however, The Prince of Nothing wil be completed in mid-January so no long wait necessary!

Erikson is far from complete but he does have 5 of his titles out (and 6 coming in February)- and they are all pretty large books, so there is a lot to catch up with - it's just utterly fascinating, and this is coming from someone who has been reading it for some years now, and I'm still not tired of it . Erikson employs all the elements I thought were dead to me from fantasy and through them all in a series, supersized it - and it's just...glorious. I think Bakker is a more capable pure writer, but what Erikson is doing is incredible much more expansiive and pulls at both my nostalgic and progressive strings.

It's only been for the past year or two that I have been trying to avoid unfinished series that I have not already started. As I said, I do try to reread the previous books when a new one comes out. When I realized that was starting to suck up a lot of my reading time, and when it became obvious that a lot of fantasy series these days are becoming longer and longer (both number of books and length of the books), I decided to call a time out.

There are exceptions -- primarily with authors like Donaldson whose work I especially enjoy, or with authors like Erikson who are getting all sorts of praise from both fans and critics (If I ever get caught up with my TBR stack to even Erikson him a try).

There are a lot of reportedly good things that are completely finished that I have not read yet, so I decided to try to focus on those rather than starting additional series that I must reread several times with each new book, to try to keep a cast of thousands of characters (in some cases) and a lot of subplots fresh in my mind. As I said, that still leaves me stuck in the middle of a lot of things, but hopefully time will take care of that.

I wish I had more time to read (one of my favorite hobbies).

Ainulindale wrote:Erikson is far from complete but he does have 5 of his titles out (and 6 coming in February)- and they are all pretty large books, so there is a lot to catch up with - it's just utterly fascinating, and this is coming from someone who has been reading it for some years now, and I'm still not tired of it . Erikson employs all the elements I thought were dead to me from fantasy and through them all in a series, supersized it - and it's just...glorious. I think Bakker is a more capable pure writer, but what Erikson is doing is incredible much more expansiive and pulls at both my nostalgic and progressive strings.

I finally started "Gardens of the Moon" today and got through the Prologue and the first chapter. Looks promising so far, and I'm definitely interested in continuing with it.

Uh, God Emporer of Dune

--A

Just finished Eric Nylund's A Game of Universe.

Not bad - sort of what you might get if Tim Powers decided to write a space opera.

A search for the Holy Grail, in a galaxy where magic works alongside high tech.

I think the premise and the early backstory were superior to the resolution, but overall, an entertaining little read.

Next up for me - the latest Repairman Jack novel by F. Paul Wilson - Infernal.

Heretics of Dune

(And here I have to stop, because I annoyingly don't own the last book or any of the prequels...yet.)

--A

Hi guys!

I just finished reading L. E. Modesitt, jr.'s SCEPTERS.

This third volume in Modesitt's The Corean Chronicles proved to live up to the promise generated by the first two books of the trilogy. Scepters is indeed a very neat finale.

As are most of Modesitt's works, this trilogy is for thoughtful readers. This is not the equivalent of a big budget production, to be appreciated by every dumb ass out there. In one of its reviews, Starlog wrote, "Legacies is for people who enjoy a leisurely reading experience, want to see their characters grow and like to fill in the blanks themselves rather than have the author do it for them. . ." I could not have said it better myself. . .

So if you wish to try something different, something intelligent, not particularly fast-paced but in no way boring, then I'd recommend picking up The Corean Chronicles. This trilogy certainly makes a nice addition to any fantasy collection. So think about adding it to that Christmas present list!;-)

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com