Kevin's Watch

The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Gene Wolfe

Tell me what you think when you're done. I've read New Sun and I have Latro, but I've not yet decided on any other of Wolfe's work to look at.

Dragonlily wrote:Murrin, feel free to add a General Acquisitions in the Gen Lit forum. It would be a good one to have.

I'm curious about DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME. Let us know about it, would you?

Wonderful read!!! There's a thread around the Watch someplace that I started about that book...

Hey, whoever has Duchess's DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME thread, transfer it over to Gen Lit, would you?

[Edit: That would be Jay, CovJr, and Claire in the General Discussion Forum. ]

Yesterday I got [Dusk, a debut fantasy effort coming out the end of January from Bram Stoker Award winning author Tim Lebbon.[/u]

Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey.

Murrin wrote:Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey.

I really enjoyed the three Kushiel books, as well her latest duology The Sundering, which is a sort of twisted Sil, where you wonder until the end who the good guys are (and whetehr or not there are nay good guys at all...)

The sex in Kushiel can be rather eye opening. There's lots of S&M, and everytime I think the kinkiness can't be topped, something else will pop up. But it is integrated into the story fairly well, so its not like reading pron or anything.

Picked up a bunch of sci-fi, mainly short-story collections, including some classics like The Wall Around The World.

New Writings 23, AntiGrav, Silverberg's Glass Towercan't remember the others.

--A

duchess of malfi wrote:

Murrin wrote:Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey.

I really enjoyed the three Kushiel books, as well her latest duology The Sundering, which is a sort of twisted Sil, where you wonder until the end who the good guys are (and whetehr or not there are nay good guys at all...)

The sex in Kushiel can be rather eye opening. There's lots of S&M, and everytime I think the kinkiness can't be topped, something else will pop up. But it is integrated into the story fairly well, so its not like reading pron or anything.

Interesting. I have this book on loan from a friend. Should be reading it shortly. She tells me this first Kushiel book is the best of the three...or at least that it's a self-contained story that I can enjoy without needing to read the other two books.

You could definately read it as a stand alone. The most disturbing sex (to me anyway) was in the third book. Nothing in the first book could even begin to compare with this one rather nasty toy in the third book (thank God!!! ).

The Kushiel books are set in an alternate Europe, Middle East, and Africa (I don't think they left Europe in the first one). The Pagan religions are still being followed, right alongside of Judaism, which is still one with what we would call Christianity.

The main country in that Europe that the books tell the story of is an alternate France called Terre d'Ange. Their religion is very unique, and includes cults of angels. One of the angels is Kushiel. I don't want to get more into things than that, as I thought the religion was very interesting, and I do not want to get into big spoilers about it.

One of the central characters of the book is a girl marked by Kushiel as an anguisette, someone who receives supreme pleasure from pain. The girl is trained as both a spy and a courtesan. The kinky sex is integrated into the story as a natural consequence of her inclinations and training...

The Briar King, by Greg Keyes.

Nine Princes of Amber - Roger Zelazny

Recently got:

The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull - a very detailed almost annotated style of the trilogy, scheduled to be released at the end of December. Looks very informative thus far.

Dragon Champion by E.E. Knight

Deryni Checkmate (December) by Katherine Kurtz

The Rosetta Codex by Richard Paul Russo

Coyote Frontier by Allen Steele

Wicked Or What? by Sean Wright

Dark Tales of Time and Space by Sean Wright

Dusk by Tim Lebbon

I'm looking forward to Dragon Champion. E. E. Knight is the author of the Vampire Earth sf series, a futuristic depopulated Earth "under new management," aliens with vampire-like qualities.

Knight's website is very informative and Knight is "hands-on" with his fans, usually showing up once or twice a week to answer questions and make other comments.

I'm anxious to see how he handles fantasy.

Not sure where the line is drawn between sf/f and gen lit, so:
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Le Mort D'Arthur by Malory
One Thousand Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

(the last one I'm fairly sure isn't classed as fantasy, but I though I'd just put it in there anyway)

NeuroMancer is one of my all-time favourites. In fact, I'm convinced that it, and much of his other work, have directly contributed to the way that we're seeing the future of data communications technology evolving.

Isn't the Marquez book sorta sci-fi?...have it, must just read it.

--A

I think I've heard it called Magical Realism, which is usally classed as literary, not genre.

Oh. Not that it's important really, I think. Time was that if a book was set in the future, it was sci-fi. If it had dragons or such, it was fantasy.

--A

Recently bought Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana .

NeuroMancer is one of my all-time favourites. In fact, I'm convinced that it, and much of his other work, have directly contributed to the way that we're seeing the future of data communications technology evolving.

Isn't the Marquez book sorta sci-fi?...have it, must just read it.

Neuromancer (and Gibson) is cyberpunk (him and Sterling making it a vogue movement not long ago, and almsot a full blown new sub-genre) Marquez is characterized as Magic Realism.

I'm looking forward to Dragon Champion. E. E. Knight is the author of the Vampire Earth sf series, a futuristic depopulated Earth "under new management," aliens with vampire-like qualities.

Knight's website is very informative and Knight is "hands-on" with his fans, usually showing up once or twice a week to answer questions and make other comments.

I'm anxious to see how he handles fantasy.[/u]

I'll read it when he reads Tobias Bucknell's Crystal Rain, or admits Venom Cock is stupid

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818 text).