Kevin's Watch

Go to McPlato - they have utopias.

I am about to begin Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. It is a huge book and looks pretty neat, wish me luck! Never read anything by him before...

(oh btw...Ur )

I'm on the second of the War of Souls trilogy...I've been doing a lot of dragonlance reading lately, mainly because I now know lots of people who have them for borrowing...I was never really up for buy all million or so of 'em myself, but between me and everyone else in the freaking college I can scrape together a lot of the confounded books...also rereading MN...I'm waiting on book six of the Dresden files, book six as well of the Dark Tower series, and volume two of the Hellsing manga to hit U.S....and of course...the HUGE wait....the last chrons...

...the Utopians have no hesitation in affirming that no one could be so stupid as not to feel that he ought to pursue his own pleasure by hook or crook.He would only be concerned not to sacrifice a greater pleasure for a lesser one and not to pursue one that would be requited by pain.For they think it would be truly insane to pursue virtue, which is harsh and difficult, and not only to banish the pleasures of life but even to seek out pain of your own accord, and to expect to get nothing out of it...
(Thomas More Utopia Book 2)

danlo wrote:I am about to begin Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. It is a huge book and looks pretty neat, wish me luck! Never read anything by him before...

(oh btw...Ur )

Tigana is one of my favorite books. I like all of GGK's stuff with the exception of the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. If you like Tigana, check out his other stuff that's in the same vein as Tigana:

A Song For Arbonne
The Lions of Al-Rassan
Sailing To Sarantium/Lord of Emperors

I understand he just recently came out with a new book called The Last Light of the Sun. I need to hit up the library and see if I can get a hold of it.

The Forests of Serre by Patricia McKillip. Some really good stuff. Good metaphors, characters, writing, etc. I haven't found a fault with it yet.

I'm halfway through Raymond E. Feist's Talon of the Silver Hawk. Feist is not in the top tier of epic fantasy writers like Donaldson, Tolkien and Martin, but he delivers a decent story with a lot of creditable medieval background.

I think his weakness is his magic system, which allows for too many omnipotent characters, with no plausible explanation for it. This creates the opening for numerous deus ex machinas, a major pet peeve of mine.

Nevertheless, this novel is pretty good so far. But I'll probably wait for the sequel to come out in paperback. It's not so good that I want to cough up 28 bucks for King of Foxes.

The first few of Feist's books were good (up until Pug was no longer in the picture), but most of them just turned into cliched D&D-type stuff (not surprising, since I believe he used to design them).

Pug actually turns up in most of these novels. And for me, that's part of the problem. He's virtually all-powerful in his magical abilities, and he saves the freakin' day too often and too easily.

IT's actually just fiction, but I read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk today. Cool.

I bumped a thread for non-sci fi reading, just recently. It's under general discussion, I believe. I'd like to see it stay high up where it's easy to find.

Agree, FIGHT CLUB was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

THE BLACK CAULDRON, Lloyd Alexander

Roland of Gilead wrote:Pug actually turns up in most of these novels. And for me, that's part of the problem. He's virtually all-powerful in his magical abilities, and he saves the freakin' day too often and too easily.

Tell me about it. Does Pug EVER get his ass kicked even once after he learns magic?

Personally, I think Feist does much better when he stays away from the fantasy side of his stuff and focuses on more "realism" like he did in Rise of a Merchant Prince, with Roo becoming a bigtime trader.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: How many demon kings or evil magicians can there possibly be in Midkemia? I quit reading his stuff after a while because it got so repetitive and the writing was taking a nosedive as well.

Byrn wrote:IT's actually just fiction, but I read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk today. Cool.

Great book and the movie does actually follow it pretty closely, which is cool.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Very original fantasy--not at all in the mold of the pulp "high fantasy" lining the Barnes and Noble these days. Premise is that the gods that our ancestors worshipped in their countries of origin (Norse, African, etc.) are living among us in America, and have been mostly forgotten by the late 1990s. Apparently the gods are preparing now for some final showdown with the new gods of America. (I'm only on page 100, so this is a synopsis based on limited info.)

I've been wondering about AMERICAN GODS every time I see it on the shelf. It won an award but looks unattractive. Thanks for the helpful comments.

Now reading THE CASTLE OF LLYR, Lloyd Alexander

I'm tempted to start reading Flowers for Algernon again. Do I have the time?!!

THAT"S the book I was trying to remember the title of. Did I hear it's being filmed?

Look in the TV forum - it was filmed as tv movie back in 99.