Kevin's Watch

I won't make this into a poll, since I'm not sure if I'm aware of all of em. I'm not including people like Tolkein, Walter Scott or Wagner who he's said good things about but are already extremely well known.

Here's all the ones I can think of, off the top of my head. Feel free to add more.
-Steven Erikson
-Patricia Mckillip
-Sean Russell
-Mervyn Peake
-ER Eddison
-Reed Stephens (kekeke)
-China Mieville (can't remember how to spell it)
-That author of Down Below Station (Cehrry?)
-Tim Powers

I've seen others but I can't remember them. Of the ones I've read, I'd have to say Peake. I think part of the appreciation for the suggestion comes from the fact that Donaldson is the only person I've ever seen mention the Gormenghast novels, so my mind has come to link the two authors by association. However, Peake is as well possibly my favorite author from what I've read of him - dare I suggest better than Donaldson? - so he's also my favorite of the reccomendations Donaldson has given.

I'm thinking China and Erikson are the two most popular authors he's mentioned besides people like Tolkein.

Holsety wrote: -That author of Down Below Station (Cehrry?)

C.J.Cherryh. And I might add that Down Below Station and the Miri trilogy are absolutely stellar books. Cherryh is remarkable.

Donaldson likes Gormenghast?

Loremaster wrote:

Holsety wrote: -That author of Down Below Station (Cehrry?)

C.J.Cherryh. And I might add that Down Below Station and the Miri trilogy are absolutely stellar books. Cherryh is remarkable.

I haven't read the Miri trilogy but Down Below Station is great.

CovenantJr wrote:Donaldson likes Gormenghast?

Yup. If you're curious, here's a page of any stuff referencing Mervyn Peake in the GI.

www.stephenrdonaldson.com/fromtheauthor ... eake&none=

Also, there's a reference to Gormenghast alone here:

2) Yes, I've read four Eddison books, the "trilogy" you mention (Eddison left it unfinished) and a stand-alone called (memory, don't fail me now) "The Worm Ourobouros." The style didn't bother me at all: after all, I live on writers like Conrad, Meredith, Faulkner, and Scott. But I didn't like the stories: they seemed empty to me; empty of warmth, meaning, or even purpose. Now "Gormenghast," on the other hand.... I have reveled in those more than once (except for the third book, which in my opinion simply doesn't work).

And also...

Harry Potter hasn't had any affect on me that I'm aware of. (Although the popularity of HP and LOTR on film may have affected the decision to buy an option on "Covenant".) I've read one of the books and seen the three movies. I enjoyed them, but they didn't touch me.

Yes, I saw the BBC version of Gormenghast. As with the LOTR films, I thought they did as good a job as we could have hoped for; but much of the particular richness of those books was lost. A 12+ hour mini-series of "Covenant" might be the most effective way to bring those books to film, but I still don't really consider "Covenant" to be film-able. And of course the TV screen loses visual scale--an important aspect of "Covenant". "Mordant's Need" would make much better movies, as would the GAP books, or some of my novellas (e.g. "Penance," "Daughter of Regals," or "The Killing Stroke").

(09/18/2004)

No, it wasn't too much time spent to just get these off of searching.

My girlfriend is a big Gormenghast fan (as am I)* so this might be my means of finally getting her to read Covenant/the Gap. Finally!






















*to the extent that we've agreed to a strong possibility of including Steerpike as either first or middle name of a hypothetical son.

For me, Gormenghast was one of the ought to read books, and when I finally picked it up, I found it tedious reading. It seemed unbearably slow, and I stopped before I got very far into it. Granted, this may be due in part to the fact that I had books that I wanted to read just waiting on my stack.

~Lyr

Gormenghast is a fantastic book

Refer to this link :

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/stephen-donaldson/

Ahh. . . he likes Michael Stackpole! I read and enjoyed his X-Wing and Rogue Squadron Star Wars books.

I may have to pick up this new series by him just to see how it is.

Wyldewode wrote:For me, Gormenghast was one of the ought to read books, and when I finally picked it up, I found it tedious reading. It seemed unbearably slow, and I stopped before I got very far into it. Granted, this may be due in part to the fact that I had books that I wanted to read just waiting on my stack.

~Lyr

I can kinda see how one would dislike Gormenghast, even though I love it. It IS an extremely slow book; if you're not ok with long portions of story which have little to do with the main plot, you're prolly not going to enjoy it.

I think I recall hearing that Peake's original goal was to write a book where the protagonist was an infant...which he did.

Yep, you're pretty much right. According to the preface of my copy, Peake wanted to tell the full story of Titus' entire life, including an extensive period of being a baby.

I've always found, however, that Titus is the least interesting of the characters.

CovenantJr wrote:Yep, you're pretty much right. According to the preface of my copy, Peake wanted to tell the full story of Titus' entire life, including an extensive period of being a baby.

I've always found, however, that Titus is the least interesting of the characters.

I thought he was better than the twins, who I found kinda tiresome very quickly, but other than that, I'd agree. He was alright towards the end, but characters like that awesome proffessor guy and the Prunesquallors overshadow him.

I actually haven't read Titus Alone yet, both because I don't have it yet, and because I've been somewhat sluggish about getting it since I've heard it's an inferior work. I still plan on dong it...but I feel like, with the series unfinished, reading Alone will bring a sense of half-satisfaction I'll never finish, since Peake is dead, and Awakes will never be finished. Apparently his wife compiled something like 30k words of it, maybe from notes or something, but she died.

Steerpike!

Holsety wrote:

CovenantJr wrote:Yep, you're pretty much right. According to the preface of my copy, Peake wanted to tell the full story of Titus' entire life, including an extensive period of being a baby.

I've always found, however, that Titus is the least interesting of the characters.

I thought he was better than the twins, who I found kinda tiresome very quickly, but other than that, I'd agree. He was alright towards the end, but characters like that awesome proffessor guy and the Prunesquallors overshadow him.

I actually haven't read Titus Alone yet, both because I don't have it yet, and because I've been somewhat sluggish about getting it since I've heard it's an inferior work. I still plan on dong it...but I feel like, with the series unfinished, reading Alone will bring a sense of half-satisfaction I'll never finish, since Peake is dead, and Awakes will never be finished. Apparently his wife compiled something like 30k words of it, maybe from notes or something, but she died.

I thought the deal was that Peake himself was dying, so his wife helped him write Titus Alone. I agree with others (among them SRD) that the book didn't live up to the potential of the first two books. Apart from the change in narrative style, Gormenghast was nearly a character itself in the first two books, and taking the story away from the ancestral home hurt the story somewhat. I spent a lot of time in the third book being confused.

Among the other authors SRD has mentioned, I've read several Patricia McKillip's and have enjoyed them very much. She has such a lyrical writing style -- I'm jealous. Steve Erikson is a big favorite of many folks on the Watch; I've enjoyed his series so far, to the point of ordering from Amazon.uk the volumes that aren't available in the US yet! I've read a little CJ Cherryh, but not a lot. I *think* I read something by China Mieville, but I can't remember right now. Hmm.

Peake and E. R. Eddison are the only authors on the list i have read. I couldn't make it through Gormenghast. it just rubbed me the wrong way. it was recommended to me by an artist friend, and i can see why she likes it because from what i got out of it before i gave up it's basically a VERY detailed painting, but in words.

Eddison is great. 'The Worm Ouroboros' is Bizarre with a capital B. it reminds me of 'outsider art' in a way, as if the author had no clue what fantasy literature was at all and still managed to write the craziest, most revolutionary stuff. there's almost no point to the story, it goes nowhere, and it's written in an ugly elizabethan style, but somehow it pulls me in every time and i lose a day reading it.

then there's his Zimiamvian trilogy which runs backwards chronologically, but forwards thematically...or something like that. i don't know. it's pretty weird and if you're a literature buff there's lots of 'easter eggs' and hidden references to classic works.

aliantha wrote:

Holsety wrote:

CovenantJr wrote:Yep, you're pretty much right. According to the preface of my copy, Peake wanted to tell the full story of Titus' entire life, including an extensive period of being a baby.

I've always found, however, that Titus is the least interesting of the characters.

I thought he was better than the twins, who I found kinda tiresome very quickly, but other than that, I'd agree. He was alright towards the end, but characters like that awesome proffessor guy and the Prunesquallors overshadow him.

I actually haven't read Titus Alone yet, both because I don't have it yet, and because I've been somewhat sluggish about getting it since I've heard it's an inferior work. I still plan on dong it...but I feel like, with the series unfinished, reading Alone will bring a sense of half-satisfaction I'll never finish, since Peake is dead, and Awakes will never be finished. Apparently his wife compiled something like 30k words of it, maybe from notes or something, but she died.

I thought the deal was that Peake himself was dying, so his wife helped him write Titus Alone.

I forget where I read that his wife died before she was able to help him finish it, so I can't guarantee the accuracy of the information.

aliantha wrote:I spent a lot of time in the third book being confused.

I dropped the book in shock and disgust as soon as a car appeared. I did return to it and try to continue, but it was just...wrong.

I found Titus Alone interesting. It suffers from the lack of Gormenghast, the setting-as-character, but there ae some interesting personalities in it--Muzzlehatch (sp?) intrigued me, and I wouldn't have minded seeing some more of him in later books. The problem with the book is supposedly that due to Peake's illness the story could be somewhat disjointed and confused; the editors (at least of the edition I read) did a fair job cleaning it up while staying true to the manuscript, though.


andyjames--The thing to keep in mind with Eddison is that his work predates that of Tolkien and Peake, and even the whole idea of fantasy as a genre. I found The Worm Ouroboros to be a very absorbing work, once I got past the opening. I haven't managed to get into Mistress of Mistresses yet.

The mention of Eddison here has prompted me to read some reviews and whatnot. I must say, I'm intrigued. Sadly, that just means I'll add another book to my 'to read' pile if I stumble across it.

CovenantJr wrote:The mention of Eddison here has prompted me to read some reviews and whatnot. I must say, I'm intrigued. Sadly, that just means I'll add another book to my 'to read' pile if I stumble across it.

Hehe.. . I've got shelves of "to read!" I think I have an obsession with books.