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Fantasy for those who hate fantasy
Top ten mould-breaking fantasy novels. As Tuttle says herself, "that sort of labelling implies there's a strong consensus view of what fantasy literature is, both among those who read it and those who wouldn't touch it with a barge pole." When people in the comments suggest Roger Zelazny, Stephen Donaldson, and Robin Hobb as further possibilities, I have to wonder what their consensus view of fantasy is. By my standards, all those are as western quasi-medieval derivative as anyone could wish. Maybe all they mean by 'not yer average fantasy' is 'not Sword of Shannara.'
Am pleased by the number of 'but what about Aaronovitch?' comments, though.
What have you just finished reading?
Caryl Brahms and SJ Simon, Don't, Mr Disraeli. Because the only library copy of No Bed for Bacon is non-circulating. Shall not be seeking that one out, I fancy. I'm not sure what the authors were trying for but I suspect, curmudgeonly, that they thought they were being brilliantly MAD!! young things. They do deserve props for being brilliantly MAD!! in the middle of the blitz, or possibly just before, but still. The introduction credits them with creating the genre of anachronistic humour and maybe they did. I can't myself think of anything that predates them. But for me, anachronistic humour works better in a visual context: Jarman's Caravaggio, say, or Python. As text- oh well. I didn't find it that funny, basically.
What are you reading now?
Patricia Briggs, Blood Bound. Vampires and werewolves *still*, but the protagonist is a spirit-walker, a coyote, and the writing is a cut above most other vampire and werewolf novels I can name, if not at the diverting level of Parasol Protectorate. It's still slow going, but that may be down to morning shifts and the brainlessness consequent on them. Also the truncated evenings, since one must be washed and in bed by 10:30 at the latest.
What will you read next?
I have two more Briggs if the first (second in the series, actually) amuses me, once I can sleep and the weather cools off. But there's also something In Transit from the library, and a Sugawara Akitada mystery I bought to read in hot weather.
What have you given up on?
Grass on the Wayside, I think. Determinedly miserable protagonist overwhelmed by his life and his family and his obligations and and and.
Am pleased by the number of 'but what about Aaronovitch?' comments, though.
What have you just finished reading?
Caryl Brahms and SJ Simon, Don't, Mr Disraeli. Because the only library copy of No Bed for Bacon is non-circulating. Shall not be seeking that one out, I fancy. I'm not sure what the authors were trying for but I suspect, curmudgeonly, that they thought they were being brilliantly MAD!! young things. They do deserve props for being brilliantly MAD!! in the middle of the blitz, or possibly just before, but still. The introduction credits them with creating the genre of anachronistic humour and maybe they did. I can't myself think of anything that predates them. But for me, anachronistic humour works better in a visual context: Jarman's Caravaggio, say, or Python. As text- oh well. I didn't find it that funny, basically.
What are you reading now?
Patricia Briggs, Blood Bound. Vampires and werewolves *still*, but the protagonist is a spirit-walker, a coyote, and the writing is a cut above most other vampire and werewolf novels I can name, if not at the diverting level of Parasol Protectorate. It's still slow going, but that may be down to morning shifts and the brainlessness consequent on them. Also the truncated evenings, since one must be washed and in bed by 10:30 at the latest.
What will you read next?
I have two more Briggs if the first (second in the series, actually) amuses me, once I can sleep and the weather cools off. But there's also something In Transit from the library, and a Sugawara Akitada mystery I bought to read in hot weather.
What have you given up on?
Grass on the Wayside, I think. Determinedly miserable protagonist overwhelmed by his life and his family and his obligations and and and.
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Ahahaha and Python ... we watched 'Holy Grail' yesterday and the poor little boy was aghast at some of the artistic liberties taken there. The poor mite.
And ahhh books ... apart from the ones I read to the children at school ... I haven't picked up one since reading those Sharpe books ... and the 'Point' books some dear kind soul sent me wait ... was that more than a year ago already???
TIME .... it just flashes by without so much as a 'how do you do and good bye' ... not from want of it ... I have started on a few ... just haven't the gumption to finish them at the moment. I think there's just too much of the children's lives going on at the moment.
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I liked Jonathan Strange very much, loathed The Magus, and didn't care for A Traveller in Time even as a child, largely because, even as a child, I thought Mary Queen of Scots a dweeb.
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Well, kids and work will take up all the reading time one has, as well as all the rest of the time one has. When they're in uni, maybe....
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(And it has Bacon hiring Shakespeare to write his poems.)
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Mieville's big weakness, I have always felt, is his utter inability to write believable characters. Which is probably why he always writes weird alien creatures ... might as well, since he can't spin a believable human to save his life.
Noted!