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dustydigger
Posted 2017-08-31 10:32 AM (#16233 - in reply to #14868)
Subject: Re: The Pick & Mix in 2017		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		August was a mixed bag'
Hooray! With relief I finished Terry Goodkind's rather peculiar Wizard's First Rule. Started off your typical standard fantasy, a young man,the Seeker, sets off with the Mother Confessor and a wizard to locate a magic box and protect it from an evil wizard who needs it to rule the world. Cue a long dangerous journey and many adventures. So far so normal. Then after 500 pages of this it turns into sado-masochism,long descriptions of torture and cruelty - even from the heroes! Ick.Not at all my cup of tea. 800 pages of this book was ample time for me to decide NOT to read anymore Goodkind. :0(
It was with relief and great pleasure I turned to the excellent War for the Oaks,the 1988 Locus Best First Novel award winner.It was written by Emma Bull at a time when the modern urban fantasy sub genre was starting out. That was the time when Charles De Lint and Mercedes Lackey were producing works linking the faerie world with ours,especially in connection with music.Good stuff.
I wonder why, when I find standard high fantasy a somewhat boring turn off, I should like UF so much? I just really like the whole premise,the ''what if the worlds of fantasy were really true,and came to interact with our own? Would we love them,hate them,maybe be eaten or destroyed by them?''.I tend to lean to the tough side,nasty vamps, weres,demons,tricksy fae et al being faced by kick butt humans,not the paranormal romance side.
Sorry to say I struggled with Octavia E Butler's Parable of the Talents. I put off continuing straight on from Parable of the Sower which was quite harrowing with its pretty tough dystopic setting. After three months break I have pushed myself to read this sequel,and its even darker than the first one. Rape, slavery and torture are the norm,with child molestation and murder for variety.I was not enamoured of the protagonist in the first outing,and I find her very very irritating. Plus I find the Earthseed philosophy/religion barely credible,and her as a saviour/prophet type frankly risible. I gritted my teeth to drag myself through over 450 pages of cruelty and viciousness without any leavening of hope or humour,and was glad to finish with it. Are ALL of Butler's books about slavery and cruelty?Will be taking a break from anymore of her books for the rest of the year.
Hal Clement's Needle was about an alien blob of matter which has invaded a young schoolboy and together they are searching for another blob ,an alien criminal also infesting a human. It is hiding in one of the boys friends and neighbours,but which one? Good fun but not meant to be serious or portentous! Light relief after Earthseed!
Finished Vonda MacIntyre's The Moon and the Sun,Louis XIVs glittering Versailles - with sea monsters. Historical fiction is one of my least enjoyable genres so I may be a little unfair to the book.Yet another quirky Nebula winner,you never know what you are going to get! lol
It was an OK read,but I found all the intrigue of the glittering court etc a bit too detailed,but McIntyre has an engaging style,strong storytelling skills and she always gives credible motivations to her characters.I always enjoyed her Star Trek stuff,about the only books in that arena I have read.and I loved her Dreamsnake too.
Good job there was a a dramatis personae at the beginning,all those princes and their complicated names and titles meant constantly returning to it for about the first couple of hundred pages. The heroine was totally unrealistic of course for the time.A scientist,brilliant artist,excellent composer,mathematician all rolled in one,though she has been confined to a convent school for years so I dont know how she developed all these skills in that repressive environment.Then her being completely innocent and uncomprehending of the often sordid society around her seemed more than a tad naive.But it was still an absorbing read. Just different from MacIntyre's other works.
Right now I am nearing the end of Dan Simmons Rise of Endymion,alternately fast paced adventure,hair-raising horror and heavy duty philosophy and science,which are a bit over my head. Its several years since I read Hyperion,and probably a reread of that work would have made for an easier read. About 150 pages to go.Also in progress Robert Holdstock's Lavondyss,and N K Jemisin's Broken Kingdoms. Another case of several years since reading the first book,A Hundred Thousand Kingdomsand so its proving a bit difficult getting up to speed,I've forgotten so much and the names are bewildering me! lol.
Hope you are all doing well with the challenge,Pick N' Mixers. I've now completed 67/80 for the challenge,and altogether we have read 563 books . Excellent!

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