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Reading binge verdicts
It has come to my attention that between being frequently at less than 100% healthy, being in a country where getting books in English is most definitely not a problem, and having the county library 5 minutes away here, I've been reading a lot of deadtree books. More than I do in Poland - there, the books at hand are my personal collection, which I mostly know by heart, and I mostly satisfy my hunger for new brain fodder through fics, webcomics and ebooks. I don't buy more than three or so per month, and those mostly of authors I already know, or who come recommended.
It's time to spread the love.
Bernard Cornwell
I came upon him by a weird train of thought. It started with "yay Boromir" and proceeded to "yay Sean Bean", which in turn unearthed yummy photos from the Sharpe series. I was peripherally aware of the books, which made them a natural choice to pick up when I wanted something entertaining from the library.
I'm in love. Honestly, they're just so readable - a very, very rare feature. And at the same time no anachronisms jar with my trivia-whiz trove of random facts, which usually make reading historical novels an exercise in wincing. The characters are both realistic (in a larger-than-life adventure novel way, of course, but also believable) and engaging, and above all likeable; I find nothing worse than a novel where I'm supposed to sympathize with someone I'd gladly kick.
Alas, the library only had "Sharpe's Escape", "Sharpe's Devil" and "Sharpe's Trafalgar". So naturally I proceeded to others. "Gallows' Thief" is a charming and engaging Regency crime story, while "A Crowning Mercy" should be obligatory reading for anyone who writes historical adventure/romances, not necessarily during the English Civil War. It's one of my weaknesses: I can't say no to an adventure novel done right.
I'm always wary of tackling trilogies, though I'll dive gladly into longer cycles, where usually each book stands on its own. With the Grail Quest, it was the Grail element that clinched the deal - I'm a sucker for Arthurian myth. And once again I found it a great adventure against a backdrop of realistic fifteenth-century France and Britain. People die, allegiances change, and the reader is thoroughly entertained.
And the explanation for the first novel being called "Harlequin" because it's an old name for "hell's rider"? That's me slipping it into my own fiction as soon as convenient.
Lois McMaster Bujold, "Young Miles"
I've heard heaps of good about the Miles Vorkosigan novels. And I wasn't disappointed. The sociological web of Barrayar especially is one I can relate to, being raised in the Polish patriotic mythology of noblemen and sacrificial lambs. And I can never resist an intelligent, machiavellian protagonist: Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is Artemis Fowl a few years later, with a mind like a corkscrew and a backbone of noble morality that surfaces at the most inconvenient moments. Each time I figured out Miles's latest plan, or when one of them worked out, I laughed in delight.
I like everything about this one, but mostly the non-stereotyping. It's hard not to do it with a father-son relationship, and even harder with the young master - old crusty military guardian one, but Ms Bujold managed it brilliantly. It's definitely on my must-buy list.
Garth Nix, "Abhorsen"
I've read the first two from this cycle, "Sabriel" and "Lirael", in Polish. After almost a century of paperback fantasy novels, and millenia of mythologies, it's hard to come up with something original, and I'm usually perfectly happy with a postmodernistic mix like Gaiman's "Sandman" or "American Gods". But when something new does come along, that in itself is enough to make me very happy - even if it doesn't come with well-rounded characters or fast-paced plot that doesn't always succumb to narrative causality.
"Sabriel" is a great way to determine if this is for you, since it's self-contained. I will warn you in advance that if you don't have "Abhorsen" at hand when you finish "Lirael", Mr Nix may well incur your wrath just like he did mine.
*muttermutter*bloodycliffhangers*mutter*
Still to come: Richard Morgan, "Altered Carbon" and "Broken Angels", Guy Gavriel Kay "Lions of Al-Rassan", Neil Gaiman "Sandman: Endless Nights", Haruki Murakami (various including "Norwegian Wood"), Banana Yoshitomo "Arita", Roger Zelazny "To Die in Italbar", Raymond E. Feist "Magician", Connie Willis "Uncharted Territory", and possibly William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" if I get myself to the bookshop across the river, where it's an euro cheaper than in Waterstone's.
Yes, I read too much :P
It's time to spread the love.
Bernard Cornwell
I came upon him by a weird train of thought. It started with "yay Boromir" and proceeded to "yay Sean Bean", which in turn unearthed yummy photos from the Sharpe series. I was peripherally aware of the books, which made them a natural choice to pick up when I wanted something entertaining from the library.
I'm in love. Honestly, they're just so readable - a very, very rare feature. And at the same time no anachronisms jar with my trivia-whiz trove of random facts, which usually make reading historical novels an exercise in wincing. The characters are both realistic (in a larger-than-life adventure novel way, of course, but also believable) and engaging, and above all likeable; I find nothing worse than a novel where I'm supposed to sympathize with someone I'd gladly kick.
Alas, the library only had "Sharpe's Escape", "Sharpe's Devil" and "Sharpe's Trafalgar". So naturally I proceeded to others. "Gallows' Thief" is a charming and engaging Regency crime story, while "A Crowning Mercy" should be obligatory reading for anyone who writes historical adventure/romances, not necessarily during the English Civil War. It's one of my weaknesses: I can't say no to an adventure novel done right.
I'm always wary of tackling trilogies, though I'll dive gladly into longer cycles, where usually each book stands on its own. With the Grail Quest, it was the Grail element that clinched the deal - I'm a sucker for Arthurian myth. And once again I found it a great adventure against a backdrop of realistic fifteenth-century France and Britain. People die, allegiances change, and the reader is thoroughly entertained.
And the explanation for the first novel being called "Harlequin" because it's an old name for "hell's rider"? That's me slipping it into my own fiction as soon as convenient.
Lois McMaster Bujold, "Young Miles"
I've heard heaps of good about the Miles Vorkosigan novels. And I wasn't disappointed. The sociological web of Barrayar especially is one I can relate to, being raised in the Polish patriotic mythology of noblemen and sacrificial lambs. And I can never resist an intelligent, machiavellian protagonist: Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is Artemis Fowl a few years later, with a mind like a corkscrew and a backbone of noble morality that surfaces at the most inconvenient moments. Each time I figured out Miles's latest plan, or when one of them worked out, I laughed in delight.
I like everything about this one, but mostly the non-stereotyping. It's hard not to do it with a father-son relationship, and even harder with the young master - old crusty military guardian one, but Ms Bujold managed it brilliantly. It's definitely on my must-buy list.
Garth Nix, "Abhorsen"
I've read the first two from this cycle, "Sabriel" and "Lirael", in Polish. After almost a century of paperback fantasy novels, and millenia of mythologies, it's hard to come up with something original, and I'm usually perfectly happy with a postmodernistic mix like Gaiman's "Sandman" or "American Gods". But when something new does come along, that in itself is enough to make me very happy - even if it doesn't come with well-rounded characters or fast-paced plot that doesn't always succumb to narrative causality.
"Sabriel" is a great way to determine if this is for you, since it's self-contained. I will warn you in advance that if you don't have "Abhorsen" at hand when you finish "Lirael", Mr Nix may well incur your wrath just like he did mine.
*muttermutter*bloodycliffhangers*mutter*
Still to come: Richard Morgan, "Altered Carbon" and "Broken Angels", Guy Gavriel Kay "Lions of Al-Rassan", Neil Gaiman "Sandman: Endless Nights", Haruki Murakami (various including "Norwegian Wood"), Banana Yoshitomo "Arita", Roger Zelazny "To Die in Italbar", Raymond E. Feist "Magician", Connie Willis "Uncharted Territory", and possibly William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" if I get myself to the bookshop across the river, where it's an euro cheaper than in Waterstone's.
Yes, I read too much :P
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Get out of my head! :-) I found his books the same way, too, although I actually began watching the series before I started reading. Sharpe's Sword and Sharpe's Eagle are my favorites. The former is the only case in which I read the book before I saw the screen adaptation of that same book, and perhaps not coincidentally it's my least-liked adaptation.
Haven't yet read his other series, though.
Hope you're feeling better soon!
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And thanks :)
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*sigh* I've got all except the last and would happily lend 'em, but sadly, there's an ocean in the way.
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and I got to agree with you on Sabriel... the only one of the series I've read thus far (and in translation, too....) it is interesting and very, very nice :D
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I SO need to read all of Sharpe. If my exams finish before I go (as it looks that it might be the case), I might spend the last week bothering the library to hunt up the rest for me all over the county.
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I think Bujold's on my must-buy list from now on. And for me, that'd be Gaiman, Zelazny and William Gibson
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I really like the idea that Mogget would choose being a cat as superior to everything else, and that despite manifestly Not Caring he'd still fight in the end. It's just such a ... cat thing to do :)
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The bells-barking combination appears in Abhorsen before the denouement, but I'm not sure if Dog barked like that in Lirael too. Alas, my copy's back home.