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#1 | |
Banshee of Camelot
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 5,830
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Quote:
And I'm fond of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" too! (the illustrated copy, by all means!) though I even prefer the movie! Obviously I don't know any Finnish fantasybooks, but I love Mika Waltari's historical novel "Sinuhe the Egyptian" (I wish I could find translations of his other books)
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Yes! "wish-fulfilment dreams" we spin to cheat our timid hearts, and ugly Fact defeat! |
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#2 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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My daughter and I are reading through Gaiman's Coraline, and it's a hoot! It seems Gaiman has about the same contempt for adults as did Roald Dahl in an earlier generation. My daughter has gotten stuck on a few words when Gaiman polysyllabifies, but overall it's great read for a nine-year old. A bit creepy in spots, I suppose (particularly the 'other parents' eyes), but we've been enjoying it immensely.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#3 |
Shade with a Blade
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It seems no one has mentioned Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, though I'm sure some of you have read it. If you haven't, I highly, highly recommend it. It's like an alternate history of England in which magicians and fairies play prominent roles well after the Middle Ages, and has one of the best interpretations of the land of Faery that I've read. The book itself starts off sounding a great deal like a Jane Austen novel and continues that way for much of the book, but as the plot thickens, it grows more and more descriptive and brutal and dark. Anyway, super cool book, very imaginative, and because the movie adaptation is already underway, you only have a couple years to read it before the film hits theaters and ruins the story for you.
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Stories and songs. |
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#4 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...&postcount=663 I came away from the book dissatisfied. It droned on far too long after a very promising start, and the characters became less and less interesting as the story advanced. Both Strange and Norrell both came off as a bit thick, and the allusions to imaginary books, although clever at the beginning, became an anchor no less heavy than the copious allusions found in Melville's Moby Dick (a novel I respect but despise all the same). As the Emperor told Mozart in the movie 'Amadeus', "There you have it -- too many notes." I usually rate books on whether I would reread them (I do the same with movies). I would not reread this book.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#5 | |
Shade with a Blade
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Quote:
It is a long book, for sure, and is pretty slow during its first half. Once it gets moving, though, it's well worth the time invested.
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Stories and songs. |
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#6 |
Shady She-Penguin
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In a far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 8,093
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I just finished Ursula Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest and I'm happy that I decided to read it. Not only because it was a very good book (one of the best I've read this year), but also because I really seldom read science fiction and upon reading this book I realised I'd enjoy the genre a lot, because it can have such interesting ideas and also criticism of the way how humans treat each other and the nature.
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Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
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#7 |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 6,003
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It might be Le Guin you are enjoying, Lommy, rather than the genre of SF, because she has a unique POV which not many other writers of SF follow.
JS and MR offers a unique alternate history, which is part of its charm. As Professor Fordim Hedgethistle once suggested, one can question some of the aspects of that alternative vision, but it is clever. As well, those who know Victorian culture might find a chuckle or two in it. I'm still rather surprised that no one else has mentioned Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind, especially considering that a comparison to Tolkien would be quite interesting.
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. |
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#8 |
Wight of the Old Forest
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Unattended on the railway station, in the litter at the dancehall
Posts: 3,329
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Indeed, a great read! It's 30 years or more since I read it - about the only truly fascinating book in my parents' bookshelves at the time - , but it made a lasting impression. "All temples are dark houses..."
Actually, now I think of it, this book did much to awake an interest in early civilizations and the dawn of history in my adolescent mind, and thus prepared the way for Tolkien. I always imagined Númenórean culture as more or less Egyptian in style.
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
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