Terence's comments (member since Jun 30, 2008)

Terence's comments from the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group.

Ben wrote: That's a very accurate statement. I was more interested in what Keyes only alludes to (the Hegemony, the Black Jester, the Virgenyans' origins in our world, etc.) than in the actual plot.

Exactly! I wanted Keyes to explore those issues and that Virginia Dare could only defeat the Skasloi by tapping into a power that even they wouldn't mess with - the whole moral issue of whether or not it's worth it to corrupt your soul to save your life.

@Ben - nice review. Perhaps a bit harsher than I would be but I think you've articulated what I felt when I finished the reading the series - it expired with a whimper, not a bang.

In direct answer to Peregrine's question - Is it special? - I'd have to say, "no." It's competently written; potentially interesting world; and, even if the characters aren't particularly memorable, they're good enough that you don't mind spending time with them (assuming you have nothing better to do).

I've found w/ Keyes that he starts out strong but gets weaker as his series progress (I have in mind both this series and his Age of Unreason series). It's as if he has these potentially interesting ideas but isn't willing or able to push them in new, interesting ways.

Interesting question.

I think TINTMYLF (aka Michael) is right - follow ups rarely measure up to the originals. They might not be bad but they've lost that "spark" that made the original so good. I'm thinking here of C.J. Cherryh's Exile's Gate Morgaine Saga 4 or Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Scion Kushiel's Legacy 4 (and following books) or Glen Cook's Shadow Games The Chronicle of the Black Company Books of the South Book One (and following books). I found them all quite good, quite readable but not at all like cracking the covers of the first books in the series.

BunWat wrote: "That's an interesting point. However, Shakespeare has been such an influence on English that we still use his language in many ways. We still use his turns of phrase and his metaphors and his voc..."

McWhorter's concern is that by deifying Shakespeare's language, we're making it less and less accessible to English speakers outside of the academic setting.

The language barrier isn't so high in the tragedies or histories but (for me) the greatest obstacle to enjoying the comedies is that a lot of it is topical and/or depends upon Elizabethan pronunciations that haven't survived. I don't want to refer to the notes every 2 lines to get what's going on :-(

I wonder if there's a similar concern in Japan over the continued relevance of Genji if, a couple of generations from now, only a JapLit major will be able to understand it?

@Dana: Your point about the Bard reminds me of John McWhorter, who's commented in several of his books that Shakespeare's become such an icon of English literature that English editors are reluctant to "translate" the Elizabethan English yet no translation puts his plays into the 16th century equivalent of whatever language it's being translated into.

I'm not even going to try to finish the following list this month but I do have a plan - a concerted assault on the pile of books that I actually own that have been sitting on the shelf far too long:

Fiction:
I'm finishing Maledicte, a library book. Good economical writing and an interesting cast.

Then it's off to:
If He Hollers Let Him Go and Pinktoes, both by Chester Himes
Dragon in Chains, Daniel Fox. An impulse buy from the SF Book Club. Hopefully, it'll live up to the blurb.
Bertram of Butter Cross, Jeffrey E. Barlough. I fear to read the next Barlough because his three previous have been uniformally excellent and I'm afraid he'll finally stumble :-)
Manservant and Maidservant, Ivy Compton-Burnett. Another recommendation from Michael Dirda's Classics for Pleasure. So far he hasn't steered me wrong so I'm optimistic about this novel.
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov. Based on the reviews, you either love him or hate him. Hopefully, it'll be love.

Nonfiction:
Somerset and All the Maughams, Robin Maugham. An idiosyncratic and rambling look at the Maugham family by the author's nephew.
Genghis Khan, R.P. Lister
Saint Louis, Margaret Wade LaBarge
Lincoln, David Herbert Donald

As you can see, I'm polishing off a few biographies that have been gathering dust.

I'm sure this will keep me off the streets for a few weeks at least.

Whew! Both movie and miniseries were pretty bad and neither did any sort of justice to the novel.

I will admit that the miniseries was less bad than the movie - particularly the actors playing Paul and Jessica - but William Hurt as Leto? The man can be a good actor but he was a complete cipher in this one, bland and colorless. This man inspired his men to a fanaticism that rivaled the Sardaukar?

You say "po-tay-toe," I say "po-tah-toe."

My favorite Le Guin are the Earthsea books, especially the last two - Tales of Earthsea and The Other Wind - a fully matured, confident and skilled writer.

I also enjoy her nonfiction stuff like The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction or Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew or her translation of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way.

I must have been 7 or 8 when I started reading SF; certainly no later than 10 (Star Wars came out in '77, the year I was 10 and I know I read the novelization).

Like Stefan, I went through all the books at my library with the SF or Fantasy logo. I can recall Andre Norton's Solar Queen and Witch World novels becoming early favorites and (for a while) anything with a map on the endpapers.

As I've remarked elsewhere - I'm not sure what's on the agenda for June. I'm rereading the Narnia series with mixed reactions but after that it's a toss up amongst a number of choices, none of which are standing out above the others.

Oh, well, I'll cope, I'm sure.

As to Henrik's question about The Book of the New Sun - wholehearted, unqualified endorsement. You must read them; otherwise you cannot call yourself an SF fan :-) Okay, yes, you can but if you do have any inclination to read them, indulge it. I first read the Shadow of the Torturer in high school and for a time I would reread all four novels every year, finding something new or a thread I hadn't seen everytime.

Libby wrote: "I'm a big Star Trek fan (worked @ conventions and all – was once an autograph feeder to George Takei – really cool!) but I have never bought any of the books because I usually do not enjoy books ba..."

Libby, you'll have to read John Ford's The Final Reflection. It takes place about 40 years before the original 5-year mission when the Federation first encountered the Klingons and it's told entirely from a Klingon point of view.

IMO, it's the best of the ST novels; though I'd recommend McIntyre's novels as well (I saw that someone has already beaten me to The Entropy Effect.

This month I plan to reread R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series:

The Darkness That Comes Before
The Warrior Prophet
The Thousandfold Thought

All in anticipation of reading the eagerly awaited 1st book in the new series: The Judging Eye.

As before-going-to-bed reading, I've started Chester Himes' The End of a Primitive (or, The Primitive as my edition has it).

March has been a very, very good month for reading (unlike February, which had too many duds):

I decided to focus on fiction this month so only finished two nonfiction works: Joseph Williams' Style and Thomas Burns' Rome and the Barbarians.

Figures of Earth a Comedy of Appearances, James Branch Cabell - the best Cabell work I've read so far (4 stars)
The Born Queen, Greg Keyes - a decent wrap up of the series
The Third Man, Graham Greene - the author's novelization of his and Carol Reed's movie script
Strange Cargo, Jeffrey Barlough - third in The Western Lights series; not as grim as The House in the High Wood but a good entry in the series
Three Bags Full, Leonie Swann - the best sheep detective novel in the genre; great fun (4 stars)
The Lemon Table, Julian Barnes - fictive reflections about death; not as depressing as you might think
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy

Next month I look forward to Liz Williams' Snake Agent: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel Detective Inspector Chen Novels - finally, one of my groups' monthly selections matches up with my reading schedule - Eve: A Novel of the First Woman, Elissa Elliot; King Jesus: A Novel, Robert Graves; and beginning to reread R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series in anticipation of The Judging Eye.

Kevinalbee wrote: "Having finally completed my doctorate I can read again in the last 3 weeks I have read about 15 books. In cluding the newest 1633: the dresdon incident, webers storm from the shadows, Robi Hobbs Ap..."

Congratulations, doctor! What's it in?

John wrote: "Terence: Thanks for the recommendation. I'm enjoying Burning Bright so far. I'll search for the Empress of Earth series. Do you know what the first book is called?

Michelle: Thanks for t..."

I believe the first book is Five-Twelfths of Heaven.

John wrote: "I've temporarily given up on Snow Brother. I got about thirty pages in and it was miserable. I'm not sure if I wasn't in the right frame of mind or what, but I'm not going to torture myself..."

Melissa Scott was one of my favorite SF authors though I haven't seen anything from her for a long time. If you like Burning Bright you might want to try her Empress of Earth series, which are my favorites of her stuff.

Recently I was looking at the Locus Online site for its forthcoming books (http://www.locusmag.com/ForthcomingBooks...). Now, I know the collective pain we’ve experienced vis-à-vis GRRM and A Dance With Dragons but I like to be an optimist when I can. I like to think that most of the books on these lists will come out on or about the projected dates.

Some of the titles that caught my eye were:

Cheek by Jowl: Essays, Ursula Le Guin: I’d read this woman’s grocery lists if she published an edition of them. This is one I’m particularly looking forward to.

Santa Olivia and Naamah’s Kiss, Jacqueline Carey: The latter is the beginning of a third series set in Terre D’Ange’s world. Even if it’s only as good as the second series, it’ll be worth reading (though we can hope it’ll capture the passion of Phaedre’s adventures).

The City & The City, China Mieville
Fall of Thanes, Brian Ruckley

Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie: Set in the same world as his Last Argument of Kings but with a new cast of characters.

Shades of Gray, Jasper Fforde
Wireless, Charles Stross

Dust of Dreams, Steven Erikson: Book 9 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Despite the fact that this is the UK edition and the US edition is a year in the future, I’ll be paying the extra to get this as soon as possible.

The Red Tree, Caitlin Kiernan: One of the more imaginative writers around today and a beautiful prose stylist (it’s not Elizabethan but her care with words and their rhythms rivals Eddison’s or Cabell’s).

Transition, Iain Banks
Iorich, Steven Brust
The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun, Paul McAuley

A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson: Thank God – it’ll finally be over.

A Dance with Dragons, GRRM: I’ll believe it when I see it.

Terminal World and Thousandth Night & Minla’s Flowers, Alastair Reynolds
The Iron Khan, Liz Williams

Jim wrote: "I never did make it through JS&MN, even with the audio book. Too much like work & I couldn't work up any interest in any part of the world. Glad to see I wasn't the only one.

I'll also agree o..."

Jim, I think you're thinking of LA Banks here. Iain writes SF and mainstream and, as far as I know, has never written a vampire story :-)

Though, since I am one of his fans, I'd like to know about it if he did.

I never became a fan of Farmer. Growing up, developing my SF tastes, he just never appealed to me.

That said, however, one of my all-time favorite books is his The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, the "real" story behind Around the World in 80 Days.

David wrote: "Hi all,

I agree with Leslie about Postman (Brin), and with Patricio about Malevil (Merle), which is very good and should be exotic for most of you (french soft SF is very different from what ameri..."

David,

Is Barjavel translated? I checked the GoodReads feed and it looks like most of his books are still in the original French.

Now my graduate-school-days French is OK in a restaurant but I don't think it's quite up to a novel :-)