Greg Hamerton's Blog, page 11

Why a good story is (mostly) a good laugh

I'm reading The Light Fantasic, a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. It's his second book, written in 1986, when he must have been about 35 years old. I've got to the point (fairly early on) where I don't care what he does with the story, the plot can go nowhere and I'll still be contented, because he has made me laugh. He's demonstrated very witty word play, and some images that are just so damn funny. He's poked a finger at things everyone has been foolish about (like the tooth fairy) and ...

The new hardcover books leave India!

Two pallets of books departed from India today, bound for South Africa and the UK. Thomson Press did the printing again, and I'm expecting the same excellent quality that they delivered with The Riddler's Gift. I've seen the advance copies and they look amazing! I'm so glad I chose to go with hardcover for this limited first edition. It's light and feels solid. Shiny!

Here's a sneak preview of what's coming on August 1.

The Tale of the Lifesong

There is a song that drifts on the breeze through all the world. Its rhythyms are echoed in our breath, the music is caught in our laughter, hidden in our language, woven through our life. Singers reach for the melody, but it is too delicate to hold and too elusive to remember. As the Ages pass, so the Lifesong retreats under the sounds of our time, its potent beauty and danger ever more a mystery.

Few know how the Lifesong has shaped our world, for those who hear its tune would rather sing...

What makes Donaldson so memorable?

The Runes of the Earth is Book 1 of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, and it is the ambitious finalé, a trilogy of chronicles which will be ten books, in the end.

I didn't like the cover at all, but I would have bought it even if it were pink! It was a great moment – the return to fantasy of one of the masters.

I didn't enjoy Stephen Donaldson's foray into science fiction (the Gap series), which was sad because I really believe Mr Donaldson has a real talent for...

The Lord of the Rings as retold by Peter Jackson

I have just returned from Middle Earth, and my body is heavy with the memory of battle, my mind alight with the visions and details of The Two Towers. Based on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers forms the middle of the trilogy, and is a good place to evaluate the effect of being thoroughly caught up in a story.

Although the production of a film is a collaborative process, Peter Jackson was surely the focus of all this creativity: the wizard in the centre of a web of creative power...