SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Neroon
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^I read All Hallows' Eve a couple years ago and found it quite enjoyable. I also started The Greater Trumps and was liking it but got distracted by other things before finishing it. Williams is in some ways a more overtly theological writer than Tolkien or Lewis, but his imagination and evocative prose make his work worth a look regardless of one's background.
Right now I'm reading M. Rickert's short story collection Map of Dreams and a bunch of horror collections.
Right now I'm reading M. Rickert's short story collection Map of Dreams and a bunch of horror collections.
I'm in the middle of Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. While not classed as fantasy, it completely is, as its main characters are a couple who decide not to die and are currently 600 years old. They also hang out with the God Pan, and there's some kind of magic perfume in the story too. Oh, yeah, and beets. Lots of beets.
Yes, he was. It's actually not Tolkien research, to be honest. But I found myself sorely deficient in that period of fantasy literature, and there's a fantasy novel set in the period I want to write. So I figured why not?Kegek Kringle said:
Want Tolkein themed research? I recommend picking up the Kalevala, the Poetic Edda, and the Volsung Saga.Tolkein was more steeped in myth than previous fantastic efforts - though Lord Dunsany was an influence of Lovecraft's, if memory serves...
Robbins is a unique voice, to be sure... his next book featured silverware and a vibrator as main characters IIRC. He kind of trailed off as he went along in his career I think, but he also had Orson Welles syndrome in that he made his masterpiece to start and could never match it. Another Roadside Attraction has to be among the greatest first novels ever written, and as a matter of fact it's at the top of my to-read queue as part of a grand re-reading project I may or may not live long enough to complete...
brian said:
That alone makes it a fantasy, I think.
Or at the very least, a nightmare.
That's because you haven't had them prepared properly.
I've always meant to, and I actually picked up one used a few years ago (and more or less forgot about it -- I have hundreds of unread books). A friend of mine at university was a big fan and had read a number of Williams's books. I don't know what I'll make of the religious content now, though. I find Lewis's SF trilogy unreadable, but I can still read and enjoy Narnia.
As I recall, Lovecraft's seemingly most overtly Dunsanian tales were written before he'd actually read Dunsany, though once HPL discovered Dunsany he certainly became a huge fan.
Ever read James Stoddard's The High House and its sequel The False House? They were published just a few years back, but they were a deliberate attempt at doing fantasy in a pre-Tolkien style. I remember really enjoying the first one in particular.
Just to clarify: I was referring to the fact that Tolkien was influenced more by mythology.
I've only read one (extremely well-written and effective) story by Lovecraft, and none yet by Dunsany.No, I haven't, but I'm always interested in finding new fantasy literature. Thanks for the titles.
I finished American Gods this evening. That was pretty good, though very different from what I was expecting (which was different from Stardust, by the way); and although the ending wasn't entirely what I had hoped or what I usually find I like, it was strangely satisfying. I'll have to reread it one day, certainly. One thing: I've heard there was a limited edition which is longer and which Neil Gaiman prefers...?
In the meantime, jane Eyre will get her fair time, long promised but never fulfilled, and then it's back to sci-fi with a story anthology and then Gaiman's Anansi Boys.
In the meantime, jane Eyre will get her fair time, long promised but never fulfilled, and then it's back to sci-fi with a story anthology and then Gaiman's Anansi Boys.
Jane Eyre is a fantastic book. One of the best I've ever read...Charlotte really had her finger on the romantic thing. I haven't read much lately...college does that to you, but I do plan to get in a Heinlein before school starts up again.
I've started reading one of the very many Doctor Who novels, called The Scarlet Empress, and it appears so far to be one of the better ones.
darfnoogey
Ensign
I'm reading The Eight Doctors (Doctor Who). It's written by Terrance Dicks. It's the first novel with the eighth Doctor and I'm loving it! He has amnesia because of a trap laid by the Master and has to travel back in time and meet all his former selves to get his memories back. It's just a shame these books are so hard to get your hands on!
I'm a hundred pages into Richard Morgan's third Takeshi Kovacs novel, Woken Furies; so far, so good, as I expected. Post-cyberpunk/noir/thriller/new space opera kinda stuff.
Other recent reading: High Seas Cthulhu, edited by William Jones, and The Tsathoggua Cycle, edited by Robert M. Price. The former is a collection of cross-genre stories, nautical adventure (from the 1500s to today) crossed with Lovecraftian horror. Some very good stories, and some really not so good, but overall better than some of the other Lovecraftian anthologies I've read in the last few years. The Tsathoggua Cycle is part of Chaosium's series of Lovecraftiana, but in this case the focus is more on HPL's friend Clark Ashton Smith. There are a few classic stories from CAS (hadn't read them in about 25 years) and newer stories drawing on both CAS and HPL. Not bad.
Other recent reading: High Seas Cthulhu, edited by William Jones, and The Tsathoggua Cycle, edited by Robert M. Price. The former is a collection of cross-genre stories, nautical adventure (from the 1500s to today) crossed with Lovecraftian horror. Some very good stories, and some really not so good, but overall better than some of the other Lovecraftian anthologies I've read in the last few years. The Tsathoggua Cycle is part of Chaosium's series of Lovecraftiana, but in this case the focus is more on HPL's friend Clark Ashton Smith. There are a few classic stories from CAS (hadn't read them in about 25 years) and newer stories drawing on both CAS and HPL. Not bad.
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