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benlehman at 03:19pm on 22/06/2003
benlehman at 03:19pm on 22/06/2003Most of my weekends are taken up with reading the vast backlog of books I have accumulated.
Recent Acquisitions--
The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany. I've been wanting to read Dunsany for a while. We'll see how it goes.
Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson. I have no excuse not to have read this yet. I'm only 2 degrees of seperation from the guy.
The Book of Fritz Leiber. For those who don't know, Leiber is the author of the Fafhrd / Mouser stories, a superb sword and sorcery author from the pulp era. His writing is best described as "And when he was good, he was very very good, and when he was bad he was horrid."
Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface, by Masamume Shirow, Issues 1, 3, 4. They didn't have issue 2. For some reason, I can never get issue 2 of any of Shirow's stuff. This is the sequel to GitS that I've been waiting for for 6 odd years now. If you haven't read Shirow -- the man is a master of Cyperpunk. Ghost in the Shell is a work of genius. Go. Read. Now. (Warning to the easily offended: Shirow's work, despite its philosophical depth, has lots of half-naked cyborg chicks. If this offends you, don't Go Read Now.)
Books I have read recently:
"Perilous Seas" and "Emporer and Clown," by Dave Duncan. Duncan is a good second-shelf modern fantasy writer. His writing lacks the, errm, "magic" of some of the really greats, but what he lacks in verve he makes up for in versimillitude. These books are the second half of "A Man of His Word," which is a fantasy world with some very interesting conceits. Ask Ion about it.
"Shadow Games" and "Dreams of Steel," by Glen Cook. Books 5 and 6 of the Black Company. This is a great fantasy series about ordinary mercenary soldiers in a high-powered, dark fantasy world. Lots of death and military tactics, and generally great reads. However, the "Books of the South" (books 5-7) have so far failed to live up to the greatness of the first four books (The Black Company, Shadows Linger, the White Rose(?) and the Silver Spike.) The jal-Marah wish that they were this cool.
The Language of the Night, by Ursula le Guin. Critical commentary by a master of the art. Worth reading, if you can find it.
The Compass Rose, by Ursula le Guin. A collection of short stories which are pretty much par for the course for le Guin -- some are moralizing tripe, others are wildly self indulgent, but the remainder are truly brilliant. It's worth reading just for the first story "The Author of the Acacia Seeds."
Alamuric, by RE Howard. Full of a desire to read old-skool Sword and Sorcery, I made the mistake of picking up this book by Howard (Author of Conan and Kull.) Oops. Do not read this book.
The Invincible, by Stanislaw Lem. Lem is very close to replacing Le Guin as my favorite science fiction author. This is a marvelous work of speculative science and human morality by the author of the also great Solaris. I think I like "The Invincible" even better, though.
"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said," by Phillip K Dick. This is the first Dick book that I actually managed to read my way through. I liked it very much. It is the story of a man who wakes up in a world in which he does not exist. Very Dickian, but very readable. Anyone care to offer thoughts on what I should Dick novel pursue next?
"Night's Master," by Tanith Lee. A great, great novel / story chain by an author who I had not read before. They are the tales of the demon prince Azahrn, and the tricks he plays on the world. Has a very Arabian Nights feel. Very well written. I would like to read more Lee. Does anyone know what other books of her's are good?
Love Hina, Vol. 2-5, by Ken Akamatsu (sp?). This is a manga series about a loser guy with the heart of a romantic who ends up being the manager of the girl's dormitory. It's definitely cheesecake. But it is also, essentially, a romance for men. This sort of writing doesn't show up a lot in American fiction, and its worth reading just for that. Come for the fanservice, stay for the love.
Sorcerer, Sorcorer and Sword, and the Sorcerer's Soul, by Ron Edwards. Sorcerer is the flagship role-playing game by the "master of independent gaming", Ron Edwards. It is a beautiful, ambitious game that is brimming over with terrific GM advice and brilliant design ideas. It is also fundamentally flawed, and fails to accomplish any of its design goals, save one (which it does poorly.) The only way I can see it succeeding if if it was played by an extraordinary GM and Players.
The basic schtick is that you are a Sorcerer -- you are somone who summons and binds demons to themselves in order to access said demons' Kewl Powerz. The idea of the game is "What do you want, and what will you do to get it?" This is all well and good, but the "price" meter -- Humanity -- fails to fulfil, well, any reasonable moral structure. Thus, the game tanks. It doesn't help that the demons' abilities are heavily nerfed (why can't I have a demon that can shapechange into anything, or protect me from all physical harm, or filter the air?) or that the overstress on Narrativist play is accompanied by a system that fails to support basic narrative structure and story continuity. The game tries for the same prize as Vampire did and, once again, falls short. This isn't to say you can't make an interesting game out of Sorcerer (take a look at Charnel Gods), but the main goals are left high and dry.
"Sorcerer and Sword" is worth reading anyway, though. The flawed sorcery is pushed to the sidelines, there is a very interesting necromancy system, and the genre exploration of Sword and Sorcery is really worth the price of admission. Despite the fact that the author himself told me that genre emulation has no place in Narrativist play, this is one of the best guides to genre emulation ever.
The Arabian Nights, and the Divine Comedy. Still plugging away at these. They are, of course, both brilliant.
Anyone got books to recommend?
Recent Acquisitions--
The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany. I've been wanting to read Dunsany for a while. We'll see how it goes.
Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson. I have no excuse not to have read this yet. I'm only 2 degrees of seperation from the guy.
The Book of Fritz Leiber. For those who don't know, Leiber is the author of the Fafhrd / Mouser stories, a superb sword and sorcery author from the pulp era. His writing is best described as "And when he was good, he was very very good, and when he was bad he was horrid."
Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface, by Masamume Shirow, Issues 1, 3, 4. They didn't have issue 2. For some reason, I can never get issue 2 of any of Shirow's stuff. This is the sequel to GitS that I've been waiting for for 6 odd years now. If you haven't read Shirow -- the man is a master of Cyperpunk. Ghost in the Shell is a work of genius. Go. Read. Now. (Warning to the easily offended: Shirow's work, despite its philosophical depth, has lots of half-naked cyborg chicks. If this offends you, don't Go Read Now.)
Books I have read recently:
"Perilous Seas" and "Emporer and Clown," by Dave Duncan. Duncan is a good second-shelf modern fantasy writer. His writing lacks the, errm, "magic" of some of the really greats, but what he lacks in verve he makes up for in versimillitude. These books are the second half of "A Man of His Word," which is a fantasy world with some very interesting conceits. Ask Ion about it.
"Shadow Games" and "Dreams of Steel," by Glen Cook. Books 5 and 6 of the Black Company. This is a great fantasy series about ordinary mercenary soldiers in a high-powered, dark fantasy world. Lots of death and military tactics, and generally great reads. However, the "Books of the South" (books 5-7) have so far failed to live up to the greatness of the first four books (The Black Company, Shadows Linger, the White Rose(?) and the Silver Spike.) The jal-Marah wish that they were this cool.
The Language of the Night, by Ursula le Guin. Critical commentary by a master of the art. Worth reading, if you can find it.
The Compass Rose, by Ursula le Guin. A collection of short stories which are pretty much par for the course for le Guin -- some are moralizing tripe, others are wildly self indulgent, but the remainder are truly brilliant. It's worth reading just for the first story "The Author of the Acacia Seeds."
Alamuric, by RE Howard. Full of a desire to read old-skool Sword and Sorcery, I made the mistake of picking up this book by Howard (Author of Conan and Kull.) Oops. Do not read this book.
The Invincible, by Stanislaw Lem. Lem is very close to replacing Le Guin as my favorite science fiction author. This is a marvelous work of speculative science and human morality by the author of the also great Solaris. I think I like "The Invincible" even better, though.
"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said," by Phillip K Dick. This is the first Dick book that I actually managed to read my way through. I liked it very much. It is the story of a man who wakes up in a world in which he does not exist. Very Dickian, but very readable. Anyone care to offer thoughts on what I should Dick novel pursue next?
"Night's Master," by Tanith Lee. A great, great novel / story chain by an author who I had not read before. They are the tales of the demon prince Azahrn, and the tricks he plays on the world. Has a very Arabian Nights feel. Very well written. I would like to read more Lee. Does anyone know what other books of her's are good?
Love Hina, Vol. 2-5, by Ken Akamatsu (sp?). This is a manga series about a loser guy with the heart of a romantic who ends up being the manager of the girl's dormitory. It's definitely cheesecake. But it is also, essentially, a romance for men. This sort of writing doesn't show up a lot in American fiction, and its worth reading just for that. Come for the fanservice, stay for the love.
Sorcerer, Sorcorer and Sword, and the Sorcerer's Soul, by Ron Edwards. Sorcerer is the flagship role-playing game by the "master of independent gaming", Ron Edwards. It is a beautiful, ambitious game that is brimming over with terrific GM advice and brilliant design ideas. It is also fundamentally flawed, and fails to accomplish any of its design goals, save one (which it does poorly.) The only way I can see it succeeding if if it was played by an extraordinary GM and Players.
The basic schtick is that you are a Sorcerer -- you are somone who summons and binds demons to themselves in order to access said demons' Kewl Powerz. The idea of the game is "What do you want, and what will you do to get it?" This is all well and good, but the "price" meter -- Humanity -- fails to fulfil, well, any reasonable moral structure. Thus, the game tanks. It doesn't help that the demons' abilities are heavily nerfed (why can't I have a demon that can shapechange into anything, or protect me from all physical harm, or filter the air?) or that the overstress on Narrativist play is accompanied by a system that fails to support basic narrative structure and story continuity. The game tries for the same prize as Vampire did and, once again, falls short. This isn't to say you can't make an interesting game out of Sorcerer (take a look at Charnel Gods), but the main goals are left high and dry.
"Sorcerer and Sword" is worth reading anyway, though. The flawed sorcery is pushed to the sidelines, there is a very interesting necromancy system, and the genre exploration of Sword and Sorcery is really worth the price of admission. Despite the fact that the author himself told me that genre emulation has no place in Narrativist play, this is one of the best guides to genre emulation ever.
The Arabian Nights, and the Divine Comedy. Still plugging away at these. They are, of course, both brilliant.
Anyone got books to recommend?
(no subject)
(no subject)
And I agree with Sue's recommendation- it's a very excellent handling of some of the standard fantasy tropes; the first half of the first book is kinda annoying, but I don't think I've read anything as engrossing in the years since.
(no subject)
Dunsany's prose is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I recommend reading King of Elfland's daughter out loud, and in small doses at one time. It's not the sort of book that works so well to devour speedily with your eyes at one pop.
The Language of the Night, by Ursula le Guin. Critical commentary by a master of the art. Worth reading, if you can find it.
I have a copy, if other people want to borrow it at some point.
My impression of Tanith Lee is that pretty much everything she does is well written, though it may not always be what you feel like reading at the time. (Prose much like Dunsany's in that way -- very beautiful, very lush, can get too heavy if take in too much at once.)
And of course read Vernor Vinge if you haven't yet. Or really even if you have.