Books of late

[desayunoencama]

I am a hundred pages into THE SUMMER TREE, book one of Guy Gavriel Kay's THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY. I had been putting off reading this because I have books 1 and 2, but not yet book 3.

However, earlier this weekend I read Kay's A SONG FOR ARBONNE which was so beautiful and lovely that I needed to read some more Kay.

Alas, the Fionavar books a) are not as well-written, hell, everyone has to start somewhere and he does go on to produce some wonderful books later on, but alas I've started down this road and can only hope these get better but so far b) everything seems to be warmed over mix-and-match from THE TOUGH GUIDE TO FANTASYLAND and c) these belong to that genre of fantasy that I most despise, namely: ordinary contemporary mortals get transported into magical alternate world to save the multiverse.

Sigh.

Also read recently:

Robert C. O'brien's THE SILVER CROWN. I loved MRS. FRISBY when I was younger. I am so glad that I did not read this when I was younger. I did not like it now as an adult. I found the book quite unsettling.

:-(

Jonathan Kellerman's THERAPY. He's generally very dark, but he's very good. And every time I read one of his books, I am so glad that I do not live in the U.S. This one was a bit easier to digest since it didn't involve kids.

Has anyoneyet read the book he co-wrote with his wife?

Last night I read Faye Kellerman's THE RITUAL BATH. I had never read her before, so I thought I'd give her a try since she's married to someone whose books I so admire.

Alas, I found this a disappointment. For one thing, it resembled a sloppy category romance more than a mystery, especially the way they throw themselves into one another's arms quite inappropriately from the outset, the dialogue was pretty clunky, not to mention the emotional responses to anything that happens, and in general the action and resolution was completely cliched.

I also think the book doesn't invite the non-Jewish reader into the orthodox world that is the setting for the book. Maybe she gets better at this later on, since the series has been a commercial success.

In general, I found it held up very weakly, as a mystery novel on its own, and especially when comapred to her husband's work (even his first novel).

Sigh.

I also made it half-way through Lee Killough's AVENTINE. I had been putting off reading this, even though I'd enjoyed all of Killough's previous titles. Idiscovered her when I picked up one of the Mama Maxwell titles, surprised by their portrayal of a black man on the cover.

The books are nothing brilliant, but are often good comfort reads.

AVENTINE, unfortunately, is a composite of a bunch of stories set in the same world. And they're proving to be pretty pedestrian and predictable. Sigh.

I borrowed TIGANA from Sara, and hope to be able to lose myself again in the wonderful worlds that Kay can create, when at the top of his form, although I shall puritan-like slog on with THE SUMMER TREE in the hopes that thigns pick up.

Although so far, it only reminds me that George R. R. Martin's A FEAST OF CROWS, 4th volume in his series with its similar premise so far, and which is able to evoke that same sort of world as Kay's A SONG FOR ABRONNE did, is still not even a completed manuscript...

(His editor once showed me the remaining strips of his cover flat. He had only delivered one fifth of the book, so she cut a cover flat into five strips and mailed him one fifth of his cover, and as he delivered each succeeding chunk, she'd send him another strip... Alas, that was a few years ago, and he still hasn't finished delivering manuscript chunks, although I'm sure he's seen the entire cover by now since the book has been announced a handful of times...)

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

The Summer Tree has one absolutely extraordinary scene, but I'm not sure you'll find the rest of the book worth putting up with for it.

I liked The Silver Crown when I was a kid; it was Z Is For Zachariah that depressed me terribly.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes, and there a couple of good bits in the second book as well, though by then the Dunnett influence is outweighing the Tolkien influence.

I found the third a slog, but others will disagree, no doubt.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

There's a substantial section in one of them that seems to me indebted to Joy Chant's (long-forgotten?) Red Moon and Black Mountain.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there just a posthumous collaboration to complete the last of her books? (Or am I conflating with Vera Chapman?)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

That's interesting--it's been a long while since I read the Chant books, but it seemed to me they owed a lot to current fantasy, mostly, but not all, for kids...

what section?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

MEEEEEEEP.

I'm not yet done with the Lymond Chronicles and haven't reread the Fionavar Tapestry in years, so that connection had not hit me yet. Meepmeepmeep.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet read the Lymmond Chronicles, waiting to finish finding copies of the entire thing before I start.

Still missing half the DOLLY mysteries, too, but those're less dependent upon each other.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

pameladean kindly had the whole series ready for me in a bag when I next went up there after she heard I'd read and liked the first volume. Reasons To Adore The Pamela #7462.

Haven't read any DOLLY mysteries.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I have four of the Lymonds, but out of order, and only the first of the House of Nicolos. Sigh.

I've quite enjoyed the DOLLY novels, although they're not very typical of series mysteries.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm just now reading mysteries for the first time in my life, so if I pick them up, they'll be a major part of my concept of how mysteries are.

Someone gave me Agatha Christies when I was 12 and turned me off mysteries for about a decade.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest you start with Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugaks or S. J. Rozan's Bill Smith/Lydia Chin books, but in both cases, read them in order, and know that the books get SO MUCH better as the series goes on, in case the first volume doesn't quite appeal.

Lately I read much more mystery than fantasy/sf.

You might also like Alan Gordon's Shakespearean mysteries. I think THIRTEENTH NIGHT is out of print, but your library might have it. The series picks up tremendously with book 2 because of the banter, but aside from the 5th one I quite enjoyed them all. Basic premise is that the Fools Guild controls all the politics of medieval Europe, since they're the ones who have the king's/emperor's/whoever's ear, and all that tumbling and such is really training to make them perfect assassain's and etc.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The first mystery series I picked up was Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr books, which I liked but have now grown a bit disillusioned with -- I don't feel like they're going anywhere. Then a dear friend winolj lent me all of the Dorothy Sayerses. Mmmmmmm.

I've been reading Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael books borrowed from dd_b. I'm a sucker for Manhattan Project stuff, so Joseph Kanon's Los Alamos charmed me. I've also liked some Iain Pears stuff.

But the mystery writer who ate my head the most after Sayers was Kate Wilhelm. It's the character relationships, I think, and the fact that she thinks like an SF writer still.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

You might like Sheri Tepper's mysteries, then, under the bylines A.J. orde (the ones I like better) or B.J. Oliphant (not quite to my taste).

Dana Stabenow started as an SF writer, with three books with Ace, before switching to mysteries. Only read her Kate Shugaks, though, the other series is lousy because the character has no connection to the place, there is no tension. And read them in order, because she pulls no punches, and things happen at various points in the series that you can't read any of the later books without these moments affecting everything that's gone before...

I do think you might like the S. J. Rozan's, as well. Again, the characters grow so much over the course of the books, so it's worth reading the series in order. The Bill Smith books are much darker and grittier, meatier mysteries, in many ways. Especially in the beginning, when Lydia Chin is only getting chinese cultural mysteries, because she's a 20 something American Born Chinese girl, and no one takes her seriously...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They're on the list now.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the bock Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries, but they're not really a series. It is the same book over and over again, with slight variations. They're enjoyable reads. But they're not a series, like the others I mentioned, where to read them out of order diminishes significantly your enjoyment of the books.

For a really good mystery author, like the Bernie Rhodenbarrs, which can be read out of order: try Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. Addictive pleasures.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I've had them recommended more than once but haven't gotten around to finding the (or a) first one at the library yet.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

The Stouts can be read in any order. One thing that's great is that even in the first, Archie refers back to cases, but they're not necessarily to other books.

I think there are only perhaps two or three books that are linked, like TOO MANY CLIENTS and TOO MANY COOKS.

But for the most part, you have the same cast of characters, but they can be read in any order.

Many of the Nero Wolfe books are collections of three novellas.

You might want to start with one of the novels, just because they're perhaps a bit "meatier" a cases go, but you'll probably wind up obsessively trying to track all of them down.

Some of the best ones are THE DOORBELL RANG and SOME BURIED CEASAR.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[daedala.livejournal.com]

The Summer Tree was really really great when I was 13. What are you saying, it's not good? :)

If you need the third book, let me know; I have spares.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Most people I know think TIGANA his best.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to skip THE WANDERING FIRE and go right to TIGANA, then.

I do also have book 2 of his SARANTIUM MOSAIC, but not yet book 1.

Might be worth trying; for one thing, he seems to have gotten much better as a writer by the later books, and how he lets a story unfold, and those seem to be in his pseudo-historical vein, which I've liked well-enough thus far.

He reminds me in some way of Sean Russell, although with Russell's books (that i've read so far) nothing ever happens. I enjoy the line-by-line writing, but he sure takes a lot of pages to not get anywhere...

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I think his two best books are Tigana and A Song For Arbonne. I do love Fionavar for its emotionality but it has lots of flaws. I didn't much like The Sarantine Mosaic, though it had some great scenes, and didn't finish his latest.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I'm getting better at abandoning things which don't engage me, but there reaches a point, for me at least, where inertia can carry me along, or I feel I deserve to at least have the satisfaction of having finished it and being able to say so, much as I may dislike the journey.

[gadarene.livejournal.com]

I just proofread Kellerman's latest, Twisted. Was my first exposure to him.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

A very guarded response!
;-)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I'd continue until about the half-way point with The Summer Tree-- you'll know when you're there because Paul does something interesting. if you still hate it after that, you should probably abandon the series because it means you won't respond to the other stuff in that vein he does later on. Also, the second book brings in some characters that a lot of people, I suspect including you, do not wish to see.

That's funny and awful about GRRM's cover flats. I really want to read that book, you see...

There's some great images in AVENTINE, but the plots of the stories are really repetitive.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Good to know I should persevere with AVENTINE then.

Although perhaps as I've been doing, in short bursts every now and then, so the repetetiveness doesn't grate quite so much.

Kay and Fionavar

[robgates.livejournal.com]

I must admit that, although I absolutely agree that Fionavar is his weakest work, there's something about it that rocked my world. It's derivative (intentionally so in many ways) as all get out, but my copies have now been read so many times they're falling apart. I re-read them about once every 18 months, and still find myself emotionally engaged...especially from about halfway through book two and onwards.

Everything he's written *since* Fionavar has been brilliant as far as i'm concerned. Tigana may be one of the single best "fantasies" I've ever read, and Song for Arbonne was lovely. Lions of Al-Rassan rocked, and I devoured an ARC of the first book of the Sarantine Mosaic. I am, alas, a little behind - though Last Light of the Sun (I think that's the title), his latest, from about March of last year, is *almost* to the top of the reading pile.

- Rob