Dilettante Book Reviews (second in a possibly occasional series)

[saffronhare]

I devoured two books this past week, both written by Guy Gavriel Kay: Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors. I think it's safe to say I'm officially on a binge, because I am now in search of every other book of his I can get my hands on. I'm a big fan of big, sweeping historical fantasy (analogue history?), and really groove on characterization and language. Couldn't put these down, and want to make other people read them so we can talk about them. I find myself wishing I had a better lit crit vocabulary so I could more intelligently discuss the...uh, elements.

It was odd to realize, finally, that he also assisted the Tolkien family in editing The Silmarillion after the big guy had passed away. I remember agrnmn saying he'd never been able to finish it, which was odd because he *loved* Tolkien. I, on the other hand, never could handle reading Tolkien (so sue me), so maybe I'll like this other book. Food for thought.

I'm still waiting for that Elizabeth Moon book to come in on ILL, and I think I'll look for a few other of David Weber's. You know, for BALANCE.

Comments

[katzenfrau.livejournal.com]

The Silmarillion is hard going even for people who can digest Tolkein. If I can be flippant... like most works of mythology, it wasn't actually meant to be read.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

That's a good point, but I will admit that I enjoyed reading it. Of course, I was enough of a Tolkien geek that my friend Margaret and I would write notes between our D&D characters in Tengwar so the DM couldn't read them if he confiscated them while playing.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I stuck with GGK until The Last Light of the Sun which I found so tedious I didn't even get through half of it. YMMV. The Lions of Al-Rassan was my favorite.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Good to know -- thanks! Neither of those is on ILL request just yet.