Books

[hawkwing_lb]

Books 2008: 85-89.

85. Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command.

An excellent chewy book to distract one from the inability to sleep.

86. Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions.

I recollect being slightly disappointed in this book's logic, but hell, I was really underslept at this point.

87. Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light.

I wish I'd been awake when I read this, because as far as I can tell it was made of cool.

88. Jack McDevitt, Deepsix.

See above re #87.

89. Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, 1635: The Cannon Law.

Unchallenging and fun alternate history.

Comments

[clarentine]

Lord of Light was one of the books mentioned at this year's Fourth Street fantasy convention in the context, I think, of books with really complex subtext. I didn't really get it when I read it, and I didn't have the excuse of being sleep-deprived. *g*

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Complex subtext, huh?

I guess I should read it again, sometime. I got something of a sense of an argument with religion, social determinism, social control, colonialism, and re-use and re-appropriation of myth going on in there. Along with a bunch of other stuff about personhood, the semantics of religious discourse, and possibly fate.

Or if not an argument, at least a critical examination.

But I was drunk on sleeplessness at that point. :)

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Dude. I didn't get that stuff until the second time I read it, and even so I couldn't have distilled it into two lines. Talk about being made of cool...what are you like when you're not exhausted?

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Able to explain how I get to point C from point A (complete with words of more than one syllable and real human logic), and remember why it might be important?

Not to mention being able to walk without falling into walls?

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

Um. Lord of Light... Let's put it this way. If you (or any other writer) ever manage to reach half the level of technical skill Zelazny exibited there, I will worship at your feet forever. The book is accesible enough for near idiots... yet there is subtext within subtext. It makes Dune look like a quick airport read. There isn't another author in the same league. That is consumate craftsmanship. Your chances of getting it on one read, tired or not, are slim. And yet... it is still cool. That is the mark of the master.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Okay, now you've made me really disappointed that this and the Amber books are the only Zelazny books I've been able to find on the shelves over here.

And yeah, Zelazny is in a class all of his own. Although I think Delany and LeGuin, to pick a couple of the other greats, are all the way up there, too.