King, Straub, Gibson and Co.
Well, I’ve been reading like a fiend ‘cause I don’t have much else to do. I’ve finished four out of the five A Song of Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones), which are generally OK. Well, no, the story is really good (although, maybe at times kinda’ cliché here and there, but what can one expect in an epic fantasy series, I suppose?)-a page turner!-but the writing is, dare I say, fair to middlin’. I mean, now and then there’s some tidbit of deep thought and ponderous reflection, but those sorts of nuggets are few and far between, imho.
But that’s not what I wanted to write about.
I read Stephen King And Peter Straub’s Black House recently. It was, meh, mediocre at best. I had read their The Talisman when I was much younger (one of the few Stephen King books I’ve read), and recall it being fairly good, with even some parts that totally creeped me out! This go-round (it’s got the same main character, only set many years later-twentyish) was OK, but not spectacular. It took me about one hundred pages to get into, and then I could have done without the last forty or so pages-as in I was simply trying to get to the end without much care about what was going to happen. I guess I’d give it about a five out of ten: far better things to spend 800+ pages reading, I’d reckon.
On the other hand, I finally got ‘round to re-reading William Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive after re-reading the previous two novels in his opening trilogy sometime last year. Damn--what a great book! I feel that Gibson really is my favourite writer. I get hooked into the story immediately. His pacing is always spot on, his detailing is fantastic, his characters a pleasure to become involved with, and I’m always left wanting more, more, more! It was quite a contrast to the aforementioned Black House insofar that I’d much rather read 800+ pages of Gibson and, say, 300 or so pages of King/Straub.
I was thinking about reading King’s Dark Tower series, which I read the first two books of ages ago but never bothered with the rest, starting again from the beginning, but after reading Black House I am kind of skeptical about doing so (and Black House, as it turns out, is a kind of tie-in, albeit very slightly, to the Dark Tower mythos). I see that part one, The Gunslinger is here for me at the library-I’d put a reserve on it-and I guess maybe I’ll give it a go and then decide if Imma’ put in the effort to read the whole series. I certainly won’t be starting it until I’m finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy though, which, I’m sure, will be a much better and more authentic Western, heh.
But that’s not what I wanted to write about.
I read Stephen King And Peter Straub’s Black House recently. It was, meh, mediocre at best. I had read their The Talisman when I was much younger (one of the few Stephen King books I’ve read), and recall it being fairly good, with even some parts that totally creeped me out! This go-round (it’s got the same main character, only set many years later-twentyish) was OK, but not spectacular. It took me about one hundred pages to get into, and then I could have done without the last forty or so pages-as in I was simply trying to get to the end without much care about what was going to happen. I guess I’d give it about a five out of ten: far better things to spend 800+ pages reading, I’d reckon.
On the other hand, I finally got ‘round to re-reading William Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive after re-reading the previous two novels in his opening trilogy sometime last year. Damn--what a great book! I feel that Gibson really is my favourite writer. I get hooked into the story immediately. His pacing is always spot on, his detailing is fantastic, his characters a pleasure to become involved with, and I’m always left wanting more, more, more! It was quite a contrast to the aforementioned Black House insofar that I’d much rather read 800+ pages of Gibson and, say, 300 or so pages of King/Straub.
I was thinking about reading King’s Dark Tower series, which I read the first two books of ages ago but never bothered with the rest, starting again from the beginning, but after reading Black House I am kind of skeptical about doing so (and Black House, as it turns out, is a kind of tie-in, albeit very slightly, to the Dark Tower mythos). I see that part one, The Gunslinger is here for me at the library-I’d put a reserve on it-and I guess maybe I’ll give it a go and then decide if Imma’ put in the effort to read the whole series. I certainly won’t be starting it until I’m finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy though, which, I’m sure, will be a much better and more authentic Western, heh.