Books, wonderful books
(Apparently I've used this post title before. Well, I'll use it again. It's a good one.)
It seems I'm now well off my science fiction binge of the first part of this semester, and into the fantasy. The odd thing is, I don't feel like epic fantasy at the moment. I feel like the colourful, light-hearted, funny sort of fantasy. If only my family's Discworld collection wasn't on another continent. I blame Temeraire, of course. I enjoyed it so much that I had to read more books like it. Speaking of that, I've just started the fourth book, Empire of Ivory. I'm not very far in, but already enjoying its characters and humour again (Iskierka is the most adorable and funniest baby dragon in the history of stories about dragons!).
When I was looking through a bookstore for just the right sort of fantasy book, I came across One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey. I've read two or three of her books before, and enjoyed them immensely. The only reason I haven't read more is that I can't be bothered to sit down and figure out what her series are and which books are the first ones. She's written so many! But one of her books that I have read is The Fairy Godmother. I love fairy tales, stories of and about fairy tales, fractured and twisted and adapted fairy tales, everything about fairy tales. I think a good part of what draws me to them is the idea of variations of the same basic plot turning into such wildly different stories, and also the fact that everyone who knows the basic fairy tales (and most people do) knows all the rules and characters and stereotypes they have. The Fairy Godmother, and now the other Tales of the Five Hundred Kindgoms books take excellent advantage of these two facts. The world of the Five Hundred Kingdoms is a world where all these rules of fairy tales are practically laws of physics. A magical force called "the Tradition" compels people's lives to follow fairy-tale pathways, and the people who understand this can take advantage of it. Both The Fairy Godmother and One Good Knight take the idea of standard fairy-tale elements and run wild with them, and much hilarity ensues.
In One Good Knight, Andie is a bookish princess who isn't given the opportunity to use her talents and do anything useful for her kingdom. The queen finally lets her help with important affairs, but Andie does too good a job at investigating the kingdom's problem - until a dragon shows up to ravage the countryside. At first, I didn't get into the story as much as I did with The Fairy Godmother, and I still think the first book is the better of the two. But I was really enjoying One Good Knight by the end (and a very sweet, if somewhat predictable, ending it is), and I was quite excited to see a new Five Hundred Kingdoms book, Fortune's Fool, in the bookstore today (not excited enough not to wait for it to come out in paperback, however). They're clever and funny, with unexpected twists and romances, and they play with stereotypes in a very fun way.
My next fiction-of-my-own-choice book was Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. Still fairy-tale-ish, but in quite a different way. This is the sort of book that you can't put down and when you have to because you've finished it (even re-reading the blurb, because it's there), you stare at it and think "that was a good book". Creepy, but not scary. Familiar paths, but not predictable. A universal character, but one who has a character of her own. It made me think about similar things that similar nasties could have done to similar children in similar worlds. I'm not sure what else to say about it, other than if you like fairy tales or fantasy or myths or anything of that sort, you need to read it.
So there's the fantasy I've been reading. The only other not-for-class book I've read lately is Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which ittykat lent me. Another "wow" sort of book, though I wouldn't say I liked it anything like as much as I liked Coraline. I finished it a week ago, so it's already fading from memory. It's quite dark, but quite thought-provoking. It's worthy of having much more said about it than that, but I'm not sure what else to say. Even through all the gore and ickiness and darkness, the ideas in it were quite intriguing.
It seems I'm now well off my science fiction binge of the first part of this semester, and into the fantasy. The odd thing is, I don't feel like epic fantasy at the moment. I feel like the colourful, light-hearted, funny sort of fantasy. If only my family's Discworld collection wasn't on another continent. I blame Temeraire, of course. I enjoyed it so much that I had to read more books like it. Speaking of that, I've just started the fourth book, Empire of Ivory. I'm not very far in, but already enjoying its characters and humour again (Iskierka is the most adorable and funniest baby dragon in the history of stories about dragons!).
When I was looking through a bookstore for just the right sort of fantasy book, I came across One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey. I've read two or three of her books before, and enjoyed them immensely. The only reason I haven't read more is that I can't be bothered to sit down and figure out what her series are and which books are the first ones. She's written so many! But one of her books that I have read is The Fairy Godmother. I love fairy tales, stories of and about fairy tales, fractured and twisted and adapted fairy tales, everything about fairy tales. I think a good part of what draws me to them is the idea of variations of the same basic plot turning into such wildly different stories, and also the fact that everyone who knows the basic fairy tales (and most people do) knows all the rules and characters and stereotypes they have. The Fairy Godmother, and now the other Tales of the Five Hundred Kindgoms books take excellent advantage of these two facts. The world of the Five Hundred Kingdoms is a world where all these rules of fairy tales are practically laws of physics. A magical force called "the Tradition" compels people's lives to follow fairy-tale pathways, and the people who understand this can take advantage of it. Both The Fairy Godmother and One Good Knight take the idea of standard fairy-tale elements and run wild with them, and much hilarity ensues.
In One Good Knight, Andie is a bookish princess who isn't given the opportunity to use her talents and do anything useful for her kingdom. The queen finally lets her help with important affairs, but Andie does too good a job at investigating the kingdom's problem - until a dragon shows up to ravage the countryside. At first, I didn't get into the story as much as I did with The Fairy Godmother, and I still think the first book is the better of the two. But I was really enjoying One Good Knight by the end (and a very sweet, if somewhat predictable, ending it is), and I was quite excited to see a new Five Hundred Kingdoms book, Fortune's Fool, in the bookstore today (not excited enough not to wait for it to come out in paperback, however). They're clever and funny, with unexpected twists and romances, and they play with stereotypes in a very fun way.
My next fiction-of-my-own-choice book was Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. Still fairy-tale-ish, but in quite a different way. This is the sort of book that you can't put down and when you have to because you've finished it (even re-reading the blurb, because it's there), you stare at it and think "that was a good book". Creepy, but not scary. Familiar paths, but not predictable. A universal character, but one who has a character of her own. It made me think about similar things that similar nasties could have done to similar children in similar worlds. I'm not sure what else to say about it, other than if you like fairy tales or fantasy or myths or anything of that sort, you need to read it.
So there's the fantasy I've been reading. The only other not-for-class book I've read lately is Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which ittykat lent me. Another "wow" sort of book, though I wouldn't say I liked it anything like as much as I liked Coraline. I finished it a week ago, so it's already fading from memory. It's quite dark, but quite thought-provoking. It's worthy of having much more said about it than that, but I'm not sure what else to say. Even through all the gore and ickiness and darkness, the ideas in it were quite intriguing.