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[randomways]

Also, in addition to my brief tale of conversational gaffes and soul-sucking awkwardness in my last post, I meant to direct a question to my f-list:

On the heels of KdS's analysis of spec-fic, I've been thinking about my on-going struggle to update my personal canon of sci-fi and fantasy. My dilemma has been to avoid the "pulp" stuff (if, while

Comments

[ashenmote]

Do you have those covered when you say you've run through the Golden/Silver Age fiction?

Patricia McKillip, particularly "Riddlemaster" and "Forgotten beasts of Eld".
Hans Benmann, "Stone and Flute".
Joy Chant "Red Moon and Black Mountain", "The Grey Mane of Morning".

And I like Donaldson just fine, emo be damned.

[randomways]

Those escaped me -- primarily because they really started publishing just after the era of sci-fi/fantasy that my dad could fill me in on :) What am I looking at with regards to them, i.e. what sort of stories/mythos do they write?

I have a love/hate relationship with Donaldson, teetering toward the love. The excessive angst does tend to wear down, and the, um, "florid thesaurus" approach of the 2nd Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was a bit much, but he's a magnificent world-builder and knows how to tell a really good story with fascinating characters.

[ashenmote]

I see Donaldson's main characters as kind of the grumpy museum guide who shows you around. Just try to ignore him, enjoy the exhibition and sekkritly resolve to leave him no tip. And yeah, the second chronicles were hard to tackle and standing on their own I would have dropped them. Even though he has new places to show and new stories to tell, and it's not just the land revisited. I liked his two Mordant books better than the second chronicle (but less than the first chronicles, of course). I love the lords so, so much, especially in book two and three

[randomways]

Interestingly, a friend of mine has informed me she actually owns several McKillip novels, so I can check those out as soon as she can get them to me. Hooray for serendipity, eh?

High fantasy works just fine for me if the writer has skill, so I can definitely run with Ms. Chant's stuff. Indeed, it's sorta what I'm looking for. And if cherchez la femme ever gets old, I've yet to see such. It may be a stupid question, but is his work translated into English? German is a lot of fun to read, but since I don't understand many words that aren't actually titles of Wagner operas, I'd be pretty lost

[ashenmote]

Yes, 'Stein und Flöte' was translated by one Anthea Bell, but it would be impossible for you to locate it because I got both the name of the author and the title of the book wrong. Go me.

Correct is: Hans Bemmann "The stone and the flute". And this time I c&P'ed it to make sure the Ashenmote Creative Spelling Factor doesn't enter into it. I see both hardcover and softcover editions at Amazon.

Everything else, after breakfast.