Reading roundup

[hamsterwoman]

Still on a reading kick, as a means of not thinking about all the other crap.

24. Cinda Williams Chima, The Warrior Heir -- This was a random YA book I picked up just because I felt like some YA fantasy, and I was actually pleasantly surprised (although, admittedly, my expectations going in were pretty low).

Comments

[_grayswandir_]

Ooh! I'm so glad you liked Lord of Light. I'm amused to see that we apparently liked it for very different reasons, too. I preferred the theological/philosophical bits over the action bits, on the whole. I didn't care much for Rild, and thought the gambling demons were sort of silly; but on the other hand, I was quite in love with Sam's little random comment about "Open a fruit and there is a seed within it. Is that the center? Open the seed and there is nothing within it. Is that the center?"

So -- good of Zelazny to include something for everyone, eh? ;)

I do love that part you quoted about Sam seeing as a demon sees, though. And yeah, I wished there had been more development of the universe itself, like the description of the Videgha you mention. There was enough of that sort of thing to give it an authentic feel, but not enough to feel really epic. I thought it seemed sort of like the movie version of a really great novel, with a lot of the interesting details sacrificed to make room for battle and dialogue.

I

[_grayswandir_]

My favorite part, and what elevated this book for me above other stand-alone Zelaznys I've read, were the characters.They were certainly better than most of Zelanzy's non-Amberites, though I still thought they left something to be desired. Sam was okay, but struck me as being a somewhat too-typical reluctant hero: powerful, just, capable, perhaps nearly divine, but still humble and too wise to really consider himself godlike. In a way, I suppose he was more believable than Corwin, being more powerful but not quite so impossibly rugged and charming; but then, Corwin's very arrogance and grating self-applause gave him a certain believability, a certain humanity, that I think Sam lacked

[_grayswandir_]

He is just so awesome, and I mean that in every possible way.

Yes, oh my god. Stretching and yawning and smoking -- with his crimson cloak and his boots the color of blood; with his death-gaze and his blind, conflicted worship of his anima-goddess Kali. That guy absolutely made the book. His passion for destruction and technology, and the confusion that attended his strange history of having been old before he was young. He was well defined, but not too closely explored, so that I always wanted more of him. And what a lovely enigma of morality, too, with a taste for slaughter and godship, and yet also an unlikely, poisonous regard for chivalry. I love your comment about the irony of Death bringing vitality to the book; I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes. Weirdly, yes, he does.

He is the only one of the gods, other than Kubera, who seems to care about other people at all in ways that are not exclusively self-serving. When he kills […] he shows clearly -- not remorse, and sadness is too vague, but a definite sense that

[hamsterwoman]

I thought it seemed sort of like the movie version of a really great novel, with a lot of the interesting details sacrificed to make room for battle and dialogue.

That's a good way of putting it... It certainly didn't feel whole, and actually I could've used less description of fighting and battles and gods assuming their Aspects, too.

It took me a while to figure it out (I kept trying to work out why Yama was against Sam all of a sudden...),

Yeah, me too. I didn't actually figure out we were in flashback mode until Sam's conversation with Yama, which makes it pretty clear we're in a timeframe from before the first chapter. And then I had to go back to chapter 2 and skim over that again to realign my understanding of what was going on. I thought I had just missed the cue ('Sam remembered') at the end of chapter 1, but if it's not just me then I guess it's deliberate...

I thought it was good to parallel the two great battles back to back in the last two chapters -- the first, quite epic, which was the real turning point in the

[hamsterwoman]

I'm always amused by Zelazny's rampant, unrepentant, almost absentminded chauvinismGod, yes... X-| That was pretty hard to miss, although, I suppose, it kind of fits within the conventions of the genre. But, yeah, limping Kali being led along by Yama, self-hating Brahma, and largely-useless, moping Ratri who gets dragged along for the ride. Does Zelazny have *any* interesting women who are not total psychos? Other than possibly Fiona (who is at least definitely less psycho than her brother

[hamsterwoman]

I wonder if we've read any of the same ones?

I believe the short story collection I read was Frost and Fire. And Roadmarks -- I think it's the one you mentioned, except, uh, I don't remember much from except some very brief episodes and the fact that what's-his-name, the protagonist, had a talking book, Flowers of Evil. Or Leaves of Grass. Or both, maybe. It's been awhile... There's a dragon on the cover?

I'm pretty sure I've never read Doorways in the Sand... but can't for the life of me remember which was the other book I read.

And, um, wow, I hadn't realized how much I wanted to talk about this book. Er, apologies for the gigantic novel-length comments here...

LOL, definitely no need to apologize! I really wanted to talk about this book, too :D

Although I must say, LJ's doing something weird with comment notifications for me, so I only got one of the three comments (the last one), and I was like, hey, that's not such a long comment -- and then I realized that was only 1/3... :) And was really happy that there was more Lord

[adelynne]

*skips most of the post as she's planing to read two of the books.* I am amused that you've got the same wary attitude I do about books that are supposed to be an author's "best."

[hamsterwoman]

You're back! How was England?

Yeah, I don't mind reading an author's "best" when it's an author I don't really enjoy -- like, I read War and Peace so I could pretty much check Tolstoy off my list (\bad Russian ;) ), and would really like someone to tell me what the best Dickens book is so that I could read that, solidify my conclusion that I don't like him, and check him off as well. But if it's an author I enjoy, then you read it, and either it really is head and shoulders above everything else, in which case, why read any of the other stuff if you've got to the pinnacle, or it's really not that good in which case... *sigh* Not that these considerations *stop* me from reading the books, just an extra little hump on the activation energy curve...

Which two books of these are you planning to read?

[adelynne]

England was all that is awesome and cool. We even had good weather. Stay tuned for pictures. :)

I have Lord of Light and I mean to read all of Discworld eventually.

[hamsterwoman]

Can't wait to look at your pictures and feel nostalgic! And jealous :)

And I'm sort of relieved that I'm not the only Discworld fan who hadn't read Hogfather up until this point.