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TAO Book Blog – Books only: thoughts, musings and ramblings of a genre-bookish nature
Reading Update…
Well, despite Simon Spanton’s heroic efforts on my behalf, I’m afraid the good old post office let us both down, and the replacement copy of Geoff Ryman’s Was didn’t arrive over the weekend. So, I’ve grabbed Stephen Baxter’s Timelike Infinity to tide me through.
It’s a book I’ve been wanting to read for ages; I’ve enjoyed all of Baxter’s other Xeelee sequence titles that I’ve read to-date, and at 250 pages I should be able to rattle through it in a few days, then get back to my interrupted visit to Kansas.
Meanwhile, I’m still manfully persevering with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I say ‘persevering’ because, well… no, actually, I’ll save my thoughts on the subject until I actually reach the end. 300 or so pages to go and things might change for the better before I reach the conclusion.
posted by Ariel 12:59:30 PM • feedback
Exo-Review: An older England
Josh Lacey has written a positive review (or I assume so from the tag-line, as I haven’t actually read the piece yet and won’t until I’ve written my own review at the weekend) of Graham Joyce‘s The Limits of Enchantment over on The Guardian Unlimited.
posted by Ariel 1:59:22 PM • feedback
Reading Update…
Having finished Greg Keyes’ excellently entertaining The Briar King (see previous entry) I moved straight on to the proof copy of Graham Joyce‘s new novel, The Limits of Enchantment, that arrived from Gollancz a couple of weeks ago.
Last night I took it to bed with me instead of keeping my long-standing engagement with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (more on that one another time) just so I could finish the last 30-odd pages without the usual hassles and interruptions of the tram.
And I’m very glad indeed that I did. It was a sublime end to a quite wonderful book (although the word I found myself uttering after I finished the final paragraph was actually ‘lovely’). I’ll be collecting my thoughts over the weekend and hope to tap out a review on Sunday (as part of my now-traditionally annual New Year’s Resolution to Review Books As Soon As I’ve Read Them).
In the meantime it’s on to another Gollancz title, this time the Fantasy Masterworks re-issue of Geoff Ryman’s Was, which I understand is one of those seminal books that you just have to read at some point. And now’s my chance…
posted by Ariel 1:43:06 PM • feedback
Exo-Review: Lethem again…
A short review by Mat Loup of Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude in this week’s Sunday Times and Times Online.
posted by Ariel 10:04:44 PM • feedback
:: Book Report :: The Briar King by Greg Keyes
This one was a recommendation from fellow TAO contributor Vegar Holmen; in fact he’s been badgering me about The Briar King ever since August ’03, when he reviewed it for TAO.
And he’s right on the money with it, too. Superb characterisation, detailed and well thought-out setting, tightly plotted, a rich vein of mythology (some of it recognisable from our own world’s pagan symbolism, but I rather suspect that there may be a reason for that, if I’ve read between the lines correctly) and some deliciously dark magic. It’s suspenseful, exciting, imaginative; everything a good heroic / dynastic fantasy saga ought to be.
Fans of George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, Paul Kearney and co. take note. If you like your fantasy hard-edged, gritty and vividly portrayed, then this is a title you really should be keeping an eye out for. More info, for those whose want it, over at Amazon.co.uk or from the author’s homepage, www.gregkeyes.com.
And Vegar tells me that the second part of the series – The Charnel Prince – is even better…
posted by Ariel 2:35:52 PM • feedback
If you need me, me ‘n’ Neil’ll be…
Fantagraphics Books‘ latest e-newsletter has details of their recently published collection of interviews with Neil Gaiman, Hanging Out With the Dream King. One for Gaiman fans (Gaimanophytes? Gaimanophiliacs?) everywhere. And yes, it does have an intro by Tori Amos…
posted by Ariel 9:07:30 PM • feedback
Exo-Review: Men and Cartoons
Tom Deveson, writing for the Sunday Times and Times Online wasn’t at all impressed with Jonathan Lethem’s latest, and says so in a pretty damning review. But he comments on the reasons behind his vitriol fairly clearly; explaining that he’s just seen too much of the same sort of thematic and character material from the author in question. He’s especially sick of the “presumed numinous associations of pop trivia”, apparently…
posted by Ariel 2:46:54 PM • feedback
Exo-Review: A mystery wrapped in an enigma…
“There is a book that no one can read, filled with words written in a cipher that no one can break, or, possibly, a language that no one knows…”
No, not the pre-publication maximum-security-encrypted version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but The Voynich Manuscript by Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill; reviewed and expounded upon by Scarlett Thomas, over at The Independent Online. Intriguing…
posted by Ariel 6:05:53 PM • feedback
MMS news – new novel delivered
Fresh from the author’s own news page, Blood of Angels has been delivered to the publisher, and will be “edited by Christmas”.
‘Christmas’ is the name of a small orange pixie who lives in Mike’s sock-drawer, just in case you were wondering. I hear he’s very good at character exposition…
posted by Ariel 7:26:26 PM • feedback
Exo-Review: Thackery T Lambshead…
Reviewed on Guardian Unlimited by Christopher Priest.
posted by Ariel 1:41:09 PM • feedback
(Belated) Season’s Readings
Better late than never (something that passed me by pre-holiday): Iain Banks bravely sticks his neck out to include a number of sf titles in his list of books that he most enjoyed in 2004, and there are a couple of picks from genre-ghetto escapee J.G. Ballard as well, over at The Guardian Unlimited.
posted by Ariel 1:38:36 PM • feedback
Archives: :: January 2005