A Momentary Taste of Being

"Can Fantasy Ever Tell the Truth?" Is that even a reasonable question after Tolkien? Not to mention MacDonald, Voltaire, and countless others, from the Golden Ass to Little Big ?

I posted a list a couple of days ago that had on it Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind as one of the 10 best SF of the decade.  This review seems to bear that out.   (For some values of SF)

Picked up an absolutely delightful volume at the library.  Richard Parks On the Banks of the River of Heaven --a collection of short stories.  In the first three stories we have a tale about how the otter in the river of heaven made things better for the lovers who needed to cross the bridge of birds; how Kali Ma incarnates in the tv of a recently divorced man--she's looking for Shiva and he's supposed to show up here; and the tale of the man who married the mermaid and his son. Haven't read enough to post a review, but this is light, airy, full of myth and fantasy.  The stories move quickly and they are utterly delightful.  This is the kind of collection that makes you feel good as you are reading it.

A Review of Tom Holt's Expecting Someone Taller --sounds delightful

Realism Does Not Equal Adult--a follow-up I agree with the essential point here--the trappings do not so much matter and define a book as adult material--it is the sensibility, themes, and contexts that allow for a work to have a more mature sensibility.

The Realms of Fantasy

Gabriel Garcia Marquez considered

If anyone can compete, it must be Robert Jordan.  A review of Eye of the World.

A Kiss Before the Apocalypse features an angel detective whose routine work on a divorce case rapidly escalates into a much more serious matter--indeed the matter glossed in the title.  The premise is intriguing, but I wasn't persuaded by the handling of the topic.  Too many liberties were taken (it seems to me) both with the concept of angels and the concept of War in Heaven.  Additionally, I was struck by the essential misunderstanding of the Fall--I kept wanting to say--"They FELL, they weren't pushed or thrown." Setting aside my reservations about Angelology, I had some problems with the story just trying much too hard to involve me and make me go with our protagonist.  There were just too many disjunctions for me. All of that said--the story is fast-paced and for those more forgiving of some of the defects I've outline above is likely to be engaging and interesting.  It falls into that large genre of "regularizing" the supernatural, and as such,...

A consideration of the Christian elements of Harry Potter. Not to put too fine a point on it--both the supporters and the detractors, it strikes me, are grievously misled.  To say that there are Christian elements in the book is about as astounding as saying that there are Christian elements out and about in Great Britain.  To contend that these are a retelling of the Gospel story is about as meaningful as saying that they are a retelling of the Isis and Osiris tale. When you get down to it--Rowling spun a fine tale over a span of seven books.  Much could be said about the need for improvement in several elements of the writing--but I know that I waited for each new book and I enjoyed each, whether Christian or otherwise.  And I think we should not spend too much time worrying those elements.  As with Tolkien, one can read and enjoy the works whether or not there is anything deliberate about the Christianity in them.

Books to bring back from the dead I didn't realize that Robert McCammon had withdrawn his first four books from publication.  That's a real shame, because a couple of them are really superb and all of them are good. I wonder whether the question is withdrawal or simply lack of republication, because when I look at his bibliography , I see all four listed, recognized and being published in Europe.  For me the least successful of the group was the premier effort Baal .  And even while a debut effort, I still liked it a great deal.  I loved Bethany's Sin even though it tracks Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home pretty closely.  Night Boat with its crew of Nazi Zombies reminded me at once of some of the more intense Italian Zombi films of seventies and eighties mixed with the classic Zombies of Mora Tau .  ( Mora Tau doesn't get great ratings at IMDB, but most reviewing it probably didn't see it on late night television when they were 12 or 13 years old. ) And ...

A review of The Alchemaster's Apprentice by Walter Moers My son has long sung the praises of Walter Moers and has, at this point, read everything that Mr. Moers has in translation.  Son often spends time bending my ear about these books, and from what he says they are compelling reading.  Too bad my own stack is so tall.  Perhaps I need to consider a rearrangement.

I thought I was the last remaining person to have read and know about William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki.   I have the books in collectable Arkham House editions, and while Hodgson is not generally high on my list of readable fantasists--some of these stories are quite good.

Shelf Love presents a Lord of the Rings read-along with interesting questions and commentary-- especially good for those who've wanted to give the series a try but have never made it through.

Ever wonder how to distinguish a Yeti from a Wendigo--wonder no more--all is made clear. f rom Monster A. Lee Martinez "And you believe you have a yeti in your freezer--is that correct?" The words were beginning to lose their absurdity. "Yes, I think so," she said, though she wasn't as certain as she had been five minutes before. "Can you describe it?" "It's big and white and eating all the ice cream," she said. "What flavor?" "What?" "What flavor does it seem to prefer? Yetis generally go for rocky road. Now wendigos, on the other hand, prefer strawberry in my experience." "What's a wendigo?" Judy asked. "Like a Yeti, except meaner." Judy considered that this woman might be screwing with her. If Judy were working a lonely job in the middle of the night and got a crank caller, she'd probably do the same. "It didn't seem to like vanilla."  Th...

A challenge, but one I'm glad to see someone undertake-- blogging the Silmarillion at The Silver Key.

I first became acquainted with Mr. Gaiman's work through the illustrated Sandman stories and while I enjoyed these very much, I must admit that I did not follow the legions of fans into the world of his fiction and novels.  Apparently that was my loss.  Last year I picked up Coraline and found it one of the creepiest things I had read in years.  And yesterday I picked up The Graveyard Book .  While it didn't raise goosebumps the way Coraline did, it has its own special charms. The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, a young boy adopted by ghosts in a local cemetary after he wanders away from the house where the rest of his family has been killed.  Having been welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Owens into the family they always wanted to have, Nobody is granted the Freedom of the Graveyard and is watched over by Silas and a host of others.  Owens grows up in the cemetary and, naturally, has any number of adventures there. The writing is, as usual with ...