Recently read: "The Crossing", "Wyst: Alastor 1716"

Over the past few weeks, I finished a couple books by authors about as far apart as one might conceive except one could point out that they both seem to have a fascination with language and how it sounds to the inner ear.

Reading "All The Pretty Horses" got me hooked on Cormac McCarthy, and so after finishing the first of the Border Trilogy books I moved right on to the second, "The Crossing" and ripped through it. In tone and presentation it's very similar to "All The Pretty Horses" but perhaps a bit more mythopoetic in spots, and a bit less interspersed with humorous incidents. As with the first, highly recommended, and strangely readable. (One thing that might prove an obstacle to you in all three books is his liberal peppering of Mexican dialog throughout; he's reasonably careful to make sure you can figure out what's going on from the context and if you have a rudimentary grasp of a romance language, you should be OK, but I can see how this might put up a stone wall to some readers.) I'm now about two thirds of the way through the last, "Cities On The Plain", and I've slowed down a touch, but still engaged.

Finally, finally, finally (after about three years), I managed to pick up Vance's Alastor omnibus and actual bull my way through to the end. In an odd way McCarthy's books gave me fuel to get through the last of the Alastor novels: I suppose because I was willing to revel in the language, and not fret that PLOT was not obviously happening (it was, but slowly, subtly, simply, behind the scenes). After reading all the Demon Princes books and now the Alastor books, over the last five years or so, I think I can (a) recommend them all to anyone who likes richly ordained prose, whether you think you like SF or not, and (b) that the Alastor novels are more oblique but richer than the Demon Princes books. I'm not sure that the Tor omnibuses collecting all these are still in print, but they ought to be reasonably easy to find new or used.

On the bookpile now is "Cities On The Plain" (McCarthy), "Tales of Neveryon" (Delaney), "The Polish Officer" (Furst), "Lies of Locke Lamora" (Lynch), and "Wizard" (Wolfe).

Looking at the relative thickness and eyeballing placement of bookmarks, I suspect that "Cities On The Plain" will get knocked off first, and then it'll be either the Furst or the Lynch after that: the Lynch hasn't yet got me absolutely convinced, so I may get a couple hundred pages in and then stall. Furst usually keeps me going to the end, despite myself in some cases. The Delaney has been on my plate for months, so when that'll get done, I'm not sure -- he has already lasted long enough in the buffer that he has suffered the dreaded repositioning-of-the-bookmark-cursor.

Recently purchased which look interesting, but still haven't gotten to: "The Hamilton Case" (de Keyser), "Seeker" and "Polaris" (McDevitt), and "The Girl In The Glass" (Ford). They're on the medium-term horizon.

I also picked up a few YA books over the past couple months, but those seem to be more vanity purchases than actually making their way into my queue. I'm slowly reading through "Tale Of Despereaux" (DiCamillo) with the kids, but it'll be months before we finish that. It has mercifully short chapters, which makes it an excellent bedtime book: you can read just one or clip off a few if the kids press for more. And the story is well written, although I'm not entirely sure I'm enchanted with where it seems to be heading.

Recently read: "The Crossing", "Wyst: Alastor 1716"

Over the past few weeks, I finished a couple books by authors about as far apart as one might conceive except one could point out that they both seem to have a fascination with language and how it sounds to the inner ear.

Reading "All The Pretty Horses" got me hooked on Cormac McCarthy, and so after finishing the first of the Border Trilogy books I moved right on to the second, "The Crossing" and ripped through it. In tone and presentation it's very similar to "All The Pretty Horses" but perhaps a bit more mythopoetic in spots, and a bit less interspersed with humorous incidents. As with the first, highly recommended, and strangely readable. (One thing that might prove an obstacle to you in all three books is his liberal peppering of Mexican dialog throughout; he's reasonably careful to make sure you can figure out what's going on from the context and if you have a rudimentary grasp of a romance language, you should be OK, but I can see how this might put up a stone wall to some readers.) I'm now about two thirds of the way through the last, "Cities On The Plain", and I've slowed down a touch, but still engaged.

Finally, finally, finally (after about three years), I managed to pick up Vance's Alastor omnibus and actual bull my way through to the end. In an odd way McCarthy's books gave me fuel to get through the last of the Alastor novels: I suppose because I was willing to revel in the language, and not fret that PLOT was not obviously happening (it was, but slowly, subtly, simply, behind the scenes). After reading all the Demon Princes books and now the Alastor books, over the last five years or so, I think I can (a) recommend them all to anyone who likes richly ordained prose, whether you think you like SF or not, and (b) that the Alastor novels are more oblique but richer than the Demon Princes books. I'm not sure that the Tor omnibuses collecting all these are still in print, but they ought to be reasonably easy to find new or used.

On the bookpile now is "Cities On The Plain" (McCarthy), "Tales of Neveryon" (Delaney), "The Polish Officer" (Furst), "Lies of Locke Lamora" (Lynch), and "Wizard" (Wolfe).

Looking at the relative thickness and eyeballing placement of bookmarks, I suspect that "Cities On The Plain" will get knocked off first, and then it'll be either the Furst or the Lynch after that: the Lynch hasn't yet got me absolutely convinced, so I may get a couple hundred pages in and then stall. Furst usually keeps me going to the end, despite myself in some cases. The Delaney has been on my plate for months, so when that'll get done, I'm not sure -- he has already lasted long enough in the buffer that he has suffered the dreaded repositioning-of-the-bookmark-cursor.

Recently purchased which look interesting, but still haven't gotten to: "The Hamilton Case" (de Keyser), "Seeker" and "Polaris" (McDevitt), and "The Girl In The Glass" (Ford). They're on the medium-term horizon.

I also picked up a few YA books over the past couple months, but those seem to be more vanity purchases than actually making their way into my queue. I'm slowly reading through "Tale Of Despereaux" (DiCamillo) with the kids, but it'll be months before we finish that. It has mercifully short chapters, which makes it an excellent bedtime book: you can read just one or clip off a few if the kids press for more. And the story is well written, although I'm not entirely sure I'm enchanted with where it seems to be heading.