tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1470115786787140224.post3528964954451530779..comments2023-05-24T04:41:24.313-04:00Comments on heard, half-heard, in the stillness: this badland beyond my kensarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04796940410833284009noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1470115786787140224.post-39526936285736630742011-09-12T23:03:06.031-04:002011-09-12T23:03:06.031-04:00I haven't read Wolf Hall, but it's on my l...I haven't read Wolf Hall, but it's on my list of "to read very soon." I agree that Quentin Coldwater is unlikeable, but I didn't find him horribly off-putting; I tolerate a lot of unlikeability from my protagonists as long as I find that unlikeability "true." And now that I'm back at grad school hanging out with a lot of 22 year-olds again, I'm kinda forced to realize just how true Quentin and his associates are (to what they are, to what I was, at that age.) <br /><br />But I thought the ending was pitch-perfect; I don't think it un-did the rest of the book so much as tempered it--the world is not easily reduced to one or the other, and--well, I'd say what I thought it meant outright, which I thought was rather profound, but I can't seem to express it without spoilers. I guess we'll see if QC has indeed grown any in the next book, eh? And yes, I've heard the same thing about the Magician King, regarding the minor character from the first book, and it does seem quite intriguing.Rebeccanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1470115786787140224.post-57108300689741453492011-09-12T09:58:23.644-04:002011-09-12T09:58:23.644-04:00Ack! More books for my already-long reading list! ...Ack! More books for my already-long reading list! <br /><br />@Rebecca: I haven't read "The Unwritten." I read the first 6 books of "Lucifer" a while back.<br /><br />Wolf Hall is an experience.sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04796940410833284009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1470115786787140224.post-18721996046062908462011-09-11T13:27:28.971-04:002011-09-11T13:27:28.971-04:00I had mixed feelings about The Magicians. There we...I had mixed feelings about <em>The Magicians</em>. There were some beautifully written passages, some interesting magical speculations, much food for thought in the Fillory/Narnia sections.<br /><br />But Quentin Coldwater is a thoroughly unlikeable protagonist, as are most of his associates, and not in a way that I found particularly compelling either. The Fillory sections were, in the end, disappointing. And I hate-hate-hated the ending, which seemed to completely negate the entire point of the whole book.<br /><br />I haven't read <em> The Magician King</em> either, but I hear it spends a good deal time with a minor character from the first book who sounds much more interesting than Quentin and company, so we'll see.<br /><br />@Rebecca: if you like "transporting" fiction, have you read <em>Wolf Hall</em>, by Hilary Mantel? I found it completely immersing, so to speak, an intense experience of looking at the world through somebody else's eyes. Also, I'm currently raving over Madison Smartt Bell's Haitian trilogy, <em>All Souls' Rising, Master of the Crossroads, The Stone That the Builder Refused</em>. (Of course, it's understandable if you might not exactly <em>want</em> to be transported to Haiti during the revolution, but the worldbuilding effect is excellent if you can stand it.)Amaryllisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1470115786787140224.post-88969095988150051452011-09-10T13:57:04.476-04:002011-09-10T13:57:04.476-04:00Glad you liked Perdido! I am definitely in a phase...Glad you liked Perdido! I am definitely in a phase where I love my fiction to be weird or somehow transporting. Which isn't to say it needs to be fantasy, but the prose needs to be exceptional or the world-building, and preferably both. "The Name of the Rose" is not fantasy, but I love it on that level, and I still very much love Virginia Woolf and Joyce, even though their worlds are really rather mundane, they are both such avid prose experimenters that there is always something surprising to uncover.<br /><br />I can't remember if I asked this before, but have you read any of the comic series "The Unwritten"? It's by the creative team that did "Lucifer," and it's really fun, especially for literature geeks. It's not finished, but there are quite a few trade paperback collections of the initial issues already released. <br /><br />Also, have you read "The Magicians" by Levi Grossman? It's a little meandering at points, but it's basically Harry Potter with college students and a better-developed magic system meets Narnia viewed through the lens of theodicy. And it features the best wizarding duel I have ever read. There's a sequel called "The Magician King" that's supposed to be even better, but I haven't read it yet, and "The Magicians" certainly stands well enough on its own.Rebecccanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1470115786787140224.post-7574513505400829172011-09-09T20:29:36.053-04:002011-09-09T20:29:36.053-04:00love the blog links - thanks for the reading :)love the blog links - thanks for the reading :)even one sparrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06885265079358569547noreply@blogger.com