I've just finished a fantasy novel called Voyage of The Shadowmoon. It was one of the really nice occasions when I've picked up a book on a second hand stall, been intrigued and bought it despite the truly awful cover art.It takes a peculiar delight in subverting some fantasy pillars without ever losing its own cohesion. Engaging characters (one a chivalrous, 700 year old vampire, trapped inside the body of a never aging 15 year old.) Australian writer, Sean McMullen. Really good read, so much so I've ordered the second one in the sequence from Amazon:P

Currently reading: Paine's 'Rights of Man', and 'Gentlemen and Players' by Joanne Harris.

I'm currently reading a Lovecraft collection. It's weighted towards his earlier work, and some of it isn't quite so polished, but there are passages here and there that caused me to pause and reflect.

Ohhh. I love Lovecraft!

Ummm.... well....
Kind of? I read most of her vampire books, but it's been quite a while. I'd have to say that yes, some of her descriptions do get repetitive. But I like her style, and I really like her characters. The Gentry books have characters that I like a lot more than the vampire ones...they're a lot more sympathetic, I suppose.

Repeated descriptions go back to Homer (and probably before). The question is, was it lazy and repetitive then, and we just give him a pass 'cause he's old?

Reasonable point Hm, but have you read Laurel K. Hamilton? I'm not putting her down, but she won't be being read in 2000 years time.

Nope. The reason for repetition is different: Homer was repetitious because it was recited to an audience and therefore needed to be easy to remember; one of the methods used to act as memory cues/aids, was a kind of circular descriptive form. There was also more of a need in oral poetry/story telling, for expected anchors for the audience, such as archetypal descriptions. You see it a lot in Norse sagas too.

I finished Hamilton's new book. While the first four Gentry books were awesome, this last one was a little dissappointing. Only 200 pages, for one thing! She's trying to do too much in too little time, and it's starting to show.:sniff:

But Darkness and Frost almost make up for it, so I suppose I'll keep reading...whenever she gets around to writing another one.

Has anyone else read it?

Access All Areas: a user's guide to the art of urban exploration, The Screwtape Letters, and will soon be starting on Michael Yon's book Danger Close

I just finished Wicked. I still don't know what to think...

When I was on vacation I got the first ed. of The Faber Book Of Northern Legends and it's companion book of Scandinavian fables.

Read "For Us, The Living" by Heinlen today (yesterday? something like that).


I'm completely on board for just about everything expressed in the book.

Dark Seas of Infinity (book club edition of Lovecraft's writings) is somewhere in the morass of covers of my bed. I set it aside for a bit, and made a terrible, terrible mistake.

Clearly, the stress of dealing with my mom has made me insane.

I bought a series of three books that looked like they should be good. The story has mystery and magick and vampires and a mission from Goddess, I mean, how much better could you get? Except that the thrice-dam'ned things were written by Nora Roberts who is a miserable, formulaic romance novel writer. Total, unrepentent suck, they are, I tell you! Plot contrivances that should have caused the pages to shred of their own accord ... forced dialog ... trashy softcore sex scenes.

Whatever you do, dear friends, steer clear of Morrigan's Cross, Dance of the Gods, and Valley of Silence. Please, do it for the children.

For a comedy:

I just read Jon Stewart's "Naked Pictures of Famous People." I laughed pretty much all the way through it.

Hitler on Larry King live

Princess Di's letters to Mother Theresa

Hanging with the Kennedys

Great stuff!

I have put the crappy novels on hold.

I bought myself an unexpected Yule gift.

Hannibal Rising - Thomas Harris.

While it's sad seeing a good author become a one-trick pony, the character is so compelling that you do want to know more and more, although, I think that this book is the one that probably should have been hinted at, rather than written. The one I want, of course, is the story which precedes Red Dragon, detailing Lecter's killings that led to his capture by Will Graham.