Over the past three days, I have written two new reviews for the SFF Masterworks blog.
1) Fletcher Pratt, The Well of the Unicorn
2) Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren
In addition, a friend of mine, Fábio Fernandes, has written a personal essay on how he discovered Borges while on a spiritual retreat.
Although it will take me at least a week into August to finish off the misleading Borges Month, I would like to let everyone know that for much of August I will be re-reading/reviewing works by Serbian authors that I currently have: David Albahari, Ivo Andrić, Svetislav Basara, Danilo Kiš, Milorad Pavić, and Zoran Živković. This should mean near-daily posts on works of theirs.
Oh, and for those of you who might have thought I had abandoned re-reading/reviewing those long series, in particular the Malazan books, there will be some commentaries in the very near future on Erikson's books #5-8, Esslemont's two novels, and maybe the novellas as well. Do have a little over 600 pages to go in my re-read of the ninth volume, and I'll get that done shortly. Might also have a bit to say in response to certain arguments I've seen over and yonder about perceived "decline" in quality of the latter novels. Wait with bated breath!
And finally, lest I forget (like I tend to do with most emails sent to me, unfortunately), there is a new e-book publisher, Wizard's Tower Press, that is co-run by people I know and respect. Do visit the site and see what you think, okay?
Knight Errant
4 days ago
Posts
4 comments:
Looking forward to your re-reading/review of Milorad Pavic. Loved his "Dictionary of the Khazars. Have not read anything else of his yet, though.
His last novel before his death, Second Body, is available on his site in English. Very good story. Too bad it's not available in print form.
I never noticed the notorious decline in quality that the Malazan series is supposed to suffer from. I seem to be the opposite of most--most meaning the ones that shout their distaste from the rooftops--as I prefer the later books in the series to the earlier, which apparently plants me firmly amongst the tasteless imbeciles according to arguments seen over and yonder.
"as I prefer the later books in the series to the earlier, which apparently plants me firmly amongst the tasteless imbeciles according to arguments seen over and yonder."
Well, I'm right with you. Toll the Hounds is hated in a lot of circles, but I found it a sublime melding of the epic/urban secondary world styles that excelled at offering a lot of smaller character-driven moments as well as the bigger action spectacle stuff. That volume and Midnight Tides I consider to be some of the best secondary world fiction of the past decade alongside various books penned by VanderMeer, Stover, and Mieville.
- Zach
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