(no subject)

[dewinged]

-12:25 PM

Again. OUt of books. I wouldn't be so twitchy about it if every Author I find myself looking forward to most didn't take their sweet time with getting stuff out. Though, Rowling had one book out this year, and she's already warned us she's going to take a LONG time for the next book. George R. R. Martin? Dude. It's been THREE YEARS. Three Years. And according to Ye Olde Amazon, the next book, #4 of 6, is going to be out in April and I'm going to start this overdone waiting game all over again. Arg!

Now, I know the arguements I'm gonna get for me being ticked off about that: Oh, buit it's better the author takes his time and gets it right than rushes and makes a bad book.

And to a point, I agree with that. But there's a threshold I eventually hit where it stops being patience and the author being careful and starts being 'for the love of GOD finish the freaking book already!)

I got the last Martin book in November, 2000. Next book: April, 2004. I should be more specific. Three and a Half Years. W.T.F.? Seriously.

I bounce around a lot, I know. I've already given up the Laurell K Hamilton series thing out of sheer frustration with the recent books, and where things ended up. (Hell, I could make the arguement of anti-gay sentiments in the books, but that is the rough equivalent of my walking into the lion's den after covering my body with steak sauce. Not going there.)

So, I'm stuck on the book front. :P Help?

Comments

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Kushiel's Dart. Go. Read.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Diana Wynne Jones.

Find her stuff. Read it. She's good.

She also pre-dates Rowling by several decades.

Besides Terry Prachett?

[razorsedge74.livejournal.com]

Well, you like Diskworld, I know, but if you'd like something sort of along those lines, try finding a novel or two by a guy named Christopher Moore. Good stuff. My dad and I both enjoy his work, and given he likes crime novels, Irish history, and spy thrillers while I'm more into horror, fantasy, and the classics, that's no mean feat. The early novels are all parodies of the horror genre. One of his more recent books was a "Gospel" according to Christ's childhood pal Biff that, despite some of the ideas, was fairly reverent in some ways which, if you aren't a fundamentalist (and I'm pretty sure you're not ;)), you should enjoy. The main crux of the book is about how Josh ("Jesus" is Greek for "Joshua") and Biff traveled to the East so Josh could learn from other cultures how to be a Messiah. Later they come back and we see such things as how the Twelve were recruited, and why Biff wasn't mentioned in the Bible.

Or, if not, I'd recommend anything by a man named T.C. Boyle. Especially a short stories collection. Boyle's a master of writing. He writes mostly humorous stuff but isn't limited to it. And he can copy the styles of other authors with the best of them. I had to read a collection of his short work for a class and it was amazing how much far his work stretched in so many directions, his word choice was great, and while it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, many of the stories were highly amusing. And the serious ones were good, too. He also does novels, though I've never read one, but I hear they aren't quite so good.

I took a class on Native American authors. Both Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich are worth a look. Alexie is more politically minded as an Indian, but he deftly illustrates the problems between white and Indian cultures and where modern Indians have to make up their minds. Erdrich's novels are like an ongoing soap-opera, though the individual books stand alone. Each novel tells a little bit more about the Indians living on this South Dakota reservation over a period of about a century. Erdrich's late husband had this equally great novel, A Yellow Raft on Blue Water, which is told in reverse chronological order, with a granddaughter starting with tales of her horrible mother and grandmother, then getting her mother's view and finding out she isn't quite so bad, and finally the grandmother's tale as we see she's misunderstood by others as well for various reasons. Well worth a look, though I can't remember the author's name right now.

Those should do for a start.

[blytheteach.livejournal.com]

it might not toatally be your type of reading but i recently finished the da vince code and really enjoyed it.

[occamsnailfile.livejournal.com]

Sean Stewart is awesome for slightly-to-very-creepy modern magic novels- I guess he's sci-fi. Resurrection Man is the place to start with him, usually easy to find at the used book store.

Martha Wells is pretty awesome setting-building fantasy, though she's also kinda slow to put out new books in trilogies she just started last year arrgh. http://www.marthawells.com/thorns.htm is a short story you should read anyway- it's Sleeping Beauty from the witch's standpoint, sort of.

I have a list of authors as long as my arm, but a lot of them are more sci-fi/occasionally a bit experimental and not to everyone's taste.

A Couple More

[razorsedge74.livejournal.com]

Oh, and there's also Clive Barker, William Gibson, Chuck Palahnuik, and (though I'm currently burnt out on the guy) Harry Turtledove for authors you may enjoy if you give 'em a chance.