I have my books and my poetry to protect me

[j4]

Mememememememememe first seen on rysmiel's journal:

1. Name a book you love no matter what anyone says.
2. Name a book you loathe no matter what anyone says.
3. Name a book you think is undeservedly obscure.
4. Name a book you think is undeservedly famous.
5. Name a book you think you ought to read.
6. Name a book you think I ought to read.

Comments

[sparrowsion]

1. I think I'm going to stick with what I said last night. Not so much a book I love no matter what anyone says, but one I don't think is as (comparatively) deserving of the vilification it gets. Stephen Donaldson's The One Tree, ie. volume 2 of the Second Chronicles etc. etc. which is generally reckonned to be the worst of the bunch (no matter how low or high ones general opinion of the series). Whereas it's the first of them I'd save from the ceremonial pyre. (Somewhere between The Belgariad and The Mallorean. Maybe even before The Belgariad.)

2. Magician by Raymond Feist. Beats Jane Gaskell's Atlan series (which I abandonned part way through book 1 before the tedium caused irreparable damage) because the latter is quite obscure and the former has a number of apologists. Why? for crying out loud. It's a join-the-dots, paint-by-numbers novellization of a game. There's a huge supply of fantasy brick franchises out there, and quite enough with more redeeming features than this.

3. I could just insert my standard rant about how there appears to be lots of good, non-formulaic fantasy which only gets a US publisher and is thus a pain to obtain on this side of the pond. Swordspoint would be an excellent example, but this time, I'm going to single out One for the Morning Glory which suffers the double whammy of being quirky fantasy (darkly humorous but rarely overtly comedic) written by a science fiction author (John Barnes).

4. Can't help but go for a big target here. Pratchett. No question he's done good stuff, but I don't think he deserves the lionization he gets. Go read some Tom Holt. It might not be as good, but it's not that much worse.

5. 1984 is probably at the top of that list, although Brave New World is likely to beat it to the top of the to-be-read pile. Although I've not read Gormenghast, I strangely don't feel too strongly compelled to. Getting round to HP4 and 5 in the near future would be a good idea.

6. You know there's quite a list of these. Top at the moment would have to be The Athenian Murders (José Carlos Somoza). Watchmen would also be highly placed. If you're going to keep bouncing off Freedom and Necessity then I'm not going to keep on recommeniding it -- there's quite enough other stuff to read.