Mystic and Dog Flight

[maribou]

Mystic and Rider, by Sharon Shinn
So the problem with this book is partially a problem with me - ever since I started doing some role-playing, I have Major Issues with certain kinds of quest fantasy - the kind where everyone has a purpose for being in the party, and the plot very conveniently happens in exactly the way that makes the most sense, and there's Lots and Lots and Lots of Peril but somehow no one gets TOO hurt and there's a way out of every problem that is very specifically tailored to those particular characters, and it's all very bloody obvious and fairly predictable and there's not sufficient depth to make up for it, so it just doesn't matter how pretty the world is or how charming the characters are. Hm. Actually, that sounds like it's not just me that has the problem. It's a shame really, because this is the first time I haven't loved a Sharon Shinn novel. Of course, the cussed book had to go and get reallyreally good for most of the last 120 pages or so, after being decidedly mediocre for the first three hundred ... so now I will have to give the second one a go. Eventually. When I've taken off my crankypants about the first one.
(56/300)

21 Dog Years: Doing Time at amazon.com, by Mike Daisey
This isn't properly a memoir - most of it feels like someone putting on a show. Which I suppose shouldn't be surprising given that it was a one-man-show before it was a book. It has interesting bits, and insightful bits, and even some bits that are both. And then there were bits that made me sigh with frustration. Anyway, it was looking at amazon.com from an angle I hadn't looked at it before, and the prose was lively and fun to read, and sometimes it was very funny. I'd recommend it, with the caveat that that doesn't mean I necessarily buy all (most?) of it.
(57/300)

Flight: Volume 1, edited by Kazu Kibuishi
manintheboat was totally right and this book was lovely lovely lovely. I confess a couple of the stories didn't quite cohere for me, but most of them are exceedingly sensical and breathtakingly gorgeous, all at once. I especially liked the story about the girl who woke up with wings, and the kite story, and the stories about Copper and Dog. heads up, vixyish - there are all kinds of people from that pantsketch community you got me watching in here, and I think you would find it keen.
(58/300)

Comments

[arjache.livejournal.com]

I suspect you mean Copper (http://boltcity.com/copper/), not Cooper. (And my word, what pretty work Kazu Kibuishi does.)

[maribou]

You're absolutely right.

[ilmarinen.livejournal.com]

I can't read most fantasy these days--so much of it is derivative drivel. Not saying that's the case in your reference, but the whole genre is rotten with cliche and trite work. Gotta imagine it is worse than romance novels. It is not as bad as vampire fiction though, that's just silly.

In some seriousness, I really regret there is not more good high fantasy I can take seriously. Think that's one reason I like urban fairy tale genre so much, it is something *different* than rehashing the same stuff over again.

Of course, I'm annoyed when I game and the gaming feels like the plot you outline.

Ooooh, while thinking of fantasy I recommend, try Iron Dragon's Daughter. I might have been at a point of very poor judgement (might have been a post-finals crash during college), but I really enjoyed that book and liked the flavor.

(I'm coming to realize a lot of my taste in fiction isn't really good. I mean, in the sense that I enjoy some pretty fluffy things for pleasure reading and that's why I read.)

wow, this got long

[maribou]

I'll give Iron Dragon's Daughter a try.

Parker's Devices and Desires is the only high fantasy book I've ever read that a) doesn't have any magic in it but is, yet, definitely high fantasy, and b) has a heavily engineering-dependent plot (oh, and there's also c) is chock full of "assiduously researched technical descriptions of everything from dressing a duke to hunting a boar," to quote a disgruntled reviewer). You should try it. It reminded me of TH White, only not as goofy. I'm actually pining to reread it, and then read the rest of the trilogy, but I seem to be saving it against dire need or something.

When I'm really feeling grumpy with the state of the fantasy genre as a whole (which I almost never am - I mean, I actually read some vampire novels, and romance novels, and even *gasp* vampire romance novels ... I'm so easy when it comes to books), I go back to the old weird things. Peake's Gormenghast, and the Norse myths, and like that. HEY! Did you ever read the ER Eddison books? Pre-Tolkien, demi-gods in human dress kind of stuff ... You would like those, I think, if you didn't mind the slight stiffness of the style ... they're awfully awfully good, and rich, and deep, and strange. And though I can see influences of them in some stuff, they haven't been rehashed much so when I read them in my mid-twenties they felt very new and different ... even though they're three-quarters of a century old. The Worm Ouroboros would be the place to start.

I think there's a difference between 'good' and 'refined'. I think 'reliably giving pleasure' is a pretty fair equivalent to 'good', in the aesthetic realm. I've had more fun from some true tripe ... (but the recommendations above? they are fun AND brilliant)

[ionan.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loved the Flight anthology. The second one has a story called "The Robot and the Sparrow", which made me tear up. You might look into it.

[manintheboat.livejournal.com]

Have you read Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library issue about the robot that brings flowers?

[ionan.livejournal.com]

Nope. Honestly, Chris Ware's work leaves me cold. To me it seems like his storytelling ability is severely lacking and yet people laud him as the second coming or something, which I can only guess is due to his technical drawing prowess. And sure, he's decent, but it just doesn't do it for me.

[maribou]

It's in my hold queue at the public library as I write this.

[e-t-a.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. That story is just so sweet, and lovely too.

[manintheboat.livejournal.com]

YEAH Flight!

[maribou]

YEAH!

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Heh. I know. I finished Flight: Volume 3 a few months back, and the whole *reason* I bought volume 1 was because Dylan Meconis and a couple other pantsketchers were in it. :) (Sadly she's not in vol. 2 or vol. 3, but there are some amazing folks who are.)

[maribou]

Ok, good. Just wanted to be *sure*. You know.

[gement.livejournal.com]

"I have Major Issues with certain kinds of quest fantasy"

And THAT, m'dear, is why I would dearly love to somehow excise the entire first short story from my work. If I could find a way to hook Gerard without it, I'd slash it in a trice, and simply pine after the lost image of Aldo trussed up on the ground.

But that story of mine sets off all of my tame RPG plot buttons.

[maribou]

Well, I can see, objectively why it would. But to be honest, I think part of the reason I was so irritated with Shinn is *because* I was reading that part of your stuff at the same time - and even though you were sort of doing the same thing, and yours was raw, and she is an Important Published Author and all that? Yours was a lot more compelling. It showed hers up, I guess.

belated reply

[gement.livejournal.com]

Mr, mr, mr. I still fret over it. But thank you. (The long delay is because I have been reading LJ but not my email, so I just now discovered the notification of your reply comment.)

*adds the phrase "a lot more compelling than [published author]" to the nice thoughts list*

*goes back to figuring out how to cleanse the high fantasy RPG plot taint from the story*

Oh, and you have read far enough to see the very small joke that is my icon now! :-)

Re: belated reply

[maribou]

Hee hee!