Books in 2007

[jvankirk]

Reading List so far in 2007:
King of the Murgos, David Eddings
Demon Lord of Karanda, David Eddings
Sorceress of Darshiva, David Eddings
The Seeress of Kell, David Eddings
The Phoenix Guards, Steven Brust
The Priest of Blood, Douglas Clegg
The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross
The City of Angels, John Berendt

In Progress:
Saving Fish from Drowning, Amy Tan

Comments

[cochese]

How do you read that much David Eddings and not gag?

[jvankirk]

I did gag! I just wanted to see where he would take it. He is most sexist writer I have ever read!

[cochese]

I may have been too young and dumb to notice the sexism. I just went nuts with the whole, "We are from this fantasy kingdom, and we are all like this!" So you had the nation of thieves and everyone was thiefy thieferson. And the nation of vikings that were viking vikingson. And then... Bah.

If you ever have a chance, I really liked the first novel that Eddings ever wrote: The High Hunt. I think it may have been his master's thesis from the University of Washington. It was set "modern day" (which I believe was in the 60s) and was a dark character study, really. The ending was "unsatisfactory" but the characters were wonderful. It's the sort of dark novel that is critically well received but no one buys it. It's the opposite of the fluff that he wrote and made a name for himself with.

[jvankirk]

It sounds interesting.

Yeah, the "thiefy thieferson" stuff was irritating and predictable. What I found the hardest to swallow was the greatest sorceress of all time was responsible for making everyone's meals and had to be protected from fights.