Wish to Read List

[scriva]

VanderMeer, Shriek - An Afterword
Abercrombie, The Blade itself
Berg, Revelation
Butler, Xenogenesis (there is a book that contains all three parts)
Gemmell, Lord of the Silver Bow

I want to buy all of these, but right now I could afford only one. It's a hard choice.

Edit: later this day: After the first round of thinking about the premises and getting

Comments

[catrionamacnair]

Blade Itself, Blade Itself! :)

[scriva]

Heh, yes, it seems to be the book everyone reads at the moment.

I hope you are feeling better at work and otherwise. :)

[catrionamacnair]

Well, I have a week off, so things look brighter :)

I read it a while ago, and it's one of the books on the 'when in doubt, reread that' list. I absolutely loved it. And the second is even better!

[niamhotoole]

Abercrombie.

[niamhotoole]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS, I missed Lord of the Silver Bow.

I'd recommend buying Lord alongside Shield of Thunder at least though, so if you have money only for one, then it's back to Abercrombie.

[scriva]

I missed out on buying Lord of the Silver Bow when I bought Carol Berg, Transformation, but it looked interesting. I always liked Andromache as a character in the Ilias. Does she only figure in the first book, or does she, against Iliad canon, survive the war?

[niamhotoole]

The war's only in the third one, which I'm putting off reading. Andromaque is one of his best characters of all times, as he portrays her. And she has a prominent place, particularly in Shield.

[scriva]

Oh, that's interesting. The only bad thing is that Aeneas is a main character. I never quite liked him. I hope he is more interesting in Gemmell's version than in the known stories about him.

[xraytheenforcer]

Depends if you want fantasy or SF:

Butler for SF
Abercrombie for fantasy. :)

[scriva]

Heh. Thanks.

It really is a hard choice. I found the first book of the Xenogenesis in our library, but for some mysterious reason, they never bought or got the other ones. It was very regretful, because I found the idea so innovative.

The reason for the list is that I feel in the mood for something unusual and interesting. I think VanderMeer and Butler have to be higher ranked for innovation, while Abercrombie seems to be plainly interesting and Gemmell offers a new look on an old story.

Carol Berg is actually the lowest on the list.

[xraytheenforcer]

if it's "unusual or interesting" then, yes, Butler and VanderMeer clearly win that battle. It then devolves to: stories about alien races, or stories about baroquely grotesque semi-humans? (squid optional) :p

good luck!!