2010 Reading #13: The Bone Forest
Books 1-10.
11. The Dream Years by Lisa Goldstein.
12. Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow.
13. The Bone Forest by Robert Holdstock. I've decided, in addition to plowing through the Easy Rawlins series, to read all of Holdstock's works about Ryhope Wood--after I've finished those series I may tackle the many gaps in my LeGuin reading, or someone else. This is advertised as part of the Mythago Wood cycle, but in truth this collection is only partly about that setting--the title story and one other are clearly set there, and most of the others exist in a sort of might-be anthro-fantastic pre-history that could fall under the wood's purview, except for the last story, which is science fiction horror. An uneven collection, I'm afraid; I think Holdstock's brand of mythic fantasy works best when given space to unfold, which is difficult to do in twenty-odd pages. Worth it, though, for the title novella (at least), which gives a background on the Huxley family and Wynne-Jones which is never really brought out anywhere else, and has an ending which raises questions about nearly everything in the cycle.
11. The Dream Years by Lisa Goldstein.
12. Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow.
13. The Bone Forest by Robert Holdstock. I've decided, in addition to plowing through the Easy Rawlins series, to read all of Holdstock's works about Ryhope Wood--after I've finished those series I may tackle the many gaps in my LeGuin reading, or someone else. This is advertised as part of the Mythago Wood cycle, but in truth this collection is only partly about that setting--the title story and one other are clearly set there, and most of the others exist in a sort of might-be anthro-fantastic pre-history that could fall under the wood's purview, except for the last story, which is science fiction horror. An uneven collection, I'm afraid; I think Holdstock's brand of mythic fantasy works best when given space to unfold, which is difficult to do in twenty-odd pages. Worth it, though, for the title novella (at least), which gives a background on the Huxley family and Wynne-Jones which is never really brought out anywhere else, and has an ending which raises questions about nearly everything in the cycle.