Recent reading and listening

[luzula]

Dogsbody, by Diana Wynne Jones

Childhood nostalgia! And entirely untouched by the suck fairy, as well. \o/ The best part of this for me is Sirius' sheer dogginess. It is so very charming. In fact, all the dogs and the cats are so well written here. And the Sun and Earth are great, too. It's kind of a weird idea to mix sentient star creatures with the legends of Arawn, but I don't even care--I'm too busy being charmed. Now I want to reread all my favorite DWJ childhood books.

Ally, by Karen Traviss (#5 in the Wess'Har series)

Still a bit ambivalent about these, and I feel that the middle books in the series could have been compressed a bit. But still, I'm interested enough to read the sixth and last book.

The Mountains of Mourning, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Ooh, this was good! I liked Miles a lot better here, without the improbable space opera antics. It was good to see more of Barrayar culture, as well.

Sword at Sunset, by Rosemary Sutcliff

I feel like I would've been more impressed by this book had I not read Jo Walton's The King's Peace and The King's Name first, because I'm pretty sure they will forever be my favorite Arthurian adaptation. Anyway, I was slow to get into Sword at Sunset--there's just so much campaigning in the first half of the book--but it did grip me in the end, and the writing is lovely as always. I'm surprised that there is no Artos/Guenhumara/Bedwyr fic on the AO3?

Fannishly, I've really enjoyed A Glorified Screw (or: Five Times Joe Kissed Billy, and One Time Billy Kissed Joe) (16565 words) by jar. I thought I'd read all the Hard Core Logo fic there was, but hey, here's a new-to-me long story (well, long for the fandom) with great writing and characterization.

Oh, and I've also been listening to this seminar series about The Silmarillion. It delights my geeky heart--about one and a half to two hours' discussion about each chapter of the book. Apparently I know The Silmarillion by heart, because I can easily follow along without rereading the book.

Comments

[feroxargentea]

Jo Walton's The King's Peace and The King's Name first, because I'm pretty sure they will forever be my favorite Arthurian adaptation

Are they the best or the first you read? Just curious. (I find it hard to get past "The Once and Future King".)

[luzula]

I read them Walton's books fairly recently? Like, maybe a year ago. OTOH, it's been quite long since I read T H White, so I don't have them at all fresh in my mind.

[calvinahobbes]

Ooh, thanks for the Tolkien link! Slightly dispointed with the first ~10 minutes of ep1, though - very basic punctuation stuff, and saying "because" is not to *explain* pronunciation, nor is saying "it sounds better"... But I'll give him a chance :)

[luzula]

Uh, what he says about pronunciation there is actually wrong, as I remember. But he admits that Tolkien's language is his weak point, and it gets more interesting from there, I think.

[calvinahobbes]

Hah! I did feel he was on very shaky ground, but that's pretty embarrassing! Well at least he's got lots of room to improve and impress me ;)

[seascribble]

I bounced off of Sword at Sunset several times, but after I finally made it through once, I enjoyed the beginning much more on a reread. There should be more Artos/Guenhumara/Bedwyr fic. But it is just too damn tragic. D:

Thanks for the HCL fic rec; I don't really seek it out (too damn tragic!) but I always enjoy reading the stuff people rec.

[luzula]

Er, the thing I'm writing is kind of a fix-it for Artos/Guenhumara/Bedwyr? But not, like, a live-happily-ever-after story. I couldn't imagine how to do that for them--they are too tragic.

[mysticalchild_isis]

I think Miles just gets better as he goes along. Memory is actually my absolute favorite of all of Bujold's books. But Mountains of Mourning is lovely, and it is one that holds up to re-reading very well.

[akamine_chan]

The Mountains of Mourning is such an intensely human story, and one of my favorites. :D

[luzula]

I'm looking forward to the next one now! And yeah, I did really like the serious underpinnings of Mountains of Mourning, and the way they related to Miles' life.

[luzula]

Yes! It was very human, and I liked how it related to Miles' life, as well.