Recent reading

[luzula]

I've had more books on the go than I usually have. First I started reading one from my bookcase, but when a library book came in I started on that instead. Then I went on a trip and didn't want to bring the library book, so I started on an ebook. And then I realized I had a book club coming up, so I started on the book club ebook instead. It feels like a series of nested parentheses, of which I have now closed two sets and am working on the library book.

The Afterward by E. K. Johnston (audiobook, 2019)
skygiants' rereading of the Belgariad inspired me with childhood nostalgia, but no, I am not going to reread those. So instead I read what is basically someone's genderswapped post-canon F/F Eddings fanfic! Well, with the numbers filed off. The gem is green instead of blue, but otherwise there's a party of (all-female) knights who were on a quest to destroy the evil god, along with a mage and a thief, etc. It's mostly about romance between the thief and the apprentice knight. I enjoyed it, but thought it was a bit too long--I didn't really need all those flashbacks to the quest.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (1990)
Reread in preparation for watching the miniseries. This was actually one of my first fandoms, and I wrote my very first fanfic for it! Which has recently been getting new kudos and comments, and hey, I don't actually cringe when rereading it.

But, okay, the actual canon. Reading it was a strange combination of fond remembrance and realizing that hey, it was a long time since I read this and I hardly remembered some of the details. Looking forward to watching the series now, based on what people have been saying about it.

Comments

[skygiants]

I'm very excited to palate-cleanse my inevitable Mallorean read with The Afterward.

[oursin]

It might have been the UK editions of the Belgariad that had a prefatory note that in this work he was addressing certain philosophical issues in the fantasy genre - my copies have long since gone to charitable purposes so I cannot check the exact wording - but I remember being very WTF??!! about that (did not the author of the Gor series make some similar plea for the deep inner meaningfulness of his opus?). It more or less defined Extruded Fantasy Product.

This was already well into the era of swordswoman and sorceress teams - e.g Phyllis Ann Karr's Frostflower and Thorn (1980), and later the canonically bisexual couple in JF Rivkin's Silverglass sequence. Both predating Mercedes Lackey's Vows and Honour series. All preceded by Diane Duane's poly and pansexual Tales of the Five... (The Door into Fire first appeared in 1979).

[luzula]

I do not remember this note, but yes, that would have been baffling. Of course, I was about twelve when I started reading them, and I don't think I had the necessary discernment at that age...

[luzula]

I got the impression that The Afterward is actually more inspired by the Elenium and Tamuli than it is by the earlier series. I mean, there are knights, and the thief is young (Talen) rather than older (Silk), and the leader of the quest later marries the king. But I guess it's basically the same story anyway...

[rachelmanija]

Ha! I had no idea it was Eddings fanfic!

[luzula]

Well, I might not have realized it myself except that it says so on the Goodreads page! I mean, Eddings is generic enough that if you file off the serial numbers then it could just be any high fantasy series.

[seascribble]

I'm keen to see what you think of the Good Omens miniseries. I blasted through it before rereading and I mostly loved it and now that I'm rereading the book, I'm realizing how much I'd forgotten too!

[luzula]

Looking forward to it! In fact I will be watching the first episodes with a friend tonight.