Harmony: Somebody remembered to pick me up the sweetest unicorn. Guess someone was feeling guilty for standing me up in tenth grade. Brad: What? Had to get her something. She sired me. Peaches: Sire-whipped.

'Beneath You'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Kathy A - Mar 03, 2006 10:33:33 am PST #100 of 28095
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil

That's why I'm leaning more towards relatively new stuff. I haven't been to his apartment in over a year, and really haven't talked to him in nearly that long, so I'm not too sure exactly what he's into right now. I figure he has the DVDs that he wants, and being the music geek he is, I'm sure he's got all the CDs possible, so books are about my only option.


Volans - Mar 04, 2006 10:32:05 am PST #101 of 28095
move out and draw fire

Jonathan Strange might win the Nebula this year. I am avoiding Corwood's review, as I haven't yet finished the book. DH finished it today and was disappointed with the way it ended (NFI), but so far I can heartily recommend it myself.

The Bujold Chalion series are also really fun.


Kate P. - Mar 04, 2006 2:05:48 pm PST #102 of 28095
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

Kate, the Jonathan Strange one, what is that about, and is it really Tolkien-esque?

As Corwood notes, it isn't really Tolkein-esque, except that they're both Big Fat Fantasy novels that draw heavily (though in very different ways) on English/Northern European myths and fairy tales to create rich and vivid histories. Stylistically, I think Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is much closer to Dickens, in that it's a long, sprawling, episodic story told through the interactions of a large cast of characters, some strange, some funny, some poignant, but all vibrant.

The plot concerns the friendship and rivalry between two English magicians during the Napoleonic Wars, and their attempts to revive the tradition of English magic. If that sounds dry and boring, well, I thought so too, which is why I put off reading it for so long despite the raves from my friends and people I trust; but when I finally started it, I was pulled in almost immediately. It was such a pleasurable reading experience that I kept having to stop and read back over the previous paragraph or page because it was just so good.

DH finished it today and was disappointed with the way it ended (NFI),

What does NFI mean? I was also a little let down by the ending, but I think that's partially because I didn't want it to end!


Emily - Mar 04, 2006 2:08:18 pm PST #103 of 28095
"In the equation E = mc⬧, c⬧ is a pretty big honking number." - Scola

I've managed to get about 50 pages into Jonathan Strange, but it really hasn't grabbed me, and I kept drifting off.


Jon B. - Mar 04, 2006 6:23:32 pm PST #104 of 28095
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

I am avoiding Corwood's review, as I haven't yet finished the book.

His review is less spoilery than anything anyone's said here about it.

He also says that it took him a few chapters before it grabbed him.


Volans - Mar 05, 2006 7:58:58 am PST #105 of 28095
move out and draw fire

NFI is "no further information;" I've asked him not to elucidate as I don't want to be spoiled for the ending. He said, "Well, that's not likely," which I took to mean that it doesn't actually end.

I think the style is Austen, rather than Dickens, but mostly I'm in the "didn't grab me" crowd. It's started to grow on me now that I'm dedicating my reading time to it; when I had other books as choices I would easily put down Strange as I thought it dragged in places.


Consuela - Mar 05, 2006 10:18:34 am PST #106 of 28095
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

I felt that JS&MN was sort of a mashup of Dickens, Austen, and Pamela Dean; or at least that's what it felt like to me. Much of magical plot is actually told by implication rather than explicitly, which is a very Dean-ish thing to do. Or Patricia McKillip.

I read the entire thing in about four days (I was home sick), and enjoyed it immensely. I did think it dragged a bit, about 3/4 of the way through (the whole Vienna sequence went on a bit too long), but overall I just really liked it. It's very much its own kind of thing: despite all the evident influences, I can't think of anything else it really reminds me of.

If a reader doesn't like Dickens and Austen, though, I suspect they wouldn't it. And maybe even if they did.


meara - Mar 05, 2006 11:36:33 am PST #107 of 28095

If that sounds dry and boring, well, I thought so too, which is why I put off reading it for so long despite the raves from my friends and people I trust

If a reader doesn't like Dickens and Austen, though, I suspect they wouldn't it. And maybe even if they did

Heh. Before reading the sec ond quote, i was about to say "Comparing it to Dickens doesn't make me want to go run and pick it up, even if everyone says it's good!"


§ ita § - Mar 05, 2006 12:45:42 pm PST #108 of 28095
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

The book is too damned long. I'm reading it, and I'm liking it, every page, but I do feel impatient nonetheless. I'm never finishing it at my current rate of consumption--it keeps getting longer as I go.


Strix - Mar 05, 2006 4:27:10 pm PST #109 of 28095
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

I read it, was very "eh." I'd re-read it if it were the only book in jail, but I didn't see what all the fuss what about.

Lukewarm, if not chilly.