Comrade Brust must be included in this sweeping polemic

Aha!

For Arthurian fantasy, I liked Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon

See, I had huge issues with Bradley's take. I didn't get any sense that she liked her female characters; in fact, there was a feeling that she actively disliked them. For Arthurian stuff, I go Mary Stewart every time (and of course, Malory and T.H. White.

Warning - long post ahead!!

Deb, its funny that I can see this now wrt Bradley, but as a teenager I really didn't. I had read Stewart, White, and most of Malory before I picked up the Mists of Avalon, but somehow it just sang to me. I loved the portrayal of Morgaine so much. It was really what launched me into getting a degree in religion, MA in religion and lit, and a certificate in Welsh Language and Literature. Mists was oddly the catalyst for all of that. Maybe I just read it at a very impressionable time in my life....

And I have been meaning to thank you for a lovely Saturday evening (at this point you may be wondering what you forgot about your Saturday, since you have never met me!). I was house/dog sitting for a friend and brought along Weaver. It was a perfect evening. I sat in the afternoon sun and started the book, read till the sun went down, ate a nice dinner, then took a bath and finished it! I didn't necessarily intend to read it all the way through, but I got to the point where I was kind of freaked out since we were at my friend's house in the country, and I couldn't put it down till I knew what happened to Will and Betsy. It was the most enjoyable evening I have had in a long time! And it definitely transported me back to the year I studied in Wales and traveled around. Having been to Glastonbury (on a day of wild storm clouds alternating with golden sun) really helped me to place it visually in my mind - but I think I could have done so just from your descriptions. I need to get my pre-order in for the next one!

Catching up on supernatural type YA stuff - I loved "The Girl With the Silver Eyes", now I am thinking I need to track that down and re read it.

Did anyone ever read The Changeover by Margaret Mahy? I loved that one. 'Sensitive' sister realizes her little brother is possessed, through the course of the book she comes into her own as far as powers. I wanted to be in that book so much when I first read it. The cover that is on Amazon is really freaky looking though, I am glad I still have my old copy.

A couple of weird ones that I can't remember the names of now, but for some reason have been surfacing in my thoughts lately:

The first was about a group of kids that were isolated in this weird labyrinth thing. I seem to remember all the walls being white. They were conditioned - I feel like it was a Pavlov type experiment or something. They were forced to eat these synthetic food pellets, they did odd movements when they saw red or green lights. The only reason I remember that is because at the end they somehow escaped, but when they were on the street they saw a traffic light and they all started doing the movement....creeeeepy.

The other one I dimly remember being made into a movie. It was about cloning. I think the clones were called Anna. The woman they were cloned from lived during the holocaust, I think she died then. The clones start off in separate families, but a few of them get to know each other. One of the shared memories they all have is a piece of music the woman used to play on the piano all the time. While I can't remember the name, or even many of the details, for some reason the feeling of that book has stuck with me.

Final question for the hive-mind and then I will finally stop! I am thinking of using The Da Vinci Code in my class next semester (First year seminar class, focusing on how religion is seen and used in modern America in different ways ie film, books, politics). Part of the point of the class is to teach critical reading skills so I thought it would be fun to look at the Da Vinci Code, let them get the feeling that this is all true (since presumably they do not know much about art history, religion etc) and then look at the criticisms of it and talk about why we need to be cynical and criticize things that we read rather than taking them for face value. Has anyone seen any good criticism come out yet? I am looking for something that is not completely based in the Catholic church, but is reasonably academic. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Heh. Rhiannon, I'm literally just coming off a discussion on how books read at different ages can be seen entirely differently. The ones that genuinely amaze me are the ones that held me young, and now hold me at the half-century mark. When there's something in there that speaks to me at both ends of my life, it's really something.

And thanks so much for the kind words on "Weaver". Glastonbury is ridiculously scenic, isn't it? Hell, all of England's southwest (and Cornwall, too) is like that. Can't you just imagine the Romans, with their fixation on straight roads ("Dig! Dig!" Straight!"), bumping into Silbury Hill?

(thump) "What the - oh, Flavius? Could you come over a minute....?"

Hee hee, Deb!

I have recently fallen in love with the Cotswolds as well. Burton-on-the-Water was beautiful.

Oh, the Cotswolds are gorgeous. But I'm an ex-Londoner who commuted to Oxford on a semi-regular basis, and when I escaped, I headed southwest.

Hell, with the exception of the celtic fantasy I wrote at an editor's request, all my books are set in the west or southwest of England.

I'm almost afraid to tackle Cornwall, though. Who could Daphne Du Maurier's House on the Strand?

The first was about a group of kids that were isolated in this weird labyrinth thing. I seem to remember all the walls being white. They were conditioned - I feel like it was a Pavlov type experiment or something. They were forced to eat these synthetic food pellets, they did odd movements when they saw red or green lights. The only reason I remember that is because at the end they somehow escaped, but when they were on the street they saw a traffic light and they all started doing the movement....creeeeepy.

read it -- the were in some sort of a maze -- all stairs or something. There was one girl who ended up there from a richer family -whe knew what real meat was - the rest were orphans. -- the ideas was an experiment that was suposed to be a conditioned response thing... DH know the title, I always forget it. It was one of the first SF books I remember reading. Creeped me out enough that I stayed away from the genre for a long time.

Hey all, thanks for the suggestions... I'll definitely check out Drake's book... although the name sounds familiar so I may have read it already, although maybe I'm thinking of Dave Duncan (who I don't think has written any merlin/arthur stuff). Anyway, regarding Lee, I do remember the books being YA and definitely lighter than her more recent stuff (which is why I wasn't sure at first if it was the same author). I actually have a copy of Mists, my mom gave it to me a few years ago, but haven't read it yet... there's something about the Guinevere angle that puts me off... I did love Guy Gavriel Kay's trilogy which had a bit of the Guinevere story, but it wasn't the main focus. I can't remember the name of them at the moment...

Vivia is a vampire novel that asks the question, is immortality a curse? I keep forgetting to ask Jilli if she’s tried that one.

Yep, and I like it lots. But the Scarabae family are still my favorites.

I did love Guy Gavriel Kay's trilogy which had a bit of the Guinevere story, but it wasn't the main focus. I can't remember the name of them at the moment...

The Fionavar Tapestry.

t /Bob likes GGK