Having just bought ALL the books, I'll say this: Several of the books individually are out of print, specifically, "Warrior's Apprentice", "Vor Game" and "Mirror Dance". I got WA and VG relatively cheaply from used book vendors online, but it'd have been cheaper just to buy "Young Miles". Also, "Mirror Dance" alone is deuced hard to find at a reasonable price (even through Bookfinder.com, where all available copies were $15+), so get "Miles Errant" instead. I actually had bought "Borders of Infinity" and "Brothers in Arms" *separately* before I realized this, so now I have two copies of those two books....

I'm starting to find the joys of this being a big, sprawling series. Haven't read "Ethan of Athos" yet, but when I got the book in mail, I did a Snoopy Dance when I realized that one of the main characters in that book was someone I already met (briefly) in "Warrior's Apprentice".

On a related note: That fantasy casting game thing? Ever since Shaye mentioned Hilary Swank as Bel, I have been unable to picture anyone else in the role. It's kind of disturbing, because everyone else's face remains blurry and amorphous, but there would Bel be, with that wide mouth and angular jaw and short brown hair, sharp as you please.

According to the BBC [link] a secret staircase matching the one described by Bronte has just been found in a house that was believed to have been part of the inspiration for Jane Eyre. Now if they find the bones of a demented relative ...

Oh, that is cool.

I'm reading The Compass Rose, which is a collection of Ursula K. LeGuin's short stories, and it's depressing the hell out of me. It was published about 30 years ago, and while the stories are speculative fiction they are clearly about the socio-political climate then. If I'd read it, oh, 6 years ago, I wouldn't be depressed. I'd be smug. I'd be thinking, "I am so glad we got past all that bullshit!"

But now? Now I'm depressed.

x-posty w/ Natter

Does anyone know of a Netflix-like service for audiobooks?

I know my grandmother gets to borrow them for free from (I'm pretty sure) Perkins School for the Blind, but she's actually going blind. Not sure if it's available to the general public.

Does anyone know of a Netflix-like service for audiobooks?

Anne, my dad's been using Recorded Books for years. Their readers are excellent.

Thanks, Jessica!

This is mostly for Hec, but input from other Love & Rockets fans is welcome.

With Christmas nearing & my family asking what I want I'm thinking of asking for some Los Bros Hernandez, but I could use some guidance. I have three collections: Gilbert's Heartbreak Soup and The Reticent Heart, and Jaime's The Lost Women and Other Stories. There are now collections -- complete, I think -- of Jaime's (Locas) and Beto's (Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories) stories. Are these preferable to the Complete Love & Rockets volumes, most of which feature both brothers? The Complete series has a serious drawback: there are at least 20 volumes and most of them cost $20.

In addition to the L&R configuration you prefer I'd also like to hear your thoughts on the relative merits of the Bros. Jaime's growing on me, but Beto grabbed me right off the bat. If I had to choose I would not hesitate in picking Palomar over Locas. That said, I'm much less versed on the subject than you & want to hear your take.

As a thank you I'm providing this link to an interview with Jaime -- including an mp3 of the interview!

X-posted from my LJ....

On a more serious note, I have Jacqueline Carey's new novel, Banewreaker, from the library. I read the first few chapters yesterday, and while I think it's quite good and very well-written, I think I'm going to return it and wait for the paperback. Partly that's because I don't always do a good job managing my holds list, and this is one of those times when I have more books than I can read in the time allotted me. I have fourteen books out right now. It's kinda nuts. So I have to make some tough choices, which means Rifle Green in the Peninsula, Vol. 1 takes priority because it's interlibrary loan, and The Hundred Days is calling me, I swear it is. But also (drumroll, please)....I just don't like Banewreaker as much as the Kushiel series.

This is not to say it's an inferior book. On the contrary, in some ways I can tell Carey has matured as a writer since beginning Kushiel's Dart. Banewreaker is intriguing and well-constructed, very much a dialogue with the Tolkien legacy in fantasy, and I definitely mean to get back to it to see where she's going exactly. But it can wait for the paperback, because it merely intrigued me. It wasn't like when I first opened Kushiel's Dart and got pulled headfirst into the characters' world from the get-go. And really, of all the pleasures in reading, for me nothing beats being caught up in the characters' lives and swept along by their stories.

So I'll get back to Banewreaker sometime in 2005. But I'll be waiting with bated breath for Carey to finish the first book in Imriel's trilogy, so I can find out what's been happening in Terre D'Ange.

With Christmas nearing & my family asking what I want I'm thinking of asking for some Los Bros Hernandez, but I could use some guidance. I have three collections: Gilbert's Heartbreak Soup and The Reticent Heart, and Jaime's The Lost Women and Other Stories. There are now collections -- complete, I think -- of Jaime's (Locas) and Beto's (Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories) stories. Are these preferable to the Complete Love & Rockets volumes, most of which feature both brothers? The Complete series has a serious drawback: there are at least 20 volumes and most of them cost $20.

Tough call, and it would depend on what you like best about Jaime and Beto. To shorthand it, Jaime's main continuing storyline is Locas (Maggie and Hopey and the characters in Hoppers), and Gilbert's main continuing storyline would be the stories set in Palomar with a large cast. Both of them also did a number of short pieces, one-offs, and shorter continuing series.

So if you get the numbered volumes, then you're going to get all those things which are not in the main Locas or Palomar storylines. I love those other things quite a bit so I'd have a hard time giving them up. However, I just looked at the Locas book the other day and (a) it's a tremdously handsome object and (b) by having Locas told as one big graphic novel, I think you'd get a richness and continuity you don't get with them in the numbered volumes.

In addition to the L&R configuration you prefer I'd also like to hear your thoughts on the relative merits of the Bros. Jaime's growing on me, but Beto grabbed me right off the bat. If I had to choose I would not hesitate in picking Palomar over Locas. That said, I'm much less versed on the subject than you & want to hear your take.

The standard take is that Jaime is one of the most gifted draftsman of his generation and that Gilbert is one of the best comic book writers ever. (This is actually kind of a wash because there have been many more genius artists than writers in the medium.)

Gilbert's sense of character and narrative structure is much more developed than Jaime's, I think. Jaime, though, did develop an elliptical storytelling style that worked very well with his artistic talents. Early Jaime stories are very genre driven. When he gets away from that he gets a bit floppy for a while, until he figures out something that works for him. In recent years, he's done some of his best storytelling (I think) when he goes back and covers the childhood years of the Locas characters and does it in a sort of Peanuts/Dennis the Menace style.

The downside with Gilbert's comics is that his cast is so huge that it's difficult to keep track of all of his characters. (An argument in favor of reading Palomar in one volume, I guess.) Also as these stories become more involved they become much more static visually, until your brain mentally groans at all the pages of people standing around talking. It got to be kind of a chore. I'm a huge fan of Gilbert's whackaloon scabrous fantastic stories (collected in Fear of Comics) where he lets loose visually and breaks free from the realistic milieu of Palomar.

Final note: though early on I preferred Gilbert and got more out of him, when I re-read I gravitate more towards Jaime's stuff. Visually I never get tired of taking in Jaime's vision. It's as if Alex Toth did a punk rock Archies. (Punk Rock Archies being the cliche description of early Maggie & Hopey, but still true.)