Claw of the Conciliator – Gene Wolfe. After the promising start of Shadow of the Torturer, Gene Wolfe lost me. And not Lost like there is an island with castaways. Lost like what the hell just happened to the good story? And what's with Severain getting with any female that makes eye contact with him?
Railroaded – Whitfield Grant. Not a bad effort and it felt like a rookie effort. It's a lawyer book, and I'm not crazy about lawyer books John Grisham not withstanding. But my problem was that his hero was too perfect. If there was an ocean scene I bet he would have walked on water. And I know part of the point was to have a positive role model from a black protagonist, but it was just silly.
Darksaber – Kevin Anderson. Sir, give me my Star Wars back.
Out of the Silent Planet – C.S. Lewis. How the hell did the man who wrote Narnia and The Great Divorce write this tripe?
Sword of the Lictor – Gene Wolfe. And yet I read book three. It's not like things got better. They got worse.
A Short History of Myth – Karen Armstrong. A little too scholarly, a little too dry, a little too long even though it was just a little book.
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole. The most obnoxious narrator I've read. Too much absurd dialogue and description from everyone. It's not just Reilly.
The Fortress of the Pearl – Michael Moorcock. I'm sorry Master Moorcock, but this was the most pointless Elric / Multiverse novel I've read and you invalidate the whole story by having Elric forget most of what he just did. A short book that read long.
The Tombs of Atuan – Ursula LeGuin. It made me want to give up on Earthsea. Need I say any more?
2 comments:
Have you read Wolfe's The Wizardknight books? Haven't read any of his others, but those two were marvellous. Highly recommended.
Not yet. Want to. Plan to. They are supposed to be his most accessible work.
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