Monday, December 31, 2007

December '07

DOMBEY & SON Part I
-C. Dickens-classic
-582-follows the life of one Florence Dombey, whose mother dies and father ignores, because she is not the son he wanted. A younger brother, the cause of the mothers death, lives until his 6th year or so and then dies. A sad story so far.

THE SWORD OF TRUTH: CONFESSOR
-T. Goodkind-fantasy
-603-ends the Sword of Truth saga. It is obvious that Goodkind has an axe to grind against organized religion and it really comes through in this book. A socio-philosophical diatribe in many respects. Quite a few of the conversations between characters were simply mouthings of Goodkind's thoughts on Determinism. I am glad this is done.

DOMBEY & SON Part II
-C. Dickens-classic
-588-Dombey betrayed by his second wife and pride, Florence marries Walter. Florence and her father reconciled after his ruination. I cried at the reconciliation, which goes to show how sick I was at the time.

YUYU HAKUSHO #1-9
-Y. Togashi-manga

AMBER: KNIGHT OF SHADOWS
-R. Zelazny-fantasy
-251-Zelazny delights in blindsiding his characters [and readers] with all sorts of father issues, family issues and friend issues. Turns out the Pattern and the Logrus are sentient powers and that Chaos and Amber may simply exist to give them place to battle. Merlin is in the position that Corwin was, in the first 5 books, ie, confused and with a bad case of a dad doing something that nobody else knows about.

INTERESTING TIMES
-T. Pratchett-fantasy
-368-Rincewind ends up in the Counterweight Continent, along with Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde. They are attempting to take over the Empire. Rincewind ends up in XXXX, the unknown land.

MASKERADE
-T. Pratchett-fantasy
-368-first off, you have to a fan of Phantom of the Opera to really get this book. Pratchett lifts the story wholesale, and proceeds to slaughter it with the witches of Lancre and one witch-in-training, who doesn't want to be a witch. Good stuff.

AMBER: PRINCE OF CHAOS
-R. Zelazny-fantasy
-225-Ok, Merlin is going to become the King of Chaos, to keep peace between the Pattern and the Logrus. Corwin has been imprisoned, and basically it is Corwin/Oberon all over again. How dumb can guys get? Zelazny simply cannot seem to allow his characters to live their lives. I believe this is the last original Amber novel. I've heard there are prequels written by another author, but I don't have any interest in those.

TALES OF THE OTORI: HEAVEN'S NET IS WIDE: THE FIRST TALE OF THE OTORI
-L. Hearn-historical fantasy
-484-follows Shigeru and his brother Takeshi; Otori who are betrayed and fall under the power of Iida. Gives the back story of all that happened before Takeo is found. This series is a brutal look at feudal life. Women were helpless, those not of nobility were helpless and death was but one step away for almost everyone. Also delved into the Hidden a lot more. Showing the difference between their regard and love for life in contrast to the Warrior Class's lust for death and personal power. Truly, Christianity is the only thing that will save this world.

HYPERION CANTOS: HYPERION
-D. Simmons-scifi
-512-The Hegemony of Man, the TechnoCore[AI's] and the Ousters[humans who fled into space to escape the Hegemony] all collide on the world of Hyperion. A world where Time Tombs are in an entropic field which seems to be moving backwards. 7 travelers come together to seek the Shrike, mystical/mythical Lord of Pain, thinking that one of them will be granted their wish and the other 6 taken in sacrifice. This book concentrates on their backstories and what brought them to Hyperion. Excellent writing. The only things I had against it was the profanity used, frequently, by one character and a couple of instances of semi-graphic sexuality.

THE SPACE VAMPIRES
-C. Wilson-scifi
-214-oh man, written in the 70's, this was pure crap! The whole story is centered around Freudianism, masochim/sadism and some mumbojumbo about "lifeforce". Why anyone would consider this entertaining is beyond me!

HYPERION CANTOS: THE FALL OF HYPERION
-D. Simmons-scifi
-528-the Tombs open, Mankind destroys the Farcaster web to escape domination by the TechnoCore and the Ousters show the Hegemony the path to the future. Full of philosophical dialogue, religious overtones and weird ideas. Well done.

THE TWELVE KINGDOMS: SEA OF SHADOW
-F. Ono-fantasy
-462. A girl is confronted by a stranger who gives his allegiance to her and then is swept into another world. Yoko starts out as a self-centered, cowardly whining girl. By the end of the novel she is a strong, capable woman. Turns out she is the next Queen of Kei. This is the book that the anime was based on but this was much tighter and focused exclusively on Yoko. I really liked it and look forward to the next 10 novels as they are released.

KING RAVEN: SCARLET
-S. Lawhead-historical fiction
-449-Continues the tale of Robin Hood, set in a more historic Welsh setting. Thoroughly enjoyed this tale. I have to say, I think that this series is fast moving up in my favorites list.

THE MAGIC OF RECLUCE
-L.E. Modesitt Jr-fantasy
-501-definitely a shallow book, but enjoyable. You don't see the character grow up, they simply change. But I liked the whole reversal of the typical White, Grey and Black of the types of magic. This is a series about Order vs Chaos.

CHILDHOOD'S END
-A. C. Clarke-scifi
-216-humanistic. Humanity gives up its individuality and becomes one with some great Over-mind. Depressing.