February 25, 2005

Turns out Foreigner is pretty boring. Most of it is thought process, a kind of internal monologue that often refers to things that have happened before or how things work now -- basically it's a whole lot of exposition and very little is happening. I got about a hundred and sixty or so pages in and got too bored to finish it. Unfortunately I have four other books from that series and at this point it's doubtful that I'll ever read them. I did, however, aquire several new books this week. I have the second and, as of this afternoon, the third in a trilogy that looks promising. I'm waiting for the first to arrive at Borders so I can start the series. I'm starting Legend by David Gemmell that so far isn't bad (the guy's English and usually they're good fantasy authors). I had a book by Gemmell once before but never read it. This one is the first in a very large series ( I think there are eight) and I'm seeing if they're any good first before I get them all. I'm not very far in, but at least the characters seem interesting. I don't usually read books with aging heroes (David Eddings may be an exception -- but I picture Sparhawk as quite young, so maybe not) but this series looked good and Gemmell has many books in case I like his writing. The hero's name is Druss, and on the cover he looks remarkably like Sean Connery. I might picture him as a little different (I'm thinking Liam Neesonlike) but I haven't met him yet, just some guy named Rek who looks like he may be significant and a guy in the prologue who does not. Red's obviously weathered somewhat so probably not all that young, but it doesn't say he's old, either. Probably somewhere in the middle. I'm trying to get a hold of The Changeling Prince since i liked it so much, but it seems it's out of print. There are a few copies for sale on Amazon, each for at least ten dollars, but I figure I liked it that much. I'll check out used bookstores first, but if I can't find it I'm ordering a copy. Young Adult fantasy seems to be really good. And it doesn't have any damned sex. I swear to Gaea all of the adult fantasy authors feel like they have to put sex in their books. I'll surprise everyone and not do it. Or maybe I'll just write YA. That wouldn't be so bad, actually. Brooks doesn't have that kind of stuff in his (or at least not in the one book of his I read). Neither does Eddings, or at least not so explicit or not so I remember. Salvatore doesn't have much. It seems only the really great authors like Tolkien seem to sweep it out completely. He probably didn't figure he needed it, and I agree with him. I'll leave that part of the story up to my fans. I'm actually really looking forward to having my own fanfiction -- it's a sign of admiration, even if it's sometimes godawful. I can't wait to see who they slash. It also seems as though nobody writes with elves or dwarves anymore unless they write for TSR. McKiernan does, but they're cardboard and boring as hell. I also really didn't appreciate how dwarven males in his books were big and burly and hariy, while the females were slender and delicate and utterly graceful. I see enough of that on TV and in real life.