Haven't read TP or Wynne Jones or Rankin or Eddings (or any Sci-Fi) so can't comment.

Have read Harry Potter - finished HP5 last night - might have been the heat but concentration wasn't what it should have been and susbsequently feel disappointed with the book but can't put finger on why.

Queuing outside the Petersfield branch of Ottakars yesterday morning (7.30am) with 30 other adults for my copy (they didn't all want my copy, they wanted and purchased their own). Poor old WHS across the road had a queue of 1.

Ottakars changed their name to Pottakars for yesterday and had opened at midnight for an hour (Petersfield is notorious for drink fuelled incidents on Fridays and Saturdays believe or not!) and were completely overwhelmed with brats shoving and pushing to get their copies. I debated whether to go or not, but as I would have had to drive in to town I would have had to forgo on my Friday night wine. Wine or Petersfield at midnight - hard choice but the former won. Especially after the crap day at work with journos ringing up asking stupid questions about first day sales - I mean, how on earth are we supposed to know the exact figure before the books have sold?

I resisted yesterday, but I'm going to buy it today - I have tomorrow and Tuesday off, so that's my plan for them...



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

I'm on page 551 but i went out for a long walk yesterday afternoon and this morning went to the british museum with michael, his sister and kids. Now i just got back and i know i will finish it tonight..

so far i think it's great, really dark and as good ad GoF.

Yay! Go Jasper! :)

Re TP - As those who know me will be able to tell you - I am probably one of the biggest fans of the man (the fanatic's fanatic if you will...). I actually think his writing style has got better and better since he started (with a slight dip with 'The Truth', the only one I haven't yet read 3 times or more). I loved 'Thief of Time' :D And when I interviewed the guy he was an absolute darling and not at all arrogant.

Tom Holt's historical novels are brilliant - 'The Olympiad', 'The Walled Orchard' and 'Alexander at the World's End'. As an ancient historian, who specialises in Greek History (and Alexander the Great in particular), I found them to be the most accurately researched historical novels I have ever read. Which suprised me, as I only enjoyed one of his humerous novels ('Open Sesame').

I do actually enjoy Eddings, but as a set of books to read when I don't want to think at all - yes, they are samey, yes, you know roughly what will happen when you start reading, but they are a 'good yarn'. And only take me a weekend to read all 10 of the Garion series :)

HP5 - I am still waiting to read it! My flatmate gets home from work in a couple of hours, and I'll get to borrow her copy - she finished last night, taking 3 hours 45 mins (with distractions) to read it cover to cover. I'm hoping to beat that!



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

I did sort of enjoy Night Watch - I'll probably like it better on re-reading, because I read it over a period of months in a bookshop. But it's just....not very funny, really. And funny's why I read Terry Pratchett. I mean, he's still a good writer and it's a great story and all that, but it's not very funny! IMO, of course.

Also, not very rooted in Discworld - apart from the time travelling, most of the story could have taken place anywhere.

I now have a copy of HP5 under my desk. I suspect people would complain if I actually started reading it right now.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

I actually do like the way TP is getting more philosophical, and I enjoyed 'Night Watch' because we got so much of the back story of the characters (you remember in 'Guards! Guards!', when they are trying to work out the reward for killing the dragon, and they ask whether Vetinari has a daughter, someone says 'No, but he has an elderly aunt he's rather fond of'. At last we get to meet the aunt!)

BTW, where do you work out of interest? Looking at the rather swish email address :) (tried for a couple of jobs at the beeb, they rejected me)



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

Yeah, I do like getting backstory, too. But I still want more jokes!!

I work at the beeb in Glasgow, subtitling. It's fun, and indeed gives me an impressive email address! I'm beginning to think I got the job because I wasn't that excited about working for the beeb...everyone else I know that's tried to get in hasn't made it! It's not very glamorous up here, though. I saw David Sneddon in the canteen once, that's about the limit of the place...

What kind of jobs did you apply for? XTV looks pretty good for a student TV station, I would have thought it would look great on your CV.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

Hey Jo, another fan of TH's historical novels -- I really loved The Walled Orchard, but the Olympiad's a great romp too. And Alexander is one of the most deeply cynical novels about human nature that I've ever read, but none the worse for that.

I studied Classics at uni too (though it's now but a dim and distant memory!) and also have a fascination with Alexander. Have you read Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy? Great stuff. And some of her other novels set in classical Greece are good too -- notably the Last of the Wine, which is set in Athens at the same time as the Walled Orchard, but treats events somewhat differently -- its main focus is the Socratic circle, and the resoration of the democracy after the defeat by Sparta.

If you're a bit of a one for historical novels, try Gore Vidal's Creation -- it's set (partly) in Athens at the time of the Persian Wars, but told from the point of view of a Persian nobleman (Zarathustra's nephew, if I remember) -- he tends to refer to the Persian Wars, which we in the West think of as a turning point in world history, as 'minor border troubles in the far west of the empire'. It makes for interesting reading . . . it's the only book I know that features Buddha, Confucius and Socrates as characters (read it, then you'll find out how . . .)



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

There's always been a lot more to Pratchett than humour. He seems to have tried to have been mysterious and magical early on, but all that 'Dungeon Dimensions' stuff was best dropped early.

He's really GOOD at being funny, and at compassionate observation of his characters, because of which he can be moving; he does a good plot (often), and if anyone likes the books that I don't, great.

From the little I've seen of him on TV he didn't seem arrogant, but I'm guessing that if you put you or me in his place with a massive queue of people to sign for, it would bring out bits of us we had never met before, OR the appearance of them.

Yeah, there's always been good characterisation and writing as well as the humour, but the humour used to be a pretty basic part of it. And because the Discworld is a "series", you kind of expect the tone to stay roughly the same all the way through.

(I'm trying to think of other series that change, well, genre more or less, and can't, but I'm sure someone else will prove me wrong!)



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

Finshed Harry Potter!

Good book, though I do wonder why it's so long when not much really seems to have happened by the end on it... JKR said that there's a lot of exposition in it and I can certainly believe that.

So hopefully I'll be around more now that I've finished Harry and my exams.

BTW did anyone else find the bit about the Divination OWL totally hilarious? I did, but anyone else I mention it do (admittedlynot very many people) didn't seem to get it...



--------------

There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

Guy - Have you read any other Gore Vidal's novels? I very much like the sound of "Creation", although having read a couple of his 'Empire' series I was a little disappointed, the tone can be very Jamesian which is great if you like Henry James.
I got into his writing through the essays and criticism he's done, so naturally his fiction is going to be a different experience. Unfortunately, I think he is one of those writers whose own life will always overshadow what he's written.

Finshed HP about half an hour ago.

It was great. Roll on the next 2 (but i hope i won't be working in a bookshop then!
:-)

When's the next one due?? About....2010?

Heh.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

Ditto, although not the bookshop part obviously.

How long do you think it'll be for book 6? At least a coupld of years I reckon...



--------------

There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

According to the interview with Paxman this week, Book 6 is started. Would have thought 2005 but may be sooner.

Will start re-reading later this week and concentrate this time - might enjoy it more. Sarah B - also lovee the Divination OWL.

Carla - so where will you be working? I probably won't be counting the sales either!

Turning rapidly away from a book I'm definitely not going to be reading, can I say that Gore Vidal's 'Creation' is a damn fine book. Although he has stretched history a bit to get all his principals into one lifetime. Most of the rest of Vidal's output (that I've read) is, as has been said, disappointing; too much self indulgence and an irrational hatred of F D Roosevelt. However, he has written at least one book better than 'Creation'; 'Lincoln', a novel about the county town of Lincolnshire ... no, no, it isn't really, it's about the President of that ilk.

Which reminds me. Does anyone from the left hand side of the pond (or anywhere else) know of a good, readable, one-volume bio of the aforesaid FDR? He is the only major leader of the first half of the 20th C I don't know enough about. I have never seen a bio of him in any bookshop, and amazon keeps bringing up either vast twenty-volume studies or incredibly specialised books like 'FDR at the Navy Office, June-July 1917' or some such. Any help appreciated.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

You're more up to date than me, Dante. My Pratchett stopped at that elaborate picture book thingy (which I thoroughly enjoyed). I'm still forcing myself to read Chris Tolkien's 12 volumes on why his dad made such a mess over writing two books and not getting the third one published. Very instructive, but also dead dull beyond description. I'm pretty certain to read WOLP before I catch up on Mr Pratchett. In fact I probably need to re-read TEA before I lose all touch with Fforde, having spent so much time writing stuff in that ilk.

I dunno, maybe in the publicity dep in some publisher... if you know of any jobs going...
;-) let me know

I won't be able to get HP5 until Friday afternoon (I get paid on Thursday...).

I've also read & enjoyed Gore Vidal's 'Creation'. Wasn't he the famous author who wrote a trio (or more?) of mysteries under the pen-name of Edgar Box? My copies of these (which I enjoyed reading) are currently stored away, so I can't check up on this point...

************************************************************

"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."



Post Edited (06-24-03 10:59)