Fantasist's Scroll

Okay, now it depends on how they do it.

According to this article on The New York Times, Amazon is going to be expanding their “Look Inside The Book” program to include more readable text and a search engine. It’s the search engine part that really gets me. Now, I can search books that I haven’t bought to see if they have what I’m looking for or not! What a great idea. Now, I don’t have to blindly buy books from Amazon, hoping that they’re as on topic as they look. I have to admit, that’s burned me at least twice before.
Anyway, I guess this is why Amazon got on top of the on-line book market, and seems to stay there.

Okay, so I’ve been bitten by the Harry Potter bug.

Not too long ago, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and, now I’m finishing up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Next, of course, I’ll be reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, then Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, followed quickly by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That is, if my wife and daughter are done with it! I hate to admit it, but they really got me hooked on this stuff. It’s not hard reading, or even very challenging, but it is fun and nice, light Summer reading. And, while I’m studying for my CNE Update test, it’s a nice diversion.
I think my daughter is getting a little too into the latest book, though. Sunday afternoon, she caught our dog doing something naughty and yelled “Potter!” in a very Snape-like voice. The poor dog, who’s named “Hilda”, didn’t quite know what to do. Especially when we all were suddenly caught up in a fit of laughter. Ah, well, they’re good family fun!

Playing a little catchup here.

I’ve read two books in about as many weeks and I’m just now getting to put something up about them.
The first is Beneath an Opal Moon by Eric von Lustbader, who also wrote the excellent book The Ninja, though it’s not related. His fantasy work is not quite as good as his modern fiction, but it’s pretty good. Okay, it’s not bad, but it’s not quite as good as I remembered it as a kid. Kind of pulp-fiction feeling, but a little less purple prose than a lot of things from that genre. Beneath an Opal Moon is about a navigator/adventurer tyring to find a way home, but getting entangled in someone else’s adventure. It ends up being a quest to prevent the end of the world. I know, I know, it sounds terrible, but it’s really not that bad. It makes nice Summer reading, anyway.

Another Summer read that suprised me was
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling. I’ve been resisting reading this series simply because it’s so popular and because my wife and daughter have read it and are likely to sneak out spoilers on me. But, it, too, was a good, light Summer read. It really is a kid’s book, in spite of how it was billed, but, it still was engaging enough to capture my attention for a couple of days. And, thanks to stuff at my job, all I really wanted was some simple escapist fantasy, which this provided quite well. Of course, by now, everyone in the world knows the story of the “boy who lived”. If not, read the book or rent the video or just ask any kid under 15 who happens to be walking by a bookstore.

Until next time!

I’ve just started Teach Yourself Linguistics, by Jean Aitchison.

So far, it’s living up to the generally great reviews it’s gotten in the ConLang forums where I lurk. The chapters are short and to the point, which I appreciate this week since I’ve been sick and not getting enough sleep. Also, the writing style is much, much livelier than the linguistics textbook that I tried to read last year. I was braced for a quite boring academic discussion of linguistics for linguists, but it’s really been presented in a format for the average joe. Well, if the average joe was interested in linguistics. Anyway, you get my point. I really look forward to the rest of the book now that I’ve gotten started on it. Hopefully, I’ll get enough out of this one to finally feel comfortable trying to design a decent language for my fiction. Well, actually, I hope to design several, but one step at a time, eh?

Now that I finished Zohar, I’ve started All Tomorrow’s Parties, by William Gibson.

This is a sequel, of sorts, to Idoru. Idoru is about just that, a Japanese pop idol (an “idoru”), who is a completely generated character. She simply doesn’t exist, except for being bits and bytes in RAM. The story is about finding this out, and what’s behind it, and a lot more complicated stuff than that. It is, of course, classic Gibson.
All Tomorrow’s Parties is what happens after all that. My wife told me that it is an engrossing and quick read. So far, she’s right. I fear it will all be over before it registers that I’ve started. Gibson is like that. And, it’s the standard which I use to judge all other literature.

We also have his latest, Pattern Recognition, which looks like it’s a fun one, too. I’ll post something when I start that one. Though, it might be awhile. I have a lot of other stuff to read before I get caught up to that!

Right now, I’m reading Zohar: The Book of Splendor: Basic Readings from the Kabbalah edited by Gershom Scholem.

It’s a relatively short book, actually, but fairly challenging. It looks at the Kabbalah in brief and tantalizing detail. As a non-Jew, it’s an interesting look at the more hidden meanings behind Jewish scripture. Though, to be honest, I think there are many Jews who don’t know much about the Kabbalah, much the same way many Christians don’t know much about the Book of Revelations.
The allegorical meanings of seemingly simple verses open whole new worlds of thought for me. The explanation of the creation story in mythic terms reveals whole new vistas of meaning and nuance. And, of equal importance, new ideas for fiction have been stirred!
Creation stories are very important to the invented mythology of a created culture, so new ideas, for me, about Creation spur new ideas for fictional worlds. Imagine, for instance, a fire-based religion who believes that the universe was born out of a great, mystical fire who is the Creator. A cosmic “Big Bang”, as it were. It would make a neat explanation and could generate an interesting culture and religion.

In any case, it’s slow going due to the weight of the content, but it’s all worth it.

Interesting fiction.

I’m currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. So far, it’s living up to the fabulous reviews. The novel is set in a very different setting, especially for fantasy. I don’t think I’ve ever read a good fantasy novel set in an industrial city setting before. And, I have to say, that he handles the setting very, very well. Which is why he’s won awards, I guess, eh?
In any case, I’m about half-way through and loving every minute of it. I was a little intimidated by the heft of the book, but it’s really been a pleasure to read and has gone fast. In fact, I’m hard pressed to remember the last time I really looked forward to reading this much.

Stay tuned for a full review when I’m done.

A new Legend of Ethshar!

For any readers that aren’t familiar with my blog, or preferences in reading material, Lawrence Watt-Evans is my favorite fantasy author. In particular, I love his Ethshar series of books. In fact, I like it so much, I made a digital version of his map of Ethshar. I’ve read all of the Ethshar books that have been published, so far, and
Ithanalin’s Restoration is the latest. I’m about a third of the way into it and, so far, it lives up to my high expectations of Lawrence Watt-Evans’ work. Again, so far, this is yet another piece of literature that I would not have a problem giving to my 11-year old daughter to read. It’s relatively clean, certainly more so than the 10:00pm news. More importantly, it’s creative, inventive and interesting. The story revolves around a spell that’s gone wrong and an apprentance’s attempts to make it right. I don’t want to throw in any spoilers until I’ve finished the book, but it’s been great so far.