#58 The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson

Lord Foul's Bane (book one of three)
I was thrown off by the story starting in the modern mundane world for the first two chapters.  As a plot device, it was very well done in that it gave you a real feel for the hero (anti-hero) and where he was coming from. Covenant is so resistant to his fate, so afraid of loosing his bitterly constructed defenses that he does his heroic ( and villainous) deeds because he HAS to... not at all because he wants to.
Here is a man coming from the cruel and painful normal world who is thrust into a beautiful, ideal world. This wondrous would is troubled and he helps only in spite of himself. His main goal is to make it back to the world that treats him so badly still in one piece with his sanity intact.   He suddenly finds himself in a much better place, but he rejects it because he is so used to having to be tough and fight to survive. It is a far cry from the humble, tragic heroes struggling against a controlling Orwellian dystopia or the proud, honor-bound fantasy heroes following their fate.

p331  a funeral song.
Death reaps the beauty of the world - bundles old crops to hasten new.
Be still heart: hold peace.
Growing is better than decay: I hear the blade that severs life from life.
Be still, peace: hold heart.
Death is passing on- the making way of life and time for life.
Hate dying and killing, not death.
Be still, heart: make no expostulation.
Hold peace and grief and be still.

I could have sworn I made a post after finishing the Illearth War (book two), but it sure does not appear to be here..

The Power That Preserves (book three)
Mr. Covenant is more resigned to his interaction with The Land and has more control over things overall. He is still a jerk, but on his third trip he is softened a bit. He knows what to expect from The Land and the people therein.. which makes is a bit predictable for the reader as well. The same formula kinda looses some steam the third time around.  There is still some epic awesomeness - kick ass battle scenes.. a siege.. crossing a river of lava.. slaying creepy not-main-villain-but-still-bad-guy.  Old characters come back and play out their tragedies.  Others suffer and die (much to Covenant's dismay) so that he can accomplish what he needs to. He sorely hates that there is all of this blood on his hands, but there is nothing he can do about it. This all contributes to Covenant's spiral of self loathing and I really did end up pitying him in the end.

p272
Dreams roiled in his unconsciousness giving him no consolation.  Again and again he relived the double-fisted blow with which he had stabbed Pitten. But now he dealt that fierce blow to other hearts - Llaura, Manethrall Rue, Elena, Joan, the woman who had been killed protecting him at the battle of Soaring Woodhelven - why had he never asked anyone her name? In dreams he slew them all. They lay around him with gleams of light shining keenly out of their wounds like notes in an alien melody.  The song tugged at him, urged - but before he could hear it, another figure hove across his vision, listing like a crippled frigate. The man was dressed in misery and violence. He had blood on his hands and love of murder in his eyes but Covenant could not make out his face. Again he raised the knife, again he drove it with all his might into that vulnerable breast.  Only then did he see that the man was himself.

p334
The turbulent wind seemed to snatch the sound to pieces, tatter it instantly. In a place where echoes were common, his call disappeared without resonance or answer; the wind tore it away as if to undo his purpose, make him unheard. Nevertheless he summoned his trust, pried himself up the hillside to stand waiting on the vantage of the test. A suspense like the either / or of despair filled him, but he faced the western mountains as if he know neither distrust nor fear.

#19 Slaughterhouse- five by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut is a CRAZY m-f'er.  Holy scatterbrain, batman. I suppose random hopping around in the timeline of the story is a really useful device in a book about someone who comes unstuck in time.  I hadn't realized before that twice an many people died in the firebombing of Dresden as in the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.  So it goes.

p167
Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree.  It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves.  Its flowers were government bonds.  Its fruit was diamonds.  It attracted human beings who killed each other around its roots and made very good fertilizer.  So it goes.

#13 Animal Farm by George Orwell

After plodding through the last book over the course of several months, this one went by in the blink of an eye.  141 pages, but feels shorter.  I'm left not quite knowing what Orwell feels about communism, but sure doesn't like people in power.  He seems to extol the virtues of a society where all are equal and everyone works for the common good to the best of his abilities, but any form of government can be perverted from it's ideals and corrupted by certain individuals.
It made me really hungry for bacon..

#64 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I was actually looking for more by Arthur C. when I found Susanna.  This was a slow book.  It took me quite a wile to get through it.  It was very interesting, but not exciting.  There is very little action, but it was not dull.  I enjoyed reading it, but was not eager to jump back into it after putting it down.  It is a very different kind of story altogether. Set in the early 1800's, it is based upon the two magicians in the title of the book trying to bring Magic back to England.  

Norrell is a real wizard type.  Very bookish, reserved, quiet.. cowardly and narcissistic too.  He is a real jerk through most of the book.   

Strange is more the Sorcerer type. He has a much better feel for the magic as opposed to Norrell's knowledge.  Since he did start out as Norrell's apprentice (later nemesis), he has plenty of knowledge too.  He is WAY more charismatic and downright dashing at times.  

Stephen and the Fairy are have a great dynamic, as do Childermas and Viniculus.  I think Viniculus is my favorite character, but I wish there was more about him.

It is odd that neither of the main characters in the title of the book are involved in the ultimate climax of the story.  

p469

It may be laid down as a general rule that if a man begins to sing, no one will take any notice of his song except his fellow human beings.  This is true even if the song is surpassingly beautiful.  Other men may be in raptures at his skill, but the rest of creation, by and large, unmoved.  Perhaps a cat or a dog may look at him; his horse, if it is an exceptionally intelligent beast, may pause in cropping the grass, but that is the extent of it.  But when the fairy sang, the whole world listened to him.  Stephen felt the clouds pause in their passing; he felt the sleeping hills shift and murmur; he felt the cold mists dance.  he understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands.  In the fairy's song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself.

ooOOooohh... that's good. 

#49 Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke

A book about first contact.. and last contact.  Benevolent overlords come to Earth just in tome to prevent us from destroying ourselves.  They teach us to live in peace, but some wonder if they have an ulterior motive.  Of course there is way more going on with the aliens than just a friendly greeting from the stars, but this book goes somewhere no other story has.  They wait for signs of Humanity growing out of it's childhood and help us to the next stage.  The end of the book with it's first person view of total loneliness and desolation; the feeling of accepting one's ultimate fate; the evaporation of.. everything.. was so well written it just left me with an odd, empty kind of feeling.

#44 Ringworld by Larry Niven

This was the most sciency of the Sci Fi books I have read so far.  The characters are good.  Fun adventure.  But it felt like Niven used the story as a backdrop / stage for his neato futuristic inventions. That is just an observation, not really a criticism.  It actually suited me just fine for what it is.  I'll take it.

#67 The Sword of Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks

Just finished Sword / Elfstones / Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks. They were good, but it was kinda like reading the same book three times over.

This post of FB is what got me thinking about creating this blog.  I got a few comments from a few different friends and there was more of a discussion than I had expected.  I didn't want to keep my wall littered with my reactions, but I did want to put my thoughts somewhere.   It just took a while to get there (here).  

Wishsong of Shannara p251

It was the kind of autumn day fond memories conjure up of a milder season's passing when winter snows lie deep about.