[May] What are you reading?

[Pants]

Finished Salem's Lot. Awesome book BTW.

Started on The Stand. As with King, it's starting slow.

 

[Welverin]

Keep in mind that none of the main characters are human. They're Dragaerans. Completely different. Though of course Dragaerans call THEMSELVES "human", so it gets confusing.

Don't the humans call them elves, the friend I'm borrowing the books from has mentioned that.

Again, you really SHOULD read them in publication order.

I was just going to ask what order you suggest reading them in.

 

[Pielorinho]

Don't the humans call them elves, the friend I'm borrowing the books from has mentioned that.

At an important scene in the book, I guessed that Easterners were what we think of as humans; I was then thinking that the "humans" in the book were closer to elves.

I finished the book last night, and enjoyed it tremendously. I'm going to see if the other libraries in our system have got the first books in the series; although I could follow the basic plot, the world itself sounds reasonably interesting, and I wasn't really able to figure it out.

Daniel

 

[Piratecat]

I enjoyed the Phoenix Guards; it's a lot funnier when you know that he wrote it after the style of Dumas, who padded his books horribly because he got paid by the word.

"Why don't you tell me what you know?"

"I shall tell you what I know. For I know it, and I tell you I know it, so I shall tell you so that you know it as well."

"Then tell, good sir, so that we should know it together."

"Then tell you I shall, and I shall exult in the telling."

Etc., etc.

I've finished off a few classics this month: Treasure Island and Around the World in 80 Days. I reread the first Harry Potter book. I've also finished Patterson's "Kiss The Girls", I'm halfway through the superlative "Set this house in order" by Matt Ruff (which I can't recommend strongly enough) and I'm re-reading Westlake's "Don't Ask" (a comic heist novel where a hard-luck burglar named Dortmunder has to steal, and resteal, and re-re-steal the leg bone of a long-dead saint.)

I have two more new Dortmunder novels waiting for me when I finish this one.

As far as Stephen King is concerned, Black House (the inferior and somewhat disappointing sequel to The Talisman) also draws heavily on the Gunslinger books. Changes and rewrites a major character to do so, too, which irritated me more than a little.

 

[Viking Bastard]

This Dortmunder intrigues me. Please tell me more.

 

[Piratecat]

This Dortmunder intrigues me. Please tell me more.

If you enjoy conman/teamwork stories (think Ocean's Eleven, only funnier) you'd really like these books. They're the best caper novels I've ever read, filled with wonderfully complex plot lines that somehow make complete sense. The books by Donald E. Westlake star a hapless thief named John Archibald Dortmunder and his cronies. Dortmunder is an extremely competent burglar and a master planner, but he also has horrible luck.

To quote from a web page I just googled:

If you are unfamiliar with Dortmunder, he is a professional thief who specializes in making impossible jobs possible, like robbing a whole bank - - not just the money, the entire building; or retrieving buried bank loot from a town that has been turned into a reservoir (and the cash is now under six feet of ground under six feet of water). Dortmunder's plans are usually flawless. Unfortunately, his companions are not, and things go wrong in wonderfully unexpected ways.

NOVELS

• The Hot Rock (1970), recently reprinted (The group steals, and re-steals, the Baloboma Emerald.)
• Bank Shot (1972) (The group robs an entire bank.)
• Jimmy the Kid (1974) (probably the worst of the collection; the group kidnaps a precocious child.)
• Nobody's Perfect (1977) (Dortmunder and the gang steal a priceless painting so the owner can collect the insurance only to have everything go wrong.)
• Why Me? (1983) (Dortmunder accidentally steals a famous gem, inciting a massive manhunt that has all of New York screaming for his head.)
• Good Behaviour (1985) (After falling through the roof of a convent, Dortmunder agrees to help some nuns retrieve one of their Sisters. How do you steal back a nun?)
• Drowned Hopes (1990) (The group tries to retrieve a fortune from a flooded reservoir.)
• Don't Ask (1993) (The group hires on to steal a holy relic from an Eastern European consolate, but it's harder than it looks.)
• What's The Worst That Could Happen? (1996) (After an egotistical businessman steals Dortmunder's lucky ring during a failed heist, Dortmunder vows to steal it back -- even if he has to rob every single one of the man's properties to do so.)
• Bad News (2001) (Dortmunder and friends are hired to swap a corpse, and fall into a brilliant casino scam.)
• The Road to Ruin (2004) (Dortmunder works to steal an antique car collection, not knowing that three other groups want the owner dead.)
• Thieves Dozen (2004) (A collection fo short stories.)

I can't tell you how much I enjoy these, only partially because the gang reminds me of a gaming group. "The Hot Rock" or "What's The Worst That Could Happen?" are two of my favorite books, and great places to start.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Heh. Sounds like the Olsen Banden.

I just put it onto my list of authors whose name I will be looking out for.

 

[Pielorinho]

I enjoyed the Phoenix Guards; it's a lot funnier when you know that he wrote it after the style of Dumas, who padded his books horribly because he got paid by the word.

Yep; this was my favorite part, probably. Although his fights are fun, my two favorite passages from the book were:

* A totally irrelevant history of the name of a minor geographical feature; although he never comes out and says it, by the end of the passage you realize that the feature's name translates as "FordFORDfordfordfordford Bridge."
* A priceless paean to brevity that appears two-thirds of the way through the book. I rarely laugh aloud when reading to myself, but this gave me a huge fit of the giggles. I imagine Brust was giggling even harder when he wrote it.

Westlake's novels sound great too; I'll look them up. I've got a Jonathan Carroll book on the shelf at home next to a Peter Carey book. If they prove to be too nutritious, I might set them aside for the Westlakes.

Daniel

 

[barsoomcore]

Paarfi is a great talent. It's splendid of Mr. Brust to share him with us.

My favourite moment in the entire book, though, has to be Khaavren's response to Crionofenaar:

"We salute your desire to surrender."

"You think we mean to surrender?"

"Certainly. You perceive there are six of us and a thousand of you."

"And so?"

"Therefore, you perceive, you are outnumbered."

Now THAT'S a hero.


I'm reading the Barsoom novels again and LOVING them. They move fast, they don't worry much about working out plot details (coincidence is your friend, people), and there's lots of swordfights. Plus big monsters and beautiful princesses with smart-alec slavegirls.

Smart-alec slavegirls are very important, I've decided.

Like you PC, I recently re-read Treasure Island and was amazed. Haven't read that since I was like 8, I guess. It's phenomenal. Was just the inspiration I needed for wrapping up my Skull & Bones campaign last weekend.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

Speaking of Treasure Island, I'll never forget checking it out of Alderman Library (now home to Cthulhu's Librarian), opening it up, and seeing a dedication written in the front, something like "-For Pooky, Christmas 1899". Gave me the willies!