Comments on: Harry Up, Already

By: peterb

peterb — Tue, 31 May 2005 14:34:22 +0000

James,

You raise a good point, but I think you assume the answer to your question “after all is that not what books are supposed to be, a story?” a little too easily.

Books _can_ be primarily “about” their stories. But they don’t have to be. Many great books are more about the fully realized depiction of character or invoking a sense of place than of plot.

None of which is to in any way denigrate the value of a good story.

Peter

By: James Stephenson

James Stephenson — Tue, 31 May 2005 12:58:08 +0000

Now I love reading. I did not even buy The Sorcerors Stone until after I saw the movie. And yes it was easy to read through. And maybe it was not high lit. But it was a fun story, and after all is that not what books are supposed to be, a story. I take Stephen Kings take on it all, a good story trumps all.

But I did not read the 2nd or 3rd book, but my wife’s aunt was giving some books away and I picked up the 4th book from her. It was a better book and you can see Ms. Rowlings starting to come into her own voice a little.

But of course as a fan of Mr. King a lot of people will ignore my comments.

By: april

april — Thu, 19 May 2005 21:43:46 +0000

Meredith Ann Pierce’s Darkangel trilogy is pretty good YA fantasy, as are her Firebringer books…but the latter are about unicorns, which perhaps not everyone can stomach. Pierce does have a knack at prettifying a sentence, even though she will sometimes slightly overuse archaisms.

By: Xiane

Xiane — Thu, 19 May 2005 16:44:06 +0000

While you’re waiting, read Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series. I liked it more than Harry.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 19 May 2005 14:37:35 +0000

I saw…something, somewhere, the other day about Jonathan Strange being a book that fell through from an alternate world where the influential fantasy work was not The Lord of the Rings, but rather Hope Mirrlees’s Lud-In-The-Mist.

Apparently Lud-In-The-Mist is back in print, too.

By: Francisco

Francisco — Thu, 19 May 2005 05:41:31 +0000

I wouldn’t worry too much. Almost all the ads are
pretty relevant, and the cause is good. Actually, now that I think of it, we could click the bad guys into bankruptcy! Appeal to the loyal readers!

By: Christina Schulman

Christina Schulman — Thu, 19 May 2005 02:45:27 +0000

Apparently, Susanna Clarke’s Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell must have struck a nerve (or being cynical, must have sold fairly well), because suddenly you can’t shake a stick without accidentally whapping a book about magicians in Victorian or Edwardian England.

To be fair, S&C was reprinted 2 years ago, well before Johnathan Strange started building buzz, and it was originally published way the hell back in 1988. S&C’s sequel, _The Grand Tour_, just came out last fall, though.

They’re all riding YA fantasy’s current wave of popularity. Even if you don’t like Harry Potter, and I mostly do, it’s brought a lot of terrific books back into print.

Pete, you might also try Stevermer’s _A College of Magics_, which has the charm of S&C with considerably less fluff, and also an exploding hat.

By: peterb

peterb — Thu, 19 May 2005 02:24:16 +0000

Francisco,

Ugh. That’s disturbing. One of the reasons I was willing to do the google ad thing is I had some level of faith that google wouldn’t let me be evil by proxy. If that proves to be untrue, I’ll have to reevaluate that decision.

Thanks for letting everyone know.

By: Francisco

Francisco — Thu, 19 May 2005 02:08:43 +0000

Hmmm, I always click on the sponsors, but I should point out that the FREE book ad links to a company mentioned on http://www.ripoffreport.com. I doubt Google will let yo usay anything, but just in case…