Without really meaning to I’ve become relatively familiar with the life and doings of Alexander the Great. He — whether as a main character or an essential secondary character — featured in any number of historical novels I picked up as a kid (e.g. Mary Renault’s books) and over the following decades. Most recently I… Continue reading Harold Lamb’s “Alexander of Macedon.”
Category: Reading
Two-Fer Sci-Fi Retro-Reviews
It can be hard to sense the zeitgeist of an era while you are experiencing it, the spirit of decade you are living through, for example. But from a distance, looking back, you can notice trends, assumptions, modes of expression. I just finished a couple of paperbacks, one from the 1950s (though published in 1964)… Continue reading Two-Fer Sci-Fi Retro-Reviews
Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave Re-Read Part III: The Last Enchantment
The third book of the Crystal Cave trilogy, The Last Enchantment, swings along pretty fast. I believe it is the shortest of the trilogy. The reason for that, I guess, is that by this point in the Arthurian legend, we’ve about wrapped Merlin. He can get a round of applause from the crew, then jet… Continue reading Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave Re-Read Part III: The Last Enchantment
Mary Stewart’s The Merlin Trilogy Re-Read Part II: The Hollow Hills
Given the nature of telling a well-known story through the eyes of a character with foreknowledge, it is unsurprising that The Hollow Hills is generally lacking in suspense. We readers — even more than the narrator, Merlin — know the broad brush strokes of what is going to happen. The fun comes from the variations,… Continue reading Mary Stewart’s The Merlin Trilogy Re-Read Part II: The Hollow Hills
The Merlin Trilogy Reread Part I: The Crystal Cave
I picked up this collected edition of Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy only in part because of the oddly endearing, but perhaps misleading Hildebrandt Bros. cover. The other reason was, I suppose, a form of nostalgia. Allow me to explain. When I was in sixth grade, both my mother and my step father were working. No… Continue reading The Merlin Trilogy Reread Part I: The Crystal Cave
Styrbiorn the Strong. Eddison Breathes the Northern Thing.
E.R. Eddison is known primarily for The Worm Ouroboros, and to a lesser extent the Zimiamvia Trilogy. But he also wrote a historical novel. As a youth he fell under the eddic spell of the Norse sagas (e.g., The Elder Edda.) And why wouldn’t he? The sparse, barebones recitations of blood feuds, raids, treachery, and… Continue reading Styrbiorn the Strong. Eddison Breathes the Northern Thing.
The Last of the Mohicans: Part of the DNA of American Fiction
While reading my copy of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans I found between the pages a bank deposit slip of mine from 1986. So I know I must have read this copy before — the binding shows some wear — or at least reached about the midpoint and left a book marker… Continue reading The Last of the Mohicans: Part of the DNA of American Fiction
January Update
To anyone looking it might not appear that I’m doing any writing. But I am. The staring at the walls or spending entirely too long in the shower phase is often an essential component of the writing process. I’m not going to discuss what I have in mind; it is too early. If I crack… Continue reading January Update
Fifty Years Later: “Boneland.”
A few months back I read Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath, both of which I considered here. In 2012, some fifty years after the original two-thirds of the Weirdstone Trilogy (or the Tales of Alderly), Garner released Boneland. I won’t say it is the concluding volume of the trilogy.… Continue reading Fifty Years Later: “Boneland.”