My copy of His Dark Materials arrived.
I am currently reading Sea of Glass by Barry Longyear. It's 'eh'. Some good quotes toward the beginning. It's a pretty bleak and disturbing book, but it really tries too hard to be gratuitously bleak and disturbing, which interferes with my suspension of disbelief and makes it harder for me to actually be disturbed by these images. Y'know?
I did that once in writing a story I never finished. I was going for "gory and disturbing" and I pulled out all the stops. It ended up being too much, and provoked only a quiet yawn. Sometimes what you don't see is more powerful than what you do see.
Anyway, I'm going to exercise willpower and finish this one first (probably today), all the better to devote my full attention to the highly recommended Mr Pullman and his Golden Compass.
I am currently reading Sea of Glass by Barry Longyear. It's 'eh'. Some good quotes toward the beginning. It's a pretty bleak and disturbing book, but it really tries too hard to be gratuitously bleak and disturbing, which interferes with my suspension of disbelief and makes it harder for me to actually be disturbed by these images. Y'know?
I did that once in writing a story I never finished. I was going for "gory and disturbing" and I pulled out all the stops. It ended up being too much, and provoked only a quiet yawn. Sometimes what you don't see is more powerful than what you do see.
Anyway, I'm going to exercise willpower and finish this one first (probably today), all the better to devote my full attention to the highly recommended Mr Pullman and his Golden Compass.