Dust and Spores

Here I am! Don't ask. I've been sick and then away, but I'm better and back now.

I've barely been reading. I got through 4 novels and have read half of a bunch of others, but nothing could keep my interest for very long. Nothing I read in its entirety has even impressed me that much with the exception of The Fellowship of the Ring, which managed to surprise me. I'd tried reading that three times in my life previously, and each time I got bored and fizzled out. This time, I couldn't put it down. Now I'm midway through The Two Towers and loving it as well.

So since I've been so ambivalent about most of what I've read, I'm not going to talk about any of it or play any catch-up at all. Books you will not get to hear about include The Stranger by Camus, Rusalka by C. J. Cherryh, and especially The Human Stain by Philip Roth because it turns out I have no patience for that author.

Oh, I just remembered I read Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden. That was quite good, so maybe I'll do a thing on that.

Ok bye! Pretend I never left and it'll be like I never left!

Magic's Promise / Mercedes Lackey
New York : DAW Books, 1990
320 p.
The Last Herald-Mage, bk. 2

The wild magic is taking its toll on the land. Many Heralds and Herald-Mages have died fighting to preserve the peace. Even Vanyel, the most powerful of the Herald-Mages is almost at the end of his strangth, in need of a respite from the dual threats of war and dark magic.

I'm going to keep this brief because I don't have much to say. I read this last week during the read-a-thon, and it ended up being a good choice for that because I found it engrossing. It's a strong narrative and a compelling story, and if you've read Magic's Pawn, the first novel in the trilogy, I'm going to suggest you try to ignore how angsty and whiny it is and try this one out because it's far better.

Vanyel, our protagonist, still has some unresolved feelings about the events of the first book, which occured 10 years before the second, but he doesn't obsess on them so much as last time. The first significant portion of this novel (more than half) is very domestic. Vanyel returns to his childhood home (castle) and deals with family issues, and it is these things that make the book strong. Lackey has a knack for character interaction and day-to-day living stuff. Reading it, I almost forgot I was supposed to be expecting some sort of huge tale of might and magic.

She does get there, though, but even this aspect of the novel has to do with the destruction of a family, a lost boy, mentorship, and identity. It's a creative, fantasy-style conflict that also ties into the themes of the first half, making Magic's Promise a tight, well-crafted work. If you've read the first and are iffy, give this one a shot. If you haven't read the first, maybe skip and and give this a shot anyway.

The Lost Books of the Odyssey / Zachary Mason
New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010
vii, 228 p.
Orig. published in slightly different form in 2008

Zachary Mason's brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer's classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer's original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations.

The Lost Books of the Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.

So, I haven't read the Odyssey yet, but being in my Greek Stuff mode and making (very slow) progress on the Iliad, I thought this would be a nice quick book to read in the spirit of all that. And it really was worth it.

The book is basically a series of vignettes that add scenes to the saga of the Odyssey and retell (or recontextualize) some that you may be familiar with. They're all very different, and it's important to know going into it that they're independent of one another. They don't provide a continuous narrative, and oftentimes the plot and character development between two sections is contradictory.

This is inspired writing. Some of the parts are epic like one would expect from the old Greek tales. Others are more intimate and modern. But all of them vivify Homer's tale and the characters therein. I approached this with a fairly strong knowledge of the Homeric heroes and the tales of both the Trojan War and Odysseus' journey, and I suggest anyone who reads this do the same. This book depends on the Iliad and Odyssey, a background in which will greatly enhance the experience. Happily, I believe this will work the other way around. Mason's work will color the way you approach Homer's timeless epics.

Y'know what? I hate to do this so close to the home stretch but I am SO TIRED that I'm dozing off 3 times a page at this point. Air, water, tea, pacing, none of it is enough to keep me up. I'm afraid I have to call it quits. Almost 20 hours I made it... and y'know, I feel good about that. I've had fun. I've read 3 great books and parts of a couple more. I made it a lot longer than I thought I would, and I'll have a brand new goal of "All the way" for this fall's read-a-thon. So thank you hosts and hostesses, cheertators and cheertatrixes, he-readers and she-readers, and everyone in between. It's been lovely.

Titles of books read in this span:

• Magic's Promise / Mercedes Lackey -- p. 260-320 (finished)

Pages read in this span: 61

Running total of pages read since started: 779

Books finished since the start:

• The Lost Books of the Odyssey / Zachary Mason
• The Stranger / Albert Camus
• Magic's Promise / Mercedes Lackey

Mini-challenges completed:

• Hour 1 Mini-Challenge
• Where In the World Have You Read? Mini-Challenge
• Mid-Event Meme

Other activities this span:

• The drifting off
• The saying of goodnight

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.... I'm getting sleepy, but my book's getting good. There's a good chance this is the last you'll hear of me until morning, but hey, maybe I'll surprise us.

Titles of books read in this span:

• Magic's Promise / Mercedes Lackey -- p. 190-259 (in progress)

Pages read in this span: 70

Running total of pages read since started: 718

Books finished since the start:

• The Lost Books of the Odyssey / Zachary Mason
• The Stranger / Albert Camus

Thoughts on current read: Unnnnh.... brains....

Mini-challenges completed:

• Hour 1 Mini-Challenge
• Where In the World Have You Read? Mini-Challenge
• Mid-Event Meme

Other activities this span:

• The running out of lattes
• The inserting of many eye drops

Ding ding, it is officially one hour past my bedtime, lectors and lectrices, at least on days when I'm up at 7 like I was today. I got into my pajamas, which was probably a bad idea, but it couldn't be helped. I will not retire to my bed, but my couch is very comfortable and sometimes I spend the night on it for no reason other than whim. But I will persevere!

Titles of books read in this span:

• Magic's Promise / Mercedes Lackey -- p. 142-189 (in progress)
• A History of Philosophy, vol. 1: Greece and Rome / Frederick Copleston -- p. 127-132 (set aside... might have to give up on this one for the night)

Pages read in this span: 54

Running total of pages read since started: 648

Books finished since the start:

• The Lost Books of the Odyssey / Zachary Mason
• The Stranger / Albert Camus

Thoughts on current read: Magic's Promise... uh still good. Even moreso? Yeah I like it even more.

Mini-challenges completed:

• Hour 1 Mini-Challenge
• Where In the World Have You Read? Mini-Challenge
• Mid-Event Meme

Other activities this span:

• The buying of one last latte to be consumed slowly over the next few hours
• The taking of a long, luxurious bath
• The changing into pajamas
• The writing of a very important e-mail I was supposed to have done 12 hours ago

Ok, cue low-grade tiredness. Maybe it's digestion, but I think maybe it's time for some tea. Was one-track this time 'round, just read my silly fantasy novel for a while. It got good after all!

Titles of books read in this span:

• Magic's Promise / Mercedes Lackey -- p. 77-141 (in progress)

Pages read in this span: 65

Running total of pages read since started: 594

Books finished since the start:

• The Lost Books of the Odyssey / Zachary Mason
• The Stranger / Albert Camus

Thoughts on current read: Magic's Promise did indeed improve. I'm halfway through now, and it's surprisingly domestic, all about the main character's visit home after a long time. He's basically dealing with personal problems, but Lackey has a good sense of character in this one, and the whispers of trouble on the horizon keep me expecting it'll take off. Quite good.

Mini-challenges completed:

• Hour 1 Mini-Challenge
• Where In the World Have You Read? Mini-Challenge
• Mid-Event Meme

Other activities this span:

• The eating of delicious sushi
• The having of yet ANOTHER wazz (stupid lattes)