City Lights, Christmas Lights
The streets are teeming with shoppers tonight. I managed to avoid a large measure of it by keeping to the backstreets.
I was at NYDC at the Heeren earlier, reading Susanna Clarke's wondrous 'Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell'. A compelling and most enchanting tale. I look forward to future work from her.
I was also at Borders later tonight.
5 comments:
It's certainly different from most fantasy and definitely original.
I found it a bit hard to get into at first, but grew to like it the more I read.
Well, Brian, this is certainly original. I enjoyed it tremendously. It was engrossing from the first page for me.
I think you should really pick up Christopher Priest's 'The Prestige'. That is a very clever book.
Where can I find it in Singapore?
Also I had a few problems with it because I had just gone through a nineteenth century reading kick and the book threw a bit of cognitive dissonance.
You do remember it is the one I was telling you about. The points of views? A contest between two rival magicians?
It was out of print for a few years. It was just re-issued. You can find it at Borders. I don't know why but they dumped it into the SF/Fantasy section. Priest wrote some early SF in the early 70s but his subsequent novels were not in the least SF or fantasy with the exception of perhaps, 'The Extremes'. If you are there, do pick up 'The Glamour'.
I have problems with understanding Priest's 'The Separation'. Hess, alternate World War II, I don't know what to make of it. I think it went over my head.
Back to the original topic, you did tell me that you have read 'Jonathan Strange & Mr.Norrell' some time back and you thought it was good. Heheh. It was only a matter of time. I am glad I finally read it. Splendid! It is special.
I don't read much fantasy nowadays. After the tortuous 'Ash' from Mary Gentle and the trash from George R.R. Martin... This comes as a godsend.
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