March Reading

[daddytodd]

It was a slow month. Well, not slow, exactly -- since I finished "Heartlight, I've been reading "the Mists of Avalon," which is astoundingly long. I'm just over halfway through "Mists." If I ever have a weekend where I can sit down and do some reading, I might even finish it. But it won't be this weekend...

03/03/2011    Heartlight by MZB
03/07/2011    Out of the Frying Pan (ss) by Elisabeth Waters (a Lythande story by MZB's secretary and occasional collaborator.)
03/12/2011    God Emperor of Dune (audiobook) by Frank Herbert
03/25/2011    Heretics of Dune (audiobook) by Frank Herbert

Currently reading:
The Mists of Avalon by MZB
The Fall of Atlantis by MZB
Thendara House by MZB
Chapterhouse: Dune (audiobook) by Frank Herbert. This is the last one that Herbert wrote before his death. There is a 2-book sequence, based on Herbert's outline for the "final" Dune book by Brian Herbert and KJA, "Hunters of Dune" and "Sandworms of Dune." These books are not well-regarded, but I wanna finish the Frank Herbert-outlined sequence. I have the audiobooks for these, so I'll listen to them after "Chapterhouse." Then I'll put Dune away and very likely never visit it again. Ever.

Comments

[allanh.livejournal.com]

I recently finished reading Deborah J. Ross' "Clingfire Trilogy" (The Fall of Neskaya / Zandru's Forge / A Flame in Hali)...and while I was fully prepared to hate the books because MZB herself didn't write them, I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed them very much. The writing style isn't a precise match for MZB's, but it's close enough that I didn't find it jarring after the first 10 or 12 pages. Deborah J. Ross extended the "canon" Matrix knowledge in some unusual and helpful ways, doing so while remaining consistent (to my memory) of matrix technologies described in earlier MZB books.

In fact, I liked the books, voice, and characters enough that I'll probably grab the next Darkover novel that Deborah J. Ross releases. She definitely seemed to have the respect for MZB's world that I thought was appropriate and necessary.

[daddytodd.livejournal.com]

The three Darkover books written by Adrienne Martine-Barnes (Exile's Song/The Shadow Matrix/Traitor's Sun) were kind of terrible. "Shadow Matrix" doesn't work for me at all; I've tried to read it three times and never gotten more than 60 pages in.

Ross has written 2 books set on "Modern" Darkover that go a long way to cleaning up the mess Martine-Barnes left in her wake: The Alton Gift and Hastur Lord are damn good. I highly recommend them.

The Alton Gift takes place after TRaitor's Sun, but recaps enough of Martinre-Barnes's trilogy that you can safely skip it. Hastur Lord takes place a bit earlier, between World Wreckers and Exile's Song, so it doesn't depend on the AMB trilogy, either.

Ross is pretty far along on the sequel to The Alton Gift, (working title: The Children of Kings) and posted a chapter to her LiveJournal last month. I think it's due out next year.

I believe she's contracted to another "modern" Darkover novel after that (to wrap up Margaret Alton's story) and then she'll write Thunderlord!, the sequel to Stormqueen!