one of many circles
17 May 2005 20:59![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glenatronToday I caught a blackbird that had strayed into our greenhouservatory and set it free. It was almost impossibly soft and light in my hands when I carried it outside. I also saw two red-tailed bumblebees, both dead.
We have to record the rhythm parts for one of the songs again on friday. Apparently on listening to it yesterday Mic, Chris and Andy weren't happy with the drums. I don't mind. Being in the studio is fun.
Last night I ordered the second, third and fourth books of the Malazan Book Of The Fallen series. I just finished Gardens of the Moon, the first one, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it:
This is big fantasy we are dealing with- Steven Erikson is most likely to be mentioned in a breath with Robert Jordan and George RR Martin - the many volume 600+ page-a-time school of writing, fat-assy, if you will. Gardens Of The Moon introduces us to the world-spanning Malazan empire, pushing it's boundaries out across the world, as empires in such settings must, with the usual intrigue and corruption at it's heart and whose expansion the gods themselves are beginning to take an interest in. Although the setting is massive, with an immense depth of history to the world, the story is very character lead and the interweaving storylines of the different protagonists, caught up in the Empire's huge campaign, make for very rewarding reading; less contrived than Robin Hobb and less arbitrarily brutal than Martin or K J Parker. Like the authors I have just mentioned Erikson's creation is his own- pleasantly elf and orc free, the magic is intriguing and original and everything seems to suggest that as the books progress more of that enormous history will be brought into play. One thing that he has got absolutely right is that the book has a beginning followed by a middle and concluded with an end. It really pisses me off when you get to the end of a novel and it basically stops with a big "to be continued..." If I've stayed with an author for the last 600 pages the least they can do is offer some kind of closure at the end of it.
It's not A Feast For Crows but I would recommend Steven Erikson as a very good stopgap...
We have to record the rhythm parts for one of the songs again on friday. Apparently on listening to it yesterday Mic, Chris and Andy weren't happy with the drums. I don't mind. Being in the studio is fun.
Last night I ordered the second, third and fourth books of the Malazan Book Of The Fallen series. I just finished Gardens of the Moon, the first one, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it:
This is big fantasy we are dealing with- Steven Erikson is most likely to be mentioned in a breath with Robert Jordan and George RR Martin - the many volume 600+ page-a-time school of writing, fat-assy, if you will. Gardens Of The Moon introduces us to the world-spanning Malazan empire, pushing it's boundaries out across the world, as empires in such settings must, with the usual intrigue and corruption at it's heart and whose expansion the gods themselves are beginning to take an interest in. Although the setting is massive, with an immense depth of history to the world, the story is very character lead and the interweaving storylines of the different protagonists, caught up in the Empire's huge campaign, make for very rewarding reading; less contrived than Robin Hobb and less arbitrarily brutal than Martin or K J Parker. Like the authors I have just mentioned Erikson's creation is his own- pleasantly elf and orc free, the magic is intriguing and original and everything seems to suggest that as the books progress more of that enormous history will be brought into play. One thing that he has got absolutely right is that the book has a beginning followed by a middle and concluded with an end. It really pisses me off when you get to the end of a novel and it basically stops with a big "to be continued..." If I've stayed with an author for the last 600 pages the least they can do is offer some kind of closure at the end of it.
It's not A Feast For Crows but I would recommend Steven Erikson as a very good stopgap...