Platypus of Truth

The Last Hieroglyph by Clark Ashton Smith I've been wanting to read a little of Clark Ashton Smith's ever since I discovered Lovecraft and Howard.  With the "The Last Hieroglyph," I finally have my chance. To begin, Smith has a more polished writing style than either Lovecraft or Howard.  If I had to pick a word to describe it, I think I would choose "smooth."  He shares Lovecraft's love for "big words," but deploys them with greater subtly than his Poe-inspired colleague.  This gives Smith's language a feel of authority and a sort of Dunsanian mesmerism that isn't present in Howard or in much of Lovecraft ("The Quest of Unknown Kadath" being a notable exception).  This style works well with Smith's chosen subject matter: the mystic journey of an astrologer and his two followers. "The Last Hieroglyph" tells the story of the itinerant astrologer Nushain and his two companions, a dog and a slave, who travel o...

Continuing with "The Mammoth Book of Fantasy," we come to the titans Howard and Dunsany. The Valley of the Worm by Robert E. Howard I've generally liked what Conan stories I've read, but that's the only thing I've read by this foundational author of the sword and sorcery genre.  I was worried that moving beyond the confines of Conan would be a disappointing experience.  That worry proved to be unfounded as "The Valley of the Worm" is every bit as much fun as the Conan stories I've read. Briefly, "The Valley of the Worm" is the story of a modern man recalling his past life as a prehistoric warrior whose tribe stumbles upon a horror from a yet more ancient era.  This tale of Niord and the Worm is supposed to be the origin (via racial memory?) of all the later accounts of heroes and dragons. Right off the bat, we can see the influence of H.P. Lovecraft on the tale with its psuedo-academic racism, suggestions of elder gods, and th...

So, what else have I been reading?  Well I did finally finish "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" and "Traveling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer," and I'm more than half way through "The Guns of August."  Traveling to Ohio and California for three weeks has slowed the literary machine down a bit, but there's also a collection of short stories called "The Mammoth Book of Fantasy" to add to the list.  Basically, it's a survey of the development of Fantasy literature in the 20th century.  Practically, it's given me a chance to explore various important fantasy authors without having to hunt down out-of-print books and expensive collected editions.  In other words, it saves time, and if I don't like an author I can move on without having blown a wad of cash. That said, I thought I'd offer some thoughts on the various short stories in the collection.  I'll post the title of each one in bold, so that if you haven't read it ...

What can I say now that I've wrapped up the initial Shannara series after a fifteen year hiatus? I think Tom Shipey is right, these books only exist because they scratch the Tolkien itch.  They are to Tolkien what Geogette Heyer is to Jane Austen except at a more doggerel level.  I mean no disrespect to Mr. Brooks.  He's a prolific author and clearly worked relentlessly over the course of a decade to produce these novels.  Even as pulp, however, they do not reach the level of Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice-Burroughs, or even Robert Heinlein.    I'm sure, given the learning-curve in these books and the author's dedication, that Brooks' later work gets better and I'm looking forward to reading it.  We'll see where he stands in the end.  In the meantime, however, for someone interested in the development of fantasy literature, Terry Brooks cannot be ignored.  Whatever the shortcomings of the Shannara Series, they proved to the publishing ...

I'm on page 336, and I have to confess that I am having some trouble staying motivated.  The tone of the work is consistent and enchanting, but the plot incidents and characters leave something to be desired. Thoughts: This book is more interesting when Brooks is writing about Jair.  "The Wishsong of Shannara" feels like a book and a half.  There's this main story with Jair that Brooks is interested in and then this under-developed story with his sister that Brooks is obligated to include.  The narrative always seems to flail a bit when we turn back to Brin.   Allanon helps a bit, but Rone and Brin drag and even the Druid can't make up for their lack of depth.  If Brin was a deeper character, then the whole thing could be saved, but she's always a little shallow and paste-board and it's hard to care about her or her journey.  Following this trend, many of the characters that Brin and Rone encounter on their journey feel thin or implausible while th...

If Terry Brooks uses the word "shrugged" one more time I will scream.  Moody teenagers shrug, not the heroes of epic fantasy.  I can't believe his editor didn't take a read pen to every single appearance of that word in the text.  Other than that, at a little more than a quarter through the book the writing style of "The Wishsong of Shannara" continues to be a definate improvement over "The Elfstones of Shannara."  I would also add that the plot is more complex than that of the Elfstones while also being easier to follow and generally more artistically interlaced.  There's a definite learning curve in Brooks' work and I'd be interested to know where it caps out over the course of his thirty + year career.  He also seems to be much more certain of his audience (young teenage boys) and writes consistently with them in mind (Note that the story cannot primarily be about Brin but about Jair's quest to save Brin). In other news, he has...

Immediately after finishing "The Elfstones of Shannara," I have moved on to its sequel "The Wishsong of Shannara."  We've had guests over the last few days so I've only reached page 41.  We'll be busy during most of July, so it would be difficult to live blog through the book as I did with "The Elfstones of Shannara."  That said, let me offer my initial thoughts and I'll post more when there's time and opportunity. "The Wishsong of Shannara" opens in Autumn, and it is an autumnal work.  Something is fading and passing from the Four Lands.  This something is Allanon.  The demands of keeping the Four Lands safe have aged him, and the Druid is but a shadow of his former self.  He even complains that no one recognizes him when he first appears to the Omsfords.  We also know that he has begun to experience failure and a loss of his powers as the Mael Mord has thwarted his attempt to destroy the Ildatch.  All this is to say th...

So not everything this summer has been my usual return to pulp.  We've been part of a reading group and that has given me the opportunity to expand my reading beyond its normal confines.  I love the old classics and, conversely, I have great difficulty with many of the "new classics."  However, their newness and my lack of interest don't make them any less important.  Indeed, as I now teach moderns, knowing them a bit better has become a necessity.  Even if it wasn't, I still believe in reading broadly.  So here's what I've been torturing myself with: "Hannah Coulter" by Wendel Berry, "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson, and "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh.  N.B.- I have ranked them in the order of preference from least to greatest. Now there is something odd I've discovered: I prefer the dead Brit to the living Americans.  That could be because I have studied at Oxford (the setting of the first part of "Brideshea...

This whole string of posts has been one set of spoilers.  Sorry about forgetting to post the obligatory warning.  So, now that we're getting down to the finale: *Spoiler Alert!* So, I was right about Cephelo.  Brooks has given us reason to like this guy and reason to despise him.  He's that likable rogue that could go either way.  Unlike Panamon Creel in "The Sword of Shannara," Cephelo fails the test and suffers for it, but we don't quite feel that it's his just deserts.  That's a bit of nuance and I give Brooks full points for his Rover thread.  It's probably the strongest thread in the book.  The Elessedil family thread never completely gels, though Ander and Evantine do achieve that status of fully-developed characters by the end. That said, once the narrative reaches Hollows and the siege of Arborlon, it kicks into high gear and never lets up until the end.  This is solid page-turner territory in the tradition of Hope, Haggard, a...