Five Favourites
Oct. 31st, 2012 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyAlma Alexander has a 'Five Favourites post here: http://storytellersunplugged.com/almaalexander/2012/10/30/3161/
I've decided to play. Will you join me?
1) Lois McMaster Bujold: 'Curse of Chalion'. I fell in love with Caz on the first page, a real hero who is the last one to know it. Bujold has an immense talent for characterisation. Caz is complex, though he would identify himself as simple. In the beginning he's a broken man seeking only a place by someone's fireside, yet he still carries with him all the integrity of a former soldier, scholar, courtier and diplomat combined with the survival instincts of a galley slave, which is what he's been since one of his own commanders betrayed him. Gradually Caz's story unfolds as he's given a new home by an old acquaintance. With it comes responsibility as tutor to the sister of the heir to the throne. And Caz simply serves to the best of his ability, selflessly going above and beyond what might be expected of a simple tutor.
2) Lois McMaster Bujold: 'Warrior's Apprentice'. Still my favourite of her Vorkosigan novels, though it's really difficult to choose just one and both 'Memory' and 'Civil Campaign' run it a very close second and third. I love reading about Miles, but if he were mine I'd probably kill him. A pint-sized, brittle-boned, adolescent son of a great military leader, growing up in a society which values physical prowess and despises 'muties', Miles Vorkosigan has to think his way out of trouble, but with a hyperactive brain and wild imagination he thinks his way into trouble as well. After flunking the physical and failing to get into the military academy Miles is sent off to visit his granny on Beta Colony, but it isn't long before he's picking up waifs and strays and turning their lives around, even as he needs to do for himself. He's at his best when biting off more than he can chew. When Miles accidentally talks himself into the position of admiral of a mercenary fleet his troubles really start. Serious and funny in turn, all you want to do when finishing this book is take a little lie down in a darkened room. But if you do I guarantee you'll have the next book tucked under the bedclothes with your torch.
Yes I know that's two Bujolds and I only have five to select, but her fantasy and science fiction are so different from each other that I felt one of each was justified.
3) Terry Pratchett: 'Night Watch'. I love Pratchett's work. Of all his characters, Sam Vimes is my favourite and this is a perfect Vimes book. It's a masterclass in how to draw out dramatic tension almost to breaking point before letting the reader breathe again. I'm a sucker for an exploration of the backstory of my favourite characters. This takes Vimes right back to his roots as a young copper on the streets of Ankh Morpork, shakes things up and then delivers a thoroughly satisfying ending.
Ah, now I only have two places left in my top five and If I were to do Alma's meme tomorrow I might make a different choice altogether. An Andre Norton, maybe, because she led me to high fantasy? 'Year of the Unicorn' is my favourite Witch World book. A Narnia story for old times' sake? (It would have to be 'The Last Battle'.) O'Donnell's original 'Modesty Blaise' adventure? Tempting. One of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books? Diana Wynne Jones' 'Deep Secrets'? Close. LeGuin's 'A Wizard of Earthsea'? Possibly, but I don't think I've quite forgiven her for Tehanu, yet. (And no, Alma, in case you're wondering, not Tolkien for me.)
4) Going against convention completely I'm going to pick a media tie-in: Karen Traviss' first Star Wars Republic Commando book, 'Hard Contact' - simply because though no one could ever accuse it of being great literature, it's beautifully written with clean, economical prose and an engaging, page-turning style. The brief was to write a book to support Lucas' Republic Commando game, using the anonymous white-armoured clone soldiers familiar to all. It was aimed at twelve year old boys and upwards. So Traviss takes five troopers who are all clones of the same man, all raised together and trained by the same Mandalorian drill sergeant, and within the first few paragraphs you have five complete individuals on the page. Then she starts asking hard questions about individuality, identity, self-determination and human rights. Do clones even have human rights? And all this is wrapped up in a get-us-out-of-here caper which is perfectly accessible to teens, but with enough meat for adults. It's a brilliant example of writing to a brief while being true to your own heart. And if it wasn't for the fact that one of the characters is a minor, unknown Jedi, you would hardly know this was a tie-in novel at all.
5) And lastly, a newish author to me, but well deserving of inclusion - Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy. It's impossible to pick one out of three because it's really a story divided into three hefty tomes, starting with 'The Blade Itself'. Abercrombie takes the fantasy trope of a bunch of misfits coming together for a purpose and ending up as comrades... and subverts it completely. Yes, there's a kind of win-win at the end, but the characters still hate and despise each other just as much as they always did. Any book which can have a sadistic, twisted (literally and figuratively) torturer as a lead character and despite everything make you root for him, is a work of genius. And when the most moral and kindly character in the book is a berserker who, when the mood is on him, would kill his best friend if he was standing within range, you know you're either in trouble or in for a really good read.
I've decided to play. Will you join me?
1) Lois McMaster Bujold: 'Curse of Chalion'. I fell in love with Caz on the first page, a real hero who is the last one to know it. Bujold has an immense talent for characterisation. Caz is complex, though he would identify himself as simple. In the beginning he's a broken man seeking only a place by someone's fireside, yet he still carries with him all the integrity of a former soldier, scholar, courtier and diplomat combined with the survival instincts of a galley slave, which is what he's been since one of his own commanders betrayed him. Gradually Caz's story unfolds as he's given a new home by an old acquaintance. With it comes responsibility as tutor to the sister of the heir to the throne. And Caz simply serves to the best of his ability, selflessly going above and beyond what might be expected of a simple tutor.
2) Lois McMaster Bujold: 'Warrior's Apprentice'. Still my favourite of her Vorkosigan novels, though it's really difficult to choose just one and both 'Memory' and 'Civil Campaign' run it a very close second and third. I love reading about Miles, but if he were mine I'd probably kill him. A pint-sized, brittle-boned, adolescent son of a great military leader, growing up in a society which values physical prowess and despises 'muties', Miles Vorkosigan has to think his way out of trouble, but with a hyperactive brain and wild imagination he thinks his way into trouble as well. After flunking the physical and failing to get into the military academy Miles is sent off to visit his granny on Beta Colony, but it isn't long before he's picking up waifs and strays and turning their lives around, even as he needs to do for himself. He's at his best when biting off more than he can chew. When Miles accidentally talks himself into the position of admiral of a mercenary fleet his troubles really start. Serious and funny in turn, all you want to do when finishing this book is take a little lie down in a darkened room. But if you do I guarantee you'll have the next book tucked under the bedclothes with your torch.
Yes I know that's two Bujolds and I only have five to select, but her fantasy and science fiction are so different from each other that I felt one of each was justified.
3) Terry Pratchett: 'Night Watch'. I love Pratchett's work. Of all his characters, Sam Vimes is my favourite and this is a perfect Vimes book. It's a masterclass in how to draw out dramatic tension almost to breaking point before letting the reader breathe again. I'm a sucker for an exploration of the backstory of my favourite characters. This takes Vimes right back to his roots as a young copper on the streets of Ankh Morpork, shakes things up and then delivers a thoroughly satisfying ending.
Ah, now I only have two places left in my top five and If I were to do Alma's meme tomorrow I might make a different choice altogether. An Andre Norton, maybe, because she led me to high fantasy? 'Year of the Unicorn' is my favourite Witch World book. A Narnia story for old times' sake? (It would have to be 'The Last Battle'.) O'Donnell's original 'Modesty Blaise' adventure? Tempting. One of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books? Diana Wynne Jones' 'Deep Secrets'? Close. LeGuin's 'A Wizard of Earthsea'? Possibly, but I don't think I've quite forgiven her for Tehanu, yet. (And no, Alma, in case you're wondering, not Tolkien for me.)
4) Going against convention completely I'm going to pick a media tie-in: Karen Traviss' first Star Wars Republic Commando book, 'Hard Contact' - simply because though no one could ever accuse it of being great literature, it's beautifully written with clean, economical prose and an engaging, page-turning style. The brief was to write a book to support Lucas' Republic Commando game, using the anonymous white-armoured clone soldiers familiar to all. It was aimed at twelve year old boys and upwards. So Traviss takes five troopers who are all clones of the same man, all raised together and trained by the same Mandalorian drill sergeant, and within the first few paragraphs you have five complete individuals on the page. Then she starts asking hard questions about individuality, identity, self-determination and human rights. Do clones even have human rights? And all this is wrapped up in a get-us-out-of-here caper which is perfectly accessible to teens, but with enough meat for adults. It's a brilliant example of writing to a brief while being true to your own heart. And if it wasn't for the fact that one of the characters is a minor, unknown Jedi, you would hardly know this was a tie-in novel at all.
5) And lastly, a newish author to me, but well deserving of inclusion - Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy. It's impossible to pick one out of three because it's really a story divided into three hefty tomes, starting with 'The Blade Itself'. Abercrombie takes the fantasy trope of a bunch of misfits coming together for a purpose and ending up as comrades... and subverts it completely. Yes, there's a kind of win-win at the end, but the characters still hate and despise each other just as much as they always did. Any book which can have a sadistic, twisted (literally and figuratively) torturer as a lead character and despite everything make you root for him, is a work of genius. And when the most moral and kindly character in the book is a berserker who, when the mood is on him, would kill his best friend if he was standing within range, you know you're either in trouble or in for a really good read.
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Date: Oct. 31st, 2012 03:46 pm (UTC)I know I like a lot of writers you do, so I suspect I'll like her too.
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Date: Oct. 31st, 2012 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 1st, 2012 12:53 am (UTC)