The Pelbar Cycle
Posted on November 19, 2008 | Filed Under Ink and Quill
Way back in the mid-80s when I was stationed in Italy with a detached unit of the 82nd Airborne, I ran across a book called The Breaking of Northwall. It was a post-apocalyptic story set 1000 years in our future. I remember enjoying the book but otherwise don’t remember a whole lot about it.
Over the years, I ran across other books apparently part of a series. I didn’t pick them up as I passed on them for other things. However, last year, for some reason I ran across my old tattered copy of Northwall and decided I was going to track down the series and give the whole thing a new read; this time in its entirety.
I’ve finished the first and am onto the second now (there are seven in all) but they are fairly ’short’ compared to most contemporary fantasy/sci-fi books, roughly 200-260 pages a book. The first one was very interesting. It was dry, almost like a text book, but also had a certain something that felt like telling stories around a camp fire. The author doesn’t over-write (as many of the current authors of fantasy and sci-fi can have a tendency to do.) Very Hemingway-esque in the ability to make you fill in the gaps on your own.
I liked it and am looking forward to finally seeing how this 25 year old series progresses. Stay tuned.
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Gates of Fire
Posted on April 27, 2006 | Filed Under Ink and Quill
I recently finished what has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read. It has fully inspired and peaked my interest in a time in history that was both breathtakingly vivid and alive and depressingly violent.
The book is Stephen Pressfield’s Gates of Fire. If you’ve never heard of it or know nothing about it, I urge you to pick it up. If you do, then you’ve no doubt already read it and know what I’m talking about.
Oberon turned me onto this book. He said it was something he thought I would really enjoy. He couldn’t have understated it more.
This book is powerful, evocative, inspirational, and sobering. It’s like a strong kick in the stomach from a mule after you’ve been out partying all night. The characterization is nothing short of brilliant. The men are heroic and yet human. They are the things we want all humanity to be even though deep down in are secret places we know humanity isn’t even close. The women, while seemingly secondary to the story, are actually the noblest of all.
I can’t say enough good things about this book. It was so good, I’m actually stunned it hasn’t been a movie yet (even though there is an apparent script called “The 300″ based on a Frank Miller comic coming out next year). Especially after the likes of Gladiator and Troy.
The battle of Thermopylae is something I have known bits and pieces of for sometime. I’m sad that I’ve missed out on such a rich and vibrant piece of history. But this will be remedied quickly. I’m already hip deep in another Pressfield novel “Last of the Amazons” and I fully intend to read everything he’s written. I’m also going to begin to track down his source materials to read as well.
Another friend of mine not to long ago convinced me to read “Killer Angels” about the battle of Gettysburg. He’s a bit of a fanatic when it comes to civil war history. I guess you could call it ‘his’ time period. I believe now I have found mine. The richness of ancient Greece is calling.
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Perdido Street Station/The Darkness That Comes Before
Posted on November 28, 2005 | Filed Under Ink and Quill
Two books I’m currently reading.
I’ve been seeing this one for a while and thought I’d give it a whirl. So far it’s very interesting but difficult to get into. It breaks a lot of literary ’standards’ I’m used to and I’m having a hard time grasping the storyline. It’s fantasy but a different take, has a strong middle eastern feel to it. I’m hoping when my brain isn’t such mush from drilling physiology that I’ll better be able to concentrate on it.
Several people have been after me to read this for a while. I finally picked it up. Very intriguing book. My first experience with Mieville, King Rat, left me a little underwhelmed. It wasn’t a bad book, per se, but as much as I’d heard he was so phenomenal King Rat most definitely did not live up the hype. I felt like I was reading a World of Darkness novel. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but it isn’t a bastion of high literature. However, Perdido Street Station is living up to the hype. I’m enjoying it a great deal. I do have some quibbles (Mieville tends to be pedantic, which is rather funny because of how much he insists he’s breaking the mold of fantasy and science fiction, and his story, outside of having fascinating setting, is turning out to be almost a straight forward mystery) but it is that setting that is so imaginative and vivid. Very striking. 
I understand that the second and third book set in New Cherbuzon aren’t quite as good. Then again, the two Endymion novels didn’t live up to the two Hyperion novels but that doesn’t stop Hyperion (by Dan Simmons) from being an amazing read.
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