The Great Books Of The Western World

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Been a while since I updated this.

Ended up ditching GRIDLINKED.. It was more of a slog than I remembered. I think later Polity novels are superior, but the juice wasn't worth the squeeze in this case.

Moved onto a more successful re-read… Raymond Feist's classic MAGICIAN. It really it quite excellent. Pure nostalgia. It's chock-full of fantasy tropes, there's even a bit of a pastiche of the Fellowship's trip through the mines of Moria in there (Complete with the apparent loss of a central character, and his subsequent return in a rejuvenated form).

I remember reading nearly a dozen of the subsequent Midkemia books by Feist, and I'm not sure any of them beat the original RIFTWAR trilogy that MAGICIAN begins. Following MAGICIAN there's SILVERTHORN and (the rather excellently named) A DARKNESS AT SETHANON, I may plough on into them also.

This all made me think back to how big these books were in the past. There was even an old 16 bit fantasy roleplaying game that was subsequently novelised… KRONDOR: THE BETRAYAL.

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Johan Huizinga THE WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES

A bit of a niche read by a Dutch historian who died in 1945. A brilliant analysis of medieval religiosity, emotion and ritual.

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Still working away on Huizinga's THE WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES, but lately I'm leaving my reading until too late in the day (10pm+), and I'm just too tired to make much headway.

Huizinga is extremely strong in the picture he presents of the medieval Christian societies:-

Violent, volatile, filled with outbursts of emotion (both towards anger and contrary acts of compassion)… Dominated by symbolism, devotion to Christianity, rigid observance of custom and hierarchy.. And what I found very compelling was Huizinga's argument that although individual bad behaviour by princes was rife, that did not take away from the peoples' belief in the offices these princes held. They were very willing to distinguish between an office-holder's behaviour versus the respect an office in itself was due (Derived from God), no matter how many times individuals let them down.

Not something we still hold to, as evidenced by our confusion and abhorrence when contemporary politicians and priests fail to live up to the standards they should.

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Finished THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, more or less having abandoned THE WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES (A wonderful book, but just too dense at the moment).

Now reading the very very short CALL FOR THE DEAD by John Le Carre, which is just about a perfect spy novel. Not his most famous, but perhaps the best short introduction to Smiley I could have hoped for.

This is slow horses without the slathering of contemporary sensibilities, it's pure Cold War rainy London perfection.

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Isabel Colgate's THE SHOOTING PARTY.

The inspiration for Julian Fellowes films and TV, although Colgate's original novel takes more of an interest in the lives of those upstairs than downstairs, and is somewhat less saccharine than Fellowes' plots.

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Finished THE SHOOTING PARTY.

Quite an impressive build-up on tension in the final phase of the novel, as several innocents converge on the titular shooting party. Will it be the young son of the Lord, or his maid, who are accidentally shot? You sense that someone will fall afoul of the careless rivalry among the guns. Or the wandering pamphleteer, or one of the stewards and groundsmen accompanying the shoot.

On now to a very readable novel, so far, anyway… THE BODY SNATCHERS by Jack Finney.

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THE BODY SNATCHERS is somewhat less horror-laden than I think I'd expected. The first third feels like a country doctor drama.

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NEW SPRING by Robert Jordan.

This one hasn't aged well. Always an odd novel, a prequel to the main WOT series, but never essential reading.

It has a few little easter eggs for those who have, or will go on to, read the entire main series… But absent that, it's a strange novel.

A chance to see younger, less assured Moiraine, and a more edgy Lan, but aside from that, it's an unnecessary read.

Contemplating a main WOT re-read, not sure it's a good idea.

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Done with NEW SPRING. Ends well, Moiraine and Lan's final scenes are great. They really are a very adult and well-thought out pairing.

I struggle to think of many comparable partnerships in fantasy that are M/F without being romantic or famillial in nature.

On to the EYE OF THE WORLD.

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Ah, EYE OF THE WORLD.

I've read it so many times I find myself skimming over whole sections that I recall almost perfectly. Occasionally though, you read a scene and it feels fresh and new to you.

The first time Moiraine meets Rand and Mat, for example, is full of little things you don't notice the first time around. The passing over of the Tar Valon coins, that will let her track them, for exmaple, and how that is handled. Then, later, Lan's evaluation of them. They're a cool pair, considering that they must have been wondering if they'd just met the Dragon Reborn, in the form of either Rand or Mat.