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dustydigger
Posted 2014-09-10 5:18 AM (#8485 - in reply to #6198)
Subject: Re: The Pick and Mix Challenge.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		32. Neil Gaiman - Stardust. Tristran Thorn is a fairly ordinary young man, though unaware of his exotic origins. Madly in love with a young woman he vows extravagantly to bring her her heart's desire. Amused but contemptuous she orders him to bring back a falling star, which has landed over the Wall that separates the land of Faerie from the mundane Victorian rustic world. So off he goes to face perilous events, where he meets with witches, murderous elven lordsvying for the right to rule, a fallen star turned into a rather belligerent young woman, a unicorn, all sorts of spells and magical traps - even flying pirates!

Once again I have read a Neil Gaiman book and been amazed at its freshness and originality, even though as ever Gaiman is extolling the value and importance of story and storytelling, showing how we can enrich ourselves despite our harassed, mundane world by immersing ourselves in fantasy. Of course Gaiman shows us that the world of fantasy isnt necessarily something light, beautiful, and having a happy ending. He well knows the origin of our European fairy stories, which in their original form, straight from the lips of peasants who were repeating them as they had heard them from their own elders,were full of darker passions, cruelty, murder and violence. It was only later that the savagery and horrific incidents were glossed over or softened to become suitable for children.
Gaiman has succeeded in producing a modern take on the fairy story, and it is mainly for adults, with one four letter word and a rather graphic sex scene not meant for children. There is wit and humour, quirky characterisation, surprising plot developments, familiar fairytale elements, especially the coming of age quest trope,and a rather poignant ending. Gaiman sails through it all with aplomb and respect for his sources, and all in all it is a fun read.

33.Philip K Dick - The Man in the High Castle. The book completely confirmed that I am not a fan of PKDs work!.He is the darling of the brand of SF that yearns for literary respectability,so the more downbeat,baffling and enigmatic the work is the better!It was fairly interesting,but overall tailed off,with a weak ending,and I felt the work overdid the irony, it wasnt truly effective.There may be lots of themes about identity,false/ true reality,the whims of fate,the helplessness of humanity in the grasp of the vagaries of history etc,but it never gripped me.The convoluted worldbuilding seemed confused,(probably deliberately,but I didnt like it)and the book may have started off a whole new genre of alternate history,but I didnt take to more than two or three characters. The book rested on an ancient book,the I Ching,where people's lives are ruled by arbitrary tossing of sticks and dice and reading abstruse aphorimss to make important decisions of life.I was disappointed too that I struggled at the start of the book to make the effort to understand the strands of history.We have the strand of what we know of the real history of WWII.Then we have the strand of the "reality" of the story which is set in an America divided up by Japan and Germany after they won WWII. Within the book a man has written a novel which speculates on what if Japan and Germany had lost the war. This strand is quite a bit different from the history of our real world.Then halfway through the book all this is pretty much tossed aside,and arbitrary events occur,yes ironic,but to me it was just irritating!
Ah well,just not my cup of tea I supposebutt fairly interesting

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