January novel-reading

[garran]

Whoooops. Okay, hi.

Peter S. Beagle, A Fine and Private Place
Elizabeth Bear, Ink and Steel
Elizabeth Bear, Hell and Earth

My starting this particular Elizabeth Bear series last month is just an embarrassing coincidence.

Comments

[xorphus.livejournal.com]

Aww, I think she's getting a bad rap for trying very hard to open a dialogue with a number of contradictory critics.

[garran.livejournal.com]

I definitely think that she wasn't the worst-behaved participant. (I was more shocked by Emma Bull, and I'm still willing to read her!) My timing was just weird enough that it seemed worth elaborating that it wasn't deliberate -- neither because of the publicity she's been getting nor because I specifically set out to participate in the critique. (The Elizabethan ones wouldn't be the right part of the series to read for that, anyway, as it turns out.)

I did actually like these two better than any of her other long form work I've tried.


-Andy H.

[xorphus.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually found a copy of Ms. Bull's comments, but if they're as bad as everyone says then that is disappointing. I've only read one of her books (Territory, of course), but I really, really liked it, particularly the way she embraced a contrarian viewpoint.

[xorphus.livejournal.com]

Having now read them, I say: hmm.

[garran.livejournal.com]

(If you haven't yet, you might also note her apology, which I think is quite graceful despite the way that it continues to a certain degree to dichtomize intellect and emotion and cast Bear's critics on the 'emotional' side.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_quinn/]

OK, I give up. Where is this thread?