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Still catching up on my vacation reading. This is the one where Mrs. Pollifax has to find the plutonium, rescue the kidnapped son of the General, and reform a jewel thief and hook him up with a good woman. Probably one of my favorites.
Feb. 8th, 2012
Scored this in a used bookshop on Sanibel Island when it became apparent that the three paperbacks I'd brought on vacation weren't going to be enough to keep me busy. The cover says "Hercule Poirot's Famous First Case". This wasn't my favorite Poirot mystery - I found it a little convoluted and I completely didn't guess who the real murderer was. I was also pretty annoyed by the narrator, Hastings, who kept thinking he was smarter than Poirot and that Poirot must be senile. I know that's a common character type for Christie but I thought Hastings was a little overboard. I did see the secondary love plot coming, though.
I'd forgotten just how good the Earthsea novels are, and they only get better from here. This one introduces us to Ged, Le Guin's Earthsea hero, and we see his childhood and his first major challenge as a wizard. Ged's not as fully developed a character as we see in Le Guin's later work (I don't feel like I know Ged or can really picture him at this point, not like I can later on in Earthsea or like I can with Tenar even though she's not even in this book and I haven't seen her in years), but I do like that Ged's still not a perfect person - he's smart, talented, and courageous, but he has faults, and his pride and anger are what bring on the danger that nearly kills him. In that sense, A Wizard of Earthsea is a coming of age story because Ged has to face the darkest parts of himself. I'm really looking forward to rereading the whole series.
Interestingly, I noted to F that the back cover describes this novel as a "recognized classic of high fantasy", and he wondered what exactly that means. I could cite him some of the obvious others - Tolkien, McKillip's Riddlemaster series - but I had trouble defining exactly what "high fantasy" means. There's a formality to the language, I think, and a sense that the stakes are very high in the battle between good and evil, and the main characters are usually the ones who are pivotal in that battle. I also feel like there's a space between the reader and the story; maybe it's just that high fantasy is usually written in third person, so we don't necessarily know the protagonist's deepest thoughts and feelings. I'm trying to think what else would be considered "high fantasy". Not Harry Potter, I don't think; although the scale is epic enough, the books feel too intimate to me. And not Fritz Lieber, because although I love Fafhrd and the Mouser, I think the stakes aren't high enough in most of their adventures - they go out looking for trouble and fortune, they're not trying to save the world. Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake comes close in terms of the formal language, but I'm not sure if the stakes are high enough there either. Possibly early Pern? Really interested to hear what you think.
Interestingly, I noted to F that the back cover describes this novel as a "recognized classic of high fantasy", and he wondered what exactly that means. I could cite him some of the obvious others - Tolkien, McKillip's Riddlemaster series - but I had trouble defining exactly what "high fantasy" means. There's a formality to the language, I think, and a sense that the stakes are very high in the battle between good and evil, and the main characters are usually the ones who are pivotal in that battle. I also feel like there's a space between the reader and the story; maybe it's just that high fantasy is usually written in third person, so we don't necessarily know the protagonist's deepest thoughts and feelings. I'm trying to think what else would be considered "high fantasy". Not Harry Potter, I don't think; although the scale is epic enough, the books feel too intimate to me. And not Fritz Lieber, because although I love Fafhrd and the Mouser, I think the stakes aren't high enough in most of their adventures - they go out looking for trouble and fortune, they're not trying to save the world. Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake comes close in terms of the formal language, but I'm not sure if the stakes are high enough there either. Possibly early Pern? Really interested to hear what you think.