Short Sun 2 / Gentlemen / No Towers
Jan. 18th, 2005 09:15 amGene Wolfe, In Green's Jungles
Short Sun vol.2. Continuing with the half-and-half treatment from the first volume. Horn's lander is taken over by inhumi [alien creatures, more or less like vampires] and diverted to their home planet of Green, rather than heading straight for the Whorl. Horn escapes the inhumi and wanders in the jungle, eventually dying and passing into the body of an old man on the Whorl. Meanwhile, the protagonist leads a war against another colony-state on Blue, and mentally journeys to Green and to Urth in the time of Severian.
Still confusing but I'm getting a handle on it. Parts seem irrelevant but probably aren't; parts that feel especially relevant aren't fleshed out. Frustrating. But still a damned good read.
Barry Hughart, Eight Skilled Gentlemen
The third of the Master Li and Number Ten Ox books; the second [The Story of the Stone] is essentially out of print. It's not as lighthearted as Bridge of Birds and even more steeped in Chinese mythology, but the humor and heart are still present. I'd really like to read more of these.
art spiegelman, In the Shadow of No Towers
Oversize comic, collecting some of spiegelman's work for the New Yorker [I think] in the months after the fall of the World Trade Center. It's alright, but the last eight or so pages are reminiscences and 'classic' comics, and I clearly lack the erudition to really understand [say] Little Nemo, or the depth of Krazy Kat and Ignatz. The first half is worth the read; the second not so much.
Short Sun vol.2. Continuing with the half-and-half treatment from the first volume. Horn's lander is taken over by inhumi [alien creatures, more or less like vampires] and diverted to their home planet of Green, rather than heading straight for the Whorl. Horn escapes the inhumi and wanders in the jungle, eventually dying and passing into the body of an old man on the Whorl. Meanwhile, the protagonist leads a war against another colony-state on Blue, and mentally journeys to Green and to Urth in the time of Severian.
Still confusing but I'm getting a handle on it. Parts seem irrelevant but probably aren't; parts that feel especially relevant aren't fleshed out. Frustrating. But still a damned good read.
Barry Hughart, Eight Skilled Gentlemen
The third of the Master Li and Number Ten Ox books; the second [The Story of the Stone] is essentially out of print. It's not as lighthearted as Bridge of Birds and even more steeped in Chinese mythology, but the humor and heart are still present. I'd really like to read more of these.
art spiegelman, In the Shadow of No Towers
Oversize comic, collecting some of spiegelman's work for the New Yorker [I think] in the months after the fall of the World Trade Center. It's alright, but the last eight or so pages are reminiscences and 'classic' comics, and I clearly lack the erudition to really understand [say] Little Nemo, or the depth of Krazy Kat and Ignatz. The first half is worth the read; the second not so much.