Wuzzondek

Glad you asked:

Yeah, after a solid spring of nonfiction (math, religion, Civil and World War), I suddenly find myself jonesing for fantasy fiction.  Long, involved, world-creating fantasy fiction.  Reading The Hobbit two weeks ago made me realize this; reading Watership Down now has only cemented it.  So I picked these trio of hefty paperbacks off the shelf behind me and will hit them all in order from elbow outward as the summer progresses.

Robert Jordan’s Eye of the World, the first book of his acclaimed Wheel of Time series (of at least a dozen books, still going strong, if I remember correctly, a half-decade after the author’s death), is first on the list.  I read it way back in 2000, living expatriotly of sorts down in Maryland.  Lots of Tolkien analogousness (to put it kindly), but it sits kinda fondly in my memory, though I never progressed past Book I.  So, I will give it a re-read.  There were some things I like, but can’t comment on it just yet as my mind is that proverbial leaking sieve.

Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe is on the arm because, well, it’s by Gene Wolfe.  Dying to read more of his stuff.  Why not now?  The book is not of the world-created fantasy fiction per se, but takes place in ancient Egypt as imagined by the author.  So – what’s the difference, I ask?  We’ll see. 

And last, Robert Silverberg’s Majipoor Chronicles.  A dozen or so short stories taking place in his Majipoor world, where his Lord Valentine book takes place.  Or books, dunno.  Just remember reading Lord Valentine’s Castle (though never finishing it) during one of my week-long solo vacations at my parents’ house in Lake George during the late-80s.  For nostalgia’s sake I want to revisit it.  Plus, Silverberg has a really really sweet knack for creating intense fantasy worlds.

So there you have

What’s On Deck.