11.11.2007
So I was out to drinks with my buddy Paulie. Paulie, the guy I basically based Magic Hour on in my novel The Terror of Barcelona. We were talking about our lack of enthusiasm for going to the movie theater any more because of the stupid, stupid people that we're always forced to sit next to after having paid eleven dollars to watch an imperfect picture with a sound so quiet you have to strain to hear it.
Yeah.
But he did say that he was interested in how the movie version of The Golden Compass was going to turn out. Had I heard of the books? They were very interesting. He got them from his girl who was crazy about them.
"Err... no," said I.
So he tells me about it. But the one thing that stuck most in my head was how imaginative the world created within was.
Well... since I'd finished the Patrick O'Brian Aburey/Maturin series, I've been fishing around for something new to read. (It's nice having a twenty book series to work on. Your reading list is basically taken care of for a year.)
So I get the last of my dental work taken care of on Thursday and wander on over to the 14th Street Barnes & Noble. I climb to the eighteenth floor, or whatever, and stand for the appropriate amount time looking in disdain at the books in the sci-fi/fantasy section then get down to business and begin looking around.
The Golden Compass is part of the His Dark Materials series and I see all three books but pick up only the first. I also see the first book of the Temeraire series, which I've heard described as "Patrick O'Brian... with DRAGONS!" so I thought I'd check that out too.
I get home, crack the cover of The Golden Compass and begin reading...
That was Thursday... Today is Sunday and I'm one hundred pages into the third book.
So... yeah. They're good. They're really good. They're really, really good.
And I'll tell you why: They're unlike any fantasy book I've read in a long time. A long time.
This aren't the typical Tolkien-like fantasy books with the usual mix of dragons, elves, fucking stupid quests to get objects of crazy power and what not that is basically the plot of every Fantasy book that has come since. In the first book anyway, the story is really about a girl looking for her friend. At it's basic level. But there's a whole lot else circling around that's intriguing.
I also watched the trailer for the movie that's coming out... err... in less than a month and holy shit, my friends. They're doing something wonderful there. I am actually stoked to go back to the theater. Stoked in a way I haven't been in a long time. A long time.
Yeah. So instead of writing, I've been doing a lot of reading. Here are the other books I picked up, just FYI:
- The Subtle Knife - His Dark Materials: Book II
Phillip Pullman - The Amber Spyglass - His Dark Materials: Book III
Phillip Pullman - His Majesty's Dragon - Temeraire: Book I
Naomi Novik - The Gum Thief
Douglas Coupland - Cauldron
Jack McDevitt
Good stuff so far people. To be honest, I haven't had this successful of a book run since I picked up my first Bukowski novel.