Blank Doll

I love my rainy days, so restful and all. Evenings like this, makes me want to paint everything in saturated shades of blue.

Oh and I wish hardcore fantasy geeks would all stand up and rise against the Harry Potter Craze. It's absurd this is, all the fanfare over a plot that has been used, and used, and re-used by countless other fantasy writers who write very well indeed. There are many up and coming fantasy writers with skill, finesse, more than a little sophistication and it's just plain sad that none of them will ever get the sort of acclaim that Ms. Rowling has received. This is just as bad as the time when everyone suddenly went crazy over LOTR even though the book was pedantic, boring, strangely unepic given its scale and was probably the only fantasy book to have an ANNEX. All because they made it into a movie and Orlanda Bloom had pointy ears.

Here are some fantasy writers who read very well though. Terry Pratchett for his irreverence, his humour and his quirky way of making his world seems so much more real than reality. Jacqueline Carey for writing so beautifully it's almost prose. Anne Bishop who needs a bit more polish but does a neat job. Judith Tarr who's an old hand who wrote a very good chronicle series. Tad William's War of Flowers is inspired. Ursula Le Guin is very very good at what she does. Terry Goodkind makes the Cold War sound boring. Terry Brooks write an action-packed Tolkien lite which is quite entertaining. Mercedes Lackey for the uninitiated is good. L E Modesitt is versatile and there is always E Feist who does wars incredibly well. Oh and for those of us, all of us, who like fantasy light, there is always David Eddings who can be relied on to supply easy books of delicious length with very likeable characters.

And here I give myself away as a fantasy geek. Crap. Haha, anyway, was talking to a fellow closet fantasy geek and she kindly pointed out that I like my fantasy politically inspired. This means I'm not too acquainted with the fireball and dragonfight persuasion so I can't be relied on to supply titles.

There, I have forever banished the stupid assumption that all I read is Tarling. I happen to spend most of my time reading fantasy novels, books on food, fashion periodicals and coffee books and articles on the state of the economy. I do like to dabble in the occasional philosophy text and the rare Klassiks but well, it's rare.

Plato's Republic is proving to be quite fascinating nevertheless. The whole Socrates and the Idiot argument model is a little washed out though.

Goodbye weekend.

C'est tout.