Boring and Unfinished

   As my literature horizons broaden my search for quality narrows and sharpens. Granted, romance novels are a crap-shoot but one girl and a pair of seemingly opposite identical twin brothers just seems so trite. Maybe they have a horrible secret and the protagonist should run for her life but the way this was set up I just lost all the interest. If either of you (my half-interested readers) want a new romance novel, have a look at 'Down to You'. I have no interest in reading it. Perhaps I may be interested later.

   I am moving to Richard Matheson's 'Haunted past reason'. I am going to read this cover-to-cover as Matheson is known for good pieces. Not that I have ever read any of this works. Now... for other creepy stuff.

    Actually, Imaginary Friends, when made visible, are not that bad. Meanwhile, the rain finally made an appearance and lasted all day. Miracles do happen.

BYE.

Amid hunger pangs

So my locale got some substantial rain last night and I slept right through it. Granted, I like getting a decent night's rest, but I missed what was supposed to be a very good light show. There may be some more rain this evening, and we definitely need this rain. I worked on my library's webpage today but there's lots of work still to do. I know it's something I need to keep updated, but I don't always have the time. That's life. I spent an hour here, an hour there updating the colours and adding blurbs here and there. It's a start. I transplanted another of my poor root-bound plants today at work. I know, it's the wrong season to do it, but I had the time today and I'm pretty sure I won't find the time this spring. Better now when I have some time than later when I don't. Took a break from laminating but I'll be back to that fun and excitement tomorrow. I'm a little annoyed with that bottom roller, but considering the machine is doing what it should, and considering I'm not sure if it is the bottom roller's fault or something I didn't do, I'll just keep chugging along. Last year things were pretty bad until I learned I had screwed something up. One learns something new every day.
On the literary front, I finished reading another study on gothic fiction. No Lovecraft yet graces my borrow shelf, but that is surely coming. The book I just read was a study on Lovecraft, Matheson, and King. Matheson wrote 'I am Legend', which is another book I have yet to read. I may borrow one of these days. I don't know if I consider it an overhyped book, considering nobody's been talking the book or the movie ad nauseam, unlike some books and movies I've heard about. To this day, I have yet to watch 'Titanic', and I pray I never will. I'm not fond of DeCaprio and I loathe that song something fierce. Yeah, I think I'll stay away from that movie for the rest of my days. Now it's time to take up the third part of Piers Anthony's Geodyssey series. I also have the 4th one waiting in the wings. This has been a good series so far. I'm also reading through the Apprentice Adept series. Just need some Xanth to keep things light. I haven't done much lighter fare lately. Maybe the time is coming. It would be a nice change.
The weekend is calling, but I can't pick up the phone for another 21 hours. Maybe I'll play the Sims tonight. Or I'll read some more. Ah, the outstanding life of an embittered spinster.

Praising Piers

Mundania's most esteemed traveller to Xanth is whom I praise this evening. Piers Anthony of Florida; author of Bio of a Space Tyrant, Xanth, Apprentice Adept, and MANY other series. It was the Xanth series I first fell in love with. My dad, to whom most laurels must go, introduced me to puns when I was in my pre-teens, and I seized upon the copious punnery one finds when one travels to the extraordinary land of Xanth through such novels as Demons Don't Dream, Isle of View, and my personal favourite, The Color of Her Panties. I've read his earlier Xanth works and have learned that the series wasn't always so pun-ridden. There's barely any pun-work in Centaur Aisle or Castle Roogna; not that I miss it when I read these earlier works. His most recent works in the vein of Xanth are becoming overly-cluttered with puns. Who can blame him, when the fans are the ones who send truckloads of ideas and embarrasingly dreadful puns to him every day?
He has, of course, written series in a more serious vein, which is where Bio of a Space Tyrant and works like Incarnations of Immortality come in. The latter is a most remarkable series as well, and I recommend it highly. The idea to praise Piers Anthony came while I was reading the Apprentice Adept series. This series also deals in alternate universes and is lightly sprinkled with punnery and doggerel, but is more serious than Xanth and jumps from SF to Fantasy with nearly every chapter. I am coming to enjoy this series as much as I have the Xanth series. Just the right amount of realism and punnery without the plot getting lost, and the characters are fantastic.
Stile, the main character of this series, crosses into the Fantasy universe of Phaze to escape being killed, but continually has to shuttle back and forth from Phaze, where magic rules, to his home world of Proton, where he plays increasingly competitive games to keep himself alive. I'm presently reading Blue Adept, which is the second book in the series. Again, highly recommended. The one series I should read but have not yet had the pleasure is Bio of a Space Tyrant, but that will shortly change. I close this post down with a few final praises of Piers Anthony's work. There is no doubt that Xanth is my favourite of the series he has crafted, but to be completely balanced, I would suggest that you read as much of his other masterworks. Man cannot live on bread alone -- he'd just loaf around that way.
Sorry.

Prophecy

One plot twist I'm getting a little sick of in Fantasy novels is the Prophecy plot. You see it in most Fantasy novels -- the one where the hero is destined to either doom or save his world depending on what he does. Much of the Fantasy series I've read (perhaps this is a failing on my part) bring this tired old chestnut out (Dune and its progeny, Belgariad and Malloreon, Sword of Truth, Wheel of Time, the Thomas Covenant novels). Destiny is a fascinating concept to address, and certainly worth the ink to write about, but I'm getting a little sick of reading a book and finding that the hero was destined from the dawn of time to do something heroic and vanquish some ancient evil. Where did this fascination with prophecy come from?
I'm no stranger to the Old Testament, and a book I was reading recently -- about the OT prophets and their prophecies -- got me thinking very hard about this business. Fellows like Ezekiel, Joel, Hosea, Malachi, and of course Jeremiah roamed the Old Testament world warning the Hebrews that a vengeful, bitter-hearted God was watching their every move, ready to crush and damn the daylights out of them at the first sign of betrayal. You can also find prophecy in the New Testament, with the coming of the Messiah. He was destined to save the New Testament world (and all the worlds since then) by sacrificing himself.
This leads me to wonder how many times the Messiah can be recreated in Fantasy. Some books out there don't take this route of prophecy, and I applaud them. Be original for once, folks. I appeal to the writers of today and tomorrow to avoid this well-trod path and study destiny in some other way. Also, if there's anyone who can suggest some awesome novels that have nothing to do with prophecy, please let me know. Thank you.