[silk] Sailing to Sarantium

[asimov@xxxxxxxx]

divyasatyam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote

>Yeah, me too. My favorites so far are "A Song for Arbonne" and "The >lions of
>Al-rassan" I'm not too fond of Tigana. The Fionavar Tapestry: I liked 

Pretty much exactly the same as my rating of the books. I couldn't put down Fionavar when I read it, but its SO derivative of Tolkien. Must be the Silmarillion editing work influence. 

Speaking of brightweavings.com, the site as a whole is really nice - my particular favourite is the "dialogue" review of all of his books, which brings up some interesting points, like the ones you've made below.

>site. On the description of emotions and relationships: I have mixed
>feelings. He verges on purple prose at times, and I find some of his >female
>characters' behaviour implausible. (And before Udhay says it, yes, I 

In a trilogy like Fionavar, which is by definition over the top, I think the purple prose actually fits in - its appropriate - I don't know how else you can adequately describe the events at, and after the final battle at Andarien at the end of the trilogy. Its a bit jarring in the more realistic books, and sometimes, (just sometimes!) I find myself thinking, "For god's sake, nobody's THAT subtle, why don't they come out and SAY things", especially in the Sarantium books. But by and large..

>most Byzantine alternate history for some reason always focusses on
>Belisarius. It's enjoyable when you have knowledgable writers like
>Turtledove writing it, but some of the dreck that comes out is

Ah. That's interesting. I read another Byzantium alternate history book - called Agent of Byzantium - or was it Agent of the Empire? I think that was the Turtledove book? Pretty good, but very slim - kinda like a different adventure in each chapter.

Apart from the realistic nature of the books, I like the fact they were inspired by Yeats' poetry on Byzantium (some of which is quoted in Lord of Emperors at the end), and even the title is a homage to the Yeats poem - Sailing to Byzantium. 

And the phrase in book 2 from which the title is derived is pretty cool I thought..

>Badri, if Udhay doesn't claim it first, can I borrow "Lord of >Emperors"?
>I'll trade you anything you want - I have an extensive collection. 

No problem. Email offlist and we'll fix things up. I haven't even heard of half the authors you've mentioned, so I'll leave it to your good judgment. No Arthurian stuff though - I've just started TH White's Once and Future King and want to finish that. Or, actually, I'd like to take a look at your electronic catalog if possible..:-)

Badri