I picked up Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger trilogy today, it’s going for $3.99 on Amazon. His stuff may not be for everybody, it’s usually pretty lightweight sci-fi/fantasy stuff, but I’ve been reading him since I was a kid. Guess he’s kind of my comfort food, and I don’t remember that I’ve ever actually read these books before.
Thanks. He was just on a booktuber’s show a month ago, and he intrigued me, so this sale might be the time to jump in. Are there other ADF books you’d recommend?
Oh man, where to start. I guess the best place is where I actually started, the Pip and Flix books. I’ve read quite a few, though Wikipedia tells me there are 15 of them and I know I never read that many, nor do I remember which specific books I read. I don’t know that it would be fair or accurate to call them ‘young adult’ books, though I was pretty young when I read them. Pretty entertaining.
The Spellsinger books are pretty good too, about a young musician who gets transported to a fantasy realm and finds that his musical ability allows him to use magic there. These too are really fun, quick reads - no heavy lifting here.
I also read quite a few of his standalone novels, and actually a few of his novelizations as well. One that stands out to me is called Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, which was going to be a low budget sequel to Star Wars if things hadn’t gone well for it (which obviously is not the way things turned out). It’s interesting because it takes the story in a completely different direction that The Empire Strikes Back did. Wouldn’t have been a better option, but still an intersting read.
I also liked Shadowkeep, which was based on a computer game in the early 80s - or maybe the game was based on the book? I forget. I should point out that I don’t know how easy to find these books are these days. You can definitely get the Pip and Flix and Spellsinger books electronically, but I’m not sure that’s the case for all his works.
Yeah, big nostalgia for Foster among the 50ish set. He was a hack back then but I loved hacks, and OMG books about video games! I’m glad to hear he’s still working. Has he actually matured as an author?
Oh yeah, I remember thinking Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was the coolest title ever back in the day. Plus, the whole concept of having a follow-up book to a movie like Star Wars was pretty awesome to my young self back then. I don’t actually remember anything about the book other than that moody, atmospheric cover, though.
Yep, had it in paperback, loved it. All I remember was that there were crystals that amplified Force. Got nothing beyond that.
Iain M. Banks’s second Culture novel, The Player of Games, is on sale on Amazon today for $2.99. I read Consider Phlebas some time back and really didn’t care for it, but I always hear people speaking positively about the Culture books so maybe I should give this one a shot.
I think Player of Games has a fairly straightforward plot/story, which I liked at the time. It’s no Feersum Endjinn!
The Player of Games is excellent.
Seconded.
I also feel Player of Games is a better introduction to Banks’ Culture universe, especially for gamers, than Consider Phlebas. Although Consider Phlebas is a very good book, it can be very hard to get into, while Player of Games is more accessible IMO.
Are they separate novels, or intertwined other than the universe?
Quite separate except for the shared background of the Culture universe.
Thanks, but back to 9.99 now. Ah well.
Alexandre Dumas is one of my absolute favorite authors, and today The Count of Monte Cristo is available on Amazon for $1.99. That’s an absolute steal for a timeless tale of high adventure and revenge, I definitely recommend checking it out.
I listened to Monte Cristo on Audible and it was spectacular, all 40+ hours of it. Really a treat!
You don’t have to pay for that one if you don’t want.
I really loved the movie with Guy Ritchie, so when I saw that John Lee, one of my favorite Audiobook “readers” had an audiobook reading of Count of Monte Cristo, I pounced on it.
But man, it’s hard to listen to, so I took a break after a while.
The characters right from the beginning are soooooo over the top. Dumas takes so long and makes the good guy so good, and the evil guy so evil. Oh my god, it’s hard to take. Dumas, my man, come on. Just a little subtlety, please? Maybe?
(I appreciate the reminder that I need to get back to the audiobook).
On the one hand yes, everything you say is true. The characters are as much archetypes as they are actual breathing, recognizably human characters. On the other, this book was written in 1846, and is as I mentioned a tale of high adventure, not necessarily a deep character study. It seems unfair to ding it for being what it is, and not being what it’s not - but yeah, it’s fair to recognize what you’re getting into if you read this story. Though I still totally think it’s worth digging into.
Guy Pierce, right?
It’s funny, after listening to the whole audiobook, I went back and watched the movie again. I had fond memories of it, but it really didn’t hold up to well at all. It has its moments, but the dumbing down of the whole arc of the story to fit into a 2-hr movie makes the villain characters even more cartoonishly evil, and robs the viewer of the deliciously slow and methodical progress of the Count on his journey of revenge and redemption. And the book version of Edmond Dantès is a remarkably complex character, something completely lost in the movie.