Been trying to get my mind into more reading. It's tough to find the peace and quiet needed with two wee ones in the house, but I have had some time to delve into some plot-driven historical fiction. Right now I'm reading The Singing Sword by Jack Whyte, the follow up to The Skystone. It's set in the last stages of Roman control of Britain in the late 4th Century. The story provides ancestral background for Arthur and Merlin, as well as the origins of the sword Excalibur. It's none too complicated, which is exactly what I needed to kickstart my consumption of literature.
I picked up Whyte's Skystone after seeing it for $3.99 in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of a Borders or Barnes & Noble back in November. It's nice to find a bargain and enjoy the product. Trolling the Sci-Fi/Fantasy stacks is filled with a lot of temptation, as I'm a sucker for the brightly colored, garishly illustrated covers, but I have bought enough books in my past to know that an epic drawing doesn't always mean I'll be entranced by the story within.
The $3.99 price was similar to the same way I picked up George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, which sucked me into his A Song Of Ice And Fire saga last December. Four massive tomes filled with amazing intrigue, incredible politics, and about a million secrets left to be revealed. I found Martin's work by looking at the online reviews for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which I think is up to like 11 books now. I read the first four in that series a few years back, but the books got stuck in too many sub-plots and not enough moving toward the inevitable "final conflict." Many reviews echoed this feeling and so many mentioned Martin that I just had to check him out. Now I am eagerly anticipating the fifth installment, A Dance With Dragons, which he is still writing.
I've got a list of books to check out from the library and a stack here at home waiting for my attention. Just need to find that time!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment