On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Larry Miller <decanus1284 at gmail.com> wrote: Snow Crash is also good IMHO a better cyberpunk novel than any of Gibsons recent works. The Diamond Age is also a great book, probably my favorite book of his so far.
On 12/19/11, Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
I have yet to read Anathem *(sitting on my shelf as we speak), but I would highly recommend his *Baroque Cycle and the related book,
Cryptonomicon.
He is a very snappy writer, and is one of the few I have come across who can make a 1,000 page novel just whiz by. Lots of fireworks and excitement; he said in an interview not too long ago that he is first and foremost concerned with writing "a good yarn".
On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com wrote:
Daniel, if you want to check out Stephenson, I would recommend starting with "Anathem," a book of deep secrets.
On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 10:40 AM, Daniel Petersen
<danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
Oh yes, Antonin: happens to me all the time. Dan Simmons, for example, writes a very compelling yard in perfectly capable prose. But if I read him too close to an immersive reading of Wolfe, I'll find myself distactedly pining for Wolfean prose. And, as you say, once I'm into the swing of any good writer's less-than-the-Wolfean-ideal prose, I thoroughly enjoy myself.
(I've been planning to check out Stephenson for some time.)
-DOJP
On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 6:36 PM, Antonin Scriabin <
kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
wrote:
Daniel, I understand what you mean about the prose being so good it kind of slips under the radar, and "does its job". I read Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and absolutely loved it, then read Shadow and Claw, which I loved even more. Then I went back to read Stephenson's The Confusion, and it felt like I had really, really stepped down a notch. I didn't realize how good the prose in New Sun was until I read something else; then it hit me how incredibly well Wolfe can write.
P.S. I feel like I should mention that The Confusion, once I got back into the swing of that story, ended up being one of my favorite "adventure" novels. I highly recommend it!
On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 1:25 PM, Daniel Petersen
<danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
You know, it's funny. The first chapters of SotT did not terribly impress me as to writing style when I first tackled BotNS over a decade ago.
There was nothing wrong with them at all - flawless grammar and syntax and what have you. The story itself and its themes began to sweep me up as the book really got going, but it wasn't until later in the book or series that the writing itself began to leap out at me as really exquisite prose.
Plus, sometimes I wonder if even the writing style itself is 'hidden in plain sight' from the reader along with so much else. The writing is
so
good (grammatical and graceful as Wolfe recommends to aspiring writers) that it just ends up doing its job so effectively that you don't always notice it until you're quite some way into a work.
Also, I'll here mention that I love the quality of prose in Long and Short Suns just as much as New Sun. It's just doing something totally different than Severian's baroque machinations.
-DOJP
On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Antonin Scriabin
<kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
Wolfe's writing is very beautiful, and he uses such vivid, unique language. I haven't memorized the passage, but the part in The Shadow of the Torturer where Ultan is describing the different books in the library; wonderful! That together with the nearby Book of Gold passage really made me fall in love with that book in particular and Wolfe in general.
On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Daniel Petersen
<danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, so many truly wonderful lines and passages. I remember loving the really robust mountainous language at the beginning of SotL, starting with the sentence: 'Thrax is a crooked dagger entering the heart of the mountains.'
You know, I don't think I've ever seen Wolfe's writing (as in
style
or
tone or texture of prose, etc.) discussed on this list.
-DOJP
On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 3:58 AM, David Stockhoff
<dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
On 12/18/2011 7:59 PM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
Thought people here might enjoy seeing that new readers are still discovering Wolfe for the very first time and being instantly enchanted. A friend of mine (an aspiring writer) who loves Tolkien and China Mieville finally, at my persistent insistence, obtained BotNS and posted this to me on Facebook just now about what he's read so far:
'I love the languid, ivy-wrapped prose that Wolfe writes in.
I've
been discovering that this is a style I find myself entranced by when I read it. I was not long ago working through Titus Groan and found myself ensconced by many of the same elements that I'm loving in Wolfe's writing.
Mr. Wolfe seems much better at marrying plot and poesy than Mr.
Peake,
however.
I'm very excited about what waits around the corner. BotNS seems like the kind of novel I dream of writing.'
Some pretty apt comments, I thought.
-DOJP
Cool!
BNS has some of the most gorgeous lines I have ever read. There are many others, but I think most often of the description of lotuses on Gyoll in CotA immediately after Maxellindis's uncle's talk of what appear to be the legions of Erebus:
With that he fell silent, looking out over the nenuphars. We were well above that part of
Gyoll opposite the Citadel, but they were still packed more
densely
than wildflowers in
any meadow this side of paradise.
This kind of mood/content juxtaposition enraptures me.
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