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Sunday, April 29th, 2018
I read To Reign in Hell this weekend and liked it. A few thoughts:
- How come fantasy authors like puns so much? The puns in To Reign in Hell are generally kind of weak and add little or nothing to the story; my memory suggests that this is generally true of the genre. An occasional bit of fun is one thing, but when it's happening every couple of pages, it becomes a distraction.
- The characters are generally great. Seems like it would be pretty difficult to sketch a divinity, and Brust's angels do come across as pretty human. Yahweh is a weak link, and I think it's because the attempt is to portray him explicitly as divine. Abdiel is very strong, and I don't see any similar attempt being made in his case; make of it what you will.
- I need to read Milton -- my understanding of the story was pretty facile based on lack of familiarity with the source text.
posted evening of April 29th, 2018: Respond
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Saturday, April 21st, 2018
I wonder if a pastiche of Milton has been written, in which rebellious angel Jehovah leads a divine junta to depose constitutional ruler of heaven Lucifer and assume the title of dictator/God? (Posed the question on Facebook and my friend Sharon was able to direct me to Steven Brust's To Reign in Hell, which while not exactly that, looks fascinating...)
posted evening of April 21st, 2018: Respond
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Monday, February second, 2009
A really intriguing experience as I was reading The Amber Spyglass with Sylvia this evening -- we were reading about the deliberations of the Consistorial Court of Discipline, and my internal picture of it was based on the Magisterium scene from the movie of The Golden Compass; and it was dragging. Then I remembered what I had been thinking about last week, and re-imagined the scene as animated, in the style of Studio Ghibli. And the reading picked right up!  The internal imagery got a lot more interesting, the story seemed more real. Maggie's note in comments that His Dark Materials is based on Paradise Lost has me really intrigued over the past week. I'm dying to find out which of the details of plot are in Milton, and how Pullman has transformed them.
 (The Authority's Clouded Mountain fortress totally makes me think of Laputa: The Castle in the Sky.)
posted evening of February second, 2009: Respond
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