Sponsored Reviews

[james_davis_nicoll]

The Steerswoman Quartet                             Acquired          Posted            
The Long Run                                        Acquired          Posted                                
Riddlemaster of Hed                                 Acquired          Posted 
Voyage of the Shadowmoon                            none              Posted
Footfall                                            Acquired          Posted 
Max Gladstone's Trilogy                             Acquired          Posted
Wheel of the Infinite                               Acquired          Posted
A Desert of Stars                                   Acquired          Posted
KJ Parker's Shadow                                  Acquired          Posted       
Geraldine Harris's Seven Citadels quartet           Acquired          Posted
Rocket Ship Galileo                                 Acquired          Posted
Lucifer's Hammer                                    Acquired          Posted
KJ Parker Pattern                                   Acquired          Posted
KJ Parker's Memory                                  Acquired          Posted
Rocket Ship Galileo                                 Acquired          Posted
Space Cadet                                         Acquired           Posted 
Search for the Star Stones (Norton)      Ross Smith Acquired          Posted
Red Planet                                          Acquired          Posted
Digital Divide,                                     Acquired          Posted
Golden Witchbreed (Mary Gentle)                     Acquired          posted

Heinlein Juveniles                                  Acquired
Sewer, Gas and Electric                             Acquired
Ash (Mary Gentle)                                   Foraging
Another Parker                                      Foraging
The Russians Came Knocking,                         Acquired
Maker Space.                                        Acquired
Kathleen O'Neal Gear Powers of Light trilogy        Acquired
Them Bones                                          Acquired

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I figure the time I lose on monster books I can make up for with a flurry of short older books.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

That said, I allocate 40% of my review for long books to moaning about how the books could have been shorter. NOBODY CARES ABOUT TOM BOMBADIL!

[w. dow rieder (from livejournal.com)]

Dang, Poe's law just got me there--I was halfway through typing an angry retort, when I read what you said more carefully. Kneejerk reactions can be very revealing.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of something that I once saw in a discussion that may have been a tangent on the conlang email list. Someone made the claim that Tom Bombadil was "obviously" a representation of a--religious? mythological? figure and that anyone paying attention to the text could figure this out. I am not a lit major and I begged this person to just spoil it for me because I remembered Tom Bombadil (vaguely) but had no earthly idea who he "really" might be. The person refused to do so on the grounds that it was obvious and I would receive more pleasure in figuring it out for myself. Over fifteen years later and I still have no idea, or maybe the person was just pulling my leg, and I'm still curious. Anyone?

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

There's more than one value of obvious involved; people get different answers. Some of the popular ones are that this is Aule and Yavanna, or unspecified Maiar, or, well, there are theories.

My favourite is to recognize that there was a point in time where Tolkien wrote "all I have to do is get them to Rivendell" and for that scope of Hobbit-sequel, the visit with Tom and Goldberry and the Barrow-downs would be a different structural part of the book, and certainly a reminder of the great age of the landscape the hobbits are moving over.

[cshalizi.livejournal.com]

Let me have the pleasure of introducing you to Oldest and Fatherless (http://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html).

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

That is wicked cool, thank you!

[kla10.livejournal.com]

When Jackson's done stretching The Hobbit out like butter over too much bread, he'll do a Bombadil movie or two while he's ramping up for the Slimarillion.

[chrysostom476.livejournal.com]

Bombadil is 1.5 chapters out of a book that is 22 chapters long. It's really not that much of a burden.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

A brick wall need only be 1.5 meters high, but if one's car hits it at 60km/hr it still does bad things.