A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I prefer shorter fantasy books over the enormous epic fantasies that have become so typical for the genre—and for the most part, that is still true. However, my recent experiences with Louis L’Amour are prompting me to rethink some of that, or at least to recognize that …
Continue reading “When Longer is Better: The Novels of Louis L’Amour”
About midway through the third book in the Chronicles of Amber, I came to the realization that these books are the perfect length for me. They’re about as long and as fast-paced as a typical L’Amour novel, which is to say that they’re less than 200 pages and feel like they’re less than 100. If …
Continue reading “This is why I love shorter fantasy novels: Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny”
I have to be honest: before I discovered the Chronicles of Amber, I had all but given up on Zelazny as an author. All of his stuff that I’d previously attempted to read had won a bunch of major awards, and none of it appealed to me. I honestly couldn’t see what the big deal …
Continue reading “When to give an author another chance: The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny”
One of the first pieces of writing advice that I ever recieved, right alongside “never end a story with the words ‘it was all a dream’” and “never introduce the main character by having them look at themselves in a mirror” was “never write a story where the main character has amnesia.” Which struck me …
Continue reading “An Amnesia Story Done Right: Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny”
When I was about five or six years old, I saw this movie and it gave me terrible nightmares. I only remembered bits and pieces of the story, mostly just the scenes and images that had left an impression. So when I saw this novelization at the used bookstore, I decided to pick it up …
Continue reading “Joe Reviews: The Black Hole by Alan Dean Foster”
