When we all lived in the forest
  • Home
  • Fantasy Reading
  • Science Fiction Reading
  • Publications
  • Amusements
  • Moth Books

Book #2: Three Hearts & Three Swords by Poul Anderson

7/5/2012

0 Comments

 
But first an aside, on Dylan Thomas and Kinglsey Amis.

I am not going to be able to escape Dylan Thomas, now.  We went to Wales, I read some poetry, I read a biography on him, and now he is everywhere.  His signature poem “Fern Hill” was quoted in Watership Down, the cartoon “Get Fuzzy” riffs on “Do not go gentle” (and so does everyone else, I see), and Kingsley Amis wrote a book about a fictionalized Dylan and Caitlin returning to Wales: but I didn’t read that book.  For this list I had chosen Kingsley Amis’s The Green Man, had actually acquired it and truly read the whole damn thing, and then decided it was not going on the list in the end.  The book was kind of a dud.  The writing was competent, but the story was decidedly uninspiring, hard to finish, and certainly not as advertised: not amusing, not scary, and not particularly interesting, especially so the main character, Maurice Allington.  So onto …. Three Hearts and Three Swords by Poul Anderson...

This is a very talented author and a somewhat untalented book.  It is boilerplate fantasy – elves, dwarfs, unicorns, but with a talented hand drawing them, although I understand they were probably not boilerplate when this book was written in the 50s.  Cool thing: the eyes of the elves are so clear, it seems they are blind at first.  Characters are described so you can see them before you: jug handle ears.  The ending was more chill and perfect than perhaps this particular story deserved.  Interesting. 

During my Science Fiction Reading List, I learned that literature is the physics of those worlds – and in fantasy – another story often provides the rules, the gravity, for each tale – and in fantasy especially, it seems to be entire bodies of mythology are the keystones, and have been so in hundreds of years.  Three Hearts and Three Swords dealt with the “Matter of France,” the body of historical mythology attributed to Charlemagne.  

Writing lessons learned – don’t eat the scenery. Everyone knew that The Protagonist and The Girl would get together – waiting for it was just annoying and weird.  Listening to him worry and worry and worry just got old.  Hmmm.  Maybe that’s why I don’t really care for romances.


                                                                                         Three Hearts and Three Swords by Poul Anderson 




0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Page

    In 2011, I began reading a list of 100 Great Fantasy Novels. I am listing them on this page.

    Me
    ​
    Hi!  I am Nye Joell Hardy.  
    I write science fiction and fantasy.  The science fiction makes my head happy.  The fantasy makes my heart happy.  Although I sell all these things, none are making me rich.  But I'm happy, damn it.  

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    Categories

    All
    Atlantis
    Buddhist
    Charles John Cutliffe Wright Hyne
    Christopher Priest
    Cthulhu
    Dean Koontz
    Diana Wynn Jones
    Dylan Thomas
    Emma Bull
    Fantasy
    Forgotten Books
    Gene Wolfe
    Hindu
    Howl's Moving Castle
    H.P. Lovecraft
    Jan Lars Jensen
    John Crowley
    Lovecraft
    N.K. Jemisin
    Odd Apocalypse
    Odd Thomas
    Oree
    Pterodactyl
    Roger Zelazny
    Rudyard Kipling
    Shere Khan
    Shiny
    Shiva 3000
    Stephen King
    The Broken Kingsoms
    The Dark Tower
    The Drawing Of The Three
    The Gunslinger
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
    The Jungle Book
    The Lost Continent
    The Waste Lands
    T.S. Eliot
    Viriconium
    Wales
    Welsh
    Writing
    Writing Lessons

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly