El Burro Volador

I have been on something of a tear lately, reading-wise.  After finishing Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, I thought I’d head back to fantasy, to keep myself “steeped in the milieu” as I like to put it, for purposes of my Dungeon-Mastering gigs – I am lining up my second weekly gig – it won’t pay what the first one does, but it will be via the magic of the interweb, so it should be low-hassle, and, if we come to terms on price, I’ll have a steady income of about $500 a month from roleplaying games, which is pretty sweet.

Anyhow, I like to read what I describe, somewhat uncharitably, as “pulp” fantasy to charge my DMing batteries – if I read the really good stuff, I am always tempted to emulate it, so I’m always on the lookout for mediocre fantasy, as strange as that may seem.  I ransacked my shelves for a good candidate (I am as avid a book buyer as I am a book reader, and buying them is quicker and easier, so I have shelves of unread books), and turned up what looked like a real winner.  It was a novel called The Thran, and it bore the logo of the Magic: The Gathering card game – exploiting a game license is nearly always a strong indicator of mediocrity.  Also, the author, J. Robert King, was someone I’d never heard of.

It turned out to be a fun read, certainly very good mediocre fiction.  A well-realized villain always does a great deal for a fantasy novel, and this one in particular was about the villain ascendant, which is really difficult to pull off – how does one walk that fine line between hope and despair, having the villain “win” and yet still be to some extent thwarted by the heroes.  Many people consider The Empire Strikes Back to be the strongest of the Star Wars film franchise, likely because it pulls off this same daunting task.

Anyhow, since then I’ve returned to my List and read the next prescribed book, Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal.  A landmark in the thriller genre, it follows a methodical assassin hired to kill the President of France.  It was widely praised for its authentic grounding in 1960s France, and indeed, I had no idea that the country had been as interesting as this book makes it seem at any point in the 20th century.  It also steadily ratchets up the pacing and suspense until the ending just flies by.

Today I’m starting Morgan Llywelyn’s Finn Mac Cool, one of her trademark “historical” novels of Ireland, this time centered on one of the Emerald Isle’s mythic heroes.  It should tide me over until I can get my hands on the next list book, Albert Camus’ The Plague.