What's the last really good bit of fiction you've read?--Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), May 28, 2000

Answers

I enjoy fiction, and I love words. I read fiction that holds my interest, but every now and then I come across something that knocks me cold with the beauty of the use of the language. The first book to do that to me was "East of Eden." All of Steinbeck's books are wonderful examples of the craft of writing. I never quite had that same hit you over the head feeling again until I read "Prince of Tides." Conway's mastery of words was so wonderful that I was glued to the book while my husband and I were driving around the hills of Oahu. I also love David Gerrold's way with words. His "When H.A.R.L.I.E. was One," which I recently re-read, is one of my favorites.

-- Bev Sykes (basykes@dcn.davis.ca.us), May 28, 2000.

Re-reading "Lord Foul's Bane", first part of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, by Stephen Donaldson. What, no re-reads? Then it is "The son of Tarzan" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was simply spellbinding. Unforgettable. What a language! What an imagination! I've hesitated to get any more Tarzan books after that, because I feel that I must necessarily be let down.

-- Magnus Itland (itlandm@netcom.no), May 30, 2000.

I just finished reading "The Renegades of Pern" by Anne McCaffrey. Her Pern, where dragonriders are psychically linked with their riders for life, are great. All her stories can really delve into the kinship that some people feel with animals. Anne Rice's Vampire books are also wonderful in exploring relationships, I get entraced by her descriptions of Lestat's love for Louis, Armand's love for his master, etc. She can put words to the inner feelings and workings of relationships in a way that I've never been able to.

-- AJ (joijoijoi@hotmail.com), May 31, 2000.

I just read 'Invisible Monsters' by Chuck Palahnuik (the author of 'Fight Club') and now I'm speechless and shamed about my own writing which is downright wretched in comparision. It's an amazing book about a model who loses half her face after being shot in the jaw and how she bonds with a drag queen in the midst of getting a sex change operation. The basic outline sounds cheesy and not too interesting, but there are so many internal twists and turns of the plot that I can't tell you because it'll ruin the book for you!

-- Leslie Terwilliger (leslie@diarist.net), June 02, 2000.