2019-04-16 - Christina's Reading Questions - Part 1
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Saw this as a conversation point on someone else's phlog, thought
I'd take part.
Just doing the first few questions has taken longer than I'd
anticipated, so I'll split this over a few posts.
> What is the first book you remember loving?
Anne Holm's _I am David_.
I must have read this when I was six or seven years old, I'd read
and enjoyed books before then, but I don't remember them. I
remember this, though. I guess it was the feeling that David and I
shared, I don't know, something. Some sort of shared commonality of
origin.
I cried when the dog died. (spoiler: the dog dies) I cried at the
books last line. I loved this book, and was a little put out when I
discovered that it was a standard text now here in Ireland for
primary school kids.
> What book/series would you like to see adapted to film?
Steven Erikson's _Malazan Book of the Fallen_.
Not that it could ever be a _film_, but there's enough in them to
create at least seven seasons of a Televisial Fantasy epic,
certainly more to them than the godawful Game of Thrones. It has
everything, magic, dragons, war, murder, more war, more magic, more
dragons, arcane politicking and even several long-thought extinct
races of creatures.
There's a few elements which would need to be excised (Erikson has
acknowledged these flaws in various appearances) but as a whole the
series has so much to offer a reader that could be translated to
the screen. The Chain of Dogs, one narrative in the second book
_Deadhouse Gates_, alone could make for a single season of
incredible television.
> Who are your favourite protagonists?
Ankh-Morpork City Watch, _Discworld_.
More particularly, Samuel Vimes, described on wikipedia as
"somewhere between an Inspector Morse-type 'old-school' British
policeman, and a film-noir-esque grizzled, jaded detective." Vimes
is just such an utterly and completely decent human being, spending
time inside his head is a pleasure.
> Who are your favourite antagonists?
The Crippled God/Forkrul Assail of the _Malazan_ Books. The
Crippled God is revealed to be behind all of the Big Bads in the
earlier books, and the Forkrul Assail come after.
> What, so far, is the best book you've read this year?
Kameron Hurley _The Light Brigade_
I've waited for this book for so long, and it delivered everything
I could have wanted. Mil-SF, but with all of Hurley's rage and
anger distilled into one titanic scream of despair. Not _as_ grim
as her usual grimdark adventures, but the only light in the book is
the one on the cover. Just a great book, and one I'd happily
recommend to anyone.
