10/8/2009

1. chris: stephen king. the dark tower: the gunslinger.
   
   
   1. verdict: ++
      
   2. review:
      
      he's read this book lots of times, but this is the first time he's
      read it in probably 15 years. he still likes it.the setting is sort of
      a cross between classic fantasy, spaghetti western, and
      post-apocalyptic sort of the road setting. there's a gunslinger named
      roland, following the man in black, he's on some sort of quest and
      it's sort of revealed what it is, but not really. the plot summary
      continues. anyway, it's addictive and it's good, but it gets
      progressively worse. we've heard the end of the series makes it worth
      it, but we haven't read that far and had long since given up on the
      series, so we really don't know. but we plan to find out.
      
   
   
2. brandon: china mieville. the iron council.
   
   
   1. verdict: +++
      
   2. review:
      
      he's not quite finished and it's been talked about before, but he
      wants to note that the cover is awful. if mieville hadn't been
      recommended to him in strong terms he would never have picked up a
      book that looks like this. nonetheless. he was immediately pretty
      sucked in. this is really well written, the guy is a great
      stylist. probably the most inventive writer brandon has read for the
      club. the tone is tightly constrained while the world is just
      incredibly inventive. (ok, he's gushing. he obviously loves this.)
      anyway brandon is now hooked and will read everything else mieville
      has written. recommended most highly.
      
   
   
3. coda
   
   well, this was our smallest meeting ever in terms of books reported,
   BUT it was average in attendance and was a most excellent meeting
   involving a great quantity of pleasant and agreeable conversation. one
   outcome is the following list of our possible group favorites: m john
   harrison, china mieville, joe abercrombie. more next time!
   
   
4. that's all, folks.