A Bookworm's Christmas

I got two very nice books this year, the first of which I'm almost done with.

The first of these is Paolini's Eragon, which turns out to be quite a bit better than some of my pals suggested - although heavily LotR-derivative, more so than one would expect even in post-Tolkien High Fantasy.

But it's nice to finally read a work that reminds me that even the best of writers "cook with water", as we say here. Where an experienced writer could hide their creative process so well that the final result looks like it simply appeared out of thin air, here one can see the plot outline forming, the character cast evolving, and even see little bits of the story that might have been improved in another editing session.

It's the first fantasy book that appealed to me less as a reader, and more as a writer. Reading it gave me back some of the confidence I lost this November - perhaps if I practiced a bit more, I wouldn't be quite as hopeless as I thought.

So in closing, I rate it not quite as highly as most fantasy books I've read, but a lot better than Harry Potter or the Narnia books.

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The second book is Max Barry's Jennifer Government the political novel that inspired NationStates. I've been meaning to read it for precisely three years - to the very day.

December 29, 2003: My introduction to NationStates. I saw the novel advertised on the top of the page and thought, sounds neat, I want to read that some day. And now is some day. Yay.

I'll post again when I'm done and tell you if it was worth the wait.