A Pilgrims Tale

This is a great book. I read it a long time ago, back in the nineties I guess and I loved it then. I always try to keep up with whatever Dan Simmons publishes but I don't often get to go back and read his older stuff. I amanged to get myself a copy of this recently and I devoured it. I think it is fairly loosely based on the structure of the Canterbury Tales in that it is the collected and interwoven tales of a group of pilgrims on the road. It is set in an almost dystopian future where mankind has travelled and colonised the stars. The fractionalism that existed on old Earth still exists to an extent although most of the planets belong to the homogeneous hegemony. The pilgrims are all tied somehow to a small backwater colony of Hyperion and this book tells of those ties in the form of each travellers tales. The book doesn't answer many of the questions it poses however. For that you need to read the second canto The Fall of Hyperion. I really like the structure as it does allow you to digest the book in smaller doses if you want. It also reels you in as the pacing is well constructed. So no spoilers here, just my recommendation. If you enjoy Science Fiction and haven't read this yet you are in for a treat. If you are considering dipping your toe into the genre then this is a good place to start.

At least I am reading!

My hobby has been suffering of late! I am very busy at the moment between going back to Ireland for a weekend and looking for work. At least with all the travels I am getting a lot of reading done. My flight on Friday was delayed by two hours so I really got caught up in the book while waiting. Currently I am reading Toll the Hounds part of the wonderful Malazan series by Stephen Erikkson. I am almost at the end and I have enjoyed the book a lot. The authors style has changed a bit from his earlier books with a lot more narrative introspection but the action still delivers. I read the first five books in the series one after another while long distance commuting a number of years ago. Then I had to wait for the rest of the series to come out. In the meantime I was busy travelling the world! Once I got back a lot of time had passed and it was difficult to get back into the series. I had forgotten a lot of the characters and events. I could even be wrong about the evolution of style but my memory tells me that the writing was more concise and focused (but not better) in the earlier books. Dust of Dreams is already out. It claims to be the penultimate book in the series. I hope so as I do like my storeis to eventually finish!

I picked up Drood today. It is what I will read while waiting for Dust of Dreams to come out in a better format. I really like Dan Simmons and have read all his Sci-Fi books so far. I found this in the Crime section of Thalia books in Hamburg. I am not quite sure if it is in the right place but I bought it anyway. I hope he follows his usual wonderful style that have made Hyperion and Olympos some of my favorite books. I recommend them highly especially if you have any interest in either the poetry of John Keats or in Homer's ancient writings. On another note the latest in the Wheel of Time series has been released. Seemingly it has gone from a single tome to three books. I hope they will be good and that the series does end eventually! I will await the publishing of all three before I restart that series. The initial reviews from friends have said that it is at least promising and that the styles of the authors compliment each other well.

I am hoping to get right back on track with the painting soon. Tomorrow may be a relaxing day and if so I will be breaking out the brushes and attempting to finish some test marauders I have been doing. I noticed in the almost local Games Store that a Crom the Conqueror model was still on sale. I believe that he is now out of production? I bought him anyway as I wanted to get a nice collection of characters for the army. I am already trying to dream up how I will convert him. Oh and the weather in Hamburg is terrible at the moment!