RE: Wandering Spirits - Day 235 - Haiku and Book Review - On the joy of language, and a small part of what separates great authors from crappy ones
Yeah, Davies is in a class pretty much all his own. I've never found anyone to beat him either, and damned few even come close.
And Moore's style is entirely different, smart and funny, but far more accessible to readers. And, being from San Francisco, he sets the majority of his stories in my favorite parts of my home state, which to me is a big part of his charm.
A favorite line from near the end of "Love Lizard," which I'll have to paraphrase, talks of life in general and the creatures of the coastline getting back to normal, with the great white sharks dreaming of their favorite snacks, crunchy shrink-wrapped surfer dudes on fiberglass crackers.
I damned near choked to death the first time I read that passage. Inhaling your coffee while reading is not recommended, nor is explosive laughter when your mouth is full, and it took steely self-control to prevent myself from spewing it all over the book. ;-)
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Crunchy shrink wrapped surfer dudes! a shark that thinks like a surfer dude, with the appetite of a shark! so brilliant! I think I will love his style.
Jemison is an amateur writer with great vision, a lot like J K Rowling, another author whose style I don't appreciate, but whose imagination is fabulous. The world Jemison creates is very compelling, but her telling of it irritates me. Mostly I think she is guilty of giving us too much information, leaving too little to the imagination. She tells us, doesn't show us, something I do too as I recently learned. At this point in my reading of the second book, I think she has improved in her descriptive skills, but is still telling me too much. Maybe by the third book?
I read Oryx and Crake by Atwood in between the first two of Jemison's books, and it was eye opening the differences in craft and artistry. Atwood did what I wish Jemison could do.
Moore regularly has me gasping for air with laughter, which for me previously was pretty much the domain of Carl Hiassen, but Moore's well-crafted insanity has pretty much eclipsed all other comic writers for me at this point. If you come across anyone as smart, sarcastic and funny, please point me in their direction!
Moore has also written what is hands down the funniest vampire trilogy out there, so come equipped with your most finely tuned sense of the absurd, and get ready for a wild ride.
I was surprised to discover today that I actually have all of his books except for his newest, "Noir," set in post WWII San Francisco, which came out last year.
A lot of his books inhabit the same universe, with a number of recurring characters, including "The Stupidest Angel" from the Pine Cove Trilogy, who makes further appearances in other books, including "Lamb."
And Roberto, the talking fruit bat from "Island of the Sequined Love Nun," remains one of my favorite characters of all time. As is Steve, the lust lizard from "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove," who, when not menacing or mesmerizing the creatures and populace along the central coast, disguises himself as a doublewide mobile home. ;-)
I'll be checking into Atwood as well. Time to get reading. ;-)
I'm sorry to hear that you consider Jemison's work to be below par, as I was planning to start on her trilogy in the near future.
But I can relate, a number of award-winning books have left me cold. Good thing we have so many choices. ;-)
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