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Jane Wiseman's avatar

I love this. I just finished reading "The Overstory," where the causalities of a lot of characters get meticulously explored ab ovo (or seed, I guess). Then there's "Chain-Gang All-Stars," the inevitability of Greek tragedy. But wow, Joe Abercrombie! Praise the Dark Lord. In practically the first sentence of the first book, the main character jumps off a cliff. Another main character gets thrown down a mountain. Another one runs through a machine with whirling blades. And they all live to slash/smash/stab/gouge/bite another day. . .well, until they don't. I read "The Wisdom of Crowds" back to back with Hilary Mantel's "A Place of Greater Safety" and thought my head would explode. I guess the coming of guns and cannons really does mean the death of fantasy.

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Junot Díaz's avatar

Realized that the conversation about this one has been occurring under our last office hour post. Oops.

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