Marathon Effort

Last night, at about ten minutes to midnight, I finally finished reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (at least, as much of it as has been released to date). It's taken me about six months to read the first ten volumes. All 8000+ pages of them. I've been so immersed in the world he's created that it's even intruded on my dreams. And now I'm going to have to wait at least 18 months for the next instalment and I'll probably have to reread the whole thing again before I get to volume twelve (that's the one problem with reading something so huge - it's impossible to remember every last detail 3 or 4 years after you read it and that can make reading any new books more difficult). For now, though, I can take a break from it all.

So, what's next? Well, I bought a few other SF/Fantasy books after Christmas and there are still some books sitting on my shelves that I want to reread so I'm well off for reading matter. First up is Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. About as far from the Wheel of Time as you can get in the genre, which is probably a good thing. Reynolds' first book, Revelation Space was a masterpiece of original science fiction and I'm hoping that Chasm City lives up to it. The first couple of lines would appear to bear this out:

"Dear Newcomer,
Welcome to the Epsilon Eridani system.
Despite all that has happened, we hope your stay here will be a pleasant one."

It builds the intrigue nicely and makes you want to read on.

I think it will make a fresh change from my marathon effort.