ChrisMayLA6,
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

This week I've been mainly reading, no. 108.

Ave Barrera's The Forgery (2013/2022) is a Mexican caper story about an forced to complete a forgery as part of an inheritance fraud. But by the end its unclear (perhaps purposefully) whether the narrator has experienced imprisonment & exploitation by a violent & rich mastermind, or whether its all a fever dream brought on by a hand injury (turning to sepsis). While quite enjoyable its also finally unsatisfying as a novel.

@bookstodon

muirinnmac,
@muirinnmac@mstdn.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon that would frustrate me. I read to find out what happened. A happy ending is good too.

ChrisMayLA6,
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

@muirinnmac @bookstodon

well there is a sort of happy ending... but like you I found the indeterminacy of the ending just frustrating... perhaps I'm to wedded to #realism in literature?

muirinnmac,
@muirinnmac@mstdn.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon I write fantasy/scify and I still need to base it somewhere in reality or it won't hang together.

ChrisMayLA6,
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

@muirinnmac @bookstodon

Yes, I'd say realism needs internal coherence (which is what I value in #scifi) rather than explicit 'reality'

muirinnmac,
@muirinnmac@mstdn.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon yeah. Perhaps consistency is what I look for, especially with world building.

SteveClough,
@SteveClough@metalhead.club avatar

@muirinnmac @ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon I think novels need to have endings - happy or not. They need to finish the story they are telling.

They can hint at more stories. They can make it clear that there is more than we have read. But the story being told needs to conclude.

And that is from me who loved The Gamekeeper by Barry Hines, which ends where it starts - because life is cyclic like that. It at least finishes.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @muirinnmac @bookstodon

There's an authority in writing which makes people disposed to trust the author on the world. Even among some, not all, people who are not uncustomed to reading SFF. The same authority in the historical writer Mary Renault, who I rate massively.

ChrisMayLA6,
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

@stephenwhq @muirinnmac @bookstodon

Yes, I think that's what I meant...

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • [email protected]
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • oklahoma
  • feritale
  • SuperSentai
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines