I’m a massive Monty Python fan and have probably watched the scene with “the Invincible Black Knight” in their unrivaled comedic masterpiece, “The Holy Grail”, so many times that I can just about quote the entire thing.
To put if figuratively; I love it to pieces.
Which makes it even more fun when the book I’m currently reading (”The Wizard Knight” by Gene Wolfe) contains lots of knights that stand around at river-crossings and yells out that “None shall pass!”. At one point there is even a (mostly) silent Black Knight that dukes it out with the protagonist, while his herald proclaims that any fight will be to the death and that his master is invincible. What’s more; I’m sure that the author did it on purpose.
Btw; Gene Wolfe is the hottest fantasy author around at the moment. Guess who won this years World Fantasy Award in the Best Novel category for his much acclaimed “Soldier of Sidon”?
Yup, it was Wolfe all right, and if “The Wizard Knight” is any indication of his talents I’m betting he won if fairly too.
Posts
Got my Flying Circus box-set from the Bookclub today - it’s hidious and devoid of bonus material, but it’s all 45 episodes made for free so, really, who cares?
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
6. November 2007 @ 04:35 ( Permalink )
Call it a coincidence, but I got my Flying Circus box-set yesterday, too. It’s not pretty, that’s true, but I liked the text on the back.
“Yours sincerely,
The Voice In Your Head That Talks When You Read”
Brilliant ^^
6. November 2007 @ 08:26 ( Permalink )
That bit was funny, but it was repeated on all the boxes making it just seem uninspired and cheaply made.
6. November 2007 @ 13:46 ( Permalink )
FREE MONTY PYTHON BOX-SETS?!?!
And here I spent NOK 1300 on mine….
Anyway, I bough The Wizard Knight about a year ago, but decided to read The Book of the New Sun before I started on it, and since then I’ve had my hands full with other stuff. However, as you seem to like it, I might bump it up a couple of places.
Come to think of it, one of the promary reasons why I haven’t read it yet is the cover text. Because according to that, the protagonist is, what? A teenager who suddenly finds himself in a magic realm, ten to fifteen years older, and an accomplished (ooh, I always like the assonance in that phrase
) knight at that. Sure, this might just be wrapping, and (from the sound of it) perhaps also a dream, but none the less off-putting. I’m not sure, why, exactly, but there it is. :\
7. November 2007 @ 14:06 ( Permalink )
That was the exact thing that intrigued me to go ahead and buy this book (I read mentioned cover text while I was in London, but decided to buy it from Bokklubben in stead for obvious reasons). I’ve been hearing nothing but praise for Gene Wolfe ever since I started trolling the web for books to read, and “The Wizard Knight” is often the book that gets the highest honors along with “The Book of the New Sun”. The latter was too hard for me when I tried to get into it about a year ago, and I was curious to see what a master of the genre would do with a book that contained if not all, then nearly all the trappings of the genre.
And, of course, the Gaiman quote settled the deal, since every book he recommends is awesome. I think he’s infectious in that way.
7. November 2007 @ 21:01 ( Permalink )
By the way, one of my flatmates bought the first book of the first chronicle of the Thomas Covenant series today, and that made me think: Doesn’t TC and WK have almost the same premise?
Hmmm, I need to chechk their respective publication dates at tSFDB…
8. November 2007 @ 23:45 ( Permalink )
Huh, TC was actually published 28 years before WK. And here I thought the latter was the classic.
8. November 2007 @ 23:50 ( Permalink )