Four More Days...

In four days, the latest in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind comes out, Phantom. I'm SO excited. You may remember me blogging awhile back about how the book just before it, Chainfire, left me hanging in midair after jumping off a cliff!

I just finished a book recently that I wanted to recommend as well. American Gods by Neil Gaiman was one of the most fascinating, frustrating, interesting, irritating, and mesmerizing books I've read in a long time. I was a fan of Gaiman back in the day when he was doing the Sandman comics, so when I saw his name on the cover I knew it would be a good book. What I wasn't prepared for was how reading the book changed my perspective on things...but that is what happens when a book is good, hey?

The premise of the book is that the gods that have come to America in the hearts and minds of immigrants have found the "New World" to be a "bad place for gods." The gods of the old worlds are being replaced by the technology gods, and a showdown is brewing. There are so many ways you can categorize the story...an armaggedon tale, a parable, a retelling of holy texts...or just a very well written novel that reminds us to pay attention to and be respectful of that from whence we have come...to keep the old ways close to our hearts and minds while embracing the new. It also spoke to me about the true natures of love and forgiveness, but that's another blog entry for another time. I'll summarize by agreeing with a reviewer from Amazon.com who said that this book is a search for the American Identity: "Our culture has been created whole cloth out of the character and beliefs of all those people."

I'm currently working on The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams and hope to have it done by the time Phantom is released...because once I know there is another Goodkind book out it's going to be hard to keep me away from the bookstore...