The Dark Is Rising - Book Group discussion thread

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Columba Jan 2020 4:22pm, 11 Jan 2020 19,040 posts	0 Columba Relationship between Urban Fantasy and Magical Realism?
LindsD Jan 2020 6:15pm, 11 Jan 2020 32,659 posts	0 LindsD I was wondering that, too, Columba.
GregP Jan 2020 12:37pm, 12 Jan 2020 117,379 posts	0 GregP Ooh that’s interesting, and probably has as much to do with tone. And it’s all (obviously) very subjective. Rivers on London is definitely UF though
Peregrinator Jan 2020 1:07pm, 12 Jan 2020 412 posts	0 Peregrinator The first crusade and a Christian middle east: a Pope Urban fantasy 😀. By Fantasy Fiction I suppose I meant a top-level separation in having Good and Evil and Magic, rather than science fiction with Right and Wrong and Technology. To work for me, both need to have underlying limiting rules, otherwise too much is possible, and my belief is de-suspended. Vampires can only come into your house if invited - so why would anyone invite a vampire into their house - ah, well there is the story. I am prepared to work with the limits - could a Vampire enter your bike shed uninvited, do you need to be the owner-occupier of the house, how about a hotel room, a caravan, a tent? UF was new to me too - GoodReads suggests "novels and stories with supernatural and/or magical elements set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings". A key test seems to be if the setting can be described as liminal (yes, yes, I used that word in my review. Not ashamed of it.).
GregP Jan 2020 6:41am, 13 Jan 2020 117,380 posts	0 GregP All this made me dig out my old copy of Storm Front. Chapter 1 is really good if you like that kind of thing, and short. Treat yourself lunchtime and stand in a bookshop and read it. Philip Marlowe meets Albus Dumbledore. Great fun.
Purps Feb 2020 11:55am, 6 Feb 2020 37,796 posts	0 Purps I finished last night. I have mixed feelings, I did enjoy it, but I felt it was slightly too 'everything worked out' all neat and tidy in a slightly predictable way. I did not read it as a child, had never heard of it before. It leads very obviously to the next book, which I'm not sure if I'd want to read. But I'm speaking as a 42 year old and maybe would have felt differently when a young adult. It's the type of thing I like, kind of fantasy stuff, but too mild for me. I really like the idea of things beyond time. I'm going to let E read it, she's 8 and devours novels.
Peregrinator Dec 2022 10:44pm, 26 Dec 2022 1,105 posts	0 Peregrinator Currently being dramatized on the BBC: bbc.co.uk
McGoohan Dec 2022 10:59pm, 26 Dec 2022 52,118 posts	0 McGoohan Not directly related but I do like to drop this in from time to time; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iquqEbPhDw
Slowboy Dec 2022 11:22pm, 26 Dec 2022 26 posts	0 Slowboy Did you ever read beyond Storm Front, GreP? First few books are ok - you can see he's kind of finding his style - then they get good - then consistently excellent. "Dead Beat" is the point where, for me, the series goes from good to genuinely great.
GregP Dec 2022 8:44am, 27 Dec 2022 141,875 posts	0 GregP Storm Front? Are we back to Harry from Chicago? I got quarter way through the second and wasn't feeling it. This makes me sad. My BFF Andy F (some of you will know him but he's not a Fetchie) adores them and we have very similar taste in this sort of stuff.