Fantasy is not my genre

It seems as though the members of Books and Beer Club are of two different minds. There are several that love both fantasy and fiction. Not only do they get outraged (well, not really outraged, but you'll see where I'm going with this) when we talk about substituting something else, but they get offended that some, not including me, can't differentiate between science fiction and fantasy. There are those of us, including me, who would be fine skipping both genres. 

July is science fiction month, but we read 1984 back in March when showed up on a "best fantasy for a book club" list. 1984 is considered to be science fiction by purists. Those in the "we love fantasy and science fiction" suggested we read fantasy for July. After much discussion, On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony was selected. Piers Anthony happens to be a local author and there was some talk about asking him to attend our July meeting. I kind of hope he doesn't show up.

I'll remind you once again that I typically don't like fantasy much. I really didn't like this one. The premise is clever. A guy, Zane, seriously contemplating suicide ends up shooting and killing "Death" instead of himself. As such, he becomes the new "Death," the figure responsible for plucking the souls from those who are a balance between good and evil. Whose final destination, Heaven or Hell, is not clearly indicated. Zane is a compassionate death. I wish the message being presented was more clearcut.

The details of the story is where it totally lost me. Zane's "life after life" is manipulated by a magician and by other the other "Incarnations" (War, Fate, Time and Nature). It's how he was selected to be the new "Death." It's how he meets Luna who becomes the love of his life. It's how he ends up in a conflict with Satan. I didn't care about any of this. I didn't like how most of the female characters were objectified. I plodded thru the novel and was thrilled when I got to the end. It just isn't my kind of novel.

I then proceeded to read the Author's Note. I thought it would provide some insight into Anthony's thought process. It served to make me like Piers Anthony, the person, less than I already did after suffering through this novel.

Reviewers on goodreads.com either love the book or hate the book. It's got a 4+ star rating so more love it than hate it. I'm not sure who the target audience is. I'm curious to see what others in the book club think. My guess is that the fantasy lovers will have loved it while everyone else might share something close to my views.

Update: I was in the minority at the book club of those who didn't like the book. The other two people who didn't like the book didn't like the way God and religion was portrayed. The novel included flying carpets and teleportation and a horse that could transform into a limousine and into a flying machine. God and religion was just as fantastical to me as anything else. And that was okay.

Some felt Anthony was trying to set forth a message. Others thought it was meant to be pure fun. Fun? Hmmm.

What I found most interesting was the response of women who have careers in hospice. The way they connected with Death and his manner of treating "his clients" compassionately really resonates with me. It didn't make me like the novel any better. But it does give me a better appreciation about what other readers can take away from reading the book.

Hum If You Don't Know the Words - Take Two

Here's just a quick update to my post about Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Biance Marais that I read prepublication in June 2017.

I finally got to discuss this book with my community book club. If you've been following me, you know that I don't like to reread. Anything. I will admit to having a hard time getting into Hum If You Don't Know the Words this second time around. I was afraid that I might not be able to finish it in time to lead the book club discussion yesterday. But once I got into it, like the first time, I couldn't put it down. I loved it as much the second time as I did the first.

I was really happy that most of the women at the book club meeting liked it as much as I did. Only one person was a little on the fence about it because she found that so many of the characters were cliches. I think when you're trying to make statements about society, cliches might be the way to go.

One of our members heard a rumor that Marais plans to write a sequel at some point. For now, I look forward to reading her next novel, If You Want to Make God Laugh, which has a publication date of next week.