so what the frig am I meant to do now I've finished his dark materials trilogy? eh??? eh?????

[Heathcliffscathy]

sob.

read all three in a week. loved them.

now what?

not usually a sci-fi fantasy girl. love earthsea trilogy but not mad keen on harry potter.

like ian banks. like A L Kennedy. love a book called fugitive pieces (can't remember author). love rose tremain.

like broad, big themes. like good sex scenes. hate what I call nose picky stuff, and I class dh's favourite author in that category (peter carey).

PLEASE recommend me something....i'm bereft.

Oh, and by the way - Complicity...

Well Ian McEwan can be good - haven't been so keen on recent novels - but the Cement Garden and Atonement are v good

LOVE ian mcewan...have read most of them, particularly love atonement (god i do love that book) and i really enjoyed saturday recently and chesil beach has probably changed my life (he pins down the mundane destructiveness of digging your heels in in an argument so well....)

you know i thought you would already be familiar with McEwan

oh no unquiet...is it a shit film...don't even remember it being out? straight to dvd?

Have to admit I have not seen the film but it does smell of straight-to-video! Don't recall it coming to cinemas in our town!

Enjoy McEwan's earlier stuff more. I got really annoyed with "Atonement". The first hundred-odd pages had me nodding off.

yes was slow....but when he writes that note...bang, does it begin!

really enjoyed a child in time too....thought it was lovely.

Haven't read chesil beach - I got annoyed with Enduring Love - just could not relate to the central characters (wanted to slap them basically) - but i should give him another chance.

I think you eventually see the point of the languid "propriety" he has set up in the opening chapters, when that letter with THAT WORD comes in and it is so much more effective because of that. I wish we hadn't taken half the book to get there, though!

Yes Child in time is brilliant... moving funny and poignant and i read it pre-children.

Have you read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell to keep up the fantasy-ish theme?

Bigmouth - Enduring Love was shoite! And yes wanted to duff all of them up!!

Sophable. Read His Dark Materials again.

Ian McEwan..Concrete Garden? Horribly fascinating.

Cement Garden... film was pretty faithful and good too.

Cement was just a filler.......not seen the film..the book was enough.

How about Garth Nix Old Kingdom trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen)
I enjoyed His Dark Materials trilogy and also enjoyed the above.

Another recommendation for Garth Nix.

I am reading John Connolly, 'The Book of Lost Things at the Moment' which weaves together old fairytales into an adult narrative. DW couldn't put it down.
I've read all of Iain Banks too - agree with UQD on the Song of Stone. Shite. I think the Crow Road was his best actually.
Other than that, try and see His Dark Materials on stage if it plays again. DW and I went to see Nicholas Hytner's adaptation over two consecutive nights at the National with Anna Maxwell Martin playing Lyra, Patricia Hodge as Mrs Coulter, Timothy Dalton as Lord Boreal and Niamh Cusack as Serafina Pekkala (mmmm...lovely). Class.

try inkheart and inkspell by cornelia funke

am rading swallows and amazons at the mo.

Sorry I meant Lord Asriel. It was a while ago...

"Inkheart" is good, yes.

Also another vote for Douglas Coupland - especially "Girlfriend In A Coma".

Have to beg to differ re: Garth Nix though - I read "Sabriel" and hated it - I just didn't think he was a very good writer tbh and the story rather bored me; I felt as if I'd read it all before.

The best children/teen/vaguley fantasy series I've read is The Tales Of The Otori series by (I think) Leanne Hearne. She spent time in Japan to research them and they are very gripping and far more exciting than the Nix - the final one of the four, "The Harsh Cry Of The Heron" takes place about 20 years after the first, so they are quite epic in terms of how much ground they cover.

oh dear nothing will do. well it wouldn't for me, i was completely bereft. garth nix is good but you'll hate it if you read straight after pp. somethign really girly might do, a complete change of mood. or have you ever tried laurie r king? beekeeper's apprentice

I counsel more Coupland though none are as good as Girlfriend In A Coma. Try Hey Nostradamus.
also Cloud Atlas if you haven't got round to it yet
Can you bear Stephen Fry? Making History.

Alan Warner - Morvern Callar, The Sopranos. Havne't read The Worms Can Carry Me To Heaven though

the farseer trilogy by robin hobb its fantasy but its good in fat it's excellet