I’ve been reading a fair amount of novels recently; I just finished Susanna Clark’s Piranesi. I really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it. I was warned to go into it knowing as little about it as possible, which is a good idea. (And I’m not going to spoil anything here either, having said that…)

I’m coming to it having recently finished Mark Lawrence’s Library Trilogy, and am noticing some interesting and complementary things.

In particular, I’m feeling the influence of Borges’ collection Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings on both Clark and Lawrence’s works, and don’t want to comment further without going back to “Garden of Forking Paths” and “Library of Babel” and maybe a few others. Too, I’m wanting to reread Piranesi again before saying more about these works and their interconnections and themes, but need to reread The Magician’s Nephew again before I do so as Clark deliberately references that classic several times.

So, thoughts to come about selves and searching…