Archive for November 2012
- In: David Brin
- 3 Comments
I’m now around 400 pages into Existence, and it’s like I’m reading a completely different book by a completely different author. The pace has drastically picked up, the plot now has every bit of my attention, the characters are getting interesting, it’s damn good. And the reveal? damn. and the second reveal? holy shit, hotdamn! I now care about what is happening in Existence, and the scales are quickly tipping from “disappointed” to “this is pretty damn cool!”
But will they tip enough?
As my interest in the plot has increased, so has my appreciation for the asides and commentaries on near-future technologies and society’s reaction to them. Things like crowdsourced journalism and whistle-blowing, theories about autism, gene manipulation, self replicating machines, our growing interactions and dependence on the internet, the possibility of uploading the minds and personalities of people who are trapped in severely damaged or disabled bodies, so many things that many of us are talking about right now.
Even better, reading the book now feels like enjoyment rather than work.
Still, some severe annoyances keep rearing their ugly heads, such as a wordplay trick that quickly feels gimicky, loose ends that don’t go anywhere, and writing mechanics.
minor spoilers ahead:
It is a dark time in the northern hemisphere. Although Black Friday has been survived, the upcoming holiday season drives bookworms from their hidden libraries, and pursues them across the galaxy. . .
Evading the dreaded TV toy commercials, a group of bloggers led by yours truly established a secret plan for January reading.
It will be known as Vintage Science Fiction month, and many vintage books will be read, into the far reaches of the blogosphere. .. . .
I suddenly kinda feel like watching Star Wars. hey, the first one came out before 1979, so it’s vintage. . . right?
Ok peeps, here’s the deal: A while ago I realized I was horribly underread in the classics of Scifi. Sure, the stuff is dated and sexist and clunky and sometimes the language is archaic, but damn if I don’t enjoy reading about Martians and black holes, and old Star Trek books and Jules Vernian adventures, and stories from back when everything was possible because no one knew what might not be possible. The more of the stuff I read, the more I liked it, but I was so distracted by new shiny stuff that, well, you get the idea.
So last January I hosted Vintage Science Fiction month, and a whole ton of ya’ll participated by reading Vintage-y stuff and blogging about it, and we linked it all together here. My definition of Vintage is anything before 1979, and my definition of Scifi is pretty loose: scifi, sci-fantasy, sword and sorcery, robots, magical swords, near future, far future, pulp scifi adventure, satire, War of the Worlds, Jules Verne, Mary Shelley. . .
And guess what? It was buckets and buckets of fun! I had the opportunity to read obscure out of print goodness, met a bunch of new blogger friends, researched some authors, worked and read my butt off, and had the best month ever! On a more serious note, I gained a deeper appreciation for books that were written in the last 30 years by reading what came before them. From a genre-evolution standpoint, it’s truly fascinating.
Vintage SciFi month was so much fun, in fact, that I’m doing it again this year! Same month, same channel, same badge. Start your countdown to interstellar adventure and link to your January reviews in the comments of the Vintage Scifi tab at the top of the page. But this time, there’s a twist. I’ve got some surprises up my sleeves for you!
comments? questions? thoughts? shout ’em out!
I’m about 200 pages in to David Brin’s Existence, and I can already tell this isn’t the kind of book that I’ll just be able to kick out a 700 word review. Hopefully doing a few blog posts as I get through the book will help me organize my thoughts, and see if my predictions and concerns were at least in the right direction. It’ll be fun to go back and reread these posts once I’ve finished the book. I will do my best to avoid major plot points and spoilers. I picked this up because I’ve been a David Brin fan for years and I was thrilled to learn that he had a new book coming out. this is one of those writers that I will pick up anything with his name on it. I trust him to deliver.
Existence is dense, it is sprawling, it’s sometimes completely unfocused, parts of it read like a thesis. God help you if this is your first David Brin, or if you picked this up thinking it was something to read casually.
First off, there are a ton of POV’s to keep track of. half a dozen people, not to mention the interludes and asides that serve as world building and convenient spots for infodumps. Many of the interludes are from something called Pandora’s Cornucopia. I’m not sure what exactly the Cornucopia is, but so far it seems to be a list of all the man-made and natural ways humanity could come crashing to an end – nuclear winter, flooding brought on by climate change, asteroid impacts, all sorts of morbid things, and then it goes on to say how we have or could survive them. there are some interludes by a deep autistic, and I had trouble understanding the syntax in them (perhaps that’s the point?). there is a metric-tons worth of people and places to remember, and stuff to keep track of.
This post was inspired by this post over at Dark Cargo, in which Lady Dark Cargo talks about her new city, Columbus OH. She specifically talks about the Columbus Library system, and the local art museum. I live in a much, much smaller city than Columbus, but I’m pretty darn proud of our library and museum, and beyond being proud of these places, and happy to pay taxes that support them, I am sincerely and truly thankful for them.
Sometimes the best things in life are free.
observe, my local library freakin’ rocks. A main branch downtown, a handful of neighborhood branches, I can put stuff on hold on their website, do interlibrary loan, read in the park across the street, admire the stained glass, buy old paperbacks in the basement, use the computer lab on the 2nd floor, and chill in the basement lounge that looks three stories up to the rooftop atrium. Also? library is staffed only by cool people.
Sit in the lower lounge and look up. this is what you see. pretty much: rainbows everywhere.
We’ve also got two pretty cool museums. Okay, they are teensy, but pretty sweet. You can get through our art museum in about an hour, but I always find myself taking ages in the lower level, admiring the portraiture collection. Once the security guard had to let me know the museum was closing in 15 minutes. They offer a gazillion classes, but when I could afford the classes they didn’t work with my work schedule, and when I didn’t have to worry about a work schedule, well, I couldn’t afford the classes. there’s also a ginormous Chihuly blown glass sculpture in the lobby. Also? The museum is surrounded by a sculpture garden. Has so much artistic awesome ever been crammed into one small city block? Museum is free, but it’s nice to put a few bucks in the donation box, since I sure can’t afford any of the kitchy stuff in the gift shop.
Ok, so maybe it’s not such a ginormous Chihuly, maybe it’s just a small lobby?
I haven’t got a photo, but we also host a smaller, family museum. Most of the exhibits are aimed toward kids, and my favorite part of the museum isn’t even inside the museum, it’s up by the road in front of the front door – it’s a functioning sun dial, where your shadow tells the time. My Dad things this is the coolest thing ever, and I wish I could that photo of him standing in the sun dial, he’s got this look of utter surprise on his face that the time is accurate.
Now it’s your turn. tell me about something where you live that your thankful for.
SFSignal Mind Meld post
Posted on: November 21, 2012
- In: Mind Meld
- 5 Comments
along with science fiction luminaries like David Brin, Neal Asher, Julie E. Czerneda, Charles Stross and other writers, researchers and bloggers, I’m part of SFSignal’s most recent Mind Meld about Optimistic Scenarios for Our Future World. In no universe did I ever imagine I’d be in the same post as any of these amazing people.
the question we were asked was:
Q: It’s not unusual to hear negative things about what the future might bring for the Earth and humankind, and dystopian narrative certainly makes for entertaining futuristic sci-fi scenarios (environmental disaster, overuse of technology, etc). In the spirit of optimism and hope, what are a few of your far future scenarios that speak to the possible positive aspects of our evolving relationship with our world?
I especially liked the responses from Guy Haley, Charlie Stross, and Sharon Lynn Fisher. Everyone’s responses were wonderful, but those seemed to speak directly to me.
Go take a read, and then let me know in the comments here – what are YOUR optimistic scenarios for our future existence?
Swords and Deviltry (Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, book 1), by Fritz Leiber
published in 1970
where I got it: purchased used
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On the very long (and growing longer) list of books and authors who were before my time and influenced entire genres is Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser series. Born in 1910 in Chicago, Leiber spent his youth following in his actor parents footsteps. He later studied philosophy, religion, copy-editing, chess, and fencing. He started publishing short stories in science fiction and fantasy magazines in the late 1930s, and would continue to publish until into the 1980s. His writings are highly influenced by spending his youth around Shakespearian actors, his formal studies, his love for Lovecraftian literature, and a passion for all things unusual. Having just finished my first Leiber, two things have obvious to me: his potential for weird, and his influence on the sword and sorcery / dark fantasy genre.
The Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser series was originally a large smattering of short stories published in multiple magazines, which follow the two titular rogues on countless adventures. Later, Leiber figured out the chronology and wrote some additional stories to help bind everything together. Starting in 1970 and going until the late 80’s, the short stories were published into larger volumes, and the first of those volumes is Swords and Deviltry.
Swords and Deviltry is split up in three parts – the first part, The Snow Women, introduces Fafhrd, the second part, The Unholy Grail, introduces The Grey Mouser, and in the third part, Ill Met in Lankhmar, the two meet for the first time and the bonds of friendship are secured through tragic events.
Krampus: The Yule Lord, by Brom
Posted on: November 16, 2012
- In: Brom
- 11 Comments
Krampus: The Yule Lord, by Brom
published November 2012
where I got it: Borrowed ARC from a friend
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In rural West Virginia lives 20-something Jesse Walker, and his life pretty much sucks. His wife Linda has left him for another man, his musical career is a disaster, and his only job leads are running drugs for the local thugs. It’s Christmas time, Jesse wishes he could afford gifts for his daughter, wishes he could make thing right with his estranged wife. And then, he sees Santa. On a sleigh, with reindeer, complete with bottomless bag of gifts, Santa gets attacked by demons, and in the shuffle, Jesse ends up with Santa’s bottomless sack.
Ahh, but Santa isn’t who you think he is, and that bottomless bag never belonged to him in the first place. This is where the story gets interesting, with Brom weaving together Norse and Germanic mythology and the stories of St. Nick and the pagan solstice holidays that Christmas eventually replaced. Jesse may being pulling gifts for his daughter out of the sack, but now he’s got Krampus, the Yule Lord, on his tail.
Imprisoned by Santa and left to die, Krampus has finally gained the strength to escape his chains. With the help of his supernatural Belsnickel servants, he’s learned the location of the sack. Although he looks the part, Krampus is not a devil. The original winter spirit, Krampus reinvigorated our freezing ancestors, to give them hope that they could survive the long, harsh winter. Gaining strength and feeding his hatred towards Santa, Krampus now has everything he needs to turn Yule back to its original meaning.
Epic: Legends of Fantasy, edited by John Joseph Adams
published November 2012
where I got it: Received ARC from the publisher
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Epic Fantasy requires the story to be bigger, the dragons be faster, the warriors be stronger, and everything generally be more. And Epic: Legends of Fantasy offers up just that – more mythos, higher stakes, more of simply everything.
Many of the entries are part of the author’s larger work, taking place in an epic fantasy world that the author has already written hundreds and sometimes thousands of pages about. Randomly, the stories I read first happened to be part of larger works, and at first, the lack of stand alone works bothered me, but I quickly came to appreciate it, and to learn the collection had plenty of stand alone stories as well. An anthology like this is a brilliant method of introducing readers to these larger fantasy worlds created by famous authors such as Robin Hobb, George R R Martin, Michael Moorcock, Melanie Rawn, Tad Williams, and many others, and serves as an excellent introduction to the writings of newer authors as well.
Some works were fairly new, but others were older than I am. the Moorcock for example was originally written in 1961. A pure classic sword and sorcery, complete with sexualized and helpless female, it might be offensive to today’s readers, but I’m happy Adams included it, as what’s the point of talking about Epic Fantasy if we’re not going to touch on the journey the genre has taken?
Clocking in at over 600 pages, Epic: Legends of Fantasy is itself a bit of a doorstopper. We eat clunksters like this for breakfast, so I was surprised at how long it took me to plow through it. ahh, but spending 600+ pages in one fantasy world is one thing. Try spending that quantity of pages in over a dozen fantasy worlds. More often than not, my brain needed a little break in between. This isn’t the kind of anthology to gorge on, this is the kind you savor, over many winter evenings.
Here’s my thoughts a handful of the entries:
Tiassa, by Steven Brust
Posted on: November 9, 2012
Tiassa, by Steven Brust
published in 2011
where I got it: purchased new
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I am among the fans who came to Tiassa with trepidation. The two books that come before it, Jhegaala and Iorich are slower, quieter reads. Not much happens, Vlad pines for his ex-wife, everyone is very sad about a lot of things, the witty snark was toned down. They aren’t bad books by any means (Brust’s writing will break your heart no matter what’s going on in the story) they just aren’t super fun to read. Would Tiassa be more of the same? I didn’t even care if it moved the timeline forward, I just wanted the feeling of fun, and adventure, and optimism that I’d gotten out of the earlier Vlad books.
After a handful of “meh” reads these last few weeks, I was desperate for a book that would grab me and insist that it was going to lead this dance. I needed a comfort read; an author I could trust to transport me to a different world, a book that would swallow me whole so quickly I wouldn’t even feel its teeth.
Steven Brust’s Tiassa to the rescue.
I saw a review on Amazon that said Tiassa was Brust’s love letter to his fans, and after reading it I have to whole heartedly agree. If you are already a long time reader of the Vlad Taltos series, you will be in heaven with Tiassa. But on the flip-side, if you’re new to the series, this is a terrible place to start (start here. really.).
The book is sharply divided in three portions, with interludes inbetween, and throughout everything a silver tiassa sculpture keeps coming up. A tiny, seemingly useless sculpture of a winged cat, it may have been forged by the gods or it may be worthless. Regardless, the little tiassa seems to be making its own plans. Packed with the requisite witty dialog but jumping around in time and touching on Draegaran mythology, Tiassa isn’t so much a Vlad Taltos book as it is a Dragaeran Empire book.
the Little Red Reviewer 
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