Nothing like book buying to rekindle my desire to read. After buying new books I always have an immediate desire to read whatever it is I've just purchased. If only I could buy them one at a time I wouldn't have a huge TBR pile.
That will never happen so 'oh well...'
I got two by Arturo Perez-Reverte The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet and Pirates of the Levant the fifth and sixth entries in his Captain Alatriste series which I love. The Line Between by Peter S. Beagle because I think he's amazing and I don't currently own any short story collections I haven't read, which I find odd for some reason. Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown, because of Hate List; 'nuf said... Finally I got A Stir of Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman because I've only read her short stories and never any of her novels.
I'm presently still reading Gormenghast (and it's still going nowhere; I'm truly amazed) and Bitterblue at the same time. I'm gonna ride this reading urge: as in I'm gonna read all this stuff in July. It will happen, because I'm awesome. I doubt I'll leave comments for Gormenghast as I haven't been inspired which is odd since I liked Titus Groan so much, but expect comments for the rest.
I don't know how to quantify it, but I like holding Perfect Escape in my hands more than any of the other books purchased. As in I enjoy the tactile feel of it; okay... I'll shut up now. I've work to do.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
Story of A Girl by Sara Zarr
"One of the things Darren and me have in common is that we both let Mom and Dad down. Him because of having a kid so young, not to mention getting busted for pot when he was sixteen and having to go through this whole court thing. And me because, well, no one wants the school slut for a daughter. Technically, I'm not a slut, because there was only ever Tommy, but it's hard to defend myself on a technicality when things happened the way they did. It's not like I could get on the school PA system and issue a rebuttal. Page 42
"This is my life, I thought. This is it. When I'm thirty-five years old picking up tampons and a loaf of bread at the store and I run into Jolene Hancock in the express line, she'll look at me and when she gets home she'll tell her husband, 'I saw Deanna Lambert at the store. She's this girl I knew in high school. Kind of skanky. Slept with this gross junior when she was only thirteen.' " Page 90
In terms of character, Zarr's debut novel establishes the foundation that serves as a template for at least two of her other novels. While I feel she is a writer who has gotten better which each new book all of her signature power and visceral reality is present in Story of a Girl.
Deanna started having sex at thirteen; a year after she started smoking cigarettes; the same year she started smoking pot. Now, years later, she still struggles to redefine her identity in the eyes of her contemporaries and her family.
Deanna's parents never addressed her having sex with Tommy past her father catching them in the act and her mother--assuming Deanne is was a hyper sexually active person--buying condoms and getting her on the pilll. As time passes her mother ignores the issue; acts as if it never happened. While her father feels, and makes Deanna feel, as if it happened yesterday, everyday of their lives. Her only positive family relationship is with her older brother Darren who, fortunately for Deanna, still lives in the house with his daughter and girlfriend. Darren and Tommy were drug buddies and it was Deanna who had to call Darren off from regularly beating Tommy's ass.
Tommy has his version of what happened the night he and Deanna hooked up and he felt the urge to tell this story to everyone he knew and in the smallest of small towns in California rumor and gossip quickly become true. Deanna struggles with being comfortable with who she is and where she is, and her dreams of escape and starting over. It was nice to see the subtly in which she mirrored her father who sees his children as defined by their past and how Deanna struggles to not do the same with her friends and herself.
Outside of Darren her male relationships are all borderline disastrous She's more than a little bit in love with her best and only friend Jason, who has a girlfriend he's more than a little bit in love with. Deanna is also starting to spend time with Tommy again so many years after he has ruined so much in her life. It's through potentially epic conflict with Jason and Tommy that Deanna finds acceptance of herself and of everyone around her.
Zarr's language isn't as beautiful or well controlled as in Once was Lost; the presentation is different--more mature--than the tragically named Sweethearts; but the narrative voice is still the same and instantly recognizable as hers. Another aspect of Zarr's that I immediately picked up on was her depiction of 'blurry sex.' In a book where no language is spared--and the very crux of every aspect of Deanna's personality is the fact that she was sexually active at thirteen--from an author who clearly has control of language and subtly; I'm continually surprised at how she can put two people in a sexual situation and I can't follow what is happening between them. I don't need explicit details but Zarr has a tendency to be so vague as to be confusing. The harsh bluntness of Zarr clearly saying what happens in these moments would not only clear things up for me but would powerfully contrast with her otherwise beautiful prose in what would be some of the most tense moments of the story.
I think it's because Zarr is a writer that I enjoy so much that always want more from every book she writes. That, would be my problem as there is certainly nothing wrong or wanting in Story of Girl or anything else Zarr has written. It's good enough to make me curious about reading what won the nation book award in 2007 as Story of a Girl was a finalist but not chosen. It's good enough for me to say--as I've said many times before--that Zarr is worth reading, and this being her first book is as good a place to start as any.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar
I'm going to start off by saying something absurd: Lonely Werewolf Girl reminds me a lot of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.
Stay with me...
It's a family drama that explores the lives of the ruling family of Scotland's most powerful clan of werewolves. The family patriarch is in declining health and the subsequent nomination of his replacement is the cause of conflict worthy of a family feud and lots and lots of bloodshed.
The MacRinnalch children are all well adjusted and 'normal' on the outside. As their father, passes leaving the clan in turmoil and instability, we see their true character surface. Seraphen, the eldest is a murder bent psychopath. Thrix is not only a werewolf but an extraordinarily powerful sorceress (which for reasons never explained was heavily frowned upon by her family). Markus, the second son, is a cross-dressing Cassanova, and Kalix--the title character and youngest sibling--is an anorexic, illiterate, suffering multiple anxiety disorders, self mutilating, junkie. Oh, and their mother isn't shy about stating who her favorite child is and sacrificing her other children to get what she wants.
The story is about the election of the next Thane; the nominees are Seraphen and Markus. There is much intrigue and manipulation (read: murder) to get the required amount of votes.
The other primary characters are two human college students, Daniel and the unfortunately named Moonglow, and the Fire Queen of a secondary world Malvaria and her 'most abysmal, never-to-be-adopted-niece' Vex. There are also 'the twins;' the cousins the MacRinnalch family doesn't talk about: they are wanna be rock stars, but very successful alcoholics.
Both factions enact plans to garner votes to see their choice elected. We follow Kalix around London. She has been banished from home since she is inextricably linked to the Thane's decline. The reluctant family is brought together by the Thane's death and we see that even the most far reaching plot points come together as the death of their father dominates their lives. Thrix runs a fashion boutique and wants nothing to do with the family. Malveria is the most aggressively vapid character I've ever come across. She is Thrix biggest client. If it doesn't involve clothes or who you're sleeping with and why she really won't care.
In regards to who characters are sleeping with, it should be said that all of Millar's werewolves are the most beautiful people ever. Each with a startlingly unique attribute that sets them apart from each other. They will also sleep with anything under the sun (or moon) with no regard for who that person is connected with past present, human, werewolf, or deity from a different realm of existence. If you look the part; they'll hit it. While none can match a werewolf in terms of beauty all of Millar's characters were homogeneous in the super unique from anyone else but undeniably gorgeous presentation. That got sterile quickly.
The books vying for votes and assertion of male supremacy (with momma's backing of course) with all the wild personalities mentioned is anything but what I was expecting from the title. There is room to do something more intimate--you could pick any one of Millar's messed up characters and examine their mental state--but the focus is very broad and focused on plot. It felt a bit like reading a Guy Ritchie movie (one of the good ones) and that's not a bad thing. However, I was surprised at this choice of direction considering how good Millar is at the intimate moments such as Kalix's anxiety attacks and addiction.
The strongest accomplishment is the how believable so much supernatural craziness seems in contemporary London. Considering how easily I bought into what Millar presented I was sad to see the strongest unifying element to the all the plot points--Moonglow--be so awfully unconvincing and blatantly convenient. I couldn't tell if this was a character Millar wanted readers hate or not, but I officially hated everything about her. She was walking deus ex machina of the highest order; way worse than anything or person in the Harry Potter universe. All of this would be okay if she didn't stand out as such so clearly. She was bad on her own, but when put in situations with more strongly drawn characters as Thrix or Malvaria she really stood out in a 'not good' way.
There's a guild of werewolf hunters that served no purpose. There is never any human/werewolf conflict and yet the guild's reason for existing is hunting werewolves down. The reason why was never stated and I found that bothersome and forced to say the least. They were a militant organization of haters without cause; which is admittedly scary and kinda awesome but considering their self importance, incompetence and general lack of purpose I have to wonder at their inclusion.
A judicious editor may have trimmed a hundred and fifty pages, but every page is entertaining. It's also funny as hell. I'm hoping the rest of what Millar has written is this much fun because I may have found a new go-to comfort writer.
Stay with me...
It's a family drama that explores the lives of the ruling family of Scotland's most powerful clan of werewolves. The family patriarch is in declining health and the subsequent nomination of his replacement is the cause of conflict worthy of a family feud and lots and lots of bloodshed.
The MacRinnalch children are all well adjusted and 'normal' on the outside. As their father, passes leaving the clan in turmoil and instability, we see their true character surface. Seraphen, the eldest is a murder bent psychopath. Thrix is not only a werewolf but an extraordinarily powerful sorceress (which for reasons never explained was heavily frowned upon by her family). Markus, the second son, is a cross-dressing Cassanova, and Kalix--the title character and youngest sibling--is an anorexic, illiterate, suffering multiple anxiety disorders, self mutilating, junkie. Oh, and their mother isn't shy about stating who her favorite child is and sacrificing her other children to get what she wants.
The story is about the election of the next Thane; the nominees are Seraphen and Markus. There is much intrigue and manipulation (read: murder) to get the required amount of votes.
The other primary characters are two human college students, Daniel and the unfortunately named Moonglow, and the Fire Queen of a secondary world Malvaria and her 'most abysmal, never-to-be-adopted-niece' Vex. There are also 'the twins;' the cousins the MacRinnalch family doesn't talk about: they are wanna be rock stars, but very successful alcoholics.
Both factions enact plans to garner votes to see their choice elected. We follow Kalix around London. She has been banished from home since she is inextricably linked to the Thane's decline. The reluctant family is brought together by the Thane's death and we see that even the most far reaching plot points come together as the death of their father dominates their lives. Thrix runs a fashion boutique and wants nothing to do with the family. Malveria is the most aggressively vapid character I've ever come across. She is Thrix biggest client. If it doesn't involve clothes or who you're sleeping with and why she really won't care.
In regards to who characters are sleeping with, it should be said that all of Millar's werewolves are the most beautiful people ever. Each with a startlingly unique attribute that sets them apart from each other. They will also sleep with anything under the sun (or moon) with no regard for who that person is connected with past present, human, werewolf, or deity from a different realm of existence. If you look the part; they'll hit it. While none can match a werewolf in terms of beauty all of Millar's characters were homogeneous in the super unique from anyone else but undeniably gorgeous presentation. That got sterile quickly.
The books vying for votes and assertion of male supremacy (with momma's backing of course) with all the wild personalities mentioned is anything but what I was expecting from the title. There is room to do something more intimate--you could pick any one of Millar's messed up characters and examine their mental state--but the focus is very broad and focused on plot. It felt a bit like reading a Guy Ritchie movie (one of the good ones) and that's not a bad thing. However, I was surprised at this choice of direction considering how good Millar is at the intimate moments such as Kalix's anxiety attacks and addiction.
The strongest accomplishment is the how believable so much supernatural craziness seems in contemporary London. Considering how easily I bought into what Millar presented I was sad to see the strongest unifying element to the all the plot points--Moonglow--be so awfully unconvincing and blatantly convenient. I couldn't tell if this was a character Millar wanted readers hate or not, but I officially hated everything about her. She was walking deus ex machina of the highest order; way worse than anything or person in the Harry Potter universe. All of this would be okay if she didn't stand out as such so clearly. She was bad on her own, but when put in situations with more strongly drawn characters as Thrix or Malvaria she really stood out in a 'not good' way.
There's a guild of werewolf hunters that served no purpose. There is never any human/werewolf conflict and yet the guild's reason for existing is hunting werewolves down. The reason why was never stated and I found that bothersome and forced to say the least. They were a militant organization of haters without cause; which is admittedly scary and kinda awesome but considering their self importance, incompetence and general lack of purpose I have to wonder at their inclusion.
A judicious editor may have trimmed a hundred and fifty pages, but every page is entertaining. It's also funny as hell. I'm hoping the rest of what Millar has written is this much fun because I may have found a new go-to comfort writer.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Tennis, Crappy Sports Journalism, and Other Good News
This post will be far removed from the ordinary.
Is anyone else in love with Agnieszka Radwanska? Radwanska-Lisicki at Wimbledon was the best match I've seen this year. I've never been a fan of 'power tennis,' to me it's a bit sterile to watch. Radwanska reminds me of David Ferrer: no huge ground strokes, no overpowering serve, plenty of hustle, and an almost unbelievable number of unforced errors per match. Both Radwanska and Ferrer remind of me Justine Henin who was my all-time favorite player to watch. Something about their composure and self control; their ability to extend any rally beyond the opponents' comfort zone; the ability to seem so distant from the game while playing is very attractive to me. Since I'm not above being shallow let me say in the case of Radwanska she's just play ole attractive. Hell, if you look at her website I'm not sure if she's a tennis player or a model. Such is the case with professional athletes.
Anyone else annoyed with Chris Fowler and Chrissie Evert calling the Radwanska-Lisicki match? It didn't come across as partial to me--which is fine--but that is part of the 'job.' Perhaps since "Lisicki" is the new way to spell "Cinderella" they had already made their pick. Their were two people in that match Chris and Chrissie and each was making things extraordinarily difficult for the other. Their was nothing wrong with Lisicki or Radwanska at anytime (though the latter looked a bit gassed to me toward the end) they merely had a heck of an opponent on the other side of the net.
I really don't like sports journalist who assume they know what a player is thinking. Not even a great champion like Evert. "This is a sign of the pressure." They don't know that and in their effort to make sure viewers get maximum tense and anxiety they have to build up and talk about everything. Or how about this interview with Andy Murray after a seriously awesome match with Fernado Verdasco. "Didn't he?" "Why wasn't it working for you today?" "Do you know it all yourself?" "Was this match a warning in any way?" I love Murray's near deadpan answer to that: "Dude's a damn good tennis player... He was trying to win just as I was, get off my ass for not making it look easier." That wasn't an interview, and it's not journalism; it's finishing for a headline or a quote. He's being pushed along in hopes of being given an answer the outlet wants to receive. It's as if they already have the story written they just need Murray to drop a few quotes along certain lines so they can go to print. It all felt very tabloid-ish to me. Meanwhile so many pertinent tennis question went unasked. I remember a similar interview after the French Open quarterfinals with Nadal this year. Kudos to the players for brushing these guys off.
So I'm making Agnieszka Radwanska my girlfriend; everyone else back off. We clear on that?
Oh yeah, I'm supposed to talk about books.
As of writing this I got a notification from the library that I can pick up Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (my other girlfriend). I loved Gracling more than is healthy and as Bitterblue is a direct sequel I'm looking forward to it.
Finally--the grand daddy of good news for the day--Edward Whittemore is back in print! E-print to be exact but print nonetheless. This is great news covered in delicious awesome sauce. I loved The Jerusalem Quartet for a host of reasons. I enjoyed Quin's Shaghai Circus as well. Now you, dear blog reader, don't have to track them down second hand! Just go to the open road's media website and wait for July 23. If you're thinking about checking out Whittemore, which you should, start with Sinai Tapestry. All the books stand alone very well, but Quin's Shanghai Circus could be off putting for some (me) while I found Sinai Tapestry to be all around more palatable.
I've got werewolves on the brain. More on that in a few days.
Is anyone else in love with Agnieszka Radwanska? Radwanska-Lisicki at Wimbledon was the best match I've seen this year. I've never been a fan of 'power tennis,' to me it's a bit sterile to watch. Radwanska reminds me of David Ferrer: no huge ground strokes, no overpowering serve, plenty of hustle, and an almost unbelievable number of unforced errors per match. Both Radwanska and Ferrer remind of me Justine Henin who was my all-time favorite player to watch. Something about their composure and self control; their ability to extend any rally beyond the opponents' comfort zone; the ability to seem so distant from the game while playing is very attractive to me. Since I'm not above being shallow let me say in the case of Radwanska she's just play ole attractive. Hell, if you look at her website I'm not sure if she's a tennis player or a model. Such is the case with professional athletes.
Anyone else annoyed with Chris Fowler and Chrissie Evert calling the Radwanska-Lisicki match? It didn't come across as partial to me--which is fine--but that is part of the 'job.' Perhaps since "Lisicki" is the new way to spell "Cinderella" they had already made their pick. Their were two people in that match Chris and Chrissie and each was making things extraordinarily difficult for the other. Their was nothing wrong with Lisicki or Radwanska at anytime (though the latter looked a bit gassed to me toward the end) they merely had a heck of an opponent on the other side of the net.
I really don't like sports journalist who assume they know what a player is thinking. Not even a great champion like Evert. "This is a sign of the pressure." They don't know that and in their effort to make sure viewers get maximum tense and anxiety they have to build up and talk about everything. Or how about this interview with Andy Murray after a seriously awesome match with Fernado Verdasco. "Didn't he?" "Why wasn't it working for you today?" "Do you know it all yourself?" "Was this match a warning in any way?" I love Murray's near deadpan answer to that: "Dude's a damn good tennis player... He was trying to win just as I was, get off my ass for not making it look easier." That wasn't an interview, and it's not journalism; it's finishing for a headline or a quote. He's being pushed along in hopes of being given an answer the outlet wants to receive. It's as if they already have the story written they just need Murray to drop a few quotes along certain lines so they can go to print. It all felt very tabloid-ish to me. Meanwhile so many pertinent tennis question went unasked. I remember a similar interview after the French Open quarterfinals with Nadal this year. Kudos to the players for brushing these guys off.
So I'm making Agnieszka Radwanska my girlfriend; everyone else back off. We clear on that?
Oh yeah, I'm supposed to talk about books.
As of writing this I got a notification from the library that I can pick up Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (my other girlfriend). I loved Gracling more than is healthy and as Bitterblue is a direct sequel I'm looking forward to it.
Finally--the grand daddy of good news for the day--Edward Whittemore is back in print! E-print to be exact but print nonetheless. This is great news covered in delicious awesome sauce. I loved The Jerusalem Quartet for a host of reasons. I enjoyed Quin's Shaghai Circus as well. Now you, dear blog reader, don't have to track them down second hand! Just go to the open road's media website and wait for July 23. If you're thinking about checking out Whittemore, which you should, start with Sinai Tapestry. All the books stand alone very well, but Quin's Shanghai Circus could be off putting for some (me) while I found Sinai Tapestry to be all around more palatable.
I've got werewolves on the brain. More on that in a few days.
Monday, July 1, 2013
The Month in Review
If I was on a reading hiatus in May, June has seen me suffer from a bit of reader's block. I'm okay with that. For whatever reasons reading has taken a bit of a back seat to others interest as of late. That said, I have been reading...
Gormenghast is something like 13,859 pages and stylistically I knew what I was getting into before I started reading. Even after having read Titus Groan and liking it Gormenghast doesn't feel like it's going anywhere but then again I'm only on page 733 so perhaps things will change. Usually when I get stuck in a book that I'm not going to put down I'll read a short story collection so I can get a faster sense of completion. I was surprised to notice that while my TBR shelf is substantially lighter than years past, I didn't have a short story collection there. In lieu of what I wanted, I picked up Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar. Here's hoping that Millar's blacklist is equally strong because I'd love to make him a new 'comfort food' writer. My only real reading goal for July will be to finish these two behemoths.
And now for the news and some social commentary which I don't usually do.
"Where are the Snowden's of yesteryear?" Did anyone else immediately think Joseph Heller when all this Snowden name dropping began?
"Rich, old, Caucasian women in Georgia uses N-word. Nation in an uproar; State of Georgia surprised at the nations' surprise and generally couldn't care less." I could go on for a bit with this one, but... there are so many better and more interesting things to do.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Wastelands Edited by John Joseph Adams
The title of this short story collection, featuring mostly reprints and a few original pieces, is perfect. The subtitle 'Stories of the Apocalypse' and in particular all the crap on the back of the book are as misleading as can be. Luckily for me, the bad stuff on the back and subtitle were irrelevant to the stories within. All of which makes me wonder how I came across this collection. That said, don't let the publishers promotion deter you from checking this collection out.
This science fiction collection deals with "the nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse." (That is the only salvageable blurb from the back of the book.) Most all the stories deal with story, and character more so than science and that is exactly how I liked my science fiction; so if you're in it for the super hardcore stuff you may want to look elsewhere.
There were very few inclusions that actually dealt with bringing about the end of the world. The first in the collection: The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King was one of them and one of the collection's finest. The narrator's super-genius brother is fed up with mankind's pettiness and negativity. Thinking he has found a way correct man's aggression and general bad attitude he enacts a briliant plan with the best of intentions and the worst of results.
Judgement Passed by Jerry Oltion was perhaps my favorite in terms of concept. A group a colonist preparing another planet for colonization returns home to Earth to find the planet utterly deserted of life. Their only clues as to what happened are newspapers and magazines saying Jesus came back, and took everybody with them. The execution was strong, but not as fulfilling as I would have liked.
Mary Riket's story Bread and Bombs was a profound look at what happens to those who escape the end of a particular place in the world and how they incorporate themselves into life elsewhere. I'm not sure it's fair to call this one science fiction: it's just a damn good story that the collection could hang it's hat on.
Nancy Kress can tell a helluva story. Inertia is about a colony of people who have survived a global epidemic that horribly disfigures them. It's intimate and personal with a contrast of youth and old age; naivety and innocence against pessimism and experience; and what it means to being alive while living outside of the world's notice, and what one can do with their life even under the heaviest of restrictions.
The End of the World as We Know It by Dale Baily was--against all odds--the strongest in the collection. Take every cliche about the last man alive, the fall of mankind and how a person could carry on in such a circumstance and you'll end up with these thirteen pages. Except the story is phenomenal and anything but cliched. This is the story you can't put down and upon finishing makes you say "Wow" out loud.
There were other strong inclusions by Elizabeth Bear, David Grigg, George RR Martin, Gene Wolfe, and Jonathan Lethem's 'hunger games-ish' farce. There were also a handful of story that didn't do it for me. Those stories reflect more upon than author's style not really meshing with my preferences than the quality of what they wrote.
If nothing else, reading Wastelands reinforced the longstanding hunch that I need to check out Nancy Kress and Stephen King; that alone made the book worth it to me. I don't really like science fiction and a story about the apocalypse will probably make me roll my eyes upon first mention. This collection is light on both: check it out.
This science fiction collection deals with "the nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse." (That is the only salvageable blurb from the back of the book.) Most all the stories deal with story, and character more so than science and that is exactly how I liked my science fiction; so if you're in it for the super hardcore stuff you may want to look elsewhere.
There were very few inclusions that actually dealt with bringing about the end of the world. The first in the collection: The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King was one of them and one of the collection's finest. The narrator's super-genius brother is fed up with mankind's pettiness and negativity. Thinking he has found a way correct man's aggression and general bad attitude he enacts a briliant plan with the best of intentions and the worst of results.
Judgement Passed by Jerry Oltion was perhaps my favorite in terms of concept. A group a colonist preparing another planet for colonization returns home to Earth to find the planet utterly deserted of life. Their only clues as to what happened are newspapers and magazines saying Jesus came back, and took everybody with them. The execution was strong, but not as fulfilling as I would have liked.
Mary Riket's story Bread and Bombs was a profound look at what happens to those who escape the end of a particular place in the world and how they incorporate themselves into life elsewhere. I'm not sure it's fair to call this one science fiction: it's just a damn good story that the collection could hang it's hat on.
Nancy Kress can tell a helluva story. Inertia is about a colony of people who have survived a global epidemic that horribly disfigures them. It's intimate and personal with a contrast of youth and old age; naivety and innocence against pessimism and experience; and what it means to being alive while living outside of the world's notice, and what one can do with their life even under the heaviest of restrictions.
The End of the World as We Know It by Dale Baily was--against all odds--the strongest in the collection. Take every cliche about the last man alive, the fall of mankind and how a person could carry on in such a circumstance and you'll end up with these thirteen pages. Except the story is phenomenal and anything but cliched. This is the story you can't put down and upon finishing makes you say "Wow" out loud.
There were other strong inclusions by Elizabeth Bear, David Grigg, George RR Martin, Gene Wolfe, and Jonathan Lethem's 'hunger games-ish' farce. There were also a handful of story that didn't do it for me. Those stories reflect more upon than author's style not really meshing with my preferences than the quality of what they wrote.
If nothing else, reading Wastelands reinforced the longstanding hunch that I need to check out Nancy Kress and Stephen King; that alone made the book worth it to me. I don't really like science fiction and a story about the apocalypse will probably make me roll my eyes upon first mention. This collection is light on both: check it out.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Can we still write like this?
"One summer morning of bland air, the huge, corroding, bell-like heart of Gormenghast was half asleep and there appeared to be no reverberation from its muffled thudding. In a hall of plaster walls the silence yawned."
Seven adjectives in one sentence modifiying five nouns. I'm sure MFA creative writing teachers hate that first sentence. Or is the style simply frowned in today's contemporary fiction?
I know how I would argue. "The silence yawned" is set up by what precedes it.
I win. Awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
