(no subject)
I did the seasonal fiction shelving today -- thank God for the extra-tall bookcase from Ikea, even if it is in gunmetal gray; it will give me probably another year before I run out of space again. Interesting-to-me facts: I now have about the same number of Stephen King hardcovers, bought as soon as they came out, as I do cheaper paperbacks (counting is made tricky by the Wizard and Glass-type things, and I have The Green Mile as the 6 separate books it was originally published as). I still have slightly more Frederik Pohl than Terry Pratchett. In the Interesting Sequences category, I have Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Jungle, and Book of the Dead 2: Still Dead (ok, I cheated a bit: Book of the Dead is in between, but still).
Fiction stragglers: Song of the Beast, by Carol Berg. This book is similar to, though less slashy than, Berg's trilogy Transformation, Revelation, Restoration. Grand kingdoms built on human suffering, moral reevaluations, and high aspirations figure heavily in the plot, which is wrapped up in one book; this does not appear to be part one of another trilogy, or it needn't be. Instead of the slashy king/slave relationship central to Berg's earlier trilogy, there's a more conventional romance with a deeply angry woman and a deeply damaged man. Think Aeryn Sun as a dragonrider and John Crichton if he met Aeryn after being tortured into psychic breakdown. I liked the plot and didn't object to the writing, but the romance seemed formulaic to me, as you can probably tell from my description. If you liked the trilogy, as I did, you'll probably be fine with this. If you haven't read Berg, I'd actually suggest starting with Transformation; I liked it better and the trilogy is currently complete.
Horrible Beginnings, ed. Steven H. Silver & Martin H. Greenberg. Are now-successful authors' first published stories any good? In the main, the answer suggested by this anthology is no. Yvonne Navarro's "Surprise Fall" is short and sharp, Elizabeth Hand's "Prince of Flowers" is creepy and follows horror logic to its endpoint, and Kathe Koja's "Distances" is a sad, effective story about space exploration via altered humans, and what happens to the ones who are obsolete equipment. Kim Newman's "Dreamers" is not great, while Poppy Z. Brite's story of a rock singer with a very special talent is not annoying, an unusual reaction for me to have to Brite. Others included: Matt Costello, Neil Gaiman (fairyland noir, too obvious); Gary A. Braunbeck, Rick Hautala, P.N. Elrod, Robert Bloch, Henry Kuttner, Ramsey Campbell, Tanith Lee (a drabble), Edward Bryand, F. Paul Wilson, and Thomas F. Monteleone. For completists and horror short-story addicts.
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett. This book seems to be targeted towards children, not adults, but it's otherwise typical Pratchett, though much less layered than a Night Watch book. The 9-year-old protagonist, who has to save her homeland from an incursion by fairies -- as readers of Lords and Ladies will recall, elves are nasty folk in Discworld -- is more mature than most grandmothers, but it's a generally decent tale.
I still have about 15 nonfiction books to review, then shelve. I'll try to do them in lots of 5 or so unless people object to having their friends pages cluttered with such things.
Fiction stragglers: Song of the Beast, by Carol Berg. This book is similar to, though less slashy than, Berg's trilogy Transformation, Revelation, Restoration. Grand kingdoms built on human suffering, moral reevaluations, and high aspirations figure heavily in the plot, which is wrapped up in one book; this does not appear to be part one of another trilogy, or it needn't be. Instead of the slashy king/slave relationship central to Berg's earlier trilogy, there's a more conventional romance with a deeply angry woman and a deeply damaged man. Think Aeryn Sun as a dragonrider and John Crichton if he met Aeryn after being tortured into psychic breakdown. I liked the plot and didn't object to the writing, but the romance seemed formulaic to me, as you can probably tell from my description. If you liked the trilogy, as I did, you'll probably be fine with this. If you haven't read Berg, I'd actually suggest starting with Transformation; I liked it better and the trilogy is currently complete.
Horrible Beginnings, ed. Steven H. Silver & Martin H. Greenberg. Are now-successful authors' first published stories any good? In the main, the answer suggested by this anthology is no. Yvonne Navarro's "Surprise Fall" is short and sharp, Elizabeth Hand's "Prince of Flowers" is creepy and follows horror logic to its endpoint, and Kathe Koja's "Distances" is a sad, effective story about space exploration via altered humans, and what happens to the ones who are obsolete equipment. Kim Newman's "Dreamers" is not great, while Poppy Z. Brite's story of a rock singer with a very special talent is not annoying, an unusual reaction for me to have to Brite. Others included: Matt Costello, Neil Gaiman (fairyland noir, too obvious); Gary A. Braunbeck, Rick Hautala, P.N. Elrod, Robert Bloch, Henry Kuttner, Ramsey Campbell, Tanith Lee (a drabble), Edward Bryand, F. Paul Wilson, and Thomas F. Monteleone. For completists and horror short-story addicts.
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett. This book seems to be targeted towards children, not adults, but it's otherwise typical Pratchett, though much less layered than a Night Watch book. The 9-year-old protagonist, who has to save her homeland from an incursion by fairies -- as readers of Lords and Ladies will recall, elves are nasty folk in Discworld -- is more mature than most grandmothers, but it's a generally decent tale.
I still have about 15 nonfiction books to review, then shelve. I'll try to do them in lots of 5 or so unless people object to having their friends pages cluttered with such things.