Book-A-Day #119 (11/12): A Big 2007 Fantasy Book

It's big, it's fantasy, it will be published next year, and it will definitely be a book. And that's all I can tell you. But I spent much of today reading it (hiding upstairs in Thing 1's room, since he has a couch with a good light, and it was away from the hubbub in the rest of the house -- Mrs. Hornswoggler was the Cub Scout Popcorn Lady this year, so we've had $7,000 worth of boxes of various kinds of popcorn filling up our dining room all weekend, and other Cub Scout moms in and out picking up their portions).

Book-A-Day #118 (11/11): Amphigorey Again by Edward Gorey

The fourth and probably last large round-up of Gorey's work is inevitably a hodge-podge. There's nothing bad in it; it's just a bit minor. (Though I gather that he didn't do many stand-alone books in his last twenty years or so -- Amphigorey came out in '72 and collected books from the '50s and '60s, Amphigorey Too was a '75 book collecting more stuff up to that date, and Amphigorey Also was back in '83.) There's no detailed copyright page (what is publishing coming to these days? I demand detailed permissions!), so I can't say when this stuff was originally published, but it does look like late Gorey to me. The very last piece in the book, The Izzard Book, appears to be unfinished.

Anyway, this has a lot of single-page pieces, and shorter stuff in general. It's minor Gorey, but that's still pretty good. The most famous thing here is probably The Haunted Tea-Cozy.

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Incoming Books: Week of November 11

This batch covers books that I brought home from World Fantasy and didn't bring straight into the office (there's about five of those, as I recall) -- it doesn't mean they'll never have anything to do with work, but it doesn't look like work right at the moment. There's also some things I found at work and brought home to read personally; my company has numerous discard shelves filled with the oddest books imaginable.

It's a total of eleven books this week, of which I've now read two (one before it was published and one just today) -- again, not a good plan for the health of my bookshelves.

I've got some art this time (Amphigorey Again and John Picacio's Cover Story), the new translation of The Three Musketeers, the two Owly books (discarded by someone at my office, and probably destined for the bookshelves of one of the Things), some odd bits, and the usual SFF stuff (Majestrum, Zima Blue and Other Stories, Mad Professor).

So the count for the week is: read seven, brought in eleven. Plus four. N.V.G. (If I go all Bridget Jones-y about it.)

Book-A-Day #117 (11/10): The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Today we're here to talk about Boomer Exceptionalism, the sense that everything Baby Boomers did was the best and most exemplary of its kind that ever existed in the universe. Sure, every generation or group thinks that it's particularly wonderful, but Boomers were spoon-fed their own specialness from birth -- and, even worse, far too many of them seem to have wholeheartedly believed in it.

Bill Bryson is an engaging writer, mostly of travel memoirs (like A Walk in the Woods or Notes from a Small Island). He's also dabbled in language books (Mother Tongue), and recently seems to be trying to transition to a kind of narrative non-fiction that fits his writing style but that does not require extensive travel (A Short History of Nearly Everything and now this book). I've read every one of his previous books with real enjoyment and appreciation, and I'm not alone -- his books are generally bestsellers.

Sadly, Bryson is a Boomer -- born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1951, and Thunderbolt Kid is his memoir of childhood. (Every semi-famous person has to do it at some point; it's a rule.) And his childhood was so spectacularly golly-wow peachy keen that he spends the book wrapping us all up in the warm fuzzy blanket of his maudlin memories. Let me quote: "I can't imagine there has ever been a more gratifying time or place to be alive than America in the 1950s." (p.5) "No human beings had ever been quite this happy before." (p.6) "But then most things in Des Moines in the 1950s were the best of their type." (p.20) I could quote more -- much more. Even granting him some points for sarcasm or humorous overstatement, he still goes on and on and on and on about how absolutely perfect everything was when he was a kid, without ever quite realizing (or saying so) that it was the childhood that made everything wonderful, not vice versa.

So Thunderbolt Kid is a book about growing up relatively rich and ungodly happy in the middle of the American Century. It's not without its charms -- Bryson had an amusingly odd family, and some quirky friends, so when his stories are actually about specifics the book gets quite sprightly -- but the overwhelming tone is "Gee! Isn't it swell to be a great kid, here in the best of all possible worlds?" And I felt like smacking the little Pangloss upside his cute widdle head. A little of that goes a long way, but Bryson insists on nudging the reader's ribs every couple of pages with tales and statistics about how wonderful the '50s were.

I can only recommend this book to Bryson fanatics, the terminally sunny-dispositioned or actual real live Baby Boomers, who will presumably lap this stuff up. I'm still not quite sure if Bryson is more guilty of self-indulgence or pandering; it's a close-run thing. And I'll hope fervently that his next book is more about the outside world and less about the beauty and splendor of his own navel. He can do much better than this.

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Quote of the Week

"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough."
- Niels Bohr

Word.

Meme.
Stolen.

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

Not as easy as you might think...

1. Yourself: Yes.

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: Wife.

3. Your hair? Spiky.

4. Your mother? Saturday.

5. Your father? Florida.

6. Your favourite item: Things.

7. Your dream last night: Bed-crawling.

8. Your favourite drink: Beer.

9. Your dream car: Jag.

10. The room you are in: Basement.

11. Your ex: None.

12. Your fear: Fear.

13. What you want to be in 10 years: Myself.

14. Who you hung out with last night? Self.

15. What you're not? Thin.

16. Muffins: Eh.

17: One of your wish list items: Shelves.

18: Time: Late.

19. The last thing you did: Exercise.

20. What you are wearing: Shorts.

21. Your favourite weather: Chilly.

22. Your favourite book: Declare.

23. The last thing you ate: Cereal.

24. Your life: Yes.

25. Your mood: Bemused.

Book-A-Day #116 (11/9): Brevity by "Guy and Rodd"

The first collection of the comic strip Brevity, by two guys who want to keep their last names secret.

For the most part, these are vaguely edgy and surreal single-panel cartoons, a third-generation descendant of The Far Side. (Which, considering most current strips are at least sixth-generation clones of Bringing Up Father, is not as much of a back-handed compliment as it sounds.)

I thought most of the cartoons were funny, laughed out loud at a few, and found a handful incomprehensible (where I literally couldn't figure out what the joke was supposed to be). That's not a bad ratio, and having the cartoons that don't seem to even make sense shows that "Guy and Rodd" are willing to try odd ideas, even when they don't work. I appreciate that in cartoonists.

The art is merely serviceable -- neither Dilbert-level minimalism nor Prince Valiant-level impressive; it gets the job done, but that's about it. The drawing could use a bit more expression to help the jokes work better, but this strip is still young, so that might yet happen.

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Book-A-Day #115 (11/8): Path of the Assassin, Vol. 2: Sand and Flower by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima

I have to admit the politics in this series are sometimes flying over my head (there's a whole bunch of people scheming, and we haven't seen most of them on panel -- or maybe it's just that I can't tell who these guys are when they do appear on panel -- so we get long dialogue balloons that go something like Maxwell Smart's "I've got the edge" speech).

The pictures are very nice, and the portrait of two men -- one young nobleman essentially under house arrest, who just wants to take it easy but is gradually learning he has a great capacity for intrigue, and his ninja keeper/bodyguard/best friend -- is great. And Koike takes advantage of all of the intricacies of the old bushido honor code (as far as I can tell; he clearly knows this stuff much better than I do) to tell interestingly gnarly stories.

I just hope I get better at figuring out who everybody is, and what all of the intrigue means, as the series goes on.

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Convention Schedule 2007

Another one of those "everyone else is doing it" moments. I am such a lemming.

Philcon (Philadelphia, PA)
November 17-19, 2006
This isn't technically 2007, but it hasn't happened yet.

Boskone (Boston, MA)
February 16-18
My first Boskone -- I used to go to Arisia (the other Boston convention), but I stopped for various reasons. (Arisia was a nice convention with great people, but it's not all that literary -- and it's also Boston in mid-January. Maybe mid-February will be slightly better.)

Lunacon (Rye Town, NY)
March 16-18
My hometown con; I've been going to Lunacon for a good ten years now. And it's back in the good hotel (the immortal Escher Hilton) for #50, so I hope things will finally work out for them this year.

Nebula Awards Weekend (New York City)
May 11-13
No one knows what will be nominated at this point, but, hey!, it's just downtown, so I'm sure I'll be there.

Readercon (Burlington, MA)
July 6-8
Another first-time con; I'd throttled back a lot when my boys were very little, and I'm adding more conventions back in now. I only hear good things about this.

NASFiC/Archon (St. Louis, MO)
August 2-5
This one is a bit tentative; the news so far isn't great. But it's extremely unlikely I could go to Yokohama (like so many other people), so this is the best substitute.

World Fantasy (Saratoga Springs, NY)
November 1-4
I'm already looking forward to it, and not just because I can drive to it. It should be full of pros, being so close to NYC, and WFC is when I can catch up with other editors.

Philcon (Philadelphia, PA)
sometime in November
I expect to go, since I've been going to Philcon almost as long as I've been going to Lunacon. But I'll have to see if the right-after-WFC timing knocks me out this year, or if the con ends up moving to Valley Forge or someplace like that.

My Philcon Schedule

Since everyone else posts their con schedules, I figured I'd do so as well. (There might be one or two people who want to see me blather on, though I expect most folks would rather listen to authors talk.)

I'm driving in on the Friday, and expect to arrive sometime in the afternoon -- I'm taking the opportunity of driving to detour and hit some used-book stores along the way (possibly including the fabled Baldwin's Book Barn, if it's still open). And then Philcon has me being quite busy:

• Sat 1:00 PM in Salon 1 (1 hour)
  DO EDITORS SHAPE POPULAR TASTE OR MERELY REFLECT IT? (87)
  Or do they just buy stories?
• Sat 2:00 PM in Ballroom A (1 hour)
  HOW DID THAT PIECE OF CRAP GET TO BE A CLASSIC?. (101)
  Books that have been read by millions and survived the test of time and you still can't stand them. This conclusion leads to a charge of arrogance or lack of appreciation. Is there a third alternative? Cite examples. Go ahead, be daring.
• Sat 5:00 PM in Salon 9 (1 hour)
  WHAT YOU SHOULD BE READING: THE NEW GOOD STUFF (165)
  What is new and good in the genre?
• Sat 6:00 PM in Parlor B (1 hour)
  THE FICTION OF CHARLES STROSS (120)
  Talking about the work of our Principal Speaker.
• Sun 11:00 AM in Logans 2 (1 hour)
  THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENCE FICTION (144)
  How do we go about recruiting new readers?
• Sun 1:00 PM in Salon 2 (1 hour)
  THE BOOKS YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO READ (163)
  Even today some science fiction, fantasy and horror books are still being banned. The latest and greatest books being banned, censored or burned.

Book-A-Day #114 (11/7): Art in the Blood by P.N. Elrod

This is the fourth book in the "Vampire Files" series; I read it in the omnibus The Vampire Files, Vol. 2.

Jack Fleming is a vampire in '30s Chicago; I usually describe him as being a "vampire PI," but he isn't, exactly -- he turns into a medium-level mobster as the series goes on, and he's something like an amateur sleuth, but he's not officially a PI (though he does work, off an on, for an investigator who is not public).

This is the one about artists, and I just sped through it yesterday. I read it for a reason that will probably be obvious, but I'm not going to say anything at this point. These books aren't great literature -- they don't try to be, bless their hearts -- but they're pleasant, zippy reads and my fantasy- and mystery-reading brains both like them.

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Post-World Fantasy Judge-y Thoughts

I tried to say most of this at the Judges' Panel on Sunday -- and I wouldn't be surprised if a transcript or account of that turns up on the web at some time (I think someone was taping us) -- but here's my version, out in public. It will probably be very disjointed.

Being a World Fantasy Judge was the most exhausting wonderful thing that ever happened to me. (Both of my sons were born by Caesarian section, so those were the most nerve-wracking wonderful things.) I met four great people who I now consider my friends, and I hope we'll stay in touch for years to come. (After all of the horror stories from previous years, I was a little surprised.)

We did each have our own opinions -- and some of us (including me) got quite opinionated, but we never got personal. Getting to discuss fantasy in depth with the other judges over months and months was great -- I even got to look forward to seeing a cascade of "[WFA Judges]" in my e-mail, since that meant I'd be able to ignore work and just talk about books for a while.

I honestly didn't think our selections were all that controversial when we made them, though that realization snuck up on me sometime before I got to the con. There was no horse-trading, and I think all of us were happy with all of the winners. (It wasn't quite a pure "consensus" -- we used a points system for voting -- but most of the categories had very obvious winners, and all of us were happy with them.)

I've seen a bunch of rumors (though there's probably many more I haven't seen), and, so far, not only are none of them true, several of them are the opposite of what really happened. No specifics, sorry -- but whatever you think happened is probably very wrong.

Honestly. We did get along very well. I was amazed; I was sure I was going to piss someone off when I was first asked to do it. But we had a great group; I wish that every future World Fantasy jury has it as easy as we did.

So if there's anyone out there who has been asked -- go for it. It can be an amazing experience. And I'll be ready to judge something else myself...in 2008, I think.

Haruki Murakami

This was originally posted to rec.arts.sf.written 4/10/01, and I'll repost it here, unaltered. It was in response to someone (name now forgotten) who'd asked what Murakami's writing was like. I think you folks can figure out why I'm resurrecting it now...

I'm quite fond of his books (there's a new one coming out at the end of the month! yay!), but my sense is that I'm liking them with the half of my brain that likes Don DeLillo and Kazuo Ishiguro rather than the half that likes George R.R. Martin and Iain M. Banks.

That probably wasn't helpful...

A Wild Sheep Chase is generally considered to be his best book (and those who don't agree mostly like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle). Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World is, as I recall, an interesting but very odd novel, something like Kafka filtered through Mishima. I read it when it was published, about ten years ago (reading Wild Sheep Chase, his first novel to be translated into English, made me a huge fan), but haven't re-read it since, so my recollection of it is fuzzy.

Murakami writes in a quite readable style, but he tends to focus on little details and thoughts in a way that may seem slow or boring to someone who is reading looking for something else. I recall reading an interview with Murakami in which he said that he deliberately followed Raymond Chandler's style. It isn't a clear line by any means (Chandler to his Japanese translator to Murakami through his English translator), but there are glimpses of a Chandleresque tone. He doesn't do the quirky metaphors that Chandler's best known for,
though.

In general, I'd say it's well worth reading, and you might possibly have found a new author to love. I hope you'll report back once you've read it.

Book-A-Day #113 (11/6): Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

I think I've been talking too much about not-yet-published books here -- usually after starting off with "I shouldn't say anything about this book" and then running on at the mouth for a thousand words or so.

I really will be brief this time: Un Lun Dun is Mieville's next book (publishing March 2007 in the US); it's a YA novel, of all things; and it starts a bit slowly but is very enjoyable once it gets going. I really wonder what the reviews are going to be like with this one -- on the one hand, it's very much a Mieville novel, but having been written for the younger audience it's also in many ways not a typical Mieville novel. (Far fewer bodily fluids, for one thing.)

And, y'know, I read it. Mostly on the planes to and from World Fantasy.

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Book-A-Day #112 (11/5): Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner

The third of the books included in The Contract With God Trilogy is a century-spanning look at Dropsie Avenue (site of the events of the first two books). The story starts in 1870 and runs through what seems to be the present day (1995, when it was published) -- and it's mostly a tale of misery, woe, human nastiness, and unreasoning prejudice.

I didn't think it was quite as successful as the first two books -- it covers a very long time-period, with lots of characters, and the stereotyping is even more obvious here than in the first two books -- but I have to admit I read it very late at night, in spurts in between packing things. So it may not have gotten as much of my attention as it deserved.

It's something like a non-fantastic, North-American, comics version of One Hundred Years of Solitude, if you can imagine that. Except less focused on one family. And with a lot more dialect.

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