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On 6/9/2018 at 7:54 AM, JLSigman said:

Next up is Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. If I can read the tiny type of this mass market paperback copy. What was I thinking when I bought this?????

Finished that re-read. Love this series! Put in requests for the next two books at the library.

While waiting for that, I'm re-reading for the 100th time since I was a kid "Spock's World" by Diane Duane. One of two classic Star Trek books I own, the other being "The Romulan Way" also by Diane Duane. 

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On 6/20/2018 at 5:54 AM, JLSigman said:

Finished that re-read. Love this series! Put in requests for the next two books at the library.

While waiting for that, I'm re-reading for the 100th time since I was a kid "Spock's World" by Diane Duane. One of two classic Star Trek books I own, the other being "The Romulan Way" also by Diane Duane. 

Okay, two things, because I respect your opinions a great deal... Firstly, I think that we can easily agree that Diane Duane's Star Trek books are light-years better than most.  In a way it's a shame that she got sucked into the black hole of adaptations, as if you've read her brilliant Door into Fire and the sequels, she was well on the way to being one of the most important fantasy writers in the US, if not the world and certainly one of the first to utilize openly gay characters in a positive manner. Do check out the aforementioned if you can find it.

Secondly, Brandon Sanderson... I don't get it, just as I don't get Shawn Michaels' human pinball routine, I just don't get the love for Sanderson's stuff. Yes, he's the most organized writer working today. Everything he does is commercially competent, but sweet tap-dancing Jesus, where are the surprises? Where are the growth and development of characters? Everything he writes is (to me) completely bland and predictable. Stylistically he's good to very good, but there nothing there that would place him with gents like Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith, Michael Shea, or Michael Moorcock. Maybe it's because I do write and edit for a living that I'm more conscious of when a writer is pushing the reader's buttons. I see that telegraphed a lot in Sanderson, and to me it's a major flaw that takes me out of the story and has me looking at technique. 

Am I missing something?

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7 hours ago, OSJ said:

Secondly, Brandon Sanderson... I don't get it, just as I don't get Shawn Michaels' human pinball routine, I just don't get the love for Sanderson's stuff. Yes, he's the most organized writer working today. Everything he does is commercially competent, but sweet tap-dancing Jesus, where are the surprises? Where are the growth and development of characters? Everything he writes is (to me) completely bland and predictable. Stylistically he's good to very good, but there nothing there that would place him with gents like Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith, Michael Shea, or Michael Moorcock. Maybe it's because I do write and edit for a living that I'm more conscious of when a writer is pushing the reader's buttons. I see that telegraphed a lot in Sanderson, and to me it's a major flaw that takes me out of the story and has me looking at technique. 

I'll start by saying I have only read the Mistborn trilogy, and I had originally only picked up the first one because there was a girl on the cover. For me, Allomancy is one of the most unique and completely thought out systems of magic I have come across in years. The pairs of Pushed and Pulled metals make sense in a logical way you don't often see with magic. Vin (the girl on the cover and one of two main characters) grows naturally from street rat to hero. Kelsier (the other main character) is much more complex than you think at first, and while the rest of the crew can be a tad flat, they still have personalities and act and react naturally. 

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I am certainly glad we're having this conversation. I didn't mention that one of the things I do find admirable in Sanderson is his logic and organization and that includes worldbuilding. Now as to why I'm really glad to have this conversation... You mention Allomancy as one of the best thought-out systems of magic, okay, I'll buy that; but I was going to recommend Lyndon Hardy's Master of the Five Magics and its sequels, which came out in the late 1980s as paperback originals. Sure they can be found on abebooks.com dirt cheap. Anyway, I checked the Internet Speculative Fiction Database just to make sure that I had the title correct and spelled Hardy's first name properly, etc. as I didn't want to send you on a wild goose chase and guess what I discovered? 

Are you ready for this? Last year, an author who hasn't been active since writing a trilogy in 1988-1990 has written a new book in the series, apparently with a female lead, who is the daughter of his original protaganist. I am totally jazzed about this. I absolutely loved Hardy's work back in the day and the idea of a new book in his world of magic is just totally cool. 

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I'm about 2/3 of the way through a biography of John Quincy Adams in "The American Presidents" series. It's an interesting read. My main takeaways from it are that JQA was a good diplomat, an honorable man, a mediocre president (due to his being such an honorable man), and a really shitty parent.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just finished Seward: Lincoln indepensible man, by Walter Stahr.  Very thorough, but accesible at the same time.  I would call it pretty readble, without being simplistic. The authour claims that Seward was the best statesman in the 19th century, save presidents.  I'd tend to agree, though I have to read more on Henry Clay to be sure. ***** Now to start the brick that is Grant by Ron Chernow. . . .

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Read the first 30 pages or so of Borne by Jeff VanderMeer and starting your book with a gigantic, flying, malevolent bear is a really good way to keep me reading.

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On 7/8/2018 at 12:26 PM, RIShane said:

Judith Allen: The Feminism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Sexualities, Histories, Progressivism

A fascinating woman who should be known for much more than one story about horrid wallpaper. ?

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I almost put is in the Epic Fantasy thread, but it is what I'm reading currently... We've talked about Steven Erikson's Malazan series quite a bit, but I don't recall any discussion of his stories of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. You can't really call it sword & sorcery as any swordplay is really secondary. Sorcery & sorcery? I guess that's more accurate. It's not as dark as Bleak Warrior (but what is?), however, the two titular characters are blithely amoral or perhaps moral to a peculiar necromantic code that the reader isn't privy to, yet for some reason they are completely engaging, even when getting up to some seriously nasty shit. Fun stuff!

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On 7/11/2018 at 9:16 AM, OSJ said:

A fascinating woman who should be known for much more than one story about horrid wallpaper. ?

Very true! Even if it was particularly bad wallpaper. ;)

 

Vic Gatrell: The First Bohemians: Life and Art in London's Golden Age

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Well, as part of having the coolest job in the world I'm reading through the proofs of the updated edition of Bob Leman's Feesters in the Lake, which will be released by Centipede Press in the not too distant future (after I write an afterword to the thing). Book has a previously unpublished Leman story, so the count now stands at 16 stories and reaffirms my opinion that on a story per story basis, in sf/fantasy/horror, Bob was the best of us all. There's plenty of other goodies, like the existing part of his unfinished novel, fanzine writings from before he turned pro late in life. (He was already in his 50s and disgusted with a current SF mag, told a friend "I can do better than that!" and proceeded to show the world that indeed he could. )

The first edition (which I published in 2002) sold out and now goes for big bucks, this improved edition won't be cheap, but it will be worth it, start saving your pennies now!)  ? 

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Since I am all caught up on Brandon Sanderson, I grabbed something from the "Got this book free somewhere I guess" pile.... V by A. C. Crispin. Yes, a novelization of the first 10 hour miniseries from the 80's. Never saw it, but there's been a ban on scientists that is suddenly a bit prescient. 

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Finished Grant, by Chernow. Easy 5*'s, and its a thorough history of his life and times.  Explodes old myths, like Grant being  a butcher, and exlores his history of alcoholism(basically he was a bing drinker that could manage to abstain between them, but once he started drinking, he couldn't stop). Grant was a personally honest man, that couldn't didn't have a bit of guile in him and was burned a lot because of it. I think the book is pretty  readable despite being almost 1000 readable pages(not counting notes and the like). Well worth picking up if you have the chance.

Then I took a break from history reading and polished off Are you there vodka its me Chelsea( I picked it up from a yard sale for 50 cents and that's about how much a chelsea handler book is worth. She can write, but its nothing beyond somewhat amusing) and Postcards from the edge by carrie fisher.Postcards is a pretty good read that entertains while showing jsut how fucked up addicts can be. Easy reccomendation.

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Book-High Cotton by Joe Lansdale

Comics-Doing my every few years re-reading of Preacher. Up to issue 28 or 29 right now. Wasn't going to read it this year. But my teenage son is visiting and wanted to read it since he has been watching the AMC show. So each night before bed he will read one of my trades and I am reading digital copies on my tablet.

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Well, I'm not actually reading it yet, as I must my afterword for the expanded and way cool edition of Bob Leman's  Feesters in the Lake, which actually shouldn't take long as I'm very familiar with the material and just read the previously unpublished story that Bob's daughter found in his papers. It's quite the little mystery as to why it wasn't sent to me for publication with the rest of his stories. Bob was 80 when the book was published, so he was 79 when we started working on it. He was emphatic about two things, (1.) That the collection included all of fiction  (he even wanted the first three chapters of his unfinished novel to be included, but I talked him out of that.) But for inclusiveness  I even went to the trouble of calling Harlan Ellison to see what it would cost me to get Bob's story that he'd written for The Last Dangerous Visions, from talking to Bob I'd learned that Harlan had paid him for the story on three different occasions (the initial acceptance and then two extensions on the contract.) 

I've mentioned Harlan's many acts of kindness in the eulogy I wrote on his passing, and mentioned this incident; but here's a little more detail on the incident. I called and after the usual "How's it going bs" that you do when talking to a friend you haven't seen in a year or so, I broached the subject that I knew was a real sore point with Harlan (for those who don't know the story it goes like this: Harlan Ellison edited two anthologies Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions. Both books received well-deserved acclaim as being showcases for the state of the art in speculative fiction at the time they were published. There was to be a third book (The Last Dangerous Visions) that ultimately became one of the most famous titles that Harlan's name was connected to, even though it was never published. To make a real long story short (and if you want to read about the whole sorry business, there's a chapbook entitled The Last Deadloss Visions floating around. Basically, the book got away from Harlan. hell, as anthologist myself I can see how that happens (every anthology I've ever done has required me throwing money out-of-pocket because I went over budget, fortunately it's usually the case of being over by 6,000-10,000 words, so the most I'm going be out  is five-hundred bucks, which I know royalties will make up for.) Anyway, in Harlan's case, although he announced in 1974 that he had enough material for three volume the size of the first book (which was huge), for reasons known only to himself, he kept accepting stories well into the 1980s. Now here's where it gets really weird and also shows Harlan's kindness as a person, he accepted (actually solicited) Bob's story "How Dobbstown was Saved" in 1981! How many other stories did he buy after the book was supposedly closed to submissions in 1974? The mind boggle, as what he now had was a three-book anthology set that no publisher would buy, it was just too damn big. And here's the weirdness/kindness involved in this project, I finally worked up the courage to offer to buy Bob's story for whatever amount of money he had into it. What I got as a response amazed me,

"John, I don't want any of your fucking money. it's no good here. Bob's an old man and deserves to see all of his fiction published, I'm sure I have your address somewhere, but give it to me again just in case.  The story will go out to you tomorrow."

I sort of stammered "What about the money you've got tied up in this?" 

"The money's not important, seeing the story published properly is. I have all the books you've published and you've demonstrated taste and integrity so anytime you are doing a book and need something from this anthology, just give me a call and chances are good we can work something out, I do want something for this story, however." 

Long pause, then I asked, "Well, what would that be?"

"I want a copy of the fucking book, what else would you think I wanted? I already told you that your money's no good  here!"

So I related this story to Bob just to demonstrate that I would jump through hoops to include everything and make the best book that we could. Bob was emphatic that he would never finish the novel and that he would never write short fiction again, to quote "I wrote my last story fifteen years ago. and I've said everything that  I had to say." So this story sat in his papers since sometime before 1988. From knowing Bob, he wasn't in a habit of saving failed stories and basically he had five markets that he would work with: The Magazine of Fantasy & SF and anthologies edited by Clarles L. Grant, Ellen Datlow, and Harlan Ellison and little ol' me for his collection. So why didn't he send me this unpublished story? He wrote by invitation only for anthologies and his one on spec market was F & SF and they never rejected anything, (or if they did, no one else would know, because if they did bounce one of his stories, he'd throw it away.

Anyway, that's the mystery bugging the shot out of me as I go through the proofs of the new, expanded edition of Feesters in the Lake for those of you that buy the book when it comes out, this particular tale is entitled "A Clock for a Demon", and it''s great! I've said before that based on just 15 stories, Bob has to considered on a story per story basis the best of us all. Now I have 16 stories to consider and my opinion hasn't changed a bit.

So after all that, what is that I plan on starting later tonight? Well, the nice mailman just knocked on the door, (his signal for "You have a package!" which is excellent service, as believe it or not people in New Mexico actually steal things!" I know, hard to believe but it's true, it's damn true.. Anyway, what he brought was the previously unpublished novel by William Gay, The Lost Country. William Gay for those of you who don't know his work needs to be ranked up there with Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner and Harry Crews as a master of the Southern Gothic. Sadly, Gay didn't start writing until he was fifty and died of a heart attack at age seventy, so we only had him with producing great fiction for twenty years, but everyone of his books has been a treasure, so I'm really looking forward to this. If you rant to read more of my ranting about how good William Gay is, check out the Southern Gothic thread elsewhere in this section. Oh, and for the people how want to disqualify Harry Crews because their only experience with Florida is Miami and Orlando, and want to kick McCarthy off the list because Texas and New Mexcio (where most of his tales take place) isn't properly speaking "the South"; I've only got this to say:  The Florida panhandle where Crews lived and worked (he caught creative writing at U. Florida, Ganisville) is as "Southern" as any place you'll find in Alabama or Mississippi. As for McCarthy, when the greatest writer in the English-speaking world says that Texas and New Mexico are in "the South", I'm certainly not going to argue with him. As further back-up, I direct your attention to the TV series Breaking Bad, which is about as good a portrayal of New Mexico as you're ever likely to see. Yeah, we're Southern down here, we just don't talk funny. 

Now off to get some reading done!

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Just bought myself the Library of America edition of Philip K. Dick's novels as something of an early birthday present. Maybe I'll have read part of a book out of it by the time I'm 40, given the rate I accrete books versus read them is roughly akin to the U.S. talking about renewable energy versus converting to it.

For @OSJ and anyone else following/might give a shit, who else went a long way down the rabbit hole of writing stories about brain-hacking, mind manipulation, and memory implanting? Gibson I'm already familiar with. I've been tugging more and more on a thread that's been bouncing around in my head for the last 10 years, and finally feel like I have a proper handle on how to approach writing the book, but there's always a little part of me that worries (almost certainly too much) about seeming like I lifted someone else's idea.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I guess no one reads books! OK!

Finished Beloved yesterday. Holy fucking shit. I could say other things like, "best book written in my lifetime" or "most Faulknerian book not written by Faulkner" but let's just face it, "holy fucking shit" sums it up best. Onto a re-read of Lord of the Flies, part 17 in my Journey into Mystery. The "mystery" here being why I was too much of a dumb prick to like them when I read them as a teenager.

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In a fit of nostalgia, I've been re-reading a lot of Andrew M. Greeley and Spider Robinson as of late, especially since I found out a local used bookstore had a crapload of Greeley. The Robinson stuff holds up a lot better than the Greeley stuff. Also found out that Spider's on Twitter nowadays, so it's good to see him communicate with the world again after the shit he went through for several years.

 

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Get in the Van by Henry Rollins

I have owned the first printing of this for a long time but never read it. Then was recently given a ebook version and been reading it a bit each night before bed. Really good read and it is interesting to see where Rollins mind was during his time with Black Flag. 

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