Bookslut on Wastelands: Not Cohesive Enough!

Blythe Boyer over at Bookslut reviewed Wastelands. She didn’t seem to like it much–or rather she liked about half of it, but feels "Wastelands ultimately fails as a collection because its editor did not allow a cohesive philosophy to guide his choices for the collection." Ouch. Oh well, they can’t all be rave reviews. She does say some nice things about the anthology, however, and quite liked several of the stories.

I admit to being puzzled as to how someone could not only dislike Dale Bailey’s story, but dislike it so much. I thought that was great, and was one of the first stories I thought of when assembling the book. But to each her own.

One (irrelevant) error in the review: 28 Days Later (zombies) was not based on Day of the Triffids, (carnivorous plants), though the opening sequence kind of rips it off. (Or is an homage, as we like to say.)

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"If Angels Fight" by Richard Bowes

image Richard Bowes, whose story "If Angels Fight" appears in the February 2008 issue of F&SF, said in an interview that the story was inspired by a trip he and his sister made to the old neighborhood. "It brought back a lot of memories including the politicians. I knew kids whose fathers were in politics. But politics was almost like popular entertainment–everyone knew about it, talked about it, rated politicians," Bowes said. "And the Kennedy family was a constant presence. JFK’s mother came from there. It was where her father, ‘Honey Fitzgerald’ had his mansion, until it burned down one night. Her relatives still lived in the neighborhood. The story’s roots were my trying to give a feeling for that lost, almost mythic moment. John F. Kennedy himself makes and appearance as an impatient young senator who’d just had to attend an aging relative’s birthday party."

"If Angels Fight" starts with the unnamed narrator being asked by Carol Bannon, the scion of a Boston political dynasty to help her find her long lost brother Mark who was a childhood friend of the narrator. "The narrator has helped the family with this several times over the years. The difficulty tracing Mark Bannon is that to all intents and purposes he died some years before," Bowes said. "The rest of the story is the narrators search in the byways of intrigue and politics and his memories of Irish Boston in the 1950’s when politics was a sport, a hobby, a way of life."

(more…)

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Books Received 1/7/08

0439895766A Curse Dark as Gold (ARC)
Author: Elizabeth C. Bunce

The gold thread shimmers in the fading light. It promises Charlotte Miller a way out of debt, a chance to save her family’s beloved woolen mill. It promises a future for her sister, livelihood for her townsfolk, security against her sinuous and grasping uncle. It might even promise what she didn’t know she needed: lasting hope and true love. | But at what cost? To get the thread, Charlotte must strike a bargain with its maker, the mysterious Jack Spinner. But the gleam of gold conjures a shadowy past–secrets and bonds ensnaring generations of Millers. And Charlotte’s mill, her family, her friends, her love…What do those matter to a powerful stranger who can spin straw into gold? | In her brilliant debut, Elizabeth Bunce weaves a spellbinding fairy tale, spun with mystery and show through with romance.

 

0345497589Shadowbridge (Trade Paperback)
Author: Gregory Frost

Sprung from a timeless dream, Shadowbridge is a world of linked spans arching high above glittering seas. It is a world of parading ghosts, inscrutable gods, and dangerous magic. Most of all, it is a world of stories. | No one knows those stories better than Leodora, a young shadow-puppeteer who travels Shadowbridge collecting the intertwining tales and myths of each place she passes through, then retells them in performances whose genius has begun to attract fame…and less welcome attention. | For Leodora is fleeing a violent past, as are her two companions: her manager Soter, and elderly drunkard who also served Leodora’s father, the legendary puppeteer Bardsham; and Diverus, her musical accompanist, a young man who has been blessed and perhaps cursed, by the touch of a nameless god. | Now, as the strands of a destiny she did not choose begin to tighten around her, Leodora is about to cross the most perilous bridge of all–the one leading from the past to the future.

 

044101559XNavigator (Hardcover)
Author: Stephen Baxter

As William the Conqueror’s men attempt to stamp out the flames of rebellion, a prophecy is uttered. A bedraggled woman in a ruined chapel speaks of civilizations in conflict, armed by the engines of God… | And that prophecy proves to be true as the fearsome war between Christianity and Islam leaves its mark across the land. In Spain, a rogue priest dreams of the final defeat of Islam, for he has found a rent in the tapestry of time, a point where agents from the future used diabolical weapons of destruction to change history. Centuries later, in 1492, as men of vision weary of the strife and are drawn to the unknown West, one such explorer seeks the funding for his voyage-while a mysterious Weaver plots to unravel the strands of time and stop him.

 

0441015581The Unnatural Inquirer (Hardcover)
Author: Simon R. Green

Welcome to the Nightside, that secret square mile located in the dark heart of London where the sun never rises and people can fraternize with every myth and monster imaginable. | John Taylor is a P.I. with the special ability to locate anyone or anything. The Unnatural Inquirer, the Nightside’s most notorious gossip rag, has offered him a million pounds to find a DVD purportedto contain an actual recording of the afterlife. John doesn’t know if it’s true, but someone-or something-thinks so, and will stop at nothing to possess the disc.

 

0765317850Elom (ARC)
Author: William H. Drinkard

Fire from the Goddess and the meat and furs of the mammoth are all that the People need to live. It is a harsh life but a good one and it is one that all cherish. | Young Geerna knows that the time has come for her to become a woman and take up the tasks to keep her people safe. She waits in the Awakening Place, fearful and hopeful as her ordeals come to an end. Then, on the eve of her Womanhood, a shining light descends upon her and her world is torn asunder. | And she embarks on a journey that none of her people could ever envision…
Eons have passed. Cycle upon cycle the Way of the People have remain unchanged: women are artists, men are hunters. Geerna’s Law is the covenant by which humans live in harmony and peace.  |  But all is about to change. A call has come for The People to choose their champions, and a summons to meet the mysterious creatures who selected Geerna so long ago. | All is unknown. As the brave souls who are chosen venture forth, they will come to discover just how much that pact that Geerna made so long ago has cost them. | And they will have to confront the choices that might help them to finally know true freedom.

 

0451461894Small Favor (ARC)
Author: Jim Butcher

The new novel in the New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series. | No one’s tried to kill Harry Dresden for almost an entire year, and his life finally seems to be calming down. For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow. | An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe, the Queen of Air and Darkness-and she’s calling in her marker. It’s a small favor he can’t refuse…one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills-and loyalties-to their very limits. | It figures. Everything was going too well to last…

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2008 Awards Season

Following the lead of John Scalzi, Jay Lake, and others, I thought I’d post a list of things things I’ve published that are eligible for awards in 2008.

Since Wastelands is officially a 2008 book, nothing to do with that is eligible this awards season. With that in mind, I think the only thing I’m eligible for is some World Fantasy categories, such as Best Anthology (maybe, if the Pirate Issue counts).

But really, the only thing I could realistically be nominated for is the World Fantasy Award Special Award: Professional, for:

So I’m not really eligible for much as of yet. Next year, I should be eligible for the Best Editor (short-form) Hugo Award. But meanwhile, all of the stories I bought for the Pirate Issue are eligible for the various Short Story awards:

Eligible for Best Short Story (Hugo, Nebula [through end of Oct.], World Fantasy, Stoker, IGH):

  • The Sweet Realm by Jill Snider Lum [read]
  • Captain Blood’s B00ty by Jeremiah Tolbert [read]
  • A Hand for Each by J. Kathleen Cheney
  • The Blackguard of God by Melinda Selmys
  • Come to the Islands by Mikal Trimm
  • The Barbary Shore by James L. Cambias
  • Pirates by Adeline Thromb Age 8 by Marissa K. Lingen
  • The Furies by Rajan Khanna
  • The Perfect Hook by Justine Graykin
  • Hard Times for Bartleby Crow by Grant Stone
     

Also, I’d point out that you can and should nominate Shimmer for the Best Fanzine Hugo Award, and can also nominate Beth Wodzinski, the publisher, for the World Fantasy Award Special Award: Non-Professional.

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Guitar Hero Redux

Okay, seriously folks. HOW DO YOU HIT THE BLUE FRET BUTTON?  I totally rock on Easy now, but man, Medium is another ball game.

Other commentary:

  • I totally can’t figure out hammer-ons and pull-offs. But I seem to do fine without them. Maybe that won’t be so as the game increases in difficulty.
  • That Queens of the Stone Age song must be the hardest, most-complicated song in the game. (At least of the ones I’ve played, having unlocked everything available on Easy.) Also really difficult is Crossroads by Cream. I already had respect for the talent of Cream, but I’ve got a new respect for QotSA. I never thought much of them before, but that’s some fancy guitar-work.
  • That fucking star power always screws me up when I try to turn it on. Well, not always, but a large percentage of my mistakes are caused by me trying to activate the star power. Also, it seems slightly harder to play the notes when star power is activated, because I think my fingers have become accustomed to the colors, but not the fret positions as much.

This game isn’t well-suited (or might be perfectly suited) for my perfectionist tendencies. I played one song perfectly ("Hey You"), and there are a few others I’m certain I *could* play perfectly, but always manage to blow one note–not even something difficult, just some random note I shouldn’t have any trouble with. <sigh>

I wonder if I’m going to need to create a Guitar Hero category on this blog.

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