tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63086665949068327632024-03-17T11:52:24.927-07:00Postcards from a Dying WorldPostcards From a Dying World
News, views, book reviews and commentary from the Science Fiction and Horror fiction underground. Home of the Wonderland award nominated author of Vegan Revolution...With Zombies and Boot Boys of the Wolf Reich.David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06351437042153770706noreply@blogger.comBlogger1299125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-57144222090357558412024-03-17T11:51:00.000-07:002024-03-17T11:51:26.869-07:00Book Review: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPVuiaIz2tRO0tGXKxhuRbPYXmt4H6Vl0H_5k3TEges4leNVTshdyREuWU0eJ-jeh0zE36_6YrpUPE0KqfNB7DMpH0sRTL6UrhC_dg8Xac6jr7AKLwcHtdiZNH4wkHg0412by2m_smHE39Mcc9yKI8YdVtL0We7R9AyelQX6AbSLgKz6K9niezrENYhMI/s475/incidents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="312" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPVuiaIz2tRO0tGXKxhuRbPYXmt4H6Vl0H_5k3TEges4leNVTshdyREuWU0eJ-jeh0zE36_6YrpUPE0KqfNB7DMpH0sRTL6UrhC_dg8Xac6jr7AKLwcHtdiZNH4wkHg0412by2m_smHE39Mcc9yKI8YdVtL0We7R9AyelQX6AbSLgKz6K9niezrENYhMI/s320/incidents.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p> Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman</p><p></p><dl class="DescList"><span tabindex="-1"><span class="Text Text__body3"><div class="DescListItem"><dt>384 pages, Hardcover</dt><dd></dd></div><div class="DescListItem"><dt>Expected publication June 25, 2024 by Del Rey</dt></div></span></span></dl><p><br /><br />I when I was young Stephen King, Robert McCammon, and Clive Barker were like seasonal horror guarantees. You know that regularly you were going to get an effective horror novel or collection. In the modern horror scene when there are mainstream and indie presses there are so many writers active that there is no shortage of horror. Every time Josh Malerman releases a book I feel like it carries more weight. Like a seasonal event, Guaranteed quality, and as Josh Malerman’s catalog gets deeper we are seeing him start to take some daring risks. <br /><br />This novel is a bold experiment and wow. Josh Malerman came onto the scene with the powerful debut of <i>Birdbox</i>. Long before Sandra Bullock was in the movie and turned into a million memes the horror community had been aware of the power that Malerman brings to his work. I have had the chance to interview Josh about <i>Malorie</i> the sequel to <i>Birdbox </i>and he returned to talk about His novella collection <i>Goblin</i>. </p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/pfdw-14-interview-with-bird-box-author-josh-malerman/id1524359471?i=1000491097382" target="_blank">Listen to the Malorie interview</a><br /></p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/episode-57-interview-with-josh-malerman-bird-box-who/id1524359471?i=1000535161887" target="_blank">The Goblin interview here</a></p><p> <br />We have seen Malerman take big swings like <i>Pearl</i> a bizarro concept that explained on paper just doesn’t sound like it could possibly work and yet it does. I read Incidents Around the House knowing only the title and I knew Malerman had been followed by documentary crew when he wrote this novel. Looking at this title I thought it was a haunted house novel. It is so much more than that. <br /><br />I love a haunted house novel, but like the genre in general it is hard to break new ground at this point. If you would like to know without spoilers if this novel works, in my opinion, it is one of the creepiest horror novels in some time. It will be a really intense experience for young parents who place themselves in the character's shoes. Using a unique prose point of view the novel becomes pretty much experimental. As I got a couple of chapters in I wondered how long Malerman could keep it up and the answer is to the fucking end. <br /><br />If you follow my reviews you probably know that I am not a huge fan of first person. It limits the novel to one point of view, or voice, and often authors cheat to get around the limitations of the form. Writing novels in the form of letters for example leads to cheating, like found footage movies that unnaturally do things like the camera left on in a room while a private conversation goes on.<br /><br />Stephen King is good at not cheating first person. One of the best examples is <i>Delores Claiborne</i> or a more fitting is his recent Hard Case Crime novel <i>Later</i>. The first-person narrator of Later grows up as the book unfolds and the writing gets stronger as he does. Incidents Around the House is told from the point of view of Bela a young child and Malerman never cheats in close to four hundred pages. It is a writing magic trick, but if you can’t handle the child-like prose without quotation marks you might not enjoy this. So grammar OCD folks might want to avoid it, people who don’t like being creeped out should really avoid it because this book is a real deal unsettling affair.<br /> <br />OK, I am coming close to spoilers so this is the point where you open another tab on your browser pre-order the book, and or request your library get it. Come back in a couple of months when you have read it so we can talk about it. So SPOILER warning. <br /><br />IATH is the story of Bela, her Mommy, Daddo, and Other Mommy. Who is Other Mommy? She used to just watch Bela from the closet but she is her special friend who no one else saw – at first.<br /><br /><i>“She used to come only at night, Then sometimes during the day. The first time I saw her in the daylight I hid. I think she is getting close. Even though she is already in the house. Even though she sits next to me on my bed. Closer. That’s the word I think of.”</i><br /><br />All horror requires buy-in, you have to imagine being Bela, or her mom or Daddo for this story to creep you out but Malerman using Bela’s voice puts you into childlike fear constantly. Other Mommy wants a simple thing, to be let into her heart. <br /><br />The point where a lesser author would have cheated in the family drama that plays out between Mom and Dad. Bela is witness to an affair, fighting etc, and that is where cheating would have been easy but we only get Bela’s POV, an adult reading this novel knows better than her but Malerman trusts the audience. See how he does it.<br /><i><br />“Mommy and Daddo look at each other but neither laugh. I’m thinking of how Mommy told Daddo she slept at Marsha’s house but she told me Marsha slept at her brothers.”</i><br /><br />Damn, that is storytelling, and Malerman telling this story through the point of view of the child is straight-up genius because really who could get closer to the fear in this story than the child at the heart of it. The adult horror of not feeling like you can protect your child is dripping off every page. Other Mommy follows them wherever they go, their house is not haunted their child is haunted. <br />The solution presents Bela’s arc as the narrator. I would say if it works or not but a character tells the family. <br /><i><br />“The Thing in your house is attracted to Bela’s innocence. We have to take that innocence away.”</i></p><p><i> </i><br />Incidents Around the House is a horror masterpiece, a daring experiment in creating the creepiest possible immersive prose. If you let Bela and this story into your heart you will be biting your nails in fear that Other Mommy is in there with you. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-71874307357282487292024-03-10T23:35:00.000-07:002024-03-10T23:35:45.502-07:00Book Review: Star Trek Picard: Firewall by David Mack<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_pTW7AxWy5apKBsIG_jQb87GFUccLF5ig2D4zI-VlU7KIbOHWyB8QEbpbJxkpIkpJgEIK9NuCdIRJaA8YyBHyTvipVoej8QbcfN5NRM3JDrUe-EonHDR4KcTMHt10crgXGrGnBHk3UlmzvLdbEqLBghSCHYpZYJZSabcScYSV81goghm3akzWLj3e690/s445/Picard%20Firewall%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="296" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_pTW7AxWy5apKBsIG_jQb87GFUccLF5ig2D4zI-VlU7KIbOHWyB8QEbpbJxkpIkpJgEIK9NuCdIRJaA8YyBHyTvipVoej8QbcfN5NRM3JDrUe-EonHDR4KcTMHt10crgXGrGnBHk3UlmzvLdbEqLBghSCHYpZYJZSabcScYSV81goghm3akzWLj3e690/s320/Picard%20Firewall%202.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Star Trek: Picard #5 Firewall by David Mack</p><p></p><dl class="DescList"><span tabindex="-1"><span class="Text Text__body3"><div class="DescListItem"><dt>336 pages, Hardcover</dt><dd></dd></div><div class="DescListItem"><dt>Published February, 2024 by Pocket Books</dt></div></span></span></dl><p>I interviewed author David Mack on my podcast about this book!<br /><br /><a href=" https://youtu.be/ZBE3tDa30Sg" target="_blank">Watch my David Mack interview.</a><br /><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-139-interview-with-prolific-star-trek-author/id1524359471?i=1000646885523" target="_blank">Listen to it here:</a> <br /><br />I watch <i>Star Trek</i> like many writers. I hear random bits of world-building and my mind goes instantly to new stories I would love to tell. David Mack had the same reaction when the popular <i>Star Trek Voyager</i> character Seven of Nine was introduced in an episode of Star Trek Picard. The secret of Jeri Ryan's return was well-guarded and it was a good twist when trailers started coming out. When her appearance came the years between <i>Voyager</i> and <i>Picard </i>was hinted at. The idea was that Seven was on the frontier operating as a Fenris Ranger, a rag-tag operation that sought to police areas to remote or wild for the Federation to police. <br /><br />My first reaction was...oh wow that is a show. David Mack however paused the show to write to his editor and to say "put me in coach." The process took a few years and Mack had to wait for the show to produce two more seasons but here we are. I had a big smile on my face when I heard this novel was happening. I would be lying if I didn't say I was jealous of him, but also happy for him and stoked to read this book. <br /><br />Seven of Nine is a unique character in the <i>Star Trek</i> canon who has been on an incredible journey both on the screen and behind the scenes. When introduced to the show, the catsuits and the borg to Grace Kelly lead to many accusations of the show selling out and sexist casting, an odd turn for the Trek show with the first woman as captain. The <i>Voyager</i> writers and Jeri Ryan did an excellent job of portraying Seven's coming of age in the last years of the show. In the novel Janeway thinks about this in a revealing scene.<br /><i><br />"An adult. Chronologically, that was true. Biologically, Seven was thirty-two years old, though she appeared younger thanks to the regenerative properties of her Borg nanoprobes. But did her age accurately represent her degree of socialization? She had been robbed of so many years of her life as a Borg drone. So many aspects of social development that her new peers took for granted<br />likely remained alien to Seven."</i><br /><br />I never thought her journey back to humanity was done when Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. Mack understood this and the novel Firewall opens with Seven's lack of family once the Voyager crew returns home and she realizes she doesn't fit into the Federation. Looking at the where Seven's story ended and picked up again this novel has the task of bridging that gap. <br /><br />Seven is not only a ranger living on the fringes, but queer and if you are paying attention slightly more evolved since we last saw her emotionally. Some of the fans who think <i>Star Trek</i> has gotten to woke will complain, but people <i>Star Trek</i> has always been progressive and it has to grow with the times. IF you can't handle Seven being queer, maybe this franchise is not for you. Mack embraced this and even when he was early in the writing process he told social media in very CLEAR language this was pro-LBGTIQ and if you didn't like that he didn't care.<br /> <br /> In many ways does for modern <i>Star Trek</i> what <i>Andor</i> does for <i>Star Wars</i>. Firewall has different agendas but it has then, is unashamed about it and willing to shine a light on the dark gritty corners of the galaxy it takes place in. You would think after all Seven did to help Voyager return home she was a no-brainer for Starfleet. No matter how progressive the Federation thinks of itself the terror of the two Borg invasions has left scars. <br /><br /><i>"Seven hated feeling self-conscious about her implants. They made her feel unwelcome in so many settings now, as if she were a pariah or a criminal. It was a condition she hadn’t needed to confront in any significant way before arriving in the Federation. Her shipmates on Voyager had worked hard not to make her feel ashamed of who she was, or embarrassed by her lingering body modifications and nanoprobes. Part of the credit for that, she knew, belonged to then-Captain Janeway, who had welcomed Seven with unexpected openness and trust. While Janeway’s faith in Seven had been tested by a few crises during their early years together, her staunch support of Seven had set the tone for Voyager’s crew—and for Seven’s new life. "</i><br /><br />Janeway's support and love for Seven is the through-line of the novel, and Mack is even sets the stage for Janeway's return in <i>Star Trek Prodigy</i> (a show he consulted on) in subtle but neat ways. Janeway is desperate to help Seven and wants to believe there is a place for her in Starfleet, and she is concerned when she is tricked into the Fenris Rangers. The thing is Seven thought she was working for Federation intelligence but the reality is being out on the frontier opens her up to accepting who she is, and in that sense firewall perfectly explains the changes we saw in Seven.<br /><br /> There are Romulans, Orion pirates, Starship battles, chases, phaser battles for days. Plenty of nerdy Star Trek details for those who can read maps set in the Trek universe. Don't worry I have not given away the action, and that stuff is fun but the growth of the character is really what makes the novel special.<br /><br />Also on a funny side note, yeah it was cool that <i>Discovery</i> dropped the first Trek F-Bomb. Mack got the word mosh into the <i>Star Trek</i> universe. <br /><i><br />"She was about to remove herself from the mosh pit when she felt the gentle, tentative contact of a soft hand on the back of her neck. It arrived like a feather touching down on snow, gentle enough to capture her attention without triggering her alarm.<br /><br />Seven moved with the music, careful not to pull away from the unexpected touch. She turned to face a tall, young Andorian woman. The bone-white hair on the right side of the woman’s head had been shaved down to stubble, revealing her azure-blue skin, and on the other side it had been styled into a wild wave of ombréed teal, white, emerald, and orange. Her clothes were scant and<br />stylishly torn in all the right places, and like Seven she wore ankle-high boots that were as practical as they were flattering."</i></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-84069934039025826182024-03-10T22:06:00.000-07:002024-03-10T22:06:49.716-07:00Book Review: SS-GB by Len Deighton<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdgwAFO_XyFXmgxRmvvqzP_4DPDGxRgUXoYA1mf4Bdxq2BnX7zlzUXB2xs_-IQUvemHdo2JazezKt9d-5tT4vf6TOa-pteaAI7Khe3XLMV7IY2Ay1gF7gmdPjkkDd8mcoA2VOn-zaRwYBngvsTuibWqzs1wDemvZ7Dn_pedyMCfAjpNJmmGHyh6i9YkWI/s155/SS-GB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="155" data-original-width="98" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdgwAFO_XyFXmgxRmvvqzP_4DPDGxRgUXoYA1mf4Bdxq2BnX7zlzUXB2xs_-IQUvemHdo2JazezKt9d-5tT4vf6TOa-pteaAI7Khe3XLMV7IY2Ay1gF7gmdPjkkDd8mcoA2VOn-zaRwYBngvsTuibWqzs1wDemvZ7Dn_pedyMCfAjpNJmmGHyh6i9YkWI/s1600/SS-GB.jpg" width="98" /></a></div><br /> SS-GB by Len Deighton<p></p><p> 375 pages, Mass Market Paperback<br />Published April, 1980 by Ballantine Books<br /><br />While a major bestseller in the 70s and recently made into a TV mini-series <i>SS-GB</i> by Len Deighton was a novel I never heard of. It is an alternate history but it is not considered a work of science fiction like <i>Man in the High Castle</i> by Philip K. Dick. Famously Phil’s two most important editors and publishing mentors Don Wollheim and Tony Boucher initially dismissed the novel as not Science fiction. It is Science fiction as it has Nazis on Mars and multiple realities, but I think their initial reaction was surface-level and missed the nuance. Beyond <i>High Castle</i>, there is a wide variety of novels, movies, and stories that explore different outcomes of WWII with or without Science Fiction. I have been wanting to explore this field more. <br /> <br /><i>SS-GB</i> has more in common with straight alternate history like Roth’s <i>The Plot Against America</i>. It first came on my radar when I read Gavriel D. Rosenfeld’s <i>The World Hitler Never Made</i>, a genius academic book. Rosenfeld had my interest with this quote “SS-GB was most significant for its nuanced depiction of collaboration.” <i>SS-GB</i> is a genre novel just not a SF novel, it is a detective noir that exchanges Chandler’s LA for England in 1941 if the British empire fell to the Nazis.</p><p>Deighton is a member of the generation who survived the war, and as such it is a fascinating look at fascism, occupation, collaboration, spy craft and it is all kicked off by a murder mystery and Scotland Yard detective who is not just trying to solve a crime and also deal with the infighting of the SS and various branches of the Nazi war Machine. <br /><br />As the author of (the soon to be released) Unfinished PKD, I am very aware that PKD intended for at least one of his attempts to do a sequel to Man In the High Castle to be very much about that infighting in the factions of Nazi Germany. So in that sense, I found the connections interesting. <br /><br />SS-GB plays with the conventions of the genre, starting with a dead body that was murdered in a situation that doesn’t make sense to the lead investigator Detective Douglas Archer. The victim seems badly burned but there is no sign of fire, he was shot. There is a curious reporter from An American paper who is reporting in Nazi-occupied Britain. She knew the victim. <i>“He was helping me with a piece I’m writing about Americans who stayed here right through the fighting.” </i> Little lines throughout this book suggest wider stories, and despite not being SF the World-building is very well done.<br /><br />If you don’t want any spoilers at all this is almost time for you to back out of this review. This book is mostly effective. By modern standards the prose is thin but I prefer the thinner more direct storytelling. It is a good noir, a better Alt-history and it is worth reading. The deeper reasons why this book is good and should be read involve a bit of spoilers.<br /><br />The mystery turns out to be connected by SS efforts to create an atomic weapon, but that is just one part of politics that drives the parts inside of the machine. There is a resistance plot, to free the King, double agents, and various forces involved in the occupation. There is some action, and the mystery is solved with lots of novel to go. The overlooked part of the reaction to this novel is the theme of ‘it could happen here.” The point is not as forceful as <i>The Plot Against America</i> or as on the nose as the pre-war warning <i>It Can Happen Here</i> by Sinclair Lewis that suddenly became relevant again when Trump was close to getting his Vice President murdered for not handing him the country. <br /><br />The worst moments of <i>SS-GB</i> involve the action to free the king, the best are in the acceptance of evil and the pain of the British characters living under occupation. The parts of the story that relate to the development of atomic weapons make sense and work far better than the stuff about the King. <i>SS-GB</i> works best when it is focused on the stress of living under occupation. The Blitz was awful but it is interesting to think how the Brits would have reacted and compare it to the French experience. Doing this through the lens of a detective novel is effective. I approve. <br /><br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-86336533756566726982024-03-06T16:05:00.000-08:002024-03-06T16:05:59.015-08:00Book Review: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWV6W6oymvzTZbJQ0gsyYmPTUqc9zqgA2kmU06akAazMqZhiqv2dEZURFI990LdsSo5D2GuykQbMyCYcjWXRfM3oyvde1F5DktGRy0op3Cxl1LvQW7cYnipWlAqmlG0368kjKoYiyGydcLICXuXij_u8dOI6jFwAGscOWBZChpBZy8jPXh_-Dt77G8qKw/s2111/The%20reformatory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2111" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWV6W6oymvzTZbJQ0gsyYmPTUqc9zqgA2kmU06akAazMqZhiqv2dEZURFI990LdsSo5D2GuykQbMyCYcjWXRfM3oyvde1F5DktGRy0op3Cxl1LvQW7cYnipWlAqmlG0368kjKoYiyGydcLICXuXij_u8dOI6jFwAGscOWBZChpBZy8jPXh_-Dt77G8qKw/s320/The%20reformatory.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The Reformatory by Tananarive Due</p><p>576 pages, Hardcover</p><dl class="DescList"><span tabindex="-1"><span class="Text Text__body3"><div class="DescListItem"><dd></dd></div><div class="DescListItem"><dt>Published October, 2023 by S&S/Saga Press</dt><dt> Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Best Novel (2023) <br /></dt><dt>RUSA CODES Reading List Nominee for Horror (2024)</dt></div></span></span></dl><p>This review might be the first victim of my tightening schedule and lack of time to devote to serious book reviews. Sorry about that. That said... <i>The Reformatory</i> is a masterpiece of historical horror and I don’t think anyone would be shocked if I suggest giving Due the Stoker Award right now. I already had the book on hold from the library when Stephen King took to Twitter and said "You're in for a treat. “<i>THE REFORMATORY</i> is one of those books you can't put down. Tananarive Due hit it out of the park.” <br /><br />Before that tweet, I was 5th in line of 8 holds. Overnight I was 5th in line of 155 holds, which is just in San Diego. I mean Stephen Graham Jone calling the book of the decade had me but that Uncle Steve effect ain’t no joke, but seriously who doesn’t trust him as a reader? He is not wrong it is hard to put down. I generally read about 120 pages a day on my bus commute (and read 205 of this book in one day) so take that as a sign. <br /><br />I am overdue to read Tananarive Due, I heard an interview with her about this book, and her story it is as fascinating as the book itself. Also, she teaches Afrofuturism at UCLA and I am dying to take those classes. I am assuming her students don't know how lucky they are, but maybe they do.<br /><br />The Reformatory is a historical horror set in the Jim Crow South. As such it has the feeling of many horrific tales of racism and evil of the American past. Many novels of the era that are taught in schools are from white authors and it shows. Due is not the first African-American to use genre to explore this era. Alice Walker and Toni Morrison did not get cast as horror authors but they have written some of the most frightening books ever. <i>Beloved </i>by Morrison is an unabashed ghost story yet it is called literature. <i>The Reformatory</i> is every bit of a work of high art in literature. <br /><br />Using her family history including an Uncle whose experience was similar to the character Robert Stevens and a Lawyer who was much like Due’s father the novel is both epic and personal. Centered on 12-year-old Robbie Stevens Jr and his sister Gloria. In their small Florida town, Robbie stands up for his sister is harassed by a teenage white boy, and ends up in a brutal reform school.<br /> <br />The school is haunted, and Robbie is one of the young kids who has a talent for seeing these haints as they call them in the book. Robbie ends up investigating supernatural events and making friends with the long-dead victims of the school. For me, the more exciting parts of the novel ended up being Gloria trying to fight the racist system. <br /><br />The hopelessness of it all is brought into focus on page 159 when Robbie talks to the warden trying to balance the “don’t talk back” attitude with the Warden also saying don’t lie to me. The fight to keep hope against a system that is making it impossible for you is the strength of this powerful work of fiction. <br /><br />Over 500 pages and it never drags. The historical and character elements come off perfectly so when the moments of horror creepy in these feel more tangible. The relationship between Redbone and Robbie is heartbreaking and perfect, but in a sense that is the best way to describe this novel. Heartbreaking and perfect. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-13500864854682627362024-03-03T08:39:00.000-08:002024-03-03T08:39:25.791-08:00Book Review: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVH09B8M1___gVrausOSSZgwxm8ud21obQzGbAhBpDTkXvxV02IxjVOke5JqVj6J4ga32lIL6F4pdhhu7UZ_HUH9DbOfHnETFoDdZ6lbjO5kEfAgpDB2AmnywSCvlG2_mLBvIWVXzOPATuPpUGLer6IQ1slbrwWF9cp6eDr0qT2dZFYeh_b03LZwAmvvc/s1688/Tusks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1688" data-original-width="1100" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVH09B8M1___gVrausOSSZgwxm8ud21obQzGbAhBpDTkXvxV02IxjVOke5JqVj6J4ga32lIL6F4pdhhu7UZ_HUH9DbOfHnETFoDdZ6lbjO5kEfAgpDB2AmnywSCvlG2_mLBvIWVXzOPATuPpUGLer6IQ1slbrwWF9cp6eDr0qT2dZFYeh_b03LZwAmvvc/s320/Tusks.png" width="209" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler <br /></p><p>101 pages, Hardcover<br />Published January, 2024 by Tordotcom <br /></p><p> Podcast Interview on the way so check back here...<br /><br />Ray Nayler is the reigning author of my top reads of the year. <i>The Mountain in the Sea</i> won my attention for pretty much anything this guy does. That novel is a wonderful combination of all the things I love in great science fiction. Overstuffed with ideas and deep meaning Ray Nayler brings unique education and experiences to Science Fiction stories that take a sharp edge and stick it into the heart of our relationship to nature. <br /><br />While Philip K. Dick often prompted us to question what is the reality of being human? Nayler asks what is the reality of being an earthling. The Tusks of Extinction is a short and powerful Science Fiction novella. Just under 100 pages I could have read a full novel of this easily. If you trust me, go in cold like I did. This is very PKD and Lem-influenced and it is clear that Nayler has an eye for philosophical SF. <br /><br />Spoilers from here on out… Go READ this book and come back.<br /><br /><i>“When you bring back a long-extinct species, there's more to success than the DNA.” </i><br /><br />Considering the title you should not be surprised that this story is about Wolly Mammoths brought back by scientists from extinction. Nayler ponders the idea that no one would ever put the effort into bringing us back from extinction. The effort to bring these great beings back is a struggle as they don't know at first how to survive.<br /><br />The narrative and what is happening might be confusing at first, but stick with it and you’ll get a nice payoff. Damira is a great character, and it will be confusing at first. This book is from her point of view…she has human thoughts but subtle hints lead me to think this book was told by an Elephant. It is sorta.<br /><br />Scientists have brought the extinct Mammoth back from extinction but they don’t know how to live or survive without past generations to guide them. Who could possibly train them? Nayler suggests a wonderful SF solution.<br /><br /><i>"Dr. Damira Khismartullina, you were murdered."<br />"injured you mean I'm in a hospital."</i><br /><br />Damira has a lot to process, her murder, a century passing, and a new life thanks to her preserved memories. The hardest thing to except a new body and mission.<br /> <br /><i>"I said before that you are the only existing human mind that worked and lived with wild elephants. And that is true. But I should have put it another way. You are the only existing mind of any kind that knows the culture of Elephants. the last wild elephant died over a half-century ago. Our surrogates were raised in captivity, as was every Elephant they know. Wild elephant culture is dead on planet Earth except in one place: Your mind."</i><br /><br />The reveal that future technology was used so this woman who gave her life protecting elephants was resurrected in the body of Mammoth was jaw dropper for me, even though it happens somewhat early. Who else could teach these resurrected mammoths who were built out of extinct creatures and their DNA. It is a wonderful reversal and story theme for a one-time protector to have to live as the species she once protected. Excellent SF concept.<br /><br />Chapter nine starts with Damira trying to make sense of her human memories and accept her fate. This is both fascinating, as the concept gives Nayler a unique opportunity to explore not only the interior life of an elephant/mammoth but also this woman's crazy experience. <br /><br /><i>"For an elephant, smells did not conjure feelings, fragments of scenes. No - they brought memories back whole, as material as glass beads on a strong. One memory chained to another, and another, and another. Memories as complete and rich as the world of now."</i><br /><br /><i>The Tusks of Extinction</i> by Ray Nayler is a novella masterpiece in my opinion. A powerful and thoughtful piece of philosophical Science Fiction that explores the nature of what it means to be an Earthling. <br /> <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-7189634029970511762024-03-01T21:51:00.000-08:002024-03-01T21:51:31.648-08:00Book Review: Puttering About in a Small Land by Philip K. Dick<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEp-U2ajVDGugjlmq13eNAiqMj9A29gjPUihNvA0uc_PqPmo6Davxp1Xu2PEPvXgOZzx0VSq32xVVoSMofvcWYgCmap-QPNf6IrB6MAykcO1GHLnvLOxXiTgG3lrk_C6RUBGwGydyG0__VbyO_FykVv5MxBjB61MSESYoYtR6-ObSEt3MpJ9Yqdg5sRfU/s475/Puttering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEp-U2ajVDGugjlmq13eNAiqMj9A29gjPUihNvA0uc_PqPmo6Davxp1Xu2PEPvXgOZzx0VSq32xVVoSMofvcWYgCmap-QPNf6IrB6MAykcO1GHLnvLOxXiTgG3lrk_C6RUBGwGydyG0__VbyO_FykVv5MxBjB61MSESYoYtR6-ObSEt3MpJ9Yqdg5sRfU/s320/Puttering.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Puttering About in a Small Land by Philip K. Dick</p><p>317 pages, Paperback<br />Published January, 2014 by Orion Publishing Group (<span tabindex="-1"><span class="Text Text__body3">First published January, 1985)</span></span></p><p> </p><p>4 stars if you are a serious Dickhead, if not probably a 3-star slice of life of 1950s California. That said this is my favorite of the realist novels I have read so far. We already recorded the Dickheads podcast episode link when it is posted. <br /><br />While in no way science fiction the fact that it was published decades after it was written during Phil's second and longest marriage to Kleo feels like a period piece. In the novel, a young boy named Gregg is being dropped off at a boarding school in remote Ojai California, similar to the experience of a young PKD. The opening of the novel appears to be addressing the author's Mommy issues, but it is much more than that. PKD uses his SF world-building skills to set the stage of an early TV shop and suburban life of the era. Funny at times, disturbing here and there. Worth reading for completionists for sure. <br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-41394888741126857022024-02-24T20:07:00.000-08:002024-02-25T08:35:07.660-08:00Book Review: Psychological Warfare by Paul M.A. Linebarger<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs96H5DZpwZ4Ij6Vigvx7ic4p_ZUnA6a-X_sSRkH9juXXUCiEzYH0LkCgvKpbozUThnfVp6LP6mfl7coQWWzeBLqS9tlLeD3YJRsdIr5ihBEfu8P8etxE_C0s7Xaa1fO71AiWAcuJt_QEepwkjxt9SnvBtL_R7WbDVI20-7Lft9WkJFSfZmNR87ho-w40/s475/Psycho%20warfare.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs96H5DZpwZ4Ij6Vigvx7ic4p_ZUnA6a-X_sSRkH9juXXUCiEzYH0LkCgvKpbozUThnfVp6LP6mfl7coQWWzeBLqS9tlLeD3YJRsdIr5ihBEfu8P8etxE_C0s7Xaa1fO71AiWAcuJt_QEepwkjxt9SnvBtL_R7WbDVI20-7Lft9WkJFSfZmNR87ho-w40/s320/Psycho%20warfare.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Psychological Warfare by Paul M.A, Linebarger </p><p>332 pages, Paperback<br />Published October, 2010 by Coachwhip Publications</p><p><br />As I opened the file to write this review Bolt Thrower was playing in my shuffle. I think that has some meaning. The reason I read this book is the not-so-secret reason this book has been lost to time. Paul M.A. Linebarger is more famous for the pen name that he wrote Science Fiction under Cordwainer Smith. As a nerd for mid-century (20th) science fiction his work was a gap I needed to fix. His science fiction is respected by many of the modern greats including Lavie Tidhar and Brian Evenson who listed him as an influence. His SF is high-concept intelligent stuff that fixes in the fits in that no man’s land between the Golden Age and New Wave. It has a depth of international culture exposure and political knowledge that makes it a little different. <br /><br />What does this have to with this book? Linebarger’s life was short his SF writing career was confined mostly to the 50s. Like many of the Science Fiction writers of the era, his life was interrupted by WW II. While Heinlein and Asimov were in Philly running a factory, Richard Matheson in a bomber, Vonnegut was at Dresden and Linebarger was earning a spot in Arlington Cemetery. After the war, he would become a professor at Johns Hopkins, but it was activity in the war that fed this book. <br /><br />While it is greatly out of date now, this was THE book on the topic for decades. When you look at the roots of this book, and the man’s history you can see why his science fiction was special. Paul’s Godfather was Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat Sen. So he spent his childhood traveling around the world with his father. He was only 23 years old when he got his Ph.D. in Far East studies. A thing he knew about. He was teaching at Duke during the war but was drafted into service. He rose to the rank of Major and worked in the field designing Psychological warfare tactics. He briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Senators like JFK long before he became president. It was a thing that many powerful people in government in the '60s had him as a teacher.<br /><br />Certainly, as a progressive, I think Linebarger probably used these methods to help defeat the Nazis but he was also enforcing the US imperialism. This book was meant to dry academic text, the history and tactics are interesting. I think unless you are super fascinated by Cordwainer Smith’s background it is not exactly essential reading On my blog I will include some pictures of the seven-decade-old first edition I got from the San Diego library. I think they had to get from the storage room next to the Ark of Covenant. <br /><br />I think it is fair that it is lost to history. It is curiosity, I am sure there are more modern books on the subject. The science-fiction connection is one of the few reasons to read it, and frankly, there is not much to learn here about Cordwainer Smith. Completionists only. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHNPIxBOubM2UhSPwnjLp65c0mAh91uzUoMpouJT87OtWnGTuLkJUzBgRgfZvUmfx5oOmG4jIJL26gX0jqU5LI_Ahi06aLSdGVJraoIPw7Q1w7aocDyIeCYpyozCtaT9MUfgV2JzflZQWEBigPAn469o-zfPCDKWn_cbrdITnzfC9eJGtNN6r2FwdcUM/s4032/Linebarger%201.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHNPIxBOubM2UhSPwnjLp65c0mAh91uzUoMpouJT87OtWnGTuLkJUzBgRgfZvUmfx5oOmG4jIJL26gX0jqU5LI_Ahi06aLSdGVJraoIPw7Q1w7aocDyIeCYpyozCtaT9MUfgV2JzflZQWEBigPAn469o-zfPCDKWn_cbrdITnzfC9eJGtNN6r2FwdcUM/s320/Linebarger%201.JPG" width="240" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ZsX4Vz8Gg2iKYSIYHOpMqRd_ZeEzVqahMn09oDfG1j-bQZSW5khrQuiy43-D5uLmfi3rC-kWOyLZOPeBACfdOATVM7gER1EPjhYtIqHhS2V9cRNZbDHwNDAM4UkUE5Qk9hJ5TmHkvgdble-yWQIEPvJkNt6ICnJFY-KJzdpp2DSS__nBa5PsOgLO93I/s4032/Linebarger%203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ZsX4Vz8Gg2iKYSIYHOpMqRd_ZeEzVqahMn09oDfG1j-bQZSW5khrQuiy43-D5uLmfi3rC-kWOyLZOPeBACfdOATVM7gER1EPjhYtIqHhS2V9cRNZbDHwNDAM4UkUE5Qk9hJ5TmHkvgdble-yWQIEPvJkNt6ICnJFY-KJzdpp2DSS__nBa5PsOgLO93I/s320/Linebarger%203.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFf3mc9dImAw_1oLD8CHvXXqbsr7ckbc5T5wUWmxeXHGznaA8SfGO-y7Vpzm3a3yEPdLNz4EU_I6z9-Z35md1moTuKgvW_XhLxN5FlZiItbnie4Y-BwErSh1rxzcWaL3ZhKN4lb4hXFf_OcCJn3LzHD6pUZ5H8sbWXIg9vxg6EQJPDiuQeKKw_8rmUXCE/s4032/Linebarger%202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFf3mc9dImAw_1oLD8CHvXXqbsr7ckbc5T5wUWmxeXHGznaA8SfGO-y7Vpzm3a3yEPdLNz4EU_I6z9-Z35md1moTuKgvW_XhLxN5FlZiItbnie4Y-BwErSh1rxzcWaL3ZhKN4lb4hXFf_OcCJn3LzHD6pUZ5H8sbWXIg9vxg6EQJPDiuQeKKw_8rmUXCE/s320/Linebarger%202.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-55350336970243240602024-02-23T22:15:00.000-08:002024-02-24T07:49:31.686-08:00Audiobook review:The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil by Seth MacFarlane <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_wICDmBXte6HlVXw84dUqD4Q9LlaZ8jmeQ-d7dc5Bb5-q_ZzcKERwPshj7-VTZrtfyEiZY5Wi7kkaZEn4_v0cWtRv9jXDWb3NKLFBYB-Vtj-JaLJelXOakk62IJpFICIJhV_dA32XjjQv9v6sWPL2krq31ctJ0GoVIIuM2bv4N8nD8UJM51hPyVaZMx4/s318/Orville.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="318" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_wICDmBXte6HlVXw84dUqD4Q9LlaZ8jmeQ-d7dc5Bb5-q_ZzcKERwPshj7-VTZrtfyEiZY5Wi7kkaZEn4_v0cWtRv9jXDWb3NKLFBYB-Vtj-JaLJelXOakk62IJpFICIJhV_dA32XjjQv9v6sWPL2krq31ctJ0GoVIIuM2bv4N8nD8UJM51hPyVaZMx4/s1600/Orville.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><p></p><p>I have been on the record about my feelings about <i>The Orville</i>. I loved all three seasons, and of course, the third season was incredible. I have not enjoyed the discourse that pitted <i>Orville</i> against ST. I end both shows, universes. Seth MacFarlane dialed back the humor the humor in the third season, while I missed a bit of hijinks the show had gotten so good at telling <i>Next Generation </i>worthy Science Fiction I have been starving for more. If you missed it check my interview with writer and producer Brannon Braga talking about season three here:</p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-85-executive-producer-brannon-braga-on-the/id1524359471?i=1000576251128" target="_blank">Audio of my Brannon Braga Orville season Three interview</a></p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/xxO8uGF3-f0" target="_blank">Video of Brannon Braga interview</a> <br /><br />I missed the characters and the overall vibe. So I have been dying for <i>Orville</i> novels. The first we got was a novella that I consumed as an audiobook. <br /><br />(For the record Seth and crew I am a published novelist and I would love to pitch <i>Orville</i> novels just saying)<br /><br /><i>The Orville: Sympathy for the Devil</i> was written by creator Seth MacFarlane and it is an excellent short novel that seems like a planned episode that got novel treatment. It is impossible to write or talk about this novel without spoiling the GREAT reveal. I went in cold knowing nothing about the plot. For most of the audiobook, I was frustrated wondering where <i>The Orville</i> and the characters were. The wait was worth the payoff. All that frustration in the first half didn't matter with the power of the reveal.<br /><br />This is a powerful political science fiction story that uses unique SF elements to explore complex ethical issues. An emotional story about the holocaust that has Philip K. Dick themes of what is real. More <i>Orville</i> TV seasons would be ideal, but novels or comics are something us thirsty fans would slurp up in a heartbeat. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-15319116818539397982024-02-18T09:50:00.000-08:002024-02-18T21:41:28.511-08:00Book Review: Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyZjvzAIp8yenh3puIFPbD1qqp-NTZgbz7-_UmCmz6K_MyzH2Oy9e_iZTeOvxNqVG3ICckp2q-ou4mz-0a1E3f8qpgllN5V2jVGePllhUL8U0wGYAf0xhyphenhyphenl1Fj7WZ69ZBgYPi2o2Skl-LUNfQbmGuglTxBJZFh-9Gua8RN_rSXl6ylG-hZqONJEs2mtI/s994/Sister%20maiden.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="994" data-original-width="648" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyZjvzAIp8yenh3puIFPbD1qqp-NTZgbz7-_UmCmz6K_MyzH2Oy9e_iZTeOvxNqVG3ICckp2q-ou4mz-0a1E3f8qpgllN5V2jVGePllhUL8U0wGYAf0xhyphenhyphenl1Fj7WZ69ZBgYPi2o2Skl-LUNfQbmGuglTxBJZFh-9Gua8RN_rSXl6ylG-hZqONJEs2mtI/s320/Sister%20maiden.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><br /> Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder <p></p><p>265 pages, Paperback<br />Published February, 2023 by Tor Nightfire</p><p>I looked briefly at a few of the other reviews for this novel and was not shocked to read a few disgusted, turned-off reviews. I kinda expected that. <i>Sister, Maiden, Monster</i> is not a novel for everyone. Those who enjoy it will get a unique experience. That is one of the best things I can say about this novel is a one of a kinda science fictional experience. Forgive me a minute while I go on a rant involving this book.<br /><br />This novel is horror, it will be marketed as horror, it will be found in the horror section of Barnes and Noble but it is also 200% science fiction. This is a pandemic novel that is built on science and speculation in ways that most space operas are not. The idea that a science fiction novel has its value that genre canceled out by its horror bits annoys me. The (almost) real-life comes with my favorite Science Fiction Book Club on Facebook. I love posting reviews there, it always increases traffic, I have made friends and found books there. When Gretchen <span class="x4k7w5x x1h91t0o x1h9r5lt x1jfb8zj xv2umb2 x1beo9mf xaigb6o x12ejxvf x3igimt xarpa2k xedcshv x1lytzrv x1t2pt76 x7ja8zs x1qrby5j"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto">Felker-Martin</span></span>'s <i>Manhunt</i> (also a Tor Nightfire book) came out they declined my post saying that the book was horror, not SF. This review is probably declined before you read it too. <i>Manhunt</i> was horror but also science fiction including the fact that it was a modern trans take on the all-time James Tiptree/Alice Sheldon classic <i>The Screwfly Solution</i>. But for SFBC on Facebook it was just horror. <br /><br /><i>Sister, Maiden, Monster</i> is a science fiction novel. In the tradition of Weird Tales where the line between SF, Fantasy, and horror is thin I call on the admins to expand not narrow how they define Science Fiction. Sure some like Stephen Graham Jones - My Heart is a Chainsaw is pure horror. That said novels that combine both need their place in the SF discussion. This novel relies on the science of the pandemic and gets very cosmic in the final act. It is a Science Fiction Horror novel. <br /><br />SMM is an entry in one of my favorite sub-genres and I read it before my Amazing Stories column on weird apocalypse novels it likely would have made the cut of the article. I went into this novel cold, not knowing the plot and the novel was very effective that way. Based on the strength of six Stoker awards and some brief social media interactions I got this on a whim at the library. This novel uses dynamic and character work to blend emotional heartbreak, paranoid terror, and cosmic implications. The first two acts wove together stronger for me but it is the WTF insane stakes of the third act have enough charm to it that it didn't lose me. I understand why some readers might bounce off this part of the book. <br /><br />The first act about Erin and Gregory is the most heartbreaking part. The same night that Gregory ask Erin to marry him he becomes infected with type three of the new virus. The revelation of the virus that happened reminded me of MR Carey's amazing The Girl with All the Gifts. We slowly grow to like and care about Erin, we feel for her and it sneaks up on you when you realize the disease is giving her a hunger for eating brains, the only thing that satisfies the hunger. <br /><br />This novel is about the next large pandemic after COVID, A strange virus that has remade society. By the second act, we see the ways society is trying to cope and move on. This virus has a little more horrific angle. One of my favorite scenes is this reveal. It was not done with brain hungry zombies running the streets but a chilling conversation. Erin realizing how fucked she is talking to her doctor.<br /></p><p>"I must have looked like I was about to choose violence, because Nurse Tesfaye Took a step closer with the taser.</p><p>"Miss Erin, it's not helpful to think that way," she warned. "You have a condition that requires a special diet. That is all this is."</p><p>"But did you have to give me human brains?" My voice shook.<br /></p><p>You see where this is going? You might think so but SMM is filled with shocks and surprises. Twists on some genre tropes. The novel shifts for a reason that is a spoiler to Savannah a sex worker who is more connected than it appears at first. This reveal worked really well, the set-up and payoff was executed with great skill. Savannah's story becomes the transgressive part of the novel, again that might lose some readers. Her actions are not.<br /><br /><i>Sister, Maiden, Monster</i> is a not-for-everyone book. The sex and violence reach splatterpunk levels at times, and the weirdness is dialed to 11. These are all reasons I loved it. I was impressed that Lucy goes there more times than I can count. This is a super cool novel. <br /><br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-424046345478748652024-02-16T11:25:00.000-08:002024-02-16T11:25:53.197-08:00Book Review: The Circumference of the World Lavie Tidhar<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDcCY0EUpXJDszS5mKipj-oOVp1Ymist8JENO-6_DgPSXT2PiYALUSEsLkpkjKbB3KOHnuilMZFg5XvMqqYuXI-J6bTFHxdwaKKHTy1azV2kwL7VQgABdpjluOtpZ-xRra1yQfVwkSOZnviel0H_vCNguJPDt7b2dsvFqc1HOomHqozKzrto1KKfhFio/s2477/circumfernce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2477" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDcCY0EUpXJDszS5mKipj-oOVp1Ymist8JENO-6_DgPSXT2PiYALUSEsLkpkjKbB3KOHnuilMZFg5XvMqqYuXI-J6bTFHxdwaKKHTy1azV2kwL7VQgABdpjluOtpZ-xRra1yQfVwkSOZnviel0H_vCNguJPDt7b2dsvFqc1HOomHqozKzrto1KKfhFio/s320/circumfernce.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar </p><p> 256 pages, Paperback<br />Published September, 2023 by Tachyon Publications<br /></p><p>Now I don’t want to be accused of Hyperbole in two Lavie Tidhar book reviews in a row. Well, three if you count the glowing 10th-anniversary review and Podcast interviews I did over at Dickheads for the World Fantasy award-winning <i>Osama</i>. It has only been three months since <i>Neom</i> kicked my butt and snuck into my top five reads last year. To say I loved the vibe of the book is an understatement.<br /><br /><i>The Circumference of the World</i> is one of those novels that is a love letter to the genre. It benefits from nerdy insider knowledge of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. An era I have studied deeply, having within weeks of reading this read Fredrick Pohl’s autobiography, I don’t know how this book would work for somewhere that doesn’t know that Pohl went to Poker games at Horace Gold’s apartment before taking over Galaxy magazine from him. Lavie Tidhar knows this stuff and while he has always created science fiction that lovingly feels like it was lost from that era this novel is a mirror to the golden age. <br /><br />I didn’t read the back cover copy and went into it cold. My only hesitation in recommending this novel is that some of the genius will be lost on some modern readers. The in-jokes, the sly statements on the Golden Age, and in particular L.Ron Hubbard. Long after The Hubbster started a religion movies and fiction have made satire of the old pulpster who grew tired of writing Science Fiction and created his religion. Long before Paul Thomas Anderson made The Master with Hollywood resources Philip K. Dick mocked the new religion in the 50s with a short story called <i>The Turning Wheel</i>. Tidhar has pink-beamed his way into Dickian fiction before with <i>Osama </i>and <i>Neom</i>. </p><p><br />While this novel has a feeling of an earlier era, it comments on the era when Phil was collecting pulps. That said the novel opens with a modern feeling, Delia Welegtrabit lives in the South Pacific, isolated a bit she discovers a love for math and science that came from reading a lost Science fiction novel Lode Stars she pulled off the shelf, and is told it doesn’t exist. The book which inspired a cult, is not acknowledged to exist for high-ranking people in the cult and once Delia’s husband Levi starts looking for the murders gangsters come into their lives. <br /><br />Lode Stars the book in question was written by our Hubbard stand-in Eugene Charles Hartley, while <i>The Master</i> does a character study of the Hubbard stand-in, in this novel is not Hartley but the magic of the book the power of Science Fiction being explored here. It all takes on a meta-shift as early as page 18.<br /><br /><i>“The cover of the book depicted a swirling clouds of stars, sucked inexorably in nebula whorls, towards a malevolent black eye that dominated the centre of the page.<br />The title, Lode Stars, was etched above it. <br />The book was published in America, in 1962. Its Heroine was herself, Delia<br />The name of the author was Eugene Hartley.”</i><br /><br />Hubbard has been fictionalized by his fellow science fiction writers like Anthony Boucher since 1940’s Rocket To The Morgue. This fictional take is the founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes and is a fascinating character study for sure. I feel like the text of the golden age and what the novels and fiction say about the era in this case. The novel starts in a world where Lode Stars was a novel and as it continues the walls of reality disappear and we end up in the charming feeling of this lost novel, Tidhar enjoying every second of writing as Hartley. In the Lode Star part of the book he is writing a delightfully old-school fake novel filled with easter eggs for Herbert, Van Vogt, Asimov, and PKD. <br /><br /><i>"She saw the window of the Solar Spice and Liquors Company, An Isher Weapons shop, and an outlet of the respected Encyclopedia Galactica Foundation."</i> Even Stanley Weinbuam's SF Hall of Fame-worthy Martian character Tweel gets a shout-out.<br /><br />Tidhar is writing outside a traditional narrative as the main character of the novel is the book inside the book. From London with the collectors trying to find it and the powerful moment of the Russian prisoners who happen the book. The Prisoners had no idea the Soviet Union fell and were so accustomed to prison that they were afraid of the world and Levi didn't want to leave without Lode Stars.<br /><br />The walls of reality are at question. This why Dickheads don't mind if his novels feel real? <i>Martian Time-Slip</i> is surreal and impossible, that is not the role of that novel. <i>The Circumference of the World</i> is a question in the form of a science fiction novel. How does the genre relate to our ideas of reality? <br /><br /><i>"Because you see," Levi said, "None of this matters, this expansion into space and living longer, and building machines that could think - none of this matters if none of this is real. If we are ourselves but copies, echoes of who we once were. In that case," He said, still smiling, delighted with the notion and himself."</i><br /><br />This novel is a powerful work of meta-fiction, we can compare it to PKD, which is a compliment around here but it is a pure product of Lavie Tihar's genius. His blend of imagination, genre history and ability to blend into thought experiments is what makes him one of my favorite modern writers. This novel is not for everyone but for the people in the crosshairs this is bullet straight the science fictional parts of the brain. I loved it.</p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-62022317780532964132024-02-11T13:26:00.000-08:002024-02-11T13:26:17.345-08:00Book Review: The Whole Man by John Brunner<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUpYH5fc3ysYQhfcIq5rVG837DkzpPN7-N5Mx8DKGN1m-e74ZBULx8FewOlUcM_F8bQY2CfMyCzWcMEX17rtprxqtHcv5664zbzU6jNkpHl5KAVHS3ZvikNFbO250BTfG4uQw7lR0XRIL-XaLCW-9tX5ITA5TC6jS0I90yZJMohMgun2b-b2LKLaT56Hc/s475/The%20Whole%20Man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="286" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUpYH5fc3ysYQhfcIq5rVG837DkzpPN7-N5Mx8DKGN1m-e74ZBULx8FewOlUcM_F8bQY2CfMyCzWcMEX17rtprxqtHcv5664zbzU6jNkpHl5KAVHS3ZvikNFbO250BTfG4uQw7lR0XRIL-XaLCW-9tX5ITA5TC6jS0I90yZJMohMgun2b-b2LKLaT56Hc/s320/The%20Whole%20Man.jpg" width="193" /></a></div><br /><p></p><dl class="DescList"><span tabindex="-1"><span class="Text Text__body3"><div class="DescListItem"><dt>The Whole Man by John Brunner<br /></dt><dt>188 pages, Mass Market Paperback</dt><dd></dd></div><div class="DescListItem"><dt>Published August, 1964 by Ballantine</dt></div></span></span></dl><p>John Brunner got very offended when anyone called <i>The Whole Man</i> (AKA in Brunner’s England as The Telepathist) a fix-up novel, and yet everything I see written about starts with calling it that. If you don’t know that phrase it is when Science Fiction authors would collect short stories they wrote one at a time into novels later. The most famous novel that started this way is probably <i>Foundation</i> by ol’grabby Asimov. I think one of the best examples is <i>City</i> by Clifford Simak. And wait stop yourself before you say what about <i>Dune</i>? Yes, Dune was published in chunks, but Herbert didn’t intend for that. He wrote as one novel, I think in his mind the first three books were one greater <i>Dune</i>. <br /><br />In the late ’50s, John Bunner wrote a whole novel (I know terrible pun) and published it in three parts because no one wanted the entire novel. The first appearance of the Molem was in 1958. The same year Philip K. Dick released <i>Time Out of Joint </i>and NASA became a thing. A long time ago, telepathy stories were pretty common in the genre. Now it wasn’t called Molem <i>"City of the Tiger</i>" in Science Fantasy, December 1958, the second part was called <i>"The Whole Man,"</i> and the third <i>“Curative Telepath</i>" in a different magazine <i>Fantastic Universe</i>, exactly a year later December 1959. </p><p>According to statements at the time, Brunner seemed to imply the completed novel is different. Joe DeBolt in his introduction to the Happening Worlds of John Brunner (an academic study of Brunner published in the 70s <i>“In the novel only about 4,000 words of the original 20,000 words of “City of the Tiger” were retained, and out of the 25,000 world “The Whole Man</i>” just some 17,000 survive <i>relatively unchanged. Brunner added an additional 45,000 words most of which were wholly original.”</i><br /><br />No wonder the Fixup talk annoyed him. If you want to read the issue where <i>City of the Tiger</i> was first published and compare…<br /><br /><a href="https://archive.org/details/Science_Fantasy_32v11_1958-12 " target="_blank">Read the City of the tiger in the OG magazine</a><br /><br />The issue also has stories from Robert Silverberg and E.C. Tubb. Interesting.<br /><br />Comparing the opening pages they are nothing alike with totally different set-ups. In a way, I feel like these stories are like an early draft that just happened to get published. I can see why Brunner considered them totally different works. <i>The Whole Man</i> is the story of Gerald Howson, who was born deformed physically but gifted with intense psychic powers. Before we get into the details of the novel it appears the gee-whiz motivation for this novel was two things. Brunner appeared to want to explore the notion of telepathy being used to cure mental illness and the idea of this powerful telepath living an internal life that resembled sword and sorcery fantasies.<br /><br />While not as powerful as one of Brunner's masterpieces like <i>Stand on Zanzibar</i> or <i>Shockwave Rider</i> this novel edges close at times to the power of those novels. It has moments of great invention but the story doesn't have the kind of power of those classics. As Brunnet (get like a Dickhead) completionist, I had to read but the reason now is simple. This novel was nominated for a Hugo the same year the notorious second-worst Hugo Fritz Lieber's <i>The Wanderer</i> won the award despite being a shitshow. I recently <i>The Planet Buyer </i>by Cordwainer Smith and thought it a worthy winner of Liber's novel. <i>Children of Dune</i> is more worthy as well. So I started to wonder if I was Hugo voter at the time which would I pick. So I pulled The Whole Man off the shelf. <br /><br />At this point, we need to judge the Brunner novel by itself. <br /><i><br />"The "Crisis" had gestating as long as the child. It culminated a week or two ahead of him."</i><br /><br />The first act of the novel is set in a dystopia that might be Britain, but the nature of the political situation is like a light switch across a dark room. Something you are blindly reaching for. I love this aspect of the opening act of the novel. Eventually, it appears that the characters are in some British colony that operates like South Africa of the time. In the second act, we get the name Ulan Bator, a fictional capital to the made-up county. Economies and the environment are in crisis and shortly after our main character is born the authorities knock down the door looking for a child who they know will have great powers. Brunner puts details off-camera and it is a fascinating choice. We get the sense there is a telepathy arms race. We get a sense of many things but little is confirmed. Gerald Pond the biological father died before the son was born deformed but telepathically strong just like dad. and that is why the soldiers knock on the door and take the boy. This was a pretty well-written scene when the cops came to get them. The moment Sarah Howson realizes they are here to take her son.<br /><br />One aspect of the story is that Gerald Howson is disabled but has adventures in his mind and it can be confusing. When he describes being in a movie theater, is he really there? Or is he lying in bed remote projecting himself? He can make others believe he is there, and that makes him the kind of spy that Christopher Nolan would envision in Inception. He can enter the delusions of the mentally ill and cure them, but he can also find their secrets.<br /><br /><br />The novel hints at "The Crisis" but what we know of it might be colored by Gerald's own fantasies or projections. Consider this scene when Gerald is thinking about the movies he sees when he projects from his hospital bed to the theaters. <i>"So now the movie theaters were full when there was a picture like this one playing - and there were lots like this one, and Howson had seen several. Absurd, spectacular, violent melodramatic, they always centered on terrorism or war prevention in some colorful corner of the world, and their heroes were the mysterious, half-understood agents of the UN who read minds- the honorable spies, the telepathists."</i> <br /><br />Some part of Gerald saw himself this way but instead, as a hero but what does he really do with the power at first? he influences a gangster named The Snake. As he grows stronger mentally the city falls apart around him. He knows aircraft are flying over and things are happening beyond the walls. I got the impression from a quick look at the short story that more details of the crisis were on screen in the story before. <br /><br />In the second and third act, his powers grow and he learns to do better things with it. As his powers grow the thin walls of reality come down. This all makes for an unreliable narrator as stretches of the novel take place in these fantasies. This might seem revolutionary Sci-fi wise but keep in mind Brunner is playing with concepts Philip K. Dick used only a few years before in <i>Eye in the Sky</i>. Gerald has the experience of being Ho Sen a Chinese general in the perception of a mentally ill telepath in China in the third act. That transition comes out of nowhere and the dramatic shift pays off, but it almost lost me. This part of the book almost became Wuxia fantasy, and it is clear Brunner thought it was neat to drop in a sword-wielding fantasy during this story. Gerald first manipulated the fantasies now he uses them to heal. <br /><br /><i>"His only hope was to try and maintain the fiction that his guise was merely the effect of the creation of a schizoid secondary personality in the general run of the fantasy. He spat in the dust, rubbed his hands together, and twenty over to the dragon to draw its sword from its belly."<br /></i><br />Yeah, swords, dragons, imperial ancient Chinese armies. Strangely, these things show up here, but that is the idea. Telepathy doesn't just read your thoughts but also your dreams and fantasies. For those who can't escape their fantasies, Howson becomes a healer by becoming part of the delusions. <br /><br />This is good science fiction, but it is not top their Brunner. That said it is a thousand times better than the Fritz Lieber novel that beat it for the Hugo. I might put Cordwainer Smith's <i>Planet Buyer</i> ahead of it but I am sorry to say the big franchise sequel <i>Children of Dune</i> might be the best in the category. <br /><br />More importantly, <i>The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch</i> the masterpiece by Philip K. Dick was released that year and not even nominated. I just re-read that (my fourth time) with the benefit of hindsight It was the best Science Fiction book but Phil was way ahead of the game at the time.<br /><br /><i>The Whole Man</i> is a flawed work but it was quite good for the time. The biggest flaw is it doesn't reach the genius of the same author's other work.<br /><br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-86112286001029398102024-01-31T21:41:00.000-08:002024-02-16T08:45:55.975-08:00People's Park by David Agranoff (Release Party Special edition) BUY IT NOW!!!!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwmYG5mMKXHZ8M7aAFkQfb6eCe7hIGe2aW79LHlRFhwWLewNPw1pICi0w0K62aVYVHAJ62Ee49N7Dv4Ta2oSXXaK6Z47ZHuRzOwRdHNawqUmAfTXvMzpun_u3OlVg8WW0tP9qpGTIMQFxR35dRuPDWU_h0mgbwOc2zRP0JeD98_Z8-FhtItZ7eMXZZLAg/s1334/People's%20%20Park%20cover.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwmYG5mMKXHZ8M7aAFkQfb6eCe7hIGe2aW79LHlRFhwWLewNPw1pICi0w0K62aVYVHAJ62Ee49N7Dv4Ta2oSXXaK6Z47ZHuRzOwRdHNawqUmAfTXvMzpun_u3OlVg8WW0tP9qpGTIMQFxR35dRuPDWU_h0mgbwOc2zRP0JeD98_Z8-FhtItZ7eMXZZLAg/s320/People's%20%20Park%20cover.JPG" width="180" /></a></div><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
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<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">People’s Park
Release Party </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">People’s Park
by David Agranoff National Book Launch </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1:30 PM Sunday April 7<sup>th</sup> Bloomington,
Indiana Monroe County History Center </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">202 E 6th
St, Bloomington, IN 47408 (while you are there check out the </span>"Punk
at the Old Library," exhibit!)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Readings,
signing, Q and A! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hosted by author,
researcher, publisher and (PKD)Dickheads co-host <b>D. Harlan Wilson<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">From the author of <i>The Last Night to
Kill Nazis</i> and <i>Punk Rock Ghost Story</i> comes a sci-fi horror love
letter to freaks and weirdos and the places they gathered before the internet….</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“David
Agranoff is a razor sharp writer, a storyteller with hard rock pacing, a
magician of ideas...An idealist in hell." - John Shirley, cyberpunk legend
and Screenwriter of The Crow</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Help
us launch this book that is a love letter to the Bloomington underground culture!</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">***NOTE:
The novel will be released by the fine folks at Quoir. You’ll be able to buy it
anywhere but There will be a signed and numbered limited edition sold at the book
that will come with extra goodies including classic Bloomington punk flyers, a
bonus flash fiction called Hoosier Time Slip and surprises. If you buy and
reserve a copy to pick-up at the party you’ll save $4. If you order a special
edition to be mailed you will need that money back for shipping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">People’s
Park Special edition, Paperback 220 pages $15.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>($4.00 Shipping)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Includes trade
paperback signed and number up to the first 1-50. (can be personalized and will
be numbered based on when purchased online) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Two reprints
of classic Bloomington punk show flyers. (random selected from 40 classic
flyers)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">One flyer
comes with an exclusive flash fiction and the other with an essay about the
writing of the novel. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><a href="https://venmo.com/u/David-Agranoff" target="_blank">https://venmo.com/u/David-Agranoff</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">PayPal: <a href="mailto:count.agranoff@gmail.com" target="_blank">count.agranoff@gmail.com</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">People's
Park in Bloomington Indiana, is not in radical Berkley but in the heart of the
conservative Midwest. It was a home away from home for punks, skaters,
metalheads, hippies, schizos, homeless vets, and anyone who didn’t fit in the
mainstream. In the middle of the downtown business strip near the campus the
park itself was out of place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of
the young kids who called the park home knew their spot wouldn’t have been
there if the Klan had not bombed a black-owned business in 1969. One witness to
the bombing was Electric Fred, often dismissed as crazy Fred listens to
blasting static on his Walkman and writes conspiracy theories in his notebooks.
To Justin and his friends it is all part of the world out of the mainstream
they are discovering by hanging out in the park in the summer of 1989. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fred’s rantings about evil forces are easy to
dismiss. As the forces of hate grow stronger the warnings scribbled in his hundreds
of notebooks are coming true.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A true 80s coming of age Bizarro horror novel People’s
Park is <i>Stranger Things</i> with punk rock and skateboards with a blend of
mind-bending Sci-fi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Author David
Agranoff did grow up in Indiana in the 80's and brings a personal touch to this
genre defying novel has several mind-bending twists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At its heart People’s Park is a love letter
to freaks and weirdos. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David Agranoff is
the author of 11 books and the long time co-host of the Dickheads podcast
devoted to the work of Philip K. Dick.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“People’s
Park is a wild sci fi coming of age story where the freaks, weirdos and punks
get their time in the spotlight. And it just might be David Agranoff’s best
work yet.” -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Desmond Reddick Host of the
Dread Media podcast</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">People’s
Park is published by:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.quoir.com/">www.quoir.com/</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.dharlanwilson.com">www.dharlanwilson.com</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://anti-oedipuspress.com/">https://anti-oedipuspress.com/</a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">About the
Authors:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">David Agranoff Grew up in Bloomington, Indiana hanging in the park
that inspired this novel. His future wife worked at the Spoon serving the real-life
Electric Fred. They live in San Diego with two Electric Fred’s notebooks and a
house full of rescued animals. David is a novelist, screenwriter and a Horror
and Science Fiction critic. He is the Splatterpunk and Wonderland book award
nominated author of 11 books including the novels the WW II Vampire novel - <i>The
Last Night to Kill Nazis</i>, and the science fiction novel <i>Goddamn Killing
Machines</i> from CLASH BOOKS, The Cli-fi novel <i>Ring of Fire</i>, <i>Punk
Rock Ghost Story</i> He co-wrote a novel <i>Nightmare City</i> (with Anthony
Trevino) that he likes to pitch as The Wire if Clive Barker and Philip K Dick
were on the writing staff. As a critic he has written more than a thousand book
reviews on his blog <i>Postcards from a Dying World</i> which has recently
become a podcast, featuring interviews with award-winning and bestselling
authors such Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay, Alma Katsu and Josh Malerman.
For the last five years David has co-hosted the Dickheads podcast, a deep-dive
into the work of Philip K. Dick reviewing his novels in publication order as
well as the history of Science Fiction. David’s non-fiction essays have
appeared on Tor.com, NeoText and Cemetery Dance. He just finished writing a
book, <i>Unfinished PKD</i> on the unpublished fragments and outlines of Philip
K. Dick. He lives in San Diego where you can find him hooping in pick-up games
and taking too many threes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">D. HARLAN WILSON is an award-winning American scholar, novelist,
editor, literary critic, playwright, talkshow host, and college professor whose
body of work bridges the aesthetics of literary theory with various genres of
speculative fiction. Critically referred to as “a genre unto himself” with a
“style that is completely without peer,” he is the author of over thirty
book-length works of fiction and nonfiction, and hundreds of his stories,
essays, and reviews have appeared in magazines, journals, and anthologies across
the world in multiple languages. Wilson serves as reviews editor for
Extrapolation, managing editor for Guide Dog Books, and editor-in-chief of
Anti-Oedipus Press. With authors David Agranoff and Langhorne J. Tweed, he is
also the co-host of the Dickheads Podcast, devoted to the life and writing of
Philip K. Dick. For more biographical and bibliographic information, refer to
Wilson’s entries at Goodreads, Amazon, Wikipedia and SF Encyclopedia.</span></p>
David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-40794056490551131952024-01-29T09:23:00.000-08:002024-02-09T06:29:05.684-08:00Book Review: Riding The Torch by Norman Spinrad<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk-8EN_DGoNDGSCEQM7KNCF1MWUNhiAVA66tou6lPtxwKoC9RoC_lWB2NIVViS9-_-KCH4LMd_W5fciszpn5wRP7-D1IHGAGQGFVD1UHaifWboW9MnY-4y0opk8TxeU6ufLNKVp70di7WPs5qw0w1FrVQY80qc1r88SSC9z6IktFu4fhNzWVdjIomqx8/s464/riding%20the%20torch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk-8EN_DGoNDGSCEQM7KNCF1MWUNhiAVA66tou6lPtxwKoC9RoC_lWB2NIVViS9-_-KCH4LMd_W5fciszpn5wRP7-D1IHGAGQGFVD1UHaifWboW9MnY-4y0opk8TxeU6ufLNKVp70di7WPs5qw0w1FrVQY80qc1r88SSC9z6IktFu4fhNzWVdjIomqx8/s320/riding%20the%20torch.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Riding the Torch by Norman Spinrad</p><p>172 pages, Paperback<br />Published June , 1984 by Bluejay Books (NYC)</p><p>Full review coming: </p><p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/interview-13-norman-spinrad-spinrad-spectacular-part-1" target="_blank">My Dickheads podcast Interview with Norman Spinrad</a> </p><p> When I interviewed Norman Spinrad for the Dickheads Podcast he told me my first question was stupid. In fairness, I was trying to break the ice and I asked how he discovered Science Fiction. I get it, he was on a Philip K. Dick podcast and I am sure he assumed I was nothing but a super fan of his late friend who died in 1982. Spinrad eased up on me when it was clear I was a nerd for his books and knew his canon pretty well. Riding the Torch is my 10th Spinrad experience and 11th if you could the brand new novella <i>The Canopy </i>in<i> The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction</i>.</p><p><br />Published 8 years into his Science Fiction career, Spinrad had already made a name for himself, still a part of the Southern California scene. At the time he had already written two episodes of Star Trek one that was made (<i>The Doomsday Machine</i>), and had a controversy with the British banning of his novel <i>Bug Jack Barron</i>. <br /><br /><i>Riding the Torch</i> is one I had heard was great but didn’t have it until I picked it up recently on a trip to Los Angeles. I think I got it at the Illiad, shout out to Lisa Morton. This novella comes with great illustrations by Tom Kidd and two afterwords that break down some of the themes and ideas at play. I wish more books would include essays like that. <br /><br />The story is an entry in a classic subgenre of the generation ship. From Heinlein’s <i>Universe</i> to Kim Stanley Robinson’s <i>Aurora</i> and River Solomon’s <i>Unkindness of Ghosts</i> the diversity of these tales that approached this theme are vast. Decades apart and done with very different tones and styles Spinrad seems to be making a similar point.to <i>Aurora</i> the KSR novel that I consider to be one of the best Hard SF novels in this century. <br /><br />Spinrad doesn’t write hard or so-called realistic science fiction. My favorite of his space-faring SF novels <i>The Void Captain’s Tale</i> is so strange that it borders on fantasy. <i>Riding the Torch</i> is similar in this vein. For a thousand years or more “The Trek” (the intentionally ironic) name for the wagon train to the stars that humanity has been on since the human race destroyed their home. When our story opens the council of pilots is sending a probe to a world that may be a new home for our species. <br /><i><br />“We’re all refugees too. We’ve killed the living world that gave us birth. Even you and I may never see another.”</i><br /><br />The harsh message of this novel is nothing new, ecologically minded science fiction was common but Spinrad is doing more than saying killing the earth is bad. He is making a point that might seem sacrilegious to the genre – The earth is the planet we evolved on, and Spinrad is challenging the idea that any other planet could ever sustain us. That was the bummer message of Robinson’s <i>Aurora</i> as well. It is a bummer in part because we morons are destroying the sustainability of the only planet we have. Science Fiction often presents false hope that Mars or some other world could be our new home. <br /><br /><i>Riding the Torch</i> is an interesting read in part because the way it makes the point is so oddly new wave while having a slight fantasy feel. The Trek feels odd and that is right because it is supposed to depict a human civilization that has spent generations in space. So the way society functions is strange and Spinrad has thought out many aspects – but keep in mind that is mostly just world-building. One way it is deeper than world-building is in the form of the Voidsuckers.<br /><br /><i>“The voidsuckers have been out there in the flesh for over half a millennium, spending most of their with no tap connection to the Trek, to everything that makes the only human civilization there is what it is.”</i><br /><br />While most of the people who live on the Trek are in denial, the Voidsuckers are the ones who embrace the void.. They have these religious experiences when they go out alone into space. I was fine with how these scenes were written but honestly, I would have enjoyed even more of this stuff.<br /><i><br />“We man the scoutships to reach the void, we don’t brave the void to man scout ships.” She said. “We sacrifice nothing but illusion. We live with the truth. We live for the truth.”</i><br /><br />The truth is something hard to come by in the Trek. Because it would kill morale, it is interesting because I kept thinking for our species to survive we need to do the opposite. Stop protecting people’s feelings. But protecting their feelings is what they do.<br /><br /><i>“We already know that 977-Beta_II is dead,” Sidi said. “We knew it before we reported it to the council of pilots. This whole mission like hundreds before it, is an empty gesture.”<br />“But why have they been lying to us like this? D’Mahl shouted. “What right did you have? What-“<br />“What were we supposed to say? Bandoora shouted back. “that it’s all dead? That life on Earth was a unique accident? That nothing exists but emptiness and dead matter and the murderers of the only life there ever was? What are we supposed say D’Mahl? What are we supposed to say.”</i><br /><br />We are not on the Trek. Spinrad seemed to write this novel to remind us. You don’t want to be on the Trek. This planet is special, and there may not be another habitable planet in our reach, it seems unlikely but we may be alone, or at least in this region of space. Spinrad writes political science fiction. He likes to challenge doctrine, he likes to write genre that is outspoken and with a clear point of view. <i>Riding the Torch</i> is that, it is short but a masterpiece in my opinion but I have always been partial to Spinrad. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-85678229810466844192024-01-29T08:46:00.000-08:002024-02-04T09:38:57.649-08:00Book Review: Fever House by Keith Rosson<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJfvdppn6xfDB5ux8FqbHvpqrdiG8vINWtNKE5RK_h-bnWAa_RFCjWTuHNpOPFfTGIT7O5hgDKNxrQbf2K4F555sskhh4MNCoI3LjdS8guwCU50_MWsq6Flo-nfPBPc4hd8AHNMvo6R5tqotluX7etb9LCnO6IYCFwi0CW4um5ePCXvwRM-8I7ZDqB1sA/s400/fever%20house.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJfvdppn6xfDB5ux8FqbHvpqrdiG8vINWtNKE5RK_h-bnWAa_RFCjWTuHNpOPFfTGIT7O5hgDKNxrQbf2K4F555sskhh4MNCoI3LjdS8guwCU50_MWsq6Flo-nfPBPc4hd8AHNMvo6R5tqotluX7etb9LCnO6IYCFwi0CW4um5ePCXvwRM-8I7ZDqB1sA/s320/fever%20house.jpg" width="210" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p> Fever House by Keith Rosson</p><p>417 pages, Hardcover<br />Published August, 2023 by Random House</p><p>A podcast interview coming!</p><p>How in the holy hell did I not hear of this book sooner? Weird crime, occult horror, a wee bit of metal, and some (punk)rock and roll set in many of my old haunts in Portland. I have no idea how I missed this one that would have made my best of 2023 list had I read it in time. It was a best-of-the-year ranking from the Talking Scared podcast that got this book on my radar. <br /><br />I like crime novels, but I LOVE weird crime novels. I know the<i> Pulp Fiction</i> comparisons will be beaten to a pulp but think more about Elmore Leonard. I was thinking of Lansdale a bit, I know he feels so geographic it is hard to make that comparison to anything set outside of the South. Fever House is maybe not quite as laughter-inducing, although I chuckled often enough. This is a fun read, disturbing at times but I read it fast over a couple of commutes and almost missed my stop.</p><p><i>Fever House</i> is the story of several characters spread out around Portland Oregon. It opens on tough guy Hutch Holtz. You might be thinking this is his story and you wouldn’t be far off. I read this book cold, knowing nothing of the plot. I thought OK we are chasing down a gangster’s money, then Hutch finds the hand in a wonderbread bag in the freezer. That is when things start to get weird. <br /><br />The hand affects people around it. Makes them violent, quick to anger. I think the freezer might have blocked it. Hutch is afraid that the hand might implicate him and his friend takes it to dispose of it but the chaos starts right away and also opens the mystery of what the hell is this thing? <br />We get introduced to Hutch’s boss, a Dark Ops agent looking for the hand, a friend Nick Coffin, and his former rock star mom Katherine who went from touring to agoraphobia. Nick and Katherine interestingly become the protagonists of the book after we start on Hutch. It is an interesting narrative switch-a-roo that had me wondering if that was an accident by the author. Had Rosson intended to center the book on Hutch?<br /><br />Nick and Katherine and their character elements were as interesting to me as almost anything in the book. Hutch drops out of the book and I could see some editors or storytelling Gurus saying that was a mistake structure-wise. It didn’t bother me but it was a strange choice to give me a hundred to like a character who disappears. That said Katherine is a fascinating character, and alongside her son Nick that novel is in good hands. <br /><br />If you trust me and want to go in unspoiled let me just assure you of some things. This is a horror crime novel that mixes street-level brutality, humor, and supernatural elements. Much was made in the review of the hard rock or metal edges to the book but I thought those were minor. The crime aspects are where Rosson hooked me. Good crime novels excel in characters and dialogue, and this novel does those moments well. The horror elements work but not as effortlessly as the crime. It is a banger, and despite being long-ish it works. One of the best moments in the novel highlights for me the excellent writing and storytelling chops at play.<br /><br />This happens late in the novel when Katherine after suffering from intense agoraphobia has to escape into the night.<br /><i><br />“Katherine steps out, expecting gunfire and helicopters Men in a perimeter around the door, screaming at her with their weapons drawn.<br />Instead the night smells of rain. A city street, a boxy white moving van parked at the curb. A street of featureless office parks and garages. More warehouses. Alleyways dark with tangles of blackberry bushes. Lights shining from windows like squares cut out of dark paper. <br />The door clicks shut behind her. Katherine breathes for a single moment and then runs out into the world with her gun.” </i><br /><br /><i>Fever House</i> is filed with powerful moments like this. Many reviews with focus on the brutal bits, and the humor. That is much of the appeal. The writing is excellent on all levels. This is really cool hybrid novel, and I am excited to read the sequel. <br /> </p><p><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-39605865133207594332024-01-27T18:40:00.000-08:002024-01-27T18:40:17.109-08:00Book Review: The Way the Future Was: A Memoir by Frederik Pohl <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaU7uUTy-e9R8FA0sXWj6LskMzSonvzlffOx3Q_g1OcZsknAicMHJ3avQb8tJBfEn7O2Rn8c3O18ADR3dnKppBCTu4WtuBmJ8Zh0l9Kw2Ehezacx_dFi62VoHH0xENQBvHO02iIJZ5OqnaM2TNU9Ohr4gOYMhuUCJ966l0QXk-ETC92CGVhizkOFxFWSo/s475/The%20Way%20the%20Future%20Was.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="281" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaU7uUTy-e9R8FA0sXWj6LskMzSonvzlffOx3Q_g1OcZsknAicMHJ3avQb8tJBfEn7O2Rn8c3O18ADR3dnKppBCTu4WtuBmJ8Zh0l9Kw2Ehezacx_dFi62VoHH0xENQBvHO02iIJZ5OqnaM2TNU9Ohr4gOYMhuUCJ966l0QXk-ETC92CGVhizkOFxFWSo/s320/The%20Way%20the%20Future%20Was.jpg" width="189" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p> The Way the Future Was: A Memoir by Frederik Pohl <br />293 pages, Mass Market Paperback<br />Published May 1979 by Ballantine Del Rey<br /><br />I am starting to figure out that all these OG golden age Science Fiction authors wrote memoirs. I am starting to think if you read <i>Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee, Futurians by Damon Knight</i>, and all their memoirs you might feel like you were around back in those days when Science Fiction was young and the genre was new. Let's not totally idealize those far-from-progressive days but it is nice to get all those people’s points of view.<br /><br />Fredrick Pohl is a huge name in Science Fiction who won Hugo awards for both writing and editing. He worked for publishers and agents reading slush piles, he was an agent himself and took the reins of Galaxy magazine from the stewardship of Horce Gold considered one of the best SF magazine editors of the era. He wrote classic novels with CM Kornbluth like <i>Space Merchants </i>and his own classics in <i>Gateway</i> and <i>Man Plus</i>. <br /><br />He is a big deal in Science Fiction, in the rest of the world he is a nerdy dude. His story is important to us. I listed all the things he has not just to explain why Pohl is important but why his story is important. Growing up in Depression-era Brooklyn is interesting enough but the story of how he found science fiction in the 20s is fascinating to me. Pohl was at the ground level of the genre itself so his story includes the first SF fan club meetings, and conventions, and stretches through the industry it became by the time of his memoir.<br /><br />If you want to understand the growth and mechanics of the genre in the 20th century this book is an excellent place to start. It also has 16 pages of great pictures. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Science Fiction. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-23805423204126372782024-01-27T17:09:00.000-08:002024-01-27T17:09:27.228-08:00Book Review: We Are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull (Convergence Saga #2)<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRiPzjJfWurlCNvWNtRRQZRHcRoGwiOPZg38yP4HNO4Pd0IUk8Ig_Zipg-soLK0fExlVaJT36um5I6VT2dQObdH5fkbkqCn9M7rgXg-EStnY094UVwIKDdNDaKVJqZ2WdX8SB29TWU6fkFMC3g2qcSGj-8VG9VblfTW4A92ZwmyiCh0sNKRYTYbxrhVhE/s1760/We%20are%20the%20cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1760" data-original-width="1100" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRiPzjJfWurlCNvWNtRRQZRHcRoGwiOPZg38yP4HNO4Pd0IUk8Ig_Zipg-soLK0fExlVaJT36um5I6VT2dQObdH5fkbkqCn9M7rgXg-EStnY094UVwIKDdNDaKVJqZ2WdX8SB29TWU6fkFMC3g2qcSGj-8VG9VblfTW4A92ZwmyiCh0sNKRYTYbxrhVhE/s320/We%20are%20the%20cover.png" width="200" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>We are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull (Convergence Saga #2)<br /></p><p>338 pages, Hardcover<br />Published November, 2023 by Blackstone Publishing<br /></p><p><br />The first book in this series <i>No Gods, No Monsters</i> was by first book by Cadwell Turnbull. It is an Anarchist werewolf novel with lots of cosmic horror. It is a book that has a major character who is a member of a collective book shop that is a bi-racial, asexual trans anarchist who grew up reading Leguin and Bakunin alike. In many ways, this novel’s pitch-black fantasy and moments of cosmic horror combined with monsters we can root for feels like Clive Barker’s <i>Cabal</i> if he grew up listening to anarcho-punk and being an activist. If I read the book without a bio and author photo I might have stereotyped the author as a green-haired crust punk, but Turnbull is a black author who grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands.</p><p><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwT1CElqibo " target="_blank">Interview I did with Cadwell on book 1</a> (My audio is messed up he sounds great)<br /><br />Now in the interview, he admits at the time he had not yet read Barker, the comparisons were not intentional. This series referred to as the <i>Convergence Saga</i> takes place mostly around Boston after ‘the fracture effect’ an event that outs the existence of monsters to the world. The first novel that centered around an anarchist bookstore and activism was something I related to and had locked me in for this series.<br /><br />Set three years after the first book, members of the wolf pack are starting to disappear and the suspects are a radical ant-monster group called Black Hand. This group seems to mirror the rise of MAGA and anti-LBGTQ organizing that we have seen rise as society has become more accepting. On the surface, it would be easy to paint this series as a civil rights allegory. It is that but also touches on cosmic horror elements and magic itself.<br /><br />As much as I loved the first book I had to re-read my review to stoke my memory, that said as soon as I started to read the story came back to me. Again the activism at the heart of the story worked better for me than the action. <br /><br />Like the first book, the first scene to stand out to me was a meeting of New Era a pro-monster group. Turnbull is interested in how these communities organize, and you do that through meetings.<i> “Ridley, for those who don’t know me, I co-own the bookstore in Union Square, in Sommerville. I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but when you say ‘protect each other,’ how far are you willing to go?”</i><br /><br />No one has an easy answer to that question. The scene where a woman becomes a wolf in the meeting is one of the most powerful of the series.<br /><br /><i>“You can look at her,” Ridley is saying. “That’s the whole point. See that she is not dangerous.”</i><br /><br />In the modern world, the right is organized around and by othering, and creating fear of immigrants, Trans people, and liberals themselves who they mock as Lib-tards. The chief allegory of this series could seem on the nose if it was so accurate in scenes like this. This could come off as silly, and it requires the reader to step off the cliff with their imagination a bit.<br /><br /> Civil rights and the debate over them appear to be the theme of this book and the cosmic forces directing the pro and anti-monster in a war or conflict is where we are heading. If there is one weakness the monsters are not as weird and diverse as they could be. That said weird monsters are not exactly the point. <i>We Are the Crisis</i> feels like it says sides, corners, and ideas I can’t come close to understanding all of. I think that is one of the best things about it. The level of thought and care in the storytelling is clear. If you were dispassionately describing the concept it might sound goofy. It is not, it is powerful storytelling that speaks to the struggles of otherness in our culture. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-64127290412889328782024-01-27T12:48:00.000-08:002024-01-27T12:48:07.850-08:00Book Review: Nerves by Lester Del Rey<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilN8yVB8OgRHcZd63M8p5hXBhnczjOq4cVRAVZ_Ce-I5GyeusH2FUJenRQUhgLZ28xzYx_HXs4TdOTwlHkJ6tm34hRsfM8K2JRrCMCVxLu-YdL3xOBbrTdxb_V0vEa2RPPvqSCLkYmV09vqvc1VuEqedCCKqJMieD4loE-qbs0fs60_fL3pMDhffBl0wQ/s475/Nerves%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="284" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilN8yVB8OgRHcZd63M8p5hXBhnczjOq4cVRAVZ_Ce-I5GyeusH2FUJenRQUhgLZ28xzYx_HXs4TdOTwlHkJ6tm34hRsfM8K2JRrCMCVxLu-YdL3xOBbrTdxb_V0vEa2RPPvqSCLkYmV09vqvc1VuEqedCCKqJMieD4loE-qbs0fs60_fL3pMDhffBl0wQ/s320/Nerves%20cover.jpg" width="191" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Nerves by Lester Del Rey</p><p>153 pages, Paperback<br /><br />Novel First published June, 1956 Novelette September 1942.<br /></p><p><br />Reviews take time and research support my efforts here: <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/DavidAgranoff" target="_blank">Buy me a coffee!</a><br /><br />Recently recorded a podcast for my Science Fiction Hall of Fame series on the classic story by Lester Del Rey <i>Helen O’Loy</i>. I have to admit before reading that story I have not read any work by the famous Golden Age author. I was familiar sure, when I was a young Science Fiction reader Del Rey's books were a mark of quality to me. I didn’t realize at the time that there were two people behind that name who had built that brand. (that is another column)<br /><br /><a href=" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-136-sci-fi-hall-of-fame-stories-discussion/id1524359471?i=1000642634840" target="_blank">Podcast on Helen O'Loy and Del Rey</a><br /><br />When preparing for the podcast I pulled this book off the shelf that I had there for a few years now waiting to be read. Lester Del Rey is an interesting character in Science Fiction who grew up in rural southeastern Minnesota unlike the New York Futurians he was alone and invented some hilarious mythologies about himself, and how he got his famous pen name. Leonard Knapp chose to live as Lester Del Rey and that is that.<br /><br />In the late 30s like many young writers in that era, he was writing to please and sell to Astounding editor John W. Campbell. Once Del Rey had relocated to New York City and was a part of the community he became one of the authors that Campbell gave seeds of ideas to authors. As Issac Asimov’s <i>Foundation</i> became a loosely adapted AppleTV the world of Harry Seldon and the Galactic empire began with Campbell giving Asimov one of those seeds.<br /><br />This novel Nerves is often cited as an example of predictive SF appears to have started with Campbell’s fascination with Nuclear power several years before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. According to Alec Nevala- Lee’s biography of Campbel Astounding <i>“Del Rey’s Masterpiece was ‘Nerves,’ a thriller about a nuclear accident that the editor pitched “not merely as an idea, but as to the viewpoint and the technique that made it possible.”</i> And that was what interested me. To write a novella about a Chernobyl-type meltdown in the early days of WW II is an excellent piece of speculative writing. The nuclear stories were enough to cause government agents to show and question Campbell, who would have told you it was reading scientific journals.<br /><br />The Novella of <i>Nerves</i> first appeared in the September 1942 issue of Astounding. It is a great issue of the magazine The issue opens with a time travel novella by Anthony Boucher (six years before starting his Berkeley SF classes), Fredric Brown who was known for bringing humor to SF in the golden era, and Lewis Padgett the joint pseudonym of the science fiction authors Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore. </p><p>The novel published in 1956 is called an expansion or fix-up but it is different. It is the same idea and characters just written with a narrative structure. While the novelette version was overseen by Campbell as editor, Fredrick Pohl who was serving as Del Rey’s agent in 1956 oversaw the novel, enough that Del Rey dedicated it to him. This story coming from 1956 is a little less impressive but the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, in the Soviet Union had been going for two years. Still, the short story was 12 years before that. <br /><br />The story is centered around Doctor Ferrel the lead medical personnel working in the atomic planet in Missouri. It is not stated in the story what year this is, but it is implied that the country has been using atomic energy for a few decades. We are introduced to the Doctor when he is on-call and breaks back to the plant to deal with an emergency. Del Rey (or Campbell) was smart to use the angle of the medical staff. It puts one of Campbell's beloved competent heroes in the story but the medical doctor doesn’t have to have to knowledge of atomics that an expert would. <br /><br />The politics of the plant and where it was placed in the world were very curious to me. Del Rey plays with the idea that neighborhoods were built around the plant but over time people didn’t want to keep living close to it. The retro nature of this story is right on the surface once the crisis starts there is a scene when they try to find the scientist from the plant and they are calling restaurants and nightclubs around town. Del Rey didn’t envision a future when a cell phone or even a pager existed. But the paper printout on 1940s spaceships is one of the reasons we read the old stuff right?<br /><br />Through the eyes of the doctor much of the action and suspense centers around the burns and damage to the workers. Even though the theme is in the title, it is often overlooked the role of fear of what could happen.<br /><br /><i>“Nerves! Jorgenson had his blocked out, but Ferrel wondered if the rest of them weren’t in as bad a state. Probably somewhere well within their grasp, there was a solution that was being held back because the nerves of everyone in the plant were blocked by fear and pressure that defeated its own purpose.”</i><br /><br />The idea that fear and nerves are caused by working so close to powers so great is much of the building of terror and suspense. In some ways, the shorter more compact novelette from 1942 sells this better. The art of terror-filled faces certainly didn’t hurt. <br /><br /><i>Nerves</i> is a better artifact than a novel, like CM Kornbluth’s <i>Takeoff </i>of a Moonshot written 17 years before humans made it there. It is interesting to explore. I enjoyed reading this novel but if you don’t find the out-of-date stuff charming and interesting it may not work for you. Is this canon for the genre? Who am I to say but I think the way it predicted stuff is important and interesting so in that sense yes. I consider this canon, of course, that is just my opinion but that is what I am here for. <i>Nerves</i> offers much to study and understand. It teaches us what the speculation of a nuclear accident was like. We now have three real-life accidents to compare it to. To many the events in the real world only added to its power. <br /><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmM_UozP16vyZtedRxvdLbrgXv5JY5Aycxy-E-ynJc3H5npuEhS3dIdENoJXy3yPowLQH3UdlFq_kzKbinPQnsG4UayheUl2SuqpAOufDVS18Y7RiY-8J702YQNDQY6StrBe6E57Zx8OyFGi-4zYvbgIH5TfuBAnAO5rhxdcdmWLLPZZfGNxZbkBwSgck/s797/Nerves%20OG%20page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmM_UozP16vyZtedRxvdLbrgXv5JY5Aycxy-E-ynJc3H5npuEhS3dIdENoJXy3yPowLQH3UdlFq_kzKbinPQnsG4UayheUl2SuqpAOufDVS18Y7RiY-8J702YQNDQY6StrBe6E57Zx8OyFGi-4zYvbgIH5TfuBAnAO5rhxdcdmWLLPZZfGNxZbkBwSgck/s320/Nerves%20OG%20page.jpg" width="221" /></a></div><br />David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-72105541074909160922024-01-27T10:19:00.000-08:002024-01-27T10:19:22.752-08:00Book Review: Shrapnel: Contemplations by Lance Olsen<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIvLQvq-Picbe6BMeff71hfI5_aRBsIXOu2n-VvrKjgAnfbQs3wBgqhPArxSRAdherzj1QmcPM-AqMXH__aaybIsNV0rHV5v5gvLONX7hPBs0BgBHx_Fu1uFlOFzJTahjoPhpYLAKlshPkNCPe2s4h9GfaerLvNG5CorgpnUgiRdWuTPke6DTmNXm9oLI/s1600/sharpnel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1002" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIvLQvq-Picbe6BMeff71hfI5_aRBsIXOu2n-VvrKjgAnfbQs3wBgqhPArxSRAdherzj1QmcPM-AqMXH__aaybIsNV0rHV5v5gvLONX7hPBs0BgBHx_Fu1uFlOFzJTahjoPhpYLAKlshPkNCPe2s4h9GfaerLvNG5CorgpnUgiRdWuTPke6DTmNXm9oLI/s320/sharpnel.png" width="200" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Shrapnel: Contemplations by Lance Olsen</p><p>298 pages, Hardcover<br /> Expected publication: February 1, 2024 by Anti-Oedipus Press<br /></p><p> I admit Lance Olsen who has written many books was new to me. AOP and the works published by my Dickheads Co-host D.Harlan Wilson have for years been an automatic read. The many cover designs had me thinking this might be a horror or ultra-violent story collection but it instead it is a collection of essays of intense literary criticism, musings, and ideas. The last bit is interviews with the author. </p><p><span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"></span></p><div class="authorName__container"></div><div class="authorName__container">This might sound like a backhanded compliment but this book is loaded with big words and highly academic language, I admit some of goes over my head. The essays tend to move effortlessly from commenting on reading and writing. The first six essays "Limit Situations" my favorite these essays was <i>"Reading/Writing as Tangle." </i></div><br /><i><br />"Nietzsche, Bataille, Deluze, and others are emblematic of the appreciation that exists in any meaningful way until the event of reading occurs, and that event is a form of writing and unwriting."</i> When Olsen suggests without the right mind a piece of writing doesn't work as well. He does a lot to get into feelings I know well. Reading is different for writers. I enjoyed this essay.<br /><br />The 2 section Autrebioprahies has a few great essays like Literary Autism and the wonderfully snooty title of <i>"Ontological Metalepses & the Politics of the Page."</i> Section 3 Speech Acts are interviews with Olsen or ones he was a part of. <br /><br />This time of book of essays is one I might not have read if I had been gifted a copy but I am glad I did. It was a thought-provoking work. I had to slow down from time to time and think about passages. This is not a light read. What is important about what AOP is doing here is making these types of books available in mainstream release. Not ultra-expensive academic publishing editions that are cost-prohibitive to most readers. Two or three of the essays would be worth the volume alone but every single essay has value. <br /><br /><br /><p></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-84060192336803361982024-01-21T10:07:00.000-08:002024-01-21T10:07:33.897-08:00Book Review: The Female Man by Joanna Russ<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYK8uT8_aNpnRyqujOHU1sWgreM-olrRrTIfhYJvnacc-3O1FavkrewCf9vUEesHKhzAdJJcMtNzCeTprKNiSiKaFO9t3oEco1DE9G1bkjK3fLjakGdBq8w4JHccJxQWgc7JVXFDzRkJOF7n7CA3hZHzyJ-48Vf9XHVx5eRRyqETuOtNv2DJqbkLj8ek/s475/Female%20man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="312" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYK8uT8_aNpnRyqujOHU1sWgreM-olrRrTIfhYJvnacc-3O1FavkrewCf9vUEesHKhzAdJJcMtNzCeTprKNiSiKaFO9t3oEco1DE9G1bkjK3fLjakGdBq8w4JHccJxQWgc7JVXFDzRkJOF7n7CA3hZHzyJ-48Vf9XHVx5eRRyqETuOtNv2DJqbkLj8ek/s320/Female%20man.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The Female Man by Joanna Russ</p><p> 214 pages, Paperback<br />Published March, 2000 by Beacon Press (First published in 1975)</p><p>Literary awards:</p><p> Nebula Award Nominee for Novel (1975), </p><p>James Tiptree Jr. Award for Retrospective (1995)</p><p><br />There are certain novels in the science fiction canon it is a straight-up crime I have not read. I was beginning to feel like a poser having not read any Russ before last year. Experiencing Joanna Russ for the first time for the best SF novel of 1968 debate episode of Postcards from Dying World (the podcast!) I knew I had to read more. I mean <i>Picnic on Paradise</i> was good but <i>The Female Man</i> was considered her masterpiece, so I ordered it right away. It took me a couple of months to get to it.<br />In the past, this is where I would do a little history lesson on the author her place in the greater genre. I am saving those types of commentary for a future Amazing Stories column. Let’s just focus on this book.<br /><br />After some traditional Science fiction much like the fantasy adventure of <i>Picnic on Paradise</i> Russ wrote plenty of essays and was teaching. When she wrote this novel she was teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Russ was not driven by market forces. She could experiment with her next novel and she did. The result was a surreal feminist utopia that is deeply tied to the second wave of feminism. <br /><br />As a science fiction writer or an essayist, she was more directly a feminist thinker and commentator than many of the other major women writers in the genre. Most of the women who were foundational in the early like Leigh Brackett mostly stayed away from telling tales that addressed gender issues or talked about being a woman. But Catherine Lucille Moore made a middle-aged woman her sword-carrying fantasy hero. Judith Merril made it into the SF Hall of Fame with <i>Only a Mother</i> but it was not until Leguin and Russ that feminism made it into the major award categories as the point. Certainly, womanhood was a part of the genre before Russ and Lisa Yazsek’s amazing collection <i>The Future is Female</i> is filled with examples (at great place to start if you are seeking examples). <i>The Female Man </i>is pure undeniable feminism that is meta and hardly allegory. It makes it different.<br /><br />Leguin’s <i>Left Hand of Darkness</i> deals with gender but through the lens of a very alien culture, but it is something in the still fairly sexist 70s that a novel that explores Feminism would be nominated for a Hugo. Science Fiction was a' changin'. I get that I am not exactly the target audience for understanding everything Russ is trying to express. Much of the novel speaks to experiences lived and felt by women. I am however the target audience of SF readers. I think Russ was trying to reach us because the concepts are fun. You can sell this novel as a lesbian time-traveling novel that starts in a female utopia. It is that, but also more.<br /><br />The narrative is spread over nine parts, that revolve between four different points of view characters, one of which is Joanna herself. The four women whose names all start with J live in four different realities and times. We open in Whileaway… <i>“Whileaway you may gather, is in the future. But not our future.”</i> Like a far future extrapolation of Tiptree’s <i>Screwfly Solution</i>, this future was the most interesting part to me it is pretty much our future utopia woman Janet has to interface with our world at least as it is in the 70s the book was unleashed into. We are introduced to Joanna who is clearing a meta version of our author. The last J women who make up the four POVs are Jeannine who lives in an America whose great depression never ended. The final point of view is Jael who has been fighting an open and literal war of the sexes com between men (Manlanders) and women (Womanlanders). <br /><br />Often those critical of this novella say they like the idea but the story serves as a framework for the sometimes surreal commentary. There is a story, in fact as you can see there are four stories at work. Some people think that Mad Max Fury Road doesn't have a story because it happens during a chase. There is plenty of story in this book.<br /><br />One of the strengths of the novel in a science fiction concept Russ gets to play with the World-building A female Utopia, the alternate history and the war of the sexes. There are tons of fun SF nuggets throughout but the strength is the commentary. So-called Anti-woke readers will hate it, and people who want subtle messages will likely be turned off as well. Russ speaks to common frustrations<br /><br /><i>“If you scream, people say you're melodramatic; if you submit, you’re masochistic; if you call names, you're a bitch. Hit him and he'll kill you. The best thing is to suffer mutely and yearn for a rescuer, but suppose a rescuer doesn't come?” </i><br /><br />The book is filled with quotes that hit hard like that one. I could put twice as many into this review. This novel speaks hard truths.<br /><br />Inequalities...<br /> <br /><i>“Finding The Man. Keeping The Man. Not scaring The Man, building up The Man, following The Man, soothing The Man, flattering The Man, deferring to The Man, changing your judgment for The Man, changing your decisions for The Man, polishing floors for The Man, being perpetually conscious of your appearance for The Man, being romantic for The Man, hinting to The Man, losing yourself in The Man. 'I never had a thought that wasn't yours.' Sob, sob. Whenever I act like a human being, they say, 'What are you getting upset about?' They say: of course, you'll get married. They say: of course you're brilliant. They say: of course, you'll get a PhD and then sacrifice it to have babies. They say: if you don't, you're the one who'll have two jobs and you can make a go of it if you're exceptional, which very few women are, and if you find a very understanding man. As long as you don't make more money than he does. How do they expect me to live all this junk?”<br /> </i><br />Cultural expectations of women...<br /><br /><i>“Of course, you don’t want me to be stupid, bless you! you only want to make sure you’re intelligent. You don’t want me to commit suicide; you only want me to be gratefully aware of my dependency. You don’t want me to despise myself; you only want the flattering deference to you that you consider a spontaneous tribute to your natural qualities. You don’t want me to lose my soul; you only want what everybody wants, things to go your way; you want a devoted helpmeet, a self-sacrificing mother, a hot chick, a darling daughter, women to look at, women to laugh at, women to come for comfort, women to wash your floors and buy your groceries and cook your food and keep your children out of your hair, to work when you need the money and stay home when you don’t, women to be enemies when you want a good fight, women who are sexy when you want a good lay, women who don’t complain, women who don’t nag or push, women who don’t hate you really, women who know their job and above all—women who lose. On top of it all, you sincerely require me to be happy; you are naively puzzled that I should be wretched and so full of venom in this the best of all possible worlds. Whatever can be the matter with me? But the mode is more than a little outworn.<br /><br />As my mother once said: the boys throw stones at the frogs in jest.<br /><br />But the frogs die in earnest.”</i><br /><br />That last line is to me the most powerful of the book. I found it powerful to experience the frustration and rage Russ was expressing. It is what makes this novel special and different.<br /><br /><i>“I’m a sick woman, a madwoman, a ball-breaker, a man-eater; I don’t consume men gracefully with my fire-like red hair or my poisoned kiss; I crack their joints with these filthy ghoul’s claws and standing on one foot like a de-clawed cat, rake at your feeble efforts to save yourselves with my taloned hinder feet: my matted hair, my filthy skin, my big fat plaques of green bloody teeth. I don’t think my body would sell anything. I don’t think I’d be good to look at. O of all diseases self-hate is the worst and I don’t mean for the one who suffers it!”</i><br /><br />This is a classic worthy of being a Hugo winner representing most years. The problem with that fate of The Female Man is it was the same year as Philip K. Dick's <i>Flow My Tears</i> and Leguin's <i>The Dispossessed</i>. It appeared that year belonged to a showdown of the class of 1947 at Berkeley High School. Leguin deserved the award and that is the novel I would have voted for in that position. As Dickian you might be surprised to know I think <i>The Female Man</i> would have been my second place. either way, they are all three great achievements. <br /><br />Russ created a masterpiece of SF Commentary, there are better stories, and storytellers but the story is only part of the point here. This is a masterpiece for reasons that go beyond just the story.It is a must-read classic. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-57083744281186582252024-01-19T21:26:00.000-08:002024-01-19T21:26:23.537-08:00Magazine review: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2023 Edited by Sheree Renée Thomas<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WJsaeCFZzDchWW7-ymMP_ZgRcKQcm7fU1GpsZSW1kyIFOv3D_vGesvQgXxtRGI5suE_eBQPYfzruRRr6Telx8WhIQizL14sMoL1paEFmpoPSNrZ3Eh_8hA9UpV9o0qCtdX9j766AuqSd2b2rCrnwOfn5IbVn5Q66qWa8GVVyLIUXXerWjv8N-2ECFJI/s445/F%20and%20SF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="301" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WJsaeCFZzDchWW7-ymMP_ZgRcKQcm7fU1GpsZSW1kyIFOv3D_vGesvQgXxtRGI5suE_eBQPYfzruRRr6Telx8WhIQizL14sMoL1paEFmpoPSNrZ3Eh_8hA9UpV9o0qCtdX9j766AuqSd2b2rCrnwOfn5IbVn5Q66qWa8GVVyLIUXXerWjv8N-2ECFJI/s320/F%20and%20SF.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2023 Edited by Sheree Renée Thomas</p><p> I just want to say a few things about this issue. The cover story <i>The Many Different Kinds of Love</i> by Geoff Ryamn and David Jeffery is an incredible modern SF novella, this was my first modern read after a whole bunch of Cordwainer Smith and Joanna Russ to kick off the year. I was behind reading this issue, but this cover story hits some awesome notes. Being about AI, and exploration of Enceladus - a moon that only recently became known as being one of the most interesting places in the solar system is a great example of a story being of the moment. It is a great and mind-expanding SF novella. <br /><br />Some other favorites include <i>Longevity</i> by Anya Ow, a story about long-lived humans that takes great advantage of the setting of Singapore. A city that should be in more prose SF -after being seen in Westworld. Lastly the story <i>Meeting in Greenwood</i> by R.K. Duncan is a great example of World-Building. <br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-40070942601090577182024-01-15T12:01:00.000-08:002024-01-15T12:01:26.737-08:00Book Review: The Planet Buyer by Cordwainer Smith<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOyFoYvteema_FdiYR2BW_sI-Ldq6fxEIIwyomZIA1VbJdMFOhb8-i5tTkFa-La3cr_pTtE7a-6ptWiO0fJqXq2IpUUs8mmSHj8tZ9T7d0m7tg1YAGgED8h1Sqec9GomefNi2hIV4y7d2vwoa_ICad1p2PYh0JwFbpd_nAcBXTvCEJhYMbMETr4kzMdw/s475/planet%20buyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="285" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOyFoYvteema_FdiYR2BW_sI-Ldq6fxEIIwyomZIA1VbJdMFOhb8-i5tTkFa-La3cr_pTtE7a-6ptWiO0fJqXq2IpUUs8mmSHj8tZ9T7d0m7tg1YAGgED8h1Sqec9GomefNi2hIV4y7d2vwoa_ICad1p2PYh0JwFbpd_nAcBXTvCEJhYMbMETr4kzMdw/s320/planet%20buyer.jpg" width="192" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The Planet buyer by Cordwainer Smith</p><p>156 pages,Pyramid books <br /></p><p>First published October, 1964<br />Literary awards: Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1965)</p><p><br />Since this is my second Cordwainer Smith book in a row, and I talked about who he was in the last review I will skip that. I want to save you some time, I know this was expanded in later editions to become a larger novel called <i>Nostralian</i>. I know OK. I also know a few people will respond to my posts of this review and tell me again. I have this edition, not that edition. Also after reading the brilliant collection The Instrumentality of Mankind, I looked at this book on the shelf and I had to read THIS edition for a specific reason. <i>The Planet Buyer</i> was nominated in 1965 for the HUGO and lost the award. That is fine. Plenty of great novels are never nominated let alone lose the Hugo. The thing is 1965 is the year that the worst Hugo winner was given to the most notoriously shitty of all Hugo winners Fritz Lieber’s novel <i>‘The Wanderer.’</i> <br /><br />It also beat out Brunner’s <i>The Whole Man</i> (I suppose I have to read that now, which is fine as Brunner rules) Nonetheless, I am probably going to talk as much about Leiber’s novel as much as CS’s <i>The</i> <i>Planet Buyer</i>. <br /><br />Why do you read old-school science fiction? Me I love how weird and out of time it is. Two human beings living in 2024 have a similar context for trying to imagine the future. Paul Linebarger moonlighting from his job as professor of Far East studies as Cordwainer Smith the science fiction writer wrote weird stuff. We know the man used his imagination to write weird political thoughtful science fiction since he was a teenager. This novel has everything A CS short story has so yeah, it is great.<br /><br /> Unintentionally you see similar ideas to <i>Dune</i> (which was not a thing yet they were written around the same time) Rod McBan from planet Norstrilia, the source of immortality drug Stroon, buys Old Earth. Rod is lucky because his computer designed to lie to everyone except him helps him buy Earth for the rock bottom price of “<i>Seven thousand million million megacredits.”</i> That is two millions in a row that is how they do in Nostralia. <br /><br />My favorite scene came 100 pages in when Lord Redlady confronts Rod about how he bought Earth and how they have to protect him. <br /><br /><i>“You’d kill me Lord Redlady?” said Rod. “I thought you were saving me?”<br />“Both,” said the doctor, standing up. “The commonwealth government has tried not to take your property away from you, though they have doubts about what you will do with Earth if you buy it. They are not going to let you stay on the planet and endanger it by being the richest kidnap victim who ever lived…”</i><br /><br />Plenty of fun stuff like this in the novel. It is a treasure trove of weird ideas and funny moments like the court held in a moving van. But if there is a mission statement, it might be a character confronting the long lives of humans in this world. Would Rod become a hero buying Earth and helping spread Stroon?<br /><br /><i> “And that is what the instrumentality is trying to do for mankind today. To make life dangerous enough and interesting enough to be real again. We have diseases, dangers, fights, chances, its been wonderful.”</i><br /><br />Is <i>The Planet Buyer</i> a great science fiction novel? Yes, it is a great science fiction novel for readers who enjoy that totally foreign land that is a future conceived in the past. It is loaded with ideas, political and weird, thoughtful and fun. Is it a masterpiece? No.<br /><br />Was it better than Fritz Leiber’s <i>The Wanderer?</i> For fuck’s sake it is. Let's talk about that novel. When I recount the totally bizarro insanity of <i>The Wanderer </i>it sounds way better than the book I read. It has more plots than a cemetery, and with 15 story threads, you would think that at least a couple of the characters might be interesting. Nah, not really. The story is an interesting one. A planet suddenly appears in between the moon and Earth, this is a death star-like artificial planet filled with super-intelligent horny cat ladies who have anarchist politics and are on the run from galactic forces. They come to Earth because they have spent all their fuel living in hyperspace and our moon is just the raw materials they need. When they start crushing our moon up it sets off tidal forces and earthquakes.<br /><br />It sounds weird and hilarious, and it is entertaining in the same way a Michael Bay movie can be. It is crazy that this book exists but winner of the Hugo? It might have been a lifetime achievement award but come. I’ll get back to you on the Whole Man but for now, I can safely say <i>The Planet Buyer</i> is a more deserving novel for the 1965 Hugo Award. <br /><br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-2891429601124573692024-01-14T11:31:00.000-08:002024-01-14T11:31:08.530-08:00Book Review: Instrumentality of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzM9WnGQvKBbXIWaXcQfnGfdLnQA74vl6zEpYsl1_1UCoZZq9qC1PiNvF3sXj1jidi8YlN01TGS6DJWuaOhaOUX_Vo-w1_1k-R312Uc8xrIRQk_PloUod9RY10r3s2MkvVFgIgadJ1c7KSICN9G_DxP6zGk0pebhqQ2-8wVXsUquvk6ZWHsus_rkIDTNQ/s437/Instrumentalty%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="262" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzM9WnGQvKBbXIWaXcQfnGfdLnQA74vl6zEpYsl1_1UCoZZq9qC1PiNvF3sXj1jidi8YlN01TGS6DJWuaOhaOUX_Vo-w1_1k-R312Uc8xrIRQk_PloUod9RY10r3s2MkvVFgIgadJ1c7KSICN9G_DxP6zGk0pebhqQ2-8wVXsUquvk6ZWHsus_rkIDTNQ/s320/Instrumentalty%20cover.jpg" width="192" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Instrumentality of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith</p><p>238 pages, Mass Market Paperback<br />Published May, 1979 by Del Rey / Ballantine<br /><br />Cordwainer Smith is more famous than the real-life person behind his work. The author publishing under that name had a short career in science fiction. He was prolific considering the short span he worked in and the busy life he lived under his real name. Paul Linebarger was a famous professor, a noted East Asia scholar, and an expert in psychological warfare. He was also Cordwainer Smith. I am going into his story more in an upcoming Amazing Stories Column. I have heard many times that Cordwainer Smith was one of the best weird SF writers active in a window between the Golden Age and the New Wave. His death at 53 years old in the early 60s means we have very little to go on.<br /><br />Cordwainer Smith lived up to all the hype. I knew he was a weird writer but the loudest LOL I had when read it on my bus commute, Let's just say I was not prepared for the Martian Kiju Mao Tze-Tung <i>"I'm a pro-Soviet Demon," said the apparent Mao Tze-Tung. "and these are materialized Communist hospitality arrangements. I hope you like them."<br /></i><br /><i>The Instrumentality of Mankind </i>is a 14-story collection that is set loosely in the same fictional future Smith envisioned for 13,000-16,000 AD. There is a helpful timeline published at the opening of the book. I now feel I should have looked at it a bit more. The stories were produced mostly in the last decade before the author died, but most curious is <i>War No. 81-Q</i> which was published in 1928, and two were published long after his death in the late 70s with the first edition of this. <i>"The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All"</i> and <i>"The Queen of the Afternoon"</i> were new to this book.<br /><br />The fun thing about the 1928 story was published when Linebarger was 15 years old in a Washington D.C. schools publication. It doesn’t come off as Juvenile at all. It was clear that this soon-to-be-famous academic grew up much like many of the authors who walked that line between the major eras. He was reading SF magazines and making up his own stories early. <br /><br /><i>“No, No, Not Rogov!”</i> Written in 1959 highlights the author’s knowledge of political issues and makes it a great introduction to the collection. The first story highlights some of the science fiction elements that CS was great at. A more common idea today the telepathy spy helmet is very cool.<i> “With infinitely delicate tuning he had succeeded one day in picking up the eyesight of their second chauffeur and had managed thanks to a needle thrust in just below his own right eyelid, to “see” through the other man’s eyes as the other man, all unaware, washed their limousine 1,600 meters away.” </i>I liked that the telepathy espionage was difficult.<br /> <br /><i>“Mark Elf”</i> the story has a bit of WW II German feeling to the start. It is a German rocket test that curiously sends a Nazi into the far future. The atmosphere of this story played to CS’s talents. His knowledge of other countries and cultures is one of the keys that makes his books stand out.<br />My favorite story in the collection is the one that graces the cover of the Del Rey paperback. <i>“When the People Fell</i>” is a delightfully weird tale of Chinese colonists using balloons to land on Venus. It is a little out of date and silly but if you like retro SF that is a feature, not a bug. “<i>The Waywonjong didn’t come to Venus. He just sent his people. He sent them floating down to Venus, to tackle the Venusian ecology with the only weapons which could make the settlement possible - people themselves. Human arms could tackle the loudies, who had been called “old ones” by the first Chinesian scouts to cover Venus.”<br /></i><br />What most amazed me was an incredible story called <i>“Think Blue, Count Two.”</i> That included a spaceship with a solar sail and the description is not that far off from how the solar sails work on the breakthrough star shot. The fact that the ship in the story uses the sun for the first 80 years of the journey and has to find interstellar sources for the rest was amazingly ahead of the times.<br />Another great story is “<i>The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All”</i> which tells the story of the first ship to “Planoform” which is the Cordwainer Warp/Hyperdrive hand wavium device. The story reminded me of the TARDIS from Doctor Who and my favorite Leigh Brackett Novel <i>The Big Jump.</i><br /><br />As a three-decade-long ethical vegan the 1962 story from <i>“Gustible's Planet”</i> brought up tons of ethical issues that of course disturbed and pleased me at the same time. In the story, humans make contact with intelligent bird-like creatures the Apicians. They are telepathic and smart and when a bunch of them are burned in a spaceship accident meat-eating humans discover they are delicious. Played mostly for laughs I found this to be a misanthropic little ditty.<br /><br />So yes the hype is real. Cordwainer Smith’s stories are great examples of mid-20th century transitional Science fiction that has the influences of the golden age while planting seeds for a coming revolution of the New Wave. The next review will be his Hugo-nominated novel <i>The Planet Buyer</i>.</p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-20909583233570321302024-01-10T09:27:00.000-08:002024-01-10T09:27:46.198-08:00Book Review: Augmented Vol. 1 co-edited by Keith Giles and Matthew J Distefano<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnZv7XGm4m09JtrRe9ScOgiya8fgZe_ojRSTfvcO6xFyDr8TchYJ71mlbj6eyJs0tQh6KqZ4X1JzOHCQoDRDv42FFZXgl9i07H2m9PD2-S3ssWWTPJXnTw2AUA_NY_dMhf5LpSHpelW-6_MS7Aqre78P902iZougVOrvoUhk9Qa1ECsM0bCUAWxYHMuU/s500/augmented.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnZv7XGm4m09JtrRe9ScOgiya8fgZe_ojRSTfvcO6xFyDr8TchYJ71mlbj6eyJs0tQh6KqZ4X1JzOHCQoDRDv42FFZXgl9i07H2m9PD2-S3ssWWTPJXnTw2AUA_NY_dMhf5LpSHpelW-6_MS7Aqre78P902iZougVOrvoUhk9Qa1ECsM0bCUAWxYHMuU/s320/augmented.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Augmented Vol. 1 co-edited by Keith Giles and Matthew J Distefano<br /><br />There are fewer and fewer homes for short science fiction these days. In the pulp era, there was an entire spinner rack at drug stores filled with magazines that contained short fiction. Sci-fi, weird tales, detective fiction, and westerns. An author could make a living doing this and normally they would have multiple pen names so they didn’t flood the market. I admit most of the time I don’t write or bother submitting my short fiction because I find the process a pain. I generally wait until I am invited. This was a collection I have invited the folks at Quoir Keith Giles and Matthew J Distefano. <br /><br />While attempting to diversify their books Keith invited me first to write a forward for PKD stories in the pipeline, then a story for this collection, and ultimately a novel <i>People’s Park</i>! Out in April. So just to be fair I have a story in here called <i>“Happy, Happy, Click, Click.”</i> I normally don’t review books I am in but I was planning on doing a podcast about the book so I had to read it. <br /><br />I am happy to say this is a great collection, every story brings something to the table. A couple of them were a little short for me but like the best anthologies, many styles and voices were represented. The best stories in a collection will inspire a little healthy jealousy. For me, that story was <i>"Urgent Care"</i> by Andrew Turck. This story is worth the whole shebang. A wild adventure story with smart and sometimes funny world-building that has multiple social/political themes woven into a fast-paced story. Our point of view character Santiago needs health care, but he can’t afford to be treated by the automated ambulances called Millipedes. The story is mostly a chase and the narrative cuts between Santigo and the woman overseeing the dispatch. Amazing stuff. As good or better than most of what I read in high-class speculative magazines I subscribe to.<br /><br />Also one of my favorites of the collection came from Ukrainian author Vialcheslav Lazurin whose story <i>“Keep your Voices Low,</i>” balanced a great setting and ideas for a short and powerful tale. It was also nice to read some good Science Fiction from Tessa B. Dick (Phil’s last wife) and co-editor Keith Giles who I know from PKD circles. Giles is mostly a non-fiction writer so it is awesome to see him stretch his wings in SF. <br /><br />This is a great collection and worth your time. Look forward to a podcast about it soon. <br /></p>David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-41418494899130495772024-01-10T08:51:00.000-08:002024-01-10T08:51:20.104-08:00Favorite movies of 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVZhLXl7H6cIASRCNe5iFO-OORo9bw0lsfSQ0njg_e_eO3yN7caFwnyH58vtfauysr-G3B3LjVmBJdhQXrr-3_8RqVwQDg7s0LUspDcCroQx5Za0-27Tcz3S7oI9g4jwvzU2mRVBzKFKbk7qbszDAILrRVSccHieNOEmX2HHP1UfXRqH2xrFB1F0Unuck/s384/Vesper_film_poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVZhLXl7H6cIASRCNe5iFO-OORo9bw0lsfSQ0njg_e_eO3yN7caFwnyH58vtfauysr-G3B3LjVmBJdhQXrr-3_8RqVwQDg7s0LUspDcCroQx5Za0-27Tcz3S7oI9g4jwvzU2mRVBzKFKbk7qbszDAILrRVSccHieNOEmX2HHP1UfXRqH2xrFB1F0Unuck/s320/Vesper_film_poster.png" width="216" /></a></div><p></p><p>Star ranking is objective, the ranking is subjective.</p><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Best...nah Favorite Movies of 2023</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Honorable
mentions Got lots of hate but I liked it fine:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">65</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Rebel
moon. (yes dumb as rock salt but I was entertained)<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Flash</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Silent
night</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Extraction
2</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Dark
Harvest</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The Night
of the Assassin</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> Biggest
disappointments</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Suitable
Flesh</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Hypnotic</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The Hidden
Fox</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">15: The
Creator 2023 ***</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">First I
thought it was a good movie, and if we want to see more original non-franchise
Science Fiction movies you should go see this one. I would give the movie 4/5
stars. It looked amazing, the visual world-building was good, Without Spoilers
I will say it is a well-written movie, but poorly written Science Fiction. It
needed a proper Science Fiction writer to fill in some gaps in the future tech
and the future world-building. It need one simple change to take it from a good
movie to a great movie. but that is a SPOILER. So go see it and only read on if
you saw it.....</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Spoiler
Warning....</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Odd that
when all of Hollywood is working together to fight AI, that Garth Edwards made
a movie about Sympathetic robots and AI. I get there are 100 movies when the AI
are the villains. Really the movie would have been better if both sides of the
war had super weapons and Josh and Alphie had to save both sides. The AI child
shouldn't have been so childlike, that is not how robots work. It would have
made movie sense for the AI kid to act like a child to manipulate, All
nit-picks as the movie was good, even if I think it needed a re-write.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">14:
Saltburn 2023 ★★★★★<br /><br />Saltburn is a slow-burn psychological thriller, the whole cast is amazing but Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike are just straight amazing. There are certainly WTF moments and some uncomfortable moments, but if you have a problem with slow pace you might not want to watch. For me I was on the edge of my seat most of the movie. Emerald Fennell is such an exciting filmmaker.<br /><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">13:Indiana
Jones and the Dial of Destiny 2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Watched
Jul 01, 2023 I am pro-Dial of Destiny! I watched all 5 Indiana Jones movies in
the last 36 hours. It is not perfect, but I had lots of fun I thought the
ending was super bold. There is also an argument for the prologue happening at
the same time as my novel "The Last Night to Kill Nazis." - and this
movie hates Nazis. It treated Indiana Jones like a real person in his 80s. I
enjoyed it. I did miss a little of the Spielberg vibe, but the movie got me in
the feels a few times. My Dr, Jones adventure ranking is 1,3,2,5, and 4. I like
all 5</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">12: Detective
vs. Sleuths ****</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sean Lau
plays a former detective who was falsely accused of being a serial killer,
survives a shooting, and now wanders the street talking to delusions of the
victims and still trying to solve the crimes. The story is bananas, something
that would never get made in Hollywood</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">11. Triangle
of Sadness Triangle of Sadness 2022 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">½</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">If I had
seen Triangle of Sadness last year it would have made my best movies of the
year list for sure. It is a dry at times, talky, slowly paced arthouse film but
it is funny and the cutting look at class division is pretty brutal. Was it
perfect, almost. There are a few scenes that are a bit on the nose
(intentionally) and the movie could've easily came in under two hours. I like
the point of the final act, but it could have been made quicker.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">10 They
Cloned Tyrone 2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">a new
Science Fiction movie on Netflix starring John Boyaga, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah
Parris (who were all amazing). The less you know going into the better. It is
funny, with excellent rapid-fire dialogue, Parris and Foxx were aces on the
dialogue. Great design, acting, message, and fun. The complete package. The
only nitpick I have maybe 15 minutes longer than it needed to be. Still 5/5 One
of the best movies of the year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">9:
Holdovers: The Holdovers 2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">This is a
charming holiday season movie about found families. All three main actors are
great but Paul Giamatti is so great in this movie. His dialogue was my absolute
favorite thing about this movie. A few tiny moments of injustice drove me nuts,
but that was the point. sounds corny to say but heartwarming for sure.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">8 No One
Will Save You 2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">This
high-concept horror film is about alien abduction. I will give it points for
being less expensive and more effective than Nope (your milage may vary). It
benefits from having to stay tight to the concept. Kaitlyn Dever really puts in
a star performance, but anyone who saw her in Dopesick or Unbelievable is not
surprised. As a fan of little suspense beats, this movie is positively loaded
with them. Sad I didn't see this in a theater with an audience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">7: JUNG_E
2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">From the
director of Train to Busan this is a cyberpunky action movie with some pretty
dark moments and a cartoonishly over-the-top villain. The first 15 minutes was
boring seen it a thousand times CGI Sci-fi battle, but the story in the center
was pretty solid, with some good emotional beats. Part of the power comes from
knowing the lead actress died shortly after filming. Super sad. The bad guy
felt like a Gary Oldman character in a Luc Besson movie.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">6 Master
Gardener 2022 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">starring
one of my favorite actors Joel Edgerton. It is a slow-brooding movie. Schrader
trademarks like sometimes amazing sometimes awkward dialogue, and shot framed
from way to far away are there. It is powerful and philosophical at times, and
fits with his fills First Reformed, and The Card Counter into a thematic
trilogy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">5 How to
Blow Up a Pipeline 2022 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We watched
How to Blow up a Pipeline - amazing that a movie with this title, concept etc
was on Hulu but of course I am glad. One of the best movies of the year for
sure. I don't want to say too much, but it is a rare case where I could have
use a more on-the-nose explanation of the global stakes of climate change. I
hope this is Gen Z inspiration. It is their future at stake.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">4 Godzilla
Minus One 2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">it doesn't
hold a candle to Roland Emmerich's Godzilla. Just kidding It lived up to the
hype, it was the best Kaiju movie in a long time. Great war drama, and
excellent subtle commentary on the end of WWII in Japan. Great monster design,
excellent characters, and action set pieces. You have a week to see it on the
big screen...do it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">3 Luther:
The Fallen Sun 2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Luther:
The Fallen Sun - Look I am the target audience I would watch Idris Elba do
almost anything, and I am a Luther enough that I read the prequel novel. Coming
off his performance in Andor Andy Serkis plays a great Luther foil, he
certainly made some choices. The prison fight was worth watching the whole
thing and almost on par with the Old Boy hammer fight.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">2 Bird Box
Barcelona 2023 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Not to
sound hyperbolic but it was one of my favorite movies of the year so far. I am
huge of the novel and the sequel Malorie. The movie was OK but it lost one of
the elements of the first novel that I thought made it genius. It is a spoiler
why but this film regained it with a new twist that totally got me in this
film. I got invested in the characters, the movie looked incredible and
expanded the Birdbox universe. I am ready for Birdbox Kyoto, or Bird Box Sau
Palo whatever. BB ranking - 1.OG novel. 2. Malorie novel 3. BB Barcelona 4. The
first movie.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1 Vesper
2022 </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">★★★★★</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Watched
Jul 22, 2023 European SF ecological horror film, with hints of body horror.
This is an intensely grim character-based movie that reminded me of Brian
Evenson's best post-collapse surrealist nightmares. On a side note, this
filmmaking team would make a great movie of Immobility. Fantastic design
elements for a movie that clearly didn't have a Hollywood budget. The
characters all had haunting and painful moments that made my stomach churn.
From epic scope of the destroyed landscape to small moments of cringe-inducing body
horror that did more than ick'd me out. This is powerful film, I hope people
find it on Hulu.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308666594906832763.post-50645955116374103102024-01-04T18:17:00.000-08:002024-01-04T18:17:36.423-08:00My Best Reads of 2023! Plus podcast disscussion <p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgRnHIUDS3cWwUXLlGxSMum6QSR4AgMrdWl2fk6IdibGLmWhwlxiFU1Ff4lFY7hzr6yS44-I1TH3ptx69XBxqeYXWSB8m8GuyosYulmKsLwl2Qpt5sMVHk_M6JzgnCmgB8iBlT_YtJXaJhKpySQkZTNlGQ0g37Y5il-qZh2QHWaqbUcJgYFlC8gJoZqY/s1135/Mountain%20in%20the%20sea.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1135" data-original-width="740" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgRnHIUDS3cWwUXLlGxSMum6QSR4AgMrdWl2fk6IdibGLmWhwlxiFU1Ff4lFY7hzr6yS44-I1TH3ptx69XBxqeYXWSB8m8GuyosYulmKsLwl2Qpt5sMVHk_M6JzgnCmgB8iBlT_YtJXaJhKpySQkZTNlGQ0g37Y5il-qZh2QHWaqbUcJgYFlC8gJoZqY/s320/Mountain%20in%20the%20sea.png" width="209" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr">This year I read 111 books, novelettes,
graphic novels, or SF magazines, with a total of 29,784 pages. It was a
good year for new releases, and I intend to focus on retro reads next
year. Joining for the third annual Favorite Reads podcast is Judge Marc
Rothenberg. We finally got on board with reading some of the same books
so this is a long one.</p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-132-favorite-reads-of-2023-with-judge/id1524359471?i=1000640260392" target="_blank">Podcast about favorite reads 2023</a> </p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr"><a href="https://youtu.be/nCO4hADo2Oc" target="_blank">Video of the same podcast</a> <br /></p>
I don’t make money for all the time I
spend reading and reviewing books so please consider giving me a tip or
donation at this link:
<br />
<p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/DavidAgranoff" target="_blank">Support my efforts on Buy me a coffee</a><br /></p>
<br />
<p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr">There is an episode that I reviewed most
of the books I read: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-131-thumbnail-reviews-of-all-108-books-i/id1524359471?i=1000640009260" target="_blank">Podcast where I reviewed every book I read in 2023</a></p><p data-test-bidi="" dir="ltr"> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b><u> Best reads
of 2023!!!</u></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>1. The
Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Nayler’s
combination of SF fandom, knowledge of science, and intergovernmental
experience created a literary unicorn. One unbelievable alchemy of thought and
talent spit out this incredible masterpiece that shook me to my core. The
Mountain in the Sea was preaching to the choir with me, I already shared many
of the views that came across, but it was a beautiful feeling to read it. A
science fiction novel that had so much to say is not rare but one that does it
with skill, style, and heart in equal measure is a pretty special treat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>2. Infinity
Gate by MR Carey</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhumq_Whl8FAL2LIcEHclq4zmoZAaqvarGrkJyZIhhPDa25NalpbZwfZkD8OZ1YLS3oDXB5JcHB6PWOof5W6MGC-Pszce05otLM81Y3AsKiuz8C7DA-x-ppkNg0TFVUg7yGDq8ObNGGd75sEpOJxKYf5-KX5SSjc1xsdvr1e_W289QaRT-4cRGseRq2Yk/s729/infinty%20gate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="474" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhumq_Whl8FAL2LIcEHclq4zmoZAaqvarGrkJyZIhhPDa25NalpbZwfZkD8OZ1YLS3oDXB5JcHB6PWOof5W6MGC-Pszce05otLM81Y3AsKiuz8C7DA-x-ppkNg0TFVUg7yGDq8ObNGGd75sEpOJxKYf5-KX5SSjc1xsdvr1e_W289QaRT-4cRGseRq2Yk/s320/infinty%20gate.jpg" width="208" /></a></b></div><b><br /> </b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">A space
opera that never leaves earth. One of the things that makes a Dune, Thrones
Trek, or Wars franchise so vast and effective is the scope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MRC by creating this multiverse model and
with the Pandominion MRC has created a galaxy. For this novel and his
characters to encounter his version of Klingons, Borg, or The Empire his
characters never have to leave Earth. He can build a thousand worlds and
species all on earth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">It is an
absolute narrative magic trick to develop a universe in 500 pages that feels as
lived in as any franchise with decades of world-building.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>3. Meru by
S.B. Divya</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfrcLoDCEDj1RrpfotArdy_ARGCe9_HTL97w_6moJXPSjR-Zm5d6xRRDWo8ui5ZMrDIIMpqPY7EjYS5G-JKIfBV9OHFCYf3JnkDFPL75pxxJjunjrpR5GbYnFKSJuLw_IUj640iCErXcjxKpewN095efRASp2r4IU3HDRnZImF8ykg0r3hnIQxWRqgwug/s400/Meru%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfrcLoDCEDj1RrpfotArdy_ARGCe9_HTL97w_6moJXPSjR-Zm5d6xRRDWo8ui5ZMrDIIMpqPY7EjYS5G-JKIfBV9OHFCYf3JnkDFPL75pxxJjunjrpR5GbYnFKSJuLw_IUj640iCErXcjxKpewN095efRASp2r4IU3HDRnZImF8ykg0r3hnIQxWRqgwug/s320/Meru%20cover.jpg" width="214" /></a></b></div><b><br /> </b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Meru is
more than just a science fiction story, Diviya has stated in interviews that is
wanted to point to a future where survival of species happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was resisting the many negative dystopias
that the genre is overflowing with. That doesn't mean she is blind to the risk
we face in the future. in Meru salvation comes in the form of humanity's
evolution into alloys something led by technology. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>4. Neom by
Lavie Tidhar</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b> </b>In the
Golden Age this was a tactic that was required of authors, but it is a rare
tactic now. Neom is more interconnected but that golden age feeling filled me
with joy while reading. In the afterword, Lavie points to Cordwainer Smith as a
major influence but the Dickian vibe drips off the page. I want to point out I
don’t make PKD comparisons lightly, there are lots of works influenced by PKD
movies. The things that make his books Dickian are things only true Dickheads
will pick up. The half-step off reality that comes close to satire. The humor
is a key element of this. The themes of religion, and reality in the mirror
reflected from this future is what PKD did so well. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <b>5.Whalefall
by Daniel Kraus</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">So the
first question I have to answer. Is the hype real?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One hundred pages and I was hooked and having
the same problem putting it down. Whalefall keeps you engaged and turning pages
for a variety of reasons. As crazy as the set-up, Jay our hero's survival
minute to minute is so impossible that shutting the book gets harder as the
story goes. A preposterous concept so well executed it is Incredible. One of
the best horror novels of the year, and this year has had some great stuff.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>6. The Future
is Female Vol 2 edited by Lisa Yaszek</b> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">These are
stories of second-wave feminism, they explore environmentalism, post-male
societies, first menstruation, and the nitty-gritty of being a woman. Common in
fiction now, to find fiction about the experience of women, but sadly
revolutionary in a genre that fairly or unfairly is painted as a boy's club at
the time. Yaszek's books make clear women were ALWAYS there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>7. Vertical
by Cody Goodfellow</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">this would
make an incredible movie, just like the scene of Tom Cruise hanging off the
building of Mission Impossible was nail-biting, a whole movie of it done right
could be crazy good. We don’t need to wait for it. We have to story already
playing out in this novel with the unlimited budget of your imagination. Cody
Goodfellow is a wordsmith hell-bent on giving you the literary feeling of
looking over the of high-up building. Now imagine that building starting to
crumble apart. Vertical is an action thriller that works on the page.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>8. Boys in
the Valley by Philip Fracassi</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Boys in
the Valley will be one of my top reads of the year. I respect Philip Fracassi's
work ethic on the page and in the world. The passion for writing and creation
shows up on his tour but most importantly it shows up in every page of his
work. Boys in the Valley has everything it needs to become a bonafide
historical horror classic</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>9. Suborbital7 by John Shirley<br /></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">This novel
is Apollo 13 meets Blackhawk Down."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This description of Suborbital7 is an absolute go-order for me as a
movie. I can immediately see that concept working as a movie. As a novel, the
concept is all in the execution as a novelist has to get details, upon details
right. It has to be well-researched and written with a certain power.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>10. Dreck by
Cliff Jones Jr.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Dreck
blurs the lines. “Dreck: Part Drug, part nanotech, part biological material…all
the taste and appearance of black strap molasses.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be that I know Cliff is a PKD<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fan but there sly easter egg-ish references
to a fictional Phil. I am not complaining this is a feature, not a bug. I would
say Dreck: Part Surreal, Part humor, part science fictional material… all the
taste and appearance of a PKD nightmare all wrapped into a unique and modern
voice. Is it dreampunk? If Cliff says so I can live with the label because I
was a big fan of this novel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Honorable
mentions:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The
Terraformers by Annalee Newitz </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Earthdivers
(Graphic novel) by Stephen Graham Jones</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Juicy
Ghosts by Rudy Rucker</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Head
Cleaner By David James Keaton</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">No Gods
for Drowning by Hailey Piper</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Never
Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology Edited by<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Retro-Reads:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>False Dawn
by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro</b> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the great
features of this novel is there is no sense ever that people are coming
together to rebuild, or even put together a small community. People are fucked,
they will stay fucked, and if you are lucky you might get a few weeks hiding in
a house eating canned foods or hunting skinny, dying animals who are fewer and
fewer in between. Hope is not a thing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> In the
bleakest Meet-cute in the history of stories, Thea runs into a former pirate
who is running away from his old gang with his gang-greening cut-off arm pinned
to his jacket.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The Word
for World Is Forest Ursula K. Le Guin</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Demons by John Shirley</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Homage to
Catalonia by George Orwell</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Worst read
of the year:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Point
Ultimate by Jerry Sohl : Sohl didn’t think we were going to party like it was
1999, he thought we would be living plague ravaged communist dystopia. None the
less Bantam put on the cover “1999 - incredible and prophetic - the story of a
U.S.A. conquered and Freedom from the Stars.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, this novel about a communist dystopia is like a Q message board, or
a Fox news segment woven into a goofy 50 SF narrative featuring Robot waiters,
bartenders , flying cars, and motor vehicles called Turbos because the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">PKD:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Divine
Invasion</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Non-fiction
reads</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Heat
Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodel</b>l this
is the most important book of the year, maybe the century so far. Kim Stanley
Robinson’s Ministry of the Future made the same point. If you don’t want your
desperate pleas for action in your own self-interest to keep the world
sustainable for your children to have science-fictional aspects then here are
the facts. Told with personal stories of travels in the warming Arctic, the
story of the mother who baked to death in her apartment, and young families who
were fried to death on the hiking trails serve as a wake-up call that will not
get the attention that T-swift got for going to a football game. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">After
Engulfment: Cosmicism and Neocosmicism in H. P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick,
Robert A. Heinlein, and Frank Herbert by Ellen J Greenham</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The Milky
Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy Moiya McTier</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Writers of
the 21st Century Philip K. Dick Edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D.
Olander</span></p>
David Agranoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16126496270513606150noreply@blogger.com0