Tales from the Bookworm's Lair

New blog provider

2010-08-30T14:09:00.002-04:00

Faithful readers:

I have decided to switch from blogspot to wordpress and transferred the contents of this blog in their entirety to the new site. I will no longer update this blog.

Please go to the NEW home of Tales from the Bookworm's Lair at:

http://bibliorex.wordpress.com/

Thank you!

Lulu Sale

2010-07-01T23:46:00.001-04:00

They're being cute: from now through July 5, take $17 off an order of $76 or more. So not a bad deal at all if you've got multiple books you've been wanting to pick up.

Use code JULY4305 at checkout.

June 2010 Book Acquisitions

2010-07-01T01:44:00.004-04:00

Yes, I skipped a couple months worth of acquisitions, but I'm not going to go back and recreate those lists. Here's what I picked up this month:

The first two volumes of the Complete Jack Vance (originally titled the Compact Vance Integral Edition). For a decade or so I have been kicking myself for not purchasing a copy of the original Vance Integral Edition, but now I'll have every work of fiction Vance -- one of my favorite authors -- has ever written. Woo hoo! This one is a real triumph for me, and I'm very happy to have these in my collection. I can't wait for the remaining four volumes to become available. Expensive, but oh so worth it.
I bought two books from Amazon (had a gift certificate to cover some of the cost): Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction (a reference work about a subset of the men's adventure genre; expensive, but a must for my collection given my interest in the genre) and The Girl Who Played with Fire, the sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I enjoyed the first one so much that I had to pick this one up. That's unusual because I typically don't like blockbusters, but the first in this trilogy really surprised me with how enjoyable it was.
I purchased an autographed Polish edition of Glen Cook's The Black Company. No, I'll never, ever be able to read it but hey, for a couple bucks, why not? I've always found it interesting that Cook has such a following in Eastern Europe (of course, I can see that the bleak settings in his works would appeal to Eastern Europeans).

So that's it. I acquired 5 new books and read 20, with a net reduction in my "to be read" list of 15books. Not bad. I'm trying to have a new austerity program with my book purchases (wish me luck with that), though I am going to visit a new nearby used bookstore tomorrow. We'll see what they have. They're located in a dreary mall and I've heard that they're a tad expensive, so I don't have high hopes. But it should be fun, and I'm going to eat some damn fine Chinese food while I'm at the mall. Yum.

Dorchester Publishing $2 Sale

2010-07-01T01:41:00.001-04:00

Dorchester Publishing has a number of their titles on sale for $2 each until July 30, including three Hard Case Crime novels (one of which I don't have), some horror, and some thrillers. They also have some westerns and romance novels on sale, but those aren't my bag.

You can read which titles are on sale here.

Crimespree Magazine Back Issues Sale

2010-06-30T02:20:00.002-04:00

Forgot to mention this one in my last post. Crimespree Magazine is a great little magazine that is done by lovers of crime fiction for lovers of crime fiction. Editing of articles is...not great. But the content is very good and includes in each issue multiple interviews; lots of articles of crime authors; one or two short stories; tons of reviews of books, graphic novels, and DVDs; a recipe; and drawings for free books (just send in a postcard for each).

They are having a sale on back issues of the magazine from now until the end of July. Buy two or more and they are only $3 each, including shipping (US Only, Outside US we have to charge shipping). Some issues have limited copies left.

Complete list of back issues is found here.

Small Press Sales and Coupons

2010-06-28T18:32:00.002-04:00

Here's a new feature for the blog: I'll try to list special sales and coupons for the small press publishers I come across.

First off: You'll have to move fast on this one, as it's only good for two more days, but Potomac Books is having a sale with a lot of their back inventory available for $5/book. Potomac publishes a lot of book on defense policy, intelligence issues, foreign policy, military history, and (oddly) sports. All of those categories are represented in this sale.

Potomac Books

Second up is a set of coupons for Wildside Press. They publish science fiction, fantasy, mystery, crime, and pulp reprints.

Wildside Press

Save $5 on your order of $25 or more. (Use coupon code 5BUCKSOFF.)
Save $10 on your order of $50 or more. (Use coupon code 10BUCKSOFF.)
Save $20 on your order of $100 or more. (Use coupon code 20BUCKSOFF.)

And lastly: use the code FREESHIP all summer (not sure exactly when the coupon will end) on Lulu for free shipping on all orders over $19.95.

Review: Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski

2010-04-26T21:14:00.002-04:00

Warning: some plot spoilers are included, though I’m not purposely giving away the plot’s twists and turns.

This is an outstanding example of modern noir, though, oddly, it’s also a time travel novel. Our protagonist Mickey Wade is a laid-off journalist living in Philadelphia – an old, corrupt, seedy city I‘ve always enjoyed visiting – whose personal situation is rapidly heading from bad to worse. He’s got no job, no real career prospects, no money, and he’s forced to move into his hospitalized grandfather’s ratty old walk-up. The book begins with this dark backdrop as we watch the protagonist descend further into the kind of personal hell that’s become all too common in these troubled financial times. Then he discovers that some pills in his grandfather’s medicine cabinet allow him to travel back to the same location in 1972, the year of his birth. That’s when things really start getting weird. The people he encounters there are all intimately tied in with his father’s murder, which he attempts to solve after learning that the version of the story he had heard isn’t exactly what happened. The more he discovers about the past, the messier things get. As with most time travel thrillers, there are a few dangling plot holes that can’t quite be resolved, but generally the treatment of paradox and causation are handled intelligently.

This is a fast-paced, fun read, despite its inherently dark subject matter, and I had a hard time putting it down. Characterization is smooth and the dialogue flows effortlessly. The sense of place is palpable as we watch what had been a fairly prosperous lower-middle-class Philly neighborhood in 1972 slowly transform into a dangerous rathole in 2010. Swierczynski clearly knows his craft as a writer. Evocative full-page illustrations every few chapters add to the experience.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy noir with a science fiction bent. (Not to worry, even if you have a marked allergy to science fiction as I know many crime fiction readers do, I don’t think you’ll object too much here.) This was the first of Duane Swierczynski’s books I’ve read, but it certainly won’t be the last.

Review: Halloween: New Poems, ed. Al Sarrantonio

2010-04-26T20:51:00.003-04:00

While I don’t typically read poetry – I believe this is the first book of poetry in my library, with the exception of some epic poems and sagas – I do love horror and Halloween is my favorite holiday, so this was a natural section for me. This collection contains forty-one poems (Halloween is 10/31, so 10+31=41) by a variety of authors. Not all were familiar to me, but most readers will likely recognize the names Joe Lansdale, Al Sarrantonio, Gary Braunbeck, and Tom Piccirilli, among others.

The poems range in size from a three-line ditty to one long poem that goes on for more than twenty pages. Most poems take up a single page and are loosely grouped by topic: Trick or Treat, Pumpkins, The Season, Ghoulies, Ghosties, etc. They range in tone from light and full of whimsy to dark and bloody. Most, I would say, lean slightly toward the lighter end of the spectrum.

I don’t want to systematically go through all the poems and deconstruct them in this review, so I’ll simply say that the half-dozen by Lansdale clearly stand out head and shoulders above most of the rest (the man truly has a gift for words), so these are my favorites along with the one long poem, “Cap’n Hook,” by Bradley Denton.

I can see myself returning to this one during the Halloween season, so I heartily recommend it to those who love Halloween as a holiday as well as those who would enjoy a lyrical (and slightly whimsical) treatment of horror. Good stuff.

Full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for a review. This has not influenced my review in any way.

4 stars out of 5

Recent Acquisitions

2010-04-13T16:31:00.004-04:00

I have a bunch of new books (what is the proper collective noun for books?) to report on, so here goes. I picked up a few at a flea market, and a few more from a library book sale, and a few more arrived in the mail. As usual, in no particular order, with a bit of commentary:

Science fiction:

The Lost by Dan Abnett (The third Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus, set in the Warhammer 40k universe. Man, I love Abnett's writing and characters. Been waiting for this one to come out for a long time.)
Communion by Whitley Streiber. I enjoy his fiction, and consider this one to be fictional too. I don't believe in UFO abductions personally, but I'm willing to believe that Streiber does.

Fantasy:

The Anubis Gates by Time Powers. This one, along with the next bullet, were picked up my my friend -- nom de plume of bookstothesky -- at a book show in L.A.
Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. Also autographed, courtesy of bookstothesky. For generosity and going above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award him the Silver Tome medal, with distinction. He inadvertently selected literally my two favorite books by these two authors. Sheer happenstance, but it's really, really awesome.
Changes by Jim Butcher. The latest Harry Dresden book. They're nothing great, but they're fun, light reads, and I always pick them up as soon as they come out. This one was a $10 special from Amazon, possibly because of the ongoing ebook wars. Bring on more of the same, baby!

Sherlockiana:

A really neat manuscript package of all the "primary source" documents and clues associated with The Sign of Four. Hard to describe, and I didn't know it even existed, but it looks damn fun. I'm going to use it in conjunction with the actual text when I reread it.
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes by various. Should be interesting reading about other Victorian detectives.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes by Loren D. Estleman. I already owned this one. Oops.

Crime/mystery:

Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski. This one showed up randomly in the mail yesterday. And it's autographed. Yes, this is insane. No idea why it was shipped here from the publisher, but I plan to read and review it soon.
The Big Knockover by Dashiell Hammett. A bunch of short stories and novellas. Should be awesome.

Military fiction:

War of the Rats by David L. Robbins. Fiction about Stalingrad. I'll save this one for when I need some light-hearted reading to pick me up.
Emergency Deep by Michael DiMercurio. He was a submariner, so this should be a good sub thriller.

Chess:

The three little chess books that came in my boxed set from Dover, packaged with a neat little traveling chess set. No, I'm not very good at chess, but I've always been fascinated by the game.

RPGs:

All three of the Journal of the Traveller Aid Society (JTAS) reprints for the Traveller RPG. They were only $10 apiece on sale, when they're usually $30 each, so I couldn't pass them up. If you're not a gamer, this won't make any sense.

Non-fiction:

Two memoirs by former CDC virus-hunter-type-dudes. I always enjoy reading this kind of stuff.
Woodward's fourth book on Bush and Iraq. Unfortunately the copy I picked up has some underlining, etc., in it, but for a $1 hardback, it's hard to pass up.
The West's Last Chance by Tony Blankley.
Webster's American Military Biographies. Old and a bit out-dated, but again, great for $1.

So there we have it. Quite a haul since I last updated.

What am I reading?

2010-03-13T16:51:00.002-05:00

Here's what I'm reading these days. Note that I always read multiple books simultaneously; can't help myself. I'm not counting the several books I have going at any one time as I work on my dissertation. These are only the books I want to read, not the books I need to read:

Book I read while eating (my wife is in Germany currently, so I read while eating my three meals a day): War and Decision by Douglas Feith [I am making my way through the massive stack of non-fiction works I have accumulated on Iraq and Afghanistan; note that I dislike Feith a great deal.]
Book I read while riding my recumbent exercise bike (this has to be relatively mindless because, well, my legs are pumping as fast as I can comfortably pump them for a half-hour every day): Penetrator #16: Deepsea Shootout [I mainly read men's adventure novels while exercising; this one is turning out to be a pretty decent Penetrator.]
Other books: TNT 4: The Devil's Claw [I am re-reading this completely over-the-top series because I'm writing an article on it for Men of Violence zine and loving every minute of it.]
Currently on hold: Necroscope 3: The Source [there's nothing wrong with the book, and in fact, I've read it before, but I just don't have a lot of time currently to resume reading the entire Necroscope series; I'll pick it back up when I'm done with the TNT books.]

Recent Acquisitions

2010-03-12T00:43:00.002-05:00

These are (hopefully) the last two new books I'll acquire for a while. On my wife's last full day in town, we hit a new/used bookstore in town and I couldn't help but pick these up.

War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History 1500 to Today by Max Boot [good popular military historian]
King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman [mix of autobiography and history of the international chess scene; hopefully a lot more on the latter than the former]

Recent Acquisitions

2010-03-08T09:29:00.004-05:00

Bought a number of new books while out booking with my wife. A couple new ones (because I had a gift certificate and coupon from Borders) and a bunch of used ones from Edward McKay's in Raleigh. Here we go:

Mystery/Crime:

The Beekeeper's Apprentice and A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King [been wanting to check this series out for a long time]
Omnibus: Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula / Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes by Loren D. Estleman [I am a sucker for Holmes pastiches]
In the House of Secret Enemies by George C. Chesbro [these Chesbros are both hardbacks, though I've already read and own them in paperback]
An Incident at Bloodtide by George C. Chesbro

Science Fiction:

The Electric Church and The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers [these have sounded intriguing for a while now]
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker [the author just died and I've recently heard about the series]
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds [been wanting to investigate this series for a long time now]
War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches ed. Kevin J. Anderson [love the original, plus I'm really curious to see what they say Teddy Roosevelt's reaction to the Martian invasion is]

Fantasy:

Death's Master by Tanith Lee [I have been wanting to read this series for probably 20 years; I'm probably old enough to appreciate it now]
Doc Sidhe by Aaron Allston [read it years ago and gave away my copy, but I think I may appreciate it more now]

Men's Adventure:

Casca: The Barbarian (#5) by Barry Sadler [one of the few Cascas I don't already own]

Horror/Thriller:

John Dies at the End by David Wong [been hearing great things about this one]

Non-Fiction:

Poplorica by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger [I love throwing historical trivia at my students, so this may supply me with some new material]
Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile [been wanting to check this out for a long time, though I suspect that it seriously overestimates Wilson's importance; also curious what it says about Mike Vickers since I know and have worked with him]

Recent Acquisitions

2010-02-26T12:15:00.002-05:00

I try to cut back on the number of new book purchases, I really do. This is especially important because I have a four-digit number of books in my library I intend to read or reread. But sometimes I just can't help myself from buying additional ones.

Here's what I've picked up lately:

A really neat hardback, illustrated omnibus edition (from B&N) of the first three John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Love these books, and while I already own them all (the Del Rey editions are my favorites because of the awesome cover art), this is the first illustrated edition. Sadly, the entire series is not yet in the public domain (thanks Disney and Sonny Bono; say, Sonny, how're the slopes today?)
A bunch of Fletch mystery novels by Gregory McDonald (and one of the Flynn mysteries too). Picked these up as a lot on eBay. I've always heard great things about them, and I loved the first Fletch movie. While I don't have the entire series yet, a couple folks on LibraryThing assure me it's ok to read them in any order.

Review: Mixed Blood by Roger Smith

2010-02-03T01:04:00.002-05:00

A modern day crime thriller set in Cape Town, South Africa. Comparisons with George Pelecanos’ various efforts set in DC are almost inevitable, as Mixed Blood includes all the elements we’ve come to know and love: relatively ordinary folks, down on their luck, who make a series of very bad choices in their lives, and pay the consequences; a setting where the urban sprawl in which the action takes place is as important as any of the characters; corrupt cops and brutal criminals; grim, bloody violence; a series of apocalyptic confrontations.

Mixed Blood follows a man named Jack Burn, who was involved in a bank heist that ending with Jack and family (pregnant wife and young son) having to give up their outwardly normal lives and flee to South Africa. Oh and Jack’s marriage is dissolving, his son is kidnapped, the South African police begin to pursue him (some for the two million in cash he stole), and he runs afoul of various criminal factions. Then the story gets really interesting.

There are quite an array of minor characters who populate Mixed Blood -- all fascinating in their own right -- but I was initially skeptical that they would all play vital roles. I am pleased to report that they are all well-integrated into the story and help keep the novel’s pace moving rapidly. Aside from Jack, the main lynchpins of the story are the corrupt cop chasing Jack and an ex-con night watchman. Both are fun characters and excellent additions to the story.

Weaknesses of the book: first, the protagonist’s background. It’s only hastily sketched. He was an “Army officer” of some kind, who after some time in Iraq, opened his own security system company. What exactly did he do in the Army? How did that translate into a security system job? How did he develop the fake identities he and his wife use? I’ve known and worked with a heck of a lot of military officers in various specialties and not a one has the necessary skillsets. Guess we just have to suspend disbelief. In any case, the Iraq bit seems tacked on in an effort to tap into the current zeitgeist. Also, we just kind of have to accept that the protagonist has a gambling problem and perhaps a bit of a drinking problem and that’s why he made the very bad decision that led to his current situation. That’s more or less par for the course with most crime fiction, but I always crave a bit more justification for the truly bad decisions that characters make. The finale -- I won’t spoil it for you here, but once you’ve read 50 pages you know how it’s going to end, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – really had a sense of inevitability, and I guess that’s the point, but the way it happened just kind of came out of nowhere. That could have been finessed a bit. I also would have liked a bit more detail on South Africa. I know essentially nothing about what it’s like there, and while the city was portrayed interestingly, I wanted a lot more setting details. I didn’t quite feel like I knew what all the places described look like, or what daily life was like there. I’m sure if I had more familiarity with it, the details provided would have been sufficient, but for me, I wanted more.

I highly recommend this book if you like modern crime fiction. It’s fast-paced, well-written, and violent. All good things in my book. If you like thrillers and contemporary crime novels, I think you’ll enjoy this one. Heck, you might even learn a little about Cape Town, as I did.

Full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for a review. This has not influenced my review in any way.

4 stars out of 5

Recent Book Acquisitions

2009-06-21T16:45:00.002-04:00

Had a fun book-hunting expedition with a friend yesterday. We hit four used book stores and the local comic/RPG shop.

Here's what I bought (all yesterday with the exception of the first item):

Passport to Peril by Robert B. Parker (this month's Hard Case Crimes book, which I subscribe to).
Three Perry Rhodan books [#2, 6, 9] (I have been curious about this long-running series for a long time, but haven't read any of them yet; still don't have #1 yet, darn it, but I'm guessing that it doesn't matter much).
Three of Alan Burt Akers' Dray Prescott series [#6, 7, 20] (a planetary romance series I have been interested in for a long time; still missing #5, among others; once I get that, I have a long continuous run of the books an can start reading them).
Lin Carter's The Immortal of World's End (still missing a couple from the series, but I've been slowly compiling them).
James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 by John Pearson (I am skeptical of this one, and didn't even know that it existed, but for $1.50, I couldn't pass it up).
John P. Marquand's Your Turn, Mr. Moto (first of the Mr. Moto series; I have heard these are very good, and much darker than the old movies).
Dorothy Gilman's The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (first of the Mrs. Pollifax series, a "cozy espionage" series -- are there any more series like this? -- about an old lady who joins CIA).
Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die (new-ish SF novel that sounds like it has an interesting premise, reminiscent of Dream Park).
Taylor Anderson's Into the Storm (fist of the alt history Destroyermen series, which sounds interesting, though the premise of John Birmingham's Axis of Time series and William Forstchen's Lost Regiment series).
Katherine Neville's The Eight (an interesting re-release of an older book that's being heavily pushed by it's publisher; historical chess-related mystery/thriller; I suck at chess, but have always been fascinated by it).
E.C. Tubb's Melome, #28 in the Dumarest of Terra series (none of which I've read yet, though I have a bunch of them).
Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Oakdale Affair (this was probably the only real treasure in the bunch, as I had almost given up hope of finding it; just a handful of additional ERB books and I'll have a copy of everything he ever wrote).
The first Planetes manga (a little bit of anime usually goes a long way with me, but this one has always looked interesting to me).
Some RPG stuff: GURPS Traveller Behind the Claw (error-ridden, but it's one of the few GURPS Trav books I didn't already own); Jovian Chronicles main rulebook, the Space Equipment Handbook, and the Europa Incident (I have always been curious about this game and have been on an anime kick of late); and Fully Strapped, Always Packed gear book for Mayfair's old Underground RPG.

Nothing truly outstanding, but some good stuff overall. A nice day, despite pulling a muscle in my lower back yesterday morning.

Review: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

2009-06-19T16:43:00.000-04:00

This was a fun, fast read full of non-stop action that delivered exactly what it promised, no more and no less. A police detective is recruited by a secret government agency to stop an impending release of zombies by Islamic terrorists on an unsuspecting American public. The zombie scourge is caused by genetically-manipulated prions; these zombies are "fast movers," more akin to those in 28 Days Later than the George Romero kind. The action is fast and furious, with vivid, well-described combat sequences throughout the book. It would probably make a fun summer action movie.

It's not entirely clear how the protagonist, Joe Ledger, a detective who has never been in combat becomes such a killing machine. We are told many times that he is simply hero material, so we just have to accept that, I guess. He generally deals better with trauma than most of the Special Forces troops placed under his command (which is an odd arrangement, but again, we are asked to accept that). This need to suspend disbelief is common in both technothrillers and horror novels, so it's not out of place, or any more egregious than in most novels of either genre.

There are a few silly bits in the book, however:

It's typical of technothrillers, I suppose, but it's darn silly to provide makes and models of every piece of equipment mentioned, including gym bags and watches. It could be a subtle gibe at the genre, I supposes, but there's not enough evidence for that argument.
Everyone refers colloquially to the Department of Homeland Security as "Homeland." That's unrealistic. I worked for ten years in government service , including two there, and everyone, civilian, military, law enforcement, intelligence, refers to it as "DHS." Likewise, Maberry has named the "black ops" organization the Department of Military Sciences ("Science" on the back cover), which is also silly. "Department" has a very specific meaning in government parlance, and it doesn't work here. Also, "Homeland" is often used as a generic term for the U.S. intelligence community, as though DHS had the lead. That is almost never the case. DHS has a small intel shop of its own, but let's be honest: it's small, ineffectual, not particularly influential, and half the people working there are detailed from other agencies, either inside or outside the department. On matters like the ones depicted in the book, CIA and FBI would have the lead. I tended to mentally substitute "the IC" for "Homeland" because all those references really irked me.
"Hooah" is (sadly) not just a Ranger term, it's widely used throughout the army (and I've heard it used by the other services s well).
Perhaps the silliest bit of all: one of the major characters is a British woman who is purportedly a major in Britain's SAS who heads up one of DMS' field teams. Now, to the best of my knowledge, women are not permitted in the SAS, so her background doesn't make sense, and why would a British citizen be recruited into an elite, "black" combat unit? If she had been described as a liaison officer, I might accept it, but she's not. There's really no good reason for her to be a Brit in any case. It's a bit of an oddity.

Little things like that. I hate to criticize a book for such niggling errors, but when a technothriller purports to depict the military and intelligence comunity realistically, I do think that the book must be evaluated on its own terms and flaws have to be pointed out.

The book ends with closure -- the current threat has been decisively ended -- but it is clearly set up as the first book of a series. I liked this one well enough that I plan to pick up the next. Yes, the action and twists and turns of the plot are eminently predictable, but that's not always a bad thing. It's a fun, light read, and I enjoyed it tremendously. If you like zombies and technothrillers, this is an obligatory purchase.

The publisher has also made available a short story that elaborates on the opening scene of the novel, which you can sign up to receive here.

15 June Writing Update

2009-06-15T23:33:00.000-04:00

Today was productive, even though I only had time to work on one thing. My wife is out of town for the next couple weeks, so I should have more time to devote to projects like this.

Writing accomplishments:

Finished my two draft Carcosa hexes, along with some rumors, and a new monster. Uploaded all that to our master Google doc. One of my other collaborators will call dibs on a couple more hexes tomorrow he says, and I hope to hear back from the other soon as well.

Tomorrow my goal is to -- if I hear back from both -- lay claim to a couple more hexes and begin work on those as well as get started on a more detailed outline for the Assassins novel. Need to finish brainstorming that, but that will come along with the more detailed outline.

14 June Writing Update

2009-06-14T23:58:00.000-04:00

The last few days have been pretty productive, even if they haven't directly led to a vast amount of new wordcount.

Writing accomplishments:

Had a great meeting on Thursday with my writing partner. We traded comments on each other's new chapters. I like where both novels are (we have 10-11k for each written so far, with a goal of 100k for each; each is therefore 10-11% completed). I think this meeting and new verbiage -- after an extremely long hiatus -- is exactly what we needed to rejuvenate our interest in both projects.
I have turned around my draft to him incorporating his comments and tonight I began brainstorming and initial research on my next chapter (for the other novel, since we trade off each time). This next chapter I write is going to be a cool action chapter set mostly in a small castle on the Isle of Wight, and if it comes off well, will be something straight out of a James Bond movie.
Wrote out one fairly complete Carcosa hex (the project has 18 total, though my two collaborators will do some of them) as well as a handful of rumors.

My goals for tomorrow are to continue researching, outlining, and brainstorming the novel chapter as well as complete a second Carcosa hex.

10 June Writing Update

2009-06-11T00:20:00.000-04:00

Writing accomplishments today:

Finished chapter two of the collaborative novel. It's ok. It's a little too workman-like, and first they did this, then this, then this, for my liking, but hey, it's done. Commented on my partner's chapter four of the other novel. That's good stuff. I am liking what he put together there and looking forward to picking up where he left off.

Tomorrow (Thursday):

Have my novel meeting, which should only inspire me on these projects. Need to read up on the other two novel projects so we can brainstorm about those in greater detail. It's been a loooong time since I've looked at or thought about those.
Will hopefully put some words down on the Carcosa project.

9 June Writing Update

2009-06-09T23:55:00.000-04:00

I haven't been updating this sucker as frequently as I would like, but then again, there hasn't been a great deal of progress on the writing front anyway.

Writing accomplishments of the last couple days:

Nearly finished the draft of chapter two of one of the four (!) collaborative novels I am working on with a partner. Only two of the four are actively being worked on. The other two are just at the conceptual stage. We had been working diligently on these last summer, but they have been on hold since August 2008 because of our school responsibilities. We have restarted work on both and intend to put some wordcount in on each over the course of the next year, despite the fact that my partner will be in Germany doing research for a year. Hopefully we can stick with them. We trade off the two novels each month, each writing one chapter, so that both active books get a new chapter every month. If we did this for a year, we'd probably be darn close to having two completed drafts.
Put down a few words on my D&D setting/campaign. Need to do more with that so I can run my wife through her first old school dungeon crawl before she heads off to California.

Tomorrow I plan to finish off chapter two of the collaborative novel I'm working on and send the draft off to my partner. If I still have some writing time left over, I need to put some words down on my joint Carcosa project.

28 May 2009 Writing Update

2009-05-29T00:14:00.000-04:00

Haven't updated in the last few days because I've had very little of note to update. I have been continuing to read plenty of things (both academic and personal reading), just haven't been writing much.

Accomplishments/updates for the last few days:

Received a few semi-cryptic comments back from my advisor on the dissertation chapter outline, but he commented on the first draft again rather than the second, which leads me to believe he mistakenly never read the second draft. Alas, I really did want some feedback on that. I'm going to shelve that for now and just press on, I don't want to get into the confusion with him.
Made some progress on the Carcosa collaborative project. I have started a draft with all our ideas to date (not all that many thus far). We have decided to detail the Yathlogthotep Forest, a mostly unknown area of ten main hexes, though an additional eight hexes contain the fringes of the wood. We can't say all that much about eighteen hexes, as that is a pretty large area, but I think we can do some interesting things with it. My hope is that we can have something to submit -- assuming my two collaborators agree -- for the next issue of Fight On!. Submissions are due by June 27, so I think that gives us plenty of time.

My writing goals for tomorrow: work on Carcosa a bit and crack open those musty collaborative novel files and draft some additional wordcount on one of them.

24 May 2009 Writing Update

2009-05-25T00:13:00.000-04:00

Had a pretty productive day today, writing-wise.

Today's writing accomplishments:

Finished the second draft of my dissertation chapter outline/description (about 2200 words) and sent that off to my advisor. I am, as always, slightly apprehensive about how he will receive it.
Extracted my notes from two books on elements I will want to add into the dissertation: one piece on linking sexuality with modernity and one on the Foucaultian notion of "discourse," both of which I think I'll want to include, probably in the first chapter.
Put down a few words on Carcosa. I'll contact my new collaborators on Tuesday about my ideas.

My writing goals for tomorrow are minimal, as we have some friends coming over for a cookout at 3 PM (Memorial Day and all).

23 May 2009 Writing Update

2009-05-24T00:30:00.000-04:00

Had a pretty productive day, and hey, this is the third day running I've updated this blog, which has to be a record.

Today's writing accomplishments:

Finished the draft of the dissertation chapter outline. I haven't yet sent it off because I want to think about it a bit more tomorrow and do one final editing pass. We'll see how my advisor likes it. He's a tough critic.
Have a second taker re: the Carcosa collaboration project. Told both I would get back to them in a day or two. Wrote up my initial thoughts on the project, and have a clear sense of what I'd like to propose to my collaborators, which is good. The more material I have in hand before talking with them, the better.
Penned a few thoughts on Thoon, mainly on the deep history of the setting.

Tomorrow I hope to send off the dissertation chapter outline and write more on Carcosa. I still want to hit the collaborative novels, maybe I will open up those files and begin revisiting them.

22 May 2009 Writing Update

2009-05-23T00:31:00.000-04:00

Not a vast amount of writing accomplished today, but some.

Today's writing accomplishments:

Did some work on the dissertation chapter outline. One more good day of writing should finish out that draft, though I still need to answer some tough questions in my mind before I can put it to bed.
Put a few words down on Thoon, though not as many as I'd like. Mainly some initial thoughts on its moons, which will give it a nice Flash Gordon vibe.
Updated my personal writing wordcount tracker (spreadsheet) for 2009. I started doing this last year and its a nice record for posterity.
Posted a note on the OD&D board asking if anyone would be interested in collaborating on a small Carcosa-related project: a joint hex/sandbox design. I have some ideas but would like a partner. Already had one taker (DuBeers), which is great. I have corresponded with him previously on my contribution to the free Carcosan Grimoire project.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the dissertation chapter outline draft and email that off, continue to get a few words on Thoon, and put some initial thoughts together on the Carcosa deal.

21 May 2009 Writing Update

2009-05-22T00:18:00.000-04:00

This post isn't about books, instead it's about writing. I feel the need to start tracking my academic and personal writing output, and this is as good a place to do that as any. Not like anyone is reading this thing anyway.

Today's writing accomplishments:

Began revising my dissertation chapter outline according to my advisor's comments from the other day. It was my impression that he just wanted some informal thoughts, but as with everything he reads, he asked a number of tough, hard-hitting questions that will cause me to do a fair amount of additional writing. Another day or (more likely) two of writing will put this second draft to bed.
Completed and submitted my book review for On Point. If the one I did for them last year is any indication, I will receive no further information on the review. Presumably these suckers are published, because I've never actually seen a copy of the journal and my library doesn't stock it (nor do they provide electronic proofs).
Put some initial thoughts down on Explorers of Thoon (c), the planetary romance setting I have been wanting to create for a while now. Think of it as a combination of E. R. Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series and Thundarr the Barbarian.
A handful of discussion board posts on the Original D&D Discussion Board (my first on this board, though I have been lurking there for a while). The "Old School D&D Renaissance" has really caught my fancy of late. Too bad it took the deaths of E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson to bring old school D&D back to the front burner of everyone's attention.

So, all in all, not a bad day, writing-wise. Tomorrow I plan to do more work on the dissertation chapter outline, some more on Thoon, and maybe I'll even revisit the collaborative novels I am working on with JS.

Review: Endworld: Doomsday by David Robbins

2009-01-24T21:55:00.000-05:00

A relatively action-packed prequel to a long-running men's adventure/post-apocalyptic survival series.

SPOILERS ABOUND: READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

The book begins with the world falling into chaos. Multiple wars involving nuclear weapons begin in the Middle East and elsewhere. Eventually, the missiles start landing in the United States, destroying a number of cities. (Technobabble is kept to a minimum here; frankly, I'd have liked to see a little more specificity on what was going on elsewhere in the world.)

Fortunately, an eccentric movie producer has constructed an underground compound in remote Minnesota and has recruited a hundred or so competent individuals to join him in rebuilding civilization. Just one problem: they're scattered all over the country and have to make their way to the relative safety of the compound. The first half of the book follows the adventures of a handful of these individuals as they make their way through an increasingly chaotic (and deadly) American society in the process of breaking down. The author manages to end each chapter on a cliffhanger, which lends a sense of urgency to the book. Characterization isn't bad, certainly well within the "standard parameters" of typical men's adventure series.

The second half of the book -- once everyone arrives at the compound -- is a little less interesting. Things become a little on the cheesy side when the producer begins describing his plan for the group's future, suggesting that they each take a title (Leader, Warrior, Tiller, etc.) and each of the Warriors takes on a codename (Thor, Solo, etc.) that they use exclusively from then on. Here's the silliest part: the character Thor is a nearly seven foot tall construction worker who (along with his family) worships the Norse gods and he manages to get a warhammer that can literally throw lightning bolts. Honestly, I wish these elements hadn't been included because they ramp up the silliness factor in an otherwise straight-forward adventure novel.

This book is a newly written sequel to a long-running (27 or so books) adventure series published from the mid-'80s through the early '90s. The first chapter of the first of these is included as a teaser and I was somewhat surprised at what I read there. That book is set a century after this one, with an entirely new cast of characters. Their access to technology appears to be somewhat more limited, understandably, and the landscape seems to be peopled by various mutants and strange phenomena. I'm intrigued by that premise -- it reminds me strongly of Sterling Lanier's Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero as well as the old role-playing game Gamma World.

The book wasn't bad, as long as what you're looking for is a fun, light read. I have a few misgivings about reading a prequel to a series that will be set a century after this one with an entirely new cast of characters and setting, but I was intrigued enough by the book and the sample chapter for the first book in the series that I do plan to pick up the next book (entitled Endworld: The Fox Run).

3.5 stars out of 5

Review: Without Warning by John Birmingham

2009-01-24T21:28:00.000-05:00

A fast-paced, fun piece of contemporary military fiction with heavy science-fiction (post-apocalyptic overtones).

SPOILERS ABOUND: READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

The book begins in 2003 with America poised to invade Iraq. For an entirely unrevealed reason, an energy field now covers nearly the entire continent of North America, killing every inhabitant and rendering the area impossible to enter. For all intents and purposes, the United States is now gone. All that remains of America is Alaska, Hawaii, part of Washington state, and the large numbers of military personnel and equipment in the Middle East. Needless to say, much of the world descends in chaos as a result.

The book follows the experiences of several characters as they deal with this situation, including a female counter-terrorist operative operating in France (possibly the weakest sub-plot, but also the only one involving significant combat scenes); some smugglers operating off the western coast of Mexico; an embedded journalist in Iraq (a typical all-American guy, though poorly developed); a city engineer in Washington state; a general at Gitmo; and a political operative and smooth-talker on vacation in Hawaii. Characterization is limited -- I'd say that's the biggest weakness of the book -- as is combat, for the most part. There's plenty of action and the plot proceeds a rapid clip, however, so it's certainly not boring. Technobabble is kept to a bare minimum, so if you have an allergy to Tom Clancy, you'll be fine here.

The book ends on a revelation, one year after the event that started the book, that will once again fundamentally change the setting. It's an interesting twist and I look forward to seeing how the sequel proceeds from this point. Do not, however, look for an answer to what caused this catastrophe -- you won't get one in this first book in the series. At this point, it's purely a "what if" thought piece; you should be aware of that before you begin reading, since I suspect that may irk some readers.

I recommend the book as a fun read. Even though I received an ARC of this book for free, I enjoyed it enough that I will likely pick up the sequel.

3.5 stars out of 5

Review: 1633 by Eric Flint

2008-05-22T14:12:00.000-04:00

Here's a follow-up review for the sequel to yesterday's book.

1633

1633 is a fun book, but it's slightly less enjoyable than the original (1632). The basic plotline -- a small West Virginian town is transported to Germany during the Thirty Years' War and must survive and attempt to civilize Europe -- remains the same. A few new characters are introduced, though some of the protagonists from the first book get short shrift (e.g., Julie Sims) this time around.

The book is probably about a hundred pages too long, and it goes into unnecessary detail on the creation of the (new) U.S. Air Force and Navy. Military hardware nuts will love that added level of detail, but for the rest of us, it's superfluous. An inordinate amount of time is spent on the initial flight training of a couple of new pilots and the construction of the first ironclads. That would be fine if, for example, the ironclads ever saw action in the book -- they do not, however. Presumably, Flint will have them play a significant role in one of the sequels. Flint still uses way too many lengthy expository passages for my taste (even more so than in 1632). That's a real weakness.

You get the impression from reading the book that Flint sees 1633 as being just an opening chapter in a much larger story rather than as a coherent, stand-alone book. While many "epic" series suffer from this problem (I hesitate to even begin to compare 1633 to a Robert Jordan book), I do wish that 1633 had been a little more self-contained.

All that being said, 1633 is an enjoyable read, and if you enjoyed the first book in the series, you should definitely take a look at this one, you won't be disappointed.

3.5 stars out of 5

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers

Review: 1632 by Eric Flint

2008-05-21T16:27:00.000-04:00

1632

This is a fun, though not at all believable romp. I'm a big fan of alternative history, so I was naturally drawn to this book (and the series as a whole) by all the attention it's received. 1632 is definitely an enjoyable book, and I'd recommend it to science fiction fans in search of a relatively light read.

You're going to have to seriously exercise your suspension of disbelief when reading this book during a number of passages, but that's at least somewhat understandable. After all, it wouldn't be much fun if the protagonists all died off from diseases, couldn't communicate with the locals, or found that they couldn't support a modern level of technology using only the infrastructure of a small West Virginian town.

Flint has a couple of bad habits as a writer that really come through in this book: first, it's very clear that a couple of his major characters are his favorites, and these characters are invariably going to make all the right decisions, always succeed at whatever they do, rapidly become accomplished statesmen and military strategists, and are, in fact, moral paragons -- to an unbelievable degree -- even in the face of extremely difficult and unfamiliar situations. And second, Flint's writing style could use some editorial polish. He uses too much exposition (admittedly, the Thirty Years' War is an extremely complex period and requires a great deal of explanation, but there's got to be a better way of pulling it off than this) and he has the bad tendency to reuse trite phrases, sometimes every few pages. This gets annoying at times. The characters (mostly modern day West Virginian coal miners) also use a level of vocabulary and sentence structure that real people just don't use in conversation unless they're Boston Brahmins. People just don't speak in half-page long paragraphs, nor do they use words like "pean" in ordinary conversations.

All that aside, read this book, you'll likely enjoy it if you're at all interested in the "Baen Books" style of light, military-oriented science fiction adventure novels.

I'd also recommend S. M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time series, which is probably a little more engaging than 1632.

4 stars out of 5

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers

Two Reviews: Captain Alatriste and Purity of the Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte

2008-05-06T22:27:00.000-04:00

Captain Alatriste

Perez-Reverte offers a swashbuckling adventure of one “Captain” Alatriste, a thug-for-fire, I mean, swashbuckler in 1620s Madrid. Alatriste’s adventure is a straightforward one, and is narrated by his young apprentice, who functions as a kind of nigh-omniscient narrator who tells the tale in his old age. The plot is interesting, but tends to drag between the few sharp scenes of intrigue and derring-do. I couldn’t help but wonder at times if the meandering interludes were little more than filler material, but Perez-Reverte’s writing style takes some of the sting out of that concern. If you are expecting non-stop, madcap escapades, you will be disappointed; Alatriste is a contemplative, melancholic sort with, one imagines, many regrets.

A note on the book's presentation: this is a slim volume with a relatively short page count, a large font, and plenty of white space per page. Perez-Reverte also has a tendency to intersperse his prose with numerous snatches of poetry. You may find this charming, or you may find it tedious. I am somewhere in the middle. The translation is very smooth and doesn't distract the reader.All in all, I recommend the book. It’s an extremely short, light read punctuated by some fun scenes of action and intrigue, though there’s not a tremendous amount of substance here.

3.5 stars out of 5

Purity of Blood

This is the first sequel to Captain Alatriste, and is very similar in structure and tone to the original. Most of the characters made their appearance in the first book as well. As with the first book, the plot is a simple, straightforward one. That’s not a bad thing. It takes on a decidedly dark tone (perhaps more so than the original), and Perez-Reverte is certainly not above allowing bad things to happen to good people. Such is life in Spain of the 1620s. Some readers may find the prose too sparse, but it does create a fast-moving read. At times, I found the narrator’s – Alatriste’s teenage ward describing the tale in his old age – mention of events that had not yet happened to be distracting and annoying, but it does provide a sense that this is merely one anecdote in a convoluted continuity.

As with the first volume in the series, this is a slim volume with a relatively short page count, a large font, and plenty of white space per page. Perez-Reverte continues his tendency to intersperse the prose with numerous snatches of poetry. You may find this charming, or you may find it tedious. I am somewhere in the middle, vaguely wondering what the point is. The translation is very smooth and doesn't distract the reader.

I will most likely continue reading the series – as long as I continue finding them in the remainder bin – but just be aware: absolutely nothing unexpected happens in the book.

3.5 stars out of 5

Book Meme: LibraryThing's Top 106 Unread Books

2008-04-30T21:53:00.000-04:00

The rules:
Bold what you have read, italicize books you’ve started but couldn’t finish, and strike through books you hated. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your tbr list.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
~~Wuthering Heights~~
~~The Silmarillion~~
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Atlas shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury tales
The Historian
A portrait of the artist as a young man
Love in the time of cholera
Brave new world
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
* A clockwork orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
* 1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
~~Les misérables~~
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
* Dune
* The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A confederacy of dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
* Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
* The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Review: Drama City by George Pelecanos

2008-04-25T22:32:00.000-04:00

Let's follow up yesterday's Pelecanos review with another.

Drama City isn't bad, it's just not as good of some of Pelecanos' other books. Don't get me wrong, I love George Pelecanos' book, writing style, characters, etc., but I was a little disappointed by this one. Maybe part of my frustration was that I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging. Lorenzo Brown, the ex-con animal control officer, and his parole officer, Rachel Lopez, are Pelecanos' new protagonists of the book. I thought they were only loosely sketched out, and they didn't end up seeming as "human" or sympathetic as some of his other characters in previous works. Because of that, I was somewhat bored with the novel's pacing; it seems to plod along more than most of Pelecanos' other books.

I won't go over the plot or main characters in great detail, as you can find other reviews that do so at great length. The reader is presented with an almost inevitable outcome for the book -- doom. But that's clearly appropriate for Pelecanos' modern noir style. The book is written in Pelecanos' gritty, street-smart style, and his knowledge and portrayal of DC is as good as ever. He certainly can't be criticized on those accounts.

Having criticized the book at the start, however, I should note that it was an enjoyable read (significantly better than most modern crime fiction on the market) and I fully intend to read Mr. Pelecanos' future efforts. I'd recommend the book to any die-hard fans of Pelecanos or modern crime / noir fiction. Casual readers might be better advised to read some of Pelecanos' other books first in order to truly see how engaging of a writer he can be. I think if I'd simply liked the protagonists a bit more, I'd have rated this one higher; as is, I just didn't care about them enough.

3 stars out of 5

Review: Shoedog by George Pelecanos

2008-04-24T20:21:00.000-04:00

This is a terrific stand-alone Pelecanos heist novel. I guess every crime writer probably wants to write one of those (I know I certainly do), and this is his.

Shoedog was a fun book. The plot involves a drifter named Constantine who essentially randomly finds himself caught up in a scheme to rob two liquor stores nearly simultaneously. Constantine's fellow ne'er-do-wells are engaging written and the pace of the novel is action-packed. Shoedog doesn't involve any of Pelecanos' other signature characters (Nick Stefanos, Derek Strange, etc.) in a significant way, which is too bad, but the protagonists are interesting enough that you shouldn't mind too much. It is, however, set in Washington, DC, as are the rest of his books.

This was one Pelecanos' first novels, but his writing is still as polished as ever. I actually ended up reading this book after I had read all of his other, better known books and found myself enjoying it more than some of his latest. One very minor quibble: the title is a bit of a misnomer, because the "Shoedog" character is not actually the most developed -- he plays a decidedly second fiddle to Constantine, the protagonist.

The book ends with one of Pelecanos' traditional big finale shootouts, but is still entertaining for all that. I would highly recommend this book to any of Pelecanos' current fans, as well as anyone interested in reading a fun, engaging book about a heist that goes wrong (don't they all?).

5 stars out of 5

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers

Inaugural Post: Favorite Authors and Works

2008-04-24T18:42:00.000-04:00

So who are my favorite authors and works?

For science fiction and fantasy, my favorites include Jack Vance (his entire opus), Glen Cook (Black Company and Dread Empire series), Iain M. Banks (The Culture), Dan Abnett (Eisenhorn, Ravenor, and Gaunt's Ghosts), and George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire). I am also quite partial to the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, though I haven't liked his other work.

For crime, my favorite author is, without a doubt, George Pelecanos (really nice guy too; met him at a number of book signings in the DC area). George C. Chesbro's Mongo the Magnificent series is right up there though.

For horror and "weird fiction," my tastes run to much of the Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft, though I also like Clark Ashton Smith a lot, as well as earlier Stephen King (pretty much everything through, say, Gerald's Game). Dan Simmons is a favorite as well (his science fiction is good too)

For pulp fiction, my favorite is definitely the Shadow series by Maxwell Grant. I am also slowly but surely acquiring Sax Rohmer (of Fu Manchu fame)'s complete works.

For history, I usually read twentieth century U.S. history (since this coincides with my research), often involving military or intelligence history.

For historical fiction, my favorite author is George Macdonald Fraser, creator of Flashman. The Sharpe's series is not high literature, but it's a guilty pleasure too.

For graphic novels, I generally only purchase ones for which I don't read the individual issues (I read a handful of DC comics), so my favorite ones are the various Hellboy and BPRD titles, Y: The Last Man, and Fables.