The Bodhisattva

Finished move to wordpress

2006-01-03T02:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished moving everything; links to interviews, reviews, my posts, my manifesto collection, comments, to wordpress. Thanks to all those who updated the links to http://jaytomio.wordpress.com/.

Right now we have a contest in the works at FBS so check it out.

A change:

2005-12-24T01:31:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been messing around with the free Webpress journal. I love Blogger's flexiblty regarding customizing the look, but I find myself more concerned with that than in content lately, and although Webpress has virtually no options regarding customizing the look, I like the interface quite a bit, and the keep adding options, even if not a sprinters pace. So although I'm keeping this account, I'm probably going to be updating first at this webpress site.

I haven't compeletd my transfer yet, but too all folk that were kind enough to link to me here, I just wanted to give people the heads up! Thanks!

Laconic Annotations

2005-12-17T03:43:00.000-08:00

Or a link dump!

A Potential GW Supreme Court Nominee:

-Let me admit I am a comic book fan, and even more so I am an Alan Moore fan, who I think is a talented writer no matter that room he is in, and probably more talented than 85% of fiction novelists. While I thought it was cool that his monumental Watchmen series made Time Magazine's 100 Best English Language novels since 1923 a couple of months ago, I would also freely admit that its inclusion is more than questionable. That said, when I read something like this article* I view my Japanese passport with added fondness. This was replied to (I think equally ineffectual due to it's attempt to make it about the author instead of his comments, which was responded to by the original author here.

*_{note the longer version of that editorial is here.}

ARG:

-I have been wondering where Sean Stewart was, as I really enjoyed his novels Perfect Circle, Mockingbird, and Galveston. Seems like he is just playing games.

Down Under Thunder:

-The 2005 Aurealis Awards shortlist is out.

Pray for no Sci-Fi Redux:

-Earthsea getting the anime treatment

Cheryl meets the Scarecrow:

-Couldn't have been serious.

-I saw this (via Emerald city) dual review of Ken Macleod's Learning the World, at Strange Horizons, featuring opinions by Niall Harrison and Dan Hartland. First I want to say that I thought the book was the best pure SF book I read all year (that was published in 2005), I was hooked from the first pages, however I agree with some of both of the commentaries, I just don't place the same value that Mr. Hartland places on a particular aspect:

"Learning The World is ultimately an old-fashioned pulp story with added emotional intelligence. In that sense, it’s an entertaining, nicely written update of something we might have read in a dog-eared Amazing anthology. I have no problem with this—it’s kind of fun. I enjoyed the book on this surface level—it’s an easy read, a bit of fluffy amusement. What Learning The World emphatically is not is a startling and original addition to the SF canon of first contact, or indeed any other on-going discussion within the genre."

I agree, I just don't see the relevance unless one only deems books worthwhile if they cause discussions within the genre (Venom Cock?), or base it completely on elements and not how those elements are conveyed. Now I am all for, innovation, creativity, 'cutting edge' as my own tastes I think reflect, however, in saying that I try not to completely fail in perceiving the positives of say a book like Jay Lake's Rocket Science.

Fantasybookspot.com expands:

-Duana gives us her thoughts on King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Not to be Outdone:

-Alan Moore's 'V for Vendetta' trailer.

Pissing in the Wind:

-I'm one of those people that cringe when I see comments like 'Peake is unreadable" or 'Mieville and Stephenson are pretentious', and I'm not going to lie, I usually think to myself they at least have bad taste, and sometimes prove themselves to be what I would call pretty easy to please regarding what they read, and often admittedly I wrongly but correctly question intelligence. Subjectivity and all, I just can't rationalize not enjoying a Jeffrey Ford, Jonathan Carroll, or Paul Auster work. Now, since my own sins are confessed, perhaps I'm being hypocritical when saying something about this author's remarks about a reviewer just doesn't rub well with me (not that anyone should care). It stems from a review of The 22nd edition of The Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois at SFSignal, which is a SF/F news portal/link site. In the review, the reviewer points out that one story, 'Riding the White Bull' by Caitlin R. Kiernan, doesn't suit his tastes. This is the totality of what he stated about Ms. Kiernan's story:

"Like most stories, an interesting premise. Unlike most stories, the narrative kept jumping back and forth between multiple points in the story line, usually without warning. The result was to take what could have been a first-rate, hardboiled sf detective story and turn it into a hodgepodge of unorganized passages. Too bad, some of the passages contained really powerful images of bio-terrorism."

I have never read the story, but I have read some of the others in this anthology, and I disagree with some of the reviewers opinions and agree with others in various degrees, however, this has nothing to do with whether I agree or disagree with the evaluation. I have just been looking at Ms. Kiernan's response to the review, and I just can't bring myself to agree with the reaction which can be viewed here. Specifically:

"For my part, as the author, I know that "Riding the White Bull" is a good story (and I do not say this about everything I write). And, for what it's worth, the story has received heaps of praise and was chosen for Year's Best. But it still pisses me off when I see people who obviously cannot master anything beyond the simplest narratives being allowed to review books right out in public where anyone can stumble across this crap. There's nothing the least bit unusual or difficult about the narrative of "Riding the White Bull." This reviewer is clearly the sort of person Warner Bros. had in mind when it forced Ridley Scott to add that hokey, gawdawful, "explain it so even the morons can understand" voice-over to the original cut of Blade Runner. I most emphatically don't write for those people. It's a shame I can't also arrange it so that they can't read and comment on what I write. They certainly are not welcomed at the party."

What? I only know one thing about Ms. Kiernan, and that is I have enjoyed what fiction I have read of hers, that includes two novels, Silk and Threshold. I think she is a talented author, that's not to say I think of her on the level of horror as Mark Z. Danieleski, but I did appreciate her work to some extent. That said, I don't give a fuck how good an author someone thinks they are, nor do I care what anthology a story gets added to, nor do I give a shit if they are a Nobel laureate; there is something I find mildly distasteful about any author insinuating that anyone reading their work is too stupid to understand it (unless you're James Joyce, which nobody is) I say this having nothing but the greatest admiration for writers who do not write with accessibility at the forefront of their thinking, and I myself welcome any author's input or dialogue on my own reviews without hesitation, however, there is something utterly classless -- not about calling someone lesser -- but voicing some ridiculous, and ultimately self-serving and self-administered adulation for oneself, whether it's true, false, deserved or not. John (SFSignal) replied to it here. The comments feature some words I agree with; most notable from one of my favorite authors, John C. Wright:

"Having a writer step up and defend his own work is like having your mother come out of the stands and argue with the umpire after you are called out at home during Little League. Even if Mom is as right as Archangel Gabriel, it still looks bad."

That's from an author who I know keeps it real, because I remember early in FBS's interview phase, Wright was kind enough to be our guest and was very helpful in offering advice about handling an interview to yours truly who had no clue (and still doesn't). If someone is a quality author, it will show and other's will speak for them. I mirror Wright's comments when I think there is no format that such comments could be made that would reflect positively on the author. The notion that any reader is 'not welcome' is simply absurd. Now, such comments won't stop me from reading an author's work if I enjoy it, but I was a bit surprised -- not the response itself -- but the nature of it.

Simultaneous Bloggasm:

I'm not sure what the point is, but tons of interviews in a day at Bloggasm, Jeff Vandermeer, Christopher Rowe, Nick Mamatas, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Tim Pratt, Charles Stross, Doug Lain, Alan DeNiro Ben Peek, and Jay Lake among others.

The Real Answer to the Question:

A lot of discussion about the questions brought up by Benford and Rose, which has drawn responses and other questions from John Scalzi, and was put into proper perspective by Scott Lynch.

For myself, for some reason - and I may be gravely mistaken - I am some how not surprised that a new site, offering commentary by authors, kicks off with an entirely idiotic assertion that they know will catch notice. ultimately, while I enjoyed reading the dialogue caused by it (mostly for comedic value), it's somewhat baffling to me that so much can be made of what was essentially thought-lacking bullshit to begin with. It just seems we often mistake any instance of provocative statements as relevant, without taking in account whether or not it's worth talking about or something you just look at, laugh at, and walk away not thinking of it again (like a Paolini book). This was about hits/traffic/exposure, not content worth talking about, and I think Gabe Chouinard summarizes it aptly:

"Isn’t it a little alarmist (and more than a little absurd) equating fantasy edging SF out in popularity with a general decline of western civilization? I mean, I realize I’m one of those rare and bizarre readers that willingly and happily switches from fantasy to science fiction without causing any deep scars to my fragile reading psyche, but I think moaning over Rowling winning a Hugo sounds more like internecine sour grapes than anything meaningful.

Fantasy. Science fiction. Nurse novels. They’re all just words on paper, you know?"

Speaking of Gabe, he's active on his Live Journal now.

Another book I have to get *sigh*:

-It's bad enough Kelly Link was pimping it when I interviewed her last week, but now Cheney is interviewing Joe Hill and now I have to go buy his book.

Gates are Up:

-Tobias Buckell has his writer community running

Rangergirl walks the plank:

-Jeff VanderMeer interviews Tim Pratt

Japanese Favorite Word - Sale!

-Jason Erik Lundberg points out a sale at Tachyon.

Hmmm...:

-Book looking to fetch 5-7 million dollars at auction

Best Book Bonanza:

-Jonathan Strahan offers his favorite stories of 2005, and then added more, then finally added his favorite novels

Paula Guran from DarkEcho gives her top 10.

Vote for your 2005 favorites at SF Site.

Larry from Wotmania (don't hold that against him) has his list topped off by a book I just finished myself, which I thought was damn excellent, Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Kelly Link Interview at Fantasybookspot.com

2005-12-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

I just posted an interview I conducted with the incredibly talented Kelly Link at Fantasybookspot.com. Be sure to check it out as she talks about small beers, trampolines, and chocolate.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Remodeling

2005-12-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

Doing a little remodeling for the next couple of days involving some color/template testing so please bear with me. . In the meantime, very excited to have just received R. Scott Bakker's The Thousandfold Thought today!

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

The 2006 Bodhisattva Big Board

2005-12-04T05:16:00.000-08:00

With 2005 coming to an end, I thought I’d list some of the 2006 scheduled releases I’m most looking forward too. 2005 really ended with some strong efforts but 2006 looks like a great year for both the established and well thought of new talents. Kind of a one stop look at 50 (in no particular order) releases I'm most anticipating, which isn't to say they will be excellent or even a promise that they won't be awful; but they are 50 that I will be sure to find out for myself in 2006. I'm sure there will be dozens of other worthy works, many of which I am aware, of, many that I'm not. If anyone (author, publicist, editor etc) notes any possible corrections, please email me as I'd be interested, both for purposes of corrections and for my general knowledge. I like a variety of the catrgories of fiction people like to hear/see themselves say repeatedly, so don't expect all of one kind. So in the spirit of Mel Kiper, the first edition of The Bodhisattva Big Board:

1. Ink by Hal Duncan (second and concluding installment of the ‘Book of All Hours’ duology) - Scheduled release: August 2006 (U.K. release) -

I read and loved ‘Vellum’ earlier this year. I love reading his criticism, but John Clute doesn’t change that. ‘Vellum’ will ultimately be judged by Duncan’s ability to deliver in Ink. I had the opportunity to ask Hal a few questions early this year, and this is what he said about Ink here:

“Ink is a sequel, but it's the subsidiary characters of Vellum who take centre stage, so it's a bit of a shift in perspective rather than a direct continuation of the main narrative of Vellum. In the same way that Vellum’s two volumes tell individual stories, that of Phreedom and Thomas Messenger in one, Seamus Finnan in the other, but build up into a wider narrative, Ink breaks down into two volumes -- Hinter's Knights and Eastern Mourning; but it also closes off the wider story arc of 'The Book Of All Hours' that is opened up in Vellum.”

For U.S. buyers, you will get your first look at Vellum in April of next year.

2. Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford - Scheduled release: April 2006 –

His last collection, the World Fantasy Award winning ‘The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant’, left us all wanting; so along with the gems he occasionally drops for us at his journal, fans get a brand new collection featuring not only the title story that won of the Nebula and was finalist for the Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award) but also these:

'The Weight of Words'
'The Trentino Kid'
'Summer Afternoon'
'A Night in the Tropics'
'Coffins on the River'
'The Beautiful Gelreesh'
'The Annals of Eelin-Ok'
'The Green Word'
'Jupiter's Skull'
'Giant Land'
'A Man of Light'
'Boatman's Holiday'
'Botch Town' (novella)

Ford, with both is work in novels and short stories have one of those permanent positions regarding my favorite authors currently.

3. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - Scheduled release: June 2006 -

First book in a planned 3-book sequence, to be followed by 'Red Seas Under Red Skies'. As noted earlier here, I have already read and loved this book, expect a full review in early 2006, to correlate with an interview both for Fantasybookspot.com

4. Twelve Collections and the Teashop by Zoran Zivkovic - Scheduled release: Early 2006 -

If you haven't read Zivkovic yet, it becomes a necessity to right this wrong with all haste. Reading The Fourth Circle and Hidden Camera will make this purchase a requirement as well.. Listen to Lundberg for gods sake! Here is an excerpt.

5. The Thousandfold Thought by R. Scott Bakker (the third and final chapter of 'The Prince of Nothing Trilogy'- Scheduled release: January 2006 -

I received good news last week, that my copy was in the mail, righting a crime against the Japanese that I haven't read it yet! I recently shared my thoughts on the first installment, The Darkness that Comes Before. The Warrior Prophet was even better, in a series that potentially could become the best completed in epic fantasy in 30 years. I have also been hearing word (that would be from the lucky bastards that have already read it) that I was thanked in it! If that's true that's worth the price alone!

6. Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer - Scheduled Release: January 2006 (U.K.) August (U.S.) -

I think we have all read the kick ass mosaic City of Saints and Madmen, and the recent U.S. invasion of Veniss Underground. Just when I thought the quota for good fiction from a writer was reached Secret Life came out. By all the laws of the universe VanderMeer is due for a flop, but I don't see how that can happen in Ambergis, a seminal setting Fanatstic Fiction already. Don't believe me, check out the synopsis by China:

'Unsettling, erudite, dark, shot through with unexpected humour. Ambergris is one of my favourite haunts in fiction'

Sold.

7. The Golden By Lucius Shepard - Scheduled release: April 2006 -

Lucius Shepard being out of print is a crime against literate humaniy and in this also those that enjoy what passes for modern vampire fiction. Golden Gryphon Press rectifies the problem rereleasing Shepard's 'The Golden'.

8. Of Tales and Enigmas by Minsoo Kang - Scheduled release: January 2006 -

This is one of those buys that's pure speculation by me (which happens a lot), but I have been waiting for this ever since Jeff VanderMeer interviewed Kang. Prime is usally good shit anyways, so it's not exactly a shot in the dark.

9. The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross - Scheduled release: December 2006 -

The sequel to the Atrocity Archives by an author who had a huge 2005. I have seen 'Jennifer Morgue' described as 'in the style of Ian Flemming', and when I communicated with Stross earlier this year he said this about it:

"I really like this particular series (thrillers about the British secret service for protecting us from the Lovecraftian horrors that lurk beyond the universe, as told from the point of view of the more than somewhat geekish Bob, a hacker who's fallen into the British civil service and can't escape). They're fun to write, although not always easy -- humour and horror make an interesting mixture to balance out."

10. Fain the Sorceror by Steve Aylett - Scheduled release: Early 2006 -

Has everyone read Lint? I picked it up after reading Moorcock gab (I mean bless it) about it, and came away not knowing everything I should have known after reading a book, but I still loved it. You can read the synopsis here.

11. The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson - Scheduled release: March (U.K) April (U.S.) -

I already talked about Erikson here. This is the sixth book in his 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' sequence.

12. The Vengeance of Rome by Michael Moorcock - Scheduled release: January (U.K.) February 2006 (U.S.) -

The God Emperor of all this shit, with his long awaited installment in the Pyat quartet! Byzantium Endures, The Laughter of Carthage, and Jerusalem Commands. This is the kind of release that just makes being a reader worth it.

13. The Burning Girl by Holly Phillips - Scheduled release: February 2006 -

I read and reviewed Phillip's collection earlier this year, In the Palace of Repose, and loved it. Ever since Sean told me of this debut novel effort forthcoming by Phillips, this has been a book on m yearly 2006 watch.

14. Fugitives of Chaos by John C. Wright - Scheduled release: TBA -

This is the second part of a duology kicked off by one of my favorite books of 2005, Orphans of Chaos. Ever since Mr. Wright mentioned this sequence when I communicated with him earlier this year, the premise put Orphans of Chaos high on my 2005 read list, and I loved it. With all ready a outstanding Space Opera trilogy to his credit, and another Fantasy duology (Everness), Wright has quickly become one of the authors to look out for every year.

15. A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham - Scheduled release: March 2006 -

This is one those releases that a lot of the epic minded, and especially those familair with George R.R. Martin have been waiting for. I recently assured my copy is coming soon, because I'm one of them. This is the epic (or psuedo-epic not sure yet) series I am most looking forward to in 2006, not Erikson, and not Bakker, which is just a gut feeling, but my nose for quality is telling me this is can't miss. Connie Willis (who has won/nominated so many awards we might as well just call them all 'Connies' said:

"Reader, be warned: If you open Daniel Abraham's A Shadow in Summer, he will lead you into a strange, seductive world of beatings and poets and betrayals, intrigues you do not fully understand and wars you cannot stop and places you are not sure you want to go. Intricate, elegant, and almost hypnotically told, this tale of gods held captive will hold you captive, too."

GRRM says:

"A Shadow in Summer is a thoroughly engrossing debut novel from a major new fantasist. A poignant human tale of power, heartbreak, and betrayal."

I'm game to take a chance on a possible quality quartet.

16. Killing with the Edge of the Moon by A.A. Attanasio - Scheduled Release TBA -

Like anyone else I cam susceptible to being suckered by a cover and synopsis, and again here is one of my wants on pure speculation, and faith in the press. Here is a synopsis:

'The witch’s eyes shone in the dark like tiny silver mirrors. “The name means ‘Flower Face,’ which is the owl’s poetic nickname, the bird who steals souls – for Blud-ye-eth was a woman made from magic and flowers and, like the owl, she had no soul of her own.” The speaker is a hickory-faced crone trying to explain to Chet, a shy kid with eyeglasses and pocket protector, why he can’t take her granddaughter Flannery to the high school dance.

Quiet, elfin Flannery is not like other kids. A living Blud-eye-eth, she has caught the attention of the faerie, beautiful wicked creatures from a mysterious Otherworld, who seduce their victims with moonlight raves before feeding them to a dragon. They hunt souls with a supernatural black dog of prodigious evil. They have taken Flannery for one of their own. And she won’t be going to the school dance – not unless Chet rescues her.

This modern, demonic fairy tale weaves together themes of passion and self-discovery into an intricate Celtic knot of myth, moon magic, and teen romance. Thrust together in a dark, erotic Otherworld, Flannery and Chet discover they know each other better than they know their own hearts. Can they sort things out before the black dog finds them?'

I haven't read a book by Attanasio, but every time I visit the Prime site this thing is staring at me in the face.

17. Ilario: The Lion's Eye by Mary Gentle - Scheduled release: December 2006 -

I took the plunge into Gentle after seeing Mieville and Moorcock speak highly of her work. I haven't read the 'Ash' stuff yet, but I loved 'The Rat Lords' sequence. The Bodhisattva is thinking about nice gifts for next Christmas here.

18. Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell - Scheduled release: February 2006 -

Buckell is one of those relatively new authors that has a admirable tendency to maintain a relevant blog, and in turn makes me think he may have something to say in his debut novel (aka the Mamatas effect)

Here is the Crystal Rain site. Check out a sample chapter.

19. Black Swan Green by David Mithcell - Scheduled Release: April 2006 -

I wasn't one of the people that were pissing on themselves over Cloud Atlas, but I did think it was damn excellent. Good enough to insure buying the subsequent effort without a second thought. Here is an excerpt:

'Picked-on kids act invisible to reduce the chances of being noticed and picked on. Stammerers act invisible to reduce the chances of being made to say something we can’t. Kids whose parents argue act invisible in case we trigger another skirmish. The Triple Invisible Boy, that’s Jason Taylor. Even I don’t see the real Jason Taylor much these days, ’cept for when we’re writing a poem, or occasionally in a mirror, or just before sleep. But he comes out in woods. Ankley branches, knuckly roots, paths that only might be, earthworks by badgers or Romans, a pond that’ll ice over come January, a wooden cigar box nailed behind the ear of a secret sycamore where we once planned a treehouse, birdstuffedtwigsnapped silence, toothy bracken, and places you can’t find if you’re not alone. Time in woods’s older than time in clocks, and truer.'

Maybe I should start pissing on myself.

20. Salt of the Air by Vera Nazarian

It's getting to the point that I like short fiction more than novels, and I love checking out collections from authors who have novels I enjoyed. Nazarian's Lords of Rainbow is on every shelf of any reputable collector of fantastic fiction.

21. Mervyn Peake: A Memoir by Michael Moorcock - Scheduled release: September 2006 -

Nothing else has to be said.

22. Temeraire by Naomi Novik (in U.S. called His Majesty's Dragon) - Scheduled release: January 2006 (U.K.) March (U.S.) -

First book in a trilogy followed by Throne of Jade and Black Powder War all to be released in 2006. I have already read book and I rather like Novik's fantastic-alternative history, where Napoleon and England are still at war, but in a word where Dragons serve as airforce. The relationship between aviator and dragon, and the numerous breeds of dragons and the quaint atmosphere make this a series I already approve of for consumption. Full review soon.

23. The Tourmaline by Paul Park - Scheduled Release: July 2006 -

I just thought Paul Park's 2005 release A Princess of Roumania was deligthful. We learned was the first part in a quartet when I interviewed him. Check out my review, and don't miss out a real quality series thus far that I think most fans of a fractured genre fandom can appreciate.

24. The Voyage of Night Shining White by Chris Roberson

I thought a lot of Here, There & Everywhere from the Monkeybrain boss, and Roberson's short form rep and history is enough to go for a novella.

24. Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead by Alan DeNiro - Scheduled release: June 2006 -

Beer is good, in this case, especially Small Beer. The owner of the Goblin Mercantile Exchange with one can only be a slammin new collection.

25. White Time by Margo Lanagan - Scheduled release August 2006 -

I have no idea what this is, only that it's written by the author who wrote a terrific collection, Black Juice. I'm not sure if this a repackaged reissue of the collection reviewed here. Whatever it is, if it has Lanagan's name on it, Black Juice insures me buying more Lanagan until she writes something that isn't incredible.

26. Solistice Wood by Patricia Mckillip - Scheduled release: February 2006

A contemporary fantasy offering from really one of the best stylists in the fantastic fiction whether she writes epic fantasy or not. Author of the last superior epic fantasy series in my mind, with her 'Riddle Master' sequence.

27. Bridge of Dreams by Chaz Brenchley - Scheduled release: May 2006 -

I go interested in this book after reading the author's description, and particularly:

'and half the story takes place in harems... but it's also about military and mercantile cultures facing off across an unbridgeable river, where the merchants have the water-magic and so they keep control - until the day they wake up to find a bridge appeared in the night, and the legions marching over.'

28. Three Days to Never by Tim Powers - Scheduled release TBA -

New Tim Powers! Read the excerpt:

'When 12-year-old Daphne Marrity steals a videotape of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure from her grandmother's house, neither she nor her college-professor father, Frank Marrity, have any idea that the theft has drawn the attention of both the Israeli Secret Service and an ancient European organization of occultists -- or that within hours they'll be visited by her long-lost grandfather, who also wants that videotape.
And when Daphne's teddy bear is stolen, and a blind assassin nearly kills her father, and a phantom begins to speak to her from a switched-off television set, Daphne and her father find themselves running for their lives through a southern California in which magic and the undead past are dangers as great as the guns of living assassins.
From ancient prophesies about Israel to the secret lives of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein, this breathtaking novel throws a suburban father and daughter into the midst of an ancient supernatural battle.'

29. The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams - Scheduled release: April 2006 -

This is the U.S. release of a novel that won both the Ditmar and Aurealis Awards and the first installment of the 'The Books of the Cataclysm'. I figure this would be a good time for me to check out William's work, and PYR seems to always put out a quality presentation. Read the synopsis.

30. Forest Mage by Robin Hobb - Scheduled Release: June 2006 -

Book 2 of Shaman's Crossing that all Hobb fans appreciated except those with man-love for Fitz. For myself I enjoyed a fresh start for Hobb. I tried to get some info out of Ms. Hobb about this forthcoming book, but I get a feeling she doesn't like spoilers:

"No, no, no! You know I don't do spoilers"

Going to have to find out for ourselves.

31. The Newford Collection by Charles de Lint - Scheduled release TBA -

Charles de Lint collection of 750 pages Newford tales (the obvious) that will include an original short story as well. Read details at Subetrannean Press. Charles de Lint was doing 'urban' fantasy before anyone knew it existed.

32. Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey - Scheduled release: June 2006 -

When I talked to Ms. Carey earlier this year I got new on Carey return to Terre d'Ange. I have been a bit disappointed that some of the fans of this sequence didn't take to her recent duology 'The Sundering' which is a terrific pov look and study of evil in a traditional fantasy setting. At any rate, check the synopsis out here.

33. Quantum Gravity: Keeping It Real by Justina Robson - Scheduled release: Spring 2006 -

The one book 2005 release I haven't read yet that I'm really kicking myself for is Justina Robson's Living Next Door to the God of Love. I'm going to have to get to it sooner rather than later, and here is new project from Robson she talks about here, that includes:

'There's a girl cyborg secret agent with a troubled past, an elf rock star, some cracks in the fabric of existence that are starting to stretch the wallpaper - and not forgetting necromantic possession, doomed love, hot sex and friends who would sooner eat you than help you if you get them wet...'

34. Kafka in Bronteland and other stories by Tamar Yellin - Scheduled release: April 2006 -

In a world of subjectivity and opinion there are few absolutes. One of them is that Yellin's Genizah at the House of Shepher was one of the 10 best books of 2005. Read about this new 13-story collection here.

35. The King's Last Song by Geoff Ryman - Scheduled Release: February 2006 -

Apparently not a SF, as it's described as a 'non-SF Cambodian novel'. Synopsis:

'A great king brings peace to a warring nation. Centuries later his writings will bring hope to those facing the tragic legacy of modern Cambodia's bloody history. When archaeologists discover a book written on gold leaves at Angkor Wat, everyone wants a piece of the action. But the King, the Army and the UN are all outflanked when the precious artefact is kidnapped, along with Professor Luc Andrade, who was accompanying it to the capital for restoration. Luckily for Luc his love and respect for Cambodia have won him many friends, including ex-Khmer Rouge cadre Map and the young moto-boy William. Both equally determined to rescue the man they consider their mentor and recover the golden book, they form an unlikely bond. But William is unaware of just how closely Map's violent past affects him. The book contains the words and wisdom of King Jayavarman VII, the Buddhist ruler who united a war-torn Cambodia in the twelfth century and together with his enlightened wife created a kingdom that was a haven of peace and learning. His extraordinary story is skilfully interwoven with the tales of Luc, Map and William to create an unforgettable and dazzling evocation of the spirit of Cambodia'

36. Black Man by Richard Morgan - Scheduled Release: October 2006 -

I noted this book, in a recent post. If you write works like Altered Carbon and the other Takeshi Kovacs works, I'm game this:

"This is a vacation from my Takeshi Kovacs series and an attempt to do something a little different while still working with the tools and templates of future noir," Morgan said. "The book posits a future about a century from now in which poorly supervised genetic experimentation has left the human race with a series of major legal and ethical headaches, and a massive colony effort on Mars has turned into a political race between reconstituted power blocs. The U.S. has fractured apart along lines which will seem eerily familiar to students of the current political [quagmire], and China has risen to economic and political parity with the West."

37. The Line Between by Peter S Beagle - Scheduled Release: July 2006 -

Let me tell you, Japanese people my age loved The Last Unicorn when they were kids, this is a sequel collection. Described here:

'A sequel to the beloved fantasy classic The Last Unicorn is the jumping-off point for this fresh collection of short stories from a master fantasist. In these long-awaited, powerful new tales, reincarnated lovers and waning kings rub shoulders with heroic waifs. Schmendrick the magician returns to adventure, as does the ghost of an off-Broadway actor and a dream-stealing shapeshifter. Gordon, the delightfully charming "self-made cat" appears for the first time in print, taking his place alongside Stuart Little as a new favorite of the young at heart. These wide ranging, beautifully told stories contain sly humor and resounding depth. This is a collection to charm the many fans of literary fantasy.'

38. Emperor by Stephen Baxter - Scheduled Release: July 2006 -

"A woman gives birth to her child in a village in Northern England, the cold northern edge of the Roman Empire. As she struggles through a painful labour she begins to scream out a series of words in Latin. A language she has never heard before, much less spoken. One of the family recognises the words for what they are. Only later does it become clear that the women has spoken a prophecy. A prophecy that relates to the death of the Emperor Constantine/ A prophecy that if enacted will change the fate of the Roman Empire and all of the future beyond it. Stephen Baxter's new series takes ordinary individuals living at history's tipping points and presents them with a prophecy that challenges everything they believe about their world and prompts them to take action that could change it forever. The fourth volume reveals the nature of the prophecies and reveals a battle that has been fought through the ages."

A start of a new quartet by Baxter that souds damn intriguing that will be followed by 'Conqueror', 'Navigator', and 'Weaver'.

39. The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes - Scheduled release: April 2006 -

This series is a step down from the current elite works in epic fantasy ( Bakker, Martin, Erikson, Kay) but is infinitely better than most. This is the third installment of 'The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone' sequence. I reviewed the first book, entitled The Briar King, and I think The Charnel Prince was a worth enough second installment.

40. Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology - Scheduled Release: May 2006 -

Anthology from Tor, of all original stories to help with the Tsunamai relief effort. Good cause that features twenty stories by authors like Brian Aldiss, David Drake, Jacqueline Carey, Martha Wells, Larry Niven, Joe Haldeman, Eric Nylund, Sherrilyn Kenyon writing as Kinley MacGregor, and a Dune story by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson etc. All of us, especially us lucky assholes that get stacks of review copies from publishers need to buy this one.

41. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon - Scheduled Release: April 2006 -

Everyone has read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Something that winning a Pulitzer does for you.

42. The Voyage of the Sable Keech by Neal Asher - Scheduled Release: February 2006 -

Asher's work has a way of growing on you in a manner that most fast paced, action based works don't usually work on me. I enjoyed Gridlinked
and really enjoyed The Skinner. Read about The Voyage of the Sable Keech more here.

43. The Virtu by Sarah Monette - Scheduled release 2006 -

Part of this is because I want to find out after Melusine, which blindsided me by not being a stand-alone novel, as noted in my review. When I interviewed Ms. Monette she confirmed I'd get what I'm seeking in The Virtu:

"'The Virtu’ is a direct sequel to Melusine, picking up about a month and a half after the end of the first book. It recounts Felix and Mildmay's return to Melusine and the Mirador."

44. Wings to the Kingdom by Cheries Priest - Scheduled Release: TBA -

Apparently the planned sequel to the most excellent southern/horror Four and Twenty BlackBirds due out next year.

45. The Grass-Cutting Sword by Catherynne M. Valente - Scheduled release: TBA -

Valente just writes beautiful work, loved The Labrynth, loved Yume Me Hon, looking forward to this forthcoming offering from Prime, and also her 2007 work coming out from Bantam. The description:

'A re-telling of the Yamata-no-Orochi, this fragmented, metamorphosed folktale follows the great trickster of Japanese myth, Susano-no-Mikoto, from his descent from heaven to his great battle with the eight-headed dragon, all the way through to the fires of Hiroshima.'

46. Gradisil by Adam Roberts - Scheduled release: May 2006 -

Recently became a fan of Roberts after reading Salt

47. End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood - Scheduled release: August 2006 -

In recent years I have become a big fan of Grimwood. I love his 'Arabesk' sequence and his collection Stamping Butterflies. I was searching a couple fo weeks ago for Grimwood novels to order and ran across this listing. I haven't found a description/synopsis, but Grimwood has been on a role for a few years now and I went ahead and bookmarked it.

48. Glasshouse by Charles Stross - Scheduled Release: June 2006-

Acclerando is my favorite Stross work so Glasshouse , is something I'm highly anticipating since he said this when I had a chance to communciate with him:

"After Accelerando comes ‘Glasshouse’, a psychological thriller set some 500 years later -- this is awaiting a final polish before I send it in, and it's due out in July '06."

Amazon's synopsis:

"When Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it doesn't take him long to discover that someone is trying to kill him. It's the twenty-seventh century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities and target historians. The civil war is over and Robin has been demobilized, but someone wants him out of the picture because of something his earlier self knew. On the run from a ruthless pursuer and searching for a place to hide, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse. Constructed to simulate a pre-accelerated culture, participants are assigned anonymized identities: it looks like the ideal hiding place for a posthuman on the run. But in this escape- proof environment Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters, and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche ..."

Two Books that may be released that aren't official yet:

49. 'Caine Black Knife' by Matthew Stover - Scheduled Release: TBA -

Easily one of the 5 books I'm most looking forward to. I thought Blade of Tyshalle was one of the great modern fantasy novels. Nobody is mixing action and emotional depth like Stover. Caine is one of my all time favorite characters already.

50. A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin - Scheduled Release: TBA -

Point blank - the best epic fantasy ever written thus far. I have heard some negative response to the latest, A Feast for Crows, and I simply don't understand it. The book offers a number of scenes of interest regarding all the major plot points, and dozens of the 'red herring or important' instances that make this series utterly unique. At worst it was the third best epic fantasy offering this year (if not the best). There is not a dozen epic fantasy installments better than A Feast for Crows, so in that sense there really is no reason to what was a predictable backlash after the wait and the splitting of the book. Was it A Storm of Swords? Hell no, I can't name another epic fantasy offering that is though, and at the very least A Dance with Dragons become the most anticipated epic fantasy offering ever with the return of Tyrion, Jon, and Dany and company, This is likely a 2007 release, but hell I can hope.

Linkage Dumpage:

-A few more entries into the SF/Fantasy debate, Hal Duncan and Jay Lake. A second response from Ted Chiang, which Nick Mamatas responded to.

-More Zoran Zivkovik goodness from Aio.

-The Stephen King/Marvel 'Dark Tower' adaptation has been pushed back until 2007.

-John C. Wright tabbed to write A. E. van Vogt's sequel. (via Slush God), who tells us about some Matthew Hughes' fiction online.

-Jeff Ford names winners in title contest

-Rob Bedford interviews John Twelve Hawks who is the reclusive author, his identity unknown, living 'off the grid' - blah, blah, blah - not reflective of the interview itself, but it's s shame any author is marketed like this - whether purposely or not. It cheapens a product by attaching a marketing stigma to it that it may or may not deserve. On another note, Rob also has his own list up, of 2006 releases to look forward to.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Fantasy/SF Debate Continues....

2005-12-03T07:47:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to keep updating the discussion noted in my last post regarding the differences of Science Fiction and Fantasy going more deeper than my own assertion (who gives a shit?). I had been editing my previous post to add them, but there has been enough extra commentary to warrant 2 consecutive posts by me, that I offer absolutely no original content.

Nick Mamatas has issues with Chiang's conclusions, then John Scalzi chimes in, followed by a completion of the circle back to Sarah Monette who is responding to a Evil Monkey.

Meanwhile at the Chrononautic Log David Moles offers an opinion, then again here. Alan Deniro offers a piece by the legendary author/critic Samuel Delany, which has spurned me to start collecting articles I like and linking them on my sidebar -- ala VanderMeer collecting Manifestos -- while offering a more interesting question (and equally unanswerable):

"A lot of the discussion has talked about science fiction and fantasy as methods of writing (inscribed authorial intent). But what about methods of reading?"

Scott Lynch comes in, and left his butterfly net at home. Did I mention I love his forthcoming book?I also want to give my thanks to Nathan for pointing me to the Lynch reply.

Nick Mamatas invokes Lovecraft, and Matthew Stover attempts to end the debate, in admirable fashion:

"The Truth from On High:

Science Fiction is a subset of Fantasy. That's all it has ever been, that's all it will ever be.

But then, so is every other form of literature.

Everyone who pretends otherwise is merely mining their own asshole for pseudo-distinctions of no real significance. The urge to Categorize is best left to taxonomists, academic critics, IRS agents, stamp collectors, publishers and any other helplessly obsessive rectal-gazers who have nothing better to do with their lives.

I have Spoken.

Now everyone should shut the fuck up and let me get back to sleep."

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

End of the Year Noise (personal archiving and linkage)

2005-12-01T05:34:00.000-08:00

Around this time of year there seems to always be a number of interesting discussions going on between authors, industry types, and fans. All the awards have been handed out, there is some industry posturing, the same old debates spring up with new voices, and than suddenly through that dialogue there always ends up some really noteworthy topics/commentary/news. Most people will be familiar with most of the content of this post, but one great aspect about a blog is they essentially act as a personal filing cabinet of links for the author (in this case me) -- so indulge me as I add to my personal archives -- I have been on mini-vacation for the holidays.

Clarke at Cricked Timber-

Niall Harrison has had some nice pointers of late, most recently this great seminar at Crooked Timber focusing on Susanna Clarke's Hugo and World Fantasy Award winning novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (which for the millionth time I loved). Read the full commentary and Clarke's response on PDF. Highly recommend for those who read Clarke's fabulous novel.

The Beautiful Catherynne M. Valente-

No, I'm not pimping - In fact I have never met or seen her in my life, but as I was remarking on a genre board recently, I just read her Yume Me Hone: Book of Dreams a couple months ago, and I have been trying to put in to words since. She is a terrific stylist, who canvases the entire books with prose that's utterly captivating and full of beauty, starting from the opening line:

"Put a truce to any thoughts of departure. I am she who glides through the sky when the snow is falling fast, the lady of frost and darkness. I am a ghost, which is not to say I ever lived. I am a memory, which is not to say I ever died. I begin at the moment the ice on the river begins to crack like bones of glass. I am a silence written on pulp mash paper, in ink drawn from village wells"

In the process of writing a great article proclaiming her love of the fantastic, she also gives the Bodhisattva its quote of the month. Big thanks to Kirsten for the Valente recommendation - on the money.

'Venom Cock'-

First, I wasn’t there but it was damn entertaining to read about, and I gather much more worthwhile reading than the book itself*. It’s old, but let me establish my ‘Venom Cock’ file, as documentation is important at the Bodhisattva

To those that don’t know it all stems (from what I gather) of a bit of fun being poked at a recently released book Touched by Venom by Janine Cross. It began with the Kirkus review by John Joseph Adams (or as mortals know him The Slush God), who I think offers outstanding commentary on a consistent basis). The condensed review was:

"Turgid fantasy (first of a trilogy) in which humans worship and have a sexually-perverse relationship with dragons; purile dreck that's emblematic of everything that's wrong with fantasy".

Afterwards, Cheryl Morgan of Emerald City mentions it and Del-Rey publicist/web presence Collen Lindsay replying as well. This is followed by Mr. Adams replying again, and then again here.

After which Nick Mamatas, who besides writing outstanding fiction (see Move Underground) also is always good for commentary weighs in here. While offering a most amusing and priceless variant cover for 'Touched by Venom':

Still not done, author Lynn Viehl responds in defense of Cross (with comments, including from Gabe, who remembers to ask the eternal question, even in face of venom cock, "but Harriet Klausner gave it a five star review. How can people think the book is bad, then?") and Janine Cross responding herself. Nick Mamatas offers his reponse to both Viehl and Cross here.

Then, Tobias Buckell (who has a forthcoming release that looks damn good, Crystal Rain) throw his hat in after being driven to by comments by E.E. Knight. Vera Nazarian (whose recently released Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass from PS Publishing is hopefully in my mailbox later today) adds her 2 cents.

It didn't take long until the dragons themselves had to speak out. It's laid to rest now, but who would have thought 'Venom Cock' would cause such a stir. The bottom line really is a that reputable reviewer gave a book a negative review - happens all the time - hell, that probably raises its chance of commerical success.

_{*I actually had 'Touched by Venom' in a pile of books I was paying no attention to, but after this episode I will find out myself.}

Science Fiction/Fantasy-

I'm one of those who don't really give a damn about categories/sub-genres, etc. I have an understanding of them, both there uses from a marketing/publishing perspective, and fan application, but the only time it seems I have to even know them is when I'm talking to others who do care about them. I just make the distinction between what I feel is quality fiction and what isn't. Dan Brown writes novels that have the value and merit of shit - I don't feel the need to know what kind of shit it is. Is quality Hard Science Fiction better than quality urban fantasy, or quality examples of magic realism? It's certainly a debatable issue that will have its relevant roots in preferences, but personally as long it has quality in front of it, I don't care. Robert Newcomb is not just a remarkably incompetent epic fantasy author, or a god awful fantasy Author, or a pedestrian writer of speculative fiction, he is a piss poor author of fiction period (as a side note I have been wanting to drop this link about Newcomb for some time. This is my view on debates of whether a work is indeed Science Fiction or Fantasy, a opinion that owes some of its existence to the countless times I have seen the question of whether Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is one or the other, and more alarming the participation and fervor of the combatants involved. In any sensible world there would only be one, unstated, and universally understood reply, that being "who gives a shit?". Let's talk about content, and not just for the purposes of determining categorization. It seems a travesty that such a seminal work of fiction, has a huge percentage of discussion pertaining to it, revolving around how to pigeonhole it. Now, all that said, I do love it when the creative people in the industry discuss their ideas and perceptions of their craft. I have seen SF short form god, Ted Chiang's name invoked more in the last two weeks than I have for the entire rest of the year, but he offer his view here. Chiang was responding to Sarah Monette's post. Sarah Monette, wrote her debut novel this year, Melusine, which I reviewed earlier this year, and who also was kind enough to be interviewed by me for Fantasybookspot.com a couple months ago.

Also adding to the discussion was Emma Bull, a continuance of the topic here. To bring it all to conclusion Jeff VanderMeer and that Evil Monkey chime in.

(edit)

More responses, this from Nick Mamatas who disagrees with Chiang, and then, John Scalzi.

To complete the circle, Sarah Monette talks to the evil monkey.

SCIFICTION Love-

Everybody has heard of the demise of SCIFICTIoN and the ED SF Project, a tribute to the stories, and Ms Datlow's contribution to quality fiction. I am working on an entry myself for an idea that allows both authors and fans to show their appreciation. Some great stuff already posted. Keep them coming!

Dark Echo's Paula Guran offers an opinion (via Emerald City)

Not Taking Shots at Terry Brooks-

Because the supremely talented Lucius Shepard does it so much better:

"Tannequil (which sounds like a cough remedy), High Druid of Shannara (which conjures up endless parodies in my mind), Brooks doesn't promote shit. He just upchucks endless wads of verbiage to no salient end (if we start arguing subtext in the Shannara series, I'll blow up this thread). Colleen reports on a conversation in which TB says in jest that he could probably sell "The Telephone Books of Shannara." Christ, Telephone Books would be more interesting by a factor of ten than Tannequil. The yellow pages alone with their ads for Shannara businesses would at least be funny. Brooks churns out volume after volume of glutinous prose without an oz. of humor. I'm sorry, Colleen. I don't think this guy's done anything other than feed the corporate beast. Whether you use Velveeta or Big Macs as a metaphor, this is corporate publishing at its worst, and I, being a pinko, happen to think that's not a good thing, that corporations are by nature malignant, that they breed malignancy, that their interests are not those of their customers, that their dream would be a Matrix-like set-up, using people as fuel, as energy, which is, in fact, is more-or-less what they attempt to do. I reject the notion that Brooks been helpful to my career--if I were published by DelRay, a case might be made--but as I'm not, I see no correspondence between us. I doubt that his readers morph into mine or vice versa. The main thing his stuff does, IMO, is create more (to borrow a previously used metaphor) cake eaters who will continue to eat cake for the rest of their lives. Some might argue that's not a bad thing, but I choose to think it is."

As well as Hal Duncan:

"This kicks off from the "literary merit is found only in the eye of the beholder" idea, right? Brooks has an audience; his audience considers his work good; saying that his work sucks is really criticising their taste. Fuck it. I'll run with this and say... well, yeah. It's both.

I'm happy to criticise the audience's taste. I'll be the Bad Man.

If a reader doesn't mind sloppy writing which, on a pure craftsmanship level, doesn't hold together in terms of style and/or content, where dialogue is stilted, where pacing is erratic, where the prose is rhthymically clumsy and/or syntactically amibiguous, where -- from individual character actions right up to abstract plot structure -- motivations underlying interactions are shallow and/or implausible and/or incoherent... where, in short, a work can be evaluated according to some fairly objective criteria (as an act of communication and as an act of intrication -- i.e. complex pattern-making) and where, by those standards, it just doesn't cut it... well, one might argue that the reader who likes such drech is demonstrating certain, um, shortcomings. Clearly, they have a tin ear for prose and little or no appreciation of the complex subtleties of sense that can be constructed using the written language as a medium. Personal taste only goes so far; you can look at something and say objectively "this is drech". And if the reader likes drech, hey, the reader likes drech. To each his own and all, but, sorry, if you devour that drech in front of me, and look up with a drech-smeared grin, well, I'll look at you and go "Eeeewwww! You eat drech?!"

Now, I can accept that poncy literary artsi-fartsiness is maybe not what the drech-lover wants, and that's fair enough; why shouldn't they simply hold their nose, gulp down the awkward prose, swallowing whole the absurdities and ambiguities, and simply *use* the text to build their own imaginative adventure. It's a whole different mode of reading, arguably; and where a reader is looking for the clunk-click-fit of fat fantasy fodder -- of symbolic formulation -- rather than tight prose and plot, solid dialogue and characterisation... well, for them, I suspect, the writing is merely a means to an end, that end being the story-as-experience, as entertainment... and who am I to get all sniffy and snobbish at that?

To use an analogy, if someone simply wants to get fucked out of their tiny little gourd, if they don't give a fuck whether what they drink has "a delicate balance of flavours" or somesuch airy nonsense, hey, who am I to speak of the superiority of a good dry gin martini over cheap meths mixed with chocolate milk?

Well... when we start talking about "literary merit", I think it's fair enough to say, no matter how nice a guy the writer is, no matter how well their books sell, no matter how many other writers got a break because of them, and no matter how well their work gets you fucked out of yer tiny little gourd (and cheap meths mixed with chocolate milk is sure to be much better at this for some folks than dry gin martinis)... is it any good as writing? As something to be savoured for its subtleties, appreciated for the complexity of its articulations, and so on? Or is it something you drink the way a teenager drinks -- not giving a fuck for the flavour, really, just out to get fuckin wasted, dude?

At the end of the day, I rather like getting fuckin wasted, dude, I just like getting wasted on quality cocktails, and there's more to the "palatory merit" of a cocktail than how much alcohol it contains and whether you can down it without vomiting. Cheap meths is cheap meths; and Bombay Sapphire it ain't."

Not too long ago Rob linked this discussion from the Nightshade boards. I found it interesting (well more amusing in the way the truth can be sometimes) because around the same time I received an email from a "best selling author" questioning some rather choice words I chose when responding to a message board query that pertained to Brooks. From now on, I won't have to, I will just link back to this discussion...

Quick Links:

-Matthew Cheney on popular fiction/literary fiction with 'In Borderlands Between the Clans'

-Pat is offering a chance to win all 3 books of R. Scott Bakker's 'Prince of Nothing' sequence in hardback, and a chance to win Steven Erikson's forthcoming The Bonehunters.

-Gabe Chouinard seems to be back in full form telling us about Urban Drift. It still under construction, but a sneak peak is looking good!

-I recently gave my condensed thoughts (with full review at the beginning of the year coming) on Scott Lynch's 2006 release The Lies of Locke Lamora, this week he gets Agonized by Rick Kleffel.

-Kenji Siratori's 'End Fraction' hypertext. Got this via Jeffrey Ford's blog.

-Tobias Buckell forming a gated community of talented types. Sounds like a damn good idea.

-Bad Sex Award (no, not venom cock) includes nominees Rushdie, Marquez, and Updike, reported by The Guardian.

-Matthew Cheney 'keeping it real' as a reader.

-Richard Morgan has signed on to do a sword/sorcery trilogy, while also working on his next SF release, Black Man (saw this at Forbidden Planet):

"This is a vacation from my Takeshi Kovacs series and an attempt to do something a little different while still working with the tools and templates of future noir," Morgan said. "The book posits a future about a century from now in which poorly supervised genetic experimentation has left the human race with a series of major legal and ethical headaches, and a massive colony effort on Mars has turned into a political race between reconstituted power blocs. The U.S. has fractured apart along lines which will seem eerily familiar to students of the current political [quagmire], and China has risen to economic and political parity with the West."

What the Hell I'm Doing-

Although I have nothing tangible to show for it, I have actually been getting some reading done. Last night I finished up Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon, a new series that will have 3 installments released in 2006. Note that in the UK the book is called Temeraire.

I'm going to have a full review in a couple of weeks, and this is a series getting a heavy push from Voyager. The subsequent titles are The Throne of Jade, and Black Powder War. Some initial thought I have is that it's a bit minimalist, and a rather brisk read, but intriguing in a manner that warranted me to consistently want to continually read it (which isn't the case with many new books). The setting from our own history of Napoleon warring with England, but Novik implements Dragons as a aerial arm for armies. The generally exclusive relationship/bond between aviator and dragon is fascinating, and how she applies that too society (particularly high society) gives the work a believable quality. Novik describes different breeds of dragons, and how certain countries horde their secrets, and you just have to love a novel where us Oriental's run shit in this regard. It's a nice debut.

While spending my Thanksgiving in a snowy Venice I was able to read Martin's A Feast for Crows and finally got to Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, and currently loving reading Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, while also finding some time to go through a pretty interesting (in the History of Middle Earth sense) Tolkien companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion.

I also have some more interviews in the works (Vera I haven’t forgot about you!). Some of which I sent back to add more questions to as we moved away from the small 7 question feature, to a more longer format to take advantage of having an author's time, along with having some nes ones planned with authors with big releases in early 2006. This along with a Fantasybookspot.com remodel, we hope will makes early 2006 a great time to be a part of FBS. I also finally have all my 'lost reviews' completed that were victims of a PC issue, that I will start releasing sporadically with reviews of newer works.

Bodhisattva Quote of the Month:

From Catherynne M. Valente:

"I am a fantasy writer. I have learned my lesson, and I embrace it. Bring on the metallic gay pirate cowboys."

That's just classic.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

I'm late for the party, but I got this tune I can't get out of my head....

2005-11-29T07:49:00.000-08:00

'There is no place I can be, since I found Serenity...'

My excuse? As cliché as "the dog ate my homework", but in my case it's true. You know how when the topic comes up, you always state what is oddly enough one of the phrases that is used both by the 'psuedo-intellectuals' and the 'wannabe-cool'? You know what I’m talking about – “I don’t watch a lot of television”. You either say you have better people or things to do, or television programming is simply too puerile and inane for your refined tastes and sophistication – but in reality your almost constantly glued to the tube, and the brief times you are not, you give a silent prayer for TiVo. I myself, don’t watch a lot of television, but not (well not entirely) for those reasons, but one quite more simple, and I think more based in reality than in some cases – the programming available where I live completely blows -- both in regards to number of stations available, and what is shown. Believe you me, with ample programming; I have been known to be quite comfortable in front of big screen, with a few choice friends who respect the rotation, properly supplied with refreshment, and in a cloud of smoke, for extended periods of time.

I also am not one moved by bandwagons, the larger they are the more I avoid them and this one was virtually running people over, but after someone loaning me the Firefly DVD’s, I’m hooked. I love it; I think it’s damn brilliant (mostly because I like it:); it’s kind of to SF shows, what I thought Shaun of the Dead was for horror movies, fun move that wasn’t scared to laugh at itself yet didn’t use that very same element as a over-the-top gimmick (see Scream), but runs with it, unafraid where it might take them and leaving fans relishing every moment. Terrific writing, and a great cast; from a captain dropping such delightful one liners to his ‘newly wed’ as “you have the right same as anyone to live and try to kill people”; to a prodigy, turned guinea pig, turned Eternal Champion who openly says she can “Kill you with my Mind"; to the just on point innocence portrayed by every facial expressions by the ship’s mechanic even after being caught fucking by the ship engine - the entire cast just exudes chemistry. Here was a show science fiction fans have been waiting for. I haven’t followed a SF show past the first few episodes since Deep Space Nine (I’m not exactly a trekie but I just thought this was both well written and acted) went off the air. I wasn’t exactly a fan of either Buffy or Angel, which isn’t to say I thought they were worthless, as much as I didn’t think there was anything excellent enough to follow with any regularity, but Firefly I’m just completely enamored with, as I accomplished absolutely nothing on the day I decided to watch every episode back-to-back, to pay proper homage to Joss Whedon’s accomplishment. Ever since Seinfeld went of the air I have to admit I don’t follow any shows with fervor that weren’t on HBO, and that’s not TV… it’s HBO. Amidst the garbage that is Law and Order, and CSI Shannara, and the most telling sign of humanities’ declining taste regarding any measure of quality in their entertainment, reality television (along with the fact that a publication like US Magazine could possibly be profitable), came a show that could have possibly obtained Soprano status –a rare non-Football related program that I actually would attempt to work my schedule around to catch every week; it’s somewhat sad, but the worthwhile television shows has become that much of a rarity. In a recent post pondering Ted Chiang, JP reminded us of what China Mieville said concerning SF, that it was a "literature of ideas", and Firefly achieves this on the small screen; I mean, here I am with plenty of extra rooms, and in a popular/busy summer destination and never have I considered the obvious benefits of renting out to prostitutes – simply genius. This is not a review (as admittedly it would be a very poor one), but merely my reaction of genuine enthusiasm for this wonderful series. It’s crude at times; but is so in a manner that emanates an organic and realistic feel in a setting 500 years into our future. I can see the some hardliners complain about a lack of actual hard science fiction, but this series is one of those rare series that’s so fun, I think even the most pretentious of us can appreciate there are many avenues of worthwhile SF application. It’s so fun, the Greg Egan fan in me doesn’t even care!

‘You can’t take the sky from me….’

But they did. FOX, delivering a slap in the face of quality that had no parallel until recently when the announcement that SCIFICTION would be discontinued, took the best non-premium channel program off the air. Just when I felt like we were getting reinvited to the party, the networks told us to go back to reading our books for quality entertainment. I have yet to see Serenity, which will be an instant DVD purchase come December for me, apparently the last time I will be able to show my support for a wonderful but entirely all to brief small-screen gem. I remember as a young child being completely fascinated with fireflies (or lightning bugs if you will), I had a little cage and everything; they don’t live very long but they sure are damn fun while they last.

*puts on browncoat*

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews amd Interview}

Love for Lynch's 'The Lies of Locke Lamora'

2005-11-15T13:06:00.000-08:00

Two blog posts from me in a single day is a first, but I just wanted to share a brief thought about a book coming out mid-2006 by Scott Lynch entitled The Lies of Locke Lamora. I finished a second reading of the manuscript earlier this week, and while I have agreed to hold back my more lengthy opinion of the book until early 2006, I do know there is a rather large amount of interest regarding this debut. If I'm not mistaken the UK proofs may be making their rounds now.

Young Locke, 'The Thorn of Camor' is a unlikely combination of Arsene Lupin and Jack Dawkins, in a Dickensian setting that still has illuminating remnants that belies its previous alien origins. What struck me most is Lynch's ability to depict a wide amount of emotional atmosphere. Most books I have preferred as of late set a single - and often times brilliant -- emotional and atmospheric tone, but Lynch delivers from tones one would think to find in a 18th century romantic locale to scenes that make me think of the movie PayBack, and does so seamlessly. Humor, remorse, vengeance, mischievousness, loyalty, deceit, bravery, love - Lynch serves it all up and more.

More detail both positive and negative later; but my reread was as delightful as my introduction, and it read with in a manner depicting a crafty subtlety that's not the norm from many debuts. A adventurous rump of a reading experience, I can't wait for the continuation of the adventures of the Gentlemen Bastards in 'Red Seas Under Red Skies'.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews amd Interviews}

Mistaken Identity

2005-11-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

So there they were. Surrounded and beat down, almost completely diminished, yet not quite finished. We were savoring this. After years of repetition; after seeing the formula so many times it became ingrained into our consciousness that actually caused most of our brothers and sisters to succumb to it in acceptance instead of being with us laying in the kicks, grinding into dust all but one – we were having fun. Some were kicking, some were biting, others were dropping Dusty’s, and I even saw a couple people break out there Hugo’s and hugo-whip them in a manner would make the most bellicose Gun Kaya sensei proud. Nobody stopped us; it was time for a change, and invigorated by the notoriety being received with the rise of China, and all armed with our mandate and like english assassins with our final programe for a purpose we likened to having a cure for cancer, we were implementing our dangerous visions with promises to leave no signs of life. We felt righteous, and in truth I still think we proceeded with the best of intentions in mind. We loved fantasy; and they were turning the fantastic into a non-fluid brand, like a broken record playing continuously their foul wishsong. We were tired of walking through the same land with a different name, we were tired of plots being reduced to instances of deus ex machina easily brought on by the snap of a uber wizard’s fingertips or a god’s whim; we were sick of multi-book tomes that recycled themes from their peers and later themselves. We were tired of preprogrammed ingredients given to factory line-like “writers”. I try to remember when I lost it - my own loyalty sworn to the cause - and it was the coming of the fifth sorceress.

…we were handing out cigars – very pleased with ourselves - some choice brands I think from perhaps Viriconium, or was it Ashamoil? The descendant of the wen on the arse were finished – not physically, but detached from ourselves, and we left the only still surviving one, in fact what was the remnant of our childhood nostalgia beaten down -- by no small portion motivated by a growing arrogance -- in the gutter to die on the corner of mainstream and slush; Then the strangest thing happened… I swear to Peake, the last one had dragged himself up; one that I didn’t recognize and he laughed; and told us to go fuck ourselves, eh -- and told me that I would be back.

And I was….

He held nothing back, he was going to write planned 10 book sequence, with not only uber/overpowered characters, but a world full of them, and that doesn’t even include the Gods, which there are a myriad, both new and elder, and everything in between, some seemingly even more affluent and absurd in ability. He was going to have characters with weapons that have the pretentious quality of having names, and unending armies in constant battles that we mockingly call campaigns, and he was going to undertake the most extravagant and later prove to be the most expansive world building effort epic fantasy had ever seen, he was going to have a Elric clone (and even gave him Stormbringer to boot) and he was only going to be one of 100’s of super beings around every corner, he was going to make them fight – continuously, through 1000 page tomes. Those that thought this was Robert Jordan announcing a new series simply died instantly – and with good reasoning – unable to take the thought of more multimillion dollar marketed bullshit. To put the nail in the coffin, and not to be undone, he even told us he was going to make it a semi shared-world, when we all know there hasn’t been a worthwhile shared-world in over 20 years, with the first incarnation of Thieves World. Not only that, the installment written by the other author was actually decent, even though he felt it necessary to offer asinine comments about an author who is much more accomplished (both critically and commercially) at his craft than he is, and has been for 30 years -- most likely ever will be -- while trying to make flippant remarks about a series he couldn’t even name right in interview. So here it was; everything we had grown to associate with mediocrity: a high magic world, a deity system, constant war and battles by multiple beings with Kryptonian like stature. Mage duels, Dragons, a multi-book sequence of the fat-fantasy variety that was expanded for at least one installment to even be the dreaded shared world, a world that would of course focus around …an Empire….

And I loved it...

Steven Erikson told us all to fuck ourselves, and accomplished something even more admirable (if not grander) than introducing us -- with each installment -- to new ideas, and with unimagined creativity around every corner. No, there is no Lovecraftian madcap imagination and baroque style of Mieville, and no it isn’t as creatively inventive and assured like a VanderMeer mosaic, nor do the words seem as effortless and seamless in its weave that we come to both expect and marvel from Jeffrey Ford or a Lucius Harris, and no he doesn’t play with streams of consciousness like Gene Wolfe, and no he isn’t matching the stylistic beauty that a Catherynne M. Valente achieves with each turn of phrase – instead Erikson did something that makes so much sense it’s easy to see why it took so long for U.S. publishing rights to be garnered -- instead of making us forsake what we had been reading completely; our legitimate blame overextending to the innocent elements that should have only been directed at the authors haphazardly applying them, turning elements into clichés, then into tired clichés -- he gave us what we had been asking for. How crazy of an idea is that? Much like how Matthew Stover proved with Blade of Tyshalle, and Gary Wassner with his ongoing Gem Quest, and Michael Swanwick with his Iron Dragon's Daugther that not all contemporary books with Elves in it has to be exclusively directed and marketed (even if it is in self-denial without the accompanying proper YA tag that would to any discernible reader seem logical and apt) to children – Erikson has showed me the error of some of my own past broad comments by becoming a blasted exception!

Didn’t I just talk about epic fantasy in my review of Bakker’s The Darkness that comes Before? Yes, but this isn’t about epic fantasy entirely, which isn’t or wasn’t completely dead due to people like Bakker, Kay, Martin, Mckillip, (and Erikson) etc this is about a sub-genre that really is dead. Sword/Sorcery for all intents and purposes has been dead for decades; not in practice but in relevant application. Gone is the legacy of Howard, Leiber, C.L. Moore, L. Sprague de Camp, Burroughs, Karl Edward Wagner, and some examples of Clark Ashton Smith’s work – the only living master practioneer of the craft remaining, being Michael Moorcock. Make no mistake, these are legends who produced work on a level that rivals anyone then or otherwise, and although their legacy may still be most applicable and even far reaching in other forms and authors not practicing sword/sorcery specifically. Thus, the death of Sword/Sorcery served a purpose; as it grew it fueled and evolved into influences that we can see in works by say someone like a Stover, and indeed I believe Erikson, who no doubt is categorized as an epic fantasy author, however, I see a work that was just brimming with the lost legacy and promise of Sword & Sorcery of the past. If you close your eyes it could be Elric who rules Moon’s Spawn, floating above a myriad of Caines, Mousers, Kulls, Conans, Jirils, Fafhrds, Solomon Kanes, John Carters, Sonyas, Dark Agnes de la Feres, Elaks, Harold Sheas, and Bran Mak Morn inhabiting a setting that’s nothing less than a world-building achievement; a world populated with eternal champions. Erikson has taken the gambit, and used the obvious influences from past masters of fantastic fiction that have as of late been chiefly relegated to being listed as influences in at times solid, but for the most part uninspiring efforts, with the limited canvas favored by authors like a David Gemmell or rubbish like Dragonlance, and has made something altogether new and exciting. A world where the mortals stick it to Ascendants and Gods who meddle in their affairs, a world crawling with at burglars, assassins, Ascendants, munitions experts, engineers, historians, seers, Empresses, priests, high mages, squad mages, shape changers, mortals possessed by deities warlords, where there are beings who walk the land that not merely can, but HAVE destroyed civilizations, soul shifters, hammers that stir the slumber of gods, necromancy, demons, a chained god - only this one is not even from this world - an alien god, in a setting where each deity rules his own realm, and a world that has a sword that can imprison the very god who crafted it within in it; a world that has a timely shipping service that it would make Marty Mcfly's heads spin; and a world where a flying moon fortress full of some brothers that just love to kick the shit out of people, just one of a multitude of races both mortal and not; in the middle of it all, a legendary company of soldiers who just get it done - first in, last out.

You miss enjoying larger than life Sword & Sorcery characters, but fear the element is not possible in today’s fantasy or has died altogether? Or maybe no author is applying what made Sword & Sorcery great in the past in a manner fitting your more evolved tastes? Give Erikson a try and see how even the ideas of legends can be expanded upon into something altogether new but still bears that unmistakable magic that drew us to lands like Newhon, Barsoom, and Cimmeria, as Steven Erikson turns back the clock while taking us a step forward.

I'm loving this series.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews amd Interview}

Bodhisattva Review: 'The Darkness that Comes Before' by R. Scott Bakker (a second look)

2005-11-10T02:13:00.000-08:00

Title: The Darkness That Comes Before
Pages: 608
Publisher: Overlook 2005
Series/Related Titles: The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing Book II), The Thousandfold Thought (The Prince of Nothing Book III)

"To be ignorant and to be deceived are two different things. To be ignorant is to be a slave of the world. Top be deceived is to be the slave of another man. The question will always be: Why, when all men are ignorant, and therefore, already slaves, does this latter slavery sting us so?" - Ajencis, The Epistemologies

It had been increasingly difficult to remain a fan of epic fantasy with any enthusiasm not motivated chiefly by nostalgia. We are speaking of a sub-genre that has for decades has represented the largest and most financially successful segment of Fantasy publishing, and yet the majority of its fans still point to a work completed some 60 years ago as the pinnacle of the sub-genre. Tolkien’s shadow of course looms, and for years after fans of fantasy had to almost unknowingly suffer, due to simply not knowing our options, the catch phrase of epic fantasy most often heard: “well I know it’s not exactly well written, and it’s predictable, but it’s light reading in between other books I read”. That’s a fair enough reasoning, and certainly I am not passing judgment on what others look for in some of their reading choices. That the comment itself would be an endorsement that has granted numerous titles and authors status as bestsellers, instead of what one would think is implied -- a mere deviation from more quality written work -- is what I find disturbing. Thus one comes to the conclusion that these reads are simply not “what is read on the side”, but they are widely read, but for some reason, people don’t want to admit the unspoken stigma that R. Scott Bakker himself recently may have most aptly observed “They're afraid of being laughed at.” In this case the fear is simply unwarranted, as Bakker is not only among a handful of contemporary practitioners’ of the epic tradition who are surpassing and recasting what had distressingly become the accepted possibilities the epic fantasy sub-genre had to offer, but he also is in my opinion quite possibly on the brink of even a greater accomplishment - not only should he be considered among the authors writing superior current epic sagas (with Martin and Erikson), he is actually about to complete his trilogy; a rather elusive accomplishment among his current peers, and offers the prospect of eventual finality that allows us to envisage the series’ potential station in the pecking order of epic fantasy. The Darkness That Comes Before is merely the first book in a trilogy that will come to an end in January of 2006 with the release of The Thousandfold Thought, a concluding chapter I have not yet read but hope to in coming weeks, however, having read, and recently in anticipation reread the first two installments of this series dubbed ‘The Prince of Nothing’, I am in awe, and as a fan rather excited about some very obtainable possibilities. As it stands now, two-thirds of way through the series, R. Scott Bakker, in his debut effort, not only has a legitimate opportunity -- but even further -- looks to be primed to accomplish the scribing of the most noteworthy epic fantasy sequence in almost three decades. Truly a reason to take note, and in such a manner not deemed as necessary since I believe, 1979, with the publication of Patricia Mckillip’s Harpist in the Wind, the concluding piece to her ‘Riddlemaster’ trilogy. A bold statement? Perhaps, but the more I ponder the notion, it’s not exactly an unarguable position. When I consider complete sequences since, the most recent I can think of is Robin Hobb’s 'Farseer' trilogy which ended in 1997; a series I enjoyed, but through two installment I think Bakker’s work trumps Hobb’s strength (characterization) and offer more in the way of virtually every other elements, not the least of which is prose, without burdening me of guilt for not recycling. Stephen Donaldson? It seems to me, Thomas Covenant is not yet done populating pages for us to read. Tad William’s 'Memory Sorrow and Thorn' is definitely a worthy series, perhaps the most direct precursor to the epics we enjoy most today, but where Williams has instances of lag, Bakker fills with keen insight and philosophical ponderings. Guy Gavriel Kay? An exquisite writer, however, a writer whose more recent work I appreciate the most. A poster at Fantasybookspot.com made an interesting comparison between the two Canadian writers, one I had not previously considered. In my opinion, Kay stretches the limits of fantasy with his application of familiar history, while Bakker is showing us a character’s objective manipulation of our own through a looking glass. Both are supremely adept writers, Kay more seasoned, but both exhibit power. It’s hard to decide between someone telling a masterful story, and one who is forcing us to look at our own. This is admittedly a toss, but I just happen to favor Bakker, and as said Kay’s greater works are in my mind stand-alone or unfinished sequences. We reach a bit of a stumbling block, as we run right into nothing less than a legendary writer of not fantasy, but fiction. Ursula K. Leguin is one of the most important writers in speculative fiction history, whose overall relevance may only truly be equaled by only one SF/F writer alive, Michael Moorcock. Fortunately for me, her seminal work is not her popular epic fantasy ‘Earthsea’ cycle, but are part of her 'Hainish' work including landmark Science Fiction works like The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. At any rate I believe here is a severe difference in quality of the early ‘Earthsea’ work, and the subsequent works released much later (of which I prefer, but I do admire the sequence as a whole as well). More recently Gene Wolfe wrote a epic fantasy offering, his duology, 'The Wizard/Knight', which is of the quality one would expect from Gene Wolfe, however that duology is essentially one book, and suffered a publisher split. Which leads us to my standard, Patricia Mckillip’s 'Riddlemaster', a bona fide trilogy, that is both simplistic – although deceptively so -- in the sense of what we appreciate from epic fantasy of that era, and gifted with beautiful lyrical prose that would come to be a trademark of Mckillip. This sequence casts an emotionally worthwhile story, (imagine an epic fantasy that writes a powerful and effective depiction of a bard character), a classic that contains all the elements of epic fantasy while not losing what would become an element around the same time in other works – a lack of individual thought and more importantly voice to illustrate the thought. The term Epic Fantasy had become oxymoronic to what it was describing, neither very epic in scope (yet still, somehow in physical size), and not fantastic at all, merely retellings of another’s fantasy so many times that somehow the fantastic had became the chief predictable element of the work. A more veracious category title would have been Pablum Fantasy. Potential readers have no reason to worry of being laughed at, as The Darkness That Comes Before not only begins a rare epic fantasy for the more discernible fan base, it’s a reason for those who had given up on the sub-genre altogether - including perhaps those who have nourished their epic appetite only via Westeros – to dive back in with the realization that epic fantasy isn’t and wasn’t literally dead. There are in fact, new and worthwhile voices - amidst the doppelgangers that desire for fans to mistake maladroitness and repetition for homage and nostalgic value.

War breeds necessity; almost as much war itself seems necessary. A Holy War begins, the new Holy Shriah, Maithanet, summons for a mass convocation of the Great Names of the Seven Seas to assemble for an Inrithi crusade to retake the occupied holy land, and most importantly, Shimeh, holiest of cities. Some come for faith, others for profit -- both personal and Imperial in nature – some to extend their age old rivalries to the bigger stage such a war offers. Like most Holy Wars, unholy unions are made as the Shriah reaches accordance with one of the heretical schools of sorcery, allying the cause of the Tusk to the power of the Scarlet Spires. Others come…

Drusas Achamian, a Mandate schoolmen and spy. He witnesses the Shriah’s call for war, and follows the crusade at the behest of his school, always in search for sittings of the near mythical Consult, a surviving cabal of powerful sorcerers consisting of followers of the No-God, who work to bring forth the Second Apocalypse, and the return of the No-God. Drusas, like all Mandate Schoolmen are reminded of their charge (or mandate if you will) in horrific dreams of the first apocalypse every time they sleep. He will find the harbinger of the Apocalypse, but is the harbinger also the only hope for salvation?

Ikurei Xersius III, the Emperor of the Nansur, with aims to bend the Holy War to extend his own Empire, holding logistically important supplies, and his nephew, possibly the greatest military strategist of the age, the vain, yet not without reason Exalt-General of the Nansur, Ikurei Conphas

Nersei Proyas, devout and pious Prince of Conriya, a ranking member of the Crusade, and former student of Achamian. He will support the elevation of a Scylvendi Barbarian to lead the crusade in its battles against the heretic Fanim

Esmenet, a prostitute in search of her Mandate Schoolmen lover, to lessen the burden of his guilty soul and in hopes find her own.

Cnaiur, a Scylvendi Barbarian, a warrior of brutal ferocity, and a strategist of rare quality. Outcast by his people after a definitive defeat at the hands of the brilliant Nansur Exalt-General, he will find himself leading the greatest call to arms since possibly the First Apocalypse; a host that brands him both barbarian and heathen, that includes the Exalt-General himself. He accepts this charge driven solely by his hate and fear of a single man, who haunts his thoughts, his single purpose and motivation is the slim possibility of finding him, and even a slimmer chance of killing him. When he arrives at the marshalling Inrithi army he is not alone…

Anasurimbor Kellhus, a Dunyain…although not a constant presence in the book, this creation of Bakker represents one of the single greatest character creations in current fantasy in my opinion. He is an enigma, he is Bakker’s amoral Riddlemaster of Hed in search of the ultimate answer; he is the most dangerous of men – who knows and gleans all answers except to the one question he most desires; he is Bakker’s Kwisatz Haderach, which true enough in Hebrew means “jump of the path”, the premise of Kellhus’s and Dunyain methodology, the Logos:

“What comes before determines what comes after. Dunyain monks spent their lives immersed in the study of this principle, illuminating the intangible mesh of cause and effect that determines every happenstance, and minimizing all that was wild and unpredictable.”

“And to know what would come after was the beauty that stilled, the hallowed communion of intellect and circumstance – the gift of the Logos.”

Cultivated and trained for a task in a manner that will deem him peerless, except to his own blood when his education is over, Kellhus is a master of manipulation, which is not to say a master of deceit as much as he is truth, with the perspective to analyze personal and cultural conditioning for both blind spots and that which is considered straightforward reality, that he uses as levers; he is the embodiment of absolute truth to some, thus the greatest of living lies -- he is the Prince of Nothing. A title with of course can possess dual meanings; a prince of nothing may indeed command nothing, or perhaps, it means not to be relegated at all; indeed still in fact a prince of not at all -- but a King all princes bow to. Kellhus searches for his father, in the company of the one man who possibly wants to find him more, a Scylvendi Barbarian. To do this they will see Empires fall, move worlds, and perhaps trigger the Second Apocalypse.

Bakker gives epic fantasy enthusiasts a prize setting with Earwa. He does what few else do, in that Earwa is not merely a labeled map that we get the walkthrough of. It’s organic; we live in it through the perspectives of each character. He gives it substance, not only a physical fact, but also one that has existed and has historical significance before the time of the characters we follow. It’s a fantasy setting gifted with a seemingly innate historical feel, by the strength of Bakker’s prose - from name choices to seamless philosophical and religious depth. The setting is not the whole made up of parts –- the setting is a part of the whole. Bakker has stated this is a feat in physical world building draws inspiration from Tolkien, coupling it with the intrigue of Herbert. The ideas is certainly not an original one, as Robert Jordan aspired for the same creation, very conscious - and aptly so -- of the possibilities of such a union, however, although Jordan was certainly up to the physical creation of the setting, I have always felt he attempted to work a canvas too large for his ability as a pure writer. A second rate chef with the best recipe, and the finest of utensils and ingredients in hand; his overwhelming vision failed by lack of skill to apply it. Bakker suffers no such deficiency. This is a sub-genre that we reward ideas much to often, and although ideas and creativity are certainly a neccesity, it should not be laudeded in the absence of competent application.

"There are three, and only three kinds of men in the world; cynics, fanatics, and Mandate Schoolmen" - Ontillas, On the Folly of Men

In Earwa, Magic is very much a reality but considered heresy among the Inrithi, and the majority of sorcerers are members of various Schools. Collectively they – those who have, or the potential to have magical ability - are called the “few”. As mentioned above, Drusas is a Mandate Schoolmen, a Gnostic school, that although not as large as others, all schools seek the secrets of the Gnosis. The influential and powerful Scarlet Spires, rulers of High Ainon, they join forces with the crusade to eliminate their rivals the Cishaurim, a school whose, sorcerers can walk unseen among other schools’ adepts. Others are The Imperial Saik, loyal to the Nansur Empire, and the Mysunai, a school not highly thought of among the few, as they are mercenaries who sell their services. I love the fact that magic simply doesn’t exist without exerting outside influence or opinion. The few are considered abominations of faith by the overwhelming majority of the populace, a belief that cuts through both past camaraderie and friendship. The schools are able to exist –and flourish to some extent - simply because…well they can simply kick enough ass to make any overt attempt (other than another school) at eliminating them a less than worthwhile endeavor, much less a plausible or sane one.

Where does Bakker fail? Depending on one’s view not just on this particular reading, but reading in general – he doesn’t. Bakker is in a strange situation, in that he is an extremely gifted writer in a sub-genre that’s fan base largely doesn’t care about quality writing. To some, he commits the crime of writing a product that isn’t the most accessible of works to fans exclusive to a sub-genre that has grown accustomed to being spoon fed from the same Gerber jar. Bakker not only has a story to tell he has the ability to tell it; it’s not overly erudite, but represents a much more dense read than what is typical of the sub-genre. Bakker has the ability to give all the sequences in The Darkness That Comes Before a unifying quality of being a part of a single epic event, without ever forsaking the import and the relevance of any single moment. The chief detraction I see most often, and one that just completely baffles me, involves opinions regarding Bakker’s choice of names for both his cast and locales. Are you kidding me? Do people read out loud? Unusual names bother people? Do people not travel anymore? You are reading a book – you are halfway there – use your brain, you just have to know what or where it is when you see it again – not how to repeat it. I never understood this particular gripe with any book; I have seen dozens of threads on message boards dedicated to nonsense like how to pronounce ‘Drow’ (which oddly enough I learned when I was pretty young watching an episode of Colombo – and in fact still pronounced it the way I wanted too) –- not even bringing up a dictionary -- does it really matter? Even if you don’t know, and it becomes a source of personal disturbance and perhaps remains elusive forever, how does it detract from a book? Finally, to add to the number of people who will insist on missing out on this fantastic series: If you have ever stated, “I couldn’t sympathize with any character”, after reading a book, and thinking that it’s sign of sub-par writing instead of the opposite – don’t bother.

The last two superior completed series’ I have read are Jeffrey Ford’s ‘Cley' trilogy’, and Neal Stephenson’s ‘Baroque Cycle’. I have hopes that upon completion, I will be able to point to the The Darkness That Comes Before as the start of an equally worthy series – a rare epic fantasy sequence that can with no shame be measured against the other finest recent efforts of fantasy as a whole, not limited with the perception of merely being one of the few standouts in a otherwise lackluster and mediocre field. Bakker’s debut is intoxicatingly unsentimental, habitually readable, darkly poetic, emotionaly enrapturing, and features a character that has the rare quality of being ominously present even in -- and perhaps especially -- in scenes he is absent from, and that threatens to join the other iconic figures in fantasy’s pantheon of memorable characters.

I hate seemingly just hyping a work, but The Darkness That Comes Before is not only the beginnings of one of most enjoyable series I have read, it makes me wonder what crime Bakker committed, in that if we are nominating and awarding works in the mold of Lois Mcmaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls (both of which I enjoyed, as I do most all of Bujold’s work, whether Science Fiction or Fantasy, but let’s be honest, Paladin of Souls was not the best book in 2003 nor near it) – how the hell has Bakker been largely under the radar? No one can accuse me of not being aware of, and even acknowledging the fact that the overwhelming majority of the superior works and creative talent in Speculative Fiction is definitely not coming from traditional fantasy (i.e. epic fantasy, sword/sorcery fantasy), and The Darkness That Comes Before is essentially – albeit in its most simple form -- a quest book with a looming prophesized threat; indeed, in the same manner of numerous other series that many, including myself, have come to despise and at times ridicule (and most of the time I believe rightly so), but what is the purpose of the greater genre community if not to make sure quality works are properly recognized, no matter what sub-genre they are pigeon-holed in? Admittedly, an author writing a series handicaps themselves from potential recognition from the beginning, so as a fan of quality fiction – damn just epic fantasy – and since this series is nearing closure in January, I thought it worth a Bodhisattva Second Look, as it’s a prime choice for readers who like to wait for an entire series to be released before investing both their time and money into it.

What is refreshing about Bakker is that we don't have to wait for him to learn how to write; he already can, we are just waiting with each future project to see what he chooses to write about, which is a welcome deviation from dozens of other efforts every year (especially regarding series'), where it seems as fans we seemingly have become accustomed to suffer through a debut (and sometimes more) book as if it were an on-the-job-training. I don't want to invest for the pleasure of watching 'Author X' grow into (or not) a competent writer - my purchase of a published author should entail that he/she is at least competent already. Bakker takes on a huge and most admirable risk with both this book and series; not so much in regards to innovation or imaginative power, but a gambit directed at the epic fantasy fan base itself. I think it would cast a promising and progressive reflection if it is a wager Bakker ends up winning.

I’m not sure if it’s going to end up being the seminal, completed epic fantasy sequence in almost 30 years - but it will probably be close enough that by this time next year I won’t have to invoke the 70’s when citing a model of greatness for comparing future works of epic fantasy.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

Related Links:

I interviewed R. Scott Bakker for Fantasybookspot.com earlier this year on 5/30/2005.

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews amd Interview}

'Orphans of Chaos' by John C. Wright Review

2005-11-01T05:13:00.000-08:00

My review is late as hell, but I just put up my review of John C. Wright's most excellent Orphans of Chaos at Fantasybookspot.com It came out today - there is no reason to not go buy it.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews amd Interview}

The Secret Language and Signs of Insecure Fandom.

2005-10-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

Slight rant - old news - but this is what these are for -

I think when you get to a point where you interact with the genre/literature community, and particularly portions of the fan base via message boards for a long time and actively, you eventually will have disagreements regarding various work, which causes normal people to often start with wonderful, and often insightful discussions about a book or a range of books by an author, or the industry itself. One may learn nothing or learn a lot; but this is what communities are about (at least it would seem the most obvious function) - and for this they are invaluable resources both for information and simply talking about a subject two people, or more often a group of people both have a passion about. Unfortunately, not all people are normal; they bring their insecurities, their self-imposed inadequacies with them on the net, which seems counter-productive in regards to the anonymity the net is supposed to offer. Certainly, everyone is insecure about something, perhaps many things - it however is mind boggling that one is insecure about what books they enjoy and feel the necessity to lash out as if personally assaulted if somebody makes remarks regarding books they enjoy. I meet people I disagree with everyday. Rob Bedford didn't enjoy Moorcock's 'Cornelius Quartet', I don't hound him all across the net about it; JP doesn't enjoy Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' - I don't visit his blog or forum he inhabits and troll him about the matter; I certainly don't begrudge them any, and I can enter discussion with either of them, whether regarding those subjects or otherwise without hostility; veiled or otherwise. I would say all 3 of us are certainly opinionated and are able to get our point across (and quite overbearingly if need be). Why is this? Because normal people differentiate critique of inanimate objects from critiquing a reader. Don't get me wrong; I may think someone is a dumbass - but it isn't because you read Terry Goodkind. You were probably a dumbass long before that - the fact that your read Goodkind only adds to your title of a dumbass with bad taste in reading selection. I recently reviewed Sean Wright's 'Twisted Root of Jaarfindor', which had elements I enjoyed and some I didn't (as reflected in my review) and a Mr. Self obviously thought less of it than I did and decided to come to Fantasybookspot.com and interject. Disaster right? Flame war right? No. Normal people are able to disagree and still find discussions worthwhile, and more importantly with no loss of face. Now to those that don't qualify as 'normal' -- I will call them idiots for purposes of apt categorization -- and their secret language. The numbers of such people remind me of a Japanese saying "Chiesha hitori baka mannin" which translates to something close to 1 Wiseman among 10,000 idiots. Now that's probably too extreme, it does, however, reflect the feeling one or a few 'idiots' can make a community that is otherwise enjoyable and populated with sensible people. Now mind you, again my opinion has nothing to do with anyone's preferences in reading - merely how one reacts to critique of their preferred reading. I am writing this because in the last couple of days I have witnessed and been the subject of some interesting points - and I decided to define them, as I am unable to do properly due to moderation, which I can admittedly deem appropriate. I'm not mentioning names, for the fact most that will read this would have no clue who these people are anyway, and I'm not attempting personal rebuttal as much as discussing the subject:

"I'm also a descent enough human being to not go to another authors website and say things like "he's ok, but his writing is subpar compared to a, b, c, d, etc. etc. etc"

Although I'm not sure what a 'decent human being' is, I'm more baffled as how do these two issues correlate. Besides from many numerous Blog/Journals I frequent, I am a member of numerous Message boards, some author related, some general genre or literature boards. The author related boards I frequent include, but are not limited to boards dedicated to George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Neil Gaiman, RA Salvatore, Stephen Donaldson, Tolkien, and Steven Erikson. I enjoy all those authors in varying degrees, however, I could name many authors I prefer or admire more than each and every one of them (not to mention authors whose work I think less off). I don't bullshit - at the Martin forum a discussion arose regarding Martin/Mieville/Moorcock several weeks ago, I love George R.R. Martin's work but one is not going to see me state he has more of an impact than Moorcock or that I prefer his work over Mieville. If somebody asks me about a work and compare it to RA Salvatore (whom I have tremendous respect for) or Tolkien, or VanderMeer etc - I give them the truth as I subjectively see it. I don't change my favorite authors, to correlate with the community I'm posting in at the moment. I do not see how that is either distasteful or reason to take offense - much less a reflection of one's humanity. I just don't see the leap of faith involved in saying that Gene Wolfe is more of a talented author than -- I don't know -- Margaret Weiss. Does anyone else? If so, and although this seems to be rather politically incorrect (regarding genre) does their opinion really matter? Being a sub-par writer compared to Gene Wolfe is no insult. There are very few writers who that doesn't properly describe! I just don't like the implied message that one cannot go to an author-based forum without the inclination to think of that author as the pinnacle to literature. That's the ultimate sign of insecurity. I want to illustrate another example, this is what somebody posted at a forum:

"Some of the new titles from the Dabel Brothers will include:

- George R.R. Martin's The Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword

- Raymond E. Feist's The Riftwar Saga: Magician

- Orson Scott Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker: Red Prophet

- Orson Scott Card's Wyrms

- R.A. Salvatore's The Highwayman

- Monte Cook's Ptolus"

My response to this post was this:

"Thanks for the news TK:)

I will probably pick up Martin's Sworn Sword comic adaptation - the Dabel brothers do excellent, excellent work regarding putting out quality products.

Simple right? No problem right? Perfectly innocent reply, thanking the poster for the info right? No - here is a reaction I got a couple hours later from that very post, describing what he just knew "I really meant":

"Translation: Who cares if there going to be a R.A. Salvatore's The Highwayman comic adaptation".

If such people were a fraction as insightful as they thought (or perhaps dreamed) they were, they may actually have something to offer in discussions regarding books/literature. Most of the times these babies are not to be seen in any such discussion that’s subject matter is more relevant than a simpleton versus thread

Same topic, the person makes up more information trying to illustrate my "reputation", quoting a post I made at a totally different site (a live journal) and bringing it over to the forum. My comment was made when an author announced his book was being released early and this is what I stated (directed to the author) at his live journal that I frequent quite a bit:

"Talk about terrible timing! Have a lot on my must-read pile at the moment; perhaps will get to it at a later date - but thanks for the heads up."

The person (the idiot) interpreted that comment as me saying:

"Translation: You are not a good enough writer for me to give any priority to your book."

What the fuck, right? Note, this author I am accused of slamming is somebody whom although I didn't interview personally I sought to get interviewed at Fantasybookspot.com (which he was), and somebody I have actively supported not only here - but everywhere. Word to the wise - If your going to attack somebody regarding there reading biases, it helps if that person you are attacking doesn't have a history of supporting every example you name, and that they don't have a bigger platform in responding to you after you make an ass out of yourself. Of course I received the message from moderation - as you can see I started the issue.

Another common defense (spurred by insecurity) - the cry of literary elitism:

"Just because and many of us here, happen to thoroughly enjoy RAS and Ed and Thomas, you look down your nose at us, and treat us as if we are all so very far beneath your intellect and knowledge"

No, the fact that these types of people may or may not be beneath me in any way has nothing to do with their reading preferences. These are the same people who never enter any applicable discussion about books in question. They don't have the time to offer their opinion and discuss books (again the point of these message boards), but apparently have only the time to scream "quit making fun of me" to somebody (me) who didn't know they even existed before the whining began. I already remarked on my thoughts of the term "literary elitism" on this blog when I said the response of 'elitism' is a personal attack - often a last resort in argument that has nothing else to use as a platform. If somebody can't tell me the merits of their book in a discussion (at a genre message board) than please give others who offer an opinion the respect deserved from those who never have one until they start whining If someone doesn't agree with an opinion about an author or particular work, post something, offer your perspective; such interaction is most welcome; if not - don't place a value on someone else's opinion without offering one of your own. How do people call anyone out on their subjective opinion, when they have none of their own?

Now, one aspect about message boards that I think adds to a certain sense of perceived aloofness is that although there are certainly some members whose posts I enjoy reading more than others I don't "like" or "dislike" individual posters. I rarely post in non-genre related portions of boards simply because to be blunt, and not in any way condemning the practice or others who do, I don't look for any level of friendship on boards. I don't care what goes on in their lives, I don't' care about their children, I don't care what happened to them that day, I don't care about what you do for a living, and I certainly don't care if it's your birthday. This of course doesn't include personal journals/blogs whom if I visit obviously I have some interest in, but generally at message boards, it's not a matter of disliking, it's a matter of simple disattachement from anything except genre topics (although I'm a sucker for Football threads). I visit genre boards to talk about the genre - not to get to know people, which is not a statement saying they aren't worth it - just that my goal doesn't include finding out either way. I can talk about non-genre subjects and "hang out" with my friends - not the computer. I think this personal disattachement is why when I see personal attacks thrown at people (or myself) I am surprised people can possibly care about how somebody presents their opinions on books - and if they do why are they never involved in any discussions?

Another aspect about message boarding that I thought was absurd until earlier this year, but was taught differently while visiting the Frame Shift forums, is the practice of not being ambiguous. If your opinion is important enough to post - claim it. When someone emails me or calls me Jay - that's my name. I thought if I was going to critique work or even debate other fans, one might as well be stand-up enough to attach their name to it. Certainly in some instances I understand for professional reasons people do not - but I think such instances are limited. There are certain places I haven't changed my screen name over (sheer laziness) - but most people are familiar with who I am (as most of us all visit the same boards/communities), and can attach applicable opinions to me. Kudos to the Frame Shift folks for bringing to my attention the merits of not hiding behind screen names - it really makes a lot of sense. I just feel strange arguing with SuperSaiyanDrizzt, and it's hard to take anyone seriously that uses that as a screen name. In my past of course I used a screen name, and I can see the reasoning for the practice among children - but if you want to be taken seriously it makes sense. Certainly their are a few online personalities that are above this due to content but I think most would agree 95% of the content on message boards is highly irrelevant.

Some key definitions:

-"your arrogant" - this means that at one time or another you commented on a book they enjoyed with an opinion that doesn't match their own - and most likely in a manner that supercedes what they are capable of replying to.

-"Literary Elitism" - As said above, is a personal attack - often a last resort in argument that has nothing else to use as a platform.

-"I avoid threads you participate in" - this means they disagree with you on many issues, perhaps even fundamentally (which is no fault at all - as I said discussion is always welcome) but they don't have the prowess to articulate themselves in a manner beyond saying I avoid threads you participate in.

-"Well I like the moral value the book portrays" - this means the person has attached their faith with a book and is going to ignore elements like prose, characterization, plot, and relevance. This comment cannot be defeated without being tried for heresy online and risking excommunication. These are the same people who find Jesus in Gandalf, yet for some reason don't see any religious overtones in C.S. Lewis's work.

-"I only read for entertainment (or fun)" - I honestly don't know what this means - doesn't everyone? For myself, I'm not reading Dhalgren because I'm punishing myself - I'm reading for enjoyment. Some minds can appreciate lesser work - the motivation behind reading does not change however.

"What Fantasy book are you going to find originality in anyway?" - Honestly, it very hard to say, and it's a cop out question. When most people state they are looking for original work, or call another work unoriginal, what they mean is "individual". Example: Terry Brooks is neither remotely original nor can you find anything remotely individual about his books (also see Paolini). Gene Wolfe's wonderful Wizard/Knight duology is not really original at all - it is an individual work however (not to mention damn good). Another author who spins a traditonal tale but soaked in individual vision, and the talent, with both a undeniable emotional ingredient and draw is Gary Wassner. Wanting originality is not seeking an author without influence - such is impossible.

Why Message boards are still worth it:

I think it's safe to say most of us don't hang out with a group of Science Fiction and Fantasy fans on a daily basis. There is also author participation that is often the source of invaluable and insightful information on many boards - and yes some cats you meet online are just cool people (transcending the disattachement). I do see a shift of most of such people evolving from message boarding to blogs and journals however, which is an interesting occurrence I think.

Information is great on many boards. You want to talk about A Song of Ice and Fire theories? The Martin board has it on lock. Great ideas/theories over there. The Donaldson and Erikson forums also provide a wealth of information as well as various Tolkien communities, among several others. There are also a handful of boards that offer wonderful discussion, but unfortunately to keep it that way and police them - one has to accept the roll of a snob.

Common Misconception:

"You wouldn't say that to an authors face" - I have had the pleasure to communicate with dozens of authors, and especially lately regularly practice at emailing notices that I just reviewed their books. One will also find authors (particularly new ones) actively search for existing online reviews of their work. I dare say authors often practice at searching the name of their latest book on Google. I think one will find FBS's reputation among authors they have interviewed is exceptional. Most authors (reputable ones) respect candid opinions. Upon being contacted by, Scott Lynch, an author who has a book debuting next year that I was lucky enough to procure a early manuscript of, he earns instant credibility by saying to me "if you don't like it - trash it". Quality authors are not babies - this is what they do. They don't need self-important fandom to defend book related critique of their work with personal retorts at reviewers or community members. You do the author an injustice by attaching the stigma of having dumbass fans to him or her. For those (idiots) that may not know this: Most reviewers get their books from authors or their publisher. That author you are defending against negative comments? He sent me the book to slam.

Finding Personal Fault:

Definitely. Make no mistake, I have no problem telling somebody how stupid I think they are if provoked, especially when their points are asinine and proven wrong (see above). I am not a "turn the other cheek person" - but it's never out of any anger or something due to deeply vested emotional personal dislike or hate - while others I think respond in seriousness - I'm generally finding the humor in how easy it is to get people stirred up simply by saying your favorite work is recycled trash, or how people react to different posting styles. It's really incredible - roll a joint, count to ten, (whatever it is you do) chill out and have fun - nothing you do at an online community is worth taking that seriously. Some people act as if it's their real life. I don't, nor can I fathom the idea of anyone logging on to a forum with a feeling of superiority. I have communicated with too many people possessing greater knowledge and perspective than myself to do so. There is also an unfair expectation I guess. Do you ever go to a movie with someone - and they just miss the whole point? Well 75% of people who frequent some boards are those people. They are/were 18 year olds who thought Moby Dick was just a fishing story. Picaresque? Do you mean Picard-like? While online communities -- without doubt -- offer some tremendously knowledgeable people, it is unlike reality in that everyone is invited. You know how you can just choose not to hang out with that idiot in your class? You can't do that online. In reality at least most of them have the dignity to shut-up - which is probably why they go online, to pretend they have something to say, among the masses who don't have the luxury of knowing him/her to avoid.

What does all this mean?

I no longer post at SFFworld (a fine genre forum overall I suppose) but a recent thread there reminds us of a genre schism among the fan base, that creates many polarized communities. I think R. Scott Bakker in a past interview best described the two factions:

"For simplicity's sake, lets say this debate is between two well-defined groups (which it isn't), the 'literati' and the 'laymen,' with the former impugning epic fantasy, and the latter defending it.

Training and socialization are the backbones of appreciation. When architects look at a building, they see far more than laymen see. When musicians listen to a composition, they hear far more than laymen hear. And likewise, when critics read a novel, they comprehend far more than laymen comprehend.

This just underscores an obvious fact: in many cases, how much one knows conditions what one can and cannot appreciate. Take sentimentalism, for instance. Once you come to understand the baffling complexities and ambiguities of human emotion, then emotional clichés like 'love conquers all,''be true to who you are,' and so on, start looking hackneyed and cartoonish. Listening to Britney Spears is no longer an option (looking, on the other hand...). You've outgrown sentimentalism, and certain things no longer ring true.

So what you have are individuals with standards arising from specialized training, literati, critiquing works written for individuals with standards arising from their socialization in popular culture, laymen. Since the training of the former builds on the socialization of the latter, the standards of the literati are bound to be more complex, more informed, and more sensitive to nuance -- like the ear of a musician or the eye of an architect.

Given these standards, works written expressly for laymen are bound to seem simplistic and ignorant to the literati, and they say as much in their critiques. Now since ignorance is invisible -- we're typically ignorant of our ignorance -- these critiques are bound to sound 'out of the blue,' or arbitrary, to laymen. And since we tend to be jealous rather than skeptical of our commitments, the initial lay tendency is to accuse the literati of 'reading too much' into the works at issue. 'It's just entertainment!' is a common rejoinder.

Of course the literati know there's no such thing as 'pure entertainment,' that most cultural expression tends to encode and reinforce the prevailing ideology of the society it's expressed within. (As the systematic sum of what we do, societies require the repetition of our actions -- buying, working, and so on -- to maintain structural integrity. Given that beliefs are a primary basis of action, the production of cultural artifacts becomes an important way in which societies regulate the repeated actions that make them possible: this is easily seen when one looks at ancient or exotic societies (think of the social function of medieval beliefs like 'the divine right of kings,' 'life is a veil of tears,' and so on) but becomes progressively more difficult to see the closer one comes to one's own society, where one's beliefs and assumptions seem 'natural.' This is why so much popular culture seems ideologically inert, or 'entertainment pure and simple,' to laymen: because our socialized beliefs frame our perspective, it's difficult to take a perspective on them, and since we can't take a perspective on them, we assume there's nothing to take a perspective on (and comments like this one, strike us as 'out of the blue' or 'just plain wrong').

The tendency of the literati, at this point, is to make some claim to authority -- and this is where everything falls apart. The worst way to ground apparently arbitrary judgments is to claim authority. Not only is authority taken to be 'authority over,' it simply compounds the sense of arbitrariness. The lay response, not surprisingly, is to accuse the literati of arrogance.

And in a sense, they're right, because ultimately the literati have no real authority, at least not in the way neurosurgeons or other technical and scientific specialists have authority in debates involving their subject matter (imagine contradicting these guys on a message board!). The literati themselves may think they have that authority, but authority without recognition is no authority at all. They're no different than priests or philosophers in this regard.

Add the usual bundle of human weaknesses to the mix and this communicative impasse becomes pretty much insurmountable. Debate collapses into name-calling. The literati feel confirmed in their elitism (because it just goes to show), the laymen feel confirmed in their anti-intellectualism (because you can always tell the bad guys by their vocabularies), and as is usually the case in disagreements, both sides go home feeling smug and self-satisfied.

It doesn't matter, I think, what sub-genres you plug into this literati/laymen relationship. Now it just happens to be the 'new weird' on the literati side and 'epic fantasy' on the laymen side. The key to resolving the ruckus, I think, is for the literati to acknowledge their lack of institutional authority, and to concentrate on showing what's 'wrong' with commercial epic fantasy, rather than telling (as authorities do), but this is hard work, and we tend to be lazy. It's far easier to call people stupid. Likewise, laymen should acknowledge the limitations of their appreciation, the fact that there's always more than what meets the eye. The problem here, however, is that this is humbling, and we tend to be conceited. It's far easier to call people pompous.

The irony of all this, of course, is that the epic fantasy condemned by the literati and defended by the laymen generally depicts worlds where value is objective, which is to say, a world where the literati could (like doctors and physicists in our world) have the authority to command consensus from laymen.

We live in strange times."

It's a very even evaluation but I like this specifically: "Likewise, laymen should acknowledge the limitations of their appreciation, the fact that there's always more than what meets the eye. The problem here, however, is that this is humbling, and we tend to be conceited. It's far easier to call people pompous.". They key factor is I don't think anyone thinks somebody is incompetent for what books they read. I will bring back Gene Wolfe for an example. If I say I like author 'A' but I think Wolfe spins a similar tale better due to narrative use etc, etc, why would someone who has never read Wolfe feel threatened, much less try to argue the point? Why not go read Wolfe and find out for yourself, or if not - say nothing. There is no fault in simply not knowing - the fault is not recognizing you don't know and then lashing out because you don't.

This schism is unfortunate because frankly I admire (and with that despise) works in all branches of the Speculative Fiction, but honestly it has become a hassle to be such a fan online. What's killing the online fandom experience is not authors or publishers, what's killing the genre are the very same people who Gabe Chouinard said was killing literary SF a couple of years ago - the damn fans. Take a step back and look at some forum threads - seriously (and I include ones I have participated in) - can you believe you wasted time out of your life in some of these discussions? True story: at the beginning stages of Fantasybookspot.com I joined a number of boards (what you call spam I call advertising that paid off) - one of my stops was a Eragon (yes I realize it's one of the dumbest books in the last decade) board. I found one interesting thread inquiring about Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms (I know, shocker, but after all there is a video game inspired by it) and posted some info on it - later I received a PM from administration to not type long "to complex" posts as people there "don't read long-involved posts". My post may have been a paragraph long - and my four year old could understand the gist of it. Why maintain such a board? So 50,000 dumbasses can visit everyday and validate themselves due to the appearances of the other 49,999 dumbasses with 4 word posts?

I guess all I'm saying is that Sturgeon's Revelation hold true again in this regard, 90% of them are just shit and I'm gong to stop treating them as if they aren't - I tried to become politically correct due to FBS's growing exposure, and my affiliation with it It's too much on an inconvenience to comfort other people's shortcomings; get that from the books you read. Damn it, I'm just going to keep it real, while thinking what I think crosses every generation's mind once they reach a certain age - people didn't use to be this stupid. Of course, it is their life they can choose to be that way, but I found myself slipping into it myself, being drawn into it, and its become unacceptable. Siddhartha would wash his hands of this shit.

To the 10% of messageboard populations that make them truly worthwhile (and you know who you are - simply because you to recognize the other 90%) - you deserve extreme admiration - but you will never receive it from anyone but the other 10% who recognize the shit around them.

Some points of book interest:

-Kelly Shaw has her review up of China Mieville's Looking for Jake at Strange Horizons

-Looks like Alienonline is looking for suggestions about a remodel.

-Rob has Bakker's Thousandfold Thought! *writes nasty email*

-MSN named TV's Top 10 Scariest Characters . Pointer from Dark, But Shining.

-Joe Gordon tells us about a Graphic novel set in Silverberg's Majipoor Universe. Silverberg is a great author, especially of SF that readers need to take a look at. Check out the nice preview art.

-The Guardian with an article about judging people by book covers.

-Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos tells us how rich we made him at The Guardian.

-Umberto Eco interview in India Newspaper.

-Interesting numbers on sale boost that goes along with Booker Award winners reported by The Literary Saloon

-Chris Barzak tells us that his Language of Moths will be reprinted in 'The Best Fantasy of 2005'. Great short story, and the one short story I recommended for Cheryl's unofficial Hugo recommendations.

Paul S. Kemp starts his new book.

-Gary dropped me a line and told me Gabe apparently is back to blogging.

-I was reading Nick Mamatas' Live Journal, and it reminded me to order the new Ligotti!

-Matt Stover tells us why we can't wait for the new Caine novel!

Quote of the day:

My quote of the day is actually a journal entry I was directed to from Matthew Cheney's Mumpsimus, and the responses it received as well. Very honest entry by writer Olen Steinhaurer, about writing, the differences of the Big 'L', and Little 'L', writing as art, and accessibility. Excellent Stuff.

These People Exist:

I chose 2 that a forum member at Fantasybookspot.com directed me to that we can blame for happening on Rob's watch:):

"That Moorcock article is rubbish. He apparently writes non-fiction as badly as he writes fiction.

"The genre was started by Terry Brooks. I don't think anyone has damaged its reputation"

Regarding the first statement; let me just say this - read Mother London, and then ask yourself if your favorite genre author can write anything approaching its brilliance. In FBS's infancy we were visited by a fantastic new author K.J. Bishop, and at the time I made a comment to her "I never thought fantasy would become a place where I could actually have to say Moorcock is now underrated". What are we just losing our minds? That quote above is proof of the rank madness occurring at boards. If you forget Moorcock - you turn your back on relevant, progressive Fantasy and SF. Remember when Chris Rock asked, "Whatever happened to Crazzzy?". Seems like it's alive and well.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews amd Interviews}

That Time of Year

2005-10-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Almost the end of the year, and it's about that time to reflect on books and writers of 2005 what we enjoyed reading the most. It has been a excellent year for SFF in my opinion, and Cheryl Morgan has a pretty interesting method to let people know what you think merits recognition. I sent my opinions in (which will kill 2 birds with one stone as a blog entry as well:)

I offered Hal Duncan's Vellum, which at the moment is still the most impressive work of the year for me, John C. Wright's forthcoming Orphans of Chaos (review will be up in 2 days), Tamar Yellin's severely underrated Genizah at the House of Shepher, Ken Macleod's Learning the World (look for a review just after Wright's, and Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land by John Crowley (I just finished). I also put forth Catherynne M. Valente's Yume Me Hon: Book of Dreams (waiting for verification as a novel or novella), and Chris Barzak's excellent short The Language of Moths (big thanks to Jeffrey Ford for the pointer on that). I wanted to nominate more short work, however, most of the short work I read this year would not be eligible. No doubt that Niall Harrison will pimp plenty for us all however.

Wouldn't mind seeing some other opinions.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews amd Interviews}

The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor review

2005-10-16T01:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I put up my review of Sean Wright's British Fantasy Award short-listed novella The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor at Fantasybookspot.com

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Expansion

2005-10-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

Just a short note -

Recently at Fantasybookspot.com we have decided to expand to also cover works in Mystery, Horror, as well as Comic Book related efforts. We have also expanded our discussion forums to accommodate these changes. It seems like a natural progression, and while we stay committed to covering Fantasy and Science Fiction we want to expand our community and the discussion that comes along with it. In the case of horror especially, with the blurring of genres - which is really no just longer limiting creative output by archaic guidelines - it is definitely even more appropriate. I am a former collector of comics, and especially looking forward to discussion and opinions of that very fertile and too often overlooked venue. One of my favorite lines ever were the old Valiant titles (old as in 15 years ago) during Jim Shooter's time where they really focused on the writing, and that entire line had terrific continuity. With titles like 'The Eternal Warrior', 'X-O Manowar', 'Archer and Armstrong', 'Harbinger Files', 'Magnus', 'Rai', 'Bloodshot', 'Ninjak', and 'Solar' - among several other titles - these were terrific comics.

Valiant was really creating great work around the time "The Big 2" (for the non-comic book fans that's DC and Marvel) were losing a lot of their high profile talent (mostly artists) that were the driving force behind their major titles in wake of the formation of Image Comics, which really offered some terrific art, and some of the worst writing ever in comic book history - and you were lucky to see a issue every 6 months. Hell, I'm still waiting for the third issue of 'Pitt'.

Jim Shooter, who is much maligned in the business but was somewhat of a prodigy, I really thought had excellent vision at times, as after he was ousted at Valiant he started Defiant, which had a title I really enjoyed 'Dark Dominion'. It's in a Defiant title, 'Warriors of Plasm', I first was introduced to Dave Laphams's work (art), who of course went on to create the incredible Stray Bullets, which is simply one of the best works in comics in my mind. I still have a 'Warrriors of Plasm #1' signed by Lapham and Shooter that I think I ordered from QVC.

Okay, let me get out of Memory Lane.

Items of interest around the genre:

-Another great story from Jeffrey Ford. Jeff offers better stuff for free at his journal than you can find in many multi-book tomes. Also, Jeff has been interviewed at SF Weekly

-For writers out there, The British Fantasy Society is having short story contest to go along with their 35th anniversary. AlienOnline has the details

-The prestigous Man Booker Award was given to John Banville for The Sea yesterday. I haven't read the novel myself, but found some opinions didn't agree, more here, and more here. Apparently the damn chairman of the committee cast the vote that awarded it to Banville instead of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go ! So much for the Japanese Pride parade...

-John Updike at the New Yorker, talking about covers.

-A chance to win a free copy of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys or Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing at Pat's Blog. Expect something similar from FBS around Christmas.

-Jonathan Strahan is giving his thoughts on his favorite works this year. I really love some of his choices. I have that Kuttner/Moore collection myself (scooped it after he mentioned it earlier this year in fact). Definitely agree with the Phillips collection as well. I reviewed it earlier this year - and I have an interview set up with her later this year. Her debut novel, Burning Girl, is high on my want list for 2006.

-Rhys Hughes tells us about a possible new collection from him - which is excellent news.

-Alastair Reynolds interviewed at Abberant Dreams. I reviewed his Revelation Space earlier this year.

-I have an issue of any list of the 10 most Influential Fantasy Authors that doesn't include Michael Moorcock. I can argue the case of any author on that list myself, but frankly I think it's shit.

-This is just cool

-Learn why JP thinks 'A Song of Ice and Fire' is only good for beating you over the head.

Bah, short this week been busy with my football handicapping, and Fantasybookspot related projects, which has been cutting down on my messageboard visits as well. Another update soon however.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Paul Park Interview

2005-10-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

I just put up an interview I conducted with Paul Park at Fantasybookspot.com

No need for me to go on, I have mentioned his recent release A Princess of Roumania a lot recently. I reviewed the novel a couple of weeks ago and can be read here

Jay

The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Back to Blogging

2005-09-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

The Lynch Mob:

Earlier this week I received a treat. A book I was very much looking forward to reading in 2006, Scott Lynch's debut, 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' showed up in mail. Now I know a lot of heads want the gist but bear with me, manuscripts slow me down and I do have some prior commitments but I will share my thoughts when I'm done. I'm planning on contacting Mr. Lynch to see if he has a preference on when he would want to see full reviews for his work. I know a lot of you know him, so if any of you can contact him and ask him to drop me a line it would be much appreciated.

I want to thank Sarah Ash, who by the way had the final installment in her 'Tears of Artamon' trilogy, Children of the Serpent Gate released yesterday, for facilitating me with the means of obtaining a copy 'The Lies of Locke Lamora'. Much appreciated, and good looking out.

Second Wind:

I have a lot coming up regarding reviews, which have been delayed due to both a technical mishap, and just being rather busy. Expect some newer reviews in the near future to include China Mieville's Looking for Jake, Sean Wright's The Twisted Root of Jaarfindor, and Ken Macleod's Learning the World at Fantasybookspot.com - somewhere in between that expect my review of John C. Wright's forthcoming Orphans of Chaos which I have been pushing back simply because of the November release date. I'm also working on a few others at the same time that I had already done that were lost to a MSword malfunction.

For those who may be interested some commentary of the Mieville collection, JP is giving his thoughts at his blog.

Yesterday, I put up my review of Paul Park's absolutely delightful 'A Princess of Roumania' at Fantasybookspot.com, the first book in at least a planned three-book sequence. It's a wonderful alternative history/fantasy with a quest motif that simply appeals. It's accessible, in a rare way that when I say accessible" it's not to imply what we so often mean by the term, which is namely "dumbed down", but instead its layered narrative is so subtle, everyone can truly appreciate and be involved in it. It's definitely a noteworthy work in my opinion.

On a related note, I will be interviewing Mr. Park in a future edition of On the Spot.

No Soup for Fans:

It may just seem I'm perturbed that I don't have a ARC of A Feast for Crows, but really what I find interesting is it seems a whole mob of people claiming to have it that I have never heard of. Look, I'm sure the ARC's are out, I definitely believe C.B at Locus when he says he has read it, and we heard Robin Hobb had a copy (which she confirmed when I asked her), so we know they exist, and it's reasonable to assume there are plenty of others out. That said, it really is interesting to me that there are some people popping up on boards claiming to have read it, and can't tell us anything more than what I can tell you right now - and like I said I don't have it. Have all these people just agreed to tell everyone they have it and say nothing more? Apparently all the people that have ARCs are by some mad coincidence all spoiler conscious, or in some cases I have seen have feign stupidity, using it as a reason they can't give any more information more complex than verifying that the author is indeed George R.R. Martin. What a bunch of terrible choices to pass ARC's out to! More likely they don't have it; and if they do, do what any self-respecting Martin fan would do, start a damn blog, and hold court with the information. Otherwise, just shut up.

Realms Recommendation:

On a whole I don't really give a damn about Wizards of the Coast products. I think Dragonlance is utterly asinine, and with few exceptions I find Forgotten Realms to be not much better. I do like some or have enjoyed some work in Realms and want to point out that what I think is thus far the best sequence WotC has ever been affiliated with is coming to a close. In November, Paul. S Kemp's Midnight's Mask is being released, completing his Ervis Cale Trilogy. If Midnight's Mask is half as good as either of the prior two novels (Twilight Falling and Dawn of the Night ) it will be in my opinion eclipse RA Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy as the seminal work in the Forgotten Realms setting.

Kemp is writing his stories, and his characters (not legally but you get the drift) in the Forgotten Realms setting, and not what seems to be a common attribute, trying to write a Forgotten Realms novel. Listen up authors! When you write a book with the thoughts of satisfying your existing fan base in mind, you're not really writing, your producing! Mr. Kemp has a damn good concept working, and I wish him the best so he can ask those cheap bastards at WotC to hook him up with some hardcovers...

All Realms fans who haven't read this work should, and don't let the fact that he thinks Cal Ripken Jr. wasn't overated sway you.

Last week, Medsin conducted an interview with Mr. Kemp

Common Sense:

I'm a fan of this genre, and although I don't much care for Vanity Presses at all, I will support any author whose work I admire, and will read anything submitted. Advice for authors who are part of vanity presses: If a review site has not only agreed to review your book, but a reviewer has actually read it - don't bother said reviewer with a fucking email every week, and than either create a new email or work with a publicists that has a email as ridiculous as PR69@hotmail.com to email them trying to play hardball with the reviewer. We have lives, and we are people, if you keep hounding someone, then they just might pick up the Mieville book staring them in their face and forget they ever heard of you. I don't know what I'm going to be doing tonight when I go out, I hardly know when I'm going to finish your book, and complete a review. So don't ask me and expect an answer you want to hold me to. Chances are, I'm not going to read your book as soon as I get it.

At FBS we are all fans, if you think I get paid to do this or to put up with any extracurricular hassle, next time send me a check with the book - I'll charge you half of what your publisher charged you to publish your book. I know Fantasybookspot.com is a relatively new site, and certainly their are many more review sites, and some of them are absolutely exceptional on such a level FBS has yet to achieve, however, to quote Matthew Stover "If you're gonna play Poke the Bear, you better keep in mind that the bear doesn't give a shit it's just a game". Quit acting like you are doing me the favor by sending me your self-published book to review. I certainly appreciate the vote of confidence and respect any author of any kind, but don't look a gift horse in it's mouth (I never thought I'd ever use that). I read Steven Oliverez's The Elder Staves earlier this year and enjoyed it, but if you are an author who felt it was too taxing, or above you to earn your stripes writing in one of the legitimate and reputable genre mags, (let me stress reputable, as it seems new 'Zines pop up everyday), and just signed a check, try practicing the patience now that you didn't then. If not, there is always Harriet Klausner...

Now, I don't want anyone to confuse that with all POD books (Print-on-Demand) as there are certainly many examples of excellent POD publishers that are not vanity presses. For those who want a more professional explanation on POD, Sean Wallace, who is the editor over at one of my favorite publishers currently, Prime, wrote an article last year about POD publishing for Locus last year.

FBS has a open door policy on submissions, and a couple of annoying people, who must feel our lives revolve around their book are going to put an end to that practice if they don't learn some patience. It's never the established author, or the authors who have been busting their ass in the magazine circuit who complain - it's always somebody who paid to play. I want to continue supporting publishers of all varieties, but don't act like I don't know most review sites don't even accept vanity submissions, when you're spamming me with emails. I haven't forgotten about you. Just Chill.

Damon, (another admin at FBS) has suffered similar nonesense, but has more class than I do to speak out with the level of annoyance it deserves.

(In my best Rick James voice) It's a Celebration!:

Give or take a month it's Fantasybookpot.com's birthday. Definite growing pains and a learning experience, but I have had the opportunity to communicate with some my favorite authors, and other genre related figures that have been instrumental and helpful to us. To all the authors who participated in our On the Spot interviews a big thanks, I want to thanks Kirsten our first guest who really opened the doors for us kicking off that feature with us. We are waiting for your next book girl! To all the established sites and personalities that serve as a model of how to do it right, that all should strive for like SF Site, Greenman Review, Matthew Cheney's Mumpsimus (a damn well deserved WFA nomination), AlienOnline, Cheryl Morgan's Emerald City, The Agony Column, Fantastic Metropolis, Bookslut, Strange Horizons, The Ansible, Infinity Plus, Excessive Candor, among many others along with the Blog community (you know who you are). Thanks to all the sites who linked to us; and to those sites who didn't because "we are both Amazon affiliates" - I wish I could name you, but I think like many others before me - I forgot who you were. Special thanks to Mr. Kelly at Locus whose help has been absolutely critical for FBS gaining a platform.

On a personal note thanks to all small presses, for proving that that writers with skills are still alive.

Anyways, much thanks to everyone!

A Reminder:

Remember, October kicks of Fantasybookspot's first Book Club. The first book is Kage Baker's The Anvil of the World. Discussions starts in October and Baker has been kind enough to agree to take part in the conversation. A great opportunity to discuss a book with an author!

Random:

-If I had a ARC of Martin's A Feast for Crows I would give it away. Can somebody give Ran, the administrator of the Ezboard dedicated to the series, and Westeros.org, a damn advanced copy! He does a terrific job with what is in my opinion the best author related fans site on the damn web. It's constantly active, if anyone deserves to read the damn book first it's Ran. It's just absurd he doesn't have a copy.

-I really have been looking forward to Justina Robson's Living Next Door to the God of Love, and Cheryl Morgan gives a damn salivating review at Emerald City.

-JP directed me to this article by Rick Kleffel. Read it - then go support good fiction, instead of just bitching about bad fiction. We want Jeff Vandermeer books to be a fixture on U.S. Shelves!

-Jeffrey Ford...well, simply being Jeff Ford - beautiful work.

-Nick Mamatas (let me stress this: Read Move Underground!) points us to the most ambitious book in publishing history.

-Big thanks to Mastadge for letting us know last week that a new Tim Powers book is on the way for Subterranean Press that you an pre-order here. Dubbed 'Three Days to Never'. Here is the excerpt:

"When 12-year-old Daphne Marrity steals a videotape of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure from her grandmother's house, neither she nor her college-professor father, Frank Marrity, have any idea that the theft has drawn the attention of both the Israeli Secret Service and an ancient European organization of occultists -- or that within hours they'll be visited by her long-lost grandfather, who also wants that videotape.
And when Daphne's teddy bear is stolen, and a blind assassin nearly kills her father, and a phantom begins to speak to her from a switched-off television set, Daphne and her father find themselves running for their lives through a southern California in which magic and the undead past are dangers as great as the guns of living assassins.
From ancient prophesies about Israel to the secret lives of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein, this breathtaking novel throws a suburban father and daughter into the midst of an ancient supernatural battle."

-I just want to say I'm sure we all hope Gabe gets back to blogging soon and wish him well. Drama sucks.

-Rob has reviewed Jeff VanderMeer's Veniss Underground - I'm going to do the same here in the future, when I receive my copy released in the U.S. just recently. I have prior printings, and it just doesn't get much better than Jeff V in SF right now.

-I'm late on this, but the Japanese pride bit of the month: The Man Booker short list was announced and Kazuo Ishiguro made it for his Never Let Me Go. The winner will be announced on October 10th.

Quote of the day:

In reply to a thread regarding what to read first, Robert Jordan's 'Knife of Dreams', or George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows, one reply gave the only sensible answer:

"you can read feast by light produced by the burnt Jordan piece. Two birds with one stone."

My "These people exist" quote, is in reply to a thread dubbed "most irritating clichés":

"When the author goes so far out of their way to not write a cliché that the book ceases to be a telling of a story and sharing of the imagination and instead becomes a self-absorbed and self-indulgent exercise of ego stroking contrivance and pretension. All in the name of supposedly creating an "important" or "meaningful" work."

This really relates to a interesting conversation over at the Mumpsimus a month ago. Look, obviously people have different tastes, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that, but the quote above is a quote you can bank on seeing some facsimile from the same "usual suspects" on virtually every message board you go to anytime a work being discussed (whether they read it or not) is written in a fashion more complex than the average citizen named Paolini on the planet can write it in. Certainly an individual (or group) can dislike any book they wish, but please stop using the same bullshit line with flash words like "self indulgent" and "pretentious" and say why you didn't enjoy in a manner that would reflect you have actually read the damn book, and not just throwing random temper tantrums because your sub-genre of preference (a self-indulgence I believe) is the running joke of publishing.

In this case I'm not really directing my comments on the author of this quote specifically; it's just a quote that really symbolized best a rampant practice, that seems to be an answer by some against any progressive work, whether it's well written or not, or any work of imagination they haven't imagined themselves first.

(edited) I had to add another that speaks for itself:

"he is a great auther better than terry brooks".

Jay

The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Still On Hiatus...

2005-09-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

But, I did just put up my interview with Robin Hobb today, and my interview last week was with Sarah Ash, both at Fantasybookspot.com.

Big thanks to both ladies during a busy time for both to find time to participate.

Back to blogging next week!

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Some Changes

2005-09-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

I made some changes to the blog - moved into a different template (which I know I could have done and retained everything, but decided to start fresh. I just moved my reviews from over there to here.

At an rate a new slate - not so much a FBS portal anymore , as much a gushing for books I enjoy, and making fun of piss poor work- in other words more ranting less directing.

Now that I have said The Bodhisattava will no longer be so much portal go check out one of our Associate reviewer's interviews this week with author Caitlin Sweet. Much respect to V, doing this interview, and giving me some time to work on some reviews I'm late on.

Going to be working on some FBS stuff, and I'm kind of pissed off about this New Orleans atrocity (the disaster was the Katrina, the atrocity was the response), so I'm taking a week off from blogging to focus on getting my reviews caught up - everyone needs to know how badass John C. Wright's forthcoming Orphans of Chaos is, and how Paul Park is just straight showing off with Princess of Roumanina, it's that damn elegant, and he will be a guest of mine On the Spot in the near future to tell you about it, so bear with me as I try to do some catching up.

That won't hinder my weekly interview schededule, however, like I said I got it covered until early next year - FBS has some of the biggest talents and names lined up.

Jay

the The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}

Bodhisattva Review: 'Blade of Tyshalle' by Matthew Stover

2005-09-07T05:13:00.000-07:00

Title: Blade of Tyshalle
Pages: 800
Publisher: Del Rey 2002
Series/Related Titles: Heroes Die (1999)

Matthew Stover is a name garnering a lot of mainstream attention recently due to his contribution to the StarWars universe as the author of the novelization of the record breaking film ‘Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’. I have read Stover’s rendering, which is the best adaptation thus far of any of the films, and one of best StarWars novels I have ever read. That statement isn’t admittedly that profound as in my opinion more often than otherwise most of the efforts coming out of the seemingly never exhaustive EU stable resemble such atrocious efforts like ‘Jedi Trial'. Make no mistake even though I am sure Mr. Stover is reaping his awards for his affiliation with StarWars (and no doubt an honor to be the one doing such a popular and I would imagine personally rewarding project), from a creative standpoint, Stover really did StarWars a favor, not the opposite.

Anyway, off the StarWars topic and on to the subject of the review as it merits a great deal of attention and is quite profound, and that is Stover’s prior work, in this case ’Blade of Tyshalle’. I have said many times recently that Stover’s ‘Blade of Tyshalle’ is probably the last book that featured to some large extent Elves that I felt was an elite work in the genre. Not since had I read Michael Swanwick’s fantastic ‘Iron Dragon’s Daughter’ was there in my opinion a novel near so good that depicted the traditionally present elves in works of fantasy. ‘Heroes Die’ precedes the story in 'Blade of Tyshalle’, however the former does not have to be read to appreciate the absolute mastery of Stover’s brand of story-telling in the latter (by no means am I not saying not to read Heroes Die’, it’s only slightly less thought of by me, and highly recommended to read; I myself read ‘Blade of Tyshalle’ first simply because I procured it first). Like Swanwick’s aforementioned effort, I consider ‘Blade of Tyshalle’ one of the finest examples of elite story telling in recent fantasy, nothing less than a welcomed and much needed contribution to a segment of the fantasy, and more aptly speculative fiction fan base that was yearning for a work that was equally intellectually and graphically intense.

The staging ground Stover creates for ’Blade of Tyshalle’ takes place in 2 distinctly different settings, which act as what can be described as parallel realms. One is Overworld, in essence a setting fans of traditional fantasy will be familiar with inhabited by human factions, elves, Gods, and magic, that serves as a source of entertainment for the "real world" a dystopic earth where actors are sent and recorded live for audiences in the real world. How was Overworld and opportunity it presented viewed? One character, Kris Hansen’s views:

"It is a billion dreams come true. I burn for it. I lust for Overworld the way a martyr dreams of the arms of God."

Most fans I think will feel more at home and although the idea is fascinating Stover’s vision and execution of the depiction of the real world is the grander of the two. A strict caste system, that is protected by the faceless yet ever present Social Police.

As in ‘Heroes Die’ Hari Michaelson aka Caine (or perhaps the other way around) is back and through Stover gritty narrative becomes in this novel in my mind one of the most memorable characters, and character studies in recent fantasy. The beginning portions of the novel (mind you it will never be confused with a novella or filler novel it is a very dense 800 pages) go back to events before ‘Heroes Die’ and chronicle events that occur in an institution that prepares them for Overworld split into two schools, Battle Magik and Combat. We see the events that will occur and a friendship forged that will propel a flunking Hari into an Icon. Hari is a CEO at the Studio now (the Studio runs Overworld), after his wound suffered in the prior novel ended the career of the most popular character in Overworld’s history Caine. Hari lives a life with his daughter and wife (a god when on Overworld) and has a most interesting amicable relationship with who was his greatest enemy Ma'elkoth (a sovereign and god in Overworld’s past, whose memory is still worshiped there) when he stumbles upon a plan that threatens to destroy Overworld, and send his wife Pallas Ril to Overworld to stop the spread of plague wiping out the population. In doing so she becomes bait in a plan of vengeance against Caine. The story in its most basic form is about Caine attempting to save his family and Overworld

I want to stress that such a simplification in explanation fails to give credence to the Stover’s writing which studies and scrutinizes from many different perspectives such topics as s, family, power and practicing in power, morality, relationships, ethics, individual philosophy, among others but most importantly an untainted knowledge of self. Did Hari just act like Caine? Or was Caine in fact the real man as we see him in his youngest form at school? Ma'elkoth’s opinion:

"I fear Michaelson not at all. Michaelson is a fiction you fools. The truth of him is Caine. You do not comprehend the distinction; and so he will destroy you"

Stover is able to deftly touch on subjects but with a narrative that although clever but in a way such that seems oxymoronic but very apt as it’s deftly blunt, and in your face. Like someone shooting a blind man with an arrow in the eye from point blank. It’s a novel about human weakness and human strength and how they how many elements of each are synonymous with shared by both, the difference only a thin line and circumstance. As aforementioned it’s about power; several types, and in ‘Blade of Tyshalle’ Stover will illustrate many types from the fantastic power of mages, drawn from ‘"flow", and the power of the concepts noted above, but one passage perhaps denotes the most relevant; again Ma'elkoth’s speaking of the crippled Caine:

"He does have power. One power: the power to devote himself absolutely to a single goal, to be ruthless with himself and all else in its pursuit. It is theonly power he needs - because unlike the great mass of men, he is aware of his power, he is willing, even happy to use it"

Within 'Blade of Tyshalle' Stover illustrates in several sequences why he is in my mind, the current preeminent describer of action sequences in speculative fiction, depicting actions that produce gruesome results with uncanny and realistic precision. As with any novel of such relevance his characters are not polarized to some senseless and truly fictional ideas of Good or Evil, they make realistic decisions and are governed by their own believable ideals that are established by Stover within the novel.

From beginning to end ‘Blade of Tyshalle’ reaffirms it’s rightful status as one of the most creative, and imaginative efforts in speculative fiction. His impact is somewhat similar to perhaps my favorite current author, China Mieville, but does so in a different matter. Mieville’s work entrances and puts on a display of ideas and imagery I haven’t thought of before and shows me the possibility of the ideas and imagination itself, where Stover invokes the same powers of imagination but through means that are right in front of our face and admire because it is new to us due to the safety in our deniability. It’s a novel that deserves much more accolades than it has received; even by it’s loyal (and admittedly rambunctious) fan base.

‘Blade of Tyshalle’ is highly recommended and a immidiate purchase. Go and buy it now, do not rely on luck and happening on it at your local unstocked store, as Stover points out "Luck is the word the ignorant use to define their ignorance"

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Review #1: Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Stover.}

Bodhisattva Review: 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' by Walter J. Miller Jr.

2005-09-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

Title: 'A Canticle for Leibowitz’
Pages: 368
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicholson/Contemporary Fiction (1961)
Series/Related Titles: Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (1997)

Walter M. Miller Jr’s 'A Canticle for Leibowitz’ was one of the first books I picked up when starting my personal quest to catch up and immerse myself in Science Fiction, as I had always known my Science Fiction knowledge was although perhaps more than adequate by most standards was severely lacking in my opinion compared to how much I had read in Fantasy. Anyway I’m going to be repeating my intro for my back 99 list that rounds at my former 101 list so let me go straight to the review. ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’ is widely considered a classic (which admittedly means absolutely nothing in many instances), but more importantly came highly recommended by opinions I trust. I have found however through my reading, that the critique and practice of canonization in regards to Science Fiction novels seems much more aptly bestowed in comparison to Fantasy where it seems (and is) numerous titles are labeled with accolades that are at the very least questionable, and often times preposterous.

"How can a great and wise civilization have destroyed itself so
completely?"

"Perhaps by being materially great and materially wise and nothing
else."

‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’ was written in 1959, and it should be noted that it’s original form was that of 3 novellas takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth setting, predicated by a nuclear holocaust (referred to as the Flame Deluge) that Miller suggest occurs in the 60’s of the same century. The novel is told in 3 segments each taking place farther in the future than the prior, and the first ’Fiat Homo’ several hundred years in our future, however, from a technological sense it more parallels our Dark Ages. After the holocaust the majority of survivors blamed people possessed specialized knowledge, or any learned knowledge at all and in a momentous fervent movement fed by admittedly questionable common sense and a tremendous amount of spite and practiced in what is basically a reenactment of the Spanish Inquisition (with equal zeal if not the supposed spiritual cause), hunting down and executing scientists, engineers, etc that the luddite populace blamed for the fall of civilization and for their personal plights. This movement is called “The Great Simplification”. In all three segments the Church is the resident to monks; men of antiquary, who live monastic lives preserving memorized knowledge and duplicating them in a time that such actions are more tolerable to the population. I will briefly touch on the contents of the 3 segments then touch on the novel as a whole.

In ‘Fiat Homo’ (I always wondered when those Latin courses would serve a purpose; “Let there be man”) we meet one such man, Brother Francis Gerard, a faint hearted man, who as part of his vocation is in the desert (Utah) fasting for 40 days Lent. He will meet an old man that he knows not whether is an apparition, a rare traveling pilgrim, or perhaps Leibowitz himself? After practicing his aim in rock throwing at Francis, the old man help’s him unlock the hiding place of a former bomb shelter dating back to the pre-holocaust days that will contain manual and documents that belong to Leibowitz, a man for whom the abbey that Brother Francis is part of is dedicated to who is close (if not exactly impending) to being canonized as a Saint. The dated evidence Francis finds proves to be instrumental in ending some lingering doubts of Leibowitz’s nomination for Saint Hood. Leibowitz was man from the time of the Flame Deluge, and one of those executed in the aforementioned aftermath, and revered by abbey for his dedication to knowledge. This first section is lighter in tone to the subsequent segments, and offers some moments of ironic comedy, Francis visiting the Papal Seat of power New Rome, and the first appearance of the what is the only recurring character between any of the segments, the aforementioned old man, who because of his constant presence or not is the most intriguing character in the novel for me, and in SF for that matter (more on him later).

The second segment ‘Fiat Lux’ (“Let there be light”; which is related to the original novella title ‘And the Light is Risen’) picks up several hundred years after the end of ‘Fiat Homo’. Here we see the beginning of scientific curiosity some segments of society, we will see the first rudimentary lamp made. We see the first steps of science the pursuit of it becoming more important and take more precedence to some groups than other ideals. We meet a man who is noted as somewhat of prodigy as a thinker Thon Taddeo, in a time that a schism is caused by a Empire desiring expansion and autonomy from the Church, and a single superpowers is born Texarkana (damn Texans). I really like the dialog in this section between Taddeo and the presiding Abbot of the Monastery of the time, Dom Paulo, concerning society/religion/science. Again we see the old man dismissing perhaps the most enlightened man of the time (Taddeo) “it’s still not him” as he gives a lecture to the abbey, a telling statement. We also are introduced to a one eyed Poet whose an extremely thoughtful character, whose verbal confrontation of Taddeo offers some of the most thoughtful dialog in the novel; a novel rich in such passages.

The final segment entitled 'Fiat Voluntas Tua’ (“Thy will be done”) takes place several hundred years after ‘Fiat Lux’, and civilization has now passed the levels of technology that surpasses the period before the Flame Deluge. Continuing the prevailing theme that history does repeat itself the world is a volatile place full of political tension and war seems imminent. This chapter touches on many subjects such as euthanasia, suicide and the value of life. The abbot of the time, Father Zerchi, prepares for the end of the world, and while doing so tries to save a single life, has a philosophical discussion with a member of a organization who “humanely kill” those that infected with radiation at mercy camps, the monks picket these camps with signs proclaiming a Dante inspired warning:

"Abandon Every Hope Ye Who Enter Here"

Zerchi takes steps to insure the Church’s survival and that of the documents found by Bacon in the first segment. We also see a very intriguing and rather brilliant instance at the end of the novel of the only female character in the novel (which was puzzling to me as I read the novel), and Zerchi’s and perhaps mankind’s final understanding and realization

My impression of ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’ is one of profound admiration. A well-written, social commentary examining religion and knowledge the effects it has on mortality concerning both each individual and society as a whole. All 3 segments were separate yet extremely enjoyable when noticing the ways Miller connected them, while often making the well known fact that some knowledge is lost over time, and the myths that sometimes we take for religious canon are incomplete and skewed from the original versions. The novel is not dense and very accessible for readers who may avoid Sci-fi novels fearing dense passages and overly exhaustive uses of description regarding technological issues; yet at the same time the statements and symbolism in the dialog are profound, especially if your gifted with a small amount knowledge regarding Latin, and have some knowledge of passages from literature (The Bible mostly). The choice of even the name of Leibowitz, as being the Saint is a nice stroke. The old man I was referring to, obviously a reference to the Wandering Jew, who in Christian mythology is told by Jesus "go on forever till I return". The character is absolutely a stroke of genius. The novel probably is the best mix of accesibility on the surface and incredible peripheral symbolic meaning, often characterized by a couple of words in Latin, or choice biblical scripture.

Reading up on Miller I found that he is man who has always struggled with his own faith, and in 1997 he commited suicide. I knew this before I read the novel and that's why a line ending a chapter in 'Fiat Lux' struck me:

"Those who stayed behind had the easier part. Theirs was but to waitfor the end and pray that it would not come"

‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’ is an incredible legacy, and well deserving of the the words commonly associated with like “classic” and “timeless”. It is a rare novel that it seems almost impossible not to enjoy and lives up to its reputation as a masterpiece of speculative fiction, and recommended to all that have taste that any value can be attributed to. It’s a true classic not of science fiction, but of speculative fiction, and can in my opinion be appreciated by astute fans of any subgenre.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bohisattva Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Review #2: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.}

Bodhisattva Review: 'Revelation Space' by Alastair Reynolds

2005-09-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Title: Revelation Space
Pages: 480
Publisher: Ace 2001
Series/Related titles: Chasm City (2002) Redemption Ark (2003), Absolution Gap (2004), Diamond Dogs, Turquoise (2 novella's 2003)

Revelation Space is my first time being exposed to Alastair Reynolds, and his full length novel debut. As such, it comes with the flaws or characteristics we would normally associate with a first novel. What is not as common; as we Science Fiction fans (or Speculative Fiction as a whole) fans can attest to, is that within the pages of Revelation Space there is enough sign of effacious, and compelling writing and ideas to warrant a desire to look into subsequent works by the author (reading Chasm City now).

In the beginning portions of Revelation Space, the theme is one of alternation. Reynolds starts off with 3 POV's, all in different locales, and within these POV's we will also experience shifts in time which the reader will do well to in the headers of the chapters, so not to get the where and when mixed up. Due to these elements at the novels start, I have seen some describe novel in a negative sense as disjointed, a notion I disagree with it - it is, however, annoying. I didn't find it difficult in the least to comprehend what was going on, nor was I in the least bit in danger of getting "lost". In fact, I truly appreciated this portion of the novel as later in the storyline the 3 POV characters share essentially the same setting, thus the beginning of the novel affords the reader more diversity, in both examples of description, and of character development based not on what will become later in the novel the central-shared experience, which although is interesting, at times doesn't justify or warrant such attention - it just felt a little excessive in my latter reading.

The 3 POV characters are Dan Sylveste, Ana Khouri, and Ilya Volyova. Sylveste, whose life work as an archaeologist, is centered on the study of the Amarantin, a mysterious avarian species, who once inhabited the planet he and a community of humans do currently, Resurgam. Sylveste's specific interest in the Amarantin is the study of the species' last days, brought on by what is termed "Event". Even with the other aforementioned POV's who get ample time, Sylveste is the chief character of the novel, and it would be a drastic understatement to describe Sylveste as merely passionate about his goals; it would still be such, to say he was relentlessly tenacious, and resolute in his adamant, manoaniacal, quest to unravel the mystery.

Meanwhile, Ana Khouri, a former soldier with a rising reputation as an assassin, receives a Brando like offer. The early chapters with Khouri are among the ones I enjoyed the most, as through her we get a glimpse of the backdrop of Chasm City, and although Reynolds show a habit of untimely overloads with information concerning significant plot points that effected the novels pacing - just as many times, however, Reynolds exhibited admirable descriptive ability:

"Once those skyscrapers had looked linear and symmetrical, until the plague made them grow madly, sprouting bulbous protrusions and tangled, leprous appendages. The buildings were all dead now, frozen into the shapes which seemed calculated to induce disquiet. Slums adhered to their sides, lower levels lost in a scaffolded maze of shanty towns and ramshackle bazaars, aglow with naked fires".

Admittedly, nobody is going to mistake the passage for a description of some segment of New Crobuzon, but it's not dilettantish either. Albeit too brief, I also enjoyed the look into a part of the society of Chasm City we are privy to. As mentioned, Khouri is an assassin in a city where it's none to uncommon to get contracted by the proposed victim themselves, and where a large number of the wealthy continually slept in cryocrypts, waiting for a more fashionably appealing time to wake and continue there life, I was quite pleased to find out another work by Reynolds was called Chasm City , as its description peaked my interest. Khouri infiltrates a lighthugger (spaceship), The Infinity, under the guise guised as someone looking for potential work to fulfill a mission, and in doing so hopes to restore a lost love and her past..

The third character is Volyova, an ultra, who along with being one of the three ranking members of a ship, is essentially the Infinity's (the ship) weaponsmaster, which is nothing to scoff at as the Infinity's armaments include thousands of weapons many of which are more then capable of wiping out planets; that said some of the more powerful ones have not even been tested. Ultra's are humans who revel in self-enhancements, whether blatant in nature regards, or unseen, Ultra's have become quite a bit more then what other humans have ascended to. The Infinity's command crew (including Volyova) is called the Triumvir, currently being led by Sajaki, one of the most maddening characters in Revelation Space, because there are moments one would think this is the character that will give the story the extra edge, by either direct action or offer some revelation, but we have to settle for what in reality can be described as a series of wonderful cameo appearances.

"A figure stood there, majestically silhouetted in the glare. The man was garbed in a black anklelength cloak and a vaguely defined helmet, the light making it resemble a halo cast around his head. His profile was split diagonally by a long smooth stick which he gripped two-handedly"

"The Komuso stepped into the darkness. What looked like a kendo stick was only his shakuhachi; a traditional music instrument. With well-rehearsed rapidity he slid the thing into a sheath concealed behind the folds of his cloak. Then with imperial slowness, he removed the wicker helmet. The Komuso's face was difficult to make out. His hair was brillaintined, slickly tied back in a scythe-shaped tail. His eyes were lost behind sleek assassin's goggles, infared sensitive facets dully catching the room's tinted light".

Sajaki is in command due to the Captain of the ship being infected by a particularly nasty virus that is actively melding him with the ship, a terminal process slowed down by freezing, yet not stopped. The Triumvir are searching the galaxy for the man that helped their captain before, the only man that has the means to do so...Sylveste.

It's really not a lacking premise, and Reynolds ties plotlines together between the POV"s quite well, although the hint of being contrived in some cases is present. After reading Revelation Space, I came away mindful of a lot of flaws: an abundance of peripheral characters who truly served no viable, story enhancing purpose, the dialog at times leaves something to be desired, often used as the vehicle for the aforementioned info dumps, and lastly, something that is usually a death blow, not only to any chance of me not condemning an author and my ability to enjoy a novel, or more aptly future novels by an author, Reynolds has a irritating and recurring habit of gifting his characters with "revelations' regarding plot circumstances that he doesn't feel inclined to privy the reader with simultaneously, forcing the reader to wait until the character announces it. (often times in one of the mentioned info dumps). Used sparingly it is an effective literary tool - but in Revelation Space it is too standard. All that withstanding, and I might add surprisingly so, I still came away with overall positive opinion of the novel, and more than a mild interest to read Reynold's other work.

Reading the cover flap will reveal that Alastair Reynolds has a PHD in Astronomy, and although Reynolds goes into wonderful detail about the history of civilization in the universe, and has just enough technical language and invention to please fans of hard science fiction, Revelation Space is still accessible by most readers, not swaying from its Space Opera basis, yet at the same time offering characters that are not polarized in their nature, and reduced to extreme examples of archetypes. That said the characterization isn't ideal, but it is more then adequate. Reynolds has some ideas which are just truly imaginative, populating the universe with concepts like Lascaille's Shroud, a impenetrable boundary, of unknown origin and purpose that drives intruders mad if not simply killing them, named after the one man who had returned alive. The Pattern Jugglers, an aquatic species (literally), who if you swim in the oceans of their home planet, and depending on what your are focusing on in your mind can modify your minds, amplifying some abilities. Reynolds also gives us a provocative answer why intelligent civilizations aren't as numerous as perhaps they should be. One of the aspects that makes Sylveste interesting is his "beta copy" of his father he has access to, and calls upon for advice at times, which in itself provides for some engaging conversation as although there is a level of mutual respect between them, the father and son relationship is not always the most civil. Another mystery, the sentient intruder aboard the Infinity, whose named was found both from archeological studies of Sylveste, and scribed amongst the possessions of a possessed madman Volyova was forced to kill.

As mentioned, Revelation Space despite its flaws, offered more than enough evidence of competency as a debut novel, and some instances of an intriguing imagination to extend my reading of Mr. Reynold's work to at least one more book. An opinion that has been proven to be a correct one, as I wrap up my reading of his next work Chasm City , a novel that improves upon, at least in some degree all the elements that I felt were lacking, or needed tuning up in Revelation Space.

Definitely a recommendable effort into a sometimes unjustly (certainly not all the time however) much maligned sub-genre; Reynold's work along with a few other relatively current works by authors like John C. Wright, Peter F. Hamilton, Charles Stross, David Brinn, Brian Aldiss and Ian Banks, not only already bringing irrefutable respectability to Space Opera's again, but threaten in some cases (Banks) to set benchmarks of their own.

Revelation Space, is worth a strong look, as is Reynolds, not flawless by any means, but promising and oddly compelling, despite its flaws.

Jay
The Bodhisattva

_{Bohisattva Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Review #3: Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds}

The Manifesto

2005-09-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

This is just the manifesto of what The Bodhisattva is intended for. First and foremost, I am a avid reader of speculative fiction, including Fantasy, Science Fiction, and works of Horror. I will use this blog to offer my thoughts on the genre news, and happening, and books I read. It is however my personal journal as well, thus it will include any other thing I want, which I don't apolgozie for.

What defines work in some of subgenres is often a topic of debate there is also present, many schools of thought regarding the gerne, as can be shown by the various, and numerous movements among authors, and even among the fanbase themselves. So in esesnce this will be an always expanding posts of various quotes I see that mirror my own thoughts, and are just interesting.

To begin with, I have to quote Theodore Sturgeon. His revelation, which became Sturgeon's Law, which at first stated "'Nothing is always absolutely so", was extended in this proclamation:

"I repeat Sturgeon's Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty
years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of sf is crud."The Revelation: Ninety percent of everything is crud.

"Corallary 1: The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and if is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere.

"Corallary 2: The best science fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field." - Theodore Sturgeon

"What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish". - Thomas Wolfe

"The multitude of books is making us ignorant". - Voltaire

"I don't have a sense of a so-called ideal reader and certainly not of a readership, that terrific entity. I write for the page". -Don DeLillo

"Our society and our literature and our culture are being dumbed down, and the causes are very complex. I'm 73 years old. In a lifetime of teaching English, I've seen the study of literature debased. There's very little authentic study of the humanities remaining. My research assistant came to me two years ago saying she'd been in a seminar in which the teacher spent two hours saying that Walt Whitman was a racist. This isn't even good nonsense. It's insufferable." - Harold Bloom

"I have always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library". - Jorge Luis Borges

"Don't say the old lady screamed -- bring her on and let her scream". - Mark Twain

"Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them". - Flannery O'Connor

"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it". - Leo Rosten

"I don't mind someone telling me that they think a book is shallow if they can substantiate that argument by pointing out its flaws. But they have to read the book at a certain fucking level to be able to tell me that those flaws are real flaws and not just the blind spot caused in this particular reader by the crayon jammed up their nostril and pressing into their forebrain. If it just comes down to me saying this book is gnarly and interesting for X, Y and Z reasons, and the answer is that I'm "reading too much into it", well then, mes amigos, that's the answer of a mindless dweeb who projects their own intellectual inadequacies onto others, plastering over their own lazy vapidity with a self-serving delusion that nothing is really beyond their understanding, and if it appears to be so why then that must be an illusion. And I say unto them, brothers and sisters:

You are the weakest link. Goodbye" - Hal Duncan

"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters". - Frank Lloyd Wright

"The commercial genre which has developed from Tolkien is probably the most dismaying effect of all. I grew up in a world where Joyce was considered to be the best Anglophone writer of the 20th century. I happen to believe that Faulkner is better, while others would pick Conrad, say. Thomas Mann is an exemplary giant of moral, mythic fiction. But to introduce Tolkien's fantasy into such a debate is a sad comment on our standards and our ambitions. Is it a sign of our dumber times that Lord of the Rings can replace Ulysses as the exemplary book of its century? Some of the writers who most slavishly imitate him seem to be using English as a rather inexpertly-learned second language. So many of them are unbelievably bad that they defy description and are scarcely worth listing individually. Terry Pratchett once remarked that all his readers were called Kevin. He is lucky in that he appears to be the only Terry in
fantasy land who is able to write a decent complex sentence. That such writersalso depend upon recycling the plots of their literary superiors and are rewarded for this bland repetition isn't surprising in a world of sensation movies and manufactured pop bands. That they are rewarded with the lavishlifestyles of the most successful whores is also unsurprising. To pretend that this addictive cabbage is anything more than the worst sort of pulp historical romance or western is, however, a depressing sign of our intellectual decline and our free-falling academic standards." - Michael Moorcock

"The "golden age" of Campbellian science fiction is one of the worst things that ever happened to the genre. It's right up there with Star Trek and Star Wars as a cataclysm, its after-effects still causing pervasive damage, killing off transgressive fictioneers with sneers of demented nostalgia. In the resulting post-apocalyptic landscape, Campbellian SF rules despotically as the exemplar against which all new SF must be measured." - Claude Lalumière

"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say". - Italo Calvino

"The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation". - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"I love fantasy because the world is a place of great beauty and horror, and fantasy is the only way I can fully express what I know about this contradiction. Fantasy, and world-building, then, is not escapist for me--or, I imagine, for other world creators. Instead, it's about realistic people. It's about the fact that this place we live in is full of unexpected marvels and things that are strange and alien even if we don't always realize it". - Jeff VanderMeer

"I write for the same reason I breathe -- because if I didn't, I would die". - Isaac Asimov

"A corollary (supply-side this time) can be found in the current state of fantasy: bad fantasy drives out good. Writers aren't stupid. They can see what sells. Derivative hacks get the large contracts, promotions and pushes for their series work, while truly original, ground-breaking, stand-alone novels either languish in obscurity or don't get published at all. It's a rare writer that's strong enough to swim against such tides. Many stop writing fantasy altogether, while weaker writers (or those with bills to pay) give in and join the herd. Never underestimate the power of avoiding a day job." - Lawrence Person

"Fantasy writing is no more inherently inessential than any other variety, and no more inherently escapist, either. What makes writing escapist is not a matter of whether or not it involves magic but whether or not it involves something meaningful. Fantasy writing is if anything increasingly relevant because it involves building and representing the whole world, fantasy worlds, sci-fi worlds, hidden gnostic horror worlds. This proliferation of worlds seems to me to be bound up with the extent to which the world has become immersed in trademarked representation." -Michael Cisco

"I think it's undignified to read for the purposes of escape. After you grow up, you should start reading for other purposes. You should have a more complicated relationship with fiction than simple entrancement. If you read for escape you will never try to change your life, or anyone else's. It's a politically barren act, if nothing else. The overuse of imaginative fiction enables people to avoid the knowledge that they are actually alive." - M. John Harrison

"Real seriousness in regard to writing is one of two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent".- Ernest Hemingway

"So why is SFF as a literary genre doomed to failure? Quite simply, it’s the Fans. If you’ve been to a convention lately, you’ve seen it. Fandom runs amok; but it’s the wrong kind of fandom. The majority of convention goers could give a shit about literary SFF. They’re out to claim allegiance to whatever skiffy project has caught their fancies, be it Star Trek, Star Wars, Farscape or what-have-you. Fandom has evolved so radically, most SFF writers, editors and publishers can’t even comprehend them, much less appeal to them. " - Gabe Chouinard

"Our Sci-Fi slut mother is a crack whore who gives blowjobs for ten dollars a pop. That’s what genre fiction does. That’s what pulp fiction does. It gets down on its knees, unzips your fly and uses all the sensual skills of its slick tongue to give you a few minutes of loveless but ecstatic pleasure". - Hal Duncan

"Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood". - Friedrich Nietzsche

"In with that leaden and literal style so perfectly abhorrent to the literary book buyer. The golden mean of an SF jacket since 1976 looks, well, exactly like the original poster for Star Wars. Men of the future were once again thinking with their swords - excuse me, light sabers. This passive sellout would make more sense if the typical writer of literary SF had actually made any money out of it. Instead, the act is still too often rewarded with wages resembling those of a poet, an untenured poet, that is. " - Jonathan Lethem

"But given that the pleasure of fantasy is supposed to be in its limitless creativity, why not try to come up with some different themes, as well as unconventional monsters? Why not use fantasy to challenge social and aesthetic lies?" - China Mieville

"Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers." - T. S. Eliot

"What’s most striking about these authors is that I can identify each one simply by reading a piece of their fiction without their name attached to it. This is a little like being blindfolded and knowing the sound of your mother’s voice, or the way your father coughs. No one else laughs like your best friend does. You can pick her laughter out of a room full of laughing strangers.

But I can’t really tell the difference between some writers and others. These are the writers whose sentences are very sturdy, very normal, very efficient and emotionally safe. These are the writers who make competent narratives that are easily forgettable. I’d name a few, but I’ve already forgotten them". - Chris Barzak

"Too many writers and readers prefer their literature spoon-fed to them, in portions similar to the last, with the same smells and colors, served to them on the same worn dishes, and accompanied by the same polite conversation" - Jeff VanderMeer

"Write a novel if you must, but think of money as an unlikely accident. Get your reward out of writing it, and try to be content with that". - Pearl S. Buck

"The sad fact is, we cannot ignore commercial genre work. Some people would like to; they maintain that they are not affected by the cookie-cutter blobberies that others call 'novels'. I envy their views. Ignorance is, after all, bliss. I cannot see it that way; every time I try to look past commercial genre work, my view is blocked by an appalling stack of Terry Goodkind novels roughly the size (and weight) of Mt. McKinley. They say you can't see the forest for the trees; well, you can't see around a stack of Goodkind novels either.

Commercial genre work is the antithesis of true speculative fiction. It is the shadow of Moby Dick floating beneath the waters, ready to swallow the industry like so much plankton." - Gabe Chouinard

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." - Mark Twain

_{Bodhisattva Science Fiction & Fantasy Reviews and Interviews}