The Summer Solstice is upon us. As is Father’s Day. And we’re closing in on the 250th Independence Day, here in the rebellious colonies (and later additions.) So, huzzah. As I watch my savings dwindle and the job application rejections mount (most recently I learned that the ten year experience requirement was a hard cap… Continue reading Happy Father’s Day
Category: Reading
ERB’s The Mad King
Re-reading rolls on. I just finished Edgar Rice Burrough’s The Mad King for the second time. If you’ve read Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda (or any of the other entries in the Ruritanian Romance genre) you have a pretty good idea of what ERB is dishing up in Mad King. Now, this is ERB.… Continue reading ERB’s The Mad King
The Texas-Israeli War: 1999. Another Fun Swing and Miss from the 70s.
Back to the re-reads. Damnation Alley (the film adaptation) came out in 1977. Mad Max was released in 1979. Escape from New York in 1981. The not-quite-apocalyptic collapse of civilization enjoyed a vogue. Not all post-apocalyptic stories took place thousands of years later after survivors mutated and began to rebuild. One example is 1974’s The… Continue reading The Texas-Israeli War: 1999. Another Fun Swing and Miss from the 70s.
David Drake Welcomes You to The Jungle.
The re-reading took a short hiatus because someone gifted me a book. That in itself was pleasant. Even better was that the book in question was written by David Drake. The Jungle is, unsurprisingly from Drake, a work of military science fiction. What is a trifle unexpected is that the setting is not original to… Continue reading David Drake Welcomes You to The Jungle.
Eyas. Scope and Revelations
The re-readings continue. The condition of my copy of Crawford Kilian’s Eyas reveals that I read it numerous times. With a copyright of 1982, I most likely picked it up in one of the three (!) bookstores in Clackamas Town Center mall. I certainly liked it well enough to re-read three or four times, judging… Continue reading Eyas. Scope and Revelations
“A Tapestry of Magics” Weaves Its Spell
The re-reading continues, and will do so until such a time as I can again find gainful employment that will justify expenditure on new books. And that’s fine (the re-reading, that is, not my current impecunious state) since I have a library worth re-reading. Today I finished Brian Daley’s A Tapestry of Magics. The book… Continue reading “A Tapestry of Magics” Weaves Its Spell
The Hereafter Gang. Doing the Limbo Rock.
I just finished re-reading Neal Barrett, Jr.’s The Hereafter Gang. It’s probably been twenty years or more since I first read it and I wanted to see if it held up. Did it? Mostly. It seems my memory of the book was primarily of the last third, the final act. My response this time to… Continue reading The Hereafter Gang. Doing the Limbo Rock.
The Grist of Tim Powers
I have just finished yet another notable novel by the estimable Tim Powers. My thanks to Toni Weisskopf and Baen Books for the gratis copy. Before her annual Baen Road Show at this years ConFinement convention she played Santa Claus, handing out free books to Veterans. Once I saw Tim Power’s name on the cover… Continue reading The Grist of Tim Powers
The Valentine’s Day Post
Confession: I don’t read “romantasy.” Though I did read some Anne Rice novels in the late 80s and early 90s, if that counts. But given that yesterday was Valentine’s Day (digression into my simple V-Day: I took MBW and the HA out for barbeque and gave them both boxes of chocolates) I thought I might… Continue reading The Valentine’s Day Post