December 27, 2015 Holiday Reading Christmas is behind you. The detritus of wrapping paper, bows, packing material, and boxes has been disposed of. The refrigerator is stuffed with leftovers. You hope to make enough room for party platters and bottles of champagne within a few days. The presents of clothing are washed, folded, and put… Continue reading Holiday Reading Resurrected Post.
Category: Reading
Connubial Characters. Resurrected Post.
December 13, 2015 Connubial Characters I’ve been thinking about weddings and marriage recently. And, since I’m me, about fiction. Specifically speculative fiction, i.e., fantasy and science fiction. Now dramatic narrative, even in speculative fiction, often leads to a wedding between characters. But it seems that characters — main characters, at least — seldom begin a… Continue reading Connubial Characters. Resurrected Post.
“Heroic Fantasy” Earns Its Title.
I finally got my hands on a copy of the anthology Heroic Fantasy. That’s a good cover, isn’t it? There’s a story in that illustration that I’d like to read someday. The introduction was…adequate. After reading so many Sword-and-Sorcery anthologies I’ve discovered the intros tend to cover the same ground. This one adds little or… Continue reading “Heroic Fantasy” Earns Its Title.
Books, Head-to-Head. Resurrected Post.
July 19, 2015 Books, Head-to-Head I have a couple of books on my mind. I just finished Live Free or Die by John Ringo. I’m about two-thirds of the way through Redshirts by John Scalzi. Two science fiction novels with a humorous bent. A side-by-side comparison isn’t entirely unwarranted, right? As noted, I haven’t quite… Continue reading Books, Head-to-Head. Resurrected Post.
Currently in the Book Chute. Resurrected Post.
April 19, 2015 Currently in the Book Chute I am usually reading three or four books at any given point, all at varying points of completion. Call it the book chute. There are books upstream, queuing up to enter the chute, and there are others just emerging from the chute, freshly read. So here’s a… Continue reading Currently in the Book Chute. Resurrected Post.
Dune: The Spice Still Flows. Resurrected Post.
April 5, 2015 Dune: The Spice Still Flows Is there a work of science fiction that acts as the standard-bearer for the entire genre, the way “The Lord of the Rings” does for fantasy? I’m not sure. The field is crowded with worthy candidates. But I’d nominate Frank Herbert’s “Dune.” It is a sprawling, glorious… Continue reading Dune: The Spice Still Flows. Resurrected Post.
Elmore Leonard, An Appreciation. Resurrected Post.
December 21, 2014 Elmore Leonard, An Appreciation So you’re asking, “Ken, what the hell? Elmore Leonard didn’t write science fiction or fantasy. What’s a post about him doing on your web log?” To which I say, “Huh?” and proceed to otherwise ignore the question. It is true that – to the best of my knowledge… Continue reading Elmore Leonard, An Appreciation. Resurrected Post.
Heard Any Good Stories Lately?
The Pirate of World’s End: The Returns Diminish
And so we come to The Pirate of World’s End, the fifth book in Lin Carter’s self-described Gondwane Epic. I stand by my previous comments on the books. There was a playful vibrancy about the everything-and-the-kitchen sink gonzo fantasy at first. Yet as I read this fifth volume, I was reminded of a couple of… Continue reading The Pirate of World’s End: The Returns Diminish