Monday Morning Book-y Stuff

Charlie Huston writes hardboiled crime, vampire noir, and apparently some superhero comics too. I like the crime, and I even enjoyed the vampire noir–despite my general emargo on any vampire-related fictionThere are, of course, exceptions for very high quality writing, like Fevre Dream, Agyar, or Blindsight. Just keep away Rice, Hamilton, and their kind please. or so. I just found out he has a blog, and was interested to read this post on starting out with hardcovers, getting “sent down” to trade paper, and then climbing back up to hardcover again.

China Miéville, writer in the New Weird and raging SocialistNote: I am Canadian, so “raging Socialist” is a compliment, not a pejorative term., has a new YA book coming out. Un Lun Dun is a “magic city behind the real city” book–I’ve got probably a dozen books that work that conceit here, but I’m still looking forward to reading this one. It will be a little while before I get to read it since I’ve ordered a signed copy from The Signed Page, and the signing isn’t until next month. Here’s a short clip from Meet The Author of Miéville introducing the book.

I’ve been reading a lot of Robert Silverberg short stories lately, with the three recent collections I’ve picked up. This has me feeling even more warmly towards Silverberg than I generally do (and bear in mind that one of the few novels I have reread a lot of times is a Silverberg). But reading him sing the praises of Jack Vance in his Relections column this month is winning him even more points. Is there anything better than reading a brilliant writer writing passionately about another favourite?

Over six decades it has lost nothing for me; gained in power, perhaps. The characters are sharply delineated. Each section sets forth a challenging plot problem and ingeniously resolves it. Its prose is measured, taut, controlled, mesmeric. One reads carefully, trying not to let the imperatives of the plots rush one forward, because one is fearful of skimming past some passage of wondrous beauty. And the reward is the vision of a complete world of the imagination, irresistible, unforgettable.

You know, not ponying up for that Vance Integral Edition when I had the chance is a decision that absolutely haunts me.