16 search results for "hal duncan"

An eclectic bit of bookery

It’s been a while since I closed the various “book stuff” tabs, so let’s take a run through those, shall we? I came to this by the Lord Dunsany connection, but I don’t think you need to be on that page at all to enjoy H. E. Gowers’ HASCHISCH HALLUCINATIONS, posted over at the blog of master-designer-and-artist-of-the-eldritch John Coulthart. I’ve… Read more →

Defamyt, blamyt, schamyt

Boy, that Internet is just full of old bollocks and the utterly fascinating isn’t it? And sometimes the one will lead you right to the other. Take, for example, that article in the Telegraph earlier this week about the American professor who claims that rap battles are a Scottish invention. Or, to be more specific: Professor Ferenc Szasz argued that… Read more →

It doesn’t matter if it’s good, it’s still genius.

So, we know that I like Revelations, especially some of the bits at the end, and especially including God’s no-modifications open license. We also know that I like Hal Duncan, and especially when he’s being his most over-the-top flagrantly intellectual. You might not know that I have a sentimental affection for historical surrealists and Burroughs, and thus, by extension for… Read more →

How about a Saturday Bookish Links roundup?

On my last excursion to Boston, while I sadly did not get to do the Readercon thingRound-the-clock meetings suck. Next job I work only in North American time zones–the global economy can go hang., I did get to pick up a couple of more Centipede Press books that I had directed to my US mail drop (a.k.a. “Matt’s house”): a… Read more →

Democracy Quote Of The Day

Hal Duncan speaking about the Stone of Scone: Personally, I think it should be ground up into dust and every single Scot given a piece of it as a sort of democratic fuck-you to mediaeval feudalism. The French had the right idea when it comes to inbred, porphyria-ridden, overblown celebrities. If you want tradition then bring back ritual regicide, I… Read more →

Linkblogging in a storm

Might as well linkblog–can’t dance. I don’t know whether to be amused or disheartened about the whole “25% of Brits think Winston Churchill is fictional” thing. On the one hand, it’s pretty funny. On the other hand, what does it say about the education system that this result is even possible. On still a third hand, it’s not like North… Read more →

Jargon and Communication

Speaking of Scotsmen, let me say that as a general rule I am quite a fan of Hal Duncan’s blog–especially those gigantic blog entries where he intellectually swashbuckles his way through certain philosophical issues with verve and panache, using academic jargon like Mrs. Parker used wit. In particular, I have been intending for a while now to write an appreciation… Read more →

If I Were Nebu-lord

For what it’s worth, if I were picking the winners of the Nebula Awards right now (not the ones I think will win, but rather the ones I thought were the best) from the preliminary ballot the winners, according to my arbitrary and would be: For novel, either Hal Duncan‘s brilliant mess Vellum, or else Peter Watt’s “no, this is… Read more →

Amazon.ca, British Books, What The Hell?

Ever since Amazon.ca opened, I’ve been in a kind of book-buyer’s bliss. The Canadian variant of Amazon has a broader selection than native Chapters, and typically has lower prices–all good stuff. Even better, though, Amazon.ca put me in a position to leverage my special status as a Canadian lover of books: we can get both American and British editions from… Read more →

Small press books, bought and craved (Part 1)

Somedays it feels like a full-time job to keep up with all the interesting new releases from the various small presses, and by the various authors I feel the need to collect. Some other days, though, it’s just like Christmas. Today is one of those days. It started with a new email from Subterranean Press, announcing Ted Chiang‘s forthcoming book… Read more →

Bookish links of the day

Rick Kleffel has really been burning it up over at The Agony Column. There’s been some really top quality stuff there over the last couple of days, including: A lengthy interview with Naomi NovikI think I wanted her to sound like Patrick O’Brian or something. (mp3), A lengthy interview with Charles Stross…who does not sound “Scottish enough” to me. I… Read more →

Closing the book-related tabs

And here we go again… I’ve been reading Jeff’s daily reviews of the books in the Penguin Great Ideas series. While I don’t think I’m interested in trying to read all sixty of them in sixty days (despite Jeff’s examples and the exhortation of the Harvard University Press) I am very impressed with the presentation of the volumes, and have… Read more →

Am I Getting More Childish?

One of two things is true: either my sense of humour is regressing, or the quality of the humour purveyed by Cracked in the Internet age is much improved from the last time I read the print magazine (approximately 21 years ago). I remember Cracked magazine as an inferior reflection of Mad magazine–itself not known for highly intelligent humour (horrible… Read more →

Forthcoming books…

Pal Gwenda points out the online version of Locus’ Forthcoming Books list through next September and asks what we’re lusting after. I’ve gone through the list and tried to pick out the top three each month, where “top three” is defined as “three I am most excited about reading”, which is not necessarily the same thing as “three I am… Read more →

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Chris McLaren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.