{"id":1257,"date":"2008-06-06T23:45:25","date_gmt":"2008-06-07T03:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/?p=1257"},"modified":"2008-07-04T23:22:57","modified_gmt":"2008-07-05T03:22:57","slug":"friday-night-book-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/06\/friday-night-book-links\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Night Book Links"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>I love &#8220;give us an obscure favourite&#8221; pieces. From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.villagevoice.com\/nyclife\/0820,favorite-writers-obscure-books,440816,15.html\">this recent one at the Village Voice<\/a> I can see myself looking for Harold Q. Masur, Dorothy Dunbar, and Don Carpenter. The only guys there I was already familiar with are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ramblehouse.com\/HarryKeeler.htm\">Harry Stephen Keeler<\/a> (much touted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/custom?q=%22Harry+Stephen+Keeler%22&#038;sa=Google+Search&#038;cof=S%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fneilgaiman.com%3BGL%3A0%3BAH%3Aleft%3BBGC%3AWhite%3BLH%3A102%3BL%3A%2Flogo.gif%3BLW%3A760%3BAWFID%3A38b3be9ea2bda883%3B&#038;domains=neilgaiman.com&#038;sitesearch=neilgaiman.com\">a certain popular genre author<\/a>), Amis (who I am generally less impressed with than most people), and of course <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/obit\/findley\/\">Timothy Findley<\/a>. When <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffvandermeer.com\/\">Jeff Vandermeer<\/a> did <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffvandermeer.com\/2008\/06\/04\/literary-evangelism\/\">one of these pieces<\/a>, I got a lot less out of it, because the vast majority of the authors mentioned were ones I was quite familiar with.<\/li>\n<li>I also like <a href=\"http:\/\/therapsheet.blogspot.com\/2008\/05\/from-back-stacks.html\">what the mystery folks are doing<\/a>: reviewing &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/therapsheet.blogspot.com\/2008\/05\/from-back-stacks.html\">forgotten books<\/a>&#8220;&#8211;the ones you loved, but that have slipped away over the years&#8211;on Fridays. It was nice to see <a href=\"http:\/\/therapsheet.blogspot.com\/2008\/05\/book-you-have-to-read-when-sacred.html\">When The Sacred Ginmill Closes<\/a><footnote><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/10\/last-call\/\">Obliquely referenced<\/a> on this site previously.<\/footnote> reviewed, for example. Here&#8217;s the three latest lists, from <a href=\"http:\/\/pattinase.blogspot.com\/2008\/05\/fridays-forgotten-books_23.html\">May 23<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/pattinase.blogspot.com\/2008\/05\/fridays-forgotten-books_29.html\">May 30<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/pattinase.blogspot.com\/2008\/06\/fridays-forgotten-books-june-6-2008.html\">June 6<\/a> so far.\n\t<\/li>\n<li><a name=\"Implied\"><\/a>OK, seriously, I pre-ordered <a href=\"http:\/\/nightshadebooks.com\/cart.php?m=product_detail&#038;p=115\">Implied Spaces<\/a> almost a year ago&#8211;basically at the moment Nightshade opened the doors for preorders. And for the last couple of months I have been <a href=\"http:\/\/scalzi.com\/whatever\/?p=573\">absolutely<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.velcro-city.co.uk\/book-review-implied-spaces-by-walter-jon-williams\/\">inundated<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.curledup.com\/implieds.htm\">with<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nightshadebooks.com\/2008\/06\/02\/more-implied-spaces-reviews\/\">positive<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nightshadebooks.com\/2008\/05\/29\/new-reviews-3\/\">reviews<\/a>&#8211;it feels like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sffworld.com\/brevoff\/449.html\">everyone<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfsignal.com\/archives\/006662.html\">on the Internet<\/a> has already read this book. I would just like the damn thing to be delivered to ME so I can read it now please. It will immediately jump to the top of the queue. (I guess it&#8217;s a good thing if all this exposure gets some more readers for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walterjonwilliams.net\/\">Williams<\/a>, but I didn&#8217;t need to be sold&#8211;I&#8217;ve been on his train since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fantasticfiction.co.uk\/w\/walter-jon-williams\/hardwired.htm\">Hardwired<\/a><footnote>Boy, does that cover look silly now. I wonder if <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nightshadebooks.com\/cart.php?m=product_detail&#038;p=114\">the new one<\/a> will look just as silly in another twenty years?<\/footnote>. Hard to believe that was 22 years ago now&#8211;I think he, just like Snodgrass was someone I found via Wild Cards during my personal &#8220;golden age&#8221;.)<\/li>\n<li><a name=\"Ringo\"><\/a>So, I haven&#8217;t read any <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Ringo\">John Ringo<\/a> books&#8211;they don&#8217;t have any shelf appeal for me, and he hasn&#8217;t been much discussed in the circle of my recommendors. That changed this month, when a couple of eloquently vicious reviews outlined exactly why it is that his work hasn&#8217;t brought him to the attention of my vast network of literary informants. If you haven&#8217;t already read these, they are train-wreck worthy reads. &#8220;<em>Oh John Ringo, no<\/em>&#8221; is now in the vernacular. First read <a href=\"http:\/\/hradzka.livejournal.com\/194753.html\">the one that covers Ringo&#8217;s Paladin of Shadows series<\/a>. Then, if your rubbernecking urge isn&#8217;t satiated, read the one reviewing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfreviews.net\/watchontherhine.html\">the book where he tries to redeem the SS<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Speaking of train wrecks, and the watching thereof, did you see the submission letter <a href=\"http:\/\/www.datlow.com\/\">Ellen Datlow<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/ellen-datlow.livejournal.com\/79875.html\">posted on her journal<\/a> last month? Just in case you don&#8217;t believe it, you can <a href=\"http:\/\/wtffredrick.blogspot.com\/2008\/05\/orgasatron-tale-of-life-and-lust-in.html\">see the source material<\/a> at the&#8230; um&#8230; author&#8217;s site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">I love &#8220;give us an obscure favourite&#8221; pieces. From this recent one at the Village Voice I can see myself looking for Harold Q. Masur, Dorothy Dunbar, and Don Carpenter. The only guys there I was already familiar with are Harry Stephen Keeler (much touted by a certain popular genre author), Amis (who I am generally less impressed with than&hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/06\/friday-night-book-links\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[458,284,286],"class_list":["post-1257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-books","tag-recommended","tag-train-wreck","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5UQvw-kh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}