{"id":812,"date":"2007-02-12T13:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-12T17:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/12\/monday-morning-book-y-stuff\/"},"modified":"2007-02-12T13:07:47","modified_gmt":"2007-02-12T17:07:47","slug":"monday-morning-book-y-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/12\/monday-morning-book-y-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Morning Book-y Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2007\/02\/CharlieHuston_crop.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"210\" alt=\"Charlie Huston\" title=\"Charlie Huston\" class=\"alignright\"\/><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charlie_Huston\">Charlie Huston<\/a> writes hardboiled crime, vampire noir, and apparently some superhero comics too. I like the crime, and I even enjoyed the vampire noir&#8211;despite my general emargo on any vampire-related fiction<footnote>There are, of course, exceptions for very high quality writing, like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Fevre-Dream-George-R-R-Martin\/dp\/0553383051\">Fevre Dream<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/dreamcafe.com\/books.html#Agyar\">Agyar<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/blindsight\/BS_main.htm\">Blindsight<\/a>. Just keep away Rice, Hamilton, and their kind please.<\/footnote> or so. I just found out he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pulpnoir.com\">has a blog<\/a>, and was interested to read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pulpnoir.com\/?p=91\">this post<\/a> on starting out with hardcovers, getting &#8220;sent down&#8221; to trade paper, and then climbing back up to hardcover again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"clear: both;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-content\/divider.gif\" alt=\"divider\" title=\"divider\" class=\"centered\" height=\"20\" width=\"253\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2007\/02\/mieville_large.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" alt=\"China Mi&eacute;ville\" title=\"China Mi&eacute;ville\" class=\"alignleft\"\/><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/China_Mi%C3%A9ville\">China Mi&eacute;ville<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/King_Rat_%281998_novel%29\">writer in<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Perdido_Street_Station\">the New<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Scar\">Weird<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialistreview.org.uk\/article.php?articlenumber=9915\">raging Socialist<\/a><footnote>Note: I am Canadian, so &#8220;raging Socialist&#8221; is a <em>compliment<\/em>, not a pejorative term.<\/footnote>, has a new YA book coming out. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Un_Lun_Dun\">Un Lun Dun<\/a> is a &#8220;magic city behind the real city&#8221; book&#8211;I&#8217;ve got probably a dozen books that work that conceit here, but I&#8217;m still looking forward to reading this one. It will be a little while before I get to read it since I&#8217;ve ordered <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signedpage.com\/authors\/mieville-un.html\">a signed copy<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signedpage.com\/\">The Signed Page<\/a>, and the signing isn&#8217;t until next month. Here&#8217;s a short clip from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.meettheauthor.com\/\">Meet The Author<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/dl.groovygecko.net\/anon.groovy\/clients\/meettheauthor\/1371.m4v\">Mi&eacute;ville introducing the book<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"clear: both;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-content\/divider.gif\" alt=\"divider\" title=\"divider\" class=\"centered\" height=\"20\" width=\"253\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2007\/02\/Silverb.JPG\" width=\"164\" height=\"225\" alt=\"Robert Silverberg\" title=\"Robert Silverberg\" class=\"alignright\"\/>I&#8217;ve been reading a lot of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.majipoor.com\/\">Robert Silverberg<\/a> short stories lately, with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.subterraneanpress.com\/Merchant2\/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&#038;Product_Code=silver&#038;Category_Code=OP&#038;Product_Count=131\">three<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.subterraneanpress.com\/Merchant2\/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&#038;Product_Code=silver02&#038;Category_Code=B&#038;Product_Count=85\">recent<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.subterraneanpress.com\/Merchant2\/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&#038;Product_Code=silver03&#038;Category_Code=B&#038;Product_Count=86\">collections<\/a> I&#8217;ve picked up. This has me feeling even more warmly towards <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Silverberg\">Silverberg<\/a> than I generally do (and bear in mind that one of the few novels I have reread <em>a lot of times<\/em> is a Silverberg). But reading him sing the praises of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jackvance.com\/\">Jack Vance<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asimovs.com\/_issue_0702\/ref.shtml\">his Relections column this month<\/a> is winning him even more points. Is there anything better than reading a brilliant writer writing passionately about another favourite?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You know, not ponying up for that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanceintegral.com\/\">Vance Integral Edition<\/a> when I had the chance is a decision that absolutely haunts me.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2007\/02\/200px-Jack_Vance_Boat_Skipper.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"275\" alt=\"Jack Vance\" title=\"Jack Vance\" class=\"aligncenter\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">Charlie Huston writes hardboiled crime, vampire noir, and apparently some superhero comics too. I like the crime, and I even enjoyed the vampire noir&#8211;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&hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/12\/monday-morning-book-y-stuff\/\">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":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5UQvw-d6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","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=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}