Friday Night Book Links
- I love “give us an obscure favourite” 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 most people), and of course Timothy Findley. When Jeff Vandermeer did one of these pieces, I got a lot less out of it, because the vast majority of the authors mentioned were ones I was quite familiar with.
- I also like what the mystery folks are doing: reviewing “forgotten books“–the ones you loved, but that have slipped away over the years–on Fridays. It was nice to see When The Sacred Ginmill ClosesObliquely referenced on this site previously. reviewed, for example. Here’s the three latest lists, from May 23, May 30, and June 6 so far.
- OK, seriously, I pre-ordered Implied Spaces almost a year ago–basically at the moment Nightshade opened the doors for preorders. And for the last couple of months I have been absolutely inundated with positive reviews–it feels like everyone on the Internet 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’s a good thing if all this exposure gets some more readers for Williams, but I didn’t need to be sold–I’ve been on his train since HardwiredBoy, does that cover look silly now. I wonder if the new one will look just as silly in another twenty years?. Hard to believe that was 22 years ago now–I think he, just like Snodgrass was someone I found via Wild Cards during my personal “golden age”.)
- So, I haven’t read any John Ringo books–they don’t have any shelf appeal for me, and he hasn’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’t brought him to the attention of my vast network of literary informants. If you haven’t already read these, they are train-wreck worthy reads. “Oh John Ringo, no” is now in the vernacular. First read the one that covers Ringo’s Paladin of Shadows series. Then, if your rubbernecking urge isn’t satiated, read the one reviewing the book where he tries to redeem the SS.
- Speaking of train wrecks, and the watching thereof, did you see the submission letter Ellen Datlow posted on her journal last month? Just in case you don’t believe it, you can see the source material at the… um… author’s site.
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