Recent Readings (and other literary talk)

[Ancalagon]

Earlier today I finished It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders with John Nichols, 293 pages.

Here is the simple, straightforward reality: The uber-capitalist economic system that has taken hold in the United States in recent years, propelled by uncontrollable greed and contempt for human decency, is not merely unjust. It is grossly immoral. We need to confront that immorality. Boldly. Bluntly. Without apology. It is only then that we can transform a system that is rigged against the vast majority of Americans and is destroying millions of lives. - From the Introduction

I very much enjoyed the book. Bernie covers a wide range of topics in a clear, concise, and no nonsense manner that makes a hell of a lot of sense to me. Highly recommended!

[Necron 99]

Money has always been one of, if not THE, primary root of evil among modern societies, not surprising in the least bit. Like people, capitalism has it's ups and downs, and like most things, is fine in moderation. I'd still prefer it over the alternatives.

I just finished up the book, The Tomb, by Paul F. Wilson, who wrote The Keep. Like The Keep, this one, too, has a supernatural bend to it, this time taking ideas from East Indian mythology. Pretty good read with action, suspense, and mild horror tropes.

Having finished, I started reading the third book in the Adversary Cycle from Wilson, but found the third book to be too dull and predictable, so I just stopped reading. Taking a break from modern fiction, I'm delving back into fantasy with the first book in the series, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, by Tad Williams, The Dragonbone Chair, originally published in 1989. I've heard good things about the book and series, guess I'll see if it holds up.

A war fueled by the powers of dark sorcery is about to engulf the peaceful land of Osten Ard—for Prester John, the High King, lies dying. And with his death, the Storm King, the undead ruler of the elf-like Sithi, seizes the chance to regain his lost realm through a pact with the newly ascended king. Knowing the consequences of this bargain, the king’s younger brother joins with a small, scattered group of scholars, the League of the Scroll, to confront the true danger threatening Osten Ard.

Simon, a kitchen boy from the royal castle unknowingly apprenticed to a member of this League, will be sent on a quest that offers the only hope of salvation, a deadly riddle concerning long-lost swords of power. Compelled by fate and perilous magics, he must leave the only home he’s ever known and face enemies more terrifying than Osten Ard has ever seen, even as the land itself begins to die.

[grodog]

I am nearly done with Christopher Paolini’s _To Sleep in a Sea of Stars_, and have really enjoyed it. Fun SF with a _Hyperion_-meets-_The Jesus Incident_ vibe. Lots of interesting characters, interesting alien cultures and alien communication modes (different from, but analagous to the film _Arrival_), good focus on mostly-hard-science with FTL, etc.

Allan.

[Necron 99]

I am nearly done with Christopher Paolini’s _To Sleep in a Sea of Stars_, and have really enjoyed it. Fun SF with a _Hyperion_-meets-_The Jesus Incident_ vibe. Lots of interesting characters, interesting alien cultures and alien communication modes (different from, but analagous to the film _Arrival_), good focus on mostly-hard-science with FTL, etc.

Allan.

That's cool, Allan. I have tried on a few occasions to get into a good sci-fi (space-themed) book or series, but just haven't found any that grab me. I actually started reading Hyperion a month or two back, but by the time I got to the 3rd story, I lost interest. It felt like I was re-reading Canterbury Tales or something. The first story with the priest was really interesting, less so the second about the commander and his weird cybersex companion. The third I believe was being told by the bard/entertainer character and that's where I stopped. Idk, maybe one day I'll pick back up with it.

[grodog]

That's cool, Allan. I have tried on a few occasions to get into a good sci-fi (space-themed) book or series, but just haven't found any that grab me. I actually started reading Hyperion a month or two back, but by the time I got to the 3rd story, I lost interest. It felt like I was re-reading Canterbury Tales or something. The first story with the priest was really interesting, less so the second about the commander and his weird cybersex companion. The third I believe was being told by the bard/entertainer character and that's where I stopped. Idk, maybe one day I'll pick back up with it.

I enjoyed Hyperion, but the first book was better than the sequels (just like with Dune, Cryptonomicon, Star Wars, The Hobbit, etc. actually!). It's been quite awhile since I read it (I think I was an undergrad?), but I do seem to recall that its structure mimicked the Canterbury Tales in a SF setting.

Some my other favorite SF books serieses include:
- Frank Herbert: Dune series Destination: Void, The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, The Ascension Factor series (in this series, Jesus Incident was best, I think); Jorge X. McKee "Consentiency" series
- James H. Schmitz: short stories, with a few novellas and only one or two novels, all set in his Federation of the Hub universe: this series is kind of like a giant RPG world ensemble cast, with main characters from one book or story showing up as minor characters in another story. The Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee sequences are the two main ones, with the others branching off from them, mostly. Highly recommended.
- Jack Vance: his Planet of Adventure stories (four novellas) are my favorite SF by him that I've read to date (I'm no Vance expert though!)
- Philip J. Farmer: love both his Riverworld stories (mostly novels that I read mostly in high school) and his World of Tiers series (lots of great gates-based adventuring!)
- Lucius Shepard: again, mostly short stories, with several novellas and novels but his work spans SF, modern/contemporay, and fantasy, but I tend to think of his more from the SF side than the fantasy side (thought again, he does both, along with horror too). Good starters are the two short story collections he did for Arkham House in the '80s: The Jaguar Hunter and The Ends of the Earth

Hmmm. Come to think of it, I could have mostly just pointed you here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200930033 ... gs-7-best/



Allan.

[Ancalagon]

I think my next book will be Life in a Medieval Village by Francis and Joseph Gies. Historical research work that should prove useful for some gaming related ideas floating in my head....

[Necron 99]

Giving a shout out to an author whom I owe tribute, for sparking my imagination as a child. I never actually read any of his works, only seen the film adaptations. Now that I'm older, I'm going to try and rectify that after I'm done with my current book.

Jules Verne wrote some of the most fantastic and iconic adventure novels ever. Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island, and Around the World in 80 Days are a few of his most notable. I also realized I don't own any copies of his works, but Jen and Em gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble for Father's Day, so I think I will take a trip this coming weekend to our store in JAX and see if I can get a nice collection of his books.

I remember the first time my dad introduced me to movie, The Mysterious Island. I loved everything about it and having already seen 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea, it blew my mind finding out that the two stories were tied together.

Good stuff for sure.

[Necron 99]

While at a used booked store, down near my office, I ran across and picked up a copy of Bradbury's The October Country, a collection of his short stories. So far I'm enjoying most of the ones I've read. One story specifically, The Emissary, is about a young boy, bedridden, who sees and experiences the world outside his window through his trusted friend, Dog. Dog roams the neighborhood and town, bringing back either physical bits of everything in his coat or through various olfactory essences. Bradbury's descriptions are fantastic and for some readers, may be drawn out, but it reminds me a good bit of Tolkien's style of writing.

Martin knew it was autumn again, for Dog ran into the house bringing wind and frost and a smell of apples turned to cider under trees. In dark clock-springs of hair, Dog fetched goldenrod, dust of farewell-summer, acorn-husk, hair of squirrel, feather of departed robin, sawdust from fresh-cut cordwood, and leaves like charcoals shaken from a blaze of maple trees. Dog jumped. Showers of brittle fern, blackberry vine, marsh-grass sprang over the bed where Martin shouted. No doubt, no doubt of it at all, this incredible beast was October!

“Here, boy, here!”

And Dog settled to warm Martin’s body with all the bon-fires and subtle burnings of the season, to fill the room with soft or heavy, wet or dry odors of far-traveling. In spring, he smelled of lilac, iris, lawn-mowered grass; in summer, ice-cream-mustached, he came pungent with firecracker, Roman candle, pinwheel, baked by the sun. But autumn! Autumn!

“Dog, what’s it like outside?”

And lying there, Dog told as he always told. Lying there, Martin found autumn as in the old days before sickness bleached him white on his bed. Here was his contact, his carry-all, the quick-moving part of himself he sent with a yell to run and return, circle and scent, collect and deliver the time and texture of worlds in town, country, by creek, river, lake, down-cellar, up-attic, in closet or coal-bin. Ten dozen times a day he was gifted with sunflower seed, cinder-path, milkweed horse-chestnut, or full flame-smell of pumpkin. Through the loomings of the universe Dog shuttled; the design was hid in
his pelt. Put out your hand, it was there. . . .

The story takes a dark turn by the end though, one that I was not expecting but pleased to have read. It made for a nice October-themed short story, indeed.

I've always loved Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, to which I was first introduced by the Disney film of the same name back in the 80s. I've yet to read the novel, but plan to. I also enjoyed watching the animated film, The Halloween Tree, which I actually read last year for the first time. It's an annual habit now, for me to listen to the audio book on morning walks in October. In Bradbury, I've discovered a kindred spirit of the fanaticism and enjoyment for the Autumn season.

An excerpt from an interview with Bradbury:

“Halloweens I have always considered wilder and richer and more important than even Christmas morn,” Ray Bradbury wrote in an article for the October 1975 issue of Reader’s Digest. “1928 was one of the prime Halloween years. Everything that was grandest came to a special climax that autumn.”

Ray Bradbury was eight years old that year, and his beloved Aunt Neva, 19 years old and recently graduated from high school, owned a Model-A Ford. Sometime around October 20, he recalls in his essay, she said to Ray, “It’s coming fast. Let’s make plans.” She drove him and his brother, Skip, around the countryside to collect pumpkins, corn sheaves, and other decorations to embellish their grandparents’ house for the upcoming festivities. “Then, everything set and placed and ready, you run out late from house to house to make certain-sure that each boy-ghost remembers, that each girl-become-witch will be there.” The big night arrived . . . and then it was over.

“365 darn days until Halloween again. What if I die, waiting?” Ray complained.

“Why, then,” Skip responded, “you’ll be Halloween. Dead people are Halloween.”

“All the worlds of art and imagination flowed to me through Neva,” Bradbury recalled in 1964, “but especially she put me in touch with October Country, a year packed into a single month, a special climate which I still delight in. If I could have chosen my birthday, Halloween would be it.” An artist-designer who studied at the Chicago Art Institute, Neva Bradbury introduced her nephew to gothic and fantastical writings. Ray long cherished her childhood gift of a volume of fairy tales called Once Upon a Time—his first book of fantasy—and he was allowed access to her idiosyncratically stocked bookcase, which included the works of such authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs and L. Frank Baum. When Bradbury had been isolated in bed with whooping cough for three months, Neva visited and read to him the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Mix all these elements together—illness, confinement, a cherished visitor, Halloween, Poe, death—and you have the ingredients for a story much like “The Emissary.”

[Ancalagon]

Halloween is my absolute FAVORITE holiday!

With regard to the young boy, bedridden, who sees and experiences the world outside his window through his trusted friend, Dog, I wonder if GRRM was inspired by this for the "warging" ability some of the Stark children used in A Game of Thrones and its sequel novels....

[grodog]

Just finished:
- James H. Schmitz’s _Eternal Frontier_ (the last of his fictions I've not read, except for one short story co-authored with AE Van Vogt)
- _The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes_ by Scott Frost
- all seven of “The World of Tiers” novels by Philip Jose Farmer

Reading now:
- Susan Petrey's _Gifts of Blood_
- Mark Frost’s _The Secret History of Twin Peaks_

While digging through my shelves last night, I also pulled out Zelazny's _A Night in Lonesome October_, which I've not read yet.

Allan.