Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

New Review up @ Strange Horizons

2012-01-26T17:19:00.000-08:00

My review of the new Asimov robot novel went up at Strange Horizons yesterday.

In a way, the prep for this review was delightful; any excuse to return to Asimov's original Robot stories will do.

To summarize, I guess: I wasn't blown away by Reichert's book as much as I'd wanted to be. But, given the material, I could have easily also been enormously disappointed, which I wasn't. Though I'm not counting down the days until the next book in the trilogy is published (and I'm hoping it's not called I, Robot: To Serve or I, Robot: To Uphold), I'm looking forward to it, and the chances are fairly good that I'll actually read it. I had mixed feelings--and in some ways even contradictory ones--about the first volume, but I tried to offer a balanced perspective in my review.

If you've read this book and have an opinion you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you, either here or in the review's comments section at SH.

Books 1/21/2012

2012-01-21T16:42:00.000-08:00

Book #4 2012

2012-01-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

This is the only anthology Robert Sheckley ever edited (1980). As such, I've been curious about it for a long time. How would the stories he selected reflect Sheckley's own tastes, his own aesthetic sensibilities -- or would they? How diverse would the anthology be in approach and tone?

Given the tricky theme -- not-particularly-serious end-of-the-world stories -- I was expecting some hits and misses. And that was exactly what I got (with perhaps several more misses than I would have liked). As an anthology, I have to admit right upfront, it's not particularly strong. Part of the reason is that several of the stories are not as original/clever as they might think they are, though that's an admittedly relatively minor and highly subjective indictment. A stronger issue is that several of the stories are not well crafted, bringing the overall level of professionalism and execution down. There's also a kind of residual post-New Wavish experimentation that dates some of the material. Mind you, there's a couple of real stingers -- the Harrison and Disch pieces come to mind -- but more mediocre work than I would have cared for (most of the rest). Sheckley seems to have invested in several new writers (at least, new to SF), who apparently didn't do much after their appearance here. A shame. Here are some brief reading notes regarding each story.

The Last Days of (Parallel?) Earth by Robert Sheckley
This seems to be pretty characteristic of late 70s/80s Sheckley. It's not exactly stale, but it's not particularly compelling either. I think Sheckley's exhaustion with SF, and even his own satirical/philosophical madcap approach to SF, shines through. In fact, it's deliberately cultivated through the mainstream-ish storytelling stylings -- but the purposeful angst isn't quite enough to carry the free-flowing conversational narrative. Overall it's entertaining, but unsurprising and forgettable. Minor Sheckley.

The Day After the End of the World by Harry Harrison
Definitely one of the highlights. This made me laugh out loud several times, but the underlying bite remains. Harrison does a fantastic job of mocking SF end-of-world tropes in a zany, quickly paced but thoughtful parody that adds several new twists/dimensions just when you think you have it figured out. It feels effortless, for which Harrison deserves credit. I haven't read a lot of Harrison's short fiction, and this made me go out and buy several of his retrospective anthologies (including a massive book collecting 50 years' worth of his short fiction, a collection that quite rightly reprints this story). Not a masterpiece, perhaps, but a minor classic within this sub-genre.

A Very Good Year . . . / Fire and/or Ice / Exeunt Omnes by Roger Zelazny
A challenging triad of apparently disconnected stories by Zelazny. Well, perhaps the word "stories" is too generous; vignettes might be more appropriate. I enjoyed the technical playfulness, and the narrative virtuosismo, but only the first story fragment really resonated with me. It's based on a fascinatingly melancholic time-travel scenario that could have been developed, perhaps, to greater effect at longer length.

Sungrab by William F. Nolan
This is one of Nolan's Sam Spade "hard-boiled" space detective stories. There's nothing wrong with it, but it seems woefully out of place in this anthology. The case of the Big Lizard and Onion, and the bad guy's plot to tow away the Sun (!) hardly seem to qualify this as genuinely apocalyptic, and if you've read previous Spade stories this one offers little new. Disappointing, perhaps more due to than context than any inherent deficiencies.

Where Are You Now, Erik Scorbic? by K. Copeland Shea
This slipstreamish satire about a young, mentally-challenged boy who appears to be the last baby born on Earth, and his eventual encounter with a member of the opposite sex, has a few charming moments but doesn't work for me. This is one of several writers Sheckley seems to have granted a chance at a professional sale, who later haven't appeared elsewhere.

Bud by Ian Watson
I've enjoyed a number of Watson's stories (and novels) throughout the years, and this is clever and provocative enough to warrant a recommendation. In the future humans encounter aliens who reproduce asexually, or through "budding," apparently the most common form of procreation in the Universe. The aliens are assisting with the budding of Jupiter, so that the Giant Red Spot may slough off and become its own planet. As usual when one tries to recap a Watson plot this all sounds unlikely, but it provides Watson with a neat platform from which to launch some (perhaps a little heavy-handed) observations about the nature of human sexuality and motivation. Still, the ending is simultaneously funny and poignant, for which it deserves kudos.

The Making of Revelation, Part I by Philip José Farmer
A look-at-me-I'm-clever story that stretches its central conceit way too thin; in this absurdist comedic outing God hires Cecil B. DeMille, Harlan Ellison and Satan to film the final Apocaylpse. A couple of chuckles, but light and fluffy and overlong (and completely fantastic, with no hint of SF).

Rebecca Rubinstein's Seventeenth Birthday by Simon Gandolfi
Best recounted as meandering narrative about a young girl who loses her virginity while Sol goes nova. Couldn't become invested in any of the characters; the world-building seemed kind of preposterous; and the POV kept switching, maddeningly, so I wasn't sure whose perspective we were being offered, or why we should care. Along with Shea, Gandolfi never seems to have published again within SF.

The Revelation by Thomas M. Disch
I loved this. It's like the right way of handling some of the same absurdity that Farmer mis-employed, and to profound effect. Premise: Ingmar Bergman finally receives indubitable confirmation of the existence of God, but must then to learn to live with this knowledge, and to keep a terrible secret that God confides in him. Disch's craft is impeccable. In lesser hands this could have been trifling or obvious, but Disch turns it into a quietly moving, spiritual commentary by making us care about Bergman's metaphysical struggle. The final line is perfect; brilliant, and devastating. If only we could have had more stories like this one.

Nirvana Is a Nowhere Place by Joel Schulman
Fenton is the assigned comptroller of heaven; 3.5 billion souls are about to die in a thermonuclear holocaust --will there be room for all them? Run-of-the-mill entertainment.

Heir by J. A. Lawrence
This is a curious story, dedicated to Ursula LeGuin, no less, and with an afterword by the author. A colony of extraterrestrial termite-like beings faces possible extinction. That may not sound like an interesting idea, but the interest here is all in the execution. Lawrence makes the termite creatures his POV character. Admittedly, this makes for many befuddling scenes, at least at first, but I dug the "otherworldly" feel of it. Once the effect wears off, I'm not sure there's much that stands out.

The Kingdom of O'Ryan by Bob Shaw
In his collection of reviews and essays Up Through an Empty House of Stars, David Langford sums up this story well:

"'The Kingdom of O'Ryan' is a tall tale in the best manner of Shaw the humorist, building up from an elaborately familiar con operation to a tongue-in-cheek homily on the dangers of conning people too successfully: the suckers' faith ends up moving mountains, not to mention planets."

The initial scheme, involving horse-racing bets, is adeptly handled, the characters are strong, and the last line is depressingly funny.

Just Another End of the World by Maxim Jakubowski
A fine, somewhat elegiac note on which to end the anthology. (In some ways, this is a cheat, since it's a mostly serious take on the theme, but I suppose it's not entirely downbeat). A bunch of SF writers survive the apocalypse and must rebuild civilization. Jakubowski uses real writers as his characters, thinly disguised. Ike French, for instance, is Isaac Asimov (Ike follows easily from Isaac, and Paul French was a pseudonym Asimov used on his Lucky Starr adventure stories). There were some writers' identities I couldn't figure out, so perhaps that bears additional investigation. Anyway, though that little trick adds a flavor of meta fun to the story, it would still be a good piece without it.

Books 1/17/2012

2012-01-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

Some more books newly acquired:

Bashmet and Gubaidulina

2012-01-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

I discovered the remarkable contemporary composer Sofia Gubaidulina today.

I've hardly had time to begin exploring her large body of work, but I did listen to her astonishing "Concerto for viola and orchestra" (1996) twice and wanted to share it, as well as save the links here on my blog for quick future reference.

The concerto is split up into four clips below. Bashmet's virtuosismo is perfectly suited to the extremes of this piece (see first 3 mins of clip 3 for instance), and the Sinfônica de Colônia turns in a dynamic, muscular performance. This piece is a must-own.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Ki-Ki-Ki, Ma-Ma-Ma

2012-01-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

I'm delighted to finally own Harry Manfredini's legendary music for Friday the 13th -- the score to not only the original film, but the first five sequels, too, all of it on six glorious CDs.

The music, long thought lost, has just been released in this wonderful boxset (appropriately enough) on Friday 1/13/12, by Lalaland records. As usual, they've done an excellent job both with the presentation and content.

And as a bonus, I was lucky enough to place my order quickly and get a signed copy. I love Mafredini's inscription on the upper left hand corner of the booklet with the infamous "Ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" in actual score notation... Very classy.

Book #3 2012

2012-01-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

I discovered Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls via one of Niall Harrison's tweets. I'm sure I glad I did (thanks Niall!). I don't read a ton of YA, but this book didn't in any way feel restricted because of its target readership. In fact, the fact that it was YA may have strengthened the narrative, making it taut and focused whereas in an "adult" novel it may have contained digressions or other non-essential material. I guess YA readers have figured out this sort of thing decades ago. I'm a slow learner.

In any case, I have to say it blew me away. Despite all the favorable attention Ness received for his previous works, I'm new to his writing -- but I won't be forgetting his name any time soon. I think the less said about the actual content of the book the better. Niall's brief description sums it up well.

Book #2 2012

2012-01-10T00:50:00.000-08:00

My second book of 2012 is an abridged paperback edition of a previously-published hardcover anthology, consisting of a mix of pre-Golden Age and Golden Age short stories and novelettes. The anthology was edited by August Derleth, one of the co-founders of the legendary Arkham House.

This anthology is a bit of a mixed bag, but turned out to be a neat vehicle of discovery for me, providing my first encounter with two influential writers: Clark Ashton Smith and Donald Wandrei.

"The Long Watch" (1949) by Robert A. Heinlein

This tale of Johnny Dahlquist's attempts to prevent a plot that may lead to nuclear armageddon is both gripping and poignant. Peak Heinlein.

"Minority Report" (1949) by Theodore Sturgeon
Thoroughly enjoyed this one, though I'm not sure it's primo Sturgeon, and it hasn't aged as well as much of his other work.

"Colossus" (1934) by Donald Wandrei
Let me quote the premise for this story from Bleiler's magnificent The Gernsback Years:

"Against a background of impending war, Duane Sharon has built the White Bird, a space vehicle that is powered by the energy of space itself and should be able to travel thousands of times faster than light. Since the universe seems limited telescopically and not infinite, it is possible, as he and his friend Dowell agree, that the White Bird might break out of our space and enter a supposititious macrocosm in which our universe
is a matter of atoms."

There are isolated moments in this story that work quite well, but on the whole it's a mess, with creaky transitions, stiff writing and under-cooked ideas. Kudos to Wandrei for evoking wonder with his depiction of Duane, aboard his ship, travelling faster and faster until he eventually punctures our universe and discovers that yes, truly, our entire universe exists only within an atom of a super-universe. (So in a way this story is like the flipside to the Hamilton piece; see below). Kudos also to Wandrei for referencing Einstein, if only to dismiss the central tenets of special relativity with a few quick wand-waves. Anti-kudos to Wandrei for the uber-preposterous ending. Bleiler sums it up perfectly:

"He [Duane] lands on Valadom, which is a beautiful, elfin planet, where he immediately meets a pleasant, nude female who reminds him of the dead Anne."

Ugh. Apparently, there's a sequel, too. I'm in no rush to read it.

"A Voyage to Sfanomoë" (1931) by Clark Ashton Smith
A touching piece, with a delicate ending. I'm delighted to have discovered this "Weird" writer, and look forward to dipping into his huge catalog of short fiction over the years to come. I didn't mind at all that the story veered off from its initial SF-sounding setup, because it was unexpected, refreshing, engagingly-written.

"The Seesaw" (1941) by A. E. van Vogt
I discussed this story in detail in my Strange Horizons review of Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 3. A second re-reading hasn't really changed my opinion. Since my comments are somewhat buried in that longer review, I'm going to re-paste them here:

Practically all of the comments I made about A. E. van Vogt's "Vault of the Beast" could apply to "The Seesaw," too, which causes me some trepidation—will all his remaining stories in these volumes be like this, wild birds jammed to excess with delicious stuffing, but sorely undercooked, ever more akin to turkeys? Still, "The Seesaw" has wings enough to get off the ground, even if it ends (literally) in a vast collision of forces, and it does mark the beginning of the famous Weapon Shops of Isher series, so I suppose I can't entirely dismiss it. Oh, what the heck, it's entertaining enough. It opens with a newspaper extract that tells of a building that materialized in a spot normally occupied by other shops, mysteriously advertising "THE FINEST ENERGY WEAPONS IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE." Then we find out what ensued when reporter C. J. McAllister entered the building to discover that it's no ordinary shop, and no longer 1941, but rather "eighty-four of the four thousand seven hundredth year of the Imperial House of Isher." McAllister, naturally, has become embroiled in a struggle of cosmic proportions, becoming a "weight" at the end of a "crowbar" which will fling him five thousand years into the past—and so on.

As the ideas pile on and the action explodes in fits and bursts of ever-escalating unpredictability, one is easily disoriented—but this effect almost enhances the story, lending it a sort of surreal charm. In a 1980 interview van Vogt describes his working method at the time of writing this story, and reflects: "I was—so I thought later—unnoticingly tapping my subconscious mind.” I hope that for modern readers experiencing "The Seesaw" for the first time, it holds their attention long enough to not unwittingly tap into their subconscious mind or, said more simply, put them to sleep, because it really is worth sticking around to for the very last line, which inflates Rocklynne's closed time-loop notion to mind-staggering proportions. Arthur C. Clarke wrote of it: "Si monumentum requires, circumspice indeed! I defy anyone to find a more awesome last line in the whole of fiction."

There's also another upside. The idea of the "seesaw" effect, or time-travel-conservation, for lack of a better term, in which forward traveling must be compensated with backward traveling, may have inspired at least two stories superior to van Vogt's: William Tenn's "Brooklyn Project," and Robert Silverberg's novel Project Pendulum (1987). Both are worth seeking out, if only to see that good things can come from muddled beginnings.

"The Flying Men (Excerpt from Last and First Men)" (1950) by Olaf Stapledon
Far-out. Compelling, utterly unique. I was surprised at how well this worked as an excerpt.

"Fessenden's Worlds" (1937) by Edmond Hamilton
The brilliant, eccentric largely amoral Arnold Fessenden builds a miniature Universe and experiments on its worlds and inhabitants. Conceptually this is a forerunner to Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God," which is far superior in most regards. But this has Hamilton's signature storytelling charm, specially in the opening setup scenes. It's the same charm that makes other stories by him, like the much earlier "The Man Who Evolved," more memorable than perhaps they have a right to be, if one were to assess them purely based on craft and subtlety or lack thereof.

"Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall" (1948) by Frank Belknap Long
Didn't care much for this one. A couple of fun moments, but it seemed overlong, and a tad predictable. Perhaps I'm not much of a fan of fantasy worlds that take after children's stories, etc., and the inclusion of this story in the anthology felt a bit jarring, since despite the "parallel dimension" trappings it is quite unabashedly fantastic.

Exploding Ming

2012-01-09T21:12:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you accidentally leave one of your favorite cups, full of water, in the freezer over the weekend.

(I've been asked why on earth I would place a cup of water in the freezer to begin with. The reason is that when I make hot tea I tend to overheat the water, and then let it cool for a few minutes [or days, apparently] in the freezer, which is the closest everyday appliance I know of to the anti-microwave.)

Books 1/7/2012

2012-01-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

Books newly acquired today:

Book #1 2012

2012-01-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading the first book of 2012, the pretty much unknown novel Brotherhood of the Stars (1994) by Kirby Greene.

It's a rather dark blend of space-opera, noir and cult story. It starts out as a sort of quest adventure, with Ree Barsac, a career spacer who works on interstellar freighters, taking some shore leave on the seedy planet Glaurus. His real mission is to reconnect with Zigmunn, a long-lost friend whom he hasn't seen in ten years.

Needless to say, it doesn't go well for Barsac. And then it really doesn't go well.

And then things start to get grim.

I was surprised by the escalating violence and overall psychological bleakness, all the way to the rather devastating ending. Still, it was an interesting read.

2011 Books Read

2012-01-01T21:43:00.000-08:00

I read 33 books in 2011. Normally I get in closer to 40, but Thomas Mann's vast The Magic Mountain consumed about two and a half months (I started it in mid-June and finished it in early September). Taking this into account it was a pretty normal reading year, in terms of quantity. I did manage to get more classics in than I normally do, though, and that was exciting. On the flip side, I read far fewer short stories overall, something I intend to correct in 2012.

Here are the 33 books I read in 2011, and the date on which I finished each of them:

1	Monday, January 17, 2011	Artificial Things	Karen Joy Fowler
2	Thursday, February 03, 2011	Jane Eyre	Charlotte Bronte
3	Tuesday, February 08, 2011	The Naked Sun	Isaac Asimov
4	Saturday, February 19, 2011	What I Didn't See and Other Stories	Karen Joy Fowler
5	Friday, March 11, 2011	From Atoms to Infinity: 88 Great Ideas in Science	Mary and John Gribbin
6	Wednesday, March 16, 2011	Black Glass	Karen Joy Fowler
7	Tuesday, March 29, 2011	The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist	Orphan Pamuk
8	Sunday, April 03, 2011	Evaporating Genres	Gary K. Wolfe
9	Wednesday, April 06, 2011	Confessions of a Young Novelist	Umberto Eco
10	Sunday, April 10, 2011	Slice of Life	Paul Haines
11	Tuesday, April 19, 2011	Hawksbill Station	Robert Silverberg
12	Thursday, April 21, 2011	Project Pendulum	Robert Silverberg
13	Sunday, April 24, 2011	Up The Line	Robert Silverberg
14	Thursday, April 28, 2011	Around the World in 80 Days	Jules Verne
15	Wednesday, May 04, 2011	How Literature Works	John Sutherland
16	Tuesday, May 10, 2011	Trinity and Other Stories	Nancy Kress
17	Thursday, May 26, 2011	La Bête Humaine	Émile Zola
18	Monday, May 30, 2011	Eugenie Grandet	Honoré de Balzac
19	Sunday, June 05, 2011	Hunger	Knut Hamsun
20	Sunday, June 19, 2011	The Other Log of Phileas Fogg	Philip José Farmer
21	Wednesday, July 06, 2011	The Veils of Azlaroc	Fred Saberhagen
22	Saturday, August 27, 2011	SciFi in the Mind's Eye	ed. Margret Grebowicz
23	Saturday, September 03, 2011	The Magic Mountain	Thomas Mann
24	Sunday, September 18, 2011	Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction	David Seed
25	Sunday, October 02, 2011	The Romantic Revolution	Tim Blanning
26	Sunday, October 09, 2011	Socrates	Robert Silverberg
27	Sunday, October 23, 2011	Socrates	W. K. C. Guthrie
28	Saturday, November 05, 2011	Socrates	A. E. Taylor
29	Sunday, November 06, 2011	The Boy at the End of the World	Greg van Eekhout
30	Wednesday, November 09, 2011	Briarpatch	Tim Pratt
31	Thursday, November 24, 2011	I, Robot: To Protect	Mickey Zucker Reichert
32	Saturday, December 03, 2011	Tales from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine	ed. Sheila Williams & Cynthia Manson
33	Sunday, December 25, 2011	The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction	ed. Ian Whates

2011 Fitness

2012-01-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

I did about 600 miles of cardio in 2011 (either running or brisk walking).

This comes out to an average of 1.65 miles a day. My 2010 average was 1.22 miles a day, so in 2011 I increased by 0.43 miles -- or 35% -- over 2010. Pretty pleased about this! I also layered in more strength training, which was part of the plan.

Of course, there's plenty of room to step it up in 2012 :-) My goal is to shoot for a 22% increase over 2011, which should land me pretty close to an even 2 miles a day on average. This sounds lofty to me right now, but isn't that part of the point in goal setting?

Here's a quick snapshot of my mileage by month in 2011:

2011 Films

2012-01-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

I ended up watching 110 films in 2011, a deliberate decrease from 2010. A little less than half of these were 2011 releases.

Of the 2011 releases I watched in 2011, here are my top 5 picks, in no particular order

The Tree of Life
Drive
Melancholia
A Dangerous Method
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

And here are 15 runners-up, again in no particular order:

Jane Eyre
Hanna
Win Win
Super 8
The Sunset Limited
The Debt
Sarah's Key
Contagion
Moneyball
Martha Marcy May Marlene
My Week With Marilyn
Arthur Christmas
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Mill and the Cross

90 Films Watched So Far in 2011

2011-11-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite 90, since one of them is the same film seen three times. Still, here's the list. I fully expect to break 100 before the year is up.

Devil (2010)
Jane Eyre (1996)
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Atonement (2007)
127 Hours (2010)
Gertrud (1964)
Celda 211 (2009)
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
Blue Valentine (2010)
The Way Back (2010)
Senso (1954)
La Herencia Valdemar (2009)
Z (1969)
The Ring (2002)
The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Barney's Version (2010)
Rebecca (1940)
Bicentennial Man (1999)
Cliffhanger (1993)
Thunderheart (1992)
Fighting Elegy (1966)
The Secret Agent (1996)
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Hobson's Choice (1954)
Unknown (2011)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Closely Watched Trains (1966)
Of Gods and Men (2010)
Limitless (2011)
Jane Eyre (2011)
Source Code (2010)
Hanna (2011)
Win Win (2011)
Insidious (2011)
Hamlet (1948)
Scream 4 (2011)
Rashomon (1950)
I'm Still Here (2010)
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Meek's Cutoff (2010)
Poetry (2010)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Thor (2011)
Oliver Twist (1948)
Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
El ángel Exterminador (1962)
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Knife in the Water (1961)
The Naked Prey (1966)
The Tree of Life (2011)
X-Men: First Class (2011)
127 Hours (2010)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Super 8 (2011)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
The Sunset Limited (2011)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Captain America (2011)
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)
Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Final Destination 5 (2011)
Bridesmaids (2011)
Atrocious (2011)
The King's Speech (2010)
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
Hanna (2011)
The Debt (2011)
Sarah's Key (2011)
Contagion (2011)
Drive (2011)
La Règle Du Jeu (1939)
The Mist (2007)
Everything Must Go (2011)
Io Sono L'amore (2009)
Cyrus (2010)
The Song of Sparrows (2008)
Un Prophète (2009)
Moneyball (2011)
127 Hours (2010)
Firemen's Ball (1967)
The Presence (2010)
The Ides of March (2011)
50/50 (2011)
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Don't Look Now (1973)
Eloïse (2009)

Absence of Self

2011-10-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

The latest issue (September 2011) to reach my mailbox of that marvelous publication, The New York Review of Science Fiction, contains my essay on Karen Joy Fowler's short stories ("Absence of Self").

The issue arrived here while my parents were visiting from Spain, last month; nice for them to be able to see my name in print :-)

Make Time for These Three

2011-07-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

My review of three classic time-travel novels by Robert Silverberg, recently reprinted in a beautiful omnibus, was published by Strange Horizons yesterday.

Link:

Review: Times Three by Robert Silverberg @ SH

Upon Turning Thirty-Two

2011-07-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm one year older today (that sounds strange, but it's true according to the calendar).

After some long introspection, here are two reflections on the human condition that I'd like to share with the world at large, upon turning thirty-two:

Even as we become older, the business of being alive never gets old. (Anyone who tells you differently is either a) too young to understand or b) not in the business of being alive, which could technically mean they are b1) dead, b2) zombies, b3) going through the motions. Sheesh, all these what-ifs. Now I feel old.)

Everyone could probably floss a little more often.

My Worldcon Schedule

2011-07-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here's my final panel schedule (as of 7/20):

Wednesday:

Wed 14:00 - 15:00, Designing Believable Physics (Panel), A03 (RSCC)

Is it possible that the laws of physics behave differently

in different parts or times of the universe? How would

that impact world creation? Would biological development

even happen, or might intelligence arise in some other way?

Participants: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (M), Steve Gillett, John G. Hemry, Gregory Benford

Wed 21:00 - 22:00, What Does Your SF Sound Like? (Panel), A04 (RSCC)

What means science fiction music to you? A majestic piece

by Williams or Holst? The theremin in _The Day the Earth

Stood Still_? Our panel discusses trends in science fiction

music and plays some samples.

Participants: Jim Mann (M), Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, James Bacon

Thursday:

Thu 11:00 - 12:00, The 1960s, 50 Years On (Panel), A05 (RSCC)

The 1960s saw a number of great SF writers come into the

forefront -- Roger Zelazny, Philip K. Dick, Samuel Delany,

Ursula Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and others. It also saw

huge changes in SF, with the coming of the New Wave and the

reactions for and against it. Looking back, how do we

view 1960s SF.

Participants: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (M), Robert Silverberg, Jim Frenkel, Parris McBride, Jerry Kaufman

Friday:

Fri 17:00 - 18:00, Applied Quantum Mechanics: The Ultimate Mind

Trip (Panel), D04 (RSCC)

Quantum mechanics has always been a mind trip. Particles

altering their behavior based on what other particles will

do. Particles that are in multiple places at once or that

can suddenly tunnel through a barrier and appear elsewhere.

But the trip can get even stranger as we apply this

knowledge. Quantum mechanics is no longer just about the

subatomic universe.

Participants: Gregory Benford (M), David Brin, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Corry L. Lee

Saturday:

Sat 11:00 - 12:00, Generation Gap? Is the Conversation in Written SF Fractured by Cohort? (Panel), A09 (RSCC)

Elizabeth Bear noted there are different conversations

amonst the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, and

Generation X. How differentiated (or segregated) are the

different generations editors and writers conversations?

Is the on-going conversation between SF writers, the

playing with each other's ideas restricted to writers

of a roughly similar age?

Participants: Liz Gorinsky (M), Robert Silverberg, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Paul Cornell, Ginjer Buchanan

New Books on Sunday

2011-06-26T15:17:00.001-07:00

Greater Journeys

2011-06-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

More new books today.

Agon

2011-06-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

Today's new (old) book purchase. I suppose a well-formed critic will experience agon when wrestling with Bloom's theory of agon.

I'm not that well-formed; I'm sure it will all fly over my head.

Diction Time

2011-06-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

Another new (in this case, very old) book to join my collection.

New Books Quartet

2011-06-21T21:32:00.001-07:00

Very much looking forward to these, each for different reasons.

Dinner 6.19.11

2011-06-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Moribund / Life-affirming

2011-06-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

in the quiet moments

I should not forget myself

in the loud ones

I should not forget others

A Harry Potter Virgin Comes Out

2011-06-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting since 2001, when the film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone first came out, for the film series to come to an end -- so I could find out what all the hoopla was about. That is to say: sometime soon I intend to watch the first seven films in a marathon sitting, and then head out to the theaters for the final one.

I have absolutely no knowledge of the franchise, characters, story-line, etc. As you can imagine, steering clear of any and all spoilers during the last ten years has been an incredibly tough job.

If there are any other Harry Potter virgins out there, feel free to use my admission as a launching pad for your own.

What is Property?

2011-05-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

Here's Gabriel Albiac, philosopher, on the concept of property (clip is in Spanish). A must-see.

Salon Futura - Adieu for Now

2011-05-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

Issue #9 of Salon Futura went up last week. It's been a great ride.

This for-now-final issue has a ton of good things, as usual. See here for the ToC. I'm looking forward to Karen Burnham's review of Eclipse 4, but am holding off on reading it until I've finished the anthology under consideration.

And as always, it was fun working on the "Pipeline" feature. I hope that, throughout, it has helped readers find books of interest they might have otherwise missed.

Slice of Maybe

2011-05-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

My review of Paul Haines' short-story collection, Slice of Life, appeared over at Strange Horizons last week. Definitely an ambivalent review.

Link:

Review: Slice of Life by Paul Haines @ SH

Salon Futura and I

2011-04-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

Salon Futura, Issue #8, went up yesterday.

It has interesting pieces by Gary Westfahl, Raz Greenberg and Jonathan Clements, in addition to the usual lively editorial and interviews by Cheryl. I'm happy to announce that I also contributed a piece to this penultimate issue of a fine magazine -- here's the link:

"Hunting the Snark: The Literary Essay in Modern Science Fiction" @ Salon Futura

An essay about essays. Go figure. Actually, I wrote the piece in response to a specific podcast I listened to a few days before (which I comment on in the essay's first paragraph). Hope you enjoy it.

Anyone looking at the table of contents will also notice my name next to the "Pipeline" feature, where staff and guest contributors recommend upcoming books they're excited about.

After contributing an essay back in December I was asked to volunteer some titles for that issue; invited back to pick some new titles in January, and thereafter asked to edit the feature on a monthly basis. It wasn't something I planned, but I've felt lucky to be a part of Salon Futura in this capacity, and have enjoyed editing the "Pipeline" feature for the last three issues. At this point it looks like Issue #9 may be the final one, so I'll probably get to edit the feature one last time. Wish the learning experience could have lasted longer, but am definitely glad for the opportunity I had. And there's plenty of recommended books in the last four or five Pipelines to keep one busy for a long time!

Commas and Laundry-Slips

2011-04-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

I've already derived significant enjoyment from the new Oxford World's Classic edition of Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, and I haven't even started the novel yet.

Instead, I'd like to direct your attention to William Butcher's Introduction, which is the source of my delectation. Now, habitual readers of Introductions to Penguin and Oxford classics, specially the older volumes, are probably accustomed to highly scholarly and usually tempered prose, as I am. Butcher is certainly knowledgeable. He's also quite enthusiastic. And ... indignant!

In discussing the lack of in-depth studies on Verne's original manuscripts (including earlier works from which Verne drew inspiration for this novel), Butcher sounds positively miffed, not to say grouchy:

"Equally amazingly, there has been no systematic study of the manuscripts. Although large research grants are given to analysing commas in the laundry-slips of quite marginal literary figures, the handwritten pages where that archetypal modern hero Phileas Fogg makes his first faltering steps have never been transcribed." (Introduction, p. xii)

By the standards of an academic Introduction, this ... is ... madness! He's a fire-starter, this one.

And please please please, if anyone can find out where to apply for such a grant, I'd love to hear from you. Marginal literary figures never receive enough attention, which is, of course, why they remain perennially marginal.

Classique: 1941

2011-04-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Apparently I haven't blogged since the start of January. What can I say, they only bring my head out when the tourism peaks. I then peck away at the keyboard with my nose, which is slow going. (Sneezing really messes up my punctuation). Maybe one day I'll get lucky and meet Leonard Nimoy's head.

Before they cart me back to my designated shelf spot, I will mention that Strange Horizons has published my review of classic SF stories from 1942. This is my review of Volume 3 in a series of 25 anthologies. Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to reading and writing about the remaining twenty-two volumes.

Link:

Review: Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 3 @ SH

Top Non-2010 Films of 2010

2011-01-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

And here are some of my favorites from the ones originally released in years other than 2010, including one cheat (a documentary):

Black Narcissus (1947)
The 400 Blows (1959)
Still Walking (2008)
Das Weiße Band (2009)
Che: Part Two (2008)
La Grande Illusion (1937)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Madame Bovary (1991)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
La Belle et la Bête (1946)
Straw Dogs (1971)
Deliverance (1972)
Death and the Maiden (1994)
Walkabout (1971)
Mesrine: L'ennemi public n° 1 (2008)
Lost Highway (1997)
The Last Station (2009)
Where The Wild Things Are (2009)
Eden Lake (2008)
Get Low (2009)
Mesrine: L'instinct de mort (2008)
Dillinger è Morto (1969)
Che: Part One (2008)
Cairo Time (2009)
Exam (2009)
The House Of The Devil (2009)
The Ghost and Ms. Muir (1947)
Madame Bovary (1949)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Julia (2008)
500 Days Of Summer (2009)
A Single Man (2009)
The Hurt Locker (2009)
The Name of the Rose (1986)
Taxi to the Dark Side (2008)
Chloe (2009)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Los Cronocrimenes (2007)
K-Pax (2001)
Valhalla Rising (2009)
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)
White Dog (1982)
Murders In The Rue Morgue (1932)
Abrazos Rotos (2009)
Bronson (2009)
Hierro (2009)
The Reader (2008)
Agora (2009)

Top 2010 Films of 2010

2011-01-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

I watched 153 movies in 2010, many of them in theaters.

Here were some of my favorites, from the ones (widely) released in 2010, not in order of preference:

Black Swan
Shutter Island
The Ghost Writer
Winter's Bone
Monsters
The King's Speech
Never Let Me Go
Let Me In
The Social Network
127 Hours
Another Year
Rabbit Hole
The Kids Are All Right
Anton Chekhov's The Duel

New Piece Published at Salon Futura!

2010-12-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

My essay on Generation Starships, "The Next Generation of Generation Starships," has just been published in the fourth issue of the nifty on-line magazine Salon Futura.

Salon Futura which has great features on short fiction, articles on trends and tropes in SF, and short blurbs on books that have just appeared, all by the likes of the talented Karen Burnham, Jonathan Clements, Sam Jordison and of course the editor herself, Cheryl Morgan. It's a pleasure to appear in its pages.

If you're looking for reading material, the "Pipeline: December 2010" piece has some interesting picks.

Incidentally, I've always wanted to publish a piece with the phrase "The Next Generation" in its title. Sigh of relief. Can't promise this will be the last time, either.

Classique

2010-11-10T19:54:00.000-08:00

What's a three month absence between friends? Nothin', I tell ya, hardly worth mentioning!

So I'm back, at least for now. (And now.) (And now.) (And so on....)

My review of classic stories first published in 1940 came out in Strange Horizons two days ago.

Link:

Review: Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 2 @ SH

That's two reviews done in this series -- only twenty-three to go. Bravely on!

The below is a nice little feature on John Kessel.

New Story Published in Basement Stories!

2010-07-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

A new SF magazine has arrived ... please provide a warm round of applause for Basement Stories!

The first issue was published earlier today and may be found at Issue One of Basement Stories.

I'm very excited about the launch of this new 'zine, which is edited by Carol Kirkman and James Dent (for an interview, see here; for the "About" section see here). The first issue contains fiction by Aaron Polson, Spencer Koelle, Erich William Bergmeier, Rajan Khanna, Gary Cuba Ericka Kahler and George Potter. I'm not familiar with their work but look forward to checking it out shortly.

This first issue also contains my story:

"Nor Youth Nor Age"

Hope you enjoy it!

[For the record, this is my first fiction sale for which I was paid at a rate of cent-per-word, rather than a token or flat fee payment -- which surely isn't a big deal at all, except it is for me! Every measure of progress is encouraging :-)]

E-mail Hacked

2010-07-13T17:56:00.001-07:00

My e-mail account was hacked today; my apologies if you received spam from me.

If Cory Doctorow was phished, I suppose I shouldn't feel too bad about this.

The Surly Sullen Bell

2010-07-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

How I mourn the Death of the Field.

New Story Published

2010-06-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

My story "Half a Block Away" has just been published in the second issue of online magazine New Dead Families.

The venue publishes pieces of "imaginative work of a non-realist nature" and is self-described as a "a cross between H.L. Gold’s Galaxy, and Gordon Lish’s the Quarterly, and/or Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds and Bradford Morrow’s Conjunctions."

The second issue contains stories and illustrations by David Backer, I. Fontana, Robert Kloss, Sam Luke, Jennifer Oakes, Amber Sparks, Tetsunori Tawaraya and Barry Yourgrau.

I originally found out about this through Michael Hemmingson, whose story "Brothers" appeared in the first issue. "Brothers" is dedicated to Barry Malzberg, so naturally, I became interested...

Single-Author Short Fiction Collections

2010-06-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

Belatedly...

The subject of this week's SF Signal Mindmeld was:

'What single-author, non-"Best-of" collections of sf/f/h stories should be in every fan's library? You may choose between 1 and 10 titles.'

A lot of great reading suggestions in this one (and it was fun participating, too!). In fact, the responses were so lengthy it was split into two parts. The link above is for Part One. Here's Part Two.

Book #20 of 2010

2010-06-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

Title: Pincher Martin

Author/Editor: William Golding

Year Published: 1956

Category: Literature.

Finished this tonight, my twentieth book thus far in 2010. It happens to have been published exactly one hundred years after the last book I blogged about, Madame Bovary.

In short, this was frakkin' insane. I had some idea of what to expect because of Book #18, Terry Eagleton's On Evil. But nothing can -- nor should -- prepare one for the full sensory experience of Pincher Martin.

Brutal.

Devastating.

"A thought was forming like a piece of sculpture behind the eyes but in front of the unexamined center. He watched the thought for a timeless interim while the drops of sweat trickled down from blotch to blotch. But he knew that the thought was an enemy and so although he saw it he did not consent or allow it to become attached to him in realization. If the slow center had any activity now it brooded on its identity while the thought stayed there like an ignored monument in a park." (p. 161)

Classic Stuff

2010-06-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

My review of classic stories first published in 1939 came out in Strange Horizons a few days ago.

Niall introduces the new review feature over at Torque Control; and here's a link to the piece itself:

Review: Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 1 @ SH

On a different note, over at his blog Daryl Gregory has posted a video of a talk he gave on Philip K. Dick; mucho bueno, recommended.

Penultimate Truths

2010-05-06T17:42:00.001-07:00

I recently caught a fascinating documentary about the strange life of Philip K. Dick. It has a somewhat silly framing device, but contains a ton of useful info and great interviews. The whole thing is available for free on YouTube:

"The Penultimate Truth about Philip K. Dick"

Also related to PKD, some news from Publishers Weekly:

HMH Looks to Reinvigorate Philip K. Dick with New Book, Backlist Program

Prayers and Appeals

2010-05-06T13:29:00.001-07:00

This via the Center for Inquiry:

National Day of Prayer events continue unabated

The document in which Judge Barbara B. Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin ruled a National Day of Prayer as unconstitutional makes for some interesting reading.

How about a National SETI Day instead?

Seems like it would be more fun and awe-inspiring, and just as far out.

\ Monkey Business \

2010-05-05T23:15:00.001-07:00

My last wordcount update was back in April; one seems overdue.

Date: 05/05/2010
Wordcount Since Last Update: 9,060
Work in Progress: 2010 Story # 04
Year-To-Date Wordcount: 41,330

Enterprises Old and New

2010-05-05T23:10:00.001-07:00

Jeebus! Looks like it’s been a while since my last post on here.

Since the last post, among other things, I:

Failed to attend the wedding of one of my best friends.
Read more books.
Watched more films.
Watched more documentaries.
Started catching up on season 2 of Fringe. (Still 8 episodes behind).
Exercised.
55k mile inspection completed on my Ford Focus.
Read even more books, and some stories.
Finished a new story.
Finished a new essay.
More writing projects in progress.
Upgraded my PC, and am now running that Beast known as Windows 7. (Among other things, I’m using Windows Live Writer to write this post. We’ll see what happens).

Book #9 of 2010

2010-04-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

Title: Madame Bovary

Author/Editor: Gustave Flaubert

Year Published: 1856

Category: Literature, French.

In a year of quite a few firsts for me in both books and film, this masterpiece represents my formal entry into classic French literature. And I'm glad I didn't read this earlier, to be honest, because I would have probably missed or misunderstood a lot of it (and I'm sure I'll get more from it when I re-read it, which I'll surely do after a reasonable period).

An utterly beguiling, entrancing book, peopled with idiosyncratic characters and brimming with arresting details, leading to a wrenching finale.

"Gone were those tender words that had moved her to tears, those tempestuous embraces that had sent her frantic. The grand passion into which she had plunged seemed to be dwindling around her like a river sinking into its bed; she saw the slime at the bottom. She refused to believe it. She redoubled her tenderness. And Rodolphe took less and less care to hide his indifference." (Part II, Chapter Ten)

Book #8 of 2010

2010-04-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Title: Shutter Island

Author/Editor: Dennis Lehane

Year Published: 2003

Category: Thriller, suspense.

After having seen the film I figured it might be fun to find out how Lehane had achieved his story's central misdirections and atmospheric build-ups using verbal rather than visual cues. Also, the ending to Shutter Island is the sort that makes revisiting the story in another format not entirely unattractive, since it can "read" in a different way with this knowledge, and specific exchanges can literally be re-interpreted. In addition, I was curious about Lehane's writing style, after having seen some very positive reviews of his books accrue over the years. (It also didn't hurt that every film I've seen based on his material has been well-crafted).

This one's a quick read. The pace, for the most part, is frantic (at least psychologically). Attention to details, setting etc. are satisfying but not memorable. The characterization, particularly tricky in the service of this plot, is handled deftly, though I began to find some of the flashbacks and depictions of trauma a little over-the-top and "trashy" towards the latter sections. The writing itself is smooth, and very confident, but Lehane's tendency to write run-on sentences and to increase the drama through Dramatic Description and Breathless. Punctuation. became a little distracting and wearying after a while. In short, delivered the goods I was expecting, and mostly riveting as nail-biting entertainment, but in the final analysis somewhat contrived and not particularly profound.

\ Monkey Business \

2010-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Date: 04/11/2010

Wordcount Since Last Update: 13,180

Work in Progress: 2010 Story # 03

Year-To-Date Wordcount: 32,270

Since the last writing-related update I've ...

Finished the year's second story. In its third version, which I innocently thought was to be the final one, it came in just above 9,000 words; in a fourth version, now submitted to the Writers of the Future, I trimmed it down to a little over 8,300 words.
Have made a start on the third story, which is mapped out.
Revised three earlier stories, now in the submission rounds.
Wrote and submitted a new review, covering the first Japanese SF novel I've ever read (in translation, naturally).

The path forward is to push on with the third story and have it finished within the next couple of weeks.

The Mirror Man & The Nymphet Man

2010-03-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading a book of essays by Alberto Manguel, and one of his pieces on Borges made me curious as to whether there were any documentaries on the famous writer, who has long fascinated me. A few clicks into my search I discovered the following docu, available for free on-line:

Jorge Luis Borges: The Mirror Man

In one of those all-too-common ironies of the Web, it turns out that Manguel himself wrote the documentary script.

In other non-news, I was also searching for videos of Nabokov, and got a kick out of the following:

This Week's Exercise Dalliance

2010-03-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

Sunday 03/14/2010 4 miles

Monday 03/15/2010 3 miles

Tuesday 03/16/2010 4 miles

Wednesday 03/17/2010 3.1 miles

Thursday 03/18/2010 2.3 miles

Friday 03/19/2010 2.1 miles

Saturday 03/20/2010 3 miles

Total 21.5 miles

My best week of the year so far.

First Sale to NYRSF

2010-03-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

My review of Jack Skillingstead's dazzling first novel, HARBINGER, was just published in the March 2010 issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction (p. 12-13). That's my first sale to this fine publication.

Six Fascinating Stories

2010-03-08T21:32:00.001-08:00

My review of six 2009 stories I really enjoyed has been published at Strange Horizons.

I was lucky in that I was able to blather on pretty much to my heart's content about each piece :-)

Review: Selected short fiction from 2009 @ SH

This Week's Exercise Dalliance

2010-03-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday 02/28/2010 Rest

Monday 03/01/2010 1 mile

Tuesday 03/02/2010 Rest

Wednesday 03/03/2010 3 miles

Thursday 03/04/2010 3 miles

Friday 03/05/2010 2 miles

Saturday 03/06/2010 2 miles

Total 11 miles

I used to be perplexed...

2010-03-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

...but now I am no longer sure of it.

So quotes (to an unattributed source) Umberto Eco in the course of this somewhat rambunctious, highly entertaining trilingual event from 2007, PIERRE BAYARD & UMBERTO ECO WITH PAUL HOLDENGRÄBER: How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, recorded and digitized for our viewing pleasure.

Below are links to the full video (it's about 2 hours long), which I watched during the last two evenings, and a transcript of the conversation (comes in handy when wanting to know the names of authors quoted).

Video:

Transcript (pdf):

Transcript: PIERRE BAYARD & UMBERTO ECO WITH PAUL HOLDENGRÄBER: How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read

Book #7 of 2010

2010-03-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

Title: A Single Man

Author/Editor: Christopher Isherwood

Year Published: 1964

Category: Novel, literature.

Elizabeth Hardwick, writing in the New York Review of Books, called it "a sad book, with a biological melancholy running through it, a sense of relentless reduction, daily diminishment." It is a novel of arresting sensitivity and composition.

A lot has been written, academically and otherwise, about this modern classic, and I won't attempt to go into depth about the totality of the work here. Instead, check out these to reviews, which discuss things in some detail and provide a lot of interesting commentary:

I would like to offer some extended discussion of one specific example of Isherwood's technique which I found exquisite. On first reading, it appears to be a straightforward descriptive passage. But there's subtle, sophisticated, almost invisible complexity right beneath the surface.

Consider:

Sitting on the john, he can look out of the window. (They can see his head and shoulders from across the street, but not what he is doing.) It is a gray lukewarm California winter morning; the sky is low and soft with Pacific fog. Down at the shore, ocean and sky will be one soft, sad gray. The palms stand unstirred and the oleander bushes drip moisture from their leaves. (p. 17)

Here are just some of the things going on in this five-sentence paragraph:

--Notice the careful phrasing of the first sentence that mutes the sense of action, letting us know this is going to be about something else: "he can look." Not "he looks." This also implies George is in a familiar, comfortable setting: he's aware of his options, of what his surroundings permit and what they don't. He's presumably looked out the window in this fashion before. We don't necessarily know that he's even doing so now; merely that he is aware of the possibility, that he could if he desired. This also suggests mild languor, consistently developed in many other ways throughout the novel, part of what Hardwick summarizes above.

--The fact that he's on the john puts him in a vulnerable situation. It's an intimate setting. Whatever's about to come next therefore has heightened impact, because we tend to be more susceptible to experiences when we're in vulnerable places. The next parenthetical annotation serves to reign in the vulnerability just slightly, but it also cleverly doubles in that it adds a voyeuristic note. George can observe the world in tranquility, and though the world can observe him back, it's not fully reciprocal, since It can't see what "he is doing." The choice of the phrase "what he is doing" is also a rich one; it's ambivalent. It begs the immediate question: just what is he doing? Well, toiletries are the obvious response, since he's sitting on the john. Biologically, he's purging himself. But, situated right after the sentence indicating his ability to look out, we know that's at least as important a part of what he's "doing": namely observing. As he rids himself of biological waste, he intakes the world around him, focusing on the texture of his perceptions.

--"It is a gray lukewarm California winter morning..." It's happened. We've shifted from potential gazing to actual gazing, and this is what George is witnessing. Or is it? We can't be sure. Maybe the camera is moving just beyond him. The sentence is a strong, declarative affirmation, with little room for doubt or misunderstanding. There's nothing inherently surprising about what kind of day it is, of course, given earlier details of setting. But the pairing of this sentence and the very next one is nothing short of masterful.

--"Down at the shore, ocean and sky will be one soft, sad gray." The sky "is" low and soft; we've been told this. That's the way it is. But notice the slip from present to future tense. Now the "ocean and sky will be" whatever comes next. What's Isherwood up to with this shift? Why not simply continue as in the previous remark and tell us that the "ocean and sky are"? Changing tenses does a lot:

(1) It is implicit in the narrative that the camera is moving outward. If George were to look further out, he would see the ocean and sky. He can't, presumably, specially through the fog. But we're moving beyond his Immediate Perception. But then how can we know what the ocean and sky would be like?

(2) Ennui. George knows; things are predictable; he's experienced this before. The configuration of the sky and ocean follows from the observation about the winter morning. There's little sense of mystery or anticipation. George can look. [yawn] Things are X. Things will be Y [if George pursues them further.]

Now, with all of the above underway, Isherwood repeats not only one but two words, "soft" AND "gray"!! How can he get away with this without making the passage sound redundant or unimaginative? The primary reason is that his effect is achieved by using the words in different ways. Part of the effect is a sense of things blending into one another. The vantage point of someone who's depressed or apathetic tends to fuse sensations, because it lacks sufficient energy or determination to resolve things sharply. It's a gray morning and the sky is soft. The ocean and sky will be one soft, sad gray. This implies contiguities, equivalences, abstracted synesthesias: The morning is gray, but the ocean and sky are too, so the morning is in part the same as the ocean and sky. Light is the same as water. The sky is soft and the ocean and sky are as well; namely, everything is soft. It's a little out of focus; it's unreal; it's made gray and diffuse by the beholder. I love how this last sentence unites the ocean and sky into abstractness, making them a color, in turn modified by one physical and one emotional adjective.

--"The palms stand unstirred and the oleander bushes drip moisture from their leaves." Now we've reached the edge of our camera arc. We know we're stopping because the tense has reverted to the present tense again, once more depicting reality-as-is. Potentialities are behind us; we've settled into this. We also sense that we're not going to travel any farther because the palms are "unstirred" ; everything has slowed down. Finally, there's enhanced granularity, higher resolution, which suggests we won't going beyond this. It was all about the sky and ocean and morning before, but now can see actual bushes, drops of moisture. We've zoomed in on much smaller phenomena. "Drip" does invoke motion, but it's slow, and not directed. It's an assertion of the natural world. There's a nice, delicate juxtaposition in this sentence too; we tend to associate "palms" with sunshine and possibly happiness, but here they're paired up with oleander bushes that drip moisture, which again returns us to a more lethargic state. And, finally, there's an almost subconscious return to where we started four sentences earlier: George is on the john, and the bushes are dripping moisture. Processes are running their course, both within and without.

I'll be seeking out more Isherwood over the years. But even if I never had the opportunity to read another word by him, this novel was enough to convince me he's a master.

Book #6 of 2010

2010-03-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

Title: New Dreams for Old

Author/Editor: Mike Resnick

Year Published: 2006

Category: Short-story collection, SF.

A strong collection, to be sure. It certainly highlights the range and contrast in Resnick's short fiction, a reflection of the multi-faceted nature of the author himself, which Nancy Kress comments on in this appreciation.

Humor is hard to pull off, and I'm not sure how funny readers will find the "lighter" pieces, such as the John Justin Mallory tales. They do provide a nice diverting balance, though.

There's little room to disagree about the quality of craft and emotive power of such "serious" (I use quotation marks because there's typically an undercurrent of irony, if not a few outright sarcastic moments) stories as "Travels with My Cats," "A Princess of Earth" and "For I Have Touched the Sky." The endings of these stories are not necessarily startling, but getting there is no less rewarding for it.

I also particularly enjoyed the outright (un-?)religiosity of "The Pale Thin God" and the unnerving implications of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." And who can forget the sideways feel and dream-like logic of the mordant, irresistibly-titled "The Elephants on Neptune"?

These are new dreams for old, as the title indicates; or, put another way, old dreams made new. And they're substantial enough to continue to be made new each time we re-read them.

Jim Svejda Podcasts, Oscar Scores

2010-03-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

I didn't blog quite as much as I wanted to during Feb, but that's OK because I was still doing a bunch of stuff. Time to get caught up.

For starters, here's links to three interesting podcasts with film music composers currently up for Oscars. They're conducted by the inimitable Jim Svejda over at KUSC.

2010 Oscar, Best Score Nominee - Michael Giacchino (Up)

2010 Oscar, Best Score Joint Nominees - Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders (The Hurt Locker)

2010 Oscar, Best Score Nominee - Hans Zimmer (Sherlock Holmes)

There's a lot of fun moments in these podcasts. I really liked the fact that Zimmer not only referenced but recommended Patrick Gower's superb television music for the long-running British Sherlock Holmes TV series. There's a violin trace of it here and there in Zimmer's score, which feels like a loving reference.

In addition, here's a video interview with Zimmer about his creation of the new music for Holmes:

Hans Zimmer Interview from FirstShowing.net on Vimeo.

\ Monkey Business \

2010-03-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

Date: 03/02/2010

Wordcount Since Last Update: 11,780

Work in Progress: 2010 Story # 02

Year-To-Date Wordcount: 19,090

After completing and submitting this year's first new story, which ended up being about 7,700 words long, I worked on a somewhat lengthy review (approx. 6,200 words) of six selected 2009 short stories. Updates to follow when it's published.

Now I'm changing gears again and returning to the year's second new story, which I had made some progress on before the review.

This Week's Exercise Dalliance

2010-02-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

Sunday 02/21/2010 Rest

Monday 02/22/2010 Laziness

Tuesday 02/23/2010 Indolence

Wednesday 02/24/2010 Outright Sloth

Thursday 02/25/2010 1 mile

Friday 02/26/2010 3 miles

Saturday 02/27/2010 3 miles

Total 7 miles

This Week's Exercise Dalliance

2010-02-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

Sunday 02/14/2010 Rest

Monday 02/15/2010 3.5 miles

Tuesday 02/16/2010 3.5 miles

Wednesday 02/17/2010 3.5 miles

Thursday 02/18/2010 3 miles

Friday 02/19/2010 3.5 miles

Saturday 02/20/2010 3.5 miles

Total 20.5 miles

Definitely pleased with this week's performance.

Bach by Rodarmer

2010-02-18T21:14:00.000-08:00

Any well-stocked music collection naturally contains multiple versions of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Here is a nice recommended discography of the Goldbergs which, I imagine, is probably not complete.

I've long loved the classical guitar, and baroque music can generate fine classical guitar transcriptions when in the hands of crafty musicians.

This week's discovery was Kurt Rodarmer's overdubbed recording of, you guessed it, the Goldbergs. Here's a review of the recording that captures this musical experience more eloquently than I could.

And below is a brief sample, of the 1st variation:

\ Rea-dying \ - Short Fiction

2010-02-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

Read since last short fiction update:

42. "Magic Words" by Jill McCorkle (Narrative Magazine, Fall 2008)

43. "Modulation" by Richard Powers (Conjunctions, Spring 2008)

44. "The Briefcase" by Rebecca Makkai (New England Review, Volume 29, Number 2, 2008)

45. "The Idiot President" by Daniel Alarcon (The New Yorker, October 6th 2008)

46. "Rubiaux Rising" by Steve De Jarnatt (Santa Monica Review, Spring 2008)

47. "A Shadow Table" by Alice Fulton (Tin House, Volume 9, Number 3, 2008)

We're 47 days into 2010, and I've now read 47 short stories -- many of them good ones, fortunately.

Of Canary Fevers

2010-02-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

I just received Issue 105 of Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction in the mail today. It's got a ton of great features and reviews, some of which I've been reading during the last few minutes. It also has my 7-page review of John Clute's collection of reviews Canary Fever.

Reviewing a reviewer? Sure, why not? I'll admit, this was one of the most challenging books I've ever reviewed -- and enormously rewarding also.

Science Fiction by Tennyson

2010-02-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

Reading by John Derbyshire.

Tithonus

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-haired shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.

Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man -
So glorious in his beauty and thy choice,
Who madest him thy chosen, that he seemed
To his great heart none other than a God!
I asked thee, "Give me immortality."
Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile,
Like wealthy men who care not how they give.
But thy strong Hours indignant worked their wills,
And beat me down and marred and wasted me,
And though they could not end me, left me maimed
To dwell in presence of immortal youth,
Immortal age beside immortal youth,
And all I was, in ashes. Can thy love,
Thy beauty, make amends, though even now,
Close over us, the silver star, thy guide,
Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears
To hear me? Let me go: take back thy gift:
Why should a man desire in any way
To vary from the kindly race of men,
Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance
Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?

A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes
A glimpse of that dark world where I was born.
Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
And bosom beating with a heart renewed.
Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom,
Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,
Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team
Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,
And shake the darkness from their loosened manes,
And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.

Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful
In silence, then before thine answer given
Departest, and thy tears are on my cheek.

Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,
And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,
In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?
"The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts."

Ay me! ay me! with what another heart
In days far-off, and with what other eyes
I used to watch -if I be he that watched -
The lucid outline forming round thee; saw
The dim curls kindle into sunny rings;
Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood
Glow with the glow that slowly crimsoned all
Thy presence and thy portals, while I lay,
Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm
With kisses balmier than half-opening buds
Of April, and could hear the lips that kissed
Whispering I knew not what of wild and sweet,
Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,
While Ilion like a mist rose into towers.

Yet hold me not for ever in thine East:
How can my nature longer mix with thine?
Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold
Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet
Upon thy glimmering thresholds, when the steam
Floats up from those dim fields about the homes
Of happy men that have the power to die,
And grassy barrows of the happier dead.
Release me, and restore me to the ground;
Thou seest all things, thou wilt see my grave:
Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn;
I earth in earth forget these empty courts,
And thee returning on thy silver wheels.

\ Rea-dying \ - Short Fiction

2010-02-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

Read since last short fiction update:

21. "A Princess of Earth" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, December 2004)

22. "Travels with My Cats " by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, February 2004)

23. "The Elephants on Neptune" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, May 2000)

24. "Robots Don't Cry" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, July 2003)

25. "Down Memory Lane" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, April/May 2005)

26. "The Chinese Sandman" by Mike Resnick (Black Gate Magazine # 3, January 2002)

27. "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, September 2001)

28. "The Amorous Broom" by Mike Resnick (Masters of Fantasy; 2004)

29. "Hothouse Flowers" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, October/November 1999)

30. "His Award-Winning Science Fiction Story" by Mike Resnick (Lan's Lantern #27, 1988)

31. "For I Have Touched the Sky" by Mike Resnick (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1989)

32. "Unsafe at Any Speed" by Mike Resnick (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 2003)

33. "The Pale Thin God" by Mike Resnick (Xanadu; 1993)

34. "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, March 1993)

35. "Here's Looking at You, Kid" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, April 2003)

36. "The Burning Spear at Twilight" by Mike Resnick (Alternate Generals III; 2005)

37. "The Kemosabee" by Mike Resnick (Tales of the Great Turtle; 1994)

38. "The 43 Antarean Dynasties" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, December 1997)

39. "Keepsakes" by Mike Resnick (Between Worlds; 2004)

40. "Guardian Angel" by Mike Resnick (Down These Dark Spaceways; 2005)

41. "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson (Playboy, June 1970)

This Week's Cardio Dalliance

2010-02-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

Sunday 02/07/2010 1 hour bowling; high score 182

Monday 02/08/2010 2 hours bowling; high score 189

Tuesday 02/09/2010 2 miles

Wednesday 02/10/2010 Rest

Thursday 02/11/2010 Rest

Friday 02/12/2010 2 miles

Saturday 02/13/2010 3 miles

Total 7 miles

Film #6 of 2010

2010-02-12T23:37:00.000-08:00

Title: Abrazos Rotos

Year: 2009

Almodovar's directing in this film is a work of a beauty. The cinematography and music, by Rodrigo Prieto and Alberto Iglesias respectively, are also impeccably realized. What I found somewhat dissatisfying about the film as a whole was the script.

What? you ask. You think it's a good idea to burden an Almodovar film with high expectations on the simple level of storyline and plot? Not necessarily as a rule, no, but it is when his aesthetic is so clearly noirish (did you miss the red curtains in that shot?).

The story begins in tantalizing fashion, by following a related set of characters at two different timeframes, the narrative "present" and a period about a decade earlier. We know the past is being invoked to explain the present, but there's more cause-and-effect than that at work in the juxtaposition of scenes and character's choices. So far so good. Revelations are well-paced, the twists make sense and the dark emotional tone is believably depicted. But during the third act, when everything should be coming together, two things go wrong: (1) A key event is attributed to pure happenstance. Almost the entire narrative structure, therefore, ultimately relies on blind chance, rendering the complex and obsessive psychological arcs almost pointless (2) There's a tonal change during the last few scenes that asks us to buy in to a change in the protagonist's focus we haven't really seen enough evidence to believe.

The other thing I wasn't necessarily thrilled about was the acting. Cruz is fine, though this role doesn't appear to offer much new for her, and José Luis Gómez as Ernesto Martel is memorable. But some of the supporting cast doesn't do as well.

All of which is a shame. This could have been tremendous, but ended up being merely technically dazzling and somewhat undercooked instead.

Film #5 of 2010

2010-02-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

Title: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Year: 2009

A co-worker, speaking of George Clooney's performance in Up in the Air, which I haven't yet seen, observed that Clooney is really good at playing "the heartless bastard that doesn't care about anyone." Now, that may be an exaggeration, but there's certainly something to be said for Clooney's ability to nail characters who are supremely self-interested and, more often than not, sly and a little slimy. Something about that sideways, almost clucking motion of the head methinks.

Why is this relevant in Wes Anderson's latest offering, which is also his first stop-motion flick? Clooney voice-acts the titular Fox, and of course he's sly and a little slimy. The voice-to-character match is almost too good; though it's a short film, populated with many well-crafted, idiosyncratic (and sometimes post-modernly over-affected characters), Fox's dialogue and actions tend to dominate the increasingly frantic proceedings. After a while his pat answers, smooth improvisations and endless "charm" border on the overbearing. Border, but don't become it. There's a lot of other voice talent at work too, including Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray.

I haven't read Roald Dahl's source book, but from what I remember of Dahl's tales, this take probably preserves the spirit of the original, though it achieves its intent through a much more contemporary and offbeat tone. The theme of class consciousness, for instance, is still certainly there, and if you watch the first video below you'll get a sense of the extraordinary lengths the film-makers went to capture the spirit of Dahl.

The pairing of writer and director ultimately works well. And of course A Desplat's memorable, distinctive score is up for a well-deserved Oscar.

Here's some behind the scenes stuff:

This Week's Cardio Dalliance

2010-02-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

Sunday 01/31/2010 Rest

Monday 02/01/2010 3 hours bowling, high score 184

Tuesday 02/02/2010 Rest

Wednesday 02/03/2010 2 miles

Thursday 02/04/2010 1.5 hours bowling, high score 182

Friday 02/05/2010 2 miles

Saturday 02/06/2010 3 miles

Total 7 miles

Hit my goal of a minimum three cardio workouts, in a week that included one day of travel to Seattle and back. The 3 hours of bowling on Monday night also provided pretty intensive exercise.

Book #5 of 2010

2010-02-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

Title: The Warden

Author/Editor: Anthony Trollope

Year Published: 1855

Category: Literature, 19th century.

Though not necessarily considered among the greatest of Trollope's novels, I selected THE WARDEN as my first taste of this prolific Victorian writer because it's the first in the Chronicles of Barsetshire sequence. I figured that if I enjoyed it I could proceed with the other five books in the series, and then go on from there to other series. I did indeed find much to like.

For one, this is the first Victorian novel to make me laugh out loud (and few books do, in general). Trollope has several barbs at the expense of Dickens, Carlyle and The Times which were amusing, but it's the ironic tone (specially in a chapter like "Mount Olympus") and gift for description that really captured my attention -- as well as the ethical drama, and the memorable characters. How can one not laugh or at least chuckle at an exchange like the following, which unfolds in the context of the novel's very serious proceedings?

'And so, Mr Bold, I'm to understand, I believe, that you are

desirous of abandoning this attack upon Mr Harding.'

'Oh, Dr Grantly, there has been no attack, I can assure you--'

'Well, well, we won't quarrel about words; I should call it

an attack--most men would so call an endeavour to take away

from a man every shilling of income that he has to live upon;

but it sha'n't be an attack, if you don't like it; you wish to

abandon this--this little game of backgammon you've begun to play.'

This is also a pretty short work by Trollope's later standards, so it seemed more accessible as an entry point to his canon than better-known titles. The plot did seem a little thin, stretched out to perhaps a greater length than it supported. But the digressions were so much fun that I really didn't mind. I know I'll be coming back for more.

Book #4 of 2010

2010-01-30T14:59:00.000-08:00

Title: Cosmic Critiques: How & Why Ten Science Fiction Stories Work

Author/Editor: Martin H. Greenberg, Isaac Asimov

Year Published: 1990

Category: SF short-fiction anthology. How-to-write.

This is a good, but not great, anthology of SF stories, with a few pages of commentary after each piece.

The anthology's main strength is the diversity of authors and story styles/voices, as well as the mix between older classic stories and more recent work. The analyses are interesting and occasionally revealing, but I didn't find them as consistently insightful as I'd hoped, mainly because they tend to speak in generalities about the sub-genre of SF represented by a particular story. While this is useful for learning about SF's sub-genres, and the approaches that tend to work best within them, it's not necessarily very conducive to lessons in craft or technique.

I'm glad I read Niven's "Neutron Star," which I'd heard much about; it held up well to my high expectations.

Cadigan's "Rock On" was punkishly charming (though not happy, by any means) but didn't reach me emotionally.

"Transstar" was the only story I've ever read by Raymond Banks; though not a very demanding or complex tale, it was solidly executed, and highly readable. There was something almost vicious about its directness and moral simplification.

Ballard's "Billenium" feels a little dated, and stretches a predictable sociological point over-thin. I prefer his more aggressively New Wave "compressed novels."

I didn't particularly enjoy Schmitz's "Grandpa."

Cox's "In the Circle of Nowhere" was a pleasant surprise, a well-handled excursion into Native American alternate history.

I could hardly get through Fontenay's tale. The discussion states that "it fits the overall profile of a science fiction quest adventure shaped to the interests and attitudes of a teenaged (and probably male) readership." That's fine; I am not inherently opposed to that sort of thing. But as the comments also point out, "the aliens are generalized" and they seemed over-generalized to me. The conclusion was foregone, sure, but I wished I could have encountered more world-building detail on the way there.

I had read Clarke's "Dial F for Frankenstein" before and had utterly forgotten it. As noted, "...the story is a dialogue less between given characters than between thesis and hypothesis." Since the idea doesn't seem particularly startling or ingenious, the resulting expository exploration becomes pretty disposable.

That leaves the two stories I absolutely loved, both of which I had read before, and multiple times: Asimov's own "The Last Question" and Spinrad's "Carcinoma Angels." Though these are completely different in subject matter and approach, they both share the quality of relentlessness. The shape, time-scale and scope of both narratives is determined entirely by the struggles they chronicle: in Asimov's, humanity's, and eventually the entire Universe's, battle against thermodynamics itself, and in Spinrad's a single individual's attempt to vanquish his own inner cancer.

For a complementary anthology for would-be writers more focused on craft and aesthetic, and with more consistently high-caliber stories, I recommend Robert Silverberg's SCIENCE FICTION 101.

This Week's Cardio Dalliance

2010-01-30T13:44:00.000-08:00

Sunday 01/24/2010 1.5 hours bowling (Made 175 twice)

Monday 01/25/2010 1 hour bowling. Sored 224 on third game. Yearly goal of 200 achieved!

Tuesday 01/26/2010 2.5 miles

Wednesday 01/27/2010 1 hour bowling

Thursday 01/28/2010 Rest

Friday 01/29/2010 2.5 miles

Saturday 01/30/2010 2.5 miles

Total 7.5 miles

Another very busy week, but I still managed to get my three cardio workouts in.

And I hit 200 bowling! I was in a strange mood on Monday morning. I decided, for no apparent reason, to go bowling during my lunch break, a highly unusual choice, to put it mildly. I could tell right away I was focused; on my third game I hit 224. I figure this isn't bad for someone who first went bowling in October of last year (and I haven't gone consistently). It also means that no matter what happens between Feb and December, there's no pressure to make my goal. I like that.

\ Rea-dying \ - Short Fiction

2010-01-29T23:09:00.000-08:00

Second batch of ten stories read since last update:

11. "Neutron Star" by Larry Niven (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

12. "Rock On" by Pat Cadigan (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

13. "Transstar" by Raymond E. Banks (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

14. "Billenium" by J. G. Ballard (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

15. "Grandpa" by James H. Schmitz (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

16. "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

17. "In the Circle of Nowhere" by Irving E. Cox, Jr. (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

18. "Dial F for Frankenstein" by Arthur C. Clarke (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

19. "The Silk and the Song" by Charles L. Fontenay (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

20. "Carcinoma Angels" by Norman Spinrad (Cosmic Critiques, 1990)

\ Monkey Business \

2010-01-29T22:16:00.000-08:00

Date: 01/29/2010

Wordcount Since Last Update: 2,790

Work in Progress: 2010 Story # 01

Year-To-Date Wordcount: 7,310

Finally, my first new story of the year is done. Well, the first draft, at any rate. There's tweaking and revising to be completed. At 7.3K words it's quite a bit longer than I was intending, so there'll probably be some good word-killing too. But I feel like I can breathe a little again now. I'll need that oxygen, too, as I set about trying to sniff out the story's weak spots and make them disappear over the next few days.

This Week's Cardio Dalliance

2010-01-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

Sunday 01/17/2010 1.5 hours bowling

Monday 01/18/2010 Rest

Tuesday 01/19/2010 Rest

Wednesday 01/20/2010 Rest

Thursday 01/21/2010 2.3 miles

Friday 01/22/2010 2.6 miles

Saturday 01/23/2010 2.5 miles

Total 7.4 miles

A very busy week, and I'm glad I still managed to get three cardio workouts in.

\ Monkey Business \

2010-01-22T21:59:00.000-08:00

Date: 01/22/2010

Wordcount Since Last Update: 2,360

Work in Progress: 2010 Story # 01

Year-To-Date Wordcount: 4,520

Now at the 4.5K mark on the year's first story, and it's clear it's going to be a little longer than I originally thought. Not a bad thing; have the remaining scenes planned out, and will be killing excess wordage when the first draft is done anyway, cutting it back down to size some.

Book #3 of 2010

2010-01-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

Title: Ever Since Darwin

Author: Stephen Jay Gould

Year Published: 1977

Category: Non-fiction. Natural history/evolution/biology.

I've been meaning to read this for years, and I'm so glad I finally did. It's a masterful popular science collection -- I'm not surprised it became a bestseller when first published in 1977, and has been in print since. More than thirty years have passed since its original publication, but Gould's style remains fresh, his subject matters contemporary, his presentation insightful and timely. His writing is articulate, erudite yet accessible, and reflects a remarkable breadth of knowledge, often connecting apparently disparate branches of science in an elegant fashion.

This books collects the first thirty-three pieces Gould wrote for Natural History magazine and is the first of ten such volumes. I'm already looking forward to the remaining nine.

I'm going to summarize a few of my "key learnings" here, for handy future reference:

Chapter 6. The concept of allopatric speciation, "the phenomenon whereby biological populations are physically isolated by an extrinsic barrier and evolve intrinsic (genetic) reproductive isolation, such that if the barrier should ever vanish, individuals of the populations can no longer interbreed."
Chapter 7. The theory of neoteny in humans. In neoteny the "the physiological (or somatic) development of an animal or organism is slowed or delayed (alternatively, seen as a dilation of biological time)."
Chapter 8. Altricial vs. precocial mammals. Altricial: "pattern of growth and development in organisms which are incapable of moving around on their own soon after hatching or being born." Precocial: "refers to species in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching."
Chapter 9. Orthogenesis and allometry. Orthogenesis: "the hypothesis that life has an innate tendency to move in a unilinear fashion due to some internal or external 'driving force'." Allometry: "the study of the relationship between size and shape."
Chapter 9. The Allerod Interstadial phase. "A warm and moist global interstadial that occurred at the end of the last glacial period."
Chapter 10. r/K selection. "Relates to the selection of combinations of traits that trade off the quantity and quality of offspring to promote success in particular environments."
Chapter 11. Predator satiation. "An antipredator adaptation in which prey occur at high population densities, reducing the probability of an individual organism being eaten."
Chapter 29. Bergman's rule. "An ecogeographic rule that correlates latitude with body mass in animals. Broadly it asserts that within a species the body mass increases with latitude and colder climate, or that within closely related species that differ only in relation to size that one would expect the larger species to be found at the higher latitude."
Chapter 30. Analogous vs. homologous features. Analogy: "Two structures in biology are said to be analogous if they perform the same or similar function by a similar mechanism but evolved separately." Homology: "Refers to any similarity between characteristics of organisms that is due to their shared ancestry."

This Week's Cardio Dalliance

2010-01-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

Sunday 01/10/2010 7 miles

Monday 01/11/2010 3 hours bowling (My first triple strike, or "turkey")

Tuesday 01/12/2010 2 miles

Wednesday 01/13/2010 1 mile

Thursday 01/14/2010 Rest

Friday 01/15/2010 4.5 miles (My first one-mile in 6:50)

Saturday 01/16/2010 2.5 miles

Total 17 miles

The Only Krebs in My Bach

2010-01-14T21:16:00.001-08:00

Bach, who taught Johann Ludwig Kre b s the organ, is said to have remarked that his student was "the only crayfish ["Krebs"] in my brook ["Bach"]."

Puns aside, Krebs has left us a fine collection of baroque compositions; his works for organ are held in special regard.

I've found much to enjoy in the pictured selection of Sinfonien & Sonaten and look forward to discovering more by this composer.

Sweet Corporate Talk

2010-01-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

Here are some phrases you'll eventually run into if you toil in a corporate environment.

You're specially likely to encounter these sweeties when "conducting business" over the phone.

Oh, and I've taken the liberty to include translations on what they actually mean. More to follow as I see fit.

Sweet Corporate Talk: "Thanks for taking the time to review this with me. It was really helpful in understanding where we're at."
True Meaning: "This was a waste of time."

Sweet Corporate Talk: "I'm not sure that I'm OK with that, but I know it's not your fault."
True Meaning: "I'll be talking to my boss about this, and my boss will talk to your boss."

Sweet Corporate Talk: "Thanks! I'll follow-up with Joe on that last item."
True Meaning: "Since you couldn't take care of that item, which was really my primary reason for contacting you, I now have to talk to someone else. Gee, thanks."

Sweet Corporate Talk: "We've got some very exciting changes in the pipeline."
True Meaning: "Expect a big workload in the immediate future."

Sweet Corporate Talk: "The following action items came out of that meeting."
True Meaning: "The meeting went south. We need to shape up. Here's everything that needs to happen right away."

Sweet Corporate Talk: "I'll be happy to review some options with you. I want to make sure you're aware of your resources."
True Meaning: "Sorry, no can do."

Sweet Corporate Talk: "I really appreciate all the hard work you put into this."
True Meaning: (Different tone) "I really appreciate all the hard work you put into this."

Sweet Corporate Talk: "I just want to make sure we're on the same page."
True Meaning: "Dude."

Film #4 of 2010

2010-01-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Title: Murder by Decree

Year: 1979

Instead of watching the new Sherlock Holmes adaptation, I went back and checked out this old classic, based on recommendations regarding superior Holmes/Watson players.

In that regard, Murder by Decree certainly acquitted itself. Christopher Plummer and James Mason nail their roles as Holmes and Watson. Couldn't have been more happy.

Now, as far as the rest of the film...

I didn't find other performances nearly as impressive, specially those by Donald Sutherland (a disappointment) and by Geneviève Bujold (a predictably overwrought displeasure). Apparently Bujold won a Genie award for her supporting role in this; not in my book.

As I watched I noticed similarities with the plot of a much more recent film, which, with some assistance, I finally realized was From Hell (2001). No wonder; they're both based on the same book. Of course, this kind of ruined the whole suspense thing. (Though naturally I don't hold this against the film). What I did object to was lapses in logic or character plausibility. A Sherlock Holmes mystery should be more exquisitely assembled.

Also, once the movie is over (or should be!), there's an entire additional 20-minute sequence where everything is explained, just in case we hadn't figured it out by, I dunno, watching it happen. Redundant and dead material. Cut!

The score is ineffective (and am not surprised that it hasn't been released). During one of those final scenes it was so tonally opposed to the dialogue it was positively distracting.

The production value is high and the directing, though a little dated, works well. The photography is splendid.

I'd say only big fans of Sherlock should look this one up. I wish Plummer and Mason had played these characters in better circumstances.

7 Reasons for Wood on Sundays

2010-01-10T23:13:00.000-08:00

Here's seven reasons why it's a good idea to listen to Howard Shore's superb score for Tim Burton's excellent Ed Wood on a Sunday:

1. The theremin.

2. See above. A ha.

3. The mambo. When else are you going to mambo?

4. Korla Pandit's "Nautch Dance." Oh yeah.

5. Cynthia Millar's Ondes Martenot.

6. Audio clips of Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. "Pull the string!"

7. Orchestral sections performed by The London Philharmonic Orchestra. That could work on any day of the week, but combined with all the above, it's got to be a Sunday!

In short, zaniness and poignancy cheek-by-cheek.

And here's Howard Shore himself, discussing the score and how the use of the theremin came about:

\ Rea-dying \ - Short Fiction

2010-01-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

Ten days into '10, ten stories read:

1. "The Motorman's Coat" by John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June/July 2009)

2. "Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance" by John Kessel (The New Space Opera 2, 2009)

3. "Adaptogenia" by Wayne Wightman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June/July 2009)

4. "Foreign Exchange" by Jerry Oltion (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, November 2009)

5. "Blocked" by Geoff Ryman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2009)

6. "Never Blood Enough" by Joe Haldeman (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2009)

7. "The Others" by Lawrence C. Connolly (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August/September 2009)

8. "The Avenger of Love" by Jack Skillingstead (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April/May 2009)

9. "The Economy of Vacuum" by Sarah Thomas (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2009)

10. "The Man Who Did Something About It" by Harvey Jacobs (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2009)

This Week's Cardio Dalliance

2010-01-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

Sunday 01/03/2010 5 miles

Monday 01/04/2010 2.5 hours bowling (high score 163)

Tuesday 01/05/2010 3 miles

Wednesday 01/06/2010 Rest

Thursday 01/07/2010 3.2 miles

Friday 01/08/2010 2 miles

Saturday 01/09/2010 2.5 miles

Total 15.7 miles

Book #2 of 2010

2010-01-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

Title: Lost Cities and Vanished Civilizations

Author: Robert Silverberg

Year Published: 1962

Category: Non-fiction. Archaeology/history/biography.

Six chapters; six renowned archaeological discoveries (Pompeii, Troy, Knossos, Babylon, Chichen Itza, Angkor); and, connected to them, we get dozens of brief biographical sketches of their main discoverers and their forerunners/inspirations, as well as plenty of straight history on the Empires that fashioned these marvels.

Despite its age, and all that we have learned since, this is an inspired survey of the empires in question. There is a nice symmetry in starting with Pompeii and ending with Angkor, since both of these chapters tend to focus more on the daily lives of the denizens in question than their convoluted histories. The chapters on Troy and Crete are assured and read smoothly. The chapter on Babylon feels overcrowded -- I think Silverberg is trying to get too much in here, and it's not as well organized as it could be, specially as compared with later treatments of this same material in his full-length biographies. The chapter on the Mayas is solid, but perhaps more severely outdated than some of the others.

Once again, the fascinating nature of the subject matter makes this as an easy read. The prose isn't quite as well-crafted in Silverberg's latter non-fiction books; there are more repetitions of points already made (perhaps in an effort to make the very disparate chapters seem cohesive), more choppiness resulting from the skips forward and jumps back. Of course, trademark wry Silverberg observations pepper the text, as in the following, when discussing the enslavement of half a million Mayas by the Spanish:

"The Spanish were ruthlessly thorough, as their priests recorded in their accounts of the period. Luckily, they did take the trouble to write reports on the civilization they were destroying." (p. 147)

Indeed.

Film #3 of 2010

2010-01-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

Title: (500) Days of Summer

Year: 2009

Richard Roeper places this at #4 of his best of 2009; I wouldn't rank it nearly that high. Though I did think this was really well-made there wasn't enough new or intriguing by which to be blown away.

After catching The Lookout last year I was curious to see what else Joseph Gordon-Levitt would do. He was terrific in The Lookout and is equally excellent -- and quite different -- here.

The film's non-linear storytelling is artfully employed to make genuine emotional observations about the characters, by juxtaposing events/reactions we otherwise probably wouldn't place side by side. Outside of this neat device, though, and the accomplished naturalistic tone, there were no additional knock-out elements to raise the picture outside of its somewhat complacent alterna-non-complacency. Mychael Danna delivered another fine score in 2009 with this outing (though it still doesn't come close to his 2008 work for Egoyan's Adoration). I certainly prefer his score to the song compilation, sure to be a hit.

And, whereas Roeper loved the ending, I thought it was too pat. The final scene at the job interview just didn't seem convincing -- sure, people flirt etc. but the lines of dialog seemed, at least to me, too much of an out-of-character-voice commentary on the "lessons of life" conveyed through Tom's experiences, rather than an honest exchange. The intermittent narration also felt a little unnecessary, and it was mildly distracting in that it reminded me of the voice-overs in Pushing Daisies.

So, a very strong film in a genre I usually avoid; but it will probably only stay with me for, oh I dunno, about 500 days.

Film #2 of 2010

2010-01-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Title: La Grande Illusion

Year: 1937

I mentioned recently that I wanted to start watching more Criterion classics.

And what better place to start than at the beginning of the list, with this masterpiece by Jean Renoir?

Now, I knew going into this that it was going to be good, but I had no idea it would feel, well, so...contemporary. Volumes have been written about this film (here are two insightful analyses: R Ebert, P Cowie) and others by Renoir so I'll keep my comments short.

Right from the start, I enjoyed the fact that the themes of war and class distinction (which act as kind of cross-beams throughout the film, illuminating notions of human choice and responsibility) were not attacked directly. Situating events in a war camp, after the main action has already taken place, is a simple and effective way of staging the drama of the story without making it heavy-handed.

The performances and production were excellent all around. I suspected that Erich von Stroheim was perhaps having a little bit of difficulty delivering his lines in the correct accent (a decade of living in Germany will allow you to spot something like that). The wiki on him seems to confirm this: "However Jean Renoir writes in his memoirs: “Stroheim spoke hardly any German. He had to study his lines like a schoolboy learning a foreign language.”" In a weird way this improves his performance, by making him more remote, more weary and damaged, more empathetic.

While the first acts of the film are effective, it's really the final act that captivated me. The escape sequence is expertly timed, the photography superb, and the final poignant psychological truths revealed in a seemingly effortless manner. Not to mention the layers of significance and apparent foresight added to the film by subsequent historical events.

The only edition of this film's score by Joseph Kosma includes sound FX and dialog, as heard in the actual film. That's truly a shame. Kosma's work deserves much better. In this age of countless re-releases and re-recordings I hope it's just a question of time before we get a new edition of this score.

\Monkey Business\

2010-01-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

Date: 01/07/2010

Today’s Wordcount: 1160

Today's Piece: 2010 Story # 01

Year-To-Date Wordcount: 2160

Story is starting to shape up -- or, I should say, hasn't completely deviated from my intended course; looking like 4-5K words.

Oscar-Eligible Film Scores

2010-01-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

As was reported a couple of days ago, many worthy 2009 film scores have been excluded from Oscar consideration this year due to AMPAS policy.

I almost always disagree with the winner of the "Best Original Score" category anyway, so it doesn't make too much difference to me either way.

Just for kicks, out of the 81 scores that are eligible, I'm selecting my ten favorite. (There are 16 in the list I haven't yet heard, so I'm really voting from a pool of 65. And if I tried this again tomorrow I might come up with a different list, so there.)

ADORATION (Mychael Danna)

BROKEN EMBRACES (Alberto Iglesias)

ASTRO BOY (John Ottman)

AVATAR (James Horner)

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (Mark Isham)

CHERI (Alexandre Desplat)

DRAG ME TO HELL (Christopher Young)

MOON (Clint Mansell)

UP (Michael Giacchino)

THE YOUNG VICTORIA (Ilan Eshkeri)

Never Discuss Love on An Empty Stomach

2010-01-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

It's easy to forget how vibrant, how exciting and structurally sinuous Bernard Herrmann's score for Hitchcock's North by Northwest is. In programmes on Herrmann this and several other of his gems are typically overlooked in favor of more prominent works like Psycho and Vertigo. Let me say from the outset that I don't believe NBN rivals the aforementioned; though a remarkable achievement in many ways, it is definitely lighter fair, not quite as shatteringly memorable as Psycho nor as tragic and emotive as Vertigo.

Still, listen to the opening overture and you know you're in for a treat:

Tracks like the above and "Car Crash" highlight the brassy and percussive muscle in this score.

Compare this with the introspection and romanticism of a track like "Interlude":

In short, not only are the concrete themes of the score impressive, but so is its range; part of the Herrmann signature of excellence. Here's an interesting piece that situates NBN in the broader Herrmann-Hitchcock context.

Multiple editions of this score have been released over the years; the version of choice for anyone looking to experience the entire music in its most dynamic, meticulous and comprehensive presentation (including a few reconstructed cues, courtesy of Herrmann scholar Christopher Husted) is the 2007 limited Varese Sarabande North By Northwest: The Complete Score performed by Joel McNeely with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra.

McNeely's recording is clearly a labor of love. McNeely is an accomplished if not necessarily outstanding film composer in his own right, but I think his enduring legacy to the world of film music will be his dedicated re-recordings of masterpieces by Herrmann, Franz Waxman, John Barry and others. These are significant contributions, and I think they'll be considered definitive statements for some time.

And by the way, I do think it's a bad idea to discuss love on an empty stomach.

Incidentally, I also try and avoid all serious conversations of the heart after 9:30 pm.

95 Books I'm Looking forward to in 2010

2010-01-06T19:00:00.001-08:00

We're already in the "new" year, of course, and the first of these titles have recently been published.

Yes, I realize I won't be able to read all these books in 2010. What's your point? :-)

I put this together in December of '09 so half of it is probably wrong by now. All corrections/updates welcome. (I am aware that for some of these the date represents the first paperback publication, not the first publication of the book per se.)

	January 2010

29-Dec-09	Robinson, Kim Stanley	Galileo's Dream
1-Jan-10	Paul Auster, ed.	The Poems, Short Fiction, and Criticism of Samuel Beckett
1-Jan-10	Julian Shuckburgh	Harmony and Discord: The Real Life of Johann Sebastian Bach
5-Jan-10	Haldeman, Joe	Starbound
5-Jan-10	Jablokov, Alexander	Brain Thief
19-Jan-10	Mario Livio	Is God a Mathematician?
29-Jan-10	Datlow, Ellen, ed.	Digital Domains: A Decade of Science Fiction & Fantasy
31-Jan-10	Nick Gevers, ed.	The Book of Dreams
?	Roger Zelazny	Nine Black Doves - Volume 5: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny
?	Roger Zelazny	The Road to Amber - Volume 6: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny
?	James Blish	Flights of Eagles


	February 2010

2-Feb-10	Willis, Connie	Blackout
2-Feb-10	Don DeLillo	Point Omega
2-Feb-10	Ben Bova ed.	The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two B
2-Feb-10	Wells Tower	Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories
2-Feb-10	Charless Stross	The Revolution Business: Book Five of the Merchant Princes
3-Feb-10	Nick Huggett	Everywhere and Everywhen: Adventures in Physics and Philosophy
9-Feb-10	Straub, Peter	A Dark Matter
23-Feb-10	Bear, Elizabeth	Chill
24-Feb-10	Dan Simmons	Black Hills
28-Feb-10	Beagle, Peter S.	Mirrored Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle
28-Feb-10	Shepard, Lucius	The Taborin Scale
?	Robots and Magic	Lester del Rey
?	Lake, Jay	The Baby Killers
?	Deep Navigation	Alastair Reynolds


	March 2010

1-Mar-10	Stoddard, Jason	Winning Mars
2-Mar-10	Steele, Allen	Coyote Destiny
2-Mar-10	Jean Rabe, ed. & Martin H. Greenberg, ed	Timeshares
15-Mar-10	Datlow, Ellen, ed.	Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror
16-Mar-10	Martin, George R. R., & Gardner Dozois, eds.	Warriors
16-Mar-10	Wolfe, Gene	The Sorcerer's House
22-Mar-10	Mark D White ed.	Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality
23-Mar-10	Paul McAuley	Gardens of the Sun
29-Mar-10	Jonathan Strahan, ed.	The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 4
29-Mar-10	Ellen Datlow, ed.	The Best Horror of the Year Volume 2
30-Mar-10	Spinrad, Norman	He Walked Among Us
30-Mar-10	Ian McEwan	Solar
30-Mar-10	Jay Lake	Pinion
29-Apr-10	Rich Horton, ed.	The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010 Edition
?	Cobley, Michael	The Orphaned Worlds
?	MacLeod, Ken	The Restoration Game


	April 2010

1-Apr-10	Gray, Alasdair	Old Men in Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers
1-Apr-10	Geoff Ryman	When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction
6-Apr-10	Fawcett, Bill, ed.	Nebula Awards Showcase 2010
6-Apr-10	Sawyer, Robert J.	WWW: Watch
6-Apr-10	Terry Eagleton	On Evil
13-Apr-10	Flynn, Michael	Up Jim River
13-Apr-10	Patterson, William H., Jr.	Robert A. Heinlein: Volume 1 (1907-1949)
13-Apr-10	Paul Davies	The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
15-Apr-10	Leiber, Fritz	Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories 1950-1983 (co-edited with Charles N. Brown)
15-Apr-10	Patricia Fara	Science: A Four Thousand Year History (pb)
23-Apr-10	Daniel C. Dennett	Content and Consciousness
23-Apr-10	Jean Paul Sartre	The Imaginary: A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination
27-Apr-10	Mann, George	Ghosts of Manhattan
27-Apr-10	Whates, Ian	The Noise Within
27-Apr-10	Ian McDonald	Ares Express
27-Apr-10	Ian Stewart	Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures
30-Apr-10	Jonathan Keates	Handel: The Man & His Music
?	Williams, Walter Jon	The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories


	May 2010

1-May-10	Rusch, Kristine Kathryn	Recovering Apollo 8 and Other Stories
1-May-10	Ian Stewart	Cows in the Maze: And Other Mathematical Explorations
4-May-10	Jack Williamson	With Folded Hands . . . And Searching Mind, The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Seven
4-May-10	Richard Holmes	The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science
11-May-10	Doctorow, Cory	For the Win
15-May-10	Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg	The Business of Science Fiction: Two Insiders Discuss Writing and Publishing
25-May-10	Hartwell, David G., & Kathryn Cramer, eds.	Year's Best SF 15
25-May-10	John Updike	My Father's Tears: And Other Stories
25-May-10	Jorge Luis Borges	On Writing


	June 2010

1-Jun-10	Gevers, Nick, & Marty Halpern, eds.	Is Anybody Out There?
1-Jun-10	Reynolds, Alastair	Terminal World
15-Jun-10	Dean Koontz	Frankenstein: Lost Souls
29-Jun-10	Miéville, China	Kraken
30-Jun-10	Roz Kaveney, ed Jennifer Stoy ed	Battlestar Galactica: Investigating Flesh, Steel and Spirit


	July 2010

1-Jul-10	Jeff VanderMeer	The Third Bear
1-Jul-10	Martin H. Greenberg, ed	The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse
6-Jul-10	Gardner Dozois ed.	The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection
6-Jul-10	Greg Bear	Untitled Forerunner Novel #1
14-Jul-10	John Gribbin	In Search of the Multiverse
20-Jul-10	Lou Anders, ed.	With Great Power . . .
22-Jul-10	Ian Stewart	Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?
22-Jul-10	Richard P. Feynman	Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals: Emended Edition
27-Jul-10	McDonald, Ian	The Dervish House
?	Anderson, Poul	The Saturn Game: Volume 3 of the Short Fiction of Poul Anderson


	August 2010

3-Aug-10	Kowal, Mary Robinette	Shades of Milk and Honey
?	Pohl, Frederik	Underneath the Mountain
?	Robinson, Kim Stanley	The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson


	September 2010

1-Sep-10	Peter S. Beagle, ed.	The Secret History of Fantasy
2-Sep-10	Iain Banks	New Culture Novel
28-Sep-10	George R.R. Martin	A Dance with Dragons


	October 2010




	November 2010




	December 2010


?	Jonathan Strahan, ed.	Eclipse Four
?	Jonathan Strahan, ed.	The Best of Joe Haldeman (co-edited with Gary K. Wolfe)
?	Jonathan Strahan, ed.	Godlike Machines
?	Jonathan Strahan, ed.	The Best of Larry Niven
?	Jonathan Strahan, ed.	Hard Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance (co-edited with Terry Dowling)
?	Michael Hemmingson	Malzberg Critical Study