Writing, Reading, Observing

It has been a hectic week, but what else is new. I haven't written as much as I would have liked, but I have been adding to the NaNoWriMo book just about every day. I’m having fun with it, as I’ve said, and surprising myself with what I’m putting to page. The story is becoming more personal than I was expecting. Hopefully, a pot of coffee will help me to a long writing session into very early tomorrow morning.

I finished up E.E. Knight's Dragon Champion a couple of days ago and I'm polishing up my review. Overall reaction, I liked it, but I'll go into more detail when I finish and post the review.

I also read All Star Superman #1 this week and thought it was just about everything a Superman comic book should be. Even if many of Quietly's faces look like they are sucking a lemon, his overall layouts and details are amazing. Too bad it will be 2 months until the next one hits shelves. Speaking of Superman, the trailer for Superman Returns ran during Smallville last night, which only left me wanting to see more. Smallville itself was good, even if it seemed like a big commercial for Ford. Even if resolution always hits about 8:43 every episode, they are delivering some good Kryptonian back-story, focusing more on Clark, enough on Lex, and still a little too much on Chloe. I think Jor-El has somehow inhabited Lionel Luthor.

Continuing on the comic book theme, I have to say, I’ve been impressed with Image Comics output lately, both current and future. I'm sure I'm not reinventing the wheel by stating this, but they are no longer the splash-page in your face artist turned writers they were when they started up in rebelling to Marvel & DC. Sure Spawn is still ongoing and Larson's Savage Dragon is picking up again, but they are doing some interesting things there, in addition.

Rex Mundi is one that comes immediately to mind – an alternate history dealing with a powerful church and the Holy Grail. The art is good, the story is deep, mysterious and often spooky with a minimal supernatural element. The only problem is the somewhat erratic shipping schedule.

GØDLAND is another one. Cosmic superheroics in the Kirby tradition! Seriously, I have the first issue and liked it a lot, Joe Casey is telling a fun story here. Scioli’s art just explodes off the page. I've got issues 3 and 4, but can't seem to get my hands on the second issue. For anybody considering this thing, the whole first issue is posted for free at Newsarama. (Thanks for triggering that memory Mahesh!)

Fear Agent, by Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Cory Walker has only one issue on the shelves right now, but I liked it a lot. So far this is SciFi adventure with an Indiana Jones like feel. On both GØDLAND and Fear Agent, the coloring is spectacular, too.

Another book coming out next year that looks interesting is The Portent, described as "a sweeping fantasy epic" launching in February.

Here is a page with a bunch of previews of their comics. They have also recently started a great all-Image-encompassing blog.

Lastly, this week and part of last week the blogosphere (at least the FSF portion I consider myself to be a part of) has been caught up in what has come to be known as the Venom Cock controversy. I’ve been observing this from a distance with some morbid curiosity. As a person with aspirations of becoming a successful, published writer who also spends a great deal of their time reading and reviewing fantasy and science fiction, I've found myself in an odd place on this one. Any large group of people eventually becomes divided into cliques, this is only a natural thing. Between cliques a natural "they said" and "No THEY said" thing will develop. The result of all this, of course, is that Janine Cross, the author of Touched by Venom, will likely see a nice increase in the sales of her book.

Churning along

I'm still not quite where I want to be with NaNoWriMo, but my Friday overnight writing spree brought me to 10K and I'm approaching 13K right now. I'm finding the key to doing this thing, and this probably isn't a surprise to anyone, is falling into a writing schedule.

I'm trying to add to this thing everyday, even if it is just re-reading what I wrote over the past couple of days and make some edits and the addition of a couple paragrahps. Half the time I write more than I expect, other times I hate myself for not writing as much as I want.

This week at comic shops the much anticipated All-Star Superman #1 hits the shelves. This should be a lot of fun.

NaNoWriMo in the night

Blogging right now is providing a brief distraction from NaNoWriMo. This Devil of a book I'm working on has some supernatural, scary elements to it. I'm finding it tricky to not be too blatant with these facets of the novel, but it is fun too. I'm also enjoying balancing the real with the supernatural, and trying to set my characters in as "real" a world as possible. Certain writers are described as "subtle," and I suppose I'm aiming for that with some of the scenes I've just crafted.

Considering there are scenes I've written which I hope will set the reader's hair on end, is it a good sign that I was a bit spooked writing them and felt goose-bumps?

To further add to the creepy, or Twilight-Zone-esque feel, I just did a word count and got exactly 8000. It could have been worse, it could have had 666 in it.

On the TV right now, providing background noise is Wondershowzen - what a fucked up show.

One Year Ago...

Yeah I just posted something similar, but I did start this blog shortly after my birthday last year, so you will all have to suffer some of my wistful remembrances.

I figured the one-year mark was as good a time as any to change up the look here at your Friendly Neighborhood Blog o' Stuff. I was getting a little bit bored with the orange and white and felt like going for something blue.

So what has happened since I began this thing last year? Probably the biggest was buying/moving into a new house and selling our townhouse. This provided a great deal of stress to lives of Mr. Blog o' Stuff and myself, as selling a house without a realtor, whilst cheaper, is somewhat frustrating. Still, I like the idea of not having to pay a realtor thousands of dollars for something I can do myself. That took up a couple months of my life and after putting a nice amount of work into the new house to bring it up from repair work to simply maintenance work, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I are growing much more comfortable with the idea of this being our home. As if on cue, I received a call from informing me the tax assessor came for her scheduled visit.

We had some very good memories of our first 5 years of marriage in the townhouse. We shared our first Christmas there, after all. As much as we wanted a house with land, it was still a little sad to leave a place with five years of memories.

My parents also moved, too. They just moved to the other side of town. This was odd for me, since the house they moved out of was pretty much the house in which I grew up. My parents bought the house when I was 3, and I lived there up until I married Mrs. Blog o' Stuff at the age of 25. Sure, I spent 4 years on and off living in New Brunswick, but this was the home where I grew up. Still, it is odd for my parents to be in a different house than the one they were in for 30 years and I don't think I'll ever drive down their old street. I don't think I want to see how the new people there changed it.

SFFWorld has continued to grow, with the expansion of our forums to include the OFFICIAL forums of several authors. (Gary Wassner, R. Scott Bakker, Matthew Stover, Steve Savile, Madeline Howard, Caitlin Sweet, Kevin Radthorne, Alison Croggon, Richard Tuttle, Samit Basu, Glenda Larke, Marienne de Pierres, Richard Harland) We recently started expanding our coverage, on the Web site as a whole, to encompass graphic novels and comic books. People in the world of FSF are beginning to take notice of our presence, I'd like to think, especially with more blurbs of our reviews appearing on or in published books.

The Yankees failed to make it to the World Series again, the NHL returned, and it looks like my alma mater may actually make it into a Bowl Game for the first time in many, many years.

Lastly, I suppose this is a mild case of serendipity, the Web site for Superman Returns went live yesterday.

Lazy post

Just a meme placeholder today from mastadge. Something of more substance tomorrow.

1. First thing you did this morning?
Hit the alarm clock

2. Last thing you ate?
Some kind of danish my mom brought over on Saturday.

3. Is your cell phone a piece of crap?
Pretty much.

4. What's the thing you look forward to most in the next 6 months?
Spending the first Christmas season in my new house with my wife. Finishing a novel or two.

5. What's annoying you right now?
Having to wake up everyday and go to work. To quote pal Justin – “Why is there so much month left at the end of the money?”

6. Whats the last movie you saw in a theater?
Batman Begins

7. Do you believe in long distance relationships?
I suppose

8. What's worse, when you try so hard for something then you end up not even getting it, or losing someone you love?
Losing someone you love.

9. Is there someone you miss?
Yes.

10. What inspires you?
My Wife and my Life.

11. If you could put together a concert of 4 bands or artists, who would they be?
Godsmack, Black Label Society, Black Sabbath (from before Ozzy was kicked out the first time) and Shinedown.

12. Song that sums up your love life?
Take a Look at Yourself by Plant/Paige, Unanswered Prayers by Garth Brooks

13. What's one thing you wish you were better at doing?
Keeping to my writing schedule.

14. If you could be anywhere this second where would you be?
Back home, in bed with my wife.

15. What's your most vivid memory from 6th grade?
That was middle-school, the three worst years of my life and they all blended together. Being harrased several times a week by kids in the 8th grade sucked.

16. Latest addiction?
Cheese. Every day when I get home, I have the almost uncontrollable urge to cut a piece of cheddar or smoked provolone.

17. Have you ever had the slight urge to kill someone?
Define ‘slight.’

18. How many people would you say were interested in you?
I’d like to think my wife would be at least one. As for others, whatever.

19. What do you love doing?
Being with my wife. Reading. Writing. Spending time with either my dog or my wife’s dog. Drinking beer. Eating.

20. Do you think someone thinks about you daily?
See number 18.

21. Who was the last person you saw or talked to?
A friend at work.

22. What do you want to be when you grow up?
I’m 31 and still trying to figure that one out. Is Award Winning New York Times Bestselling Author a bit much to shoot for?

23. What is your favorite food?
Steak, (porterhouse or filet mignon wil do) medium rare with a bit of salt and a pint of beer to accompany it.

24. How many people do you know with the same name as yours?
About 10

25. What was the last thing you spilled?
Water on myself.

26.Express yourself right now:
Frustrated, excited, anxious.

31 years ago...

To quote Jesus on the Christmas episode of South Park,

"Happy Birthday to me."

31 years old. Shit, it is all downhill from here. It really sunk in when I was at the gym and the exercise bicycle, in an attempt to provide a customized work out for each individual, prompts you for your age. That just made it real. The real question is, when do I begin to feel like and adult?

And thanks to mastadge, I found the following about myself:


They Live.


Which B-Movie Badass Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

God I love that movie, one protagonist is portrayed by mullet-sporting wrestling legend Roddy Piper, the other by Tony-Award winner Keith David. Keith David has perhaps the coolest voice in Hollywood. I just checked David's IMDB entry, dude's been in a lot of stuff - Pitch Black, John Carpenter's The Thing, Something About Mary, Road House (maybe that's not one to be proud of), plus a bunch of Video Game voices and the voice of Goliath in Disney's Gargoyle's cartoon.

Bakker Review & NaNoWriMo

I’ve posted my review of R. Scott Bakker’s The Thousandfold Thought. My god was this a great book, I really need to re-read the entire trilogy at some point in the not-too-distant future. This book, and whole series, was extremely compelling and will cast a long shadow for many years in the Epic Fantasy genre.

NaNoWriMo is underway and as of last night, I've got about 2200 of the 50K words we are all all working towards. However, when I attempted to continue my W.I.P. last night, the file on my floppy would not open. I usually save the file of whatever I'm writing on the hard drive as well. Unfortunately the version on the hard drive was missing a decent portion of what I’d written the day before, Wednesday. As things turned out, last night in attempting to re-write the portoin that went missing, my protagonist, Larry, developed a better relationship with his friend’s wife. In my fervor to replace what was lost, the story became stronger. That my friends, is turning a bad situation into a good one, and something I’ve seen/heard other writers do with scenes they mysteriously lost.

This past week Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff and I had our house vinyl sided, and the contractor did an absolutely fantastic job. I’d provide a link, but he doesn’t have a Web site and I don’t think it likely anybody else reading my blog actually lives in New Jersey and needs work done on their house. It almost like having a new house, and we couldn't be happier. The neighbor two doors down was so impressed with the craftsmanship of their work that she called them Wednesday to set up an appointment for an appraisal to get work done on her house.

I’m wishing I could have gone out to Madison, Wisconsin for this year’s World Fantasy Convention, a bunch of my pals from SFFWorld and Frameshift are there right now mingling. Oh bother, perhaps I can make it in two years when it is in Binghmaton, which I can get to by car.

Sadly, Keith Parkinson passed away earlier in the week. I always liked his artwork, particularly his covers to Terry Brooks’ Shannara books. The quality of Parkinson’s art was superior to the words inside the book, however. Parkinson’s wonderful art was also the primary basis for the Everquest game. RIP.

Lastly, speaking of Terry Brooks, there is an “Interesting” discussion about Terry Brooks and the Fantasy genre at Nightshade books, of all places (via The Slush God)

What a Marvelous King!

In one of the worst kept secrets in comics recently, Stephen King is collaborating with Jae Lee on a prequel to his Dark Tower saga for Marvel comics. I loved the Dark Tower saga, the last couple of books were the best things he has written in years. What I’ve seen of Jae Lee’s art, I’ve liked. I wonder of the Dr. Doom references in The Wolves of Calla had anything to do with King bringing this thing to Marvel, rather than DC, or even Dark Horse.

Suffice it to say, I think it is pretty easy to surmise that I am looking forward to this. I will have to add two copies to my pull list, one for me and one for my Dad, since he is obsessed with King.

This has to be considered a pretty major coup for Marvel, getting the bestselling novelist of ALL TIME to bring his MOST FAMOUS creation to them.

Keeping with the "King" theme, I started A Clash of Kings today.

1000-fold thoughts on words and pictures

Congratulations to the Chicago White Sox, World Series champions for the first time since 1917. I didn't watch too much of the series because a) I can't stand Fox b) I can't stand Tim McCarver, c) VH1 is running another new batch of "I Love the '80s", which is something of an addictive drug I hate admitting to having on the television and d) Fox is awful.

Of course, this was all background noise for me as I’ve been plowing through The Thousandfold Thought, the forthcoming conclusion to Scott Bakker's wonderful Prince of Nothing series. While there is a good amount of action in the book, a lot of the narrative consists of dialogue, both internal and between the different characters. Very compelling and adrenaline inducing dialogue at that, and overall, a great sense of mounting tension as everything is coming to a head. I'll save the rest for the review I'll be writing, but Scott is really delivering on the promise laid out in the earlier two volumes.

My copy of Batman Begins arrived last week, and I spent Friday night watching the film and the extras into the night, and goddamn this is a great movie. The extras were pretty cool as they were laid out as an "interactive comic book." The stuff I was most interested in focused on the comics and the reverence Goyer and other commenters held for Miller/Mazzucchelli's Year One storyline. I also thought it very convenient how they managed to slip in plugs for Miller/Lee's All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, with comments from Jim Lee himself, as well as DC head honchos Paul Levitz and Dan DiDio. Overall, Warner Brothers put together a great DVD package.

Along with Batman Begins, I decided to buy Crisis on Multiple Earths, Vol 1, which tells of the first team-ups of the JLA & JSA. Let's just say comics have come a long way in their storytelling since the issues comprising that book were published in the 1960s. It is cool to see the groundwork for the DC Multiverse laid out, but the dialogue, in particular, is for lack of a better word, hokey. The art, by Mike Sekowsky, is not flashy or out of this world, but fairly solid.

Another Silver-Age collection I recently picked up was the Showcase Presents: Green Lantern volume. Whereas Sekowsky's JLA art in Crisis was very workmanlike, even without the coloring, Gil Kane's art in the GL book is very strong, perhaps the best thing about the book. This isn't to say the stories are bad, because they aren't. Kane’s artwork always has a great sense of activity and movement and seeing his early work is nice. I've been a GL fan for a while now, and some of the things that are now part of the canon of the character were somewhat loose in the early goings. For example, Hal decides to call himself Green Lantern, rather than really having the name bestowed upon him by the Guardians. Another interesting thing was how much of a celebrity Green Lantern was in those early issues, which goes to show heroes as celebrities isn't really something new. Granted, this theme is somewhat embellished now, but don't let Mark Millar let you think he is working with entirely new concepts in The Ultimates.

It really is very much overdue that DC is publishing these giant black and white volumes of the old, stories. Marvel has been publishing their Essential volumes for a few years now and DC finally doing the same. I'll probably be picking up the Superman volume once I make my way through the GL book. I mean really, how can you go wrong for $9.99 for 20+ issues of comics?

Lastly, I am getting back into Bill Willingham's Fables. I don't really remember why I dropped it from my pull list a little over a year ago, I think maybe I was going to start getting it in trades. Either way, I've started to fill in with all the back issues, and read them in order. I like the conceit of the story in this book, fairytale/fantasy characters are real and living in our world, a lot. Sure it may not be the newest concept, but Willingham spins it very well. Mark Buckingham's art is spot on too. Not just the characters, but the overall page design of each issue is unique and conveys the overall theme of the issue/storyline very well. DC is giving away the first issue for free.

However, one of the biggest reasons I've decided to go back and get the single issues rather than the trades is because of the gorgeous cover art of James Jean. Jean also did the cover for Shinedown's new album, Us and Them, which while very good, is not as even and strong as their spectacular debut. Jean is one of the top cover artists in the industry, he's won many awards, and has published for a variety of mediums – comics, magazines, album covers, etc. Much like artist Dave McKean and Sandman, Glenn Fabry and Preacher, Jean will be immediately associated with Willingham's Fables. I just hope they publish a book of Mr. Jean's Fable covers like DC/Vertigo did for the two aforementioned wonderful cover artists. Hell, right now I'd love for DC to publish an issue of Solo focusing on Jean's work.

I think I’ve covered enough geekery for today. Back to life and Mr. Bakker’s wonderful novel, and next week NaNoWriMo. Oh yeah, I added links on the sidebar for artists.

Author in the slammer

Anybody else see or hear of this? I found it on Locus's new books listing and I'm not exactly sure what to make of it and just had to post something about it here.

The bottom line is that the author is in jail right now for murder. It's a bit more complicated than that, of course, so go check out the Web page, which is informative. At the very least, it sounds as if this guy is making the most of the time there.

Any thoughts?

Baseball, Throning, Comic-ing, & Bakking

I guess this big post makes up for a week's absence here at 'o Stuff.

Finished up my re-read of A Game of Thrones last night, and my god, I didn't realize how powerful this book really was. I say this because I didn't realize how many of the scenes really remained strongly ingrained in my memory, even almost 10 years after originally reading it. Scenes like the Stark's discovery of the Direwolves, Bran's initial enncounter with Jaime and Cersei, everytime Tyrion speaks, his interactions with Jon and the powerful, spectacular ending with Daenerys. I don't think I'm reinventing the wheel by saying this, but A Game of Thrones is such a sprawling epic, constructed so tightly by Martin. I also forgot how much happens in this book. One aspect of the novel that affected me more on this reading was the overall sense of nihlism. From the beginning, everything in the story seems to build towards a crumbling, destructive end of what has been the norm for many years. Nothing good happens to anybody in this book, and Martin makes this spiraling chaos so goddamned entertaining.

With both the Yankees and Cardinals not in the World Series, I may not even watch. Sure it is a compelling series, the Sox haven't won in almost 90 years and this is the first trip for the Astros, but as I said last week, Fox does everything to make watching baseball all but unwatchable.

After reading Infinite Crisis last Thursday, I've become more excited about comics again. Not that I wasn't enjoying them lately, but this issue really re-invigorated my passion and interest in reading and acquiring comics. Which is ironic or timely, because something very odd happened last week. Since moving into the new house, I've somewhat reoganized my comic books. Rather than have them in stacked on top of each other, we bought two stackable shelving-units. The packaged stated the shelves could hold up to 500 pounds. No problem, I put a few long boxes, each long box holds between 250 & 300 comics and I had 12 long boxes all together. I know they are heavy, but I didn't think combined all 12 would be five hundred pounds, so I figured things would be ok. I also bought these really great new plastic boxes and wanted to transfer from the decaying, old cardboard boxes into the new corrugated plastic boxes. I figured they were about half the size of the long boxes, so I bought 25 of the plastic boxes.

Well, the reorganization project was set in motion a bit earlier than I anticipated. Last Monday into Tuesday evening, at about 2:30AM I hear a loud bang, which woke up my wife and I. I've only been in this house since July, so I'm till growing accustomed to the noises in the neighborhood, but this was really strange. So, groggily I grabbed a baseball bat and skulked through my house, down to the basement. I opened the door and what do I see? One of my two comic shelving units tipped over. Apparently it fell over and the sticker stating it could hold 500 pounds was bullshit. So there I was 2:30AM beginning my comic book reorganization project. The 12 long cardboard long boxes turned out to be more than 25 short boxes, so I have to buy more of the plastic boxes. I only picked up the stuff off the floor, and thankfully none were really damaged. But damn, 15-17 years on and off comic book collecting really adds up.

Two nights ago, another sound woke Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I from a deep slumber at about the same time. No, no, the comics didn't tip over again, this time it was gunshots! Right, I lived in New Brunswick, NJ for a couple of years - not exactly the most peaceful city, and I never heard gunshots. I move to farmlands, right around the corner from two farms and I hear gunshots, which I find quite ironic. Apparently, a deer was run down in the road and the police came and mercy-killed the deer, which is the right thing to do. But still, at 2AM, it is a bit jarring.

Lucky me! Scott Bakker sent me an ARC of The Thousandfold Thought, which arrived yesterday. This is the concluding volume to his stupendous Prince of Nothing trilogy, but most people who read my blog already know this. This book is/was right at the top of my anticipated read list, so I am excited and read the "what has gone before" this morning. I really like when authors do this in their multi-volume sagas, it such a big help in triggering the memories of the previous books. Going between GRRM's saga and Scott's saga should prove a definite glut of reading enjoyment in the very near future.

And lastly, I joined http://www.nanowrimo.org/ last night. I am putting the current novel I'm working on on-hold and starting fresh for nanowrimo, with an idea that's been boiling and clanking around my head for a couple of years. 50,000 words in one month should prove very challenging with work and the responsibilities of a new house, but I'm looking forward to it.

Affinity Trap & FOX Trap

I posted my review of The Affinity Trap, by Martin Sketchley last night. I thought it was a pretty fun book, with some over-the top stuff to go along with the graphic stuff. Another great looking book from Pyr.

FOX sports should rot in hell, they are clearly the worst thing to come to American sports, EVER, specifically baseball. I think FOX Sports has done more damage to the Great American Pastime than the 1994 Strike and the recent Steroid nonsense. Fox's coverage of MLB, for years, has been awful and there are no signs that it is getting better. Since they've been doing the national Saturday game, only one or two games can start at 1PM, the traditional starting time, for as long as I can remember, for Saturday games. All other games have to start at the earlies, 4PM.

It gets better, as having the two LCS games schedued at the same time is simply asinine, they are dividing their audience. If they are going to do a half-hour of a pre-game, then start the programming at least an hour earlier. I mean, they have that stupid, fucking baseball Scooter telling us about pitches, or rather telling kids about pitches. Here's one of the many problems with Scooter, the demographic for that thing is likely in bed by the time his grinning, evil face comes on the screen because of Fox's ridiculous scheduling. Scooter makes the glowing puck from their NHL coverage look brilliant. This more than the strike in 94, makes me almost embarrassed to be a baseball fan.

And the announcers, stick a goddamned knife in my ear. Tim McCarver and his ever-changing shades of orange hair needs to SHUT UP, he is wrong half the time, harps on the same wrong point for innings at a time, and often gets players names wrong. Now I don't wish death upon him, but damn I wouldn't be upset if by some freak accident he lost the ability to speak, and he was never heard from again. I don't know anybody, nor have I ever seen anybody who is a true baseball fan have any thing to say except words for disdain about McCarver's awful coverage. A lot of people don't like his partner, Joe Buck. I have had the MLB Extra Innings package for the past two years and Buck often is one of the hometown announcers for the Cardinals. In that setting, away from the Black Hole of Ineptitude of Baseball Announcing that is Tim McCarver, Joe Buck is a perfectly capable, pleasant, and knowledgable Baseball announcer. The Joe Buck on the Cardinals broadcasts is a different Joe Buck that is teamed with McCarver. McCarver's pure awfulness affects his co-broadcaster in such a negative way to render him dull and uninspired. Piniella is pretty good though, I think he is just auditioning for a job with the YES Network, which will hold him over with the Yankees until he takes over for Torre. This is the trio we are with for the ALCS and most likely, the World Series.

The three guys doing the Cardinals game are simply awful, AWFUL. Steve Lyons is unfunny to the point of being painful, providing nothing worthy. Thom Brennaman projects his voice so overbearingly loud to make up for the fact that he is a midget and Bob Brenly is no better. Why is it that idiot former catchers seem to automatically get jobs as broadcasters? People say Torre walked into an easy situation when he took over for Buck Showalter, take a look at the Diamondbacks team Brenley was handed on a silver platter when he took over for Showalter.

Winter is coming

...and so is golf season for the Yankees. What an embarrassing loss on Monday night, they looked absolutely inept and prostrate. Now I can root for the Cardinals in earnest, with out letting my Yankee loyalties getting in the way. The Astros are a tough team, but I want to see Clemens lose very badly.

In another day or two, I'll be posting my review of Martin Sketchley's The Affinity Trap, a very interesting, at times unsettling, and often thought-provoking book. Lou Anders, Pyr's Editorial Director, posted the Spring/Summer catalogue of books PYR will be publishing, a very impressive list of books. I'm looking forward to MacDonald's River of Gods, Sean Williams The Crooked Letter, Chris Roberson's Paragaea, and Sketchley's follow-up The Destiny's Mask.

Yesterday I started my re-read of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire with A Game of Thrones, since, as I indicate in the previous post, the time between readings has been so great, I am opting to re-read all three books. Sure there are plot summaries on various Web sites, but I also wanted to see if my memories of enjoying the books were genuine. Well, I am just over 100 pages into A Game of Thrones and the book is holding up very well against my fond memories. I am loving, getting into the heads of characters and just reading Tyrion once again.

Today is a big day for DC Comics, they are kicking off their huge mega-event, Infinite Crisis. I'll be buying this. I like most of the DC comics Geoff Johns has written, I really like Phil Jimenez's art, and I am an unabashed DC fanboy, so this really is a no-brainer, despite some of the ill-will some have towards Johns and this saga.

Silver orphans

Tonight I posted my review of Orphan's Destiny by Robert Buettner. I really enjoyed this novel and I hope Buettner continues to write entertaining, good Science Fiction. Last week I posted my review of Silverheart by Moorcock and Constantine, another pretty good book. Not the best I've read by Moorcock, but still an entertaining novel.

I've got one more review book on the plate then I start my re-read of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. It has been 5 years since I read A Storm of Swords, which is when it published, and 8 years since I read A Game of Thrones, so as much as I loved the books, I really need and want to refresh my memory, I can't wait to jump back into the Seven Kingdoms.

As I type this the Yankees are mounting a nice comeback against the Angels. Hopefully by the time I check back here tomorrow the Yanks will be getting ready to play game 5 in Anaheim.

Catching up

I finished a couple of good books this past week, the Moorcock/Constantine collaboration Silverheart and Robert Buettner's Orphan's Destiny. I liked Buettner's book a little more, and that isn't just because my review of Orphanage was blurbed on the very first page of the book. Self congratulations aside, I was really sucked into the story and I hope Buettner continues the storyline. I'll be posting reviews of both books in the next couple of days.

Lost last night, I thought, was good and better than the first two episodes. Maybe that is because there was some forward progression in the story as opposed to two episodes telling almost the same story from different viewpoints. Even though more of the specifics of the hatch and the others are being revealed, more questions are raised, and in my mind, that makes for good, addictive storytelling. The writers should be careful not to raise too many more questions though, since that would offput many people.

The season opener of Smallville last week was better than the whole of the previous season. Of course showing the Phantom Zone, helps. I think I will just have to suck it up and deal with the fact that all super-powered threats on that show are dispatched or dealt with at the 8:43PM or 8:44PM mark. I'll be TiVO-ing the whole season, at this point, I'll stick around.

NHL Season is now underway! The Devils started off with an impressive win over Pittsburgh, this Zach Parise kid looks pretty good. This is going to be a really good season, I think, with the rule changes and adress changes of many players.

Even though Anaheim evened things up last night, I still see the Yankees winning the next two games and playing Chicago in the ALCS.

The Locus Experiment concludes & Jeff Ford

The final decade covered by this great anthology has been reached. The final three stories in this volume were published and won their Locus Awards in the current decade, the 2000s

Border Guards by Greg Egan
I've only read one other piece of fiction by Egan, and as it turns out, I liked this one a lot more. This was an interesting look at science through the lens of what seemed to be sport. A good story here.

Hell is the Absence of God by Ted Chiang
Wow. This was an amazing, powerful story of faith and God. In this story, the appearance of Angels is almost commonplace, the world is much more attuned to the powers of Heaven and God. I was enthralled by this one and I've got to get myself a copy of Chiang's collection, Stories of Your Life and Others.

On the whole, this was an excellent collection and a very good sampling of the genre over the past 30 years. Jonathan Strahan an experienced editor, and Charles N. Brown publisher of Locus, selected a pretty diverse sampling of stories for the volume. For the most part, even the stories that I didn't like as much as some others were at least interesting and worth considering, or perhaps revisiting in the future. The stories I thought the strongest were Martin's The Way of Cross and Dragon, Chiang's Hell is the Absence of God, Butler's Bloodchild, Murphy's Rachel in Love, and the best and most powerful overall, Jeffty is Five by Ellison. I thought the 1980s was the strongest decade/chapter in the book.

I also really liked the appendix listing ALL the past winners of the Locus Award, at least up until the publication of this book. I would strongly recommend this to people who enjoy short fiction or those who looking for a great introduction to the form.


Read Jeffrey Ford's blog, he is giving away a very touching personal story (or did with his September 27th posting). Also on Jeff's blog I found out about a new magazine, Fantasy, debuting in November from Prime Books. With stories from Mr. Ford, Jeff VanderMeer, Holly Phillips, and an interview with Jeff Ford, I've got to get a copy of this one.

Veniss & Locus

I posted my review of Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer to SFFWorld. What a fucked up bunch of stories, but in the best possible way. I liked this one a lot, very unsettling, very dark, and very fantastic.

On to the Locus train.

Well, let see, the next bunch of stories are all from the 90s and they were the ones that, on a decade by decade basis, I enjoyed the least. There were good things about them, but on the whole, they were the ones I've enjoyed the least, thus far.

Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson
Actually, this one was a fun little snapshot exposing the fantastic against the mundane. A very matter-of-fact voice permeated the story. Good fun here in a very famous story. Easily the best of the 90s for me.

Buffalo by John Kessel
A semi-autobiographical tale chronicling the meeting of Kessel's father with H.G. Wells. Interesting but not much more than that, for me

Even the Queen by Connie Wills
This story of a futuristic society bringing the genders closer to a level playing field was pretty good. On one hand it reminded me of A Handmaid's Tale, even though the future was played out very differently. A nice snapshot of how family dynamics play out with tension, regardless of the future society.

Gone by John Crowley
I'm not a big fan of Crowley's writing, for some reason. This story was probably the one I liked the least in the collection, I had a tough time connecting with it.

Maneki Neko by Bruce Sterling
Again, I just couldn't get into this one, it seemed very disjointed to me.

Even with the minor road-bump I've hit with the 90s stories, this collection is still very good. While I didn't particularly enjoy all of the stories thus far, most have at least been interesting.

Rolling on with Locus

The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daugther by Lucius Shephard
Shepard is one of the most respected short story writers in the genre, but this is my first encounter with his writing. This was the longest entry in the collection - a very interesting take on the ever-popular Fantasy Dragon. Here, the Dragon is over a mile long and is actually a large town. Sounds a bit odd, but then again, the story is a bit odd. Interesting, but not my favorite in the book.

Rachel in Love by Pat Murphy
I liked this story very much, a very touching story of one girl's adjustment to a world without her father. This story moved me the most out of the ones I've read so far, and it stands wonderfully on its own.

The Only Neat Thing to Do by James Tiptree, Jr.
Another moving story. Actually an excellent story of first contact and sacrifice. It took me a bit to warm up to it completely, but I was won over by the end of the story.

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis/Lillith's Brood trilogy is one of the strongest science fiction sagas of the future of humanity I've ever read. I read Dawn over 10 years ago, and the book still haunts me and enters my thoughts. The story here picks up some of the vibe of that saga but is its own story. This story unsettled me in some ways and really made me think.

Out of the four I touched upon in this post, Shepard's was probably the most difficult for me and Murphy's was probably the most touching and powerful.

The Locus Experiment continues

I picked up the most recent issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, I couldn't resist with stories by two of my favorite writers, Gene Wolfe and Jeffrey Ford. Also in this issue is a story by Elizabeth Hand, a writer I've enjoyed in the past. This issue also contains a story by a writer I've been wanting to try again for a while - Matthew Hughes. I think I have an old issue of FSF with one of his stories in it that I liked. Jay over at FantasyBookSpot knows his stuff and has good things to say about Mr. Hughes's work, so I've been trying to (unsuccessfully) track down his two "Fool" novels in his Archonate setting.

Back to the Locus experiment - life has prevented my from posting these as I read them, so here are my thoughts on the next three stories in what is turning out to be a very thought-provoking and enjoyable collection.

Souls by Joanna Russ
I only know of Joanna Russ's reputation and of her landmark novel, The Female Man. The story here was pretty powerful in its own right and centers on a boy reflecting on the Viking invasion of his village, and the how motherly figure of the village uses the powers at her disposal to make the invasion as painless as possible. I liked the pacing, in that events started out relatively normal and built to a crescendo of fantastic.

The Way of Cross and Dragon by George R.R. Martin
I had just read this a couple of weeks ago in Dozois' wonderful collection Galileo's Children. Here are my thoughts from the review I wrote:

a far-future Catholic church is quite dominant, and has grown to include interstellar species. With a large galaxy colonized the influence of the bible is wide and varied. The protagonist is sent to squelch the roots of a heretic sect on one particular planet where Judas Iscariot is cast in an interesting light. This was a very strong tale that offered an interesting question of faith and the power of truth in the face of an uncompromising belief.

The Persistence of Vision by John Varley
I've only read one piece of fiction by John Varley, The Golden Globe which I enjoyed the very much with its overt ode Shakespeare in a future setting. My first experience in reading his short fiction was a bit more thought-provoking, though no less enjoyable. The story tells the tale of a man wandering a disease-ravaged America, trying to find a place where he belongs. This story very much plays upon the adage of "In the land of the blind, is the man with sight king?" Varley does a great job of twisting this theme to his own great ends and also does a magnificent job of making a group of relatively normal people seem otherwise very alien. Good Stuff here and the collection continues to roll on.

Locus #2

The Day Before the Revolution by Urula K. Le Guin

According the brief intro, this story is an introduction to her reknowned novel, The Dispossessed. I know of the book, I've never read it. The story here, though is interesting, and if I could boil it down to a couple of thoughts I would say the protagonist is simply trying to figure things out. The whys of things and identity, as well. That even at an aged station in life, people still are unsure of their place in the greater world and can still see themselves in a light unlike the greater world sees them. It also touches upon the power of a lost love. A solid story, that leaves me more satisfied and looking forward to the next story, Ellison's Jeffty is Five. But that will be in the next post.

Locus Awards: 30 Years (an experiment)

The Locus Awards : Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Charles N. Brown and Jonathan Strahan

I will try to write mini-reviews for each of these short stories as I read them, and start this whole little experiment with this: I am growing more fond of stories in their short form and I acquired this particular book from my brother-in-law. He is an undergrad and had an SF Lit class last year and passed the book on to me. I'd wanted to get the book anyway, and I've now gotten around to reading it. Under the guiding editorial hands of Charles Brown (Locus Publisher) and Jonathan Strahan (Locus Reviews Editor) this book has gathered, ideally, the best representatives of the Locus Award winning short stories and novellettes over the past thirty years. A daunting task indeed for these two gentlemen, but

The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe

I consider myself a fan of Gene Wolfe's writing, I've loved* everything I've read by him up until this point, and I look forward to discovering some of his older classics. Unfortunately, this story didn't entirely work for me. Perhaps because I read it in multiple sittings, I don't know. The narrative seemed a bit more disjointed than other work I've read by him. Of course, the majority of Wolfe's work I've read is his novel-lenght work, including the whole Sun oeuvre, the two Latro stories, the WizardKnight & There are Doors.

It wasn't that The Death of Doctor Island was a bad story, obviously it really isn't since it won a Locus award, but I didn't connect with it the way I would have liked. I feel there were enough interesting things going on that I'd be willing to either try this particular story again in the future, or simply acquire the whole sequence of Doctor Island stories in The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories.

One story down and I'll call this an interesting, if unsatisfying entry.

* I didn't care for The Litany of the Long Sun when I initially read it, but upon seeing such wonderful things about Wolfe's Short Sun saga, I tried again and was greatly rewarded. I'm thinking (and really hoping) this is the case for this particular story, too.

John Marco Interview

Quickie post just to note that I've posted my interview with John Marco to SFFWorld.com.

Hogwarts asunder!

I finished up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. If nothing else, Dame Rowling kept me turning the pages, I must say. I also have to say this was probably the most predictable of the Potter books. I did everything I could (to successfully) avoid coming across any spoilers. I don't think it was the best of the series, but better than Order of the Phoenix and still good enough to keep me turning the pages rather quickly. The scenes with Harry and Dumbledore were both good and annoying. Good in that more was revealed about Voldemort's past, but bad in that Rowling repeated, through Dumbledore, what she just showed us as occurring, in the vein of "Well Harry of course you know what we just witnessed was how bad Voldemoret is and why he is that way," but a bit more lengthy.

I liked the way the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore grew in this book. Dumbledore's character came more fully into view through their relationship, and Harry grew too. On the whole, the book could have been trimmed in some spots, but I am really looking forward to how Rowling ties up the series, answers many of the questions left by the Half-Blood Prince, and reveals if any of the clues she has been leaving were red herrings.

Galileo's Children

As my sidebar indicates, I just posted my review of Galileo's Children edited by Gardner Dozois. I thought this was an amazing collection and I would really recommend going out and buying it at Clarkesworld. A very strong and even collection. I finished it last week.

I finished another book today, possibly the best book I've read this year, but I'll reveal more details when I post my review to SFFWorld, which will be when the book is published. If you checked out my blog the past few days, you will probably know of which book I speak.

New Orleans

I only visited New Orleans once, and while events surrounding my visit weren't the best, I really enjoyed the city itself. I liked the general character of the city and of course, the great food. I am horrified by what has happened to the people down there. I am horrified and embarrassed that it took our President until Friday to get down there and for substantial relief efforts to begin. I can only go by what I see on TV here in New Jersey, so I don't know exactly what has and hasn't been happening. I think today was the first day where I saw a massive convoy of military trucks carrying supplies through the still drenched streets.

I lived through the terrorist bombings, I was in NYC when the towers were attacked, I could see the Towers on fire from my office and I watched one Tower collapse from New Jersey after being lucky enough to catch, what I was told at the time, was the last NJ TRANSIT train out of NYC to NJ. I was frightened, but I could at least go home. These people in New Orleans don't even have that. I see the scenes on the news and I hate to sound corny, but it looks like a scene out of Escape from New York, that old SF movie with Kurt Russell. That is the only thing I can think of to visually compare this to. My heart goes out to all those affected by this horrible natural disaster and I wish our country would move as fast to help one of its own great cities as it has to help cities in other nations.

On one hand, it boggles my mind that it will take up to a couple of months to restore power, on the other, when I saw how many National Guardsmen from Lousiana and Mississippi are deployed outside of the country, I am not too surprised.

I don't know exactly what to believe about what is going on in New Orleans, as it seems every news station has an agenda of their own. I only know that a catastrophe beyond human control has occurred and I find it tough to wrap my mind around the fact that things cannot be fixed as quickly as they should.

So, to prevent myself from further ramblings, I'll stop and say that a donation to the Red Cross may be the only thing we can do right now, on an individual level.

Robin Hobb interview

I've made some changes and updates to my sidebar. First, I posted my interview with Robin Hobb to SFFWorld.



Last night, I became an affiliate of Clarkesworld Books, so if you want to buy books that I mention, just click over to Clarkesworld Books through the banners on the side.

Chaos & Clarkesworld Books

Work has been extremely busy, as is often the case just before a holiday. Life has been busy with family and friend-related engagements every weekend in between work on the new house.

In the midst of all this chaos, I'm thankful for great books like John Marco's newest, The Sword of Angels, to take me away and still engage my thoughts and stimulate my imagination. I finished it up a couple of days ago and I'm finalizing my review, which will be posted in a couple of days. As my sidebar indicates, I'm smack-dab in the middle of the thoughtful and cool collection edited by Gardner Dozois, Galileo's Children.

I've mentioned before the great online FSF bookstore, Clarkesworld Books, run by Neil Clarke. He has a wonderful selection of 'Zines, signed books, used books and small press books you just can't find in Barnes and Noble or Borders. Every so often, Neil runs a contest and the one he's starting up is pretty cool. Tobias Buckell, a writer whose short stories I've enjoyed will see his debut novel, Crystal Rain, publish with Tor (not that you would know from perusing Tor's Web site) in January/February of 2006. If you preorder a signed copy, you win a chance to be a character in one of his future novels. Again, as I've said, Neil is a fellow NJ-guy, so I always try to support the locals, especially when the product/services offered are superior to the big competition. Regardless of whether or not you are going to get Buckell's novel, Clarkesworld offers a plentitude of books.

I'm Pure...

Although I don't completely agree with everything the writer, Rick Remender, says about science fiction, he has a pretty interesting looking comic book series coming out in October from Image Comics, entitled Fear Agent. Comic Book Resources speaks to him here, artists Tony Moore and Cory Walker.

I also expanded on my post about Gary's 3rd GemQuest novel and posted it as an official SFFWorld review..

Got this one from Scott

Pure Geek 47 % Nerd, 73% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek. It's not that you're a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don't really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren't quite mainstream. Perhaps it's anime, perhaps it's computers, perhaps it's bottlecaps, perhaps it's all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don't quite consider yourself "of that crowd." Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal. Which, you are. Congratulations!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 27% on nerdiness You scored higher than 92% on geekosity You scored higher than 29% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

Fall Readings, Viewings, & Listenings

There are quite a bit of good things coming out this fall, in terms of books, movies and music. I figured I'd give a rundown of some things I'm looking forward to distracting me from reality...

September will see the release of Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire's sequel to the wonderful Wicked. Robert Buettner's second novel, Orphan's Destiny will be publishing as well. I really enjoyed his debut, Orphanage, which reminded me of Ender's Game. Joss Whedon's Serenity hits the big screen in September. Disturbed's new album, Ten Thousand Fists, hits shelves at the end of September. Mrs. Blog o' Stuff will probably be pleased that Bon Jovi's new album, Have a Nice Day, comes out in September too. DC publishes an Absolute edition of the year-long Hush storyline from 2003.

In October, the NHL resumes play and BantamSpectra publishesa re-issue of M. John Harrison's seminal Viriconium, something I've been wanting to read for a long time. Alexander Irvine's new novel, In the Narrows, comes out in October, too. Mrs. Blog 'o Stuff will be pleased again since the new, as of yet untitled, Lemony Snicket book comes out in October. Batman Begins comes to DVD on October 18th, and DC is publishing Watchmen: The Absolute Edition in October, as well. DC's huge "earth-shattering-mega-super-duper-balls-out-for-glory" crossover kicks off - Infinite Crisis. In music, Shinedown's second album, Us and Them comes out October 4th. Their first album, Leave a Whisper, is amazing and the songs I've heard from this one are very good. I wasn't sure what to make of the cast of Elizabethtown, but once I discovered Cameron Crow was helming it, I mentally added to the list. Two sequels will probably wait until cable, though: Saw II and The Legend of Zorro. Also in October, Robert Jordan's 11th Wheel of Time novel, Knife of Dreams, publishes. The last WOT book I read was probably Winter's Heart. I will likely eventually finish out the series, but that is becoming a lower and lower reading priority with each passing day.

November, of course, is when George R. R. Martin's A Feast for Crows comes out. Stephen Erikson's third Malazan novel, Memories of Ice, comes to the US in November, too. Some little indepent film about a guy who gets burned and starts wearing black armor comes out on DVD in November. The film Zathura looks interesting if only because Jon Favreau is directing it. The fourth Potter movie comes out in November, too.

I've likely forgotten at least a book or two, a movie and some other stuff, but these are the ones that piqued my interest the most.

GemQuest 3

I finished up The Shards, Gary's third GemQuest novel yesterday. Over the course of the three books, Gary's skills as a writer are catching up to his skills as a storyteller. While on the surface the saga is your typical "good guys rally to thwart the destructive plans of the evil overlord," there is more to it than that, and Gary's skills as a storyteller proves it. Part of the fun of that trope is seeing how many ways it can be spun, and in Gary's case, I like what he is doing.

Colton, the evil overlord, while not seen very much, is handled very well both in the scenes he is featured, as well as the scenes when other characters try to understand the nature of his "evil." There were a couple of instances where a copyedit would have helped, but on the whole, I like where the series is going, that is to say, there are a few different directions it could go. I also liked some of the new creatures and monsters introduced and fleshed out in The Shards, I'm seeing hints of a couple of different myths here. Suffice it to say, I'm looking forward to where Gary takes the story in the next volume, Revenge of the Elves.

Shaman's Crossing - review posted

Much partying Saturday night at my friend's wedding. I was feeling much better Sunday morning than I thought I was going to feel.

I just posted my official review of Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb. Easily one of the best books I've read of this year's releases. Until next time..

A contest with thrones and swords can only be seen with the aid of a Shaman's Conjurings

Just in case anybody reading this blog is living under a rock, George R. R. Martin has a new book in that little, mediocre (he types with a laugh) A Song of Ice and Fire saga coming out in November entitled A Feast for Crows. To celebrate and promote the release, his US Publisher, BantamSpectra is running an online contest entitled A Quest of Thrones, where you can win cool stuff, like copies of the book, a signed bookplate, etc. Even cooler, from my perspective, is that SFFWorld is one of the participant Web sites. On one hand, I can't join the Quest since I'm so heavily involved with SFFWorld, but on the other, I'm thrilled our Web site is partaking in, arguably, the release of the most anticpated fantay novel of the year (or maybe last couple of years). This should kick up the traffic and improve the visibility of one of the genre's largest and best on-line Web sites/communities, which is of course SFFWorld. So go register for this thing right now!

Here's something really cool, you can bid for a chance to be in your favorite writer's next work. Direct links to specific author auctions:

Michael Chabon
Stephen King
Lemony Snicket
Peter Straub

All the proceeds will go to the First Amendment Project, organized by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon.

I just received an advance of John Marco's Sword of Angels. This thing is a beast of a book at over 900 pages, and I mean that as a compliment. I really enjoy John's writing and storytelling, so having this much of it under a nice shiny cover will be good. Once I finish Gary's third GemQuest book, The Shards, I'll move on to John's book, followed up with a review and an e-mail interview for SFFWorld. I finished Robin Hobb's wonderful Shaman's Crossing two nights ago and was completely entranced. I'll not spill anything until my review is written and posted, and I'm hoping to conduct an e-mail interview with her as well. I'm really looking forward to the second novel in the Soldier Son Trilogy Forest Mage, hopefully in about a year.

Of course all of the above are distractions from the frustations of real life, which constantly throws spit balls at you, decieves you into thinking you've turned a good corner for once, and leaves you complacent with everything else.

Gas!

$2.47 a friggn' gallon! Gas prices escalate as it is being put into your car. This is goddamned ridiculous. Instead of worrying about baseball players on steriods, or what people listen to on the radio and in their homes, the government should do something that has a DIRECT IMPACT on people EVERY DAY. I'm no economics guy, but there has got to be something the government can do about this, especially if they feel the need to increase their grasp on our personal freedoms and put their hands in professional sports.

That is all for today, I just needed to rant.

Long Weekend and Awards

The impending doom of bills to come seems to mount after buying a house, I'm learning. This past weekend was a long, entertaining weekend. Saturday night into Sunday morning was a bachelor party, I didn't pull up to my driveway until 5AM. It has been a long time since I pulled one of those. Slept for a few hours before going to the NY Renaissance Festival on Sunday with Mrs. Blog o' Stuff my brother-in-law and friend. I had a good time, ate some good food and I was sleep walking for the latter parts of it, since I barely had 3 hours sleep.

This coming weekend is the wedding of the groom for the aforementioned bachelor party, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Less than 2 months until the NHL season begins, and there have been a flurry of interesting moves. Khabibulin, unfortunately, signs with Chicago, Forsberg signs with the Flyers and my Devils haven't done much. It will be interesting and fun to see how things play out with the rule changes and new faces on new teams.

The Hugo Awards were given out this past weekend, and the book I felt to be the most over-rated novel in some time walked away with the Award for best novel. I really thought China Miéville's Iron Council would get the nod. I only read two of the novels on the ballot, so I can't judge either Iron Council, which I enjoyed, if less so than his other novels, and Clarke's against the others. However, a good deal of buzz had been surrounding Ian MacDonald's River of Gods, and I thought perhaps, it would have won. I'll find out about that book early next year as Pyr brings the book to US readers.

In November, it will be interesting to see if Clarke goes two for two in the genre awards. Once again, she is up against China Miéville, with three different works on the list: Stephen R. Donaldson's The Runes of the Earth, Sean Stewart's Perfect Circle and Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight. Of the remaining three (or four) I've only read The Wizard Knight, and since reading it early in the year, it is still probably the best thing I've read this year. While I love Donaldson, I haven't tackled the new Covenant book for a couple of reasons. I re-read the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant last year and while I enjoyed them, something about them didn't hold up over time. I think it was a case of the wrong book at the wrong time, but I really do want to see what Donaldson has in store for the Land. I've seen very mixed things about the book. The only book I read by Stewart was Galveston, again earlier this year, and I absolutely loved it. I've seen people say Perfect Circle is an even stronger novel. Stewart won the World Fantasy for Galveston, so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets it again. Aside from Clarke, I think I'd be satisfied with any of these wining the award, though Wolfe is whom I am rooting for.

In telling my brother-in-law about the bachelor party, he referred to me a better name for said event. He heard this from comedian Adam Corolla, and it is pretty funny: a Penis Funeral. I will leave on that note.

Rob Burns Easily

A week ago was the hottest day of the year and I was at Ozzfest. Even though I lathered SPF 45 sunblock on my face, I still came home with my face looking like a Macintosh Apple. At one point, I was walking past the concession stands and I felt something large fall on my toe. Thinking nothing of it, I continued for scant seconds when I realized it was the head of a kid who had passed out.

As for the concert itself, the second stage was pretty good, what I saw of it. It was too damn hot and there were too many shirtless guys for me to want to get closer. Killswitch Engage was pretty good, but the headliner of the 2nd stage, Rob Zombie was flat out awesome, the guy is a great performer.

On the main stage, Black Label Society was awesome, and Shadows Fall was phenominal. After being in the hot, oppressive sun for over 8 hours, I was just about done and tired as hell. Then Iron Maiden hit the stage and I was rejuvinated. This was the 3rd time I've seen them and they were just as great as each previous concert. The most recent song they played was The Trooper. I love their older stuff, but I still would have liked to have heard something from Seventh Son or maybe Fear of the Dark. Lastly, of course, Black Sabbath hit the stage. Ozzy looked alot more spry than I thought he would, but by the end of their set, his voice was going and he was beginning to look more and more like Emperor Palpatine. They of course played Iron Man, and War Pigs. I was really happy to hear Fairies Wear Boots and Sympton of the Universe, but the best was the song Black Sabbath.

Overall, it was a good, if very long day. I don't know that I'd do the whole day of Ozzfest again, unless Godsmack is one of the top bands.

An ARC of Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing arrived yesterday, one of the books I've been most looking forward to this year. I rank her Farseer/Liveship/Tawny Man saga in my upper echelon of fantasy sequences, so I'm really interested to see what she does in a completely new world. I'll be getting to it ina day or two, since I'm almost done with The Blackgod, the second part of Greg Keyes' Chosen of the Changeling duology. I've liked the story thus far, Greg plays with a bunch of different myths in the story and the world he's created is rich, interesting and peopled with fairly believable characters. Actually, I think where he's grown the most since the Changeling books is in his characterizations. I don't think these two books are on the same level as his unique Age of Unreason saga, or his superb Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, but they are still quite enjoyable.

On to Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone Saga - the next volume, The Blood Knight, is publishing April 2006. Not quite 2 years since The Charnel Prince, though about the same amount of tie between The Briar King and The Charnel Prince. I was hoping to see the book this October, but I'd rather Greg take the time than rush. Stephen Youll recently posted the cover art on his Web site.

In comics, I've been following Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers mega-saga (with the exception of Klarion). The art on The Shining Knight is handled by Simone Bianchi and is really beautiful and visually stunning, he plays with darkness and shadows really well. There's something about this story that reminds me a bit of Moorcocks Hawkmoon.

I've mentioned before how much I'm enjoying Busiek's take on Conan. The most recent issue featured a small back-up drawn by Bruce Timm (co-architect of DC Comics' animated universe). I have to say this - get Bruce Timm on a Conan animated series NOW. I wasn't sure how I'd like an animated style/interpretation of Conan, but I really shouldn't be suprised that Timm did a great job with it.

Back in the 21st Century Baby!

Finally, after almost 3 goddamned weeks I have Internet access at home. In this day and age, for a technology company to take more than one week, let alone three weeks to turn on DSL service is beyond my comprehension. Anyway, I'm connected at the new house and I feel like a kid with a new toy. Moving is a pretty damned stressful thing in and of itself. I mean for Christ's sake, I've got this blog to keep up with and a Fantasy Baseball team to manage, both of which involve the interet. I felt almost like I was in an uncharted land. Enough of that for now.

John Marco, a writer who's books I've really enjoyed, just re-launched his Web site at http://www.johnmarco.com. He was maintaining a Web site a few years ago, then stopped. Anyway, he's got a new book coming out in September, The Sword of Angels, which concludes the story he began in The Eyes of God. I'll be reviewing The Sword of Angels and conducting an e-mail interview with John shortly thereafter.

Via the Johnny Bacardi Show, I came across this great overview by Paul Dini, genius architect of the animatd DC Universe, illustrating many reasons why I never wanted to and will not see Tim Burton's abyssmal looking Wonka film. I loved the original (and the original of Planet of the Apes, another butcher re-make by Burton) and really saw no reason to remake the film(s).

Now that things are settling down more in the new home*, I feel comfortable with resuming my novel writing.



*still need to do some work on the kitchen and unbox all of our books

Exhaustion

is the name of the game lately. Going from owning and living in a townhouse to owning a home on a decent sized piece of property with a pool is a pretty big change. In a townhouse, no outside work really needs to be done, you can just go to the pool and not worry about cleaning it, the management company for the townhouse complex handles all of it. When you own a house, if you want the grass to look nice, go out and buy a lawnmower and cut it yourself. If you want to swim in your pool, vacuum it at the very least every other day. The house isn't/wasn't in bad condition, it just wasn't really maintained, so Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I have been basically cleaning it and getting into a condition we consider a bit more liveable. It is all worth it though, when I look out my front window and see a nice patch of grass between my house and the street, settle down into my new living room with a cold Yeungling after a long day and say, holy shit, this is all ours.

In the midst of all the moving back and forth (after five years together, my wife and I have a lot more crap than I initially assumed), I missed two shows I really enjoy two weeks ago: Justice League Unlimited and Family Guy. However, I did catch new episodes of both shows this past weekend. As always, FG was laugh-out-loud funny. The references this show makes are so hilarous due to their obscurity and how they come from seemingly no-where. At the start of the episode, Chris gets pulled into the a-ha video "Take on Me," but the one that got me the most was Peter reading The Neverending Story and riding the big white luck dragon, and the dragon summarily crashing. Odd timing with that one, since the film was on HBO in the morning. The Neverending Story is one of the movies I had to watch every now and again growing up and one I still enjoy. I keep intending to get the Michael Ende novel, which differs from the film.

JLU, though it was a two-parter and I missed the first part, was wonderful. Like others have said, Dwayne McDuffie, the writer of the series, should really be writing more of the comics. In addition to being a well told story, that brought elements from the previous episodes (as well as the earlier Batman and Superman Animated series) together, the resolution of the story was brought about by my favorite comic book character, The Flash. In essence, this episode could have been a Flash highlight show. At one point, Lex/Braniac send out Doppelgängers of the big 7, and the Flash's opposite number was in yellow, just like the Reverse Flash. The first JL member to dispose of their Doppelgänger was the Flash. After Lex/Braniac takes out the other 6, he taunts the Flash and in his hubris, Lex thinks Flash has run away. Well, he did, he just happened to run aroun the globe at top speed to only come back and bash Lex. Flash continues this and eventually defeats the supervillian, by disassembling the Braniac armor at high speed. Most of the episodes play Wally/Flash as a clown, but every couple of episodes, McDuffie and company remind viewers why the Flash is one of the big 7 and just how powerful he can be.

On the reading front, it took me a while, but I got through the second Del Rey Conan offering by the great Robert E. Howard, The Bloody Crown of Conan. Excellent stuff here. The stories are great fun and Conan is more than the perceived dumb barbrian who only uses his brawn to achieve his goals. Don't get me wrong, Conan often does employ his physical strength and power, but he also uses his brain, too. The highight of the book was The Hour of the Dragon, Howard's only novel-length Conan story. Conan leaps off the page, but conversely, Howard does a great job giving off a dark, and eldritch mood in the stories and really setting the reader in Conan's world. Even if I'm preaching to the choir here, it is worth mentioning these books both because of the wonderful reading experience they impart and importance to the Fantasy and Science Fiction genre. Anybody reading today's fantasy should run out or click to amazon and order either this or the first Conan volume, The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian.

However, I'm very hesitant about the new Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. On one hand, they could be seen simply as pastiches, but on the other, it looks as if the writers and Conan properties are both trying to create new characters. I know very little of the writers, save that Richard Knaak wrote some of the early DragonLance novels and that Jeff Mariotte has had his hands in a lot of FSF media properties. Its tough to say what these books will do, but on the surface they seem like yet another media/franchised property a la Forgotton Realms or Star Wars. I have seen little response to these books anywhere, aside from the amazon reviews and this less than favorable review at Swordandsorcery.org.

So, in summation, even though I just moved into a bigger house and have more adult responsibilities, I'm still just a 13-year old who likes to watch cartoons.

Obligatory absentee post

Thankfully, the Olympics will not be in New York, I didn't want to see my state turned into a parking lot for the world.

Thoughts and prayers go out to those in London who passed away, those hurt and those close to the two groups.

Blogging will be at a bare minimum for the next week, and probably more. Tomorrow, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I are closing on our new home and in keeping our Internet Provider service, will likely not have Web access from home from anywhere between one week and four weeks. Hopefully we will have full service by the 18th.

Frustration

I finished up Peter David's second Apropos book, The Woad to Wuin a couple of days ago. There were a few instances where the narrative was a bit repetitive, and the characters rehashed scenes, though on the whole, I really enjoyed the novel and David took the story in an unexpected direction. There were some laugh out loud moments and I generally had fun reading the book, much like I did with the first, Sir Apropos of Nothing. I will be picking up the third, Tong Lashing.

Today I'll be starting Echoes of the Great Song by David Gemmell, which will be my second encounter with his writing. I read the first two Rigante books a couple of years ago and really enjoyed them, so hopefully this will be as enjoyable.

Picked up my stash of comics, or rather Mrs. Blog o' Stuff picked up my stash at my local shop yesterday. The comic shop near work was running a 25% off sale on all their Batbooks so I picked up the new printing of Batman: Tales of the Demon with the spiffy new Neal Adams cover at the shop near work. As for the monthly Batman, I think I'm in the minorty of people who are actually enjoying Judd Winick's take on Batman. I also think Doug Mahnke's art is well-suited to Batman.

In a better world, I wouldn't have posted this today, I would have been signing a lot of paperwork for the closing on my new house. But in a move akin to waking up Christmas Morning, excited to see what Santa brought under the brightly lit Christmas tree, we are told, basically, "Sorry Christmas won't happen today, maybe middle to end of next week you can have your Christmas morning."