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[jazzfish]

If I see one more person slam both JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis in the same sentence, in an effort to prove that their new fantasy novel is "with-it" and "hip," I will personally force-feed them Christopher Tolkien's twelve-volume History of Middle-Earth, stopping only when they are DEAD. Such shall be the fate of all writers who can only distinguish their own work by making disparaging comments about its forebears.
I can tolerate this crap coming from the eminently crapulent Philip Pullman, who wouldn't know a coherent plot if it wore bells and jumped up and down screaming "There are ways to make events happen in stories other than sheer coincidence", but to hear China Mieville, whose works I have been told by several people are Quite Good, go off on the same rant, is disappointing.
Which is not to say that I disagree with the actual substance of Mieville's rant (being "Much fantasy written today is crap"). I don't think it really matters in the long run, though. People are buying the works of Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman and other "good" fantasists, and these are sufficiently distinct in style from the rest of what's on the fantasy shelf that they'll stand out. Of course, if Mieville is just bitter because his works are exiled to the fantasy ghetto instead of being out in the more glamorous "Fiction" section, then he should bloody well be writing traditional fiction, shouldn't he?

In other news, I have nothing but support for Buzz Aldrin, currently under investigation for punching out an asshole.

Been a bit. About the most interesting thing that's happened is that I finally ran the overly freeform game that popped into my head on the way to Shakespeare earlier in the summer, and it went well. So well that Nathan is encouraging me to get it written up and publishable. This has, I think, a nonzero chance of occurring. But not this week-- I've got a paper on Imagism due.

Started work at Walden's in the mall as well. About the only job I've ever had that I really liked was working in the Kroll Crisis Center, answering phones that didn't ring and websurfing and reading and (if I had the night shift) watching movies. So it wasn't exactly a *job*, per se.

Comments

[jazzfish]

my consolation is in knowing that in 50 years people will still be reading Tolkien, Lewis, and I'd bet Gaiman, but will never have heard of these other morons.

My fear is that Philip Pullman (author of The Golden Compass et al) will join that list. Lots of people are touting him as The Next (well, at this point Previous, give JK Rowling) Big Thing In Children's Literature, simply because his characters act in ways which are both Good and Bad, as opposed to being entirely one or the other. On the other hand, the only other person I've met who didn't like Golden Compass is Emily, so those lots of people might well be right. Sigh.

[lekythen.livejournal.com]

One of the things covered in my illustration course is how much the books released depends on the major book chains. Apparently stores like WHSmith (the UK equiv. of Walden) choose a very limited number of books per month and rig the charts to reflect this... which is why there's such a limited number of new authors available. I go to buy books and in the SF/F section, there is Terry Pratchett, Peter Hamilton, and McCaffrey. Not that these aren't good authors, but that's generally it.

I read the China Meilville book. Interesting, fun for a while, but the ending did nothing for me. And I gave up on Pullman after dragging my way through the first book. Currently big here, and in Japan, are the Darran Shane vampire books.

Try looking at the small publishers. Meisha Merlin is doing some reprints of some of my alltime favourites, like Kagan, as the big companies won't.

[jazzfish]

how much the books released depends on the major book chains.

Suck. I'd probably have discovered this for myself in another couple months working at Walden's, but still. Suck.

I read the China Meilville book. Interesting, fun for a while, but the ending did nothing for me.

Which? I've heard that King Rat (a Pied Piper story) was really good, and Perdido Street Station and his most recent were only okay.

gave up on Pullman after dragging my way through the first book.

You have no idea how happy it makes me that it's not just me. :)

Try looking at the small publishers.

*nod* ibooks, a division of Simon & Schuster, is reprinting all of the Wild Cards anthologies, and a lot of Zelazny and Bester.
*checks Meisha Merlin website* Ooh! Kedrigern! Way cool! Also Asprin reprints... very neat.

Re:

[lekythen.livejournal.com]

Perdido. Although King Rat still ranked as an 'ok' kind of book. I'm very picky.

Wow... been ages since I read the Wild Card books. There were random ones that were very good, others that were terrible... lived up to its name, that series. Currently, I'm re-reading the Dream Park series. Been a while.

Yes, annoying to think that your reading pleasure is dictated by a bunch of number-crunchers. More annoying, they now rely on computers to catch all typographical errors... which is why there are so many in modern books, especially logic errors. (as a note, who-ever beta'd the new Auel book needs a hefty smacking. And Auel herself should be ashamed for putting out that horrible rambling jack-assed nonsense. Gah.)