Books Blog: English Literature & Linguistics

I just finished reading an enchanting short story by Garth Nix (Amazon Blog, titled Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again. It’s available for free as HTML on Baen’s website, so give it a read. Or if that’s too onerous, this PDF might help: Garth Nix: Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again.pdf.

I originally read the story published in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection, almost the very last of the chilling tales in this volume, and in my opinion, by far the best. It won the Aurealis award for novella.

There is apparently a sequel novella titled Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe in Fast Ships, Black Sails which I’m dying to read, but it’s not available in Kindle format.

I’m really enjoying a new Author, Charles Stross. He writes hard-scifi and Lovecraftian fantasy. I highly recommend the following books as introduction to Charlie Stross–all available on the Amazon Kindle:

Stross turns in another bravura performance with a fanciful glimpse at life in the twenty-seventh century. In an era of virtual immortality, where computer backups of human consciousness have become as routine as unlimited body modification, Robin is a patient in a rehab clinic for convalescents of voluntary memory erasure.

Reviews of the novel vary wildly, which may suggest as much about the tastes of particular SF readers as it does about the specific case. The combination of sex and violence clashes a bit with some deep philosophizing on identity and purpose, though Stross?s sense of humor and Freya?s rollicking adventure transcend what SF Reviews deems “some bizarre cross-genre hybrid.”

Lovecraft’s Cthulhu meets Len Deighton’s spies in Stross’s latest, as the Scottish author explains in his afterword to this offbeat book offering two related long novellas, “The Atrocity Archive” and “The Concrete Jungle” (the latter previously unpublished). With often hilarious results, the author mixes the occult and the mundane, the truly weird and the petty.

Most of his books have Kindle editions, which is great!! However, the last two novels in The Merchant Family series are missing. I wrote Charlie about it, and he says to bug Amazon. I’ve already hit the “request this edition on the kindle” button they have. So, cross your fingers. You can check out Charles Stross’ blog for the latest updates.

There is a killer article by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly called J.K. Rowling’s Ministry of Magic which digs deep into why JK Rowling is an awesome writer, and why the Harry Potter series is more than just a blockbuster of modern fiction. First, Stephen shoots down the hype around the Potter book reviews:

“… the very popularity of the books has often undone even the best intentions of the best critical writers. In their hurry to churn out column inches, and thus remain members of good standing in the Church of What’s Happening Now, very few of the Potter reviewers have said anything worth remembering. [...] Most reviewers … bolted everything down, then obligingly puked it back up half-digested on the book pages of their respective newspapers.”

When a Harry Potter book comes up there’s too much pressure to race to the press with a review that all that can come out is a brief plot summary and a bit of gush about the next Harry installment! Second, King points out that Rowling is a talented novelist:

“While some of the blogs and the mainstream media have mentioned that Rowling’s ambition kept pace with the skyrocketing popularity of her books, they have largely overlooked the fact that her talent also grew.”

Coming from Stephen King, “one of the finer stylists in her native country” is high praise indeed. He’s particularly taken with “a sweet but uncompromising view of human nature…and hard reality: NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” that made it into the finale, a mother protecting her daughter from something evil.

Of course, he ends with a cute little jab at the commercialization of the series–not that King is actually jealous–that almost slipped by without notice:

Mostly Rowling is just having fun, knocking herself out, and when a good writer is having fun, the audience is almost always having fun too. You can take that one to the bank (and, Reader, she did).