Remember, no matter where you go... there you are

If there are any Buckaroo Banzai fans out there, you should know that Moonstone Books is planning a Banzai comic book. You can see a preview of the artwork here.

"No Frills" generic books

At Look What I Found In My Brain!, Lucy Snyder remembers generic books.

Fewer people remember that, for a very brief period of time in the white-label heyday of the early 1980s, someone attempted to market generic genre books.

Yes, completely generic paperback books. They had a plain white cover with just the title in black block lettering: ROMANCE or SCIENCE FICTION or HORROR or WESTERN.

The funny thing is I do remember these. I never saw them in a store, but I remember a TV news show doing a feature on the books. I must have been 10 years old. Even then, I asked myself "how can a book be generic?" Of course, I know better now. There's many ways books can be generic. But to sell them as such is a bit much.
I remember this particular news show because I remember visiting my father in Long Island. His house was filled with "No Frills" items. I'd go in the bathroom and there would be a white tube with a blue line that said "Toothpaste" and somewhere along the side "No Frills." Items like that seemed to be from another universe. My house was filled with frilly items like Crest and Scope. So when I saw the TV story, I paid attention.
The only reference I can find to the books is a cached page from Kathmandu Books:

The ''No Frills'' series was a collection of generic books issued in a plain white cover with black writing. The series was put together by Terry Bisson, and this particular volume was written by John Silbersack. A near fine copy in wraps with a short closed tear and corner crease on the back cover.

I don't know anything about Silbersack. A Google search shows him to have been an editor and to also have written a few media tie-ins, including "Buck Rogers: Rogers Rangers." Terry Bisson, on the other hand, is a well known science fiction writer. His Web site mentions that he created the "No Frills" line in 1981, but gives no further information.
Does anybody know anything more about these books? I'd love to have an image of one.

Science fiction lists

I don't know much about this Phobos Entertainment, but I enjoyed looking over their 100 Science Fiction Books you just have to read! list. Mostly because I read many of the books here (although I don't agree with the placement.) Here's their top 10:

1. Childhood's End Written by Arthur C. Clarke
2. Foundation Written by Isaac Asimov
3. Dune Written by Frank Herbert
4. Man in the High Castle Written by Philip K. Dick
5. Starship Troopers Written by Robert A. Heinlein
6. Valis Written by Philip K. Dick
7. Frankenstein Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
8. Gateway Written by Frederick Pohl
9. Space Merchants Written by C.M. Kornbluth & Frederick Pohl
10. Earth Abides Written by George R. Stewart

They have descriptions with each book. Here's the one for Childhood's End:

Before you praise Independence Day for menacing Earth with city-sized flying saucers, credit Clarke’s Overlords for paving the way in Childhood’s End. This meditative novel is somewhat short on space battles and malevolent aliens, but makes up for it in the end when mankind takes that final, staggering evolutionary leap. An amazing read.

They also have a list of 50 science fiction films you just have to see. The top 10 there are:

1. Star Wars Directed by George Lucas
2. Metropolis Directed by Fritz Lang
3. Forbidden Planet Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers Directed by Don Siegel
5. The Fly Directed by David Cronenberg
6. The Thing Directed by Howard Hawkes & Christian Nyby
7. The Thing Directed by John Carpenter
8. The Empire Strikes Back Directed by Irvin Kershner
9. The Matrix Directed by Andy & Larry Wachowski
10. Godzilla Directed by Inshiro Honda

While I would quibble with some of the placement of movies, they do have many movies I enjoy (and I do appreciate Godzilla being in the top 10.)
Anyway, these lists are good fun if you're bored and want to argue with someone about why your favorite book/film wasn't included.

Links

Here's some links of interest:

• John Clute reads Jeffrey Ford's "Girl in the Glass. Clute says, "...at the best, The Girl in the Glass is magic."


• Kelly Link is interviewed at Jeff Vandermeer's Vanderworld blog. Also, Claude LaLumiere talks about Link's story "The Faery Handbag" in her new collection "Magic for Beginners." (That story can also be found in "The Faery Reel" and Fantasy: Best of 2004.) Also Link's story "Magic for Beginners" is in the September issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine. There's also another short interview with Link at One Story. UPDATE: I just saw Link's home page thanks to Shaken & Stirred and note that "The Faery Handbag" is free online, along with a few other stories. Enjoy.


• Apparently Peter Berg will try to bring Bran Mak Morn to the screen. Bran Mak Morn is a character from Robert E. Howard short stories (not novels, as the link suggests). Maybe they'll do a Howard character correctly, although I'm not holding my breath. The Conan movies were fun, but they don't capture the true character. (Link found at SciFi Daily.)


• The Hugo awards were announced. Among the winners, "The Faery Handbag" (mentioned above) for best novelette and the Battlestar Galactica episode "33" for dramatic presentation short form. They have also announced that the best editor award will be broken in two. Next year, there will be best magazine editor and best book editor awards. Patrick Nielsen Hayden talks about that decision here.

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"

Edward Champion takes a look at the 33 1/3 series of books about great rock and roll albums. I previously read two of the books, "Piper At the Gates of Dawn" and "Forever Changes." The first looks at every detail of the album's recording. The second put the album in a social and literary context. I liked the second one better.
Looking over Ed's reviews, I would be interested in reading "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" (mainly because it's such a great, weird album) and "Born in the USA" (based more on what Ed says about it.)
I would have been interested in "Music From Big Pink" until I read the excerpt. It's a novella in which Big Pink plays an important role, but the writing didn't grab me. Besides, if I want to read about the Band, I can always go re-read Mystery Train.

SciFi, Battlestar Galactic and respect

Interesting article from Newsday about science fiction looking for respect on television. Here's the lead:

Rodney Dangerfield was wrong. It's sci-fi TV that don't get no respect.

Case in point: A vice president in the TV industry recently asked me what TV shows I watch for enjoyment. I mentioned my favorite is "Battlestar Galactica" on Sci Fi Channel. She laughed. I asked if she'd seen it. No, she said, and laughed again. Did she know, I asked, that it's a gritty adult drama of family members and colleagues in deep-rooted conflict not unlike that of "The Sopranos"? That they're part of a civilization struggling not only to survive but to define itself amid messy terrorist warfare? That it explores the values of competing societies that demonize each other's spiritual beliefs? That it's full of gutsy acting by the likes of Edward James Olmos and sophisticated allegory mirroring today's global politics?

She laughed again.

The article then goes on to say how good, how deep SciFi's "Battlestar Galactica" is. And I would certainly agree with that. The show is fighting to get respect among Emmy nominators.
It's a good article, but this annoys me:

"There is this horrible misconception that science fiction is for somebody else, not for me," says Bonnie Hammer, president of Sci Fi Channel and USA, who campaigns daily to convince skeptics that today's TV genre encompasses more than space and special effects. "It's speculative fiction, it's the imagination, it's anything outside what we know to be true, it's the not-quantifiable," she says. In her seven years overseeing Sci Fi programming, its series have been repositioned not as fantastic adventures but relatably soul-driven dramas.

OK, Hammer deserves some respect because at some point she approved "Battlestar Galactica" and "Farscape" (although she also took it off the air). However, this is also the woman who has approved filling up the channel with films like "Boa vs. Python" and "Bloodsuckers," the woman who tries to move the channel away from science fiction much of the time. Maybe if she wants more respect for the genre, she can start seeking out some of the better science fiction movies that are rarely, if ever, shown on TV. Maybe she can commission good scripts for small movies.

Anyway, "Battlestar Galactica" is pretty great. Let's hope it wins some awards. (Link from SciFi Daily.)

Amazing steampunk invention

This thing, Daddy Longlegs, is probably the coolest historical item I've heard of in a year or more. It's a pier that walks on stilts from one place to another at 2mph. It ran from 1896 to 1901. It's the kind of thing I'm amazed was ever created (and worked!) and even more amazed that anyone let it close. I mean, this is an incredible tourist attraction. I wonder what it sounded like? (Link found at BoingBoing.)

Skeptic's encyclopedia

The James Randi Educational Foundation has put Randi's An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural up on the Web. It gives definitions, explanations and sarcasm about everything from Abaris ("Abaris is said to have lived without eating or drinking. This, coupled with the fact that his pupil Pythagoras is supposed to have stolen his golden arrow, must have resulted in a certain dissatisfaction with his life.") to zombie ("The fact that the idea of real zombies has been taken seriously in Haiti can be seen in their old penal code, where it is stated that “the use of substances whereby a person is not killed but reduced to a state of lethargy, more or less prolonged,” falls under the category of “intention to kill by poisoning.” ").
I find the site to be a bit slow loading, but seems plenty useful nonetheless. (Link seen earlier at Beatrice and BoingBoing.)

George Saunders story

I've been hearing about George Saunders and how good his mainstream/slipstream/fantasy stories are for quite a while. Well, I just finished reading "CommComm" in the New Yorker and it fulfills all I've heard about the author. It's a wonderful, tragical, fantastical story. Here's an excerpt:

I go to my room, watch some World Series, practice my PIDS in front of the mirror.

What'’s going on down there I don'’t watch anymore: Mom'’s on the landing in her pajamas, calling Dad'’s name, a little testy. Then she takes a bullet in the neck, her hands fly up, she rolls the rest of the way down, my poor round Ma. Dad comes up from the basement in his gimpy comic trot, concerned, takes a bullet in the chest, drops to his knees, takes one in the head, and that's that.

Then they do it again, over and over, all night long.

Finally it'’s morning. I go down, have a bagel.

Go read it now.

Girl in the Glass delayed

According to a Barnes & Noble e-mail I received today, Jeffrey Ford's new novel "Girl in the Glass" has been delayed and a new release date hasn't been set. (However, the link at the site still shows it will be published Aug. 16.) At the same time, Ford has suspended his message board at Night Shade Books. Originally, there was a note on the boards saying he needed time to work on a novel. That note has since been removed.
I don't think this is that unusual in publishing (I have little to no inside information on the publishing industry, so this is all speculation), but I find it interesting. Will the novel now be significantly different than the one reviewed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Emerald City? Either way, I just can't wait to have this book in my hands. I'm also patiently awaiting "Cosmology of the Wider World," (review here). Ford had mentioned that won't be coming out before September.

Can I have too many books?

I have thousands of books. I've got eight bookcases overflowing with books and I have books lined up across the top of all eight. I fill paperback shelves two books deep and top to bottom. And I'm still buying books.
This isn't really a problem. I love having books around, I love having many choices when I want to read something. But lately, a fear has gripped me. Can I possibly read all the books in my collection, let alone all the new books and old classics I don't own that I want to read?
The fear hit me recently when I started reading "The Sunlight Dialogues," a nearly 800-page book by John Gardner. As much as I like a book like this, there is a dread I have when I first pick up these large tomes. How long is this going to take me? How many short novels, never mind short stories, could I have read in the time it takes me to read this book? Eventually I get over it, but it's got me thinking about all these novels around me.
The other reason for this anxiety, as I get older I find myself wanting to re-read books. For many years, I just read through one book after another, never turning back. Now I read and enjoy books more slowly and I appreciate the good ones more. I want to spend time with books I consider classics. But it's hard to do that when there's five books my girlfriend gave me for my birthday to read. And five more books I didn't read from my Christmas presents. Plus there's a new Jeffrey Ford novel on the way. And I just got "Spin."
And sometime in the near future, I'll be moving. Do I want to lug all these books around with me?
Sooner or later, I'll recover from this fear and realize it doesn't matter if I read all these books. And if I want to re-read something, go ahead. Everything will happen in its own good time.
In the meantime, I look longingly at all the books I want to read...

Robert Charles Wilson

One of the things I want to do more of is post about fiction, authors and writing. A publicist contacted me a week or two ago and asked if I'd like to have a copy of Robert Charles Wilson's new book "Spin." I jumped at the chance.
I had read "The Chronoliths" and thought it was fantastic. I'm not sure why I picked up the book, maybe it was a review I had read or it was just a whim at the bookstore, but whatever the reason, it was worth it. The book was great, more focused on character than the fascinating ideas that make up the plot. I still feel for characters in that book and the things the appearance of massive statues from the future cause to happen to them.
Since reading that book, I've wanted to read more Wilson novels. I hear "Darwinia" is very good. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to it. That will be changed soon. I plan to read "Spin" in the next few weeks and I'll post a few thoughts about it.
In the meantime, here are some related links:
Reviews of "Spin" by: the Agony Column; SF Signal; The Slush God; Science Fiction Weekly; and Bookslut
Interviews at Science Fiction Weekly; Locus and Challenging Destiny.
A Wikipedia entry on Wilson.

A return?

Well, things have been more than a little quiet here over the past year. All those of you still checking in, keeping me on your blogrolls or just occasionally thinking of me -- thank you! All those of you who have totally forgotten about me and my blog, well, I can't blame you.
My absence is the fault of my life going really well. I have a wonderful girlfriend who lives with me, I got promoted at my job and I've been doing more and more fiction writing. (The fiction writing is still not where I want it to be, but I continue to hack away at it and hopefully continue to improve.)
(I haven't been totally away, however. For those who are interested in that sort of thing, I have written a couple of posts on my Giant Monster Blog.)
But now I plan to make a return. I don't think I'll post as often as I once did, maybe once a day if I'm feeling productive. But I hope I can make this more interesting this time around. We'll see. I would suggest using the XML link to the right if you have a newsreader, or My Yahoo!, that way you'll know when I have a new post up without wasting time checking my site.
And for old time's sake, here's a set of photos of store front display of giant squid stuffed dolls.

Lions of Al-Rassan to become a movie

So the news is that Ed Zwick, director of The Last Samurai, will direct an adaptation of The Lions of Al-Rassan, a novel written by Guy Gavriel Kay.
I read the book and enjoyed it. It's sort of fantasy, sort of historical fiction. It's really about the reconquest of Spain, yet all the places and names have been changed. Here's a review of the book. I think I liked the book more than the reviewer, but I haven't read any other Kay novels.
This is a good story for this time. It's about the collision of politics and religion, and how much can be lost when the two become stiff and unyielding. Specifically, it's about the collision of Muslim and Christian cultures and the novel focuses on at least one Jew caught in between. (Of course, in the novel the religions are Asharites, Jaddites and Kindath, but it's very clear what they are.)
The novel has no magic, if it weren't for the change of names this wouldn't even be considered a fantasy novel. It would be strict historical fiction.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the film to see what Zwick does with the material.

New Jeffrey Ford story

Up at SciFiction is A Man of Light, a new story by Jeffrey Ford. As any of you who read this blog know (and there are few of you left by now), I love Jeff Ford. And he's been busy lately. Here are some other things going on:
A Cosmology of the Wider World, a new novella coming out from PS Publishing in Mid 2005;
The Girl in the Glass: A Novel, a new novel coming out in August. From what Jeff has said it was very influenced by the works of Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man in particular.;
The Virtual Anthology, a series about stories that would make up Ford's dream anthology. The series was formerly housed at s1ngularity, which is now defunct. It now resides at the much more stable Fantastic Metropolis. Ford has written about works by Kelly Link, Ray Bradbury, Henry James and Akutagawa Ryunosuke;
Giant Land, a new short story coming out in the second issue of the Journal of Pulse Pounding Narratives;
The Annals of Eelin-Ok, a short story in "The Faery Reel," a new anthology from Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling, which is out now;
An introduction to a new edition of John Gardner's Grendel. Gardner took Ford under his wing early in Ford's career.
The man has been busy. Now I'm going to settle in and read "A Man in Light." Enjoy.
UPDATE 5/25/05: A new Ford story, The Scribble Mind, is up at SciFiction. Also, Ford announced at his message board that The Girl in the Glass is not coming out in hardcover, instead its coming out in trade paperback under the Black Alley imprint.

Will Eisner, comics pioneer, dies

Will Eisner died Monday after heart surgery. He was 87 years old. Neil Gaiman offers an appreciation of the man. You can read Eisner's biography here.
Among his major works were A Contract With God, To the Heart of the Storm, and The Neighborhood: Dropsie Avenue. He was also the creator of the seminal hero character, The Spirit and one of the first, and probably most important, books on the art of creating comics, Comics and Sequential Art.

Godzilla gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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This much Mieville knows

China Mieville tells the Guardian what he knows:

"I'm in this business for the monsters. My single favourite monsters are the beastmen in The Island of Doctor Moreau. I love the octopoid creatures and the giant swine spirit in William Hope Hodgson. I have a lot of time for pig monsters. I've always liked being terrified of monsters from underwater coming up, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. There's a picture of Beatrix Potter's Jeremy Fisher with the trout about to bite his foot and he hasn't seen it yet. Completely terrifying."

Giant squid on the march

This story is fun for its headline alone: Giant squid 'taking over world.' According to the article, giant squid have a greater biomass on the planet than humans do. Apparently, there are fewer predators of these cephalapods.
The scientists in the story seem to refer to cephalapods without mention of giant squid. I wonder if they mean giant squid or just squid in general? And if it is true that there are so many giant squid, why haven't we captured a live one yet? I don't get it. The world continues to confound us.

Article on horror writers

Although this article starts out with the obnoxious subhead "Horror is back, but this time with attitude and a sense of character development" and says things like "And some of those younger writers are telling stories in a hipper way, moving away from the standard widow’s-peaked vampires, moon-howling werewolves, and decaying zombies", it's actually a pretty good article profiling the prominent members of the Horror Writers Association New England chapter. Among the authors profiled: Jon Merz, Holly Newstein, Rick Hautala and Christopher Golden. There's also a brief look at the horror fiction business.
(Link via Bookslut.)