Online Sci-fi Book Club

So I've never book clubbed before, but I heard this being pimped on Buzz Out Loud and had to follow it up. First off it is being run by Tom Merrit and Veronica Bellmont, two of the three people I first heard when I started listening to Buzz Out Loud. Veronica has since wandered over to her own daily video show on Mahalo, but they are sticking together for this book club thing. The thing that drew me in, at least to start, was the name, Sword And Laser! That is just wicked, so I cruised the site, and it looks like a good book club thing, and maybe I will try it out, and maybe I won't, but I thought I would share for any book club folks out there of the Sci-fi persuasion. At the very least it's always nice to see a list of books that people whose opinions and tastes I respect that I haven't read before.

Requiem of a Reader (No Know One Has Died, I'm Just Being Macabre)

(This was written last week on Tuesday and languished unposted, reference dates as such.)

This morning on CBC's Sounds Like Canada was an interview with Ed Greenwood, author, world builder, librarian. Ed is a Canadian with about a billion books under his belt, and a fantasy world of such depth that is makes JK Rowling's books seem surface deep (and they are far from that.) Over four decades Ed Greenwood has published through TSR (and then Wizards of the Coast, and now Hasbro) his Forgotten Realms novels and gaming products. The Forgotten Realms is still my D&D world of choice and has weathered and republished itself through many generations of the game.

For me Ed Greenwood's novels were a staple of my reading through senior public and high school. In fact in both grade 12 and OAC Ed became a piece of my English projects, first as a study of a Canadian author, and then as a study of modern fantasy writing in the framework of the evolution of the genre, where I contrasted his writings with that of Lewis Carol, JRR Tolkien and Robert E Howard. (Probably a more prestigious group than he really belonged in, but that's ok, I was a fan boy.)

To this day I hold one of his novels (Elminster in Myth Drannor) as prize because he personally autographed it when I went to interview him in his unnamed Library in Toronto.

(Actually funny story, in retrospect I used social engineering to hack private employment data to find the guy. I called up a random library in the area, asked if he was an employee, they said no and I said "Oh, well I know he works for the system, I was sure it was your library would you mind checking your records to let me know which branch he is at." Friendly as ever the librarian sent me on to the right branch, and presto-changeo one fanboi had found his author/idol.)

I even made mention this weekend of that autograph because we were contrasting getting in line at a convention for 10 seconds with and author to actually receiving an autograph under novel situations. For me Ed Greenwood and Robert Sawyer both have special autographs in my collection, and my Friend Brad got a great one from the Creegan brother's (one of which is a current Barenaked Lady, and the other was the original keyboardist and long time friend of the band.)

Sadly Ed's works while thrilling in my youth no longer captivate my attention as they once did. His world I still love and visit with my swords and sorcerers, but those are my stories not his. I'm glad he still does his work, and that his world grows. I hope a new generation finds his writing and thrills as Elminster plays the role of Dues Ex Machina for witless heroes. More so I'm glad to hear him on a national radio show reminding day time listeners that pencil and paper board gaming isn't the work of the devil, and he nearly echoed my own parent's emotion. Paraphrasing, when your children and there friends are all in the basement on a Friday night being social and playing games you know they are safe, as opposed to out on the street getting into trouble.


As I wrote this, comically, Robert Sawyer also came on the radio, its like CBC's Toronto Author day. Any Robert's big shit in China these days, and his latest work Rollback was really well done. My complaint as always is he brings up a whole whack load of interesting ideas that are peripheral to his plot, and never has time to do any of it justice (short of the 3 - 4 core ideas in the story.) One idea that really caught me, and was probably touched on for less then a paragraph is how the internet is changing fact based learning as much as the calculator has changed mathematics. He briefly alluded to the idea that 'facts' in education become less essential as we have instant access to them via the internet (which we now have at our sides at all times.) Once we do away with the burden of memorization we make room for more intellectual discussion. In his book he approached it in the classic style:

Phase One: Collect underpants.
Phase Two: ?
Phase Three: Profit

So he leaves out the part about how education reconciles the internet and classroom conflict and gets straight to "profit" as grade school students engage in philosophical debate over abortion. I think the idea of engaging youth in real discussion in a meaningful way is awesome, and it isn't even an outcome I could have imagined, even though the ? process is clearly underway.

I actually read roll back in less then a day, which is really rare for me. I just couldn't put it down.

Anyways I've rambled an awful lot and delayed posting this, I'm not even sure who will read it (as it what audience should read it.)

I've committed to writing more in the coming months real writing, my goal is to bring out a short work of fiction that isn't trite. Doesn't have to be good, just not terrible, that is my foundation and my goal.

I just had an idea, filing it for later :)

Train is pulling it

G

"Just like you thieves, always taking things that don't belong to you. " -Damodar

Well that stirring quotation from the Dungeon and Dragons movie has always been one of its more endearing lines, and for some perverse reason help keep this barely-B movie in the ranks of Erin and my own nostalgia collection. In a round about way I have come to this point, and it really not what's on my mind. So I will continue backwards through this trip.

A more fitting, witty, and less obvious thing Damodar could have said, was better said by G. K. Chesterton:

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

G. K. Chesterton, also said (and we are getting close to the beginning now):

Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

That is a lesson, or thought I find truly endearing, and I think extends to more then just Fairy Tales, but much of fantasy literature. Or perhaps better said, fantasy stories are just another for of the fairy tale.

I came across this quotation in the introduction to Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, an anthology of short stories, or perhaps modern fairy tales that I'm reading right now. (Or more accurately stated, started reading this morning.) Comically, when I went in search of the link to this book, I discovered that the book I thought I purchased, was not the one I intended to purchase. The result was similar, I wanted short stories by Niel Gaiman, and I got them, and now that I'm enjoying them, I will buy the other book as well. I imagine the same process would have occurred if I had purchased them in the other order, but at least this now explains the 1997 date at the end of the introduction, that had me rather baffled.

Anyways that was more or less all I had to say, its a great little anthology so far, and the variety of stories alluded to in the intro has me intrigued. While long ago Gaiman conquered the google search for Neil's, check it out: http://www.google.ca/search?q=neil.

Of the top 10 hits, #1 and #2 are his home page's, followed by another Neil, Neil Young at #3. #4 and #5 are the Wiki's for Neil Armstrong, and again Neil Young. I think even Gaiman would willingly relinquish #1 to Armstrong, oh the injustice. :)

Gaiman has quickly entered into my library in many a media form, I like his movies, I like his books, and I even bought his comics. I've steered clear of his children's books because I imagine them traumatizing future children, but I may recant and pick them up if I run out of fresh Neil to read.

I've come as far as I can this morning, and my train is arriving shortly, so I shall end this with something else pithy that Mr Chesterton has said, or wrote:

Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.

(Wow, I decided to put something there without knowing what, and I don't think I could have found something better and more conclusive if I had plucked mana from heaven, to bad I've fouled it all up with this post script.)

This is just amusing

While screaming at my machine to compile, I came across this on one of my authors sites. For those of you who knew Ben, or those of you have red Jacqueline Carey's novels you will probably be equally amused as I by this superstar combination: Kushiel's Bengals!