March reading
Books:
** The 10% Solution: Self-Editing for the Modern Writer by Ken Rand
**** Fantasists on Fantasy edited by Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski
**** The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin
***** Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Stories:
**** "Getting Real" by Harry Turtledove
***** "The Curandero and the Swede: A Tale from the 1001 American Nights" by Daniel Abraham
*** "Glory" by Greg Egan
*** "Obsidian Shards" by Aliette de Bodard
***** "The Second Gift Given" by Ken Scholes
*** "Impractical Cats" by K. D. Wentworth
*** "The Unstrung Zither" by Yoon Ha Lee
*** "Herding Vegetable Sheep" by Ekaterina Sedia
*** "The Urn of Ravalos" by Rebecca Day
**** "Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance" by Lord Dunsany
Quick Takes:
The 10% Solution by Ken Rand: Basically a set of tips on how to tighten your prose. If you've already read Strunk and White, you can safely skip this over-hyped little book.
Fantasists on Fantasy is a superb collection of 21 essays by different fantasy writers, discussing the theory, practice, and relevance of writing fantasy. Each essay comes with a succinct biographical sketch of the writer. Although some are (obviously) less noteworthy than others, there is something to be gleaned from each. Although it is out of print, I think this book should be on the short list of anyone who writes fantasy or aspires to.
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler: I picked this up as part of my effort to read classic sf and fantasy I'd missed out on during my years away from fiction, and partly because of the praise it received in Orson Scott Card's book on writing sf. It's absolutely extraordinary. It begins with a truly fantastical premise (two people with very unusual special abilities), and builds to an emotionally and psychologically complex study of power, love, and morality.
"Getting Real" by Harry Turtledove (Asimov's) is a near-future dystopia that is uncannily convincing. Not my favorite subgenre, but very fine work in extrapolating science and geopolitics.
"The Curandero and the Swede" is a potent story about the potency of stories, constructed of potent stories. Excellent reading, and I loved the point it made at the end.
"The Second Gift Given" by Ken Scholes (Clarkesworld) is a masterful distant-future sf dripping with Garden of Eden allusions. Something you wouldn't think anyone could get away with these days, but the ideas here are so varied and unusual that there's no hint of cliche.
"Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance" by Lord Dunsany (reprinted in Fantasy): The conventions of prose have certainly changed over the last century, but I enjoyed this dip into the stylings of a more eloquent age. Besides being a lovely stream of words, these nine paragraphs arrange to tell a timeless tale, and do so very well.
My ratings:
***** excellent: memorable, satisfying, a pleasure to read
**** very good: well written, good read, perhaps with small flaws or not quite aligned with my personal taste
*** good: readable, engaging, but with some problems or just not memorable or exciting for me
** sub-par: a rough read, either amateurish or just uninteresting to me
* huh? someone published this?
My ratings are part objective appraisal of the writing, part unapologetic personal preference (certain subjects and subgenres just don't appeal to me as much as others)
** The 10% Solution: Self-Editing for the Modern Writer by Ken Rand
**** Fantasists on Fantasy edited by Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski
**** The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin
***** Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Stories:
**** "Getting Real" by Harry Turtledove
***** "The Curandero and the Swede: A Tale from the 1001 American Nights" by Daniel Abraham
*** "Glory" by Greg Egan
*** "Obsidian Shards" by Aliette de Bodard
***** "The Second Gift Given" by Ken Scholes
*** "Impractical Cats" by K. D. Wentworth
*** "The Unstrung Zither" by Yoon Ha Lee
*** "Herding Vegetable Sheep" by Ekaterina Sedia
*** "The Urn of Ravalos" by Rebecca Day
**** "Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance" by Lord Dunsany
Quick Takes:
The 10% Solution by Ken Rand: Basically a set of tips on how to tighten your prose. If you've already read Strunk and White, you can safely skip this over-hyped little book.
Fantasists on Fantasy is a superb collection of 21 essays by different fantasy writers, discussing the theory, practice, and relevance of writing fantasy. Each essay comes with a succinct biographical sketch of the writer. Although some are (obviously) less noteworthy than others, there is something to be gleaned from each. Although it is out of print, I think this book should be on the short list of anyone who writes fantasy or aspires to.
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler: I picked this up as part of my effort to read classic sf and fantasy I'd missed out on during my years away from fiction, and partly because of the praise it received in Orson Scott Card's book on writing sf. It's absolutely extraordinary. It begins with a truly fantastical premise (two people with very unusual special abilities), and builds to an emotionally and psychologically complex study of power, love, and morality.
"Getting Real" by Harry Turtledove (Asimov's) is a near-future dystopia that is uncannily convincing. Not my favorite subgenre, but very fine work in extrapolating science and geopolitics.
"The Curandero and the Swede" is a potent story about the potency of stories, constructed of potent stories. Excellent reading, and I loved the point it made at the end.
"The Second Gift Given" by Ken Scholes (Clarkesworld) is a masterful distant-future sf dripping with Garden of Eden allusions. Something you wouldn't think anyone could get away with these days, but the ideas here are so varied and unusual that there's no hint of cliche.
"Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance" by Lord Dunsany (reprinted in Fantasy): The conventions of prose have certainly changed over the last century, but I enjoyed this dip into the stylings of a more eloquent age. Besides being a lovely stream of words, these nine paragraphs arrange to tell a timeless tale, and do so very well.
My ratings:
***** excellent: memorable, satisfying, a pleasure to read
**** very good: well written, good read, perhaps with small flaws or not quite aligned with my personal taste
*** good: readable, engaging, but with some problems or just not memorable or exciting for me
** sub-par: a rough read, either amateurish or just uninteresting to me
* huh? someone published this?
My ratings are part objective appraisal of the writing, part unapologetic personal preference (certain subjects and subgenres just don't appeal to me as much as others)
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