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03-05-04: The Bookman's Promise: I'll Sell Those Old Books I Don't Need* |
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John
Dunning on Tour
All this comes up now, because 1) I am once again in the process of changing the laws of physics so that my house can accommodate more books and 2) John Dunning has a new Cliff Janeway novel out, titled, 'The Bookman's Promise'. Not only does he have a new book, he's on tour, and on his tour, he's conducting a number of free book collecting forums. He owned the Old Algonquin Bookstore in Denver for long enough to know whereof he writes and speaks when he writes --and speaks -- about book collecting. They now have a website that serves both the store and the writer, and you can check there for the times and dates that he's showing up in your town. If I can get an electronic copy of the Q&A they include with the publicity materials they sent around, then I'll post it for my readers. It's pretty fascinating stuff. In the most recent issue of 'Crimewave', there's a fantastically funny story titled 'Esther Gordon Framlingham' by Anthony Mann. In it the main character is a would-be writer of mystery fiction, searching for a niche he can successfully occupy. This is one of those kinds of stories that re-frames everything you read subsequent to reading it. Now, as I look at mysteries, and especially niche mysteries wherein the sleuth makes use of some specific talent, I'm taken back to Mann's hysterical scenario that appears to be the unpleasant truth: there is no occupation no matter how obscure, no matter how weird that has not been co-opted as the setting for a mystery series. Dunning's specialty is so pertinent, so attention-grabbing to the compulsive book collectors that you know he's done his homework. It's so often said that writers must write what they write because that's the only thing they can write about. And while the growth industry of niche mysteries might be taken to suggest otherwise, my recent experience at Left Coast Crime suggests another reason: there are a whole lot of people who love mystery writing and more and more of them are coming from more and more different backgrounds. The end result is that readers have a genre that's as diverse as reality itself. *Of course, there's no such thing as "An Old Book I Don't Need". |
03-04-04: The Return of Jeffrey E. Barlough, Devereaux's Leisurely Legacy |
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Barlough
is back With 'Strange Cargo'
And so it's my duty to be the bearer of glad tidings and announce a new, yes a new Jeffrey E. Barlough novel, coming in August. I haven't yet got a hold of an ARC, but believe me I'm trying. And let me tell you; if you enjoy Tim Powers (again, sorry), James Blaylock's screwball stuff, Jeffrey Ford, John Keel, or Jeff VanderMeer you certainly want to pick up both 'Dark Sleeper', and 'The House in the High Wood', read them in order and get ready to rock with this latest release, 'Strange Cargo'. Now while I've loved the prose, the story, the characters and everything about the writing of the Barlough novels, I've never been particularly enamored of the original cover art -- until now. The art for 'Strange Cargo' is intriguing on a number of levels. First and foremost, if what happens is in any way tied to what we see on the cover -- well, just wow. But even if it isn't, at least this time around the cover art conveys the baroque, complex and detailed feel of the author's writing. That in itself is an accomplishment. All one can say is that Barlough is writing some of the most imaginative fantasy you can find today. You can read a column I wrote a couple of years ago, shortly after the release of 'The House in the High Wood', and you can read the review of that title. But whatever you do, order up his first two books right now. You'll want to be prepared for what I predict could easily be one of the best books of this year. Damn having to wait until August -- it's unconscionable! |
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Caliban
and the Clowns
"I wish I could hope to ever attain one-thousandth of the perversity of Robert Devereaux's least toenail clipping." I mean really; a hard boiled detective story with clowns ('Ridi Bobo'), a title novella in the 200 page range retelling Shakespeare as only Devereaux can do, and all this in the King of Cheese paperbacks by Leisure? Run, I tell you run; your very life is in danger if you do not read this book. Of course, it's in more danger if you do, but then you love the danger, don't you? |
03-03-04: Michael Marshall (Smith) Bonanza |
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MMS Collections: Bad News for Your Bank Balance, Good News for Your Brain Balance
While you're at it, do yourself a favor and stop by Michael Marshall Smith's excellently done website and more importantly, Earthling Publications Website. They have an absolutely rocking slate of forthcoming work, so large I cannot cover it in this article. I will in the fullness of time. In the interim, better get there fast and order up that Conrad Williams novel. Delectably blood-draining good!
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03-02-04: Satan, Santa, Angels |
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A
Long Strange Trip With Robert Devereaux
He followed this with 'Walking Wounded', another horrific tale, well wrought to be sure but not unexpected. Then, just to prove that he was from another damn planet, he came out with 'Santa Steps Out', a tale so original, so well written and so totally out there that I bought three, count 'em three copies, certain that if there were any justice, it would win the World Fantasy Award. Ah, naïve old man that I was then! Justice, in this world? As regards literary awards? Perish the thought! So what could a book titled 'Santa Steps Out' be about? None other than Santa himself. Incredibly imagined, this novel re-casts all the fairy tale icons of our childhood -- Santa, The Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny -- as bawdy, bodily incarnations of myths past. From the opening scene involving the Tooth Fairy's disposition of her booty to the sex and violence throughout the book; it's just one jaw-dropping scene after another carried off with the same sympathetic élan that characterized his first novel. Because not only do you get to see Santa Step Out, you get to know Santa as a complex, well-imagined character. Then he disappears for a while. Now, he's back with 'A Flight of Storks and Angels', a new novel from Five Star Publishers, "in association with Tekno Books and Ed Gorman". Five Star publishes "26 original science fiction and fantasy novels a year", including work by authors Timothy Zahn and Brian Stableford. The jacket flap copy is suitably mysterious, but a quick scan reveals a novel about a novelist who claims to have contacted angels, with the expected result that all hell breaks loose. But the tone here looks a lot gentler than before, though the writing is as strong as ever. And weird -- weird as ever as well. Really weird writing with strong characters is what we're all about here. I sampled storks being born from mirrors, covered in mucus. It's good to know that Robert Devereaux is still writing, still possessed by a muse that will not let him be. A mucus-driven muse; what more can we ask of our writers? |
03-01-04: Top Secret VanderMeer, A Fine Headhunting Find |
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Jeff
VanderMeer's 'A Secret Life' Coming from Golden Gryphon
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Not
Your Average Recruiter
While I was mi-am-binging about in Logos this weekend, having just enjoyed the lovely documentary feature 'The Fog of War', I stumbled across this first edition copy in a nice Demco jacket. I couldn't resist. Somewhere in my shelves, I have 'Ghoul', which I obtained as a new book back in the day. Due to the cover, I guess, this was shelved with the horror novels and not the mysteries, where I found a nice set of Joseph Hansen mysteries. And have no fear, the scene illustrated on the front cover of this novel is certainly one you'll encounter within! |