pornokitsch

New Releases: Peter & Max by Bill Willingham

Bill Willingham (and Vertigo's) tentative advance into the world of novels has paid off - Peter & Max is a genuinely great, if slightly skittish, book. If anything, Willingham (and, again, Vertigo) should be encouraged to try his hand at pure novels, and leave his comic book world behind. 

Peter & Max succeeds as a lovely, modern fairy tale - a well-constructed & delivered plot, filled with intriguing characters. Where it lets the reader down is when it tries to name-check the rest of the Fables mythos. In this attempt to please existing readers, it comes dangerously close to alienating new ones. 

This is a shame, as Peter & Max is oddly reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's better efforts: Stardust or Neverwhere. 

Joe Abercrombie x Happy Finish

Behind on reviews (again), but here's a blurb I contributed to the SF/F blog, Grasping for the Wind, about the best endings in the genre.

I'm writing up thoughts on three fresh-on-the-shelf new releases: The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet (great!), Peter & Max (pretty good!) and Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero (I'll leave you guessing).

Post-script: Random Anecdote about Jane Yolen

In 2005, I went to WorldCon in Glasgow. It was my first major convention. My friends Arin and Rich, experienced at this sort of thing, calmly worked the room, whilst I bounced around like a stoat on speed. Great weekend.

In my typical way, I grossly over-prepared by bringing a few dozen 'essential' books for the key signings. But, never one to let an author go un-molested, I freely shopped for the other authors that were at the event.

One was Jane Yolen, whom I grew up reading - meaning my books were all in boxes in Kansas City, rather than in my greedy hands in London. I found a pretty paperback at the event and carried it over to her to get signed.

Only to find that she'd already signed it. Inscribed it, in fact... She wasn't, say, entirely pleased to see it again. I suppose as an author, that must feel like a bit of a rejection. I know that I, as the messenger, felt a bit like shooting myself.

Still, after the initial irritation, Jane Yolen was a sport about it, so I spared myself the ritual suicide. 

Plus, I got a cute inscription out of it. Wherever you are, Ms. Yolen, thanks. 

(And you too, Pat)

Robert W. Chambers x Everything

"What impresses one most about Mr. Robert W. Chambers is his amazing versatility. In addition to being a popular novelist, he is an expert on rare rugs; an artist, and so well qualified a judge of fine art that he can talk intelligently to the curators and directors of museums about the old masters on exhibition there; equipped with an understanding of Chinese and Japanese antiques so that he can detect forgeries in that art; an authority on mediaeval armor; a lover of outdoors, of horses, dogs, and an ardent collector of butterflies; and, in addition, a thorough man of the world, who knows Paris and Petrograd, and many of the out-of-the-way corners of the earth. These are the qualities that come to mind readily, but the list is far from complete. The longer one knows Mr. Chambers, the more varied the knowledge he finds in him."

- The Editorial Staff of the Mentor Association. (The Mentor, Vol 6, No. 14. Copyright 1918.)

[Note: Armor features in "The Repairer of Reputations", butterflies in "The Purple Emperor"! I love this guy.]

Happy Halloween!

Massive Lists: 35 Essential Fantasy Books

Being evangelical about genre fiction, I have a tendency to make long mental lists of 'must reads'. What follows are 35 books* that I consider essential fantasy. 

I don't think the books on this list are the best - in fact I downright loathe a few of them (I'm looking at you, Tigana). However, I do feel these all reflect some aspect of the genre that I think is important to understand - if not necessarily enjoy. 

I'm also a bit of a stickler on definitions of "Fantasy". I get really wound up by over-thought lists that include things like Moby Dick - that always feels like a passive-aggressive way of defending the genre. When I'm talking about "fantasy", I mean elves, talking swords, dragons & chainmail bikinis, dammit. 

Here were the rules:

I divided Fantasy into four broad and incredibly subjective categories (Modern, High, Classics & Unclassifiable). Each author was only allowed one entry (although I stretched this a bit - justifiably - with Eddings, Gygax & Tolkien). 

What'd I get right? Wrong? Tell me in the comments. If there's any sort of interest, I can add some vague annotations. But, right now, it seems more fun to provoke wild speculation (and hopefully some heated debate).

CLASSICS

Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Mists of Avalon
Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan of the Jungle (Tarzan)
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World
H.R. Haggard - King Solomon's Mines
M. John Harrison - The Pastel City (Viriconium)
Robert E. Howard - "Beyond the Black River" (Conan)
Sax Rohmer - The Insidious Doctor Fu Manchu
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings (All three)
Jack Vance - Tales from the Dying Earth
T.H. White - The Sword in the Stone

HIGH FANTASY
 
Stephen Donaldson - Lord Foul's Bane (Thomas Convenant)
David Eddings - The Belgariad (All five of 'em)
Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis - Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance Chronicles)
Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood
Guy Gavriel Key - Tigana 
Ursula LeGuin - The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea)
Fritz Leiber - Swords in the Mist (Lankhmar)
Michael Moorcock - Elric of Melnibone (Elric)
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter)
Philip Pullman - Northern Lights (His Dark Materials)

MODERN FANTASY
 
Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself (The First Law Trilogy)
Terry Brooks - The Scions of Shannara (The Heritage of Shannara)
Susanna Clark - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora
George R.R. Martin - A Game of Thrones (Song of Ice & Fire)
China Mieville - Perdido Street Station
K.J. Parker - Colours in the Steel (Fencer Trilogy)
Tim Powers - Last Call
Andrezj Sapkowski - The Last Wish
Jonathon Stroud - The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimeaus Chronicles)

UNCLASSIFIABLE

Douglas Adams - The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Robert Asprin - Another Fine Myth (Myth Adventures)
Gary Gygax - Player's Handbook & Dungeon Master's Guide (1st Edition)
Ian Livingstone - The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic (Discworld)

*31 books, 2 series, a pair of rulebooks and 1 short story.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Internet provides content.

The Mad Hatter scored an interview with Paul McAuley, author of The Quiet War (amongst others - I rate Pasquale's Angel as one of the more intriguing alternate histories).

An audio recording of James Holloway's recent lecture at Treadwell's (London) is available (for free, no less) from Yog-Sothoth. Holloway's speech, 'The Lairs of Cthulhu', was on Lovecraft's use of archaelogy and myth in the Cthulhu mythos.

If you're interested in seeing a comic book come to life (and a good one, at that), check out the progress of DECONSTRUCTED. The writer (Den Patrick) and the artist (Chris Christison) are both blogging simultaneously as the project explodes. I was treated with an advance copy of the script, and it looks fantastic - a quasi-grimpunk space fantasy that's being brilliantly brought to life in the early illustrations.