Racks of shelves
with books and dangers
wallet emptied.

(Bruce Trinque, writing at The Gunroom, after having purchased a volume on the Titanic and a complete collection of haiku poems by Matsuo Basho!)

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Davis had at no time expressed any particular gratitude, but the fact of the rescue had given him a kind of lien upon his rescuer. Having rescued him, Jack was obliged to provide for him: this seemed to be tacitly admitted by all hands and even Jack felt that there was some obscure justice in the claim. He regretted it, however: Davis was no seaman, although he had spent his whole life afloat, a dull-witted, clumsy fellow, very strong and very dangerous when vexed or drunk, easily vexed and easily intoxicated; and he either volunteered for Jack's various ships or managed to get transferred to them, his other captains being happy to see the last of a troublesome, ignorant, untameable man.

(Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission)

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Robert A. Heinlein (introduction by John Scalzi): Project Moonbase and Others (Subterranean Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59606-186-6; cover and interior art by Bob Eggleton).

Review found here.

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...ever happened to Tom Clancy? I mean, there are books "co-written" by him. Which I suspect means they slap his name on the cover, he gets some money for the act, but the writing is done by others.

Long spell of writer's block? I mean its summer...and there ain't no Clancy to read. Hasn't been for years!

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I recently acquired a somewhat battered set of the famous Harvard Five-Foot Bookshelf. Supposedly you can get through it all in fifteen minutes a day. Well, I'm not sure how long that will stretch, but it looks like I've got another ongoing reading project coming into play!

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C.L. Moore; Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith (Planet Stories/Paizo Publishing; 2008; ISBN 978-1-60125-081-0; cover by Sean Glenn).

Review here (no, I haven't given up my "day job").

Made up of: Introduction: Teaching the World to Dream (C.J. Cherryh); Shambleau; Black Thirst; Scarlet Dream; Dust of Gods; Julhi; Nymph of Darkness (with Forrest J. Ackerman); The Cold Gray God; Yvala; Lost Paradise; The Tree of Life; Quest of the Starstone (with Henry Kuttner); Werewoman; Song in a Minor Key.

Part of the 2008 Year in Shorts.

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The review can now be viewed here.

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In 1971, science fiction lost of its greatest advocates on this day.

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A fair wind right down the Channel was rare enough: often and often he had had to anchor for the tide, beat up tack upon tack in the narrow seas, winning a few miles only to be driven back again—weeks sometimes before he could get clear into the Atlantic; but now the familiar landmarks filed by in fine brisk succession: the South Foreland, Dungeness, Fairly, and Beachy gleaming through a wall of rain with solid blue-black cloud behind it; and then late in the evening there was the Wight clear on the starboard bow. Jack climbed into the mizentop with a telescope and before the green light vanished in the west he thought he caught the glint of his observatory dome at Ashgrove Cottage. He stared at it in a strange confusion of spirits, as though at another world, farther from him now than when he had been in the Antipodes.

(Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate)

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The monthly summary from me will be delayed a tad until I find some free time to write up some pithy comments and do a final count on books and short works read...

Not quite completely updated book and short list here...

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"The Republics were assembled. The Games were set to begin. The Sun glared down upon the Olympiad, brutal. Tempers were short. Surly Greeks exchanged surly words. An old man entered the arena. He was bent, this old man was. His every bone ached. He pleaded to the Athenians for a place to sit—and they ignored him. Leaning heavily on his walking stick, dizzy now, his knees quaking, the old man begged the delegates of Corinth, of Mykonos, of Naxos, of Thira. Each turned a deaf ear to his plea. At last, the old man staggered to the Spartan delegation—and before he could croak out a single word, every Spartan rose as one, and stepped aside. And the old man shook his walking stick at all assembled, his voice rising to a lion's roar that rattled the very stones. "Every Greek knows what is right," he bellowed, "every Greek knows—but only the Spartans choose to do it!" (The character "Dilios", 300, Frank Miller and Lynn Varney)

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John's Reading Report (June 200

OK, here's what I've read over the past month, some of it unplanned:

Pattern Recognition, William Gibson

No More Mr. Nice Guy!, Robert Glover

Skeleton Crew, Steven King

In progress:

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett.

On deck (this is growing faster than my finished list):

Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill Bolte Taylor

Extraordinary Relationships, Roberta Gilbert.

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemerovsky.

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World, Carl Zimmer.

Spook Country, William Gibson.

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I've read Homer's The Odyssey several times, including once in Latin (high school). One thing that has fascinated me about The Odyssey...as well as The Iliad...is how much "truth" there is to the epic. Amazing to find an occasional bit that has survived the passage of time, countless re-translations and re-interpretations and the like.

And then there's the fanciful side. For example, here's a depiction of the "cosmos" of The Odyssey...as a snowglobe.

Addendum: The scholarly paper (Adobe Acrobat).

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...in London, in that part of it known as Whitehall where the art of government was once practiced and is now imitated; where lies flourish and are admired as if they were prize blooms at the Chelsea Flower Show; and where infirmity of purpose is practiced with a belligerence that might almost make you think great men had come again...

(J.K. Mayo, The Interloper)

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David Drake; Lt. Leary, Commanding (Baen Books; 2000; ISBN 0-671-57875-8; cover by Stephen Hickman).

(Read the entire book online, or download it, for free!)

Lt. Leary, Commanding is the second volume in Drake's RCN Series. (For an account of how I came to read the first volume, see this previous post, for a note by David Drake on the series, see this link.) Leary is involved in repairing and refitting the ship the ship he (ahem) acquired in With the Lightnings when he is called on to take command and participate in a mission to a neighboring planet. The mission is muddied by political intrigue, both on his planet, on an intermediate planet (where a side adventure resembles the events of the short precursor story, A Grand Tour, which appeared in the Honor Harrington-related collection More Than Honor), and on the planet his mission originally was aiming for. Toss in a cranky fleet commander, a gang of pirates, and a small private war and top it all off with a nice fleet action and you have some of the finest writing that Patrick O'Brian never did.

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The A.V. Club at The Onion has put together a list of books for the summer. Titles include M. John Harrison's Nova Swing (on Mount Toberead), Gene Wolfe's WizardKnight duo (also on Mount Toberead) and Jay Lake's Mainspring (need I repeat myself?). So many books, so little time, so many ex...need I repeat myself?

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Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves: InterWorld (Subterranean Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59606-173-6).

Review can be found here (no, I have not yet quit my day job!).

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Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman: A Walking Tour of the Shambles (Little Walks for Sightseers #16) (American Fantasy, 2002, ISBN 0-9610352-6-9; cover art by Gahan Wilson, interior art by Randy Broecker and Earl Geier).

This is a very small book...not sure I'd rate it a book, other than the fact that it is between too covers.

It is also an utterly hilarious book. From the listing of "other books" (all fictional titles) to the amazing sites you'll see in an obscure part of Chicago, to suggestions of what to eat at a restaurant you'll come across on your walking tour...funny stuff. Did you know about the buried Chinese cemetery? How about the tunnels under Lake Michigan? And what about that odd statue with the ruby eye that gets stolen and returns on a regular basis.

Try to find a copy and save your pennies to buy it. Bonus for me, my copy is signed by Wolfe, Gaiman and Wilson (and I'll let you guess which signature I value the most).

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David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume One (Night Shade Books; 2006; ISBN 978-1-892389-69-5; cover by John Berkey).

David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume Two (Night Shade Books; 2006; ISBN 978-1-892389-73-2; cover by John Berkey).

David Drake: The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Volume Three (Night Shade Books; 2007; ISBN 978-1-892389-80-0; cover by David Martin).

As I read more and more of David Drake's books, I find that I did him something of a disservice in my earlier review of this series. It is only after going through the series, hearing a couple of interviews with him, and reading a chunk of additional tales (of varying lengths) that I see how lightly I dismissed his work.

And for that, I apologize.

more...

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Following up on the previous entry, I really recommend a visit to The Agony Column's audio page and Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing (silly name, that). I've been downloading podcasts like mad; and even if I've never heard of the author, or have had any interest in the genre being discussed, I've been finding a lot of stuff that is making its way to my wish list! more...

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