Still alive, still alive..

(Title in honor of Valve’s fabulous Portal ending song)

Quick update here, to let you all know I am doing okay – I’ve just been slacking in a bit in the reviewing department lately. Part of this due other commitments like impending tests, homework, all that kind of stuff – part of it due my brain going into stand-by mode when trying to read, it seemed. Since reading Black Man by Richard Morgan (review forthcoming) in the first week of January, I’ve tried to finish reading all kinds of different novels. For example, I read couple of pages of M. John Harrison’s Virconium, I read some Michael Swanwick (The Iron Dragon’s Daughter), some Halting State by Charles Stross (which was cool though – it’s on top of the big ‘ol reading pile now) and I have finally settled with – holds breath – Harry Potter 7. Yeah yeah, I know. It is not high brow literature, it is not even high brow fantasy – but I had to finish it one day. I’m reading it in Dutch translation by the way, for those who are curious it’s titled “Harry Potter en de Relieken van de Dood”.

However, I will not be writing a review about it a) because everybody else has read it already (if one hasn’t, he wasn’t interested to begin with) b) I don’t feel like it. I might drop a few hints here and there though, or I’ll go the comments thread of the review on FBS to moan and bitch there. In the past, I never quite understood why Harry Potter is regarded as YA (youth adult) fiction, but I do now. With the latest comes a lot of crap, in fact more crap than goodness. I don’t necessarily think the seventh and concluding installment is the worst of the pack (so far at least), I think it more has to do with me. While J.K. Rowling worked on completing here series, I have grown a lot – not just in the physical sense (1.91 metres – standing tall) but mentally as well. I have also read a lot more, more frequently than I used to do – and with that has come a certain growth. I like to call it ” a maturing of taste”. Anyhow, at some stage I unnoticeably passed the point where I could unreservedly enjoy reading Harry Potter books. Earlier on I just did not notice the flaws that I’m sure there were — now I do. In a way it’s also a frustrating thing of ‘progress’, because I cannot seem to enjoy reading the books I used to enjoy reading. On the other hand, I do enjoy reading the works now that I might not have liked when I was younger. I think I will always have a soft spot for the Harry Potter books, if only for the fuzzy, good memories of reading all Sunday in the newest one.

Enough of this, the blogosphere hasn’t been less active when I wasn’t around. I’ll throw out a few links here to articles/posts that caught my attention. Or ones I have starred in my Google Reader.

blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/01/the_new_world_of_new_weird.html
Interesting article of the Guardian online on the New Weird.

www.sfsignal.com/archives/006150.html
One of the more thought provoking Mind Meld features of SF Signal; in this one the central question is “Given the rapid pace of advancement in science and technology, are we headed for a technological panopticon or will technology allow the little guy to fight back?”
And I didn’t even know what a panopticon was, so I looked it up in the dictionary. It’s intriguing concept I must admit, one I would like to read some speculative fiction about. What I didn’t realize is they actually apply this concept to some of the prisons out there.

www.scifi.com/sfw/books/sfw17974.html
Well written review of GRRM/Abraham/Gardner’s forthcoming Hunter’s Run – it got a glowing A. No kidding.

www.fast-forward.tv/video/Show_209.mov
Interview with Michael Swanwick on his latest Dragons of Babel anthology, set in the same universe as the Iron Dragon’s Daughter (mentioned above)

www.locusmag.com/2008/WaldropPerson_Cloverfield.html
Locus online review of Cloverfield, a movie I really want to check out myself.

www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=carol_pinchefsky&article=018
Is there nepotism in SF? A question worth pondering, the article has some takes on it.

www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/05/shaping_the_future.html
Some older post by Charles Stross on where the future is heading, he linked to it in his Mind Melt answer. This was good stuff to read, considering it only made me more curious of what his Halting State would be like.

http://juandahlmann.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/50-book-challenge-met-january-1-january-26-2008/
This is not so much an interesting ‘article’ , as well just an impressive feat. I mean, c’mon the guy has read more in a single month than I have read in a whole year. Larry’s got that rare talent all reviewers would like to have. Apart from being a feat, it’s also a neat little ‘index’ for some of the more thoughtful reviews the guy has thrown out there.

http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2007winter/spaces.html
Good, thoughtful review (I like ‘em that way) of Gardner Dozois anthology The New Space Opera.

http://blogs.feministsf.net/?p=275
The SF Feminists take on Orson Scott Card..

http://vectoreditors.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/out-now-or-coming-soon/
The always insightful Niall Harrison comes up with some interesting, more ‘obscure’ (at least for me) titles. Seems like there’s a bunch I’ll have to check out. Speaking of which, I have been reading a lot of blogs of regulars on Strange Horizons lately. I can wholeheartedly recommend Matthew Cheney’s blog the Mumpsimus as well (the guy also just wrote a touching column over at SH). Reading them however, I cannot help but wonder why the speculative fiction community is so fragmented. I mean on one hand you have Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, certainly catering for a certain audience – one the other you have Asking the Wrong Questions, Eve’s Alexandria, Strange Horizons. All those ‘venues’ seem to be catering, or seem to be attracting at the very least, a whole another different kind of audience. Aren’t there speculative fiction readers who read both, like me? It’s a bit of a best of “both worlds” situation really..

Blogrollin’ on 24ths

I am cleaning up some links today and changing the categories a bit. Instead of grouping each link under a certain category, I’ve listed all the (worthy) ones under the Online SF Sources tag. I threw a couple of links out and included a lot more. Aside from the coutless author blogs I keep track of, these are the sites I have in my google feed-reader. I certainly recommend checking out are Best Fantasy Book and Strange Horizons.

That reminds me, if I’ve somehow forgotten to add your website, drop a line here and I will update the ‘roll. Recently found additions as well!

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (Gollancz)

Just posted my review of The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski on FBS. The Last Wish is a mosaic novel compromising seven short stories alternated with a short scene, which bridges the several short stories. It sort of introduces the reader to the cast and setting. The seven short stories consisting of The Last Wish, vary themselves in tone but not so much in quality. Sapkowski is not a Terry Pratchett in style and does not attempt to be one. Rather he varies the light, ironic tone with a more melancholic one. The Last Wish is not meant as parody on other fantasy novels, there is no comedy for the sake comedy, and it is a novel that –despite the sometimes ironic tone- takes itself seriously.

In a nutshell, I did enjoy reading The Last Wish ; it was a very good introduction to his other works, which will be published by Gollancz in the UK from 2008 onwards. The novel also had some interesting takes on various fantasy clichés. Puzzling how these clichés differed from the usual archetype was quite the enjoyable thing to do when reading this novel I found. Because the writer did succeed into bringing something new to the table, the stories generally had a breath of fresh air to them, a breath of originality. That did make the novel both fun and challenging to read.

My own minor complaints were that setting was not entirely original (although the Slavic mythological elements left me wanting for more) and the translation had some occasional hiccups as well, but not nearly enough to disturb the suspension of disbelief.

In any case, if you’re curious, please check out my review of this novel HERE.

Resolutions for 2008

Another year gone by, another 365 days behind me. I have been running this weblog for exactly 6 months and three days now. Some fun statistics for those who are curious how the Gravel Pit is doing in terms of numbers:

Totals

Posts: 51
Comments: 94
Categories: 12
Tags: 4

Blog Stats

Total Views: 7,175 (unique views)
Best Day Ever: 130 — Monday, December 10, 2007
Best Week Ever: 439 – Week 34
Best Month Ever: 1721 – August, 2007

And fitting for the new year, I broke the best day ever record yesterday – or rather you guys did. ;-) So the Gravel Pit is running great, I’m actually quite surprised by that. Hopefully I can step up the level this year, and I’m sure the number will show when I do. That brings me to my New Year resolutions:

• I want to read more books and write more reviews this year. Over the past six months I wrote 23 reviews here and on FBS, which is roughly 4 reviews a month, 1 review a week. At the very least, I am going to make a concerted effort to keep up that pace. That would lead me to writing roughly >52 reviews this year, 75 reviews in total.
• I want more diversity in the books I cover here and in my reviews on FBS. Also, I want to “broaden my horizons”. For example:
• I want to cover more short fiction, I want to read short fiction by authors as Kelly Link, Jeffrey Ford, Jeff VanderMeer, Ted Chiang and others.
• I want to cover more science fiction, I want to read SF by Richard Morgan, Peter F Hamilton, William Gibson, PKD, maybe start on Bank’s Culture novels and others.
• I want to cover more anthologies, a couple of interesting ones will be published, like the Steampunk anthology a few well-known authors will be writing entries for. There are other anthologies out there that deserve attention as well, I imagine. I want to seek them out.
• I want to cover more “classics”, I will cover some efforts that have appeared in the Fantasy/SF Masterworks series.
• I want to make an effort to keep my reviews up to par, keep them juicy and lengthy. Just generally write stuff I would enjoy reading myself. I hope to improve my languistic skills too, to keep my ramblings readable.
• I want to cover the various SFF awards more in depth, that means reading the Hugo, Nebula and the World Fantasy nominees. I think it would be fun to compare my own thoughts to the actual results.

That’s it for now. I do have a few personal resolutions, like finishing up my college/high school education (whatever it’s called across the pond) and actually start studying biology at a University. What have you planned for 2008?