Yeah, I’m not so good at moderation. I tend to be all or nothing. For last few weeks I’ve been really good at writing, not so good on my reading. This week, however, the pendulum has swung back and I’m gonzo for reading. If I took the day off work today, I’d spend the whole thing reading. I know I would.
Yesterday I started “The Political Officer” by Charles Coleman Finlay and was instantly sucked in. I can tell it’s going to be quite good. It was up for a Nebula back in 2002 against Andy Duncan’s “The Chief Designer,” which is one damn fine story. Incredibly, both of these stories lost to “Bronte’s Egg” by Richard Chwedyk. I’ve got that one on deck next — either that story is out-of-this-world good or the Nebula voting is broken. Of course, both could be true, too.
I also grabbed as much M. Rickert as I could find, which is 15 stories in all between F&SF, Ideomancer, and SCIFI.com. I’ve heard a lot about her lately (again, where have I been?) and decided to check her out. John Joseph Adams, the slusher over at F&SF, mentions her in the same breath as Jeff Ford (who happily recently started his own blog, and it tends to be hilarious) and that’s enough to make me curious.
Between all the stuff I’ve loaded onto my palm, I’ve got a bunch of other books on deck: Kelly Link, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Lucius Shepard, Karen Joy Fowler. Whew! Innundated with short fiction! I learned a ton (or at least I think I did) by reading through Terry Bisson’s and John Kessel’s collections. I look forward to learning more from these Grand Masters of Funk.
I’m also looking forward to Jeff Ford’s newest collection “The Empire of Ice Cream” that comes out in April ‘06. This post on Night Shade’s message board has all the pertinent information and that last post is 100% Jeff. Oh my God, that’s funny…
2 Comments
I didn’t think “The Political Officer” was that great a story. It was one of the few I got to read in my Year’s Best Sci-fi 21st edition that I bought.
I thought it had a really slow start. It gets better in the middle. But still, after reading it, I felt: “yes, this was a solid story, yes, maybe it was even a really good story — one which I would recommend others — but not really a story I can see making The Best of Collection or up for a Nebula.”
In other words, I liked it, but I didn’t LOVE it. Not to mention was extremely disappointed when it didn’t live up to the hype.
See, I thought the story’s beginning was great. It really sucked me in. Right away, I was intrigued by the fact no one trusted each other and it set up the tension for the rest of the story.
I remember you really didn’t like my story that started with a card-playing scene, either. CCF and I are trying to do the same thing (CCF successfully, me — not so much) where poker forecasts the betting, bluffing, and overall gamesmanship that will follow.
I still haven’t finished it. I have it on my handheld and my wife sucked the battery dry playing Jawbreaker over the weekend and the charger’s at work. :)
– Trent