A SciFi/Fantasy Fiction Bookshelf Interlude
Let's get to know one another!
One of the things I miss about the early days of social media is relative death of the conversation starter post. When I would login to the Book of Faces, or My personal Space, or the Ster of Friends, let alone Twitter, there would be some meme going about asking people to share information about things they love. Sure, some of the time those were just phishing endeavors hoping you would reveal answers to your password questions, but more often they were attempts at building community.
The only current social media site that seems to have these posts is Blue Sky, which I don’t credit to it being a “better” place but more to where it is in the social media cycle. It’s in the “let’s connect and get to know one another phase” and it will eventually transform into the social media equivalent of the misinformation chain e-mails my aunt used to send me. Most short form social media goes that way. Long form social media, like blogs and Substack, are more resistant to that kind of thing because they are much more curated. You can read a lot more 144 or 280 character microcomments than you can the 18 minute reads I keep sending your way.
Back in the day, I was a regular reader of the now defunct SF Signal blog and I’m still a fairly regular reader of Blackgate and DMR Books and you know I scour the Substack for genre related content. I still think that Blackgate is one of the best fandom based blogs on the internet, but newer additions like
, , and many other newsletters make this a Golden Age (again) for people who want to read about and discuss genre fiction. Each week I am excited to pour through my newsletter routine to see what I learn or who shares my interests.Over the past year, this newsletter has seen it’s audience grow substantially and I’d like to engage in a “book meme” conversation with you if you are willing. You remember book memes. Those are those potential phishing emails I talked about at the beginning of this post.
I’m going to share my answers to a list of 15 questions that where posted by John DeNardo on SF Signal a decade ago,
You know the drill: Copy the questions below and paste them into the comments with your answers or better yet start a “book discussion circle” newsletter post. Answer as many or as few as you’d like.
What was the last science fiction/fantasy/horror book you finished reading?
My daughter History and I have been reading Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy and just finished The Well of Ascension. We started because I was going through old episodes of the Geekerati Podcast and I came across an episode (from 2009) where I interviewed Brandon about his Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians series which I eventually read as bedtime stories to my twins. In the first couple of moments of the interview, right as I’m introducing Brandon, my daughter History starts to cry because she could see me but not touch me due to a child gate being in the way. I asked History to come and listen to the moment. We laughed and decided to read some Sanderson. I’ll edit that interview and share it in the next couple of weeks. Let me know if I should keep the crying or not.
What was the last sf/f/h book you did not finish reading and why?
This does not happen. As a "completist," I feel a need to always finish a book. This is maybe especially true when I dislike it. Yes, that means if I’m reading a bad book, I push through. How else could I really know how bad a writer Lin Carter was, even as he was a phenomenal editor, if I didn’t push through all those Thongor books?
Besides, I actually love those books. As bad as they are I’ve reread a couple.
What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you liked but most people didn’t?
I don’t know if “most people” didn’t like it or not, but it’s not a book that has received a lot of discussion over the years and I’ve read it three or four times, with my most recent read through coming this past Christmas Break. It’s Kell’s Legend (Book One of the Clockwork Vampire Chronicles). There’s just something about a book that mashes up David Gemmell’s Legend with Blood Oil Fueled Vampires that engages my interest. It’s action packed an pulpy.
What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you disliked but most people liked?
While it was the last book that I disliked that most other people liked, I didn’t read it that recently. It’s been quite a few years since I read it. It’s Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, or as I call it “Kvothe tells us all about how he acquired student loan debt and watched his girlfriend suffer from meth addiction, when he really should be fighting the fallen angels who are destroying the world.”
As I read it, I kept wondering when it was going to shift out of the Harry Potter narrative with added student loans and drugs and into the epic tale of battling the beings that killed your parents, that it promised to deliver.
It was a book of back story and almost zero stakes. In fact, the stakes were right outside the bar and happening “now” while the narrator was regaling me with my own life experiences regarding student loans. I mean Rothfuss could turn a phrase, but if I wanted that I could have been reading David Foster Wallace, Nick Hornby, or Jane Austen.
How long do your 1-sitting reading sessions usually last?
Depends upon the book. A short book is 2 hours a long one might be eight, but I rarely do longer than an 8 hour 1-sitting read. I read approximately 100 pages an hour if a book is engaging and read academic texts at about a page a minute. Except Hegel or Jürgen Habermas. They take time because like Rothfuss they take a while to get to the point.
What are you currently reading?
Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman,
The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual the Occult Detective by J.U. Giesy and Junius B. Smith.
Do you like it so far?
Yes. Manly Wade Wellman is one of my absolute favorite writers and I recommend everyone read his works.
Yes. I hadn’t read any Semi Dual stories before and it’s filling a gap in my occult detective mental library.
How long ago did you buy the book you are currently reading (or the last book you read)?
A few years back on the Wellman and just a couple of weeks ago on Semi Dual.
What was the last physical sf/f/h book you bought?
Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan. I loved the series when I first read it on Kindle and now I want the books for a second reading, a reading I will use to shape my own D&D campaign.
What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you like the most and why?
Sword & Sorcery.
Have you read Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Garth Nix, David Gemmell, Elizabeth Moon, C.L. Moore, and James Enge? If so, you understand.
What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you dislike the most and why?
Steampunk. It's not that I don't like the genre, it's that I don't like the classification. Too little Steampunk has any punk element at all. They all seem oddly conservative in their nostalgia and focus. There are exceptions, but as a rule I think if you are going to call yourself "punk" you ought to have punk elements. So I call it Steampulp.
What is your favorite electronic reading device?
Kindle.
What was the last sf/f/h eBook you bought?
Mage the Hero Discovered (Vol. 1)…comic books count right? I bought it this morning because it’s my birthday.
Do you read books exclusively in 1 format (physical/electronic)?
No. I like both tablets and books for reading.
Do you read eBooks exclusively on a single device (eBook reader/ smartphone / tablet)?
No. I tend to avoid using the iPhone because it can cause eye strain and I don't like reading books on a laptop screen. iPad Tablets and Kindles both work well though and I do use my iPhone for Audible books, which we haven’t even discussed.
Those are my answers and I look forward to yours. Feel free to change the media references (say film for example), though if you do I might just do another one of these responding to it.
Then again, that’s why I did this in the first place.
Those 5 Wellman books Published by Night Shade Press are excellent.
I first heard about Wellman probably 15 years ago in the back of "Hellboy: The Crooked Man" where Mignola talks about Silver John being an inspiration for that story. Crooked Man was one of my favorite Hellboy comics, so I looked into Wellman and then I ended up spending probably wayyyyy too much money for those Nightshade books, but I don't care, they're wonderful.
I particularly like the story about the Civil War soldier who is gifted the magic bullet that will kill him by his witch girlfriend, meaning nothing else will kill him... and how that isn't exactly a good thing. Fantastic tale.
Currently in the middle of listening to the second Powder Mage book, "The Crimson Campaign," and really enjoying the story, world, and characters. Since I got hooked on "GreedFall" a few years ago, I've been interested in more industrial-era fantasy settings as it is a nice refresh from the stock, imaginary medieval period a lot of authors limit themselves to. Using it as inspiration for a TTRPG campaign sounds like a great idea, I sometimes wonder if the author ever wanted this to be a game at any point.