I'm reading somewhat trashy books at the moment:
- "Free Space", a "Libertarians in Spaaaaaace" anthology/shared universe.
Gets a resounding "eh" so far. The stories are about a 50/50 mix of morality
tales (e.g. "leave when user-fees become taxes") and stories that just use
the backdrop without delving deeply into the consequences of the culture. I
haven't gotten to any that really made me think.
- "Miskatonic University", an Weinberg/Greenberg-edited anthology I picked
up a few months back. Another resounding "eh"; this reads like a typical
anthology, with half-hearted homage attempts (hint to writers: setting a
ghost story at MU does not a Lovecraftian tale make), drawn out but
uninteresting dramas, or in-jokes.
The latter are particularly irksome; Lovecraft and his circle wrote some
amazingly entertaining stories that were full of in-jokes. Some of his more
famous stories are, in fact, written around in-jokes, like "The Whisperer in
the Darkness" and "The Haunger of the Dark", and many of the characters or
writers of ancient tomes are thinly veiled self-references - Klarkash-Ton
(Clark Ashton Smith), Robert Blake (Robert Bloch), Comte D'erlette (August
Derleth), Luveh-Karaph (duh), etc. The ones in MU are the sort features in
many other anthologies, and are "good" in the same sense that I find
anything by Harlan Ellison "good". I know it's art of some sort, and I know
there must be people out there that appreciate it, but I really find nothing
personally pleasing about it.
- "Satan's Love Child", by Brian McNaughton. A honest-to-goodness published
example of Cthulhu Porn. The author (who's active on alt.horror.cthulhu and
still writing and publishing horror tales) wrote this first of a series
under contract in the 1970's when he was forced by contract requirements to
author only soft-core porn for his publisher - he was required to "use those
words". He's since re-edited and re-released it as "Gemini's Child", but I
ordered the original on AbeBooks. Mildly amusing and adequately written; the
Mythos references are subtle (overall structure, Yog-Sothoth invocations) to
keep it aimed at a mass market into fears of hippies and satanic cults.
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I like the Harry Potter books, but I am a guy who was raised on Lord of
the
> Rings.
Crossing over into the "Just Met Brin" thread...
Does Brin have an on-record opinion on the Hobbit or LOTR? Methinks it would
be one of both great respect (Tolkein was a master world-builder) and
support - they are very much "everyman" stories. In both it's the plucky
little guy (literally) who makes the biggest difference, and does so by
old-fashioned stick-tuitedness rather than uberhuman powers. Thoughts along
these lines?
Joshua
