After our move in July, everything I was reading in the way of fiction was
by a Texas author, up until sometime in September, when I noticed the trend
and decided to see how long I could keep it up. As I have a policy of not
reading more than 1 book by a given author per month, and I've exhausted the
available authors for books I own (and it'll be a hassle and/or an expense
to get borrowing priviledges anywhere right now, so I'm not going the
library route this week), this is as far as I go with it.
So I figured I'd report on what I'd read. I'm grouping books by author, not
by order in which they were read.
SUSAN WITTIG ALBERT
Mystery writer. Lives somewhere near Austin. Has created a setting for her
novels somewhere between here and San Antonio, a fictional town called Pecan
Springs. (Can't remember the fictional county she used, though.) The
novels focus on a heroine named China Bayles, once a Houston criminal
defense lawyer, now the proprietor of an herb shop (but still keeping her
bar membership up-to-date). Romantically involved with a former
law-enforcement official she knew in Houston as something of an adversary.
I have read:
Love Lies Bleeding
Lavender Lies
Chile Death
Mistletoe Man
(Maybe even in that order.) If you're interested in the series, start with
_Thyme of Death_. (Yes, they all have plant-themed names. If you don't
recognize the plant in the title, it'll be explained in the book.)
I got interested in her work when I walked into (the now-defunct storefront
of) Adventures in Crime and Space and asked for a mystery recommendation. I
didn't know what I was looking for, and rejected the first 3 or 4
suggestions, but as soon as Lori described the theme and setting for the
series, I figured that was it. I find them to be a fun read. If you don't
want to read about an herbalist and her new-age-y friend running around
central Texas, this isn't for you. (The friend can get on my nerves
sometime. I think that Kneem, for one, would probably not enjoy the series
very much. I could be wrong, though.)
JOE R. LANSDALE
Lansdale has written some seriously twisted stuff.
I've seen him at SF cons (AggieCon, ArmadilloCon), he's very nice and
polite, thanks you when he's handing back the book he's signed for you --
and he writes some seriously twisted stuff.
Since the move, I have read the following:
Savage Season
Blood Dance
Waltz of Shadows
A Fist Full of Stories (and Articles)
For A Few Stories More
The first listed, _Savage Season_, is the first novel in his Hap & Leonard
series. Two reasonably nice guys getting into some serious sh*t when
someone nasty crosses their path. (That also describes the other one I've
read from that series, _Mucho Mojo_.) If you can't stand to read about
people and pets being killed, avoid this series. If you can somehow bear
it, Lansdale's writing style is great, IMO.
The next two on the list are novels as well. I make the same disclaimers
for _Waltz of Shadows_ as I do for the Hap & Leonard books. _Blood Dance_
is a Western, and I'm not really familiar with the genre, but it's pretty
bloody, as well. These are part of the "Lost Lansdale" series that
Subterranean Press is putting out every so often, where you've got signed &
numbered copies, and if you really want to shell out the bucks, a much
smaller run of signed & lettered copies. No reprints are planned.
The last two books are collections of short stories, and in the case of the
first one, a few articles/ reviews of bad movies. Some of the stories are
in the horror genre, and Lansdale does nice horror short stories, IMO.
There's even one he co-wrote with his 2 kids for a compilation of stories by
horror writers and their kids; one of them wanted more gruesomeness than was
actually put in, and then it got sent back to them to be cleaned up a bit in
that department. (Which should make you cautious around his kids, right?)
These made me both want more and want less to go to one of his storytelling
sessions late at night at a con.
P.N. ELROD
Everything I've read of Elrod's so far has been in her "Vampire Files"
series. A reporter around Chicago in the 1930s gets shot dead and becomes a
vampire, one who is trying to stay as human as possible despite his
condition. I find it entertaining.
Art in the Blood
Blood on the Water
Fire in the Blood
A Chill in the Blood
The 3rd through 6th books in the series. I ought to have all the ones I own
read by the time I go to AggieCon, where I expect to see the author.
KINKY FRIEDMAN
I've heard a lot about Kinky Friedman, and finally got around to reading one
of his books.
Armadillos and Old Lace
Kinky leaves New York to go to help out his family with the summer camp they
own and run, and is approached by someone who's heard about his reputation
as a private eye to catch a serial killer. If you're interested in reading
about mystery stuff going on in central Texas, this is a fun one, and unlike
the Albert mentioned above, no potentially irritating new-age-y major
character. Fun read, IMO.
ELIZABETH MOON
A space opera series which I've been enjoying.
Sporting Chance (the 2nd)
Winning Colors (the 3rd)
Rules of Engagement (the 5th)
Change of Command (the 6th)
(I read the 4th one first, then read 1-3, then started again at 5. I have
one more, and that's all she's written in that series. I'm hoping for more
some day, I think.)
If you like military space opera, Moon writes some decent stuff. (Also
reasonably realistic fantasy stuff, where the army doesn't get very far in a
day and one of the important tasks is digging latrines while setting up the
camp.)
(Oh, and unlike any of the other authors I've been reading, she lives in my
county.)
CHAD OLIVER
Chad Oliver was an anthropology prof at UT. I took a class from him my
freshman year. One of the things I liked in the books was that some of the
written stuff sounded a lot like his style in lecture. I can't remember
just when he died, but it was since mid-1994.
Giants in the Dust
The Shores of Another Sea
_Giants_ starts out on an overtamed Earth. _Shores_ takes place mostly in
Africa, with some back story in the US. I liked them both. I intend to
read more Oliver. (Mr. Taylor, got any in stock you'd like to try to sell
me?)
BRUCE STERLING
Bruce Sterling is one cool geek*. Plus he writes well. :)
Distraction
Zeitgeist
Globalhead
When I was reading _Distraction_, there were some weird confluences with
topics on-list around then showing up in interesting forms in the book.
Kneem, if you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it to you. I'd
recommend it to everyone else, but Kneem in particular. _Zeitgeist_ was
shorter, more fun, and didn't get into so many ideas, but the ending was
more satisfying to me. _Globalhead_ is a collection of short stories and
all over the map, which was mind-blowing fun.
*Cool geeks hang with other cool geeks. Some of them throw parties where a
lot of cool geeks show up, and the less-cool geeks just kinda sit around and
bask in the coolness and geekness of all the cool geeks.
MARGARET BALL
Fantasy writer. Also romance novelist, but under a different name.
No Earthly Sunne
The coolest things about this were a) the Fibonacci sequence, and b) some of
it took place in Austin. It went into music a fair bit, as well. I didn't
like it as much as _Mathemagics_, which was the first novel of hers that I
read, and which I recommend more highly.
And now, for the really controversial one (at least, potentially
controversial for inclusion on this list):
MICHAEL MOORCOCK
Well, he has a home somewhere near Bastrop, which I drive through now and
again, and has written a book called _Tales of the Texas Woods_. But he
wasn't anywhere near Bastrop when he wrote this stuff, to the best of my
knowledge.
The Cornelius Chronicles
A compilation of 4 novels, _The Final Program_, _A Cure for Cancer_, _The
English Assassin_ and _The Condition of Muzak_. It was interesting: 4
different novels sharing many of the same characters, but rather different
stories. I think I liked the first one the best. I think that some of his
"Dancers at the End of Time" books were running with some of the same sorts
of experimentations, but it's been a few years since I've read any of them.
I'm thinking they'd be worth a re-read now.
I wouldn't recommend this to everyone. But if you like Moorcock, you might
give it a try.
Julia
who can now go read an English mystery, or finish the non-fiction book she's
in the middle of
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