Ken Lizzi's Blog, page 32

Orycon 2016. Resurrected Post

November 20, 2016Orycon 2016

And that wraps up another Orycon. Technically, as I write these words, the con is still ongoing in the sleepy manner of a con winding down on a Sunday. But it is over for me. I finished my last panel and drove home to help host the joint birthday party for My Beautiful Wife and the Heir Apparent. (Happy birthday, girls!) Before the guests arrive I���m going to write down some impressions of the convention.

 

The layout of the downtown Portland Marriott is not ideal for a science fiction convention. The hotel is not spacious and what space it possesses is oriented vertically. Nor is it equipped with an overabundance of elevators. Now, I don���t mind climbing stairs and generally will do so even if an elevator is convenient to hand and the car immediately available. But science fiction conventions do comprise in large part individuals for whom stairs represent a challenge.

The downtown location does, however, allow access to an excellent selection of restaurants. Sorry, bank account, I got hungry.

Placing the author autograph tables below a staircase in a little frequented subfloor is not conducive to selling books. Just saying.

Thanks to all those who attended the panels I sat on. And to those who showed up for my reading; I hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did.

I picked up an Andrew Offutt paperback, which should provide a more than generous hint as to the next author up on my Appendix N set of web log posts. Another of the Cormac Mac Art books, so I���m expecting as much pulp fun as the last one I read.

And now, time to put the finishing touches on the decorations.

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The Great Garrett Reread Part VI

Cruel Zinc Melodies

This is a good one. As with the best mystery plots, the seemingly simple grows increasingly complex. There is a lot going on. And Cook is planting more clues regarding the Tinnie Tate/Garrett relationship. I���d ignored those last time through Cruel Zinc Melodies. I wanted only to see the good side of Tinnie Tate and ignored the occasional fluttering red flag.��

The Dead Man reflects Nero Wolfe���s arrogance well in this one as well as showing the rare moment of chagrin.��

(Disconnected Aside/Theory: Garrett���s paranoia directed at horses is a reference to Nero Wolfe���s distrust of cars and other machinery. Filtering Wolfe through Goodwin in the form of Garrett. Just a theory.)

Maturing is a theme of the book. Much of it revolves around the question of Tinnie Tate and Garrett���s relationship taking the next step. Cook does an excellent job of portraying two flawed individuals utterly uncertain what to do. Garrett is growing up, and it bothers him. This sort of character development is a�� break from timelessness of Goodwin/Wolfe. I think the first time I noticed this it bothered me. I wanted endless volumes of Garrett, set in a perpetual present, with the characters as unchanging as a fly in amber. Maybe it is a sign of my own aging (no, damnit, no!) that I have a greater appreciation for what Cook is trying to do. Do I like it, though? I���ll weigh in on that later.

Glory Mooncalled gets name-dropped. Was this a reference for future books that may never be written? Someone go ask Mr. Cook.

We are introduced to the Algardas, a family that will play significant roles in the remaining books. The introduction inclines us to look rather askance at both Barate and Furious Tide of Light. A narratively clever choice.

I think an argument can be made that this would have made a fine culmination of the series. The story ends on an emotional high. Garrett���s future appears promising. It could work as the happy ending. Let���s see if the last two books support or refute that notion.

Meanwhile, I���m still camping in my own new house, awaiting the much delayed arrival of the shipping container holding most of my worldly possessions. The novelty value has long since worn off. My office furniture, upon which I earn my daily bread, consists of an old chair I found in the garage and a cardboard box upon which to set the computer when it isn���t on my lap. But, life goes on. For example, here���s a link to a promotional video of me nattering on about writing.

Dreams and the Perilous Realm. Resurrected Post.

November 13, 2016Dreams and the Perilous Realm

At what point during parenthood do you begin getting a full night���s sleep again. I���m nearly at the three-year mark and I���m still not there. I���m tired. I mention this because I was considering today���s post with my head on my wife���s shoulder. She asked if was sleeping, or thinking, or dreaming. I asked if I could do all three. Because, as I just alluded to, I���m tired. But that exchange brought to mind a paper I���d written during college, back in the antediluvian days of the late 1980s-early 1990s for a class on ���The Lord of the Rings.��� Yes, I received university credit for re-reading the trilogy. I���m not ashamed. The point is, I wrote about dreams, and the perilous realm, and seeing beyond the veil within the context of LOTR. So, I figure it is appropriate for a post on this here web log of mine.

 

What do you think? Does my undergrad prose hold up? Or is it sophomoric rambling from a junior (or senior, I can���t remember) who ought to have known better by that point?

Commodore 64 and dot matrix printer for the win!

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Library Progress Report. Resurrected Post.

November 6, 2016Library Progress Report

I have yet to decide what to call this room. Library? Den? Study? Office? What best suits it? I don���t know. At this point it remains a work in progress. Though I have made progress. Check it out.

My wife and I refinished this desk. (She finds the process of sanding, staining, and varnishing a relaxing experience. Who am I to deny it her?) $25 from a thrift store. The desk still requires a chair. What I���ve placed there is a make-do until I can afford the chair I have in mind. The mostly empty book case is temporary. $25 on Craigslist. (Actually, $22. The seller could not make change for a $20 and accepted the lesser amount.) I hope to replace it with a better piece at some point.

Some gaps in the decorating remain. I���ve some knives I���d like to display. And I���ll need to buy some sort of sleeper-sofa. I hope room remains for a side table or chess table. My fancy pants chess set rests in a box in the garage. It must be freed!

So, it���s coming along. Time and money will see it complete.

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Published on November 06, 2016 12:59

Appendix N and the Witchy World of Andre Norton. Resurrected Post.

October 30, 2016Appendix N and the Witchy World of Andre NortonWell, as a cover it certainly is a���cover.

I come at last to Andre Norton, long a gap in my Appendix N reading. While she has always floated within my awareness as a reader, I remained unfamiliar with her works. I did pick up Quag Keep a few years back. My distaste for gaming fiction remains, but I think I can give Quag Keep a pass as it is evident that Andre Norton had only the most cursory knowledge of D&D and made little effort to stick within any established rules. The book is��moderately entertaining if you���re not expecting much. That���s about all I can say for it. And I have read her story The Toads of Grimmerdale a couple of times and consider it an atmospheric delight. Recommended.

 

But Andre Norton is primarily known for her Witch World novels and those had eluded me. Oh, I knew of them. I recall picking some up many times from the library shelves, considering them, and replacing them. When I was in sixth grade, after school I would walk a couple of miles to the library to wait for my mother to pick me up at around six in the evening. Every day. For the entire school year. If a bibliophilic boy has a notion of bliss, this must meet��it. I consumed that library. But not Witch World. For some reason the covers and descriptions always dissuaded me.

However, as I couldn���t get through this Appendix N project without exploring Witch World, I picked up a few of the books. Over a month ago. It has, frankly, been a slog. I don���t wish to be overly critical. Andre Norton was a successful, much admired, author. Perhaps it is age ��� my age, not the books. I think I might have enjoyed these when I was ten or so. I think today they might be marketed as Juveniles or Young Adult novels. There isn���t much there and what is there is relatively tame. She steered clear of detailed descriptions of violence. Romantic interests she dealt with in rather poetic terms and sex is merely hinted at.

As I read these I couldn���t help but wonder what another author might have done with the same basic plots and secondary world. Robert Adams, for example. I know, I know. You don���t have to rehash to objections, I understand them. But he was good with the visceral stuff and solid on weapons and armor, the latter subjects that Andre Norton dealt with imaginatively but not realistically.

It often struck me that Andre Norton was disinterested in the portion of the story she was telling at any one time. She���d elide and move on to something she was more interested in. She���d dispense with a concept, activity, dialogue, etc., within the space of a paragraph or even a sentence. Something that might easily of occupied an entire chapter gets summed up in a few words. You have to be careful reading her. Read too fast, skim, or even just blink, and you���ve missed an essential point. You have to backtrack to figure out why the characters are now here, or doing that. I think an English Literature major would charge her with favoring diegesis at the expense of mimesis. She���s more interested in forwarding the plot than in describing a situation. Sometimes the novels read more like an outline than an actual book. There���s clearly an interesting world being built, but she never made if feel real.

But I can see why Gary Gygax included her. It���s all there. Secondary world fantasy (technically, I think, Witch World is a portal fantasy) mixed with science fiction elements. The ubiquitous psychic powers of ���60s and 70���s novels. (I find it tedious. And often smacking of deus ex machina. Abilities remembered, discovered, or forgotten as plot necessitates. Never rigorously explained and providing for pages of vague descriptions of what is obviously intended to be fraught and dramatic, but is instead unclear, rather boring, and taking place within someone���s head.) Magical swords. Loads of monsters and non-human races. Magical healing. Quests. Plenty of ideas to mine for role-playing adventures. So, kudos for that. But as novels? I can���t recommend them.

But do read The Toads of Grimmerdale. That���s a good one.

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Seveneves. Resurrected Post.

October 23, 2016Seveneves

I finished Neal Stephenson���s latest, Seveneves, earlier this week during my commute. It certainly passed the time, immersing me in a world other than the traffic-filled one about me.

 

Seveneves is lengthy. If you read Stephenson you know what your are in for: highly detailed descriptions of anything and everything. Stephenson doesn���t just answer the question, he shows his work. I like that. I learn things every time I read one of his novels. It isn���t for everyone, though. People who dislike hard sci-fi, who read only to see what happens to the characters, will probably find Seveneves a slog. I do like hard sci-fi. I don���t write it, primarily because I can���t. I do admire those with the science background and aptitude to create plausible futures extrapolated from existing technology. (My science fiction is essentially fantasy with spaceships. The science might as well be magic. But you do get to see what happens to the characters, so there���s that.)

The truth is, however, that I found Seveneves to be one of Stephenson���s lesser novels. The first two-thirds is engrossing, detailing the steps involved in the survival of the human race after the destruction of the moon. The last third, taking place millennia later, was written well enough, but felt comparatively slight after the previous bit. I���d rather have gotten more details of the intervening generations. And I found his genetically-driven personality types somewhat implausible. He explained the concepts well enough (this is Stephenson, after all) but I couldn���t quite buy it, nor the limited extent of interbreeding. But it was still entertaining.

The ending, now. Well, Stephenson is part of the Stephen King school of endings ��� Unsatisfactory U. In a blog post, Stephenson stated that the ���only part that gave me any trouble was calibrating an ending that would leave the reader satisfied that the story had concluded while leaving the impression of an open-ended world.��� He succeeded in the latter. Not so sure about the former.

However, if you liked Snowcrash, Cryptonomicon, Anathem, Reamde et al, I���m comfortable recommending Seveneves. Of course, you could always wait for the movie.

The Black Dog’s Bite. Resurrected Post.

October 16, 2016The Black Dog���s Bite

Winston Churchill battled against attacks of the ���black dog.��� To what extent this has been exaggerated by historians, biographers, and journalists is beyond the scope of my remarks here. The point is, despite bouts of depression, Mr. Churchill still produced an astonishing amount of written work. (Seriously, take a look at the sheer volume and variety of his prose. It is���humbling.)

 

Emulating Churchill���s work ethic suggests itself right now. The drizzly leaden skies have settled in over the Pacific Northwest. Various events and matters have, from my vantage point, shifted negatively. Shit, as per its wont, happens. I am aware of the vagaries of chance and the disinterest of the world in my doings and general welfare. Nothing personal is at work here. Still, when the black dog bites, it feels as if the Universe is flipping me the double bird and chuckling malevolently. Glen Cook, in one of his Garrett books wrote something along the lines of Garrett���s personal deity being the men���s��� room attendant in Valhalla, more inclined to make sure Garrett is getting pissed on than succoured. Represent, Mr. Cook, represent.

The point is, that I, like Mr. Churchill, need to soldier on despite my mood. I have books to write. The words don���t care if I���m feeling chipper or not, and neither should I.

 

Whining mode terminated ��� Initiate productive cycle ���

 

Texas

I have moved. I remember when moving involved a few buddies and a pickup truck. The whole thing took an afternoon and there was time to go out for beer after. As a family man moving halfway across the country��� not so much.

I spent the vast majority of my life in the Pacific Northwest, with Mt. Hood the ubiquitous backdrop. I can���t say I much like change, as a general rule. I expect Texas to be an exception.

How was the move? Well, the drive wasn���t bad. Yours truly, MBW, the HA, and two cats endured 8-9 hour days cooped up in the car. The changes of scenery were engaging. I finished a couple of audio books. Had dinner at two new brewpubs. If you’re ever in Twin Falls, Idaho, check out Koto Brewing. Try the Double IPA. The menu is impressive also. And in Laramie, Wyoming, if you happen to find yourself in Altitude Brewing, try the saisson. But skip the tacos. Get anything but the tacos. I suppose I should have known better. But all told, not a bad road trip.

The misery began once we reached the new house. To start the fun, the previous owners had installed a security system for which we had not been provided a code. After a few hours of alarms, chirps, screeches, and computerized voices calling out alerts as if my house was the Starship Enterprise, we removed the alarm box and cut the connection. I���m sure the cats were thoroughly pleased.

Meanwhile, we waited for the container holding ninety-five percent of our household belongings to arrive, as agreed with the shipping company. And we waited. And waited. A couple of phone calls informed us the container would arrive by ten that night. It did not. Eventually we inflated air mattresses and went to bed.

The next day we were informed that the shipping company could not meet the schedule. In fact, they would not deliver our container for another two weeks, despite my having paid extra for expedited delivery. And so, we���re camping. Indoors with air conditioning, yes. But essentially camping. As you might imagine, we���re not happy about it. I���ll withhold the name of the company for now, allowing time for it to make things right or offer some sort of mitigation or compensation. I���m not sanguine about it, however.��

Meanwhile, I���m busy with what I can do in the absence of most of my stuff. The level of activity is, perhaps surprisingly, frenetic. And expensive. At some point you begin spending so much money it no longer seems to matter. Well, it does. The bank account isn’t bottomless. There���s the nickel and dime stuff, buying necessities that I already own but are sequestered by the tardy moving company. A man���s got to eat, and that involves certain minimal levels of cookery and tableware. Then there are the bigger ticket items, hooking up wifi, buying certain new items required to furnish a larger place, then minor things like cleaning supplies, hardware to fix little items here and there about the house. And so on and so forth. It adds up.

If you���d like to assist in my surviving this extended camping venture while simultaneously enjoying some entertainment, why not buy one of my books? I think you���ll like them. (If you do pick up “Thick As Thieves” please search for the version with the brown cover, not the edition with the red and yellow cover shown. Amazon refuses to take the red and yellow edition down, and Amazon is the only one who sees a penny from it.)

And if you are in the greater Houston area, drop me a note. I���m new in town.

The Web Log Is Moving. Again.

The Great Garrett Reread is on hiatus. I have not had time to read the next two books in the series. I���ve been entirely too busy. Busy with what, you ask? Moving, I answer.

Getting the house sold wasn���t so bad. That was snapped up within a week. But moving! Ugh. I had an enormous container sitting in my driveway for a week. Seemed like it ought to be big enough. But by the time the 3D game of Tetris (the computer version is missing out on all the sweat and profanity) was completed, I found I still had a section of garage full of belongings. So, instead of a carefree drive across the country, I���ll be towing a Uhaul trailer.

And I���d rather not get into the tangled nightmare of arranging for installation of the tow hitch and rental of the trailer. In fact, that isn���t complete. I���ll be taking the car in today for hitch installation. Tomorrow I pick up the trailer and begin loading. Fingers crossed that this one is large enough. Otherwise ��� triage. What gets thrown in the dump?

Tuesday, bright and early, the road trip begins. Yours Truly, MBW, and the HA are off on a four day journey from the scenic environs of Mt. Hood to the coastal flatlands of Gulf Coast Texas. Were it just me, I���d probably make the trip in half the time. But I won���t demand such road torture from the family.

First stop: Twin Falls, Idaho. Second stop: Laramie, Wyoming. Third stop: Wichita, Kansas. Last stop: the new house in a southwestern Houston suburb.

Next week���s post is unlikely to continue the Great Garrett Reread either. More than likely the post will have a title along the lines of ���The Unpackening.��� But maybe I���ll have some pictures to share.

The next couple of months should be interesting. Change always is. But I intend to keep writing. And maybe I���ll finally be able to get out to Cross Plains for Howard Days.

Anyways, the trip is impending. If you���d like to come along vicariously, you can pitch in for gas. And get something entertaining to read in return.��

Appendix N Past Mid-Way. Resurrected Post.

October 9, 2016Appendix N, Past Mid-Way

I���m about two-thirds of the way through my haphazardly completed reviews of Appendix N authors. Andre Norton is in the batter���s box. I���ve not read much of her output, so I���m taking in a few of her Witch World novels before writing up my assessment. But this seems a good time to look back on what I���ve covered so far.

I���m comfortable in saying that I can understand why each of the authors made the list. I can either point to a specific instance in a novel (an item, monster, concept, etc.) that filtered into the rules of D&D or I can see how the tenor or flavor of the writing influenced the style of play Gary Gygax was attempting to encourage and the archetypes he was attempting to emulate through the character classes.

Most of the tales are adventure stories, sitting in varying positions along the pulp-to-literary stylistic spectrum. Importantly, most were entertaining. I can see the influence of a few of these writers in my own output (for better or worse, depending on how you perceive my work.) These are deep-seated influences. I���ve been reading this stuff for a long time. I���ve only rarely had to hunt up a book or two in order to familiarize myself with an Appendix N notable. Most of the authors have had works sitting on my shelves for years.

Now, if someone were to ask for three authors one must read from the first two-thirds of the list in order to get a handle on what D&D is all about, I���d suggest (in alphabetical order) Poul Anderson, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock. This is not intended to slight any of the others (in fact, most of the others are, in my opinion, better writers than Moorcock) but to single these writers out as having the greatest influence on the game. Of course the final third will include some heavyweights. Might Jack Vance knock one of these off the podium?* You���ll have to wait.

* What about Tolkien, you ask? J.R.R. Tolkien���s influence on D&D is a matter of some controversy. I���m not sure I want to weigh in on that one. Not yet anyway.