Ken Lizzi's Blog, page 41

Pesky Real Life. Resurrected Post.

February 15, 2015Pesky Real Life

I held a giveaway contest for ���Reunion��� recently. Congratulations to the winners. I hope you all enjoy the novel.

I seem to be doing quite a bit of giving recently, mostly money. Real life continues to stick its nose under the tent flap of my world-building, fabulizing, tale-crafting pavilion. Pesky thing, real life. I���m writing this post from a friend���s apartment as my place if barely habitable at the moment. Water heaters, it seems, have a finite useful existence, at the end of which they leak out their life fluid, impregnating the walls and floors. Said walls and floors are unappreciative of this last gift. So currently industrial-size fans, of the type usually found in aerodynamics testing wind-tunnels, are attempting to desiccate the swamp that I usually call home. Money has already passed from my hand to the pocket of the plumber who swapped out the corpse of the previous water-heater with a new, vigorous replacement. More, much more, will follow to various tradesmen.

This website, as you may notice, remains unwell. I really have been in contact with people who can heal it. Top men, top men. So patience, this site will return to its former glory soon.

Meantime, despite the best efforts of real life to thwart me, I continue scribbling away. The second draft of ���Thick as Thieves��� is nearly complete. Other projects are circulating, or waiting for a polish. You���ll not thwart me, real life. This I swear.

Heard Any Good Stories Lately?

Audio books help keep me going. Every morning in the gym the storyteller in my earbuds shifts my focus away from the tedious and tiring exertions my body is enduring. Stories shorten the perceived duration of car trips. They lessen the aggravation that is other drivers.

Currently downloaded through one of the two library apps on my phone is The Blood of Elves. I haven���t reached a final evaluation of Mr. Sapkowski���s tale, and I���ve never played the games, but I���m in for the duration.��

The narrator of The Witcher books has a gift for voices. A good narrator is key. Of course even the best will occasionally stumble over a pronunciation, or employ a commonly used mispronunciation (deliberately or through ignorance.) Who among us would be able to cast the first stone? Not me. Sometimes such an error will temporarily force me from immersion. (One particular narrator consistently pronounced the W in sword.)

I do wish the available field of audio books was wider. Given the effort and expense of producing one, it is no surprise that more obscure and older books are not out in audio format. Or, if they are, haven���t been picked up by a library. Sometimes it will require a half an hour for me to select the work in which I���m going to invest my listening time for the next couple of weeks.

Are any of you also audiobook listeners? Any favorites to recommend? How does REH’s work translate as read aloud?

If you are, like me, often looking for the next book to occupy your mind while your body is otherwise employed, I may have something of interest to you. I still have promo codes for free downloads of my Falchion���s Company series. These are available for the US and the UK. If you are interested, send me an email. First come, first served. While supplies last. Void where that sort of thing is frowned upon. Etc.

I���ll leave you with a picture of where I spent my weekend. Cheers.

The Pirate of World’s End: The Returns Diminish

And so we come to The Pirate of World���s End, the fifth book in Lin Carter���s self-described Gondwane Epic. I stand by my previous comments on the books. There was a playful vibrancy about the everything-and-the-kitchen sink gonzo fantasy at first. Yet as I read this fifth volume, I was reminded of a couple of laws of economics. One is Diminishing Returns, in which ��� all other factors remaining the same ��� the increase of one unit actually results in less efficiency in production. The other is Decreasing Marginal Utility, in which the satisfaction of consuming a product can drop to zero, or even become negative.

With Pirates, I think Carter managed to demonstrate both.

He still seemed to be having fun, throwing every idea on the page ��� no matter how ludicrous ��� that crossed his mind. Yet what started as a fresh and inventive funhouse adventure turned into a farce. Strangely enough, for a writer committed to novelty and over-the-top inventiveness, once the plot (such as it is) commences, Carter resorts to every hackneyed Pirate trope. Seven hundred million years in the future ought to allow for some departure from bandanas and cutlasses, eye patches and garbled speech.

And as for Ganelon Silvermane: as the series went on, the wooden and uninteresting Ganelon has been relegated gradually to a spear carrier in his own opera. Perhaps Carter realized this, finding the supporting characters more fun to write and letting them become the leads.

Frankly, reading the last couple of volumes was a chore. I���m glad to be done. (Though I understand there is a sixth, Giant of World���s End, which I think he wrote prior to the others. Should I track that one down?) I maintain that the first two were entertaining, and I can see why Gygax included the series in Appendix N. But like cheap Halloween candy, more isn���t better.

This is the point at which I recommend one of my own books. Since I���m a traditionalist I���ll do so. Today I���m going to suggest Under Strange Suns, my science fiction/sword and planet novel. Give it a try, leave a review.��

Lin Carter, Appendix N Supplemental. Resurrected Post.

October 24, 2021Lin Carter, Appendix N Supplemental Rereading DMG���s Appendix N, I noted that the Lin Carter entry specified a single series. Now, I���ve read quite a bit of his stuff. I had plenty of fodder for��my post on Mr. Carter. But I���d neglected the very work that got him enshrined in Appendix N. I was chagrined.

So, after a quick visit to Thriftbooks online, I ordered the first two of the��World���s End��series. I���ve read the first,��Warrior of World���s End, and have plunged into the second,��The Enchantress of World���s End. Will I purchase the rest? Read on and see.

As I���ve only read one installment, I���ll mostly limit my comments to it.

Warrior of World���s End��features one of Carter���s super men and demigods as its lead. Ganelon Silvermane is cast from the same mold as Amalric the mangod (see��Flashing Swords��#1��and��#3��). These heroes are more Hercules than Conan, superhuman rather than merely human. The adventures are set in the far distant future, one in which the continents have once again blended into a single super-continent, Gondwane. The book seems to be the result of Carter binging on Jack Vance���s��Dying Earth��stories (though��Cugel���s Saga��and��Rhialto the Marvelous��hadn���t yet been published), while lying atop a bed of silver age comic books.

And it is delirious, silly fun. Carter has always been an excellent mimic, particularly of Lord Dunsany. Here he does a fine Vance, so long as that aspect holds his interest. The later chapters read as if Carter is making it up as he goes and having a delightful time doing so, only occasionally recalling that he began the story as an homage to Vance. There���s an everything and the kitchen sink feel about it, that I think is what drew Gygax to the series. Anything goes: mighty-thewed warriors, mechanical, anti-gravity powered sentient metal birds, aliens from Canopus, ghosts, floating islands with electronic, oxygen sucking death rays, all manner of quasi-, demi-, and pseudo-humans, lady knights clad in impractical yet sexy armor, extra-dimensional lobster creatures, etc. Gonzo stuff.

The second book seems to have dispensed with the Vance pastiche. No footnotes so far, though I���m only a few chapters in. But it promises much of the same popcorn fantasy adventure.

So, yes, I���m in for the duration. I���ll put in my order for the remaining books.

Speaking of ordering books, you might like to order��one��or��more��of my��Semi-Autos and Sorcery��series.

 

The Enchantress of World’s End. There is Such a Thing as Restraint, Mr. Carter. Resurrected Post.

October 31, 2021

The Enchantress of World���s End. There is Such a Thing as Restraint, Mr. Carter. Lin Carter apparently enjoyed letting his imagination roam free in the first��World���s End��book ( The Warrior of World���s End ) so much that he figured even greater license would be even more fun. There may be something to the idea that more is better, but there is also such a thing as restraint.

The Enchantress of World���s End��is ��� eclectic. It���s a gallimaufry of whatever Carter had in the cupboard. And his cupboard is vast. It���s one part Wizard of Oz, a dash of Amerberite world-walking, a splash of the oriental tale as filtered through Hannah-Barbera cartoons. There is a through-line of sorts, so the narrative coheres ��� sort of. There are aspects I found a bit distasteful, and much that seemed just rather silly. And there was a distinct lack of menace. I never considered any of the characters to be under any real threat.

Still, the couple of chapters featuring the dragon were, while undeniably self-indulgent, worth the read for any aficionado of the heroic fiction genre. I won���t spoil it. But this book is worth keeping on my shelves as a reference work for one chapter alone.

So, I don���t regret reading this one. On the other hand, I feel as though I ought to take a break from this series in order to read something more substantial. Man can���t live on a diet of macaroons and sugar cookies. My brain requires more nourishing fare.

Of course, who am I to talk? I mean,��look at this.

The Immortal of World’s End: A Psuedo-Comic Travelogue. Resurrected Post.

December 12, 2021The Immortal of World���s End: A Psuedo-Comic Travelogue Lin Carter put his carnival barker���s hat on. ���Step right this way folks, see the mighty sphinx, the flying castle, the illusory city.��� He���s clearly entertained by the sights he has to show you and he desperately wants you to be as well.

That���s primarily what The Immortal of World���s End is: a collection of interesting odds and ends that Carter trots out for your inspection. Much of it comes in the form of a travelogue, as the characters fly over vast stretches of Gondwane and Carter describes the inhabitants, the political structure, and the outr�� customs of the people. He���s clearly having fun inventing all this and wants to share it.

Unfortunately, this constitutes the bulk of the book. There isn���t much story. Here���s what story there is: a tiny band of heroes opposes an invading barbarian horde. There are a few action scenes in which our heroes absolutely slaughter thousands of barbarians without suffering a single casualty in return, mostly by way of magical or explosive means. The rest of the book is description, a sort of gazeteer for a D&D campaign premised on nothing but funhouse adventures. Everything is quirky, tongue-in-cheek, and unserious.

And that, I understand, is how you have to approach this book. Despite that cool, evocative cover, this isn���t S&S. This is humor. The problem is that Carter isn���t funny. He can successfully pull off a wry, Dunsany-esque style for short stories. But Terry Pratchett he ain���t. I can appreciate that he���s been reading��The Eyes of the Overworld, and John Mandeville, and maybe even��The Wizard of Oz, and he had some ideas that made him giggle. But stringing them together doesn���t make for a particularly entertaining book if you don���t have solid comedy-writer chops.

Ganelone Silvermane continues to be a dull hero, overshadowed by his more interesting companions. But, given that he���s essentially a ten or eleven year old kid in a superman���s body, I suppose that can���t be helped.

Still, I���m hoping for better things from the next installment.

And, to continue in this hopeful vein, here is a��link��to my Amazon page, displaying all kinds of books you can purchase. (Much like Lin Carter, a man can dream. Also, a man could always use beer money.)

Barbarian-Light. Resurrected Post.

December 19, 2021Barbarian-Light Lin Carter���s Gondwane Epic continues in��The Barbarian of World���s End, the fourth volume. In a pleasant departure from the��previous book, this one actually has a plot of sorts. Our sporadically child-like and sporadically wise hero, Ganelon Silvermane, in an almost Conan-esque fashion, rises from captive to Warlord of a barbarian horde. His goal then becomes to render the horde harmless, leading a migration between and around settled areas.

The journey allows Carter to indulge in more of his travelogue, but in this context it reads as more organic; world-building in conjunction with story telling instead of world-building in lieu ol story telling.

Unfortunately Barbarian holds up well as a novel only in comparison with book three,��The Immortal of World���s End. Read on its own merits, it comes across more as an outline rather than a fleshed out novel. Carter takes shortcuts, telling instead of showing. In the tradition of the series, he���s more interested in his inventions than in the characters or the narrative. And ��� still in keeping with the rest of the series ��� many of those inventions are just silly. Carter probably snorted with laughter at some notion, sat down at the typewriter, and pecked away. The story itself exists only as an armature upon which to hang the baubles and bangles he giggled into existence.

Given that reality, it is probably for the best that the book is short. But it doesn���t compel me to rush out and acquire the next book. I suppose I���ll get around to it eventually, when I���m in the mood for something so light it could almost do service as an air bubble.

My own stuff may not be as frothy, but it is (I���m reliably informed) entertaining.��Treat yourself,��you deserve it.

The Elfin Ship. Resurrected Post.

November 16, 2014The Elfin Ship

Feeling, as I did, a trifle lonesome with my wife and daughter out of town for the week,�����The Elfin Ship�����by James P. Blaylock provided the ideal anodyne. It���s a warm fireplace and mug of hot, honeyed tea kind of book. Literature as comfort food.

���The Elfin Ship��� fits the tradition of the leisurely road trip filled with adventures and perils that feel at less-than-serious on the surface, but ominous beneath the light-hearted prose. The book would be at home on the shelf next to ���The Wind in the Willows,��� ���The Hobbit,��� and ���The Face in the Frost.��� It���s the upper middle-class Englishman analogue stirred from his complacency and sent on a colorful round trip. You never truly fear he���ll fail to return and get to enjoy every way stop, every pipe smoked and tankard of ale drunk.

It is not easy feat maintaining this tone consistently for the duration of a long narrative. Given that ���The Elfin Ship��� was Mr. Blaylock���s first published novel, my hat is off to him.

My apologies for the brevity of this post. I���ve got some house-cleaning to attend to. My ladies are due back home in a couple of days and I fear my short reversion to bachelorhood has left the place rather a mess.

Orycon 36 Wrap Up. Resurrected Post.

November 9, 2014Orycon 36 Wrap Up

Another��Orycon��recedes in the rear view mirror. My second as a panelist. I felt more comfortable in the role this year and had a good time. Whether or not the other panelists or the audience members enjoyed my participation remains an open question.

I met a number of talented and interesting individuals. I have a pocketful of business cards to prove it. Here commences the name dropping. The prolific and colorful��Annie Bellet��endured my banter. I purchased the ���Shattered Shields��� anthology, containing a story she wrote and met the editor Jennifer Brozek. I chatted again with the obliging��Steve Perry. I shared anecdotes with��Daniel H. Wilson. I met the writers��Ksenia Anske,��Leah Cutter, Jonathon Burgess,��Clayton Callahan,��Cody Barrus,��Phyllis Irene Radford, and many others. I spoke with the artist and cartoonist John Alexander, artist Adrian Bourne. I bent the ear of filmmaker��J.R. Ralls of ���Dark Dungeons�����infamy. I bored to tears, I���m sure, many others and handed out stacks of cards.

Ending the convention on the same panel with William F. Nolan, co-author of ���Logan���s Run��� counts, I think, as a high note.

I hopped from party to party Saturday night up on the 14th and 15th floor of the Doubletree. I learned quite a bit and I hope to employ some of the knowledge. For good or ill? We���ll see.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��

Transitions. Resurrected Post.

November 2, 2014Transitions

The current work-in-progress, a short fantasy novel, looks to be near completion. First draft completion, anyway. I expect to write ���End��� by next weekend, in time for��Orycon. We���ll see. The point is that the time has come to move on to the next project.

I don���t want to bore anyone with the sausage making aspect of writing, but I should probably explain why it is time to start something new. A first draft is far from a final manuscript. If you picked up a novel in the bookstore printed directly from an author���s first draft, you���d set it back down before you got through the first page, wondering how such crap could make onto the shelf. A novel requires several rounds of drafts and revisions before it is ready even for the publisher to see. More revisions follow.

 

Why not jump right into the second draft? Because I���m too close to the story. I know what I think the story is. I don���t have an outside perspective. If I started re-reading now I���d miss narrative problems. Plot holes might gape before me on the page, but in my mind the structure is solid and I���d read blithely on, pleased with my own writing. So I need to place this pie on the window sill, give it time to cool. A month or two later I���ll be able to approach it with fresh eyes, see it for the steaming pile it is. Then I���ll despair at my own ineptitude for a few minutes before I knuckle down and get to work fixing the problems.

In the meantime I don���t want to let the writing muscles atrophy. It���s important to move on to the next project. What���s that going to be? Well, I���ve got ideas. Unfortunately I���ve got too many ideas. So likely I���ll be spending much of the time reading, thinking, and taking notes. Once I���ve settled on an idea I���ll begin outlining. If I time it right I���ll finish the outline right when I���m ready to start the second draft of my current project.

But that���s looking too far ahead. I���ve still got a few thousand words to set down first.