Jared Shurin's Blog, page 18
August 9, 2017
Heavens to Betsy (1955)
Thoughts Before Listening
I was actually going to watch a movie called End of the World with Christopher Lee in it because it had Christopher Lee in it. But I kept falling asleep while watching and then I started to feel homesick for the radio drama of yesteryear, if one can feel homesick for that sort of thing. So here we go with a radio drama called "Heavens to Betsy" which I���m going to listen to because it���s called "Heavens to Betsy".
Thoughts While Listening
So t...
August 8, 2017
What your favourite Austen novel says about you, really
Pride & Prejudice
On the one hand, you've read a classic. Congrats! On the other hand, you probably haven't read any other Austen besides Sense & Sensibility. Try harder. PS the Darcy-jumps-into-a-lake business is not in the book.
Sense & Sensibility
You're probably the reason people still teach this in high school, thereby ruining Austen for generations of people who might otherwise like her books. Yes, one sister has the sense and the other has the sensibility; students don't have to dig...
August 7, 2017
All The Eggs, One Basket [Click to Buy!]
Roadside America, photo by John Margolis If you're not reading Lisa Schmeiser's So What, Who Cares,... get in there. It is a brilliant bi-weekly newsletter that connects the dots in fascinating ways. Her thoughts on this matter are much more considered, and interesting, than mine - so go read that.
The most recent issue examines the connections between Amazon and journalism. Not in the conspiratorial way, but in an economic one: Amazon affiliate links are a huge source of revenue for profes...
August 4, 2017
The Dark Net by Benjamin Percy
The Dark Net (2017) is the new thriller from Benjamin Percy who - for many reasons - is on the 'must-read' pile. But we'll get to that in a moment. The Dark Net is a strangely 'classical' horror novel, in the Straub/King model, not, say, Poe. There's an evil rising in Portland, and a rag-tag group of people are drawn together to stop it.
Like a Straub or a King (or a McCammon or an F. Paul Wilson) there's a metaphysical element: a greater contest of Good and Evil taking place. It is implied...
August 3, 2017
Fiction: 'Four Feet' by Kirsty Logan
Once upon a night, a girl tiptoed on slippered feet into a garage, clutching a rag and a tin of beeswax. The only sound was the steady tick of the watchman's cane as he passed, but Eliska stood motionless on the step for another moment. The garage smelled of cold air and the sweet tickle of beeswax. She checked again to make sure that her feet were properly encased in their slippers ��� a cold floor might cause untold damage to a girl's feet ��� and stepped across to her animus.
The animus wa...
August 2, 2017
Review Round-Up: Cardigan, Stormswift and Tregaron's Daughter
Historical romance edition! Three historical romances - from the wilderness of pre-Revolutionary upstate New York to the fishing villages of Cornwall - love finds everyone. Especially if you're attractive and of noble birth.
Robert W. Chambers' Cardigan (1901) was, within his lifetime, his most famous work. The King in Yellow was a cult favourite, and certainly proved the most long-lasting and influential. But it was Cardigan that established Chambers as a best-seller and a popular favourite...
July 29, 2017
Starring Colson & The Olsens
Nintendo Virtual League Baseball, via the Museum of Obsolete Media
Appointing Death Panels for Science Fiction
Clarke winner Colson Whitehead seems pretty cool, via the Guardian:
The Underground Railroad ���could not exist without the toolkit of fantastic literature.... Way back when I was 10 years old, it was science fiction and fantasy that made me want to be a writer,��� said Whitehead, whose previous novel Zone One featured zombies. ���If you were a writer, you could work from home, you...
Weirdness Rodeo: Colson & The Olsens
Nintendo Virtual League Baseball, via the Museum of Obsolete Media
Appointing Death Panels for Science Fiction
Clarke winner Colson Whitehead seems pretty cool, via the Guardian:
The Underground Railroad ���could not exist without the toolkit of fantastic literature.... Way back when I was 10 years old, it was science fiction and fantasy that made me want to be a writer,��� said Whitehead, whose previous novel Zone One featured zombies. ���If you were a writer, you could work from home, you...
July 28, 2017
The War of Undoing by Alex Perry
The War of Undoing is, at first appearances, a pretty straightforward book. The humans and the vuma live in an uneasy (and clearly temporary) peace. [ominous thunder]
With that established, cut to...
Three children - the Rainings - living alone, unchaperoned, and in poverty in the unwelcoming city of Tarot. They receive a mysterious message saying that they're needed for a Great and Magical Cause. This gift horse seems like a truly spectacular chance. They can leave the city, pursue their cap...
July 27, 2017
Irons in the Fire by Antonio Urias
Talis is one hell of a city. It is both a bustling metropolis and the edge of the civilisation, home to millions of humans and faerie, and the centre of trade and magic. Ruled by a benevolent, but firmly entrenched, duke, Talis has a history dating back thousands of years, including centuries under the oppression of Witches.
Talis is also packed with stories. The Witches were overthrown by a human/faerie alliance - an alliance that has since dissolved. The faeries are second-class citizens i...
