S.C. Butler's Blog, page 2

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

(Wally Wood and Steve Ditko, too!)

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Sam-Who-Likes-Some-Things - The Girl Who Played With Fire

I should start by saying I hated The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Read it on a long plane trip, and the only reason I read The Girl Who Played with Fire was because I'd already bought it for the trip home. But, being the incredibly positive guy that I am, I am posting this review under the more positive headline.

I liked the second book for two reasons. One, it was much better plotted (the first book reaches it's climax with about 150 pages to go). And two, there was a lot more of the...

Sam-Who-Likes-Nothing - Consider Phlebas

I should have liked this book. I thought I'd like it. The Culture is a very cool construct, and Iain Banks is a talented writer with or without the middle initial.

But I didn't like the book. For a number of reasons.

My biggest problem was my dislike of the protagonist. I'm sure I wasn't supposed to like him, as the protag is fighting on the wrong side, but still, the book is an adventure story. If I don't like the protag, I'm not going to care whether he wins or loses. And if I don't...

My Latest SFNovelists Post Is Up

Publishing and Class. Check it out at SFNovelists.com.

Sam-Who-Likes-Some-Things - Blood River

Blood River is a book that describes the author's 2004 descent of the Congo River from Lake Tangaynika to Boma following the path Stanley took 117 years before. It's not a particularly good book (I dislike the modern journalistic technique of reporters injecting themselves into the story), but its theme is extremely interesting. Basically the author posits that the Congo is one of the few places on the planet where civilization is going backward.

Horribly so.

The conditions described are so p...

Not Yet A Professional

My latest post, Not Yet A Professional, is up at SFNovelists.

Now It Can Be Told

The contracts are signed and mailed back to Daw - mine and many others. We'll all have stories in Daw's new anthology next spring - AFTER HOURS: TALES FROM THE UR-BAR, thanks to editors (and contributors) Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray. There are several other contributors, but I don't know the full list yet and don't know who I can mention. So I'll only mention myself (and Josh and Patricia (jpsorrow and pbray ).

The idea of the anthology is simple. Gilgamesh has managed to get...

How Ironic…

…that irony is the worst thing that ever happened to fiction.

Writing SF vs Writing Fantasy

My latest post is up at SFNovelists.

Interesting Article About the Environmental and Ethical Aspects of Eating Meat

From a vegetarian rancher, no less.

At the Atlantic.