Liam R.W. Doyle's Blog, page 5
August 25, 2012
Glasshouse
(A no-spoilery review.)
I recently finished Charles Stross’ novel of the posthuman future, Glasshouse. It was closer to his novel Halting State in style, and certainly morereadablethan its unofficial prequel, Accelerando. While not a perfect novel by any means, and containing a few misses and rough parts, I’m placing it in my top 10 favorite SF novels and top 5 posthumanity-themed works.
I stopped reading Accelerando, but not permanently. (Not like Dies the Fire, the probable inspiration for th...
Do a little to help working authors?
Steven Brust, Emma Bull, and a fan
A while back I blogged about my favorite fantasy artist’s health scare. He’s recently had heart surgery, as a good friend and collaborator of his, Emma Bull, also went through a procedure. Naturally, because they’re very hard working, talented writers in America who make their living with the sweat of their brow as artists–they get paid crap and health insurance is likely non-existentfor them. (Our country’s insurance-care system is, besides horrific just on...
Before They Open the Door
At GenCon last week, during the Tracy and Laura Hickman Killer Breakfast, I signed up for a drawing. Low and surprise, I won! What’d I win? Their collection of stories, Eventide and their daughter Tasha’s brand new CD: Before They Open the Door.
As for the book, I was immediately excited! I’d recalled hearing Tracy Hickman talk about the book on podcasts a year or so ago, and it sounded really interesting! (Though, if I recall, I thought he and Laura were doing some kind of special subscriptio...
Happy Stone anniversary to me!
My wife is just the coolest.
First, she knows I love craft beers and microbrews (okay, not hard to know that). But she also seems to have recalled that my favorite type is the IPA. And she’s also noted to herself that one of my favorite breweries is Stone. So, what did she do? She researched some beers and discovered that Stone puts out ananniversaryIPA each year with different flavor profiles. They release it on a limited run that can be difficult to get. She ordered half a case for me and it...
August 22, 2012
GenCon-inspired motivation
Last week I attended the largest gaming convention in America, GenCon. Four days of role-playing games, sci-fi cosplay (not me, personally), writers’ workshops,dealer room (and by “room,” I mean ginormous arena of more product in one place than a human mind can comprehend).It was amazing!
I’ve been known on my blogs to babble in incessant detail about theminutiaof an experience. I’m going to try to avoid that here, else this post will go on for days. Four, to be precise. So, instead, I’m going...
July 26, 2012
“Sleeping Beauty” really needs a wake-up call!
I caught the Julia Leighfilm “Sleepy Beauty” on Netflix the other night, and, if it weren’t for the final scene, I would have forgotten it as a sexually exploitative mediocre-at-best art-house film. Unfortunately, thanks to the penultimate scene in the film, what “Sleeping Beauty” is, is in fact, a near-miss at a truly excellent feminist psycho-drama. Sadly, no matter how affective one good apple of a scene can be, it’s not enough to save the rotten barrel. And because of that, instead of sim...
June 26, 2012
“Blade Runner’s” 30th anniversary and cartoonists with projection issues
Well, yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the release of “Blade Runner” — the film I have, since I saw it when I was 11, invariably listed as my favorite film of all. Like most people (who weren’t up on the latest literary scifi trends) at that time, circa 1982, I had no experience or knowledge of “cyberpunk.” But the style and themes of “Blade Runner,” despite having had only 11 years of safe, middle-class life experiences to draw upon, etched themselves into my mind and from that moment,...
June 14, 2012
Inspired by Bradbury; but shoulda checked Google
(Ray Bradbury cartoon by Scott Campbell)
Well ain’t this just a kick in the pants. So, The Amazing Wife and I went to Barnes and Noble last night (despite their betrayal, grrr), and I noticed an endcap display in honor of Ray Bradbury (whom, as I’m sure everyone knows, passed away last week). He was probably the biggest influence on me, both as a reader and a writer. (Poe a semi-close second.) I discovered him when I was in 5th grade, and his stories affected me so deeply, so fundamentally, pa...
Get it in gear, non-Amazons!
Ugh, so frustrating! It’s been three weeks since I submitted Singularity Deferred to the various ebook distributors. Smashwords put it up pretty quickly, and so did Amazon. (Helps when you’re as meticulous as I was getting the formatting exactly right, I suspect.) But the others, Barnes and Noble, Sony, iTunes, are really dragging their heels. (Even Kobo has it up now.)
Thing is, I’ve been waiting to really promote the novel until it’s available from all locations. I mean, it’s kind of self-de...
May 16, 2012
Rothfuss reaction
So I just finished Patrick Rothfuss’s second “Kingkiller Chronicles” novel, Wise Man’s Fear. In general, not quite as good as Name of the Wind, but still a brilliant novel. Rothfuss has a command of thelanguageand ability to paint with words that’s just awe inspiring. I’m not going to be spoilery in this, well, more of a reaction than a full review. But I must be specific in mention how, in Wise Man, there’s a picnic scene near the end that is heartbreakingly beautiful and, and gut wrenchingl...
