I just read my last post to see where I'm at, and I'm honestly a little disappointed. I haven't been doing the 3 hour round trip train commutes since May so I've been reading the same book for over a month now. I'm on the final act, and it's been a fun ride. Still talking about Perdido Street Station if you're wondering, and tops out at just over 600 pages if you're wondering about that part. I'd like to point out two things about Mieville's writing that have hit me lately. First is to just go ahead and give you another reason he's such a good writer. About a month ago I came across Jim Butcher's blog (on how to write a first SF/F novel), copied it and made it into a pdf for my own personal reference when offline, and picked up on an interesting point concerning voice. The only viable options for inexperienced writers are 1st person and 3rd person voices, and what Butcher brought to light is that authors are naturally good at one or the other. Butcher himself is a natural 1st person guy (most often utilized in detective-type stories), and apparently wrote about 5 unpublishable 3rd person voice novels before figuring that out. Anyway, this relates to China Mieville because 'the city and the city' which has all kinds of award nominations to go with at least the one Arthur C. Clarke win is a 1st person book, while Perdido Street Station (2 wins and a few more nominations) is 3rd person. The second thing I found interesting in Mieville's writing is his utilization of rules found in pen and paper rpgs. Thinking specifically here of a character who is a great scientist, but overweight, can't shoot a gun to save his life, and can't beat up anybody except a strung out junkie. You can't have your cake and eat it. Most writers in epic fantasy who follow this rule tend to start out with a dumb jock hero type who eventually learns to be...whatever. Caring, smart, thoughtful, good, whatever. Kinda boring. Well, I also wanted to list off the next few novels I hope to read and why.
1. Under the Dome, Stephen King. The premise is that an alien has put an impenetrable dome over a small town in (you guessed it) Maine, and the people stuck inside have to figure out what to do to coexist in the new absence of law.
2. The Scar, China Mieville. The second novel set in the Bas-lag universe. This one away from New Crobuzon and out on the high seas. Apparently a patch or expansion to Second Life was inspired by this book. Can't get enough of Bas-Lag, but I wouldn't mind a break from the post-grad level writing, it's hard to read with interruptions.
3. The Desert Spear, Peter V. Brett. Back to Jason Statham-style demon slaying. Hack, slash, rinse, repeat. Not a boring read.
4 and 5 are also China Mieville books, unless book 5 of Ice and Fire comes out before then, then that goes to the top of the list. Gotta give Aquila a bath. Thanks for reading (probably talking to myself around August or September).
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Books
I think the last time I posted I said I wanted to read Peter V. Brett's The Warded Man (The Painted Man in Britain), I did. It was a fun book. A little darker than your average fantasy stuff, which is good of course. I'd say the tone was still a little light even if the content wasn't so much. Tone was light due to the action-packed adventure-style of the story, kind of hack and slash fun. I couldn't find the sequel at the English bookstore in Shinjuku, so I'll try to get it when I go back to the States, hopefully it'll be in paperback by then and I can pick it up Stephen King's Under the Dome, which comes out in paperback this Summer as well and is at the top of my list.
So When I returned to the bookstore to see what to get next I picked up Jim Butcher's first book in his 'Codex Alera' series, which admittedly looked a little light, but heck, his other series looked a little grungier but wasn't epic fantasy which I'm looking to keep an eye on, and the other epic fantasy series didn't have book 1 in stock. I also picked up China Mieville's Arthur C. Clarke and British Fantasy awards winning 'Perdido Street Station'. Absolutely delightful. The two long series I powered through last year was Stephen King's Dark Tower, and George RR Martin's Ice and Fire. Both treated the reader as intelligent adults. That is to say, no matter how whacked out your universe is, certain rules apply to mortal beings, such as, they are mortal, they are not inherently good, they are not always going to deprive a reader (viewer as always happens in the movies) of a blood-filled payoff because protagonist takes the high road and only kills when he absolutely has to, etc. China Mieville treats his readers as adults as well. I read his most recent Arthur C. Clarke winning novel (British Sci-Fi award), the City and the City, and am surprised at how different the two are. Both make you think while reading, his writing is at college or post-graduate level, but the two are on opposite ends of the speculative fiction genre. Think BladeRunner without Daryl Hannah verses Mos Eisley on steroids. Perdido Street would be Mos Eisley on Steroids if you're wondering. In fact, the reason I'm not reading it now is to tell you how much I'm enjoying it (assuming you are out there).
So When I returned to the bookstore to see what to get next I picked up Jim Butcher's first book in his 'Codex Alera' series, which admittedly looked a little light, but heck, his other series looked a little grungier but wasn't epic fantasy which I'm looking to keep an eye on, and the other epic fantasy series didn't have book 1 in stock. I also picked up China Mieville's Arthur C. Clarke and British Fantasy awards winning 'Perdido Street Station'. Absolutely delightful. The two long series I powered through last year was Stephen King's Dark Tower, and George RR Martin's Ice and Fire. Both treated the reader as intelligent adults. That is to say, no matter how whacked out your universe is, certain rules apply to mortal beings, such as, they are mortal, they are not inherently good, they are not always going to deprive a reader (viewer as always happens in the movies) of a blood-filled payoff because protagonist takes the high road and only kills when he absolutely has to, etc. China Mieville treats his readers as adults as well. I read his most recent Arthur C. Clarke winning novel (British Sci-Fi award), the City and the City, and am surprised at how different the two are. Both make you think while reading, his writing is at college or post-graduate level, but the two are on opposite ends of the speculative fiction genre. Think BladeRunner without Daryl Hannah verses Mos Eisley on steroids. Perdido Street would be Mos Eisley on Steroids if you're wondering. In fact, the reason I'm not reading it now is to tell you how much I'm enjoying it (assuming you are out there).
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
this and that
That's odd, I'm sure I posted once between the end of March and this post, I remember because I thought to myself, 'this writing is so bad I don't even know why I'm doing this'. I can't guarantee the writing will be better tonight however. I suppose I can take solace in that I don't think anyone reads this. I wanted to celebrate my first win in Fantasy Baseball this season, so cheers to me. After losing the first, what quarter of the season? I finally got into the win column and currently sit at 1-4. matches are decided from points scored from Monday to Sunday, head to head. I'm actually quite proud of my roster, and if I can back my way into the playoffs I could have a shot in my casual league. I also believe I've learned some valuable (in the free fantasy baseball universe) lessons about drafting a team. But enough about that, onto the next paragraph.
Since coming to Japan I got back into reading novels. I guess between college and World of Warcraft I lost interest. After arriving in Japan, with a slow computer and really no friends (except a girlfriend who was a senior in college at the time), I didn't have a lot of ways to escape to America. Nevermind that the first two novels I read were about Japan (Silence, and Shogun), they were written in English. From there I found a copy of It by Stephen King in the bookstore and thought, '1000 pages...$9? great!'. The book was exceptional. Eventually I got married and Maki got pregnant so my free time was less, but you ride trains in Tokyo, and I don't like listening to music all that much, so I read. I started browsing fantasy lists and went back to Stephen King for the Dark Tower, a seven book series, that I finished in about 6 months. 6 of the books top 500 pages and 3 top 800 if my memory serves. Next came George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, I was reading book one during most of Aquila's birth. Having six younger siblings, three of which were home births I learned a long time ago that women in labor don't really pay attention to what your doing, they'll remember it afterward, but they won't care. The pain and subsequent joy mute whatever else was going on. They can usually recount with disturbing clarity everything that was said or done in the room, even though at the time they appear to be completely out of it. Anyway, my son was born and I finished four published Ice and Fire books and check GRRM's blog daily for updates on when book 5 will be released. I started reading Brandon Sanderson's debut novel Elantris, it was in a bookstore in Tokyo and it's a stand-alone so I gave it a shot. Sanderson is famous for his Mistborn series and as the guy who is finishing Wheel of Time. I'm almost halfway through but I got bored and bought China Mieville's Arthur C. Clarke Award winning 'The City and the City'. The guy is 3 for 7 on Arthur C. Clarke awards, which is the best sci-fi novel published in Britain in a given year. I wanted to read Mieville's debut, which sounded much more fantastic, though with less phenomonal reviews, but it wasn't in the Japanese bookstores. While waiting on GRRM's Dance with Dragons I've been searching for my next book (after City and Elantris) and may have found it in Peter V. Brett's debut which I've forgotten the name the something something man, I don't remember. Ah well, getting late. I'd love to write my own novel someday, not expecting to get published just to write the best novel I can, but it's hard. Plotting, drafting, research, etc. Sigh. Well, it's a comparatively cheap hobby. That's all.
Since coming to Japan I got back into reading novels. I guess between college and World of Warcraft I lost interest. After arriving in Japan, with a slow computer and really no friends (except a girlfriend who was a senior in college at the time), I didn't have a lot of ways to escape to America. Nevermind that the first two novels I read were about Japan (Silence, and Shogun), they were written in English. From there I found a copy of It by Stephen King in the bookstore and thought, '1000 pages...$9? great!'. The book was exceptional. Eventually I got married and Maki got pregnant so my free time was less, but you ride trains in Tokyo, and I don't like listening to music all that much, so I read. I started browsing fantasy lists and went back to Stephen King for the Dark Tower, a seven book series, that I finished in about 6 months. 6 of the books top 500 pages and 3 top 800 if my memory serves. Next came George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, I was reading book one during most of Aquila's birth. Having six younger siblings, three of which were home births I learned a long time ago that women in labor don't really pay attention to what your doing, they'll remember it afterward, but they won't care. The pain and subsequent joy mute whatever else was going on. They can usually recount with disturbing clarity everything that was said or done in the room, even though at the time they appear to be completely out of it. Anyway, my son was born and I finished four published Ice and Fire books and check GRRM's blog daily for updates on when book 5 will be released. I started reading Brandon Sanderson's debut novel Elantris, it was in a bookstore in Tokyo and it's a stand-alone so I gave it a shot. Sanderson is famous for his Mistborn series and as the guy who is finishing Wheel of Time. I'm almost halfway through but I got bored and bought China Mieville's Arthur C. Clarke Award winning 'The City and the City'. The guy is 3 for 7 on Arthur C. Clarke awards, which is the best sci-fi novel published in Britain in a given year. I wanted to read Mieville's debut, which sounded much more fantastic, though with less phenomonal reviews, but it wasn't in the Japanese bookstores. While waiting on GRRM's Dance with Dragons I've been searching for my next book (after City and Elantris) and may have found it in Peter V. Brett's debut which I've forgotten the name the something something man, I don't remember. Ah well, getting late. I'd love to write my own novel someday, not expecting to get published just to write the best novel I can, but it's hard. Plotting, drafting, research, etc. Sigh. Well, it's a comparatively cheap hobby. That's all.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
very end of a busy march
Watching baseball on TV and it's very sweet. Nevermind that it's the Hiroshima Carp against the Hanshin Tigers, and the Carp are losing, nevermind that my favorite team Japanese team is so unpopular that they can't get a game televised on Cable, where they show high school girls basketball, it's still sweet. Maybe I'll see Eric Stults, the Bethel College grad who never got a fair shot at the Dodgers rotation though he showed himself to be as reliable as any fifth starter anywhere, the Dodgers sold his contract to the Hiroshima Carp, so maybe I'll see him tomorrow. Dodgers themselves are an absolute mess. I blame Bud Selig for allowing the McCourts to buy them in the first place. The funniest part is they refused someone else, then accepted the McCourts as buyers, what a joke. I'm actually thinking to make the Angels my American League team this year, and number 2 overall. I've been an Indians guy for so long but it just doesn't mean anything these days, they're not interesting, I've never been to Cleveland, and I can take my kid to Angels games. I can go to Angels blanket night. I can teach him to steal leftover ice cream helmets after the game and wash them out in the bathrooms, then get the fifth outfielder or second string middle reliever to sign it. Is there really a better fan experience than that? One last point, the Dodgers begin the season at Pittsburgh, so hopefully we're 3-0 by the time we start playing Major League teams. But seriously the Pirates seem to be putting it together, I'd say they're up to about half a Major League starting lineup with guys like McClutchen, Garret Jones and Ryan Doumit. How do you pronounce that anyway? Doe-mit!?
Spend a lot of my dreamy time thinking about reading and writing. I've always wanted to write a novel, but never had the discipline to think anything through from start to finish, much less actually pen a first draft. When I was 10 years old I had a real winner I was gonna call 'The Great Guinea Pig Adventure', and it was gonna be way edgier than David's finished manuscript for 'Journey to PetTown'. Now I'm 27, I've got a few how-to books, and would find it to be a huge personal accomplishment to get a full manuscript written and refined to something I could think of as publisher ready. I wouldn't make it a goal to publish it because merely having a worthy manuscript isn't good enough to get it published, there are too many worthy manuscripts for publishers to consider as it is, and also, almost nobody puts out a worthy manuscript on their first try. I'll leave you with this true story to illustrate my point. I read about a guy, and this is a story I like to tell so if you've heard it from me just hear it again, a guy who submitted his novel to a publisher who responded with 'I can't publish this, but I'd be interested in reading your next effort.' he responded the same way with the second effort, and the third. The fourth he published, and that novel was a bestseller, it was called Carrie, the author was Stephen King, and every novel he's written since have been bestsellers. Cheers.
Spend a lot of my dreamy time thinking about reading and writing. I've always wanted to write a novel, but never had the discipline to think anything through from start to finish, much less actually pen a first draft. When I was 10 years old I had a real winner I was gonna call 'The Great Guinea Pig Adventure', and it was gonna be way edgier than David's finished manuscript for 'Journey to PetTown'. Now I'm 27, I've got a few how-to books, and would find it to be a huge personal accomplishment to get a full manuscript written and refined to something I could think of as publisher ready. I wouldn't make it a goal to publish it because merely having a worthy manuscript isn't good enough to get it published, there are too many worthy manuscripts for publishers to consider as it is, and also, almost nobody puts out a worthy manuscript on their first try. I'll leave you with this true story to illustrate my point. I read about a guy, and this is a story I like to tell so if you've heard it from me just hear it again, a guy who submitted his novel to a publisher who responded with 'I can't publish this, but I'd be interested in reading your next effort.' he responded the same way with the second effort, and the third. The fourth he published, and that novel was a bestseller, it was called Carrie, the author was Stephen King, and every novel he's written since have been bestsellers. Cheers.
Friday, March 26, 2010
End of a busy March
It's a somewhat rare Saturday morning that I can sit on the couch and start a blog. I realize I already have two blogs that I update regularly, but they are specifically about parts of my life, my son, and my work/ministry. I intend for this to be more of just a blog. I don't talk to native English speakers as much as I used to so I hope this to be an outlet. I'm sitting here with Aquila on my lap asleep. If he were awake he probably wouldn't let me sit on the couch, but in the end sleep won out...as long as I don't put him down. Anyway, if I don't make paragraphs I'm going to lose all of you.
Very excited about baseball season. I drafted three fantasy teams in a simplified format, one on a live draft with friends. I'm most excited about that, but hope to do well on all fronts. The Dodgers, while they've been frustrating me for the 20 years I've been a fan, this season is especially trying with the current ownership debacle. I think this divorce is the best thing that could happen to the Dodgers...if it forces them to sell the team. It's clear that Frank intends to use the Dodgers to create a sports empire and gobs and gobs of money, while his soon to be ex-wife Jamie hopes to use the Dodgers to become a powerful and well-loved politician. I'd like to see the Dodgers owned by a smart baseball guy. Actually, I'd love to steal the Angels owner and manager, probably GM too. I do like the Dodgers VPs is Logan White and Kim Ng, I think they're responsible for keeping us respectable on the field in spite of the circus going on around the team. But here's hoping for a ring this year anyway.
Healthcare. I'm bothered by the reactions to this. It's like the whole country became Lakers fans and decided to burn cars and stuff. Here's why I think we need health-care reform: Insurance companies are cut-throat businesses, this is obvious by their practices. If they think you are a risk to lose them money instead of gain, they cut you or reject you. That's why something as fundamental as health-care shouldn't be in the unregulated private sector. I'm pro-free market, but not for everything. Why doesn't anybody complain about Social Security? Is that not big government? Basically what health-care reform is about is making health care a reality for everyone. This is something that most countries have had for a long time and think of America as a third world country because we don't. I live in a foreign country and it's embarrassing.
Looking forward to seeing Alice in Wonderland in a few weeks! Still haven't seen a movie in theatres since...Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Before that was Narnia II and then Sweeney Todd? I've always liked good movies, but there seem to be fewer that I get around to seeing. Hopefully I can catch a few more on home service. Been reading a lot lately, I tend to like that better, it's cheaper, I can do it on trains (I'm not a gadget guy and don't even own a working MP3 player so watching movies on a portable is out), and there are still tons of easily found high quality books that interest me. As I haven't gotten to the bookstore since I finished the latest cliffhanger George R.R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire book (written 5 years ago and still waiting for the sequel), I picked up a Louis La'mour (sp?) western which I bought some months ago at a Christian School fundraiser bazaar. It's about California and Los Angeles from the late cowboy era (1850ish?) Fun to read about Palm Springs, the San Fernando Valley, and Los Angeles before any of them reached their current statuses. La'mour is a good writer, though I grow tired of what I perceive to be 'the American plain style', which is to say that the author tries to make himself invisible and let the characters takeover. Noble, but I get a craving for something less plain now and again. Having said that I've gotten interested in Sci-Fi lately, and the one at the top of that list is Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, who taught me the phrase 'American plain style' when describing his own work on a comment on Amazon on his own book.
Good enough for now I suppose, looking to take Maki and Aquila to the baby store to get him a nice big hat to keep the sun off. Spring is here, the Cherry blossoms ought to be great in less than a week, and gone in two. Cheers.
Very excited about baseball season. I drafted three fantasy teams in a simplified format, one on a live draft with friends. I'm most excited about that, but hope to do well on all fronts. The Dodgers, while they've been frustrating me for the 20 years I've been a fan, this season is especially trying with the current ownership debacle. I think this divorce is the best thing that could happen to the Dodgers...if it forces them to sell the team. It's clear that Frank intends to use the Dodgers to create a sports empire and gobs and gobs of money, while his soon to be ex-wife Jamie hopes to use the Dodgers to become a powerful and well-loved politician. I'd like to see the Dodgers owned by a smart baseball guy. Actually, I'd love to steal the Angels owner and manager, probably GM too. I do like the Dodgers VPs is Logan White and Kim Ng, I think they're responsible for keeping us respectable on the field in spite of the circus going on around the team. But here's hoping for a ring this year anyway.
Healthcare. I'm bothered by the reactions to this. It's like the whole country became Lakers fans and decided to burn cars and stuff. Here's why I think we need health-care reform: Insurance companies are cut-throat businesses, this is obvious by their practices. If they think you are a risk to lose them money instead of gain, they cut you or reject you. That's why something as fundamental as health-care shouldn't be in the unregulated private sector. I'm pro-free market, but not for everything. Why doesn't anybody complain about Social Security? Is that not big government? Basically what health-care reform is about is making health care a reality for everyone. This is something that most countries have had for a long time and think of America as a third world country because we don't. I live in a foreign country and it's embarrassing.
Looking forward to seeing Alice in Wonderland in a few weeks! Still haven't seen a movie in theatres since...Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Before that was Narnia II and then Sweeney Todd? I've always liked good movies, but there seem to be fewer that I get around to seeing. Hopefully I can catch a few more on home service. Been reading a lot lately, I tend to like that better, it's cheaper, I can do it on trains (I'm not a gadget guy and don't even own a working MP3 player so watching movies on a portable is out), and there are still tons of easily found high quality books that interest me. As I haven't gotten to the bookstore since I finished the latest cliffhanger George R.R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire book (written 5 years ago and still waiting for the sequel), I picked up a Louis La'mour (sp?) western which I bought some months ago at a Christian School fundraiser bazaar. It's about California and Los Angeles from the late cowboy era (1850ish?) Fun to read about Palm Springs, the San Fernando Valley, and Los Angeles before any of them reached their current statuses. La'mour is a good writer, though I grow tired of what I perceive to be 'the American plain style', which is to say that the author tries to make himself invisible and let the characters takeover. Noble, but I get a craving for something less plain now and again. Having said that I've gotten interested in Sci-Fi lately, and the one at the top of that list is Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, who taught me the phrase 'American plain style' when describing his own work on a comment on Amazon on his own book.
Good enough for now I suppose, looking to take Maki and Aquila to the baby store to get him a nice big hat to keep the sun off. Spring is here, the Cherry blossoms ought to be great in less than a week, and gone in two. Cheers.
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