Friday, June 01, 2007
Short stories, tall commitment
I seem to be in a literary quandary. Last year I started a subscription to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. A plethora of almost monthly scifi short stories in a handy size publication that travels well anywhere I go. I read the editorials, letters from readers, all the stories and some of the reviews. From deep space to the backyard - the desert or orbiting earth, faeries and trolls inhabiting abandoned subways in London, stories I can read in 30 minutes to stories that may take over a couple of hours. Very few of the stories I'm disappointed with, many stories by well known writers including a few of my favorites. It all sounds good, right? Not so fast - there not enough time to read each issue before another arrives. I'm two issues behind, three before I started the double issue I'm on now. I've resolved to catch up before I pick up one of the books I have stashed away. I love my scifi books, there aren't enough good scifi movies or TV shows to satisfy my appetite for a good space opera. The prize of them all, "The Brass Man" by Neal Asher. I may save that one for my vacation at the camp in August. It will take some discipline but will be worth it to rejoin Ian Cormac and Mr. Crane from "Gridlinked". I wonder if John Stanton will make an appearance, Neal? Ah but books and imagination make the best movies anyway. Back to Asimov's - it's mine boggling that great original stories are being churned out all the time by writers. Humans are incredible in this regard that so much is written that is not a rehash of other's ideas. I've been reading science fiction since the eight grade with a lull in my 30s and 40s but have made up a lot of ground in the last three or four years. And this isn't even the scifi blog I've been threatening to write - stay tuned for that one.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
No re-appearance of John Stanton in Brass Man, but he is in the book between Gridlinked and Brass Man: The Line of Polity...
Hi Neal, glad you've stopped by again. A few weeks after posting this particular blog I was checking out your books on Amazon and read some of the reviews on "The Line of Polity" which made it clear that it continued the Ian Cormac series from "Gridlinked" so I ordered it and have read it. Now I'm caught up for my vacation reading of "The Brass Man". Enjoyed TLOP and it was a good slide in of John Stanton into the story. To me he was the surprise character to come out of "Gridlinked". The character developed very nicely and that was why I was hoping to have him appear again. That was a good twist when Cormac comes onto the Lyric II. The development of JS, reminded me of the development of "Tack" in "Cowl". I hated that character but the deeper into the story I went the more I started rooting for him. Obviously I'm enjoying your stories and will keep chipping away until I've read them all. I'll be up to 5 when I finish The Brass Man and I read your 2006 story in Asimov's. Stay on those government rants, it will keep you young. I check into your blog several times a week.
Post a Comment