As you know, Bob, clumsy exposition, particularly in the form of lengthy “infodump” sequences in which large quantities of information are blasted toward the reader in the manner of a shotgun or a firehose, is often held to be one of the hallmarks (or, perhaps, banes) of the SF genre (where “SF” means “speculative fiction,”… Continue reading Exposition Across Genres
Category: Books
Times Book Review Comments
We get the Sunday New York Times delivered, because there’s something infinitely more civilized about reading an actual paper than sitting at the computer browsing news stories on the Web. The message isn’t any different, but the medium makes a difference. Also, I’m more likely to stop to read a story on paper than I… Continue reading Times Book Review Comments
Classic Edition: Stronger Than Old Hapless Gods
I was scheduled for a deeply unpleasant medical test yesterday, which I thought was going to leave me lots of time for blogging. yesterday afternoon and this morning. The preliminary test turned out to be so unpleasant (if anybody ever offers to stick a tube through your nose into your stomach, decline politely) that I… Continue reading Classic Edition: Stronger Than Old Hapless Gods
Readercon: Social Class and Speculative Fiction
Having spent the weekend at Readercon, I feel like I should talk about it a little. For those who have never been to a SF convention, it’s not all people dressing up like space aliens and fairy princesses– in fact, the cons Kate and I go to tend not to have all that much of… Continue reading Readercon: Social Class and Speculative Fiction
Readercon: Embracing the Uncomfortable
Having spent the weekend at Readercon, I feel like I should talk about it a little. For those who have never been to a SF convention, it’s not all people dressing up like space aliens and fairy princesses– in fact, the cons Kate and I go to tend not to have all that much of… Continue reading Readercon: Embracing the Uncomfortable
More Reading Material
Via James Nicoll, a new SF Webzine, Helix. Because you don’t have enough things to read on the Interweb.
Best Novels of the 1990’s
Over in LiveJournal Land, James Nicoll (SF reviewer and walking True Lab Story) is discussing the best novels of the 1990’s. He doesn’t have the “SF” in there, but it’s sort of implicit, because that’s what James does. Keeping up the literary/ pop culture bent of the last couple of weeks (there’ll be science stuff… Continue reading Best Novels of the 1990’s
The Mystery of Series
Over at Crooked Timber, Harry Brighouse recommends mystery writers, and touches on something that’s always puzzled me about the genre: Like Symons [Robert Barnard] has largely eschewed the detective series, which is probably has kept his profile lower than it could have been, but there is one recurring character–the english way of death. I’ve really… Continue reading The Mystery of Series
Page to Screen: Homicide
I’ve been watching Netflix DVD’s of the late, lamented Homicide: Life of the Street lately, and a little while back, I went through the DVED’s of the first season of The Wire, which shares some of the same creative team. In particular, both series were based in part on work by David Simon, whose Homicide:… Continue reading Page to Screen: Homicide
Steelypips Book Club
Kate’s come up with a semi-ambitious plan for the summer: She’s going to re-read The Lord of the Rings (for the first time since the movies came out), and post chapter-by-chapter thoughts on her LiveJournal. At the moment, she’s only gotten through the introductory material and one critical essay, but there’s already some interesting discussion… Continue reading Steelypips Book Club