Bruce Sterling’s The Caryatids: How much you’ll enjoy reading The Caryatids depends on how much you’d enjoy listening to Bruce Sterling talk to himself. Because that’s basically what The Caryatids is about. (This is not necessarily selling it short; Bruce’s monologues are endlessly fascinating, both in person and on the printed page.) It’s certainly an improvement over The Zenith Angle, in which, despite the usual array of cool Sterling stuff, it was obvious that his heart wasn’t into the technothriller form. He’s designed the mid-21st century post-disaster setting as a way to explore his core religious belief in Anthropogenic Global Warming, as well as his fascination with ubiquitous computing, Hollywood celebrity, the decay of the nation-state, post-national politics, etc. Unfortunately, the titular characters don’t drive the plot so much as have it acted upon them; they’re viewpoints rather than plot drivers. (This is not a new issue for Bruce: the protagonists of Islands in the Net and Holy Fire (to name but two) function in much the same manner.) If you haven’t already read Distraction and Holy Fire, I’d read those first, but there’s certainly enough here for the average Sterling fan to enjoy. I also find it interesting that the character that sounds and acts the most like Bruce ends up, at novel’s end, hooked up with the most obviously evil character…
Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
Books Read: Bruce Sterling’s The Caryatids
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009The Top Ten Books on my “Books Wanted” List
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009I may have mentioned that I have a large library. I started out collecting “hypermodern” (which in my case meant “post-Neuromancer“) science fiction (with some fantasy and horror works and authors thrown in for good measure), and once I had collected everything I wanted there, I started going after every important post-World War II SF work. That collection is by no means complete, but I’ve made considerable progress toward it.
With that in mind, I recently compiled a list of the top ten hardback first editions on my (considerably larger) want list that I was most interested in picking up. Here it is:
James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (Faber & Faber)Robert E. Howard’s The Sword of Conan (Gnome Press)Robert E. Howard’s The Coming of Conan (Gnome Press)Alfred Bester’s Tiger! Tiger! (Sidgwick & Jackson)- Philip K. Dick’s Dr. Bloodmoney (Gregg Press)
R. A. Lafferty’s With Horns on Their Head (Pendragon Press HB)R. A. Lafferty’s Funnyfingers & Cabrito (Pendragon Press HB)Jack Vance’s Book of Dreams (Underwood/Miller)Manly Wade Wellman’s Giants from Eternity (Avalon)Richard Matheson’s Born of Man and Woman (Chamberline Press)
These are all books that I not only want, but think I have a reasonable shot at picking up at a price I can afford. There are lots of first editions priced like Unobtanium (Stanley G. Weinbaum’s Dawn of Flame, H. P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others, the Unwin-Hyman true firsts of all three books in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, etc.) that i would pick up if I saw cheap, but don’t expect to come across.
Anyway, if you have nice copies any of the above, and if you’re willing to sell it to me considerably cheaper than can be found on Bookfinder.com, drop me an email at lawrenceperson@gmail.com and I’ll consider it.
If you happen to run a Worldcon…
Thursday, November 19th, 2009…maybe you should consider, oh, I don’t know, actually paying artists the money you owe them? (I know, radical idea. That’s me, clumsily stepping all over fannish tradition…) Because artists, much like writers, really like getting paid the money you owe them. In a timely manner, even.
Just a crazy thought…
Books I added to my library this week
Sunday, November 15th, 2009And now some book geeking, for those interested in same.
All first edition hardbacks:
- Howard, Robert E. Conan the Barbarian. Gnome Press, 1954. Fine copy in a Fine- dj with very slight fading to spine. Bought from a book dealer off the Internet.
- King, Stephen. Under the Dome. Simon & Schuster, 2009. Signed/limited edition (which came out just before the trade), one of reportedly 1,500 copies signed by King, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with limited edition trading cards, a belly band, better paper than the trade edition, and full-color maps on the endpapers. Bought pre-publication from the publisher.
- Lansdale, Joe R. Vanilla Ride. Random House, 2009. The latest Hap & Leonard novel. Would have bought a copy off Joe at Armadillocon, but all he had were second printings. From Half Price Books.
- Moorcock, Michael. The Opium General. Harrap, 1984. A Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. From Half Price Books. Formerly Scott Cupp’s copy.
The Economics of Writing (sucks)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009John Scalzi on a writer’s income, or rather lack thereof.
Most of these are more true than not. I’m probably in a better position than most, because:
- I have a day job, and have had a day job of one sort or another (with occasional gaps as long as nine months) for the entirety of my adult life.
- I’m a cheap bastard. Save my bookshelves, just about every piece of furniture I’ve added to my house was someone else’s castoff, so my house resembles that distinctive decorating style known as “Early College Student.” My TV is an old non-HD hand-me-down. My phone is the cheapest piece-of-crap Verizon had five years ago (and I’ve since replaced it with a used copy of the same model bought cheap off eBay); I suspect Fisher-Price now sells a phone with more functions. It only took me five years to decide that I could finally afford to buy a $10 spoon rest. (You get the idea.)
- I’m paranoid enough to always keep a good chunk of money in the bank for emergencies. (That’s also why I paid off all the bills I wracked up in my 20s in my early 30s.) Given the additional uncertainties here in the era of Hope and Change, I’ve recently doubled that amount. As former Intel Chairman Andy Grove was wont to say, “Only the paranoid survive.”
I would mention that my health has generally been pretty robust (certainly nothing like the host of maladies that, say, poor George Alec Effinger suffered), but that’s just asking The Giant Frying Pan of Fate to whack you upside the head for tempting it so. So (*cough*) I guess (*wheeze*) I won’t. (*Uh-oh*.)
Anyway, I’m doing a lot better than some, but I’m always looking out for ways to add to my financial cushion, the better to keep the wolves a few steps further from my door. A working spouse would be nice. If you’re an attractive single female, the line forms to the right. (No shoving and, as always, please, no wagering.)
By the way, on a completely unrelated note, I’ve added a Paypal donation button to this page…
I’m an “escritor de ficção científica e uma das referências mundiais no tema”
Friday, November 6th, 2009At least according to this article, the author of which contacted me through Facebook.
The Adventures of Lil Cthulhu
Friday, October 30th, 2009Photos from Turkey City
Monday, October 26th, 2009Turkey City
Saturday, October 24th, 2009I spent all day attending the Turkey City Writer’s Workshop with:
Bruce Sterling
Meghan McCarron
Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Elze Hamilton
Caroline Joachim
Paul Miles
Chris Nakashima-Brown
Lawrence Person
Jessica Reisman
Fred Stanton
Jenn Whitson
Any boy am I tired…