Roccanon's World by Ursula K. LeGuin

Another year, another reading and blogging project likely doomed to fail. I have a hard time keeping either up. I'm notorious for starting a book and jumping to another book before finishing. That isn't to say I don't finish books. I finish several books per year and yet I also seem to have a slowly growing pile of books that I have started and temporarily abandoned. I plan on finishing them, I swear, even if I have to start again from the first page. I don't hang on to books I started and intentionally didn't finish. Those books go back to the library or exchanged for credit on my next visit to the used book store.

As for any accompanying blogging meant to follow my reading, you need only look at the archives to see how well I've kept that up. 

Past failures won't stop me from setting up new projects to fail. My reading project for 2023 is one that has been gestating for all of last year: Only read books by woman authors.

Short Story Sunday 29: R. Garcia y Robertson and Thomas Ligotti

Another year another doomed-to-fail attempt at blogging regularly here at Shared Universe Reviews. Join me in the hopes of being present when I post the site’s last entry of 2022 sometime later this month.

As is routine, I’m going back to Year’s Best Fantasy 2 to read a couple of stories and write reviews. Let’s get on with it.

“Firebird” by R. Garcia y Robertson
Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)
Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (May 2001), edited by Gordon Van Gelder

Star Trek: Voyager: Homecoming by Christie Golden - Review

One of the great ideas that you'll come across when exploring the world of Star Trek tie-in fiction is that of the relaunch novels. The concept is to continue telling the stories of your favourite Star Trek series; specifically the stories that take place after the series finale. What to know what happened to Picard and the Enterprise-D crew after the end credits of Star Trek Nemesis? There are plenty of books devoted to the idea. What happened to all the storylines that weren't wrapped up by DS9's "What We Leave Behind" and the new stories they teased? There's a novel series for that. 

In fact, there are multiples novel series for that. Several dozen books, plenty of multi-series crossovers, stories taking place with a focus outside of the Federation and other stories focusing on characters that only appear in a handful of episodes and were significantly more fleshed out in the novels. Honestly, it's a treasure trove of Trek goodness. It's big, messy, and complicated. Take a look at The Trek Collective's reading guide if you need convincing about my last point.

Short Story Sunday 28: “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories” by Gene Wolfe

The ebook version of The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction is on sale for the month of February. A sale price of $2.99 for a book running a length of 224 thousand words and collecting more than 30 short stories, it’s a hard deal to pass up. Despite having read only two books and a handful of his stories, Gene Wolfe looms large in my pantheon of favourite writers. I find his work to be difficult and frustrating (probably the reason I haven’t read many of his works), but his mastery of prose sucks me in every time. It’s alluring and hypnotic in the way good fiction can be, but what makes it great is that the time I spend rereading large passages and sometimes entire chapters or stories is greatly rewarded. It’s challenging, but worthwhile.

As I’ve been doing with other anthologies, I’ll be writing about the stories I read here at SUR. It’ll undoubtedly make my progress through the book laboriously slow. However, I trust it will be a labour of love and like the strongest of loves will require a lot of work and dedication. Pick up your copy and join along. Wolfe writes the kind of fiction that generates discussion and interpretation, so do not be shy about leaving comments.

Short Story Sunday 27: Johanna Sinisalo and H. G. Wells

There was a fair amount of hubbub in 2016 around the release of The Big Book of Science Fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. I knew of their reputation even though wasn’t very familiar with their work. Still, a new collection of science fiction stories by dozens of authors spanning roughly 100 years of publishing history carefully curated by two knowledgeable editors and anthologist in the field does call for some attention. That and its very reasonable price point and easy availability led me to purchase a copy. The goal was to read each story and write about it here on the blog. Five years lately, I’m finally starting.

I’ll be taking a specific approach to these reviews. For starters, the VanderMeers wrote wonderfully detailed introduction to each story. Part biography, part career overview, sometimes structured like a miniature essay about an author’s work, these text pieces are as much a draw of the book as the written contents. They also have a great and lengthy introduction to the whole collection in which they write about the difference phases of science fiction writing in the English language while also making mention of non-English authors and their work. They present their criteria in compiling the collection and it makes for a compelling read as well as an excellent contextualization for the reader to sample all of these stories.

Short Story Sunday 26: Fritz Leiber and Tanith Lee

I’ve spent more time reading and writing about short stories this month than I had reading novel-length prose. That’s a little unusual for me as I tend to read comic and novels much more frequently than I read short stories. Upon further reflection, that surprises me as I tend to be like a variety in my fiction. More so variety of authors and moods than in variety of genres, but there is some variety there as well.
 
This week’s selection of stories offers some nice variety. The first author, Fritz Leiber, I’m already familiar with form his work in fantasy. I’ve read a couple of collections of his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. I enjoy them, but I’m not quite swept away like some of his fans or, in general, fans of sword of sorcery. His “A Pail of Air” is a science fiction story and it was fun following him over into another mode of writing. The second author, Tanith Lee, is new to me. I first heard of her upon her passing in 2015. Reading appreciations of her body of work and her contributions to literature in the wake of her death made an impression on me and I’ve been keeping my eye out for her work ever since. I remember searching for her work at my local bookstore, but I couldn’t find any volumes that started a series or any short story collection that wasn’t part of a larger series. I didn’t buy anything. Finally, I got my chance this week and I was not disappointed.

Short Story Sunday 25: Robert Reed and N. K. Jemisin

The year’s first week back to work is done and I’m trying to keep the ball rolling here on the blog. I have specific reading and blogging goals for the year that I’m intentionally not making public on the site. I tend to get fired up each January about making Shared Universe Reviews a place full of content and I inevitably fail to meet any of those goals. So, for now, all I’ll be sharing is that I will try and post new reviews regularly in the hopes of striking up interesting conversation with others who enjoy a good book. This week, I went back to the well that is Year’s Best SF 16 and I also had a wonderful time listening to LeVar Burton’s podcast while shovelling the driveway.

“The Good Hand” by Robert Reed
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction (January 2010), edited by Sheila Williams

Short Story Sunday 24: Brenda Cooper and Gregory Benford

Let's try to start the New Year with reviews of stories originally published in 2010. The key to making this little blog a popular place to hangout online is keeping it relevant to the times. What better way to do that than to continue my review, one story at a time, of Year's Best SF 16?

“The Hebras and the Demons and the Damned” by Brenda Cooper
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally published in Analog (December 2010), edited by Stanley Schmidt

As is usually the case when reviewing stories in either of Hartwell and Cramer's long running Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies, Brenda Cooper is an author I was not familiar with until picking up this book. Discovering new authors is one of the pleasures of reading these annual anthologies. Cooper's "The Hebras and the Demons and the Damned" has made it very clear to me that I need to seek out more of her work as it's topic is right up my alley: colonization of alien planets.

Short Story Sunday 23: The Frost-Giant’s Daughter (Reading Conan 08)

Robert E. Howard

Two weeks in a row of Conan? Yes! Somebody give me a medal and a cookie.

“Rogues in the House” by Robert E. Howard

Last Conan version of the story published in 1976.

We begin on a windy plain high up in the north. Two warrior are fighting. They are the last two standing after a fierce battle. One of them is Heimdul, the other is Conan.

After defeating his opponent, Conan is now exhausted with the exertion of battle. He is visited by a nearly nude woman of great beauty. She teases and taunts the tired warrior, causing him to lust and hurry after her.

She leads him on a chase and soon draws him into an ambush. Conan stands face-to-face with the woman’s giant twin brothers. Roused by his passion for Atali, the beautiful woman, he defeats the giants and the pursuit continues. While Atali grows tired, Conan continues to be stirred on by her alluring figure and provocative words.

Short Story Sunday 22: Rogues in the House (Reading Conan 07)

It has been a long time since I wrote about Robert E. Howard’s Conan. I’ve been meaning to write stuff for the blog more often this year. If you’re reading this in 2020 you know the kind of year we’ve had. If you’re reading this from sometime in the future, then I would like to apologize from bringing up the horrors we went through.

Suffice to say that it’s been too long since my last time hanging out with the Cimmerian. Long ago my goal was to read all of the Conan stories written by Howard and write something about each one as I go along. Unfortunately, since writing about each story requires time and effort, the project stalled a few years ago. Recently, I’ve been taken by the Conan bug again (lucky for me it wasn’t another altogether dangerous bug, yes more dangerous than Conan) and decided it was a good idea to give this another go.

Another reason to pick up this project again is that I’m looking forward to reading Conan in physical medium. The edition I’ve been reading so far is an ebook compendium of all of Howard’s Conan stories. I also have the three-volume set edited by Karl Edward Wagner. It found it randomly in my local used bookstore and, liking the covers and having always wanted to read these stories, I picked it up. I didn’t find out about how well-regarded they are by fans of Howard and Wagner until after I have purchased them. They do not collect all of the stories, mostly the later ones. I’ve got a three or four more to read as ebooks before I start reading the Wagner edited volumes. That’s extra enticement.

Short Story Sunday 21: Jo Walton and Ted Chiang

I’ve been reading stories in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 for three weeks. I’m starting to get a bit tired of them, not because of the content necessarily as I’ve enjoyed these last six stories, but of their length. The very short length of these stories has limited their scope and depth. That changes today as one of the stories is technically the length of a novelette and it has the kind of deep storytelling that I was looking for and it’s tremendous. 

“On the Wall” by Jo Walton

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)

Originally published in Strange Horizons (September 2001), edited by Mary Anne Mohanraj

This is my first time reading something by Walton but I’m already a big fan of her through her various non-fiction writing at Tor.com. I’ve been meaning to explore her body of work, but I simply seem to never get around to it. Because of that I welcomed the opportunity to get my first taste with this anthology.

Short Story Sunday 20: Gene Wolfe and Patrick O’Leary

I had a good time reading short stories last weekend so I decided to do the same again this week. I was hoping for some better stories. One of these confused me and I’m still not sure what to think of it. The other certainly delivered the goods.

“Queen” by Gene Wolfe

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)

Originally published in Realms of Fantasy (December 2001), edited by Shawna McCarthy

I haven’t read much by Wolfe, but what I have read has blown me away. The Fifth Head of Cerberus and Peace are worth your time and will certainly stay with you for weeks after finishing them. That’s the effect they had on me. I’ve read a handful of his short stories and all of them read like they’ important and worth reading, even if they often leave me questioning what actually happened. That’s standard fare for a Wolfe story.

Short Story Sunday 19: Ashok Banker, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson

I’m making a serious effort to return to blogging this year. I’ve shared a couple of projects designed to help me work through my pile of unread books and encourage me to write more at SUR. I have no specific projects outside of those which is a good thing since they’re plenty ambitious as they are. Year’s Best Fantasy 2 is included on my Currently Reading list at Goodreads which ties into one of my 2020 blogging projects. I figured a good way to break that down into bite size pieces is to revive Short Story Sunday. This originally started with a Science Fiction anthology by David G. Hartwell and I thought it would be a nice little call back to revive the series by reading a couple stories in another Hartwell anthology.

“In the Shadow of Her Wings” by Ashok Banker

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)

Originally published in Interzone (April 2001), edited by David Pringle

L’École des Robinsons (Godfrey Morgan) by Jules Verne Review

I’ve been a fan of Jules Verne since my youth. My dad has a collection of several of his works in French. It’s nearly an entire shelf of matching little red hardcovers, about the same size as mass market paperbacks. I believe it’s the entire The Extraordinary Voyages series, but I’m not entirely sure. I read a few of them between the ages 10 to 12 and enjoyed them a bunch. I’ve reread a couple as an adult and I can confirm that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea holds up. It’s one of only two Verne books in my personal collection. Itching to read another of his works I borrowed a couple of my dad’s books when I visited at Christmas. One of them is L’École des Robinsons (often titled Godfrey Morgan in English after the protagonist). As you can probably guess form the French title, it’s an island survival story in the same vein as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Having finished it recently, I can attest that some of Verne’s books are better suited for the audience of a 10 to 12 year old than to an adult.

2020 Blogging Projects #2: Unread Comics

I own a lot of books. Most of them I’ve read. Many still that I haven’t. This second year long project to help me work through my TBR shelf and to encourage me to write stuff for SUR will focus on comics.

I’ve put together a list of comics I’d like to read this year. I was going pick a number and use that as my goal. Instead, I’ve made a list of all the comics I own that I have yet to read and pick some from there. Here are the lists, sorted into four categories.

Multi Volume Series:

This list is made up of series, mostly. Not necessarily complete series or complete runs by a single creative team on a series, though many on this list will fit that description. All I mean by series for the context of this project is any comic that I own that has two or more volumes of it that are unread. Here is that list, in no particular order:

2020 Blogging Projects #1: Currently Reading List

One of my resolutions for the New Year is to start writing regularly at Shared Universe Reviews. In order to help me stay focused and to help accomplish my goals, I’ve thought up three projects. This is the first.

I have a secret shame that isn’t so secret, since it’s broadcasted on the internet. However, the internet is so full of publically shared secrets that I’m sure this particular guilt trip of mine is flying so low under the radar that I’m certainly the only one that knows about it. Yes, you guessed it, it’s my To Be Read pile of books. Specifically, the number of books I’m currently reading which easily surpasses a dozen books. As you can guess, I’m not actually reading over a dozen books with any kind of regularity. They’re mostly books that have been abandoned that I still want to finish reading (as opposed to books that have been deliberately abandoned, a rare event thought it does happen).

Horror Week 2016: The Birth of the Modern Vampire: Lord Byron, John Polidori, and The Vampyre

John Polidori.

Everyone knows the scene. On a stormy Transylvanian night lit by a full moon and serenaded by the howling of a wolf, a mysterious coach pulls up to a dilapidated castle. Timidly, the coach’s passenger makes his way to the castle door. As the door slowly creaks open, we finally see the lord of the manor—a formally dressed nobleman with regal bearing—a creepy and ironic image of a proper European aristocrat.

At which point, Count Dracula bids us welcome.

Dracula is not like other traditional monsters. His elegance and sophistication set him apart. Much like a Bond villain, Dracula could almost pass as a head of state or a captain of industry. The horror comes from our knowledge that underneath that polished exterior lurks a creature ripped out of nightmares and campfire stories. And that contrast between the outer and inner character provides the complexity that separates not only Dracula, but most modern vampires from all those more interchangeable creatures that go bump in the night.

Horror Week 2016: “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe

You don’t have to look any further than kids’ campfire stories to realize that the best scary stories are timeless. Good horror can seize you by the throat no matter how much time has passed since its inscription. Perhaps that’s why, autumn after autumn, year after year, readers return to the works of Edgar Allen Poe, a 19th century master of the macabre.

When Mario asked me to be part of this project, I knew I wanted to revisit “The Masque of the Red Death.” Even though this story was written in 1842, it continues to be hauntingly timeless, touching on the same horror themes that scare readers still today. Better yet, enough time has passed that it’s now in the public domain, and anybody can read it for free.

In 2016, it may often feel like the world is ending, and that’s a theme we visit often in contemporary fiction. I can think of at least two modern bestsellers that explore the idea of a plague that eradicates society, prompting an apocalypse: The Stand by Stephen King, and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Poe’s “Masque,” however, is one of the earliest. In this story, the Red Death’s excruciating pain is matched in terror only by its guarantee of death.

Horror Week 2016: Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Turn of the Screw is a novella penned by nineteenth century British author Henry James. Considered to be part of the literary ghost story genre, the novella was originally published serially between January and April of 1898 in Collier’s Weekly Magazine, being later compiled into a single volume the following October.

The novella provides a ghost story that is unlike many of the ghost stories being produced during the nineteenth century, which is what makes it so fascinating to me. Rather than having a purely supernatural gothic story, James’ tale creates a sense of anxiety through eerie realities. Its unnamed narrator is a young woman who is hired as governess to two children at Bly, a remote English country house belonging to the children’s family. What begins as a pleasant summer in the country soon turns  distressing and traumatic as the governess becomes convinced that the children are consorting with a pair of malevolent ghosts. The ghosts you see are of two former employees of Bly: a valet, one Peter Quint, and a previous governess, Miss Jessel. In life the two of them had been scandalously discharged for their forbidden sexual transgressions with one another, and their spectral visitations with the children hint at Satanism and possible sexual abuse. Clearly, as the governess sees it, ten-year-old Miles and eight-year-old Flora must be protected. But her attempts to protect the children from hazards that are possibly immaterial, she instead winds up traumatizing the little girl and killing the little boy. 

Horror Week 2016: “The Boogeyman” by Stephen King

While I'm not a huge horror or scary-movie fan, as in a fanatic, I did love watching the Nightmare in Elm Street series, American Werewolf in London, and a number of other movies back in the 80s and 90s. The scariest movie I've experienced was 1979's Alien. I watched that movie, ill-advisedly in hindsight, with my younger siblings back in 1985 in my basement bedroom. That night, after my siblings went upstairs to go to bed, I found myself alone in my room. I then realized what a stupid thing I had just done. Needless to say, I didn't sleep the whole night because of the sheer terror I experienced watching Alien. To this day I remember that night and how terrified I was and how impossible it was for me to sleep in the basement, alone, with the darkness in the room and just beyond my bedroom door. The slightest sound would jolt me from the bed so I ended up cowering in a corner of my room just praying for the sun to come up.

I haven't watched a proper horror movie in many, many years. As I've gotten older the genre just doesn't appeal to me anymore. The most recent "horror" movie I saw was Tucker & Dale vs Evil. It was just enough to remind me of the experiences I was missing out on -- watching horror movies -- but not too much to keep me awake at night. These days I need only to look at my bank account statements or bills, but I digress. Tucker & Dale vs Evil was a beautifully well-executed movie that is a perfect example of its genre, i.e., horror-comedy.