Movie time
Well, despite the often annoying media profile of Tom Cruise I have to admit he was good in Mission Impossible III. With it coming from JJ Abrams, the man behind Alias and Lost, I was expecting it to be convoluted, but it was a turbo-charged romp through who-is-the-bad-guy-oh-my-god-he-killed-her-or-did-he-yes-no-eek... First half was good, second half floored the warp speed button and never eased off until the end (and it was a long movie, especially by action flick standards). It was utterly relentless and even Mel loved it, despite not being a big fan of big action flicks. Cracking fun and a good start to the summer blockbuster season - roll on X-Men 3 and Superman Returns now! I wasn't too fussed about Supes until I saw the new trailer and they played the John William's theme from Superman: the Movie and I felt the excitement stirring: dum de dee dum de dee, dum de dee dum de dee, dum de dee dum de dee... Urge to rip open shirt to reveal big S almost overwhelming. Although in my case it stands not for Superman but Sarcastic.
Actually that's three very enjoyable films I've seen recently, none of which I had very high expectations of, to be honest, and so was pleasantly surprised. Slither was a terrific romp, pure B movie horror and proud of it, referencing other B movies and horrors right, left and centre (notably the Blob, Slugs and various Romero flicks as well as Heinlein's Puppet Masters, but a lot of others too). And Firefly/Serenity/Buffy's Nathan Fillion was perfectly cast with his deadpan expression and delivery as the local sheriff of the shitkicker town under threat from a nasty alien which arrives in a meteor. Basically like the Tremors movie it was a celebration adn pastiche of the classic B movie horror.
Silent Hill was also a revelation - as a computer game to movie adaptation I wasn't even going to bother checking it out, but even some of the broadsheets not usually well-disposed to horror and SF movies rated it, so I went along. Like the games it mostly avoids out and out gore in favour of a genuinely creepy atmosphere of relentless dread and disturbing imagery (although some seemed to be influenced a lot by early Clive Barker I think). Alice (Borg Queen) Krige's mad, witch-burning pastor was a bonus, although poor old Sean Bean's father was pretty much useless character.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
R
Following on from both my mate Padraig (who covered the letter 'S') and author Hal Duncan (who covered the letter 'V') I'm going to do ten words beginning with the letter 'R' - mostly because that's what Hal bestowed upon me. I suggested 'Z' myself and got as far as Zany Zulu Zebras Zig-Zag before running out of steam, but Hal says I have to R, so here we go:
Rock: For my interest in geology and also in screaming guitars and my headbanging in a previous life at Madison's Rock Club in Edinburgh. Party on.
Roll: the foodstuff but mostly the Roll more commonly associated with the above rock. "God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you, put it in the hearts of everyone..." So I'm told anyway
Requiem: For A Dream (Pi's Aranofsky directs the luscious Jennifer Connelly in a fascinating and disturbing film); also Requiem Mass, most especiall as in Mozart's great work (even if it is likely he only fully wrote the opening pieces himself before dying, still one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever).
Roger: the homunculus, made by a medieval alchemist and discovered in Mike Mignola's superb Hellboy series in a ruined Eastern European castle. Now a major member of the BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence) and starring in the BPRD spin-off series from Hellboy, good mate of Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien. Likes statues.
Robin: Batman's sidekick who has moved from being a mere boy wonder and bit of light relief to a much more heavy duty young hero over the years (especially during the Batman War Games series which if you haven't read Bats books for a while are well worth checking out). Also a cute little bird, a representative of which landed right on my window sill the other day (luckily the cats weren't in the room or they have startled the poor thing by leaping at the (closed) window) and sat there looking gorgeous but alas flew off before I could get my camera out.
Rymer: as in James Malcolm Rymer, generally thought to be the author of one of the early popular vampire tales told via the 'penny dreadfuls', Varney the Vampyre or The Feast of Blood which ran in 109 installments from 1845 to 1847, causing many a young maiden to swoon (or that may have been the tight corsets).
Rhyme: poetry. Epic poetry from the Classical period to modern poetry from the incomparable Edwin Morgan. Prose tells us wonderful stories and describes all sorts of scenarios and characters to us; poetry can do this but mostly it plugs directly into our emotions, articulating something we can't quite find the words for but understand on a deep level. At its best poetry is an alchemy of words. A world without rhyme and poetry would be a soulless world.
Ruthven: the main character of Dr John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819). Polidori was the personal physician to my fellow Clan Gordon member Lord Byron and is thought to be based on the fragment of a vampiric poem Byron began on that stormy storytelling night at the Villa Diodati which also gave birth to Frankenstein. After falling out with Byron, Polidori created one of the first major vampire novels in English and set the model for the aristocratic vampire which would culminate in Dracula decades later and is thought to be based on Byron's persona as a public revenge. When first published many assumed it had actually been written by Byron, which didn't improve Polidori's view of him. Tom Holland worked both Byron and Polidori into a quite excellent Gothic horror novel, The Vampyre back in the 90s.
Rice: a staple foodstuff of a large portion of the world population. Also Anne Rice; now before you all start laughing, yes, I don't read her anymore (certainly won't be reading the books she is writing for the Lord now) because her novels became increasingly repetitive and dreadfully overblown and in need of one of those editors she so famously attacked recently. But the original Interview With the Vampire, way back in the mid 70s, is still a superbly lush, erotic novel of vampirism and the cost of immortality. It may seem ordinary or even cliched today, but that is because it inspired and influenced so many later vampire works in much the way Stoker's Dracula did back in 1897. And the tragic character of Claudia the child vampire is one that haunts readers long afterwards.
Revelation Space: Alastair Reynolds' first big space opera published in the UK which introduced a major new SF writer who has gone on to be nominated repeatedly for awards such as the BSFA and Arthur C Clarke. Latest book is Pushing Ice.
Anyone else want a go? Who wants the letter 'P' then? Or if anyone wants to take up the 'Z' gauntlet go ahead.
Following on from both my mate Padraig (who covered the letter 'S') and author Hal Duncan (who covered the letter 'V') I'm going to do ten words beginning with the letter 'R' - mostly because that's what Hal bestowed upon me. I suggested 'Z' myself and got as far as Zany Zulu Zebras Zig-Zag before running out of steam, but Hal says I have to R, so here we go:
Rock: For my interest in geology and also in screaming guitars and my headbanging in a previous life at Madison's Rock Club in Edinburgh. Party on.
Roll: the foodstuff but mostly the Roll more commonly associated with the above rock. "God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you, put it in the hearts of everyone..." So I'm told anyway
Requiem: For A Dream (Pi's Aranofsky directs the luscious Jennifer Connelly in a fascinating and disturbing film); also Requiem Mass, most especiall as in Mozart's great work (even if it is likely he only fully wrote the opening pieces himself before dying, still one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever).
Roger: the homunculus, made by a medieval alchemist and discovered in Mike Mignola's superb Hellboy series in a ruined Eastern European castle. Now a major member of the BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence) and starring in the BPRD spin-off series from Hellboy, good mate of Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien. Likes statues.
Robin: Batman's sidekick who has moved from being a mere boy wonder and bit of light relief to a much more heavy duty young hero over the years (especially during the Batman War Games series which if you haven't read Bats books for a while are well worth checking out). Also a cute little bird, a representative of which landed right on my window sill the other day (luckily the cats weren't in the room or they have startled the poor thing by leaping at the (closed) window) and sat there looking gorgeous but alas flew off before I could get my camera out.
Rymer: as in James Malcolm Rymer, generally thought to be the author of one of the early popular vampire tales told via the 'penny dreadfuls', Varney the Vampyre or The Feast of Blood which ran in 109 installments from 1845 to 1847, causing many a young maiden to swoon (or that may have been the tight corsets).
Rhyme: poetry. Epic poetry from the Classical period to modern poetry from the incomparable Edwin Morgan. Prose tells us wonderful stories and describes all sorts of scenarios and characters to us; poetry can do this but mostly it plugs directly into our emotions, articulating something we can't quite find the words for but understand on a deep level. At its best poetry is an alchemy of words. A world without rhyme and poetry would be a soulless world.
Ruthven: the main character of Dr John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819). Polidori was the personal physician to my fellow Clan Gordon member Lord Byron and is thought to be based on the fragment of a vampiric poem Byron began on that stormy storytelling night at the Villa Diodati which also gave birth to Frankenstein. After falling out with Byron, Polidori created one of the first major vampire novels in English and set the model for the aristocratic vampire which would culminate in Dracula decades later and is thought to be based on Byron's persona as a public revenge. When first published many assumed it had actually been written by Byron, which didn't improve Polidori's view of him. Tom Holland worked both Byron and Polidori into a quite excellent Gothic horror novel, The Vampyre back in the 90s.
Rice: a staple foodstuff of a large portion of the world population. Also Anne Rice; now before you all start laughing, yes, I don't read her anymore (certainly won't be reading the books she is writing for the Lord now) because her novels became increasingly repetitive and dreadfully overblown and in need of one of those editors she so famously attacked recently. But the original Interview With the Vampire, way back in the mid 70s, is still a superbly lush, erotic novel of vampirism and the cost of immortality. It may seem ordinary or even cliched today, but that is because it inspired and influenced so many later vampire works in much the way Stoker's Dracula did back in 1897. And the tragic character of Claudia the child vampire is one that haunts readers long afterwards.
Revelation Space: Alastair Reynolds' first big space opera published in the UK which introduced a major new SF writer who has gone on to be nominated repeatedly for awards such as the BSFA and Arthur C Clarke. Latest book is Pushing Ice.
Anyone else want a go? Who wants the letter 'P' then? Or if anyone wants to take up the 'Z' gauntlet go ahead.
Something Awful
It is the weekend and time for something more enjoyable: Somethin Awful's latest photoshop special saw folk reworking old comics covers into something somewhat different (warning: not suitable for children, the easily offended or stupid people) .
that one was especially for Lili :-)
And still on the comics-piss take theme, they have a good skit based around Commissionaer Gordon getting excited over his new direct line to Batman.
It is the weekend and time for something more enjoyable: Somethin Awful's latest photoshop special saw folk reworking old comics covers into something somewhat different (warning: not suitable for children, the easily offended or stupid people) .
that one was especially for Lili :-)
And still on the comics-piss take theme, they have a good skit based around Commissionaer Gordon getting excited over his new direct line to Batman.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
A certain bookstore online
A certain bookchain, the one we don't like to mention round here anymore, was in the Financial Times today where it announced that W**terstone's were breaking away from their relationship with Amazon and launching their own webstore. Actually this is incorrect - they aren't launching their own webstore, they are re-launching; they had a very good webstore before some idiot axed it and decided to basically have an Amazon store with the 'W' brand over it (with Amazon taking a cut), although perhaps that homogenous look was well suited to how the business was then going. The original webstore was quite good and even had features such as a cool SF&F mag - I used to contribute a large number of reviews to it every month as did other expert booksellers, but some head honcho decided to basically cut a deal with Amazon, because obviously that is how you get ahead in business, by handing some to your rival... Duhhhh.
I wonder how many sales were lost over the years due to that foolish decision, how much it eroded the company's brand online and how much money and time will now need to be expended to get back to where they were several years before some numpty made that stupid mistake (somehow I'm guessing the folks who made that decision retained their jobs unlike me and their huge 'performance-related' salaries they were paid for making them - you all know performance related, its what the big cheeses at large companies use as justification when they double their salary but pay the workers some measely 2 or 3% rise).
However silly the whole mess is, it isn't really my concern anymore of course, but oh how could I resist the rest of the FT article which said:
"The new website will embrace employee blogging, a dramatic reversal for the company that emerged last year as the first British company to sack an employee for blogging.
Oh, mighty Mr Giles, how you wound my poor, tender feelings to the quick! Seriously, a point of information for Alan G (who did award himself a doubled salary one year when I worked there while staff were told the low rise in their already poor wages were the best they could expect. Yes, I remember that Alan - you said it was performance related, but how many books did you sell that year? I sold a lot and so did my colleagues in the stores but we didn't get a huge increase): for starters, I am not surprised you are no rehiring me, although in the interests of accuracy I have to point out that after the successful appeal against the disgraceful way I was treated last year W**erstone's did actually offer me my job back, but I declined it as I had been offered a better one by FPI.
Secondly if you hadn't been so nasty to me you'd find that someone with my book knowledge, blogging and online experience, interviewing and reviewing history and book knowledge and contacts would be perfect for helping to set up a books online business, but too late, I'm enjoying building business elsewhere - and adding features, interviews, reviews, news, previews and other interesting features to that site as well (in fact I added a fascinating piece by an author just this afternoon and one from a terrific cartoonist the other day).
It is nice to see you have learned at least a little though and are embracing blogging (although I wonder what form it will take), shame it is a year and a half after I left and set up a cool blog for a much hipper company. And a podcast too. So glad you realise I am an example worth emulating, shame you were unable to realise what you had at the time - to think you had a resource in your company that had a grasp of online functionality, blogs and a huge knowledge of books and the ability to communicate that to readers and you threw it away (in a fashion that hardly helped the company's image) - does make you wonder why that performance related pay went up rather than down - well, if you were a cynical person, which we all know I'm not :-)
A certain bookchain, the one we don't like to mention round here anymore, was in the Financial Times today where it announced that W**terstone's were breaking away from their relationship with Amazon and launching their own webstore. Actually this is incorrect - they aren't launching their own webstore, they are re-launching; they had a very good webstore before some idiot axed it and decided to basically have an Amazon store with the 'W' brand over it (with Amazon taking a cut), although perhaps that homogenous look was well suited to how the business was then going. The original webstore was quite good and even had features such as a cool SF&F mag - I used to contribute a large number of reviews to it every month as did other expert booksellers, but some head honcho decided to basically cut a deal with Amazon, because obviously that is how you get ahead in business, by handing some to your rival... Duhhhh.
I wonder how many sales were lost over the years due to that foolish decision, how much it eroded the company's brand online and how much money and time will now need to be expended to get back to where they were several years before some numpty made that stupid mistake (somehow I'm guessing the folks who made that decision retained their jobs unlike me and their huge 'performance-related' salaries they were paid for making them - you all know performance related, its what the big cheeses at large companies use as justification when they double their salary but pay the workers some measely 2 or 3% rise).
However silly the whole mess is, it isn't really my concern anymore of course, but oh how could I resist the rest of the FT article which said:
"The new website will embrace employee blogging, a dramatic reversal for the company that emerged last year as the first British company to sack an employee for blogging.
Joe Gordon, 37, who worked for Waterstone's in Edinburgh for 11 years, was dismissed for personal commentary regarding his day-to-day life at the bookstore on his blog.
However, Mr Giles said HMV's new digital approach would not extend to rehiring Mr Gordon."
Oh, mighty Mr Giles, how you wound my poor, tender feelings to the quick! Seriously, a point of information for Alan G (who did award himself a doubled salary one year when I worked there while staff were told the low rise in their already poor wages were the best they could expect. Yes, I remember that Alan - you said it was performance related, but how many books did you sell that year? I sold a lot and so did my colleagues in the stores but we didn't get a huge increase): for starters, I am not surprised you are no rehiring me, although in the interests of accuracy I have to point out that after the successful appeal against the disgraceful way I was treated last year W**erstone's did actually offer me my job back, but I declined it as I had been offered a better one by FPI.
Secondly if you hadn't been so nasty to me you'd find that someone with my book knowledge, blogging and online experience, interviewing and reviewing history and book knowledge and contacts would be perfect for helping to set up a books online business, but too late, I'm enjoying building business elsewhere - and adding features, interviews, reviews, news, previews and other interesting features to that site as well (in fact I added a fascinating piece by an author just this afternoon and one from a terrific cartoonist the other day).
It is nice to see you have learned at least a little though and are embracing blogging (although I wonder what form it will take), shame it is a year and a half after I left and set up a cool blog for a much hipper company. And a podcast too. So glad you realise I am an example worth emulating, shame you were unable to realise what you had at the time - to think you had a resource in your company that had a grasp of online functionality, blogs and a huge knowledge of books and the ability to communicate that to readers and you threw it away (in a fashion that hardly helped the company's image) - does make you wonder why that performance related pay went up rather than down - well, if you were a cynical person, which we all know I'm not :-)
Monday, May 8, 2006
Podcast
My web-colleagues and I at work have been toying with the idea of adding to the new-look FPI blog with a podcast recently and after listening to my mate Chris in Michigan's regular comics podcast at the Collected Comics Library we thought, let's have a bash. It is pretty short and only features my colleague Paul (he of Jet City Rednecks fame) and myself, but we thought it was worth posting up for a start to try out the idea. Paul is our RPG fiend at Forbidden Planet and talks about some upcoming new gaming systems while I talk about, yup, you guessed it, books and graphic novels it's now up here.
I'm now going through that almost instinctive shudder most of us get when we hear our own voice being played back - in my head I think ohhh, that was good, sounds like Frasier Crane mixed with a Scottish Cary Grant. Then I hear it and think oh there's a big dump of Rab C Nesbit in there... But I think most of us hate hearing our own voices played back. Except politicians of course.
My web-colleagues and I at work have been toying with the idea of adding to the new-look FPI blog with a podcast recently and after listening to my mate Chris in Michigan's regular comics podcast at the Collected Comics Library we thought, let's have a bash. It is pretty short and only features my colleague Paul (he of Jet City Rednecks fame) and myself, but we thought it was worth posting up for a start to try out the idea. Paul is our RPG fiend at Forbidden Planet and talks about some upcoming new gaming systems while I talk about, yup, you guessed it, books and graphic novels it's now up here.
I'm now going through that almost instinctive shudder most of us get when we hear our own voice being played back - in my head I think ohhh, that was good, sounds like Frasier Crane mixed with a Scottish Cary Grant. Then I hear it and think oh there's a big dump of Rab C Nesbit in there... But I think most of us hate hearing our own voices played back. Except politicians of course.
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Book lists - Best Time Travel Novels
Inspired by the list (below) that Jeff started off (and some others he has been running recently, such as heroic fiction) I thought I'd take a stab at doing some of my own on a smaller scale. I thought since Doctor Who and Life on Mars have been making me think about the nature of time again I'd start with a list of some of the best books dealing with time travel and I'd very much like folks to suggest other titles they think should go on the list, so these first ones are only a beginning, please do send in ideas.
Basic rule is that any book nominated must contain some method of actual time travel, be it by science, mental powers, magic, accident etc, or temporal exploration/manipulation (as in Clarke and Baxter's Light of Other Days for example) or folks from one period mysteriously given a new life in another (as in Things Unborn) so, regrettably something like Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon or Ken MacLeod's The Sky Ship which have related narratives running in two different time periods would not count because there is no travel between those periods. As with Jeff's list it is open to any work which meets that criteria, regardless of whether most folk consider it to be 'SF' or not, as long as you consider it to be a good read worth recommending (because of the quality of writing or even just because of the imaginative ideas); if you have one you are not sure about then send it in anyway along with why you think it belongs on the list.
So the opening (short) list, which will hopefully grow (in no special order):
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter
The Light of Other Days, Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter
The Stainless Stee Rat Saves the World, Harry Harrison
The Technicolour Time Machine, Harry Harrison
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain
Behold the Man, Michael Moorcock
Time and Again, Jack Finney
Bring the Jubilee, Ward Moore
Timescape, Gregory Benford
Things Unborn, Eugene Byrne
Kindred, Octavia Butler
The Time Traveller's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Beauty, Sherri S Tepper
The End of Eternity, Isaac Asimov
Time Enough For Love, Robert Heinlein
The Books of Magic, Neil Gaiman et al
The Guns of the South, Harry Turtledove
Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
Inspired by the list (below) that Jeff started off (and some others he has been running recently, such as heroic fiction) I thought I'd take a stab at doing some of my own on a smaller scale. I thought since Doctor Who and Life on Mars have been making me think about the nature of time again I'd start with a list of some of the best books dealing with time travel and I'd very much like folks to suggest other titles they think should go on the list, so these first ones are only a beginning, please do send in ideas.
Basic rule is that any book nominated must contain some method of actual time travel, be it by science, mental powers, magic, accident etc, or temporal exploration/manipulation (as in Clarke and Baxter's Light of Other Days for example) or folks from one period mysteriously given a new life in another (as in Things Unborn) so, regrettably something like Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon or Ken MacLeod's The Sky Ship which have related narratives running in two different time periods would not count because there is no travel between those periods. As with Jeff's list it is open to any work which meets that criteria, regardless of whether most folk consider it to be 'SF' or not, as long as you consider it to be a good read worth recommending (because of the quality of writing or even just because of the imaginative ideas); if you have one you are not sure about then send it in anyway along with why you think it belongs on the list.
So the opening (short) list, which will hopefully grow (in no special order):
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter
The Light of Other Days, Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter
The Stainless Stee Rat Saves the World, Harry Harrison
The Technicolour Time Machine, Harry Harrison
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain
Behold the Man, Michael Moorcock
Time and Again, Jack Finney
Bring the Jubilee, Ward Moore
Timescape, Gregory Benford
Things Unborn, Eugene Byrne
Kindred, Octavia Butler
The Time Traveller's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Beauty, Sherri S Tepper
The End of Eternity, Isaac Asimov
Time Enough For Love, Robert Heinlein
The Books of Magic, Neil Gaiman et al
The Guns of the South, Harry Turtledove
Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
Essential fantasy list a la VanderMeer
A friend and one of my favourite writers, Jeff VanderMeer, has been adding to his already considerable workload by playing the old list game. He has a long list of Essential Fantasy works up, which is diverse and eclectic in content and has been attracting plenty of comments and suggestions. The list as he posted it at the moment stands as :
1. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
2. The Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake
3. Lanark, Alasdair Gray
4. Jerusalem Poker, Edward Whittemore
5. The Chess Garden, Brooks Hansen
6. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, Angela Carter
7. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
8. Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
9. Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter
10. Observatory Mansions, Edward Carey
11. Possession, A.S. Byatt
12. In Viriconium, M. John Harrison
13. Arc d'X, Steve Erickson
14. V, Thomas Pynchon
15. Sinai Tapestry, Edward Whittemore
16. Quin’s Shanghai Circus, Edward Whittemore
17. If Upon a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino
18. Collected Stories, Franz Kafka
19. The Master & Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
20. Mother London, Michael Moorcock
21. The Collected Stories, J.G. Ballard
22. A Fine and Private Place, Peter S. Beagle
23. The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
24. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
25. The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica, John Calvin Bachelor
26. House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski
27. The Riddle Master trilogy, Patricia McKillip
28. The Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino
29. The Other Side, Alfred Kubin
30. The Circus of Doctor Lao, Charles Finney
31. A Voyage to Arcturus, David Lindsay
32. The Circus of the Earth & the Air, Brooke Stevens
33. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
34. Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavic
35. At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brian
36. The Troika, Stepan Chapman
37. The Fan-maker’s Inquisition, Rikki Ducornet
38. Solomon Gursky Was Here, Mordechai Richler
39. Darconville's Cat, Alexander Theroux
40. Don Quixote, Cervantes
41. Poor Things, Alasdair Gray
42. Geek Love, Katherine Dunn
43. The Land of Laughs, Jonathan Carroll
44. The Wizard of Earthsea trilogy, Ursula K. LeGuin
45. The House on the Borderland, William Hope Hodgson
46. Little Big, John Crowley
47. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
48. The General in His Labyrinth, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
49. The Seven Who Fled, Frederick Prokosch
50. Already Dead, Denis Johnson
51. The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, Jeffrey Ford
52. Phosphor in Dreamland, Rikki Ducornet
53. The Passion of New Eve, Angela Carter
54. Views From the Oldest House, Richard Grant
55. Life During Wartime, Lucius Shepard
56. The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, Barry Hughart
57. The Famished Road, Ben Okri
58. Altmann’s Tongue, Brian Evenson
59. Girl Imagined by Chance, Lance Olsen
60. The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant & Other Stories, Jeffrey Ford
There are some brilliant writers in there, not all of whom some people would classify as fantasy (I've had several arguments over the years when I tell folk Alasdair Gray's Lanark is a work of fantasy for example), but a a list to spark off ideas for future reading I'd commend it to anyone. Comment or suggest others to Jeff and if you are interested in books then you should visit Jeff's site from time to time because not only is he an incredibly gifted writer he spends his time helping to promote good writing with author interviews, reviews and masterclasses. And you should be reading his work as well - even if you are not generally a fantasy fan you will find something to admire in them, with City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek both reminiscent of some of the finest authors such as Kafka and Borges. And looking over this list I have read only about a third of them - and I'm not poorly-read by any stretch of the imagination. So many good books demanding to be read...
A friend and one of my favourite writers, Jeff VanderMeer, has been adding to his already considerable workload by playing the old list game. He has a long list of Essential Fantasy works up, which is diverse and eclectic in content and has been attracting plenty of comments and suggestions. The list as he posted it at the moment stands as :
1. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
2. The Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake
3. Lanark, Alasdair Gray
4. Jerusalem Poker, Edward Whittemore
5. The Chess Garden, Brooks Hansen
6. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, Angela Carter
7. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
8. Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
9. Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter
10. Observatory Mansions, Edward Carey
11. Possession, A.S. Byatt
12. In Viriconium, M. John Harrison
13. Arc d'X, Steve Erickson
14. V, Thomas Pynchon
15. Sinai Tapestry, Edward Whittemore
16. Quin’s Shanghai Circus, Edward Whittemore
17. If Upon a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino
18. Collected Stories, Franz Kafka
19. The Master & Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
20. Mother London, Michael Moorcock
21. The Collected Stories, J.G. Ballard
22. A Fine and Private Place, Peter S. Beagle
23. The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
24. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
25. The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica, John Calvin Bachelor
26. House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski
27. The Riddle Master trilogy, Patricia McKillip
28. The Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino
29. The Other Side, Alfred Kubin
30. The Circus of Doctor Lao, Charles Finney
31. A Voyage to Arcturus, David Lindsay
32. The Circus of the Earth & the Air, Brooke Stevens
33. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
34. Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavic
35. At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brian
36. The Troika, Stepan Chapman
37. The Fan-maker’s Inquisition, Rikki Ducornet
38. Solomon Gursky Was Here, Mordechai Richler
39. Darconville's Cat, Alexander Theroux
40. Don Quixote, Cervantes
41. Poor Things, Alasdair Gray
42. Geek Love, Katherine Dunn
43. The Land of Laughs, Jonathan Carroll
44. The Wizard of Earthsea trilogy, Ursula K. LeGuin
45. The House on the Borderland, William Hope Hodgson
46. Little Big, John Crowley
47. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
48. The General in His Labyrinth, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
49. The Seven Who Fled, Frederick Prokosch
50. Already Dead, Denis Johnson
51. The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, Jeffrey Ford
52. Phosphor in Dreamland, Rikki Ducornet
53. The Passion of New Eve, Angela Carter
54. Views From the Oldest House, Richard Grant
55. Life During Wartime, Lucius Shepard
56. The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, Barry Hughart
57. The Famished Road, Ben Okri
58. Altmann’s Tongue, Brian Evenson
59. Girl Imagined by Chance, Lance Olsen
60. The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant & Other Stories, Jeffrey Ford
There are some brilliant writers in there, not all of whom some people would classify as fantasy (I've had several arguments over the years when I tell folk Alasdair Gray's Lanark is a work of fantasy for example), but a a list to spark off ideas for future reading I'd commend it to anyone. Comment or suggest others to Jeff and if you are interested in books then you should visit Jeff's site from time to time because not only is he an incredibly gifted writer he spends his time helping to promote good writing with author interviews, reviews and masterclasses. And you should be reading his work as well - even if you are not generally a fantasy fan you will find something to admire in them, with City of Saints and Madmen and Shriek both reminiscent of some of the finest authors such as Kafka and Borges. And looking over this list I have read only about a third of them - and I'm not poorly-read by any stretch of the imagination. So many good books demanding to be read...
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