The Zoo over Ambuscade Street

I think I have an ear infection, which really, really sucks. And I managed to spill coffee all over my nice white sweater first thing today, which is typical. At least I managed to remember most of what I forgot yesterday (laptop, PDA, Important Thingee, rings, watch, cell phone, all notes from conference, etc).

I also realized that I really can't afford to take next week off, unless I get Really Sick, because of snow. If it snows, I won't be able to make it to work. I'm not sure I'll even be able to get to my mailbox if it snows enough. So, I need leave, you bet!

While trying to track down the other novels in Sherri Tepper's fantastic True Game series (this ain't like any first novel I've ever read, let me tell you!), I came across the following comment:

Since she's gotten to be a 'serious author' she's gotten so D----d preachy and didactic, always grinding one axe or another. Her later stuff has been a real disappointment; I can't even read it. I personally believe she's wasting her obviously great talents.

I labored through her some of her later stuff out of loyalty, but bogged down in Sideshow. (incidentally it's genetically impossible to have conjoined male and female twins.)

Yes, the great master Robert Heinlein, preached; but he got away with it by putting his sermons in the mouths of memorable characters-- admittedly all alter egos of Robert Heinlein. His sermons are art. Tepper's are merely dogmatic PC rant and cant.


Dear god almighty. Emphasis mine, of course. I think I'll leave it at that, otherwise I'm going to end up pissing a lot of people off. Although I would like to say that even Ayn Rand writes a better "sermon as art" than Heinlein, all 5,431,792 pages of them (per book).

I just started reading Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, a fabulous book based on the content of the first seven pages. The most notable thing other than the writing style are the eight full pages of glowing praise about the book - they include quotes from Notables Who Get Dani's Attention like Charles de Lint, George R.R. Martin, Joan Vinge, Guy Gavriel Kay, Gene Wolfe, and Neil Gaiman. One of the comments caught my attention in particular as I was flipping through trying to find the actual book.

It compared this book to a collaboration between Jane Austen and John M. Harrison. I haven't been able to read a page since, because my mind is busy coming up with what a comedy of manners about quantum physics that included a serial killer would be like. It isn't pretty. Mind, I worship and adore both of the above named authors, but if you were attempting to come up with a combination fit to make heads explode, that would be the one.

I fear that I'm going to have bizzare dreams tonight.

(Oh, and if anyone's looking for some new authors, Guy Gavriel Kay, John M. Harrison, Charles de Lint, and Gene Wolfe are good places to start. And I'm always happy to make specific recommendations if there's something in particular you're in the mood to read, like books about US Presidents and Time Travel. Or Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes stories. Or Republican senators being implanted with alien babies. I love my library.)

[EDIT] Ha ha! This is the first book post that Ken can make fun of that I've made in a while.