handslive

A collection of three "stories" (novels?).  I don't know if it's the translation or the author, but the writing is very sparse.  The first story feels a little rough in that respect, but it grew on me and by the end I was really enjoying it.  Relatively similar approach to plot in each story, but he still got me with the last one.

The similarities with the movie are interesting and the differences even more so.

I'm sorry it took me so long to pick up this book.  purplejavatroll  kept it in the house, I think, to make sure I actually got around to reading it.  We can give it back to puppytown  now and I thank her for her patience.  It didn't feel like the book ever misstepped.  The images I have in my head from this book have been combining with images from The Devil's Backbone in the most intriguing ways.

This was in a collection of Alan Garner books (one volume called The Garner Omnibus).  Interesting take on the "kids enter a fantasy world" adventure.  If anything, the depiction of post WW2 suburb life outside London is even weirder than the fantasy elements.  And, I think, it offers a reminder of how little we understand of the electric appliances we use, how the power gets to them, or what it does after it arrives.  An updated version of this, with slightly more realistic adults, would be a creepy little story.

And then we stopped by Greenwoods and bought the latest LMB.  And I went and read it straight away.  Heh.  So, fine, where's the next one?

Man, I'm behind again on tracking what I've read.  There was some good stuff in this issue.  Next post, please.

This issue presented three stories by different authors based around an idea provided by Harlan Ellison (who apparently insisted on his own EULA before putting the idea out there).  Those were interesting and completely different takes on the idea, which was good.  There's another John Morressy story (not a Kedrigen story, but still good) from the backlog of his stuff that had been accepted but not published.  Most interesting thing was the excerpts from letters between Ursula Le Guin and James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon).  Lucius Shepard also provides a review of the second movie following Night Watch.  Kind of a mixed review, but it had this interesting line:

"It's as if Dostoyevsky, Marilyn Manson, and Roger Corman were collaborating behind the scenes."

Ouch.  My brain. :-)

Some time back, we picked up 9tail Fox and realized that we were missing a book from the set.  I finally broke down and ordered Felaheen since it seemed Greenwoods was never going to have a copy of it on the shelf.

I really liked the other two books in this series and this one was also very good.  He's got great use of language and his alternate history has produced a very interesting world.  The best part is I can go ahead and read the next one now.

If I need more reasons why I shouldn't always believe a review, this book would be one of them.  The review I'd read decribed this as (paraphrasing here) adequate.  But adequate for LMB is a lot of fun.

To give you an idea how behind I am with my book list, this was the book I read at Berg Lake.

Another Gaunt and Bone story by Chris Willrich.  Haven't seen one in far too long.  Another Albert E. Cowdrey story in New Orleans.

Started this one on the camping trip, got side tracked, and just finished it.

In the book review column, James Sallis writes about River of Gods by Ian McDonald.  On that basis, I think I should seek this book out.  The quotes from the book are, um, tantalizing.

Really great story by Ysabeau S. Wilce called The Lineaments of Gratified Desire.  The editor's notes say they've published an earlier story with the same characters in Feb 2004.  Hmmm, must have missed it.  I'm sure I'd have remembered a little girl named Tiny Doom and her companion Pig.