If the world ends, how will it happen? What will it look like? What is the absolute worst-case scenario, and how can we expect it to play out? Ever since the 50s, the spectre of nuclear war has hung over our civilization like the sword of Damocles, double-edged, flaming, and bathed in heaven like the …
Continue reading “Not with a whimper, but a bang… Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen”
So I’ve slowly been reading through all three hundred or so books that have been nominated for the Hugo Award, in order to figure out how I would vote for each year. It’s a useful exercise, not only for producing content for my writing blog, but for judging the evolution of science fiction and fantasy …
Continue reading “Faeries, Zombies, and Wizards: Dead Beat by Jim Butcher”
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I prefer shorter fantasy books over the enormous epic fantasies that have become so typical for the genre—and for the most part, that is still true. However, my recent experiences with Louis L’Amour are prompting me to rethink some of that, or at least to recognize that …
Continue reading “When Longer is Better: The Novels of Louis L’Amour”
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18, KJV In my last post, about C.S. Forester’s Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, I mentioned how most conservative fiction these days—or indeed, most conservatism generally—is more reactionary than visionary, really only seeking to conserve all the things that …
The most popular modern saga of the days when ships were wood and men were iron. New York Times Book Review That is, perhaps, one of the best blurbs I’ve ever read for a book, and it’s certainly fitting for the Horatio Hornblower books. These are the classics that inspired David Weber to write Honor …
About midway through the third book in the Chronicles of Amber, I came to the realization that these books are the perfect length for me. They’re about as long and as fast-paced as a typical L’Amour novel, which is to say that they’re less than 200 pages and feel like they’re less than 100. If …
Continue reading “This is why I love shorter fantasy novels: Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny”
I have to be honest: before I discovered the Chronicles of Amber, I had all but given up on Zelazny as an author. All of his stuff that I’d previously attempted to read had won a bunch of major awards, and none of it appealed to me. I honestly couldn’t see what the big deal …
Continue reading “When to give an author another chance: The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny”
One of the first pieces of writing advice that I ever recieved, right alongside “never end a story with the words ‘it was all a dream’” and “never introduce the main character by having them look at themselves in a mirror” was “never write a story where the main character has amnesia.” Which struck me …
Continue reading “An Amnesia Story Done Right: Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny”
The more I read, the more I’m convinced that the mark of a truly great writer is economy of words. This doesn’t necessarily mean that their books are shorter than others, but rather, that they say more in less. By that mark, Spencer Klavan stands above the rest. His writing is compelling and full of …
Continue reading “Have we been here before? How To Save the West by Spencer Klavan”
I have yet to read a bad Louis L’Amour book. Some of them are more forgettable than others, but they’re all at least pretty good. The best ones, though, are in a league of their own, and I think Last of the Breed may be his best work. It’s a Cold War thriller about an …
Continue reading “Man vs. Nature vs. Man in Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour”
