See

[threemonkeys]

Motivation is a bit of a struggle at the moment but in odd ways. Its as if my priorities have been altered. The upshot is that just recently I'm not writing about as many books as I would normally do. Of course, some that I read go "straight to shelf" but others are sitting there making me feel guilty. So lets try the short sharp shock treatment.

Ellen Datlow's anthology The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy certainly shows the editor's preference for stories where style and atmosphere are emphasised compared to story or character. Although a couple of the writers tried to emphasise everything and ended up with muddled work, the rest of it was top notch. But a warning to editors - re-read your opening blurb notes if you re-order the stories. You may give away an unintended hint about your editorial thinking. (Edit: or not - see comments)

Strange Itineraries by Tim Powers shows two things. That the author is much better at longer works than short stories and that the author is obviously aware of this because he does not write many of them. Or possibly cause and effect are the other way around.

The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford is an alternate history. What it showed me is that I know next to nothing about that period of English or European history - I think 15th century, but that is just a guess which shows how little I now. Even in an alternate universe that is a big drawback when trying to get into the book. Especially when that book is very plot-rich - there was a lot of re-reading to try to keep track of what was going on.

Comments

[mundens.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed The Dragon Waiting. Then again at the time, way back when it came out, I was corresponding with John Ford in the UK over his White Dwarf review column, Critical Mass, so had been lookimg forward to it.

Both of us being English, the majority of the history mentioned was taught to us from as early as primary school, so it all used to be common knowledge to English people. :) UK schools used to be much better than NZ ones. For instance, I was studying geography, history, Latin and French at ten, and it was just a common primary school, nothing fancy.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Yep - nothing before Henry VIII ever got a mention at the schools I went to and even then the Tudors only in passing as context for Shakespeare.

I found myself enjoying The Dragon Waiting more and more as I got further into it and finally got to grips with the setting (with a little help from Wikipedia).

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

...I was corresponding with John Ford in the UK over his White Dwarf review column, Critical Mass, so had been looking forward to it.

Both of us being English...

Umm, I feel slightly uncomfortable challenging your memory seeing as I don't even know you, but are you sure about that? The original 'Critical Mass' columns in White Dwarf were by Dave Langford. And I'm pretty sure John M Ford was American.

---Mark

[mundens.livejournal.com]

You're right to do so, Dave Langford definitely was the Critical Mass author, and John Ford a USAian.

I'm not sure why I made the connection in my mind, I'm thinking now maybe because I first saw The Dragon Rising reviewed in that column and it was Dave I was talking to about it.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why I made the connection in my mind

Oddly, they share a birthday (10 April) although somehow I doubt that was what you were thinking of.
---Mark

[benpayne.livejournal.com]

My favourites from the Del Ray book were those with strong characterisation; the Cadigan, the McHugh, the Ballingrud...

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

None of those were the ones I was thinking about - it was really over complex plots (for my poorly functioning brain) that did me in when trying to take in all the richness of the writing that did me in.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I think I like Strange Itineraries more than you, though I am a complete Powers fanatic. I thought there were one or two really excellent stories in it, anyway.

I enjoyed The Dragon Waiting, but it could certainly have done with a little more explanation. I think it depends quite a bit on familiarity with the standard, Shakespearean, Richard III narrative so that Fords can be contrasted with it. But I thought it could have done with more explanation generally - I have heard it described as a 400 page book that wants to be an 800 page book.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I guess if I was doing this in more detail I would have gone into more specifics about the Powers only stories being better than the Blaylock collaborations. I have Three Days to Never waiting to be read and I expect to thoroughly enjoy it as I have all his longer works.

I've never seen, let alone studied Shakespeare's Richard III - I did wonder if the book may relate to the play, but my ignorance was complete.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

It is less the specifics of Shakespeare, and more that Shakespeares play firmly set him up as the great villain of English history, from which Ford sets out to rescue him somewhat (though he does do so mostly by having some of his worst sins made necessary by the need to eliminate vampirism)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Thanks - that helps frame things. Even I knew the villain reputation. But it took me half the book to put his pre-king name/title together with that of his kingly title so that I could connect the character with the reputation.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed some of the stories.

Hmm. Not sure what you mean by this: "But a warning to editors - re-read your opening blurb notes if you re-order the stories. You may give away an unintended hint about your editorial thinking." If it's referring to my first bio (Jason Stoddard) then you just didn't read the bio carefully. If not, please do let me know. I certainly would want to know if I made an error, particularly considering the stories never re-ordered once I made the decision as to where to put them in the book.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed most of them - the quality strike rate for my tastes was very high indeed.

I don't have the book in front of me to check, but as I recall, I was just referring to "another alternate history" as part of the description of the first story. As you say, I may have misread or misremembered but that suggested to me that it had originally been later in the collection and moved forward. Not a biggie, but I was looking for something different to write about.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

That's what I guessed, after rereading Jason's bio--I was referring to his being nominated for "the Sidewise Award for Alternate History," in the paragraph before ;-)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

D'oh. *smacks forehead* Sorry about that.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Better your error than mine ;-)