Learned today that Ken MacLeod’s novella, The Human Front will appear as a paperback on April 1st. The book includes an interview with MacLeod, as well as two essays on his social philosophy. I’m not sure if the interview and essays appeared in his collection from NESFA, Giant Lizards from Another Star, but the novella is there, as well as poems and other stories, essays and much more.
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It’s amazing how scholars are unearthing long lost literary items. In this case it’s 50 poems by Rudyard Kipling (colonial apologist, natch), found while renovating a Manhattan house and elsewhere.
Kipling, like many humans, had his flaws, opinions that changed over time. Once pro-war, he turned bitterly anti-war after the death of his son in 1915.
“His texts have never properly been studied but things are starting to change,” said Pinney. “There is a treasure trove of uncollected, unpublished and unidentified work out there. I discovered another unrecorded item only recently and that sort of thing will keep happening. It is a tremendously exciting time for scholars and for fans of Kipling.”
A three volume edition of his poems is due to appear in March, the first ever complete edition of his verse.
From NPR, a review of Ariel Djanikian’s debut novel, The Office of Mercy, published on February 21 2013.
The government in question here is America-Five, one of a series of heavily guarded, technologically advanced communities that were founded after a worldwide disaster essentially destroyed most of civilization. America-Five is an attempt at a utopia; its scientists are at work on making humans immortal, and its citizens have only occasional attacks from tribes of people from “the Outside” to fear.
The young Natasha is assigned to work in the Office of Mercy, which is in charge of killing all the Outsiders it can find. Like everyone in America-Five, she’s been taught this is a necessary act of kindness. But when she’s sent Outside on a mission, she meets members of the Pine tribe, and starts to question the humanity of the government’s constant “sweeps.”
Amazon’s description has this fascinating paragraph:
The Office of Mercy is speculative fiction at its best with a deeply imagined, lush world, high-stakes adventure, and romance that will thrill fans of Suzanne Collins, Margaret Atwood, Justin Cronin, and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Zeuglodon is James P. Blaylock’s sort of indirect sequel to his 1984 novel, The Digging Leviathan, published by Subterranean Press in a limited and trade edition. The book is sold out, but if readers are lucky a trade/paperback publisher will pick up the book as a young adult novel and gain Blaylock the audience that the book deserves.
Zeuglodon follows the rich tradition of books by writers like Enid Blyton and her Famous Five books, Arthur Ransome‘s Swallows and Amazons novels, and other tales about kids who experience adventure, not to mention the various books that Blaylock acknowledges ih his brief preface. While The Digging Leviathan included a pair of teenagers in the supporting cast, that book focused mainly on the adult perspective. The narrator in Zeuglodon is young Kathleen Perkins, or Perkins as she generally is called in the book. Though nearly 12 years old, she seems wise for her years, and considers herself a cryptozoologist. Her cousins, Brendan and Perry (though very likely a coincidence, the names threw me for a loop as I kept thinking of the Dead Can Dance co-founder Brendan Perry throughout the novel), are a year younger and older, respectively.
Officially parent-less, they live with an uncle (Hedgepeth) who provides them with a unique education and lets them roam more or less freely. This benign neglect raises the ire of their busybody Aunt Ricketts, who believes children should attend school and not run around cliffs and beaches. She hires a certain Ms. Peckworthy, a “member of a very troublesome do-gooder society” to try to prove that the dangerous actions of the children makes their uncle an unquitable guardian, and thus they can be taken away and “raised properly.” At the same time they run into another person with strange intentions, whom they nickname Lord Wheyface the Creeper, or just “the Creeper” from his appearance. The Creeper is after something that their uncle takes care of, artifacts owned by Basil Peach and the Peach family, who featured in The DIgging Leviathan. Hedgepeth and his friends deduce that behind the Creeper stands Dr. Hilario Frosticos, the nemesis in The Digging Leviathan, who seems like a modern echo of Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, noted antagonist of Blaylock’s many Langdon St. Ives stories.
With the added ingredients of Ms. Peckworthy and the Creeper, the lives of the three kids and their uncle spins and accelerates toward something new. Toss in the arrival of Lala Peach, the young daughter of Basil Peach, and the adventure shifts from a sea-side California town to the Lake District in the UK, a confrontation with Frosticos, and the dreamworld of the Peach family that become all to real for those who visit it. Hedgepeth and crew assist valiantly, but the kids form the core of this novel.
Subtitled “The True Adventures of Kathleen Perkins, Cryptozoologist”, Blaylock’s novel hits the perfect tune as a young adult adventure. There’s no magic or boarding school hijinks, although there is magic in Blaylock’s words and wonderful narrative tone and humor. A mainstream paperback publisher needs to pick up this book and get more copies into the hands of young readers. That said, Zeuglodon is a book anyone can enjoy, and the 200 odd pages whizzed past almost too quickly. Hopefully there will be more tales from Ms. Perkins and her crew.
How much of Truman Capote’s non-fiction classic, In Cold Blood, is not true? A recent Wall Street Journal article brings to light material that contradicts certain aspects of the story in terms of the timeline.
Recently several classic works of non-fiction have been exposed as containing small or very large amounts of fiction. First, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley was examined with a critical investigative eye and found to contain vastly fictionalized accounts. The recent re-publication acknowledge this, and the book really ca be seen more as a work of fiction. Then, recently an investigation into the famous Kitty Genovese slaying in New York uncovered potential errors. This time the published made no changes or disclaimers. There are other similar incidents of non-fiction accounts later debunked, but few as memorable as these.
If the Kansas material become available to scholars, will it result in changes to future editions of In Cold Blood, possibly a mention in an introduction? The book is compellingly written, a masterpiece in prose and style. The movie, stark and brutal. The story? Maybe not exactly 100% true. The truth is, every work of non-fiction contains choices made for dramatic reasons. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but sometimes the narrative doesn’t always flow as quickly and smoothly downhill as the writer wants, and small or big changes are made. In Steinbeck’s case no one questioned his story, possibly because he was driving solo across the country and no one bothered to verify his facts. In Capote’s case, other motives were at play. And the Kitty Genovese story made for powerful copy about callous New Yorkers, emblematic of the cold city.
One of the few female pulp writers (at least to gain great attention and acclaim), C. L. Moore wrote stories for Weird Tales and Astounding Science Fiction. She wrote classic stories about characters like Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith. Kirkus Reviews has a nice write-up of Moore’s life and fiction. After the death of her husband and collaborator Henry Kuttner, she switched to writing for Tv in the late 1950s, and then stopped writing altogether after her second marriage. She remained active in the sf community, but sadly her fiction is mainly out of print.
Gen LaGreca’s second book, a novel of the Old South, just published. Entitled The Dream of Daring, looks to be about technology, slavery, and power.
Awesome news for literarists: the British Library has digitized old manuscripts like Beowulf and others. While not every net reader will flock to add this to their Kindle, having that text available may spur interest in learning to read olde English.
There is now an interactive app for the iPad with detailed maps and information of Ankh-Morpork. At $13.99 it’s a fair bargain, considering print maps sold for around that price.
Received Tim Powers latest book, a novella called Salvage and Demolition. Read it almost in one sitting. All too brief, so brilliant and memorable. Not sure of Powers’ latest novel project, but years usually pass between his novels, and he just released one late last year. Hopefully we’ll get some stories more often.
