Wednesday Bookish Links

I was delighted to find out this week that Emma Bull is writing a sequel to Territory (you might recall I was pretty excited about that one), tentatively titled Claim.

Of course, in the interim, I can always get a hit of Shadow Unit. (I think I might have mentioned that once or twice, possibly.)

I have made no secret of my respect for the works of Eddie Campbell. I’m just as shocked as the guys at Forbidden Planet that he can’t find a publisher for his latest work.

Personally I am deep in anticipation of Eddie’s previous book, which is just about to come out.

And having those giant omnibi come out won’t hurt either.

Amazon is apparently getting all Wal*Mart with the publishers–as witness this NYT story about them banishing certain publishers who got uppity about discount levels from direct sales. Seriously, how much profit does a company need?

I’m a sucker for some of the pulp era stuff, when it sees decent recollection. I’ve just added Haffner Press to my small-presses-to-watch list, for instance, based on the volumes they’ve done to put Edmond Hamilton back into print.

(Yes, it is possible to like both Gene Wolfe and E. E. Smith. Why do you ask?)

Every now and then I give in and do one of those web quizes–it’s especially easy to get me to do this if there’s any kind of literary angle. So, of course, I caved and did the Winnie The Pooh character test. The results I got were disturbingly accurate, though. As were Trish’s. Here’s what it said about me:

You are a positive and confident person. You feel capable of dealing with anything and everything, and funnily enough, you usually ARE. You don’t worry about much, and you love to go out and find new adventures.

Your friends and family might sometimes be a little exasperated by your boundless enthusiasm. You don’t like to admit your mistakes, and when you find yourself in over you head, you tend to bluff your way out of things. You would be surprised, however, at how happy the people around you would be if you would actually admit to a mistake. It would make you seem more human, somehow.

I don’t need to say which character that is, do I?

Does this mean I will finally get the book soon? I’m really, really, ready.

Did I mention that I recently bought the Centipede Press edition of Gene Wolfe‘s The Shadow Of The Torturer?

It’s a bit pricey, and to be honest I was almost hoping the edition wouldn’t seem worth the price, if only to avoid having to shell out five more times for the subsequent volumes of The Book Of The New Sun.

No such luck. The edition is absolutely lovely, with brilliant illustration by Alexander Preuss, and it’s friggin’ huge as well. (And there are few books as deserving of a treatment this lavish.)

Not only was it so lovely that I’m going to have to buy the rest of the volumes, it’s nice enough that I’ve basically lost the ability to resist some of their other publications. Next time I go to Boston I’m going to get a copy of their Algernon Blackwood collection.

I recently read The Dragon’s Nine Sons by Chris Roberson, and quite enjoyed it. I made a mental note to track down the other Celestial Empire stories and read them.

As usual, the web beat me to it, with the SFSignal folks putting together a chronological list, linking to many of the stories that are available online. Viva LazyWeb!

I’ll be reading Stephenson‘s new book this summer. I am both delighted and surprised to read that it will come with a CD of what are apparently extremely bizarre vocal tracks tightly related to mathematics. The reviewer says:

I’ve just listened to several of the songs on this CD and, frankly, this is some weird shit. I say this without reservation. The musical styles are all over the map except that they all only use human voices (and occasionally hands). Some of it is similar to Western, Christian, styles of chanting. Other tracks are more Classical vocal arrangements with singing. The rest of the tracks seem to be heavily influenced by Eastern, Buddhist, styles of chanting, especially Tibetan Buddhism with its use of harmonics and overlaying voices. It varies quite a bit from song to song. Additionally, when there are recognizable words, they are not in English (nor in any language that I recognize). “Celluar Automata” is the weirdest track of this sort with multiple voices weaving in and out, along with some clapping and exclamations in an unknown language. “Thousander Chant” would be at home on some of the collections of Tibetan chanting that I have and whoever is performing it is obviously trained in the throat chanting used by Tibetans and others in Asia.

I’d like to think I’m a pretty reconstructed, sensitive dude who’s aware that I’ve got white privilege and male privilege, and who has at least some understanding of what that means. However, I’ve got to tell you, at the risk of revealing some hitherto hidden barbarian side, I just don’t care about the issue of gender balance in anthologies. I only care if the stories are good–doesn’t matter to me if they’re all by men, all by women, or by any mix in between. Also, the notion of a quota system always strikes me as a poor solution to the actual problem. It is entirely probable I would feel differently if I were a woman.

God damn, but Edmund Dulac did some nice illustrations in his day.

Check out this post featuring some of his work illustrating Hans Christian Andersen. Stunning. (And be sure to check out the list of “see also” stuff at the end of the post).

Then you can go have a browse around the Edmund Dulac Art Images site.

I wish I had been able to go to the Fourth Street Fantasy Convention, but since I couldn’t, I’m quite happy to see that recordings of most of the panels are available online, so I can at least have the second hand experience.