Great Things Come to Those Who Wait

2008 is an auspicious year.

It’s the year that Matt Stover’s epic Heroes Die becomes eligible for KAMN discussion.

This is the book that rekindled my interest in fantasy by showing me that fantasy could be so much more, and yes, validating the feeling that I hadn’t been getting enough story in my stories.

I was honored to finally meet Matt at a World Fantasy Con a few years back, fortunate to consider him a friend, and smart enough to know that over drinks at a bar next to him and Scott Bakker, my smarts are so outclassed, it’s fall-down funny.

If you read this book and get hooked/floored by it as most others who have read it, don’t neglect the sequel, Blade of Tyshalle, and keep your eyes open for the upcoming Caine Black Knife, due out fall 2008.

Most people love his Star Wars books, and I am one of the folks who believe that Revenge of the Sith could have been so much better if Matt’s dialogue from the book had been used in the movie, but if actions speak, then know that Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle are books that I’ve bought and given to other people to read (there’s only 4 other books I’ve done that with). None of those people were dissatisfied.

Asimov, Foundation and more

We’ve had a lot of requests during the time we’ve been doing this to do a show on “Foundation.”

A lot of requests.

I haven’t put it on the schedule yet, simply because of how much work I’ve been doing lately, but for some reason I kept getting hints and reminders about Foundation over the past 2 months.

Last night, I experienced another hint. I went to a new store that deals in secondhand stuff; knick knacks, toys, videos, and of course, books. Of course, I went to the SF section to see what was there, and I found a few gems right away.

First, if anyone needs the Night Shade Books collections of Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane stories, let me know. I found hardcover copies of both “Gods in Darkness” and “Midnight Sun” rather cheap. I already own the limited editions of these, but I knew these needed rescuing, since the boys at Night Shade had told me two years ago that they’d sold completely out. These books aren’t even listed on their website anymore.

What I found next followed in the pattern of hints from the universe about Foundation. On my first pass through the SF section, I hadn’t actually noticed the books. Then I went around the corner to look at the next shelf, which turned out to be Classics, and the title that jumped out at me from the very top shelf was Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare.

Yeah. That’s what I said, too.

It’s a large book, comprised of all of The Bard’s plays, plus annotations by Asimov. Huge book, the inner page says “Two Volumes in One”.

I own a copy of the The Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by David Bevington (huge red book, anyone who took a college English class on Shakespeare in the 80s knows what I’m talking about). This Asimov guide is larger… and I’m still trying to figure out how that happened… the Asimov guide is physically shorter than the Bevington, contains half as many pages (840 to 1730), but it’s about half an inch thicker.

Anyway, it was only $4, so I thought about buying it, just for grins. Then I went back around the corner for a second pass through the SF section, and that’s when I noticed them. One paperback printing of Foundation, from the 60s or early 70s, and 2 harcover collections of the Foundation Trilogy, one with dust jacket, one without. I decided to get the trilogy copy with dust jacket… again for $4. I figured since I’m buying Asimov, I might as well get the Shakespeare tome. I’m curious about this book, but I don’t know when I’ll get to reading it.

But now, if Brian and Dave already have Foundation, we may be able to cover that sooner rather than later. If not, I know where a mmpb copy of it is, and another copy of the trilogy in hardcover.

Oh, and if anyone wants a box full of those ancient videodiscs, lemme know. There were some good movies in there, including The Empire Strikes Back. But who has a videodisc player that still works anymore?

KAMN Reviews?

Since Dragon Page Cover to Cover has thrown the door open to more contributor reviews, both in audio and print form, I’d like to do the same thing here.

There are a lot of books and movies and tv shows that we won’t get to, or at least not get to any time soon, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t post written reviews here, or include the occassional audio review in a KAMN episode. Same Ninjas rules apply… anything 10 years old or older is fair game.

If you want to submit some reviews, just send them to summer [at] kickassmysticninjas [dot] com or brian [at] kickassmysticninjas [dot] com. Submit written reviews as included plain text, not attached Word docs, and audio reviews should be kept to 3 minutes or less (MP3 format please, to conserve space). If you can’t email them, then use something like YouSendIt.com, or maybe we can arrange something else.

Also, the old reviews I had done for Fantastica Daily (a site that no longer exists) will be online here soon. I will most likely post them with their original post dates, from 2004, so keep an eye out.

Madeleine L’Engle

I missed this news, but Madeleine L’Engle passed away on September 6 at the age of 88.

She was the author of over 60 novels, but her most noted novels were Time Quartet, consisting of the Newberry Award-winning A Wrinkle in Time (1962), and it’s sequels A Wind in the Door (1973), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), and Many Waters (1986).

I have fond memories of those first three books from my younger years. I remember being happily surprised to find a brand new book, A Swiftly Tilting Planet on the store shelves after having read the first two just a few years earlier.

I remember being enchanted by what felt like a magic in the words of those books. It’s been a very very long time since I’ve re-read those first three books, and again, I’m long overdue to sit down with them again.

Wikipedia: Madeleine L’Engle
Official Website: http://www.madeleinelengle.com/
CNN: ‘Wrinkle in Time’ author dies at 88

KAMN Show #32: War for the Oaks

Welcome to Show #32!

Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Brian talk about Emma Bull’s critically acclaimed 1987 debut novel, War for the Oaks.

The Ninjas talk about the story premise, the interweaving of music into the story, and the melding of the mundane realm with the magical realm because the immortal Seelie and Unseelie can only permanently harm/kill each other when a human with special abilities is invited to play witness on the battlefield.

We get a glimpse of how there might be magic in all realms that may happen to collide in this world of ours. All in all, it’s a fast, fun read. Go check it out.

The next KAMN show will be an in-depth discussion about the TV series “Quantum Leap”, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. We’ll post a list of episodes to watch to prepare for this discussion.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: Dragon*Con: Joe Murphy Blood Drive
Link: QWERTY Ranch: Will Shetterly & Emma Bull

 

 KAMN Show #32: War for the Oaks [33:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5315)

The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy

“The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy” is a series of tips, tricks and helpful hints for fantasy writers from Dragon Moon Press. Volume 3 in this series is “The Author’s Grimoire”, and it’s coming out in September. It’s been delayed for quite some time, but it’s going to hit the shelves at last.

What’s so important about a brand new book about writing fantasy that it gets mentioned here, you ask? You mean, besides the fact that it contains an essay by the inestimable Tee Morris, and one by yours truly? Or that Dragon Moon Press is also the publisher of the print version of Scott Sigler’s “Ancestor”?

“The Author’s Grimoire” contains an essay by Joe Murphy, and the book is dedicated to him. I don’t know if this is the last essay he sold or not, but it’s finally coming to print.

So check it out when it hits the shelves.

Fred Saberhagen

Fred Saberhagen passed away on June 29 from cancer. I didn’t know until a “Cover to Cover” listener sent me an email about it. The announcement had even been posted to Slice of SciFi, and I didn’t know.

To say the least, I was stunned.

I never got hooked by his Berserker series as some other friends of mine did back in the day, but I liked the “Empire of the East” series, I enjoyed his Dracula books (I’ve only read through “A Matter of Taste”), and also many of the titles in his Swords series.

Some of the earlier Dracula novels had been hard to find over the years, including “The Dracula Tape”, and “The Holmes-Dracula File” until a few years ago. The first couple of Lost Swords books have also been harder to find than the original Swords books, something I painfully discovered when I thought about getting them again about 10 years ago.

side note: losing two boxes of books during a move can be described as a particular level of Hell. I’m still replacing books that went missing then. Yes, I know they’re easier to find online, but a part of me still loves browsing through used bookstores and seeing for myself the condition of the book I’m going to take home.

“Empire of the East” was just added to the list of Future Topics a few months ago, so maybe I’ll try to get that one scheduled sooner rather than later. FYI, “Empire of the East” is the collected version of what had originally been the separate novels “The Broken Lands”, “The Black Mountains”, and “Ardneh’s World”. A sequel, “Ardneh’s Sword”, was published in 2006, but I don’t have it and haven’t read it yet.

He will be missed.

Links:
Berserker: The Official Fred Saberhagen Site
SFWA News
BoingBoing Announcement
2004 Interview (Baen Books )

KAMN Show #30 Repost: Galactic Patrol

Welcome to Show #30… again.

Summer, David and special guest Tim Callender (host of The Babylon Podcast) gather ’round to discuss “Galactic Patrol”, the original first novel of E. E. “Doc” Smith’s “Lensman” space opera series.

The audio quality is still popping in places, but it’s the best Mike can do.

 

 KAMN Show #30 Repost: Galactic Patrol [1:09:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5269)

KAMN Show #30: Galactic Patrol

Welcome to Show #30!

Summer, David and special guest Tim Callender (host of The Babylon Podcast) gather ’round to discuss “Galactic Patrol”, the original first novel of E. E. “Doc” Smith’s “Lensman” space opera series.

Sorry about the audio quality. We’re still trying to figure the problem out.

Feature Discussion: Tim and David give an overview of the book and the plot summaries, while Summer saves most of her commentary for the later dissection of the storytelling style. It’s an engaging space-faring adventure, although it’s easy to see how the writing style could make it harder for those more sophisticated reading tastes to easily become lost in the story if they’re reading them for the first time. It’s very easy to see how the non-stop action and occassionally sparse descriptions would appeal to the intended scifi demographic, the 14-year-old male.

It’s also very easy to step back and see how themes and plot devices from this series influenced later stories, from Star Wars to Babylon 5 to Green Lantern and many more.

Consumer warning: avoid the anime interpretation. Seriously.

Promotional Notes: David’s pop culture show, Moldawer in the Morning, is a new member of the FarPoint Media Network!

The next KAMN show will cover the 1982 paranormal/horror classic “Poltergeist”. Directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since this film first made moviegoers wonder a little differently about whether or not that item you placed on the counter did or didn’t move when you weren’t looking at it…

If you have a promo you’d like us to play, send it or send a link to it to us!

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: The Babylon Podcast: Deep Geeking for Babylon 5
Wikipedia: Galactic Patrol, Lensman
Link: Old Earth Books

Scott Sigler’s Ancestor on Amazon

Ancestor, the newest book from Scott Sigler, is available now at Amazon.com. Go get it!

KAMN Show #28: A Fire Upon the Deep

Welcome to Show #28!

Summer, David and Tim gather together to discuss Vernor Vinge’s Hugo Award-winning “A Fire Upon the Deep”, but first give an update on Joe Murphy.

Voicemail: CQ from OK on the pop culture impact of “Highlander” in regards to sword-fighting and collecting, and throws out “War of the Worlds” as a future topic; Bill in The Bronx with a Clancy Brown update; Yvonne shares the depths of her love for “Buckaroo Banzai”, and sends hugs to Joe. Dave and Summer then run off onto a “Dresden Files” tangent that leads into an “I-Man” tangent…

Summer, Dave and Tim give an overview of the story, and discuss some of the more interesting aspects of the book: varying zones of thought dividing up the galaxy, a sentient evil entity and its sentient countermeasure, and a quasi-lupine civilization whose packs are formed from hive minds.

Much about the story to talk about, and figuring out how to pronounce most of the character names is near the top of the list.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Promo: The Dragon Page Cover to Cover
Wikipedia: A Fire Upon the Deep
Link: Strange Horizons: An Interstellar Geography of Mind: A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

 

 KAMN Show #28: A Fire Upon the Deep [1:12:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (8361)

Scott Sigler’s “Ancestor”: The Print Version

Scott Sigler’s Evil Plan ™ continues to unfold.

He’s passing out the full-length PDF of Ancestor, and wants everyone who wants to get the print version of the book to go to Amazon and order it on April 1st.

Read. Go. Now.

Win a Trip to the Nebula Awards in New York

ABE Books and The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have just launched a contest where they will be giving a pair of SciFi & Fantasy fans a great fun weekend at the Nebula Awards in New York on May 11-12, 2007. A pair of banquet tickets and two nights in the event hotel will go to the winner. The contest is free and open to everyone.

Battlestar Galactica’s executive producer Ronald D. Moore will be this year’s toastmaster. The Nebulas acclaim the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years. Previous winners include Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke and many more.

For full details of the contest rules and regulations visit the AbeBooks.com contest page.

KAMN Show #26: Far-Seer

Welcome to Show #26!

Joe Murphy is back, joining Dave and Summer in the discussion of Robert J. Sawyer’s 1992 novel, Far-Seer. This is the first book in the Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, and it features a planet of intelligent and advanced dinosaurs. Book 1 follows the quest of a Copernicus/Galileo of his planet. Book 2 is Fossil Hunter, fashioned after a Darwin-like discoverer, and Book 3 is Foreigner, following a Freud-like main character.

Joe selected this book as a topic quite some time ago, and now we’re finally able to all get together and chat about it. Joe reviewed it for Dragon Page Cover to Cover when the reprint was published in 2004, and loved the story from the jump.

Dave and Summer aren’t feeling as much love for it as Joe does, but they don’t hate the book either. It’s well-written and opens up a richly detailed world for the characters to discover, like most Sawyer stories are, but David isn’t pleased with how fast the main character Afsan makes great leaps of intuition and scientific assumptions, and Summer just couldn’t connect with the characters and learn to care about their adventures and their fates.

We have a fun discussion about a number of points.

Voicemail: Rob from Alberta with well-wishes for Joe, who wants less innuendo and more follow-through on implied action; Curt from St George with well-wishes for Joe, and comments on “The Day the Earth Stood Still”; Cisco comments on “Buckaroo Banzai”, and on Hollywood censors back in the 1950s; Wally from CA lets us know about the Sherlock Holmes references we missed in “Buckaroo Banzai”; Eric in NY wants to know more about the Buckaroo Banzai comic books; Dwight from Ottawa likes us, thanks us for talking about “Day the Earth Stood Still” and completely forgot what book he called in to recommend to us.

Don’t forget to donate to the Kill Kuato Fund, and help Joe out (second Paypal button on the right sidebar), and you can call the special voicemail line, 206-202-5179, and leave a message for him.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Link: Robert J. Sawyer: Novels
Link: Far-Seer
Link: Fossil Hunter
Link: Foreigner

 

 KAMN Show #26: Far-Seer [45:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6293)

CASFS Book Club

For those of you living in the Central Arizona area, and if you happen to be free at 7pm on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, you might want to check out the CASFS Book Discussion gathering.

The Central Arizona Speculative Fiction Society is the energetic gang that brings you CopperCon and HexaCon each year, in addition to publishing the fan newsletter ConNotations.

Once a month, at The Bent Cover bookstore on 28th Drive and Cactus Rd in Phoenix, a group gathers to discuss a book, and on February 20th at 7pm, they will be discussing Storm Front by Jim Butcher, first in the Dresden Files series. On March 20th at 7pm, they will be discussing A Secret Atlas by Michael A. Stackpole, the first in the Age of Discovery saga.

If you’ve read them, or plan on reading them, go check the group out.