“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”
― Ursula K. LeGuin
I got a lot of reading done in 2021, some on paper and some on Kindle. Mostly science fiction, fantasy, crime, and horror, but also fiction by James Baldwin and Sherwood Anderson. Some non-fiction as well. My overview is divided into four parts.
Fiction
Non-fiction
Some Disappointments
Goals for 2022
Fiction
John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman
This is a collection of stories about John the Balladeer aka Silver John, as he wanders the haunted back hills of North Carolina with his silver-strung guitar. As he encounters strange creatures and various haunts, he uses his knowledge of folklore, magic, and science to help people in need. I loved the setting of pre-modern Appalachia and how the stories mixed myth, legend, and folklore.
I bought this book at the Science Fiction & Mystery Bookshop in Atlanta over twenty years ago and didn’t read it until 2021. I shouldn’t have waited so long. I absolutely loved it.
This edition is sadly out of print, but Haffner Press is planning to release a two-volume hardcover set collecting every John the Balladeer short story as well as the novels.
The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
Two top-of-the-line hard-boiled noir classics. Both quick reads with great dialogue and prose. Not a word wasted. Highly recommended.
When Darkness Loves Us by Elizabeth Engstrom
This is a collection of two horror novellas re-released by Valancourt Publishing’s Paperbacks from Hell imprint. Both stories have similar themes and ideas, dealing with women who are perceived as monstrous by society. “When Darkness Loves Us” is short, fast paced, and very creepy. “Beauty Is…” is a slow burn with horror erupting at the end. Both were excellent.
The Hunter and The Man with the Getaway Face by Richard Stark
These are the first two books in the Parker series written by Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark. More top-of-the-line crime noir. These were both re-reads. I started the series a few years ago but I decided to restart from the beginning.
Parker is an amoral thief that doesn't let anything get in his way. He’s brutal and efficient. So why read about him? Well as it says on the Violent World of Parker website, “Because Stark is an excellent writer and the Parker books are exciting and thought-provoking. Like all great crime fiction, the Parker novels give readers not just the story of a crime, but also a detailed look at the inner workings of a fascinating and original character."
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
I bought the paperback a few years ago and I also received a free eBook version of this from TOR Books. That was through TOR’s eBook of the Month Club. You just need an email address to sign up. It’s gotten me to try out a number of different authors and titles.
A group of scientists surveying a planet lose contact with another team and decide to investigate. With the group is a security cyborg that has secretly overridden its governor module. This allows it to develop independence. Interacting with people makes it uncomfortable, it loves watching television serials, it hates making eye contact, and refers to itself as “Murderbot.” Between the mystery of what happened to the other team and a fascinating character, I couldn’t put it down.
Matha Wells won two Hugo Awards recently. Network Effect won for best novel and the series won for best series. I’ve since read three of the sequels, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy and have enjoyed them all. Still need to get to Network Effect and the latest, Fugitive Telemetry.
I have to say that I’m a big fan of TOR Books. They publish a nice variety of interesting science fiction and they’re one of the few publishers that still puts beautiful art on their covers. I really dislike the current book cover trend. Most are either quick photo-shop mock-ups or nothing but enlarged text on either overdone or bland backgrounds. They all look the same. Dull and uninteresting.
Wings in the Night: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Vol. 4
Valley of the Worm: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Vol. 5
This series collects the fiction and poetry of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, as it originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine. I’ve really been enjoying this series. While Howard’s stories are fast paced and exciting, they also have strong characterization as well as themes of individualism and the decaying of civilizations. It’s also really interesting to see how his storytelling progressed, since the stories are presented in the order that they appeared in Weird Tales. I read one Conan book when I was in high school but for whatever reason it didn’t grab me. Now he’s become one of my favorite authors.
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
This is a collection of interconnected short stories published in 1919 about people in the fictional small town of Winesburg, Ohio. I decided to read this after learning that Ray Bradbury recommended it. I loved it but it's probably not for everyone. It’s filled with people making bad decisions in their lives. But there’s also a positive message of getting up and moving on. I think this reviewer's quote says it best:
“There are endless reasons to read and reread Winesburg. But what has struck me about my most recent time through this book is the in-depth, fearless, summarized description of emotion.” — Angela Pneuman
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block became one of my favorite writers after reading Grifter's Game from Hard Case Crime and his series about the stamp collecting hitman Keller. After that I started reading the Matthew Scudder series, about an ex-cop and unlicensed P. I. in New York. This one is the sixth in the series. Always a good read.
The Killing Hills by Chris Offut
Army Criminal Investigation Division agent Mick Hardin helps investigate a murder while on leave in Kentucky. The prose and the dialogue flowed, and I got a real sense of the characters and the backwoods community of Hardin’s hometown. I’m looking forward to reading more by Mr. Offut.
Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber
This is the second collection of Fritz Leiber’s Fafred and the Gray Mouser Sword & Sorcery series. I read this after re-reading the first collection. I read the first collection when I was in college but never went any further. I still think the first collection is a mixed bag but the second one is outstanding.
I’m glad that I’m reading these on my Kindle. Leiber uses a lot of vocabulary that I’m unfamiliar with and it makes it easy to look up definitions. I’m learning a lot of new words. I’m glad that I re-discovered him, he’s become one of my favorite writers.
I recently learned that Fritz Leiber coined the term “Sword and Sorcery” and that he has also written horror as well as science fiction and fantasy. Looking forward to reading more of his work.
Demons by Daylight by Ramsey Campbell
This was my first time reading the horror fiction of Ramsey Campell. Not every story in this collection worked for me but the ones that did left a strong impression. Will definitely be reading more.
Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby
A southern noir with a lead character who is haunted by the past and facing all kinds of problems in the present. It grabbed me from the first paragraph and wouldn’t let go.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This is a gothic horror set in 1950s Mexico, influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. It manages to comment on colonialism, racist ideologies, eugenics, and toxic masculinity, while still providing a heck of an entertaining story. I loved it.
I also love the trade paperback edition. Not only do I like the cover, but it also has a beautiful step-back cover, a second piece of art under the main cover. Art by Mia Araujo.
Fear by L. Ron Hubbard
“...and despite the looneytunes scene his Dianetics and Scientology had become, he was always still just Ron Hubbard, who’d written To the Stars and Final Blackout and Fear and Typewriter in the Sky and Slaves of Sleep, all of which great pulp fiction I can still still reread with pleasure… “
― Harlan Ellison
I had never taken L. Ron Hubbard seriously enough to want to read any of his work, but then I encountered the quote above as I was rereading Ellison’s introduction to Angry Candy. I decided to read Fear and I was pleasantly surprised.
Soon after a university professor writes an article mocking the existence of devils, demons and other superstitions, he loses four hours out of his day. He also loses his hat. Then he starts meeting strange figures and starts seeing something out of the corner of his eye. He’s warned that if he finds his hat, he’ll find his four hours, but if he finds his four hours, he’ll die.
It was a little stretched out, but it held my interest and the ending comes at you hard. Ellison was not wrong. Good in a pulpy way.
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
A collection of James Baldwin’s short stories. I’ve read two of his essay collections and liked them a lot. This was my first time reading his fiction. Themes that show up in these stories include identity, family, religion, love, racism, and bigotry. There’s dark stuff in some of these stories but also a kind of haunting beauty.
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelanzy with Illustrations by Gahan Wilson
Thirty-one chapters of mystery, adventure, horror, and humor, narrated by Snuff the dog. The characters and their animal companions are players in “The Game.” Each chapter covers one day and as the story progresses the reader learns more about the mysterious game, leading up to a final confrontation on October 31st. One of my favorite books. I read it for the first time in October of 2020 and I’ll continue to read it every October.
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
Six loosely related short stories that take place in the distant future where the Earth's sun is nearing the end of its life and magic and technology exist side by side. The magic system in Dungeons & Dragons is based on the system described in these stories. I really enjoyed Vance’s writing style. This was a fun read. I liked the characters and Vance’s descriptions are lyrical and poetic.
Roads by Seabury Quinn with illustrations by Virgil Finlay
A sword and sorcery Christmas story which reimagines the fable of Santa Claus? Count me in! Klaus, called Claudius by Romans, is a gladiator in the arena of Herod the Great. Things begin to change for him after he is present at the crucifixion of Christ. After a series of adventures he returns to his homeland in the north.
I’m not the most religious person but one of the things I like about the story is its criticism of leaders who profess to follow the teachings of Christ, but don’t actually follow those teachings. After Klaus returns to the north and before he becomes Santa Claus, he notices that the poor in his village are struggling. He decides to leave them presents of food and other gifts at the end of the year. This doesn’t sit well with the local leaders. One of them has this to say:
“It is no work of merit to give bread unto the poor. If it were Heaven’s will that all men should be fed, then we should have no poor, but it is stated most explicitly that the poor we shall have with us always. It is the well-considered thought of this reverend company that it is little less than a defiance of divine purpose to alleviate their condition.”
“If wise all-seeing Heaven had not willed them to be poor they had not been so, but their poverty is obviously by divine decree, whoso maketh them less poor, even though it be by giving them no more than a dry crust, thwarts Heaven’s will, and is therefore no better than a contemnor of Holy Gospel.”
This was written in 1938. I recently read about a woman in Seattle, WA that was stopped by police for passing out free masks, gloves, and other supplies to the homeless. The supplies were confiscated, and she was told if it happens again she would be arrested. The more things change…
A Warning to the Curious, Count Magnus, and Other Horrors: The Best Ghost Stories and Weird Fiction of M. R. James, Annotated and Illustrated by M. Grant Kellermeyer
M. R. James was a medievalist scholar and provost of King’s College, Cambridge and of Eaton College, best remembered for his ghost stories. I discovered this volume after joining a Ghost Stories for Christmas Reading Challenge. Like with most anthologies, some stories were better than others but there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch. As good as the stories were though, the annotations take it to the next level. They cover vocabulary, history, locations, and a lot of other topics. There are also thirty pages of essays. This collection is outstanding. I’ll definitely be getting more volumes from Oldstyle Tales Press.
Non-Fiction
Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword and Sorcery by Brian Murphy
This is a thorough, well organized, and well researched history of the fantasy sub-genre of sword and sorcery. Before going over the authors and books of the late 60s, 70s, and 80s, the author explains that its origins can be traced to Icelandic sagas, Nordic myths, historical fiction, and early fantasy. An excellent overview.
“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feyman!” by Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He worked on the Manhattan Project, won the Nobel Prize in 1965 (along with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tominaga), and helped to discover the cause of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. He was also known as the “Great Explainer” because he could explain complex concepts in simple and understandable ways.
This collection of essays covers a wide variety of topics. He had a lot of interests. In these essays he talks about them and how they connected to his work. I thought he went on too long about safe cracking, but I loved when he wrote about teaching and how he solved problems at work. It was an entertaining read and his passion for learning really came through.
Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight
A practical and insightful guide to writing short stories from SF author Damon Knight. It’s clear and well organized with sections that cover turning ideas into stories, beginning stories, controlling stories, and finishing stories. I’ll be going back to this and reviewing it soon.
Making Comics by Lynda Barry
This is a collection of Lynda Barry’s cartooning and comic book homework assignments with illustrated examples from her and her students. The assignments do a good job of helping the reader escape the mindset that a drawing has to be perfect and encourages anyone to draw no matter the skill level. A great resource for anyone interested in storytelling, narrative drawing, and channeling their creativity.
I like how the book is designed in the style of a composition notebook. It’s a subtle touch but it helped make reading this book and doing the assignments a fun learning experience.
Some Disappointments
The Getaway by Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson’s story of a bank robbery gone wrong. Started out okay but then it got too surreal for me at the end. I prefer the 1972 film version which I watched after reading this. It’s directed by Sam Peckinpah and stars Steve McQeen and Ali MacGraw.
The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance
This is the sequel to The Dying Earth. It’s another collection of short stories but this time they all feature the same character, the utterly amoral thief Cugel the Clever. This was not a fun read. I like reading about anti-heroes once in a while (see Richard Stark's Parker series above) but there’s a fine line between anti-hero and villain. Cugel abandons allies at the drop of a hat and gets people killed regularly. It got old pretty quickly. This was a big disappointment after how much I enjoyed The Dying Earth.
Goals for 2022
I’d like to read more of my favorite authors, which I haven't read in a while. In no particular order:
,
Ray Bradbury
Harlan Ellison
Neil Gaiman
Leigh Brackett
Poul Anderson
Fredric Brown
Ursula LeGuin
Tanith Lee
Stephen King
Charles Dickens
Mark Twain
P. G. Wodehouse
Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck
Haruki Murakami
I’d also like to go beyond my usual genres of science fiction, fantasy, and crime, and read more of the following:
Classics
Mythology and Folklore
Children’s books
U.S. and world history
Current events
Biographies of U.S Presidents
Japanese literature
Japanese science fiction
Essays
Poetry
Hmm. I think I have too many interests…Oh well!
Here’s to reading favorite authors as well as discovering new things in 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment