Why You Wish You Were Me Right Now
Posted on February 27, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 15 Comments
The reason is because I have in my grubby little hands an interview with Hal Duncan that is chock full of awesome, and you can’t read it until tomorrow, when I put it up for the Wednesday Author Interview. Honestly, looking at this interview, I don’t know how you’re going to survive not reading it until then. You’re just going to have to find a way to muddle through somehow.
However, while you wait, there is something you can do, which is get Hal’s latest book Ink, which hits stores here in the US today. And like the interview, it is chock full of awesome. I know this because I read it a while back, when the ARC was sent to me. And I remember when I was reading it that I was wondering how the rest of you were going to survive not reading it until today. Well, how did you? Seriously, man. I want to know.
Mine just came in the mail, along with Coffee Shop, which I promptly read in my local taqueria. I also brought my laptop, but since the local is overrun with studio jackholes, I wasn’t fooling anyone there, either. Dammit.
Speaking of contests, (I didn’t want to comment on the actual contest post), ever pick out a name for the John Scalzi Experience?
And I remember when I was reading it that I was wondering how the rest of you were going to survive not reading it until today. Well, how did you? Seriously, man. I want to know.
Well, Vellum being shite could be one reason.
We’re still waiting patiently for The Sagan Diaries to arrive, but Sun of Suns and Blindsight have arrived today.
Both of them I had found when they were recommended here, so I looked at them and found that they had the Search Inside funtion. After reading the available bits, I just had to have them.
Now I do! and I have the next three days off! I’m giddy!
Well, if you must know, I camped otu in my new Nissan Frontier 4×4. When it appeared no help coming, I burned my tires for warmth and as a signal to the authorities. After that, I drank my own urine to stay hydrated and ate the pages out of some old Tom Clancy novels for sustenance.
Honestly, the pee made them pages sweeter.
I spent the time conferring and planning with the furries. We’re still camped outside the Scalzi compound (yes, it is cold, but they have fur), planning our assault. I haven’t gone over to the darkside, even during that especially chilly night last week. I’m just using them to cause confusion in the household. I’m hoping to use the resulting bedlam from their storming the compound to abscond with at least one of those “You’re Not Fooling” copies that inside.
Well, how did you? Seriously, man. I want to know.
Yoga. Bourbon. A big splash of ennui. You know, the usual.
And I remember when I was reading it that I was wondering how the rest of you were going to survive not reading it until today. Well, how did you? Seriously, man. I want to know.
My strategy has been to leave Vellum in my TBR pile, unread until this week or possibly next. Based on the good things I have heard about the first book, I wanted to have the option of diving into the second immediately.
Marketing genius or eveal bastard? Pretty much a toss up… :)
Gotta go with Martin on this one.
One and done for me with The Book of All Hours series, and Vellum was the one.
From the review Martin links to (and I’m not sure if its yours or someone else’s):
“In fact, Vellum is empty, pretentious twaddle. It’s another naked emperor for the cheering throng that mistakes obscurantism for brilliance. I cannot even call Duncan’s novel an exercise in style over substance, because that term implies a substance beneath the style.”
Reads a wee bit sneeringly reactionary to me. Ooooh, people like this book so I must prove exactly how much I dislike it. If you dislike the book, fine. Its certainly not something that I expect will appeal to a large audience. But there’s no reason to essentially denigrate every person that DID enjoy it.
As someone who just (as in, last night) finished the book, I can say I found it enjoyable, clever, and well written. Brilliance may not be the word I’d use, but then again hyperbole is a time-honoured part of criticism. I enjoyed it partly because of the structure, but I didn’t actually find that that made it obscure. It may just be the slightly odd combination of stuff that I tend to read, but I had fun playing spot the allusion, identified with a couple of the main characters and, by the end of the book, had worked out what had gone on to a sufficient degree to leave me satisfied (not entirely, but that is fine).
I also think its unfair to suggest (as the review does), that Vellum is essentially Duncan’s sacrifice on the altar of the almightly literary critic – a desperate attempt to be “edgy”. From what I’ve read of his blog and elsewhere, the guy wrote something to please himself, got some input from his friends, and put it out there.
Rather long, rambling post, I suppose. Really just saying steady on – more at the linked review, which I don’t find very insightful at all, than at Martin’s post. Dislike the book, fine. Nothing wrong with that. But I enjoyed the book, and I don’t indentify myself as part of “the cheering throng that mistakes obscurantism for brilliance” (does said throng really even exist? Or do they just have a sense of aesthetic appreciation that is incompatible with the reviewer’s?). Nothing wrong with that, either.
Oh, and I’m looking forward to reading the interview, John!
“Seriously man, I want to know”
Given that this Blog is home to serious Bookies, who among us would admit that they were so biblio-bereft that they had to sit in a chair twitching and slavering over the imminent publication of a book rather than simply pick up any of the 6 or 7 books I suspect most of us have at hand to read, finish reading or (my big weakness) re-read. I suspect that I am not the only person who cannot walk past the bookshelf without grabbing a dearly loved volume and letting it fall open to a favorite spot and re-immersing ourselves until ones wife shouts “Are you reading again in the shower?”
So the answer is – quite easily John!
Old Jarhead
Old Jarhead: True, that. Right now I have a pile of 24 books waiting to be read (only one of them is an actual re-read and two are partial re-reads) and I have ordered two more which are one their way as we speak, plus I’ve started on two books. I’m not the world’s fastest reader, so it’s enough to tide me over for quite a bit, especially given my tendency to drop inside bookshops “just to browse” (yeah, right!)
However, waiting for something like -say- the third part of a trilogy is not always easy.
I’m just that greedy.
I agree with most of the nominated scripts…except for “Unfinished Business”. It’s one of the weakest scripts for BSG this season, IMHO, and there are much better ones out there.
“The Lady in the Fireplace”, on the other hand, is just a fantastic episode, period.
It’s not just the US that Ink is out. I just saw it in Waterstones (Cork, Ireland). I didn’t expect it to be out here too, but it seems that it is.
Since it’s a sequel and I haven’t read the first one, I didn’t pick it up. I just wanted to let you know that I spotted it there.