Yay for SF awards, and the free quality fiction that starts popping up around them!
This year, nominations have barely even begun, but I've already stumbled across something nice. It's a free online reprint of When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees, by Jason Sanford.
I was pleasantly surprised to find this, because I'd previously enjoyed it when I reviewed an issue of Interzone, and back then I'd wished I had some company to mull it over with. So put this on your reading list, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! |
בארץ סיפורת מקורית מקוטלגת במקום כלשהו בקרב שלושה ''ז'אנרים'' גדולים: ''ספרות יפה'' (מנסה להיות עמוס עוז), ''ספרי טיסה'' (מנסה להיות רם אורן) ו''ספרות פופ'' (מנסה להיות אתגר קרת).תודה, דותן. כשאני אומר את זה לרחל, היא מתרגזת עלי. אם אתה (או אחרים) מכירים יוצאי דופן נוספים, אני אשמח מאוד לשמוע מהם. |
I came across James Van Pelt thanks to his writing columns over at The Fix, but it didn't take long to discover that his more interesting, less packaged thoughts could be found on his LiveJournal. JVP teaches creative writing to high-school students, and his LJ is full of insights about writing, teaching, and teaching how to write.
By way of both disclaimer and explanation, JVP made an offer I couldn't refuse, under which he sends me a PDF of his new short story collection, and I review it online. I'd recently read his Nebula-nominated "How Music Begins," which was superb, so I was happy to take him up on the offer.
Let's begin by saying that this is a strong, solid collection. Almost every story in the anthology is, at very least, an enjoyable read, and many of them do a lot more than that. Most of y'all probably aren't interested in a detailed run-down of a bunch of short stories you haven't read, so let me focus on the stories I found particularly fascinating.
The strong trio that, IMHO, form the backbone of the anthology are "The Radio Magician," about a child with polio who listens to magic shows on the radio, "The Small Astral Object Genius," where the new collectible card craze is either a cunning hoax or the forefront of space exploration, and "How Music Begins," in which a high school band has been abducted by aliens, and have nothing to do but practice, perform, and wonder what the aliens want of them.
Each of these stories is superb. "The Radio Magician" effortlessly submerses us in a different age and a different mindset. "Genius" combines a very neat science-fictional premise with human pain and hurt; couching it all in the familiar geeksome pastime of collecting makes for a powerful and unusual story. And "How Music Begins" conveys perfectly the uncertainty and desperation of its characters, while bringing them to life - in addition to a stunning conclusion which is sure to leave readers gasping for breath.
One thing this trio of stories has in common is that they are firmly rooted in an element that is firmly mundane - yet unfamiliar, lesser-known. In "Genius", it's card-collecting; in "The Radio Magician," it's the idiosyncrasies of radio entertainment in the 1930's. For "How Music Begins," JVP's reported that he's gotten emails from band leaders, surprised and gratified to find a story featuring one of their own. The result is characters and situations that are fresh and compelling even before the SF comes in. These stories are exceptional because the mundane and the SF each plays off the other, and because there's not the slightest hint of stereotype or over-familiarity.
The other crucial element of these stories that I'd like to touch upon is: suspense. You're doing it right.
Each of these stories has woven into it a central tension. Is the magic show actually being performed, or does it just a creative announcer? Are the collectibles all a big hoax? Will a perfect performance set the band free? These are all questions we immediately, reflexively care about, because it is clear what they will mean for our protagonists. The power of this thread of tension to keep the entire story on edge is enormous - and JVP comes through, creating for each of these an answer which manages to be decisive, significant, convincing, yet unexpected.
( ...And Other Stories )
In summary, "The Radio Magician And Other Stories" is a fine and worthy single-author anthology, from an author certainly worth keeping track of. Only a few stories here are absolute must-reads, but a few of those and a full house of enjoyable, creative stories makes for a very pleasant collection indeed. |
אל תגידו. לחובבי הקידוד ביננו, מתחיל הלילה תחרות הקוד של גוגל - Google Code Jam. הצצתי בשנה שעברה (לפני שהיתה לי סביבת עבודה על הלפטופ...) השנה, בע"ה, אני אצטרף (ובטח אפול בסיבוב הראשון, אבל ניחא). הנקודה היא שזו תחרות מאוד מוצלחת וקלה להבנה, עם שאלות חידתיות מעניינות עם פתרונות יפים. מי שמתעניין, ממליץ לו לבקר באתר - גם מי שלא בא לו להשתתף, ההתנסות בשאלות משנה שעברה היא מאוד מעניינת. מה שהתחרות עושה בצורה נפלאה זה להדגים איך הפתרון הנאיבי יכול להתפוצץ נורא מהר - ועם קצת מחשבה, אפשר לפתור את אותה בעיה בצורה הרבה יותר פשוטה ואלגנטית. ושנית, לחובבי הספרות שבינינו, קם לו מועדון סיפורים קצרים וירטואלי לסיפורי מד"ב פנטזיה. שיחות מעמיקות על סיפורים קצרים זה דבר מצויין שצריך יותר ממנו, כל הסיפורים כאן הם חינמיים וזמינים לכל דורש, ומהשיחות הראשונות מסתמן שמדובר בקוראים וכותבים רציניים שיש להם מה להגיד ויודעים איך לשוחח על יצירה מעניינת.
The Hebrew announcement will be followed by an English one:
- Google Code Jam starts tonight and presents great problems and riddles in programming and geeky computer science-ness.
- An online short story reading club is active, reading free SF/F stories and having interesting discussions. People don't talk about short fiction enough - go fix it!
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Google's recently unveiled a new product called Wave, which is basically meant to improve email and incorporate a bunch of different tools into one convenient package.
I've just watched the first 15 minutes of their presentation, and boy, am I impressed. The thing that's so impressive is how easily and elegantly they've come up with modifications and improvements to the email and conversations we take for granted. Take a peek at the video,, from about 3:00 on for about ten minutes. Over and over, I have these moments that perfectly combine "YES, that would be so great to have!" with "OMG, that's so simple and obvious!".
@google: Kol HaKavod. Keep up the good work. |
| » For Boojie |
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Aug. 17th, 2009 @ 07:19 pm
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| » Literally |
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Another site I'm glad exists: "Literally, A Web Log." Tracks (and illustrates) the use and the rampant abuse of the phrase "literally." Briteny Spears' sugery diet is "literally a roller-coaster to hell," the stuffed cuddly doll who is "literally alive," and Joe Biden explaining how the next president of the United States will "literally, literally to change the direction of the world."
You know what I'd like to see? Since using "literally" for emphasis is a laughable error, I think it should be replaced with the obvious. "Oh, yeah - he came in, and he figuratively charmed our pants off!". Ah, the world would be a better place.
Aug. 14th, 2009 @ 12:53 pm
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| » פגיעה, ביזוי, והשפלה |
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Now I, too, am taking part in provocative, edgy entertainment!
My game-master for a short mini-campaign of a humorous investigation of the supernatural just got a wonderful email. In our game, each one of has had a bizarre, misfit character. My intrepid GM wanted a summary of the mini-campaign, and so he wrote a page on our game on a wiki website, belonging to the Israel Roleplaying Society.
Now, one of our misfit characters was an attorney-at-law, and his name was not Gunther P. Jorgen, but I'll pretend it is rather than using his real name. The reason for this mild pretense is because it turns out that in fact, there exists a real lawyer whose name also is not Gunther P. Jorgen. Ooops.
So today my intrepid GM, along with a couple of the good folks in charge of the RPG Society, got an email...
I'd like to stress that the email was friendly and understanding, even if it was itemized and full of the Hebrew equivalents of "henceforth" and "the undersigned". Because, you see, the result of our little game page was that running the search phrase "Gunther P. Jorgen lawyer" returns text explaining that Gunther P. Jorgen is a nearly-qualified attorney-at-law, hired because he was cheap, specializing in "laws concerning the rights of the deceased, and other esoteric topics" (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) langbeheim suggests this could be summarized as דיני נכסי דלא ניידי), and whose primary skill was avoiding work.
Note that this isn't the information you find by clicking through to the page, reading three screens worth of game information (including the introductory "this page describes our roleplaying game" passage), and eventually finding that single paragraph. This is the snippet that Google presents in the search results. Anybody who doesn't read further (and, let's be fair, doesn't take any notice of the URL) might very reasonably assume that this is a mocking description of a very bad lawyer. I should also note that this is the third result Google comes up with - and by far the most attractive if somebody's looking for actual information on the guy.
Our intrepid GM, of course, altered the page right away, although the search result, funnily enough, still comes up when I search for the right phrase. A real shame, because now those who click through on the link will no longer show the explanation about it being a game, nor see that Mr. Jorgen has Academic Score of 3, plus 1 Coolness point.
In conclusion, I find the entire episode absolutely hilarious. Readers are invited to contribute suggestions for the Moral of the Story.
Aug. 13th, 2009 @ 06:55 pm
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| » רוצים לעבוד עם רחל? |
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רחל ביקשה ממני למסור ש-PayPal, שם היא עובדת בתחום איתור ומניעה של הונאות, מחפשים עכשיו עובדים חדשים. יש משרה של תכנות ופיתוח ב-JAVA. מה שיותר יוצא דופן הוא משרת האנליסט, שזה די קרוב למה שרחל עושה; יתרונות נחמדים מאוד של התפקיד הם: תפקיד מעניין, בתנאים מצוינים, ושלא דורש ידע קודם בתחום ספציפי. חסרון אפשרי: משרה מלאה בתל-אביב. רחל מוסרת גם שכבר קיבלו לא מעט קורות-חיים, ועל כן לא כדאי להתמהמה. ( משרת אנליסט )( משרת מפתח JAVA )דברו עם רחל או איתי אם אתם מעוניינים. אם יש חברים שנראה לכם שיתאים להם - גם סבבה, פרוורדו.
Aug. 8th, 2009 @ 09:29 pm
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| » Up Up and Away! |
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Tonight Rachel and I and friends are going to UP in Jerusalem. Anybody want to come with us? We'd love to see you.
Aug. 5th, 2009 @ 01:03 pm
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