Merry Christmas to Me


So it turned out to be The Martian Child, which was a very quick read and should make a good movie. I think John Cusack is pretty well cast since this book reads like an American style Nick Hornby story, despite the fact that it is autobiographical. I think John Cusack may be the American Huge Grant.

I went back and read the novelette version in the Nebula Awards 30 collection and it seems like the main difference (other than length) is that in the novel Gerrold basically drops the whole Martian thing, and just lets it sort of end up as a metaphor. I thought the story took it more seriously and didn't back away from the alien child idea. Not that one way was better than the other, but I don't think the novel could have won a Nebula since it really abandons the science fiction premise.

Of course that was last weeks reading. After The Martian Childs (The Martian Children?) I was in a short story mood, but couldn't decide between the Kelly Link story collection Magic for Beginners or the China Mieville collection Looking for Jake. Since my wife was also looking to start something new I took the cowards way out and let her pick between the two and so started reading Looking for Jake and then after she finishes we'll swap. But I finished ahead of her, and the day I finished reading Mieville (every story good by the way) I got a package in the mail from Australia that had the new collection by Lucy Sussex A Tour Guide in Utopia. On Jonathan Strahan's blog Notes from Coode Street he had recommended some holiday book ideas and said if you live in Australia go buy A Tour Guide in Utopia and if you live in the UK go buy 20th Century Ghosts (A Collection) by Joe Hill. Well that was all the suggestion I needed, so even though I don't live down under or in the UK (I already had Magic for Beginners which was his suggestion for the people living in the US), this is the 21st century man. I hopped on the internet and ordered them both. The amazing thing is that the book from Australia got here in about a week, and that was the week containing Christmas. I've read about 4 stories so far and they are all very good. One I had read before in F & SF (The Queen of Erewhon) which was also I think a Tiptree award shortlister or should have been. The first story (Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies) would have benefited from some knowledge of the unofficial national anthem of Australia Waltzing Matilda, but I was able to get plenty of background from the internet after the fact. I would advise getting the info before the fact.

I should blow through this collection just in time for Rhonda to finish with Kelly Link or if not maybe my other package will arrive from the UK. Come on Royal Post the Australians are makin' you look bad, man.

In the meantime Black Hole is still daring me to read it. I'm not scared or anything. I just have a lot of other stuff on my list, you know. Would I shy away from teenage sex and strange orifices? No way man.

Baby Steps

Rather than make promises about how I'm going to try really, really hard and post on my blog all the time, let me just say here I am now, and here is a short review of the book I just read.

The Limits of Enchantment (2005) by Graham Joyce

Main character Fern has learned the ways of hedgerow medicine and folk magic from her adopted mother Mammy. Mammy is the local midwife and wise-woman, but Fern doesn’t really believe in it, and many people in the English Midlands village circa 1966 view the old ways with suspicion and scorn. When a girl comes asking for help with an unwanted pregnancy Mammy gives her an herbal potion to terminate the pregnancy, but the girl dies. Mammy is attacked by drunken louts in the village, and lands in hospital. Now Fern, at twenty, is on her own for the first time. The time for the “Asking”, a sort of visionquest where she will learn of her spririt animal, is upon her, but hostile forces in the village and possibly in the spirit realm are blocking her and other paths beckon. Will she stay loyal to Mammy and follow in her footsteps, enter a course to become a government certified midwife, or perhaps take up with the local hippy commune or her erstwhile suitor Arthur? A magical coming-of-age story packed with wisdom and humor.


Next book: Oh Gosh! So many choices. Maybe Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman or another Graham Joyce, perhaps The Facts of Life or Smoking Poppy. But there sits Black Hole by Charles Burns daring me to read it. And I just got a copy of The Martian Child by David Gerrold in the mail today, and the movie version is coming out in 2006, and I want to read the book first in case the film sucks. I don't know why. It's just a theory (more of a gut feeling really) I have about the Book/Movie Dynamic. Seeing a Bad movie ruins good book unless you have read the book first. Check back.