366

January:

1. Nick Mamatas, Under My Roof

2. Michael Cisco, The San Veneficio Canon

3. Sylvia Kelso, Amberlight

4. Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, The Shadow Speaker

5. Ekaterina Sedia, The Secret History of Moscow

6. Christopher Barzak, One for Sorrow

7. José Saramago, Las intermitencias de la muerte (re-read from 2006, 2007; Spanish)

8. Shaun Tan, The Arrival (re-read from 2007)

9. José Saramago, La balsa de piedra (Spanish)

10. Roberto Arlt, Trescientos Millones (re-read from 2007)

11. Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (re-read from 2007)

12. Richard Bach, Galeb Džonatan Livingston (Serbian; re-read from 2007)

13. Antonio Machado, Antologia poética (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

14. George R.R. Martin (ed.), Wild Cards: Inside Straight

15. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (re-read from 1996)

16. Harvey Pekar, Gary Dumm, and Paul Buhle (eds.), Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History

17. Elizabeth Bear, Blood and Iron

18. Elizabeth Bear, Whiskey and Water

19. Paul Kearney, The Mark of Ran

20. Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself

21. Daniel Abraham, A Shadow in Summer

22. Ursula Le Guin, Worlds of Exile and Illusion

23. Jeffrey Ford, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque

24. Edward Carey, Observatory Mansions

25. Richard Morgan, Market Forces

26. Gustave Flaubert, The Temptation of Saint Anthony

27. China Miéville, The Tain (re-read from 2003, 2004, 2005)

28. Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light

29. Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero

30. T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Stories (re-read from 2001)

31. Jack Kerouac, On the Road (re-read from 1997)

32. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (eds.), Salon Fantastique: Fifteen Original Tales of Fantasy

33. David Keck, In the Eye of Heaven (re-read from 2007)

34. David Keck, In a Time of Treason (ARC)

35. Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye

36. John Crowley, Little, Big (re-read from 2004)

37. J.G. Ballard, The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (re-read from 2004)

38. Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys

39. Eliseo Alberto, Caracol Beach (re-read from 2006)

40. Sergio Ramírez, Margarita, está linda la mar (re-read from 2006)

41. Manuel Vicent, La novia de Matisse (Spanish)

42. Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing

43. Jorge Luis Borges, La memoria de Shakespeare (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

44. Laura Esquivel, Como agua para chocolate (Spanish)

45. Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (re-read many times since my childhood)

46. Geoff Ryman, Air

47. Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven (re-read from 2007)

48. Walter M. Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz (re-read from 2006)

49. Rhys Hughes, A New Universal History of Infamy (re-read from 2004)

50. Martin Millar, The Good Fairies of New York

51. Han Shaogong, A History of Maqiao

52. Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire (re-read from 2007)

53. Jeffrey Thomas, Deadstock

54. Patricia McKillip, Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy

55. Matthew Stover, Heroes Die (re-read from 2003)

56. Karl Schroeder, Sun of Suns

57. Steven Gould, Jumper

58. Liliana Bodoc, Los días del Venado (re-read from 2007)

59. Steven Gould, Jumper: Griffin’s Story

60. José Martí, Obra poética (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

61. Matthew Stover, Blade of Tyshalle (re-read from 2003)

62. L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

February:

63. Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon (re-read many times from childhood)

64. David Anthony Durham, Pride of Carthage

65. D.M. Cornish, Foundling

66. Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching (re-read from 2002)

67. Martin H. Greenberg and Loren L. Coleman (eds.), Wizards, Inc.

68. James Joyce, Ulysses (re-read from my grad school days)

69. J.M. McDermott, Last Dragon (ARC)

70. T.A. Pratt, Blood Engines

71. Richard Dansky, Firefly Rain

72. Cat Rambo and Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories (re-read from 2007)

73. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (eds.), The New Weird

74. Ursula Le Guin, The Beginning Place

75. Mark Helprin, A City in Winter

76. Michael Moorcock, Elric: The Stealer of Souls

77. Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, Crónicas de Bustos Domecq (re-read from 2007)

78. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

79. Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

80. Ursula Le Guin, Malafrena

81. Ursula Le Guin, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea

82. Octavia Butler, Kindred

83. Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem, The Man on the Ceiling (ARC)

84. Julia Alvarez, En el tiempo de las Mariposas (Spanish)

85. Lucius Shepard, A Handbook of American Prayer

86. Danilo Kiš, The Encyclopedia of the Dead (re-read from 2006)

87. Danilo Kiš, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich (re-read from 2006)

88. China Miéville, Perdido Street Station (re-read from 2003)

89. China Miéville, The Scar (re-read from 2002)

90. China Miéville, Iron Council (re-read from 2004)

91. China Miéville, King Rat (re-read from 2004)

92. John Crowley, Ægypt: The Solitudes

93. China Miéville, Un Lun Dun (re-read from 2007)

94. China Miéville, Looking for Jake (re-read from 2006)

95. Ann Aguirre, Grimspace

96. Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (re-read from 2004)

97. K.J. Bishop, The Etched City (re-read from 2004)

98. Alejo Carpentier, Concierto barroco (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

99. Nathalie Mallet, The Princes of the Golden Cage

100. Julio Cortázar, Cuentos completos I (Spanish)

101. Umberto Eco and Carlo Maria Martini, ¿En qué creen los que no creen? (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

102. Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents

103. Jonathan Carroll, The Wooden Sea

104. Anton Strout, Dead to Me (review copy)

105. Ernesto Sábato, La resistencia (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

106. Ernesto Sábato, Antes del fin (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

107. Pamela Freeman, Blood Ties (ARC)

108. Moira J. Moore, Heroes Adrift (review copy)

109. Roger Zelazny, The Great Book of Amber

110. Joe Abercrombie, Before They Are Hanged (American ARC)

111. Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings (UK ARC)

112. Samuel Delany, Dhalgren

113. Fritz Leiber, Lankhmar: Tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

114. Ignazio Silone, Bread and Wine (re-read from grad school)

115. Venedikt Erofeev, Moscow to the End of the Line (re-read from 2004)

116. Isamu Fukui, Truancy (review copy)

117. Peadar Ó Guilín, The Inferior (review copy)

118. Yuri Andrukhovych, Perverzion (re-read from 2005)

119. Ernesto Sábato, El túnel (re-read from 2007)

120. Felix Gilman, Thunderer (review copy)

121. Roque Dalton, Las historias prohibidas del pulgarcito (re-read from 2007)

122. David Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague (ARC)

March:

123. Michael Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy (re-read from 2007)

124. Tananarive Due, The Living Blood

125. Jorge Luis Borges, Historia de la eternidad (re-read from 2007)

126. Terry Brooks, Dark Wraith of Shannara (ARC; graphic novel)

127. Jeff VanderMeer, Why Should I Cut Your Throat? (re-read from 2005)

128. Adolfo Bioy Casares, Borges

129. Gabriel García Márquez, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (re-read from 2007)

130. Jorge Luis Borges, El informe de Brodie (re-read from 2007)

131. Adolfo Bioy Casares, La invención de Morel (re-read from 2004)

132. Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory (graphic novel)

133. Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, El Rey de La Habana (re-read from 2007)

134. Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo (re-read from 2007)

135. Horacio Quiroga, Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte (re-read from 2004)

136. Carlos Fuentes, Inquieta compañía (re-read from 2005)

137. Jorge Luis Borges, Elogio de la sombra (re-read from 2007)

138. Jorge Luis Borges, El Martín Fierro (re-read from 2007)

139. Jorge Luis Borges, Biblioteca personal (re-read from 2007)

140. Carlos Fuentes, In esto creo (re-read from 2007)

141. Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Rimas y Leyendas (re-read from 2007)

142. Brian Francis Slattery, Spaceman Blues

143. Alberto Fuguet, Sobredosis (re-read from 2007)

144. Tom Corwin, Mr. Footster: Traveling on a Whim (ARC)

145. Boban Knežević, Black Blossom

146. Steve Erickson, Arc d’X

147. Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods

148. David Petersen, Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 (review copy; graphic novel)

149. Jeff VanderMeer, The Situation (signed, limited-edition)

150. Umberto Eco, Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism

151. Brian Evenson, The Wavering Knife (story collection)

152. Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

153. Michael Cisco, The Tyrant

154. Ekaterina Sedia (ed.), Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy (anthology)

155. Toby Barlow, Sharp Teeth (prose poem)

156. Susan Palwick, Shelter

157. Umberto Eco, Five Moral Pieces (non-fiction)

April:

158. Steven Hall, The Raw Shark Texts

159. Ian McDonald, Brasyl

160. Edward Whittemore, Quin’s Shanghai Circus

161. Ursula Le Guin, Lavinia (review forthcoming elsewhere)

162. Lois Lowery, The Giver

163. Thomas Wiloch, Screaming in Code (prose-poems)

164. Ursula Le Guin, The Earthsea Trilogy (SFBC omnibus)

165. Mitchell Sharmat, Gregory, the Terrible Eater (re-read from childhood)

166. John Joseph Adams (ed.), Wastelands: Stories of Life After Apocalypse (ARC edition; anthology)

167. John Meaney, Bone Song (ARC edition)

168. Nalo Hopkinson (ed.), Mojo: Conjure Stories (anthology)

169. G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who was Thursday (re-read from 2007)

170. Jeffrey Ford, The Shadow Year (ARC edition)

171. Cory Doctorow, Little Brother (ARC)

172. Ben Bova (ed.), Nebula Awards Showcase 2008 (anthology)

173. Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

174. Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

175. Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso: Part One (re-read from grad school; poetry)

176. Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso: Part Two (re-read from grad school; poetry)

177. Salvador Plascencia, The People of Paper (re-read from 2007)

178. Stepan Chapman, The Troika (re-read from 2007)

179. S.E. Hinton, Rumble Fish

180. Robert Hitchen, The Great Conversation (literary criticism)

181. Michael Cisco, The Traitor (re-read from 2007)

182. Liliana Bodoc, Los días de la Sombra (Spanish)

183. Michael Cisco, Secret Hours (re-read from 2007; story collection)

184. Albert Camus, The Stranger (re-read from grad school)

185. Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit (re-read from childhood)

186. James Thurber, The 13 Clocks (re-read from 2007)

187. Elizabeth Hand, Generation Loss (re-read from 2007)

188. Ambrose Bierce, Civil War Stories (story collection)

189. Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (re-read from 2007; story collection)

190. Frank Herbert, Arakis: peščana planeta (Serbian)

191. Frank Herbert, Dune (re-read from 2001)

192. Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber (story collection)

193. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, La sombra del viento (re-read from 2004; Spanish)

194. Italo Calvino, The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount

195. Javier Cercas, La velocidad de la luz (Spanish)

196. Julio Cortázar, Cuentos Completos II (story collection; Spanish)

197. Isabel Allende, La suma de los días (non-fiction; Spanish)

198. Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus

199. Juan Rulfo, Pedro Párama y El llano en llamas (re-read; Spanish)

200. Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead

May:

201. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, El Juego del Ángel (proof; Spanish)

202. Milorad Pavić, Landscape Painted With Tea

203. Sarah Hall, Daughters of the North

204. José Hernández, Martín Fierro (re-read from 2006)

205. Andrzej Sapkowski, The Last Wish (re-read from 2007)

206. James and Kathryn Morrow (eds.), The SFWA European Hall of Fame (anthology)

207. Scott Bakker, Neuropath (ARC)

208. Jannic Durand, Byzantine Art (re-read)

209. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (eds.), Steampunk (anthology)

210. Luís de Camões, Selected Sonnets (bilingual- Portuguese)

211. Luís de Camõoes, The Lusíads

212. George R.R. Martin, Dreamsongs: Volume II (collection)

213. Barth Anderson, The Magician and the Fool (ARC)

214. Amanda Michalopoulou, I’d Like (short stories)

215. Etgar Keret, The Girl on the Fridge (short stories)

216. Antonio Orlando Rodríguez, Chiquita (Spanish)

217. Farah Mendlesohn, Rhetorics of Fantasy

218. Gene Wolfe, An Evil Guest (ARC)

219. Gregory Frost, Lord Tophet (ARC)

220. Tobias Buckell, Sly Mongoose (ARC)

221. Ellen Datlow (ed.), The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (anthology)

222. The Artists of OoP, Out of Picture 2 (anthology; graphic novel)

223. Howard Zinn, A People’s History of American Empire (ARC; graphic novel)

224. Peter David, Tigerheart

225. James Braziel, Birmingham, 35 Miles

226. Paul Kincaid, What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction (non-fiction)

227. Jo Graham, Black Ships (ARC)

228. Jorge Luis Borges, Obra Poética (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

229. Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

230. Kay Kenyon, Bright of the Sky

231. Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, Dos fantasías memorables/Un modelo para la muerte (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

June:

232. Vergil, Aeneid, Books VII-XII (bilingual edition - Latin)

233. Naguib Mahfouz, Voices from the Other World: Ancient Egyptian Tales (short stories)

234. Franz Kafka, The Trial

235. Zoran Živković, Twelve Collections and the Teashop (short stories)

236. Flann O’Brien, The Complete Novels (omnibus)

237. Goran Petrović, La Mano de la Buena Fortuna (Spanish)

238. Slavoj Žižek, The Parallax View

239. Kay Kenyon, A World Too Near (ARC)

240. John Rieder, Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction (non-fiction)

241. D.M. Cornish, Lamplighter (ARC)

242. Alexander Livitsky (ed.), Worlds Apart: An Anthology of Russian Fantasy and Science Fiction (anthology)

243. Alan Campbell, Iron Angel

244. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass

245. Andrew Crumey, Music, in a Foreign Language

246. Andrzej Sapkowski, La espada del destino (Spanish)

247. Maurice Dantec, Cosmos Incorporated

248. Gene Wolfe, Castleview

249. Ekaterina Sedia, The Alchemy of Stone (ARC)

250. Luis Leante, Mira si yo te querré (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

251. Ben Okri, The Famished Road (re-read)

252. Zoran Živković, The Fourth Circle (re-read)

253. Zoran Živković, The Last Book

254. Francie Lin, The Foreigner

255. Tove Jansson, The Summer Book

256. Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

257. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

258. Peter Crowther (ed.), Cities (re-read)

259. Naguib Mahfouz, The Seventh Heaven: Stories of the Supernatural

260. Ian MacLeod, The Summer Isles

261. Adam Roberts, The History of Science Fiction

262. Roberto Bolaño, 2666 (Spanish)

263. Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver

264. Gene Wolfe, Memorare

July:

265. Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages (ARC)

266. Holy Phillips, In the Palace of Repose (story collection)

267. Adam Roberts, Splinter (review copy)

268. Paul Kearney, The Ten Thousand (review copy)

269. Thomas Disch, Camp Concentration

270. Catherynne Valente, The Labyrinth

271. Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (non-fiction)

272. Yasmina Traboulsi, Bahia Blues

273. Jeff VanderMeer, Secret Lives (microfiction collection; limited-edition)

274. Subcommante Marcos, La historia de los colores (re-read from 2003; Spanish)

275. Andrzej Sapkowski, Sangre de los elfos (e-book; Spanish)

276. Andrzej Sapkowski, Tiempo de Odio (Spanish)

277. Various, King Alfred the Great (non-fiction; historical compilation of primary sources)

August:

278. John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium (non-fiction)

279. Jorge Luis Borges, El idioma de los argentinos (Spanish)

280. Javier Negrete, Buscador de sombras/La luna quieta (novella omnibus; Spanish)

281. Javier Negrete, La espada de fuego (Spanish)

282. Angélica Gorodischer, Las jubeas en flor (short story collection; Spanish)

283. Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, After 9/11: America's War on Terror (2001 - ) (graphic novel; non-fiction)

284. Alissa Torres, American Widow (autobiography; graphic novel)

285. Janet Chui and Jason Erik Lundberg, A Field Guide to Surreal Botany (illustrated)

286. Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin

287. Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (non-fiction)

288. Richard Parks, The Long Look (ARC)

289. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen (graphic novel)

290. Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red

291. Fábio Fernandes, A Revanche da Ampulheta (novella; Portuguese)

September:

292. Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence

293. Naguib Mahfouz, Children of the Alley

294. Jeff VanderMeer and Rose Secrest, Leviathan: Volume Two (anthology)

295. George MacDonald, Lilith

296. Milan Kundera, The Joke

297. Taha Muhammad Ali, So What (poetry)

298. Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory: Volume 2 (graphic novel)

299. Brian Evenson, Last Days (ARC)

300. Ma Jian, Beijing Coma

301. Tim Powers, The Stress of Her Regard (re-release ARC)

302. Thomas Ligotti, Teatro Grottesco (short story collection)

303. Steven Erikson, Toll the Hounds

304. Paolo Bacigalupi, Pump Six and Other Stories (short story collection)

305. Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho

306. Guy de Maupassant, A Parisian Affair and Other Stories (short story collection)

307. Elizabeth Bear, Ink and Steel

308. Nisi Shawl, Filter House (short story collection)

309. Elizabeth Bear, Hell and Earth

310. Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels

311. Theodora Goss, In the Forest of Forgetting (short story collection)

312. Jonathan Carroll, The Ghost in Love

October:

313. Thomas M. Disch, The Wall of America (short story collection)

314. Jim Butcher, The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle (graphic novel)

315. Lou Anders (ed.), Sideways in Crime (anthology)

316. Félix de Azúa, Historia de una idiota contada por él mismo (Spanish)

317. Jeffrey Ford, The Physiognomy (new edition; re-read from 2003)

318. Jeffrey Ford, Memoranda (new edition; re-read from 2003)

319. Jeffrey Ford, The Beyond (new edition; re-read from 2003)

320. Matthew Stover, Caine Black Knife

321. Javier Negrete, Alejandro Magno y las águilas de Roma (Spanish)

322. Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

323. Ian C. Esslemont, Return of the Crimson Guard

324. Daren Simkin, The Traveler (illustrated)

325. Andrzej Sapkowski, Blood of Elves

November:

326. Cyril Pedrosa, Three Shadows (graphic novel)

327. Gabriel García Márquez, La hojarasca (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

328. Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (non-fiction)

329. Gabriel García Márquez, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

330. Andrzej Sapkowski, Bautismo de fuego (Spanish)

331. Gabriel García Márquez, Los funerales de la Mamá Grande (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

332. Gabriel García Márquez, La mala hora (re-read from 2007; Spanish)

333. Roberto Bolaño, Estrella distante (Spanish)

334. Federico Fernández Giordano, El libro de Nobac (2008 Premio Minotauro; Spanish)

335. R. Scott Bakker, The Judging Eye (ARC; full review forthcoming)

336. Jorge Volpi, El jardín devastado (Spanish)

337. Jorge Volpi, No será la tierra (Spanish)

338. John Ruskin, The Lamp of Memory (non-fiction)

339. Kelly Link, Pretty Monsters (short story collection)

340. Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (non-fiction)

341. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, A Mind at Peace (ARC)

342. Jeremy C. Shipp, Sheep and Wolves (ARC; short story collection)

343. Jeffrey Ford, The Drowned Life (short story collection)

344. John Langan, Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (short story collection)

345. Álvaro Uribe, La parte ideal (essays; Spanish)

346. Elias Khoury, Yalo

347. Brian Francis Slattery, Liberation (review copy; review forthcoming)

348. Jeff VanderMeer, Predator: South China Sea

349. Dennis McKiernan, City of Jade (review copy)

350. Álvaro Uribe and Olivia Sears (eds.), Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction (anthology)

351. Jorge Volpi, El fin de la locura

352. Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National identity and German Occupation in World War I (non-fiction)

353. L. Timmel Duchamp, De Secretis Mulierum

354. Lisa Tuttle, My Death

355. Jordan Krall, Squid Pulp Blues

December 1-16:

356. Javier Negrete, Salamina (Spanish)

357. J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard

358. Rikki Ducornet, The One Marvelous Thing

359. Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix Plus

360. Lou Anders (ed.), Fast Forward 2 (anthology; review forthcoming)

361. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (eds.), Fast Ships, Black Sails (anthology; review forthcoming)

362. Nick Gevers (ed.), Extraordinary Engines (anthology; review forthcoming)

363. Nick Mamatas and Jay Lake (eds.), Spicy Slipstream Stories (anthology; review forthcoming)

364. Michael Moorcock, Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn (reissue; short story collection)

365. Michael Moorcock, Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress (reissue; short story collection)

366. Jordi Soler, Los rojos de ultramar (Spanish)

So yeah, 366 books read in 351 days, with a couple of weeks of prime reading time ahead for me. Feel free to note which books you've read or own or will be reading shortly, as I'm curious to know which of these others have read.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

So, after that bit last week, I decided that rather than settle for wondering about how one person wrote his review, that I would take the plunge and buy Kristin Cashore's debut YA novel, Graceling, and judge the book on its own merits. About 30 minutes ago, my copy arrived and I thought I'd have the book resting against quite a disparate cast on one of my shelves. Insert various jokes as needed...

I hope to have it finished by this weekend and a review up before Christmas.

More Malazan-related news

The past couple of months have been fairly good ones for Ian Cameron Esslemont, the co-creator of the Malazan Empire setting with Steven Erikson. His second novel, Return of the Crimson Guard, was released in the UK and Canada this fall and his agent announced last week that Esslemont has signed a four-book world rights deal with Transworld (UK).

However, one bit of news that I did not see mentioned as much (okay, outside of Esslemont himself saying it in a recent interview) is that he apparently has signed a U.S. deal as well with Tor books (who also are the publishers of Erikson's novels).

How do I know this? Simple...

Check Amazon's listing for Night of Knives. Scheduled American release date is May 12, 2009. Guess that should clear up any remaining questions about whether or not Esslemont's Malazan books will be published in the U.S. or not, huh?

A call for more discourse

Started a re-read of Michel Foucault's collection of 1976 lectures, Society Must Be Defended, this morning and in the introduction, Arnold I. Davidson, notes the following about discourse and Foucault's comments upon it:

Here discourse is characterized as a battle, a struggle, a place and an instrument of confrontation, "a weapon of power, of control, of subjection, of qualification and of disqualification." Discourse does not simply express or reproduce already constituted social relations:

Discourse battle and not discourse reflection...Discourse - the mere fact of
speaking, of employing words, of using the words of others (even if it means
returning them), words that the others understand and accept (and, possibly,
return from their side) - this fact is in itself a force. Discourse is, with respect
to the relation of forces, not merely a surface of inscription, but something that
brings about effects.

Discourse is not a static exchange, nor is it precisely dynamic. If anything, it is transformative, with the clash (sometimes physically violent, but violence of some sort is always involved) creating new tensions, ripping apart old ideas, leading to different developments. It is, as Foucault says, a "force," one that perhaps ought to be valued and feared for being such.

In reading this, I thought about many things - my undergraduate seminars, my graduate school papers and the resulting debates, of more recent matters - and perhaps what I have found myself missing lately hasn't been a debate or argument (those are often a dime a dozen and worth less), but rather the failure to have a real discourse about matters. It is easy to have Person A take stance X and Person B argue for stance Y, but where is the creation of stance Z, which might incorporate elements of X and Y, but perhaps in an altered state that challenges both stances? Where is the change that often occurs with people who are formulating ideas meet and exchange their views in a fashion that doesn't insulate either from the person confronting those views?

Perhaps a great devotion to discourse among those who read each other's blogs might be in order. Perhaps...

So, a funny thing happened the other day...

I was talking with some students while they were working on an assignment of mine and I mentioned a bit about grad school and just how strange of an experience it was at the time. I began my MA program in German History when I was 22 and most of my classmates were several years older than me. I remember vividly learning that whatever harshness a professor might write on a paper of mine (even though virtually all of mine were B+'s or A's) paled in comparison to seminar discussions where each grad student would take the opportunity to dissect opinions and arguments. In some ways, it became almost an art form, listening (and participating) in the eviscerations of inadequately-supported arguments or theories. Sometimes, I was on the receiving end, while on others, I was the one having to dish it out.

It was an invaluable experience, one that has shaped me quite a bit. So it was with some interest that I read the comments to that little post I made yesterday dissecting another's review. While the comments on this blog were mostly supportive of my stance (home-field advantage?), I took more interest in those comments here and elsewhere that were not as complimentary. Here are a few of the highlights, followed by my commentary:

I find Larry from OF Blog of the Fallen a bit on the nose with his haughty attitude to reviewing, but then to each their own. He certainly is not a fan of Pat (click my name to link to his review of Pat's review)

Ah! The first ad hominem! While it is sad that my nose needs some repair work (severely deviated septum from an errant elbow thrown while playing pickup basketball several years ago), the "haughty attitude" bit is something else. I've made it quite clear in several places over the past year that I strive to push for there to be a higher quality in reviewing, not just for blog reviews, but also for more traditional venues. If that is "haughty" then I guess I'm guilty as charged!

Yeah, Dylanfanatic climbed on his soapbox and whined a bit. But when all is said and done, no one really cares.

I'm guessing this is someone from a forum, likely the Westeros one. How nice of this "Annabelle" to use my handle there instead of my given name (considering I sign all of my blog posts now with my first name and I would have switched handles to my given name on all sites if it weren't such a hassle). Makes it feel oh so personal and distant at the same time, no? Thing is, I wasn't "whining," far from it. If I were to whine, I'd complain about how unfair things were, how the world hates me, and how I ought to cut myself while listening to Evanescence, while dying my toenails black while waiting for my hair dye to dry. Instead, I critiqued. Was it harsh? Perhaps, depending upon one's interpretation. Was it a "soapbox" thing? Maybe in the sense of pushing for improvements, but hey, that's just me and how I roll.

For Christ's sake, I think the review is clear enough. What ever could be confusing here???

Sometimes I feel that some people are dense on purpose...

Dear "Beth," who just posted this within the past hour or so over at Pat's blog, it wasn't a matter of "confusion"; I understood full well that he disliked the book. That was not my argument. My point was that Pat failed to address the book as it was, instead choosing to make broad, sweeping generalizations without any evidence from the book itself to prove his points. It is an easy trap in which to fall and he did.

I'd expect only book porn posts. At least they're not strawmen like this comment on Pat's blog post, and they don't require competence, which makes them your best posts.

This one, posted by a pseudonym called "aegon6," perhaps is my favorite of all. A "strawman" comment tossed about (with no evidence to support this assertation), followed by the sort of comeback that a middle school kid might think would be effective. Yeah, and yo mama too! Whatever...

But this last quip, lacking as it is, contains a kernal of something that I do wish to see from others reading my commentaries and reviews here and elsewhere. If there is a "strawman" in any of my arguments, I want them pointed out with detailed evidence. This ad hominem puerile nonsense doesn't benefit me; it certainly won't convince me to "see the error of my ways." I know there are reviews of mine that are weaker than others; challenge me on those to improve the quality of my writing by noting the things that need shoring up. I'm willing to man up to those faults and the rare times it has occurred, I have learned from it.

Finally, for those who might think it's a "sour grapes" situation, think again. Despite what some might think from reading just that review, I have nothing personal against Pat, but I do have a lot against what I see as shoddy reviews. After all, one can take the grad student away from grad school, but good luck trying to take the grad school out of the former grad student. Upwards and onwards, no?

Trying to grasp a poor review, part deaux

A little over eight months ago, I wrote a commentary on certain reviews that baffled me with their focus, style, or (in one case) with its lacking of evidence to support the reviewer's argument. I think I was a bit premature in some of my presumptions about one of the reviewers quoted there, as it seems Pat of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist has managed to write a review that manages to offend more unwritten review "rules" than I would have scare imagined him to be able to accomplish.

His "review" (if I dare call this piece that would make Dave Itzkoff blush a review) of Kristen Cashore's Graceling frankly is a travesty. Beginning with what appears to be a staple of Pat's reviews, a comparison to contemporary internet darling SF/F authors, it devolves quite a bit. Let's look at the opening paragraph:

I made a strange discovery when I was generating the Amazon links for this book. Throughout the novel, I kept saying that everything I was reading was definitely YA, yet my Gollancz ARC claimed that Kristin Cashore's Graceling would be perfect for fans of Patrick Rothfuss. Plodding on, I kept looking for a reason why they would make that claim. Interestingly enough, once I was done with the book I realized that it was marketed as a YA title in North America. Which, I believe, makes a lot of sense. I'm aware that there are a lot of differences between the British and the North American markets, yet it feels a bit weird that Gollancz is marketing Graceling as a work akin to those of authors such as Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch. Because it lacks the depth, the realism, and the grittiness to make it so.

First off, Pat begins not with setting up a discussion of the book itself, but rather with a comparison between his perception of "Young Adult" literature and that of Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind. While there is a time and a place for comparing authors, this certainly is not the one, especially when he is using publicity blurbs as the basis for such comparisons. Not everyone is going to have access to those, so I am left wondering why he bothers focusing on that. From there, he seizes upon the marketing of the book as YA to claim how it is different from yet more publicist-driven comparisons to newer fantasy authors such as Abercrombie and Lynch. So...what the fuck is this review about? The book, or marketing comparisons? A reader might be pardoned for his or her eyes glazing over and wondering if the book might be worth considering.

The following paragraphs do not improve upon the opener's poor start. If anything, the rhetoric becomes rather overblown and at times, I could not help but wonder if Pat was writing a review of his preconceptions of what constitutes YA literature rather than discussing Cashore's book, as this is the only "discussion" of the book itself:

Katsa was born with an exceptional skill which makes her feared throughout the land -- the Grace of killing. Well nigh invincible, at a young age she becomes the king's enforcer. But Katsa is also a secret agent of the Council, a shadowy group of men and women who are the forces of good in the land. During a mission to rescue a kidnapped foreign monarch, Katsa stumbles upon a mysterious chain of events which seem to make no sense. Investigating further, she will uncover intrigues that will set her against her own king and send her on a quest to unearth the mystery of a one-eyed figure.

Stylistically, Kristin Cashore's tale bears resemblance to Joe Abercrombie's The First Law. Character-driven plot with minimalist worldbuilding pretty much describe Graceling in a nutshell. Unlike Abercrombie, however, Cashore's debut is indubitably YA in style and tone.

The concept of Graces appeared interesting at the beginning, and the author makes a good job of describing the whole process. Alas, the whole thing loses some of its luster when we discover that one can be born with the Grace of sewing, jumping high, or similar talents. As I mentioned, the worldbuilding doesn't intrude on the story and more or less remains in the background. Which is too bad, because at times Cashore's prose can be evocative, and it would have been interesting to discover more about the world she created, as well as the various societies populating it.

Take away the near-obligatory comparison to Abercrombie's debut trilogy and what remains is little more than a Harriet Klausner Amazon quickie with unsupported assertions tossed in for taste. Considering that quite a few readers lament authors that "tell" rather than "show," perhaps that overused maxim might be applied with some justifications to reviews such as Pat's that make general assertions without anything to support it. How is it stylistic similar to Abercrombie's work? What if I hadn't read that book? How the hell would I know what "similar to Abercrombie" would mean? Go to Abercrombie and Fitch, walk around for 5 minutes, then go over to American Eagle and then compare the two without anything in the way of insight into how each has developed their wares?

But the real "beauty" of this review begins with the "Cashore's debut is indubitably YA in style and tone" line. Leaving aside the incredibly strong claim to authority (amusing, considering Pat's refusal to provide any sort of tangible evidence to support his claims), it is Pat's insinuation that YA literature is intrinsically inferior to "gritty" novels such as his favorite duo of Lynch and Abercrombie (as if he hadn't beaten that comparison horse to death in previous reviews of his). But before discussing this at length, more precious quotes from that review:

Endemic to YA books, the politicking makes little sense. Too simplistic to be realistic, it lacks depth and sometimes you just shake your head in wonder. Then again, when I was a young teenager, politics in a fantasy novel were probably the last thing I paid attention to.

Typical to YA novels, the characterization are a bit clichéd. Everything is too black and white, with no room for shades of gray. What Kristin Cashore does well is create endearing characters, even though they are quite predictible. Still, she came up with an engaging bunch that makes for easy reading. Katsa, the main protagonist, is a cross between Drizzt Do'Urden, the Terminator, and Nynaeve al'Meara. There's a definite sense of "girl power" in this one, and the story is told in a very contemporary voice. Hence, though it seems to be aimed at a female teenage readership, it is a world away from similar works from the 80s by Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, or Marion Zimmer Bradley. This being a novel written by a female author for a young adult audience, you know that there will be a love story. Enter the extraordinary and secretive and handsome Prince Po, and there you have it. Though you see it coming from a mile away, this cheesy love story nearly killed the book for me.

À la Salvatore, Cashore can write some thrilling battle scenes, and there are plenty of those in Graceling. Though evocative, the narrative can be juvenile at times, and the same can be said of the dialogues. Still, the author keeps the tale moving at a brisk pace, and other than the love story between Katsa and Po, Graceling is a quick read, especially if you prefer action over depth.

Well, endemic to several of Pat's reviews, we find overly confident descriptors used to cover up fairly weak and unsupported claims. I have read dozens of YA-marketed books over the past couple of years and Pat's claims that the politicking makes little sense is baffling? Is not Cory Doctorow's Little Brother marketed as YA and does it not contain a plausible, cogent view of a post-9/11 society that could (have gone) go bad? What about Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels? This claim makes very little sense and could in fact be seen as being rather dismissive of the socio-political messages buried within several YA-marketed novels over the years.

But it is typical of Pat, it seems, to aspire to an expertise that I doubt he has. Leaving aside my observation in the past that Pat rarely attempts to write insightful reviews that delve into the books at hand, nothing he has shown has demonstrated any real awareness of the field. He quotes publicity blurbs in place of developing an informed opinion regarding the field. His claims of "typical to YA novels" (as if this is almost solely the province of Young Adult literature and not something that a great many books spanning several genres have done) there being "clichéd" characterization is almost priceless. I guess someone will have to tell Margo Lanagan that her characters are somehow "clichéd," or perhaps D.M. Cornish might appreciate knowing that about Rossamünd's character.

Then comes the "black and white" commentary. Telling, rather than showing, leaving one to wonder if this is in fact true. How characters can be "endearing" but "predictable" without anything cited as evidence makes me wonder even more. But when Pat makes his whopper of a comparison (between an R.A. Salvatore character, the Terminator, and a Wheel of Time female character), I began then to wonder if he had gone batshit crazy with the unsupported comparisons and lazy substitution of unsubstantiated opinion for revealing citations. At this point, I still barely know anything about this book that might not be gleaned from reading either the back cover or from a publicity copy (if I had a publicity copy of said book). What the fuck is this book about, again?

Pat's "girl power" quip and the standard-issue female comparison point for him (after all, it really isn't a Pat review until he keeps comparing the work, unsupported with commentary of course, to other authors who may or may not be related at all in style, tone, plot, or characterization to the novel at hand) alone will likely draw the ire of many. It is rather telling that already some of the commenters at his site have lauded Pat for not being "politically correct" or "telling it like it is." However, I believe if one were to "tell it like it is," one might be tempted to note the general boorish cluelessness of such a comment. True, it is not surprising, considering Pat's past history with "chick lit" remarks. Still, with that and the snarky comment about the "you know there will be romance in it" made me wonder if there might be a touch of misogyny in Pat, considering how regular those types of comments are made when certain books are reviewed. Then again, I perhaps should withdraw that comment, since it would have as little evidence supporting it (OK, only a tad bit more) as Pat has for making said comments in several of his reviews of books written by female authors.

But á la...someone, I guess, Pat's review wimpers down with absolutely no explanation behind his comments, no support for his assertations, nothing to balance what appears at first (second, third?) glance to be bantam-cock posturing with nothing of substance behind it. All I know about the book at this point is that apparently it is set in a secondary-world, that there is some romance and battles to it, and that the main character seems to be an amalgam of disparate fictional characters. Perhaps the final paragraph to the review will provide some sort of closure:

In the end, Kristin Cashore's Graceling is a fast-paced and accessible read. The book should appeal to fans of writers such as Maggie Furey, Trudi Canavan, and Elaine Cunningham.

The final verdict: 6.75/10

Nope. Just more of the same.

So...anyone have links to other reviews of this book so I can gain a better insight into the book itself, rather than into the reviewer's biases?

Blogger Book Club: Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix Plus

Painted aircraft flew through the core of the world. Lindsay stood in knee-high grass, staring upward to follow their flight.

Flimsy as kites, the pedal-driven ultralights dipped and soared through the free-fall zone, far overhead. Beyond them, across the diameter of the cylindrical world, the curving landscape glowed with the yellow of wheat and the speckled green of cotton fields. (p. 3)

The scene above from the prologue to Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix embodies much of the style of this SF novel and its related short stories. Short, sharp staccato sentence bursts, containing brief but visceral images, serve to create vivid settings for the action that follows. Sterling, along with William Gibson, often is cited as being one of the founding fathers of the 1980s cyberpunk movement, and while I am unfortunately largely ignorant of their works, if Sterling's omnibus Schismatrix Plus is representative of the quality of the work being produced during this time, then perhaps I ought to reconsider my avoidance of cyberpunk fiction.

Schismatrix Plus contains the novel Schismatrix (1985) along with the earlier related short stories "Swarm" (1982), "Spider Rose" (1982), "Cicada Queen" (1983), "Sunken Gardens" (1984), and "Twenty Evocations" (1984). These stories revolve around a humanity that has split into two rival posthuman groups, the Shapers (who favor genetic and neural manipulation) and the Mechanists (who prefer mechanical alterations to the human body). Fleeing from a degraded Earth, over a span of several centuries, these groups have competed to control interplanetary trade, often with deadly results. Complicating matters is the arrival just before the setting of these tales of a reptilian alien race called the Investors, enigmatic and unwilling to depart with their interstellar secrets without a ransom's worth of energy and rare metals.

In these stories, Sterling explores issues such as human greed, our desire to explore and to dominate our surroundings, hatreds that emerge out of ignorance and confusion, among others. In the main novel, the apparently renegade Shaper Abelard Lindsay (doubtless a fitting, allusion-filled name, considering his namesake's history) lives many lives over a span of several hundred years. Through his character, Sterling comments upon many of the issues noted above. While often fascinating, especially considering that the novel takes up barely 230 pages (with another 85 or so devoted for the short stories), I often found myself struggling to make it through the early chapters, perhaps because of the above-mentioned staccato-like pattern to Sterling's writing. Lindsay's life intrigued me, but it took getting over halfway through the novel before enough information had been revealed; at first it was a bit too machine gun-like with the prose, with events and their consequences being set up and developed over just a few paragraphs, rather than the pages or even chapters to which I am more accustomed.

But the novel concluded satisfactorily for me. However, the short stories, especially "Swarm," caused much fewer problems in regards to comprehending Sterling's message embedded within the prose. It appeared to me that Sterling's prose is more suited for a short fiction style, as his tendency to write short, snappy passages that lead to a build up and concluding plot twist remind me more of the classic short stories I have read in the past than of most novels, whose longer structures lend themselves to a more leisurely pace. Regardless of my own conflicted feelings concerning the prose style, ultimately I came to appreciate and like what Sterling had accomplished with this Shaper/Mechanist universe. His explorations of basic human motivations, extrapolating these into a posthuman setting, manages to keep his fiction feeling "fresh" and not dated like many older fictions become once the generational concerns of that time have faded into historical obscurity. Schismatrix Plus certainly is worthy of its fame and I suspect that many readers who were children or unborn in 1985 will find new things to discover when reading it.

Other Reviews:

Twigs and Brambles

Post-Weird Thoughts

Adventures in Reading