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More on Colin Cotterill's spirits

post from Detectives Beyond Borders: A Forum for International Crime Fiction on 04 July 2009 11:48:00 PM. © Detectives Beyond Borders: A Forum for International Crime Fiction

Colin Cotterill is the supernaturalist's answer to readers who don't like the supernatural in their crime stories. Here's a bit more from Curse of the Pogo Stick, fifth novel in Cotterill's series about Dr. Siri Paiboun of Vientiane, Laos:

"These small bamboo structures were miniature reconstructions of actual bridges but in this case they had no water to cross. They traditionally offered a shortcut for lost souls to return to their host. One was customary. Four suggested a hell of a lot of souls had gone missing from this particular house."

"A hell of a lot of souls" is wonderful, resonant, funny and unexpected. It nicely captures the simultaneous irreverence and respect with which Cotterill portrays the worlds of the supernatural and of those who believe in it. Dr. Siri is both a scientist ? the chief and only coroner in post-Communist-revolution Laos ? and a shaman, an unwilling conduit to the spirit world. Does he believe in the spirits with which he comes into contact and which sometimes help him solve mysteries? He has no choice:

"My biggest problem as a practicing cynic, however, is that I'm aligned, against my will and better judgment, to another world. ... I don't know how it's possible, but damn it, it's there. So I resort to the rules of the supernatural. I begin by seeing whether the incredible can be explained through their rules. And when that world tells me something is off-kilter and implausible, I know I have to think as a human. I have to use logic. My visit to the Otherwold told me I had to look for earthly solutions to this mystery."

That's one of the nicer accounts by a fictional detective of his own methods. Among the books' achievements, in addition to their engaging, sympathetic characters, their compassion, and their jabs at Communist bureaucracy, is that they invite respectful consideration, without dogma, mumbo-jumbo or embarrassment and with good humor, of the spiritual world and its role in human lives.

=======================

The illustration of Curse of the Pogo Stick's UK cover comes from the author's own Web site, one of the cleverer and more amusing of its kind. Take a look.

© Peter Rozovsky 2009

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its.html

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Today July 4th, 2009 in Washington, D.C.

post from NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS on 04 July 2009 11:21:05 PM. © NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS

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By the Numbers (of a d20)

post from Brit Lit Blogs on 04 July 2009 11:15:29 PM. © Brit Lit Blogs

I must apologise for the lack of content from me; June turned out to be a fantastically busy month. I'll be back next week with at least one new post, but for now here's a reprint SFX review, from a few months back, to be getting on with: Rides a Dread Legion (2009), by Raymond E. Feist. After a run of good review books, it all went a bit pear-shaped...

Reader, beware: this may be the first in a new series, but there is a serious weight of backstory here. No less than twenty-four books written or co-written by Feist are set in the same universe. At times, during this instalment, it feels like the characters are going to synopsize the plot of each and every one.

It is easy to see why Feist keeps returning to the same well: it is a rewardingly complex creation, made up of multiple fantastical planets (and planes of existence) reachable by magical portals. The story possibilities are enormous, and glimpses of the ?deep? past are fascinating, like the fact that a community of elves living in splendid Lothlorien-esque peace, the eledhel of Elvandar, once built their power upon enslavement of other races. Unlike so many fantasy worlds, Feist?s is no static, pseudo-medieval society that has endured unchanging for thousands of unlikely years.

In practice, though, past books have generally boiled the story possibilities down to magical invasion ? usually of Midkemia, home of human, dwarves and eledhel. The new series looks to be no exception. But Dread Legion spends most of its length in explanation and set-up, as an elven people called the taredhel flee the demonic ravaging of their home planet for Midkemia, and the usual suspects line up to defend the world once again.

Some of the set-up is plot-necessary, if inelegantly done. A handful of taredhel spend several chapters explaining their history to each other, and to an audience in Elvandar. The omniscient narration gives us the new characters? backgrounds, generally in large chunks of text when they first enter the story. Elsewhere, though, the exposition only serves to highlight how entangled this story is with the existing continuity, as a seemingly endless litany of references to past adventures ? many of which sound more interesting than the present one ? slows the pace to a crawl.

There is limited action, and it tends to read like turn-based combat straight out of a roleplaying game. [Aside: The world of Midkemia began life as a roleplaying setting dreamt up by Feist when he was in college. So the very D&D fights are probably no coincidence...] Overly-precise information about the mechanics of spells and demon defences ? and tension-puncturing language like someone receiving only ?a nasty bump? after being magically slammed into a cave wall ? get in the way of any thrills or grit. Certain characters, like troubled knight Sandreena, are interesting, but many are distinguishable only by name and backstory. Returnees like Pug, so fully portrayed in novels like Magician, are poorly served here.

~~Nic

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3:AM Reloaded

post from Brit Lit Blogs on 04 July 2009 10:40:08 PM. © Brit Lit Blogs

What you (may have) missed on 3:AM recently:

Fiction: ‘The Long Drop’ by Nick Garrad & ‘Something, Anything’ by David Holub

Poetry: ‘The Roaring Twenties’ by Joseph Ridgwell

Reviewed: Richard Marshall on Jet Set Desolate & Seeing Dark Things, Jonathan Woods on When Skateboards Will Be Free, Karl Whitney spends Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, Max Dunbar visits This is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood & James Bridle on The Devil’s Paintbrush

Non-Fiction: ‘Friday I’m in Love’ kicks-off with Kitchen of Distinction, Attila the Stockbroker’s tribute to Steven Wells, Kimberly Nichols’ new column ‘Fig Meant #1′, Stewart Home spends ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ with Primitive London, Graham Rae on Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown:

What Billy Bob and his bands of merry pranksters-cum-emo-clowns have taken eight albums to tell us is that they are burned out and have absolutely nothing to say. How many times do they have to say it before the audience takes the hint and moves on? How many times must Armstrong raid the outdated farcical arsenal of outdated 20th century extremist punk give-em-enough-rope tropes before the audience just tells them to fuck off and not come back? From my vantage point, these advantaged millionaires have come to the end of their sonic road and nothing they ever say or do again could be of any interest to me whatsoever. Armstrong, just give it up. You don?t have the brains or lyrical or musical talent to be some sort of anarcho-punk leader, you?re a Joe Strummer wannabe and your lyrics suck shit.

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http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/3am-reloaded-15/

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Maybe they’re still waiting for jet packs
and hoverboards…

post from Bookninja on 04 July 2009 08:37:00 PM. © Bookninja

A lovely blog post lambasting the big three magazines of science fiction and fantasy: Asimov?s, Analog, and F&SF.

“That the ?big three? science fiction magazine won?t accept electronic submissions in this day and age isn?t merely anachronistic in both a business and social sense, it?s actually a bit embarrassing. Written science fiction already has enough problems working around the image that it is trapped in its own alternate universe branching off from 1971; the fact the major print publications of the genre deal with the electronic era as if it was something to be handled from a great distance, with tongs, isn?t helping any of us. The editors of the magazines are always talking about how they love seeing new writers, but I can?t help but think one of the reasons they have difficulty publishing new writers is that they?re showing up to the party in the communication equivalent of 70s powder blue polyester leisure suits and trying to assure the kids that seriously, they?re hip ? why, they listen to that groovy cat Dan Folgelberg and everything. I mean, shit, guys. Meet 2009 half way, you know?”

Oh, John Scalzi. How we loves you, precious.

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http://www.bookninja.com/?p=5620

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Sunday Book Coveting... Another Library Overload

post from The Written World on 04 July 2009 08:01:00 PM. © The Written World

Okay, these books are all due back to the library on the 9th. I might be able to renew some of them, but this is the last of the books from me hitting 'renew all' instead of 'renew selected'.

Tender morsels by Lanagan, Margo - Nymeth's favourite of the year so far, really have to read!
Exodus by Bertagna, Julie
Grim Tuesday by Nix, Garth - Continuing on with series.
Orphans of chaos by Wright, John C.
The secret hour by Westerfeld, Scott - Stalled on reading him, need to get back into it.
The wee free men : a story of Discworld by Pratchett, Terry - Buddy read
Powers by Le Guin, Ursula K. - Last book in trilogy
Dragon slippers by George, Jessica Day
Off with their heads! : fairy tales and the culture of childhood by Tatar, Maria
The language of the night : essays on fantasy and science fiction by Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Queen of Attolia by Turner, Megan Whalen - Continuing on with series
The fox woman by Johnson, Kij - Made Nymeth's Top Ten of the year so far

So, 12 books... Wonder how I will make out?

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post from on 04 July 2009 07:23:16 PM. ©

National Geographic Kids Feature on Half-Blood Prince[...]

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Dear Diary...Move over Virginia , final
instalment

Thursday June 3rd
Busy Bees meeting, I'm in charge - no meeting
I think there might have been rebellion, a swarming in fact because there are no more Busy Bees entries.
Tact may succeed where cleverness fails.
Monday June 7th
Picnic on Mitcham Common, don't want to go.
Unpunctuality is slackness - nothing else.
Inbetween all this I have been enrolled at Guides having passed theessential skills of knots , flags and bed-making (to include envelopecorners) been to the library (many times) Birchington-on-Sea andHampton Court, I'd been to endless C of E confirmation classes and thenwas confirmed and now I'm obviously getting low on news.
Thursday June 10th
Duke of Edinburghs birthday
Self control is essential to good manners.
Then towards July and my final weeks at Primary school I have clearly switched allegiance from Juliet
July 13th
Carols (my best friend) birthday
Nobody is indispensable.
The end of term is nigh, remember how we did all the work
July 22nd
Spring cleaning.Polished our tables
Culture is one thing varnish another.
We also moved this week, from Mitcham to Wallington and a house on the banks of the River Wandle.
I then seem to have sensibly spent every day teaching myself to swim at Mitcham Baths rather than in the Wandle until
10th August
Can now swim
Let the shipwrecks of others be your sea-marks.
30th August
Went to see Mary Poppins
It's easier to offer objections than to get busy.
and then that's it, off to senior school and no time for the fripperies of a diary but for two further entries
October 17th
Homework, ugh
Success requires pains and brains.
December 28th
Get a new diary
Well begun is half done.
And as for that Sunday School panto?
WellI think it's clear I was a natural on the stage, bringing joy andhumour to the performance, and is it any wonder I'm loving Susie Boyt'sMy Judy Garland Life.
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

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-over-virginia-next-instalment.html

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TT: Out of the past

On Friday NPR broadcast a story by John McDonough about the last great reunion of veterans of the American Civil War, which took place in Gettysburg in 1938. The ceremonies were broadcast live on network radio, and McDonough's story contained excerpts from surviving airchecks of those broadcasts. You can listen to the story here.It occurred to me after listening to the NPR story that someone might have posted newsreel footage of the 1938 reunion on YouTube. Sure enough, a fair amount of the footage is available for viewing. Here are two clips. The first is a silent montage of newsreel excerpts:
video details and more

The second is a seventeen-second-long sound clip that shows Union and Confederate veterans shaking hands over the stone wall at Bloody Angle:
video details and more

Lest we forget!

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http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/2009/07/tt_out_of_the_past_1.html