Author Archives: Craig

Gargantua Review

Gargantua; Rabelais, tr. Brown. No. I have frequently run across references to the Rabelaisian sense of humor (well, usually “humour”, in the contexts where I’m running into it), to the point that I thought I should investigate beyond inferring that it’s sesquipedalian for “fart jokes”. I may try again later with a different translation, but I got the distinct impression that this translator was too in love with his own voice to let me hear Rabelais’s.

A Spot of Bother Review

A Spot of Bother, Haddon. Yes. I didn’t enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the Dog in the Night-time. Haddon very nearly overdoes the bother (I recall thinking at one point that if he didn’t settle down, I was going to give up on it), and it’s not clear to me he knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish, but it wasn’t disqualifyingly painful. Sensitive souls may wish to skip to the end of the chapter upon encountering the scissors.

Winds of Marble Arch Review

The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories: A Connie Willis Compendium, Willis. Yes. Publishers Weekly calls it brilliant. While a couple of the stories may reach brilliance, most are merely good, with a few very good and some pretty good. I wish the collection included the dates of the stories, so I could tell whether I think she’s getting better or if I just enjoy some of her themes more than others.

D.A. Review

D.A., Willis. Yes. This breezy novella (possibly even a novelette) is a loving hommage to the Heinlein juveniles. Since Willis captures all the charm of those works without the eye-poking, it was quite pleasant.

Always Review

Always, Griffith. Yes. I found myself wanting to recommend this book to almost everyone I know, mostly because different aspects of the book reminded me of many people I know. The only aspect of the writing that I found a bit distracting was Griffith’s ruthless verbal touring. It seems as though she gives the reader every turn as her heroine navigates the city. I may have noticed this more, since I’m relatively familiar with the city, so I may find another of her books with the same heroine set somewhere else, to find whether I experience the same level of distraction.

Annals of the Western Shore Review

Gifts, Voices, and Powers; Le Guin. Yes. I read these out of order, starting with Powers because I didn’t notice it was part of a series (one of the hazards of avoiding knowing anything about a book before reading it). The reading didn’t suffer much from the different sequencing. These are sturdy young-adult works, exploring complex themes as Le Guin can.
I can find no indication whether there will be more Annals forthcoming.

Anywaaaaayyyyy

The BBC News Magazine used to include images of the front pages of many of the dailies. Lawyers put an end to that, but they continue to have Paper Monitor, which occasionally gives us such a gem as this:

The [Telegraph] does today have the privilege of having a column by the man of the moment, Sebastian Faulks, who has written the new Bond novel. After a few observations about how remarkable Ian Fleming’s family are, he tells an awfully amusing tale about how he was watching his barrister brother appearing in court last week but then realised that he didn’t know if his phone was switched off and because it was a new phone (a device, you might say), he didn’t know how to check if it was on or not without making it beep or buzz. Anywaaaaayyyyy, as it turns out, the phone didn’t actually go off, but boy was that a close thing. That’s some anecdote.