2008-09-20»
finding good books by staring at selected authors in public settingsยปWent out to SF in SF, where science fiction writers read their works out loud to earth humans. Traditionally, I’m the sort of science fiction reader who gets bought those huge “The Entire Fucking Year in Science Fiction” anthologies by a relative at Christmas, reads them all the way through, and then never buys anything else for another year. These days, I’m spending a lot of time very very close to science fiction fans (it’s a thing we new fans like to do: stand uncomfortably close to you), which means I get to hear about the good stuff without having to wait for Christmas and/or having no-one to talk to about it. Istill have not got to the point where I can remember anyone’s names, let alone annoyingly recite their own plot points back to them at cons, so real aficionados have to introduce all authors to me as “you remember, Danny, that guy who wrote that X you said you really liked”
The speaking writers this month were Nick Mamatas, who is that guy who writes the Cthulhu mythos story in the style of Jack Kerouac, and David Levine who is that guy who wrote that Tk’tk’tk story. They were interviewed by Terry Bisson, who I only found out afterwards is totally that guy who wrote They’re Made Out of Meat.
The stories they read were great: during his tale, Mamatas shifted slowly in my mind into the very slightly new category of that guy who wrote the Cthulhu mythos story in the style of Raymond Carver. And after Levine‘s reading, I have him mentally categorised now as “The Ted Chiang of Toontown”. If I’d heard either of those descriptions independent of my own head, I’d want to go read them, and so should you.