Hemmingway, Steinbeck, and O'Neil

Saving this here for future reference.  Periodically, I will not finish a book and will reference Dorothy Parker.  Dorothy was a writer from the early 20th century.  She is mistakenly credited with saying "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."  [I think George Kaufman actually said it.  Dorothy repeated it without attribution in a setting where attribution wasn't really called for.]

In Season 5, Episode 14 of the TV show M*A*S*H, Radar O'Reilly says that he was accepted by the Famous Las Vegas Writers School run by Hemingway, Steinbeck, and O'Neil*.

We find out that the school is run by Ethel Hemingway, Jerry Steinbeck, and Eunice O'Neal.

This post is just a reminder of that sort of flowery writing.  Lots of telling.  Not much showing.

Not worth reading.  Worthy of being tossed aside.  With great force.

Something to watch in the meantime.

*An obvious reference to Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Eugene O'Neil.  I'd never heard of Eugene O'Neil before.  I had heard of his son-in-law.

Review: Theft of Fire

Theft of Fire by Devon Eriksen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review which is a reasonable estimate of my experience. Perhaps 4.5 stars, but I was so engaged that rounding it to 5 is justified.

The story is largely focused on three characters.

Marcus - an asteroid miner turned pirate. Still living with and attempting to resolve his many mistakes over the years. One of those mistakes cost him his father. His father's advice rings on in his head.

Miranda - a trophy daughter designed by a trophy wife who, with enough money, was able to ensure that Miranda would have all of the features her mother desired - genetic a la carte progeny! And she wants to be so much more in a family that simply expect so much less.

and Leela - an AI who doesn't know she is an AI until Marcus spills the beans.

The three of them are off to the outer reaches of our solar system in search of the most valuable archeological find in the history of humanity.

It was supposed to be a quick smash and grab. Get it there quietly. Find it. Stow it. And get away. It was a plan. But a plan is just a list of things that won't happen.

This book was formerly a part of this years SFSPC. More on that in the spoiler section.

The premise seemed to be pretty standard stuff. I hoped for entertainment, but didn't think there would be much meat on the bones. Boy was I wrong.

There are several important themes running throughout the book.

What is the value of government in a human society? Can we do better via straight contracts?

What is the impact of monopolies on society?

What sort of class struggle might exist between an elite class that holds all of the technology and the people who must submit to strict contracts in order to obtain just enough technology to survive?

What does it take for the powerful to recognize the humanity of those that aren't "elite"?

How badly can parents screw up their children?

How badly can children fail their parents?

What is it like to be a woman dealing with cultural expectations?

What is it like to be a man who is more than his base desires despite society only seeing him as the product of those desires?

And of course...are AI truly alive and worthy of being considered something more than property?

Our trio of strangers gets tossed together and forced to deal with one another as well as their individual histories. Marcus relearns the concept of honor while Miranda discovers that honor is more important than money and contracts. They both learn to value one another beyond the superficial details of their lives.

I don't expect that kids will be reading "Theft of Fire" 30 years from now as an example of great genre literature. There are a few eye-rolling moments as well as some popular culture call backs that break reader contact with the narrative.

But I hope they will still be reading "Theft of Fire" because it is fun, engaging, and more than a little thought provoking.

The spoiler space is because the rest of this is political. IMO, politics in genre fiction should primarily be generated by the substance of the story and not based on outside factors. If the above review has you interested, then please skip the spoiler space and go read the book. I promise it is worth the purchase.

[the spoiler]

You looked anyway, didn't you? Mistake.

The author's wife thought it would be cool if his book was entered into this years Self Published Science Fiction Competition. She didn't tell Devon. She just entered the book. That is an entirely acceptable submission method according to the SPSFC staff.

Fast forward a few months and someone has located some posts that Devon wrote on his web site and on X that were...intemperate. That's being kind to Devon. More accurately, he acted as if he was a commando in the First Chair Force, Neon Keyboard Division.

He is conservative. Devon's statements approve of returning illegal aliens to their home countries. He also said something about tossing communists out of helicopters. He also has a lengthy rant that where he appears to describe a very odd sort of horseshow theory where fascism is needed to counter communism.

FTR, I disapprove of speaking positively about tossing anyone out of helicopters. I also am not impressed with keyboard commandos who talk a tough a game behind several hundred miles of fiber cable.

Having seen a tiny bit of war at a distance closer than most, I zero respect to positive references to violence. Fascism...the real deal and not just modest disagreement...leads to a bad place and should be rejected at all costs.

The only thing worse than fascism is communism. [But of course, no one gets removed from a competition or a speaking engagement for wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt or speaking kindly of Uncle Joe. And of course, supporting those that "punch a Nazi" are fine according to those who dominate the literary world.]

You can read more about the entire imbroglio here.

Someone made a stink about Devon's posts. The SPSFC did the only thing that one can apparently do when faced with such a situation. They wrote a Code of Conduct (CoC) 4 months after the competition had begun. They they used this sparkling new CoC to justify removing Eriksen's book from the competition.

A competition he didn't enter. A CoC that he never agreed to abide by.

This sort of post hoc "justice" will make Lenin and Stalin beam with joy. That unusual hum centered Sutton Courtenay in England would be George Orwell spinning in his grave.

The SPSFC committee didn't get the response they apparently expected. As of this date, 12 authors have requested that their books be removed from the competition. Many of those authors clearly stated that they didn't agree with Devon's statements (far from it), but they were more disturbed by the actions of the SPSFC committee.

When faced with speech that they found disagreeable, those authors opted for the best solution - more speech. Not bans. Not a post hoc dismissal based on an ex post facto "Code". Just comment on the facts so that their voices are heard.

I've been in a few discussions since this began. Almost uniformly, my interlocutor will run to the defense of the SPSFC volunteers. Why it is unreasonable to expect them to read material from such a loathsome creature! Think of the rights of those volunteers!

Never mind the fact that several of the themes is Devon's book are reasonably supportive of left leaning perspectives. There's even a brief line in the book in support of tolerance of the trans community!

I disagree. By offering a public competition, those volunteers acquired an obligation to consider all of the books that were submitted. They are free to use their free speech rights to criticize a book that is poorly written or has unproductive themes. They could certainly append any review with a statement about the author's political writings as being..."problematic".

The cure for disagreeable speech is more speech.

What they may not do is remove a book from the competition in the manner described above. That is a violation of their obligation.

While I have had great success reading books from fantasy self published competition, my experiences with SPSFC have been lack-luster at best.

Despite his warts, Mr. Eriksen has written a fine novel. It is in turns amusing and inspiring of tears. Theft of Fire is in keeping with a long and storied science fiction tradition of exploring large issues as well as examining close, personal relationships.

I look forward to book #2 in the series; Box of Trouble. Due out later this year.

[2 word edits]


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Review: Heart of the Mountain

Heart of the Mountain by Larry Correia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review. That covers my experience with the entire series.

Larry Correia has managed the difficult task of writing a 6-book series with a cascade of challenges faced by our hero and his friends. Usually, making the "big bad" of each book bigger and badder than the previous book means that the "big bad" in the last book is just unbelievable.

Not so in this case.

The resolve at the end of the book allows great closure for all of the characters that the reader has become familiar with. Buy the series. Sit back. Enjoy the ride. It's worth every penny.

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Review: A Strange Penance

A Strange Penance by Cassandra Byrne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. More like 3.5 stars but not enough to push it to 4.

This is a pretty good story about a guy who just wants to go back to a time when his mom read him books. But life hands him a shit sandwich and he ends up being a pretty rough and tumble character in trouble with the authorities and set on a bad path.

Things go bad. And then worse. And a little better. If you don't think about the plot much, this is a pretty good story. By the end, I wanted to know more about the characters.

But it ends just as the characters and the story are going someplace. It really felt like the start of a pretty good novella rather than the beginning-middle-end of a short story. Kind of frustrating, but in a good way.

However, when you think about the story, there are a couple of elements that really stick out. The first is the power imbalance between our anti-hero and his benefactor. In any other tale, we would questioned the benefactor's motives and certainly questioned whether the power imbalance would allowed any long-term relationship to be legitimate/successful.

The second is that the relationship between our anti-hero and his benefactor at the end of the story isn't really earned. A little work...just a couple of sentences...earlier in the story to justify the later relationship would have been enough. Call it Chekov's Love Gun.

I'm not giving away the details as I don't want to spoil the story. It is worth a read. Give it a buy/try.

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Minor edits for grammar 2/20/2025

Review: The Incident with the Pirate

The Incident with the Pirate by Cassandra Byrne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review.

I don't want to spoil a great story. Spend a buck and buy this. Very well done.

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Review: The Innocence of Death

The Innocence of Death by E.G. Stone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review which is a charitable rating. This book was a hard DNF - Dorothy Parker would be proud of how far I heaved this one.

Our protagonist is a marketing guru. Death decides he needs help polishing up his image and gives our "hero" a choice; die right here and now or serve Death in the hereafter. He goes with option 2.

Shortly thereafter, our hero finds himself with some sort of eternal computer connected to various social networks and an administrative assistant. She is some sort of troll/giant/something big.

Usually, the fish spends more time pondering the lack of water before figuring out how things work. In this book, our protagonist slips into his new role with little muss and less fuss. I checked out when his administrative assistant sits on a sofa that cartoonishly bends/tilts to force our hero to slide down into her.

The plot had generally lost me, and that sort of cartoonish action caused me to move onto something else. Skip this and read something good.

If you want to experience a "fish out of water" and "hero dies and lives on in the hereafter" book, then please read "On A Pale Horse" by Piers Anthony. The first 6 books of that series are great.

But stop after book 6. Please.

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Modest edits for grammar/spelling 2/20/2025

Review: Iron Truth

Iron Truth by S.A. Tholin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review which is a fair estimate of my experience.

This book won the Self Published Science Fiction Contest.

The first three fourths of the book was really pretty good. Solid sci-fi involving colony ships, crash landings, and weird worlds. Then it diverted into some religious stuff.

I'm OK with religion in fantasy. And faith in some unknowable whatever in sci-fi is OK. But when you suggest that there is an active, mystical component in sci-fi, it stops being sci-fi for me. The last quarter of the book lost me.

Well written, but the plot went off the rails.

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Grimdark Magazine and the End of an Era

I have been a long-time supporter of Grimdark Magazine (hereafter GdM).  Fantasy stories featuring morally compromised protagonists doing the best they can in a flawed world appeal to me.

I have nominated the publisher Adrian Collins and editor Beth Tabler for the Best Editor, Short Fiction Hugo Award as well as the magazine itself in the appropriate category.  They generally do a great job at finding interesting stories for GdM.  GdM's anthology projects have also been outstanding.

To be clear, I wish them the best in their efforts to provide top-notch fantasy fiction to Grimdark fans and readers.  I hope they continue to attract new customers.  

I've traded emails with Adrian over the years and interacted with him on the Grimdark Readers and Writers group on Facebook.  He's a great guy.  I've also had some contact with Beth via an anonymous account.  Again, a perfectly delightful individual.

The direction of the magazine has shifted over the last 12+ months.  As a result, I have canceled my Patreon support for the magazine.

The short version is that I have less interest in reading GdM.  I downloaded the 10th Anniversary issue (#40) and found that I had 4 or 5 issues that I had left unread.  My motivation for reading GdM has apparently declined.

Issue #40 made it clear why I haven't been as interested in GdM.  There has been a significant shift in the editorial objective of GdM.

In past years, it seemed that GdM was committed to publishing the best stories, interviews, and reviews within the Grimdark sub-genre.  GdM didn't care who you were.  If you could tell a great story, do a great interview, or write a compelling review, then they wanted to print your work.

The lead editorial in issue #40, by Krystle Matar, was titled "Grimdark, Home of the Other".  In it, she proclaims:

The future of grimdark lies in its diversity.

Hogwash.  The pursuit of diversity is absolutely a vice.  Pursuing diversity at the expense of excellence harms everyone.  It harms readers by neglecting to provide the very best writing possible.  It harms authors by reducing the opportunities and incentives for them to refine their craft and tell the best stories possible.

My past practice was to skim through GdM interviews and reviews.  I stopped doing even that much after running into far too many articles that included an identitarian "As a [inserted gender/ethnicity combination here], I feel...".

Their identity may well contribute to the types of stories an author tells.  But it is not the measure of their ability as a writer.  Can they tell a solid story?  

One potential illustration of how an emphasis on diversity may be harming the genre is the first featured fiction story in GdM issue #40.  "Little Mermaid, In Passing" by Angela Slatter was originally published in 2017.  It is a fine enough story.  It is also a derivative tale that relies on existing stories to tell a new one.  If there were not enough solid stories in the slush pile to fill out this issue, then re-running a previously published story is a reasonable choice.  But should an older, derivative work be the leading piece of fiction in an anniversary issue ahead of new and original work?

Story/interview/review selection and placement also tell the reader something about the priorities of a publication.  

Being open to new perspectives and different sources of fiction is absolutely a virtue.  While it is harmful to use diversity as a key performance indicator, everyone should be open to new perspectives and new sources of genre fiction.  The doors should be open wide to everyone.  

I enjoy the works of a wide range of authors.  Currently, two authors whose works I almost automatically purchase have identity-related features that might surprise some.  Reading the works of C.T. Rwizi and Rebecca Roanhorse is almost always a solid, entertaining experience.  If you haven't experienced their fiction, please seek it out.  You will not be disappointed. 

I am a Hugo nominator and voter.  I participate in that process because I value high-quality genre fiction regardless of the source.  Being a nominator and a voter has led me to discover some outright gems.

The experience has also had disappointing moments as the small cadre of Hugo nominators appears to read and appreciate a very narrow range of works.  It is a group that is sorely in need of diversification.  But that is a subject for another day.

I might re-subscribe to GdM at some point in the future.  My experience with the magazine has been positive, overall, even if there have been some recent disappointments.  But for the moment, I'm taking a step back.

A final thought for Adrian and Beth, should they ever find this piece.  There is a subtle but important difference between being open to a broad range of perspectives and purposefully subjugating quality storytelling to the purpose of representation.  

If the very best submissions come from left-handed members of a tribe in Borneo, then so be it.  The issue will not be very diverse, but it will be filled with great stories.  The reverse is also true.

On The 2024 Election

We are days away from the 2024 election.  The good news is that we won't have to deal with all of the campaign advertising starting November 6th.

The harder to hear news is that what happens to America after that point is really up to us.  Who we elect is a secondary concern.

As an example, you may have heard of people on the left who are talking about leaving the US if Donald Trump wins.

And I get it.  His commitment to the Constitution is marginal at best.  He has a well-documented affinity for authoritarian leaders in other countries.  His behavior and incompetence in the wake of the 2020 election are a big part of why I cannot vote for him this year.

But if you are talking about leaving the US if Donald Trump wins, then please do the rest of us a favor.  Skip voting and move now.  He isn't the devil or a demon.  He isn't a fascist.

You clearly lack the Americanism needed to advocate for your preferred policies.  You lack the dedication to advocate for years and perhaps decades.  You lack a commitment to our Constitutional republic and obviously prefer some sort of left-wing dictatorship.  Please go there now so we can all be happier.

And you may have heard about people on the right who are talking about leaving if Kamala Harris is elected.

And I get it.  She cannot communicate even the simplest of ideas.  She spews out word salads that obfuscate and delay rather than directly responding to issues and questions.  Her demonstrated performance in public office makes her barely qualified to run for county commissioner.  Her failure in the 2020 election primaries and the fact that she did not face any credible form of primary in 2024 suggest that she isn't up to the task of being President of the US.  And quite frankly her cover-up of President Biden's obvious inability to be anything more than a warm body in the Oval Office suggests a lack of concern for America's national security and a lack of support for the Constitution.  She was ineligible for my vote in 2020 and absolutely nothing about her actions has caused that to change.

But if you are talking about leaving the US if Kamala Harris wins, then please do the rest of us a favor.  Skip voting and move now.  She isn't the end of America.

You clearly lack the Americanism needed to advocate for your preferred policies.  You lack the dedication to advocate for years and perhaps decades.  You lack a commitment to our Constitutional republic and obviously prefer some sort of right-wing dictatorship.  Please go there now so we can all be happier.

For everyone else, 2025 is a new year.  We will have a new President.  They will get the support and condemnation they deserve.  They will get support and condemnation that they don't deserve as well.  That's American politics.

Maybe we could try something new next year and reach for a little more civility.  Instead of calling one another morons...and much worse...maybe we could just simply say "I disagree".  

We don't need a unifying leader.  We need a unified populace; one that can disagree civilly as well as passionately.

Let's try being that instead.

A brief coda.

To my Republican-leaning friends, don't blame me if Donald Trump loses.  The GOP had plenty of better options on the table.  Both Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis come to mind.  There were others.  Worshipping a person rather than advancing ideas comes at a price.  A Trump loss is the price.

To my Democrat-leaning friends, don't blame me if Kamala Harris loses.  The Democrats had other options waiting to run.  I think Tulsi Gabbard would have been an interesting candidate, but y'all drove her out of the party.  Democrat politicians and functionaries have pushed so far to the left that they are pushing really bad ideas.  A Harris loss is the price of moving from being a liberal party to one that is progressive and/or socialist.

Review: Empire of the Vampire

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review. Some would rate it higher for good reasons.

If you are new to genre-fiction, then please go read this book. It is a good ride with great characters. Don't read my spoiler section...go read the book. The experience is worth the price of admission. The author has a lot of talent that is evident.

SPOILER
Now that it's just us, part of the reason for not giving this a full-throated (heh) 5-star review is that I've read a lot of genre fiction. I've seen a lot of movies.

This book uses many plot devices that have already been used.

The first one is the transmutation of Jesus Christ into a fictional redeemer broken on a wheel rather than on a cross. My first encounter with that technique was in Devil's Night Dawning by Damien Black. Another example is when a priest lacks the faith to face a vampire without being able to bear a religious symbol as a metaphysical shield. I first encountered that in Stephen King's ’Salem’s Lot. There are other examples, but you should get the point.

There are plot holes and omitted details. For example, the palebloods that fight to destroy the vampires are created by vampire fathers impregnating human mothers. Given that the palebloods are a significant threat to the vampires, one has to wonder why they continue getting human women pregnant. Also, what is the motivation for vampires to have sex with human women in the first place? It remains unexplored.

Other elements of the story remain unresolved at the end. How did Gabriel get his sword? How did he kill the Forever King? Unexplored. Unresolved.

And last, this book is not a complete story. It ends leaving plot threads unresolved and clearly intends more in the series. While I enjoy many genre series, I'm always disappointed when an author transparently announces the next book in the series.

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Review: Battle for the Wastelands

Battle for the Wastelands by Matthew W. Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review which is a good estimate of my experience.

In a post-apocalyptic world, two opposing forces fight for dominance. One is an outright dictatorship that uses a variety of factions including one made up of cannibals and one that breeds genetic monsters.

The other is made up of people who seem to just want to be left alone. They are led by the remnants of a family, the Merrills. This side seems to be still a sort of monarchy rather than any sort of reconstituted democracy.

The common folks have to kneel to someone. Or so it seems.

The story is presented in a workmanlike fashion. Good spelling and grammar. Decent if somewhat pedestrian characters and plotting.

Several unexplained elements. It is inferred that the genetic monsters are related to some sort of nuclear radioactive location. There also seem to be several species of dinosaurs in the story - again, no explanation. And the cannibals are following some sort of "religion" for which there are no details.

I was reminded of the TV character Radar from MASH. In one episode, Radar begins correspondence courses to learn to write like Hemmingway and some other, allegedly, notable authors. In this case, it was Ethel Hemmingway.

The prose in this book similarly runs into the purple range.

Also, the guts of many characters clench on a regular basis. They must all have 6-pack abs.

Not a bad story, but I won't be continuing anything new in this series.

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