After having (finally) finished Jay Lake‘s stunning new book, ‘Green‘, I’m all charged up to do some serious reading. Em is out of town for the next two nights, so it will just be me and the four-letters. Right away, there a ton of decent-looking selections close at hand.
Firstly, I have to give a special shout to John Scalzi’s ‘Big Idea‘ project. On his ancient blog ‘Whatever‘ he’s been highlighting a veritable cornocopia of tasty sci-fi, fantasy and more. I would never have heard of ‘Green’ or ‘W.W.W Wake‘ if it hadn’t been for Scalzi. And, as of today he’s now featuring ‘The Big Idea’ on his Twitter feed, so check it out.
The next novel I’m reading comes right off that list and tells the story of a Louisiana detective who uses demons to help her solve crimes. I’m not completely sold on the premise of the appropriately titled ‘Mark of the Demon‘, but it’s a good choice for Halloween and the reviews are very positive so far. Plus, Scalzi hasn’t really steered me wrong yet.
In a piece of conceptual continuity, a great mystery writer whom I enjoy is taking up a great all-time graphic novel character. Ian Rankin of Rebus fame has written a nice fat graphic novel in the John Constantine series for Vertigo called ‘Dark Entries‘. As if that weren’t enough to get me on board (it is), the story puts Constantine, paranormal investigator, in the midst of a reality TV show – Brilliant!
In addition to those items, I’ve picked up ‘Sandman Slim’ by Richard Kadrey for after ‘Mark of the Demon’. I think this is an urban fantasy about revenge from beyond the grave. Again, it seems to fit in nicely with the theme I’ve got going.
In the realm of shorter works, the incredible Aliette de Boddard has just published a short story over at Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. This site takes the traditional sci-fi fiction journal and puts it online. I paid about $2.50 for the September issue and I get de Boddard’s On Horizon’s Shores, which is the featured work, and a number of other tasty looking goodies. It’s actually a novelette (as opposed to short story) and after just reading the first few paragraphs, I know it’s going to be great.
The other shorter work I’m excited to look at is a crazy-looking new wave script from 1980 that was linked on io9 today. The Tourist would probably have made a great movie if it hadn’t been for infighting and development hell. In present day (well, 1980, anyway) Manhattan, there are aliens living among us, in disguise. In real life they look like amazingly icky H.R. Giger creatures, because he was brought in (following the groundbreaking success of Alien) to do the concept art. There’s a link that lets you download the script and I’m hoping for something partway between Cronenberg and The Hunger.
