I just finished some short stories by Avram Davidson, an often-overlooked SF/Fantasy writer most active from the 50s-70s. His Masters of the Maze is excellent. This collection (and he has many), What Strange Stars and Skies (1965), is a mixed lot. The best stories are excellent, if of a time. Others markedly less so. A couple have all of the initial confusion of Masters with none of the payoff. I don't think that any of his award winners appear here.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan. I enjoyed it, I found it a fun read. Since I haven't seen the series, I can't speak to how faithful the novel is to it. My suspicion is that it's about as "fathful" as Cadigan's Ultraman novel was. As with the previous book, she's updated it to more of a present-day setting, This doesn't bother me particularly, although it might have beeen interesting to see the stories done as "period pices".
Currently re-reading The Saga of the Volsungs. Interesting stuff, especially if you're into Norse myths and legends. It's said to have influnnced both Wagner and Tolkien. It's only 75 pages long, so it's a quick read.
I just finished Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn. This is a Star Wars heist novel. Han is the leader, but he knows this is way beyond his are expertise, so he assembles a team to help him, including Lando Calrissian. Han and team are hired to steal some credit chips from the biggest gang in the galaxy: Black Sun. They also learn that Black Sun's blackmail files are in the same well fortified safe inside a mansion. This takes place shorty after A New Hope. Not everyone knows Alderaan has been destroyed, and almost no one knows that the Death Stars is gone. I really liked this book. Its a bit different from the normal Star Wars fare, and nary a Force user in sight.
I just finished reading Godzilla Minus One, by Takashi Yamazaki (translated by Evan Ward). It's a novelization of the film by the film's director, and as such, it's very true to the film. There's a certain amount of character development, but not loads of new scenes that weren't inn the movie. Overall, I found it to be an excellent adaptation, and enjoyerd it immensely.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan..
It's been about two months since I abandoned the Ultraman one, but I just found my notes. the first two chapters were based onthe first first two episodes, the third chapter on the eighth episode, and that's as far as I got. I also jotted down "science - IT - monster descriptions - American sense of humor." I no longer remember what, specifically, I was going to say about those things. By "science - IT" I think I meant to mention how the technology of the novelization reflected advance in science over the last 60 years; by "monster descriptions" I meant to point out that Cadigan's discriptions would have evoked the specific visual from TV (or something very much like it) even if I hadn't known the monster; "America sense of humor" is self-explanatory, al though I no longer remember specific examples. I will probably get back into these books at a point when there is no new Ultraman for me to watch on TV.
Just finished reading Business is About to Pick Up!, by Jim Ross, with Paul O'Brien. In this book, Ross looks back at fifty years of his career as a wrestling announcer by focusing on fifty different wrestling events that he was involved in, from his days in college radio through his career in AEW. It's interesting stuff, since Ross has been involved in so many of wrerstling's great moments over the years. The ending is amusing - or maybe, bemusing - as Ross talks about AEW. He plays up what a great thing it was a for AEW to hire C.M. Punk. He discusses the infamous locker room incident between Punk, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, but, being the good company man that he always was, JR makes it sound like everything was settled, and then concludes with the build-up to AEW's big Wembley show. Thus, the book cuts off before said show, thus missing out on what happened at Wembley, specifically, Punk's confrontation with "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (son of actor Luke), which resulted in Punk being fired and returning to the WWE, where he's doing quite well for mhimself, whereas AEW's ratings have dropped in half in the years since. But I digress.
One side thing: Througout the book, AEW promoter Tony Khan's name is spelled as "Tony Kahn". I mean, dozens of times! How does a professional publishing company let this happen? I'd be ashamed of a high school newspaper that let this happen!
Replies
I just finished some short stories by Avram Davidson, an often-overlooked SF/Fantasy writer most active from the 50s-70s. His Masters of the Maze is excellent. This collection (and he has many), What Strange Stars and Skies (1965), is a mixed lot. The best stories are excellent, if of a time. Others markedly less so. A couple have all of the initial confusion of Masters with none of the payoff. I don't think that any of his award winners appear here.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan. I enjoyed it, I found it a fun read. Since I haven't seen the series, I can't speak to how faithful the novel is to it. My suspicion is that it's about as "fathful" as Cadigan's Ultraman novel was. As with the previous book, she's updated it to more of a present-day setting, This doesn't bother me particularly, although it might have beeen interesting to see the stories done as "period pices".
Currently re-reading The Saga of the Volsungs. Interesting stuff, especially if you're into Norse myths and legends. It's said to have influnnced both Wagner and Tolkien. It's only 75 pages long, so it's a quick read.
I just finished Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn. This is a Star Wars heist novel. Han is the leader, but he knows this is way beyond his are expertise, so he assembles a team to help him, including Lando Calrissian. Han and team are hired to steal some credit chips from the biggest gang in the galaxy: Black Sun. They also learn that Black Sun's blackmail files are in the same well fortified safe inside a mansion. This takes place shorty after A New Hope. Not everyone knows Alderaan has been destroyed, and almost no one knows that the Death Stars is gone. I really liked this book. Its a bit different from the normal Star Wars fare, and nary a Force user in sight.
Just started Apaches by Lorenzo Carcaterra
I just finished reading Godzilla Minus One, by Takashi Yamazaki (translated by Evan Ward). It's a novelization of the film by the film's director, and as such, it's very true to the film. There's a certain amount of character development, but not loads of new scenes that weren't inn the movie. Overall, I found it to be an excellent adaptation, and enjoyerd it immensely.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan..
It's been about two months since I abandoned the Ultraman one, but I just found my notes. the first two chapters were based onthe first first two episodes, the third chapter on the eighth episode, and that's as far as I got. I also jotted down "science - IT - monster descriptions - American sense of humor." I no longer remember what, specifically, I was going to say about those things. By "science - IT" I think I meant to mention how the technology of the novelization reflected advance in science over the last 60 years; by "monster descriptions" I meant to point out that Cadigan's discriptions would have evoked the specific visual from TV (or something very much like it) even if I hadn't known the monster; "America sense of humor" is self-explanatory, al though I no longer remember specific examples. I will probably get back into these books at a point when there is no new Ultraman for me to watch on TV.
Just finished reading Business is About to Pick Up!, by Jim Ross, with Paul O'Brien. In this book, Ross looks back at fifty years of his career as a wrestling announcer by focusing on fifty different wrestling events that he was involved in, from his days in college radio through his career in AEW. It's interesting stuff, since Ross has been involved in so many of wrerstling's great moments over the years. The ending is amusing - or maybe, bemusing - as Ross talks about AEW. He plays up what a great thing it was a for AEW to hire C.M. Punk. He discusses the infamous locker room incident between Punk, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, but, being the good company man that he always was, JR makes it sound like everything was settled, and then concludes with the build-up to AEW's big Wembley show. Thus, the book cuts off before said show, thus missing out on what happened at Wembley, specifically, Punk's confrontation with "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (son of actor Luke), which resulted in Punk being fired and returning to the WWE, where he's doing quite well for mhimself, whereas AEW's ratings have dropped in half in the years since. But I digress.
One side thing: Througout the book, AEW promoter Tony Khan's name is spelled as "Tony Kahn". I mean, dozens of times! How does a professional publishing company let this happen? I'd be ashamed of a high school newspaper that let this happen!
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