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Mid-month report December 16, 2002 (6:37 PM) ( link ) Once again, the mid-month report card from Hurrican Electric's status page: top 5 and bottom 5 [number of transfers in brackets] TOP FIVE Jorge Luis Borges's Ficciones [152] John Gardner's Grendel [137] James Dickey's Deliverance [123] John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany [100] (tie) Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's [99], Thomas Harris's Red Dragon [99] BOTTOM FIVE Warren Ellis's Dark Blue [3] Robert Charles Wilson's The Chronoliths [3] Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas [4] Tim Powers's Expiration Date [4] Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October [4] Connie Willis and Christianity December 12, 2002 (6:19 AM) ( link ) I'm a pretty big fan of Connie Willis, but I know very little about her outside of her books. So I was surprised to discover, upon reading the introduction to Miracles and Other Christmas Stories, her latest (?) short-story collection, that Willis seems to be a very enthusiastic Christian. Of course, she doesn't come right out and say this. Instead, in the course of explaining why she loves Christmas, and what she considers the best Christmas stories and movies of all time, she writes: "[A]re there any good Christmas stories out there? You bet, starting with the original. The recounting of the first Christmas (you know, the baby in the manger) has all the elements of great storytelling: drama, danger, special effects, dreams and warnings, betrayals, narrow escapes, and--combined with the Easter story--the happiest ending of all." It's the "happiest ending of all" part that really surprised me. Despite being non-religious, I will be the first to admit that the Bible spins some pretty good tales. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is one of the best, but, even though Christ rises from the dead, it's hardly a happy story for somebody who's just looking at it as a story--the betrayal is awful, as is the torture Jesus goes through, and worst of all is His foreknowledge of all this. I think the ending is really only happy if you buy into the larger implications of it: Jesus has redeemed mankind and died for our sins, etc. And that's why I get the feeling that Willis is an enthusiastic Christian from her enthusiastic endorsement of the Biblical Christmas story. Why am I surprised? Well, first, in science fiction and fantasy you don't often get a clear picture of the author's faith, since it's usually not the central subject of their work; and second, due to the subject matter (magic, or a strange theology) I tend to assume that authors are usually not strong Christians. (Shows how much I know!) In an attempt to find out more about Willis, I looked online to see if she's written anything on Christianity. Nothing obvious came up, except for this review of To Say Nothing of the Dog, which rates Willis's book "Good/Harmless" in the subject of "Christian morality." This site is very interesting for being equally committed to speculative fiction and Christianity. For instance, in its section on Marion Zimmer Bradley the site praises Bradley for her pioneering work as an editor, then heavily criticizes her novels as "pro-feminazi with a highly pagan agenda." Mists of Avalon is described as "a critical model of feminazi anti-Christianity propaganda" (and as "tedi[o]us, poorly written, and difficult to hold in one's hand," an assessment I agree with). There is also, of course, a Harry Potter bashing, though the reviewer admits the series is pretty entertaining. Fascinating stuff. With Christmas break coming up, I should get a chance to finally finish all the pending reviews, as well as read a lot more books. Needless to say I'm glad to be getting a break from school--though the fact that finals are still after Christmas, as they were for the last four years, is beginning to wear on me. New Reviews: Christopher Priest's The Inverted World, Margaret Weis's Dragon Wing, and Thomas Disch's The Genocides December 6, 2002 (8:06 PM) ( link ) ADDED reviews of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragon Wing, Thomas Disch's The Genocides, and Christopher Priest's The Inverted World. These reviews have actually been sitting on my server for a while--I just haven't felt like compiling them into the pages yet, since there are four other books I have to review and I wanted to do them all at once. Since that will clearly be impossible at least for another week, I decided to put up what I have so far. Right now I'm reading David Gemmell's Legend and Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. Legend is pretty badly written but fun in its own way; Gemmell is a traditional purveyor of "heroic fantasy," and I have to say he does it pretty well (though his technique is very obvious). Greene's novel is short but, so far, pretty dull. One thing I don't get about mainstream fiction: why don't authors feel the need to explain what the hell is going on? It took me a brief search on Google to figure out the background of The Power and the Glory, and I'm already a quarter of the way through the book. At any rate, I hope it gets more gripping than it is--I'm certainly not immune to the charms of a good mainstream book even though nowadays I primarily read science fiction and fantasy (as a form of escapism, I'm sure). Brief announcement, and anniversary December 5, 2002 (2:17 AM) ( link ) Work on my main page, now renamed Legal Ramblings, has consumed most of my web-site time recently. However, that's not to say I've been neglecting things here--except on the reviewing front. That being said, the following reviews are forthcoming (I swear): 1. Tim Powers's Anubis Gates 2. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragon Wing 3. ---'s Elven Star 4. Thomas Disch's The Genocides 5. Christopher Priest's Inverted World 6. Terry Pratchett's Mort 7. Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward All read in the last month, amazing. Since I know I've read them, I might as well celebrate another month running this book reviews site. In the last month, I've read 7 books (for a total of 85 books read since I started), and will post 7 reviews (for a total of 114). I'm going to stop keeping site visit statistics since I've installed a Bravenet.com counter at the bottom of the page--this will automatically keep track of visitors for me, and if you click on the link you yourself can see how seldom visited this space is. Also of worth is another Top 5, Bottom 5 accessed book reviews. I woefully neglected to get the stats from the first half of the month, but here are the Top 5 and Bottom 5 for Nov. 15 - Dec. 1: Top 5 Requested Book Reviews (numbers = # transmitted) Stanislaw Lem's Solaris [110] (perhaps because of the movie) Thomas Harris's Red Dragon [98] (ditto) Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's [87] James Dickey's Deliverance [82] Jostien Gaarder's Sophie's World [74] Bottom 5 Requested Book Reviews Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar [1] Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor [2] Connie Willis's Bellwether [4] Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake [4] David Eddings's Magician's Gambit [4] And the final feature of the month: Google hits. Search for the following phrases, and my site pops up in the appropriate spot. when true night falls (1st) ark sakura (1st) replay ken grimwood (1st) armor john steakley (1st) playmate scan (2nd page--I kid you not)

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