Links Before the Break

As with quite a few people out there, work has been a bit slow (which explains the number of posts in June being much higher than typical). I’m still gainfully employed and I’m not worried for my job, but it also means I can’t be choosy about the work I accept. So, after all this rambling, I’ll be largely out-of-pocket next week working in the field in the high plains of north-eastern Arizona. Days will be long and internet access is an unknown quantity (though I should have it in the evenings). Combined with my typical quite over the weekends (family time and generally far too hectic for much time on-line), Don’t expect to see much activity around here for a while (the following week I have a family reunion on the back end, so it could be a long while). The good news is that I expect that the field world will allow me a fair bit of reading time as I watch other people do actual work.

Anyway, here are a few links that I’ve found interesting.

• A publisher weighs the value of blogs

• A huge discussion over at Jeff VanderMeer’s blog – honestly, I haven’t read any of it

• SciFi Songs had an anniversary last week – go get some cool, geeky songs

• Orbit books is looking for the most awesomely bad SFF cover

• It going to be an El Nino year – looks like it’ll be a snowy winter

• Brandon Sanderson answered a bunch of questions over Twitter – it kind of worked, but had bugs (like when he had to log-in with his wife’s account because Twitter locked him out). Now he’s over at the Barns & Noble book club forum.

Tides from the New Worlds by Tobias S. Buckell

Short fiction is something I am woefully under-read in. I don’t read or subscribe to short fiction magazines (or e-zines) and I only rarely read collections and anthologies. The reason why is really quite simple – I don’t have the time. My reading time is very limited these days, so I set boundaries – no comics, no graphic novels, little to no non-fiction, etc. However, in reading Tides from the New Worlds by Tobias S. Buckell (Amazon, Wyrm), I am once again reminded (as I periodically am) of what I’ve been missing.

Since the vast majority of my reading is novels, I generally only get to see one facet of an author’s writing, often one that does not express the breadth and variety that any given author truly possesses. Tides from the New Worlds introduces people like me who are familiar with Buckell’s novels to another side of Buckell – actually several other sides – and a greater vision of the writer as a person. Since this collection literally starts at the beginning of his career, we also get to see Buckell evolve and improve through time.

Many readers are well aware of Buckell’s Caribbean origins and mixed-race, and these influences certainly show up in his novels. However, in reading Buckell’s short fiction, just how strongly these origins influence his writing becomes clear. Two themes at work throughout much of Tides from the New Worlds are the infusion of science fiction and fantasy with a distinctive Caribbean, multi-racial feel (including varied, typically non-Western settings) and the clash of the Western world other parts of the world, particularly the Caribbean. To these aims, Buckell utilizes many standard SFF tropes, adding his distinctive twists, with stories revolving around such varied ideas as first contact, slavery, zombies, ghosts, religion, sailing and the sea, ancient gods, dryads, dwarves, mythology, folklore, etc.

As I’ve become familiar with in his novels, Buckell uses characters to drive his fiction. While he can be (too) light on the description, the setting often comes alive through the characters themselves. In combination with this, I felt Buckell’s strongest stories come with a Caribbean-like setting – whether that setting is the actual Caribbean, Africa, or an imagined world sharing much in common with the Caribbean. “Four Eyes” may have been my favorite of the collection for capturing the side of the Caribbean that tourists don’t see. “Toy Planes”, “Spurn Babylon”, “Trinkets”, “The Duel”, “Necahual” and the dark, allegorical tale of “Death’s Dreadlocks” all capture another side of the Caribbean and its people.

Buckell also reveals a fascination with history that caught me off-guard. I suppose it makes sense to explore the past to understand the present, but it serves a reminder to me that the history of the USA is thoroughly entwined with that of the Caribbean, no matter how hard we try to forget that up here. “In Orbite Medievali”, “Trinkets”, and “The Duel” all explore this relationship in one way or another.

Attempting to comment on each of the 21 stories would be madness and not all can be easily lumped with other stories. But, I simply cannot pass by without mentioning “The Shackles of Freedom” (written with Mike Resnick). In this story, Amish colonists on an alien (and deadly world) struggle to survive and a doctor seeking freedom from the greater society agrees to minister to the colony – only the Amish generally choose not to accept his healing technology. The resulting exploration of freedom, technology, and love left me wanting to chuck the computer and cell phone out the window (though to be honest, this isn’t exactly an isolated feeling).

The best anthologies and collections introduce each story and in Tides from the New Worlds, Buckell does just that. We get a brief view into his mind as he explains things from intent and motivations to it being fun to write. It also allows us to see the mentoring and guidance that Buckell has seen from such writers as Mike Resnick and Nalo Hopkinson. And the introduction by Mike Resnick can only be described as fatherly.

All of this is presented in a beautiful, high-quality package by Wyrm publishing in a signed limited-edition. With the limited print, this book is aimed at Buckell’s existing fanbase, but people looking for a bit Caribbean spice injected into their SFF should not allow this one to pass by. If you’re on the fence, check out some of the free stories available on Buckell’s website – as expected there are strong and weak stories and just which one is which will depend on your own perspective, but I enjoyed the look into the whole of Buckell’s writing. 7.5/10

Related Posts: Review of Crystal Rain, Review of Ragamuffin, Interview with Tobias Buckell

Links Seeking Independence

A 3-day weekend approaches for the US and I’m sure I’ll be off-line for most of that time. So, I figure I’ll share some links that have found my eye over the past few days.

• It shouldn’t be a surprise that some SFF authors are suffering the same sort of troubles as many around the world. Two of them have reached a point of desperation to keep food on the table that leads to inspiration – they are publishing stories on-line and asking for donations to support their efforts. If you can, do them a favor, read the stories and donate. Catherynne Valente – The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland and Tim Pratt – Bone Shop.

• A colony of ants is taking over the world – seriously. One-Thousand welcomes to our new ant overlords!

• Libraries often sell books for the benefit of charity, but have problems getting the word out to people who happily give those books a home. BookSaleManager aims to make this easier.

• Most people never realize that around the world at any given time there are some spectacular volcanic eruptions occurring. Saraychev in the Kuril Islands (part of Russia, and north of Japan) has been blowing its top off lately – messing up air travel in that part of the world and emitting enough sulfur dioxide to make sunsets look nice world-wide. Anyway, NASA caught some incredible images of the eruption a few weeks ago. Enjoy!
  
  
  

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

A common comparison in reviews goes something like ‘fans of __ will love __’. Related and nearly as common is something like ‘fans of __’s earlier work will love this one’. I’ve seen the argument about the above being lazy and unhelpful reviewing, and I’ve seen numerous pleas for exactly that kind of comparison in reviews. Disregarding that particular discussion, the most appropriate one-line description of Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) is ‘Joe Abercrombie serves up a heaping dish of more of the same with Best Served Cold’.

Monza Murcatto is the most ruthless and successful mercenary in Styria. Depending on what side of the river you stand on, she is either immensely popular or indescribably hated. Dwelling on the former, her employer, the Grand Duke Orso, has Monza and her brother killed in an impressive scene of back-stabbing betrayal. Only Monza manages to survive being beaten, cut, stabbed, and thrown from a mountain top. What remains is the classic vengeance story as she methodically seeks the death of the seven people in the room when her brother was killed with the help of a merry band of dangerous degenerates, both new and familiar.

For fans of Abercrombie’s previous work, The First Law Trilogy (review), Best Served Cold is probably just what they are looking for. Abercrombie’s dark, biting humor imbues everything. Violence is bloody, language harsh, dialogue full of grunts, the sex is cleverly not-so gratuitous, the addictions and perversions shall not be spoken of, and everybody is an evil son-of-a-bitch.

Unlike The First Law Trilogy, Abercrombie doesn’t set out to be blatantly subversive with Best Served Cold. It really is a strait-forward vengeance plot, with surprisingly few twists along the way. With that said, Abercrombie just can’t help but be a little subversive. A scene that sticks with me is one where a female mercenary, female poisoner, and female torturer interrogate a female prisoner – you can feel the testosterone (err…estrogen?) of this not-so uncommon scene reinvented.

The main issue I have with Best Served Cold likely won’t bother most who read the book – Abercrombie doesn’t offer anything new. The First Law Trilogy was a refreshing offering in the often stale genre of epic fantasy. Hoping for an equally refreshing read in Best Served Cold, I found that any novelty remaining quickly wore off. The 640 pages drag on as vengeance is repeatedly sought and achieved – I frequently found myself unmotivated to continue reading. Readers of The First Law will quickly recognize near carbon-copies of characters: Monza is the strong, dangerous woman that Ferro never realized and Shivers nearly a mirror-image of introspective barbarian Logen Ninefingers.

As I hinted at above, Abercrombie’s characterization doesn’t feel so different from The First Law, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Best Served Cold is just as character-driven. At the forefront is the curious dichotomy between Monza and Shivers. Shivers is on a personal journey to become a better man. Monza is the cold-hearted bitch of a mercenary seeking vengeance. Through the book, these two evolve in an unhealthy co-dependency – and if they have sex, watch out! While not the central protagonist, the stage is consistently stolen by the loveable, drunken rogue of a mercenary, Nicomo Cosca, always landing on his feet with flask and sword in hand and caustically cheerful comments to make.

Best Served Cold is a stand-alone book in Abercrombie’s imagined world. However, readers of The First Law will likely appreciate certain plot points more and recognize several recurring characters as it becomes clear that all things in Abercrombie’s world come back to a central feud between powerful enemies, often manipulating events with proxies. While plot is self-contained, Best Served Cold isn’t quite as stand-alone as advertised.

The more-of-same approach of Best Served Cold entertains, yet becomes tedious at times and unfortunately left me wanting more of that special something that I’m convinced Abercrombie can give. 7.5/10

Related Posts: Review of The Blade Itself, Review of Before They Are Hanged, Review of Last Argument of Kings, Review of The First Law Trilogy, Interview with Joe Abercrombie

SFF Writers Descend on Flagstaff

I live in a relatively small city that is generally out of the way of most things, with the closest major city being Phoenix. So, events relating to SFF are rare around here – I’m not like those bloggers who live in or near places like London and New York who get to attend lots of author events, major conventions, and publisher parties. Generally the best I can do is hit a signing in Phoenix if it corresponds with a business trip for me (though there aren’t too many SFF events in Phoenix either).

So, I was excited when my local newspaper had this article – Sci-fi, fantasy writers descend on Flagstaff. This was news to me and had me curious. Basically, the ‘event’ is an invitation-only writing workshop called Starry Heaven. It’s the first time this workshop has happened and is modeled after a similar workshop in the Midwest called Blue Heaven.

I visited a meet the writers’ event at a local drinking establishment – I may have been the only person there not directly associated with the workshop. It was an interesting discussion and I hope this workshop becomes an annual event around here.

As for the authors – honestly, I wasn’t familiar with any of them. All are professionally published, but generally short stories (which I rarely have time to read). Maybe half have a novel or two published and it was a pretty varied group, ranging from concentrations on YA fantasy to hard science fiction. The authors who attended the workshop are Sarah K. Castle, Greg Van Eekhout, Sarah Prineas, Sandra McDonald, D. Lynn Smith, William Shunn, E.C. Meyers, Brad Beaulieu, Jon Hansen, Rob Ziegler, Gary Shockley and Deb Coates.

So, this post is blatant promotion of an SFF event in my town and little else. But, I now have some new authors to check (if I can find time).

Good Cover Art Gone Bad

On the whole, I think that the cover art by Daniel Dos Santos for Green by Jay Lake (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound, review) is quite good. It’s the kind of cover art that would make me pick up the book to see what it’s about – and I think it’s something that would likely appeal to a wide-ranging audience (even though it still somewhat fails the ‘would I want people to see me reading this in public’ test).

Then, I read the book. The character featured on the cover is the main character of the novel, also named Green. Yes, she is an adolescent girl, yes she cuts her face beneath a pomegranate tree (though I don’t recall her hanging upside down). So it fits. Only in the book Green is a person of color. In the very least she has dark skin – I always pictured her with a South Asian appearance to match my perception of the country she was born in, but her descriptions in the book leaves her appearance pretty open aside from the consistent description of dark skin.

So, why is a cover that is otherwise a fairly good representation of the content of the book misleading about this small bit? I’ve seen Jay Lake mention on either Twitter or his blog that he likes the cover a lot – now is he just saying this because that’s what a good author does, or does this little inconstancy bother him. I think it would really bother me.

The assumption I jump to is that there is a perception that a person of color in the place of the nice white girl we have instead could reduce the sales of the book. True or not, that really rubs me the wrong way. If it is true, nothing is going to change until there are more people of color on covers (see Tobias Buckell’s Ragamuffin with cover art by Todd Lockwood). Or it could be that the cover artist didn’t know that Green was a person of color, which is entirely possible since he was likely given only a short excerpt to base the cover art on).

Thoughts?

What Does Alastair Reynolds’ Contract Say About the Publishing World?

So, the SFF publishing world is drooling in envy at Alastair Reynolds’ new contract for 1 million pounds for 10 books over 10 years. I’m curious – what does this say about the publishing industry? It’s often all doom and gloom that ebooks will put the publishing world out of business, that novels are dying, that people don’t read, that the recession will kill books, etc. Frankly, I don’t buy all the ‘sky is falling’ arguments that come out from time to time, and when I see a SFF author get a contract like this, it makes me think that the publishers don’t actually think things are as bad as they say they are. Or is this just business as usual?

So, a lot of people who read this blog know more about this industry than I do – what do you guys think?

Green by Jay Lake

Jay Lake has decided he doesn’t want to be known as that clockpunk guy who wrote Mainspring (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound), Escapement (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound), and forthcoming Pinion. While his internet following will always recognize him as a prolific blogger and others admire his wonderful short fiction and earlier novels, Trial of Flowers (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) and its sequels, Lake still felt the need to further broaden his horizons to something closer to traditional fantasy. With Green (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) Lake shows readers once again that he one of the most versatile writers in the SFF market.

Green tells the story of a young girl, sold into slavery, who strives to become her own woman. Robbed even of the memory of her name, she is raised to be a royal concubine in a far away land – extensively trained in things like cooking and sewing yet ignorant of recent history and the true daily life of the foreign lands around her. Given the name Emerald and taking the name Green in her own language, she finds herself in the center of a plot to overthrow the Duke and sacrifices everything to become free – while she comes to terms with what real freedom is and what it isn’t.

Green is told entirely from the first-person perspective of Green, so it’s not stretch to say that the success or failure of the novel rests there as well. In this respect, Green succeeds – she is a believable character who I quickly identified with and cared for. Green struggles with her identity as an individual, as foreigner in a far away land, as a slave, and eventually as a killer. She romanticizes her origins and as she matures she struggles with the idea of whether her slavery may have actually been a good thing. As a girl raised to be at the beck and call of a man, she fiercely guards her feminine identity. And through it all, she is a hormonal teenager with a very narrow education who makes bad decisions and becomes sure that she has all the right answers.

In many ways, Green is a novel that fits the YA mold with a strong cross-over appeal to adults. As such, I can see it appealing especially to teenage girls, who I imagine would strongly identify with Green and her struggles to figure out who she is as a person, and to a lesser degree, her sexual identity. Lake dedicates the book to his daughter in a touching and amusing statement that fits the book well and further leads me to believe that while I enjoyed Green, I’m probably not the audience that Green is most directly aimed at.

With all the focus on Green, other aspects fall short in comparison. Secondary characters are decidedly secondary and the plot stretches the limits of credibility at times. In Green’s world, gods and goddesses are real beings who directly touch and interact with the world – while much time is spent in temples and the like, relatively little exploration of these gods is undertaken. This leads to problems with who becomes the main villain of the story – a new god, who is at best confusingly explained, and at worst a poorly inserted antagonist to give Green a purpose.

Lake’s world-building is muted – which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but will likely seem underdone to fans of fantasy and even fans of Lake’s other work which are so wonderfully constructed. The emphasis of the book is correctly placed on Green, but in a nearly 400-page book, a bit more detail would have been appreciated (or a lower page count). The non-human, sentient race of the feline Pardines play an important role, yet remain frustratingly mysterious. As I said above, the emphasis is correctly placed on Green, but I was left wanting more exploration of this interesting race.

Above all else, Green is an addicting read. The plot had issues and the world-building left a bit to be desired, but Green herself is a fascinating character that I connected with, often in spite of her idiotic, teenage decisions. Green is the novel’s success and potential inspiration for teenage girls. 7/10

Related Posts: Review of Mainspring, Interview with Jay Lake

Sapkowski Wins the Gemmell Award

Via Danie Ware and Twitter, the word is that Andrzej Sapkowski as won the David Gemmell Legend Award for Blood of Elves (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound). Congrats! While I was pulling for Abercrombie to get the win for Last Argument of Kings (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound, my review), I did predict the strong possibility of a Polish revolution on this one.

Links of Infamy

Well, I did some links earlier this week, but today there is enough of interest going on that I need to share some more.

• First, blogger Adam of The Wertzone (posts as Werthead on many message boards) and some others have uncovered what appears to be the infamous Robert Stanek on a campaign to defame some popular SFF authors – most notably Patrick Rothfuss, but also David Louis Edelman and Jim C. Hines. This despicable beyond words and Amazon’s refusal to act on this over the years amounts to complicity in my mind – another point against them. You can find discussion on the matter blossoming across the web.

• Tor has a ‘publisher-agnostic’ bookstore. Basically, they want to a specialty on-line bookseller of SFF books, and they will happily sell books published by other publishers. Press release and blog announcement.

• And Tor was kind enough to pass on the following interview with Brandon Sanderson where he discusses Warbreaker (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) – which I hope to read soon – and his forthcoming series, The Way of the King (which has some very humorous fake reviews on Amazon).

Shared Worlds: What’s your pick for the top real-life fantasy or science fiction city?

I don't really consider this blog a publicity blog, but this is the sort of thing I'm happy to help spread the word about.

Shared Worlds asked Elizabeth Hand, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula K. LeGuin, China Miéville, and Michael Moorcock: “What’s your pick for the top real-life fantasy or science fiction city?”

At Shared Worlds our students create fantasy and science fiction worlds to fuel their art and writing projects. But even the strangest made-up place can have some real-world spark, and some of the real world’s cities can be stranger than anything found in fantasy and science fiction.

With this in mind, we asked some of speculative fiction’s brightest minds to tell us their own picks for real-life fantastic cities, and you can read their answers here:

http://sharedworlds.wofford.edu/top5.aspx

“Our own planet is often surreal, alien, and beautifully strange—and cities tend to focus our fascination with these qualities,” said Shared Worlds Assistant Director Jeff VanderMeer. “Sometimes the exoticness comes from finding the unexpected where we live, and sometimes it comes from visiting a place that’s foreign to us.”

Want to join the discussion? Help one of the most unique teen "think tanks" in the country by posting the above link on your site or blog and asking your readers what cities they would choose.

Shared Worlds is also proud to announce Tor Books, Wizards of the Coast LCC, and Realms of Fantasy magazine as major sponsors. Thanks to them for their enthusiasm and support.

More information about Shared Worlds:

Now in its second year, Shared Worlds is a two-week unique summer camp for teens ages 13 to 18, held at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This year the camp runs from July 19 to August 2, with registration still open to the end of June. Creative and fun, Shared Worlds emphasizes writing fiction, game development, and creating art—all in a safe and structured environment with award-winning faculty. Participants in this “teen think tank” meet like-minded students and learn how to work together and be proactive on their own. The first week, the students form teams and create their own worlds; the second week, they create in them. Faculty for 2009 will include Holly Black, co-creator of the Spiderwick Chronicles, Hugo Nominee Tobias Buckell, White Wolf game developer Will Hindmarch, World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer, Weird Tales fiction editor Ann VanderMeer, and more.


Relevant links:

Related SF Signal MindMeld feature:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/06/mind-meld-real-life-places-that-inspire-exceptional-world-building/

Main Shared Worlds page:

http://sharedworlds.wofford.edu/default.aspx

Registration page:

http://sharedworlds.wofford.edu/inner-register.aspx


Video from last year's camp:

Yawnday Links

It’s Monday and I’m thoroughly unmotivated. I’m tired and the beautiful day outside makes me just want to sit back and read in the backyard instead of working (I really need a hammock for days like today). So, while avoid work and even writing a review of Green by Jay Lake (which was pretty good), I’ll give you some links that have helped me along with my procrastinating.

Note: As I was writing this up yesterday (which is why the day referenced above is off), my computer blew up in a weird metaphorical way. I spent some time reading outside while the anti-virus programs were doing their scans. Things are pretty-well back to normal now.

• China Mièville shocks the world by proclaiming that J.R.R. Tolkien actually rocks

• Nightshade Books has a 50% off sale

• Christians seeking their right to publicly burn gay books (and sue because of all the harm those evil books cause)

• SF Signal asks about the influence of Literary Awards (particularly those in the SFF world)

• A SFF-review blogger takes up the challenge of small and POD press. I predict Sturgeon underestimated in this case, but I’m curious to see.

• Another Indiana Jones movie in the works? Please no – you destroyed franchise enough with that last movie which shall remain nameless.

• Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt Coming to the US

Mark Charan Newton adds to the SFF Literary Pub Crawl

Mark Charan Newton has been kind enough to add to the SFF Literary Pub Crawl - Nottingham now has two entries.

An easy one! The Alley Cafe - www.alleycafe.co.uk - in Nottingham. I'm a vegetarian; this place serves vegetarian food, locally sourced, freshly prepared, and stunning. Not only that, but the bar is funky, and has a good mix of people and ages. It's tiny though, and you end up sitting close to other people, which really shakes us Brits out of our preference for personal space. So, good food, good people, decent DJ at the weekend - what more can you want? (Don't say meat.)

Mark Charan Newton Answers Questions Five

Mark Charan Newton has worked with the SFF imprint, Solaris, where he coined the name of the imprint after a woman approached him in a bar and wrote it on his arm, claiming Solaris to be her name. Nights of Villjamur is his first novel for a major publisher and is getting lots of attention (US, UK, Canada, IndieBound, my review). It was just released in the UK and Del Rey will be publishing it in the US soon and is the first book in the Legends of the Red Sun series of four planned books. In the very least, he’s an up and coming author to keep an eye on.

Thanks to Mark for taking the time to answer Questions Five (and in retrospect, I so should have asked him to finish the story about Solaris).


The inclusion of ‘Charan’ in your professional name – a simple distinction from all the other Mark Newtons of the world, or more?

MCN: There are too many other Mark Newtons, some leading a far better lifestyle than me. One, I believe, is a photographer, another a roots acoustic singer. They're both more well-known than me, the bastards, so if I can't beat them in popularity, I should have a bigger name at least. Then again, I wanted to detract from the fact that no one can pronounce Villjamur - I'll throw them a curve ball and let my middle name confuse instead. (For those of you who are interested, it's Indian - and I'm half Indian). People mostly mispronounce it as Sharon, which conveniently is my Friday night name, where I can be seen in high-heels and lipstick as I sashay across a stage... Have I said too much? Next question, please!

If Nights of Villjamur were a fortune cookie, what would its fortune be?

MCN: It would have a Woody Allen quote: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying."

How would you interpret this fortune if it were your own?

MCN: There's irony there - I became morose at the fact of my dying - which is reflected in the novel to some extent. I often see writing as a way of continuing to linger around the planet once I'm gone - I mean, there would be books out there, still communicating my thoughts with people. I can cheat Death! So, I would interpret this fortunate as 'Yeah, right. Nice try.'

Nights of Villjamur already has a playlist, but what would its soundtrack be?

MCN: I'd let Death Cab For Cutie have free reign over this one. Or Radiohead. Or City and Colour... What about something more movie-like, by Hans Zimmer? The Dark Knight soundtrack was awesome. Look, I'm clearly never going to be able to settle on anything for this. Tell you what, you get someone to buy the film rights, and I'll let them decide as I recline in the luxury of some Greek Villa.

Why should Nights of Villjamur be the next thing that everyone reads?

MCN: Two words: Dying Earth. I mean, come on - how cool is that?

Failing that, because it's an epic fantasy with elements of SF, crime, horror. Failing that, because of its ability to cause a delightful, free-publicity shit-storm online. Failing that, because someone needs to take the fight to Joe Abercrombie, right? You can't let him have all the fun. See how he broods in Black and White? Exactly, I'm the right man for the job, buy it.

Which Fantasy Author am I?

Via Andrew Wheeler, I found out that I'm actually Ursula K Le Guin. Who knew?

Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...

Ursula K Le Guin (b. 1929)

5 High-Brow, -7 Violent, -1 Experimental and 21 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Peaceful, Traditional and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is definitely one of the most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writers of all times. Her most famous fantasy work to date is the Earthsea suite of novels and short stories, in which Le Guin created not only one of the most believable societies in fantasy fiction, but also managed to describe a school for wizards almost three decades before Harry Potter. Although often categorized as written for young adults, these books have entertained and challenged readers of all ages since their publication.

Le Guin is no stranger to literary experiments (see for example Always Coming Home(1985)), but much of her story-telling is quite traditional. In fact, she makes a point of returning to older forms of story-telling, which, at her best, enables her to create something akin to myth. One shouldn't confuse myth with faerytale, though. Nothing is ever simplified in Le Guin's world, as she relentlessly explores ethical problems and the moral choices that her characters must make, as must we all. While being one of those writers who will allow you to escape to imaginary worlds, she is also one who will prompt you to return to your actual life, perhaps a little wiser than you used to be.

You are also a lot like Susan Cooper.

If you want some action, try Michael Moorcock.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, C S Lewis.

Your score

This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.

High-Brow vs. Low-Brow

You received 5 points, making you more High-Brow than Low-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, rather than the best-selling kind. At their best, high-brows are cultured, able to appreciate the finer nuances of literature and not content with simplifications. At their worst they are, well, snobs.

Violent vs. Peaceful

You received -7 points, making you more Peaceful than Violent. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you aren't, and you don't, then you are peaceful as defined here. At their best, peaceful people are the ones who encourage dialogue and understanding as a means of solving conflicts. At their worst, they are standing passively by as they or third parties are hurt by less scrupulous individuals.

Experimental vs. Traditional

You received -1 points, making you more Traditional than Experimental. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, traditional people don't change winning concepts, favouring storytelling over empty poses. At their worst, they are somewhat narrow-minded.

Cynical vs. Romantic

You received 21 points, making you more Cynical than Romantic. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, cynical people are able to see through lies and spot crucial flaws in plans and schemes. At their worst, they are overly negative, bringing everybody else down.

Author picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UrsulaLeGuin.01.jpg

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