Books Received–May 8 (the day of malevolent titles)
Jeff VanderMeer • May 8th, 2008 @ 12:30 pm • Book Reviews
According to the Raw Shark Texts and the Dracula Dossier, an Evil Guest will inflict Pandemonium and Too Many Curses on me today. (Okay, what person thought emphasizing “demon” in PanDEMONium was a good idea? Hmm? What? Are we all ‘tarded or something. We get it, we get it.)
Also, a short breezy piece on those niche mysteries I received a couple of weeks ago.
May 8, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I actually remember that book from a “how covers get done” blog post on some agent’s blog. I don’t recall who’s it was now. It may have even been linked from someone else.
May 8, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I love, love, loved The Raw Shark Texts
What edition is that (I haven’t seen that one) – I wonder if it has any un-chapters :)
And am jealous of the Wolfe
May 8, 2008 at 1:20 pm
That’s the Canongate. I actually BOUGHT that one at B&N. On the remainders table. What a UK edition was doing there, I don’t know, but definitely check out the remainders table at your local B&N. Might be there.
Um, this Wolfe looks…loopy…to me. So you might not need to be jealous.
JV
May 8, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Brian, there’s a few copies of the UK edition at my local B&N too. Must be a chain-wide thing.
May 8, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Hrmm…my version of the Shark text is the Canadian one. Strange…
And Wolfe’s latest is loopy? I think I want to read it even more, to see if he’s actually capable of writing a subpar book.
May 8, 2008 at 9:38 pm
It’s an odd combination that strikes me as off-key from the bit I’ve sampled. I may be totally wrong, but I don’t believe he’s versatile enough to pull off every possible combination of genres. The pirate book, for example, was okay. And the one that won the World Fantasy Award was fine, but not amazing.
JV
May 9, 2008 at 12:12 am
He’s versatile, at least based on the 20+ books/collections of his I have read, but I will agree with those who have noted that his last two novels have recycled quite a few narrative tricks from his earlier novels. I have hopes for it being solid, but no real hopes of it being anywhere near to what he was producing in the 1970s and 1980s.
May 9, 2008 at 8:12 am
Oh, I love his work. But this one is a kinda real setting and I’ve never been convinced by his work set in the “real world”.
Jeff
May 9, 2008 at 10:51 am
I have The Raw Shark Texts on my To Get list, and the new Wolfe looks interesting. What makes it loopy? What’s the basic premise? I like Wolfe, but sometimes I find him somewhat… I don’t know, cold? I find his stuff interesting in a writerly and intellectual way, but emotionally things just seem to come out a little flat for me. I seem to lack that sort of involved enagement with his stories, as if I’m standing a pace or two farther away than I might normally like.
May 9, 2008 at 11:08 am
I’ll pull out the dustjacket description a little later and post it.
jv
May 9, 2008 at 11:14 am
I am indebted to you. Well, slightly. I can’t afford much. I can break the penny jar if necessary, but I’m terrible with crazy glue so I’d rather not. Always have so many extraneous china shards left over at the end…
May 9, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Here ya go:
Lovecraft mets Blade Runner. This is a stand-alone supernatural horror novel with a 30s noir atmosphere. Gene Wolfe can write in whatever genre he wants–and always with superb style and profound depth. Now following his World Fantasy Award winner, Soldier of Sidon, and his stunning Pirate Freedom, Wolfe turns to the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and the weird science tale of supernatural horror.
Set a hundred years in the future, An Evil Guest is a story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious sorcerer and private detective, and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided–perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. And the rich man is the benefactor of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are other evils. As Lovecraft said, “That is not dead which can eternal lie.”
May 9, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I’m curious, but also confused by that description. Guess I’ll need to fill out my review request form and mail it in to see more about this book.
May 10, 2008 at 10:08 am
That is odd, but intriguing… maybe someone’ll bring into my shop and I can take a gander at it. Thanks for posting that, Jeff.