Even when conceived with racist undertones, great fiction can evolve.

Recently, I came across a blog post by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. She's working on an anthology call "Swords & Mythos" which is a crossing of Robert Howard-style Sword'N'Sorcery with good-ol' fashioned horrors beyond imagining, a la H.P. Lovecraft.  (If that sounds fun to you, I encourage you to check out her Indiegogo fundraiser for the project.)

In her post Ms. Moreno-Garcia doesn't waste any time, but dives into the issue at hand with these opening lines:

What do you do when you are a person of colour (POC) planning an anthology inspired by the work of not one, but two racist writers? That’s my situation right now. I say you talk about it!

She then proceeds to clearly and intelligently lay out both her appreciation of the artistry of these two men, and also the disturbing depths of their racism. But she never falls into the trap of over-simplification, which is all too easy to do when dealing with topics like this.

People are not divided as villains and heroes. Lovecraft and Howard were not villains or heroes. They were men. Just as they could be very fun to hang out with, they also had their unpleasant side. We must accept this, and accept them as human beings with their quirks and their failings.

In the end, her article is about the importance of new voices and viewpoints, an absence of which for any genre means at best stagnation and more likely death. I agree with her, and it's not too much of an extrapolation to apply her points beyond genre to entire art forms, or even wider cultures. 

I'd also like to mention that the comments section on her post is relatively free of the yammering and trolling that so often clogs up internet discussions, especially with hot-button topics such as race. Hats off to both Moreno-Garcia and her readers.  

Check out the full post here.  

Inspirational quote for the day...

 Drawing is an escape from all the unnecessary things in life that get in the way of being free.

--Jamie Hewlett  (Gorillaz, Tank Girl)

Feel free to swap in writing, singing, dancing, or whatever other place you may find your personal bliss.

More context on this quote at Cartoon Brew.

A techno-thriller for dinosaur nerds!

Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A techno-thriller for dinosaur nerds.

Although the cover art and blurbs present Tyrannosaur Canyon as a Jurassic Park knock-off, this book is about humans who chase fossils for both the brief glimpse into a lost world and the financial rewards which accompany it, all wrapped in the cloak of a fast-paced thriller.

Here's a bit of a disclaimer: I grew up wanting to be a paleontologist, and am predisposed to favor any story about this topic which is at least competently written. Douglas Preston's prose isn't brilliant, but it's certainly more than competent, and by the end I was glad that I'd picked this book up. If the story had revolved around stamps or antiques rather than tyrannosaurs and trilobites it would have still been a good airport read, but as it stands it was irresistible for me. (And frankly, the detail and affection with which Preston delves into the world of fossil hunting makes it obvious that he's more than a bit of a dinosaur nerd himself. That bit of passion from an author goes a long way toward giving life to any novel, regardless of topic or genre.)

Preston begins the mystery with the Apollo 17 moon landing, and he quite cleverly uses the actual dialogue from the mission transcripts to build the prologue for the story. From there we jump to the American Southwest in 2005, where a man is about to be killed as he returns from the site of a major find. By chance, a passerby hears the shot and tries to help the dying man. This good samaritan is Tom Broadbent, one of the main characters in an earlier Preston book (don't let this put you off-- I've never read that earlier book, and didn't feel that I was lost or walking into a sequel). Much as you'd expect, Tom and his wife are soon pulled into the crossfire as events spin out of control.

As in most thrillers, there are several villains, attacking our protagonists from several different vectors. As you'd expect, the villains with the most screen time are the most fleshed out, but I was disappointed to find that they were a bit of a mixed bag. While one heavy has outside interests and aspirations that round him out as a person, at least one had motivations which simply didn't ring true to my ear.

The science and weaponry details are there for geeks of multiple stripes; this is the kind of book that specifies what make and caliber of handgun is being waved under our hero's nose, while still finding time to ruminate on the different types of sediment thrown up by the impact which wiped out the dinosaurs.

Preston references paleontologists and bone hunters from the early days of museum expeditions to Bob Bakker, and mixes them effortlessly with car chases and kidnappings. (The desert wandering ex-CIA monk doesn't mix in so effortlessly, but hey-- they can't all be winners.)

Don't let the cover fool you-- it's no Jurassic Park clone, and Tyrannosaur Canyon is worth a read.

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Review: Dracula's Heir by Sam Stall

Dracula's Heir: An Interactive Mystery by Sam Stall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dracula's Heir is an "Interactive Mystery", which means that every few pages there is a pull-out handwritten note or fold-out newspaper which the reader can examine for clues and/or hidden messages. Gimmicky? Sure, a damn fun gimmick.

As a kid I had a similar book-- that one based on A Study in Scarlet. I loved it then, and the appeal of physical interaction with clues is just as strong now. Though the book feels slight in the hand, the nature of the enclosed objects is such that readers will spend more time with it than the page count would indicate.

Dracula's Heir is geared for ages 10+; that's my guess-- there's no age recommendation on the book, but there are a couple sections which might be frightening for younger readers, especially as things pick up towards the end.

The book's mystery is nicely structured, with clues hidden along the way. Even better, the answer is revealed slowly, allowing readers of different ages/aptitudes to solve more or less of the puzzle as their their skills of detection allow.





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Looking for Primary Source Spider Tales

I get a good portion of my web traffic from people looking for info about the legendary Congolese giant spider-- the J'ba Fofi. I can't say as I'm too shocked by that, since it's a story that so fascinated me that when I started writing a blog, most everything that came out was somehow related back to it.

Most of what I know of the legend comes from secondary sources, where someone has put together a summary of the different stories, usually with a line like, "For centuries there have been legends..." or "Many natives say...". For some time I've been wondering if there's any collections of the folklore and legends of the Baka people, and the Congo area in general. I'd love to see exactly what the original legnds were, whether Anansi, some variation, or something else all together.

Does anyone out there have any recommendations for such spider-oriented folklore or urban legends? If so, drop a note in the comments section!

   (As an aside, the best summation of secondary sources is easily Terrence Aym's article, "Possibility of the Existence of the Congolese Giant Spider". It's a great starting point for reading up on our large & legendary eight-legged friends. )

RIP Ray Bradbury

Scan via: http://bearalley.blogspot.com

I'm late to throw out my appreciation for Ray Bradbury's work, but since he passed away this week I wanted to acknowledge how much I enjoyed his work, and how much it influenced me as a reader.

In my opinion Bradbury was one of the best American short story authors, but there is a specific kind of story that he wrote better than anyone else. He had a way to spin a tale about youthful innocence endangered which was nostalgic without being overly sentimental, scary but not grotesque. These stories captured a kind of Midwestern ethos that found magic and wonder not only in the overtly fantastic, but also in the shimmer of a sky full of stars, and the trials faced by children straddling adolescent politics and the adult world around them.

In addition to these, he wrote about things that moved me when I was a kid: dinosaurs, Mars, sneaking out of the house at night. As an adult, Bradbury managed to never lose his  memory of the magic such things could have for a child. As a child reading his work, I felt like he understood my world, and that these stories were little gifts made specially for me. 

Wherever he is, I hope that he knows how much I appreciate his work, and that he's smiling.

Spider Goats protested in Ottawa

Photo Credit: Ashley Burke/CBC

One of my favorite topics-- Spider Goats-- popped up in the news again recently.

According to this CBC article two of the Spider Goats rescued from the collapse of Nexia Biotechnologies spider silk program ended up on display at the Canada Agriculture Museum.  Apparently the two goats have been there for two years, pleasantly munching on snacks and being viewed by families and school expeditions. But this March a complaint was lodged by a part time anthropology professor. I'm not entirely sure what additional gravitas this is supposed to impart, but it seems to be the key reason that the article was written.

Pictured above, the goats are named Sugar and Spice (which is more family-friendly than my suggestions of Lady Arachnae and Web Spinner Gruff).  They are still on exhibit, if you'd like to go see them, and there are calls to protest by the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, should they seem protest-worthy to you.

MonsterQuest episode about Giant Spiders

I've caught a couple episodes of the History Channel's MonsterQuest. It's a fun show with a casual, and usually intelligent, overview of various "mysterious creature" stories. They do a good job of preserving the fun and mystery of these tales while not straying completely into theoretical territory.

But somehow I had completely missed out on the episode about Giant Spiders. (I know, crazy, right?)

They mention several classic tales, including a reported 1938  encounter with a J'ba Fofi on a Congolese  road, and the widely-emailed image of a pair of camel spiders from Iraq. These stories are then used as a jumping off point for an investigation of whether giant spiders can be found, and a reality check about the urban legends surrounding camel spiders.

Of course, as I've mentioned previously, there is strong evidence that in order to grow to the kind of monstrous size described in this episode, a spider's physiology would have to be so altered that we would barely recognize it. Still, I can't help but love a good giant spider story.  

Recommended.

Review: A Special Place, by Peter Straub

A Special Place: The Heart of a Dark Matter by Peter Straub
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the jacket:

"A rumination on the nature of evil, the story centers on a boy, Keith Hayward, who is drawn by his nature to an irresistible fascination with death and the taking of life. His father's brother, the good-looking suave Uncle Till - the infamous ladykiller, who has led a shadowy career as a local celebrity - recognizes his nephew's innermost nature and gleefully tutors him in the art of doing ill without getting caught. Even a cold-blooded sociopath must learn some lessons in survival, it seems and Uncle Till is only too happy to provide a tutorial..."

An extremely well written, truly horrific book, "A Special Place" is compelling enough (and short enough) to be read in one sitting, but the disturbing after-images will linger for much longer.

Though this book is filled with violence -- physical, sexual, and psychological -- the majority of it is implied, as Straub describes its aftermath and lets his readers fill in the gaps.

The story he delivers is something of the Anti-Dexter, as budding sociopath Keith is encouraged in his interests by his magnetic uncle Till. Keith is presented as thoroughly dislikeable and corrupted from the start, but there are moments of shocking sympathy as he loses his last tenuous connections to humanity. There may not be any world in which Keith Hayward could have been a GOOD man, but Straub still conveys a sense of loss as Keith becomes a monster.

As a piece of horror fiction this is masterful, but I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone who wasn't committed to taking a very dark ride.

Hail Cthulhu!! Hail Morphine!!

Just a random concert poster that I'd like to share:

 Morphine Cthulhu poster