Sunday, August 30, 2009

Mean Streets and Urban Fantasy

Continuing my quest to keep up with Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, I discovered Mean Streets in the library a couple of months ago. This collection introduced me to 3 other authors writing in the genre called variously "urban fantasy" or paranormal or occult fiction. Mean Streets was a fun but failed as an introduction to the genre because it lacked any text other than the 4 novellas themselves and the briefest of author bios. If publishers are going to issue collections like this, I wish they'd use the model of Steampunk (http://alms-jact.blogspot.com/2009/06/steampunk-sub-genre-i-didnt-know-had.html) . I want an explanation of the history of the genre, its literary antecedents, and some explanation of why these particular authors were included. As it is Mean Streets comes across as book produced because the publisher happened to have 4 items, too long to include in a short story compilation but not long enough to publish as standalones.

The book contains "The warrior" by Jim Butcher, "The difference a day makes" by Simon R. Green, "The third death of the little clay dog" by Kat Richardson and "Noah's orphans" by Thomas E. Sniegoski. I enjoyed the first 3 immensely but was left cold by "Noah's orphans." Twelve years of Catholic schooling gave me some grasp of the concept of angels so when they became hot some years back, I got turned off -- too anthropomorphical, rather silly and frilly-looking.

Since finishing Mean Streets, I've read 2 more novels by Green and continue to find Nightside a wonderful invention and the protagonist, John Taylor, a near-perfect noir P.I. I'd love to see this series used as the basis for a television program. Since Mr. Green lives in England, I figure there's always the possibility that the BBC or Granada or another British television producer will try to bring it to the screen. Kat Richardson's Greywalker series makes a solid contribution to the female P.I. tradition and I enjoyed the second novel in the series as well as her contribution to Mean Streets. Sadly the library doesn't have the first; perhaps one of these days I'll stumble across a copy at a bookstore. I did read the first book in the angel as P.I. series by Mr. Sniegoski, a prolific y.a. and fantasy writer, but it didn't convince me to change my mind about angels, even if it was set in Boston, a city I'm familiar with from visits growing up and time spent with friends attending college there.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

IT'S BEEN NEARLY A MONTH

Trying to blog in summertime, especially with weather that entices a person outdoors, is difficult. Winters around here are long and cold. Huddling by the computer, appreciating the warm air its fan exhausts on my feet, works much better for me. Today, it's windy and cloudy and damp from all the rain of the past few days so indoors at the computer works for me. As a matter of fact, it's a very Irish sort of a day.

In the meantime, though, I haven't quit reading, nor watching tv or dvd's. As a matter of fact MCFLS came through with the 2nd season of Torchwood and the 4th of Doctor Who. Just before that I watched the 3 seasons of a marvelous Canadian series called Slings and Arrows which starred Paul Gross. Seeing an older, but still gorgeous, Paul Gross reminded me of one the funniest and most charming (sounds like an oxymoron, but if you haven't seen it, please do) police procedurals ever made - Due South. MCFLS has the complete televised series so I borrowed the set of Season One. Alas, it contained way more episodes than I could watch in a week, so back it wait and I'm on the waiting list to borrow it again.

I'm finally seeing Lord of the Rings in the Special Extended DVD Edition. I resisted seeing the movie in the theaters -- 90 minutes is about my limit to sit in a seat in a large roomful of strangers. It's nice watching it at home where pause and scan back are options when I miss something on the first viewing. My spouse and son, both of whom saw the trilogy in the initial theatrical releases, are very knowledgeable about the Tolkien universe, not to mention the Peter Jackson version of that universe, so I can ask questions.

One of my friends in high school introduced our little group of friends to The Hobbit freshman year. Our homeroom was in the Physics Lab and we sat in the last row, behind taller classmates. Back there we passed books, notes and low-voiced comments along our row of seats (actually they were more like bar stools.) I waited my turn to read The Hobbit and, as soon as I was finished, I gathered together my baby-sitting money and allowance for doing chores at home and headed off to the nearest bookstore on one of the cross-streets off Broad St. and bought the trilogy. Wish I could remember the name of the bookstore but I do remember it was cozy, had a big picture window, and a small rental library of bestsellers, in addition to books on shelves from floor to ceiling. Next to the Eisner Memorial Library and the big record store on Broad, it was my favorite hangout during h.s. years.