Author Archives: Eric

More like mild dislike…

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HaterzHaterz by James Goss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three stars might be too much, but there’s no option for 2 1/2.

I picked this book up based on an interesting review I read of it. While I don’t think the book was necessarily a bad one, I think it suffered due to timing. By that I mean, the time when I read it I was also reading a book that I didn’t much like. The book I was reading had pop culture involved in it and I associate that very much with the internet these days. Since Haterz doesn’t happen as a story without the internet it vaguely fell in line – and it wasn’t a good line.

This book is British – both the author and the publishing company are UK based. I only mention it because reading it here in America the references to common things was a distraction. It’s not a huge thing, but it was always there. Store names that I didn’t recognize and occasional slang that I didn’t get just kept popping up ( small example – “chugging” is not the same here in the states). IF you can get past that you can likely sink into the story and just go with it.

So, the story. Clever at first and then it just seemed to go on and on and on and on. Maybe I missed something. I struggled to get to the end. The main character was just not somebody I liked. He was average and wishy-washy. He was well written enough that I did picture his neighbors being interviewed after his arrest saying, “He seemed so normal…”. I will admit the conspiracy (such as it was) did surprise me, but I wanted it to be… I’m honestly not sure what I wanted it to be. More? I pushed through because I wanted to know how it all ended. I didn’t much care for the ending. (Spoiler?) It reminded me very much of the movie ending for Fast and Furious; yes, you’re a criminal but you’ve got a hot sister so everything is ok.

I think there’s a place for this book. There’s a definite link to the times and there is a social commentary conversation to have based off this story. Maybe somebody I know will pick it up and we can chat about it. I believe it’s got really good conversation starter stuff in it and that’s a plus for any book.

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Shenaniganator – or – Philcon 2015

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It’s been a week since I participated in Philcon 2015. I have held off a week in writing up my review partially because it was Thanksgiving week and that meant a busy schedule and partially because I wanted to take some time to consider how best to write up my thoughts on the whole venture. For anyone who has been with me for a while here at the Pretend Blog, I did remember my socks this year.

Last year was the first time I’d attended as an invited guest and I was a little surprised to have gotten another invitation this year ~ not through any misdeed or indiscretion, I just hadn’t really given it much thought. Thankfully I was able to secure a room and once again have the fantastic option of riding with my friend Mary. Travel and check in were smooth sailing.

There were a number of friends in attendance, but a more than significant number of friends that were not this year. The lack of attendance was palpable to me. There were empty seats in the lobby, empty seats at the hotel bar, empty seats in the gaming area and lots of empty seats in the panel rooms. I missed seeing many of my friends. I had commented last year on how the attendance felt really low to me, and this year seemed worse to me. Once again, I don’t have numbers to back me up or any kind of data for that matter. It’s just a feeling, but a feeling based on simple observation like: I could put my arms out to my sides and not hit anyone or anything in the dealers room. There wasn’t anything even vaguely resembling a crowd even in the middle of Saturday afternoon. Not encouraging.

Panels were totally up and down. I had six for the weekend and they all subjects I could speak to with some form of knowledge. I think that says good things about programming. Yes, the information about the panels arrived a little later than one might want (it was plenty of time for me as a non-moderator), but I did not ever encounter the “well I have no idea why I’m on this panel” person.

I really enjoyed the first panel called “Judging a Book By Its Cover” on Friday. Ray Ridenour was a good moderator and the panel was quite diverse. It was nice to have all the bases covered with Ray’s insight as an artist, a publisher and an author on the panel. I was really hoping to meet the editor that had been scheduled to be there, but he didn’t make it.

I also learned a great deal from the panel Military Culture In Science Fiction. It was easily the best attended panel of mine for the weekend. I did my best to have solid input to this panel but frequently found myself listening and getting caught up in what the others were saying.

I’d have to say the first was probably the best for the weekend for me. Most were decent. They did not all go well in my humble opinion. I’m not going to detail each panel, but when an audience member approaches you and another author after the panel and offers to buy you both a drink just for getting through I suspect the reviews wouldn’t be stellar.

The small panel attendance did have one big advantage. I had the chance to really chat with both the folks I was on the panel with and some of the folks in the audience. It was really good to meet others that are fans and genuinely interested in what others were working on. I might have even gotten folks to check out Watch The Skies so we can keep the connections rolling through the rest of the year.

Lastly, and I think somewhat sadly, I came to the conclusion over that convention weekend that I am no longer a Shenanigan-ator. I am not really even a good participant at this point. After really talking up and enjoying the memories of Defend The Pizza I know that Sawney HattonTheLoot was disappointed when nothing even remotely resembling a brawl happened on either Friday or Saturday night. The room parties on Saturday night were… not exactly what you would normally see as a party I think. We (and by we I mean the people I was with) decided we needed something to happen – and so the great game of Elevator Roulette was invented. I genuinely laughed the hardest at the convention goers that exited their elevator cab cane first much to Sawney’s chagrin. The details are fuzzy. I really enjoyed watching that, but was somewhat relieved it wasn’t my elevator that opened. I don’t think I would have carried things off as well as the others there. I am sure they would have been disappointed then and I know they were disappointed when they moved ahead with the “something needs to happen” concept. I will totally own the simple fact that I decided not to crash the reception that was sharing the hotel. I don’t know when I stopped being the shenanigans guy – but it was pretty clear this past weekend that I am no longer that guy. Maybe I’ll come back around to it some day.

Someday. As I typed that I had to genuinely wonder how many somedays Philcon has left. I don’t want to be the pessimist here, but this year didn’t convince me the downward slide has stopped. I do hope they pick up next year. I also hope they’re willing to invite me again and that I’ll have the chance to once again see friends and find out who the Shenanigan-ator will be.

Low Culture?

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Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture ManifestoSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have to admit that hearing the author speaking in a radio interview about something completely different failed to improve my mental image of him… using his method of comparison, he strikes me as the kid who got bullied and developed his intellect to compensate. This alone wouldn’t be an issue. I had a great many fistfights with bullies in my distant youth. The problem is that he is now relatively successful and gives the impression that deep in his core he believes he is super witty and important. I use the term believes on purpose. It’s a position to be stated and defended much like the agent in the movie Serenity without the gravitas. My feelings on the author are only important because this book is his ‘manifesto’ (still no gravitas).

I don’t normally read the cover blurbs because they are either paid or from a friend of the author and don’t actually help anyone decide a book is worth reading. I should have read the back cover material this time ~ particularly the part about “exasperating”.

I can’t recall how this book ended up on my reading list but I do remember being interested. I’m not sure I should have been and I’m very glad this was a loaner and not something I purchased. One of my biggest issues with this book is that it is tied so directly to pop culture it becomes tied to (directed at) a specific generation by default. It is unlikely that my daughter will ever watch Saved By The Bell and IF she does it is even less likely it will mean anything to her. For a manifesto this is a major flaw.

One other big issue I have is that I frequently disagree with the position forwarded by the author. Example: The only reason ‘The Real World’ matter is because it exists as a clear, distinct signpost at the end of MTV being culturally relevant. It is the moment they became the punchline “…when they used to play music”.

I will say there are small parts of the book I found amusing and useful as conversation starters. These were offset by my own juxtaposition with other vaguely similar material. I suspect it’s that particular comparison that doesn’t help. I watched a war documentary. In that a soldier discusses the mind numbing boredom that was everything between the shattering adrenaline spikes produced by combat. During those quiet times the men had explored any and all ‘getting to know you’ bits of discussion and stretched to find something ~anything~ to talk about. This lead directly to a six hour argument about who would win a fistfight, Fabio or George Clooney. Who would find this important or engaging? People right on the edge of insanity or people truly desperate for something to do. This author was clearly desperate for something to do.

One of the most maddening aspects of this whole thing is the language of your high school English class being levered into a conversation about cereal and how that directly relates to the meaning of life. It’s bad cereal too (I’ve never liked Cocoa Puffs, even as a kid). There are statements like, “…well suited for conventional moralizing…” when connected to media seem to support his position. All I could remember during these parts was my heartfelt desire to scream out in class, “ALL OF THIS TERRIBLE BOOK IS ABOUT TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF BY SLEDDING INTO A TREE! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! This is the stupidest thing ever”.

I think that’s really it – if you’re looking for dated material that thinks it’s funnier than it is, this book is for you. I’m left with the ‘are you kidding me’ feeling and I’m more than a bit relived that I can give the book back.

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Spot On

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Dead Spots (Scarlett Bernard #1)Dead Spots by Melissa F. Olson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I tracked this book down based on a series of reviews I read praising the author’s work. I’m glad I did. It was fun and fast. I have seen the concept of a null in other places before (most recently in the work of Gail Carriger – if you don’t know her stuff, go look it up) but it was a very interesting take to use a null as a crime scene cleaner.

The main character, Scar as her friends call her, seems to be a very reactive person. It’s really the biggest weakness I see in her. I guess I see her as negotiating from a position of weakness and that is something that always troubles me with a protagonist. It didn’t slow me down much, but I worry that the next book (or books) will cause me to dislike her based on her not taking charge and causing things to happen. I know this is a personal thing for me – there are lots of folks out there that don’t have any trouble with a character like that – but it’s one of those things I have trouble getting around.

All in all I’d say if you’re looking for a light urban fantasy you’ll probably enjoy this one.

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The Grendel Review

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The Grendel AffairThe Grendel Affair by Lisa Shearin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. It was a light, fun, and fast. There was plenty of action and the characters were engaging. I didn’t feel put off by them. I could give or take the setting – lots of books use New York City as a backdrop. The nice thing was that it felt like the author had a solid concept of distance and the time it takes to get places (and if she really didn’t know NYC then very well done faking it for somebody that doesn’t know the city at all).

I have spent some time trying to figure out how not to compare this book to Monster Hunter International by Larry Correa and failed. I can’t escape the comparison. This book is decidedly lighter on the weapons chat and leans more toward the relationships, but they are very close to each other. If you liked MHI then you will probably like this book. If you like secret monster societies and clandestine quasi government operations with lots of action this book is for you.

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American Football

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I’m certain that fans of the game will have differing opinions on what I write here, but I’m actually hoping to reach non-fans on this one. There is some compelling stuff toward the bottom of this – it’s worth a read (and a listen if you pop out to Radio Lab).

American football is the only “reality TV” I watch. No, I don’t watch chef kitchen whatever or survivor island race whatever. Do I know about them? Sure – how could you not in this day and age. Yes football is reality TV – complete with elimination matches and a massive soap opera attached to the players – it just happens to make over a billion dollars a year. It is the biggest, baddest reality TV show on the block and it doesn’t care much what the soap opera players it hires do – unless they can’t perform or they make the show itself look bad (and when I say bad, that’s a relative term). The only folks close to the same level? NASCAR. Believe it. NASCAR just doesn’t have the history that football does.

Football is and always has been a brutal game of aggressive ground acquisition. We are actually watching the fastest, hardest hitting yet safest version of the game ever. Don’t believe me? What if I told you there was a football season where 19 people playing died? Torn ACL doesn’t sound bad compared to dying. This tradition of brutal has carried forward. In recent past years there was a player that had a portion of his finger amputated rather than have surgery to save it so he could get back onto the field sooner rather than later. Who needs that part anyway, right? There are players every year that drive their bodies to a point that most of us would find ridiculous to consider.

The intense competition of football gives us genuinely compelling stories. It is fascinating to see the inspiration, the rage, the horror and the joy all generated by a group of men trying to push a ball in one direction or another, televised weekly but only a few short weeks out of each year.

A friend of mine pointed me to this really interesting article on Radio Lab about the history of football. They talk about some of the origins of the game (if you’ve heard of Pop Warner football leagues, did you know there was a man behind that name?) and the things those men did to push the game to become what it is today. They bent the rules or exploited the not yet a rule situations to win. Do you want to understand why it takes 15 minutes to play out the last 30 seconds of game time? It’s because we’ve had a hundred years of little boys standing in the grass yelling,

“DID NOT!”
“DID TOO!”
“FINE! DO OVER!”

This is the heart of the game and now the results mean the difference between winning and losing on a multi-million dollar stage. Brutality and bending the rules to gain any possible advantage. Don’t believe me? Listen to that Radio Lab article. It tells about the little things that changed each year because of the things the men running the teams did in order to get any little advantage. Guess why you can’t paint the ball to match your uniform jersey – because somebody did it. Puts a little inflation argument in better perspective? The Radio Lab article also discusses the Carlisle Indian School and their influence on the game. History right in our area – close to my family actually. I hope to get down to see the historic marker soon. I also hope that when the film makers tell the story of the Carlisle Indian school they do it justice. There’s a lot of history there and I would love to see it done well.

There’s a local college that houses a lot of information about the Carlisle Indian School. It’s a story worth checking out.

Keep the picture in your head of two little kids on the playground arguing next time you see football being played, just put that attitude into grown men. It put a bit of a different spin on things for me once I figured it out. I’d love to hear what you think – do those never ending final seconds of the game make more sense in that light?

Football

PHILCON!

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I was very happy to be invited as a guest to the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society’s annual convention. I have commented on this before, but I hesitated to post anything more until it was all ‘official’.

Now it’s official!

Here’s my schedule for the weekend:

Fri 6:00 PM in Plaza IV (Four) (1 hour)
JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER (2175)

[Panelists: Ray Ridenour (mod), Maureen O. Betita, Gail Z. Martin,
Andi O’Connor, Eric Hardenbrook, Ty Drago]

A cover shapes the expectations the reader brings to the book. What
if it is deliberately misleading? Can a deceptive cover bring the
book to its audience? How hard is it to appreciate a story based on
its own merits when you’re comparing it to the story you thought it
was going to be

Sat 11:00 AM in Crystal Ballroom Three (1 hour)
HOW DO WE CHOOSE THE BOOKS WE READ? (2176)

[Panelists: Todd Dashoff (mod), Eric Hardenbrook, Deborah Stanish,
Joan Wendland, Carl Fink, Gary Feldbaum]

People with broad taste choose from many different story types. On
what basis do we make these choices? Why do some readers focus on
one sub-genre or one writer

Sat 12:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
MILITARY CULTURE IN SCIENCE FICTION (2139)

[Panelists: Mike McPhail (mod), Christopher Weuve, Eric Hardenbrook,
Jack Hillman, John Skylar]

How accurately is it depicted in SF literature, and how has it been
extrapolated into future settings? Who is writing it believably

Sat 5:00 PM in Plaza V (Five) (1 hour)
HOW GAMING IS IMPORTANT TO FANDOM (2073)

[Panelists: Tony Finan (mod), A.T. Greenblatt, Joan Wendland, Eric
Hardenbrook, Muriel Hykes]

Despite being an intersection of innovative storytelling formats,
fantastic visual artistry, audio dramas, and community interaction,
Gaming’s place in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror is often overlooked.
How do card, board, video, and other games continue to influence the
way genre stories are told? How else has Gaming affected the nervous
system of fandom over the years

Sat 9:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
FANZINES OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND…FUTURE? (2179)

[Panelists: Steve Wilson (mod), Phil Giunta, Eric Hardenbrook, Chris
Fuller, Victoria Janssen]

Before online social media, before Fanfiction.net and AO3, before
podcasts and youtube, fandom’s creative outlet and primary method
of keeping the lines of communication open was the humble fanzine.
The advent of the Internet may have seen a downturn in their
production, but not in our desire to create and communicate. How did
fanzines get us where we are today? How much or our heritage still
lies bound between those now-musty pages, and what’s being done to
preserve it? Where do we go next

Sun 10:00 AM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
WHY CAN’T I GET MY BOOK CLUB TO READ WHAT I WANT? (2173)

[Panelists: Evelyn Leeper (mod), Rodney Somerstein, Eric
Hardenbrook]

How do you propose a title in a way that makes people want to read
it? How does one run a successful book discussion group in general

I’ll be a panelist and not a moderator for any of these topics. I’m looking forward to the discussions and interesting tidbits I always pick up during these discussions. IF you’re in the area, get out to the convention. I love to go to these and if you’re a fan I’m betting you’ll love it too.

philcon_logo

Hindsight

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Writing is a lonely business. It is you and your words. Art is not necessarily the same and film making even less so. It’s very easy to look backward and see what might have been. It’s the sort of thinking that can lead down the dangerous path of tailoring your choices based on proposed outcome. I don’t want to think to myself, “If only I’d gone and done… then I’d have landed….” I want to focus on my work (such as it is) and keep moving it forward.

Having said that I am going to suggest you watch a documentary out there called Jodorowsky’s Dune. It is the story of a film that was never made. It is the story of a visionary. The story of somebody I don’t think I would ever be able to understand – or deal with. It gives you a glimpse into a place that feels like it was flat out bat shit insane. It shows us in hindsight that total failure isn’t always just that.

There was music. Magma (a band I’d never heard of until today) and Pink Floyd mixing up a sound track for a film.

There was art that – looking backward is the sort of thing to make your head rattle just a little – put Giger and Foss together for concept art. At this point most people recognize Giger from the Alien stuff, but you might not know Foss by name. IF you are a fan of science fiction at all, you know his art. Seriously – I love his work and I have for years. Go and see it at his site, I’ll wait. Yeah, his space ships and Gieger’s alien bio-tech looking stuff together as concept art.

Then there was casting. Actors – or people that would be actors. Envision this group; David Carradine (from around the time of Kung Fu), Mick Jagger (when the Stones were at the height of their popularity), Orson Welles and Salvador Dali. Can you imagine the insanity?

Combine all of the ingredients listed, along with a few others, and mix until you have DUNE. Yup, that Dune.

That is why I started by talking about looking backward. Jodorowsky’s movie was never made, but here we are forty years later talking about it and everything that might have been. You recognize the names of people involved, but you might not have recognized them if not for this project. Things could have been very different if Giger didn’t make the connections he did during that process. It really is a fascinating documentary.

There have been a number of other pieces talking about it if you’re interested. From the NY Times to Boing Boing this has captured a lot of attention. I would say it’s definitely worth watching if you’re any kind of creative or at all interested in the possibilities of what might have been (like many fans of science fiction I know).

I’m also going to slide this last thought in here for fans of the written word. I read a book called Night Film. The plot involves a film maker that has an almost cult like following that would actually move in to his mansion during filming. This film makes me think it is only genre (science fiction not horror) that keeps Jodorowsky from being that character.

So – creators out there – watch this and get inspired. Go with your vision. Try. Make it happen. To paraphrase something a friend of mine said to me, “You can’t epic fail if you don’t plan big”.

It has even joined a meme.

It has even joined a meme.

Weird Moon

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Chasing the MoonChasing the Moon by A. Lee Martinez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I started reading this book all I could think was, “This is just weird…”. IF that sells a book for you, you’ll really enjoy this one. There are a large number of odd moments that sound like they’re directly from a nightmarish subconscious or a kids cartoon – and sometimes both at the same time.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any Monopoly money on you, would you, Number Five?”
She shook her head.
“Damn. The mole lords are not going to be happy about that.”
He withdrew into his room and shut the door without another word.

I want to sum the book up in some way that’s better than that, but I don’t think I can. The level of acceptance of those things changes throughout the book, but as I think about it there really isn’t much in the way of “action” at any point. There are lots of relationships and oddness, but this feels more like a character study than anything else.

Having said all that, I like the characters and the setting was amusing. The book moved at a smooth pace and was a very quick read. It was light and fun and if you’re into odd (hearing Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz in my head, ‘I, myself, am strange and unusual…’) then this book could be for you.

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Risen

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Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy, #1)Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was surprised to see this book on the Amazon list of 100 science fiction books for a lifetime. I wouldn’t have picked this book up on my own. I started it because it was one of the monthly selections from Watch The Skies. I’d say cover art would have helped, but I’m not sure what the picture would have needed to be (as it related to the story) to draw me in. There’s a lot that goes on inside the character’s head.

I bogged down in this book very early on. At the time of the meeting/discussion at the group I hadn’t made it past the main characters physical transformation. Many at the meeting said it became significantly more violent (and perhaps less interesting) after the transformation was complete.

I almost gave up, but I decided to see exactly what “more violent” actually meant. They were right – I’ve read some military fiction that didn’t contain the one on one kind of violence that was displayed later in this book. That didn’t bother me. The military / training exercise portions of the story are what carried me through to the end.

I understand why the book ended the way it did – and it is an end – but I’m not sure I’m drawn in enough to keep going in the series. I don’t overly like the character. The world building left me with questions that I’m sure would be answered but that alone won’t carry a series for me. It’s very important, but doesn’t stand alone.

In all I’d say the book was “OK”. I’m saying that here specifically because a 2 star rating (with the little pop up that says “It was OK”) makes it sound or feel like I actively disliked the book and that is not the case. In the end I think I was ‘whelmed’ – no over or under, just ‘whelmed’.

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