Hauer, Rutger and Patrick Quinlan. All those moments: Stories of heroes, villains, replicants, and blade runners. New York: Harper, 2008.

Actor autobiographies are one of those things you need to pick very carefully. I haven't read too many of them over the years, but the ones I have I've been quite pleased with -- Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, Peter Cushing. Ok, William Shatner not so much.

Which brings us to Rutger Hauer.

Made famous by his role as the replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner, he's also appeared in a bunch of B movies, tv movies and a host of other things. Most recently, he's appeared in Batman Begins.

Most importantly, he's always seemed to be more thoughtful and intelligent than the average Hollywood actor. And he definitely confirms this is his very interesting and engaging memoirs. From his childhood in post-war Holland (yes, he's Dutch rather that German as I always assumed) through all his most notable roles, Hauer takes us along for the ride in a very interesting career. Concentrating on his early years more than the post-Blade Runner era, we see him struggling to find his way. One thing I liked was that no matter how lame the project seemed, he always seemed to give it his all.

A good, solid memoir of an important genre actor.

Depp, Daniel. Loser's town. Toronto: Penguin, 2009. 339pp.

I must admit I had pretty low expectations for this one. In fact, very low.

Daniel Depp, you see, is the half brother of Johnny. The prospect of reading a novel, not by a Hollywood star but by a relative of a Hollywood star certainly set off the alarm bells.

Serves me right for jumping to such conclusions. Depp's Loser's Town is terrific. It's basically a Hollywood hardboiled PI noir, set amongst the fakes and phonies of the film industry. The potential series character, David Spandau, is well drawn and believable -- a tough guy, smart, heart-broken and sensitive, has a lot of potential. The voice is strong and assured. I look forward to futher novels in the series, not because it mentions that another is coming, but because you have to believe that Depp won't be allowed to leave it at one.

The plot is appropriately convoluted but not improbable at all. It's dark enough by the end to keep even the most cynical reader happy.

Good stuff. Give it a try.

(Uncorrected proof supplied by publisher.)

What I read: 2008

What do you care what I read in 2008? Nothing, of course, but I do. As I get older (I was 20 in 1983 when I started keeping track of the books I read) I find myself more and more in the position of looking at a stack of books on my shelves by, say, Cornell Woolrich and they all have the word "Black" in the title. I know I've read a couple but I can't remember which ones. Fortunately, I've been maintaining a little list in a little brown book since April 1983 of all the books I've read (or at least attempted). By putting this list here it will be searchable. I may ultimately put at least some of it in something like LibraryThing, but for now I'll be putting it here. The advantage is that the blog is quick and dirty, without a lot of effort per entry. The books are in the order I read them.

1. Ambient Findability by Peter Morville
   
2. Year's Best Fantasy 6 edited by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer
   
3. Slide by Ken Bruen & Jason Starr
   
4. Farthing by Jo Walton
   
5. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 edited by Richard Preston & Tim Folger (Series Editor)
   
6. The Keeper by Sarah Langan
   
7. A Century of Noir edited by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
   
8. Einstein: A Life by Walter Isaacson
   
9. Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks And The Masters Of Noir by Geoffrey O'Brien
   
10. Supercrunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart by Ian Ayres
    
11. Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
    
12. 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania by Matthew Chapman
    
13. Year's Best SF 11 edited by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer
    
14. Infected by Scott Sigler
    
15. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
    
16. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
    
17. Free as in Speech and Beer: Open Source, Peer-to-Peer and the Economics of the Online Revolution by Darren Wershler-Henry
    
18. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr
    
19. The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
    
20. Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover
    
21. Complications: A Surgeon's Note on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande
    
22. Best New Horror 17 edited by Stephen Jones
    
23. Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
    
24. The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet by Daniel J. Solove
    
25. The Best of Technology Writing 2007 by Steven Levy
    
26. The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy
    
27. Wrinkles in Time: Witness to the Birth of the Universe by George Smoot and Keay Davidson
    
28. The End of the Beginning by Harry Turtledove
    
29. Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton
    
30. The Ruins by Scott Smith
    
31. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
    
32. Comrades of War by Sven Hassel
    
33. Solomon's Vineyard by
    
34. Pursuit of Genius: Flexner, Einstein, and the Early Faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study by Steve Batterson
    
35. Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them by Clifford Pickover
    
36. Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design by Michael Shermer
    
37. Triptych by Karen Slaughter
    
38. Dark Crusade by Karl Edward Wagner
    
39. Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas
    
40. The Wraparound Universe by Jean-Pierre Luminet
    
41. Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 by Sarah Lacy
    
42. Bad Moon Rising by Jonathan Maberry
    
43. The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier
    
44. The Best American Science Writing 2008 edited by Sylvia Nasar & Jesse Cohen (series editor)
    
45. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford
    
46. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008 edited by Jerome Groopman and Tim Folger (series editor)
    
47. The Quantum Ten: A Story of Passion, Tragedy, Ambition, and Science by Sheilla Jones
    
48. The Dime Detectives: a Comprehensive History of the Detective Fiction Pulps by Ron Goulart
    
49. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
    
50. Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future by Cory Doctorow
    
51. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
    
52. Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken by Michael Calce and Craig Silverman

I should mention that there are a significant number of books I've read that aren't on the list. I'm not recording the books I read for the Sunburst Awards as I don't think the list of books actually submitted for consideration are made public anywhere.

One book that I did read that's not on the list is The Open Laboratory: The Best Science Writing on Blogs 2007, edited by Reed Cartwright and Bora Zivkovic. Since I was on the advance screening panel of judges for the book, I did read all the posts that are reprinted in it during the judging period at the end of 2007; I also ordered and received the book in 2008. But I never actually cracked the cover and re-read all the posts during 2008. I did re-read a few, but not all.

Catch Up Post August -- December 2007

I haven't been posting for a while, so I thought I'd catch up by listing the books I've read since the last post here with a one or two sentence comment. Trying to do real reviews at this point would be too time consuming and I'd rather get up to speed fast and resume regular posting than risk falling so far behind that I don't bother to start posting again.

1. Pohl, Frederik. The Boy who Would Live Forever. New York: Tor, 2005. 384pp.

   Pretty typical late period Pohl. Kind of rambling and discursive, a bit weak on plot but full of lots of heart and enjoyable characters. Worth it for fans of Pohl's work or the Heechee books but probably not for the casual reader.

   
   
2. Hamilton, Donald. The Wrecking Crew. New York: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1960. 176pp.

   Another short sharp shock, the second in the Matt Helm series. Lots of twists and turns, hardboiled and noir, violent and cruel. Good stuff.

   
   
3. Wellington, David. 13 Bullets. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007. 336pp.

   Over the top horror at it's finest. A modern vampire vs. copy tale, violent and bloody, no refugees from Anne Rice-land either. the vampires are deliciously evil and demented.

   
   
4. Dozois, Gardner, ed. The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty Second Annual Collection. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005. 704pp.

   Self-recommending. Full of great stories. Read it and it's brethren from previous and later years if you care about science fiction at the shorter lengths.

   
   
5. Stracher, Cameron. Dinner with Dad: How I Found My Way Back to the Family Table. New York: Random House, 2007. 256pp.

   A heart-warming tale of a type-A workaholic dad who tries to slow down a bit and cook dinner for his family more often. A story of overwork, overstress, long commutes and crazy schedules. Mostly, Stracher makes it work.

   
   
6. Stephen Jones, ed. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: 16. New York: Carroll & Graff, 2005. 512pp.

   Another can't miss collection. I've been reading these for 10-plus years and I'm not sure if there's been an over all better selection than in this edition.

   
   
7. Scalzi, John. The Last Colony. New York: Tor, 2007. 320pp.

   A bit of a disappointment. A bit too talky and slow-moving compared to the previous installments with not enough emphasis on the action that has made Scalzi famous. Also, he really needs to expand this palette of characterization. Not everyone wise-cracks constantly. Also, the Perry/Jane/Zoe family unit is way too transparently Scalzi's own family for my liking. Again, to get to the next level as a novelist, he really needs to work on his characters.

   
   

What I read: 2007

What do you care what I read in 2007? Nothing, of course, but I do. As I get older (I was 20 in 1983 when I started keeping track of the books I read) I find myself more and more in the position of looking at a stack of books on my shelves by, say, Cornell Woolrich and they all have the word "Black" in the title. I know I've read a couple but I can't remember which ones. Fortunately, I've been maintaining a little list in a little brown book since April 1983 of all the books I've read (or at least attempted). By putting this list here it will be searchable. I may ultimately put at least some of it in something like LibraryThing, but for now I'll be putting it here. The advantage is that the blog is quick and dirty, without a lot of effort per entry. The books are in the order I read them.

By way of adding some value to the list, I'll italicize any work that I remember as being particularly wonderful.

1. Hybrids by Robert J. Sawyer
   
2. The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney
   
3. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
   
4. Over My Dead Body by Lee Server
   
5. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006 edited by Brian Greene
   
6. The Best American Science Writing 2006 edited by Atul Gawande
   
7. Demons by John Shirley
   
8. The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006 edited by Bora Zivkovic
   
9. Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels by David Pringle
   
10. Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities by Jeffrey S. Rosenthal
    
11. It by Stephen King
    
12. The Google Story by: Inside the Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time by David Vise & Mark Malseed
    
13. Witness to Myself by Seymour Shubin
    
14. Lady Yesterday by Loren D. Estleman
    
15. Follies of Science: 20th Century Visions of Our Fantastic Future by Eric Dregni & Jonathan Dregni
    
16. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
    
17. The Fabulous Riverboat by Philip Jose Farmer
    
18. The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin
    
19. Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
    
20. Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change by Walt Crawford
    
21. The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: Knowing What's Real and Why It Matters by Ardea Skybreak
    
22. The Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli
    
23. You'll Die Next by Harry Whittington
    
24. Trials of the Monkey: An Accidental Memoir by Matthew Chapman
    
25. Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger
    
26. Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
    
27. Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
    
28. Days of Infamy by Harry Turtledove
    
29. The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril
    
30. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
    
31. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
    
32. The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester
    
33. Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry
    
34. The Boy who Would Live Forever by Frederik Pohl
    
35. Glut: Mastering Information Through The Ages by Alex Wright
    
36. Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature by David Quammen
    
37. The Wrecking Crew by Donald Hamilton
    
38. 13 Bullets by David Wellington
    
39. The Year's Best Science Fiction: 22 edited by Gardner Dozois
    
40. Dinner with Dad: How I Found My Way Back to the Family Table by Cameron Stracher
    
41. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
    
42. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: 16 edited by Stephen Jones
    
43. The Last Colony by John Scalzi
    
44. Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts by John McCain, David Dunbar, and Brad Reagan
    
45. The Best American Science Writing 2007 by Gina Kolata
    
46. Dead Man's Song by Jonathan Maberry

Maberry, Jonathan. Ghost road blues. New York: Pinnacle, 2006. 472pp.

A great read, a fantastic first novel full of great action, spooky treats and gonzo villains. Basically, there's this hick town which has turned Halloween into a kind of industry, with specialised boutiques and rides. But, little do we know that the town is haunted by an ancient evil that is reawakening after being defeated 30 years before. The good guys are not really aware of what is going on as the bad guys get all their forces in order for the first cataclysmic encounter. The good guys win, of course, but not without some losses. However, this is the first book in a projected trilogy so I imagine that there's lots of carnage to come.

There are some first novel issues here, including a slightly flabby page count, overly precious and smug characters and an over reliance on snappy dialogue. Crow, for example, is far too obviously an idealized version of the way the author sees himself, while Val is equally obviously an idealized version of his adolescent dreams of a powerful, sexy kick-ass women who somehow totally loves the complete goofball main character.

Overall, though, I have to say that there are far more positives than negatives for this novel and I'm looking forward to reading the sequels.

Malmont, Paul. The Chinatown death cloud peril. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. 367pp.

Now this is a cool book! A phantasmagorical postmodern pastiche-orama, a 1930s pulp plot involving 1930s pulp authors as the main protagonists!

Walter Gibson (Maxwell Grant/The Shadow) and Lester Dent (Kenneth Robeson/Doc Savage) are the main ones, with significant contributions from L. Ron Hubbard, Chester Himes, John W. Campbell, Orson Welles, H.P. Lovecraft, Cornell Woolrich, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Stan Lee, “Otis Driftwood” (I'm not giving that one away...), Blackstone the Magician, even Joe Kavalier gets a mention and Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster get a cameo! And that's not including the ones I don't recognize!

Crammed full of colourful action sequences, daring escapes, dastardly villains with evil plots, weird science, zombies, magicians and evil, cruel editors, it's actually a bit short on plot sanity and cohesion, but it's definitely long on atmosphere and good old pulpy fun. I can't recommend this novel enough. I really enjoyed it, despite a few first novel failings.
,

Scalzi, John. The ghost brigades.. New York: Tor, 2007. 343pp.

My Scalzi habit seems to be forming. Last summer I read Old man's war at the cottage, exploring a new author, and enjoyed it a lot. This summer, I did the same thing, this time reading Scalzi's second book in his OMW series, The ghost brigades. And guess what, I loved it too. This guy fits as much plot into 343 pages as a guy like Harry Turtledove fits into an entire seven volume series. Action, adventure, romance, intrigue, loyalty, honour, lively smart-ass dialogue, blood and guts. Military sf with brains and a heart, the courage to ask big questions, to challenge easy assumptions about good guys and bad guys. And I'm not even that big a fan of military sf, most times. Habit forming. I hope there's another Scalzi coming out in paperpack next spring/summer to take with me on whatever travels we get up to. Highly recommended. Scalzi has rocketed to the front of the line of my favourite authors.

Turtledove, Harry. Days of infamy. New York: Penguin Roc, 2005. 520pp.

A pretty typical Turtledove alternate history novel, nothing more, nothing less. Interesting premise, large cast of viewpoint characters on both sides, lots of plot threads to make room for a bunch of sequels, a fair amount of padding in the text itself in the form of endless repetitions. And most of all, not much plot for a lot of pages.

This one is set in the Pacific theatre of WWII, with Japan invading and occupying Pearl Harbor in December 1941 instead of just mounting a surprise attack. The occupation that Turtledove presents seems suitably brutal, mostly in sync with what we know about the Japanese military during the war. Since Turtledove always has some characters conflicted by their situation in his alternate histories, this one is no different. This time it's the substantial population of Hawaiian Japanese, with the older generations tending to favour their homeland and younger siding with the USA. Of course, the Yankee characters are generally fairly arrogant and self-assured about their innate superiority and it's nice to see them taken down a peg by the superiority of the Japanese forces, leading me to at times root for the Japanese (if only temporarily, the occupation is truly brutal). I imagine that we'll see the American forces get the upper hand in later volumes.

Armstrong, Kelley. Stolen. Toronto: Random House, 2002. 399pp.

What's the demographic for this novel? I really felt that this novel was squarely aimed at a certain type of fan, the fan of Laurel K. Hamilton & those other spooky sexy romance novels. But could it transcend its demographic and find interest for a 44 year old guy? (Or is a 44yog part and parcel of the demo for a sexy horror novel?)

When you get right down to it, it's all adolescent wish fulfillment, to have power in a world that doesn't recognize your specialness, to have secret powers, to be above the morals of mere humans. Even the good characters are more or less amoral killers, I find the Clay character particularly annoying and smug, even the main character, Elena, seemed a bit of an idealized awkward, gawky adolescent goth: tall, skinny, plain, poor fashion sense, not very accomplished in “real” life, snarky and sarcastic but somehow powerful, sexy, ultra-competent and poised. Not to mention, still somehow able to win the affections of the smartest, most competent, best-looking male character.

A quick outline of the plot: the secret werewolf society becomes aware of the larger world of supernatural beings, including witches, half-demons, vampires and others. The attend a meeting of leaders of these groups to assess the dangers of a group of humans that seems to be hunting and capturing various members of the races. Ultimately, Elena is captured and imprisoned by the humans, financed and lead by a rogue billionaire software geek. Eventually, she escapes with some of the other captured supernaturals, and, well, you can guess the rest.

There's some stuff that's wrong with this novel, mostly that it needed to grow up a bit, to get to adulthood, adult characters and adult situations. The series has a lot of potential, potential I would like to see fulfilled. I liked the first episode of the loose series quite a bit, but this one not quite as much. I do look forward to reading more installments to see how the series and the characters grow, even if the series shifts to the less interesting witches rather than the werewolves. A bit of a sophomore jinx is nothing to abandon the series for.