A Plea for the Book-lovers

Since andrew eldritch and aa were asking people to spot a book or two for them, I thought I should put in my request.

I remember seeing a hardcover of this before in National Bookstore but-- not being well-versed in the field of speculative fiction yet-- I put it down. However, the cover's stayed with me throughout these years and when I found out the author was actually fantasist Paul Witcover*, I rued my ignorance then. Especially when I discovered it came out only in hardcover and is now quite hard to find-- much more second-hand. Yes, there are some available online but the cost! the cost!

*Interesting triva: Witcover also wrote, together with a fave author of mine Elizabeth Hand, a comic book for DC called Anima.

(I also have to admit I once saw a hardcover of George R.R. Martin's first volume of A Song of Fire and Ice, A Game of Thrones, but didn't get it. Years after, I found out that such copies are now considered exceedingly rare and are worth a pretty penny on the book market. Bloody shit.)

In any case, this is Waking Beauty:

What is Beauty?

To the men of the Hierarchate, it is death...and worse than death: A scent that rises each evening from the depths of the forest called Herwood, luring them to eternal damnation.

To the women of the Hierarchate, Beauty is a rival, an enemy to be fought tooth and nail. Each night, the women bind their men, plugging their nostrils to protect them from the evil scent and keep close watch over their sleep.

In this astonishing first novel, part parable, part fantasy and all erotic adventure, Paul Witcover transports readers to an awesome world where the visionary and the voluptuous are at war. It is a world deeply strange and strangely familiar, a new literary landscape lying somewhere between the fabulous realms of Anne Rice and Salman Rushdie.

Talk about alluring, yes?

So, if anyone finds a copy (or has one), I'd be willing to shell out some hard-earned money for this. In return, I promise to keep an eye out for stuff any book-lover is on the look-out for.

Pretty please?

Update: Of books I've seen in the wilds of second-hand bookshops, these include

(1) Wild Cards book 1, one of the best concept anthologies around edited by George R.R. Martin, mass market paperback

(2) Tales of Old Earth, a short-story collection by Michael Swanwick, hardbound

(3) Syrup by Maxx Barry, an earlier effort by a really funny SF writer, hardbound

To Quote Samuel Jackson, That's One Bad Cat Mutha

My eye hurts (courtesy of a bloody sty) so am thinking of wearing an eye patch.

Unfortunately, I don't know how I'll look so...

...That's not so bad, is it?

At the most, I feel like I'm always grinning. Argh.

In Defense of Standards

(Update: Okay, I'm editing this because a commenter asked me too. However I figured maybe I can salvage some of the rant. No point in wasting the words...)

What I'm wondering is: can most people recognize a good book?

Look at my favorite scapegoat, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I didn't like this book because the prose was lousy-- like it had been written expressly to be made into a movie-- and the ideas though interesting were not surprising (Jesus Christ had children? Oh my!) as I've already read a bit of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. So when a lot of people keep saying how it's the greatest thing and it's a bestseller and it's made into a movie, yadda-yadda, well then, I seriously start to doubt the masses' taste in reading material.

I can't be accused of being elitist because I like to read a mainstream bestseller like Michael Crichton every now and then and Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. I'm also sure I've told people that I won't join a Palanca contest because I consider myself a "hack" writer: i.e. I like to write for commercial purposes. Recognition is fine but I like my rewards in book-shape and preferably being read by other people.

Still, I can appreciate the Palancas: if I want to read the stories that moved souls of Filipinos throughout the ages, I can be sure to find them.

On the other hand, I haven't read the local bestselling works of FT Sering or Bob Ong or Gianna Maniego though I did see that Sunday Inquirer feature on Ong. (Interesting indeed.) However, I have read Jessica Zafra's non-fic and though at first I enjoyed it, her snarkiness got tiring by the 3rd book. (I do have to give her fiction a try.)

My point in this hastily-assembled rant? That not all readers are real readers at all. How many readers read at least one book a week? A month at least? How many readers read books and not just magazines and newspapers? So how can you say that that some readers have good appreciation of books?

Good grief.

A Look Back at the Unmasked Ones, Part 2

(Ah, this is what I get for always coming in late. Hope you guys can keep up.)

Where was I? Ah yes... prose is all. Unfortunately, since "A Song of Vargas" relies on an almost-dreamlike prose to keep the reader within the story, even a simple case of wrong grammar can ruin the whole effect. This is one case wherein the writer's skills were not up to the task.

On the other hand, Ian Casocot's "A Strange Map of Time" was written in the same style but suffers from the a different problem. I thought Casocot's story in the last Story Philippines issue was the best of the non-speculative fiction lot in both tone and writing, being quite proficient in the use of the literary language. However, though he managed to do better than the writer of "A Song of Vargas", he did lapse into occasional epiphanic passages during the story. This is par for the course for more literary stories but unfortunately, in magical realism, proves to be stumbling blocks for the flow of the story. (To see my point, try comparing this story with Dean's "A Kite of Stars".)

Mike Co's "The God Equation" fits in the other end of the spectrum, a no-frills true-blue thriller that calls on the reader's intelligence-- something that The Da Vinci Code could have been if Dan Brown (snark alert!) wasn't writing for the masses. The fact that the protagonist is an avenging angel is just cherry on top. However, I had some problems with the mathematical info-dump in the middle of the story to prove the theoretician's a genius. I also had trouble with the clumsy elaboration in the last section: nobody tells what they did for that day, complete with dialogue and a blow-by-blow fight sequence. But otherwise, it was quite an enjoyable read.

I'd leave the fan-boy gibbering to skinny on Mikey's "Atha" but among all the stories, this one scored more points with me for its well-handled use of the language and being more true to the idea of speculative fiction. In fact, this actually reminded me of Kevin Brockmeier's "A Brief History of the Dead", balancing both what China Mieville mentioned as the required detailed yet vague-ness of the story inherent in any work of speculative fiction. Critic Matt Cheney put it aptly, saying:

This tension between the desire for that-which-is-so-amazing-it's-incomprehensible and that-which-can-be-quantified is one most of us who are readers of SF probably share to some extent or another, and it can be a productive tension, perhaps even one of the foundational tensions in fantastic literature, the tension that propels much good fantasy writing into a realm that borrows from traditions of allegory, surrealism, and slice-of-life realism but doesn't comfortably fit into any one camp, and, at its best, is therefore richer than each.

This, I think fit "Atha" to a T.

On the other hand, Phil's "The Great Philippine Space Mission" is an out-and-out SF-nal story that harkens back to the Golden Age of SF but then proceeds to skewer Filipino sensibilities in the same vein as the late SF writer Robert Sheckley. The story itself was saved by a rather contrived opening by the weird elements at the middle (Kris Aquino and the power of gossip? The Buzz? And where was Boy Abunda in all of this?) such that by the end of the story, all is forgiven. Another good read.

I won't be reviewing the other stories here-- I did promise not to-- as I figured the others have said what I would have wanted to say anyway. However, I do want to say that stories like "Stella for Star," "Monstrous Cycle," "The Omega Project" were good stories but I expected more considering these were regarded as the best of the lot.

I also have to admit that none of the stories set me afire. However, the top stories were a good cross-section of Philippine speculative fiction and am proud to say that these were Filipino-made. Thanks to this contest and the new writers it has brought to the fore, I can see that the Philippine speculative fiction is slowly coming alive in the light of the sun.

A Look Back at the Unmasked Ones, Part 1

It took me a while but I managed to finish reading the Fully-Booked contest's short-list. An interesting bunch of stories, to say the least.

Of the eight stories there, one was a horror story ("Stella for Star"), two were science-fiction ("The Great Philippine Space Mission" and "The Omega Project"), and two were written in the magical-realist style ("A Song for Vargas" and "A Strange Map of Time"). The rest were hard to categorize except that one was a horror-satire ("Monstrous Cycle"), another was an action-packed thriller dealing with math and religion, demons and angels ("The God Equation") and the last... I suppose the terms New Weird applies for its outright strangeness as some have deemed such an approach as the crux of speculative fiction ("Atha").

What's interesting to note that given such an eclectic bunch of stories, none of the above styles held supreme. On the other hand, it seemed like the weirder the story, the better as evidenced by the fact that the top two stories were hard to categorize. As such, the winning entries were:

1st place (tied) – “The God Equation” by Michael Co and “A Strange Map of Time by” Ian Casocot

2nd – “The Great Philippine Space Mission” by Philbert Dy
3rd - “Atha” by Michaela Atienza

So what does this mean?

I'm not going to review the individual stories but will refer you to three sites-- skinny, sean and dominique-- who did an excellent job of it, better than I'll ever do. However, I can give my two centavos on the matter. Of note is the backgrounds of the three reviewers as they came out with almost-differing assessments of the stories: which ones worked, which ones didn't and which one they considered the best.

(I may be wrong here but I found skinny's review coming from one with a background of the genre, dominique's with a more literary and mainstream pop culture approach, and sean's as dealing with the more technical aspects of the stories. But I digress.)

Personally, I thought that these stories were slipstream, given how all the writers tried to keep in touch with both genre and literary fiction even as they tried to transcend it. One could say there was a certain tension to the stories: the feeling I got was that the writers had struggled to stay true to the idea of a Filipino identity during the writing process. This was unlike Dean's first anthology of Philippine Speculative Fiction which ran the whole spectrum of genre to literary fiction. For example, compare Sean's story epic fantasy "Regiment" to Khavn's surrealist-social realist"The Family that Eats Soil." Nothing wrong with that, I know, but at least it gives me a clue to how the submissions were judged.

Likewise, I can also see the various influences that came on board as the stories were written. In skinny's interviews of the winners, Phil Dy cited SF satirist Douglas Adams while Mike Co pointed at spymaster Len Deighton and Michael Crichton of the techno-thriller fame (and yes, the excellent SF writer Alfred Bester too). Meanwhile, Mikey Atienza took a more literary approach as she enumerated Dave Eggers, Joseph Conrad and Toni Morrison, which was ironic considering how weird her story was. Funny enough, even Phil and Mike were outright fans of her story. (I thought she had the best turn of a phrase.)

I did see how some of the other stories were reminiscent or outrightly influenced. A lot of people were puzzled over the inclusion of "A Song of Vargas" (no author cited) in the short-list even as some have said it plagiarized from Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. Personally, I didn't pick up this vibe though I did find it sorely in need of a good editor. After all, if one were to try to weave a magical-realist tale of a ship captain and a talking skull, one had better control of their prose. In this kind of a story, prose is all.

I'll continue with my part-time review, part-time commentaries of the stories on the morrow. In the meantime, I need to sleep...

All Roads Lead to the Unmasking

Weird.

I thought I wouldn't have been able to make it to FullyBooked's Unmasking celebrations today at Rockwell Mall. This was because I promised to attend the first birthday party of my friend's kid after I get off work. However, I just realized that the party will be at the Luna condominiums right beside the mall.

And then I realized that I can also check out the FullyBooked main branch to see if they have a copy of Scottish writer Alan Campbell's debut novel, Scar Night.

(What's this book I keep harping about? I doubt that it's the second coming of fantasist China Mieville-- after all, it's Campbell's first novel-- but blurbs cite the New Weird writer frequently, as well as Mervyn Peake.

Specifically, it's about a city:

The city of Deepgate hangs suspended over an abyss. Huge chains hold it in place and the city's inhabitants are schooled in the belief that below them in the darkness lives the "Horder of Souls", the God Ulcis.

...And I've always been a sucker for a good city story.)

Hmmph. Might as well check it out. At least say hi to Dean and the others and grab a quick smoke. And try to congratulate Ian too (his work managed to make it to the short-list) if I see him there.

So if you see a chain-smoking cat there, that's probably me.

Curious Cat Question

It was weird when andrew eldritch mentioned a quote from a movie that brought back a blast from the ole' memoried past.

Specifically, it was around mid-90s and laser discs were still the main form for watching movies on the home system (yes, I was that old). I was a regular borrower from ACA Video at that time and there would be days when there would be nothing new in the new arrival-bins. As such, I'd be forced to check out other stuff.

It was then I picked up a movie with then-unknown actors (except for Eric Stoltz) called Kicking and Screaming (1995). I suppose the movie resonated for me because it was about a group of friends who just graduated from college and were feeling a bit lost. Funny enough, I first found about this movie because I caught the end of it on cable: one of the characters, Grover, was about to follow his girlfriend to Europe but found out he didn't have a passport. Boom, that was the end of the movie. How could I not try to find out what the story was behind the ending?

Likewise, it was the first time I came across a 'talky' movie. Yes, I'm such philistine.

Another 'talky' movie that made an impact with me was a play written by Tom Stoppard and turned into a movie: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). Starring Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss, this movie reminded me of Waiting for Godot but was totally surreal, funny and mindbending all at the same time. I can't remember now why I picked up this movie except that: it's about Shakespeare, but it's not. Really.

In the end I suppose these two movies made me realize that I can actually watch movies that involved two or more people sitting-- or walking-- around for hours. (Now what does that remind you of?)

So what two old movies made a mark on impressionable ole' you?

So A Cat Walks into A Blog...

Bit in a rush today as have to drive to Makati for an afternoon meeting. Will target comments and posts either later (at home) or tomorrow.

That being said, got my latest order from Booktopia, including the mass paperback of Brandon Sanderson's debut novel, Elantris (check out that lovely Stephan Martiniere cover), and Fritz Leiber's classic two-in-one Dark Ladies. Unfortunately, am down to my last penny again so I really have to go on a book-buying hiatus until next month.

(Unless new writer Alan Campbell's upcoming book Scar Night reaches the local shores or Booktopia finally gets me the much controversial Nick Mamatas' Move Under Ground. That is, Mamatas is controversial, not his book. Gah.)

You kids have fun. *waves*

Update: I've seen some books in second-hand shops that people may be interested in so if anyone is interested in these, just ask and I'll see if I can to get it for you, okay? (Or at least point you in the right direction.)

• Richard Calder's Frenzetta and Dead Girls, Dead Boys and Dead Things
• Harlan Ellison's I, Robot Screenplay
• Michael Swanwick's short story collection Gravity's Angels
• John Crowley's Dæmonomania and an ARC of Love and Sleep

Writing Speculative Fiction from the Other Side of the World

Here's an excellent, excellent interview by Jeff Vandermeer.

The interviewer, Indian SF writer Samit Basu, had conducted a number of interviews on Indian and South Asian speculative fiction. However, I thought that the one on Jeff's could apply also to the Philippines.

Aptly enough, I agree with most of Jeff's points. I remember two years ago how I shelved most of my story ideas including a lot of notes and maps. This was because I was fixated at that time on the fantasy genre and its resultant world-building such that this was all I could think of when creating stories. However, despite all the great ideas I was coming up, I came to realize that my stories didn't speak to me. I felt that writing nothing that bespoke of the Philippine culture and its national identity was tantamount to shamefully turning away from who I was. Granted that there's nothing wrong with writing stories based on fantastical worlds instead of the real world (i.e. the Philippines), but i felt it was a matter of perspective: I needed to know where I was coming from before I could write my stories.

(Which is why, though Jeff thinks there's nothing wrong in borrowing from different cultures, it does give me pause before I attempt it. I suppose I'm afraid of losing that sense of identity in the process of writing such a story. But I digress.)

Fortunately enough, it helps that I'm inspired by the slowly-growing community of speculative fiction writers in the country. Knowing that writing well-written stories with a local milieu but with a speculative bent can be done at all makes me strive to do better.

It also helps that we Filipino writers have the bonds of the English language to connect us amidst the large number of local languages and dialects of the 7,000 islands. (Writing in our local language is also important but I think this merits a different, much longer post.) This proficiency in the English language, I think, is at least one advantage of Filipino writers has in trying to write international-level stories, much more speculative fiction.

As Jeff has mentioned, I do believe Dean managed to make in-roads into the international market in this very same way. i.e. via the Internet, to the point in managing to get himself published in the Datlow anthologies. It helps that he's a consummate marketeer himself and makes me think that if it can be done, then it can be done.

A lot of food for thought for me to chew upon here. In the meantime, check out Jeff's interview as well as all the rest for some interesting insights.

Incarcerated in the Writer's Bloc

And just in case if anyone is wondering, I did join Fully-Booked's writing contest but unfortunately, I didn't make it as they've finally come out with the finalists for the People's Choice's Award (from which they've also picked the contest winner).

Ah well, easy come, easy go.

I suppose that means I can try submitting this piece somewhere else. Likewise, this also means I should get back to my writing. It's already been two months and I haven't even looked at my stuff, dammit.

*sigh*

Retail Therapy, With Books

It had been a pretty busy past two weeks and it didn't help that I was poor as a country mouse (er, cat) for most of the time. So when I finally got my pay last week, I couldn't help but treat myself.

It may be hard to imagine someone shopping for books but it can be done. Usually, I target the second-hand bookshops when I'm careful with my money and just buy the essential book at Booktopia. However, if I have the dough, then it's on to the top 2 bookshops in the city, which is Powerbooks and Fully-Booked.

Alas, despite the fact that I could have gone on a splurge on a number of mass paperbacks-- hardbounds are still way expensive here-- I was limited to two still-too-expensive trade paperbacks: one each at Powerbooks and Fully-Booked. But I was happy enough my choices, due to the fact that the "newest big thing," Scott Lynch's opus*, had come out here and I couldn't not get that. Likewise, Steven Erikson's latest Malazan chapter had also become available and his books are one of the best stuff in epic fantasy nowadays.

During the weekend, I managed to pick up a couple of pocketbooks and a collected TPB of JG Ballard's short stories at the secondhand bookshop Books for Less. I've been eyeing the Ballard for quite a bit and since no one had picked it up for almost two months now, I thought it was meant for me. *wry grin*

Thus, some of the stuff I picked up last week were:

• The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
• The Best Short Stories, JG Ballard
• The Tomb, F. Paul Wilson
• Battledragon, Christopher Rowley
• The Bonehunters, Steven Erikson

Not a bad haul to pick up the depressed bookbound spirit, yes?

*I first encountered Lynch at the earliest incarnations of gabe chouinard's deadcities forum so it's nice to know that his work (a fantastical Ocean's 11 in an alternate-history Renaissance-type city) has finally been published. The hype on this book has been so big, there are even reports that a movie may be possibly made.