Author Charles Stross at Pandemonium Books on 10-Feb-2009

The only annoyance, was that the mini’s / rpg gamers sitting behind us were loud. No one really told them to keep it down, and there didn’t seem to be anyone from the store willing to keep their sound level down to a reasonable level. At several points during the 70+ minutes that Charlie spoke, it was impossible to hear what he was saying! I think this bothered Charlie as well, but he didn’t say anything.

His stories were funny and he gave a lot of insight into some of the background or history of his writing and various pieces. I got to ask a couple of questions, including one about the relationship of A Colder War and The Laundry series. It turns out that A Colder War was written in around 1998, before the first Laundry book. There are similarities but there was no way for him to keep the same tone up for a whole novel. He was able to adapt his ideas of Lovecraft / Spy Novel in The Laundry series, which has been well received. The other really good news, is that he has a third book in that series coming out, and a fourth book planned!

After the Q&A, we approached his table and had him sign stuff. I had him sign both of my Laundry books, Jennifer Morgue and The Atrocity Archives. I didn’t really have much to say to him, but I did thank him for responding to my email and recommending his Laundry series to me. Then I left, and drove home. Maybe I should have stuck around and talked to him some more … but I really didn’t know what else to ask or discuss. Maybe I’m just a wuss when it comes to ‘celebraties’.

Anyway, overall, it was a positive experience and I’m really glad I had the chance to listen to and meet him in person. Now, I have to seek out some of the other authors I really enjoy like Neil Gaiman and Kaitlin R. Kiernan.

The second thing to say, is … who is Charles Stross? Well, besides being an author who’s books I enjoy reading, let me quote from the mans own WikiPedia page:

In the 1970s and 1980s, Stross published some role-playing game articles for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the White Dwarf magazine. Some of his creatures, such as the death knight, githyanki (borrowed from George R. R. Martin’s book, Dying of the Light), githzerai, and slaad (a chaotic race notable for their rigid caste system) were later published in the Fiend Folio monster compendium.

His first published short story, “The Boys”, appeared in Interzone in 1987. His first novel, Singularity Sky was published by Ace Books in 2003 and was nominated for the Hugo Award. A collection of his short stories, Toast: And Other Rusted Futures appeared in 2002. Subsequent short stories have been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and other awards. His novella “The Concrete Jungle” (available online) won the Hugo award for its category in 2005. His novel Accelerando (also available online) won the 2006 Locus Award for best science fiction novel, was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the year’s best science fiction novel, and was on the final ballot for the Hugo Award in the best novel category. Glasshouse won the 2007 Prometheus Award and was on the final ballot for the Hugo Award in the best novel category. His novella Missile Gap (likewise available online) won the 2007 Locus Award for best novella and most recently he was awarded the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award or Skylark at Boskone 2008.

In addition to working as a writer of fiction he has worked as a technical author, freelance journalist, programmer, and pharmacist at different times. He holds degrees in Pharmacy and Computer Science.

I guess the third thing to say about Charlie, is here are some links to his work and why you should probably be interested in his fiction. Here’s a link to Amazon’s “Charles Stross Store.” If nothing else, it’s a short-cut to most of his books as carried by Amazon.

Here are a few of my favorite Charles Stross books:

The Jennifer Morgue

The Atrocity Archives

Here’s one of my favorite short stories, and how I was introduced to Charlie Stross in the first place. “A Colder War” – imagine the cold war between the USA & USSR with Lovecraft thrown in for good measure. If you like fiction in the Mythos … you’ll probably love A Colder War.

Here’s Charlie’s personal website – http://www.antipope.org/charlie/

Finally, just for gits-and-shiggles, here’s some Perl Modules written by Charlie, back when he was just a lowly developer!

Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to drive down tomorrow, after work, and get to meet Charlie and ask him to sign some of his books. If so, I’ll write about the experience. If nothing else, it should be interesting!

When I say ‘hard to believe’, I don’t mean the whole ghosts in the basement thing – that’s par for the course. I mean, that a family from Chicago would pack everything up and move out to the most desolate place I’ve ever scene and move into the most dilapidated, spooky old house around in order to make a fresh start … growing sunflowers. The second complaint was the transparency of the plot. The first few minutes of the movie are very effective, showing a family terrorized by some unseen force; each disappearing down into the basement even the innocent little boy. The only problem was what they DIDN’T show you … the father. This immediately implied that it was the father of this doomed family on some sort of rampage. So, later on when a mysterious stranger, a man, shows up and volunteers to work long hours for months at a time for no wages other then a place to stay and some meals … alarm bells went off.

I was almost thrown off by some red herrings, but the red herrings weren’t there to lead you to another potential killer, just caste doubt on the right one. In other words, they didn’t introduce anyone else in the movie that it could have been and they didn’t convincingly prove that it couldn’t have been him. So, when they perform the ‘reveal’ and show him in the initial scenes as the ‘unseen force’ it doesn’t really surprise anyone.

Finally, the movie followed a particular plot that is so old and hackneyed in horror that smack’s of Hollywood cheese. Namely, the teenager who knows what’s really going on but who can’t get any adults to believe them. Let’s get this out in the open … (saying I eventually have a daughter) if I were to look into the eyes of my daughter, even a daughter who was a rebellious teenager who’s gotten into trouble as teenagers tend to do, and see abject terror … I’d tend to believe her and not dismiss the entire story as her ‘antics’. This movie wasn’t as bad as others, but in many, the parents have to disbelieve a whole sequence of events including people disappearing, strange wounds appearing, and other creepy signs and portents. In “The Messengers” all the parents had to do was disbelieve strange bruises on their daughters ankles, her repeated stories of spectral attacks, the disappearance of the previous tenants, and the complete terror that came radiating off of their daughter whenever she related the events. At some point, of this disbelieving smacks of abuse.

Here’s a partial review, and radically different from movie mentioned above. It’s the business / organization book, recommended to me by my mother, “From Good to Great.” At first it seemed a little dry and business-book-ish; but as I got past the introduction I found that it was utterly fascinating and the lessons completely believable and utterly applicable. The believability comes from their firm roots in empirical facts, not gilded theory. The applicability is due to their universal nature. I may never be the CEO of a large corporation, but the description of a “Level 5 Leader” applies just as much to a person improving their own lives, or the head of a family improving his family’s life, as to a corporate leader improving the entire organization he heads. This is only a partial review since I’m only about 30+ pages into the book, but if the rest proves to be as good as this section then it was money and time well spent.

Of all of her books, this one had the most ‘concrete’ feel to it. Instead of the endless ambiguity in her descriptions of monsters and magic, this book actually came out and described everone and (nearly) everything in it, in fairly unambiguous terms. Good! Also, the final denoument actually felt like a denoument instead of the point where the author just got tired of writing and decided to stop.

This is now my favorite Caitlin R. Kiernan novel, with “Alabaster” being my favorite book (it’s a collection of short works about one of my all time favorite characters, Dancy Flamarion).

Does my review sound a little harsh? Would it surprise you to know that I am actually an avid reader / collector of Kiernan’s works? The aspects that drew me to her writing still recommend her work to others. Namely, her amazing characterization of young people on the fringe of society and the dark (Lovecraftian) fantasy they interact with. The sense of place and gritty realism is expertly counterpointed to the fantastical elements, and each character feels amazingly real and yet so far outside the norm, that you can’t help but be pulled in. And Boy! Can this lady write! The use
of language is extraordinary; with the overly wrought flourishes of her early work tamed as she matured in her craft.

The negatives, are her use of ambiguity to communicate the sense of Lovecraftian horror. I feel for her predicament: if she were to clearly describe what the creatures were and what rules have to be followed in order to survive or defeat them … then the sense of wonder and dread would evaporite right off the page and this would read like a turn-of-the-century zoology paper. But, with very little concrete description it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s happening. Not only is the ‘what’ mysterious, but then the ‘why’ is as well. So the whole time you’re reading you’re thinking, “who is that? why did they just do that? what does that paragraph mean?” and then when you get to the end of the book, it tends to just stop. No real wrap-up or finale or conclusion. It. Just. Ends.

The most disappointing example of this is her sci-fi book, “The Dry Salvages.” If any book ever gives the impression that the author got bored with the topic and just tacked on a bullet-point list of what would have happened if she’d felt like finishing it – then this book would be it! The whole intro was fascinating, the characters intriguing, and the situation very original. Then you get to the last few chapters and wish you hadn’t. In fact, without those chapters tacked on, I would be free to fantasize about the ‘unfinished manuscript’ and what could have happened had the author ever completed it.

In summary: Caitlin R. Kiernan, an absolutely fantastic author who can accomplish the near impossible. The ‘real thing’ in a genre replete with pretenders and poseurs. Someone more then worth reading, if you can overlook or at least tolerate her few, minor foibles. If you “absolutely have to know!” then she definitely is not for you. If you can immerse yourself in a world full of vibrant characters and decaying settings, and tolerate never really knowing the full story or the real ending, then this definitely is for you!

Personally, I’d like to see “Flags of our Fathers” and then “Letters from Iwo Jima.” I’m fascinated that we have both sides of that war story … something almost never done, especially as it relates to WWII.

I’m nearly done reading the latest book by Caitlin R. Kiernan, namely “Daughter of  Hounds.” This book is very different from her usual, and I’m not sure why she’s changed her modus operandi. Most of her works are filled with loose ends and ambigious situations and rather disappointing endings. I’ve admired her for that, except for the cases where I was thoroughly frustrated by her (“Dry Salvages” comes to mind). In this novel, she’s as explicit as she’s ever been. The monsters are described, the hero’s call on magic and it’s quite obvious, and (for the most part) it reads more like an action / adventure novel then an atmospheric horror novel. To be brutally honest, I like it better this way! Let’s see if my opinion remains the same when I get to the end.