Having come to know Cherie Priest first (through a convention) and the books she writes as a result of thinking “this is a wonderful person”, it’s quite possible that I was pre-destined to like this book as much as I enjoyed the previous book of hers read, Boneshaker. That said, Dreadnought is not the same book, but is just the same level of fascinating read. While last year’s book was set in a small geographic area and stressed character and rules of the world over action (while still including the latter very much), Dreadnought covers nearly half of the USA geographically (as the heroine rushes to the side of her dying father) as a plenitude of dangers attempt to block her travels.

This might sound a bit patronizing, but isn’t intended to: Priest writes the best action scenes I’ve ever seen from a female author, bar none. In order to qualify that statement, I’ll further say that this is among some of the very best action-based narrative I’ve ever read, including Desmond Bagley and Ian Flemming. It’s often thought that woman either can’t or don’t write action scenes, but this is bumf; it’s just more ‘manly’ to have people zipping around and shooting at each other, that’s all.

Strong female characters with Father Issues seem to be recurring themes of Ms Priest’s, and this novel is the same, with the protagonist being both a young war-widow and her father becoming estranged from the family when she was quite young; her previous novel having similar aspects to it. This is where the parallels end, however, and we have an entirely different sort of woman to root for in Dreadnought: one who must learn to act, to trust her instinct, and to take chances far in excess than she might have even imagined before. Previously a nurse acting as part of a team, in many ways now she must lead and directly influence the decisions of others.

An exceedingly wonderful book, filled with rich detail, setting, and characterization. An action-based plot to keep one interested, and train-based technology that I happen to have a fascination for. Bits of humour here and there, some zombies, plus some Civil War politics that I’d never quite got a handle on before now.

This is a book that’s good for just about anyone, but especially for a young woman who might be looking for a role model of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and down-right solid moral code.

WARNING: some language, but no more that you’ll hear standing around a 7 – 11 for about twenty minutes, or watching the occasional TV show after 9:00 pm.

Tags: Cherie Priest, civil war, Clockwork Century, derigible, Dreadnought, Grant's Pass, massive human pilot, novel, nurse, steam train, steampunk, train, zombies

Thanks to the genius which is Mari Adkins, I checked out this post here: “[publishing] The banal evil of the Google copyright settlement | jlake.com”.

Apparently the Google plan of putting every book in the world on-line is cleared to happen, and all writers (or their estates) who do not wish their work(s) to be available to everyone without charge have a little under two months to state their objection in writing. If they do not do so, they have no legal right to control of their writing.

All over the world there is the sound of authors saying “Eh? How’s that again? Isn’t this completely opposite to anything that’s ever been agreed?” The answer to that is ‘yes, it certainly is, but it’s too late now.’

For a dose of “the new reality”, let’s try this on for size, shall we?

The real problem, the evil here, is the notion now being put into practice that a copyright license can be asserted by a third party in the absence of the copyright holder specifically forbidding it.

All through modern copyright history until now, a licensor seeking a sub-right was required to negotiate with the copyright holder before exploiting that license. No differently from a tenant seeking to rent a property is required to negotiate with the landlord before they move in.

As of now, I no longer control the sub-rights to my copyright. Under the terms that Google and the Authors Guild have set up, anyone who wants to make a commercial use of them can do so. It’s up to me to notice, to be aware, and to take steps to defend my copyright. If I don’t, well, too bad for me.

And if you don’t think Hollywood lawyers aren’t already all over this, you’re dreadfully naïve.

Have a read through the article for the complete run-down, especially you authors, as this will have an effect on everything you’ve ever written or will write ever again.

And I’m working on the long-mentioned post about my last day in London right now, so that’ll be here tomorrow. No really, it will! I swear!

None of you care do you…? Well, alright, my mother will, but that hardly counts, does it?

Tags: author, Authors Guild, book, copyright, Google, Jay Lake, Marie Adkins, money, novel, Publishing, royalty, writer

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Hopefully better than that pathetic number claimed by the BBC. Although that estimation of the UK’s collective inteligence might explain some of their programming choices. [ahem]

Instructions: Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read. Let’s give it a go, shall we?

1. Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings — JRR Tolkien [X]
3. Jane Eyre — Charlotte Brontë
4. The “Harry Potter” series — JK Rowling [X]
5. To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee [X]
6. The Bible — Various [X]
7. Wuthering Heights — Emily Brontë
8. Nineteen Eighty Four — George Orwell [X]; when you graduate from high school in the title year, you find all sorts of assignments in English 12 making you read it whether you like it or not
   Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: book, books, classics, novel, novella

Many of you know that I enjoy history, architecture, social geography, culture, beer, and a damned good mystery.

Christopher Fowler’s “Bryant and May” series of books (six in total) are all set in London — or near as — and deal with all of those topics. Damned good stuff.

The latest — The Victoria Vanishes — is out now and features much discussion and details of pubs in London. I’ve not yet read it (or the previous title, White Corridor), and that will have to wait until October when I pick it up at Humdrumming Logistics Central [aka: “Trudi’s house”].

For those of you who know some pubs in the area, or have read about them, or want to know / read about them, head to this post on his blog all about the pubs he was fascinated by when writing the book: The Victoria Vanishes.

Even if you care nothing for beer, or for mysteries, or for London, it’s a fascinating bit of writing, and something that you wouldn’t think of initially when someone says ‘we must preserve the people’s heritage’, is it? Goes to show, eh?

LATER EDIT: added link to the post I’m babbling about. DOH!

LATER LATER EDIT: adjusted link to reflect new URL

Tags: author, Bryant & May, Christopher Fowler, damned good stuff, London, mystery, novel, peculiar crimes, pubs

Here’s something worth considering. I got the following text in my daily e-mail from Arts News Canada (and subscribing is not only a good idea, it’s FREE!):

Since I [Mariane Lepa] started doing Arts News Canada four years ago, I’ve come to appreciate just how much creativity, talent and imagination there is in this country from coast to coast to coast to political border. In fact, I’ve become so immersed in what Canadian artists are doing, I am a little surprised when I’m confronted with Canada’s low-level image beyond our borders.

I expect it from Americans — that’s just how they are (if you’ll permit me the over generalization) — but I don’t expect it from the UK. Certainly with all the conflict Britons have endured, internally and externally, in the name of cultural uniqueness, I have always thought we had a kindred spirit in our struggle to remain unique despite looming geopolitical influences just beyond our borders. So it came as a surprise to see the their perception of Canada described as “the US’s slightly slow cousin” in an weekend article on the London Guardian’s website.

Jean Hannah Edelstein is a London-based former New Yorker, who attended university in Montréal. Before coming to Canada, she “spent very little time even thinking about Canada, much less reading about it.” But upon arriving in Montréal to study, “I was swiftly — within hours — disabused of the south-of-the-border assumption that everyone in Canada is a bit sorry they’re not American.”

Her article in the Guardian is about Canadian literature, and she regrets that Michael Redhill’s novel, Consolation, did not make the shortlist for this year’s Man Booker prize.

“But though I can’t help but bristle when I come across people being dismissive of Canadian writing,” she writes, “I was disheartened when I worked in publishing to find that ‘Canadian’ is an adjective often used to justify not publishing a book in the UK.”

Accepting that Margaret Atwood has a well-deserved international reputation for her work, Edelstein goes on to list works by poets Gwendolyn MacEwen, Robert Kroetsch, and George Elliot Clark; novelists Robert McGill and Miriam Toews, and francophone writers Roch Carrier, Gisele Villeneuve and Monique Proulx, as worthy as anything else being published internationally.

She says, “a preoccupation with naming and identity runs through a great deal of the classic of CanLit, as writers attempt to explain what it means for a country to be a ‘cultural mosaic’ rather than an American-style melting pot.”

Canadians are right to reject “American-ness”, she says. “Canadians are quietly and deservedly smug about their rich and distinctive culture, which includes a distinguished literary canon.”

You can read Edelstein’s article in the Guardian at: blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/10/dont_look_down_on_canadian_lit.html

Huzzah! More grist for the mill of my book!

As a recent visitor to the UK, I can confirm that the Mother Land is a bit thin on details about ‘The Colony Over There’. The sheer size of our country is beyond them; they know it’s big, but ‘it’s not bigger than France and Germany combined, right?’ [NOTE: not an actual quote]

Actually I staggered myself with the reality that the distance from Victoria to St. John’s is equal to County Cork to the middle of Pakistan.

The Canadian authors known are few and far between, with people like Ms Atwood being an exception probably due to the RCS recent stage adaptation of The Penelopiad. Mordechi Richler is another one who is known, but not as a Canadian per se; merely as a good writer. Carol Shields is somewhat known, barely, Leonard Cohen is unknown as Canadian, a poet, or a singer — although I can see this being understandable — but mostly not at all.

Again, we’ve done a bad job of selling ourselves.

“Canadians kick ass!” isn’t a good approach either, as this sort of ‘in your face’, ‘we’re fucking important, so respect us or we’ll kick your teeth in’ doesn’t get one anywhere either.

Soon, I hope, we’ll be quietly able to introduce our works to the world and let the quality of them speak for themselves. Only then will we deserve the attention of the world for our culture.

Tags: article, Arts News Canada, CANADA, Guardian, Jean Hannah Edelstein, literature, Man Booker, MArgaret Atwood, novel, writers