reading (Quicker Than the Eye)

I finished Ray Bradbury's collection of short stories "Quicker Than the Eye" over the weekend. Though I'd never read any of the stories before, some of them felt very familiar. I had read a story very similar to "Last Rights" before, perhaps a different version because the details are different but the idea is very much like one I had read before. My sentimental favorite was "Exchange", it's a library thing.

I don't think this was Bradbury's strongest collection of stories. In some places the action felt implausibly hurried. It's a characteristic of Bradbury's writing that sometimes he makes characters so inherently frantic that they feel like cardboard. It spoils what might otherwise be a delightful plot (as in "Finnegan"). I'm still a sucker for his old fashioned feel even in modern day settings. Yes, sometimes it doesn't ring true (as in "At the End of the Ninth Year"), but it's a nice place to visit when you have to deal with modern society or lack thereof every day.

47. Ray Bradbury "Quicker Than The Eye"

reading (Asimov's January)

I finished this month's issue of Asimov's in the usual two days. This issue consisted of three novelettes, four short stories, plus poetry and regular departments. There was a good variety in this issue. Jack Dann's "Cafe Culture" was a disturbingly realistic possible future. Bruce McAllister drew pictures in "Poison" that I could see, which is an accomplishment because my visualization when I'm reading is spotty at best. I was drawn in by the worlds and stories of "Safeguard" and "The Hikikomori's Cartoon Kimono". In the former I knew there had to be a door the plot would go through, but I didn't guessed where we'd find the latch. Jeff Carlson's "Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy" is, as you would expect from the name, a fun little romp with a good dose of social commentary.

I have to specifically mentions Charles Stross' "Trunk and Disorderly". The Wodehouse fans out there will howl at the prose and the main character. Several times when I was reading the story I wondered if Mr. Stross was in fact bravecows incognito. The story is well put together and wonderful silly.

48. Asimov's January 2007

reading (Stormy Weather)

After reading my second Carl Hiaasen Book, "Stormy Weather", I get the impression that Mr. Hiaasen suffers from Terry Pratchett Syndrome (TPS). The book was funny, there's no denying that. I don't know why you'd want to deny that, but there really is no denying it. There a lots of mad little characters and madcap little incidents, told well. Although the occasional jumping back and forth so you get the same scene from three peoples' viewpoint is a bit distracting.

But I couldn't help feeling I was encountering some of the same characters in different skins. The irredeemable thug didn't listen to 911 call tapes but was addicted to trash TV. The female lead love interest wasn't the same, but she really didn't want to be with that asshole husband just like the other book's wife didn't want to be with her asshole husband. I do hope the next Hiaasen book mixes it up a little. It's fun to read and has lots of little twists, but the overall plot felt very familiar.

49. Carl Hiaasen "Stormy Weather"