It's All About Story...

I wrote about Joe Abercrombie's " First Law " series way back in 2008. At the time, his first book, well at least the only one that had been released in the US, was " The Blade Itself. " I think I mentioned that it took me a while to get settled in, but once I did, I was hooked. As a matter of fact, I read the first book over a period of two or three weeks. I had to have the second book once finished. It was not available in the US. I contacted some of my UK family and asked them to ship me a copy, which they did. I read " Before They Are Hanged " in three days. When finished with that one, I created an account on Amazon.co.uk, ordered the next book, paid the US import tax, and had it shipped here. (Turns out this was cheaper than having my family send me a copy). I read the " Last Argument of Kings " in one sitting. Finished it at 3:00/3:30am. My wife was not happy, but I loved the story, even with the somewhat anticlimactic ending. Imagine

  I saw a New York times write up of the " Society of the Sword " series (well, I think it was the NYT) by Duncan M. Hamilton, it read like this: "The Three Musketeers meets Game of Thrones." I was thinking, "I wish I had written that." It's certainly apropos. The problem is, the write up left out the book to the left, " The First Blade of Ostia ," which is the prequel to the first book in the series, " The Tattered Banner ." The story follows Bryn Pendollo, a young man who dreams of becoming a master fencer, and the title of "First Blade of Ostia." As I was reading through the prologue, it reminded me of how much I wanted to be like Dick Butkus or Randy White on the football field when I was a kid. The world in which this story is set focuses that kind of hero worship, or idolatry, on great master fencers who compete in the arena. They are celebrated martial artists, masters of their craft, who earn riches and recognition

 My father had a tremendous love of C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series. With regularity he would press me about reading them. After all, I was born under the sign of water, and all things sail fascinate me. Of course the fact that my father attended the Naval Academy and held a Master Yawl Handler's license may have had something to do with that. With that said, at the time, my reading interests where elsewhere, so I steered clear of them for quite a bit.  Dad's love for those stories was such that each year, when the old Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo " Horatio Hornblower " movie would show on the television, he and I would have to sit down and watch it. The movie is based off of Forester's book "Beat to Quarters" in the series. It has become one of those movies I like to watch when I am feeling nostalgic, and perhaps missing dad a bit. As the love of the film has made a viewing routine in our household, my wife has become a Hornblower fan as we

 One of the things I run into a lot these days is, people don't read. I am not talking about the quick snippet on the great google machine, or the next greatest post from your favorite influencer, I am talking about literature. With regularity students in my courses, when asked what was the last book they read, will say, "..uh, I don't read." Actually, the response usually is, "you mean books? No." It breaks my heart.  Reading is one of the greatest remedies to the stresses of the world. I often have this conversation when students are suffering from artist's block. I tell them they need to step back and read. The look I usually get is like I have just fed them some camphor oil mixed with ipecac... yes, I wrote that. But it's so true. We need to let our minds relax and begin to paint their own pictures. Hard to do that when we are bombarded with images from the google machine all day. Sitting down with a good book allows your mind to disconnect from

Once again, too many years in between posts... my struggles with discipline are real... and also my really crappy ability to sustain a visible presence online. Which is odd, because I teach marketing. Doh. So, new thoughts, centering around Frank Herbert. When I read with the goal of transporting myself to some otherworldly realm, I gravitate more towards the Fantasy genre than to Sci-Fi. It's probably a 60/30 thing, most of my library contains works from authors like Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Robert Howard, L. Spraque de Camp (when writing Conan), Robert Jordan, Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Brooks, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, Brain Sanderson, Duncan Hamilton, etc... but I do have almost every work by Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and one book by L. Ron Hubbard. Yes, I read through "Battlefield Earth." Curse John Travolta for that crappy film... yes, I watched that as well.  This leads me to Frank Herbert's "Dune." This has got to be one of m

  This is definitely a reading household. Between myself and their mother, my kids have been introduced to books all across the spectrum. So, it should come at no surprise that we have read through the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books. As a matter of fact, Dad here is a total sci-fi and fantasy nerd. The four books that got that started: The Hobbit, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, and A Wrinkle in Time. If you have kids, I highly recommend setting aside some time on a Sunday evening and reading these to them. Anyway... I get caught up personally in linking The Hobbit & LOTR and the Narnia series to the messages we find in the Bible. Most of us know that J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Christian, as was his good friend C.S. Lewis. These two wove their understanding of faith into their work, it's perhaps a bit easier to see it in Lewis' work, but it is there in Tolkien as well. Because I am the tangent King here, I will say if you want a g