via scienceblogs
THE PROBLEM WITH URBAN FANTASY: I WANT THE PONDER STIBBONS STORY
Most of my fiction reading at the moment is done while rocking SteelyKid to sleep at night, using a Palm as an e-book reader. This does not really lend itself to the reading of weighty Literary Novels, but rather lightweight genre trash. Which means I’ve been reading a bunch of “urban fantasy,” because that is the default mode of trashy genre fiction at the moment.
I’m kind of souring on the (sub)genre at the moment, though. I’ve read a bunch of Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson novels, whose “My Awesome Werewolf Boyfriend” interludes are really beginning to grate. I barely made it through the first of Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels, because I didn’t care for the narrative voice.
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via io9
STARSHIP TROOPERS IS PERFECT — AND THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM
Starship Troopers is one of Robert Heinlein’s most famous books, and one of the most famously controversial in SF. And the 1960 Hugo winner has its problems — but that’s probably why it’s a classic.
Man, I accomplished straight-up nothing over the last fortnight or so. In fact, those of you who are especially alert, as well as those of you who have built tiny shrines in your basement to honor me*, may have noticed that this particular piece of writing was supposed to run last weekend. Well, I was on Christmas break. I have always found it very difficult to get anything done during the holidays, and now that I am fully self-employed, this is more true than ever: I take a couple days off, it spirals into a few more days, and pretty soon I am back to staying up till 3 a.m. watching whatever is on AMC and sleeping in until noon.
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Interesting scientific points of view regarding mythical creatures are expressed in the Urban Fantasy article. What are your thoughts?
Have you read the book ‘Starship Troopers’?
