It Doesn't Have To Be Right…

… it just has to sound plausible

Author Archives: iansales


by 1 Comment

A mountain of words

It’s been a while since my last book haul post – two months, in fact – which goes some way to explaining the number of books which appear in this one. Someone needs to put more hours in the day so I can actually get around to reading some of them…

This year, of course, is the Durrell Centenary. So I’ll be rereading The Alexandria Quartet at some point, and I thought I’d buy myself the new paperback edition so I could do so. The CD is a collection of poetry readings, interviews and, er, Durrell singing.

Ballard is not a young man’s writer – not enough shit gets blown up, for a start; and then there’s that cynicism – so while I’ve read many of his stories and books over the years it’s only in the past few I’ve come to really appreciate his fiction. As a result, I’ve been building up a small paperback collection of his books – and they are attractively packaged paperbacks, these 4th Estate ones.

I am not, it has to be said, a particularly big fan of all the titles that have appeared in the SF Masterworks series, and most people don’t spend money on books they know they don’t especially like… but… they make a set. They’re packaged to look the same – or they were until they revamped the entire series. And some of them really are genre classics: Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, certainly; and much as I loathe Harlan Ellison and his works, I have to admit Dangerous Visions was an important anthology.

From my trawls through various charity shops some books from the would-like-to-read list. I’ve been working my way through Litt’s alphabetical oeuvre, though none have especially impressed me so far. McCarthy should only be read when you’re feeling unaccountably cheerful and would like to torpedo your good mood. The Satanic Verses is infamous, but I’ve never read it. The Mailer was a swap from readitswapit.co.uk, and I’m  not sure why I bought The Apple.

So Long A Letter is May’s book for this year’s reading challenge (see here). Cyclonopedia has been repeatedly recommended by Jonathan McAlmont, and Berit Ellingsen is one of the contributors to Rocket Science (plus, the cover art of The Empty City is the National Congress building in Brasilia – see later).

A pair of 2012 hardbacks: I pre-ordered Ison of the Isles as I was so impressed with its preceding volume, Isles of the Forsaken (see here). And Stonemouth is Banks. Enough said.

The Steerswoman’s Road is an omnibus of The Steerswoman and The Outskirter’s Secret. I’ve read the first, but not the second. The other three books are ones I want to read. Palimpsest was a charity shop find, The Godless Boys was from Richard Palmer in payment for a copy of Adrift on the Sea of Rains, and The Dervish House was from an unmentionable and unmentionably large online book retailer.

Three genre titles for the collection – both Remaking History and Moon Dogs are signed (and those two authors pretty much describe the two endpoints of the type of sf I like best). The Ice Monkey is really hard to find in hardback but I lucked out.

I collect first editions by Anthony Burgess, and I’m interested in the works of DH Lawrence, so Flame into Being neatly covers two of my literary interests. The Nylon Pirates is one of Nicholas Monsarrat’s potboilers – he managed to write potboilers and literary fiction with equal facility if somewhat variable results. A Division of the Spoils is the third book of the Raj Quartet, and Disguise for a Dead Gentleman is DG Compton in his initial guise as a crime writer. I expect good condition first editions of those early “Guy Compton” books are extremely difficult to find, so this tatty one will have to do.

I spotted mention of these chapbooks by Michael Swanwick from Dragonstairs Press somewhere and decided to take a punt on them.

If I ever visit Brazil, it won’t be for the carnival, the beaches, the cocktails, the culture… it’ll be to see the buildings in Brasilia. I love the fact that even unfinished, or badly weathered, they still embody the optimistic future past decades imagined we’d all share. The man chiefly responsible, of course, was Oscar Niemeyer. Eastmodern is more Warsaw Pact architecture, a collection of photographs of modernist buildings in Slovakia, and some of them really are quite skiffy.

The giant book on ekranoplans was research for a story, honest. Or it will be when I’ve thought of an idea for story which has ekranoplans in it. Well, I managed it for flying boats (see here), so anything’s possible. Besides, if Sebastian Faulks can include one in his 007 novel Devil May Care, why shouldn’t I? Marswalk One is one of several Mars book I now own and which I will use as research while writing the second book of the Apollo Quartet (I got it very cheap on eBay). Dark Moon is one of those fake Moon landing nutjob books, and I thought it might prove entertaining. The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning is also research for Apollo Quartet book 2.


by Leave a comment

I might need a bigger hat

People continue to say nice things about Adrift on the Sea of Rains. Colum Paget has written a long positive review of it on his blog here. Gary Dalkin was nice about it in his review here. And Richard Palmer has also written positively on it here. And have I previously mentioned the five star review on Amazon.co.uk here and the review on LibraryThing by Robert Day here?

So, the pressure is well and truly mounting for the second book of the quartet…

 


by 1 Comment

It’s the way I tell ’em

I’ve been thinking this week about how I set about writing fiction, and it struck me that I do most of it in my head long before I sit down and start typing. Once I’ve decided what I want to write about, I start thinking about plots and worlds and characters and scenes and themes… It’s only when I have enough of those clear in my head that I start to put the sentences together using a word processor…

And once I begin the actual physical process of writing, then I start the research. The two feed into each other. Things I find in my research prompt changes in the story; the way the story develops opens up areas I need to research. Even then, everything is mutable: that first draft is mostly a brain dump larded with research. After that comes the actual shaping of the text. And revision. Lots of revision.

A case in point is the next book of the Apollo Quartet. Even before I started Adrift on the Sea of Rains I knew what the second book, Wave Fronts, would be about. It would have two narratives – call them A and B. A would be set in the present of the story, but B would be set some 100 years later. The combination of the two would explain the resolution (with supporting arguments in a glossary).

But while fleshing out the synopsis a week or so ago, a detail I added to the background of narrative A’s protagonist struck me as something worth expanding. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realised it provided a better dramatic counterpoint to narrative A than narrative B did. So I decided I would now tell the story using narrative A and narrative C. Narrative B would be incorporated into the glossary.

I was happy with this. Then I saw Lavie Tidhar’s review of Adrift on the Sea of Rains here. And it gave me an idea, a way to add more drama to narrative C. I already had a thematic link between the two narratives, but this new idea not only reinforced that, it also strengthened other areas of the story. It made the choice of protagonist much more plausible – in fact, it made him the only choice of person as the protagonist.

So it’s a good job all this had happened in my head. If I’d had to rewrite a 20,000-word document, I don’t think I’d have been so quick to completely re-invent the story. But the end result is, I believe, a now much stronger novella. With glossary.

Unfortunately, the original title no longer fits quite so well…


by Leave a comment

A – Z variant meme

I was a little ashamed my A – Z meme only managed 15% women writers – see here. So I decided to have another bash, but this time only for women writers. I kept the ones from the previous list which qualified, but unfortunately one of letters proved just a bit too difficult…

A Angel with the Sword, CJ Cherryh (1985)

B The Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning (1981)

C China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F McHugh (1992)

D Dear George & Other Stories, Helen Simpson (1995)

E An Exchange of Hostages, Susan R Matthews (1997)

F Fisher’s Face, Jan Morris (1995)

G Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)

H Halfway Human, Carolyn Ives Gilman (1988)

I The Inland trilogy: The Daymaker, Transformations, The Skybreaker, Ann Halam (1987 – 1990)

J Jerusalem Fire, RM Meluch (1985)

K Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)

L The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K Le Guin (1969)

M Marq’ssan Cycle: Alanya to Alanya, Renegade, Tsunami, Blood in the Fruit, Stretto, L Timmel Duchamp (2005 – 2008)

N Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin (1984)

O O is for Outlaw, Sue Grafton (1999)

P People of the Talisman, Leigh Brackett (1964)

Q Quantum Gravity series: Keeping It Real, Selling Out, Going Under, Chasing the Dragon, Down to the Bone, Justina Robson (2006 – 2011)

R Rats & Gargoyles, Mary Gentle (1990)

S The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein (1989)

T The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer (1936)

U The Unit, Ninni Holmqvist (2006)

V V.I. for Short, Sara Paretsky (1995)

W Women of Sand and Myrrh, Hanan al-Shaykh (1988)

X no title

Y The Year of Our War, Steph Swainston (2004)

Z Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (2010)

Now I shall undoubtedly remember titles I should have included in this list…


by 2 Comments

A man of taste and distinction

Steampunk and science fiction author Lavie Tidhar, whose novel Osama was this year shortlisted for the BSFA Award but cruelly not for the Arthur C Clarke Award, has reviewed Adrift on the Sea of Rains on his blog. He writes: “This is probably the best piece of science fiction I’ve read so far this year, and would be a more than worthy nominee for a BSFA Award next year.” Which makes me most happy indeed.

Lavie’s review, in all its complimentary glory, is here. As he says himself, I urge you to read it.


by 4 Comments

I am literary

My contributor copies of The Maginot Line, the third anthology from The Fiction Desk edited by Rob Redman, have just arrived. It is not a genre anthology, and marks my first appearance in a non-genre venue.

The Maginot Line contains nine stories, one of which is by me: ‘Faith’. I’m not entirely sure how to describe ‘Faith’. It’s about the US and Soviet space programmes. Sort of. It’s about astronauts. Sort of. And it’s about nineteen turns.

The other eight stories look very good indeed, and I’m looking forward to reading them. For the record, the contents are:

  • Matt Plass, ‘The Maginot Line’
  • Mandy Taggart, ‘The Man of the House’
  • Justin D Anderson, ‘Automatic Pilot’
  • Benjamin Johncock, ‘The Rocket Man’
  • Andrew Jury, ‘Exocet’
  • Shari Aarlton, ‘The Pest’
  • Claire Blechman, ‘Trevor Gets Shot’
  • Harvey Marcus, ‘Blind’
  • Ian Sales, ‘Faith’

Now go buy a copy.


by 4 Comments

A – Z meme

Memes are cool; I like memes. I came across this one on David Hebblethwaite’s excellent blog Follow the Thread. He writes that he found it on the Musings of a Bookshop Girl blog. As memes go, it is beautifully simple… and bloody hard to complete. Just list a favourite book for each letter of the alphabet. To be honest, for a couple of letters I had so many choices, I wasn’t sure which one to pick. Other letters – you know, the high-scoring ones in Scrabble – were not so easy…

A The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell (1960)

B The Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning (1981)

C Coelestis, Paul Park (1993)

D Dhalgren, Samuel R Delany (1974)

E Evening’s Empire, David Herter (2002)

F The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles (1969)

G Glimpses, Lewis Shiner (1993)

H How Far Can You Go?, David Lodge (1980)

I Icehenge, Kim Stanley Robinson (1984)

J Jerusalem Fire, RM Meluch (1985)

K Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)

L Lady Chatterley’s Lover, DH Lawrence (1928)

M The Master Mariner: Running Proud, Nicholas Monsarrat (1978)

N Nightwatch, Andrew M Stephenson (1977)

O The Ophiuchi Hotline, John Varley (1977)

P The Prodigal Sun, Sean Williams and Shane Dix (1999)

Q The Quincunx, Charles Palliser (1989)

R The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe (1979)

S Synthajoy, DG Compton (1968)

T Take Back Plenty, Colin Greenland (1990)

U The Undercover Aliens, AE van Vogt (1950)

V Voyage, Stephen Baxter (1996)

W Where Time Winds Blow, Robert Holdstock (1981)

X X, Y, Michael Blumlein (1993)

Y The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Michael Chabon (2007)

Z Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (2010)

Sadly, it’s a poor showing on the gender parity front – only 15% women writers. There were a number I wanted to include, but I happened to like a book beginning with that letter by a male writer just a little bit more. Also, I am generally a bigger fan of the oeuvres of women writers than I am of individual works by them.

On the other hand, I hadn’t expected science fiction to make such a strong showing, though it has formed the bulk of my reading since an early age. The numbers go: sf 62%, mainstream 31%, and 1% apiece for fantasy and horror. While I find mainstream novels of a higher quality than sf overall, some of my favourite novels remain science fiction ones.

Finally, the 1980s and 1990s are the most popular decades, with 27% and 23% respectively. I’ve no idea why, since I may not have read the books in question during those decades. The first decade of the twenty-first century scores a measly 8%, and there’s only one book from this decade.


by 30 Comments

A good year for… something

Sometimes I feel like Bart Simpson when he keeps on reaching for the doughnut Lisa Simpson has electrified. Each year, I eagerly await the shortlists for the Arthur C Clarke and Hugo Awards; each year, I’m disappointed by the novels or short fiction chosen by one or both. I have already written about the Clarke (see here). I’d like The Testament of Jessie Lamb to win, but I expect Embassytown will. (Incidentally, it occurred to me reading Adam Roberts’ excellent report on the Clarke shortlist books here and here that his response to The Testament of Jessie Lamb mirrors mine to Embassytown; and vice versa. Sort of.)

Then there’s the Hugo Award shortlists…

The less said about the novel shortlist, the better. Oh, all right…

My thoughts on Leviathan Wakes are laid out quite clearly in my review on SFF Chronicles here. I am quite angry it has been shortlisted. I gave up on A Song of Ice and Fire several years ago after reading one of its humungous installments in which fuck-all happened. I gave up on epic fantasy as a genre a couple of years ago after getting sick to death of its shallowness, its use of rape as a trope, and its general lack of invention or innovation (though I will acknowledge there are some worth reading – RA McAvoy’s Lens of the World trilogy, Steph Swainston, KJ Parker, Carolyn Ives Gilman, A Princess of Roumania, for example). Deadline is the middle book of a trilogy about zombies. Zombies are passé, they have been done to, er, undeath. It’s time they were put to, um, rest. The world has moved on, it’s all krakens and sea monsters now. I think. Among Others I have heard mostly good things about, but I have not read it. And Embassytown, while I think it does not entirely succeed (see here), is probably the one book that does belong on this shortlist.

If I had bothered to pay for the privilege of voting, my choices would go: 1) Embassytown, 2) Among Others, 3) No Award

And the short fiction shortlist:

The Resnick is old-fashioned crap. As have been every one of his shortlisted stories in recent years. Clearly he has his fans; clearly they need to read a lot more widely. The Liu is what I think of as a “clarion-style story”. It is sentimental, uses a metaphor to illustrate its core emotional argument, and then beats that metaphor to death. I do not like such stories. The Scalzi is a jolly jape and does not belong within five thousand kilometres of a shortlist. Unless said shortlist was posted on April 1st. This one was not. Shortlisting Scalzi’s spoof does not prove that fandom has a sense of humour, it proves only that it thinks one of the best five stories written during the previous year was a stupid spoof knocked off in a weekend by a popular writer. That’s not only dumb, it’s a perversion of the whole concept of “best short story”. Nancy Fulda’s story is another “well-meaning parents try to use tech to cure autistic kid” story. There’s usually half a dozen of them published in any one year. Fulda’s is no better and no worse than most but, crucially, it brings nothing new to the trope. It’s also sentimental; I don’t like sentimental. The Yu is a piece of whimsy which threatens to mean more than it seems but never quite does so. It at least has some claim to a place on the shortlist.

My votes, had I paid to vote, would be: 1) E Lily Yu, 2) No Award.

I shall whinge about the novelettes and novellas in another post. I shall not bother with the other categories. I still don’t understand why fandom bothers with the dramatic presentation Hugos. The film and television industries have their own awards ceremony, and they spent a shitload more money on them than sf does. As for the remaining categories…

Did I say “bah humbug”? If I haven’t, take it as, er, read…


by Leave a comment

Pimp and circumstance

Praise continues to trickle in for Adrift on the Sea of Rains…

On Twitter, Dave Hutchinson (@HutchinsonDave) tweeted: “I recommend that you beg, steal, borrow (but preferably buy) Adrift on the Sea of Rains by @ian_sales, because it’s a little cracker”, and then added on Facebook, “All people of good intent should read Adrift on the Sea of Rains by Ian Sales, as I did today. I loved it.”

On Twitter, Martin McGrath (@martinmcgrath) tweeted, “Cracking novella (and appendices)”, and Stuart Wallace (@soapyfrogs) said, “just read and loved ‘Adrift On The Sea Of Rains’ … More please!”

On his blog, Early Days of a Better Nation, Ken MacLeod wrote about alt.fiction and mentioned that Adrift on the Sea of Rains was “very good indeed”.

Robert Day has written a very nice review of it here on LibraryThing, and Cliff Burns has given it a five-star review on Amazon here.

Plans to create an internet Whippleshield empire continue apace. I’m still working on the website, but as soon as it’s up and running I’ll make sure everyone knows. I am also now the proud owner of a copy of Scrivener, and I plan to use that to create EPUB and MOBI editions of Adrift on the Sea of Rains. So expect it to be available for Kindle in a week or so.

Meanwhile, I need to get cracking on with the second book of the Apollo Quartet, Wave Fronts, in which the first man on Mars investigates the disappearance of Earth’s first exoplanet colony and discovers something which will completely change humanity’s relationship to the universe…