Lefhanded Steampunk Milk Zombies...or something. Anyway A BLOG (post)!

So, I think it's fair to say that I'm a bit behind on blogging... Apologies for that, for anyone who actually reads what I write here, but busy-ness appears to be my...well, business, at the moment.

I'm definitely aiming to pick up some more activity on here towards the end of the year, but otherwise, will try to do some more posts, albeit sporadically.

The reading has been going well. Today, I hit 46 books, right on schedule (this being week 46). It seems crazy that this means I only need to get through 7 more before the end of the year. I'm obviously shooting for more, but it looks like I'll meet my target. I just wanted to briefly call attention to a couple of the things I've read recently.

Today, I finished Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest. This is a self-proclaimed zombie steampunk novel, set in a slightly alternative history Seattle, where the civil war rages on. For all that it plays on several big genre trends - zombies and steampunk - it doesn't overplay them. It's a fun read (or rather, for me, a decent audiobook, with Wil Wheaton narrating half of it), with a cool setting and interesting enough characters. I don't think it's anything groundbreaking, but it's a entertaining and solidly written. Priest has written some other books in the same steampunk universe, which I'd be interested to check out at some point.

Another one I finished fairly recently is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. This is phenomenal. I've never read any of her stuff before, and, though the basic premise, as laid out in her introduction, was interesting, it didn't hook me in straight away. Or rather, I thought it didn't, but I think that's partly because it underplays itself and its own brilliance.

It's a view of a world without gender, through the eyes of an 'alien' (read: sex binary). The natives are essentially human, except that, most of the month, they are neither male nor female until they enter a period of fertility, which later passes. This, along with aspects of the environment in which they live, has produced some interesting social trajectories. Obviously, the novel explores issues of gender, but its even more fundamental than that in its anthropological scope. This is a book I see myself come back to again and again, and I really recommend checking it out.

Lastly, something I was going to do a full blog post on, but that definitely deserves a mention. I went to see Neil Gaiman (him again!) reading his new children's book Fortunately, the Milk... I say 'read', but really, it was a performance, with 'special guests including Mitch Benn and Lenny Henry (as a dinosaur! the book has dinosaurs!). Chris Riddell, illustrator extraordinaire, did live-drawing to match. It was unique event (sidenote: can an event be non-unique, really?) about a pretty magical children's book (then again, there weren't that many children in the audience). You can read it in under an hour (unless you're ACTING IT OUT WITH GUITARS), so why wouldn't you read it?

Oh, and Amanda Palmer showed up and the end with a ukelele.

Oh, and lastly for real this time - I posted two bits of writing to the blog in the last few weeks. You can read Winter's Tale (intrigue! parallel worlds! a Japanese folk monster!) here, and Wordmarket (a much shorter, more random thing) here. You can always find either via the 'writing' tab at the top (including downloadable formats for Winter's Tale, if white text on black background isn't your thing). Read, share, tell me they're dumb (and why!), whatever you like!

CUT TO PHOTOS *flaps cape and disappears*

Two Neils and a Chris, who is making one of the Neils.

Wumpires.

Lenny Henry-saur.

"Play your ukelele!"

We're so happy we're blurring!