I Am Not Any of These Other People

I recently finished listening to Judy Greer's audiobook of her memoir I Don't Know What You Know Me From (which is delightful, by the way: my favorite chapter is "My Stupid Trip (Alone) to Spain" but they're all great).

Now, I'm nowhere near as well-known as Judy Greer, but I also get the "where do I know you from" thing quite a bit. I also don't know why this happens. (Remind me to tell you sometime about the first time I met Kim Stanley Robinson.)

Anyway, here is a brief list of people I have been told I look like.

1. Ted Chiang


Photo © 2014 by Folly Blaine

We are not the same person, as you can see... I'M THE ONE ON THE RIGHT OKAY.

That said, if someone mistakenly invites me onto a movie set and wants to introduce me to Amy Adams, I'm not going to say no.

2. A Native American


(That's Chief Joseph)

This according to a homeless man in San Francisco. He was perhaps not an authority on comparative phenotypic analysis.

3. The character shown on the cover of China Mountain Zhang (Tor, 1992)


Cover art by Wayne Barlowe

Okay, that's actually a fair cop. Here's a close-up from the 1997 Orb edition, which remixes the original artwork:



And here's a picture of me from this year's Readercon:


Photo by Christopher M. Cevasco

You win this round, Dan Trefethen!

Anyway. I won't be offended if you come up to me and insist that you know me from somewhere else, even if it's the first time we've ever met. Just don't turn it into a weird interminable guessing game and we'll be cool.

Ten Books That Have Touched Me

In no particular order. Also note that this is not an exhaustive list; these are just the ones which came to mind today. I've done my best to explain each selection. As always, your mileage may vary, and yes, those are mostly affiliate links below. Mostly.

1. Ringworld by Larry Niven - One of my earliest introductions to "Big Idea" hard science fiction. I had read plenty of Asimov when I was younger, and flipped through Bradbury and Clarke in middle school, but I discovered Niven and quantum physics in high school, and things have never been the same since.
2. Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov - Speaking of The Human Typewriter... I've always enjoyed detective stories, police dramas, and buddy comedies. And adding robots makes everything more awesome! I'm sure reading about Elijah Baley and Daneel Olivaw paved the way for me to later write all those Jake and Andy stories. (And no, I just couldn't get into Almost Human.)
3. Hyperion by Dan Simmons - Actually, all four books of the "Hyperion cantos." I picked up the entire set in paperback at an sf/f convention dealer's room, and like so many of my books, they sat on the shelf for months or years before I got around to reading them. I wish I hadn't waited so long, because they really made me want to write my own fiction again, after a too-long hiatus.
4. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin - If you haven't read this yet, go and get it right now. I mean it. Stop reading this stupid blog post and go to your public library or local bookstore and get this book. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR GO JOHN YOU GOT TO GO NOW. I'm not a huge fan of epic fantasy, but this novel--her first, if you can fucking believe that--knocked me on my ass. And if you don't value my opinion, it was nominated for a whole raft of awards, including the Hugo and the Nebula. What are you still doing here? Go!
5. Whiteout written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Steve Lieber - Forget the movie. That movie was shit, and had none of the heart or soul of the source material. The original graphic novel is the real deal. Black and white, ice and fire, joy and pain. Not for everyone, but if you enjoy thrillers, it's damn good.
6. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - I don't actually read a lot of non-fiction, but this collection of case studies was educational and entertaining. Don't have time for a whole freaking book of this stuff? Fine. Watch the movie version on Netflix streaming, or just go read their New York Times article on accidentally teaching prostitution to monkeys. You're welcome.
7. Triumphs of Experience by George E. Vaillant - I don't recall how I first learned about this book, but it was probably on Twitter. The conclusions presented are not hugely revelatory--alcoholism is bad, happy children become happy adults, etc.--but the fact that they're supported by decades of data from a longitudinal, prospective study do make them more authoritative, and the individual life stories are fascinating. As a man who has, at times, struggled with being happy, I'm very interested in how others have succeeded at it. (I had to return this one to the library before I finished it, and I'll probably buy have since bought an e-book version instead of adding another 500-page hardcover to our home bookshelves.)
8. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown - Seriously, non-fiction is way over-represented here compared to my actual reading habits. But this was another reassuring, if not revelatory, analysis; the author takes her previous research into vulnerability and shame and rolls all of that into a call for "whole-hearted" engagement with life, any imperfections (perceived or actual) be damned. Some of it is a little preachy and fuzzy, and I'm ambivalent about the product-ization of "The Daring Way™," but the lessons here are still valuable.
9. Feed by Mira Grant - Seanan McGuire does at least three things in this book that no novelist ever should, and she makes every single goddamn one of those crazy things work. Because she's just that good. I laughed, I cried, and I still haven't read the sequel because I've heard it doesn't measure up. I believe that.
10. Sail by James Patterson - I have not actually read this book. I did not buy this book or check it out from the library. This book was a gift from my friend Bryan, who gave it to me a few years ago when I decided to seriously pursue a career in fiction writing. He gave it to me as encouragement, because if a book this bad can get published, then surely I, as a halfway decent writer, have some kind of shot at becoming a professional novelist. I've looked at a few pages. Yeah, it's pretty terrible. I won't claim I can do better, but I certainly won't do worse.

Your turn, friend: what books have made a difference in your life?

Friday Flash Fiction: "This is the Job"

Read "This is the Job" at 512 Words or Fewer

I have no idea where the hell this came from. Really, I promise: I am not a serial killer.

FREE eBook of My First Fiction Sale

Now through the end of Saturday (January 5, 2013), you can download a FREE Kindle edition of the first short story I ever sold! It's titled "At Long Last, Love," and it's part of the anthology From the Porch Swing - memories of our grandparents.


http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ATT9W7E/curtiscchensfree

"At Long Last, Love" was the first fiction piece I ever sold for actual money, so I'm still nostalgic about it. :) For those interested, you can read the backstory of the sale on my blog and livejournal.

If you want to see how much I've improved as a writer since then, please peruse my other, more recent work at curtiscchen.com.

Friday Flash Fiction: "Birds and Bogeys"

I can neither confirm nor deny that today's story was inspired in part by Terra Nova and The Light of Other Days.

Read "Birds and Bogeys" at 512 Words or Fewer

Yes, Mom, That IS Me

Herewith, an excerpt from I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards, page 354:

(I'm pretty sure this is the first time my name has appeared in an actual book from a major publisher. Top of the world, ma!)

You can read more about that recruiting campaign, including details on several of the puzzles, on MathWorld News: Mathematica's Google Aptitude. And though I didn't come up with the idea for the billboard, I am the guy who calculated the proper ten digits for the domain name (with a Python script, natch) and then leaned on Schwim to get the server deployed in time. I should also point out that many of the puzzles were contributed by other engineers who knew their math a lot better than I did.

Anyway, I'm Feeling Lucky (an impulse checkout from my last trip to the public library) was a nice trip down memory lane--Doug's employment at Google overlapped my time there by maybe two years, and I later worked with one of his successors in marketing, Dylan Casey, on another puzzle project. Given my personal connections to the subject matter, I'm not sure I can give an objective review of the book, but if you've ever wondered what life inside the Googleplex is like, this book will give you a taste. (Current Googler Larry Hosken is also a fan.)

Friday Flash Fiction: "Leap Fear"

Yes, this week's story is kind of like The Time Traveler's Wife and Quantum Leap, except not really.

Read "Leap Fear" at 512 Words or Fewer

Fifteen Authors

flickr.com/ajourneyroundmyskull

Today was the third time I've been tagged in one of these notes by Facebook friends, so I finally caved and made the damn list. I'm posting it here because I see no reason not to share it with the whole world:

XV Auteurs

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes...

1. Isaac Asimov - I read every damn robot story I could get my hands on in middle school.
2. Ray Bradbury - I don't remember anything specific about Dandelion Wine, but I get a certain ineffable feeling whenever I think about it.
3. Harlan Ellison - probably wouldn't want to run into him on the street, but "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" is a classic.
4. Dan Simmons - yeah, the Hyperion cantos gets a little crazy at times, but it's an amazing epic.
5. Pat Murphy - one of the pro instructors in my first writing workshop.
6. Ursula K. LeGuin - the other pro instructor in my first writing workshop.
7. Connie Willis - I don't need to explain this one, do I? It's Connie Willis!
8. Neil Gaiman - personal trivia: I used to work with his son Michael at Google. Nice kid.
9. Daniel Keyes - "Flowers for Algernon," which my high school produced as a one-act play.
10. Robert Heinlein - I couldn't believe how well Have Spacesuit, Will Travel worked as a novel, but it did.
11. John LeCarre - I always found his politics and relationships more interesting than Ian Fleming's derring-do.
12. Larry Niven - the recipient of my first actual fan mail (and request to reprint some of his old non-fiction in our high school club zine. He said yes! My faculty sponsor talked me out of it).
13. Vonda N. McIntyre - I used to read a lot of Star Trek novels.
14. Douglas Adams - the Hitchhiker's books, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served?, and Red Dwarf forever altered my sense of humor in high school.
15. Orson Scott Card - again, not sure I'd want to meet him in person anymore, but Ender's Game is unforgettable. And Speaker for the Dead was even better. Don't talk to me about your subtext conspiracy theories.

Comic Book Report: Wednesday Comics

Another reason I love my local library: because I can check out oversized hardcovers like this for free, instead of spending $50 and not having bookshelf space for them.

This was DC's tribute to the full-page Sunday newspaper comics of yore. The results are a mixed bag, but definitely worth a look. There's a wide range of storytelling talent and art styles on display here. Neil Gaiman's Metamorpho tale gets a lot of mileage out of tweaking genre tropes and panel layout conventions. The Wonder Woman pages were too busy for me, visually, but I was pleasantly surprised by the stories featuring lesser-known characters like Kamandi and Deadman. And I think someone may finally have found the right tone for a Supergirl story.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon

Book Report: Boneshaker

Our second Virtual Speculative Fiction Book Club selection was much better than the first. Our second club meeting was also an improvement, since Kathy and Brian were visiting Portland that weekend and we discussed zombies and airships while enjoying coffee downtown. It wasn't quite Seattle, but close enough.

Though we all enjoyed Boneshaker, we did remark on the lack of any significant character development. It's a fun ride, but definitely a plot-driven story. I felt at times like I was in a video game, which is not always a bad thing: I wanted to explore the world and spend more time with the characters, especially the colorful supporting cast. (And then I went and played Bioshock for a while. Punchline!)

Alternate histories can be tricky, but though this book diverges from fact, it succeeds because it diverges in the direction of desirable fantasy. People love airships and zombies and crazy electro-mechanical gadgets that were ahead of their time in the 19th century. It wasn't so, but you want it to have been so. Seattle wasn't yet a big city in the 1800s, but it is now; having some well-known landmarks pop up earlier in the timeline doesn't really tax readers' imaginations.

The sequel, Dreadnought--which we picked up at Cherie's author event in Portland last week--deals with a different part of the same world, but despite being set in the thick of the Civil War, also looks like it'll be fun. And, as Cherie said of steampunk in general: "If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong."

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon

Up next for VSFBC: China Miéville's Kraken. Ping me if you'd like to join our discussion on November 18th!

eBook Report: Wildside

Rescued from the backlist: Steven Gould's 1996 novel Wildside, now available in eBook format with spiffy new cover, shown above. (Disclosure: I got the manuscript for free, as part of his crowdsource proofreading project; and I probably took longer to work through it than he would have wanted. Oh well.)

Logline: A group of high school graduates spend their summer vacation in the wilderness of a parallel universe--one where humans never existed. It's a fun read, kind of the anti-Stargate, with similar technical ingenuity ("Want power in another universe? Use an extension cord. Want water? Run a hose") but less adoration of the military.

The Big Idea, as finally explained, does strain credulity, but Steve keeps a tight focus on the protagonists and their families throughout. In that way, the tone is very similar to Jumper; but I wouldn't call either that or Wildside strictly a YA novel.

Buy the eBook for Kindle or iBooks

Comic Book Report: Rapunzel's Revenge

I actually finished reading this a few weeks ago, but didn't get around to blogging it until now. It's a children's book, written by Shannon and Dean Hale (married) and illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation). The art is pretty sophisticated for the genre--I'd put it on par with adult graphic novels.

Overall, I really liked the story--making Rapunzel a tomboy heroine was a nice twist (no pun intended)--but I did roll my eyes about halfway through, when the narrative turned into a video game. Seriously. Random NPCs pop up to ask Rapunzel and her companion Jack to help them by completing various quests, for which they get some information or other kind of reward.

This device is known in the Turkey City Lexicon as "plot coupons," and I suppose it's good enough for a younger audience, but still. I feel like the authors could have done better.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)

Postcard #14

I have never been to Green Apple Books, but I'll definitely visit the next time I'm in San Francisco. Shenly is never wrong about these things.

Comic Book Report: Empire

I finally got around to tracking down Mark Waid's oft-praised, early-2000's mashup of deconstructed supervillains and epic fantasy--emphasis on the latter. It's all courtly intrigue, rife with hidden agendas and betrayals and reversals and technology indistinguishable from magic. Characters and situations are depicted in mile-wide brush strokes, and pretty much everyone is...

...wait for it...

...irredeemable.

Thank you! I'll be here all week!

Empire was certainly not a dull read, but it also was not the superawesomeOMGtodiefor book that certain reviewers have made it out to be. It's a tragedy through and through, but it all felt hollow. The last few pages should have broken my heart. Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. YMMV.

See also: Neil Gaiman's Miracleman stories, which offer a slightly different take on the superhuman-as-world-ruler premise and, for my money, are much creepier and more emotionally involving.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)

Comic Book Report: Iron Man: Extremis

Much has been made of the quality of the artwork in this book, but let's be clear about something: if you pick up a comic written by Warren Ellis, chances are you're going to enjoy the ride--every goddamn insane panel of it. (Except maybe that part when he goes on way too long about using drugs. I admit I'm not the target audience for that, but still. Talk about bringing the story to a screeching halt.)

British artist Adi Granov produces his first rough sketches digitally, and it shows; the characters look like posed 3-D mannequins, which gives their bodies perfect size and proportions but can leech some of the emotion out of them. It only really bothered me in a few instances, and overall the consistency and added realism was a plus.

The story itself is pretty standard, and serves mostly to explain how Tony Stark acquired that crazy Extremis suit--which, admittedly, is not as crazy as what comes next, but it's still pretty crazy.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)

Comic Book Report: Irredeemable, Vols. 1 and 2

There are very few comics books I actually purchase in monthly "pamphlet" form, because twenty-some pages just isn't enough story in most cases. And my wife generally isn't interested in a title unless she can get it in collected trade paperback form.

In the case of Irredeemable, even the collections aren't long enough. Only four issues? Are you kidding me here? I really like the story so far, but I'm glad I can get these from the library instead of paying $12 a pop--and that'd be after the Amazon discount. Cover price is $17, or $4.25 an issue. Seriously?

Anyway. Irredeemable is writer Mark Waid's answer to the question: "How does a man go from being the world’s greatest superhero to its greatest supervillain?" He's stated in interviews that as he sees it, "[in] superhero comics, pretty much everyone who’s called upon to put on a cape is, at heart, emotionally equipped for the job." And this is his idea of what might happen if, basically, Superman went truly and completely psycho.

It's a pretty gripping yarn so far, but we'll see how it shakes out after the flashbacks catch up with the real-time narrative.

Buy the books: Volume 1 - Powell's, Amazon; Volume 2 - Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)

Comic Book Report Twofer: X Marks the Spot

Two interesting books I did not entirely enjoy: Exurbia and Mister X: Condemned. The former is clearly a passion project, written by Dark Horse editor extraordinaire Scott Allie; the latter is a retro British mashup of The Fountainhead and, I don't know, some kind of low-budget "psychological" horror movie. They weren't for me, but maybe they're for you.

Buy the book (affiliate links):

• Exurbia at Powell's or Amazon
• Mister X: Condemned at Powell's or Amazon

Book Report: Wireless

It's a good collection, showing a great range of Charlie's work, and including the 2010 Hugo Award-winning novella "Palimpsest." For more, I direct you to Strange Horizons' 2009 book review.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)

Comic Book Report: Invincible Iron Man Vol. 4: Stark Disassembled

Wow. Matt Fraction must have really liked Dollhouse, because this entire five-issue arc is about (minor spoilers) Tony Stark being trapped in The Attic while his friends and allies restore his mind and memories from a backup wedge.

It's not a bad story, and Salvador Larocca's art continues to be impressive. An extended guest appearance by Doctor Strange and visits from Thor and both Captains America spice up the proceedings, but as with many crossovers, the big guns conveniently disappear just before the actual threat appears, so the titular hero can save the day on his own.

And, of course, they hit the reset button on Pepper Potts. Boo. I guess you still have to go to DC for real female superheroes. Oh yeah, I said it!

The next part of this series is titled "Resilient," and it'll be interesting to see how Fraction handles what should be a long and arduous process of rehabilitation. We all know Tony's going to get back in the suit, but it'll be more satisfying if he actually earns it.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)

Book Report: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

This book was not to my taste.

Don't get me wrong: I respect Chabon's skill, but his particular style is not for me. Often, instead of drawing me into the narrative, I found the long descriptive passages pushing me away. I know others find them lyrical and mesmerizing, but I'm generally not a fan of prose for the sake of prose. Get out of the way and just let me enjoy the story, okay?

In this case, the actual story was fairly mediocre; one of the dangers of writing a pastiche is that you either remain too faithful to the genre, or spin it too far into either homage or satire. I feel like there was a lot of subtext here which might have been more significant to someone who'd been raised in Jewish culture, and who understood more about the rifts between different sects and knew the history of the various beliefs.

I also didn't completely buy the big revelation at the end, though the other members of our book club (DeeAnn, Kathy, and Brian) convinced me of its plausibility. I can believe in a lone gunman; conspiracies are a little harder for me to swallow, and the author just didn't sell it enough for me. Again, I think other people might have appreciated it more than I did.

Anyway, that was our first "virtual sci-fi book club" selection (we meet using Skype). I'm hoping our next one, Cherie Priest's Boneshaker, will be more fun.

Buy the book: Powell's, Amazon (affiliate links)