Storm Front

I just read a piece of fluff called Storm Front by Jim Butcher, leant to me by asciikitty which is fun, if you don’t mind the utter lack of even the ghost of creativity. Marlowe meets magic has been done ad nausea, and frankly, it has been done a whole lot better. But since this little sub-sub-genre is incredibly popular right now I gave it a shot and I’m not disappointed.

Originality isn't Butcher's strength. He is a promiscuous borrower, hybridizing from pretty much every corner of geek culture. Storm Front's story is a mishmash of noir and cop show clichés, by way of epic fantasy. As a gamer I can’t really fault that in someone else, and Butcher's use of the derivative as a strategy possibly shows a great deal of savvy, he knows what he's doing and takes a great deal of enjoyment from it. This book is a love letter to all the stories, comics, movies and books that Butcher obviously admits being influenced by -- and since I've been influenced by the same stuff I can take pleasure in following the threads. I can understand why this series has a rpg coming out, it is very much a gamer’s book.

Doing the Rag

At bryant’s suggestion I read The Armageddon Rag by George R.R. Martin, a book that does a good job in not showing its age (it was written in 1983). One might be forgiven for thinking this is merely a supernatural thriller, but in truth it’s the recapitulation of a generation done with a great deal of style and nostalgia. I strongly recommend this book to all.

Magic kids in school

Yes I’ve read the 6th Potter book and yes I think its her best "school novel" since the 2nd. The teenagers are much better fleshed out than in Order of the Phoenix and I think stylistically Rowling has matured as an author and is better able to handle the characters. In fact she makes a thick book heavy on the exposition a fairly easy pill to swallow, something more “adult” authors would do well to learn.

I’m not looking forward to the last book as it will be very epic fantasy and I’ll miss the school days.

Occult fantasy

heron61 has been musing about occult fantasy and rpgs over on his livejournal. I think I disagree with his breakdown, mainly because the categories are so wide and overlapping. I'm not sure, for example, that I would place Rohan's Spiral Series in the same category as Charles de Lint, nor would I place McKinley's Sunshine in a different category from Anita Blake (well except for good versus bad). I think he also misses out on the whole occult crypto-thriller phenomena, or at least does it injustice by lumping it with Wheatley.

I think a problem is people confuse setting with genre all too often. Its one of the reasons I have come to dislike the term urban fantasy.

Someday I'll do the expansion of this line of reasoning I've been wanting to do. I'd like to, for example, follow Williams to Powers, stopping off at Katherine Neville and a few other points in between. The occult detective is another area that one could have fun exploring Carnack is to Anita is to Dresden, that sort of thing.