Soulless Machine 2008 Best Reads

Short Fiction

1. DEMAND ECOLOGY by Craig DeLancey

2. PERIODS by Florence Ann Marlowe

3. BENT, NOT BROKEN by William R. Potter

4. THE FLOOD WAS FIXED by Eric Flint

5. SPEAK, GEEK by Eileen Gunn

6. NIGHTSTAND by Daniel Woodrell

7. MOBY DIGITAL by Joe Schembrie

Novels

1. THE SWARM by Frank Schatzing

2. THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS by David Oppegaard

3. UNHOLY DOMAIN by Dan Ronco


Poem

1. THE SOLIPSIST by Troy Jollimore

New Year's Resolutions: If Will Power Isn't Enough by Joanne Silberner

9 to 5 Poet posted her 2009 New Year’s Resolutions recently. We had been discussing them for a few days. Oddly enough, the day were driving around, NPR had a segment on the resolutions, New Year's Resolutions: If Will Power Isn't Enough. It was about those who are to keep them and those who can’t and the psychological differences between the two. It kind of sounds like one of those jokes that begin, ‘there are only two types of people in the world…” Yet, it was a good program with some nice insights into the right kind of resolutions, when to make them, and when to start them.

I don’t remember all of the advice. You might want to listen to this segment yourself. The tactics for success that I remember and hope to engage are:

1. Realistic goals.

Goals that I know that I will come close to accomplishing, but that are challenging enough that I won’t complete them by March.

2. Use the buddy system.

I’m going to give my goals to a couple of people and have them check in on me from time to time. I hope to employ the following people in my buddy system: 9 to 5 Poet, Simple Spoonful, and Mr. HorrorPants.

I know that there should be a 3, but like I said, I didn’t remember them all. Sorry, all you three freaks out there will just have to do with 2. I’m not happy with two, but I will live.

Drum roll please, my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Write 4 pages of fiction every week.

2. 5 short fiction reviews post to The Soulless Machine Review each month.

3. 2 movie reviews posted to Attack of the Movie Watchers each month.

4. Maintain a weight between 165 and 170.

5. As professional development, peruse Minnesota Master Naturalists Association

And there they are, my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions.

Silberner, Joanne. New Year's Resolutions: If Will Power Isn't Enough. NPR. Morning Edition, December 28, 2006

CLOCKWORK by Trent Jamieson

Funny story: I was thinking about my blog and how I haven’t felt like I’ve had enough time to read and review short fiction lately (or just haven’t been interested, I’m not sure which), and so I down loaded a Pseudopod story to listen to while on the elliptical trainer instead of techno. Well, I couldn’t have picked a worse story to keep my motivation up to finish 30 minutes. Oh, I finished, but the tick-tock time obsessed prose that Jamieson wrote tortured me with every sweaty minute.

The main character is a haunted comic book storywriter and artist. When the minutes begin to build and he is trapped in a room with only his pen, his thoughts, and desperate need to bring the series some sort of climatic finality, no unlike The Shining’s Jack, he draws clocks repeatedly. However, instead of becoming a raving murderous loon, he simply disappears from his family life.

His wife knows how important this comic is to his life. She seems to understand that the time obsession is really a deep seeded desire to have spent more time with and understanding his father. The clocks and all of the characters, representing some aspect of time or relativity, are really his attempt to understand himself and his place in time, with without his father.

The prose is sharp and full of clock and time references that build a horrible machine that cannot be stopped without the obligatory quest. His wife pulls him out of bed one restless night and demands they go the Citadel, the clock museum where he spent many youthful days. He is frightened to visit it. It holds more memories than he can bear. Yet, he knows, as his wife knows, he will never have an ending until he faces his fears.

The story is good. I just wish I would have picked a better time to listen to it. Ha! There is no time like the present.

Jamieson, Trent. Clockwork. Pseudopod, 115, November 7, 2008

FALL OF CTHULHU: THE GATHERING

Volumes of Boom! Studios’ Fall of Cthulhu series can’t come out fast enough for me. I just got Volume 2, Fall of Cthulhu: The Gathering in the mail this week and have already devoured it. The stories are well written and a tribute to Lovecraft’s Mythos. Volume 3, is too far off. I just don’t want to have to wait to buy it.

The Gathering picks up where volume 1, FALL OF CTHULHU: THE FUGUE, leaves off, except that instead of revisiting Cy, who is in one of the Harlot’s boxes, the story returns to Mr. Arkham. Mr. Arkham is gathering his version of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Each of the five comics in this volume tell the story of one of horrors that join Mr. Arkham around the table in the last few pages.

They are Sysyphyx, the scourge of Atlantis; Gnruk of Vol’Kunast, devourer of the royal corpse of Thuln; The Masked Mute, sister of the lost Abyss; Gith, Father of Pestilence, champion of damnation.

These stories are frightening and full of pain. Gith’s story is the one that had me most on edge. In order to bring Gith into the world, many steps had to be taken. The result was that Mr. Arkhem’s assistant, Connor, wearer of masks, must become host and anchor: a long process that gave me the chills.

What I like most about this series is that it seems to be building up a war between Cthulhu and the gods of the dreamlands. I’m interested to see where it goes. I know that Mr. Arkham is the main character; the story keeps coming back to him. I just really liked Connor and was kind of sad to see him go. I wanted to know more about him. I wanted to find out more of his back-story: how he came to terms with working in the occult for Mr. Arkham and at the hotel. However, it wouldn’t be mythos without a few casualties.

If you are a fan, you need to read these.

Fall of Cthulhu: The Gathering. Story: Michael Alan Nelson. Art: Greg Scott, Patrick McEvoy, Pablo Quiligotti, Marco Rudy, Tim Hamilton, Michel Fiffe. Colors: Joel Seguin, Marc Rudea, Pablo Quiligotti. Managing Ed. Marshall Dillon. Asst. Ed. Joyce El Hayek. Las Angles: Boom! Studios, 2008.

THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS by David Oppegaard

A review. Wow, a real review. It has been a while SMR fans. My last review was A LITTLE HALLOWEEN TALE by SQT on 10/26/2008, which seem impossibly long ago.

I had thought that in November I’d switch gears and write a novel, playing along with the NaNoWriMo folks. However, I landed a new job after completing my MFA; I’m still swamped with lesson planning, grading, and trying to keep one day a head of my students. NaNoWriMo, next year (but I hope to have written one before November 2009)!

But even with all this personal-life upheaval, I had to read Oppegaard’s. It is his first published novel. He is the hardest working writer that I know. He completely deserves the two-book deal that he landed with St. Martin’s Press. Before, or perhaps after you have read my review, you might also want to check out my October Interview with David Oppegaard, author of The Suicide Collectors.

I didn’t really know what to expect from Oppegaard’s first novel. Having had classes with him where he read short excerpts of strange laugh-out-loud comedic works in progress, I found myself unprepared for the serious and gloomy novel that is The Suicide Collectors. There is humor in the novel. When the laughs arrive like Monarch Butterflies against the ever-gray backdrop of mass-suicide, they lift and flutter by all too quickly.

Having recently finished the novel and attended his celebratory publication reading (if you missed it, the next local one is 2/23/09 - Edina Community Library), I’m sure that this novel will achieve cult status. Perhaps not today or next year, but when the paperback rights are sold, and Marvel offers to turn it into a serial comic book, that is when you know something has taken hold of the readers, like the Source (in the book) that calls out to humanity to end their suffering, by taking their lives, so too will this book speak to masses. Norman is a hero for many reasons, but the reason that will stick with me was his tenacious wish to find answers, to think critically, and stand a lone against the tide.

Norman is a guy that I can like. He is resourceful and handy. He is stubborn. Above all, however, I relate to his indifference towards humanity (one of the reasons that he is the perfect hero for this novel). To me this attitude was summed up in the last few pages when he is forced to relive the moment when his wife chose to end her life. To paraphrase, he compared himself with his wife. She was out going and the phone rang off the hook all day, friends and family seeking her opinion and help. While he hand few if any friends, acquaintances really, neighbors, that he did not see very often. So, when the people started to kill themselves in waves, he was more concerned about how their absence would impact his wife, fewer people, fewer interactions; these were things Norman did not need.

However, and this how you know that the story is successful, Norman changes, but it happens so slowly that it takes you by surprise. He has come to desire human companionship. He loved his wife and needed her, missed her, but the bonds that he forms with Zero, a smart and witty pre-teen, and Pops, Norman neighbor, as they travel across the country in search of a cure to the Despair, end up not only saving him from stagnation but give him a reason to fight back.

The book was amazing. It is a must read for anyone who enjoys literature with an apocalyptic flavor.

Oppegaard, David. The Suicide Collectors. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008

The Suicide Collectors Event Friday 12/12/08

Review by Fantasy Book Critic


Interview with David Oppegaard, author of The Suicide Collectors


Twin Cities Book Tour Dates:
12/12/08 - Hamline University
2/23/09 - Edina Community Library

I'm almost done with the book and will wait until I'm finished to review it. But I wanted to get a post up about the reading event on Friday.

The book is really good so far and I'm excited about David Oppegaard's reading.

Come check it out!