Neil Fein's Blog

Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has become something of a phenomenon. He's not just a writer of novels, but of comics, a screenplay or two, songs, and non-fiction. So his latest, Anansi Boys, had been filling me with anticipation for all of 2005, ever since he casually mentioned he was working on the novel.

Oddly enough, I didn't read it for a few weeks, but I made my way through the 334-page novel in two evenings, fast enough for me to be notable. The good news is that it's a great read, an easy read. The story of Fat Charlie finding out his father is a god (well, was; he just passed away in Florida), meeting and re-meeting his family, is in some ways typical Neil Gaiman. And Fat Charlie learning to accept the situation -- people learning to deal with the fantastic -- is a motif that the author has much experience with. And if the elder Mr. Nancy was a god, what does that make the son?

With all these trappings in mind, Anansi Boys is a stylistic jump backwards for Mr. Gaiman. All the trademarks of a good Neil Gaiman book are there; the mysticism, the very cleverly disguised exposition, and the mood pieces that seem to do nothing yet further the plot in some indefinable way. Yet they've been streamlined, somehow turned into a sleek, skeleton of a story. Even the scenes of complex, shifting characters and crazily cluttered sitting rooms are somehow easier to follow. Reading it after American Gods or The Kindly Ones evokes shades of Madeline L'Engle or Heinlein juveniles.

However, saying that a book isn't quite as good as American Gods is quite the compliment. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as a fun, thoughtful story.

books

Channukah, 24th Kislev - 8 Tevet 5766

Shopping for a humidifier today, we came across our first sighting of Channukah merchandise: Tableclothes, paper plates, and such, all with Channukah patterns. Since we're hosting a Channukah party this year, we're keeping an eye out for this stuff, the cheesier the better. (I don't remember seeing analogous Christmas stuff, although it was likely there.)

Tags: Judaism

The Matryoshka Macxes

(Edit: The title is spelled wrong, it's a weblink fix.)

Accelerando
by Charles Stross

In 2001, I read the story "Lobsters", the tale of futurist and Linux-stule business-plan-speculator Manfred Macx. Along with his ex-wife and tax collector Pamela, his life takes a ninety-degree at the end of the story, and the author evidently realized that there was more to the story. Post-singularity life is an obsession of Mr. Stross's, and this book handles it better than any other attempt.

Accelerando tells us the story of the Macx family. (This affectation is pronounced "Max", according to the author. Our first clue that Manfred is not entirely un-self-serving.) We follow the story through the eyes of manfred and, later, Amber, his daughter, and finally, Sihran, Amber's sorta-kinda-son. We also see the re-architecting of both the solar system and the human race, neither in an entirely satisfactory manner if one had to live with these folks.

I'm being very vague, since the best bits is this book are when we're surprised by a plot turn. Some of it doesn't live up to the hype I generated in my head for "Lobsters". That's because I mostly avoided reading these stories as they came out, and kept building this book up in my head. Also, because for the most part, with the exception of the first story, we're not making anything in them, we're reacting to alrady-existing environments and situations. It's a valid and good way of telling the stories, but distinctly different in tone.

In some ways, Accelerando is an experiment in telling post-singularity tales that are specifically not predictive, a kind of antithesis to old-style predictive science-fiction. This has produced some of his best work, and certainly his best science-fiction.

Whether Accelerando, in its nine stories spread across three generations, is a proper novel can be left as an exercise for the reader. The continuing narrative of betrayal, family duty, money, and copyright law certainly doesn't feel bolted together. Quite the contrary, the stories are not at all self-contained to all but the most attentive readers. Reading them as they appeared must have been a disorienting, if fascinating, experience.

Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in grand futurism, open-source, or artificial intelligences. Also available at http://www.accelerando.org

Tags: books

The Wizard
Book Two of The Wizard Knight
by Gene Wolfe

In The Knight, the first book of this two-lobed tale, Able becomes Sir Able, a knight in all but name. In the second and final book, Able deals with the consequences and responsibilities of being truly a knight. In the world of Mythgarthr, Able encounters patrons, knightly contests, and Gods.

While we learn the answers to many questions, many of the answers, while as enthralling as the first volume, are somehow unsatisfying. This book felt rushed in many places, particularly the second half. While Mr. Wolfe's trademarked "unreliable narrator" is in force here, it takes the form of multiple viewpoints that fail to provide a cohesive whole. The great promise of the first book is here squandered on a misguided attempt at diversity of people and places. The tone established was more than sufficient to the great task of providing a worthy ending to this short saga, and this is truly a shame.

There are many moments of greatness, such as the jousting contest, and, earlier, the king and patron who tests his knight Sir Able who is holding a bridge for him. Gylf and Cloud and Mani reveal just enough to leave the reader wanting to know more.

However, the siege of the giants' castle, and the subplot with Toug and Etela, feel shoehorned in, and in many ways it feels as if there's a great section of plot that was pulled out. This missing bit of the story was likely for effect's sake, but the fact that we have no idea where Sir Able has been for some time when first we see him disconnects this volume from the first book.

Mr. Wolfe has said in interviews that The Wizard Knight was written as one long book, and published in two volumes by his publisher. If so, this decision was to the detriment of the second book. It doubtless reads better as one story, and I'd like to hear from anyone whose read it all in one go.

If you must find out what happens, read this book. But be aware that it is a letdown after the grand, perfect tale that was The Knight.

Tags: books

Got an email the other day:

How are you doing Neil? You don't know me but I received some computer software from DHL express. It had my mother in laws address on it......I tried to call you but the number on the statement is not in service.....Let me know what you want me to do...I live on [he indicated a nearby street] in Edison.....call me, so we can get this to you....

He also included his name and phone number. Nice of him. I emailed Martha, my neighbor brought the package over, all was well. But odd, to say the least.

But there's an up side: SoundSoap, the software in the box I had ordered, is absolutely amazing. It cleans up audio, usually camcorder footage, or music from an LP. And it's very, very easy to use.

I ran stuff I had recorded in 1992 on four-track cassette through the program, and it did an excellent job. It also seems to handle crackly records pretty well. A little EQ in Peak afterwards is an excellent end to the process.

Wish I had broadband so I could upload some of this stuff... in good time, in good time.

Tags: music

I'm back... again. Sorry about the continual outages. The new server is having all kinds of blips and hiccups. If it doesn't get better, will relocate, I promise. But I hope it gets better, I'd rather not "fire" my brother-in-law. (I don't think he reads this, that's not meant to be a threat or anything.)

Have started shopping my demo around. After spending an afternoon making six(!) copies, I:

• Left a demo at the bar/restaurant across the street; mostly because it'd be cool to play there since it's right across the street, I honestly don't think they look for a guy-with-a-guitar kinda act. (They have loud bands on Saturday night.) But ya never know.


• Borders had me call the regional manager of acts and all things musical, am waiting for a call back from her.


• A smallish restaurant in Metuchen actually started talking money with me, in a hypothetical kinda feeling-him-out way.


• Edit: Emailed a cafe in brooklyn, asked if they're still taking demos. Yes Brooklyn. Whaddya want? I was there and though tit was nice. End of edit.

Needless to say, I'll follow all these up once they've had a few days to actually listen. And need to get more CDs out there. If I don't get any gigs, this will all be very disappointing.

Tags: music

That's one! Go Away, about 2:30.

Tags: music, 1m4s