Thursday, May 28, 2009

An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat



Or, perhaps, A Blog Unacquainted With Updates, eh?

Thanks you faithful few who still check back here.

I haven't been writing and because I wanted to keep this blog somewhat focused on writing, I haven't been blathering here. (blathering a bit on Facebook, who knows why)



Reading has been slow, too, but I finally finished Glen Cook's Lord of the Silent Kingdom. I'm not very objective about Cook, I'm a fan boy. I enjoyed this novel but the politics of church(es) and state(s) make this a somewhat complicated world to explore. Cook says it's no different from real world history, and I'd agree. A little streamlining might help, though. The novel just ended, clearly waiting on the next novel for some resolution. But, I mostly enjoyed it, went along for the ride, and there were some surprises along the way. I'll be reading the next novel in the series.

Meantime, I am more excited about a collection of Cook's earlier stories concerning the Dread Empire (a different series, altogether.) The novels were collected in omnibuses by Night Shade Books and now the short stories have been collected and are finally being released. I can't wait to get this book, An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat, on my shelf. I've only ever found one short by Cook, who mostly writes novels.



I have moved onto a Mack Bolan novel, Interception, chock full of violence and intrigue, ghost-written by a friend, Nathan Meyer (his name is buried in the front piece.)

Writing-wise, I am still slowly outlining a couple of things in my head, gathering some research notes, and hope to generate some real, meaty outlines (if nothing else) over the summer.

There, that should be enough links to keep you busy

3 comments:

  1. Hey, I'm "Lord of the Silent..." nevermind.

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  2. I havent' read Cook's newest stuff yet. I keep hearing it's slow. But I'd love to get some of his shorts about the Dread empire. or if he did some Black company shorts. I'd kill for those.

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  3. Heff - Lord of the SBD. I can see the horror comic now, and see it optioning for millions of dollars as a feature film. No, really ;)

    Charles - I meant that I was slow about reading it, not that it was slow, but it does have a heck of alot of dialog and oddly, looking back, alot of action takes place off-screen. The hero is a "captain-general" and Cook keeps it real - therefore the general is rarely in the heat of any given battle. I do like it, but it's a bit of an odd duck - even for Cook.

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