Jigs and reels…

I’m currently dipping into Joanne Harris’ first short story collection, Jigs & Reels, and it’s a real surprise. I’ve only been familiar with Harris as the author of what look like “literary” novels for middle-aged women’s book clubs, like Chocolat and Blackberry Wine, but Harris seems to have a real affection for genre fiction, namechecking a number of sf writers in her intro. The story I read last night, “Waiting for Gandalf”, is an interestingly disturbing piece about a group of role playing gamers who’ve been in the same RPG for 30 years, and who bring in temporary members each week. I’m not sure if it’s fantasy or horror, or just weird mainstream stuff. It doesn’t really matter though. This book is worth checking out.

I know I make connections that no-one else ever gets – I’ll say something is like something else and I just get these weird blank looks – but am I the only person to ever think that the music of Stephen Morrissey is a lot like the music of Stephin Merritt? I mention this after checking out You are the Quarry and i.

And an open mind…

…compels me to immediately add that the Birmingham novel DOES pick up. I still think the opening 100 pages contain a lot of Tom Clancy-style hooey (for reference, I thought The Hunt for Red October was unutterably boring), but it then begins to get quite interesting and Birmingham really handles his characters a lot better and exploit some of the ideas the situation opens up for him. Have to see how the last chunk of the book goes, and then will blog more on it.