Charles, Locus and the Past…

The Past Through Tomorrow
The Past Through Tomorrow

Every Saturday or Sunday morning for the best part of seven years I would call Charles Brown in Oakland. The ostensible reason was to discuss reviews editing for Locus, something we did discuss.  We would talk about events of interest in the field, books we were interested in, books he had that I’d not seen yet, and books that we loved.  Again and again we’d circle around, discussing this and that: our mutual admiration for Citizen of the Galaxy, our love for the novels of  Tim Powers, and many, many other things. One book that came up again and again was The Past Through Tomorrow,  which collects Robert A. Heinlein’s ‘Future History’ stories.  It’s an essential book, a fascinating book, and one that we both loved.  When I was in Oakland I’d amuse Charles by admiring this signed first edition, and bemoan the fact that I only have a dog-eared old NEL paperback of the book. I’d hoped that the Virginia Edition might offer some good options, but that doesn’t seem like a good option. And now I’m thinking, I just might have to fork over a couple hundred bucks and get myself a first edition. If there’s a copy in the World Fantasy dealer’s room, I just might come home significantly poorer. I think I might need it.

Reading…

There’s a lot of good free reading out there on the web.  Lots of people, especially the good folk at SF Signal, provide links to a lot of it.  Two stood out for me today.  Some years back I spent a very pleasant afternoon at Charles Brown’s house, chatting with Robert Jordan and his wife Harriet.  Jordan was funny, humble, and truly gentlemanly that day, where he spent some time talking about the final Wheel of Time book that he was about to write.  Tor.com have just posted the first chapter of that novel, as envisaged by Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson.  You can read it here.

At the same time, the incredibly awesome Scott Lynch (who has a story in Swords and Dark Magic!) is giving his readers something to tide them over till his next book – a new novel you can read online for free!!!  It’s called Queen of the Iron Sands, a pulp SF adventure set on Mars.  I should totally ask him to write me a Mars story!

What else? I read Holly Black’s terrific “The Coldest Girl in Cold Town” the other day, and followed it with Pat Cadigan’s story in Poe. Someone somewhere should do a collection of her short stuff.  Speaking of shorts, btw, I’m finally getting to work on The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson.  I’ve been dawdling and delaying because of deadlines, but I’m delighted to finally be moving this one forward.