I notice odd things. One that’s been going around in my mind, as I try to push myself to actually write a book review, has to do with Patricia McKillip’s Od Magic. It’s a great book, you should buy it. As with all of McKillip’s books of late, it has a truly lovely dust jacket by Kinuko Craft which pretty much provides a summary of the book (much as Josh Kirby’s covers did for Pratchett’s Discworld novels). When you’ve read the novel you’ll recognise the characters on the front and rear of the book, and the various other elements. What might strike you as odd, though, is that none of the novel’s male characters are represented. Given that at least one is, arguably, the book’s major character, it seems very strange.

I used to buy David Pringle’s Interzone during the Classic IZ years (say 1985-1995) for the non-fiction, specifically for John Clute’s non-fiction. I loved what he wrote for the magazine, and I thought it lost a lot when he left. Well, he’s returning in IZ198 (coming soon), and you can talk to him about it on his message board here. You should. I will.

This would be weird. According to this article, organisers at Glastonbury will give ravers headphones so that the noise doesn’t disturb nearby residents. That’s fine, but picture the hot, sweaty dance floor, with everyone going off and dancing, but the only sound is people moving. No music. Very weird.

It occurs to me that it is not really fair of me to make glancing reference to the ongoing Simak and Leiber reprint programs without actually ennumerating what I think is wrong with them. Well. I think both writers are important to the history of the field, and each has a body of work that could still reach a reasonable sized audience. I also think that they are in great danger of being forgotten by all but the cognoscenti, and that what is needed is an evangelical approach to their work that will take them to a new, younger audience.

So, what’s happening? Well, Seattle-based small press publisher Darkside
Press is publishing their collected works in multiple volume sets (an announced twelve volume set for Simak and an unannounced no. of volumes for Leiber, but three volumes have been published to date). Darkside’s books all sell for approximately $US40.00, are restricted to print runs of 400 – 500 copies, and have fairly uniform black and white dustjackets. They are, and this is just a personal opinion, extraordinarily ugly books. That in itself isn’t a terrible problem. The problem is that they are costly and go out of print quickly. They are not books that will preserve the legacy of the writers in question, they will simply pass through, pick up a few sales and disappear forever.

What should happen? Well, first, someone should publish a definitive selected stories for both writers. I believe NESFA considered at least one of these projects, but really someone like Tor or Ace would be best. With a good selected stories in print, you could then produce an omnibus of the three or four most important novels. That way, Simak and Leiber might actually continue to be read, and even have a chance of attracting a larger readership. Just my two cents.

I think I mentioned somewhere having dinner last Thursday with the wonderful and entertaining Glenda. During dinner she mentioned a bookblog that was interesting and worthwhile. She sent me the link, and it is.