The keeping of names

Apparently my friend Daniel Fox, he of the Chinese-inspired fantasy trilogy I have raved about, is now permitted to tell the world his true name, that being Chaz Brenchley. Or as Chaz says on his LJ today,

"It's hardly news that Daniel Fox is not in fact a wan fey boy with fabulous cheekbones whom I wickedly keep chained up in the attic (alas). That I am Daniel and he is me has been described as the worst-kept secret on the internets. And yet, and yet: I do keep tripping over people who haven't twigged. So, yup. I am he and he is me, we are one flesh."

The middle volume of the trilogy, Jade Man's Skin, is released next month. I got to see an ARC, which I liked rather a lot. It's available for pre-order in all the usual places...

Book log: Joseph Green -- The Star Probe

Astronomers discover alien space probe heading towards Earth. Fanatical environmentalists who have already killed off most of the space programme decide they have to stop any attempt to make contact with the probe, lest the people be seduced into wasting time and money on space research and high technology, when they could be fixing the problems on Earth. Wealthy space entrepreneur Henson, owner of the only private enterprise in space, sees the opportunity the probe presents, and is determined to bring the benefits to mankind.

This one was a Did Not Finish for me within the first five pages, and the next five didn't rescue it. I was just too irritated by the apparent attitude that all environmentalists are violent fanatics who are anti-technology. I can certainly find Green Puritans annoying, but this seemed to be presenting the extreme fringe as the norm. Now it's more than possible that I'm grossly misjudging the book and will find that it does address this further on; and I say that mindful of a "bailed after the first chapter" review I read recently that demonstrated exactly that problem. In fact, a quick glance at the last couple of pages suggests that it's a lot less black and white by the end. But I have a TBR mountain that's going to take me a couple of years to get through, and no particular reason to give this book another 25 pages to get my attention (unlike a couple of other books with similar annoyances which I've read). This one's going in the Oxfam box, unless the next book by this author in the TBR mountain gives me a reason to retrieve it.

[Later: checking on LibraryThing, I find that I liked the author's short story in New Writings in SF 10, and the tone of that one suggests that the annoying tone of this one is an opening gambit. The book gets a reprieve, but I'll read it some other time when I'm feeling more receptive.]

LibraryThing entry

Book log - Ellen Kushner, editor -- Basilisk

Intended to do a full review, but still too sore from the fall. Here's what I'd already written. Note -- contents include Alan Garner's short "Feel Free", which covers some of the same themes as "Red Shift", and the Earthsea short "The Word of Unbinding"

Ellen Kushner, editor -- Basilisk

Anthology of fantasy short stories, first published in 1980. Going by the copyright page, this is a mix of reprints and new stories, originally published from 1956 to 1980. There's a good mix of styles here. A couple of the pieces didn't work for me, but this anthology had a very high hit rate for me.

Book log: Dorothy L Sayers -- Five Red Herrings

Lord Peter Wimsey has six nice obvious suspects for a murder in an artists' colony in Galloway. Five are red herrings... One of my comfort reads, which is why I was reading it last weekend while feeling sorry for myself.