Considering John O’Brien

The author of Leaving Las Vegas pretty well fit the cliche of the alcoholic writer. He embodied it so well, in fact, that it killed him. O’Brien had been a hardcore alcoholic for much of his life. His sister, Erin O’Brien, said of his drinking: “John’s drinking problem started as soon as his drinking started.… Read More Considering John O’Brien

11 Oct 201911 Oct 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Space Opera

If you define fantasy as “a story that cannot occur in the real world”, as this web site does, then you can include sci-fi in that, as sci-fi takes places in worlds unseen and with technology uninvented, and any technology sufficiently advanced functions more or less like magic in the minds of many people. But… Read More Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Space Opera

2 Oct 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

George R.R. Martin is Seriously Starting to Bore Me

In the last issue of UJ, I penned an essay about how I felt regarding the end of Game of Thrones. In that essay, I argued that the spirit of Martin’s work is essentially pagan, and the influence of Robert Howard is far more present than that of Tolkein, who filled his work with a Catholic… Read More George R.R. Martin is Seriously Starting to Bore Me

27 Sep 201926 Sep 2019 Andrew1 Comment

Some Books to Check Out

Since I mentioned it the other day, you can pick up a copy of Burke’s A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful on Kindle for 99 cents. It looks, based on the sample, to be properly formatted, too. Additionally, the micro-press whose podcast I’ve been following, Dead Rabbit… Read More Some Books to Check Out

17 Sep 201917 Sep 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

What Even is a Novel?

A Novel is a book in most people’s minds. Saying “I wrote a novel,” and “I wrote a book” are synonymous with most of the population. Thus, saying “I wrote a novella” indulges in jargon, and jargon always sounds mildly pretentious to those outside of the group that invented it. Also, it sounds like “lesser… Read More What Even is a Novel?

3 Sep 201928 Dec 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

The Disassociated Protagonist

There’s doubtless a more-approved critical term for this phenomenon, but I only took one lit-crit class in college, and also I don’t care. This is my term, and I’m finding it all over Play It As It Lays, which I’ve mentioned before I’m reading. Observe: In the care she counted the stiff bills. They stuck together… Read More The Disassociated Protagonist

12 Aug 201912 Aug 2019 Andrew1 Comment

Updating a Classic: Giving Solar System Blues a Cover it Deserves

I like to call Solar System Blues my first novel. Certainly it was my first serious attempt at self-publishing, and my first serious review. Because of this, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted for the cover, and just kind of used the templates that CreateSpace and KDP offered. That has changed. Self-Publishing… Read More Updating a Classic: Giving Solar System Blues a Cover it Deserves

2 Jul 201930 Jun 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

John C. Wright on Time Travel: An Absurdity Wrapped in a Non-Starter

It’s a longish post, but well worth your time. In science fiction stories, there are a limited number of ways to explain the conundrum of how time travel can work in a world where there is both the appearance of free will and the appearance of cause and effect. I doubt I can list all… Read More John C. Wright on Time Travel: An Absurdity Wrapped in a Non-Starter

20 May 201920 May 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

No, Islamic Spain was Not Tolerant

So sayeth this review of The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise. (h/t Vox Populi) And yes, the reviewer is an Orthodox priest, if you want to ready your ad hominems, and he is positively scathing regarding the myth, even working in a Gone With the Wind reference. As Fernandez-Morera’s book points out, the picture of a tolerant Islam… Read More No, Islamic Spain was Not Tolerant

9 May 20199 May 2019 AndrewLeave a comment