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NEWS AND VIEWS - FEBRUARY 2024
WRITING NEWS (Check out my Substack.) Added a few more chapters to City of Strange Gods this month; the current word count is 38,000, out of a probable 110,000-115,000. This is the tenth book in the Signalverse series, and unlike most of the others, it's not a standalone -- the first two Jack and Miracle Girl books, Disreputable Persons, Champions Weekly, Sneak and the Shadow of Darkplanet, and Galatea and the Dupe are all pretty much required reading for this one. Of course I try to make all of my books -- even sequels like this one -- accessible to new readers, but if you really want to get the most out of this book, I'm afraid you're going to have to do your homework. I'm hoping to finish it around July or August. Not sure when I'll be releasing it, though. Because this is the tenth book in the series, and a huge epic besides, I'd like to do something special with it. Crowdfunding hasn't really worked for me in the past, but it's something I'm considering, as a way of raising the money to get an audiobook version made. Haven't decided what my next project will be, after I finish this one. Might be a collection of new Playground Noir stories, might be a new fantasy, might even be a visual novel. Whatever it is, it'll likely be followed by another Signalverse book, Special Squad E, in 2025. I'm also planning to release Sam Fortune and the Hazards of the Game in March, probably around the 15th, so be on the lookout for that. * * * * * * * * WHAT I'M READING 
* * * * * * * * WHAT I'M WATCHING I started watching a few new series this month: a Korean drama about kids with superpowers, called Moving; the first episode of an anime called Keikenzumi na Kimi to, Keiken Zero na Ore ga, Otsukiai suru Hanashi (the shortened title is Kimizero); a few episodes of the latest season of Spy x Family; and a shojo (romance for girls) anime called Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi o Suru. I'm eight or nine episodes into Moving, and I'm really enjoying it, which is probably not all that surprising (obviously I like superhero stuff). The fact that the assassin-villain is supposed to be a native English speaker, but obviously isn't, is kind of annoying, and all the spy agency stuff with the CIA and all that is kind of silly, but whatever. It's easily the best show I'm watching right now. Kimizero was disappointing. It's a typical wish-fulfillment kind of show, about a guy who confesses his love to his dream girl, basically on a dare. He expects her to reject him, but to his surprise, she agrees to go out with him -- in fact she immediately takes him home and offers to have sex with him! He turns her down because they don't know each other that well, and she's so charmed by his reticence that she decides she likes him even more. It's a ludicrous scenario -- nothing like this has ever happened in the whole history of the universe. The guys writing these things (I assume this started out as a manga or light novel) seem to have no understanding of how women actually think or behave. Even worse, the protagonist is a total wiener who can't even talk to the girl without stammering, which makes the scenario even more unbelievable. Ugh. Spy x Family is fine. Honestly, though, I'm starting to get a little impatient with it. It's got likable characters and it's fun to watch, but it seems like nothing ever happens, like the plot never moves forward. They sometimes tease a romance between Loid and Yor, but nothing ever comes of it. None of the characters are getting any closer to discovering any of the other characters' secrets (that Loid is a spy, that Yor is an assassin, that Anya can read minds). It's basically just a series of gags at this point. Well, maybe something will happen towards the end of the season. And I enjoyed Yamada-kun, which is about an awkward romance that develops between a cheerful young lady and a gloomy gamer-guy who happen to meet online. Like I said, this is shojo, for girls, but it's a cute, wholesome story and I think pretty much anyone can get into this kind of thing. Part of the reason I like these kinds of shows is that there's really nothing like them in Western entertainment, except for maybe those cheesy Hallmark movies. When you compare a show like this, with its heartfelt, low-key, realistic depiction of a romance between two vulnerable people, to something like Friends, where Monica and Chandler just fall into bed with one another and all the characters are constantly having one-night stands...well, the latter comes off as kind of sleazy and gross. * * * * * * * * HARRY POTTER The first Harry Potter book was published in early 1997, when I was sixteen years old, but the series didn't become a global phenomenon until a few years later, so I was probably in college when I first started hearing about it. I didn't have any real interest in the series, partly because it was obviously for kids, and partly because I'm an elitist snob who looks down on mainstream fads, which is what the series seemed to be. But my aunt knew I liked fantasy and bought the first two books for me as gifts. So, for the heck of it, I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...but I only got about halfway through it. There was nothing really wrong with it, but my expectations were very high, and the book simply didn't live up to them. All the time I was reading it, I was thinking, "This book has sold gazillions of copies, and yet there's nothing particularly special or original about it. I read dozens of books like this when I was a kid -- quirky genre books by Roald Dahl, Bruce Coville, William Sleator, E. Nesbit, etc. What makes this one so special? What's all this hype about?" A few years passed. The Harry Potter series became more and more popular and, to my surprise, it started becoming popular with adults as well. Luxuriating in my elitist snobbishness, I continued to ignore the series (and I didn't watch any of the movies, either). Around the time the fifth movie came out, I was at an airport waiting for a flight when I happened to see one of the books at a bookstore: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The book was enormous, over six hundred pages! The sheer size of this volume intrigued me -- I began to suspect that there might be a little bit more depth to Harry Potter than I first thought. So I gave the series another try, starting over again with the first novel. My opinion of that first novel hasn't changed -- I still don't understand why/how this series initially took off. It's a good, but not great, children's novel, and the second book isn't any better or worse. The third book is an improvement, however, and Goblet of Fire is excellent -- a very well-constructed fantasy novel with a lot of moving parts, and crackling with adolescent energy. I don't think J.K. Rowling was ever lacking in ability, but it wasn't until the third or fourth book that her talent really became apparent. And the remaining books were fine, although Goblet of Fire is still my favorite. I haven't really given the series much thought since I finished reading it sixteen years ago, though, and I'm certainly not any kind of super-fan. So those are my thoughts on Harry Potter. In case you were interested. |