Logging into LJ to note solely that I won't be posting here in the foreseeable future, not because of my usual lazy-ass forgetting about it, but because Russia's fucking invasion of Ukraine is immoral and appalling (and I have strong doubts about whether they'll let this post be). Anyway, also posting this to DW for posterity, where any lack of posting is just because I'm lazy and never get around to posting, and not because of war.
You know what one small feature I'd love to have in LJ? A filter/block for LJ posts that are just user's Twitter updates compiled. It was a fine thing when it first launched, but now, if I want to see someone's Tweets, I can go to Twitter, and most of those feeds are from folks who have otherwise abandoned their LJs. Yes, I can filter/unfollow, but I live in hope that I'll still see real updates from longtime friends (even as I'm crappy about it myself).
It sucks to only remember to update LJ when someone passes, but yeah, the world lost gegenschein. We met ages ago in person, when we were visiting South FL. She moved to GA not long after we moved away, but we'd continued to keep in touch via LJ and then FB (she was literally the first person to post on my wall). Watching her grow as a human -- giving birth, shifting relationships, finding a career path -- was always a delight, and this feels sudden and fucking wrong. I've got eight LJ friends in common with her, and if any of you are still reading, figured you'd want to know.
Robert Ludlum's novels were mostly titled as "The X Y," with the X generally being a proper noun used as a modifier and the Y being a more traditional noun. So, "The Bourne Identity," "The Scarlatti Inheritance," "The Gemini Contenders," The Holcroft Covenant," etc.
All of which is to say, "The Lament Configuration" would have made for a hell of a Ludlum novel.
I’ve read exactly half of the 72 people* who have been or will be given Edgar Grandmaster Awards (counting the folks already announced for 2021). That’s pretty good, but it also gives me a goal: Read the other 36 authors. I’m going to try to knock that off this year, although there are all the usual things that could get in the way (ranging from the end of the world to other books distracting me). I’m also trying to read only novels here; reading short stories seems like a bit of a cop-out, although I still put Edward Hoch on my “have read” list (but I’ve also read a few dozen of his stories, possibly hundreds). And I’m counting Hitchcock as one of the ones I’ve read, since his award was based really on his movies.
The ones I’ve read:
Charlaine Harris Jeffery Deaver Max Allan Collins Walter Mosley Lois Duncan Margaret Maron Sara Paretsky James Lee Burke Sue Grafton Bill Pronzini Stephen King Marcia Muller Ira Levin Robert B. Parker Edward D. Hoch Mary Higgins Clark P.D. James Mickey Spillane Lawrence Block Donald E. Westlake Elmore Leonard Ed McBain John le Carre Margaret Millar Daphne du Maurier Dorothy B. Hughes Graham Greene Ross Macdonald Alfred Hitchcock John D. MacDonald James M. Cain Georges Simenon John Dickson Carr Erle Stanley Gardner Ellery Queen Agatha Christie
The ones I need to read:
Barbara Neely Martin Cruz Smith Jane Langton William Link Peter Lovesey Ellen Hart James Ellroy Robert Crais Carolyn Hart Ken Follett Martha Grimes Dorothy Gilman Stuart M. Kaminsky Joseph Wambaugh Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters & Barbara Michaels) Ruth Rendell Dick Francis Tony Hillerman Helen McCloy Hillary Waugh Phyllis A. Whitney Michael Gilbert Dorothy Salisbury Davis Julian Symons Stanley Ellin W.R. Burnett Aaron Marc Stein Ngaio Marsh Eric Ambler Judson Philips Mignon C. Eberhart John Creasey Baynard Kendrick George Harmon Coxe Rex Stout Vincent Starrett
Obviously, some of the folks I haven't read are easy to find (Stout, Francis, Rendell), while others are ones I'll have to track down, but I've got a good library system, so I have faith I can do it.
Anyway, this is basically an accountability post. My reading's been about 80% mystery/crime/thriller/espionage these days, because that seems to be where my brain's comfortable right now.
*73, technically, but I’m counting “Ellery Queen” as one person here, and also not even getting into the EQ books written by folks other than Dannay and Lee.
We binged the series the other day. A few thoughts: [Spoiler (click to open)] 1. In many ways, this was as much a show from the '90s as a current show; we not only had Picard and Seven, we also had Riker and Troi, and then folks like Hugh, Maddox, and even poor Icheb.
2. I do feel the ending was an utter cop-out, and I couldn't get invested in the grief of the characters knowing (just from story beats, not spoilers) that the person they were mourning was going to live. And holy shit was that hand-wavy. "You're now a synth, but you're exactly like your old human self minus the one brain tumor, and we'll never discuss this again."
3. The Seven/Raffi thing borders on being the sort of throwaway "we care about gay people" stuff we got with Dumbledore, with barely more screen time (literally a second) of anything. They need to work on this during S2.
4. I love everything about the ship's five AIs. And Will and Deanna's daughter.
5. So a Romulan infiltrated Starfleet, became head of security, and almost committed genocide, and it's cool that she's just flying off? Seems like a bad thing.
6. Allison Pill has come a long way since her time as Kim Pine.
7. Speaking of hand-wavy, dragging eight stars into one system? That seems a little high-tech even by Trek standards.
8. I think I'd have liked this series a little more if I hadn't been in the middle of Discovery, which is, on every level, a better show (well, every level other than Patrick Stewart). That's not this show's fault, but the plot just rolled out slower, had less going on, and honestly, we all kind of knew where it was going, for the most part.
Woke up to some utterly awful news on FB, that photognome had died suddenly last night. I'll repeat what I posted on FB here:
It's been zero days since I've woken up to the news that a friend died. Joe (AKA PhotoGnome) was one of those people who just made everyone around him so much happier, and was a wonderful part of my life online long before and long after we were neighbors in Atlanta. I still have fond memories of sushi at Ru San's, conversations at DragonCon, and just plain hanging out and chatting about comics. The world's a lesser place without him in it.
Just an awful loss. I know many LJ/DW folks have migrated to FB and Twitter, but folks here should know, and frankly, Joe's one of those people who should be memorialized wherever we can.
So I read Doomsday Clock last night, and honestly? Kind of liked it. A few random and largely unspoilery thoughts:
- Unlike Watchmen, which stands alone if you have literally no knowledge of comics (even if it gains layers when you do), DC (heh) requires not only knowledge of Watchmen (reasonable for a sequel), but of the DCU, both in the general sense, and in some very specific ones (notably the fact that the golden age of superheroes had only recently been once again shunted to a separate earth). Not a criticism, but it speaks volumes about the intended audience. - After years of crap like Death Metal and Final Crisis, it is so fucking refreshing to get an event book that A) stands on its own without reading a zillion tie-ins, and B) doesn't fetishize Batman as the Most Important Guy Ever. - Mime is possibly only the second character ever from the Watchmen universe to have superpowers (unless there's a technological explanation for what he does -- it's left unsaid). I do find it interesting how little power there is in that universe compared to the DCU. - The end result of the book and its take on multiverses is one I'm pretty damned happy with. It's extremely Superman-focused, but I'm okay with that because A) it makes sense and B) it's never about Superman being So Damned Cool that the writer clearly wishes he were him (see Morrison and Snyder again). - If I have a major criticism here, it's around the handling of Firestorm, but honestly, other than Conway and Ostrander, I've generally hated any writer's handing of him.
(Oh, and no, I don't believe that Only Alan Moore Is Allowed to Write These Characters. Which is not to say that less isn't more - Before Watchmen was largely pointless and rancid -- but that's a bullshit argument.)
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