Save This Story II

So.
It's the early '60s. There's this young guy, quiet, lanky, big nose. Loves mythology, the Bhagavad Gita, martial arts. Comes out of Columbia with an MA in Elizabethan drama, goes back to his home state of Ohio and starts working for the Social Security office. Evenings and weekends, he writes fantasy and science fiction, working his way up from short stories to novels.

His name is Roger Zelazny-

(Jump)

One of the Great Side Effects of eBooks

So there's this writer, Barry Hughart.

And he writes these three terrific, virtually unclassifiable fantasies...think Sherlock Holmes meets  The Sandman, set in Medieval China...and funny. In fact, he wins a World Fantasy Prize for The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox.
But he and the publishers get into a big tiff and the series ends after three books, instead of the planned-for seven, and all the books disappear from view. Ten years after their original publication, an omnibus version went for $50 - if you could find it.


But now, thanks to ebooks and the Internet, Master Li and Number Ten Ox ride again! Hardcover omnibus, sure, for $40...but also as an ebook for $10. And you, lucky you, can buy the three books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.


Score.

A Taste of Cordwainer

"Isaac Asimov": 8.8 million Google hits.

"Cordwainer Smith": 274,000 Google hits.

I've always liked Asimov, and I can quote the Three Laws of Robotics by heart. But if you want to talk about stories that burrowed into my brain and stay with me now, thirty years later, it's Cordwainer Smith, hands down. And nobody knows who he is.

More after the jump.

Harlan Ellison: A Quick Word

For the sad sacks who don't know him, he is one of the big names in F/SF, and one of the remarkably few who wrote both for print and for the screen (that classic ST:TOS episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever" was his, as was I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream). He was also the editor of the groundbreaking Dangerous Visions anthology.

All of which is a prelude to a recommendation: I think Ellison did his best work as an essayist and film critic. He managed to infuse every article with his personal voice. He's a member of the Hunter S. Thompson School of Gonzo Nonfiction, and so a precursor of the blogging revolution and a man to emulate. (In case you were wondering what Harlan had to do with a writer's blog.) So buy these books:

Watching
Stalking the Nightmare
The Harlan Ellison Hornbook

They ain't necessarily cheap, though.