Sunday, October 17, 2004
Bookshelf and tv screen
Little blogging, more reading this week. I'm enjoying China Mieville's The Scar. I had avoided his well-regarded work because it seemed at first glance to be too coarse, cynical, and cruel. And it is that, but it's also the best-written sf I've read in some months.
The sf site (always a good read: http://www.sfsite.com/) has some very favorable reviews of his work (see http://www.sfsite.com/07a/sc131.htm). It reminds me somewhat of Mervyn Peake: great world-building, great ugliness and desperation, too. But Mieville is an original, no doubt.
The only tv I've caught these past two weeks are the first two episodes of Enterprise. Writer and new producer Manny Coto extricated himself ably out of the silly premise of alien Nazis conquering America. I've been curious, if not optimistic about his regime at the helm of Paramount's space cash cow, which, my friends, has been milked pretty dry these past few years. Coto's writing has been the only highlight of the show, which I pretty much gave up on last season. I thought the build-up of the last handful of episodes, though, was pretty good. The show about Archer's memory loss was just outstanding, though: easily a top-ten Trek of all time, but I think the show overall would place few others (if any) in the top 100 episodes of All Trek.
I can't say you will see much blogging here the next month. I have an article or two to get out to an old and possibly a new editor, a column overdue, some music to edit and get out to a publisher, plus the usual household things I haven't had time for since August. I'm taking a day off tomorrow to get a head start on a few things.
For now, it's a nice glass of milk, a good book, and a warm bed.
