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These are all for short stories. I'm saving the long ones to read later.
My gift was a lovely Samurai Champloo story, Distance. Do not under any circumstances read this unless you've already watched the entire anime-- it spoils the ending, and this is a series that really needs to go unspoiled. (This is why I'm not excerpting any of it.) NC-17.
She is different every time, the one who Ends all things. She has held whole stars in her hand and closed them into themselves, leaving only blackness behind. She has spoken eye-to-eye with a beetle the size of a speck of dust, brushed her fingers over its minute carapace, and carried it with her into what-comes-next.
An Awfully Deep Well. An absolutely gorgeous Sandman story, with one segment for each of the Endless. There's a remarkable control of tone and style here. I wondered if Mely wrote it, but she commented, so I guess not.
How can there be so many iPods in a few hundred square feet? They're all nursing some wacky liberal power fantasy--something about the city being run by a workers' council with elected boards whose decisions must be ratified by 2/3 majorities. They're already composing rousing anthems for the masses to sing along to.
Overheard in New York. If this didn't spoil the latest volume of Brian K. Vaughn's comic book Ex Machina, about a former superhero who becomes mayor of New York City, I'd recommend it as an introduction. But I do highly recommend it to anyone who's caught up.
She was glad she had decided on both kinds of fried green tomatoes - the sharp, peppery kind with a tangy bite to them, and sweet ones too, dipped in light brown sandy sugar. It was funny how they still tasted light green, even though they were fried brown, Maybeth thought, but didn't say, as she bit into one and felt the sour and sweet juices well over her tongue.
The Ears to Hear. A story based on Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman Cycle books that reads like an outtake from one of them, full of fined-tuned depictions of food and music and emotion. As a bonus, it's centered on Maybeth, the only Tillerman who never got a book written about her. You don't have to know the books to read this, I think.
love, do you remember my name. From Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry. Hugely spoilery, so do not read unless you've finished all three books. A lyrical and touching look at the relationship between Kevin and Paul, Kevin and women, Kevin and... that's where the biggest spoiler comes in. No excerpt from this one, for the same reason.
'I knew you were in a bad mood -- no, don't give me that look, it's true -- and I remembered how you kept on saying that since we were in Switzerland, you wanted a real Swiss Army knife, taken from a real Swiss soldier.' He leans across to point out a dark red smear on the corkscrew. 'It even has real Swiss soldier blood on it.'
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective (If Somewhat Unnecessarily Violent) Assassins. From Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Extremely black comedy featuring Croup and Vandemar. I don't think you need to have read Neverwhere to appreciate this one.
I always knew those "highly effective people" books were evil.
My gift was a lovely Samurai Champloo story, Distance. Do not under any circumstances read this unless you've already watched the entire anime-- it spoils the ending, and this is a series that really needs to go unspoiled. (This is why I'm not excerpting any of it.) NC-17.
She is different every time, the one who Ends all things. She has held whole stars in her hand and closed them into themselves, leaving only blackness behind. She has spoken eye-to-eye with a beetle the size of a speck of dust, brushed her fingers over its minute carapace, and carried it with her into what-comes-next.
An Awfully Deep Well. An absolutely gorgeous Sandman story, with one segment for each of the Endless. There's a remarkable control of tone and style here. I wondered if Mely wrote it, but she commented, so I guess not.
How can there be so many iPods in a few hundred square feet? They're all nursing some wacky liberal power fantasy--something about the city being run by a workers' council with elected boards whose decisions must be ratified by 2/3 majorities. They're already composing rousing anthems for the masses to sing along to.
Overheard in New York. If this didn't spoil the latest volume of Brian K. Vaughn's comic book Ex Machina, about a former superhero who becomes mayor of New York City, I'd recommend it as an introduction. But I do highly recommend it to anyone who's caught up.
She was glad she had decided on both kinds of fried green tomatoes - the sharp, peppery kind with a tangy bite to them, and sweet ones too, dipped in light brown sandy sugar. It was funny how they still tasted light green, even though they were fried brown, Maybeth thought, but didn't say, as she bit into one and felt the sour and sweet juices well over her tongue.
The Ears to Hear. A story based on Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman Cycle books that reads like an outtake from one of them, full of fined-tuned depictions of food and music and emotion. As a bonus, it's centered on Maybeth, the only Tillerman who never got a book written about her. You don't have to know the books to read this, I think.
love, do you remember my name. From Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry. Hugely spoilery, so do not read unless you've finished all three books. A lyrical and touching look at the relationship between Kevin and Paul, Kevin and women, Kevin and... that's where the biggest spoiler comes in. No excerpt from this one, for the same reason.
'I knew you were in a bad mood -- no, don't give me that look, it's true -- and I remembered how you kept on saying that since we were in Switzerland, you wanted a real Swiss Army knife, taken from a real Swiss soldier.' He leans across to point out a dark red smear on the corkscrew. 'It even has real Swiss soldier blood on it.'
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective (If Somewhat Unnecessarily Violent) Assassins. From Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Extremely black comedy featuring Croup and Vandemar. I don't think you need to have read Neverwhere to appreciate this one.
I always knew those "highly effective people" books were evil.
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