The Gaming Outpost

The ostensible reason for posting this Blogless Lepolt entry is the publication of the latest in the Examiner temporal anomalies series, The Last Mimzy part 9:  bridge building, which considers the impact of Noah Wilder’s bridge designs on civil engineering and the progress of science and consequent redistribution of wealth, as the film again flirts with temporal disaster.  However, there’s not much more to say about that than that.

What’s more on my mind is that Eric “Tadeusz” Ashley recently sent me a second box of books which I have been devouring at a frightening rate, but which has me somewhat confused.  That is, his first box of books was intended to fill in some of the gaps in my familiarity with science fiction and fantasy writers, notably containing Verner Vinge, one of Asimov’s Robot books, and Poule Anderson’s Time Patrol, along with many others in a variety of fantasy and science fiction genres.  I was quite surprised when I pulled out the first book of the new box at random and got a somewhat steamy love story set against the backdrop of a crime drama/mystery written by a Roman Catholic priest.  Another entry in the pack styled the author as the James Herriott of police stories, and the swords and sorcery fantasy I just finished today was really a children’s book, intended for an audience somewhat younger than the Harry Potter series although perhaps older than The Chronicles of Narnia, with the caveat that that series is intended to be read to children and this book was to be read by them.  I have mostly enjoyed most of the books he sent (and consider this a thank you for them), but have wondered at his editorial selection criteria.

More significantly, though, I have wondered whether in addition to reading all these books I ought to be writing reviews of some of them.  I hesitate partly because I’ve written quite a few fantasy book reviews here already, and it’s not really intended as a book review site, but also because I don’t know how qualified I am to write such reviews.  Part of that is undoubtedly because the books in these boxes were among the better–I do not believe Eric would send me books he thought not worth reading, which means that I’m getting those books he has already found worthwhile.  It’s also a time-consuming process which might not be of much benefit to anyone–the authors probably will not be aware of my posts, and I don’t know to what degree either my audience or that of Gaming Outpost would gain from my opinions and comments on fantasy and science fiction literature.

I also don’t know whether Eric would be offended if I wrote a bad review of a book he sent me which he thought I would enjoy.  That’s not to say that I was already thinking of writing a bad review of any of the books I had read, but only that there’s some level at which either I have to write bad reviews of something or I have to decide I’m not going to write about books that aren’t remarkably good.

It might mean re-reading some of the books I’ve read.  I’ve meant to do that with a few anyway, in particular the three books that comprise The Deed of Paksenarrion (if I can wrestle them away from my daughter-in-law who keeps insisting that she’s going to read them).  I’ve nearly finished the box I have, but some were worth reading and would be worth reading again.

I also am not certain what parameters to place on my own book selection for the reviews.  Do I include a modern crime drama romance, a true tales of police life, or an offbeat children’s fantasy?&nbsp Do I stick to that which is most closely related to role playing gaming, the fantasy and science fiction corpus?  Also, do I stretch beyond some of these and cover some of the fantasy and science fiction books I read and loved in the past–C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J. R. R. Tolkien, H. G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and other long-gone authors?

So I’m musing, and perhaps reader feedback will help me muse.  Meanwhile, there’s work to do, and I’m not doing it, so I’d better move.

–M. J. Young