Blog Archives
Weird Fantasy – The January 2025 Bibliofiles edition
I leaned toward fantasy reads this month — the weirder the better. And there were some real weird reads in this edition of the Bibliofiles.
Fiction
Sycamore by Ian Rogers
I’ve always loved Ian Rogers’ tales of The Black Lands, an eerie and deadly realm that intersects with our own and provides PI Felix Renn with supernatural creatures to investigate. So I was delighted to read Sycamore, which follows Renn to small-town Ontario and a mystery involving a string of murders, a missing man, a mysterious librarian, an eerie child — and a hidden portal to the Black Lands. Weird lit at its finest. You’ll be afraid of the dark all over again.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220978924-sycamore
We Are the Dead by Mike Shackle
What happens when the bad guys win in a fantasy novel and take over the world? The resistance fights back, of course. This is the premise of We Are the Dead by Mike Shackle. The land of Jia is overrun by the Egril hordes, which have united under a mysterious leader with powerful magic. Jia falls instantly to the Egril forces, which rule the land through a puppet government. But not everyone is willing to accept their rule. Brutal, bloody and action-packed, this is a nice twist of the blade for the fantasy genre.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42602296-we-are-the-dead
Kaiju Agonistes by Scott Lynch
A well-meaning but increasingly monstrous kaiju goes head to head with politicians in this blackly comic and delightful tale.
Link: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/kaiju-agonistes/
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett presents one of the most original worlds to ever hit the fantasy genre. The city of Tevanne is ruled by merchant houses that use a hybrid of magic and technology to maintain their power and live a near godlike existence. The entire society is built upon the practice of scriving — altering reality by inscribing objects with enchanted sigils to convince them to act in ways contrary to their nature. Scrived pieces of wood can be hard as stone, swords can hit much harder than they should be capable of, lights can burn forever and so on.
The only problem is no one truly understands how it works. The technology comes from an ancient race long gone who had attained the power of godhood, and the people of Tevanne are trying to understand it as they slowly piece the remains together.
But Foundryside is not just an impressive piece of worldbuilding. It’s also a clever heist tale, as the thief Sancia steals an artifact that turns out to be from that ancient race — and is itself sentient. Sancia is a unique character herself, as she is a scrived human being that can essentially hear the thoughts of inanimate objects — the result of unthinkable experiments by the rulers of Tevanne.
It’s also very much a political novel as it depicts deep divides between the wealthy and the poor, between those who aspire to godhood and those who are trapped in the worst gutters of humanity. There are more than a few parallels to our own society here.
There’s even a philosophical element, as Foundryside explores what is to be human — and what it is to be a god. And there’s an interesting angle in our AI age of what it means to be a sentient object.
All of these things come together over the course of the book, as the secrets of the dead race are discovered and the story shifts from being a clever fantasy novel to a near existential horror. If you’re looking for a truly different reading experience unlike anything else in the genre, then Foundryside is the book for you.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37173847-foundryside
The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant by Jeffery Ford
The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant is one of the weirdest and best collections I’ve ever experienced. Humans on a strange planet dress as old movie stars for celebrity-obsessed aliens. An interviewer has tea with a very odd Jules Verne. A writer obsessed with a mysterious Kafka story finds himself at odds with the writer Jeffrey Ford. And many more tales straight out of Twilight Zone episodes written by Borges.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39748.The_Fantasy_Writer_s_Assistant_and_Other_Stories
The Wish Doctor by Arlen Feldman
A charming tale about an expert in contracts for binding djinn who finds himself summoned to the royal palace to study the most important contract of his life and find the hidden trap.
Link: https://www.baen.com/wish_doctor
Non-fiction
The Big Five Publishers Have Killed Literary Fiction by Elizabeth Kaye Cook and Melanie Jennings
Is consolidation among the big publishers slowly killing off literary fiction? And can the small presses save it?
Link: https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-big-five-publishers-have-killed
New Star Pushed Over the Ledge
The world of CanLit was shocked and puzzled when publisher New Star suddenly announced it was shutting down. Now it seems a dispute with the BC Arts Council may have led to the closure.
Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/new-star-pushed-over-the-ledge
Productive Goblins – The December 2024 Bibliofiles edition
I went on a bit of a Christopher Buehlman binge in December, reading The Daughters’ War and then re-reading The Blacktongue Thief to compare them. Each of them is a brilliant read, as is Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup. I hope you like the books in this edition of the Bibliofiles as much as I did.
Fiction
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
The thief Kinch finds himself sent on a mission by the Takers Guild to accompany Galva, a hardened veteran of the Goblin Wars, to a distant city that has been attacked by giants to… well, he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do there. But he knows better than to cross the Takers Guild, which seems to have its hands in everything behind the scenes.
What follows is a crazed and absolutely fantastic adventure where they make their way across a most hostile land, encountering monstrous goblins, strange magicians, a very cunning kraken, and a very peculiar blind cat. Kinch falls in love with a young witch and tries to redeem his troubled past, but nothing is what it seems in this book.
And the storytelling, oh gods, the storytelling! It’s equally dramatic, horrifying and comic, as Buehlman always hits the right notes to keep the reader reading on. Kinch is one of the best narrators to ever tell a fantasy tale, and this tale is as original as it is inventive on every single page. Every character has a great backstory and wonderful arc, the magic is weird and captivating, the action scenes are unpredictable and real, and you never know where the story will take you next.
The Blacktongue Thief is one of the best fantasy books to ever grace the genre. I can’t wait to read whatever comes next from Buehlman.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077697
The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buhelman
Goblins. Guts. Glory.
The prequel to Christopher Buehlman’s absolutely magical The Blacktongue Thief, The Daughters’ War is set in the Goblin Wars that form the background of the first Blacktongue book. The Daughters’ War follows the warrior Galva from The Blacktongue Thief through the bloody conflict that nearly ended humanity at the hooked claws of the goblins. It’s a very different book, however, as it falls more into grimdark or even horror fantasy than the fantasy caper of The Blacktongue Thief. Perhaps that’s fitting for a book about humanity’s desperate struggle against a race of hungry goblins that want nothing more than to enslave and eat them.
As different as it is, though, The Daughters’ War is another brilliant read from Buehlman, who has quickly become the envy of every other writer in the field. His invention of the war corvids used to fight the goblins — fierce giant birds created through dark magic — is one of the best additions to the fantasy genre in decades. And this is the best invocation of the horrors of war since Joe Abercrombie’s Heroes. As the army of Galva and her fellow dams — female warriors as the goblins have killed most of the men — move through ravaged cities and witness the devastation of the goblin hordes, the tension grows and grows until the inevitable battle. This is no Tolkien fantasy where a handful of noble hearts prevail against the horde, though. It’s war at its ugliest and most brutal, and sometimes the good guys — or good dams — don’t win. An absolute masterpiece of the genre.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790571-the-daughters-war
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Sherlock Holmes detective stories meet fantasy in this tale of murder, contagion and leviathans. The Sherlock Holmes part is played by the quirky Ana, an intellectual who doesn’t leave her quarters if she can help it and instead lets her assistant Din do all the legwork for her. Din, the narrator, is an engraver, which means he can remember everything he encounters, even if he doesn’t understand it. The two are one of the most memorable pairings in fantasy fiction since Frodo and Sam. Or maybe Frodo and Gollum….
Ana and Din are brought in to solve the mysterious death of a military officer in a mansion where he doesn’t belong, after a plant has erupted from his body and torn him apart. It turns out he is not the only one to suffer such an affliction, and the deaths lead to a breach in a fortification that keeps the strange and deadly leviathans out of the land. Their investigation takes them deep into the intrigues of the empire, and the murder mystery also becomes a political thriller and class critique, with a touch of horror thrown in.
The Tainted Cup is an incredibly layered tale, where every detail is memorable — and every detail matters. It’s one of the smartest and most intriguing fantasy books ever written. I’m looking forward to following all the future adventures of Ana and Din!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150247395-the-tainted-cup
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
What happens when Dread Lord Gavrax wakes in his castle/lair/laboratory with no memories of who he is but with an army of goblins at his disposal, an untrustworthy second-in-command, a captured princess in the dungeon, a village full of frightened servants and a group of other dark wizards that want him to take part in a ritual to summon something even worse than them? You get a fun, cozy fantasy that keeps you guessing while never taking itself too seriously.
Dreadful is a perfect read for these troubled times. The only real drawback is you’ll likely finish it too quickly and leave yourself wanting more.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63051209-dreadful
Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
Are you suffering from burnout or overwhelm? Struggling to be productive in a world where pseudo-productivity seems to be the only thing that matters? (You know, looking busy rather than producing actual meaningful work.) Maybe you need to embrace slow productivity instead.
Newport looks at a handful of historical and contemporary figures to reveal their secrets to getting things done — Jane Austen, Steve Jobs, even Jewel. It all boils down to carving out periods of intense focus by eliminating distractions and other demands on your time. In short, focus on quality rather than quantity.
Of course, this is easier said than done depending on how you are trying to apply this to your life. There are a few strategies suggested here, but overall it’s more of a philosophical approach than it is a how-to guide. Newport presents the big picture of how much focus matters and then leaves it to the reader to determine how to change their lives to create a more focused approach to their projects that matter.
It’s not exactly new material — Newport has covered much of this ground before in his other books, particularly in Deep Work. But if you’re a fan of his work or you’re looking for ways out of the overwhelm cycle, then Slow Productivity should be on your reading list.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197773418-slow-productivity
Dark lords, dragons and angels – The Bibliofiles November 2024 edition
November was a light month for reading for me — both in content and quantity. I didn’t read many stories, but I did manage to finish a few books I’ve been wanting to read for some time. It seemed a good month for fantasy and escapism….
Fiction
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
If you’re in the mood for a cozy, fun fantasy with some raunchy elements, then Django Wexler’s How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying may be the book for you. It’s a sort of Groundhog Day meets fantasy novel, in which the heroine Dani has died over and over in trying to defeat the Dark Lord’s forces. At the beginning of the novel she decides she’s had enough and sets out to instead become the Dark Lord in her latest life. She’s remarkably successful, gathering an army of fantastic creatures — orcs and yetis and stone golems and the like. Along the way she has flings with some of her army and confuses pretty much everyone with pop culture references from our world. That last bit may make or break the book for readers, as it seems Dani is somehow from our world, but the circumstances are mysterious and largely unexplained. The plot drives this wannabe Dark Lord toward the Convocation, where she must compete against other contenders for the title of Dark Lord — including some nasty characters that have killed her in past lives. It’s all very light and charming and, best of all, the first book in a Dark Lord series.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198493860-how-to-become-the-dark-lord-and-die-trying
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle
I don’t quite know how to describe I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter Beagle other than to call it charming. It follows the tale of young Robert, a dragon exterminator who is called to the palace to get rid of an infestation of dragons as the king and queen try to marry off the princess Cerise. The princess is uninterested in marrying anyone, until Crown Prince Reginald turns up — although it quickly becomes clear he is uninterested in being a crown prince. Oh, and Robert isn’t exactly happy being a dragon exterminator either. In proper fairy tale fashion they decide Reginald has to hunt down and slay a dragon to prove his valour, and that’s when things start to go awry. They cross paths with larger and meaner dragons as well as a scheming wizard, and everyone’s plans are ruined. It’s a weird little book that falls somewhere between YA and more traditional fantasy, and it’s often more cerebral and philosophical than it is action-packed, but that may not be a bad thing. It’s certainly unlike anything else out there on the genre shelves right now, so if you’re looking for something a little different and you’ve got a thing for dragons, then this may be the book for you.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199798488-i-m-afraid-you-ve-got-dragons
Pulling the Wings Off Angels by KJ Parker
A theological student in a fantasy land owes the local crime boss more than he is able to pay, so the crime boss decides to settle for an angel in return. Not just any angel, though — he wants the one the student’s grandfather kidnapped and locked up in a chapel years ago.
So begins the latest intellectual and philosophical caper by KJ Parker, who is perhaps the smartest fantasy writer in the genre today. To say any more would be to give it all away. Just read it and then go read all of Parker’s other books when you’re done.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59807972-pulling-the-wings-off-angels
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djeli Clark
Eveen the Eviscerator is one of the best assassins of the city of Tal Abisi. She also happens to be undead with little memory of her former life — part of the deal when you work with the assassins guild. She only has a few rules to follow in her profession, chief among them that you always finish the job. And Eveen hasn’t failed yet.
But when she’s contracted to kill a young girl, she finds herself at odds with the guild and winds up on the run while hunted by other assassins who are just as deadly as she is. Her flight becomes a journey into her mysterious past as it turns out Eveen and her intended victim have more than a few things in common.
It’s another delightfully weird tale by P Djeli Clark, full of memorable action scenes and even more memorable characters, scientific experimentation and philosophy straight out of Frankenstein, and more cosmic twists and turns than a Marvel movie. One of the most original voices of our generation!
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127305606-the-dead-cat-tail-assassins
Things Lost Forever by Auston Habershaw
A creepy yet beautiful tale of a master craftsman who is tasked with making a new throne for a vampire lord, even though it will likely mean his own end. But he is no mere victim. It’s court intrigue meets quiet horror in a dying world, but it breathes fresh life into the vampire genre. One of the best stories I’ve read all year.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/things-lost-forever/
Dragons of Paris by Michael Swanwick
A battle for Paris fought with tanks and artillery and necromancers and giants and dragons — actually, you had me at necromancers. This is the first Mongolian Wizard story I’ve read by Michael Swanwick, but I’ll definitely check out the others after this.
Link: https://reactormag.com/dragons-of-paris-michael-swanwick/
Non-fiction
The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers
Any parent of young boys has probably heard the argument that our school systems are failing boys if they haven’t already experienced this failure directly. Boys tend to perform worse than girls in schools, are more likely to have behavioural difficulties and wind up with IEPs, are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and so on. So what is the problem? Is it just boys are wired for failure? Or are modern schools simply not accommodating their nature?
Sommers takes a tour through the education system and highlights the ways in which boys’ physical, mental and emotional differences are ignored, suppressed or outright pathologized, often to the detriment of boys. For instance, Sommers looks at how the rough and tumble play of boys is typically discouraged as aggression rather than a critical component of male socialization that simply needs appropriate guidance, or how male stoicism is cast as a psychological weakness to be addressed rather than a trait to be encouraged.
Sommers looks at alternative models of education where boys are thriving, such as all-boys schools where competition is encouraged and rowdiness is accepted as part of daily life or schools that have a focus on typically male activities such as mechanics and engineering. But these examples are clearly in the minority in today’s world — and Sommers argues they are under threat from those opposed to any form of segregation, formal or otherwise.
While the book does largely identify real problems with how the modern education system handles boys, it does get bogged down in trying to pin the blame on specific feminists that she sees as having anti-male agendas. Sommers does try to make it clear that she is not indicting feminism itself, however, and argues that this matter is much a female issue as a male one for how we raise boys matters to everyone.
So what is to be done? It’s clear that boys and girls learn very differently and have very different needs from the education system, particularly at the younger ages. Yet segregation according to gender is not a practical answer and comes with its own drawbacks that are likely equal to any benefits. But something must be done for it’s clear that schools are failing too many boys. Which raises the question: Are the boys that are succeeding in our schools doing so because of or despite the education system?
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27996.The_War_Against_Boys
Grey work – The October 2024 Bibliofiles edition
Killer angels, 1950s Hollywood intrigue, the power of deep work, haunted pirate ships and more. Check out my recommended reads from the past month!
Fiction
The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Two women vie for the same starring role and the same lovers in a 1950s swords and sandal Hollywood production. The Seventh Veil is a complex dark romance that turns its camera lens on issues of race, gender and socioeconomic status, all while building to an inevitable clash. Rich with intrigue and historical detail, it’s one of Moreno-Garcia’s best books yet.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199927990-the-seventh-veil-of-salome
Genre Fiction
Grey by Ian Rogers
The last human soul has been stolen, which means the end of humanity is near. The angels seem powerless to do anything about it. So who do you turn to when the angels aren’t up to the job? Grey, a dangerous soul caught in Limbo somewhere between Heaven and Hell. Think John Wick pulled into a battle between God and the Devil, and you’ll have an idea where this novella will take you.
Link: https://www.ian-rogers.com/grey/
. . .
Hunt for the Grey Lady by Chris Willrich
I’m always delighted to see a new Chris Willrich tale, and “To Hunt the Grey Lady” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies is no exception. An enchanting story of a pirate captain’s attempt to capture the elusive ship Grey Lady, it features magic sea battles, enigmatic krakens, a sentient ship or two, some very complicated relationships and utterly fantastic prose. I read this one in pretty much one sitting but it’s so rich and layered that I can’t wait to read it again.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/to-hunt-the-grey-lady/
. . .
Five Views of the Planet Tartarus by Rachel K. Jones
Only 600 words or so, but what a payoff.
Link: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/five-views-of-the-planet-tartarus/
. . .
Nine Tenths of the Law by KJ Parker
KJ Parker is one of my favourite living fantasy writers because his tales are so unlike any other fantasy stories out there. They often feature unlikely protagonists — clerks, engineers, battlefield salvage experts and the like — and are less traditional three-act structure and more elaborate twists and double-crosses, followed by more twists. “Nine Tenths of the Law” is no different and stars a lawyer possessed by a demon who helps possess others so they can carry out various crimes. What happens when one of his clients double-crosses him? Ah, well, that’s why you’ll want to read the story.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/nine-tenths-of-the-law/
. . .
Unfinished Basement by A.R. Capetta
In a housing market where every place is haunted by ghosts, what happens when a couple move into a home that has ghosts but is somehow worse? A delightfully weird and unsettling story by A. R. Capetta.
Link: https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/unfinished-basement
Non-fiction
Deep Work by Cal Newport
We live in a world of constant interruption and distraction — emails, status notifications, TikTok trends, news alerts, you name it. Is it any wonder then that we’re all perpetually stressed and feeling as if we can never catch up on all our work? So what’s the antidote? Newport argues it’s deep work – finding ways to turn off all those distractions and focus deeply on one thing at a time. It’s the only way to do something meaningful, Newport suggests, and our only true path to fulfillment in a world that fragments our attention so ruthlessly that we often lose our very sense of self.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-work
. . .
The Jack David Master Class: What it Takes to Survive Fifty Years as an Independent Bookseller
Canadian publishing: A house of cards where banks call in loans at the worst times, distributors collapse, printers print books on promises to pay — and a single title can mean the difference between bankruptcy or living to publish for another season.
Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/the-jack-david-master-class
. . .
Live Like an Artist – The Why by Shawna Lemay
“In the end though, it always come back to the why. If you can make delight the why of your art making process, if you can delight in the work of it, this helps make everything make sense. If you can remember that you get to do this, in whatever slivers of time you’ve made work for yourself, that helps. If you can remember that this is what makes a good life, a rich life, this helps. If you can go on being curious and delighting in these things you make, and create a few sparks and delight others, that’s a bit of gravy, isn’t it?”
Link: http://transactionswithbeauty.com/home/thewhy
. . .
Against Rereading by Oscar Schwartz
As a lifelong rereader, I am offended by the very existence of this essay. So much so that I read it twice.
Link: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/09/04/against-rereading
Welcome to the chaos machine – Bibliofiles August 2024
Murderous monks, creepy suburbia, giant brains, social media chaos machines — this month’s Bibliofiles of my latest reads is as weird and fantastic as it gets! Let me know if you have any tips about what I should read next.
Literary fiction
Satellite Image by Michelle Berry
A city couple move to a small town after one of them is assaulted, hoping for a quieter and safer life. But small towns have their own secrets, and the couple is soon haunted by a satellite image of a potential body in their yard and strange incidents happening within the home, to say nothing of a cast of curious neighbours. It’s a psychological thriller that cranks up the tension with each chapter. You’ll be checking the locks over and over on your own home during your sleepless nights after finishing this book.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214982605-satellite-image?ref=nav_sb_ss_3_15
Genre Fiction
Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K.J. Parker
Saevus Corax makes a living scavenging the dead of battlefields with a band of not-so-merry men and business is good. As it turns out, Corax is using his job to hide the fact he killed off his former self, but his past just won’t stay dead and soon he is forced to leave the battlefields for even more dangerous realms. It’s classic Parker, with smart and double-crossing antiheroes and enough twists and turns to throw out your back. Better buy the full series so you have something to read while you rest.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61030541-saevus-corax-deals-with-the-dead
Crucible of Chaos by Sebastien de Castell
The clever and wisecracking Greatcoat Estevar Borros arrives at an ancient abbey where the monks have gone mad, demons run amok and the dead gods may not be as dead as everyone thinks. This may be my favourite Greatcoats novel yet by de Castell.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197664774-crucible-of-chaos?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_17
Across the Street by Greg Van Eekhout
An office drone decides to try a new route on his lunch excursions and finds himself in a strange version of our reality – a pet shop with a dragon, a meat shop with human corpses, a manhole with a mysterious creature, a church with actual angels and more. A wonderfully bizarre daydream that will speak to all of us who spend in our days in cube farms.
Link: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/across-the-street/
Median by Kelly Robson
A care aide provider in a broken-down car on the highway starts getting emergency calls from people who need help – but she doesn’t know any of them. When she stumbles upon a different and fatal accident, as well as a three-headed dog, things get weird. Another delightfully strange story from Kelly Robson.
Link: https://reactormag.com/median-kelly-robson/
“Gold, Glory, and the McCorry Boys” by Christopher O’Halloran
The best lyrical weird western heist father-son zombie story I’ve read this year.
Link: https://kaleidotrope.net/summer-2024/gold-glory-and-the-mccorry-boys-by-christopher-ohalloran/
“How to Kill the Giant Living Brain You Found in Your Mother’s Basement After She Died: An Interactive Guide” by Alex Sobel
A fun little story about mother-daughter relationships, emotional baggage, and of course giant living brains in basements.
Nine Recordings of Grief by by Zachariah Claypole White
When the world ends, it probably won’t be with zombies or supernovas or alien invasions or something we understand. It’ll likely end with something weird and incomprehensible, something we simply can’t fathom. If an enigmatic apocalypse appeals to you, then I think you’ll like “Nine Recordings of Grief.”
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/33/nine-recordings-of-grief-by-zachariah-claypole-white
Non-fiction
The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher
Why did Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms transform over time from hubs of connection to engines of radicalization and misinformation? The easy answer, as always, is to blame it on the algorithm. But how does code lead to conflict? The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher is an informative but chilling look inside the social media networks to reveal how they turn user feeds into echo chambers of infectious content designed to outrage and mobilize — but most of all to increase clicks/views. Nothing drives engagement like ragebait, after all.
But the algorithm is just code created by workers in shiny tech campuses, so it should be easy to correct this problem, right?
This is where Fisher reveals the more disturbing issue underlying the problem with the social media networks: there’s money to be made in chaos. The Chaos Machine provides example after example of Facebook and YouTube insiders coming up with ways to stop their platforms from encouraging murder, genocide and civil war, only to be overruled by leaders who would rather maximize profits than minimize the death and destruction caused by their products. The end result of this is the world we now live in.
The Chaos Machine should be required reading for anyone who uses social media, no matter what your political ideology, for it reveals how we’re all being manipulated to enrich the lives of a handful of tech barons. We’re not just the audience in the attention economy or even the product. We’re also the victims.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58950736-the-chaos-machine
Why are debut novels failing to launch?
There was a time when a young writer could publish their first book and have a chance at success on the writing alone. Do you have to be a social media influencer to have a shot at a writing career now?
Link: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a60924704/debut-fiction-challenges/
The Bibliofiles – June 2024
I’ve been riding the train a lot lately, which has given me more time to read. I leaned a bit toward non-fiction in June, but I did manage to read some pretty stellar fiction as well — and interstellar fiction! And whatever the hell Total Party Kill is….
Check out my latest recommended reads below. I hope you like them as much as I did.
Genre Fiction
The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud
I think The Strange by Nathan Ballingrud may be the best space western weird horror literary novel I’ve ever read. The tale of teen Annabelle venturing into the Martian wastelands to recover a recording of her missing mother after it was stolen in a robbery, it’s got quirky robot sidekicks, desperate and doomed settlers, outlaw societies, eerie ghosts, and hidden treasure that is as dangerous as it is alluring. A truly mad and visionary work from Ballingrud, as always.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61272810-the-strange
“In Bludd” by Jeffrey Ford
“In Bludd” is as if Raymond Carver’s stories had been written in a demonology tome. It’s a suburban dystopia of sorts, with the usual lost love and lonely souls. Only here one of the lonely souls is Hartly, who spies on his lost love, Verbena, in her house by means of a monstrous servant named Abelard (who has his own sad suburban back story). There’s a gun, a dangerous ex-husband, and ample amounts of alcohol, but the story is more emotional twists and turns than action tale. (Truth be told, it feels as if Harold Pinter snuck into one of the drafts and started moving things around.) I’m new to Ford, but he’s quickly become one of my favourite writers because of the way he turns our world inside out to reveal its weird, alien insides.
Link: https://www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/in-bludd
“Shepherd Not Sheep” by Simon Strantzas
What happens when trolls maybe move in under some bridges of a strange town and children begin to disappear? Well, lots of council meetings, of course. And suspicion and conspiracy theories. And a curious encounter with one of those trolls. If you like weird lit, it doesn’t get much weirder than “Shepherd Not Sheep” by Simon Strantzas.
Link: https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/32/shepherd-not-sheep-by-simon-strantzas
“Sever and Bind” by Amanda Helms
A beautifully eerie tale of a young witch, her scheming mother, the Lord of the Dusklands, dead gods and a ghost dog. To say more would be to say too much. Just go and read it.
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/sever-and-bind/
“A Magician Did It” by Rich Larson
An absolutely enchanting tale about a couple of petty crooks hired by a mage’s cockroach familiar to break the mage out of a prison for magicians. Of course, nothing is what it seems when dealing with magicians — including the prison, the guards, the mage and even the job itself. Magical!
Link: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/a-magician-did-it/
Non-fiction
Stop Walking on Eggshells by Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger
Does someone in your life have you “walking on eggshells” because of their volatile behaviour? If they lack emotional regulation, are disassociated from reality, see the world through feelings rather than facts, are estranged from most of their former friends and family, have substance use issues, engage in risky sexual behaviour, and fly into a rage over inconsequential things, then you may be dealing with someone who has borderline personality disorder (BPD). If your personal situation is hitting more than a few of the checkboxes here, then you’ll likely want to read Stop Walking on Eggshells by Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger to educate yourself about BPD and learn how to navigate this confusing and often frightening scenario.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/188013.Stop_Walking_on_Eggshells
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport lays out the challenge faced by all of us in the attention economy: how do we have a healthy relationship with technology that is increasingly designed to hijack our minds to keep us glued to apps? The answer is not to stop using technology — who can really manage that, after all? — but to be more intentional and focused in our use of tech. That involves taking a digital detox in order to figure out which devices and services you actually need, then using them in a mindful and deliberate fashion to serve those needs (when too often we serve the needs of the tech companies). In other words, use the apps and don’t let them use you. Ideally, the resulting transformation should allow you to use tech effectively and efficiently, giving you more time to be present in the real world and your own life. Digital Minimalism should be required reading for everyone that owns a phone or has ever logged into social media.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40672036-digital-minimalism
Apples on a Windowsill by Shawna Lemay
A collection of beautiful and thoughtful essays from one of my favourite writers, Shawna Lemay — who is also the publisher of Transactions With Beauty. The essays in Apples on a Windowsill cover topics such as still lifes, Springsteen, creativity, marriage, photography and so much more. The subjects are all deeply personal to Lemay but at the same time thoughtful meditations on art – process, history, motivation and even technique. Lemay’s writing is so powerful and transcendent that you’ll find your own life reflected in these essays over and over again — I feel like I’m sitting at the kitchen table with her or walking the streets of Venice with her and her husband (the incredibly talented artist Rob Lemay). A warning, though: read each essay slowly as they are like sinking into a warm bath made of words. Savour the moment.
Link: http://www.shawnalemay.net/applesonawindowsill
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
Do you choose to be happy no matter the circumstances or do you wait for something external to make you happy (a lover, a good job, a lottery win)? If it’s the former, you are operating at an advantage over most people. If it’s the latter, then you should probably read The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. The book has echoes of Stoicism, in that it says you can’t control the world but you can control how you react to it, and you should always be trying to find ways to be grateful, positive and optimistic no matter what your circumstances. According to Achor, happiness really is an advantage — we perform better in every aspect of life when we are happy, we have more friends (and a strong social network boosts your happiness in a nice feedback loop), we are more motivated and resilient, we are better at problem solving and more creative, and so on. Meanwhile, those who wait for happiness to come to them tend to be more stressed, more likely to be lonely or have anxiety, less productive and motivated, and stuck in a fixed mindset vs. the growth mindset of happiness.
The book isn’t just observations, though. Achor also has some tips on how we can learn to embrace happiness: see the opportunity in setbacks and learn from defeat, focus on changing the world in a small circle around you and then gradually expand that circle, learn how to decatastrophize, embrace “active leisure” where you must participate (games, sports) over mindlessly doomscrolling social media or binge watching Netflix, increase your social connections, and work to make those around you happy to better the mood and ability of everyone.
In short, choose happiness and you will indeed be happy.
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9484114-the-happiness-advantage
“More reading, more books”
Read more, just read more. It’s good for your soul of whatever you want to call your inner self.
Link: http://transactionswithbeauty.com/home/morereadingmorebooks
“This Business Is Crazy”
Did you know that more than half of all books published sell less than a thousand copies? You may have thought publishing was a crazy business before, but you’ll really think it’s crazy after reading this SHuSH post.
Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/this-business-is-crazy
Poetry?
Total Party Kill by Craig Francis Power
I don’t even know how to describe Total Party Kill by Craig Francis Power. The cover says “poems” but it’s more a collection of dungeon crawls through the soul. Total Party Kill fuses Dungeons & Dragons adventures with addiction memoir with trauma chronicle with pop culture fever dream and the result is as brilliant as it is indescribable. A natural 20 of artistic accomplishment.
The Bibliofiles – May 2024
Welcome to the May 2024 edition of The Bibliofiles, which collects what I’ve been reading lately. I hope something here catches your interest.
Literary Fiction
The Winter Knight by Jes Battis
The Winter Knight by Jes Battis had me hooked at the very premise of a murder mystery in modern Vancouver populated with valkyries and the surviving Knights of the Round Table. Throw in a queer coming-of-age story, absolutely magical characters and enchanting prose, and you have the most original and inventive work of Canadian literature in years. If you like well-written weird lit, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Publisher link: https://ecwpress.com/products/the-winter-knight
Genre Fiction
The Two of Swords by K.J. Parker
I love basically everything by K.J. Parker, also known as Tom Holt, and the Two of Swords series is no exception. The trilogy follows a cast of minor and major characters in a war that has split an empire apart into East and West. The characters always seem to be at the periphery of the action — until they’re not — so this may be a frustrating read to those who prefer more traditional high fantasy and the like. But Parker’s works are more character studies than plot-driven tales — and his characters are all fascinating. Imagine Elmore Leonard writing fantasy tales, and you’ll have an idea of the nature of these books. I could get into the nuts and bolts of the stories, but honestly, just pick up these books and start reading.
Publisher link: https://www.orbitbooks.net/orbit-excerpts/the-two-of-swords-volume-one/
Wolves and Girls and Other Dark Gems by Maria Haskins
You may already know Maria Haskins because of her “Maria’s Reading” roundup of genre fiction, which is the go-to guide for all the latest speculative fiction releases. But she’s also a darkly brilliant writer herself and Wolves and Girls should be at the top of your to-read pile.
The collection is a wild and unpredictable mix of short but intense tales — a quirky take on the “troll bridge” story, a version of the tale of the sirens that begins on Europa and travels the solar system, a bloody unicorn fable and more. The stories border on flash fiction and you can easily read one in a few minutes — but you won’t be able to stop at one.
Link: https://mariahaskins.com/shop/
The Doomsday Book of Labyrinths by L.M. Zaerr
The story “The Doomsday Book of Labyrinths” features an odd taxman who enters a labyrinth shop run by a mysterious child for an assessment — and then of course does not leave the labyrinth. It’s a weirdly beautiful little tale that makes me want to seek out more by the author, L.M. Zaerr.
Story link: https://www.unchartedmag.com/stories/the-doomsday-book-of-labyrinths/
Non-fiction
Number Go Up by Zeke Faux
Is crypto just the latest in a long string of investment bubbles or outright scams akin to the housing bubble or even the tulip frenzy of the 17th century? Or is it actually a revolutionary new technology that the world just isn’t ready for yet?
Perhaps the answer is that it’s both.
Zeke Faux’s book about his adventures in the weird state of crypto, Number Go Up, reads more like a sci-fi novel co-written by William Gibson and Thomas Pynchon than non-fiction. Sadly, the book chronicles one of those moments in history that is stranger than fiction.
Intrigued by the constant news stories about crypto, and perhaps jealous of his friends’ financial gains when they started to invest, reporter Faux decided to embed himself in the crypto world to determine whether it was a true revolution or one of the biggest scams in human history. Of course, by now we know the popular answer, and the book does not offer many surprises in its outcome. But it does shock in the extremes — or perhaps excesses — of the crypto boom.
We follow along as Faux attends conferences and parties at mansions, mingling with celebrities, partying with owners of virtual mutated apes, and hanging out in Bahamian luxury towers with one of the richest people on the planet. His adventure introduces him to an eccentric cast of characters — a mysterious plastic surgeon turned financial titan; a wannabe rapper, influencer and hacker who almost got away with the theft of a lifetime; a child actor turned guru; and even Jimmy Kimmel for some reason. It’s as if your annual corporate retreat went to Burning Man for an investment pitch. In a truly news weird moment, it recently came out that one of the crypto CEOs doesn’t even exist.
Faux describes a very quirky and bizarre world in the book — but also a dangerous one. He nervously tries to explore a scam factory where workers are lured and imprisoned in order to have them run crypto scams on strangers through text messages and the like. Those who don’t comply are beaten or even killed. And the entire foundation of the crypto industry seems to be built on scams, as Faux highlights how the exchanges and companies behind crypto are often built on false promises if not outright fraud. The book is a list of crypto exchanges failing and funds disappearing, with investors going broke. Not that everyone gets away with it. Sam Bankman-Fried, the stupidly rich young man in the Bahamas, eventually gets taken into custody when his exchange collapses with bewildering speed, and there are no shortage of others who face similar fates. But there’s also no shortage of people who continue to be insanely rich thanks to crypto, no matter the dubious nature in which they acquired their fortune.
You’ll likely put the book down thinking that crypto is no more than an incomprehensible scam, but it is worth noting that it was born in an attempt to actually make the world a better place. The whole craze began with the publication of “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” by a mysterious figure known as Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s too difficult to sum up the ideas that have gone into this here, but basically blockchain technology like crypto is seen by many as a counter to global inequities in financial systems and an attempt to create peer-to-peer systems that don’t require intermediaries such as banks. If you want too know more, Freakonomics has an interesting three-part podcast series on blockchain — including how Walmart is using it to improve their shipping logistics and how crypto took over the art world with NFTs.
So what’s the future of crypto? Is it destined to be no more than another investment scam that is popular now and then? Or will it eventually become a legitimate technology that actually transforms the world? It’s too early to say at this point in history, but one thing is certain: there will likely be many more books like Number Go Up written over the next few years.
Publisher link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711959/number-go-up-by-zeke-faux/
The Daily Dad by Ryan Holiday
For many people, the greatest multigenerational effect they will have is how they raise their children. Yet most people don’t put much thought into it and simply repeat the behaviours and patterns their parents used to raise them. Parenting is one of those things that deeply and permanently changes you, though, so you should always be thinking about it — not just how to make your children better people, but how to make yourself a better person, too.
The Daily Dad follows the model of Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic book, which offers short but meaningful meditations on how to better face the world and its challenges. Each entry of The Daily Dad is a page or two in length, often featuring historical figures such as Bruce Springsteen, Lyndon Johnson and Eleanor Roosevelt. The entries usually feature some lesson about how to behave with your children, or what kind of support to offer them, but they often have some import for the reader as well. For example:
“However we conduct ourselves in front of our children — particularly at home, in private — they will come to see as normal. If we are rude or unkind to our spouse, they will assume that is an appropriate way to treat people they love. If we are anxious and overly worried, they will come to think the world is a scary place that must be feared. If we behave unethically or cynically, they too will begin to cheat and lie.”
If you are a parent or thinking about being a parent, you will likely find something of value in this book — for yourself as well as your children.
Link: https://www.dailydadbook.com
John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood
John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood by Michael D. Sellers is a curious case study of the 2012 film adaptation of the John Carter books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Written by a fan who really wanted the movie to succeed and spawn sequels — and who runs the John Carter Files website — the book investigates not only how the movie came to be but also how it came to be such a perceived flop. It’s actually a fascinating dive into a number of intersection subjects — a literary history of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the nature of fandom, the appeal of the escapism of the John Carter tales, the internal politics of Disney, the creative processes of Pixar, the marketing of major motion pictures, and more.
The book is certainly not neutral in regards to its subject matter — Sellers yearns for the series that could have been and points blame for the film’s failings at various Disney execs (some of whom were involved in the acquisition of Marvel and the Star Wars empire and so were less preoccupied with the success of the John Carter film). But that bias aside, it’s a very compelling read about how the movie making industry works and about the troubled collision of a popular fantasy world with the world of cutthroat capitalism. A recommended read if you want to know how the magic is made — and sometimes butchered.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/John-Carter-Hollywood-Michael-Sellers/dp/0615682316
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
Why can we no longer focus on anything? Why are we addicted to our phones and social media? Who is to blame? What can we do to change things?
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari explores the crisis of attention that has afflicted us all, travelling across the world to speak to researchers and former attention engineers at Facebook and Google. What emerges from the interviews is a troubling record of how our brains are being re-engineered to increase profits for a handful of companies.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Hari goes on a device-free seaside retreat and chronicles the slow and startling return of his attention and focus on the physical world around him. He talks to experts who offer alternative models of social media and other tech that would actually benefit their users rather than exploit them. And he sounds the alarm about what may happen if we continue along this infinitely scrolling path and do nothing.
Stolen Focus is probably a required read for anyone who has a social media account but be warned that it will likely make you want to delete your social media and turn off your phone. Which wouldn’t be all bad.
Link: https://stolenfocusbook.com
Is there still such a thing as Canadian culture? by Ken Whyte
Some interesting thoughts on the state of Canadian culture (specifically literary culture) via the SHuSH newsletter.
“My prediction is that Canada’s cultural output will revert to that of a minor province within a global empire as in the days before the Massey Commission because of the central contradiction at play here. Specifically the contradiction between culture and capital. Capital devours culture everywhere it goes. This is a core part of the imperialist nature of capital. It has to colonize and commodify every aspect of life in every place. It’s inherently expansionist in that way.
“Canada, the culture, is an idea that has been thoroughly colonized by capital and commodified. It’s also an incredibly business-run society. Canadian Capital in the 21st century does not care a wit about the idea of Canada. Canada is a vague abstraction that doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet or financial statement.”
peter darbyshire 