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Encyclopedia Brown

Posted on by Patrick

When I was a kid, I read a lot. I worked my way through the Hardy Boys mys­ter­ies, and even read a Nan­cy Drew book or two before I decid­ed those were more in line with my sis­ter’s sensibilities.

One day I dis­cov­ered Ency­clo­pe­dia Brown in the local pub­lic library, in a book of ten short mys­ter­ies whose end­ings were hid­den at the back of the book, like a puz­zle book. I was hooked. I read all the EB books the library had, and—if I recall correctly—I also dis­cov­ered that inter­li­brary loan would bring me new tales.

As I aged, I dis­cov­ered that names like “Franklin W. Dixon” and “Car­olyn Keene”, authors of the Hardy Boys and the Nan­cy Drew mys­ter­ies, respec­tive­ly, were “house names”, false iden­ti­ties adopt­ed by writ­ers who would write one or two or ten nov­els in the series, then move on. I long assumed that Don­ald J. Sobol, the name on the spine of the Ency­clo­pe­dia Brown col­lec­tions, was also a house name.

I was wrong. Don­ald J. Sobol was a real per­son, a sin­gle, sin­gu­lar author, and this is his sto­ry.

Volleyball

Posted on by Patrick

We went and watched my nephew’s team play some vol­ley­ball this week­end. Did you know that kick­ing the ball is allowed nowadays?

Also, in unre­lat­ed news, appar­ent­ly I’m old now.

(Aside: I just searched unsplash.com for “vol­ley­ball”, look­ing for a suit­able head­er image, and I was frankly sur­prised at how many motor­cy­cles and surf­boards it turned up.)

RIP, Gene Wolfe

Posted on by Patrick
Gene Wolfe

Tor is report­ing the sad news that Gene Wolfe has died.

The sci­ence fic­tion and fan­ta­sy com­mu­ni­ty has lost a beloved icon. We are extreme­ly sad to report that author and SFWA Grand Mas­ter Gene Wolfe passed away on April 14th at age 87.

I came to Mr. Wolfe’s writ­ing late in life. My dad had a copy of Urth of the New Sun but, as a teenag­er, I could nev­er get into it (not real­iz­ing, then, that it was essen­tial­ly book 5 of a 4‑volume series). I decid­ed he was too high­brow, too high­fa­lutin for my tastes.

Over the years, though, writ­ers I very much enjoyed, writ­ers whose opin­ions I respect­ed, con­tin­ued to tout the virtues of Wolfe. Neil Gaiman wrote on how to read Wolfe. Michael Swan­wick was effu­sive with his praise. Wolfe, they insist­ed, is the writer’s writer.

So I checked the Wiz­ard Knight duol­o­gy out of my local library, and I found myself hooked. I chanced upon a copy of The Fifth Head of Cer­berus at a local used book­store, and was entranced. Lat­er, I read The Book of the New Sun and its coda, Urth of the New Sun. This past sum­mer I read, and loved, Pirate Free­dom.

Gene Wolfe’s prose deserves to be read, and more, it begs to be re-read. Time, I think, for a re-read.

It is always a temp­ta­tion to say that such feel­ings are inde­scrib­able, though they sel­dom are.

Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lic­tor

Rest in peace.

Pho­to cour­tesy of Mark’s Post­cards from Beloit, via a Cre­ative Com­mons Attri­bu­tion-Non­Com­mer­cial-NoDerivs license.

2019 Hugo Award Finalists

Posted on by Patrick
Hugo Awards logo — a stylized rocketship
Hugo Award logo — a stylized rocketship

The 2019 Hugo awards, to pre­sent­ed at World­Con, rec­og­nize excel­lence in spec­u­la­tive fic­tion. Con­grat­u­la­tions and good luck to all the final­ists. I’ve only read a few of the works on the list, and I’m read­ing a cou­ple more.

2019 Hugo and Retro Hugo award final­ists announced

(The Retro Hugos this year are for works that would have been eli­gi­ble 75 years ago, in 1944, but no World­Con was held that year.)

“Hugo Award” and The Hugo Award Logo are ser­vice marks of the World Sci­ence Fic­tion Soci­ety, an unin­cor­po­rat­ed lit­er­ary society.