snurri: (Default)
snurri ([personal profile] snurri) wrote2010-10-25 07:49 am

2010 Reading #93: The Ant King and Other Stories

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.
92. Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith.

93. The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum. Full disclosure: Ben is a friend. As it turns out, nearly all of this collection was a re-read for me, but reading a collection is a different experience. (And hell, I could probably read "The Orange" every day without it ever getting old.) For instance, I never noticed how many of Ben's stories had an undercurrent of yearning for a closer relationship with a god/parent. There's "The Orange" of course, but also "The Valley of Giants," "Start the Clock" (in which it's most noticeable for its omission/denial), "Embracing-the-New" and "The House Beyond Your Sky." Also, I tend to think of Ben as coming more from the "ideas" end of genre fiction, and yet his love of pulp/adventure elements comes through more clearly in bulk--the epic fantasy of "A Siege of Cranes," the vampire story of "The Book of Jashar," and the baroque air-pirates-meet-Sabatini giddiness of "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes,' by Benjamin Rosenbaum." The point is, you should read this.

Rosenbaum

[identity profile] shooflypieseason3.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com) 2010-10-25 12:59 pm (UTC)(link)
This has been on my list of things to read ever since it was published but I haven't managed it yet. I remember reading "Start the Clock" in Asimov's and knowing this was a guy I would want to keep reading.

[identity profile] readingthedark.livejournal.com 2010-10-25 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
When he introduced himself to me, I gasped involuntarily and softly said, "I know. You're brilliant." I'm still not sure if he heard me but there was this strange moment that lingers in my head and seems to sum it up for me.