Books

Bleak History by John Shirley. I admit not having read a whole lot of John's work because I don't always find the general tone resonates with me personally, and I tend not to seek out things which, like many of his recent books, are media product spin-offs. I was impressed by the quality of thought that went into Bleak History, the way in which people's inner lives and character are portrayed, and the fact that it isn't a simple jumble of cliches strung together in a formalistic plot. I was surprised by the direction the story went and the things that happened, not just leafing through a plot where things go the way you want them to. It's an action/adventure story and not so imbued with philosophy that it is a life-changer, but there is originality and hints of greatness in there. As a bespectacled scholarly middle-aged man I found little in the characters I could personally identify with, and wondered more than once (as I often do) why these things have to happen in New York City and not Topeka or Dubuque, but I found the matter-of-fact presentation of magical and occult events entertaining, and appreciated the way the ideas were not over-played. John Shirley hasn't written a book for me yet, but I got little bits of this one.