FACT SF Reading Group

February 2004

February 3: The Alchemist's Door by Lisa Goldstein

Ten people attended this discussion and two others phoned or emailed comments. Nine people started the book, eight finished it, and six had read the author before.

The collaboration between John Dee and Edward Kelly already seems the stuff of a fantasy novel: Kelly converses with "angels" he sees in a gazing ball owned by Dee. The two curry favor from royalty by offering to predict the future. To this Goldstein mixes in the story of Rabbi Lowe and his creation of the Golem. Plus: demons, insane rulers, a serial killer and a race to prevent the world from being destroyed.

Despite the historical base, knowledge of Dee's life and the Golem myth weren't required to enjoy the book. Those who were familiar with the historical foundation thought it was a good exploration of Dee's twin obsessions: his family and thirst for knowledge. The author got points from us for realism and even more points since "…she never made the reader suffer for her research." Information was revealed through character interaction rather than lectures. In fact, the book was so well researched that one reader argued this book was historical fiction rather than fantasy as it accurately portrayed Prague with a population that believed in magic.

The group found this a refreshing change from "door-stop fantasies"-huge volumes that go on and on with uninvolved characters. One person described the book as "pretty close to well written." The author tended to string pronouns together causing readers to lose track of who was the speaker. Granted, the conversations were very complex, and people do tend to string pronouns when they talk.

One reader wanted to book to be darker, especially the scenes with the Countess Bathory. A more Kafka-esque mood was suggested, countered with perhaps the reader really was looking for a "Hammer Films" style. Continuing our monster theme, we discussed mixing the golem myth with Shelley's Frankenstein since this golem wanted to be learn to read and be free to marry and be normal.

There are no books all of us like. For other readers, Dee was too unsympathetic a character and "fairly clueless." The machinations of the story went on too long with no enough payoff.

The group has read and enjoyed Goldstein's books before and were happy to add this to the list. We'll gladly pick up her new books as well. Afterwards several people had dinner at Chili's.

February 15: Witpunk edited by Claude Lalumière and Marty Halpern

Eight people attended this discussion, including our founder, A.T. Campbell. Another person phoned in comments from her sickbed. Seven people read some of the book with five people finishing it.

The big question that everyone had but didn't have a good answer for: what was the purpose of this anthology? Did the editors pitch it under the cute title and then just go out and buy stories they liked? There seemed no theme or connection between the various stories. Few of them seemed very witty and even fewer were punkish. The back blurb promised stories that were sardonic, but not many fit that label either. Generally in an anthology the strongest stories are at the beginning and end of the book. No one felt those stories stood out.

There were a lot of stories in this anthology and although everyone had favorites, we didn't agree on much of anything. Only one story got the entire group's approval: Robert Silverberg's "Amanda and the Alien." Unfortunately there were lots of stories that everyone disliked, but the winner(s) has to be Jeff Ford's series of stories each consisting of a single run-on sentence that were sprinkled throughout the volume. Most people skipped them after slogging through the first one.

The most talked about story was Brad Denton's "Timmy and Tommy" a short, twisted-ending piece that you either loved or hated. One person had heard the author reading the story and thought it worked better in that form rather than on the flat page.

One story was set in Austin by local writer Don Webb. Although most of us didn't like the steam-of-consciousness style, we did enjoy picking out the local landmarks.

Afterwards we had lunch at Carlos & Charlie's.

-- Judy Strange