Tuesday, July 3, 2012

book preorder: Exiles of Kho

After receiving and loving Gods of Opar, I decided to order the unpublished further book the author is writing (a prequel, actually) called Exiles of Kho. It will be a novella, and right now has an unreleased page count, which honestly concerns me since I have already preordered. Nonetheless, I am very excited! http://meteorhousepress.com/exiles-of-kho/ As I have said before, this author is new to me and not widely known in general circles, from what I can tell. But he seems to be a good writer, and I am pleased I gave him the chance I did when I ordered Gods of Opar slightly on faith. The cover art (and perhaps other art) is impressive and worthy of note, and suggests this will be a very handsome volumn. Carey is not Farmer, and his writing style is subtly different. It's not terribly noticible, and yet I did notice it. His attitude towards mysticism and magic and religion seem to be different, as seem in Song of Kwasin. I am disappointed by at least one thing wich is a matter of taste. I am not a fan of the Sahhindar character, and he will be a central figure in the story. But that's my taste; other readers seem to be thrilled that Sahhindar is well-represented. I am thowing in the labels "xenomorph" and "kaijuology" because of the sirrush, a conjectural prehistoric reptile of crocodilian proportions. The sirrush (trnslated from Assyrian meaning 'Splendor Serpent') is also known as "The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate" and is a creature of legitimate if unproven credentials. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushussu In fact, I wonder if there are any other fiction books that include a living sirrush. I would not be suprised either way.
Interesting: http://phantomsandmonsters.wetpaint.com/page/Sirrush+of+Babylon Another book I am really interested in: The Other Log of Phileas Fogg This link is especially interesting: A Very Long Letter by PJFarmer. also, Iron and Bronze and also, http://www.violetbooks.com/haggard-pringle.html

Monday, July 2, 2012

books: Gods of Opar

I have been very excited about this book for a long while, first seeing it mentioned online as a proposed novel. I was seeking, like many have, the expected conclusion to the Opar trilogy. Unlike most, my timing was especially lucky, and the conclusion was being prepared at that time. I am very glad I ordered the limited edition hardcover of Gods of Opar, even though it was much more expensive than I am used to ($65). In reality though, since the book contains three novels, that makes each novel a quite reasonable price ($20, since shipping was included). Gods of Opar was published by the Subterranean Press just this past month, and includes two novels of fictional prehistoric high adventure (by Phillip Jose Farmer) plus a third just-written novel (by Farmer and Carey) that concludes the trilogy that was left dangling by the original author. All three novels were written to honor and imitate the style of pulp novels, which are known for being adventursome, gratuitios, sensational, and generally over-the-top. The book is most genreally about Opar, an "ancient lost city" invented for the old Tarzan books. It was referred to as a "lost colony of Atlantis" and was described in a few Tarzan books in the 1910s. Then comes Farmer, publishing Hadon of Ancient Opar in 1974. Then comes Carey, expanding the Farmer books with Song of Kwasin, the third book in Gods of Opar. However, ironically, Opar is little seen or spoken of. Rather, the captial island of pseudo-Atlantis (known as Khokarsa) is the focus, an island on an inland sea (now more or less vanished) within Africa. I've had an interesting time listening to some files I found online, called "podcasts", a radio show of sorts, in which the book is discussed by the authors and publishers. http://allpulp.blogspot.com/2012/04/farmerians-reveal-big-news-for-farmer.html http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/webpage/the-book-cave-episode-174-philip-jose-farmer-the-song-of-kwasin- http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/webpage/art-s-reviews-episode-3-philip-jose-farmer-renaissance-2012 (to listen to the above podcasts, you may need to scroll around on http://thebookcave.libsyn.com/) I ordered a follow-up novel (or rather a prequel) to Gods of Opar called the Exiles of Kho, an solitarily written novel by Carey. Since this author, Carey, is an unknown to me and much of the world, I was skeptical at first. But I think I will be mightily pleased. Brobdingnagianly, even. An informal pronunciation guide gleaned from Carey via podcast: Hadon: "Huh-don" Kwasin: "Kwaa-seen" Lalila: "Lah-Lee-Lah" Paga: "Pahgah" Lupoeth: "Loo-Poth" Dythbeth: Sahhindar: "Sah-Heen-dar" Hinokly: "Hee-nokly" Resu: "Ray-zoo"

Blogger, blogspot hasn't been working well for me

I don't know what it is. At least today, I can make a post. Other days I can't even enter text. Maybe it's fixed; I hope so. In other related news, my recently purchased cell phone (same number, new device) won't log into Gmail. About two weeks ago it worked great. Now, when I try to enter my password, everything seems great, until I reach the "click" function, which is "select" on this phone. It even offers me a "select" choice but won't do anything. Argggg!