Finished reading Horns by Joe Hill last night.

Absolutely terrific book.

Very lifelike, likable characters.  Detailed settings.  The whole things just came to life before my eyes.  Suspenseful, supernatural, gut-wrenching…  I didn’t want to stop reading.  And, considering the horrible things that were happening to some very nice people, I didn’t want to turn the page either.

Once again I’m left sincerely hoping that I haven’t seen the last of these characters.

Judas Coyne, from Heart Shaped Box, gets a mention in Horns…  And I’m hoping for something similar in the future.  I’d like to see somebody in a future book make some reference to that horrible thing that happened with the Congressman’s aide…  Or see a reference to Hothouse…  Or maybe find Ig playing trumpet in a seedy bar somewhere while Merrin waits tables or something…  I just don’t want their story to be done.

Once again I really want to see a movie or TV mini-series or something made out of this story.  It’s so vibrant…  So life-like…  It’s just dying to be made into something visual.

Once again I’m thinking I really need to get my hands on some Locke & Key and see what that does for me.

And now I want to pick up 20th Century Ghosts as well.  Terri read it.  Said it didn’t do much for her.  But she’s never been a fan of short stories.  So maybe I’ll enjoy it more than she did.

Frankly, both of these books that I’ve read were absolutely fantastic.  They remind me of Stephen King at his best.  And I’m just wondering – if this is where we’re starting with Joe Hill, how much better is he going to get with practice?  I wonder if he’ll be anywhere near as prolific as his father?  Or if he’s just got a couple stories to tell and he’s basically done?

Update for the nook yesterday – version 1.5  One of the big changes is a faster page-turn speed.  Very noticeable.  The pages turn almost instantly now.

Unfortunately, I’ve gotten used to the slow page turns.  It’d pause for a moment, as if thinking.  Then the screen would blink.  Then the page would actually turn and refresh with the new text.  There was a delay of a good second or two between hitting the page button and getting new text.  And I got used to that.  I’d hit the page button when I still had another line or two left to read.

And I’m so used to that, that I’m still doing it.  Only now there’s no delay.

So I’m hitting the page button when there’s still a line or two left to read…  And the page is turning instantly.  So I have to page back and read those lines.

Annoying for the moment…  But I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon enough.

Slashdot | Neal Stephenson Unveils His Digital Novel Platform

The NY Times reports that Neal Stephenson’s company Subutai has released the first installment of Stephenson’s new novel, Mongoliad, about the Mongol invasion of Europe, using what it calls the PULP platform for creating digital novels. The core of the experience is still a text novel, but authors can add additional material like background articles, images, music, and video and there are also social features that allow readers to create their own profiles, earn badges for activity on the site or in the application, and interact with other readers. Stephenson says the material is an extension of what many science fiction and fantasy novels already offer. “I can remember reading Dune for the first time, and I started by reading the glossary,” Stephenson say. “Any book that had that kind of extra stuff in it was always hugely fascinating to me.” Jeremy Bornstein says Subutai is experimenting with a new model for publishing books and says the traditional model of paying for content may not hold up when the content can “be canned and sent around to your friends for free,” but that people will hopefully still pay for content if “the experience is so much more rich, so much more involving.”

I’ve said it before – the game changes.  You can either adapt, or die.

The recording industry felt it first.  For years they’ve been able to make money by exploiting the work of their artists.  They’d record the music for you…  Promote it…  Ship it around…  But they didn’t really create anything of their own.  Without the artists, the recording industry wouldn’t exist.  They were basically parasites.  And now that technology has allowed artists to do their own recording, promotion, and distribution; the recording industry is feeling some pain.

Next up is the publishing industry.  It’s a little harder to replicate the paper-book experience…  Not as easy as it is to replace records and CD’s with MP3′s…  But it is happening.  eBooks are slowly gaining a foothold.  They’re slowly replacing printed pages.  And it’s time for folks to adapt, or die.

And now we see Neal Stephenson adapting.  He’s got a new online novel platform.  You pay a subscription fee to gain access not just to the novel itself, but to a pile of supporting material.  Images, sounds, social networks, background information, etc.

I’ve suggested before that the way to combat piracy is not to make it harder to pirate something, but to add value to the legal version.  This is exactly what he’s doing.  And I certainly hope it succeeds.

I bought a Barnes & Noble nook for Christmas, and I’ve been using it heavily ever since.  I’ve actually started reading on a regular basis again, where I’d all but stopped before.  So, what’s changed?  What makes reading with a nook so much more convenient?

One of my favorite things about the nook is the immediate gratification of being able to buy books on-line and have them delivered right to my nook.

We live in a relatively small town.  We only have one bookstore – a Borders – and at least half of that bookstore is full of movies, music, games, puppets, and a coffee shop.  The selection is not huge, especially considering my taste in books.  It used to be a real treat to make a trip across the lake to the much larger Barnes & Noble over there.

If I wanted a new books I’d have to drive over to Borders, look around, and generally find out that they didn’t have the book I was looking for.  So then I’d wind up buying it on the B&N website or Amazon, and waiting for it to ship.  These days I just click a couple buttons and wait a minute or two – the book is delivered right to my nook and I’m ready to go.

I still enjoy browsing through a bookstore.  Especially the smaller ones with an interesting selection or rare and used titles.  But as far as getting my hands on a specific title that I’m looking to read – nothing beats the convenience of my nook.

And I don’t even have to be at a computer, I can buy things right from the nook itself (as long as I’ve got wi-fi or 3G access).

I also love the ability to carry around a genuine library of books with me wherever I go.  I’ve got approximately 300 books in my nook right now.  Obviously I’m not reading all of them at once…  And some folks might question how useful that is…  But it’s kind of like loading your iPod up with more music than you could actually listen to in a week – you never know what you’re actually going to feel like listening to.

Maybe I’ve been reading some deep, hard sci-fi.  The kind of stuff filled with realistic science and philosophical musings.  The kind of stuff that takes real thought to process.  And maybe I just don’t feel like reading that at the moment.  Maybe I’d just rather read something light and fluffy.  I can easily bookmark the one book, and open up another one.

Or if I’m nearing the end of a book, I don’t have to carry around a second one to start up when I finally hit the last page.  Or, rather, I’m already carrying around a couple hundred more to choose from.

I also like having access to my ebook wishlist from any web browser, or the nook itself if I’ve got Internet access.

I’m always hearing about new books I’d like to read.  Maybe somebody over on Slashdot mentions something that they’ve read…  Or there’s some author on a talk show…  Or a co-worker mentions something they’re reading…  Normally I’d have to grab a scrap of paper and write it down, and then hope I remember to add that to a list somewhere.

Now I can very easily update my ebook wishlist, either on the web or on my nook.  And if I actually run out of things to read I can browse through that wishlist either on the web or on my nook and purchase a book right there.  Very handy.

I also like being able to get my hands on an assortment of older, free ebooks.  Things like the Barsoom books, or stuff by Doc Smith.  And Barnes & Noble gives away a book every week on their Unbound blog, which has let me pick up some titles that I wouldn’t normally have paid for.  And then there’s the authors who are releasing good, new titles in free ebook formats.  All of which gives me access to a lot of books that I might not otherwise have access to – either because it doesn’t sound like the kind of book I’d normally buy, or because they’re old and out of print, or whatever.

Beyond those elements of convenience, however, it’s just a book reader.  Some folks seem to miss the point of an ebook reader…  I’ve had more than one person ask me if it’ll play videos, or if it runs Windows, or if I can check my email on it…  Which isn’t what the device is supposed to do.  It isn’t supposed to be dramatically different from a paper book.  It’s just supposed to be a little more convenient.

And that’s exactly what the nook is.

The e-ink display is just as readable as a paper book.  The form-factor and weight are roughly the same as a paper book.  It doesn’t beep and whistle when you turn pages…  It doesn’t play video…  There are a couple games, and a basic web browser, but they’re nothing to write home about…  As far as real functionality goes, my nook isn’t substantially different from a paper book.

Which is the whole point.

It’s basically a paper book…  Except that you can cram thousands of books in there, and buy more of them wirelessly.

And I’m simply loving being able to carry my nook around with me, and always have plenty of reading material.

I’ve been aware of the Southern Vampire Mysteries for a while now…  But I hadn’t read any of them until very recently.

I heard decent things about them from other people.  Saw vaguely interesting information on the web.  I was aware that HBO was doing a television series.  But I just wasn’t that interested.

I’d enjoyed Anne Rice’s vampire books…  And I usually enjoy vampires in general…  I generally enjoy supernatural stories, and thrillers, and mysteries…  But I had a suspicion that there was something wrong with the series if so many people liked it.  Especially since it seemed to be caught up in the same swirling miasma of supernatural romance that Twilight was.

But Dead Until Dark was on sale on B&N recently, and I picked it up.  And I’ve just recently finished reading it.  And I’m impressed.

I feel vaguely wrong saying that…  It feels like I’ve just admitted to liking Twilight…  Largely because there are some superficial similarities…

But it really was a decent book.  Decent enough that I’m eager to read another one in the series.

I was genuinely impressed with the handling of the vampires.  They aren’t some kind of sparkly, harmless things like we see in Twilight.  They’re genuinely powerful, frightening creatures.  And unlike most of Anne Rice’s vampires, these guys seem to be genuinely dangerous.

Anne Rice wrote her books from the vampire’s perspective.  They generally had enough self control not to go on killing sprees…  But even if they did, humans weren’t given a whole lot of attention in her books.  They were just blood-filled forms moving through the background.  Convenient snacks for the main characters.

Charlaine Harris writes her books from a human perspective.  Humans are weak, frail, mortal things.  Vampires are supernaturally strong, fast, and vicious.  There’s a genuine sense of danger when they’re around.  There’s a real question of just how much self control they have.

It’s very interesting to see a vampire that isn’t portrayed as something human, and yet is still a love interest.  It’s kind of like watching somebody fall in love with a rusty bear trap.

Last night, Princess of Mars was on SyFy.  PZ Myers sums up my reaction quite well:

I had to watch a few minutes to discover that it was a heretical abomination which must be burned and its television creators hunted down and punished. I saw enough to notice that:

• The green Martians were made up with some cheesy lumpy appliance over their heads; their tusks wobbled like rubber every time they talked.
• The green Martians had only two arms. Two! They were also runts, far short of 12 feet tall. I tuned out before I could see how amputated the banths or calots were.
• Dejah Thoris was not naked. Nor red. And she was played by Traci Lords, who looked exhausted beyond her years.

It was bad. Really, really bad.

I kind of figured the acting would be a bit cheezy, since it was obviously a low-budget film.  And the dialogue would be corny, since the book was a bit on the corny side too.  But I really hoped for a reasonably accurate translation of the book.

Instead we got tiny little green martians with only two arms…  And more gunfights than swordfights…  And two Earthlings on Mars, instead of just the one…  But it wasn’t really Mars…  And there were no calots…  Nor white apes…  But there were “spiderlings”…  And no planet-shaking love between John Carter and Dejah Thoris…

They took the first third of the book, butchered it up, and then stretched it out into a movie.  They left out at least half the content of the book.  Big, important, climactic elements were just plain gone.

I was really disappointed.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book and have been raving about it to my wife for a good couple of months.  I hoped the movie would interest her enough to go read the story…  Now I’ll be lucky if I can ever convince her to check it out.

Then, today, we went to see Splice.

It looked like a decent movie…  Some kind of sci-fi thing about splicing human genes with an animals, and things going horribly awry.  The trailers reminded me a bit of Species.  And it was directed by the same guy who did Cube and Nothing – both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.  So I figured it ought to be relatively decent.

It wasn’t.

Sure, the acting and special effects were good.  They definitely made good use of their budget.  But the movie itself just wasn’t terribly enjoyable.

The story itself reminds me more of Frankenstein than Species.  It wasn’t about aliens using our curiosity to invade…  Or even science gone wrong.  It was about humans crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed and paying the penalty for it.

Having blurred the lines between good and evil when they blurred the lines between human and animal, morality goes right out the window.

We see Elsa start making some very questionable decisions.  She shifts from treating the experiment like a pet, to a child, and back to a pet again.  Her relationship with Clive starts to crumble.  Their jobs are suddenly in jeopardy.  Her sanity seems to be eroding.

Then we have Clive engaging in some kind of bestiality/incest thing with Dren…  And then Dren winds up raping Elsa…  And Elsa sells her child…

It seems as if the movie is some kind of roughly-crafted morality play.  Some kind of warning that if we play god there’ll be hell to pay.  And there’s really nothing wrong with a morality play, but it comes across as very heavy-handed and awkward.

So, instead of a swashbuckling sci-fi romance, I got a horrifying bad adaptation of one of my favorite books.  And instead of a scary sci-fi thriller, I got an overbearing lesson on morality.

What I need now is a stiff drink and a good zombie apocalypse to scrub my brain clean.

I can’t say too much about Heart Shaped Box, as my wife hasn’t finished reading it yet…

Suffice to say that it was easily one of the best books I’ve read in a while.  Certainly the best horror story in a good couple of years.

I’m definitely going to have to keep an eye on Joe Hill…