Subterranean Press continues to publish excellent books like this wonderful collection of Jack Vance stories. These stories were first published in the 1940s to the 1970s. There’s a bit of a mystery in each of Vance’s stories. Although Vance writes about the far future, he makes that future both strange and accessible. Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan have done a great job editing this edition and providing a useful Introduction to Jack Vance’s work. If you’re a Jack Vance fan, Dream Castles is a must-buy!
Table of Contents:
- The Dogtown Tourist Agency
- Freitzke’s Turn
- I’ll Build Your Dream Castle
- Golden Girl
- Sulwen’s Planet
- Cholwell’s Chickens
- A Practical Man’s Guide
- The Narrow Land
- The Enchanted Princess
- Son of the Tree
I enjoy controversial historian, Niall Ferguson. For one thing, he takes an economic and financial view of history which I find enlightening. In his latest book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, Ferguson asks why the West emerged as the leader in wealth and technology over the rest of the world. His answer is that the West developed “killer apps” that pushed them head-and-shoulders over the rest of the world. The “killer apps” are: competition, science, property rights, medicine, the consumer society, and work ethic. The West’s status is threatened, according to Ferguson, because the rest of the world is finally catching on and they’re working on implementing those killer apps for their countries. If you’re in the mood for a provocative read, Civilization will agitate you. GRADE: B+
William Gibson is the author of Neuromancer, the science fiction novel that coined the word “cyberspace” back in the early 1980s. Later, a movie based on Neuromancer was made called Johnny Mnemonic starring Keanu Reeves. Gibson has written nine novels, but this is his first volume of essays. In his Introduction, Gibson admits he’s not an essayist or non-fiction writer. These collected pieces range in subject matter from essays on Tokyo to book introductions. The best essays reveal something about the reticent William Gibson. Gibson writes about the death of his parents and how he was alone at 18. In another essay, Gibson admits he was addicted to buying high-end wrist watches on eBay. If you’re a Gibson fan, you’ll enjoy Gibson’s patented takes on Reality. I, on the other hand, hope Gibson returns to what he really does well: write novels. GRADE: B- 
John Sutherland’s massive The Lives of the Novelists is a browsers delight! From the 17th Century and Daniel DeFoe to the 20th Century and Fredrick Pohl (yes, a science fiction writer made the list!) you’ll find hours of entertainment and enlightenment in these pages. Yes, the lists are quirky. Many canonical novelists aren’t included and some surprising authors are. Sutherland includes information that you might not be familiar with. For instance, did you know Edgar Allan Poe spent the last hours of his life delusional, walking the streets of Baltimore wearing someone else’s clothes, calling out for “Reynolds”? The major writers are here: Jane Austen, Henry James, James Joyce, Stephen King, etc. But it’s the quirky picks that create much of the fun. If you’d like to take a look at the list of 294 novelists, just click 
Multimillionaire author Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn, shares his views on how to be successful in the 21st Century. Hoffman says in the 20th Century, your career resembled an escalator: you went to college, got a job, moved up the food chain until you could retire and enjoy the rest of your life. Today, educated young workers can’t find jobs, Baby Boomers who would like to retire stay in their jobs because the economic uncertainty, and workers in the middle fear for the next wave of lay-offs or “restructurings.” The big take-away I learned from this book is the importance of networking in the job market. More than ever, it’s who you know. Of course, Hoffman just happens to operate a web site that facilitates job networking. So, yes, you could consider The Start-Up of You as a long commercial, but Hoffman provides plenty of other information about transforming yourself into a start-up company of one to make the book worthwhile. There’s plenty of job strategies to ponder here no matter what you do for a living. GRADE: B+
Patti Abbott mentioned John Cheever’s wicked novel, Falconer, a few weeks ago. It had been decades since I read it so I dug it out of basement bins and reread it. John Cheever made his reputation by writing some of the best short stories ever written. But, occasionally, Cheever turned to writing sophisticated novels. Falconer draws on Cheever’s own experience at teaching in a prison. There are some obvious Crime & Punishment parallels yet Cheever manages to engage the reader in a life that remains tethered to evens in childhood. Cheever remains the best sociologist of dysfunctional middle-class families in America. Yet his story in Falconer swims in Black Humor and cerebral writing. If you find you enjoyed Falconer, I’d further recommend Cheever’s underrated novel, Bullet Park which is even edgier. 
Yes, I’m a huge Rachel Maddow fan so it should not surprise you to learn that I dropped everything and furiously read Drift. Rachel Maddow is concerned that over the decades American military power has become a political tool shrouded in secrecy. Rachel worries about the “privatization” of many former functions of the military (started by Defense Secretary and later Vice-President Dick Cheney). She finds the massive growth of military contractors disturbing. The volunteer armed forces further distances war from the average American. The state of perpetual war (aka, “the war on terrorism”) has become a permanent feature of our culture. You might not agree with all of Rachel’s arguments, but no matter what your politics you’ll find the current state of American military power troubling. I found Rachel’s analysis compelling. GRADE: A