Tag: bitter seeds

Book of the Week: Bitter Seeds.

Actually, the recommendation is for all three books in Ian Tregellis’s Milkweed Triptych (Bitter Seeds is merely the first of the three), but the series is not yet in omnibus form.  The series is very much alternate history horror (Second World War era), with definite elements of unapologetic cosmic horror. I enjoyed all three books in the series, for given values of ‘enjoyed;’ horrible place to visit, and danged certain that I’d never want to live there, but the locale has its charms.  Again, for given values of ‘charmed’ and all that.

 

Adieu, Quatermass and the Pit: Five Million Years to Earth (BFI Film Classics).  Your time will come!  Soon.  Soon.

How to vote for the Hugo.

Ian Tregillis – author of Bitter Seeds, which is eligible for a Hugo this year (more later) – has provided links on where to submit nominations for the 2010 Hugo award (which is, of course, the premiere award for science fiction). I’m half-tempted to shell out the fifty bucks for voting privileges myself; goodness knows that my original career path got short-circuited about ten years ago, but it’d be nice to have have at least some connection to that aspect of my life.

As to Bitter Seeds itself, I quite liked it: it was a good horror/supernatural/sorta-kinda-superhero-not-really alternate-history World War II book that did not hesitate to allow a significant change to history, well, significantly change history.  This is always a bit of a problem with WWII alternates that have supernatural and/or metahuman elements to it: what’s stopping the metahumans from using their powers to end the war?  It can be explained – and explained well – but it’s kind of refreshing to have a book that confronts the problem head-on.  Worth picking up.

Continue reading How to vote for the Hugo.

My recommendation of Bitter Seeds.

I just finished reading Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis (part of the Birthday Bounty). It’s WWII alternate history (fantasy/horror), and it reminded me (at various points) of the following books:

…and, unfortunately (from the point of view of the characters):

As the above list suggests, it’s sort of Mythos-like, but in sentiment rather than language; there’s a growing bleakness that will no doubt be reflected in the next book in the series.  Check it out, but be prepared to find it a slight downer.

Moe Lane Continue reading My recommendation of Bitter Seeds.