"And that meant three major characters didn't make the cut." —Christopher Rice
Christopher Rice is as full of energy as his novel, 'The Heavens Rise.' He's champing at the bit, and with good reason, hardly able to contain himself. He's a fan of those, big, 1980's horror novels, and he's written one himself, one that clocks in at about half the normal page count.
Chris and I didn't sit down to talk alone until after I'd interviewed Anne, and the two of them together. But once we sat down and started to talk, we hit it right off; Chris mentioned Robert R. McCammon, obviously a favorite here and he mentioned one of my favorite McCammon novels, 'Stinger.' When my oldest son was still very, very young, I used to chase him around the house with the thick, much-read paperback copy of this novel.
Rice also mentioned a couple of my favorite novels from the years of Dark Harvest; Dan Simmons' 'Carrion Comfort' and McCammon' 'Swan Song.' Clearly, Rice is a man whose tastes reside in the same place as mine.
Chris and I went through a host of host of interesting questions, at least for me, about his dialogue and his wonderful sense of story, which makes his novel such an engaging read. And since he does mention this in the interview, I will say that I effin' LOVED the outcome of the supernatural power in this book. It totally made the novel for me.
Rice told me that he's writing a new novel of supernatural horror in the works; it's on my auto-buy list and should be on yours. He also has a live podcast, with of course a bazillion archived shows, with Eric Shaw Quin at The Dinner Party Show. I loved what I heard; his talent, energy and enthusiasm for the rant and the polemic is obvious. Fun is fun.
11-20-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 134: Christopher Rice, 'The Heavens Rise'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred thirty-fourth episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the two-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. This week, I seem to be on top opf the game, but who knows what the hell might happen. I am hoping to stay back up and stumbling.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The one-hundred thirty-fourth episode is a look at Christopher Rice and 'The Heavens Rise.'
"It's not really bestiality, it's just sleeping with a very hairy individual."
—Anne Rice
Anne Rice is having way too much fun with The Wolf Gift Chronicles. Her first novel in the series, 'The Wolf Gift,' was a wild ride with a lupine superhero; 'The Wolves of Midwinter' is a bloody, happy Christmas Carol where family togetherness meets the joy of the hunt.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Anne Rice alone before we brought in her son Christopher, spoke with the two of them together, then took a turn with Chris Rice to talk about his rocking '80's-style horror novel, 'The Heavens Rise.' Anne is incredibly smarty and really fun to talk to. Like her novels, it feels just a bit dangerous, as you never know how far she might go to answer your questions.
Anne Rice also knows what she's about, in that she understands her own creative process, is able to speak of it as eloquently she speaks in her fiction. She is also able to understand and speak about the limits of her knowledge, which I suppose some rather naturally for a writer of supernatural fiction.
For all that Anne Rice is associated with vampires, witches, now werewolves and the supernatural, she does not buy into magic. It's fun and rather surprising to hear her talk about the biological nature of our lives and the lives of her protagonists. To a degree, she's invested in the science fiction of her work, and she talked about consulting her doctor friends to get bits she can have for the hand-waving science she uses; just enough to add veracity, never enough to distract.
11-18-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 133: Anne Rice, 'The Wolves of Midwinter'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred thirty-third episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. I've decided to change the way I put these together, going from the standard NPR report style to an improvised-the-studio version, just to make things more fun — and not because it saves me a few steps.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
Robert Littlell, 'A Nasty Piece of Work' ; Gene Kerrigan, 'Dark Times in the City' ; Robert Stone, 'Death of the Black-Haired Girl'
Dark, darker and the black pit of despair — Alan Cheuse and I went with three delightful, or at last delightful-to-read noirs this month. The trick with dark mysteries is that one must find something beyond the darkness. Not light, necessarily, but the human.
We decided to take our readers from the dust to the darkest night, and to give you an idea of just how dark this review set is, the lightest book we discussed was Robert Littell's 'A Nasty Piece of Work.' Littell is best known for his espionage fiction, but the world around us has eroded his familiar haunts; in 'A Nasty Piece of Work,' he sets up shop in New Mexico with Lemuel Gunn. Littell has made the shift from spy fiction to the detective story without losing his edge.
Our next step down was Gene Kerrigan, whose new book in the US is 'Dark Times in the City,' part of Europa Editions' new "World Noir" series. Europa is scoring a lot of great titles, with this, John Courtenay Greenwood's 'The Last Banquet,' and Elena Ferrante in the mix. Kerrigan's novel, our hero, so to speak, was convicted of a particularly brutal (but...) manslaughter. Just months out of prison and trying to stay on the right side of the law, things get difficult, then dark. Then very dark. The mean streets of Dublin prove to be ravenous.
But just when you think that the lights are off and you're in a dark room, along comes Robert Stone, to throw a leather bag over your head with 'Death of the Black-Haired Girl.' The circumstances of Stone's novel are comparatively mild, but the man carves hearts dark than obsidian and he's a master of the craft. You cannot go wrong reading Stone's stories of the very, very wrong.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
