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I can't believe it!
16 years ago
I just found out tonight that one of my favorite authors is finally, FINALLY publishing a new book. A sequel to my favorite book of all time, at that.
Way back in 1983 I picked up a copy Steven R Boyett's "Ariel." Being only 17 years old, I wasn't too sophisticated in my reading tastes. But "Ariel" hit me so hard that the impression has lasted to this day. It was a story unlike any I'd ever read, it made a cockeyed kind of sense that really appealed to me, and it was written by a guy only three years older than I was at the time.
Naturally I waited eagerly for more books from him. He came out with another similarly themed book shortly after, then disappeared. I spent years searching bookstores, hoping desperately for a sign he was still alive.
Eventually the Internet allowed me to learn what had happened to him and why he'd stopped writing novels. At that point I knew I'd just have to be happy with the two books he'd written and move on.
Then tonight, for totally random reasons, I went looking for an ebook copy of "Ariel", only to discover that he re-released it in preparation for launching the sequel, "Elegy Beach." Which came out last month.
IT'S ALREADY OUT!
Guys, this is like an Elvis fan finding out that The King came back from the dead and, by the way, put out a new album. What, you didn't know??
Sheesh. Time to put an order in to Amazon.
Granted I've come to realize that "Ariel" has flaws I didn't see or understand when I read it 25+ years ago. But the impression it made on me was strong enough to overcome any disappointment over the problems in his first published work.
If you're interested, here's a link.
http://www.elegybeach.com/
I won't go so far as to say I'm giddy about this, but I will admit I am slightly amazed that something I've waited for all this time has finally happened.
I need to re-read "Ariel." Scuze me..........
Way back in 1983 I picked up a copy Steven R Boyett's "Ariel." Being only 17 years old, I wasn't too sophisticated in my reading tastes. But "Ariel" hit me so hard that the impression has lasted to this day. It was a story unlike any I'd ever read, it made a cockeyed kind of sense that really appealed to me, and it was written by a guy only three years older than I was at the time.
Naturally I waited eagerly for more books from him. He came out with another similarly themed book shortly after, then disappeared. I spent years searching bookstores, hoping desperately for a sign he was still alive.
Eventually the Internet allowed me to learn what had happened to him and why he'd stopped writing novels. At that point I knew I'd just have to be happy with the two books he'd written and move on.
Then tonight, for totally random reasons, I went looking for an ebook copy of "Ariel", only to discover that he re-released it in preparation for launching the sequel, "Elegy Beach." Which came out last month.
IT'S ALREADY OUT!
Guys, this is like an Elvis fan finding out that The King came back from the dead and, by the way, put out a new album. What, you didn't know??
Sheesh. Time to put an order in to Amazon.
Granted I've come to realize that "Ariel" has flaws I didn't see or understand when I read it 25+ years ago. But the impression it made on me was strong enough to overcome any disappointment over the problems in his first published work.
If you're interested, here's a link.
http://www.elegybeach.com/
I won't go so far as to say I'm giddy about this, but I will admit I am slightly amazed that something I've waited for all this time has finally happened.
I need to re-read "Ariel." Scuze me..........
I dunno, I have a problem with people looking at me like I'm a pile of dog vomit while they take my money. I'm funny that way. On the other hand I'm happy you found out about this and are excited about getting it. I'm actually surprised you are excited about anything... you being Mr. Spock's more stoic brother and all. :p
That's disappointing, but in some circumstances I could understand it -- for example, I've heard Brian Jacques doesn't care for furries, but from what I heard, part of that might be because he wasn't fond of people writing porn of his characters (or thought furry was sexual, or something like that), which would be completely understandable IMO. Are there quotes or interviews anywhere?
I also wonder about the whole "you spot it, you got it" phenomenon. If he's at all embarrassed about having started out with a talking-unicorn book, or overly sensitive in any way about how others might perceive his work, that would make him a far more strident opponent, so determined to not be associated with furry that he needs to be publicly seen as against it.
This is why I'm happy to see authors like Clare Bell (
http://www.steveboy.com/faqs.html" title="http://web.archive.org/web/20071028165533/http://www.steveboy.com/faqs.html" class="auto_link auto_link_shortened external" rel="nofollow ugc noreferrer noopener">http://web.archive.org/web/20071028......com/faqs.html
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/po.....62c8a5d805184f
The latter is dated as recently as January 2008. More recently, on his own website forum, in posts such as this one he's given reasons for not continuing work on Architect without any mention of furry fandom. In fact, a little searching on the boards didn't turn up anything from him about furries. Somehow I doubt his opinion of us has changed much, but maybe he's finally decided it's pointless to rant about furries and just makes him look bad.
There have been others, such as Alan Dean Foster ("Spellsinger") and Bill Holbrook ("Kevin and Kell") who are not furries or involved in fury fandom, but who are nonetheless appreciative of the audience they have among furry fans. Clearly you don't have to be "one of us" to be on friendly terms with our fandom.
Honestly, though, to me it sounds like he was/is using the fandom as a convenient scapegoat for why he hasn't been able to write a sequel. Reading through some of his posts, I find I don't care much for his egotism, so it's hard to give him the benefit of the doubt and say "well, maybe he just kept getting stalked by the creepier fringe of the fandom" or something.
What I found most fascinating, though, was the afterword, where Boyett traces the journey of "Ariel" from manuscript to book, and then reflects on how he and his writing have changed in the years since. In some ways, that made more of an impact on me than the story itself.
V.