Page 1291 – Tom Merritt .com

It’s our 50th episode! We celebrate with a high-energy episode, looking at all the best books of the past decade and kicking off our new pick for January.

QUICK BURNS

January 15 – Modern Times 2.0 by Michael Moorcock comes out
January 18, Home Fires by Gene Wolfe,
A few cons coming up Mid-January

BARE YOUR SWORD – feedback from the audience

Tor’s poll – best sff books of the decade

Reading Goals for 2011

Book Kickoff/Wrapup
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett from Audible

Won the poll
You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they’ve long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time
More on Wikipedia

What else we’re reading

Veronica – Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson from the Baroque Cycle
Tom – Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

Emails:

On your latest podcast Veronica mentioned that she enjoyed the Millennium series a lot.

Today the New Yorker had a nice article on the appeal of the series:

Also the website from the publisher for the series in well designed and quite informative (currently >45 mil. sold). It contains pictures of all the locations used in the books.

Great podcast !

Best,
Paul

***

This was definitely a good podcast– even with the sound issues (It happens to the best of us.).

Tom Merritt made a number of good points about the trappings of copyright law. However, I think that it is important to note that even famous authors found it hard to make a living because so many people were “”stealing”” his work. This is why he made so many personal appearances, which may have acerbated his untimely death.

Derivative works can be fine, but as a writer I would like to have control of what people do to my works and characters.

Thanks again for a well done episode.

***

ADDENDUMS

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East Meets West 237 – My new home at CES

Shows / January 12th, 2011

Roger and Tom discuss the human side of working to cover the Consumer Electronics show.

Get the episode at this link: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/EastMeetsWest237MyNewHomeAtCes/eastmeetswest237.mp3

Top 5 Worst Cartoon Characters – Tom’s Top 5

Ye Olde Stuff / January 11th, 2011

These horrible characters make you wish you’d never been drawn.