Muddled thoughts, review links, and a line I couldn't resist.
Feeling a little glum this morning, partly because of being terribly underslept, and partly because of a couple of pieces of bad news. Also I'm worried about some friends-and-relations -- it's an odd thing, when someone posts something worrying, or you get email about it, how the worry about that goes crawling along through the landscape of the day like a little worm of worry, popping up here and there among everything else. I like the way the net connects me to people all over the world. Sometimes I read my flist and X is grieving but Y is having a specially good day, and it's not that it cancels out but looking at the mix of the tapestry is soothing just because it is a mix. Other times, well, I suppose some times just trend darker.

So, trawling for some nice cheering reviews, which may or may not be better for me than chocolate, I found:

Green Man Review reviews Ha'Penny.

I found this before, but don't think I actually linked to this Romantic Times review of Ha'Penny

Douglas Barbour (!) reviews Ha'Penny for the Edmonton Journal, thoughtful review actually of both books, some mild spoilers.

The (!) is because Douglas Barbour wrote the first work of literary criticism I ever bought -- Worlds out of Words, a study of Samuel Delany. I bought it in Forbidden Planet an awfully long time ago. He wrote a book about Samuel Delany! And he likes my books! I'm a real grown up writer, and one of these days I'll get my inner fourteen year old to believe it.

Talking about Samuel Delany, he has a new novel out, it's mainstream (and I found it in the mainstream section in Chapters) it's called Dark Reflections, and it's brilliant. I spent half the night reading it. It's about an aging black poet in New York, and it's about life and writing and identity and peach ice-cream. It's not exactly cheery, but it's amazing. Delany does things with prose I wouldn't dare think of trying. It's amazing to think that he has a characteristic... I suppose I'd call it a hesitation, I mean where the character is trying to work something out and hesitates, trying, ("an x. No, is it a... no... it's...") and then gets it. I first noticed it in Triton and nobody else does anything like it, but it is like thought processes, especially the thought processes of someone who is used to being a little bit behind, and I continue to admire it to bits. (I have met Mr. Delany twice, both times at Worldcons. The first time, I'm not sure I formed any coherent syllables, let alone words. The second time, I did manage some words, and even sentences, but I think it was pure awed babble.)

Dark Reflections. It's a trade paperback. You probably want it. But I wish he'd write more SF.

I also read this week Kathryn Hughes biography of George Eliot. (Thank you oursin.) It anticipated its own plot somewhat, but it wasn't bad, and it gave me what I wanted in terms of context.

In one section, she states that some well-regarded people think Middlemarch the best novel in the world, ever. I stopped and looked suspiciously at this, turned the idea around a few times, and cautiously considered that in fact perhaps Middlemarch did deserve to be considered in the same company as Lord of the Rings, Cyteen, A Fire Upon the Deep, The Disposessed and Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. (That grinding sound you hear? F.R. Leavis turning in his grave?) But you know, not really. Because it's just an awful lot easier if you get the world ready made for you. That's my main objection to people who say mainstream and fanfic can be as good as original SF. People can juggle two balls awfully well, and Middlemarch and Dark Reflections both do that, in their different ways, about as well as it can be done. But that still can't really compare to people who are juggling four.