The Iron Dream is notorious, or at least it was at some point in the past. Those who know of it almost surely know the schtick, and those who don’t probably wouldn’t be interested, but the short version is: imagine a world where Hitler, after being rejected from art school, decided to immigrate to the United States. Imagine him falling in with the pulp sci-fi scene, first as an illustrator and, soon enough, as an author of clunky, horrid, and unfailingly popular schlock. Imagine him enjoying a long career as a pro-writer and illustrator, an important role in fandom as …

For those looking for the short version: I actually liked this novel, a fact which surprised me slightly. It’s not game-changing, but it is fun and hits on some interesting technosocial questions, as well as asking how the Catholic Church might respond (and struggle to formulate a response) to those technosocial questions. I was happy I read it. This is particularly notable since I read it right after finishing Little Heroes (which I gave a pretty negative review posted about here). It’s a funny thing, going into a book that way: when, say, you disliked an earlier work by the author, but feel …

The first time I saw a video of the band The Clash, I laughed out loud. “This is ‘punk’?” I said. “This is radical?” I don’t know if I thought, or said aloud, These guys wouldn’t know radical if it smashed their guitars. Give me Ornette Coleman any day. I know the friend who was introducing their music to me was somewhat surprised, and took the time to explain to me why, in context, the band and their music was seen as radical. I still wasn’t feeling it, even after the explanation: it just made people in the 1970s look way …

I’ve read things by Fritz Leiber that I adore — both Conjure Wife and, more vehemently for me, Our Lady of Darkness are important ones — but The Big Time simply did not work for me. I like the idea of the Change War — familiar though it is —  and the notion of cutting people out of their “lifeline” so that they become pseudo-immortal soldiers in the war — and idea that I think still has legs, and indeed is used these days in time travel narratives; I like the idea of the Place as a pocket universe outside of …