Chris

			"Welcome to the DeFlip Side Archives! And read my book!" Male 38 years old New York United States Last Login:7/18/2008
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General	Next "DeFlip Side" Airing Friday, August 8, 2008 TOPIC: From Prometheus to Hitler: The Disturbing Legacy of the Olympic Torch Listen to "DeFlip Side" on Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction Hosted by Howard Margolin Airs: Fridays 11:30pm, WUSB 90.1 FM "DeFlip Side" segments can be heard monthly, but that's not all. Hundreds of writers, artists, editors, actors, producers, directors, and musicians have appeared on Destinies, the nation's longest-running college SF radio show. Regular features include: the Destinies Audiobook Sampler, Soundtrack Spotlight, Graphic Detail, the Destinies Radio Theater, and I-Con highlights, as well as host Howard Margolin's flawless interviews. What would you like to hear on DeFlip Side? Let me know! Read My Book Sure, it's out of print, but you can buy it online. Current Low Price: $3.14 Current High Price: $76.64 Ain't the free market a wonderful thing? Aural Fixation I write books, work in television and frequently review films, but for my money, there’s no greater entertainment than a well-produced, informative radio program (at least as far as electronic media are concerned). I couldn’t live without radio. Below are my reasons why. Formats vary, but each of these radio shows is entertaining and usually teaches you something. Links to websites and streaming audio are provided where available. Stations listed are based in the New York metro area, and all times are EST. Music American Hit Radio Hosted by Thomas Ryan Airs: Wednesdays & Fridays, 5-6pm, WHPC 90.3 FM The Big Broadcast Hosted by Rich Conaty Airs: Sundays, 8-12pm, WFUV 90.7 FM Sound Check Hosted by John Schaefer Airs: Weekdays, 2-3pm, WNYC 93.9 FM Sunday Sinatra Hosted by Rich Keith Airs: Sundays, 10am-12pm, WSHR 91.9 FM Programs Radio Lab Hosted by Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad Airs: Fridays, 3pm, WNYC 93.9 FM A Prairie Home Companion Hosted by Garrison Keillor Airs: Saturdays, 6-8pm, NPR (Check your local affiliate) Whad’Ya Know? Hosted by Michael Feldman Airs: Saturdays, 10-12pm, NPR (Check your local affiliate) This American Life Hosted by Ira Glass Airs: Weekends, NPR (Check your local affiliate) Ideas Hosted by Paul Kennedy Airs: Weekdays, 9pm, CBC Radio One (This is a Canadian show I hear via Sirius Satellite Radio. A good investment for audio junkies!) The Howard Stern Show Hosted by Howard Stern Airs: Weekdays, 6am, Sirius Satellite Radio
Movies	The Perfect Witness My life-long friend Thomas Dunn wrote, produced and directed this psychological thriller starring Wes Bentley of American Beauty and Ghost Rider fame. But co-writer Mark Borkowski steals the show as deranged serial killer James Lemac. Buy the movie!
Books	Most Recent Acquisitions Complete Peanuts 1950-1954 (boxed set) by Charles M. Schulz These are volumes 1 & 2 of a projected 25-book set from Fantagraphics Books showcasing the entire run of Schulz’s immortal comic strip in chronological order. Beautiful, weighty hardcovers! Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews and Will Conrad This story is supposed to act as a bridge between the television show Firefly and the feature film Serenity, written by series creator Joss Whedon. This is the first graphic novel collection I've bought in years (since V for Vendetta, I think, back in 2000 or 2001), and a wonderful vehicle to perpetuate a Science Fiction franchise I've grown to love. I'm thrilled to have new stories featuring these characters written by Whedon himself. The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker So sue me. I'm a sucker for Big Fat Fantasy novels. This one has gotten stellar reviews. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne You seldom go wrong with Verne, especially when you can pick him up for a buck at a library sale. This will be a good gym book (i.e. book already in bad shape which I don't have to worry about ruining).

Chris's Details

Status:	Married
Orientation:	Straight
Body type:	0' 0"
Religion:	Atheist
Zodiac Sign:	Capricorn
Smoke / Drink:	No / Yes
Children:	Someday
Education:	College graduate

Chris has posted streaming audio of July's DeFlip Side. Have a listen.

Chris's Latest Blog Entry [Subscribe to this Blog]

DeFlip Side, Vol. 1, No. 25: I Am Sci-Fi (view more)

DeFlip Side, Vol. 1, No. 24: DeFlip Side Top Five (view more)

DeFlip Side, Vol. 1, No. 23: I Pissed Off Captain Galaxy (and other tales from I-CON XX) (view more)

DeFlip Side, Vol. 1, No. 22: Through the Looking Glass (Pt.2) (view more)

DeFlip Side, Vol. 1, No. 22: Through the Looking Glass (Pt.1) (view more)

[View All Blog Entries]

Chris's Blurbs

About me:
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Listen to DeFlip Side, Vol. 2, #81
The New Space Race
Segment begins at the top of the show!
(Originally aired 7/11/08)

Forget the Soviets. NASA's chief rival for the stars these days is the burgeoning space tourism industry. But the competition this time out is a win/win proposition, especially for those of us hoping to get off this rock!

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FILM REVIEW

Incredible or Not?
Hulk smash!!! Or does he get smashed? The Destinies film review team reviews Marvel's latest attempt to bring the big green guy to the big screen.

Book Spotlight

Strange Cargo
by Jeffrey E. Barlough

A horror of manners and mystery aplenty awaits the readers of Strange Cargo, the much-anticipated third novel from author Jeffrey E. Barlough.

Jack Cargo and his devoted yet scheming wife Susan stand to inherit the family fortune and estate at Tiptop Grange--and the extensive lands and tenantries adjoining thereto--provided, of course, that they can find and discredit a mysterious heir unexpectedly named in Grandfather’s will. Meanwhile, in the heart of old Pinewick, on the outskirts of the great metropolis of Crow’s-end, Miss Jane Wastefield is haunted by an inheritance of her own, so strange and terrible that she keeps it locked in a chest that she never lets out of her sight. And what of the “wizard notion” struck by tinkerer Malachi Threadneedle and his apprentice Tim Christmas? Might it have anything to do with the reports of a flying house seen hovering past the lighthouse at Paignton Swidges? Readers can only speculate as the seemingly separate paths of these characters (and a host of others) intersect in the backwater seaside village of Nantle in this, the welcomed third installment of Barlough’s highly entertaining and ever-intriguing Western Lights series.

Like the previous Western Lights books, Strange Cargo is a stand-alone tale set in Barlough’s mysteriously sundered world where a slice of Victorian-era human civilization coexists with a host of prehistoric creatures including mastodons, saber-cats and megatheres, at what appears to be the tail-end of an ice age. It is also a world replete with supernatural occurrences and otherworldly monsters.

Also as in his previous books, Barlough continues his deft use of purposely and perfectly padded prose to lend a decidedly Victorian flavor to his writing. But this isn’t the Victorian fiction you dreaded in English Lit class; gone are the interminably dull passages we suffered through while trolling the works of the sisters Bronte, Wilkie Collins and (let’s be honest with ourselves) Dickens. Not that these authors have nothing to offer us, but you have to wade through a lot of chaff to reach the wheat. This prosy prose was partly a byproduct of the publishing environment of the time; many of the novels of that period debuted as magazine serials that oftentimes would run for a year or more in regular installments before being collected into books. Realizing they were onto a good thing, the writers of the day adopted a more-is-better modality that generated a lot of needless and oftentimes cumbersome details to milk these serial contracts for all they were worth. Hence the overly-florid, drive-you-up-a-wall descriptive passages of the most mundane daily goings-on endemic to the genre. I realize I’m generalizing a lot here; some authors were clearly better than others at moving their stories along in a compelling way, padding and all. But I maintain that most of the era’s writers would have benefited from the services of a good editor.

Barlough, however, has a knack for taking the best aspects of this writing style and making it seem downright... well, fun. He knows what to emulate and, more importantly, what to leave out, with the result of presenting a host of fascinating characters and settings in stories with satisfying and somehow comforting auras of antiquity that nevertheless read like modern page-turners. It is easy to see why he has become a leading light in the fiction movement aptly christened the “New Victoriana” by reviewer Rick Kleffel in The Agony Column, a terrific site for serious readers of genre fiction. In my own past reviews of Barlough’s work, I’ve dubbed his style as modern day Scientific Romance, an amalgam of Victorian drama, classic horror and fantastical fiction.

However you choose to describe it, Strange Cargo is easily on par with the other books in Barlough’s Western Lights series, a cleaner read than Dark Sleeper and more complex than The House in the High Wood (almost capturing the best aspects of both those books). It offers the dense prose, compelling characters and highly engaging storylines Barlough fans have come to expect.

The only aspect that might disappoint some readers (me among them) is the decidedly Science Fictional turn the story takes at the end, which in large part demystifies the unique universe Barlough has crafted, and puts some pretty deep scratches in its Victorian veneer.

I, for one, would have been perfectly happy as a reader to know only what the inhabitants of Barlough’s world do about what they term “the Sundering,” the world-shattering event that has seemingly killed off the rest of the human race. That he has so concretely spelled out the whys and wherefores of this calamity can only lead me to speculate that this is the last novel he intends to set in the Western Lights universe; why else would he so neatly wrap up the loose ends that made the universe so intriguing to begin with?

Here’s to hoping I’m wrong (hey, it’s been known to happen!), because Barlough has created a fictional setting that I would gladly visit time and again, populated as it is by characters that feel like impeccably mannered old friends with ripping yarns to tell.

* * * * *

UPDATE: Turns out I WAS wrong. Two more Western Lights books have come out since I wrote this review: Bertram of Butter Cross and the forthcoming Anchorwick, an advanced reading copy of which the publisher just sent to me, unsolicited. Look for a review here in the near future!

What I'm Reading

I picked up a copy of Analog and my camera-phone to create this image and inadvertantly took the funniest photo of all time. Read the predominant four-letter words. No wonder I look so surprised!

Current Title: Anchorwick
by Jeffrey E. Barlough

Mr. Barlough is at it again, which is always good news to me. This is his fifth Western Lights book, and his sundered realm is as vibrant and engaging as ever. Thank you to publishers Gersham & Doyle for sending me an advanced reading copy. A deatailed review will soon appear here in the Book Spotlight; Anchorwick will also be featured on-air in the October segment of "DeFlip Side" to coincide with the book's Halloween release. You can ease the wait by reading Barlough's other books, including Dark Sleeper, The House in the High Wood (my review here), Strange Cargo (reviewed above) and Bertram of Butter Cross. And if you burn through them all before Anchorwick hits the shelves, you can't have my copy, so don't ask!

So Far This Year...

Angry Candy by Harlan Ellison (* * *)

City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin (* * *)

Moon Shot
by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton (* *)

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (* * *)

Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ingnited the Space Age
by Matthew Brzezinski (* * *)

The Killing Star
by Charles R. Pellegrino & George Zebrowski (* * 1/2)

Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin (* *)

Halting State by Charles Stross (* *)

The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers (* 1/2)

Coraline by Neil Gaiman (* * * 1/2)

A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright (* * 1/2)

The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs
by Irvine Welsh (* * *)

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (* * *)

Got a book pick?
Cough it up!

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Chris's Friend Space (Top 8)

Chris has 16 friends.

Phil

The Leap Back 2009 Quantum Leap Convention

Alvin

lucky you

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Phil

Porcupine Tree

V.L. Jennings, Author of two science fiction books

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Perseverance Records, Burbank California	Jun 11 2008 2:59 PM GREAT JOB !!! Robin Esterhammer, President/CEO, Perseverance Records
Phil	Jan 11 2008 11:46 PM Chris, I saw a screener of I Am Legend and while I STILL probably wouldn't have put it in my top five (From what I had already decided) it was pretty damn good. I thought it was more of a remake of Omega Man (Minus the Vampires ability to talk in OM) but after I saw it I kept thinking....Chris was right!

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Book Spotlight Strange Cargo by Jeffrey E. Barlough

Book Spotlight

Strange Cargo
by Jeffrey E. Barlough