hbfm

Yeah for serendipity. Yesterday I was out running some errands. I wanted to get my tax returns into the mail and return some library books. The kind of book I had been in the mood for had changed before I even started half of the last batch, so they went unread. Posting on the SF group had given me a hankering for some, so I went with the intention of trying Heinlein. I picked up a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land, found a copy of Brin's Kiln People that had been reccommended to me and was just getting set to go. Then I decided to swing through the new books shelves. It looked sparse, so I figured this would be quick. I found Rabinovich's The Yom Kippur War just waiting for me, which I'd been meaning to read ever since BookTV talked me into getting Oren's Six Days of War. Chance favors the prepared mind. As I am checking it out, the librarian mentions I am the first to read this copy. Huzzah!

Due to some construction delays on the subway, I manage to get about sixty pages into Stranger, and I can tell I'm going to love it in the way I love Chandler or Hammett. The plot will be well executed to the point of lesser, later hacks making it cliche, and about every other page the dialogue will make me think "Good God, did people really talk like that back in the day?"

If only we had more pulppy goodness today. What I wouldn't give for something like, say, a Civil War cavalryman astral projecting himself to Mars in order to wield a sword, save scantily clad princesses, and go on adventures.