Hardcase There’s a tell early in this novel about what exactly we’re dealing with here. It’s neo noir book written by Dan Simmons, who is mostly known for science fiction and horror, but who has dabbled in some other genres. The tell is that a character mentions loving the Richard Stark “Parker” books, but hates the prissy Donald Westlake books. Donald Westlake and Richard Stark are the same person (Donald Westlake), and the Westlake books tend to be light-hearted and funny, while the Stark books […]

A collection of short writing by the science fiction and horror writer Dan Simmons, this book is less a good collection, and more of a catch-all for fictional writing Dan Simmons worked on in a given time. That’s a shame because what’s good is very good and interesting, but there’s some distracting other writing here. Included in this collection are stories that are part of longer works like his novel Carrion Comfort, in which the original 50 page story (chapters 1 and 3 of the […]

Worlds Enough and Time – Novellas This collection of novellas came out in 2002 and represents recent writing for Simmons. I think I first heard of Dan Simmons with the publication of The Terror, but it’s also possible that I read The Terror because I really like Ilium. I just don’t recall which I read first or when. Anyway, one of the things that happens when you read a lot of Dan Simmons is that he comes across as very hard to pin down in […]