Richard Morgan

Richard Morgan is the Guided By Voices of book events. He keeps rocking long past the average show length. In a 2 hour period, he read from his latest book Thirteen, answered a wide range of questions and provided a special encore for those who stayed with him. And once all that was done, he got down to 45 minutes of book signing.

Just before getting to the book signing, he read an excerpt from his in process fantasy novel. It sounds like it will have his usual dystopian take. I suspect it will be somewhat like the Steven Erikson novels, and in fact he said that Erikson offered to give them a read. I am most excited about this one. Fantasy haters, know that the next book will be another scifi.

Morgan was enthusiastic, humorous and friendly. He had long conversations with everyone who waited to get a book signed. I was so charmed that I went ahead and bought the hardback. I was going to wait for the trade paperback, but thought what the hell. This is bad news for book lending friends as I don't lend out signed books.

Among his interesting comments were that he thought the notion of British (as Morgan is) scifi supremacy was bunch of hooey. He pointed to Americans like Jeff Vandermeer an example.

There was also an exciting pop culture moment. Morgan was sitting in the audience beforehand and the conversation turned to music. It turns out that the person sitting next to him was Peter Holstrom of the Dandy Warhols. Morgan proceeded to whip out the latest Dandies CD and praise them. As Morgan signed Holstrom's book they exchanged emails and made plans to get together. Dare we hope for some Morgan-influenced Dandy Warhols songs?

Fanboys take note. Morgan advises you to read The Broken Sword, an early Poul Anderson fantasy novel. I was too slow, by the time I got to A in the sf/fantasy section, all copies had been purchased. Damn!

If you get a chance to go see Morgan, I advise you take it. You will be entertained, although you will probably also buy the hardback.