Friday, May 26, 2006

Jess Nevins's astonishing achievement


I just got my hands on Jess Nevins's book, The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana. It's one huge book, about 900 pages, and it's about stuff you've probably never read: horror, fantasy, fairytale, science fiction, highwayman, crime, etc. from the 19th century.

My hat is off to Jess, who's done an achievement of a Nobel prize stature. Sadly, there's no Nobel prize for non-fiction books.

What's more amazing, actually, that Jess is about my age and this book has been done to the rhythm of classic late 80's and early 90's hip hop and later electronical stuff! You'd think from the subject and scope of the book that the author is a dying, withering man in his nineties.

The cover is the work of John Picacio.

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