Empire!

Mike Schilling

Mike has been a software engineer far longer than he would like to admit. He has strong opinions on baseball, software, science fiction, comedy, contract bridge, and European history, any of which he's willing to share with almost no prompting whatsoever.

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8 Responses

  1. Saul Degraw says:

    Thanks for the write-ups. I see these books in used bookstores frequently. Always with fairly lurid cover art but there seems to have been a period during the 1960s and 70s when every book was given lurid cover art like a bodice-ripper.Report

    • Mike Schilling in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      My favorite example is below. It’s a novel based on an eleventh-century Welsh legend. (The Mabinogion, which was also a source for Lloyd Alexander’s Taran series.) There’s nothing in it that would make your maiden aunt blush, but still they gave it a cover that looks like a scene from a porn movie.

      Report

      • Kimmi in reply to Mike Schilling says:

        Cover art is generally “we employ an artist, who draws vaguely topical stuff” — and then we choose the art that looks vaguely like it might be relevant.

        Exceptions are made for authors that already have a good track record.Report

  2. greginak says:

    This is all well and good but do you have any exhaustively researched analysis, with charts that would make ezra klein’s nipples hard, about historic sports events. What else should be reading on presidents day?Report

  3. Marchmaine says:

    I remember liking Burr when I was reading it; but confess that to be so long ago I’d have to reread it to see if it holds up.Report

  4. Chris says:

    Not a single remark about Taraji? The title of this post is misleading!

    I read Lincoln many years ago ’cause my roommate had a copy, but didn’t know it was part of a series, even loosely, until many years later. I should read it again.Report

  5. aaron david says:

    Where’s Myra? I keep waiting for Myra…Report

  6. Tod Kelly says:

    If you do decide to read the Narratives of Empire books, I highly recommend reading Vidal’s United States: Essays 1952-1992 as you do. Much of the essays overlap with the content of the historical novels, and even the ones that don’t give a kind of window into his mind.Report