First Blogger Post of the New Year

Next to photography, my other passion is reading. Ever since I picked up my first comic book as a kid, it was a natural evolution to go from that to book and magazines. I have a voracious appetite for print material. During college, I often crammed whole novels during the weekend (often to the detriment of my grades!).

Lately I've been having a hard time finding books in my favorite genre, Fantasy/Sci-Fi. I can still read my way through a Newsweek or a Photography magazine. However I still will often go to a Barnes and Nobles or do an amazon/google search for the latest novels of my favorite author. In the last several years, its become a bit of a shocker to find that quite a few of my favorite authors have passed away. With their passing, there is no longer any chance to read sequels or new series. Hence one of the reasons why I am having a hard time finding new novels. Today I started re-reading the first novel from the SeaFort Saga by David Feintuch. Mr. Feintuch passed away in 2006. He had just completed his eighth and final book in the series. With his death, however, the publisher has indicated they have no plans of publishing that final book. What a quandary for any avid read. To read thru the whole series waiting for the finale but prevented because of a untimely death of the author and some unkown reason of his publisher. What makes it worse is Mr. Feintuch is one of the few of my favorite authors that I had the pleasure to exchange emails about my love of his Seafort saga. I hope in the near future that the heirs of Mr. Feintuch will push the his publisher to publish that final book post-humously.

In closing, I'm quoting an intro from Mr. Feintuch that also discusses the topic of his favorite authors who passed away in his lifetime. "I stuck with SF for a long while, but after college I drifted away. My favorite authors were dropping out, dying, or writing stuff that wasn't very good anymore. Heinlein was one. Yes, his last books became talky and preachy. But Glory Road, Farnham's Freehold, Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, and of course, Stranger . . . what a legacy."

P.S. In honor of the passing of a great author, David Feintuch....

-jp