So, there\u2019s this trend sort of thing over the last decade or so, where publishers are putting out novella-length stories between hardcovers, right? And I am Against It, not really in the sense that I think they oughtn\u2019t to be doing it, but in the sense that we seem to be making it economically feasible for writers to write stories to the lengths they prefer rather than to the length I prefer. Which can\u2019t be good.\r\n
Anyway, I didn\u2019t mean to write about that today, but I bring it up because I have twice now picked up a novella from the library by K.J. Parker<\/a>, a name that was only vaguely familiar to me. I enjoyed the first one (Mightier than the Sword<\/a>) a lot, and I enjoyed the other one (Downfall of the Gds<\/a>) somewhat as well. So I figured that I would grab one of the novels, since I like novels, and see if I liked it. One of my favorite things is to discover that I like a writer that has a nice big back catalogue for me to work my way through.\r\n And I read The Hammer<\/a>, and I enjoyed it a fair amount, though there are certainly some Sources of Reader Irritation as well, and it was a slowish day at work, and I decided to look up this K.J. Parker person on the internet.\r\n And it turns out that K.J. Parker is a pseudonym for Tom Holt. At one point I described Tom Holt<\/a> as funnier, on average, than Terry Pratchett, and slightly less annoying<\/i>. I think I eventually changed my mind and decided he was slightly more annoying than Terry Pratchett, and as a result haven\u2019t read anything by him in ages. Except, it turns out, that I have, because those novellas are by him, as is this novel that I\u2019m in the middle of. I haven\u2019t found a new writer at all. I just wasn\u2019t paying attention to a writer I knew about.\r\n