Michael John Grist

Korean Story BOX

MJG — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:13:46 +0000

My wife Su Young Lee (we got married last month) has just published her first book. It is pretty unlikely the audience of this blog will read it, but it’s still such a great accomplishment that I can’t not crow...

The Bells of Subsidence @ Clarkesworld

MJG — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 02:45:06 +0000

My story The Bells of Subsidence is published this month in the professional magazine Clarkesworld. I really hope you’ll take the time to go read it- it’s one of my favorite stories and I’m so pleased Clarkesworld is giving it...

Why did ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ fail?

MJG — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:34:46 +0000

I went into this movie with a great deal of anticipation after being wowed by the trailer; a lean and emotionally charged montage of a young boy’s epic journey around New York, set to the pulse-thumping, heart-string twanging strains of...

Why did Orson Scott Card’s ‘Pathfinder’ fail?

MJG — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:53:50 +0000

Orson Scott Card’s books vary enormously in quality- when he’s good he’s genius; tying intricate plotting with fascinating inner monologues, cumulative story development, and a real sense of threat (a la Pastwatch, early Alvin Maker, early Ender and Bean), but...

Why did Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 fail at the end?

MJG — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:43:32 +0000

For years now I’ve been waiting to read Haruki Murakami’s latest magnum opus 1Q84. It was released in Japan two years ago, it came out in Korean a year back (when SY read it), and now it’s finally come out...

Pros / Cons of Life in Japan #1 Walking

MJG — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:40:29 +0000

City-walking is both an art and a science. As any seasoned city-walker knows (I’m looking at you, New York), success depends on an endless stream of complex crowd-motion algorithms executed with the balletic grace of Neo slow-dodging bullets. Like a...

Fuchu US Airbase Heyday

MJG — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:59:49 +0000

Since publishing my 2008 explore and photos of the abandoned US Air Force base in Fuchu, Japan, it’s been one of the most popular pages on this site. See it here. It has attracted hundreds of veteran airmen from the...

The Orphan Queen @ Ideomancer

MJG — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:09:12 +0000

My story The Orphan Queen - which shows, slantwise, the terribleness of isolation and the terrible bravery it takes to conquer it – has been published this month on the semi-pro magazine Ideomancer. I’ve been striving to be published in...