Songs For Drella: and Other Disharmonies THE ALBUM [Paperback]

Armando Salinas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2001

You already have this information typed on the cover design you sent me. This is a resubmission. The cover was fine (and the backcover as well) so I want to use it. Please check with PSA Kerry Mickle.Thanks

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The prolific A. S. Salinas was born in Mexico City in 1969. This is his third published work of fiction in the past year.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (December 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595212093
• ISBN-13: 978-0595212095
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,272,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A BREATH OF FRESH AIR, August 3, 2005

By 

John Knoxville - See all my reviews

This review is from: Songs For Drella: and Other Disharmonies THE ALBUM (Paperback)

Clearly, something strange has creeped into SF's old, stale scene. These stories (though not all of them are "Science-Fiction") are so different from the typical story found in ASIMOV'S or F&SF they might as well be a different animal altogether. They ooze with the feeling of a Punk invading a Museum. Of something Different trespassing (uncalled) in an old Manor. It's hardly surprising editors like Dozois and Gelder, with their "agendas" of what is right and isn't in a "SF Short Story", don't buy stories like these. It's all right. As long as books like this exist, they'll remind us what science fiction used to be about: the literature of tomorrow (not of ABOUT tomorrow).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MORE FOCUSED COLLECTION THAN THE LAST ONE, March 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Songs For Drella: and Other Disharmonies THE ALBUM (Paperback)

A much more focused collection than his first effort as THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KANE was all over the place (what with mainstream mysteries, hard science fiction, alternative history and even some bizarre dark fantasy thrown into the mix for good measure). This time we get a much more formal "science fiction" collection --save a couple or two in the even dozen which might have more fiction than science in them, to be fair. If you liked the first you'll probably like this one. The same offbeat and cruel sense of humor is here, along with the irreverent points of view. Clearly, an author still young but very much in control of his creative powers, it's hard to believe barely a year has passed between collections (with the disappointing novel in the middle) which makes me believe the first book was really made up of much older material --I HAVE read the title story of the first book was written when he was 17. The dozen tales in this newest book show a growing maturity. Definitely for all those who thought the KANE collection was more than a fluke.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SICK, September 5, 2005

By 

Kathy Jordan (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Songs For Drella: and Other Disharmonies THE ALBUM (Paperback)

Salinas has always been one of those gifted authors whose writings defy classification, jumping willy-nilly between genres (sometimes in the SAME story). What prevents his stories from becoming kitchen sink narratives involving one too many subplot is, quite simply, his craft. He manages to balance this hodge-podge of ideas, no matter how truly strange, and tell a story like no other you've ever read. That is a rare gift.
Take, for instance, "Man of the People" one of the dozen stories collected here, about an Artificial Intelligence's therapy session with its "shrink". Very, very weird. The story that comes next, "Songs for Drella" (which titles the collection) goes off the deep end completely as we follow the private duel in the rain-soaked and abandoned ruins of Angkor Wat, complete with rifles and all, between an Andy Warhol-analogue and the artist-lover-protégé he betrayed years ago. Weird doesn't even begin to describe this one.
Several of this stories border on the obscene, certainly on the inappropriate. Salinas once mentioned in some interview how a good friend of his, a deeply religious man, had stopped talking to him after reading one of his books (it was probably the novel, not this one). He called the book "sick". Laughingly, Salinas lamented the fact his editors didn't let him use his friend's comments on the cover of his next book (this one). Don't worry. It might not be on the cover, but it should be obvious to anyone who reads it. It's sick. And Salinas probably likes it like that.