Somebody, in reaction to my note that I was, in fact, listening to the Nebula nominated short stories, said to me:
“I assumed you didn’t read past 1950.”
It’s untrue! And unfair besides.
And while I freely admit a general preference for an older story, over a newer story, that preference is not one caused by nostalgia. Not at all.
All I prefer, really, is vetted stories, proven stories, stories with a gravitas unyielding. And it just so happens that stories that have endured a few decades of time’s alkaline indifference and come through, in toto, are better than some random tale, newly written, printed, or posted.
I make exceptions, especially when an author is a proven power.
And here’s one such. Neil Gaiman, one of my favourite writers, reading a short excerpt from The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains, which is absolutely wonderful, and available in full HERE.
As a bonus, and more proof that I’m not chronologically prejudiced, see that dude right beside Gaiman? That’s one of my other favourite writers, a living writer, he’s right there, sitting on Gaiman’s left, it’s Lawrence Block!
Posted by Jesse Willis
The latest StarShipSofa podcast, 
