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David Hines @hradzka
, 11 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
yo Amazon we need to talk

you know I like insane subculture novels
you know I like clunky infodumping novels
you know I like books about weightlifting

how did you not tell me Brooks Kubik wrote clunky infodumping fanfic novels about '30s & '40s lifters
amazon.com/Legacy-Iron-Br…
for those who do not know Brooks Kubik, he is a former attorney and longtime serious lifter who is *obsessed* with old-school muscle training

author of such books as DINOSAUR TRAINING and KNIFE, FORK, MUSCLE

and apparently now novels about weightlifters
I am reading Brooks Kubik's first novel, LEGACY OF IRON

as a novel, it is TERRIBLE

as an infodump wallow, it is FANTASTIC
LEGACY OF IRON consists of basically three things:

1) old-school weightlifters' workout routines
2) old-school weightlifters' competitions
3) old-school weightlifters reciting accounts of these to each other
EDITOR. "And that is why you should only use one cup -- one! cup! -- of the historical research you did when making your historical novel"
BROOKS KUBIK. *nods thoughtfully*
BROOKS KUBIK. *backs up a railroad car filled to brim with historical research, yanks the door wide open*
here's one thing LEGACY OF IRON made me realize, though: you know what genre of fiction, long totally extinct, merits a revival?

sports fiction
back in the days of the pulps, there were pulps for all genres, and one of the biggest was sports stories -- fictional stories about prizefights or races or what have you

Robert E. Howard wrote some *brilliantly* fun boxing stories
closest thing I've read in years to sports fiction was a mystery novel my mom bought, the title and author of which escape me and googling fails, but it was a mystery where the protagonist was a football player

and the author was a former professional football player
the mystery in that book was stupid and incompetent and uninteresting

the sequences where the protagonist was playing football or practicing football were involving and garking brilliant

I kept thinking, "why couldn't this just be a novel about sports? it would be terrific!"
obvious answer:

there is a book industry community around literary novels
there is a book industry community around romance novels
there is a book industry community around science fiction novels
there is a book industry community around mystery novels

...a sports novel? what?
If some author wrote a popular sports novel targeting the mainstream audience, nobody would know how to sell it, which reviewers to push it to, or even where to put it in the bookstore.
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