| Author | Message | ||
     Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.254.173.34 |
As the second thread is now too long for my meagre internet download on my phone, I thought I’d start a new ‘un. I’ve just finished SKIN, by Mo Hayder. First book of hers I’ve read, though I’ve a couple of her others on my shelves – PIG ISLAND and TOKYO. I’d had bad reports about PIG ISLAND so didn’t much fancy starting on her, but positive comments from Mick and others had me giving her a go. SKIN is a series novel, featuring Hayder’s recurring detective Jack Caffrey, and it seems a semi-direct continuation of her previous novel, RITUAL, which I haven’t read, with events from that book being about a week or so old. Hayder writes engagingly, has a neat and sassy pop fiction style. Her prose is direct and uncluttered (“easy reading is hard writing”, I’m reminded). There are few long sentences and the chapters are about four to five pages long … in the large format paperback edition I borrowed from the library, anyway. I enjoyed the book, to a degree, but some of the characters’ actions beggared belief, in particular the killer’s in the showdown, and the police diver’s actions on finding a corpse and subsequent dealings with it. but I liked it enough to read Hayder again. I’m re-reading Arthur C Clarke’s THE GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS, published in 1990, and concerning a bunch of characters’ plans to raise the Titanic on the centenary of its sinking, and much more about the Mandelbrot Set. Clarke’s prose in his later years lost some of its poetry, but the conciseness of his writing remains. It’s a lesson in less-is-more, and as ever I’m amazed at how much he got into so few words. Again, he was quite prophetic on many issues and slightly off the mark on others, though mainly his misses at predicting the future stem from his innate optimism. A sense of wonder epilogue makes the book. Also enjoying John Connolly’s first novel for children, THE GATES, which oddly enough, given another thread on here, features demons and portals to otherworlds (mainly Hell) and the Hadron Collider. It’s clever stuff actually, told in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek prose style that manages to avoid being irritating in the Terry Pratchett mode while still feeling as though it’s jokily moving things along nicely. Nice to see a bestselling writer experimenting like this, expanding his range. And I’m absolutely loving Ed McBain’s LEARNING TO KILL. A bunch of crime fiction stories originally written under a variety of names and published in the pulp magazines through the late 1950s. There’s cops and creeps, gangs and damsels in distress, slinky hot shots and hard guys with bunched fists, private eyes (including Matt Cordell – who’d appear in THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE, reissued recently as a McBain novel from Hard Case Crime) and many more. Again, like Arthur C Clarke (for whom McBain – or Evan Hunter, as he’d legally changed his name to at the time – was acting as agent in the Scott Meredith Literary Agency at this period) McBain has a pared down style that does exactly what it needs to without wasting a word. A real lesson in direct storytelling. And – controversial, I know – reading these old pieces suggests to me that McBain may actually be better than Elmore Leonard, and in some ways more likely to still be in print for a long time to come; certainly his short stories are better than Leonard’s, though Leonard’s shorts are mostly western pieces. Spurred on by my enjoyment of the McBain tales, I’ve started Evan Hunter’s CRIMINAL CONVERSATION. My secondhand bookclub edition has the subtitle: ‘A novel of adultery’ on it. It’s a slick piece of thriller writing, featuring detection and procedural stuff about entrapment and the Mafia, and there’s the seeds so far – I’m only 50 or so pages in – the suggestion it might get sexy later on. The family at the heart of the book is warmly portrayed and I’m not looking forward to anything bad befalling them. The book rather furthers my thinking that Hunter/McBain was a hell of a writer. He does here with dialogue everything Elmore Leonard does, but also fleshes out his descriptive prose in a way Leonard doesn’t quite ever seem to manage. And he does this without losing his dialogue’s felicity and fidelity. Quite an act. Hats off to the guy. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.19 |
Mark, you must get on and read TOKYO - still my favourite of Hayder's books - the others seem somehow less than that one. I'm now halfway through a Ray Bradbury collection, having recently finished Mark West's Conjure, and Mark Samuels' The Face of Twilight. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
I've not read Tokyo yet but I have to say that The Treatment is one of the most disturbing books I've read in a very long time. Birdman is also very good and the explanation for why the girls have had birds sewn into their chests is a masterpiece of depravity. It's almost impossible to believe that a sweet young woman like Mo Hayder (check out pictures of her) could dream these things up. Nearly halfway through Carn and thoroughly enjoying it. You can almost smell the town, his portrayal of it is so good. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.71 |
Will do, Mick, but I just grabbed a copy of the new John Harvey novel before leaving the library, so when I've finished one of my above it'll be next on the list. | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Just finished "Different Skins", by Gary. Startlingly good stuff, I thought and I think it's safe to say that I never want to read "In The Skin" ever again. Ever, ever again. I posted my reviews at Goodreads, if anyone's interested - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6909457-different-skins | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.6.55 |
I'll look at that when I've read it - be interested to hear your views, Mark - really liked CONJURE btw! | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Thanks, Mick, glad to hear you liked "Conjure" too - when I didn't hear anything, I must admit that I feared the worst! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
Just started Quentin S Crisp's ALL GOD'S ANGELS, BEWARE! The first story: Troubled Joe "...I thought I might as well do a bit of concentrated haunting on this spot just for my own sake." The language flows limpidly as if from some meaningful source or fount of the future. The omens are good for me as, today, I start reading this long-anticipated book - having recently been considering, for 'Cern Zoo' purposes, the latest news that the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is sabotaging itself from the future or, as some have said, committing suicide in self-retrospect. This story's themes include what it calls 'retrocausality' in a very similar vein. The plot flows as beautifully as the language that tells it. I really should have read more QSC before today! The narrator is a ghost (of Troubled Joe) and it is a staggeringly original treatment of such a consciousness trying to find its own 'source' of being or hindsight explication, by a form of confessional with those it haunts, sometimes almost with tactile or even sexual frisson. It is a story of some length and I cannot do justice to the relentless power of concept and emotion, leading to a final ricochet of fatal and seemingly spiteful ricochet that this ghost 'causes' or ignites between two realities, and one wonders whether assisted death (assisted by whomsoever) is an act of despair or hope. The truth, perhaps, it's neither. We all shall see, no doubt. This review will continue here: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/all_gods_angels_beware__quentin_s_crisp.htm | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.202.8 |
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It's pronounced "Jeekyll". Architecture described in such a way that it feels like the characters are strolling around the convolutions of someone's brain. A huge constellation of lamps in the nocturnal city. The fog in streets described as fallen clouds. By the way, what's the origin of blanking out the end of someone's name (apart from the initial) or a date in 19th century stories? Spoiler: Jekyll and Hyde are the same person! Just like Fight Club. D'oh. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.202.8 |
Mark, abiding memories of GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS were the two proposed methods of raising the wreck: freezing it in a block of ice by using something like an inverse thermocouple (am I mis-rememembering?) or filling it will billions of tiny bubbles. Was it Clarke who said in reference to raising the Titanic that it would be easier and cheaper to lower the Atlantic? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.167 |
Depressingly enough, I am reading Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? as well as a bunch of books with titles like A Clinical Guide to Neuropathic Pain and The Challenge of Pain. Not exactly light reading... But I'm happy to say that I'm finally well and truly immersed again in Thieving Fear, after various disruptions in the form of hospital stays and medical tests, relatives and pets dying, work problems and moving to a new apartment. I usually read Ramsey's books as they come out, enjoying them over the course of a few days or week or so at the most, but I honestly am beginning to feel jinxed with all these constant interruptions! Maybe I've been cursed by whatever household spirit takes pleasure in depriving people of reading their favourite author's books in a timely manner (I'm determined, however, to finish it before my copies of Creatures of the Pool and Just Behind You arrive!). I've also just received Simon's Cold to the Touch, and the two stories I've read so far have been excellent. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.161.235.186 |
Half way through John Christopher's 'The Possessors' which is really atmospheric. A cross between 'The Thing' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.251.225.253 |
Can you recommend a good book on dealing with chronic pain, Huw? I've a friend with rhumatoid arthritis. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 213.158.199.87 |
Me: I'm reading Rose Madder by Mr King. There's not much of his I haven't read, so I was real happy to get acquainted once again with King's brilliant ability to suck you in from the very opening page. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
Yup, them's the two methods Clarke suggested to raise Titanic. Glass bubbles and a variation on freezing the water. Alas, I don't think the iceberg notion, poetic as it aptly is, would work, as the ocean currents would surely prevent the formation of ice forming. Clarke wasn't always perfectly smart: I remember thinking his notion behind Richter 10, a novel he shipped out to someone else to write, of fusing the tectonic plates of the planet being an especially dumb one. All that trapped heat needs somewhere to escape to! Oddly enough, my abiding memories of reading Ghost first time were of Ada's death and the grief it brought out in her parents, Jason Bradley's bondage sexlife, and that effortless far-future leap of the epilogue. And how's this for a find: this first edition copy I'm reading is inscribed by sir Arthur himself, signed and dated in Columbo the year after publication, and I found it for £1.99 in a charity store in Bakewell (Home of the tarts, yes), on my birthday... Tony's wife Marie reckoned it was Karma, as I'd performed a good deed for a tearful lady just a few days before in a supermarket. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
There was a Radio 4 reading/dramatisation of John Christopher's Death Of Grass a few months ago. Alas David Mitchell from Peep Show was the reader, so it rather sounded like his character's internal monolgue in that show as he read it, and I'm afraid I couldn't take it seriously. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.251.135.39 |
"Oddly enough, my abiding memories of reading Ghost first time were of Ada's death and the grief it brought out in her parents, Jason Bradley's bondage sexlife, and that effortless far-future leap of the epilogue. " Jese, I don't remember any of that. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.108.225 |
Protodroid, my wife has rhumatoid arthritis. She was diagnosed about 14 years ago. Drugs have helped, but she's never found a useful book to help her with the condition. Let me know if you come across one. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.251.135.39 |
The drugs have gotten much better in the last 10 years. My friend was diagnosed a couple of years ago. It's a severe case of palindromic RA, which is very rare. Here's a book someone who's studying nutrition recommended to my friend: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780470775011/Nutrition-and-Arthritis?b=-3t =-26#Bibliographicdata-26 It's a little expensive but it crosses the boundary between being a medical text and being accessible to non-medical people. Everything in this book is eveidentially based and reliable. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.108.225 |
Thanks, Proto. Even though her consultant says otherwise, she finds certain foods trigger different reactions in her body. I'll check that out. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.251.135.39 |
I know someone who knows a lot about nuitrition's effects with chronic medical issues. I'd be happy to ask if you've any specific questions. My friend said certain foods trigger attacks too. Trust your body first of all, I say. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
Steve, just on the off chance... has your wife been checked for gout? I suffer from the condition and was suspected of having rheumatoid arthritis before a proper diagnosis was made - after hospitalisation it got that severe. My attacks were triggered by diet and are now held completely at bay by one daily Allopurinol tablet. There are a lot of old wives tales about gout with no two cases the same in triggers or severity. Believe me mutliple joints throughout the body can be affected at once and the pain during a flare-up is indescribable. All my sympathies to your wife for what she must go through... I also found glucosamine sulphate of some help. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Just started Ballard's THE DROUGHT. I love me some Ballard, I do. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.74 |
I've started the John Harvey I mentioned earlier. Far Cry. Man, he's good. You read him, Zed? He uses semi-colons like you. And I hope all those in pain or those friends of folk here who are in pain have some relief from it. I've lieved with it as a serious issue for going on 20 years. It's not much fun and at times too easy to lose your sense of humour about. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.202.57 |
Indeed. And then there's me giving him a hard time too!  gcw | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.182.130 |
Proto, I would suggest trying to find a book that focuses specifically on rheumatoid arthritis. I've found that a lot of the 'how-to' type books about chronic pain as a whole are flimsy and shallow, dishing out generalities instead of good, solid information and advice. On the other hand, serious medical guides and textbooks are often too complicated and specialised for the average layman to understand. A book that targets a specific condition in a thorough but relatively jargon-free way is much more useful, and I'm sure there must be some decent books on rheumatoid arthritis. I've learned a lot about my own specific conditions from doing as much research on them as possible, both online and reading books about them. Most of my chronic pain comes from severe spinal problems, so I read as much as I can on the conditions I have as well as books on pain management so that I understand the drugs I have to take and the various tests and procedures I have or may need to undergo in the future, including surgery. Stephen, I have gout, too! I am on daily benzbromarone and haven't had an attack in over a year. I have to be careful with what I eat - no purines! I also have bad acid reflux as well, so my diet is tricky these days. My pain is managed 'adequately' (i.e. it is dulled to a bearable level, rather than eliminated), for now, by various medications. I am just praying it doesn't get worse. Mark, it sounds like we've been living with this for about the same length of time (since the early nineties, for me). You're right about maintaining a sense of humour about it. It's all too easy for life to seem futile after living with this for any length of time. The constant pain and the increased isolation and depression that almost inevitably accompany it can be overwhelming at times. It's essential to adjust your lifestyle, accept that your life has changed (but still live it to the fullest extent possible) and try to maintain a sense of humour and optimism. There's not really a choice, the way I see it. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
>>It's essential to adjust your lifestyle, accept that your life has changed (but still live it to the fullest extent possible) and try to maintain a sense of humour and optimism. I think so. But I'm becoming increasingly intrigued by NLP-based programmes concerning not so much pain management but reconditioning of what NLPers called the "neural pathways" of the brain, the notion that, in effect, you may be able to recondition the responses to pain in the same way that some people can recover fuction after a stroke. It's intriguing stuff. Be well, Huw. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.182.130 |
Thanks, Mark - you too! I will look for some info on NLP - it does sound interesting. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.91.151 |
Thanks for that advice, Huw. I'll pass it on. I'm reading a book about cognitive-based therapy and chronic pain at the mo'. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.177.186 |
'The Last Seance' by Agatha Christie 'The Day of Reckoning' by Patricia Highsmith 'The Baby Spoon' by Patricia Highsmith 'A Curious Suicide' by Patricia Highsmith 'A Rose for Emily' by William Faulkner 'The Man Who Didn't Ask Why' by CS Forester Wonder Woman: The Complete History by Les Daniels | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
'A Rose For Emily' is a fantastic story - the best of its kind for me. I'm about to start 'Ripley Under Ground' by Highsmith and haven't read any of those stories. I wonder is there a complete collection available? My fav short story is 'The Quest For Blank Claveringi' which outdoes Stephen King in terms of making the impossible convincing and completely riveting. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
Huw, commiserations on being a fellow gout sufferer but if the medication you're on is as good as mine (on it over 10 years now) your attacks will be cut down to next to nothing. I sometimes get a mild flare-up after a particularly heavy meal and lots of drink (i.e. every Christmas) but the severity and length of time it lasts is as nothing compared to what it used to be. I first started getting flare-ups in my late 20s which became progressively more painful and frequent (affecting more and more joints) until I ended up in hospital with suspected rheumatoid arthritis. Getting the gout diagnosis and the miraculous medication that is Allopurinol made me thank my lucky stars for the reprieve. So I can't complain but have been given a painful insight into the suffering of those with arthritis - my heart goes out to them and I pray every day for some kind of miracle cure... unless you've suffered chronic joint pain you can have no idea just how excruciating it is! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.194.107 |
Stephen, I'm lucky in that I've not yet had a flare-up that has affected more than one joint (my foot and ankle). I first started having problems 2-3 years ago and didn't know what was wrong with me - I thought it might be cellulitis. By the time my foot had transformed into something resembling a rotting lump of meat I was in severe pain (nearly as bad as the pain I get with my spinal osteoarthritis and stenosis), and the doctor did a series of tests and decided I had gout. I haven't smoked or drunk alcohol for about fifteen years, so I was surprised by the diagnosis. Several of my relatives have it, so maybe it's hereditary. It is really very painful and the way the affected joints can transform is quite amazing. Sorry to hear you've had it for so long, but it's good that you've found a drug that stops it from flaring up. It's a pity there isn't a cure - I hear that once you have it, that's it. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Gout is hereditary Huw - an inherited kidney malfunction to be exact that creates a build-up of uric acid in the blood which collects as razor sharp crytsals in the joints. I'm adopted and didn't trace my blood relations until after the diagnosis when it suddenly all made sense! I was told the medication if taken every day is enough to keep the condition completely at bay as long as the diet triggers are avoided in high measures - but the odd indulgence can be suffered. Alcohol is not always the trigger as in your case and thankfully it seems in mine - phew!! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Sorry to hear about the bad time you fine chaps are having with this kind of pain. It sounds terrible. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.251.224 |
Read the title story in JC Oates' THE MUSEUM OF DR. MOSES. Meh. Not bad, just middling. The problem with being an incredible writer, your finicky readers like me expect you to be incredible all the time.... | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Finished 'The Beetle' and my mind is still reeling from the effect. I honestly don't know what to say about this book other than it wasn't at all what I expected but nevertheless is one of the most rollicking adventure yarns I have read in a long, long time. I can see Sax Rohmer and Dennis Wheatley as the natural successors to this style of pulp writing but Richard Marsh's uproarious wit makes this book seem far less dated than any of their works. Quite sublime entertainment. Just started 'Ripley Under Ground' and already feel like I've never been away. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Nerarly finished Carn. This is just a fantastic book. Everything about it rings so true. I highly recommend it. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.163 |
Reading Nemonymous 2, which Des kindly sent up here to Denmark, after his generous offer on another thread. Here's a brief real time-review of the first tale. I am not checking up on the identity of the author at present. _________ Climbing the tallest tree in the world: A sense of adventure, foreboding, tradition- the image of the tree. 'When we were students or professors'... Confusion of time? Collage of past/present as captured in the markings on tree- image of time and memory, an inversion? Heaven at the roots-crown in the clouds? Passage of time/ direction of time/direction of the world- Microscosm / macrocosm Rites of passage/passage of time- again a lunacy of tradition? 'The tree was older than the art of writing' 'fossils of passion' Dislocation of time and space- sun sets, and then midnight- the journey of companions- which experiences are mutual, which ones, singular and contained?- in a kind of 'void'- 'dangled his legs over the void.' A dream- doubling of birds- the owls/ falling up towards the sky/ down to the ground. More moments of inversion, confusion of time, direction. Effective use of 'unreliable' narrator- inner hidden world / external world/ markings on the tree which branches out to the void as some form of experience- Cycle of tradition vs cycle of nature/ interrupted. Vertigo. Tradition/collapse/ renewal/ cycle ______________ A strong opening tale that manages to effectively incorporate elements of identity/tradition/alienation/ And a handsome volume in a cinematic format which is comfortable to read in the layout. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.163 |
Real-time review of tale number two from Nemonymous 2. _____________ Mighty Fine Days. Missing information. 'He seemed too heavy for the air, and appeared to slump bodily where he stood...' Corporeality, also of the passengers on the bus stop. Missing information. An effect that mounts and mounts in its absences. Corporeality again 'He slapped Harris on the shoulder' As if the details pertaining to the descriptions of other people around Harris should give us some momentary comfort against the approaching terrifying blankness. We get the impression that Harris is moving around in a sort of fugue, as in the opening tale- a dislocation of identity/past that could be interchanged with a critique of those external material things that we identify with ourselves, with the world- A stripping away that collapses the self, into a tighter and tighter configuration, like a cochlea or a seashell. A both unsettling and humorous tale. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.163 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 3 ________ The assistant to dr. Jacob 'I no longer trust the memory' Here we have a line that carries through effectively from the first two stories. '...his home, a secret kingdom sheltered from prying eyes' Then an underlying sexual tension in the seemingly innocent garden? '...blush, bloom, blood lilly, tongue, button hole, burst.' Cross-pollination of the garden and the human body. Also in the beginning: the seasons turning in the bones, the summer and spring of youth. '...intimacy of a photograph' vs the intimacy of memory, and those things that are shut out, for a time- until they return and haunt the protagonist. Here nature is initially romantic, idealized and hides something dark, and unimaginable- but for the frozen images, fragments in time. This was a very disturbing and beautifully written tale. And it has a cat called Whiskers. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.188.138 |
No idea if this of any use to anyone here but there's a Radio 4 programme about the role of metaphorical language in healing at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nfq2l/Metaphor_for_Healing/ | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.169.42 |
Well, if we're not going to 666, who's going to be the Anti-Christ? Finished "Public Enemies" by Bryan Burroughs (my favorite popcorn book of the year, so far. Should have been an HBO series, not a Johnny Depp movie!). On to "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert Caro--research for my WIP. AND: for those of who who resisted or are resisting the idea of the "Where the Wild Things Are" movie, I've posted an indirect response to it at http://www.redroom.com/articlestory/in-which-we-are-introduced-a-certain-bear-an d-a-dubious-notion You Brits may appreciate my parody of one your most beloved institutions. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.163 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 4 ________ Buffet Freud 'I puzzled and fretted at the position this would put me in, regarding our doctor/ patient compact.' Social gathering with analyst and patient. Schism of social class, age, gender. Childhood and transformation. 'Unreliable narrator.' Play therapy. 'A fake paradise, is better than no paradise at all.' This was both a fun and bitter piece, a farce on the subject/object relationship and of identity and gender; a continuation of the investigation from the previous tales on the nature of identity, memory- both real and constructed. An emerging gestalt? We also have images of 'unmasking' as it relates to childhood, carrying through from the previous tale. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.163 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 5 __________ Ice Age A devastated inner and outer world. 'He realized that he had no idea what he would do when he reached the city, no plan other than try and find warmth, to escape the creeping cold that followed him like a shadow.' This is a bleak and devastating story. The reoccurring images of the creeping cold, and frost-covered streets, are made all the more bleak by the desperate and destructive longing for the warmth of human contact and companionship. 'Let the cold world rush back in.' The 'shivering' building is particularly effective at the end of the tale. 'Horses crunched in slow circles, their heads hooded by the fog of their breath' is another powerful image of Coppard's condition. I liked this story very much. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.163 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 6 ________ The vanishing life and films of Emmanuel Escobada The Brazilian born filmmaker's influence by the Italian 'Giallo' films. And now he speaks 4 languages of course. '...the misunderstandings that result from language barriers.' - That is not even an understatement when it comes to the Swedish dubbed actor! The gruelling two week schedule'- poor old man! And to cast him as Satan! Not even Werner Herzog would do that, not even during the filming of Fitzcaraldo in the jungle! Or maybe he would. '...none of the characters seem surprised by the presence of a telepathic squirrel' HA! This is a laugh out loud funny story that has a lovecraftian subtext lurking. This story is also an excellent companion to all the previous tales in its 'investigation' of identity/biography, but then here in this tale, all the witnesses seem to have gone. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.163 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 7 ____ Berenice's Journal '(I had to lay down on the floor and press my ear to the carpet to hear above the noise of the furnace vents)' Berenice is fascinated with her new neighbour who might be a banker because of his 'smart clothes' and good hair. 'The finest specimen of a man.' Pills. Disability check. Compulsive brushing of teeth. Unhappy about the rest of body. This piece, presented as a series of journal entries/ autobiography, is also an interesting variation on the other tales and works effectively as an extension from the previous Escobaba biographic tale. In this case solipsism, fantasy and 'construction' of experience is turned first inwards, and then outwards towards an unsuspecting other. The sequencing of the tales so far has been very effective and has created interesting dynamics in meaning and perspectives, a polyphony of voices working around the theme of identity and experience. I am skipping the 'late-labelling' from Volume one so as to not spoil any surprises in the future. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Just about to leave the small town of Carn for The City and The City by China Meiville. Carn has been a great book and I recommend it highly. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Weber, I have to disagree with you about 'Ripley Under Ground'. I only started it a few days ago and am already two thirds of the way through with all my other books having been set aside. SPOILERS I didn't get before just how blackly funny this instalment is and I'm finding it a joy to read again. Tom really does get himself tied up in knots in this one and his unwilling accomplice Bernard Tufts is both pathetic and hilarious as his mind slowly unravels causing more and more problems for Tom to sort. My theory is that Highsmith, when she decided to resurrect the character after 15 years, thought she would have a bit of macabre fun with him after luck being on his side throughout TTMR. She pulls it off brilliantly imho. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
Thanks, Karim, for the pleasant surprise of encountering your Real-Time Reviw of Nemonymous Two so far.  | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
I may need to revisit Ripley Under Ground. It is a while since I read it. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.196.50.157 |
Des, I am enjoying the experiment, and will add some thoughts on my experience of real-time reviewing at the end. _____________ Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 8 ____ Showcase 'High above the road reared on concrete limbs, traffic streaming along its spine...' A woman wanders through a ghostly park filled with electric emporiums, carpet palaces, pet stores, pizza outlets, car parks and movie theaters: Bleak descriptions provided by a troubled spectator? Then the spectator becomes a participant, and the situation spirals towards something even darker and disturbing. 'The spine road','mouths of buildings', '...gleaming on the face of a washing machine.' 'The Lady of Shalott' A Ballardian ghost story, a consciousness trapped in a loop, as in the films that cycle at the Showcase multiplex. The tragic fate of the protagonist is projected onto the bleak modern urban landscape to great effect. Photography is also used as a very disturbing device in this tale, as in the dr. jacob story. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
Karim, I really don't understand the whole concept of what you're doing. I could look it up but would like it better if you explained it to me. What is meant by "real time". | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.196.50.157 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 9 ____ Eyes like water like ice 'A thousand people had crossed the country to listen to the talk from a small group of Indian mystics.' The arrival of the other, of something outside the sphere of the ordinary and mundane. As in the previous tale, we are moving towards something spiritual, pertaining to another realm. '...middle class audience listened attentively ... planned what they would say to their friends at the after-talk gathering over a bottle of wine.' A mutually sanctioned encounter of different cultures: the author presents a rather ambiguous stance however, on one hand farcical on both sides of the encounter: 'the Indian mystics headed for another city, another hall', an audience enthralled,' they'd laughed when the men made a small joke- bright eyes like water like ice, laugh like a child, cuddly like an animal.' However 'The man in beige' seems to bypass the more 'frivolous' aspects of the ceremony- Quite literally. This was a disturbing tale mainly due to certain satirical aspects being turned upside down to great effect. A mysterious tale. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.196.50.157 |
Stephen, sorry didn't see your post. This is something Des birthed. By real-time I am reacting to the tale as I'm reading it, enganging with the story, making notes, taking down impressions 'as' I move through the tale for the first time. Makes sense? Check out Des's Weirdmonger site for reviews on other collections- he does it much better than me and in an even more personal and articulate manner. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.196.50.157 |
I won't highjack the thread for much longer, I can move it to another thread. This thread is called 'What are you reading?' and people are reacting to stuff, so I thought it would be fun to try Des's method on a Nemonymous anthology here. If this works out I thought of doing something similar with the landlord's most recent story collection... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.196.50.157 |
Stephen, best to see it in the flesh here: Des's real-time review of Ghosts and Grisly things: http://www.knibbworld.com/campbelldiscuss/messages/1/2308.html#POST31576 I am just a young inexperienced jedi. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
For any regular RCMB member reading Karim's real-time review of NEMONYMOUS TWO above, can ask me for a free copy to be sent to them -- the first seven such requests being the maximum. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I'd like a copy Des! This idea has me genuinely intrigued...  | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
Please contact me at dflewis48@hotmail.com with your address. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
Have done so sir... thanks! | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.196.50.157 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 10 ____ Earthworks 'Seagulls and crows told the story of my early years. They are scattered like punctuation throughout the narrative; sets of black-and-white quotation marks perched in opposing pairs above the lines.' Digging a hole in the earth- almost two meters deep, birds perched in the surrounding trees above the hole. Shift in time. Back to the years in school? The digging of the hole referring to a sort of archaeological investigation of a personal history?- digging down through the layers. 'Being the hypotenuse in a love triangle is a messy business. At school, geometry was made to sound so clean.' Repetition of the shape of the hole, fragments from school. 'Spirals of poverty', 'a pattern started', 'the escape tunnel.' A childhood filled with illness: 'I still half suspected the birds. Although true, it was a circle that got me in the end.' And then in adulthood, shapes have a different meaning indeed. 'I think about the layers I have come through. Each age deposits its own debris.' This was a story rich with feeling and imagery, beautifully imagined and with a poetic complexity that worked to forward the story very effectively. Another variation on autobiography, time and experience from the previous tales. Also of childhood. Who wrote this I wonder? Curious to find out at the end of these reviews. ___________ These real time reviews will resume after the weekend. Have a good Halloween. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
These real time reviews will resume after the weekend. Have a good Halloween. ================== And to you, too, Karim. des | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
I finished John Llewellyn Probert's Against the Darkness last night, and loved the thing! LOVED, I tells ya! To learn more of this book of wonderfulness, head here: http://www.johnlprobert.com/site/80.asp To order one, head here: http://www.screamingdreams.com/ | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
Just started 'The 17th Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories' and for the first time in my rereading of these Pan/Fontana tomes a very familiar name has made its presence felt: Stephen King with the affecting little tale 'The Reaper's Image'. Reminded me in structure of '1408'. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.96.190 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 11 _____ Striped Pajamas 'The clothes you wear are perm-press, the only other item in your bag is the pair of striped pajamas that belonged to your father' A woman checks into a hotel room. We are presented with a catalogue of belongings, both from the private and public sphere, each one with their memories. The tragic significance of the pajamas is hinted at towards the final lines of the tale. The longing for escape we also encountered in an earlier story 'Ice Age'. A tale filled with much sorrow and powerlessness. 'The man who monitored your life.' There is a suggestion however that there will not be an escape, but a return to a desperate state of affairs perhaps: 'Things that colour the hallway leading to heaven for the old and ailing, theirs a palette of oatmeal greys, at best.' This is in an earlier instance of the tale where the woman describes her conversation with her mother, but it seems to project forwards towards the end of the tale. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.248.207 |
Am greatly enjoying a book by one of you Brits, and one of my favorite literary/cultural thinker-writers: THE MEANING OF LIFE, by Terry Eagleton (2007). What's it about? That! It's a tiny little book, divided into bite-sized paragraphs; and despite its scope and profundity, tongue-in-cheek, funny, and a breeze to read. So far, I can thoroughly recommend this.... | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Thanks Des, NEMONYMOUS TWO was waiting for me in the hall when I got home last night (a beautifully produced little book) along with (by happy coincidence) 'Best New Horror : Volume 1' which I ordered over a week ago. My plan is to start into it as soon as I finish the Fontana Horror books (only the 17th left). I see Ramsey included what I consider to be one of his most disturbing stories from 'Waking Nightmares', the downright vicious 'It Helps If You Sing'. Now how do I get my hands on a copy of NEMONYMOUS ONE? | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.96.190 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 12 ______ The Drowned This is the only story that I have encountered previously, and it is also the only author to have work presented twice in Nemonymous two so far. 'Worchester is a town surrounded by farms, which produces a certain insular mentality and fear of city life.' Travel is its own country, and the protagonists want to get away from their claustrophobic community. 'Underneath Kevin's idealistic statements about how 'mankind' needed to wake up or the evils of capilaism and pollution, I always sensed a struggle against a deep sense of futility' This notion of what lies hidden beneath the surface carries through to the image of water and swimming, to what moves in the blood, what is hidden in the depths of the sea. 'One slightly strange thing that developed between us was that Kevin liked watching me swim and dive. He had a fear of water-not showers, but any body of water deep enough to drown in.' Kevin is terrified of water, and he doesn't like the 'chemical' smell of swimming pools. Gradually however, he learns to swim, never feeling at ease in the water. The swimming pool is exchanged with the expanse of the sea. 'There was always more going on with Kevin than was visible on the surface.' This line from earlier in the tale also reflects the mystery and darkness that Kevin feels when he is surrounded by chemicals and the dead fish in the sea, which he describes in a moment of panic: 'They'll pull us under, make us join them' And towards the end of the story: 'Our conversations became brittle and light, almost whimsical: the fear of depth had taken us both over.' 'I don't think people can ever really save each other, but they can help each other to keep above the surface.' This was a tale rich with imagery and nuanced characters. With a just a few lines, the author manages to make these characters jump off the page as real living human beings of flesh and blood. Despite its pessimisms, this tale is strangely uplifting. Travel here, could also be understood as an exploration of the self as it relates to the other previous stories. The notion of escape also carries through from the previous tales. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
This is the only story that I have encountered previously, and it is also the only author to have work presented twice in Nemonymous two so far. ======================== Karim -- the author of 'The Drowned' has only ever had one story in the Nemonymous canon so far. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.89.189.24 |
:-)You mean supernatural forces are behind the earlier tale? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
Karim, If you mean ESCOBADA, it is genuinely anonymous by on-going request of its author. But I can at least confirm that its author is not the author of THE DROWNED. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.89.189.24 |
HA! ok Des. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.69 |
Still trying to read and can't at all. It's terrible. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Read something light and funny... a comedy crime caper by Donald E. Westlake or some Tom Sharpe perhaps? | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Karim, you may have been misled by the fact that my recent novella THE WITNESSES ARE GONE was partly inspired by 'Escobada'. There's a clear acknowledgement of that in the book. I can tell you most definitely that I did not write 'Escobada'. Not in this life anyway. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.82.44 |
Why are you trying to read when you don't want to, Tony? Listen to yourself and what you really want to do - it may be something you've never done before. I'm reading non-fiction about scientific investigations into the afterlife. One investigator published an encrypted message in the newspaper, sealed the key to the message inside an envelope, then went home and gassed himself with the intention of relaying the key to a number of mediums (media?). None of the keys the mediums received produced anything but gibberish from the encrypted message. Another spiritualist died of a heart attack arguing with a sceptic at a conference panel in London. It's hard to avoid the suspision he was just underlining his point. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Tony, sorry to hear that. Is it an eyestrain/stress problem or a mood one? If the former, I would recommend a few days' break from the screen, which messes up your focal length and makes the physical task of reading print more difficult. I have trouble with that too. If the latter, read other things – perhaps lighter, as Stephen suggests, and definitely more fluent and engaging. Maybe some non-fiction? Can I take this opportunity to recommend DELETE AT YOUR PERIL by Bob Servant to all RCMB readers? One man's journey across the shark-filled waters of Internet spam... very, very funny indeed. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.89.189.24 |
I have been illuminated! Thanks Joel, for a second there I though Des was playing a Jedi mind trick on me :-) | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.89.189.24 |
Tony how about graphic novels and comics?- Sure the lettering is smaller, but less intense perhaps on the eyes? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.235.87 |
Stories from Datlow and Windling's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror #11 which I've just picked up second hand for two whole Euros. Most of the contributors I've never heard of, but there are also stories by Royle (three, yet!), Womack and even Bradbury that I've never seen. Wow. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
The City and the city - I'm more than halfway through now but there's something I can't quite place wrong with this book. In King Rat and the Bas Lag novels the novels were driven by the strength of the prose as well as the strength of the storyline. In this, the storyline is great, some fantastically weird ideas and a nice gradual reveal of how the fantasy works, but the prose isn't hitting the spot. I'm still reading for the story, not the words. Does that make sense? It may be that it's because it's a first person narration by someone who's first language isn't English and the strange sentence construction is deliberate, but it's not exciting me the way his prose has done in the past. It's a shame but if it continues like this it's going to be a 6 out of 10, could try harder. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Just about to start 'Midnight Sun' by the man himself along with 'Foundation' by Isaac Asimov. Have had the 7 volumes of the series for a while now and want to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently that Stephen King story, 'The Reaper's Image', was first published in 1969 and made its first UK appearance in the Fontana Ghost series - years before 'Skeleton Crew'. This has to be one of his earliest stories, anyone here know when King had his first work published? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
1892. He's older than he looks. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.169.42 |
I just finished "Midnight Sun." Really good, one of his best novels; so much dread, I actually got anxious when I picked it up (though the climax with Ben in the forest seemed a little sluggish and over-parsed. I kept thinking a more spare approach at that point would have strengthened the emotional impact. Now I'm to an American noir novel "The Devil's Redhead" by David Corbett. Very emotional and intense, very reminiscent of David Goodis so far. And I'm continuing with "Laughter in the Dark." | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.96.190 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 13 ______ Adult Books 'Walter gazed around the poorly-lit space, searching, catching glimpses from the corner of his eye, glimpses of something that moved just beyond his field of vision.' Walter finds himself in a shop along a city's decaying harbour district. He appears to be in a strange state...'felt himself drifting back into that fog, back into a white space that had no boundaries...', 'immersed in confusion.' We get the sense that Walter is 'looking for a girl,' but he is obscure both about the identity of this girl, and his reasons for his quest. The shopkeeper then gives us one of several clues. In a final twist that will not be revealed here, we understand both Walter and Dan McMurtry's 'passion' and 'quest'. At atmospheric and disturbing tale with a comic finale. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.96.190 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 14 ______ Nothing 'One day he noticed the dust motes floating through the air and remembered that dust was mainly made up of bits of human skin. Bits of them were floating through the house like lost souls.' The protagonist has lost his wife and daughter in a fire: 'only charred and unidentifiable fragments.' He is revisited by moments, memories, images of family life. His world begins to fall apart: giving up work, contact with other people, he hardly eats, becomes disoriented. A childhood dream/ flashback. The bucket and God's act of creation. This was an unsettling story about loss. As the protagonist's life comes to a standstill, we are given the impression that something else starts to stir, real or imagined. This had some very carefully selected key images that were used to great effect. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.7.108 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 15 ______ The secret A wizard and his apprentice: A sort of Socratic dialogue between master and student: The Rainbow Man and Muura. Discussion of an initially frivolous nature- hairstyles, turns to issues pertaining to the survival of the species, the arts, politics, religion. A short comic piece that comes at just the right time in the sequence of stories. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.7.108 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 16 ______ A spot of tea 'With ritual grace, Frank would play 'mother' and serve up tea, much to the continuing delight of his java-swinging American Brethren.' Private Frank Worthy, a canadian serving in the US army, has a weakness for tea, and a fiery mat of red curls. 'The year was 1918, and sadly enough, all the tea in China could not change the fact that the war against the Germans was looking grim' Junior is wounded in a surprise German attack. Frank's tea appears to do a little more than just keep the Allied soldiers warm against the cold French night. A German, just a boy, is wounded as he sneaks up on the Allies. 'For whatever reason, we've been given this gift, and it's something that's meant to be shared.' A meditation on war, mercy, and a portrait of a handful of soldiers surrounded by a little bit of magic in the otherwise grim reality of the trenches. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.7.108 |
Real-time review of Nemonymous 2- story nr. 17 ______ White Dream 'Like any strange little girl might do, Jennifer had always wanted to die in the snow.' Jennifer does not want her death to be a 'public' occasion, like her grandmother's funeral. On a Christmas Eve, the landscape covered in snow, Jennifer sneaks outside when her parents are asleep. She finds a tree in a park. 'She grabbed hold of the lowest branch and climbed up into the body of the tree....It was magical to be above the earth' This is a tragic tale, and the image of the tree returns to us from the very beginning of the collection. There is a final tale, or section called 'Four minutes and thirty-three seconds'- four blank pages. I found myself thinking of that girl in the tree as I turned the final blank pages to the end of the collection. I'll add some thoughts on real-time reviewing soon and look up the authors of the collection! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.107.1 |
Let me know, Karim, if I can copy and paste your Nemonymous 2 (2002) real-time review into a unit on my blog? | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.89.189.24 |
Yes Des, by all means! I'll add some comments on the stories now that I have checked out the list of authors. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I'm finding Asimov's first volume of the 'Foundation Saga' extremely addictive - so much so I'm nearly finished it already. The writing is of a fast pulpy style but with the emphasis on labyrinthine political intrigue and double-crosses rather than straight action/adventure (though that does play a part). So far I'm struck by the similarities to Robert Graves 'Claudius' novels more than anything and can think of no higher praise for this kind of work! The sheer scope and ambition of the book (written in 1951) is breathtaking while the scientific restraint shown is also notable. The story is set millennia from the present day at a time when the human race has colonised the known galaxy but has yet to make contact with any other intelligent lifeforms. We are so far in the future that the origins of the race have become shrouded in myth with archaeologists arguing about which star system we really originated in. One man, the mathematical and socio-political genius Hari Seldon, works out that the Galactic Empire is in the last throes of supremacy with entropy, fragmentation and interstellar warfare inevitable. So a grand plan is hatched to save the accumulated knowledge of the race by gathering a vast team of great minds together and setting them up on a barren planetoid at the furthest flung corner of the galaxy where they will set up a neutral Foundation and protect themselves from all aggressors by the power of their new scientific advances. All very noble but the best laid plans of mice and men, as they say... politics, religion, economics, psychology, racism, evolution, philosophy are all grist to Asimov's mill as the death of the old order and the rising of the new unfolds in all its epic grandeur. He may not be a literary writer but as an ideas man and an entertainer Asimov was second to none. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.153.150.116 |
Shorts - a wonderful one by Mervyn Peake called Same Time, Same Place. Positively Aickmanian. I loved it. And another by August Derleth called The Lonesome Place. Also excellent. Currently searing through Barker's Dread - ace, wasn't he? So bloody smart. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I have the single volume edition of 'The Gormenghast Trilogy' in my "to be read soon" pile. I gather it's where gothic horror meets epic Tolkienesque fantasy which sounds good to me! | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Finished 'Foundation' and starting straight into 'Foundation And Empire'. The first volume spanned several lifetimes with the originators of Hari Seldon's grand plan all dead and the ethos he stood for already starting to factionalise. The scariest part of the work is the battle between science/rationality/honour (those who understood Seldon's equations and stay true to his goal for the betterment of the race) and religion/materialism/self-interest (those who achieved individual power under the regime he created and want to build on that power). As the memory of the man and his goal diminishes into the mists of time he becomes more and more of a Christ figure and the whole merry-go-round starts up again. Pure genius and that's after only one of seven volumes! | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.155.111.216 |
Which Arthur.C.Clarke books should i read ? Gimme a top 3 please. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
I read 2001 recently and it absolutely blew me away. a wonderful, wonderful book. And I'm not really into SF. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.198.215 |
If I had to choose just 3 Clarkes: Rendevouz with Rama (a novel), Tales from the White Hart (light-hearted shorts) and Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (his collected non-fiction). | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.198.215 |
2001 is good, too, though. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.195.43 |
Asimov only occasionally works for me ('Nightfall' being an obvious classic), but I agree his work is rich in ideas and perspectives. It's odd to reflect that Osama bin Laden is such a massive Asimov fan that he called his organisation Al-Qaida ('Foundation') in tribute. That's not a joke. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
You mean the CIA named it that way, Joel, surely? | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.210.239 |
"Al-Qaida" That's mad. Maybe we should just pit the Scientologists against the Foundationists and be done with both of them. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.228.92 |
2001, by all means. The sequels aren't very good. The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, a hefty paperback. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.228.92 |
One of the many good things about 2001: a Space Odyssey is that you are taught so much about astronomy and technology in general. The same applies to Asimov's novelization of Fantastic Voyage, where one learns a lot about the technological marvel that is the human body. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.187.80 |
I can find no evidence that Bin Laden has even read Asimov, let alone that he named Al Quaeda after his writings! There was merely an article in The Guardian speculating on whether at some point Bin Laden may have read Asimov - there was nothing concrete (at least not that I could find) to back it up. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.225.209 |
Clarke's fiction has all the meat of non-fiction facts; his non-fiction has all the poetry of fiction. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Flying through the second 'Foundation' equally quickly and the action has really cranked up a gear. It's now all-out War as the Empire finally wises up to the threat the Foundation poses. The story is being presented from their point-of-view in this one with the heroic starship commander Bel Riose the first to realise the danger inherent in this seemingly insignificant movement spreading out from Terminus like a cancer eating away at the edges of the galaxy. He surely must have been one of the inspirations for James T. Kirk. This is great stuff - truly thrilling storytelling! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.184.176 |
Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell. Ex-con gets involved with a pair of teenagers who intend to set up a blackmail scam and need some muscle. Meanders a bit, I'm halfway through the book and they still haven't started the scam, but there's some good one-liners. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Joel, thanks for telling me about the Al Qaeda link to 'Foundation'. I didn't know that and the parallels (coincidences?) really are quite striking! Check it out here: http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=2488&IssueNum=1 | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Vardoger, by Stephen Volk. Cracking fun so far. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.83.10 |
Stains by Paul Finch - gfp - had this for ages but only now starting it - an excellent read so far - really enjoying it. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.185.15 |
I'm with Harlan Ellison - this Asimov/Bin Laden thing is "a stretch" to say the least! Interesting reading, though. | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.106.80 |
Some anthos are in the house but the wolverine has denied access to them till Xmas. One is 'Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror'. Contributors include Gary Bushell and Uncle Ramsey(!). Should go down well with the Christmas pullet. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
It's somehow appropriate that Bushell is featured in a book titled Vile Things. | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.106.80 |
Jury's out on that one,Steve.I have to read his contribution first. I mean, there are other vile individuals we know of,who write extremely well. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Huw, hardly a stretch when the first translation of the original 'Foundation' into Arabic in 1952 was actually titled 'Al Qaeda'. We're back in mind-blowing coincidence territory if Bin Laden just happened to name his movement after the very anti-Galactic Empire (read US Empie) movement Asimov wrote about. Even if Bin Laden hadn't read the book that (initially innocent) phrase has already passed into the larger human consciousness now and I guarantee you that Arabic reading sci-fi fans will be drawn to it for that very reason. I'm with Asimov though: "Violence is the last resort of the incompetent." I must point here to all you 'Star Wars' fans that the phrase Galactic Empire does not automatically mean the word "Evil" should be appended. In fact Asimov's humanistic and cool scientific non-judgementalism about either side is one of the biggest appeals about this quite magnificent series of books. Halyway through Volume 2 now and about to face the Rise of The Mule (whatever that means). | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"I have the single volume edition of 'The Gormenghast Trilogy' in my "to be read soon" pile. I gather it's where gothic horror meets epic Tolkienesque fantasy which sounds good to me!" Actually, Stephen, it's nothing like Tolkein - no overt fantasy, for a start. I've always thought its roots were in Dickens at his most Gothic. But it's certainly wonderful. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Jack Cady's By Reason of Darkness from the Prime Evil anthology. Tremendous story reminiscent of the film Apocalypse Now and of course Heart of Darkness. | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Finished "Vardoger" at lunchtime - cracking little novella. "Hungry Hearts" and "Skywalking", by Dale Pollock, up next. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Ramsey, well I love Dickens and am working my way sequentially through his works (very slowly as a mega-long term project) - so that's me in clover! Next one I have to start is 'Dombey And Son' while my favs so far are 'The Old Curiosity Shop' and 'Barnaby Rudge' though I've loved them all. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.47.117.174 |
Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. Enjoying them both so far. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.155.111.216 |
Children of the Night by John Blackburn. October Country by Ray Bradbury. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.10.250.234 |
Just finished Ghost Realm by the mighty Paul Finch - seriously good stuff Now it's Tales of Terror by Guy de Maupassant Gothic Short Stories ed by David Blair In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan LeFanu | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.162.43.93 |
Reading Under the Dome by King and just received Pictures of the Dark by Mr. Bestwick, Mindful of Phantoms by Fry and Cold to the Touch by Strantzas in the mail this week, all of which I'm looking forward to read up to Christmas. I am very impressed BTW with the Tartarus book- gorgeous and effective design indeed. Also just read Clive Barker's 3D comic Seduth which was just ok, the visuals however, were effective. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Just started the final Fontana Horror Book (17th) and for the first time a certain Ramsey Campbell is amongst the authors included: 'Reply Guaranteed' (1968) which I'm not sure if I've read before. | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.195.182.161 |
One by Conrad Williams. Breathtakingly good. Next up is Conjure by Mark West. Looking forward to it. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.188.223 |
I am still reading Thieving Fear (slowly but surely) and enjoying it very much. I have just started dipping in to Just Behind You, which looks superb. I'm glad that it includes 'Feeling Remains', one of my favourite of the more recent shorts. Next I'll be reading Creatures of the Pool. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.182.89 |
Battlefields Volume 1 by Garth Ennis. Omnibus edition of three comics mini series set during WWII, each illustrated by a different artist (Russ Braun, Peter Snejbjerg and Carlos Ezquerra). Night Witches tells of a squadron of female Russian bomber pilots. As well as depicting the perils faced by the pilots the story also follows the German troops on the receiving end of the bombing raids and the devastating effects the attacks have on their morale. Emotionally wrenching story with all the bloood and guts of Saving Private Ryan but with a better plot and none of the cheap sentimentality. One of my all-time favourite Ennis stories. Dear Billy has a nurse writing a letter to her sweetheart explaining the atrocities she faced when captured by the Japanese and the horrific way she tries to come to terms with it when rescued. Dark, powerful storytelling. Tankies features an inexperienced London tank crew during the Battle of Normandy fighting both the enemy and their commander's impenetrable Geordie accent. The least of the three stories. Ennis tries to hang too many incidental scenes off the main plot with the result that the story gets diluted and none of the characters get to develop beyond caricatures. Still, all three stories contain lots of research into WWII and Ennis supplies a short essay pointing out which bits are fact and which are fiction as well as a bibilography of thirty or so books he used to research the stories. Throw in sketches by the three artists and the John Cassaday alternate covers from the original mini series and you've got a winner. | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.44.52 |
Heller's 'Closing Time',as directed by Mr. Walsh. Disappointing so far,Stephen. Probably something to do with the time and context in which the mighty 'Catch 22' was originally read by me. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
And a little thing called expectations I suspect. I was lucky in that I came to both novels about the same time so the indeed mighty 'Catch 22' hadn't a chance to grow in my mind. I guess I just like Heller's voice... same thing I get from Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Anton Wilson (as mentioned elsewhere). Bleak, cynical, wise, charming and very funny. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Alex, as a true fan of the novel I'd be interested to know your opinion of the 1970 film version with Alan Arkin. I've always loved it from a very young age but didn't read the book until well in my 20s. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.228.92 |
'Reply Guaranteed' (1968) which I'm not sure if I've read before. Gawd, how I envy you! I'd like to hear what you think about it. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.167.117.66 |
...Just finished Creatures Of The Pool and started on Zed's Different Skins last night..... gcw | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.34.157 |
Stephen: without going into deep comparison,I found the film...what?...unsatisfying. The elements were there,and Mike Nichols and the cast (and,wow,what a cast!) did a splendid job. But what I saw on screen was not what Heller had already embedded in my psyche. And I bet you feel the same. It happens often,doesn't it? Think of 'The Shining' or 'Wolfen'(discussed right now on another thread). IMO,if you've read what you've considered to be a great book,don't expect too much from the film. Two honourable exceptions to that dictum which spring to mind are 'The Excorcist' and 'The Godfather'. | ||
| Alexicon (Alexicon) Username: Alexicon Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 88.106.34.157 |
Stephen - 'I guess I just like Heller's voice...' Absolutely agree with that and the sentiments it precedes. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Read two brilliant short stories in a row last night: 'The Laocoön Complex' (1937) by J.C. Furnas which was worthy of Franz Kafka as an increasingly disturbing surreal allegory that should make no sense but really gets under the skin with a feeling of some deeper truth. Utterly brilliant! 'Firstborn' (1981) by David Campton which is a "man-eating plant" story with a profound difference I don't want to spoil. Truly twisted, darkly comic and unforgettable! | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
What collection is that David Campton story in? I love the man's plays (Cook from Little Brother Little Sister is my favourite ever part I've played) and I only recently found out he did short stories. I have one called Goat in a compilation at home which is a really weird, twisted story of impossible murders. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
It's in 'The 17th Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories'. The tale is worthy of Clive Barker in its raw physicality and nightmarish (verging on the absurd) quality. Along with 'Meshes Of Doom', 'Green Thoughts', 'The Green Umbilical Cord' and 'Amanda Excrescens' [name the authors] this is one of the best evil plant stories I've read. | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 78.149.95.215 |
Just started the Summer of the Ubume, which is taking its time to get going but looks good and is at least just keeping my attention. Have also just finished Mark Ronson's Ogre, an early eighties NEL 'classic'. Man, it's an odd book and not a very good one... Disjointed, with a weird ending and some strangely anticlimatic scenes and only one or two really good bits. I should resist these things when I see them in the second hand bookshop... S | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.106.15 |
Tearing through 'Second Foundation' (Vol. 3 of the Foundation Saga) and almost finished 'Midnight Sun'. I fancy a bit of Alan Garner next and plan to reread a book I have only subliminal memories of from a very young age: 'The Owl Service'. | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.195.182.161 |
I recently read the Owl Service for the first time - it was my wife's childhood favourite - and I loved it. A very creepy, atmospheric book. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Just finished White Tiger by Aravind Wotsit. I have to say it was a quick read but forgettable and uninspiring. I really must stop reading Booker prize winners. I never really enjoy them. Just starting The Day Watch by that Russian fellow with the long name. Hopefully it should be up to the standard of Night watch. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Scratch that comment about Booker prize winners. just remembered Peter Ackroyd's Kelly Gang and Yann Martell's Life of Pi were both Booker winners and they're incredibly good books. Plus of course Hilary Mantel's just won it and she's normally pretty good. The Orange prize however... | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I believe it takes about 20 years for the true literary merit of a novel to become apparent. That's part of the reason I'm a good 20 years behind in my reading and also why I tend to avoid "award winners". Only when I've come to trust the author implicitly (as with Ramsey or Clive Barker or Jonathan Carroll) will I go out of my way to read a "new" book. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.189.134 |
Reread Garth Ennis's War Stories, treating them as a companion piece to his Battlefields comics. Archangel. After accidentally infuriating his CO a RAF fighter pilot is assigned to fly escort to a Merchant Navy fleet. All he has to do is cope with is seasickness, hostility from the Navy, tackling the Luftwaffe single-handed and trying to reach dry land before his fuel runs out and he has to bail out into freezing water. Screaming Eagles. Tired of their superior officers living the easy life while they do all the hard work a squad of battle-weary US paratroopers use a quiet patrol to sneak in some unoffical R&R in the dying days of WWII. Johann's Tiger. German tank crew decide to desert their post and race to surrender to the Americans before they are captured by bloodthirsty Russian troops or their own equally vicious military police. J is for Jenny. Pilot and co-pilot of a Lancaster bomber bicker about whether they should take pleasure in bombing German civilians or if it is merely a necessary evil by which to win the war. Nightingale. The disgraced crew of a Royal Navy destroyer seek to redeem themselves as they escort a Merchant Navy convoy past enemy U-boats and battleships. Atmospheric writing and artwork make this almost a WWII ghost story. D-Day Dodgers. Allied forces in Italy are scorned for avoiding the D-Day landings even as they face a suicidal battle against overwhelming odds. Condors. A German fighter pilot, a Spaniard, an Irish fascist and an English socialist all seek shelter in the same shellhole during a battle in the Spanish Civil War. Forming an uneasy truce they discuss how their differing ideologies led them to fight in the war. The Reivers. SAS squad take on the Afrika Korps in increasingly dangerous missions as their CO revels in his bloodthirsty antics. All good although offhand I think that only Nightingale and Johann's Tiger really match the Battlefields stories for intensity. But it's still nice that Ennis explores different different theatres of war as the comics offer little slices of history that are not always that wellknown. Espcially since recent examples of WWII in popular culture are defined almost exclusively by Hollywood's perceptions of the conflict. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Weirdly, book 2 of the Night Watch trilogy opens with the opening scene of film 1 of the series - but a different character visiting the witch. Does anyone know if there are plans to film Twilight watch? or the fourth book in the trilogy - the Last Watch? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Orange Prize winners that I've read - The Road Home - Rose Tremain - the story of an economic migrant to Britain, in soap opera terms this would be Hollyoaks or Corrie rather than eastenders. the lead character doesn't run into any obstacles on his travels. Astounding, even the boss of the strawberry picking farm he works on is a fair minded man who isn't taking advantage of the maigrant workforce. Disappointing at best. the other 2 are Small Island - Andrea Levy - Opposite problem to The Road Home. According to this book, every white person in England is a screaming racist except for one woman who (while being racist) also has a fetish for black men. Apparently having difficulty understanding a thick accent that you've never heard before qualifies you as the worst type of racist in this book. We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver. I agree with Ramsey on this one. Indeed my most unpopular amazon review is about Kevin. Hearing Ramsey talk about this book is very funny and he can vent his spleen much more eloquently than I can. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.4 |
I can be neither pushed nor encouraged into reading any book. I have to find them all by myself. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I tend to go by comparisons to authors I already know I like by people whose opinion I trust and that strategy hasn't let me down yet. I can't imagine anything worse than forcing myself to finish a book I know after a few chapters I don't like. That's also the reason I avoid book clubs - even though in an ideal world I would find the idea immensely appealing. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.178.4 |
And do you think it fair if a publisher or agent tosses your book aside after a few bad lines? I do. Absolutely. I'd rather ride with a lull mid-book than follow one that starts poorly. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
This all comes down to personal taste and publishers/agents are paid to put their own personal taste aside. It's a line of work I could never contemplate. If I start a book and it doesn't speak to me I should have no obligation to stick with it and that says nothing whatsoever about the book or the author but merely about my own taste... or perceived lack of it. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.182.38 |
Scarlet in Gaslight by Mike Powell and Seppo Makinen. Comic where Sherlock Holmes and Van Helsing team up against Moriarty and Dracula. Good fun. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.177.225 |
Reread The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. An ageing Batman comes out of retirement to tackle a host of enemies both old and new. Gothic meets noir with a little dollop of cyberpunk thrown in as Bats prowls through the gargoyle-adorned city, delivering his hardboiled narration whilst using an array of hi-tech gadgets that would make James Bond green with envy. Full of powerful setpieces -- a thunderstorm lashing Wayne Manor as Bruce Wayne relives the events that first caused him to don his costume, Batman galloping in on horseback to quell a riot, Superman wrestling a nuclear missile -- the list goes on. Throw in some satire, a discussion on the pros and cons of vigilantism and a call for a return of community spirit and it becomes clear why the comic is a classic. Plus it's funnier than anyone gives it credit for. Of course being nearly 25 years old it may not seem as cutting edge to new readers who have become used to seeing a darker more complex Batman thanks to the Christian Bale films but without TDKR (and Batman: Year One, also by Miller) the Bale films would never have been so grim and gritty in the first place. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
You're right of course Stu. 'The Dark Knight Returns', 'Batman: Year One' & Alan Moore's 'The Killing Joke' have always been my favourite Batman stories. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.183.139 |
I've got to admit I was slightly underwhelmed with The Killing Joke. Moore's version of the Joker's origin was fantastic but the overall story felt kind of inappropriate for a Batman tale. Plus Moore was rehashing a lot of his narrative tricks from Watchmen; more out of habit than from necessity I felt. Without the same density of plot as Watchmen to almost overwhelm the techniques TKJ allowed the scene transitions and other tricks to become obvious and heavyhanded. Still has some great writing of course. Plus Bolland's art. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
'The Killing Joke' was actually the first of the modern Batman reinventions I read and what led me to seek out Frank Miller's stuff. I thought story, dialogue and artwork were all exceptional but then I think Alan Moore is an absolute genius. 'Watchmen' is of course his masterpiece. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.183.139 |
I read the Miller stuff before TKJ so that influenced my reaction to the story. "Why has Gordon suddenly turned into a wimp? How comes the Joker lasts so long against Batman in a fistfight? Etc, etc." Plus, the ending hinting that Batman's a nutter. Sorry, I don't like my mainstream superhero stories to be THAT revisionist. If you're going to do something like that the general rule is to make it an "imaginary" story set in some alternate universe. Using it on "real" characters (unless they're really minor league) is a bit of a no-no in publishing terms. Indeed Moore wasn't allowed to use established superhero characters for Watchmen as he orginally intended. DC had just bought up the old Charlton Comics characters and Moore wanted to use them but that would have rendered the characters unusable so he was told to create analogues of the existing characters -- Captain Atom = Dr Manhattan, Blue Beeetle = Nite Owl, Rorschach = The Question, Nightshade = Silk Spectre, Peacemaker = The Comedian, Thunderbolt = Ozymandias. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Gordon's daughter had been kidnapped and tortured thus leaving him impotent. Batman knocked seven bells out of the Joker once he got his hands on him after being held at bay by a few tricks. And surely Batman is a nutter with the ending showing a momentary crack in his cool exterior which, for me, made him appear all the more human. This was elaborated on in the later 'Arkham Asylum' story. I didn't know that about 'Watchmen'. Fascinating stuff - thanks for the info Stu! 'Watchmen' wouldn't have had half the impact with already established characters imho. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.183.139 |
Okay, this is just my opinion, take any ranting with a pinch of salt. >>Gordon's daughter had been kidnapped and tortured thus leaving him impotent. Fair enough. Although in Year One he manages to keep it together when his baby son is kidnapped and he's been shot in the shoulder. Still, it's not quite the same thing -- in Year One he's more mentally prepared and is a fair bit younger -- so okay, fair enough. >>Batman knocked seven bells out of the Joker once he got his hands on him after being held at bay by a few tricks. I dunno, Bats shouldn't have fallen for the tricks in the first place. He's way tougher and more skilful than the Joker plus he knows all his tricks. Even allowing for luck and sneakiness there's no way the Joker can even begin to hold his own against Bats mano-a-mano. That's why the Joker always has loads of henchmen, he's pretty much useless in a scrap. Evil genius, yes. Fighter, no. The fight just felt like padding and a concession to the need for an action scene. >>And surely Batman is a nutter with the ending showing a momentary crack in his cool exterior which, for me, made him appear all the more human. This was elaborated on in the later 'Arkham Asylum' story. Sharing a joke with the man who crippled his best friend's daughter doesn't make him look more human, it makes him look like a sick fuck. And Arkham Asylum shows him coming to terms with any mental trauma he has suffered. Apparently Morrison intended the story as a refutation of all the grim and gritty post-Dark Knight stories so he starts off with Bats all moody as per the late 80s trend but after confronting all kinds of Jungian archetypes which I never would have spotted if they hadn't been pointed out to me he emerges victorious with his Self fully integrated. Kind of a Dark Knight of the Soul. Morrison went on to portray Bats as a coolly efficient Zen-focused superhero in JLA. I'm not really up on the recent stuff where he introduced Bats's son and had Dick Grayson take over as Bats but I gather that was a continuation of his JLA characterization. Obviously with a long-running character such as Batman there are many different interpretations and even in these days of continuity obsession not all the current writers agree with each other. I'm just trying to give you some sense of how I view the character to explain why TKJ didn't quite do it for me. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
But as 'The Killing Joke' took place before Batman got his head fixed in 'Arkham Asylum' then surely his momentary "breakdown" fits in. For me it was a moment of self-awareness (or the mask slipping) when he saw the Joker as a real human being who, like himself, had been fucked up in the head by personal trauma earlier in his life. Perhaps the only time the two characters came close to fully understanding one another. Anyway it worked for me especially given Moore's inspired and quite moving origin of the Joker. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.184.145 |
>>But as 'The Killing Joke' took place before Batman got his head fixed in 'Arkham Asylum' then surely his momentary "breakdown" fits in. Again, it's just my opinion but I don't really see that. Bruce Wayne became Batman because his parents were shot and killed. That means he doesn't like violent criminals, especially ones who use guns. It also means that behind his grim demeanour he feels a lot of empathy for victims of violent crime and their friends and relatives. This is why he doesn't kill people or even carry a gun. A few writers have depicted his choosing to become Batman not only stemming from a desire for revenge but from survivor's guilt -- his parents died but he survived. Jim Starlin even did a story adding an extra layer of guilt where Bruce has an argument with his dad and yells, "I hate you! I wish you were dead!" His dad later manages to smooth things over and takes the family out to see The Mark of Zorro by way of apology. On the way home Mr and Mrs Wayne are shot dead. On a conscious level Bruce knows that it's not his fault but on a subconscious level he can't forget the wish he made. All this is a long way from being a psycho-killer like the Joker. Or to put it another way Batman may have some emotional hangups but he's not crazy. And although I like your idea of Batman sympathising with the Joker and seeing him as a real human being you've got to remember that Batman hasn't been privy to the Joker's origin; only the reader gets to see how he became the Clown Prince of Crime. All Batman gets to see is the Joker shoot and cripple Batman's best friend's daughter who is herself one of Batman's closest friends. It's doubly disturbing for Bats as Barbara is also Batgirl, a superb athlete who will now be confined to a wheelchair because she chose to follow in Batman's footsteps. It's pretty clear how he's going to feel about that. All he hears from the Joker is some self-pitying gibberish. Still, he initially visited the Joker in an attempt to break out of the deadly cycle in which they had become locked and so when Gordon entreats him to bring the Joker in "by the book" in order to score a moral victory he is prepared to do so. He is also prepared to reopen his discussion with the Joker about how they might end their ongoing battle without resorting to killing each other. That's how much moral fibre the character possesses. So to then burst out laughing at the Joker's gag? No. Not with all that the Joker has done to Batman's friends. It would have made more sense for the Joker to burst out laughing and Batman to just look on sadly, knowing that attempting to cure the Joker was a lost cause. Keeps the thematic unity of the book, keeps Batman's empathy for the Joker but doesn't completely fuck with Batman's characterisation. (Oh god, I'm rewriting Alan Moore. For me that's the equivalent of telling God where he went wrong in creating the universe.) Anyway, that's just my take on it. Btw, Grant Morrison originally wanted Brian Bolland or an artist with a similar style to draw Arkham Aslyum. Apparently Dave McKean not only made the artwork darker and more surreal than Morrison intended but placed a different emphasis on certain events. Eg in the original script Morrison apparently called for Batman to prick his hand with some glass to help bring himself back to his senses, due to some of his emotional problems distracting him whereas McKean chose to depict this as Batman shoving a shard of glass through his palm and looking like a complete nutjob. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.165.109 |
I just finished a cool book "The Man Who Loved Books Too Much," by Allison Hoover Bartlett; nonfiction about a real-life book thief, the book dealer who sets out to capture him and the reporter caught in between. Good stuff. Also reading "The Wolfer" by a western novel by Loren D. Estleman. AND: I published a bunch of mini-reviews on my web page at http://www.redroom.com/blog/thomas-burchfield/books-read-things-seen | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.165.109 |
Oh, forgot to add: I also provide a mini-review of "Midnight Sun." | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.255.28 |
Rapidly approaching the climax of 'Midnight Sun' myself and should finish it today. Ramsey's best written novel up to that time as well as his most subtle and multi-layered... not to mention chilling (groan). | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.105.158 |
Agreed. That & The Count Of Eleven are top notch. gcw | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.165.109 |
"Count of Eleven" I only have in PB; haven't seen a hardcover of it around; I'm anxious to read it but Ramsey is a highly regarded member of my "Only in Hardback" club. PS: I have the PS edition of "Thieving Fear." | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.243 |
Thomas - I got my special edition hardcover Count of Eleven (the jacketless one in red binding) from Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage - he might have another oine | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.165.109 |
Thanks, John! I might look into it (when I get some money) | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.108 |
Thomas - I got my special edition hardcover Count of Eleven (the jacketless one in red binding) from Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage - he might have another one. _______ I got my copy there as well. He still has one or more in stock: http://www.coldtonnage.com/?CLSN_3127=125952379431276f2e233c41459ecf8e&keyword=t he+count+of+eleven&searchby=title&page=shop%2Fbrowse&fsb=1 | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.243.85.108 |
If you want the other first. ed hardback for a tenner | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.107.17 |
Finished 'Midnight Sun' and see it as a major step forward in Ramsey's writing. A beautiful piece of work that haunts the mind after reading. It also strikes me as his most personal work to date with all the emotional intensity that implies - though more subtly, I would even say poetically, conveyed than ever before. I imagine a few demons were exorcised in the writing of this one. I've ordered 'Needing Ghosts' to read next... Also finished the original 'Foundation' trilogy (insanely gripping stuff!) and about to start Volume 4: 'Foundation's Edge'. But tonight I'm settling down with 'The Owl Service' by Alan Garner. Like 'Midnight Sun' a book where supernatural horror and fairy-tale fantasy merge together to create something altogether magical and unsettling. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
I'm currently re-reading MIDNIGHT SUN, too. Wonderful, isn't it? the prose is a joy; the mood and atmosphere are palpable. The cold seeps off the page. NEEDING GHOSTS is probably my favourite book of Ramsey's, Stephen. Be interetsed to know what you make of it. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.107.17 |
I've heard nothing but good things about 'Needing Ghosts' so can't wait! RC was on one hell of a roll at that time. 'Midnight Sun' makes it three modern horror masterpieces in a row for me. How would I rank them now? 1. Midnight Sun 2. The Influence 3. Ancient Images 4. Obsession 5. Incarnate 6. The Nameless 7. To Wake The Dead 8. The Face That Must Die 9. The Doll Who Ate His Mother 10. The Claw 11. The Hungry Moon ...imho of course. Incidentally has anyone else ever commented on the similarity between 'Midnight Sun' and 'Lucky's Grove' by H.R. Wakefield? That story, the cosmic horror of Lovecraft and 'The Ceremonies' as well as the spirit of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and E.T.A. Hoffmann all forcibly sprang to mind during this book yet out of those ingredients Ramsey created something entirely new and uniquely disturbing. Wonderful literature!! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.180.115 |
Just finished the landlord's section from Night Visions 3. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 193.89.189.24 |
Stephen 'RC was on one hell of a roll at that time' ___ I think he's on one hell of a roll right now. :-) Or rather he hasn't really stopped being on a roll, since he started rolling, which is a great deal of rolling when you think about it- rolling that is. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.183.205 |
Reread Green Lantern/Superman: The Legend of the Green Flame by Neil Gaiman. Also working my way through Waking Nightmares. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Fangland by John Marks. A remarkable novel. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.47.50.55 |
Mikhail Bulgakov - Black Snow. Interesting caricature of Stanislavsky. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Half way through 'The Owl Service' and what a great, great book! There is no way a "children's book" with so much palpable dread in it would be published today. The accumulation of supernatural incidents from that first scratching heard in the attic (shades of 'The Exorcist') is indescribably creepy. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
More than half way through Day watch and loving every word of it. This is a great book and almost completely unrelated to the film of the same name. Where nightwatch told three stories following members of the Nightwatch around, this one follows members of the Day Watch. I've just reached a point where he's just very casually killed off one of the lead characters from Night Watch and it came as what you might call an extreme shock. He's upped the game in this book from an already excellent start with Nightwatch. I really do need to get the next two books in the trilogy now. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.202.210.68 |
I'm still immersing myself in old gothic stuff. Now it's A Night on the Moor and Other Tales of Dread by R Murray Gilchrist Some lovely stuff in here - the pages can't decided whether to bleed or rot before my eyes. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
'Foundation's Edge' - excellent!! Asimov knew how to satisfy his fans. After a long gap between Vols 3 & 4 he nails the one plot thread that was niggling at the back of my mind from the start of the series in the first few chapters and sets up what has to be the ultimate outer space Quest. Highly addictive reading! | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.191 |
Just started Ira levin's ' A Kiss Before Dying'. I do believe I'm in for a real treat! | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.0.107.17 |
Read it not that long ago as part of my "inside the mind of a killer" season. It's an absolute classic, Sean! Also read 'Crime And Punishment', 'The Collector', 'Psycho', 'The Face That Must Die', 'Brighton Rock, and working my way through the 'Ripley' books. I've also been recommended and intend to read; 'The Killer Inside Me', 'The Scarf', 'Black Alibi', 'Rendezvous In Black' and Ramsey's 'The Count Of Eleven' (coming up soon), 'The Last Voice They Hear' & 'Secret Story'. Always on the lookout for more... | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.105.158 |
I recently finished Zed's quite superb 'Different Skins' and have just started Joel Lanes'The Terrible Changes'. I wish I had the time to re-read Ramseys 'Midnight Sun' - I first read it over Christmas when it came out (1990?). Certainly the best time of year to appreciate its wonders. gcw | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.163.225 |
I finished another of Loren D. Estleman's westerns "The Wolfer" (the guy still has yet to write a book I haven't liked). Now I'm reading an extremely dark comedy by a good friend of mine, American stage hypnotist John-Ivan Palmer: "Motels of Burning Madness" (Drill Press) about the emotional and romantic travails and obsessions of a professional male stripper. John did quite a bit of onstage research. Definitely in the realm of Charles Bukowski and other underground writers. Wow! so far. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.183.219 |
Stephen, I've not read it but In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B Hughes is supposed to be good for a psychological portrait of a killer. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Also try Chicago Loop by Paul Theroux - I remember thinking it was on a par with Ripley when I read it many many moons ago. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Just finishing my re-read of MIDNIGHT SUN (gosh; it's even better than I remember). next up is Holdstock's MYTHAGO WOOD. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.184 |
Just finished 'Apparitions' edited by Mike Kelly. Contains many great tales, several by members of the RMCB. Nice work. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.178.12 |
Blazing Combat by Archie Goodwin. 1960s homage to the old EC war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. Short strips from various conflicts including The American Civil War, The War of Independence, WWI, WWII, The Korean War and The Vietnam War. The stories are tight, if a little dated, with emphasis on historical detail and the human cost of warfare. Gorgeous black and white artwork, much of it by EC stalwarts such as Reed Crandall, George Evans, Wallace Wood, Russ Heath, Joe Orlando, Alex Toth and Al Williamson. Frank Frazetta's original covers are reprinted in disappointingly small size in the book's intererior but details from two of them are shown on the inside covers. Interviews with publisher Jim Warren and writer Archie Goodwin round off the collection. Good stuff. The Question: Riddles by Dennis O'Neil (writer) and Denys Cowan (artist). Volume five in O'Neil's '80s revamp of the ruthless Objectivist vigilante as a conflicted Zen crusader. As with the previous volumes it's a bit of a curate's egg with heavyhanded philosophy, awkward characterisation and clumsily drawn fight scenes battling it out with smart ideas, snappy dialogue and atmospheric artwork. Flawed but interesting. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Finished 'The Owl Service' and the ambiguous/controversial nature of the ending went completely over my head as a child. Can't stop wondering what it all means and what Garner's intentions were. This is very much a supernatural horror story dressed up as a children's fantasy. A classic battle between scientific rationalism and primitive superstition in which the author's sympathies are fascinatingly hard to gauge. Anyone any spoiler-free thoughts on this book? Also started 'Ripley's Game' over the weekend and already two thirds of the way through... to call this a compulsive thriller with edge-of-the-seat suspense sequences is somewhat of an understatement. I think it may be the best of the series so far! | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.191 |
I read EC's adaptation of Ray Bradbury's 'The October Game' last night in 'Shock Suspenstories' no. 10 (1990's reprints). What a great little psycho shocker! I must hunt out this tale in print. I have most of his short story collections but this one tale doesn't seem to appear in any of them! Stephen, based on this fab EC rendering it would certainly hold it's own amongst those other illustrious authors of your 'Mind of a killer' fiction collection. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
It's in the Small Assassin collection if I remember correctly - which probably puts it in the Arkham house collection Dark Carnival - which is quite difficult to find. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Actually, I think it's moe likely to be in the October Country collection than the Small assassin. I didn't remember correktly after all. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
James Ellroy's American Tabloid. Scintillating read. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Finished 'Ripley's Game' and Patricia was obviously madly in love with the character by that stage. The book plays brilliant tricks with the reader's sympathies and Tom has never been more fascinating or contradictory. A tour-de-force of crime writing!! Just started 'Methuselah's Children' (1941) by Robert A. Heinlein (his first novel I believe)... a writer I've long intended getting more into after reading 'Stranger In A Strange Land' many moons ago. So on a bit of a classic sci-fi kick at the minute. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
MYTHAGO WOOD. Finally. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.202.210.68 |
Well I started A Night on the Moor and Other Tales of Dread by R Murray Gilchrist but that suffered a terrible accident and hasn't dried out very well so now I'm reading: Different Skins by Gary McMahon!!! | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.191 |
I had started reading Levin's 'A Kiss Before Dying' which is addictive as hell. Then I casually picked up John Fowles' 'The Collector' and read the first few pages. Now I don't know which bloody book to read through first. Arrrrghh!! Incidentally, the cover of my copy of 'A Kiss before Dying' depicts the same girls face 3 times with different hairstyles and outfit. Now I've only read the first few chapters but I reckon this friggin' cover is giving the twist away!? I may be totally wrong about this , god I hope so. Don't tell me either way! Just an observation. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Read 'A Kiss Before Dying'... I'm just glad you haven't seen either of the film versions. That's become something of a rule for me this last lot of years: if I haven't read an acknowledged "classic novel" first - by everyone from Dickens to Highsmith - then I avoid at all cost any movie version or TV adaptation to avoid spoilers. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Now reading Necropolis by Basil Copper - which is ripping good fun - and Grandville by Bryan Talbot, which is also ripping good fun. Love a bit of Talbot me, and he showed me the pages for Grandville before the book came out. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
You've reminded me I have 'The Great White Space' in my to-be-read pile. Might give it a whirl next. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
The Devil of Nan-King by Mo Hayder | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"The October Game" is in Long After Midnight, folks. I recently wrote the foreword to a new edition of the book, in fact. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
This might be opening up a minefield but would I be better to get those BIG Bradbury anthologies out at the minute (are they even complete?) or track down all the individual collections (and if so, just how many are there?!). I'd love the thought of reading all the short stories in chrono order but what an undertaking... | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Thos BIG bradbury antho's are best ofs. He's published well over 500 short stories... | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Gulp... I'll give the big ones a miss then. Would have got them if complete. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
* The October Game, (ss) Weird Tales Mar 1948 AHMM Jun 1957 Long After Midnight, Knopf 1976 Deadly Nightshade, ed. Peter Haining, London: Gollancz 1977 The Stories of Ray Bradbury, Knopf 1980 The World Fantasy Awards Volume Two, ed. Stuart David Schiff & Fritz Leiber, Doubleday 1980 13 Horrors of Halloween, ed. Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg & Isaac Asimov, Avon 1983 Different sources for reading the October game... I never realised it was written in 1948!!! To put it politely - fuck me! he was well ahead of his time... | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Quite a few of his early horror stories have turned up in the Pan/Fontana anthologies and every one (I mean every one) so far has been a solid gold ***** classic! | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Fast paced, exciting, ingenious, literary, anarchic, disturbing, decades ahead of its time and very funny... Heinlein's first novel. I think I'm going to enjoy the adventures of Lazarus Long & co. I'm detecting a big influence on the style of Kurt Vonnegut & Robert Anton Wilson. This is set a couple of centuries in the future when a secret society of inbred super-long lived individuals (around since the late 19th C.) have their cover blown to the wider human populace who demand their "secret of immortality" and set about victimising this race of "jumped up Methuselahs" as a "minority group". It's completely bonkers but the sheer verve and fizzing originality of Heinlein's writing carries you along effortlessly. Highly entertaining and not a little thought provoking. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.180.142 |
I seem to recall Robert Anton Wilson quoting Heinlein in at least one of his books so you may well be right about the literary influence. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.191 |
Thanks for that Bradbury book list Weber! I'll try to track one of the cheaper ones down asap. Although if the new edition Ramsey refers to contains more stories I haven't read I may get it. I thought the EC version of 'The October Game' was first class but i'm only too aware of the fact that,as good as it is, the short story must be unbelievably tense. Your spot on about it being ahead of it's time in 1948. I couldn't get over reading this in what was seen as a 'kids' comic! | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.184 |
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. And Coffin Nails by Lord Probert. | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 89.240.60.180 |
The English Civil War - Dianne Purkiss; Alone With The Horrors - Ramsey Campbell; The Audacity of Hype - Armando Iannucci; Memento Mori - Muriel Spark I'm enjoying them all so much I don't want any to end... | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.22.249 |
Nearly all my Bradbury books are Panthers bought in the 70ies: The Small Assassin The October Country The Illustrated Man The Martian Chronicles Fahrenheit 451 The Machineries of Joy Long After Midnight I Sing the Body Electric Something Wicked This Way Comes The Golden Apples of the Sun Dandelion Wine | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.202.210.68 |
Thanks Mr Bacon! I'm trying to read the Tartarus Press Robert Louis Stevenson book The Suicide Club et al but it's too heavy. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.187.3 |
Re-read Dark Blue by Warren Ellis (writer) and Jacen Burrows (artist). A cop becomes increasingly deranged in his efforts to nail a killer while around him events become ever more sureal and nightmarish as reality begins to disintegrate. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.191 |
My Bradbury collection is comprised of those 70's Panther volumes too Hubert. I'm only missing 'Long after Midnight' and 'Machineries of Joy'. I think eBay is due a visit. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.202.210.68 |
Btw when I said the RL Stevenson book was too heavy I meant I can't pick it up - I have to sit at a desk to read it. So I've moved onto something lighter - William Fryer Harvey's The Double Eye | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.190.2 |
Dipping into Robert Greenberger's The Essential Batman Encyclopedia. Also read the first two issues of Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty by Mark Waid (writer) and Ron Garney(artist). Tells forgotten tales of Cap's adventures from WWII up to the present. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
'Methuselah's Children' really is meaty stuff underneath the pulp sci-fi adventure trappings. A book written in 1941 about a group of people being stripped of all civil rights, arrested and herded into concentration camps because of the jealousy of the rest of humankind. Here it is because of their perceived "secret of immortality" but it could just as well have been their "chosen people" status. Some of the political dialogue in this book is remarkably prescient and chills to the bone. Heinlein was a very fine writer indeed and, it appears to me, a fine human being as well! | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Oh My God... the slingshot around the Sun first happened in 'Methuselah's Children'!!!! The man is a fecking genius... | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.153.165.191 |
Seriously, 'A Kiss Before Dying' is awesome storytelling! How on earth did I let this gem slip through the radar for soooo long? | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Finished 'Methuselah's Children' last night and felt like standing up to give a r |