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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2014 19:04:08 GMT -5
Got this copy of the lost of novel of film director and auteur, Samuel Fuller. I've been a fan of Fuller's work since my teens and have read some of his short stories. This is something new from the master. Knowing Fuller, it'll be terse and don't take s**t kind of writing...
Gotta love the Hard Case Crime covers. Actually took me a minute to recognize their edition of The Valley of Fear by A. C. Doyle as the Sherlock Holmes book. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2014 19:17:45 GMT -5
Shadow Born - Outlanders #70 by James Axler (this one written by Douglas Wojtowicz)  With everything still packed, I had to find something to read @ K-Mart. I'd tried this series before; it's okay action-adventure in a post-apocalyptic future. But the series has been going on long enough, and is itself a sequel/companion series to the Death Lands books, that a pretty complex backstory has built up. And the series seems to break up into story arcs of 3 books. So I haven't read a lot of them. But in this one, the heroes, led by Kane, are in Africa fighting Neekra, an ancient evil. She can generate these things that inhabit bodies, and are the basis of the vampire legends. There are also flying apes, and an ancient artifact that everybody wants which once belonged to Solomon and Moses. So they need to tap into Kane's memory, and hypnotize him. Turns out, he's the reincarnation of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane. The staff everybody's after is the same one given to Solomon Kane by his friend N'Longa in the Howard story Hills of the Dead. One of Kane's current companions is Nathan Longa, a descendant. And Neekra is apparently the vampire-queen Nakari from The Moon of Skulls. Was not expecting that.
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Post by berkley on Sept 2, 2014 19:42:32 GMT -5
Down and out was the first Orwell book I ever read. It made a pretty big impression on me - I was a teenager at the time - and to tell the truth I still think of it as my favourite book of his. I never knew it was meant to be a novel - always thought it was a straight memoir. Haven't re-read it since then - it'll be curious to see how I like it if I ever get around to reading it again. I just finished Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm, famous comic novel of the early 1930s - around the same time of Orwell's Down and Out, come to think of it (checked wiki to confirm). Even though I haven't read any of the specific books CCF is apparently making fun of, most of its targets are familiar enough that one can enjoy the comedy anyway. There's something about the style of wit and satire that was prevalent in English writing of the 20s and 30s that I find extremely attractive. The early Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, Gibbons, Wodehouse, Anthony Powell's first book, ... there's a certain kind of indolent urbanity that seems to put me under its spell, at least when it's done well, even though it's worlds away from any environment I've ever experienced first hand. Hope you've read some of Christopher Hitchens, who is (or was, sad to say) a modern avatar of that style you're describing. I haven,t, really - maybe a couple magazine articles here and there. I admired his ability as a speaker and debater, but to tell the truth was turned off by his swing to the right politically. I might try something one of these days, though - anything in particular you'd recommend. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 2, 2014 20:59:19 GMT -5
Hope you've read some of Christopher Hitchens, who is (or was, sad to say) a modern avatar of that style you're describing. I haven,t, really - maybe a couple magazine articles here and there. I admired his ability as a speaker and debater, but to tell the truth was turned off by his swing to the right politically. I might try something one of these days, though - anything in particular you'd recommend. I'm with you on the support for the Iraq War, when he aligned himself with many of the kinds of scoundrels he'd spent much of his life exposing, from Bush to Wolfowitz to Cheney. However, on literature, religion, and other topics, I continue to find his observations and his prose elegant, crystalline, caustic, and above all, honest. Try Arguably, his collection of all kinds of essays from book reviews to profiles to his account of being waterboarded. You can dip in, visit, move around between times and topics. I have also found his autobiography, Hitch 22, compelling and lacking in the kind of excuse-making and self-indulgence of other autobiographies I've read. Give Hitchens credit: he asks no quarter and gives none, even -- and maybe especially -- to himself. Letter to a Young Contrarian is a short, but excellent intro to the man and his principles. |
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Post by berkley on Sept 2, 2014 22:55:24 GMT -5
I haven,t, really - maybe a couple magazine articles here and there. I admired his ability as a speaker and debater, but to tell the truth was turned off by his swing to the right politically. I might try something one of these days, though - anything in particular you'd recommend. I'm with you on the support for the Iraq War, when he aligned himself with many of the kinds of scoundrels he'd spent much of his life exposing, from Bush to Wolfowitz to Cheney. However, on literature, religion, and other topics, I continue to find his observations and his prose elegant, crystalline, caustic, and above all, honest. Try Arguably, his collection of all kinds of essays from book reviews to profiles to his account of being waterboarded. You can dip in, visit, move around between times and topics. I have also found his autobiography, Hitch 22, compelling and lacking in the kind of excuse-making and self-indulgence of other autobiographies I've read. Give Hitchens credit: he asks no quarter and gives none, even -- and maybe especially -- to himself. Letter to a Young Contrarian is a short, but excellent intro to the man and his principles. Yeah, it was really quite depressing to see him make that decision to devote his undeniable intelligence and talent for polemic to the service of those people and their policies. But I'll have a look at the books you mention - won't be the first time I've read and enjoyed writing by someone whose political or other views I disagree with, though I admit that it's a little more difficult to put all that to one side when the controversy is still current, as opposed to reading someone from 200 years ago like, say, Edmund Burke. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 3, 2014 14:05:23 GMT -5
Breakout by Richard Stark
Parker is caught...and now he spends the novel breaking out of places. First jail...then the middle of a job. Nice change of pace for the series in its waning days.
The Polar Treasure by Kenneth Robeson/Lester Dent
In the fourth super-saga things start to gel. Still not quite the classic Doc Savage...but you can see it from here.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 3, 2014 21:43:57 GMT -5
Shadow Born - Outlanders #70 by James Axler (this one written by Douglas Wojtowicz) With everything still packed, I had to find something to read @ K-Mart. I'd tried this series before; it's okay action-adventure in a post-apocalyptic future. But the series has been going on long enough, and is itself a sequel/companion series to the Death Lands books, that a pretty complex backstory has built up. And the series seems to break up into story arcs of 3 books. So I haven't read a lot of them. But in this one, the heroes, led by Kane, are in Africa fighting Neekra, an ancient evil. She can generate these things that inhabit bodies, and are the basis of the vampire legends. There are also flying apes, and an ancient artifact that everybody wants which once belonged to Solomon and Moses. So they need to tap into Kane's memory, and hypnotize him. Turns out, he's the reincarnation of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane. The staff everybody's after is the same one given to Solomon Kane by his friend N'Longa in the Howard story Hills of the Dead. One of Kane's current companions is Nathan Longa, a descendant. And Neekra is apparently the vampire-queen Nakari from The Moon of Skulls. Was not expecting that. Interesting! Nice to see a modern writing paying tribute to the classics  |
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Post by Jasoomian on Sept 3, 2014 22:15:10 GMT -5
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 4, 2014 21:47:14 GMT -5
Is White Wolf still around? I remember Vampire: The Masquerade being THE thing among the geek set in college... could even be said to have started the 'Urban Fantasy' glut. I seem to recall Wizards of the Coast buying them...
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 5, 2014 11:04:49 GMT -5
Is White Wolf still around? I remember Vampire: The Masquerade being THE thing among the geek set in college... could even be said to have started the 'Urban Fantasy' glut. I seem to recall Wizards of the Coast buying them... They merged with CCP Games in 2006. They don't do any in house development any more. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 5, 2014 21:51:03 GMT -5
Went out on a limb a bit... it broke.
Annhilation by Jeff Vandermeer
I knew when I saw this at the library it was probably not my kinda book, but the back sounded so good I decided to not judge it by it's cover.. even had a Warren Ellis quote on the back singing it's praises.
While I really liked the main character, and the writing style, the plot was too overly mysterious and, frankly, dumb, with too little explanation for me to really call it a good book. Some of it (the uber power hypnotic suggestion, and the government conspiracy stuff) was very 60s sci-fi... but with alot of hipster enviornmentalism mixed in. Perhaps if one read all three books (which, for their size, seems like they're destined to be sold as one book in the not too distant future), but this part fell short.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 6, 2014 11:55:20 GMT -5
 Martian Time-Slip
Philip K. Dick
1964 5th Printing 1986 Cover Art:Darrell K. Sweet
Mars is a tough place to live for the Earth colonists. Water is scarce and the UN imposes some tough regulations. Jack Boehlen makes ends meet for his family by being an excellent repairman. New products are very expensive on Mars and its more economical to repair instead. Arnie Kott runs the Water Workers union on Mars and is therefore one of its most important citizens. Manfred Steiner is a 10 year old autistic child. He might very well have the ability to affect time and reality A PDK novel that is part of my effort to read his best works and yes this definitely is one of them. 50 years after being written and its still superior SF. Its a superior novel period. There are a number of characters that PDK weaves the story around. They are all individualistic and have consistent rationale in their actions. Not only is the characterisation top-notch but the theory behind schizophrenia and other mental defects posited in the story is most interesting. This is a mature novel, there are no chases or fights for the sake of action. Another winner from Mr Dick. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2014 14:14:46 GMT -5
That's the same cover art of the 1977-or-so edition I laid aside & then lost while waiting in line to pre-register (or for our late-arriving financial aids checks, or something like that) as a college freshman or sophomore, then couldn't find another copy of for at least 2 years. I was not happy.
What I've got now, I think, is a beat-up copy of the previous (first, AFAIK) edition.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 6, 2014 14:50:49 GMT -5
That's the same cover art of the 1977-or-so edition I laid aside & then lost while waiting in line to pre-register (or for our late-arriving financial aids checks, or something like that) as a college freshman or sophomore, then couldn't find another copy of for at least 2 years. I was not happy. What I've got now, I think, is a beat-up copy of the previous (first, AFAIK) edition. That cover art's been around for awhile. It first showed up when the book was cover priced $1.95, the posted picture is at $2.25, my edition is at $2.95, and I've seen it at $3.95 as well. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 9, 2014 13:26:58 GMT -5
 Moon of Mutiny Lester Del Rey c. 1961 My copy is the paperback release...this was part of a Juvenile science fiction series that featured just about everyone that was active in the 60s... sounds interesting.... I'll be checking out to see if I have any of the others The is not the best cover, the original is more on target, I think. This is a near future, space exploration, where the main character, Fred Halpern is struggling with flight school. He's a great pilot and a mathematic savant, but doesn't like orders so much. He apparently was accident the 1st person to land on the moon in the previous book (MIssion to the Moon), and is famous (and imfamous) for it.. his father is the head of the story's equivalent of the international space station. His attitude get him washed out of flight school, but he ends up on the struggling moon colony as a back up pilot, where adventures ensue, he grows up, and things turn out great! Fun story... definitely young adult-y, but not in a bad way. The main character is definitely a Marty Stu trope, but it works just fine, IMO. Definitely worth a read for all ages. [/b] |
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