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Post by berkley on Dec 28, 2023 22:04:11 GMT -5
Corum and Hawkmoon are the only two of Moorcock's various Eternal Champion characters that I've read in full, so it's probably no coincidence that those are my favourites. I particularly liked the world he created for Hawkmoon, the sort of alternate Europe, with Gran Bretan as the bad guys. I've read one or two books of some of the others, like Elric, but no complete series. I plan to try and get through all of them one of these days, though.
And it might be pretty soon because I just recently decided it's time to get back into some 20th century fantasy after realising that I've now read most of the 19th century fantasy that I'd been wanting to get to. Coincidentally, one of the resources I'm using to help me decide what I want to read first is Moorcock's and James Cawthorn's Fantasy: The 100 Best Books. So far I've done A.A. Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage and E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, which I just finished last night. That one was a re-read, but after an interval of 40 years or more, so I remembered only a few scenes, mostly from the earlier chapters. I'll try to post about them in a little more detail in a few days.
Next up in fantasy will probably be the other three Eddison Books, only one of which I've read previously, and Charles William's War in Heaven, the first of a series of seven, I believe. And perhaps Merritt's Ship of Ishtar too, since it's on the Moorcock/Cawthorn list.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 28, 2023 22:44:04 GMT -5
I have a couple AA Merritt books in my to read pile from my now almost 10 years ago boxes of classic sci fi that prompted me to start this thread... for whatever reason it just hasn't appealed to me. Mastodonia Clifford Simak  Apparently not even Clifford Simak can write a good time travel novel. Funnily enough, the issue is what usually makes Simak a good read.. his pastoral, down home characters. This book had the potential to really make you think and explore a variety of time travel implications, and it mentions a couple in passing (there's a religious group that wants to ban people from checking on wether Jesus was real, and the government has some interesting projects), but none of them are fleshed out at all, or acted upon to give you a result to ponder. I think this could have been a series that might have been able to have some interesting topics in it, but alas, the book ends far too soon without addressing any of it. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Dec 29, 2023 10:08:33 GMT -5
Corum and Hawkmoon are the only two of Moorcock's various Eternal Champion characters that I've read in full, so it's probably no coincidence that those are my favourites. I particularly liked the world he created for Hawkmoon, the sort of alternate Europe, with Gran Bretan as the bad guys. I've read one or two books of some of the others, like Elric, but no complete series. I plan to try and get through all of them one of these days, though. I've kind of been doing rotational reading with Elric and Jerry Cornelius, just reading one book of one series and one of the other. It helps that Moorcock writing is fairly compact (and still punchy) enough to fit in a fairly slim volume. I've kind of been wondering how bad the post "History Of The Runestaff" Hawkmoon stories are, some say that "Count Brass" is kind of boarding on character betrayal/assassination I do plan to give Corum a shot at some point, the plot overviews I've read look kind of interesting |
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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 29, 2023 11:10:37 GMT -5
I know that I read the entire Hawkmoon series in my teens but I don't remember anything about it.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 31, 2023 15:40:04 GMT -5
A Mortal Terror James Benn  Benn seems to be upping the coincidence meter.. which I'm never a fan of. Not only doesn't Billy end up at Anzio and run into Audie Murphy but he manages to end up having his brother involved with his murder case. The story itself was good, but it wasn't really much of a mystery where clues were looked for.. pretty much all the suspects died until one was left... so not the best detecting there. I think this was my least favorite of the series, even though one particular event at the end was really interesting and I'm curious at the repercussions in later books. I do think it was nice to see the author spotlight PTSD, but I'm not sure we really need that these days.
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Post by berkley on Dec 31, 2023 15:55:32 GMT -5
I have a couple AA Merritt books in my to read pile from my now almost 10 years ago boxes of classic sci fi that prompted me to start this thread... for whatever reason it just hasn't appealed to me.
I like everything I've tried so far, three or four novels and a short story. He has really cool ideas and executes them well, though perhaps not quite as scintillatingly well as I think the concepts deserve. I'll try to read everything I can find eventually. He wasn't hugely prolific in the way of an ERB, I think only around ten novels and a handful of short stories.
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Post by berkley on Dec 31, 2023 16:00:35 GMT -5
Corum and Hawkmoon are the only two of Moorcock's various Eternal Champion characters that I've read in full, so it's probably no coincidence that those are my favourites. I particularly liked the world he created for Hawkmoon, the sort of alternate Europe, with Gran Bretan as the bad guys. I've read one or two books of some of the others, like Elric, but no complete series. I plan to try and get through all of them one of these days, though. I've kind of been doing rotational reading with Elric and Jerry Cornelius, just reading one book of one series and one of the other. It helps that Moorcock writing is fairly compact (and still punchy) enough to fit in a fairly slim volume. I've kind of been wondering how bad the post "History Of The Runestaff" Hawkmoon stories are, some say that "Count Brass" is kind of boarding on character betrayal/assassination I do plan to give Corum a shot at some point, the plot overviews I've read look kind of interesting
That's an interesting approach - though I don't remember the later Jerry Cornelius books parallelling the Elric stories in the same striking way the first one did.
I made the mistake of reading the Count Brass trilogy before the Hawkmoon books and probably that's one resaon why I didn't like CB too much myself. Hawkmoon is great though, and I imagine that Count Brass would be a better read for anyone who has done the original series first.
I like Corum a lot, the character, the setting, plots, all of it. Definitely read the Swords trilogy first. The second one is good too, but the first one is the real Corum epic.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 2, 2024 4:33:50 GMT -5
The Curse of Capistrano (better known as The Mark of Zorro) Johnston McCulley, 1919  ( I read a plain text e-book without any accompanying art, so here’s the cover of the magazine in which the story was first serialized) This one was reviewed here earlier by Slam Bradley, and like him, I was prompted to read this just because I’ve seen a number of Zorro movies, read some of the comics, and am just generally familiar with the figure in literature and pop culture, but had never read the novel that started it all. Generally I agree with his overall assessment: this is indeed a really fast-paced, action-packed tale that is probably one of the better pieces of early 20th pulp adventure fiction. However, even being aware of the time in which it was written, I did occasionally find myself wincing at the casual racism in the depictions of the “natives.” Also, I found it almost laughable that it’s the landed gentry as a class that’s the vanguard of a rebellion against a corrupt and cruel government. Also, I caught a minor factual error, or rather, a chronological inconsistency; to wit, at one point in the story, Zorro conceals himself in the shadows of giant eucalyptus trees. Now, McCulley never provides any specific dates, but the setting is pre-US California, so the story most likely takes place during the era of Spanish rule, i.e., pre-1821 (or possibly during the relatively brief Mexican period after that). At that time, those fragrant stands of eucalyptus trees that can be found all up and down western California did not exist, as the trees were only introduced to the state some time in the 1870s. All that aside, though, yes, this is a pretty fun and easy read. I’d definitely recommend it for light leisure reading.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 2, 2024 9:26:29 GMT -5
The Curse of Capistrano (better known as The Mark of Zorro) Johnston McCulley, 1919 ( I read a plain text e-book without any accompanying art, so here’s the cover of the magazine in which the story was first serialized) This one was reviewed here earlier by Slam Bradley, and like him, I was prompted to read this just because I’ve seen a number of Zorro movies, read some of the comics, and am just generally familiar with the figure in literature and pop culture, but had never read the novel that started it all. Generally I agree with his overall assessment: this is indeed a really fast-paced, action-packed tale that is probably one of the better pieces of early 20th pulp adventure fiction. However, even being aware of the time in which it was written, I did occasionally find myself wincing at the casual racism in the depictions of the “natives.” Also, I found it almost laughable that it’s the landed gentry as a class that’s the vanguard of a rebellion against a corrupt and cruel government. Also, I caught a minor factual error, or rather, a chronological inconsistency; to wit, at one point in the story, Zorro conceals himself in the shadows of giant eucalyptus trees. Now, McCulley never provides any specific dates, but the setting is pre-US California, so the story most likely takes place during the era of Spanish rule, i.e., pre-1821 (or possibly during the relatively brief Mexican period after that). At that time, those fragrant stands of eucalyptus trees that can be found all up and down western California did not exist, as the trees were only introduced to the state some time in the 1870s. All that aside, though, yes, this is a pretty fun and easy read. I’d definitely recommend it for light leisure reading. Good catch on the eucalyptus trees. It’s not a huge stretch to see wealthy landowners revolting against a distant government. The same thing happened in the Eastern seaboard of what would become the U.S. And England has any number of baronial revolts against monarchs. The wealthy like to maintain their privilege. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 2, 2024 16:28:50 GMT -5
Good catch on the eucalyptus trees. It’s not a huge stretch to see wealthy landowners revolting against a distant government. The same thing happened in the Eastern seaboard of what would become the U.S. And England has any number of baronial revolts against monarchs. The wealthy like to maintain their privilege. Sure, but - and, again, I'm aware that this is a pulp adventure story - it's just the way that their motives are portrayed as so purely altruistic, since few of them actually felt the effects of the government's malfeasance. Kind of made me roll my eyes a bit (and that's not even delving into the idea that it's naturally the caballeros, with their noble blood, who will be the ones to right wrongs, fight injustice, save the hapless natives, etc., etc.) |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 2, 2024 16:48:11 GMT -5
Good catch on the eucalyptus trees. It’s not a huge stretch to see wealthy landowners revolting against a distant government. The same thing happened in the Eastern seaboard of what would become the U.S. And England has any number of baronial revolts against monarchs. The wealthy like to maintain their privilege. Sure, but - and, again, I'm aware that this is a pulp adventure story - it's just the way that their motives are portrayed as so purely altruistic, since few of them actually felt the effects of the government's malfeasance. Kind of made me roll my eyes a bit (and that's not even delving into the idea that it's naturally the caballeros, with their noble blood, who be the ones to right wrongs, fight injustice, save the hapless natives, etc., etc.) Yeah, I feel that. It's inherently racist and classist. Which was par for the course in that period of the pulps. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Jan 3, 2024 20:12:40 GMT -5
"The Mad God's Amulet" (1968) by Michael Moorcock  Taking place immediately after the previous book, The Jewel In The Skull, a now freed Hawkmoon begins an ever twisting pilgrimage back to Kamarg. But overtime he learns of the fate of Castle Brass at the hands of the Dark Empire Of Granbretan and is noticeably concerned I didn't think Moorcock could actually improve upon how good The Jewel In The Skull was, but he did. I probably lapped this up faster than Jewel and could not put it down for the life of me. I particularly liked the inclusion of D'Averic as kind of a roguish inclusion to the main players and also enjoyed how very "not by the books" the central villain "The Mad God" was after the steady build up over the course of several chapters |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 4, 2024 14:15:11 GMT -5
 Dark Passage by David Goodis
This is my first time reading Goodis' noir about an innocent man convicted. I have, however, seen the movie two or three times (though not in a number of years) and that probably did color my reading of the book. There was just now way that I couldn't see Bogie, Bacall and Agnes Moorehead when I was reading the book. The film didn't deviate a huge amount from the book. I would say that Bogie's Vincent Parry is more assertive than the Parry in the book. The confrontation between Parry and Studebaker had to be changed to comply with the Hayes Code. But overall, the plot tracks. This is a very solid literary noir...but Goodis was a master. A classic everyman noir, Parry is accused of murdering his wife and convicted on fairly weak evidence that included the testimony of Madge Rapf, with whom he was having a fling. Interestingly Parry's downfall begins before the book starts and rather than during the course of the novel. This also interesting in that it's not set in Philadelphia like much of Goodis' oeuvre. But this was written while Goodis was still in Hollywood and riding fairly high as a screenwriter. I do think that Goodis' best work was done after he returned to Philadelphia after his screenwriting career floundered (and he possibly had a mental break). This is still a very solid literary noir and is well worth a read even if it's not quite up to the quality of Shoot the Piano Player, The Burglar or Street of No Return. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 5, 2024 21:49:21 GMT -5
Seventh Son
Orson Scott Card
I first read this a LONG time ago... probably just after I read Ender's Game for the first time. I had no idea of the Card's political views, just that I loved Ender's Game and I love alternate history so this had to be a winner.
This time it's with a very difference perspective for sure. I remember back when I first read it and found on Card was a Mormon, I was surprised. At first glance, this book is pretty anti-religion. It's not really though, just a bit anti particular religions. I've read in other reviews people trying to match up Alvin's story to Joseph Smith, but if anyone is Smith in this tale it's Taleswapper, not Alvin.
The other this I realize.. this isn't really alternate history... alternate history has a purpose, and a keystone even that changes what happened for real and what happens in the authors vision. The is no event here (at least not one Card discloses). Sure, he throws around historical figures and set up a world that is similar enough to our own so it makes you wonder what did change, I'm not sure there's any real rhyme or reason to it.. and he doesn't even give a real time period. Sure the clues would indicate the early 1800s, but nothing at all concrete.
That said. there are some fantastic characters in this book, and the look at what is good and evil, and how those change depending on your point of view, certainly is ample material to make one think, so it's still a great fantasy book... just maybe not so great as alternate history. I'm definitely going to at least finish the original trilogy.. (not least because this book doesn't really have an ending, it feels like just the end of the next chapter). I vaguely recall being annoyed after that, but I don't remember why.
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Post by driver1980 on Jan 7, 2024 5:44:35 GMT -5
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