|
|
Post by sean on Apr 30, 2008 21:04:59 GMT
(couldn't find the 'latest finds' thread...)
Have gone on quite a book buying binge in the last couple of days - the 'to-read' pile needed refreshing quite badly. Quite a few of them are Vaulty, although some are more Vaulty than others...
The Sundial - Shirley Jackson (thanks to Mr allthingshorror!)
Finnegans Wake - James Joyce
Implosion - D.F.Jones
Bound in Time - D.F.Jones
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
Viriconium - M.John Harrison
Night of the Wolf - Fritz Leiber
Bury my Heart at WHSmiths - Brian Aldiss
Doppleganger - Peter van Greenaway
The Idiot - Feodor Dostoyevsky
The Man who had No Idea - Thomas Disch
Blood Runs Cold - Robert Bloch
Angry Candy - Harlan Ellison
Can You feel Anything When I do This? - Robery Sheckley
Should keep me quiet for a while!
|
|
|
|
Post by Dr Terror on May 2, 2008 15:08:19 GMT
From remainder shops last time I was off:
Joe Hill - 20th Century Ghosts
John Gordon - The Giant Under the Snow
Tanith Lee - Piratica 2: Return to Parrot Island
Brandon Massey - Twisted Tales
|
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on May 2, 2008 16:55:40 GMT
Not a buying binge but a reading one. My plans for the Bank Holiday weekend include reading / finishing:
Dark Water by Koji Suzuki
Collected Stories Vol 1 by Robert Silverberg
Strange Itineraries by Tim Powers
and
(it arrived in the post today & I can't wait to see what it's like)
Committal Chamber by Russell Braddon
|
|
|
|
Post by sean on May 2, 2008 17:17:45 GMT
The Koji Suzuki collection is a good one, John. Odd, somehow weightless stories that still leave an impression...
|
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on May 2, 2008 18:02:15 GMT
Interesting you say that, Sean. I've found his writing style to be so bland as to be almost non-existent, and I think it hurts the stories. There is some really good imagery here (the body in the bath in Floating Water, that bloody weird 'eye/shell' thing in Adrift) but not since The Da Vinci Code have I felt in the hands of an author who really doesn't care about trying to create a stylistic impression. Maybe his very minimalism is part of his appeal. Certainly it's made the book a very fast read - I'm nearly finished & I think the two above are my favourites. 'The Hold' is pretty good too but again I felt it was let down by prose that failed to wring the maximum possible suspense out of the situation.
Have you read his others? Are they like this? I've got RING on the shelf somewhere, I think.
|
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on May 2, 2008 20:23:57 GMT
Da Vinci code : couldn't read it. I read Robert Anton's Wilson's illumaniti - throughly well researched work, beautifully written. As far as I could see its the differnce between a child's comic book and a work of art
|
|
|
|
Post by eddempster on May 2, 2008 22:48:51 GMT
Interesting - I wonder if Koji Suzuki's minimalist style is a cultural thing. English is a second language to him, which might leave him with a different understanding of it from native speakers.
Re the Da Vinci Code - I liked the premise very much, but the writing itself bugged me no end. Especially bits where he showed you enough of what was going on for you to figure out the answer... which he then told you, and then repeated in a different way for the particularly hard of thinking. The fake cliffhangers at the end of every chapter irked me, too.
|
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on May 3, 2008 7:36:06 GMT
The problem I had with that book is that it appeared to me (Highly aware of being sued here) that he simply took the plot, the research and about everything else of Wilson and then watered it down to dumbo level, writing very badly at the same time.
Its an indictment of modern times that crap like that gets on the book shelves rather than crap that I like.
None of the authors or books in this comment are real nor does the author refer to real people nor is he real himself.
|
|
|
|
Post by allthingshorror on May 3, 2008 10:26:12 GMT
Books on the list
Book of Dave - Will Self
The Dark Side - edited by Damon Knight (includes They by R. Heinlein)
Edgar Allan Poe by David Sinclair
Ambrose Bierce - Alone in Bad Company, by Roy Morris Jr.
The Curse of the Snake God by R Chetwynd Hayes
Not After Nightfall by Basil Copper (though I have read Camera Obscura and thought it just absolutely stark raving brillaint.
|
|
|
|
Post by sean on May 3, 2008 16:54:01 GMT
Interesting you say that, Sean. I've found his writing style to be so bland as to be almost non-existent, and I think it hurts the stories. There is some really good imagery here (the body in the bath in Floating Water, that bloody weird 'eye/shell' thing in Adrift) but not since The Da Vinci Code have I felt in the hands of an author who really doesn't care about trying to create a stylistic impression. Maybe his very minimalism is part of his appeal. Certainly it's made the book a very fast read - I'm nearly finished & I think the two above are my favourites. 'The Hold' is pretty good too but again I felt it was let down by prose that failed to wring the maximum possible suspense out of the situation. Have you read his others? Are they like this? I've got RING on the shelf somewhere, I think. Yeah, I've read 'Ring', 'Spiral', 'Loop' and 'Birthday' as well as the 'Dark Water' collection. All have got a certain something going for them, although its sometimes hard to tell exactly what it is! I guess that some of the style (or lack of) may be due to the translation which sometimes seems merely workmanlike, but the thing I liked (with the short stories especially) was the fact that they were free of the 'last minute twist or revelation syndrome' which made a refreshing change. When I was reading the stories themselves I remember thinking 'hmmm well' but they have wormed their way into my brain and stayed there, so I suppose they've done their job, whatever the lack of style. 'Ring' is definitely worth a read, if only to have a kind of behind the scenes look at the original character of Sadako and the changes that were made in the original film. For instance, in the novel, there is no famous crawling out of the TV scene, and the atmosphere is generally more that of an investigative thriller than a horror story. 'Spiral' also has some good ideas, which were completely fucked up by the film version (if you've not seen 'The Spiral', you're lucky... it is dreadful!). The Sadako virus is now passed on in the form of a bestselling book, called 'Ring'! Gue to genetic mucking about, it becomes apparent that every child now born will be a Sadako! (The Japanese film 'Ring 2' had by now taken the story off on a far more interesting, in a horrory kind of way, tangent). 'Loop' is just plain odd, as it transpires that all the events of the previous two novels take place inside a virtual reality experiment which is being destroyed by the increasing number of Sadakos! An interesting enough twist, but a slightly dull book. 'Birthday' contains three stories, one of which is a missing chapter from 'Spiral'. The only one of real worth is 'Birthday' itself which formed the basis of the film 'Ring 0: Birthday'. It is interesting to see Sadako as a livibng, breathing - if somewhat odd - human being instead of the creepy monster of the rest of the films and books. Anyway, throughout, the style is not great, but I found that there were enough ideas there to keep me reading, although it helped that I'm a huge fan of the original films (not seen the remakes) I suspect. |
|
|
|
Post by sean on May 3, 2008 16:56:29 GMT
I read Robert Anton's Wilson's illumaniti - throughly well researched work, beautifully written. As far as I could see its the differnce between a child's comic book and a work of art A wonderful series. Howard the Dolphin is my hero! Oddly enough, Umberyto Eco covers similar ground to the Illuminatus! books in his novel 'Foucault's Pendulum' - in which a small publishing firm decide to invent the ultimate conspiracy theory, and then find that shadowy organisations are taking their findings all too seriously! |
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on May 4, 2008 14:32:28 GMT
I can't honestly say that reading DARK WATER has made me want to read any more of Suzuki's stuff. The prose is the big problem for me - it reads like a moderately well-educated schoolboy who has laboriously translated a foreign language into that kind of dry, awkward, not-quite-right English I haven't come across since the days of O Level French / Latin lessons. Still, as you say, some of the imagery is quite good (and they were a very fast read!).
I love the original RING movie, by the way.
|
|
