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Post by andydecker on Feb 27, 2021 13:43:47 GMT
I manged to nearly complete a set of the collections of Brian Aldiss whose work used to fascinate me back in the 80s, especially his development as a writer. But when I started with the first collection, I found it a hard going. I have read HOTHOUSE many times and always find it fascinating. There is nothing quite like it. This is one I still miss.
I am fascinated by Report on Probability A. What a frustrating and often tedious book, still I wonder if any other writer could have done something similiar. It is a novel which seems to be one of a kind.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 27, 2021 14:17:34 GMT
I must confess that as a young man I read and enjoyed Heinlein’s fiction. But what the hell, eh? Those were halcyon days of youthful innocence (ignorance?). I read two of Heinlein's juvenile novels as a kid. I loved the first one, Have Spacesuit: Will Travel. Looking back, I still think Kip and Peewee are charming characters. On the other hand, Kip's iconoclastic dad--who's clearly a mouthpiece for Heinlein--now comes across as insufferable, though he seemed deep to my childhood self. My follow-up read was The Rolling Stones, an episodic novel about an unlikable pair of scheming twins named Pollux and Castor. Even as a kid, I thought it was a dud. I was a bigger Asimov fan, anyway. I never got around to reading any of Heinlein's adult novels, and I doubt I ever will. EDIT: I also remember being baffled by all the references to slide rules.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 27, 2021 16:13:00 GMT
Mixed bag. Yet another one for the W.H. Allen skull fan club to savour.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 27, 2021 16:30:14 GMT
Mixed bag. Yet another one for the W.H. Allen skull fan club to savour. Why do these rats always look so cute on these covers? And not one bit frightening?
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 27, 2021 23:04:26 GMT
I must confess that as a young man I read and enjoyed Heinlein’s fiction. But what the hell, eh? Those were halcyon days of youthful innocence (ignorance?). I read two of Heinlein's juvenile novels as a kid. I loved the first one, Have Spacesuit: Will Travel. Looking back, I still think Kip and Peewee are charming characters. On the other hand, Kip's iconoclastic dad--who's clearly a mouthpiece for Heinlein--now comes across as insufferable, though he seemed deep to my childhood self. My follow-up read was The Rolling Stones, an episodic novel about an unlikable pair of scheming twins named Pollux and Castor. Even as a kid, I thought it was a dud. I was a bigger Asimov fan, anyway. I never got around to reading any of Heinlein's adult novels, and I doubt I ever will. EDIT: I also remember being baffled by all the references to slide rules. I liked Have Spacesuit: Will Travel too. A few others I remember liking as a kid were Podkayne of Mars, Glory Road (though the Pennington cover suggests it's not a juvenile) and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The big, polemical books were unreadable. I recently revisited a few SF books - The World of Null-A was terrible, though I must try The Space Beagle again. Larry Niven held up well - Neutron Star, Ringworld and The Mote in God's Eye. The first Dune book was great, but the two others in the trilogy, though shorter, had far too much philosophy and gasbagging. I think I'll try Asimov again - the SF detective novels, Caves of Steel and Naked Sun.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 28, 2021 11:38:33 GMT
Why do these rats always look so cute on these covers? And not one bit frightening? These chaps are quite terrifying enough for me, thank you very much!
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 28, 2021 12:14:05 GMT
Virginia Coffman is good. I recommend MOURA, a rather unorthodox "gothic romance."
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Post by andydecker on Feb 28, 2021 13:19:12 GMT
A few more. [
The last ones are German heftromane from the 70s. Always wondered if the first one is from a movie, but couldn't find it. The titles are: Red Alert - the Beasts are coming and Madame Wong's Killer Dolls.
And the Sallust novel may be a painting, it is kind of hard to say.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 28, 2021 13:59:55 GMT
Why do these rats always look so cute on these covers? And not one bit frightening? These chaps are quite terrifying enough for me, thank you very much! I think they're cute, though I might feel differently if I saw them in my basement. Is that eye just a ping pong ball with an iris painted on it? This is a fairly simple cover, but I really like the mood of it.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 28, 2021 14:10:46 GMT
Larry Niven held up well - Neutron Star, Ringworld and The Mote in God's Eye. The first Dune book was great, but the two others in the trilogy, though shorter, had far too much philosophy and gasbagging. I think I'll try Asimov again - the SF detective novels, Caves of Steel and Naked Sun. When I read Ringworld a long time ago, I thought it was full of interesting ideas but weak on story. I did the strange thing of reading the second Dune novel without reading the first (I'd seen the David Lynch film, which is terrible in a fascinating way and weirdly quotable), and I thought it was just OK. I'm wary of rereading my favorite Asimov novels for fear that they won't hold up to my memories of them; the original Foundation trilogy had a huge impact on me. I enjoyed the Lucky Starr juvenile novels as a kid, and Caves of Steel was good, too. Unlike, say, Niven, Asimov was always more interested in people than in things.
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Post by samdawson on Feb 28, 2021 17:34:50 GMT
Is that Margaret Thatcher (the one with the claws, that is) in the Geister-Krimi?
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Post by andydecker on Mar 1, 2021 8:56:08 GMT
Is that Margaret Thatcher (the one with the claws, that is) in the Geister-Krimi? Now that you mention it ...
This cover intrigues me for a long time now. Often those photo shoots were sold all over Europe. You can witness this especially in the lower tier men's magazines, where you have different photos of the same set in different countries. Put together a 4 page thread in one magazine grows to 20 pictures or more.
So this picture could be one of some Italian or French photo-novel which were immensely popular at the time amd are all but forgotten today. Or it could be from some obscure movie. I highly doubt that the publisher spend the money for some exclusive photo session just to produce one picture. Aside from the art by the regular contributors the Geister-Krimi used some cropped covers from Italian horror comics like Zora la Vampira or Wallestein, but this (and the issue before, a Lee Dracula picture) is the only photo cover they used in its 400 issue run.
I think too much about this, I know, but I would like to see the rest of it :-) Maybe this is indeed a Thatcher mask. Who knows?
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Post by andydecker on Mar 1, 2021 9:29:26 GMT
Some more. Stuffy and rather boring Wheatleys and some more early heftromane.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 1, 2021 13:24:52 GMT
Is that eye just a ping pong ball with an iris painted on it? While on the subject, Pan were usually good for dubious eyeball action. Not sure if Tales from a Gaslit Graveyard is painting or photo, but find it very attractive.
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Post by helrunar on Mar 1, 2021 14:46:59 GMT
Those are cool, Andreas.
The cover for Nachts, wenn die Toten kommen looks like a still from this weird early 60s Canadian fantasy-horror film, The Mask, from which I have seen many photographs over the decades (Ackerman used to publish them frequently in Famous Monsters), but still have never seen. Should check you tube.
cheers, Steve
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