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Post by andys on Mar 13, 2017 15:09:08 GMT -5
Just finished The Hand of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (third in the series). Entertaining, atmospheric book with some neat sequences, such as one in which the heroes have to traverse an underground passage crawling with thousands of poisonous bugs (sound familiar?).
Just started The Hunter From the Woods, by Robert McCammon, a short story collection sequel to The Wolf's Hour. In case you don't know Wolf's Hour, it's James Bond in WWII, except Bond is a werewolf of Russian descent. It's awesome.
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Post by deuce on Mar 20, 2017 13:35:56 GMT -5
I have been reading some of the Fargo western/historical series lately. I feel they lean more towards historical adventure due to the fact they occur in the 1914-1918 timeframe and are often set outside the traditional western setting; Alaska, Pacific Northwest, Central America, Argentina, ect. Great historical details mix with bone-crunching and bloody action. The books are generally under 200 pages and move like a .38 hollow point. Fargo is like a turn of the century Conan: a professional fighting man who kills for money, and travels far and wide in search of adventure. Highly recommended! The Fargo series is great stuff, and it's finally available as e-books, which makes it one helluva lot easier to read than it was a year or so ago. None of the old paperbacks were common, and the last four or five books had only a single printing back in the 1970's and were pretty tough to find. The Fargo books written by Fargo's creator, Ben Haas, are some of the best 'men's action-adventure fiction' ever. But they're so smoothly written and direct that you can breeze through them fast enough to miss out on the well set-up conflicts, cool atmosphere, and solid, yet never overbearing, historical detail. Here's the full list in order of their original publication... Fargo Panama Gold Alaska Steel Massacre River The Wildcatters Apache Raiders Wolf’s Head Valley of Skulls The Black Bulls The Sharpshooters Phantom Gunman Killing Spree Shotgun Man Bandolero Sierra Silver (by an unknown author) Dynamite Fever (by an unknown author) Gringo Guns (by an unknown author) Hell On Wheels The Border Jumpers Death Valley Gold Killer’s Moon Fargo & the Texas Rangers Dakota Badlands Haas wrote all but those three in the middle, and it seems his son had had hand in some of the last ones, but those read enough like Haas that I'm banking Dad gave them an editorial once-over. Nobody, not even James Reasoner, knows who wrote Sierra Silver, Dynamite Fever and Gringo Guns. These three Fargos are simply not in the same league as those by Haas and should only be read by those who know what they're getting into. (In short: middling adventure pulp that gets the Fargo character so wrong it's kind of stunning.) The Fargo series once shared shelf space with the rest of the 1970's era men's action adventure heroes-- the Executioner, the Destroyer, the Death Merchant, the Butcher, the Specialist, etc. But for my money none of them, except maybe Haas own Sundance, can hold a candle to Fargo. Jim Cornelius and John Maddox Roberts have some praise for Haas/Benteen here: frontierpartisans.com/10004/john-benteen/ |
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Post by Von K on Mar 21, 2017 14:04:11 GMT -5
Thanks Deuce. Good to read more perspectives on Ben Haas fiction. |
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Post by deuce on Mar 24, 2017 19:20:46 GMT -5
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Post by andys on Apr 12, 2017 13:57:47 GMT -5
Just finished Kyrik, Warlock Warrior by Gardner Fox. Nothing special but entertaining as a short read. My biggest issue with the story is that the setting is remarkably unchanged over the 1,000 years that Kyrik spends as a statue. Businesses that were around in his old time are still in business and hiding places to used were never uncovered, with only maybe a bit of dust revealing the passage of time. A bit much  I will say that if you're going to call on the aid of an elder being, Kyrik's partnership with a sex goddess is a much more favorable arrangement than Elric's relationship with Arioch. |
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Post by deuce on Apr 17, 2017 20:27:07 GMT -5
I've been slowly grinding away at Dean Koontz's Watchers. It's the only book by Koontz that I've tried and I think it will likely be the only one when I finish it because I'm not seeing what's so special about it. I've never seen the appeal of Koontz either. |
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Post by trescuinge on Apr 17, 2017 21:07:32 GMT -5
Thanks Deuce! Great review of a classic story. I have to admit that I reread 'Space Viking' about once a year.
I do disagree with the statement that Trask is the only character, Otto Harkaman is great!
"We don't have any of this democracy in the Sword-Worlds, if that's the word for it," he said. "And our ruling class aren't ashamed of their power, and our people aren't hitchhikers, and as long as they get decent treatment they don't try to run things. And we're not doing so well."
The Morglay dynastic war of a couple of centuries ago, still sputtering and smoking. The Oskarsan-Elmersan War on Durendal, into which Flamberge and now Joyeuse had intruded. And the situation on Gram, fast approaching critical mass. Harkaman nodded agreement.
"You know why? Our rulers are the barbarians among us. There isn't one of them--Napolyon of Flamberge, Rodolf of Excalibur, or Angus of about half of Gram--who is devoted to civilization or anything else outside himself, and that's the mark of the barbarian."
"What are you devoted to, Otto?"
"You. You are my chieftain. That's another mark of the barbarian."
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Post by deuce on Apr 18, 2017 11:50:29 GMT -5
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Post by KiramidHead on Apr 18, 2017 15:26:53 GMT -5
I just finished reading Slash of the Titans: The Road to Freddy vs Jason, by Dustin McNeill. It was a very thorough, fascinating look at the lengthy development of the project, including in depth looks at several rejected scripts, including a few I haven't found myself. It's well worth the read if you're at all a fan of the characters.
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Post by buxom9sorceress on Apr 19, 2017 10:15:58 GMT -5
The Icelandic DraculaThe Lost Version Of DraculaPowers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery: In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Asmundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker's world famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, "Powers of Darkness"), this Icelandic edition included an original preface written by Stoker himself. Makt Myrkranna was published in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside of the country until 1986, when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker's preface to the book. However, no one looked beyond the preface and deeper into Asmundsson's story. In 2014, researcher Hans de Roos dove into the full text of Makt Myrkranna, only to discover that Asmundsson hadn't merely translated Dracula but had penned an entirely new version of the story, with all new characters and a totally reworked plot. The resulting narrative is one that is shorter, punchier, more erotic, and perhaps even more suspenseful than Stoker's Dracula. Incredibly, Makt Myrkranna has never been translated or even read outside of Iceland until now. Powers of Darkness presents the first ever translation into English of Stoker and Asmundsson's Makt Myrkranna.Powers of Darkness will amaze and entertain legions of fans of Gothic literature, horror, and vampire fiction. I bet Stoker was not aware that the book had been completely re-written.  [ there cant have been many keen dracula fans in iceland, since none of them celebrated that version beyond their cold shores, till 2014? ] Thanks from my hidden fangs. |
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Post by KiramidHead on Apr 19, 2017 11:16:08 GMT -5
Dacre Stoker writing the foreword is fitting. He knows all about warping the original novel beyond recognition.
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Post by KiramidHead on Apr 28, 2017 21:50:14 GMT -5
While I wait for that Tarzan volume to arrive in the mail (should come on Monday), I'm reading The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, by Toby Wilkinson. It's a refreshingly un-romanticized take on he civilization, and the early chapters are quite interesting. It's rekindling my old love of the Pharaohs. |
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Post by deuce on Apr 30, 2017 18:26:12 GMT -5
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Post by almuric on May 7, 2017 8:37:10 GMT -5
The Word Ouroborous, by E. R. Eddison - Well, that was certainly unique. This pre-Tolkien Fantasy begins, as many novels of the fantastic did back then, with a connection to our world. Edward Lessingham visits the planet Mercury in his dreams. But lest you think that this is going to be Sword and Planet, he's strictly an observer and save for one mention later, totally disappears from the narrative. The story is then the epic clash between the lords of Demonland and Witchland. There are some places where it lags, especially one chapter devoted to a feast which is mostly descriptions of food. You could skip that. But the archaic prose helps create the feeling of some ancient saga. While it has connections to Eddison's other work, there's no other novel quite like it.
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Post by trescuinge on May 7, 2017 20:25:18 GMT -5
The Word Ouroborous, by E. R. Eddison - Well, that was certainly unique. This pre-Tolkien Fantasy begins, as many novels of the fantastic did back then, with a connection to our world. Edward Lessingham visits the planet Mercury in his dreams. But lest you think that this is going to be Sword and Planet, he's strictly an observer and save for one mention later, totally disappears from the narrative. The story is then the epic clash between the lords of Demonland and Witchland. There are some places where it lags, especially one chapter devoted to a feast which is mostly descriptions of food. You could skip that. But the archaic prose helps create the feeling of some ancient saga. While it has connections to Eddison's other work, there's no other novel quite like it.
The lords of Witchland are some of the best villains in all literature!
Eddison himself was a let-down for the good professor:
In Tolkien's own words (from the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien):
"I read the works of [E.R.] Eddison, long after they appeared; and I
once met him. I heard him in Mr. Lewis's room in Magdalen College
read aloud some parts of his own works -- from the =Mistress of
Mistresses,= as far as I remember. He did it extremely well. I read
his works with great enjoyment for their sheer literary merit. My
opinion of them is almost the same as that expressed by Mr. Lewis on
p. 104 of the =Essays Presented to Charles Williams.= Except that I
disliked his characters (always excepting the Lord Gro) and despised
what he appeared to admire more intensely than Mr. Lewis at any rate
saw fit to say of himself. Eddison thought what I admire 'soft' (his
word: one of complete condemnation, I gathered); I thought that,
corrupted by an evil and indeed silly 'philosophy', he was coming to
admire, more and more, arrogance and cruelty. Incidentally, I thought
his nomenclature slipshod and often inept. In spite of all of which,
I still think of him as the greatest and most convincing writer of
'invented worlds' that I have read. But he was certainly not an
'influence'."
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