February's Fantastic Folios and Fascinating Fables

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by Connavar
I'm reading City of Chasch by Jack Vance. Book 1 of 4 in his Planet of Adventure series. Sword and Planet Vance style is different to say the least.

Ewww ... this was the book that made me promise not to read that author again ( or was it a particulary bad translation - I'll probably never know) But this what I recall is that this was a really bad clone Burroughs Mars stories.

Interesting, I have these books but havent read them yet(waiting to find book 4, the Pnume), like Burroughs' barsoom books you say?

 

[Taltos]

Interesting, I have these books but havent read them yet(waiting to find book 4, the Pnume), like Burroughs' barsoom books you say?

At least that's how it felt - lonely hero, color coded aliens etc. Thankfully I've managed to forget most of this book - also to be honest I've managed to read only one Barsoom book - it was way too dull to continue. (Lets hope now that I've not offended the horde of Burroughs and Vance fans here)

 

[AE35Unit]

At least that's how it felt - lonely hero, color coded aliens etc. Thankfully I've managed to forget most of this book - also to be honest I've managed to read only one Barsoom book - it was way too dull to continue. (Lets hope now that I've not offended the horde of Burroughs and Vance fans here)

Well that's kind of put me off because I read the first Barsoom book and while it was OK I don't relish collecting and then wading thru the rest of the series!

 

[Connavar]

Heh it must be bad translation and frankly comparing to ERB is an offence against the writing style of Vance.

I liked John Carter story wise but Vance is far from that.

AE35Unit: I have to warn you its a Sword and Planet book but its written like a SF of his. You know what to expect. Its not as simple action,adventure alà John Carter. Its more about alien cultures,alien world.

If you liked Emphyrio you will like POA books.

 

[Hypnos164]

Finished The Company by K J Parker - it started brilliantly, with some great characters, but the pace slackened and the plot needed help from a few too many conveniently timed external events to be truly satisfying by the end. I'll keep an eye out for more of Parker's work though - certainly shows some promise.

 

[j d worthington]

Finished Barry Hughart The Bridge of Birds which was a good story, although not the best I've read in ancient China setting. Somehow it seems that this is very highly regarded - can anyone ellaborate why it is ? And again - it could be that due to translation I've missed the finest points of this book.

I think that may be it, as it was Hughart's style and manner, the delicacies of his writing, which tended to catch people's attention. I'm not sure it would translate well unless it were done by someone with a strong background as a poet who could also do eloquent prose....

 

[GOLLUM]

Finished Barry Hughart The Bridge of Birds which was a good story, although not the best I've read in ancient China setting. Somehow it seems that this is very highly regarded - can anyone ellaborate why it is ? And again - it could be that due to translation I've missed the finest points of this book.

I think that may be it, as it was Hughart's style and manner, the delicacies of his writing, which tended to catch people's attention. I'm not sure it would translate well unless it were done by someone with a strong background as a poet who could also do eloquent prose....

I agree with J.D. Hughart's Bridge of Birds is as much a poet's novel as anything else. I loved the lush, descriptive prose Mr. Hughart employed to describe this whimsical story and it's a shame this series is not better known! A travesty exacerbated in no minor way it would seem by Hughart's own publishers.

Subterranean Press published a glorious omnibus edn. featuring all 3 adventures of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, which was sold out but still available on Amazon if you can spare the cash. The publisher Stars Our Destination put out a more affordable omnibus edn. prior to this that is still available via the web.

I may reread and post a review of this book in 2010 if not for any other reason but to bring it to the attention of more people.

I think Nesa may have done a review on this as its one of her personal favourites but that was a little while ago, so it never hurts to revive these things.

Now back to Torpor's The Tenant....

 

[Talysia]

Finished C.J. Sansom's Revelation, and really enjoyed it. Time to change genre again, so I'm going back to reread Anne McCaffrey's The Ship who Sang.

 

[Pyan]

Finished The Night Watch: on to The Day Watch...loving it (them?) so far.

 

[Culhwch]

Been dipping into the opening chapters of Durham's Acacia for the last few days. Interesting enough so far, if not outstanding.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I remember reading his historical novel, Hannibal, and I thought that, while the novel itself was fairly interesting, the prose was somewhat average.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Finished Flowers for Algernon last night, read about the last hundred pages in one go. Just love that book. Ending never stops being heart-wrenching, evn though I've read it eight or nine times now.

Picked up Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed (that's alotta essssss'ss) of my shelf to be read next.

 

[GOLLUM]

OK, it's late here (3am) but I've been transfixed in completing a rather remarkable novel in The Tenant by Roland Torpor. Aside from being a quite brilliant expose of a person's spiraling descent into madness, the novel also deals with many themes including guilt and paranoia and the central premise that as individuals we lack the ability to define ourselves and that attempts by more powerful conforming forces to make this determination for us is in turn delusional on their part as everyone is inescapably a nobody. A theme similarly explored by Nobel Prize Winner Luigi Pirandello in his novel One, No One and One Hundred Thousand (I will be reading my NYRB classic edn of this as a comparative study) but apparently handled in totally the opposite way to Torpor. My review shall explain things further but I agree with Thomas Ligotti in his illuminating introduction, in that if Roland Torpor's remarkable short novel and associated 4 short stories and artwork collected here are indicative of his larger body of work, then we are indeed dealing with a superlative creator of Horror fiction.

Clearly then, Torpor's The Tenant is IMO the second masterpiece I've been fortunate enough to read this year following Georges Rodenbach's Bruges-la-Morte for which more detailed reviews of these and other works in 2010 shall follow in a separate thread in coming days. Sorry to be waxing so lyrical but this latest book really was a marvelous read!

Next up is Elizabeth Smart's poetic novel vis a vis Bruges-la-Morte entitled By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, which Angela Carter for one regarded as a Masterpiece to sit comfortably beside the likes of Madame Bovary.

 

[AE35Unit]

Hmmm, not long to go now on The Keep (10/10 for this one!), and cant decide between Heinlien's Number of the Beast or Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness next!

 

[Rosemary]

Have finished reading The Ice Dragon by GRRM. A beautiful story, happy but sad in parts but didn't have to resort to the tissues.

Now reading Badger's Moon by Peter Tremayne.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

GOLLUM: Sounds like you're having a good streak there! The Torpor book is going on my shopping list right away.

 

[GOLLUM]

GOLLUM: Sounds like you're having a good streak there! The Torpor book is going on my shopping list right away.

Thanks.

Apart from Vandermeer's Finch, which was still a good read but not exceptional IMO, everything else I've read in 2010 from Kawabata's palm stories to Gautier to Rodenbach to Tolstaya to Laforet to now Torpor has been been really good.

I probably didn't mean to quite make The Tenant sound like the greatest work of 20th Century Horror....... BUT it is a great novel that really pulls you in, especially in the second half and Ligotti's introduction is particularly helpful in better understanding this neglected master and through that his work. Please note my copy with the essential Ligotti introduction, is put out by Milipede Press. I don't know what other additions are available as I picked this up by pure chance at the local bookshop last year after reading the blurb and Ligotti's obvious admiration for Torpor in the front section sold me on the whole idea. The fact a similar concept was explored ealrier in the century by Luigi Pirandello in his novel One, No One and One Hundred Thousand that I just happened to also purchase in the NYRB range, I had no idea about until Ligotti pointed it out.This latter book has moved up the TBR pile thanks to Torpor's novel.

By Grand Central Station I Wept continues to impress me with its at times lyrically beautiful use of metaphor and employment of biblical and mythological references. Thanks again to an insightful introduction by Brigin Brophy this time, I can see many influences including Rilke, Baudelaire, Ovid, Djuna Barnes, Anais Nin and last but not least Jean Genet, who seems to be considered the equal of Smart in the pantheon of great prose poets of the last century. Several of these people's works I'll be reading more of this year.

Roll on 2010...

 

[J-WO]

Couldn't find any Vandermeer on my cursory visit to Waterstones so I bought The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard.

Its like being trapped in someone else's recurring dream. As a book it really shouldn't work, but it does!

 

[Pyan]

and cant decide between Heinlien's Number of the Beast ...

Now that's a real love/hate book, Larry - I'd be interested in your take on it...

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Couldn't find any Vandermeer on my cursory visit to Waterstones so I bought The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard.

Its like being trapped in someone else's recurring dream. As a book it really shouldn't work, but it does!

Oh, my, yes! I read this at the tender age of 16 and it messed with my mind for quite a while. Ballard's series of apocalyptic novels, such as The Crystal World are rather good, as are High Rise and The Vermillion Sands.