My 10 Authors reading Marathon!

[Silver Owl]

This is the weirdest idea for a marathon ever but hear me out. I'm going to look at all the novels of 10 authors by publication date. This might include ruminations on the authors themselves and should hopefully lead to a nice look at their careers. I may look at short fiction collections but I haven't decided yet.

Their wasn't really a criteria for the authors chosen except that they have to have produced a manageable number of books for me to read before I keel over. So no Stephen King or Bob Silverberg. Also I have to have read and enjoyed at least one of their books.

The list is:

Mervyn Peake
William Golding
Kurt Vonnegut
Philip Kindred Dick
J.G Ballard
Octavia Butler
Iain Banks
Alastair Reynolds
China Mieville
Nick Harkaway

I spent a week assembling that list and I'm really pleased with it. It includes a lot of authors that straddle the boundaries between what is SFF and what isn't. I will be covering even mainstream books, so for example I will be looking at Voices in the Street by PKD but not until I get to 2007 as that's when it was published.

The list takes us from 1946 when Titus Groan was published to the present as 3 of the authors are still publishing.

Why am I doing this? Well because it's fun and working from home is driving me stir crazy.

Lots of the books on the list I've read and the first two quite recently so I'll pop up my posts on them today.

 

[Silver Owl]

Titus Groan (1946)
By Mervyn Peake

Titus Groan is a strange novel, in that it has next to nothing to do with the title character. Titus is just an infant when the book closes and by that point Peake has spent so much time showing the reader the world in which the child has been born into that you can only feel sorry for the poor kid.

The hilarious pomp of the rituals show us a world in which the characters lives are being robbed of all meaning in pursuit of tradition and permanence. Titus and Steerpike both act as agents of change against the system that consumes all the inhabitants of Gormenghast castle.

The theme of change that permeates the novel is particularly apt when looking at the year of publication. In 1946 Britain - and indeed the world - was beginning to change exponentially with the beginnings of the welfare state and a change in the dynamics of foreign affairs.

Gormenghast castle itself is almost it's own character and the lavish descriptions of the place remind the reader that Peake was an artist and here he uses words to paint a picture. You don't read the Titus Books for the plot, you read them for the prose.

I want to draw attention to two elements of the novel which particularly impressed me. The way the story is bookended by accounts of the comings and goings of Rottcodd the curator of the hall of bright carvings and his perspective on events. This is wonderfully and is one of the many highlights. Also towards the end of the novel the chapter entitled The Dark Breakfast is perhaps the best individual chapter any of Peak's novels. It is immensely well crafted and gives an insight into each of the minds of the main cast.

Overall Peake's first novel reflects his career as an artist and poet and stands today as a the beginning of a trilogy respected in literature and fantasy circles.

 

[Toby Frost]

I love Titus Groan and Gormenghast. They're fantastic books.

 

[Randy M.]

I loved Titus Groan. And I agree completely that you read it for the prose: Peake found a vocabulary that could translate what his illustrator/painter eye saw and imagined into language; some of the most striking imagery I've ever read.

And a lot of his commentary on the character of the inhabitants of Gormanghast was, if not subtle, at least somewhat oblique. One of my favorite passages is this one, describing the Cool Room,

The room was perhaps the most homely and at the same time the most elegant in the castle. There were no shadows lurking in the corners. The whole feeling was of quiet and pleasing distinction, and when the afternoon sun lit up the lawns beyond the bay windows into a green-gold carpet, the room with its cooler tints became a place to linger in. It was seldom used.​

For me, this exemplifies the sort of humorous observation I enjoyed throughout the novel.


Randy m.

 

[Silver Owl]

Gormenghast (1950)

Gormenghast is the second book in the - unintentional - trilogy of Titus books and is often regarded as the best. In my opinion - though there's barely anything in it - the opposite is true.

The book is essentially three tales in one. The first is a sort of comedy that follows the attempts of Irma Prunesquallor to find a husband in the faculty of professors at the castle. At the same time Steerpike is infiltrating the castles hierarchy ever further and Titus is coming to the realisation that he can't be doing with the ridiculous ritual shenanigans that he's had to endure all his life.

The surrogate father relationship Dr Prunesquallor has with Titus and his sister Fuchsia is a really nice touch and gives the book a warmth that the series as a whole lacks in places. The bond between Titus and Fuchsia is equally good and develops nicely across the 10 years covered by the book.

The gothic feel and rich prose continue in Peake's second novel and to his credit I only very occasionally noticed the amount of padding, brilliant padding but padding nonetheless.

At the end of the book Titus leaves the castle in search of an identity that isn't defined by his position. This marks the second and final appearance of Gormenghast castle in Peake's work, despite this the setting casts a huge shadow on literature and fantastical fiction today. As far as I'm aware there's nothing quite like Gormenghast elsewhere in fiction, I suspect that's because I can't imagine anyone doing it better.

 

[hitmouse]

Are you going to include Mr Pye, Letters From a Lost Uncle, Captain Slaughterboard, Nonsense Poems etc?
The non-Titus Peake is very interesting.

 

[Silver Owl]

Are you going to include Mr Pye, Letters From a Lost Uncle, Captain Slaughterboard, Nonsense Poems etc?
The non-Titus Peake is very interesting.

I'm going to include Mr Pye but that's all from that list unfortunately.

Edit: Next is Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. I'm still reading it so should hopefully get the post up this weekend.

 

[Silver Owl]

Player Piano (1952)

Kurt Vonnegut isn't an author I'm familiar with. In fact he's only on this marathon because my recently deceased grandad worshipped the man and I included Vonnegut as a kind of tribute to him.

His first novel, Player Piano is set in a dystopian future where machines have been developed that do the vast majority of jobs more efficiently than humans and so most people are out of work. We are shown this setting through the eyes of Paul Proteus. Paul and his wife Anita are at the upper end of society and Paul still has an important job. As the novel progresses Paul begins to see the plight of the lower classes.
The character of Anita, Paul's wife began to grate by the half way point, it's probably the attitude to women at the time it was published more than the individual character. Apparently the plot is ripped of from Huxley's Brave New World but seeing as I haven't read it I wouldn't have known so it's a mute point.
There was perhaps too much office politics shenanigans and it made it all a bit samey after a while but this often consisted of Vonnegut making fun of the sheer ridiculousness of it all and it picked up towards the end so I'll let that slide.

All things considered it's a okay debut for Vonnegut. The plot is meandering at times and most of the novel is world building but it's fairly well done. I probably could be harder on the book but it's a debut and by all accounts Vonnegut's best work is still to come.

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I've read the next two entries recently so I'll have both of the posts up tomorrow.

Edit: actually I'll do one tomorrow and one on Monday.

 

[Silver Owl]

Mr Pye (1953)

Already we're back with Mervyn Peake and this time round he's indulging himself. Peake is famous for his love of the Island of Sark, part of the Channel Islands. Even if you didn't know that fact it's evident when reading Mr Pye.

The plot follows Mr Pye, a visitor to Sark, as he tries to get the islanders to follow god and be hilariously, infuriatingly nice to each other. After doing this for a time he begins to grow wings and then - after being unpleasant - horns. Wacky antics ensue

The central theme is probably the importance of having a balanced personality. There will be people you don't like but that's ok. It's interesting to note that Peake was religious - Catholic I think - and here he points out the absurdity of people like Mr Pye.

The writing style is very light, pleasant and easy to read. It's very funny and it makes you want to go and visit the island for yourself.

The book is very short and it's definitely not going to set the world on fire but there are flashes of brilliance in the prose and the characters that make it worth reading.

In short it's a fun little book. The shadow of Gormenghast hangs over the novel, as most people who read this will have enjoyed Gormenghast and come to Mr Pye expecting more of the same, ending up disappointed. This is what you get if you want to see one of the most grandiose and poetic authors around write a light farce whilst indulging himself on a setting he adores.

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Tomorrow I'll be looking at William Golding for the first time in the marathon.

 

[hitmouse]

I knew a Sarkese lady who had been at school on the island with Mervyn Peake's son, when the Peake family lived on Sark. Very interesting place. Feudal government, no cars.
There was a good Channel 4 series of Mr Pye, filmed on Sark, and re-released in 2011. Available on Amazon.

 

[Silver Owl]

I'll have to check it out. I'm a big fan of Derek Jacobi as well so that's another positive.'

Wow I didn't know about the feudal government thing, it sounds like an amazing place.

 

[hitmouse]

Sark is a fiefdom of the British Crown, held by the hereditary Seigneur. Looks as though the feudal system was abolished in 2007:

Feudal Sark
Democratic revolution

Jul 12th 2007 | sark | From the Economist print edition

• 
  
  
  
  
  TRACTOR-DRAWN fire engines, £1 notes and an annual sheep race are some of the quaint attractions of the dinky British dependency of Sark, a Channel Island. Even stranger is its feudal constitution, scarcely altered since the island was colonised in 1565. In charge is the seigneur, who leases the entire island from the crown for £1.79 ($3.62) per year and sub-lets it to the 600 islanders. The bigger landholders get 40 seats in Chief Pleas, the parliament that meets in an old schoolhouse under a portrait of the queen. Just 12 seats are taken by elected commoners.
  
  But on July 4th Sark decided to end the feudal era. Chief Pleas agreed to limit landowners to 12 seats and beefed up the commoners' share to 16. The first election under the new system will be held next year and a referendum by 2012 could remove landowners' seats entirely.
  
  
  

 

[Silver Owl]

^
Yeah I looked it up yesterday. It's a cool place
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Lord of the Flies (1954)

William Golding is a name that is rarely mentioned in regards to any of his works with the exception of Lord of the Flies, his first novel. Golding was late to the party as this - his first book - was only published when he was 44. He was busy teaching before his writing career, which is funny because this book isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of those kids. Golding definitely didn't suffer from debut jitters like lots of authors do, if anything the opposite could be true?

The plot - as many will remember from school - follows a group of boys stranded on an Island as they try to build a society. This is followed by what can only be described as an epic failure to build said society, with lots of dramatic mayhem and shenanigans.

The book is endlessly quotable, thought provoking, bleak and depressing but when your an angsty teen like I was when I first read this bleak and depressing is cool. Simon is also one of the best characters ever and no one will convince me otherwise. It's obvious why this is taught in schools as it's so good. In fact this book, when I read it for school, instilled in me a willingness to look beyond the confines of my Darren Shan, Lemony Snicket shaped reading world for other authors.

As much as I sing the praises of the book it has me worried for the rest of my marathon. If his other books are never mentioned then does that mean Golding peaked at his first book? Are they even worth reading? I'll soon find out....

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I'm reading the Inheritors by Golding so the next post will be up whenever I'm finished. And after that I'll get started on PKD who'll crop up a lot!

 

[Silver Owl]

The Inheritors (1955)

William Golding published his second and favourite novel the Inheritors in 1955. The book follows the story of a group of Neanderthals and their discovery of Homo sapiens. We follow the story from the point of view of Lok who is possibly the least intelligent member of the tribe, his partner Fa being the brains of the duo.

This book took a while for me to get into and coupled with a busy week means I took a while to get through this. I think it's one of those books where you're glad you read it for the experience but you wouldn't necessarily read it again. It is similar to Lord of the Flies in that it follows the same humans are monsters theme. It will be interesting to see if this continues to be a theme in the rest of Golding's work.

The Neanderthals are interesting in that they have what is probably best described as low level telepathy and they share 'pictures' with each other. I expect that because relatively little is known about Neanderthal culture it gave Golding scope to invent stuff for his story. It's kind of like a science fiction alien culture clash story with the sci if taken out.

It's nice to contrast the homo sapiens and Neanderthal cultures as presented by Golding. The humans are shown to be more intelligent and advanced with boats and more advanced weapons whereas the Neanderthals are perhaps more spiritually advanced and closer to nature. This is shown through the reluctance of the Neanderthals to kill animals for food, instead only eating when an animal is already dead. This could be connected to the portrayal of the Neanderthals as being more female centric with women playing an essential role In society whereas the humans denigrate women and see them to be less respected in society.

To sum up its definitely a worthwhile rewarding read, even if I'm not exactly sure it worked overall.

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Sorry this took me all week I was very busy. Tomorrow I'm on holiday and the cottage I'm staying in doesn't have internet so I'm not going to be updating the thread. I should have lots of reading time though so when I get back next Saturday I should have plenty of updates. Next up is Solar Lottery by PKD.

 

[Silver Owl]

I'm back from holiday a day early and I've got loads of updates that I'm going to write up once a day for the next week hopefully.

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Solar Lottery (1955)

This is Philip K Dick's first published novel and it really fell flat on me to be honest. The book is set in a world where the Quizmaster - the head of world government - is chosen by a computerised lottery and is then hunted down by assassins for entertainment. There is some nice near future world building. PKD is best at the near future stuff and makes the worlds believable as a possible scenario.

The story follows Ted Benteley who has decide between loyalty to the outgoing quizmaster and loyalty to the office itself. There is also a thread following the new Everyman quizmaster and his attempts to protect himself from assassins with sneaky tactics. And then there's a whole John Preston 'flame disc' storyline about a planet beyond Pluto that is just ridiculously shoehorned in, seriously should have been edited out.

Perhaps the problem is that I've read a few of PKDs later stuff and I know he can do far better. I've tried to bear in mind that it's a first novel but it's just got genetic SF written all over it.

It's not all bad as there are some cool chase/assassin scenes and if you go in with low expectations it's a fun runaround. Also I'd like to note that I read this in 2 days which is really fast for me so it must have been engaging and it was fairly well paced. But this isn't the PKD I remember reading from a few years ago.

I'm not sure when this was written as I'm aware that with PKD the wry listed dates are sometimes wildly different to the order the books were written but it felt like an early one to me.

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Tomorrow I'll update on Pincher Martin by William Golding

 

[Silver Owl]

Pincher Martin (1956)

William Golding's 3rd novel explores the life of a man nicknamed Pincher Martin after he is shipwrecked on an island. Sound familiar? It isn't just Martin messing about on an island alone though as there are also flashbacks to his life. Martin was on a Navy ship in WWII and is the only survivor of an accident that leads to the destruction of the vessel.

This is a very different take on the stranded on an island story he tried in Lord of the Flies. It's also got a twist ending and is probably read very differently if you know the ending. What is perhaps a slightly plodding story beforehand is seen in a different light.

Often I find Golding difficult to follow but the concepts have so far been interesting enough to keep me reading. The book is also a contrast to Lord of the Flies in that in Flies there are a group of boys and they have each other but here the protagonist is all alone and has time to reflect.

Through the flashbacks we discover that Martin isn't a very nice person at all and to Golding's credit I was still cared about what happened to the guy.

Overall though I thought this was slightly weaker than The Inheritors and the ending didn't redeem it enough for me. So despite some cool ideas it didn't engage me enough.

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Tomorrow is The Man Who Japed by PKD

 

[Cat's Cradle]

I'm really digging reading about your marathon of literature, Silver Owl! I've only read two of the books you've reviewed so far, but this will be a nice reference for those future days when I need a new read. Looking forward to future posts, CC

 

[Silver Owl]

Thanks. It's nice to know people are enjoying it.

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The Man Who Japed (1956)

The Man who Japed is Dick's second published novel and I'm not sure when it was written in relation to the first but I enjoyed it a lot more.

The story follows a man called Allan Purcell and his wife as they struggle to cope with his subconscious rebellion in a post nuclear war world where everything from unmarital sex to swearing is a crime and any deviating from the rules is judged by your neighbours. Allan decides to eventually sacrifice his prestigious position in society to show it for the farce it is on live TV.

It's always fun to see what old sci fi books predicted in the near future and compare it to reality. Here PKD incisions a Nuclear War that ends in the 1970s. At least that didn't happen. The idea of the flat that changes rooms automatically is pretty cool as well, I could do with one of them. I like to think of novels set in a future that's already past as an alternate universe. Is that odd? Probably.

This was really fun to read. I do want to impress the difference between an enjoyable fun read and a good read because I don't think it was actually good. I hope that makes sense. But I suppose it was published as an Ace double novel and is basically pulp sci fi.

This is a lot better than Solar Lottery which I appreciate as it's obviously better for me if authors improve as the marathon goes on. It's nice to see improvement.

So the final verdict is basically that it was a good way to pass a few hours and shows the genesis of some themes the Dick would continue to develop in later works. Despite all that though it's still pulp but that doesn't matter really.

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Tomorrow The World Jones Made by PKD

 

[Silver Owl]

The World Jones Made (1956)

Moving to Dick's 3rd published novel, The World Jones Made is one of the more memorable out of the 7 PKD novels I've read. This is still early days so it's not as refined as later ones but it takes a good idea and develops it well.

The story follows a homeless circus freak called Jones who has always been able to see one year into the future. The extent of this ability and its limitations is well fleshed out in the novel and is used well. We experience the ramifications of this through the eyes of... Yep you guessed it the same everyman and his wife that seem to crop up in loads of PKD books. I can't remember the guys name and I only read it last week. That isn't a complaint really cause PKD is an ideas man not a character developer so it's to be expected.

The book asked the question Is it worth knowing the future or is ignorance bliss? The answer is a resounding no it's not worth it as you see your own death. I'm making it sound more sophisticated than it is but it's a fun outlandish look at the idea.

This is probably my fave early PKD so far. There's genetic engineering, alien plants, government shenanigans and more. Thoroughly entertaining. It's probably gonna be one of those books that in 10 years if asked about it I'll remember nothing except that I'd enjoyed it.

These early books seem to be serving more as an insight into the development of the author than anything else and don't offer true greatness in their own right. I suspect however that once I've got to the end of PKD in my marathon this will be revealed to have been a transitional novel in his development from pulp to the later stuff that literary snobs like to fawn over.

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Tomorrow Eye in the Sky by PKD

 

[Silver Owl]

Eye in the Sky (1958)

In PKD's fourth published sci if adventure Jack Hamilton and his wife Marsha are involved in a nuclear accident with 5 others at work which results in them being trapped inside a different reality that subscribes to the worldview of one of the 7 people from the accident. I hope that explanation made some sort of sense.

This is the first PKD book on the marathon where the contents of the book and its themes are more interesting than the name of the author. Take Dick's name of the cover and its still a worthwhile book. The novel takes the piss out out of fundamentalist religion and the hardline tendencies of both the political right and left.

I haven't mentioned the tendency Dick has to be very un PC and I wasn't going to. I recognise that it's of its time and I admire what he was trying to say anyway so it doesn't really matter. It's just that in this book in particular it was so bad it was hilarious I was literally laughing at how over the top and often - probably - unintentionally racist and sexist this was. I won't harp on about this in every post but I can't not mention it.

This book reminds is a not quite as good version of another PKD book I read a few years ago but can't remember which one. It may of been Maze of Death but I'm not certain.

The action is really good and for anyone who knows PKD the theme of reality and its fragility being handled so well will come as no surprise. It's genuinely funny in some places, I'm talking stuff that was meant to be funny rather than the unintentionally hilarious OTT prejudice.

So overall I'll reiterate what I said in the first paragraph. It's the first PKD book in the marathon to be justified by the content and not by the author.

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God knows when I'll get to writing up the next post. I'm busy this week but it'll be The Cosmic Puppets.