Many years ago, I would listen to it on the BBC via short wave radio.
June 2022 Reading Thread
- Thread starter The Judge
- Start date
- Status
I forgot to add that I purchased it from a book seller in India, thus the rupees.
Danny McG
"Anything can happen in the next half hour!"
Hold it!
I've just noticed that The Fever of the World was published last week.
This is the long awaited new Merrily Watkins book by Phil Rickman.
Downloaded now and reading (he changed the title)
Last edited:
Haven't read one of those for ages. Looking forward to your verdict.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
Having finished that large tome, I will next move on to a companion volume.
The Classic Fantasy Collection (2018) is a very physically similar book, again with no credited editor and an anonymous introduction. As before, these are all public domain works from the 19th and early 20th centuries. What strikes me right away is that there is an overlap between the volumes; both contain "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Color Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft. (This one also has "The Dunwich Horror," the other had a few others.)
Lots of important names here. There are stories of Conan by Robert E. Howard; some whimsical works by H. G. Wells; several of the Japanese tales of Lafacdio Hearn; a couple of things by A. Merritt, including The Great God Pan; many of the pseudo-Chinese yarns by Ernest Bramah; horror stories from The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers; a couple of the fairy tale works by George MacDonald. Notable also is The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris. Just like the other volume, there's a single story from a name totally unknown to me; "Werewolf of the Sahara" by G. G. Pendraves.* I have read almost none of these works, so it should be a good education in the early history of the genre.
*Allow me to correct an error in the quoted paragraph above. The unknown author was actually Pearl Norton Swet, without the extra letter. It's wasn't very good**, either; more like a completely random tale lifted from an old issue of Weird Tales.
**On the other hand, the four pieces by another author of whom I had never heard, Vernon Lee, were quite good. That's actually a pseudonym for Violet Paget, a very interesting woman.
Vernon Lee - Wikipedia
Vernon Lee was a wonderful writer. I came across a couple of her stories during a ghost story reading binge many years ago and though it wasn't easy I was eventually able to track down the rest. And though I don't begrudge the effort, I suspect it would be much easier now, with so many old books being turned into ebooks.
Danny McG
"Anything can happen in the next half hour!"
I'm about halfway through, it seems more of a historical detective story than a contemporary supernatural thriller, and I'm learning more than I want about William Wordsworth.
Tbh it seems more like one of these yarns:-
(Found) Non genre book search. British spy series about a history professor
I read a few of these spy books in the eighties to early nineties. Main protagonist was a history professor, first name David (I think) and he was in the British intelligence community. He had an occasional assistant called Paul (again - I think!) Various espionage cases he investigated all...
www.sffchronicles.com
That's a shame. Did you ever read the ones he wrote before the Watkins books? (The Chalice, Curfew, Candlenight etc.)
Danny McG
"Anything can happen in the next half hour!"
A couple of them yeah...they were ok.
(I think he's lost his muse since his stroke)
I’m still wading my way through British Cruisers Of The Victorian Era. There’s a lot to learn here but it’s difficult not to be bored to tears (despite my ongoing fascination with naval history).
I normally like historians that bring the broadness of the time period to life through focussing on specific examples. In this book, I’d have liked to have seen histories of selected ships to show the trials and tribulations of designing, building and operating these ships and how they meshed with the strategic aims of the country at the time. We could also perhaps have had a flavour of the life of an ordinary seaman and how it compared to life before the advent of cruisers (which, after all, were specifically designed to protect the interests of the empire).
Instead, we have lists of builds, design evolution and very little of the actual active history of the ships. Difficult to read because of this.
I normally like historians that bring the broadness of the time period to life through focussing on specific examples. In this book, I’d have liked to have seen histories of selected ships to show the trials and tribulations of designing, building and operating these ships and how they meshed with the strategic aims of the country at the time. We could also perhaps have had a flavour of the life of an ordinary seaman and how it compared to life before the advent of cruisers (which, after all, were specifically designed to protect the interests of the empire).
Instead, we have lists of builds, design evolution and very little of the actual active history of the ships. Difficult to read because of this.
hitmouse
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2011
- Messages
- 4,280
I will be interested to hear what you think of Bramah. I find him to be excellent in very small doses, occasionally.Having finished that large tome, I will next move on to a companion volume.
The Classic Fantasy Collection (2018) is a very physically similar book, again with no credited editor and an anonymous introduction. As before, these are all public domain works from the 19th and early 20th centuries. What strikes me right away is that there is an overlap between the volumes; both contain "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Color Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft. (This one also has "The Dunwich Horror," the other had a few others.)
Lots of important names here. There are stories of Conan by Robert E. Howard; some whimsical works by H. G. Wells; several of the Japanese tales of Lafacdio Hearn; a couple of things by A. Merritt, including The Great God Pan; many of the pseudo-Chinese yarns by Ernest Bramah; horror stories from The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers; a couple of the fairy tale works by George MacDonald. Notable also is The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris. Just like the other volume, there's a single story from a name totally unknown to me; "Werewolf of the Sahara" by G. G. Pendraves.* I have read almost none of these works, so it should be a good education in the early history of the genre.
*Allow me to correct an error in the quoted paragraph above. The unknown author was actually Pearl Norton Swet, without the extra letter. It's wasn't very good**, either; more like a completely random tale lifted from an old issue of Weird Tales.
**On the other hand, the four pieces by another author of whom I had never heard, Vernon Lee, were quite good. That's actually a pseudonym for Violet Paget, a very interesting woman.
Vernon Lee - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The late, lamented Ash Tree Press published a large-ish collection of her ghost, horror and fantasy stories in 2002. In 2006, Broadview Press Inc put out an annotated collection of some of her stories.
Four or five titles instantly compete in my mind every time someone on-line asks about favorite or best ghost stories, Lee's "Amour Dure" right there clamoring for my acknowledgement with "The Beckoning Fair One," "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad," "The Visitor from Down Under" and "Smoke Ghost." It's wonderfully atmospheric, both spooky and seductive. Others are good, but that one is amazingly well-written and effective.
Just finished The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix.
Wow.
I don't want to say too much, but Hendrix is walking a tight-rope here, liable to fall into portentousness or silliness or callousness, and he doesn't and he makes it appear effortless. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Wow.
I don't want to say too much, but Hendrix is walking a tight-rope here, liable to fall into portentousness or silliness or callousness, and he doesn't and he makes it appear effortless. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Extollager
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2010
- Messages
- 9,229
Victoria, could you clarify? "a couple of things by A. Merritt, including The Great God Pan"
Thanks.
Thanks.
Finished a pretty good "Law and Order" style book by Victor Methos, The Secret Witness. I've read a fair number of his books and they read like they were written by a Cracker Jack Defense Lawyer, because, well, they are. He started and built up the largest criminal defense firm in Utah before starting to write. I also finished Keep Away by M.R. Forbes. No better and no worse than the first 3. Tolerable S.F. with a military and sociological bent, but no better than that.
I'm going to start The Widow Queen by Elzbieta Cherezinska, Translated by Maya Zakrzewswk-Pim an historical novel about a nearly forgotten Polish Queen of the late 10th Century.
I'm going to start The Widow Queen by Elzbieta Cherezinska, Translated by Maya Zakrzewswk-Pim an historical novel about a nearly forgotten Polish Queen of the late 10th Century.
Attachments
Last edited:
That's pretty obscure, Parson. Are there any well-remembered mediaeval Polish queens? Sounds quite interesting though.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
That is pure error on my part.
That should have read "a couple of things by A. Merritt ["The Moon Pool" and "The People of the Pit"] and a couple by Arthur Machen, including The Great God Pan." [The other is "The Inmost Light."]
Thanks for catching that! Although I have not yet read it, I understand The Great God Pan is a fundamental fantasy novel, and I do not wish to slight the true author.
Extollager
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2010
- Messages
- 9,229
GGP must be Machen’s most well-known story. (Now there’s gender fluidity for you). But it’s not my favorite of his works. He had around 50 years of life ahead of him when he wrote it, and wrote a bunch of good stories not widely known.
Danny McG
"Anything can happen in the next half hour!"
This morning I'm taking a look at Aurora by David Koepp.....the blurb makes it sound like just one more 'lights out' story - we shall see.
Aurora by David Koepp
Aurora by David Koepp - book cover, description, publication history.
www.fantasticfiction.com
- Status
Similar threads
-
POLL -- June 2022 75-word Writing Challenge -- CHRISTINE WHEELWRIGHT WINS!- Started by Ursa major
- Replies: 0
-
-
DISCUSSION THREAD -- JUNE 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge
- Started by Ursa major
- Replies: 167
-
JUNE 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO CHRISTINE WHEELWRIGHT!
- Started by Ursa major
- Replies: 41
-