climactic novel of two of the main themes of the darkover series,q.v.;

the relationship between the expanding terran empire, mainly benignly and protectively inclined towards darkover, but very interested in the power of the darkovan mental gifts or talents, and the privileged mentally talented darkovan aristocracy, jealous of their wealth, position and political power, for which they have paid a high price over generations, not least in the selective breeding to produce and concentrate particular laran powers, originally the sole guarantee of human survival upon this planet, as well as of these immense, albeit somewhat specialised mental powers.

this hard-won over many years, and sometimes very unstable balance, such as it is, is undermined by a powerful commercial corporation seeking to gain control of these powers and their potentially extremely profitable exploitation, without any understanding of, or interest in, the risks involved - whatever the human or environmental costs of achieving this might prove to be -

- including to the young regis hastur, newly come into his lordship of one of the most powerful families of the comyn aristocracy, full of noble ambitions and idealistic plans to improve the lot of ordinary darkovans, to promote talent whether it be found in the comyn or the common, "ordinary" people, and facing opposition from the more traditionally-minded and entrenched conservatives.

- and the human costs most certainly will not be low, as the simplest, quickest - and, most importantly, cheapest - method would seem to be by selective assassination of the controlling comyn aristocracy;

- selective assassination - or, if needs be, their wholesale slaughter.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

paranoid sf - an object lesson and a powerful warning to all those who know - or suspect - that they possess psi powers;f

- no matter how glittering the prizes proffered, do not reveal yourselves: they really are out to get you. . .

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

an sf action/adventure novel of bet yeager, ex-mazianni fleet marine, an unwilling conscript onto a spook ship selling information on the movement of mallory's capital ship (and allies and recruits) now defending the merchanters' alliance to ships of the mazianni - formerly earth company's - fleet, now more than semi-feral, and to anyone else as'll pay, finding her feet, and finding, and making herself a position in the pecking order - or failing to - onboard an unhappy ship, permanently on the edge, where the officers are out to get one another, the captain's at least half gone, and most of the crew bar one seem to be unwilling but cowed misfits - and even he agrees with everyone else that he's no bloody good -

- all set against - and sometimes at action stations in - the time towards the end of the company wars and its aftermath.

more-or-less contemporaneous with - a little after - ''merchanter's luck'' (1982), q.v., and with and a little after parts of the hugo award-winning major company wars novel, ''downbelow station'' (1981), q.v.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

near-future set novel of a teen(?) in an england where social order has broken down, gangs of communists and fascists are fighting and controlling large areas of inner cities, and on top of this, super-powerful aliens dictate orders sent from their ships hovering(?) above major cities - and pel's strange, wild cousin frijja comes to stay...

- i didn't get very far into this, before i had to renew it, or return it to the library. i returned it.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

this is a very well written, but always difficult to keep tracking, wildly uncommercial book;
and it's probably the least popular of joanna russ' books: though it's a single story, it isn't a novel.

it isn't a novel, because it doesn't - and couldn't, by its very nature - follow the rules-of-thumb that simplified longer works of fiction, making them more easily read and so more widely-saleable to people lacking the time or inclination to - for particular example - puzzle out and follow a story repeatedly jumping from one character's viewpoint to another's;

''and chaos died'' is confusing - and that's even though there is only one central character.

she's a young woman finding it increasingly impossible to cope with the emotional and spiritual crowding of inner-city life, as she becomes ever more assailed by the needs, desires, hopes, lusts and hatreds of the strangers streaming by her in the constant crush -

- she's becoming ever-increasingly sensitive mentally - to the point of feeling she may be going mad -

- she's becoming a receiving telepath -

- and she can't cut the constant bombardment of subconscious and conscious thoughts and emotions -

- or even be certain which are her own.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

the major critical assessment of the works of robert a. heinlein (to date of publication);
imnsho this is well worth reading and thinking about the observations and analyses of this major author's sf & fantasy.

it could not, of course, consider the later works; but these are mostly a record of his sad decline - with occasional (partial) recoveries.

hated by diehard heinleinian fanatics, of which there were many; and also by robert a. heinlein - unread!

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This book is effectively a poor re-write of the whole entry for George Harrison in Wikipedia
without the explanatory notes, citations, and general and cited sources one would normally find at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

''the whileaway novel'': intended to be an sf adventure novel sequel to the author's somewhat controversial (within sf fandom at the time) ''when it changed'' (''again, dangerous visions'' ed. harlan ellison (1972), q.v.), examining the same and similar social questions of sexual social (in)equality and potential/future developments, and their effects, through a work of fiction in considerably greater depth -

- which it is -

- it turned slowly in her hands as she wrote it into a scream of frustration and even rage at the inability of merkin science fiction fans - allegedly and even actually intelligent men (mostly men) - to even consider that these things might be different; in effect, that they, themselves might be even a bit sexist -

- and frederik pohl, who was the bantam books sf editor at the time, bought and published it.

- screams of outrage from much - most? - of merkin fandom could be heard the other side of the atlantic, even in ''little ol' lancaster''. . .°

° - and prob'ly reached the auntie podes, too (- no?)

- yes, technically, this novel is a failure: as the author of the intended sf adventure novel, joanna russ lost her focus and it turns by its end into a personal criticism of the overwhelmingly sexist nature of the (merkin) world of written sf, of sf fandom, and of publishing - and, ultimately, of merkin society as a whole then, now - and in the sciencefictional futures thus far imagined in the works of then almost entirely male, overwhelmingly mostly white writers of sf.

- it is a classic.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This book is a complete guide to who appeared in all 619 shows from 1964-1975. It also includes details of the 1969 show "Pop go the Sixties" and 1970 & 1971 one off specials.
Fascinating Stuff.

Show 1 had:- Dusty Springfield - The Rolling Stones - Gene Pitney - The Dave Clark Five - Cliff Richard & the Shadows - The Hollies - The Beatles (2 songs) - The Swinging Blue Jeans - Freddie & the Dreamers.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

graves' retelling of the legend of jason and the argonauts from the point of view of one of them, based upon the presumption that the legend was based upon a historical event - which it may well have been; and quite possibly more than one, probably bronze age, expedition(s) primarily in search of the fabled wealth of colchis on the shores of the black sea - and to loot whatever of it, or aught else, they could.

the technique of filtering alluvial particles of gold from the waters of becks and rivers using sheeps' fleeces is both practical, and known to've been used in that area (and elsewhere); and was still in use in places in the second half of the 20th century c.e.°

(° - yr hmbl srppnt. s'spects, but does not know, that this continues into the first half of the 21st century c.e.)

unfortunately, while the adventure story is exciting, and its and the background details are definitely intetesting, the characters of the main players don't come alive off the page: how to portray the members of a crew of ''heroes'' who are essentially ~eighteen-to-thirty year old armed thugs a-viking as significantly different from one another, and at least one or two of them as sympathetic characters - to anyone who isn't of a similar thuggish mind-set - hopefully, most of his readers - was a skill robert graves hadn't yet learned.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

it might be worth a ''9'', but yr hmbl srppnt.'s only read it the once, and definitely does *not* desi^W wish to read it again. it's very well thought out & through, very well written - and *horrible*.

in an all too-near future, a cult is arising, centered upon the work of a charismatic, self-publicising ?research? ?psychiatrist?, prizing and preserving the wounds received in car crashes as a reflection of the damage received by the drivers' cars, and similarly prizing and preserving the damage received in those crashes as a reflection of the wounds received by their human occupants, and glorifying - and finding erotic arousal, and perhaps ecstasy, from both.
- as the cult spreads and it, and its values, become increasingly accepted into our social mainstream, it also becomes increasingly difficult to discern or define any aim for life separate from the aims and inevitable objective of achieving increasingly horrific car/self-inflicted crash injury and - ultimately - the glory(?) of a gory mechanical death.

- as we make our creations and our constructions more intelligent and - arguably - more human-like, do we not make ourselves more construct-like and more inhuman:

- and is this inevitable ?


- gave a whole new meaning to ''auto-erotica'' -

- and arguably invented ''auto-necrotica'' as humanity's highest aim.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

publishers have categorised this novel as fantasy; jane lindskold sees it as near future sf - but she's only the author, and what do authors know?

set in the present day, more-or-less, the central character is at least technically mad - she talks and listens to what her small rubber dragon has to say, after all (and to walls, and other inanimate objects) - and, not entirely deliberately, when her home is closed as a result of budget cuts, she embarks on an adventure - a rather scary adventure that might be called ''real life'' in ''the real world'' by some, involving not always friendly gang members; and it begins to look like someone may want to kill her - but why ? . .

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

colin charteris, the viewpoint character(s!), is on a road trip across a europe devastated by an undeclared world war fought making unrestricted use of psychotropic weapons: as he progresses across the continent from italy through france and into britain, which was targeted particularly heavily by the military psychedelics, observing the chaos, confusion and destruction wrought by them, he himself becomes increasingly affected by their residues, is adopted as an increasingly influential hippie cult leader, but also finds it increasingly difficult to keep full control of his own mind, and impossible to distinguish reliably between psychedelic effects (his visions?) and reality - assuming this still has any meaning at all...

- not the easiest of reads by any means, but well worth the effort.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Well, I've only gone and read it!

One of those books that just kept nagging at me to be read... always appearing in lists of greatest books you must read before you die, explode or are crushed by a meteorite, and if you don't read it, one of those things probably will happen, so read it... or else!!!!

...Not to mention, It's always there, on the bookshelves of charity shops and at boot fairs, following me around constantly, and reminding me of the fact I haven't read it yet.

(Is it possible I have been stalked by a book?)

So, in spite of my severe misgivings about it, and the apparently unending TV and movie adaptations that keep popping up all over, I gave it a go, at last.

I was worried about the language, mostly, as the snippets I'd seen of those adaptions led me to believe this was not strictly speaking... English:

"Wherefore, forthwith perchance to extemporise on my pre-postulisation..." etc.

(or what that sounds like to me)

Eh?

But actually, it's a lot easier to read than I had imagined, the lingo makes sense, so I conclude most of the reason I didn't understand it has more to do with pretentious thespian types acting their arses off in order to appear more thespian-ic.

True, most of the early dialogue is like chewing dry crackers in the mind, straight up statements of morality, like a barrage of proverbs in "conversation" form in order to instruct or sermonise to the reader. Especially around social etiquette and other shit I care not a jot for, especially in this, stiff period world in which Jane Austen lived.

But thankfully, it all begins to go awry, as shit goes down, the done things are not done, and people begin to crack, all of which is reflected in the dialogue, which opens up, becomes looser, and more natural, as the pro-tangle-ists Ms Elizabeth Benet and Oh Mr. Darcy! (to give him, what I believe to be his proper name :) loosen up, and break through all that Prejudice and Pride of theirs (or in todays money: Sexual tension :D.

So it's a bit of a prototype Mulder and Scully situation, among social hoo-ha and incomprehensible, cultivated family connections that are the bedrock of this world, where social scum like the Bennets, daring to have only daughters (how very common of them! :), to to sell them off to better families than their own.

Nice characterisations, a little dull subject matter for me personally, but quite an easy read, even over it's rather lengthy almost 400 pages.

In my view though, you're better off reading something by one of those Twisted Bronte sisters (I love those girls! ), as they're totally rock and roll, compared to this relatively literary elevator music.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Reviewed at Amazon.co.uk by S P Mead TOP 500 REVIEWER

3.0 out of 5 stars a short publication that repeats the ideas and conclusions of Wiener's and Bresler's books

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 July 2016

As a Lennon fan, I was intrigued by the topic raised in this book. Its authors, Phil Strongman and Alan Parker, set out to show that Lennon's overt political attitudes and activism drew the attentions of the US authorities - most notably the FBI. Moreover, Lennon was the target of a unnecessary campaign - led by the mid-1970's Republican elite - to be deported from American soil. And, so suggest the authors, mixed-up within all of this covert and undercover surveillance was a possible plot to eliminate Lennon should be ever be considered too much of a risk ...

There are some very good books that deal with the particulars covered by Strongman and Parker. Notably, Jon Wiener's Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files provides a detailed and scholarly discussion on the lengths the FBI went to in order to investigate Lennon and portray him as a dangerous outsider. And there's Fenton Bresler's Who Killed John Lennon? - which exposes the incomplete police investigation into Lennon's murder and the possibility that the killer - Mark Chapman - was a 'Manchurian Candidate' programmed to kill Lennon upon his return to the public limelight in late 1980. And for anyone interested in reading about the deluded psyche of the murderer, Jack Jones' Let Me Take You Down: Inside The Mind Of Mark David Chapman, The Man Who Shot John Lennon: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman - Man Who Shot John Lennon is worth a read.

Unfortunately, "John Lennon and the FBI Files" presents us with nothing new, and is not based on original research. Rather it's a simple re-stating of the main ideas found in Wiener's and Bresler's books. And it's a far weaker read as compared to either of those other publications. Very little of the book deals with the FBI's files concerning Lennon - as such, the title is misleading. What we get, instead, is a brief history of the FBI, the CIA, and the Beatles. We're informed that Lennon was - increasingly from the late 1960's - politically active. And we're provided an account of the murder. But it's poorly put together. The entire book is only 206 pages long - and over 20 pages are dedicated to a 'discography' and index; the main discussion of the book amounts to just 176 pages!

While it's reasonably well-written, I didn't buy this book to be informed of the Kennedy assassination, or when Brian Epstein met the Beatles. Such matters are off-topic. Yet the book seems full of such off-topic chapters! What's left, after all the inessentials have been discounted, is little more than a few pages looking at why Lennon was the possible target of political assassination. And these few pages are no more than a regurgitation of other people's writings!

Given such major limitations, I cannot recommend this book. Yet I do believe that the topic is worthy of study, and that the issue of why Lennon was murdered is important. Since this book highlights such concerns, I've awarded 3 stars. But I do suggest that potential readers opt for the other books I've cited in this review, as they're far more significant.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is almost a different book from its U.S. counterpart (which misses the Slipped Discs title as on here). Notably, this version eliminates any and all references to Phil Collins, Genesis, and anybody associated past or present with that group (that includes Peter Gabriel) - no doubt because Collins and Genesis at the time were signed to Virgin, and Collins' good buddy Richard Branson was equally no doubt sensitive about the backlash against Phil that was brewing at the time owing to his sheer ubiquitousness. There are greater differences in the 45 list than for the LP's. Among them:
Singles
#8: US - "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer And The Fireballs; UK - "You Better Sit Down Kids" by Cher
#15: US - "The Living Years" by Mike + The Mechanics (Collins/Genesis connection); UK - "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy
#23: US - "Eve Of Destruction" by Barry McGuire; UK - "Blinded By The Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
#24: US - "The Dawn Of Correction" by The Spokesmen; UK - "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin
#26: US - "You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins; UK - "Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan
#29: US - "This Time" by Richard Simmons (the fitness guru); UK - "Kiss" by The Art Of Noise Featuring Tom Jones
#34: US - "The Loco-Motion" by Grand Funk; UK - "Dancing On The Ceiling" by Lionel Richie
#37: US - "D.O.A." by Bloodrock; UK - "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher" by Rita Coolidge (on the latter, I'd have to agree)
#38: US - "American Woman" by The Guess Who; UK - "Knock On Wood" by Amii Stewart
#43: US - "Escalator Of Life" by Robert Hazard; UK - "Freedom" by Wham!
#44: US - "All You Zombies" by the Hooters; UK - "Freedom" by George Michael (tolerate the Wham! "Freedom," can't stand the solo Michael one)
#49: US - "Granny's Mini-Skirt" by Irene "Granny" Ryan; UK - "Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley (Free Baby)" by Will To Power
Albums
#27: US - Live by Iron Butterfly; UK - Journey's Greatest Hits by Journey
#33: US - Joey Bishop Sings Country/Western by Joey Bishop; UK - Whenever You Need Somebody by Rick Astley
The alterations to the albums list was miniscule in comparison with the singles.

I think for completeness, I would seek out copies of both versions.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

this was - is - a superb omnibus of some five of the very best sf novels by one of the very best writers of science fiction, during the middle third of his career as sf author, when he was writing at the height of his creative ability°.

there are, of course, other writers who've written classics in the field as brilliant as silverberg's best; there are even other authors who've written about as many classics in the field, as has he: but there are none that would have written these books, dealing with these matters, these topics, through telling stories so fluently readably as robert silverberg.

° - which was kicked off by an altercation with frederik pohl, then editor of galaxy, if and worlds of tomorrow, who'd reproached ''Agbob'' with writing perfectly competent, run-of-the-mill uninspired work so much less than he was clearly capable of, when asked by silverberg why pohl never bought any of his stories: the upshot was an arrangement unique in the worlds of science fiction, and possibly in publishing, ever: frederik pohl guaranteed to buy every novel robert silverberg wrote, for serialisation in galaxy or if, and to give one entire novel's notice of ending this arrangement, on condition that silverberg wrote to the very limits of the best of which he was capable.
(frederik pohl had ''his'' magazines sold out from underneath him by their owner, which nobody had expected, but ejler jakobsson, the editor taking over from him, inherited and honoured the arrangement for as long as silverberg needed or wanted it - until pretty well every novel he wrote sold to hardcover, as well as mass-market paperback publishers, and he was financially secure.)

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

It started in 1829 when the first book was published, The aim was to print all known medieval documents concerning Sweden, As of 2020 the documents of 1381 was presented in this book, the latest in this long going series.. The speed of publishing is not great, but we could have reached a bit longer, if it wasn't for a side project they had for decades, It will take between 200 to 300 years to get to the year 1400.. Comparing to books from the 1800's a lot has happened, and the modern books are a joy to read.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

without attempting to copy his stylistic techniques, ann elizabeth silas manages to share much of the feel of some of jack vance's borderline sf fantasy novels.

a professionally successful lawyer drowning in his work is drawn - possibly tricked?, or hypnotized? - into entering another world, a world in which life is frequently strenuous and sometimes dangerous, by a - or, rather, the melaklos, a user of magic who has tasks for him and a couple of ill-assorted companions - tasks, and warnings, and occasional partial explanations that don't satisfy, though they may turn out to be true, and who seeks to prevent a magician of far greater power than she taking over this world and destroying its patchwork quilt of different cultures and generally unco-operative towns, cities and island kingdoms...

this first (and only?) novel by the author rates an impressive ''8'' on re-reading - which i've happily just done, having accidentally unearthed the novel from the oubliette into which it had fallen...
the time and scene shifts are often abrupt: this is evidently her deliberate choice, but it's sometimes a bit disconcerting.

(there's one short story i have by this author, ''mistaken oracle'', in ''heroic fantasy'' ed. gerald w. page, hank reinhardt (1979), q.v., but i know of nothing else by her.)

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

friends on holiday discover a clandestine underground goods railway, and stow away on board under a tarpaulin (as one does) to discover a relict colony of - apparently - the roman empire°, still functioning - and when discovered, they get away with their strange behaviour there because it's saturnalia - or at least they do, to start with...

° - the first clue as to the language people there were speaking was overhearing an obsequious ''beany, beany, dominay!'' from a worker unloading the train to a supervisor...

it's far too long since yr hmbl srppnt. read this out of the children's library to judge it fairly now, or rate it; but a young me definitely enjoyed reading it enough to find it again and re-read it.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

distillation into one typical day in the life of a prisoner working in one of the ''gulag'' forced labour camps of alexander solzhenitsyn's experience of three years in the ekibastuz gulag camp in kazakhstan, 1950-1953.

ralph parker's translation is of the censored russian text originally published in novy mir 11/1962;
first published in h/cvr edition by victor gollancz (london) and dutton (new york), both 1963.

the only english translation from the uncensored russian text is stated to be that made by h. t. willetts, first published by farrar, strauss & giroux (new york) in 1991.

(source: solzhenitsyncenter.org)

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

the third in rosemary sutcliff's extended matter of britain historical novel sequence, q.v., running from the investigation of the disappearance of the ninth legion through the attempt to set up an independent empire of roman britain and gaul, the withdrawal of the legions, the fight back by the romano-britons against the saxon invasions and colonisation, to preserve civilisation against the relatively barbarous frisian saxon invaders from the angle, through the final breaking of romano-british at aquae sulis - and the reappearance, flickering but still lit, of hope.

this novel is set in 323 a.d. (ce), in the period when the ''frontier wolves'' of the legions, still patrolling and still somewhat policing the vast area between the long-abandoned antonine wall and hadrian's wall, came under so great pressure from an alliance of irish and pictish tribes with the conservative religious elements within the local allied tribe, as to be forced to make a fighting retreat back to the main base of their operations - and what they and their commander, alexius flavius aquila, found there, and how he and they further fared. and thus, how the flawed emerald dolphin ring - and this member of the aquila family - survived the crisis.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

in the sciencefictional world of the unorthodox engineers, this unit of engineering oddballs and incorrigibles brought together in what was originally intended only as a dumping ground for ''problem'' but talented men demonstrates, from their first deployment on cannis v, where they have to rebuild the railways, the only practicable passenger, goods and freight transport system on a conquered planet comprehensively wrecked by orbital and low-level bombing in a war now won, in order to get the planet's native economy running again - and the people fed, and able to prosper in peacetime - with access only to insufficient supplies of excessively malleable, and therefore far too bendy, iron in inadequate quantities - on a planet plagued by errant overnight volcanoes...
- demonstrates that together they can achieve the impossible - or the next best thing to the impossible - so long as they can be induced to act together, by being presented with apparently insoluble problems upon which to bring their disparate talents to bear.

- the answers they devise to the questions their missions pose are as various as their sideways approach to the service's rules and regulations - but, so long as they're successful, they won't be disbanded - and, in some cases, returned to military imprisonment...

five linked ''problem story'' novelettes and a novella demanding an eccentric approach to the problems faced, if they are to be solved - or turned into advantages - which vary from rebuilding a conquered planet's infrastructure, and hence economy, through identifying what catastrophe wiped out an evidently advanced alien species' civilisation - and apparently the species themselves, through working out how to even approach an apparently invulnerable alien intrusion - invasion? - on, into or of a planet, that can for example meet any projectile fired at it with a counter-projectile of exactly the right mass, created or conjured up on the spot, and instantly...


colin kapp did not, alas, ever write the unorthodox engineers novel, ''project ixion'', which was to've been the climax to their erratic career through the problems of their space by providing the scientific analyses and engineering problem solutions in the first inter-galactic exploration and colonisation attempt undertaken by humanity - and which would have demanded, and hopefully brought in-depth character development of his major players from him: they are mostly fairly ''stock'' character stereotypes sufficient to these stories.
when i enquired why, in the seventies (i was hoping he'd written it, and i could get it published together with a collection of these five already-published stories, and republish at least three of his previously-published novels), colin told me he'd never started upon it, because no-one had ever shown any interest in publishing it.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

meet galloway gallegher, genius inventor and drunk - correction, genius inventor when drunk, who
only ever invents when he's run out of enough money to get drunk, has sobered up enough to gain another commission, and has been paid an advance upon the invention(s) commissioned from him -
- whereupon he promptly gets drunk again -
- not least because it's gallegher drunk who's the genius inventor. but who is, unavoidably, and undeniably, also drunk.

...which rather tends to leave gallegher sober the morning after with the problem of working out what gallegher drunk's actually invented this time...

- so meet galloway gallegher, genius inventor and drunk, and meet joe, the proud robot, who must have some purpose other than to admire himself in the mirror - or, indeed, without it, if there isn't one handy - mustn't he ?

- and meet the lybblas, some of the cutest, fluffiest - and most argumentative - frequently with one another - alien would-be conquerors of the world, who've had the luck - or possibly misfortune - to arrive at gallegher's door as the first stop on their predestined path to their conquest of the world. . . - but first, would very much like a drink of milk, please. . .

- intriguing, entertaining and frequently funny problem stories with a lunatic logic and a drunken twist..

- or vice-versa...

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A roller-coaster noir thrill ride, using the titles of the 49 previously published titles by Hard Case Crime as chapter headings. A very clever and entertaining book. Highly recommended if you enjoy this type of book.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Not great, sort of Pratchett-lite... :erk:

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Brand new 2nd Edition of this classic reference book about the history of Trojan Records, issued to tie in with the label's 50th anniversary in July.

Only minor tweaks to the narrative in the book, but the discography of Trojan and its subsidiary labels has been fully updated (by two 45cat members), and is considerably more accurate than the 2003 version. 45cat has played a significant role in this update.

Highly recommended for everyone interested in Reggae and the Trojan label.

From Trojan Records:

Recently resurrected and now enjoying chart success in the 21st century, when it was formed Trojan Records epitomised the punk DIY ethic over a decade before 1976. With a blizzard of individual labels and a marketing strategy that involved selling product out of the backs of vans, the company spearheaded the injection of reggae and ska into the vein of British youth consciousness. In its first brief six-year incarnation, Trojan produced nearly 30 hit singles, created the legendary compilation series Tighten Up and launched new acts like Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, Ken Boothe, The Pioneers, Bob And Marcia, Greyhound and Dave And Ansell Collins, all against a background of cut-throat politics, cultural division and prejudice.

Michael de Koningh (1958-2016) was a contemporary British music journalist specialising in Jamaican music, reggae afrobeat and afrofunk. Laurence Cane-Honeysett is a British musician, producer and music journalist specialising in Jamaican music. In 1990, he started working for Trojan Records and soon after joined the company on a full-time basis as its Jamaican music specialist, overseeing the label's releases and all other aspects of its general running, a position he continues to hold.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

For those who have seen the Stanley Kubrick film, and come away with the eternal question...

...WTF!???


...This will go a long way to illuminating you as to the intent and meaning of the story.

......Well, in so far as the general idea is concerned, particularly around this novel; Less so for the film, as Kubrick has made a couple of small, but key editorial alterations to features of the story that render it in an entirely new light.

As Arthur C. explains in the introduction, although this novel is an expansion on a kernel of an idea he sketched out in a short story: The Sentinel, more was draw from other works of his, that allowed him to write the full novel for the purposes of a collaboration with Kubrick on the film - He says here that they decided to write out the story as a novel for the film, as screenplays tended to be brief, dry, and uninformative, so this provided the basis for the screenplay to be written from (not a novelisation of the film "ugh"), he stresses - "Writing a novel is like swimming through the sea; Writing a film script is like thrashing through treacle"

The key changes are at both the beginning and the end, whereby in the first scenes with the apes, the monolith is a large transluscent crystal slab, that has all kinds of flashing lights and goings-on that test the aptitudes of the ape population, and so promote their advancement, and are of unequivocally of alien intelligent origin... Kubrick omits this in the film, opting to use the inscrutable, and largely passive black slabs that appear later in this work as the only monolith design to appear... this renders it ambiguous at best, as to whether the story is actually about aliens or not...

(I think the film actually is not about aliens at all, but only intelligence of human origin, with the slabs being symbolic objects of our own wonder, and self promoted intellectual advancement - intelligence begets itself)

...This ambiguity is further compounded with the "through the stargate" segment at the end, where here, it is very clearly the involvement of alien civilization, but in the film, a more abstract approach is taken, in order to represent an intellectual leap towards a new stage in human evolution.

All else being pretty much as you see in the film.

What did surprise me though, reading this, is what a fantastic writer Arthur C. Clarke is, which may sound silly, but most of the praise for him usually lies in the quality and innovation of his ideas, but I think it should be noted how lyrical, concise, and even poetic, at times, his writing is, and how easily he wraps up quite complex scientific ideas without trying to bludgeon you with description... he makes these ideas very easy to digest in simple phrases and expressions (his description of the stargate is brilliant)....

...so much so, that, comparatively slow reader that I am, I was able to bang through these 252 pages in just under two days!

(A record for me)

In large part though, as there are (other than the ape scene and space station scene), only three characters (Hal included) interacting in a tube in space, the story is of course, very elegant, without lots of environment and multitudes of characters to consider.

The film and this book really are compliments to each other, and if you want to get more to the bottom of both, either is recommended to have at hand as at least a side-salad to your preferred main course.

Great book!

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Just one word: HILARIOUS!

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

"non-fiction, humour - bog book" - a distinct, if unofficial, non-publicly advertised publishing category.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?