Latest book received

[twrchtrwyth]

Sounds like they have a hint of the Twilight Zone about them.

[Rhoderic]

If you'll allow me to spring to Murakami's defense for a moment, Twilight Zone is not the first comparison I would draw. Twilight Zone is more lurid. Garish, like. Murakami's stories have a much more subtle, ephemeral quality to them. It's like comparing being hit with a sledgehammer to being tickled with a feather, or caressed with silk. It's fitting that one of his books should be titled "Kafka on the Shore", because Kafka does come to mind when you read Murakami.

There's been a lot of buzz about this author lately (which, I admit, is why I know about him - I'm no literati, really). He's one of those writers that people like to speculate is in for a Nobel Prize sometime in the future. I certainly wouldn't mind if it came true.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Murakami's stories have a much more subtle, ephemeral quality to them. It's like comparing being hit with a sledgehammer to being tickled with a feather, or caressed with silk. .

seconded, Murakami is magic from time to time but magic of simple and very quiet sort,it is a language which everyone have to translate and the outcome is always a different one, Murakami is more a hint than a claim and  his books are full of strange people and strange encounters. Not everyone's read.

About Nobel prize...they have missed to give it to Nabokov before he died, 30 years ago, I hope they don't make that mistake again with Marukami

[Skrapwelder]

Four chapters in and this looks very good. Whitechapel has been sealed off from the rest of London and is governed over by two Machine gods and their servitors.

[Helen]

I've had this book for a while and have read many chapters from time to time. What is in my mind a fantastic book on the Middle East set in WW1 and the adventures of this author.

Rafael de Nogales is a Venezuelan mercenary (Ottoman Service) who fought against Russians on the Caucasians and Persian fronts, as well as the British Armies in Iraq and Palestine.

I can write many a scenario based on what I've read so far. Especially when he is talking about camels  Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the Sideshows of the Great War.

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[twrchtrwyth]

The Gargoyle: Death Soldiers of the Jade Hood, W40K Ork Codex.

[Westfalia Chris]

Four chapters in and this looks very good. Whitechapel has been sealed off from the rest of London and is governed over by two Machine gods and their servitors.

Ahhh, the good old days... was in Whitechapel over the last weekend and now it´s all real estate investors and construction companies. Cannot really say it´s a change for the better. ::

[Lowtardog]

By gum Amazon are quick

This came thoruhg today, its a small hard back book and is really a Christmas stocking filler from the BBC. It takes the form of a training guide with sections on interrogation, how to dress for work etc by Gene Hunt, This is one of his CID coppers and has some doodles and jottings in the margin. What I would call a Toilet Book  for quick visits and relaxation ::





Foxtrot Oscar, second in the series following on form Horses Arse, about 1970s coppers in Manchester a bit like Choir boys or a more graphic Bill

[Rhoderic]

They're not "new" books by any reckoning, but I found some Swords-and-Sorcery gems digging through my father's old library of SF books today. He was a huge SF fan and had the book collection to prove it (I suppose the books have been passed on to me now). I was especially glad to find Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique and Hyperborea cycles. Smith was the third of the three great "Weird Tales" authors, alongside HP Lovecraft and Robert E Howard.





The treasure hunt also turned up some Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, CL Moore and others. I'm pleased.

[twrchtrwyth]

I like Clark Ashton Smith to. I have 6 of his books picked up cheap in second hand book shops years ago.

[Lt. Hazel]

Arrived today..very dark, I love them!
http://www.comic-shop.net/cover/KULT_Requiem_1.jpg
http://www.comic-shop.net/cover/KULT_Requiem_2.jpg

[Chairface]

Picked this up in a discount bin yesterday and thorougly enjoyed it. Great for VSF/ Weird West fans. I think that it was probably supposed to be an American version of the League of Ex. Gentlemen, and while it falls short, its still fun. Heres the description from Amazon:

Who knew that amid the bearded lady, the wolf boy and the human fly at Barnum and Bailey's circus, there was also a secret agent? After P.T. Barnum saves President Grover Cleveland's life, he becomes the president's newest agent to help thwart an attempt to destroy the Union. Aided by Span the human fly, diminutive powerhouse Colonel Dyna-Mite, Hypnosia the mesmerist, Plastino the rubber man, Primeva the animal mistress and Siamese twins Chang and Eng, Barnum hopes to defeat the evil Nikola Tesla. The traveling sideshow may be America's last hope. Barnum's set-up is the perfect guise to gather information from across the United States and keep tabs on Tesla and his diabolical plans. Circus folk are often depicted as criminals and other undesirables, but in this tale writers Chaykin and Tischman delightfully turn the tables and put the freaks on the same side as the law where they can use their skills of deception and illusion to gain information against Tesla. Also fitting are the illustrations, akin to old Civil War posters or hand-drawn pictures. Henrichon fills each page with a classic art style that is a nod to history. Whereas Chaykin and Tischman have an ear for 19th-century dialogue, Henrichon has a hand in believable renderings of not just the characters, but their dress and environment. This handsome edition will delight enthusiasts of the circus, comics or American history.

[Westfalia Chris]

(...) Barnum hopes to defeat the evil Nikola Tesla.

What´s all this Tesla-bashing! You never see Edison as the evil genius, even though he had far more megalomaniacal allures and lost the War of Currents due to his stubborn clinging to DC technology...

... he must have had the better PR folks. ::

Damn now I want to build a giant robot powered by Volta´s Columns.

[Plynkes]

Wasn't he Serbian? If so that would explain it all.

Serbs get the blame for everything, including the Great War, and so by extension the Nazis, and World War Two as well. Now they really need some better PR folks.

Just look at him:

If that picture doesn't say Crna Ruka to you then I don't know what does.  He looks ready to pop off any passing Habsburg Archduke without giving it a second thought. I bet he's got a round black fizzing bomb with the word "Bomb" painted on it behind that chair. And you half-imagine he's about to say,

"I've been expecting you, Mr. Bond."


 

[Westfalia Chris]

Wasn't he Serbian? If so that would explain it all.

Serbs get the blame for everything, including the Great War, and so by extension the Nazis, and World War Two as well. Now they really need some better PR folks.

Just look at him:

If that picture doesn't say Crna Ruka to you then I don't know what does.  He looks ready to pop off any passing Habsburg Archduke without giving it a second thought. I bet he's got a round black fizzing bomb with the word "Bomb" painted on it behind that chair. And you half-imagine he's about to say,

"I've been expecting you, Mr. Bond."


 

As if Mr. Tesla would stoop so low as bombs. He´d pick the Franz out of the Ferdinand using his death-ray cannon from across the pond.

::