League of Extraordinary Books

New Items:

Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901)
Well that was really good. On the one hand you have a great boys adventure story featuring one of those lovable super-streeturchin characters like the Artful Dodger or Selena Kyle. On the other hand though you have quite a touching story about the relationship between Kim, the lover of the world with all its excitement and stimulations, and a buddist lama who literally could not be more different.
Its an odd mix of different things, i really like how it handles religion and magic. Its just a grand old adventure, although as i said with this other more mature story of the lama offsetting the action parts. It also has great side characters aswell.
I think some might wish it was more focused on the action side but i liked the mix. Also the ending was a little bit unsatisfying, overall really liked it. [4/5]


The Lizard by John Cutcliffe Hyne (1898)
The name kind of gives it away. This is a short horror story, its not great but the actual central thing is a lot more interesting and strange than you might expect. Which was a good thing. [3/5]


Film Items:

Metropolis (1927)
An absolute historical classic. A triumph of special effects and DEAR GOD is it boring! It also makes no sense, the evil plan in it does not seem like it was ever a good idea, unless of course the evil robot went nuts and ignored the original plan but this unclear.
Anyway, this is still worth watching just to see the spectacular advance in the effects at such an early time but be prepared to grit your teeth to get through it. [2/5]


The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920)
This is a very strange film. It uses a very unique aesthetic which really makes this stand out and more importantly keeps it from growing stale like other films. Highly recommended, although don't expect the story to entirely make sense . [4/5]

New Items:
[IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/'Propeller_Island'_by_Léon_Benett_01.jpg/250px-'Propeller_Island'_by_Léon_Benett_01.jpg[/IMG]
Propeller Island by Jules Verne (1895)
aka The Floating Island, The Self-Propelled Island or Pearl of the Pacific.
Does it still count as Filler if theres nothing else to it?
It seems the central conceit of this is not enough to build a story around so you have various other elements strung together to pass the time. There's a bit of romance, social politics, international politics, some piracy, some comedy (most of which at least manages to survive the translator) and of course, since this is verne some facts. Which in this case is a tour of the pacific islands.
Have you ever wanted to know the import/exports, population, geology, flora/fauna and political history of Tahiti circa 1890? Well then this is the book for you!
OK, it isn't as bad as it sounds, its usually at least mildly interesting. I've had several worse Verne reading experiences.
I did like the ending and most of the incidents along the way held my interest, except for one which was way too random and ridiculous.
Lions and tigers and alligators, Oh My! [3/5]



Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (1965)
aka the Dark is Rising #1.
A family with three children go to cornwall on holiday along with their mysterious uncle Merry.
Eh? i'm not sure i'd have liked reading this as a kid, its kind of creepy, then again maybe kid-me wouldn't have felt it as much.
It's a childrens book so i wasn't actually expected anything really bad to happen, nevertheless the story has a Mundane sense of evil to it which was kind of disturbing. Its not ghosts or monsters but people who are the danger, but which people, what do they want and how far are they willing to go to get it? It felt at times like a kids version of 'the Wicker Man' :lol .
Its quite a fast paced book and very easy to picture the goings on with all the characters standing out quite vividly. [4/5]


{random and unrelated Jeff Hawke panel}
151 panels of Jeff Hawke comicstrip (1960)
aka the Wondrous Lamp
Well that was ridiculous sci-fi fun. From the deserts of arabia to modern day we follow a bizarre tale leading to a potential alien invasion of earth. There's no preparing for this crazy and often funny comic. Originally published as a daily comicstrip so the format can be a little hard to digest.
All the characters in this are quite likable even the sortof badguys. Although i'm still a bit unclear on what exactly Hawke's skills or qualifications are. [4/5]

New Items:

The Odyssey by Homer (800 BC)
translated by Alexander Pope
Perhaps i'm being a little hard on this one. I'm kind of grading on a curve, because of the many epic poems i've read over the last few years this was the least engaging.
Also it might be that the Alexander Pope translation isn't the best.
Its not to say this didn't have its moments, there were quite a few aspects i liked it just seemed a lot of effort for scant returns.
The aspects i liked the most were the conversations, especially when people were insulting each other, and the characterization of Odysseus.
Odysseus is a real anti-hero, a jaded old warrior who doesn't trust the gods as far as he can throw them, rash, vengeful, a horndog, an almost pathological liar, a vicious fighter with no code of honor, and a fairly terrible husband who misses his stuff far more than his wife, which he tells Penelope to her face!
Overall i found it a difficult read and constantly found my mind wandering from the page. [2/5]




20 issues of The Black Cat comic (1941)
Linda Turner, Jiu Jitsu expert, pilot and glamorous but bored film star, don's a costume to fight nazi spies and other threats to america. These are some quite fun if repetitive comics. Linda is a remarkably strong female character and often has to rescue her male love interest when he invariably gets himself into trouble. [3/5]
another nice grab from http://comicbookplus.com


Sexton Blake, the Roumanian Envoy (1921)
aka sexton blake library S1 #156.
A fairly long short story featuring one of Blake's famous opponents Zenith the Albino. I thought i'd heard Zenith has super-strength but there's no evidence of that in this tale, perhaps he acquires it in a future story.
This is a quite good detective/espionage tale. I especially liked the first few chapters which didn't have much of Blake in them. The main flaw however is the numerous opportunities the bad-guys have of killing Blake or his companions and the writer has to figure out excuses for delaying their deaths so that they can inevitably escape. [3/5]

New Items:

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921)
Classic dystopian fiction. I can see parts of so many different dystopian books and films in this, however it still manages to stand out of the crowd.
The book this reminds me most of is actually War of the Worlds, as like that book the story is done from a street level perspective. Our protagonist isn't at the centre of events and so we only get glimpses of the full picture.
Most police-state dystopias have some sort of love story in them to serve as a symbol of rebellion however this is more direct. Its not so much the individual verses the system, so much as the individuals penis verses the system :lol, as that seems to be the part making all the decisions.
I'm quite surprised this even got published in 1920 given how highly charged the sex scenes are, i'm not saying they're graphic but the impression they leave is quite something .
I'm very close to giving this 5 stars but i do think its losing a little something in translation, still really good though and a very unique angle for this type of fiction. [4/5]



12 issues of Steel Commando comic (1970)
The british armies new voice controlled robot has a flaw and will only respond to lowly private Ernie. The reluctant Ernie therefore has to act as handler for the bot and put himself in a lot more danger than he wants. These are really good fun stories. I think i'd have really liked them as a kid. [4/5]


Radio Drama:

Journey into Space, Operation Luna by Charles Chilton (1953)
The audio version available is from a 1958 recording although the original is from '53. This version is a little cut down and you can tell towards the 3/4 mark where the edits are.
Still that doesn't effect the story much, this is far more advanced sci-fi than i was expecting from the 50's. Really solid intellectual sci-fi, gets a little bit expositional at the end but really enjoyable overall. Forget your audio books i'll definitely be checking out more old time radio in future. [4/5]

New Items:

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (1946)
aka Gormenghast #1.
A Gothic/Dickensian novel, who knew that was a thing .As i say its characters have a distinctive dickensian flavour there isn't a single normal person in the bunch. Our main protagonist is Steerpike who i think is a genuine sociopath.
The descriptions are odd and beautiful in a dreary and grotesque way. As we follow the inhabitants of a massive and ancient castle going about their strange and mad lives.
Apart from dickens one other thing this reminded me of strongly due to the ancient traditions (bureaucracy) and unchanging nature of the place, was The Castle by kafka. If you ever read The Castle and wanted an ending for it you could read Gormenghast and assume the protagonist made it inside finally and is now calling himself Steerpike .
The shear dreariness of the novel although cheered up here and there by the absurdity of its characters can nevertheless make it a chore to read at times but not too often.
By the end despite there being not a single likable character, i kind of liked them all or at least was able to sympathize with their views which is quite a remarkable feat for a writer to accomplish.
By the 3/4 mark i was thinking it will be years before i bother with the sequels but by the end i was thinking it will be a lot sooner.[4/5]



Film Items:

Godzilla gets a nod in the League comics so i was going to mention the original film. However since i've seen them all i thought, why not give the full list.
Each item is rated directly against the others so the scores might be higher or lower than i would give them if simply rating them against every film i've ever seen. So from best to worst:
D = Dubbed in english.
S = Subtitled in english.
[9/10] Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II (1993) {D}
[9/10] Godzilla 2000 (1999) {S}
[8/10] Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) {S}
[8/10] Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971) {D}
[8/10] Godzilla vs Destoroyah (1995) {S}
[8/10] Godzilla Raids Again (1955) {S}
[8/10] Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) {D}
[7/10] Godzilla Tokyo SOS (2003) {S}
[7/10] Return of Godzilla (1984) {S}
[7/10] Mothra vs Godzilla (1964) {D}
[7/10] Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974) {S}
[7/10] Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991) {S}
[6/10] Son of Godzilla (1967) {J}
[6/10] Godzilla vs Megaguirus (2000) {D}
[6/10] Godzilla vs Gigan (1972) {S}
[5/10] Godzilla (1954) {S}
[5/10] Godzilla Final Wars (2004) {S}
[5/10] Godzilla vs Biollante (1989) {D}
[5/10] Godzilla vs Megalon (1973) {S}
[4/10] Godzilla vs the Sea Monster (1966) {D}
[4/10] Godzilla (2014)
[4/10] Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) {S}
[4/10] GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) {S}
[4/10] Godzilla vs Mothra (1992) {S}
[3/10] King Kong vs Godzilla (1962) {S}
[3/10] Destroy All Monsters (1968) {S}
[3/10] Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla (1994) {D}
[2/10] Monster Zero (1965) {D}
[1/10] Godzilla's Revenge (1969) {S}

New Items:

The Enchanted Castle by E.Nesbit (1907)
This isn't as fairytale-like as the title might suggest. A very grounded story although still one with lots of magical happenings. Some of the smaller adventures seem a little similar to 'Five Children and It' which i've read previously but these are got through relatively quickly.
Its a very random/organic story, which on the one hand means your never sure what will happen next but can also make it feel a little pointless at times as you can't see the main aim of the tale.
It can get quite dark for a kids book in places, about on par with some of the scarier 'Doctor Who' episodes. Overall i like the mix of magic and reality and the strange turns the story takes. The eldest child protagonist also has some great personality traits. Odd but well written book.
I wonder if they stole from this for the 'Night at the Museum' films. [3/5]


Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (1954)
A radio-play that's part beatnik poem. It describes a day in the life of a small village starting with their dreams as they sleep and following them until they sleep again.
The beatnik style can take a little getting used to, and i have a dislike of the surreal so the opening dream-sequences were a little jarring. Overall though its pretty funny and a bit moving in places. [3/5]



Jane, Heiress by Mistake by Norman Pett (1948)
Comicstrip storyline. A rich old pervert dies and leaves his money to Jane but his relatives arn't going to let her have it without a fight. Inconsistent but fun. [3/5]

Jane, Gun Girl by Michael Hubbard (1955)
Comicstrip storyline. Jane helps the police by infiltrating a gang but starts to fall for its leader. More drama than the comedy i'd expect from Jane. [2/5]

Jane's Journal, Third Time Lucky by Norman Pett (1946)
Uncensored sketchbook and mix of comic, prose and poetry. Also some nude photos of the model for Jane. The poetry's fine but the prose seems to be laughing at Jane rather than with her which spoils the fun quite a bit. [2/5]

New Items:

McTeague by Frank Norris (1899)
I went into this blind but right from the start i had a prescience of evil, i could practically smell "The Dram Shop by Emile Zola", which is not the sort of thing one wants reminders of, as that was GRIM! (but excellent) And i was not wrong, the two stories do share some common ground, what i was mistaken about however was thinking that its similarities would be a problem, were as it turned out it was quite the reverse.
The writing isn't bad, its nicely descriptive if a little overly detailed at times, but everything is very easy to picture and all the characters are well... Characters.
It took me some time to figure out why it was such work to get through and i finally pinned down the problem. While you occasionally hear the protagonists thoughts you still never feel like your in their head. The author constantly keeps them at arms length which makes it very hard to empathize or care about their struggles.
This actually seems to get progressively worse throughout the novel. The longer it goes on the further i felt removed from the characters.
I actually had to resort to LibriVox to help me through some of it as it became such a chore to read.
Things pick up somewhat towards the end when the author completely gives up on the story he was writing and decides to change it into a western, 'Seraphrim Falls' to be precise, with some of 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' thrown in, and just a dash of Spider-Man (one of the characters unaccountably develops spidey-sense :P ). [2/5]



The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron (1954)
aka Mushroom Planet #1
A really nice children's space adventure. The actual space part might seem a little short but overall delightful story with enough mystery to keep it compelling. Reminded me a little of Mary Poppins.
With so many magic based children's stories about its nice to see one with a more sci-fi bent. A great tale for any budding astronomers or astronauts and possibly any biologists as well, as there is a lot about mushrooms too . [3/5]



Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday #247 (1889)
Comic entertainment magazine. Funny drawings, jokes, prose, poetry. Entertainment reviews and recommendations, celebrity sketches, 'believe it or not' type stuff, funny crime stories, funny bits of history etc. etc.
A very assorted mix, some of the humour certainly doesn't land after a hundred years but quite interesting. [3/5]

Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday #586 (1895)
Same as above but i seemed to get more of the jokes. [4/5]

Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday #14 (1923)
This 20's revival is very similar to the original, although with longer prose pieces. Still pretty good. [3/5]

Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday #1 (1948)
The 40's revival saw it turned into a standard comic a-la-The Dandy or Beano. Its pretty wretched. [1/5]

New Items:

The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1926)
The book 'Prisoner of Zenda' has inspired many other works and adaptations including the film 'Dave' with Kevin Kline. Its hard to know where this version sits. I could call it a reimagining, or a parody or a blatant ripoff.
Whatever you call it, all i care about is whether its any good and for a while there it was.
The first half of it which is the rewrite of 'Prisoner of Zenda' is quite fun and actually a little more entertaining than the original in my opinion.
The second-half based on the sequel to Zenda (i'm assuming) however just really outstayed its welcome and i got quite bored with it by the end. It has several major plot errors as well which don't help, and many more coincidences and Deus ex machina's than the first half.
There's an excellent version of this on Libravox which i started listening too, once i got bored with reading it. [2/5]



The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson (1945)
Delightfully odd children's story. Just dark enough to be engaging. I don't normally like things this random but it rides that fine line between absurd and compelling. [4/5]



The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan (1879)
This isn't a terrible opera, in fact there are lots of individual bits i liked, however it feels oddly common compared to other G&S productions. None of the songs really stand out.
I might be a bit biased however as i've never been a fan of comedy policemen or the pirate aesthetic, so this was always an uphill struggle for the writers . [2/5]

New Items:

The Müller-Fokker Effect by John Sladek (1970)
There's a song by Pink entitled 'Chaos and Piss', if you extended it to 'Chaos, Piss and Computers' it would not be a terrible description for this book.
The central premise is that the government want to transfer human consciousness to computer, but since this is set in the '60's they only have those big tape machine's to work with.
However that's beside the point, as realistically this doesn't have a plot. Imagine a Dickens novel or Catch-22 maybe but with NO central character. So your just stuck with the crazy side characters. You have an eccentric millionaire who thinks everyone else is fictional, the founder of a playboy-esque magazine, a tele-evangelist, a painter, an advertising executive, about a half-dozen other major characters aswell as a full accompaniment of racists, conspiracy theorists, art critics, military cadets, indians and transvestites.
The '60's aesthetic is one of the best things about it and the individual elements are interesting if a little hard to follow at times due to the large assortment of characters.
It's also not the worst time to read it as its sci-fi elements are probably more apt today than they were in the '60's and its political connotations are unfortunately not out of date especially with Donald Drumpf running for the american presidency.
Overall better than Roderick the only other Sladek i've read, but definitely not for those who like to have a normal a-b-c plot. [3/5]


Petsetilla's Posy by Tom Hood (1870)
Fairytale comedy. Who knew people were already making fun of fairytale tropes as early as the 1870's! Thats not to say it just grabs a bunch of fairytales and mashs them together. It rather builds its own unique world which just happens to collide with some of the better known fairytale ones.
I will say some of its political satire while funny is definitely too highbrow for the kids of today and probably the kids of the 1870's too i'd imagine.
An interesting and fun read for older fans of things like 'Once Upon A Time', Shrek, Terry Pratchett etc. [3/5]


Film Items:

Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
Sketch comedy film with a parody of a 50's B-Movie acting as the filler between each skit. Despite more nudity than you might expect, its pretty awful, i liked maybe one joke. The comedy does not stand up well (if it ever did) to the test of time. Also the movie parody section's only joke is that its a cheap B-Movie, nothing clever is done with it. [1/5]


Cat-Women of the Moon (1953)
This is the movie parodied in 'Amazon Women on the Moon'. Its pretty cheap yes but by no means so-bad-its-good, or the worst movie ever made etc. I even found it mildly interesting in a couple of places. [2/5]

New Items:

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1353)
A hundred tales, set in a frame story of some rich people hiding in the country to avoid a plague.
The author would like this not to be judged on its length as it's made to kill time. If i lived in the 14th century i might agree but i don't, so i won't. So yes the low score is in part simply due to the length and repetitiveness of the tales although there are other flaws which i will get to later.
There's actually a lot to like in this, its pretty funny in places, its got a lot of sex, it takes quite a few shots at religious hypocrisy, always a winner with me... but it's so long that the good is too spread out.
My main complaint however is its views on women, this may seem obvious given the time in which it was written however, it starts off seemingly pro-equal rights and it was this which made the latter parts so much more appalling.
You see several stories actually have strong female characters or at least sexually aggressive ones. Boccaccio seems to believe women have absolutely as much right to sex and having affairs as men, shocking!
But then the penny drops and you realize that while the author is all for women saying YES to sex, he is horrifyingly against women saying NO to sex.
While they are not in the majority the number of tales involving women being tricked, manipulated, blackmailed, bought & sold or otherwise used, builds up over time and generally cast a pall over my reading experience.
One particularly disturbing tale is about a women who refused a man, he and she later die and God punishes her for her 'saying no' offense with a ghost-life of being repeatedly hunted down and brutally murdered. The haunting is also used as an example to all the local women to show them how God feels about you not spreading your legs for anyone who asks, ugh!
Towards the end there are also two tales back to back, one involved a man so generous he was willing to die to please a person who wanted to kill him, the other about a man who finds himself in a position to rape a woman without fear of consequences and decides not too.
A debate follows as to who was more generous, the man willing to die or the man who decided not to rape... the debate ends in a draw... wtf!
But to end this review on a less sour note, one story is the basis for the shakespeare play, 'All's Well That Ends Well'. Also in a recent episode of the show Elementary, Holmes used the euphemism, putting the devil back in hell, which is from another of these stories.
Elements of goodness, elements of horribleness but not enough of either to counter the elements of tedium. [2/5]



A Bid for Fortune by Guy Newell Boothby (1895)
aka Dr. Nikola's Vendetta.
A romance/thriller/crime/adventure story. Our hero is a down to earth everyman australian who inexplicably switches to a Holmes level detective whenever the plot calls for it, and gets involved in the nefarious plans of Dr. Nikola through a sequence of badly plotted coincidences.
Our villain Dr. Nikola is a proto-bond villain complete with cat and suffering the usual personality defects. Absurdly convoluted plan, check! Inability to dispatch enemies, check!
Don't get me wrong there are things to like here. Theres some humour here and there, also the writing overall is pretty good in the technical sense. However while you as a reader can never tell what will happen next it doesn't feel like the author knew either.
The plot just wanders around aimlessly before the writer just seems to give up and retreat with the remains of his dignity.
An interesting historical piece for Bond or mesmerist villain fans. [2/5]

New Items:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L.Frank Baum (1900)
I'm not a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz having had to watch it pretty much every freaking christmas since time began... wait what?.. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is on the other station!.. no.. NO.. i take it back, i love Wizard of Oz.. noooo i'm not watching Charlie and the god damn Chocolate Factory again!!... ahem! :P
Sorry where was i? Oh yes..
I'm not a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz but i was interested in seeing how the source faired in comparison. Normally there are quite a few differences in an adaptation but not so in this case. Yes there are some minor additions in the book but nothing particularly memorable.
As for changes, pretty much all of those made for the film are minor improvements. The wish giving scenes being particularly funny in the book and not in a good way . Dutch courage! might as well have given him a gun like in Futurama! .
Overall nothing too exciting but now that i have this out of the way i can try some of the sequels which might prove more interesting. [3/5]



The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures by Bertha Upton (1900)
So glad another of these has been scanned to the web. The Golliwogg heads north along with his pretty awesome lady-friends the Dutch-Dolls.
As well as being possibly offensive for having a golliwogg in it (although he is the hero), environmentalists may also want to look away as the protagonists do try to kill most forms of local fauna. On the up side they rarely succeed .
Really nice rhyming story and beautiful drawings. [4/5]


Film Item:

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922)
A FOUR hour silent film... 4 hours!... IV! Surprisingly it stands up pretty well for all of that time. Featuring a mesmerist supervillain who's also a master of disguise. The latter mostly being due to his gay, coke-fiend stylist .
It is a little odd that it focuses on Mabuse's gambling as he has many other seemingly more lucrative and interesting plots. Pretty interesting female characters here too.
I do have to mention the film's idea of hypnotism seems a little extreme, as at one point Mabuse hypnotises a man who is 20 feet away and has his back turned! Thats not hypnotism thats some Professor-X bullcrap . [3/5]

New Items:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (1889)
My opinion of this book vacillated wildly throughout. This is technically what you think it is. Its a comedy about a man who ends up in arthurian britain. However it isn't just a comedy... its a dark, DARK comedy! I mean its like 1984 dark... in fact its like 1984 not just in its darkness but also in its politics.
This book has a lot to say about human ignorance, slavery, the human capacity to sell each other out and work against their own interest etc.
The pointedness of the story actually works against it a little as its far longer than it needs to be. If your just writing for writings sake you can make it as long as you like, but if your trying to make a point its best to keep it short and punchy.
Having said that i'm glad it wasn't too short as it took me at least a third of it to get used to the language. The arthurian speak was actually fine for me but the 19th century american dialect was really annoying. For a while i tried, in my head, to replace the Yankee with Ash from the Evil Dead (Army of Darkness) films , but wasn't able to keep it up.
Slavery is addressed in the book as i've mentioned but Twain avoids any open talk about african americans, it seems very deliberate. I think Twain knew his audience and wanted to get his point across without it being blocked by the readers racism, at least thats what i hope he was doing.
In the end this is a difficult and longer read than i would have liked with a wildly fluctuating tone. It did make me chuckle at times as well as upset me. Another of those 'glad i read it (past tense) books' . [3/5]



The Adventures of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca by Simon Berington (1737)
A man is overheard talking about a strange non-christian people and is dragged before the Inquisition to explain himself. The story has several layers to it.
On the one hand there are adventure elements, a pirate battle, a trek across a vast desert etc. Then there are the interruptions to the narrative by questions of the Inquisition. It gets fairly densely religious in places, although i can't really tell if its a satire or not.
It also feels a little like a Jules Verne story at times with numerous notes to explain its assertions. However since it was written in the 1730's its facts are woefully and sometimes hilariously out of date.
One moment its discussing the difficulties with measuring latitude and longitude, the next its how the Chinese are descended from the Egyptians or how the Egyptians became great sailors because they knew a guy who worked on Noah's ark etc.
Once however we finally reach our destination things grind to a halt as we get into an incredibly boring description of a, maybe utopian society although even the narrator can't seem to fully commit to his utopian ideals. The people are perfect... except their eyes are too small. Their the most beautiful people in the world because they're so incredibly inbred... except its annoying they all look alike. Make up your mind already!
In the end we get back to the adventure story with some awful coincidences and Deux Ex Machina's just to fully ruin any good will i had left.
There are a few interesting incidents and ideas but probably one best left on the scrapheap of history. [2/5]

New Items:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1785)
Tall tales of the unbelievable exploits of Munchausen, i wonder if the Donald Trump character is based on this guy .
This isn't great but is better than i expected. Random nonsense of this sort tends to really bore me but every time i started to lose interest something would occur to coax at least a wry smile from me.
Usually stories like this are done as satires like Voyage to Cacklogallina, Gulliver's Travels, Niel's Klims Journey Under Ground etc. But this bares more in common with Rabelais or Lucian's True History. Its just absurd for the sake of being absurd.
Some of the tales are definitely influenced by older works, for example his description of his entourage is clearly stolen from the grimms fairytale The Six Servants, which makes me wonder how many other elements are borrowed.
Overall, mildly entertaining, maybe a little gross for kids, a lot of incidents involve things going in or out (or both) of people or animals.

The version on gutenberg i tried seemed a very chopped down translation, i eventually settled on a version illustrated by Gustave Doré who's drawings did add a little something extra to the reading experience. [3/5]



Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown (1798)
An american gothic thriller. Quite close to giving this 4 stars but it does take quite a while to get going. It was almost exactly half-way through that things finally started to get to the point. The story builds up quite a bit of tension despite the rather formal language.
It's a surprisingly modern tale in terms of its violence, i suppose other gothic works like Castle of Otranto and Vathek are violent too but its done in a much more over the top and less recognizable way. This felt in parts like an episode of Criminal Minds.
The resolution and final reveal are much better than i was expecting however the explanation doesn't re-iterate past events with any detail, so if you weren't paying attention before it won't do you much good.
If you want a properly dark and tragic mystery this might be for you, if you can get past the vocabulary. Also the very end is a sort of epilogue and felt quite pointless and a bit of a let down after the earlier climax.
This is still pretty shocking in places for a modern audience, i can't imagine how it must have been received in 1798. [3/5]


Film Item:

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
The film adaptation of the classic serial. Parts of the serial have been lost to time so this is the next best thing. This barely made it to 3 stars. The story feels quite familiar and the actual final explanation of whats going on is given out in a couple of lines and is very unclear. However It is a bit more gross than i was expecting towards the end which at least let it go out on a high note. [3/5]

New Items:

Island by Aldous Huxley (1962)
A world weary journalist finds himself on a utopian island. This is a surprisingly pure utopian novel. When i say pure, i mean lacking in story. Utopian or dystopian works have to lay out a lot of information, geography, history, politics, religion, economics, education etc. The newer the work generally the less time is spent on these elements and the more it focuses on a single story, ie the more modern the less pure (and less boring).
This book is a bit of a throwback, with long stretches of information dumping. It does however manage to stretch its thin veneer of story pretty effectively throughout and is generally able to keep the reader from being too bored.
As for this utopia, on the surface its a pretty standard hippie nation, based on mediation, tantric-sex, magic mushrooms, rock climbing and eugenics... ok those last two may seem a trifle odd. The eugenics is minimal but i guess Huxley just couldn't stop himself from throwing in at least a little bit.
However below the hippie surface are some really interesting ideas, for me the most appealing is how it deals with education and family life.

Despite its utopian nature there isn't anything too absurd in the make up of this society, except perhaps their use of hypnotism which seemed to stretch into the realm of science fiction but i can't say for SURE that its ridiculous.

Downside apart from the info dumps, this island is buddhist at heart which can result in some pretty meaningless (or profound) discussions.
Also the story is at its worst when it focuses on the main character who is pretty unlikable, even more so than i think the author intended. At one point he mentions his wife had multiple miscarriages which he mentions in a single throwaway line which seemed very callous. Also all the younger women on the island seem to go topless and he occasionally ogles some fairly young girls in a way that did not endear him to me.

Overall, its characters and story are thin but well crafted and it has some really thought provoking ideas. [3/5]



The Other Side by Alfred Kubin (1909)
Boy did that go downhill..... slowly.
An artist and his wife are invited to live in the secret Dreamland put together by a, lets call him an eccentric millionaire.
Whatever your idea of a Dreamland i can guarantee this won't be it . Its some pretty good weird fiction until the book starts announcing that the end is nigh... which was at the half-way point.
It just kept going and going. It also got more surreal and i prefer weird to surreal, its a fine line between the two.
The second half is more harrowing and graphic but i actually laughed at some of it as it just didn't have enough depth to be compelling or properly disturbing.
Some interesting imagery and ideas but far too long.

I believe the source of Patera's power is based on the idea of residual energy. The theory that objects or buildings which have been near extreme emotional events (such as murder) retain some of that emotional energy.
So Patera uses the energy in the buildings and objects to power himself and allow him to manipulate his victims into extreme emotional states. Some of the energy of these emotions goes into the buildings and objects. Patera uses this energy to manipulate his victims into extreme emotional states and round and round we go . [2/5]

New Item:

City of Glass by Alphonse Brown (1890)
First some notes on the BlackCoatPress edition. That picture on the cover is a complete lie!, i mean yes thats a city of glass and yes there's a city of glass in this book but one is nothing like the other :lol .
Secondly, there are some typos... 201 by my count. I've sent the list of corrections to the editor, people like detailed lists of every little mistake they've made right? :P .
Thirdly, don't read the Introduction before reading the book as it may spoil some things. Actually, thats pretty good advice for any book . Anyway on with the review.

This is a very fun Verne-style adventure story. Its really humorous, even the setup as to why this arctic trip takes place is quite absurd but very funny. And when word gets out about the expedition they receive all sorts of crazy letters, the type of thing i imagine NASA get emailed or tweeted to them on a daily basis .

However... once we get to the actual title element things get slower, it doesn't spend too much time on the science aspects but nevertheless it still manages to get bogged down. Some confused romance and other elements are occasionally funny but mostly annoying or at least disposable.

Overall, if this had continued any longer i feel its score would have continued to slide downward but as it stands it wasn't too bad and an easy read. [3/5]



S.F.X. Van Dusen, the Flaming Phantom by Jacques Futrelle (1907)
Short deductive detective story about a haunting. It was fine while reading but the more i think about it the more questions i have . [3/5]