League of Extraordinary Books

New Items:

Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek (1923)
The satirical tale of a czech soldier, part of the austro-hungarian army during WWI. A lot of the humour of this story still holds up well. It would have been nice to know that the book is unfinished, however although you'd like more closure the story still stands up well as it is.
Svejk is very much like Baldric from Black Adder or Homer Simpson, but your never entirely sure how stupid he is. Oh he's certainly not the brightest but behind that suspiciously honest face is a pretty devious mind, at least at times.
The Czechs are looked down on by the rest of the army and people are constantly trying to find traitors or reasons to punish the lower ranks. Svejk has developed the perfect defense to survive in these dangerous conditions, constantly agreeing with everything the army does (on the surface), coupled with a garrulous nature that usually drives his superiors nuts and makes them forget what they were planning to do to him.
His constant stream of little stories, are both a highlight and a problem of the book. It might be quite annoying for some to have these innumerable diversions and i personally thought it would get old fast but it never really did for me, i did however quite like it on those occasions when Svejk was ordered to shut up before he could finish .
Oh.. and the constant suspicion and risk of being locked up or executed by your own side, made it seem like a parody of 1984 at times.
As i said its unfinished and more of a denouement would have been nice but overall very good and i won't be forgetting Svejk any time soon. [4/5]




Palace Without Chairs by Brigid Brophy (1978)
Well that was fun . The trials and tribulations of various characters from the small democratic monarchy of Evarchia. Mostly following the members of the royal family.
Clearly inspired in parts by Gormenghast but its players are more real and a little less grotesque. Its a book about characters and setting rather than plot. You could also compare it to Dickens books like Bleak House , or South Wind by Norman Douglas.
Its a very funny book too at least to start with although the humour, while it doesn't disappear, gets pushed into the background during the final quarter.

I actually found Brophy's writing style a little... complex. Its not that she uses long words or anything but the way she puts sentences together, just seemed to throw me off at times and i was forced to reread.
The other thing which i had to adjust too is the scene changes. Some scenes can be very short and when you switch to the next your never sure how far the jump will be, will this be 5 mins ahead or days or weeks. As someone who's mind tends to travel on rails this can be a little disconcerting.

Finally due to its lack of plot the ending doesn't really seem to mean much, it comes so far out of left field.
Overall though, much like Gormenghast this is a beautifully drawn (rather than written) book and left me wanting more, which is always preferable to the alternative . [4/5]

New Items:

Mogador, the Names of the Air by Alberto Ruy Sánchez (1987)
First a little background. I purchased this online along with two other books, this being the most expensive of the three. Picture my disappointment when i unpacked it and found it was this slim little volume of only 90 pages!
It was going to have to do something really impressive to counter my initial hostility... and it did .

Firstly a nice little touch is that all the writing is indented.. as if it were done on a typewriter with really heavy keys. This gives it a tactile feel which is entirely appropriate to the story.
Secondly this certainly didn't feel like 90 pages! The text is so purple and over the top. Its the literary equivalent of a really rich desert, the kind you can only eat in small amounts. Now i'm sure some readers will be able to breeze through it and those may find it short but i could barely get through a couple of chapters a day (of only about 5-6 pages).

I will say that the writing doesn't always land. Thats always the risk with this kind of purple prose, if it doesn't land it can come across as pompous or silly. Of course this is also a translation and one can never be quite sure how much is lost in the process.

There seems to be three main sections to the story. It starts off feeling like the Arabian Nights. Then it feels like the filthy version of the Arabian Nights. I remember first hearing about this version in, of all things the film 'Bram Stokers Dracula'. Mina and Lucy are looking at this very naughty book which i at first thought was a version of the Karma Sutra but turns out to be the Arabian Nights. Anyway the first two-thirds of Mogador reminded me strongly of this.
However as we progress the writing calms down somewhat and the story becomes more and more realistic. Which isn't as pleasant as the early unreal elements but thats rather the point.

What i took from the book is that its about how we perceive each other. How we rarely actually know (or care) what people are like and instead invent a version of them in our minds to suit ourselves. Its very similar to the superstitions of old. In our heads we turn people into vampires, angels, sirens or monsters, and our view of reality is as absurd now as it has always been.
If you dislike purple prose or are squeamish about sex then you'll hate this. Personally i was very impressed . [4/5]





The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1940)
A black magic black comedy. Chaos ensues in Moskow with the arrival of a magician and his entourage.
The actual story elements of this are fine... not great but fine. However i had major problems with the delivery. Its the same issues i usually have with fairy tales or pulps. A lack of descriptive writing combined with a narrators perspective, rather than a character perspective. This approach keeps you at a distance from the story and without that connection i just find it very difficult to care, and if i don't care then i find it a very tedious read.
I was reading the Glenny translation and gave up about a 3rd of the way through switching to an audiobook Karpelson translation. This is much easier to experience as audio than writing and i don't think it was just the translation change.
The entire first half of this book is really just setup. Its a sequence of horrible events which reminded me strongly of the film the Omen. As i said at the start this does seem to be a black comedy but you'll be forgiven for forgetting that its a comedy for long stretches in the first half.
The second half is much easier to digest. Its more absurd and funnier, you also have a more interesting character to focus on.
Finally theres the substory involving Pontius Pilate. These parts feel the most important and if there is any point to this book then this is where your likely to find it. It reminded me of the pirate sub-story from Watchmen.
Overall this is a very visual novel. There's plenty of images in this that i won't forget anytime soon. However it never felt like it had much depth and i'd never have got through it in its written form. [2/5]

New Items:

The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796)
Well that was absolute chaos. I'm very tempted to give it 4 stars but... can't quite. This is so over the top. Its a complete melodrama, but it also goes to places so much more extreme than i expected. It's is also a complete mess. The author tends to follow a character until he hits a wall, then backup and head off in another direction. A lot of it feels very pulpy, its clear that a lot of it was not planned out from the start, despite the annoying foreshadowing we get. It stops every so often to do a little poem or song and characters seem to switch personalities at the drop of a hat.
On the other hand it also has a remarkable amount of humanity. People act in very human ways. Their thoughts and motivations make sense a lot of the time... and then it breaks out into crazy supernatural stuff.
This review is as uneven as the novel . Oh and then there's the weird view of superstition it keeps bringing up. At times it feels like it might be a joke but it makes such a big deal of people not being superstitious even while actual apparently supernatural stuff is happening. I mean at one point a demon laughs at how superstitious people are!
Also i couldn't get that episode of the Simpsons with Ned Flanders as the devil out of my head during those final dungeon scenes, i don't think that was the mood the author was going for :lol .
The ending gets even more uneven than the rest, there were several points were i expected it to end but it just kept going.. much like this review.
The most pulpy and extreme of the Gothic's i've read and really fun for long stretches. [3/5]


O Ugly Bird! by Manly Wade Wilson (1951)
Short tale of a wandering musician fighting the forces of evil . [4/5]



Swift Morgan and the Ancients Egyptians (1948)
aka the Adventures of.. Issue #6 comic. Makes no sense. Did they travel back in time and if so how? Couple of mildly interesting bits but thats all. [1/5]

Swift Morgan in Atlantis (1949)
aka the Adventures of.. Issue #16 comic. Just wretched. Same plot as last time but different location. Still confusing, awful dialogue, no characterization. [1/5]

Swift Morgan and the Flying Saucers (1950)
aka the Adventures of.. Issue #30 comic. Oh, i get it! Its like Scooby Doo, every issue has the same plot. At least this made more sense because of the different location. [2/5]

Swift Morgan and the Planet of Destiny (1953)
aka Swift Morgan Space Comic, Issue #50. Again almost the same plot but spacetravel now treated as routine. Slightly better but still confused and weak. [2/5]

Swift Morgan and the Beast From Outer Space (1954)
aka Spaceways Comic, Issue #52. A sci-fi version of king kong, not terrible. At least the plot was something a bit different. [3/5]

Swift Morgan and the Menace of the Red Mists by James Hart (1954)
A short prose story rather than comic. Still some of the same elements that appear in almost all of these plots, but generally better. The female character actually gets to do stuff. They never let her do anything in the comics. [3/5]

Swift Morgan and the Pirates of Space by James Hart (1954)
Another short story. Again a better plot than the comics. Something for the female character to do and more violent. Just better. [3/5]


Film Item:

Orlando (1992)
Well that was insane. Pretty good though, interesting asthetics. The famous scene from the book is really short here. Also it takes some interesting but strange liberties with the ending. [3/5]

New Items:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)
So that was fun... eventually.. sortof. What was the population of england circa 1850? Based on the number of times people randomly crossed paths in this book i'm guessing it couldn't have been higher than 200 :P .
The first quarter of the story is like a watered down version of Wuthering Heights. In fact the whole book feels a bit watered down. There's a constant darkness lurking about but dickens never commits to it which makes it feel like he's playing safe.
On the other hand whenever one of his ridiculous characters turns up they feel out of place as the story seems too dark and serious for them.
Also the entire plot is told from the point of view of a single character which robs it of the variety of some of his other stories. This tactic does have an upside though. Since our protagonist is rather innocent the reader often figures out things which the character doesn't yet know. This builds up the suspence as we wait to see if our surmises are right. However this trick does rather backfire during the conclusion.
The conclusion feels like it takes forever (there are 9 chapters which i would all consider to be conclusion) and the trick i've mentioned adds to the length as even the most dense of readers will know more or less how things will work out. Those last few chapters were the only ones which really tried my patience.
Despite the silly coincidences and some rather poor plotting there's still a lot of nice things here. I really felt i was getting into a groove with the story around page 1000 or so, although that may have been the Stockholm Syndrome kicking in .

Overall an unobjectionable story.. except unobjectionable isn't really worth 2000 pages of reading in my opinion, so i've deducted a star. (oh.. apparently it was only 2000 pages on my ereader.. well it still felt like 2000 actual pages so whatever :P.) [2/5]



5 episodes of the Lone Ranger (1938)
This is a decent radiodrama. A bit smaltzy and even a little repetitive despite the short number of episodes i listened to. But its interesting how they tell the story since they can't really do action scenes on radio . [3/5]


Comics Items:

Jet Ace Morgan strip (1956)
aka The Comet, Issue #429. Pity they're multi-part stories and i only got one part . Seems a bit like the star-trek reboot. Cadets are being sent to help stop an invasion of Jupiter. [3/5]

Jet Ace Morgan strip (1958)
aka The Comet, Issue #511. Only part 2 of 6. Looks interesting though, as the RAF space interceptors try to deal with another invader in the year 2058. [3/5]


Iron Warrior strip (1948)
aka the Funnies Album. That was fun. Imagine if 'Indiana Jones' went exploring while wearing the bad guys mech-suit from 'Iron Man' . [4/5]

Iron Warrior strip (1950)
aka the Funnies Album. It would be nice if the actual warrior did more, this is really all about his owner. [3/5]

Iron Warrior strip (1951)
aka Cute Fun Album. Both racist and anti-racist at the same time. Still fun . [4/5]

New Items:

The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs (1961)
Firstly if you don't think you can withstand frequent uses of the words rectum and jism then you may want to skip this one.
Second, most of this book is written in gibberish, i don't know how others handled that but the only way i could read it is by bypassing the forebrain entirely.
In practical terms i read it really, REALLY quickly (without skimming). I don't mean i read the overall book quickly but rather the individual chapters, sentences and words. I read fast enough that the words went in one ear and out the other without any processing from the brain. Which may seem pointless but as they pass through they leave behind a thin residue of imagery, which is really the only thing this novel has going for it.
Ancients temples, shanty towns, snuff films, cannibalism, body switching, time travel, mind control, gigantic machinery and various Lovecraftian horrors are just some of the sights to see, along with innumerable homosexual encounters (many of which seem highly suspect from a legal standpoint).
I liked the imagery, i'm a big lovecraft fan so many of the horror pictures were interesting for me. The speed at which i was reading also stopped the gay sex from being too repellent. There is also a nice use of repetition which makes it somewhat poetic at times.
This is a novel novel. Novel as in novelty. In fact in one of the later chapters it pretty much states that as a goal. Fighting conformity, different merely for the sake of being different, and as a novelty its pretty interesting but that sort of thing only goes so far with me.
I don't think i'm imaging that the library copy i read seemed much more worn in its first few chapters than the later ones. I'm guessing a lot of people have given up on this through the years. [2/5]



History of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff (1931)
Odd little childrens book. A minor quibble, elephants live in a matriarchi, so not only is this not educational its actively uneducational :P .
I'm sure there must be some other versions of this book but the one i read had hand-written text!, and in cursive! Even i had issues deciphering a word here or there but i can only imagine the horror on a child's face if they were handed this :lol. And their growing horror if they actually managed to figure out what it says .

There are several dark moments in this which are not well dealt with to say the least. Also Babar is elected King rather than inheriting it, which seems a nice change... until you find out why he in particular is elected. Part of me wants to think it's a biting satire on elections but i suspect not :lol.

The art's still nice though . [2/5]


Under the Garden by Graham Greene (1963)
Short story of a man visiting his childhood home and trying to recall a strange incident from his past. Its pretty good, sort of like a Roald Dahl story but for adults. Nice language and nicely weird. The end is somewhat unsatisfactory but i think purposefully so. [4/5]



5 episodes of the Green Hornet (1938)
Radiodrama. Pretty good, it does however sometimes seem like listening to a normal tv show that you can't see. Many of the people the Hornet goes after arn't technically criminals they skirt just inside the law so no one official can stop them. [3/5]

New Items:

The People of the Pole by Charles Derennes (1907)
Really nice early sci-fi, reminded me a lot of my favorite H.G.Wells novel the 'First Men in the Moon'.
There is a lot of different aspects to this one. Apart from some really quite interesting sci-fi ideas there's also a good bit of humour to be had, mostly derived from the 'odd couple' main characters. Then at other times we have a quite Lovecraftian horror of the strange, a good bit of social commentary and quite a different brand of visceral horror mixed in too.
I did find one or two dry spots, when the people of the pole are being described in detail and also the start of the epilogue but things picked up again after both of these dips and the very end was quite funny, dark and interesting all at once.

The BlackCoatPress.com edition has the usual amount of silly typos that seem to plague that publisher and the translation felt a little off at times compared to some of their other books. However this might also be my favorite of the half-dozen or so their titles i've tried.

If you like your early sci-fi or adventure stories this is a really good one. [4/5]




The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq (1951)
So in premise this reminded me a lot of the excellent Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzatti. Both are about young men sent to remote outposts where the odds of anything exciting happening are quite remote but vigilance is nevertheless required.
You could easily change the setting of these stories to say a nuclear missile silo in the usa and the stories would still work pretty well.

However the Opposing Shore diverts completely from the Tartar Steppe in certain areas which i can't really talk about without spoilers.
So firstly i need to address the language. This is the best and worst part of the book, its soooooo overwritten and yet leaves you with many ambiguities and uncertainties. Even right at the end another one popped up so that i'm really unsure how to interpret the conclusion.
But the descriptions... I really like purple prose, make it as over the top as you like i'll just lap that stuff up normally. This however was a bit too much even for me.

There can be a page or two of metaphors and similes describing a single item or event. There are metaphors within metaphors. Again i like purple prose and i did enjoy a lot of this but it is really pompous and highbrow at times.

Then there's the message of the story which like everything else left me uncertain. It seems to be about the individual versus history. Does any one ever really make a decision? or does history, the collective unconscious if you will, force events regardless of individual wishes?
Its the former, done .
I feel like english professors could argue about the meaning of this book for months but part of that is again the sheer uncertainty of what the hell actually happened at certain points.

There is a lot to like here don't get me wrong, but it is a bit drowned in the over the top style. Definitely not for your average reader. [3/5]


The Conquerors of Idols by Charles Derennes (1908)
Short story, seems a bit like the 'Man Who Would be King' or at least the vague fragments of that film i saw as a child. [3/5]


Arabian Nights, City of Brass by unknown (900AD)
Short ok fairytale the main crux of which seems to be, everybody dies. Spends a bit too long describing shiny objects. [2/5]

New Items:

Journey to the West, Vol 1 by Wu Cheng'en (1592)
A monk and his 3 supernatural disciples set out on a journey westward to obtain buddhist scriptures. Actually that description is the story eventually... there's quite a bit of build up and background to get through first.
So there were a few surprises in this for me. Firstly while it might well be based on ancient legend this isn't some oral tale which has simply been written down but rather a proper literary piece from the 16th century.
Which is quite recent from china's point of view. I find it quite difficult to read fairytales so was quite glad this wasn't one.

Secondly i'm a big fan of the tv adaptation of this 'Monkey'. It was a 70's show made by japan rather than china* and then dubbed into english by people who often didn't even have a script, they would just make up the story based on what seemed to be happening on screen.
For all of these reasons i assumed that the book would bare little resemblance to the show, but i was wrong. All the crazy, funny ridiculousness of the show is totally in here .
The comedy and satire is Rabelais-esque at times.

About a 5th of the story is done in poetry. I don't know whether this rhymed in its original language but it doesn't now. It still has a certain rhythm about it though. I might have disliked the poetry except that it only occurs on specific occasions.
Its basically a descriptor. Whenever someone or something new turns up or when there's a fight sequence it switches to poetry and the poetry is usually more over the top than the prose.
Its like in certain movies or shows where they might switch to animation for fight sequences, or in certain kinds of musical where the songs are only used to replace fight or love scenes.

The story can get a bit repetitive both figuratively and literally. Literally in that every so often you get a little recap of events. One character will go off and do something, then comeback and tell people what they've just done.
I didn't mind this so much as it was never very long and did make me remember things a bit better.
The other repetitiveness is a little more annoying as several of the fight sequences follow a very similar pattern which can start to get old.
Oh, one other thing that some might find annoying is the buddhism. There are various pieces of buddhist philosophy in this which will make no sense to most people.
I don't even know if their real. Its like quantum theory, someone could be telling you a real but confusing piece of quantum theory or a fake bit, i simply don't have the necessary experience to tell the difference.

Anyway, i was constantly hearing the people from the tv show in my head (aswell as picturing the very pretty monk ) so i feel like i may be more naturally inclined to like this over people who didn't see the show.
I look forward to reading the rest of the volumes but not right away, i think a break between each one is a good strategy.

*the male monk is played by a female actress on the show which caused me considerable confusion as a child . [3/5]



To and Again by Walter R. Brooks (1927)
aka Freddy Goes to Florida
A group of farm animals decide to go south for the winter. I prefer the original title 'To and Again' as Freddy the pig is probably the most underused of any of the animals in this.

It took me a while to get into. It didn't feel much like a kids story, i kept having flashbacks to 'Animal Farm' which didn't help .
One of the problems is that there arn't really any child characters. All of the animals except for the pig have the personalities of grownups which is why it felt a bit too grounded and the humour seemed aimed a bit older. Thats probably why the pig ends up as the centerpiece of the franchise as he's the only possible child-avatar available.

For a while things plodded along and i wondered how the author would reconcile the human world with these hyper-intelligent animals. Things came to a head in Washington DC in what seemed like pure satire but the author was now stuck with that strange turn of events and the book was the better for it.
Not much time is actually spent in florida and while my knowledge of the U.S.A isn't great i suspect there are some geographical errors here .
I also have to say that a couple of events towards the end would definitely have proven fatal (and smoke doesn't wake people up!) so if reading to a child make sure to point out how homicidal these animals are :P .

Overall a bit drab but there were wacky incidents that improved it as it went along. [3/5]


Film Item:

The Ruling Class (1972)
Very twisted black comedy. The inheritor of a large estate believes that he is God. Complete with musical numbers and cameo by a gorilla wearing a top-hat. About 1 hour longer than it needs to be though. [3/5]

New Items:

Island of Captain Sparrow by S.Fowler Wright (1928)
I lost the forst draft of this so short version. An odd mix of fantasy and high seas adventure. The plot of a pulp but much better and more thoughtful writing style.

With its mix of perspectives to the tell the story and the history of this mysterious island it reminded me of the series 'Lost' and not unlike that show the build up meant i was somewhat disappointed by the end.
But its still really quite good, pretty decent romance and adventure i thought, some racism but mostly in the subtext.

Its mysteries while not explored to the extent you would want will mean i won't be forgetting it anytime soon.
In the end really good and the 3 stars are mostly due to the high expectations it gave me from its early chapters and never quite fulfilled. [3/5]




Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne (1863)
A fairly solid entry in the Verne catalogue. He does manage to make a ballooon trip more interesting than i expected.
There's also a lot of information concerning the history of african exploration which was informative as always with verne.
I don't have enough science knowledge to support or pick apart vernes version of a balloon but its not your standard hot air type used today.
Our three main characters all well drawn and there's some humour to be in their personalities. The first half seemed a little too easy but things got more intense and interesting later on.

Not much more to say. I wouldn't really recommend it as one of Verne's best but certainly not one of his worst either. [3/5]


Film Item:

7 episodes of Fireball XL5 (1962)
Setting aside the 50's sexism, there's a lot of 50's sci-fi charm and marionette charm in this. However the pacing of the show is so slow i found it quite difficult to get through each episode. [2/5]

New Items:

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (1928)
Well that was ok. Certainly not the scandalous romance i was anticipating. Its about as much of a romance as Moby Dick is a high seas adventure.

Firstly the scandal aspect is not what you'd think, in fact affairs seem to be almost expected in this world especially with the female character who is raised in a pretty bohemian atmosphere. As for the romance, the main characters don't even seem to like each other that much, its all very down to earth and realistic... on one level anyway.

On the other hand the writing can be completely overblown. The love scenes in particular made me laugh out load at times because of the pomposity of the language.
What this book is really about is just Life, and finding a meaning in it. The discussions of money, sex, love, intellect, industry etc. feels like the stuff you'd talk about while drunk in a college bar.

The main problem i have is that despite all the time the author takes telling us how people feel, i still never got a sense of who they were. The characters seem to shift personality constantly and it always seemed like you were looking at them from a distance, i never felt like i really knew any of them.

Anyway there are many interesting aspects to this but not a fan of the writing and like Moby Dick, perhaps just too many angles to it, not focused enough for my liking. [3/5]



Ardistan and Djinnistan by Karl May (1909)
So this is an interesting one. Basically its a pulp adventure story, complete with betrayals, wars, rebellions, secret tunnels, death traps, princess-like-figures etc. but crossed with a political and religious allegory.
Pulp adventure fiction and religious allegory are not two things one tends to see a lot in the same place .

Style-wise it feels about half-way between H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Also a lot of the story involves trying to convert a ruler to being nice, and so it starts to feel a bit like 'A Christmas Carol' in places.

The basic plot is that the country of Ardistan is about to wage war on Djinnistan and the Galadriel-esque ruler of a neighbouring country wants to stop the war. So she sends two agents to infiltrate Ardistan and find a means of doing so.

All sorts of religions are represented in the book and it mostly seems like its tolerating all of them but the author can't help letting his christian leanings get the best of him at times.
Also the way the plot progresses you start to see that our heroes are only a small part of what seems like almost a CIA plot to deal with Ardistan. I think modern readers might well question some of this interference in a foreign country however well intentioned.

Its an odd duck of a novel, at its heart its still a decent bit of adventure fiction but the religious preaching and pulpy adventure don't always sit well together.

Also due to the religious nature of the work there is a certain amount of predestination and Deux Ex-Machina's about. However there almost always is with these kinds of adventure stories and i've seen many, Many worse uses of such elements in other pulp adventures . [3/5]


Film Item:

5 episodes of The Avengers, Season 4 (1965)
Nice chemistry, decent mix of humour and action, interesting sci-fi/spy plots. But don't love the scripting and stunt sequences pretty terrible. [3/5]

New Items:

Lint by Steve Aylett (2005)
Wow...let me try to collect my thoughts. I was quite close to giving this 4 stars, or 2. This is a biography of a fictional writer. One of those fringe experimental types.
Take every parody you've ever seen of the kind of people who make one man shows, or do performance art. Mix in William S. Burroughs using his cut-up technique, a dash of Lovecraft, add a sprinkling of Andy Kaufman, maybe a touch of Alan Moore, Hunter S. Thompson or Michael Moorcock during his Jerry Cornelius writings. Oh and pour in some of Frank from the film 'Frank'.

So to try to find the point i lost somewhere above. This is a biography about a guy that writes complete bollocks. I mean it is the worst kind of 60's experimental garbage. Its a very well told bio, and is best when it interweaves with the real world.

The problem is that all the quotes from Lint are such nonsense, somehow even the fact that this is a satire doesn't lessen their annoyance... and yet and yet. After about a third of the way through i actually found some of the nonsense making sense. I can't tell whether the author was getting less obtuse or the text actually rewired my brain.

It helps that tv and film are mixed in, did you know Lint wrote an used script for the Star-Trek animated show? He didn't because he's fictional but still .

By the end i think i'm adding this to my reread list if only to see if the first third is still as annoying. If you've ever read any surreal or really artistic or experimental fiction, or experienced that kind of stuff in film, music or theatre then you might get a kick out this.
Or you might want to hunt down the author and club them to death with an imaginary wedge, or maybe both .

I think this might be the least insightful review i've ever written :lol. [3/5]



The Man in the Moone by Francis Godwin (1638)
A short bit of what i guess is early sci-fi. I've read a number of things similar to this like Lucian's True History, Empires of the Sun and Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac or Voyage to Cacklogallinia but all of those are satires or comedy and so avoid being classed as sci-fi.
So this is sci-fi by virtue of not being interesting enough to get into another category.

There are occasional elements of interest but overall not really much here.
I'm not even going to mention any of the content as there is so little of it, spoiling any would further reduce what you might get out of the novella. [2/5]

New Items:

Plutonia by Vladimir Obruchev (1915)
Well that was disappointing. A book very much in the vain of Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World, the The Land That Time Forgot etc.
However unlike Journey to the Center of the Earth this is a true Hollow Earth novel with all of the geological absurdity that that implies, which is one of the few interesting aspects of the work.

The other good points are that its russian which (on very rare occasions) makes it feel a little different. Also there's some decent repartee amongst our protagonists at times.
Finally there are a few moments of interest towards the end of the novel.

The other 80% or so is unfortunately pretty boring. The writing is basic, and it gets pretty repetitive. See interesting creature, shoot interesting creature, have creature for dinner, rinse, repeat.
Even our hero's actually get bored after a while, and if people are bored with dinosaurs then there's clearly something very wrong .

Not well written enough compared to earlier works and not action packed enough to compare with the pulps. [2/5]



A Traveler from Altruria by William Dean Howells (1893)
Utopian fiction, without the utopian part of it :P. So this entire thing is done as a series of conversations, its like one big lecture so not great.
Its a fairly easy read though and since its about the gap between rich and poor its still relevant today. In fact i would say too relevant, or at least too familiar.
There are things of interest here. The writing is easy and witty at times. There's some some very blinkered sexism which you can laugh or wince at. Plus a brief mention of a mega-corporation controlling all aspects of a country, perhaps one of the first appearances of such an idea.
However i'm getting more discerning with every book i read and in a world of infinite books i felt like deducting a star. [2/5]

New Items:

Gladiator by Philip Wylie (1930)
This was pretty stunning. I knew that Superman took some elements from Doc Savage but it stole even more liberally from this, however i also saw elements of Spider-Man and many other superhero stories, there's even a little Teen Wolf too.

So its a superhero story, or rather THE superhero story, i can't stress how bizarre this is to read as being from 1930 its essentially inventing the superhero genre but its also a deconstruction of the superhero.
It is at times light and even farcical but it has sex, violence, blood, death, despair and prostitutes. It simultaneously has as much in common with the 50 years of bright and shiny Super-Man as it does with Watchmen and all of the 'dark and gritty' superhero's of today.
It is the Alpha & Omega of superhero's. Somehow encompassing the entire genre and here it is written in 1930, amazing.

I'm generally not a fan of 30's writing its a little plain for my taste, so this is like if the 'Mona Lisa' was done in crayon, i ended up listened to most of it on a Libravox recording.

A really fascinating read for any fans (or enemy's) of the Superhero genre. [4/5]




Orphan Island by Rose Macaulay (1924)
"Will it seem, in its 1923 stage of knowledge, as.. backward.. as it did to those who broke into it after its first seventy years of segregated history?"

That was ok. The plot, a group of orphans and a couple of adults are stranded on a desert island in the mid-1800's.
In the 1920's a rescue party of sorts finally arrives and finds this society based on victorian values. Its a bit like one of those Star-Trek episodes where they end up on Roman planet or Gangster planet or something.

It really makes fun of the class distinctions and history of britian but its a fairly narrow book. It just has that one idea to carry the entire work.

And as to the quote above, YES is the answer. While it tries to take apart class disparity it is still pretty racist and with no appealing female characters despite its female author.

I found the writing a bit odd, its descriptive parts are quite florid compared to the rest of the text. So its normal, normal, florid flourish, normal normal normal florid etc. Its not good odd or bad odd, i just found it odd.

The story moves pretty quick and has some humour to it, mostly dark humour from my point of view.

I was a little surprised their was so little mention of WWI. I kind of expected that to be a major demarcation point between the victorian society and the people of 1920 but it barely got an acknowledgment. [3/5]

New Items:

Land under England by Joseph O'Neill (1935)
Well that was really something. I was expecting 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' but instead got a dystopian story in the vain of the 'Time Machine' (but much better).

A really nice original dystopia and deep psychological examination of how it came to be. This is when the book is at its best. The more our protagonist begins to understand this lost civilization the more interesting it becomes. For a brief period its a truly great novel before dropping slightly back to just really, really good .

Unfortunately the author isn't great at descriptive writing, combined with the bizarreness of the location this meant i had a hard time picturing the story at times. Luckily this is mostly only an issue at the start and end of the book as the dystopian elements don't really require the same sort of visuals. In fact much of the story relies on the lack of any visuals in this underground world.

As i said one of the times i would have liked a more descriptive style is at the end and this is also when the novel takes a hard left turn. The ideas it raises are much different from the dystopian elements used before and it almost feels like you've wandered into a different story, although not a bad story, its just a bit jarring. I also felt the ending used a bit too much writing as the author tried for a really dramatic climax.

In any case is you like things like The Time Machine, A Crystal Age, Herland, Erewhon or similar fare, this is an excellent read, it also has a certain Kafka-esque quality at times.

A deeply interesting dystopia in the trappings of a Hollow-Earth adventure novel. [4/5]



Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
Dark, potentially apocalyptic comedy in the vane of Dr. Strangelove or the Mouse that Roared.

From very early on i was expecting to give this 4 out of 5 at least. The Only other Vonnegut i've read is Slaughterhouse-Five and this was much lighter and easier to read. I gobbled up the tiny chapters and was really enjoying myself.
Not quite sure what went wrong. Perhaps my expectations were too high, or the heavy foreshadowing just robbed the denouement of some of its impact.
Another case of anticipation being more enjoyable than gratification. Still its pretty fun and its not a terrible ending just not as good as i was hoping for. [3/5]


The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820)
Short funny tale. Not a lot to it but good characterization and descriptions. [3/5]

New Items:

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
A reluctant 4 stars, maybe 3.5. The structure is the first problem with it being split into several scenes and the reader knowing so much more than the actors.
This is of course the same structure as the film however that version was so mysterious it never really felt like you knew anything :P .
This on the other hand has NO mystery, None. Everything that was a question in the movie is here explained in detail.
Honestly at the start, it felt like the aliens were going to be a couple of low level construction workers and a guy back in a cubicle somewhere tapping some keys. I'm not saying thats what happens just that was the impression left on my mind after the rather flat opening.
While there's some interesting world building along the way nothing until after the HAL incident seemed better than ok. Only from past that point, (which is handled much more impressively in the film) do things start to pop.

Anyway due to the flourish towards the end i'll give it the 4 stars. By the way the last sections reminded me very strongly of the movie 'Interstellar'.

Edit: Also strong vibes of that Star-Trek Next Gen episode with the casino . Its also funny how advanced some of the science is in this compared to stunted social views. The space-pods are named after women because they're considered to be quite unpredictable, wheres the roll-my-eyes emoji.
Also by the year 2001, women will have advanced to point where they can be secretaries or flight attendants.. oooohhh! this is so sci-fi . [4/5]



The Devil in Love by Jacques Cazotte (1772)
That was somewhat disappointing. Any story where a Devil (or Death) turn up in human form, tends to be pretty awesome. Thats an aesthetic or plot-point or whatever that i quite enjoy.

This however was fairly bland given the setup. I'm absolutely sure its losing something in the translation but it can't be losing THAT much.

One issue plot wise is that the protagonist is constantly trying not to sleep with this woman, because it would be dishonorable or something. Ok, thats a little strange given this is written by a french guy and given the time period when things were a little more liberal.
I was thinking our hero is spanish so maybe this is a commentary on the spanish being more uptight than the french, but then he clearly sleeps with a lot of other women!
So the rule seems to be its only wrong to sleep with someone if there's a chance you might marry them later? Bit confusing.

Anyway, this story just never did enough with the supernatural elements, it never created that air of wrongness that you usually have in these kinds of stories and frankly the ending was very anti-climactic.

I guess it sounds like i'm completely trashing it but its still ok but far below my expectations. [3/5]



4 issues of Roy Carson comic (1950)
Just the worst kind of stereotypical detective/gangster schlock. And very repetitive even in the small selection i was able to find. [1/5]

New Items:

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock (1972)
Mature fantasy with great original world building. Really liked the start and end.
The opening is like some super-over-the top Conan novel but the last third felt more darkly humorous, as if the characters had wandered into Time Bandits or Labyrinth or something.

The main problem in my opinion is that at the start you really get to know the main hero but once the central plot gets going there seems to be a change in style and the reader gets pushed away. I never really felt connected to the protagonist after the first third.
Its also quite a random and fragmented story, as if it was a much longer book that was heavily pared down.

An interesting and unique feel, but it didn't make me care enough to want to read the rest of the saga. [3/5]



Andorra by Max Frisch (1961)
Really good play about a small fictional country presumably on the german border where tensions are growing as they expect an invasion. Mostly about racism but its more than that, it has a very Greek-tragedy feel to it, a conspiracy of circumstance and human failings. At times it also reminded me of Shirley Jacksons 'The Lottery' or 'Lord of the Flies'.
Only a couple of problems with it, one is a side event which happens to one of the female characters, its horrific and is really not addressed in any meaningful way. Its just sort of brushed aside, i found that a bit weak.

The other problem is probably a translation issue but i felt like some of the speeches were... a bit confusing, a little too esoteric or something. However i was really close to giving it five stars. [4/5]



Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor by Mervyn Peake (1939)
Childrens picture book. I like the drawings but that was a little too random for me. Also even as a child i think i would be annoyed that most of the characters disappear from the story half-way through.
Sidenote, its really, really gay. I'm not saying that as a positive or negative just thought it was interesting . [2/5]